Alternate ending

"You know I want you."

She had her forehead pressed against his while tears streamed freely down her face and onto his and one of her hands held his limp one in a firm grip and the other stroked his dirty ginger hair. In close proximity to them was his twin brother who was sobbing loudly into his chest and around them was the rest of the family gathered. No one knew what to do.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.

The glorious moment of victory that had filled them all when Harry had defeated the Darkest Wizard of All Time and finally put an end to the Second Wizarding War, had been short lived when the reality once again came crushing on them. Not everyone they loved had been able to share in that happiness because not everyone had survived. Next to them was the lifeless bodies of Tonks and Remus Lupin, and other fatalities included Colin Creevey and Lavender Brown among about fifty others. She would mourn the loss off them later but for now the only person she could think of was the one she was currently draped over.

Frederick Gideon Weasleys cold frame was laying on the stone floor of the Great Hall and the disbelief and immense grief of that fact was agonizing.

The Weasleys were all crying heavily over the loss of a brother and son, just as they had been during that one hour when Voldemort had ordered his followers to retreat. She hadn't been able to comprehend the loss of him then, because she'd turned off her emotions completely to be able to fight, so when she'd started to shake violently while loud sobbs took over her body and tears finally had steamed down her face, they had all been really confused by her reaction once she'd reached his body and flung herself over him. Her face distorted in agony and pain. Her affectionate touches of his handsome face. They'd been even more confused when George had let her take his place by his twin. But she hadn't noticed their baffled looks.

She didn't care anymore.

She loved him with all that she was and she refused to hide it anymore, people could say whatever they wanted.

The memory of him before the wall - and with it, her world - had crumbled, played over and over in her mind and she wished nothing else but to go back and change everything but it was impossible.

They had just managed to barely escape from the Room of Requirement where Crabbe had set of the fiendfyre and lost control over it, which had led to the ending of his life and the destruction of the secret room. The cursed fire had also destroyed Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem, which had held the fifth piece of Voldemort's soul and she had just been in the middle of sharing her realisation that the only thing left for them was to kill the snake, Nagini, when they'd heard the shouts of curses and duelling coming closer.

The first thing she'd noticed when Fred backed in to view while dueling the Death Eaters alongside Percy, had been the slight limp on his right foot. It was so tiny that she doubted he himself felt it as he was probably to pumped with adrenaline to feel any pain, but she'd immediately panicked and was preparing herself to fix it as soon as an opportunity was given.

Secondly she'd noticed that despite his taunting and almost jaunty exterior, his eyes had a harsh and ornery flame that she'd never seen before, and she'd been able to tell that he knew exactly what he was doing. It had scared her to see him like that, but she knew that the same flame could be seen in her eyes.

She'd run to aid them, hurling spells and curses at every masked and hooded man she could see, along with Harry and Ronald at her side.

Fred's head had snapped to lock eyes with her for a moment when he'd heard her voice, and relief had filled his features but more reassurance than that had been impossible in the middle of the battle.

Their opponents had slightly decreased in number but still there had been many of them that were really good at dueling, so the fight never ceased in intensity.

They'd recognized the high forehead and streaked hair of the current Minister of Magic - Pius Thicknesse - who'd been dueling against Percy and the latter said something about 'resigning from his job' as a joke while jinxing his former employer, and she'd seen and heard the excitement and pride radiating from the love of her life when he'd heard his pompous and presumptuous older brother - the one who'd estranged himself from the family he'd condemned for their affiliation with the late Headmaster Albus Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix - actually crack a joke in such a serious situation.

"You're joking Perce!" surprise and awe had coloured his voice.

She had, along with Harry, helped Fred to stun his battle opponent which had given him the opportunity to turn to the former "Ministry-loving, family-disowning, power-hungry moron" (as he so lovingly had called him a few hours ago) with glee.

His last look.

"You actually are joking Perce! I don't think I've heard you joke since you were-"

Time had frozen. Then everything had changed.

If only she'd been with him and Percy instead of Harry and Ron.

If only she'd been quick enough to cast a 'Protego' or 'Protego Maxima'.

If only he'd been standing a few feet away from where he'd been.

If only.

If only.

If only.

If only.

If only.

There was so many 'if only'- scenarios, and yet this was the one they'd been left with.

Percy's agonizing scream had told her what had happened before she'd even been able to see it for herself and she struggled to her feet before she stood paralyzed for a moment refusing to believe what her mind told her was true.

