"baby, close your eyes
don't open till the morning light,
don't ever forget
we haven't lost it all yet,
all we know for sure
is all that we are fighting for"

-syndicate, the fray

There are five beds in the seventh year boys' dorms. None of them look slept in.

Slowly, Ron enters the room, turning around and examining it with a bit of wonder. The windows on the east wall are all shattered (as a result, there's a considerable hole, along with a few smaller ones, in the west wall), letting light and warmth from the still-rising sun fall on the two of the beds underneath them.

"Blimey," says Ron softly. He grips one of the posts of his old bed.

Hermione walks forward and takes his free hand in hers. He looks at her suddenly, intensely, and she holds his eyes for three, four, five seconds before she turns toward Harry, still standing, numb, in the doorway, and extends her other hand to him. Ron is still staring at her even as Harry accepts it.

The three of them share a long look that speaks a million words. Harry drinks them in, their faces filling him up, the pink line on Hermione's neck and the burns on Ron's shoulders showing through his singed robes, wanting to memorize this moment of relief and survival, this feeling of almost-weightlessness that comes from the revelation that it's over, thank God it's over, we're alive and it's finally over.

A few owls flutter past the open window; startled, they look out it and over the grounds, at the golden sky, steadily becoming blue, at the pits of earth caused by explosions, across the lawn and to the edge of the Forbidden Forest.

A chill runs down Harry's spine. He meets Ron and