Harry's rough hand had pulled her with him towards the three red haired men.

"No!"

"No, Fred! No!"

There, in Percy's arms, was Fred - bloody and broken.

She'd been completely numb and unable to react and she'd known that her mind was playing an evil trick on her when she'd thought that she'd seen a flicker of movement from underneath his closed eyelids. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not to her Fred.

Fred Weasley could not be dead.

Suddenly several curses had reminded them all that the battle was still going on and while she'd been able to feel herself being pulled to the floor by someone, in her mind she'd only been able to think about how she no longer cared if she lived another second or not, because what had she to live for without him in her world, or any world. Seemingly out from nowhere a final burst of energy had filled her and she'd remembered the mission they needed to complete before she too could welcome death with open arms.

For several years she'd fought her affections for one purpose and one alone and she was not going to give up today - not on this day! The reason she'd rejected Fred in the clearing by the pond so many months ago. The reason she'd rejected him again at Bill and Fleur's wedding. She would not abandon her mission to help Harry.

She must kill the snake.

So she'd shut of all of her emotions.

While she'd been having this inner dialogue trying to convince herself that she must do this, she'd completely missed that Harry had been trying to get Percy to move, but a movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she'd let out a scream when she'd realised there was a huge spider trying to get through the hole that had appeared after the collapse of the wall. Still unable to think clearly, Harry and Ron had to take care of the monstrous acromantulas by themselves and it hadn't been until Harry gave her a huge push to move them somewhere safe that she'd started to react again.

Together all four of them, they'd moved Fred's body and then, to distract herself, she'd sprinted off with Ron while thinking of different ways they could get to the final horcrux. She hadn't noticed the dust or the glass on the floor, nor had she noticed the people running around shooting jinxes and curses at each other. She had however, noticed Ronalds reaction when he'd heard Percy scream "Rockwood!". His face had distorted to one of absolute malice and she realised that she needed to stop him from going after his brother. They had a mission.

Kill the snake.

She'd forcefully grabbed his arm and pulled him behind a tapestry, desperately trying to restrain him. He'd been practically radiating with rage and she'd feared that she wouldn't be able to hold him for much longer.

"Stop it Ron!" He hadn't listened.

She'd seen a flash of black hair and yelled "Harry, in here!" and the Boy-Who-Lived had joined them.

"Listen to me. Listen Ron!" She'd desperately tried to make him understand what was on the line.

"I wanna help! I wanna kill Death Eaters!"

She'd known how he felt and deep inside of her she'd wanted the exact same thing. Because of them, because of Voldemort and because of this bloody war, her Fred was gone.

Kill the snake.

"Ron, we are the only ones who can end it! Please Ron, we need the snake! We've got to kill the snake!"

Her vision had been blurred with tears and she was fighting for dear life to not give up up right there and then. She'd seen that Harry too had been about to fall apart and in her desperation she'd understood that she needed to be the voice of reason for the last time and the thought had exhausted her beyond imagination. With heaving breaths she'd continued.

"We will fight! We have to to reach the snake, but let's not lose sight now of what we're supposed to be doing! We're the only ones who can end it!"

Tears had been falling freely down her face and she'd had no choice but to wipe her face on her torn and singed sleeve.

While she'd been holding onto a still fighting Ron, she'd turned to Harry with determination in her eyes.

"You need to find out where Voldemort is, because he'll have the snake with him, won't he? Look inside him!"

Everything from that moment on had passed in a blur but she remember Harry saying that he'd seen that the so called "Dark Lord" was hiding like a coward in the Shrieking Shack, not even fighting his own war. They'd argued about who should take the invisibility cloak and go to an almost certain death, but somehow faith had it that all three of them had been on their way towards the Whomping Willow. She'd seen her classmates, as well as order members and professors fight off Death Eaters. She'd run into and fought Fenrir Greyback, giants and dementors.

And once they'd been inside the Shrieking Shack, ready to attack at any moment, she'd seen the former Potions-, and Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, the former Head over the Slytherin house, the current Headmaster of Hogwarts - Severus Snape, die from a deadly onslaught from Nagini on Voldemort's orders.

When they'd returned to the Great Hall after that it had been the first time that she'd seen him lying there, his family around him with George and Mrs. Weasley draped over his body. In a daze she'd moved to stand next to Ginny, trying her best to support her - when in reality she just wanted to lay down herself and have someone tell her that it was all a bad joke.

Her heart had built up this brick wall and no matter what, nothing could penetrate it's hard defence, but it had been like an outer body experience and while she showed no emotions whatsoever to the world, this had been the time when she'd looked back on their last moment together before the battle had started. Their heated kiss in the bathroom of the Room of Requirement. The kiss that had held so many hopes and dreams.

Then Voldemorts voice had broken the silence.

"Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away…"

Harry was dead.

More fighting.

Neville managed to do what Ronald and herself had failed to do and it was because of him that the sixth and last horcrux - Nagini - was gone.

Harry was alive.

More fighting then-

Voldemort was no more.

"You know I want you Fred"

She whispered the words in his ear softly, repeating his words from so many months ago when he'd found her hiding place in the clearing by the pond. Her lips trailed down his cheek slowly before they stopped and hovered a mere inch from his cold ones before she closed the distance tenderly and lingered as she savoured the taste of him. Gasps of surprise sounded from the rest of the Weasleys behind her, followed by several quiet questions and mutterings about what she was doing but she ignored them.

"See Fred? I'm not keeping my feelings a secret anymore. I'm sorry I tried to hide it before."

She was so angry with herself. Why on earth had she cared about what others might think about them? If they truly loved each other people would've understood, right?

"I'm so sorry I didn't think we could rewrite the stars Fred. It's to late for that now, I can't have you anymore."

The images of a future with a house, a successful career and a tall red haired man with blue eyes by her side filled her head. The future in which she would've been Hermione Jean Granger-Weasley. For some unknown reason she suddenly found herself to silently whisper about that future-that-would-never-be into his chest and when she voiced her dreams they slowly faded into oblivion.

Once she was done telling him everything she'd wanted for them, the tears in her eyes had started to dry up. She didn't have any more tears to shed.

She was so tired and she soon found herself almost dozed off on his chest so she decided it was time for her to let go, but before she did she buried her face deeper in his chest.

"I wish nothing else than that I could have had that future with you - that I could fight with you until that moment when you realise that the two of us together are bound to break. There's nothing I can do now. I'm tied to a future without you in it, and I have no idea how to carry on without you."

Her heartbeats echoed in her ears, slower than they should have, and she gently let go of him, briefly wondering whether she should go ask Madam Pomfrey if she had any Dreamless sleep- potion, or not.

"Shut up."

George's quiet voice startled her and she wondered why on earth he would make such a comment in this moment. She knew that he was hurting but so was she and she'd just opened up about her darkest secrets, her dreams and hopes, to the one person she'd never get to share them with. How had he heard her anyway?

A barely noticeable movement beneath her suddenly changed everything and her exhausted mind instantly got to work and was finally process what was going on. She realised that the unsteady heartbeats she could hear was not her own and that the voice that had spoken to her did not in fact belong to George, which could only mean one thing- She jerked up and immediately her eyes searched his face and what she saw made her gasp while her vision got blurry again. Impossible.

Fred Weasley's bloodshot eyes were staring back at her, full of pain and discomfort and he was obviously very weak, but he was also very much alive.

"FRED!" She shrieked and his family, as well as most people close to them jolted at the sudden noise, shock, confusion and panic was apparent in their faces until they too looked down and saw what she saw.

"'Mione…"

Hermione realised that even though this was indeed a miracle, and though he was alive at the moment, a wall had crashed down right onto him - which meant that he must be in a terribly bad shape with both internal and external injuries - so before anyone could react much she shouted "Get Pomfrey, QUICKLY!" and grabbed her wand from the floor.

She was not a healer and healing spells was not her speciality but she knew many of them in theory and would try anything to heal him to the best of her abilities, and she did still have her pink beaded handbag right next to her and in it several potions (both simple and advanced) that would now serve their purpose.

Across from her she could see George completely frozen in place before he looked right at her, his eyes filled with amazement and glee and started to help her - his spells were much more effective then hers and in the back of her mind she gathered he knew so much about healing from working and developing their joke products, just in case anything went wrong.

The more spells and potions they got in his system, the more Fred started to come to life and he groaned, twitched and spattered when a disgusting tasting liquid was poured forcefully down his throat. Soon Madam Pomfrey, as well as Fleur had joined them.

"I believe him to be out from immediate danger at the moment, but he needs to go to St. Mungo's as soon as possible. They can locate and determine how to further treat his injuries. I'll go and fetch someone to take him there. You saved his life miss. Granger." Madam Pomfrey looked as exhausted as Hermione felt but her voice was confident and reassuring and a sigh of relief coursed through the gathered crowd.

Still in shock over this turn of events, Hermione locked eyes with a dazed Fred and it was obvious that he wanted to say something, however, it had to wait as his mother followed by the rest of his family, flung themselves at him and his attention slowly settled on them.

"What happened? Is everyone okay?" His voice was still very weak and hoarse, but it carried louder than before and the sound of it made her heart soar. She slowly backed away a bit to give the family some privacy while they waited for him to get transported, and instead she sat down next to Harry.

"I can't believe it. Any of it."

"You did it Harry. I'm so proud of you, and I'm sure everyone else is too. Sirius, your parents, Tonks and Remus." Both of them looked over at the couple on the floor with sadness in their eyes. Even though Fred somehow had miraculously survived, the pain and loss of everyone else was still there.

He put one arm around her and hugged her close to him.

"It wouldn't have been possible without you. Thank you Hermione for always believing in me."

"Always Harry. You're my brother." The fact that they would always have a family in each other brought a smile brought a smile to both their faces, then they sat spent the next few minutes just sitting in silence while processing everything that had happened.

A hand gripped hers and she saw George looking down at her, a huge smile on his face and something she could only identify as admiration in his eyes.

"They're about to take him to St. Mungo's now but he's asking for you and refuses to go anywhere without seeing you." She stood up but before she could move George circled his arms around her in a firm hug, filled with gratitude. "Thank you Hermione!" The words were quiet and she knew he cried of relief and shock over the fact that his partner in crime was alive. She squeezed him before they let go and together they walked back to where Fred was laying and he watched as they approached him. He had a serious look on his face and suddenly she got very nervous. She berated herself for reacting this way but she couldn't control her emotions, they were everywhere.

George placed the hand that was still in his in his brothers outstretched one and she felt a surprisingly strong pull bring her closer to where he was, and their locked hands settled on his chest, just above his heart. His beating heart.

Finally realising that he was alive and seemingly well under the circumstances she let out a soft sob and started to stroke his dirty hair again. Her actions were very hesitant because she was very much aware of the fact that every single Weasley was watching them closely, trying to get a grip of what was going on between them. She grew alarmed when a mischievous glint appeared on his face. It was as if he'd never been injured at all.

"No more secrets, 'Mione love. Let's rewrite the stars, now and forever." The noise of chatter that filled the hall seemed to tune out while he said those words and she lost every single bit of control she possed in her body. Her lips connected with his in a heated kiss that spoke volumes and she knew in that moment that everything would be okay, more than okay - it would be perfect!

When they finally broke off to breathe again, he tilted her head so that her ear was as close as it could possibly get to his mouth without touching it.

"We will have everything, everything you mentioned. The house, a marriage, successful careers - especially you Mrs. Hermione Jean Granger-Weasley, Minister of Magic - and I bet you everything I own, that we won't break. Fight yes, all the time, but break? No."

A happy laugher escaped from her lips and he captured her lips again, but not before she was able to respond.

"Let's rewrite the stars Fred."

And they did.

A/N: Here's the alternative ending that I hinted I might write to this story. I still wanted it to be very dark and I must admit that I struggled for quite some time to get to be perfect but I hope this happier ending will be satisfactory to everyone.

I'd like to put out a Disclaimer again, since I in this bonus chapter used dialogue from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - I do not own Harry Potter or anything you recognize from the books or the movies from Warner Bros. Studios, nor do I own the lyrics from the song "Rewrite the Stars" from 'the Greatest Showman', I only own the plot.

Thanks to everyone who's read, liked, favorited and reviewed this story, I very much appreciate it! I hope that you've all enjoyed reading it at least as much as I enjoyed writing it and while I can now finally say that I'm done with this fanfic. I have many more I'd like to share with all of you. You can go check out my other Fremione-story that is currently in the making - 'Made of Honor' and leave some love :)

"A surprising friendship forms between Hermione Granger and the prankster/playboy Fred Weasley after an eventful night and nine years later they're as close as best friends could possibly be. However, when Hermione leaves to work with MACUSA in New York for three months, Fred realises that he wants more-the only problem is that when she comes back she's engaged to be married!"

Love, RuneDraconis1080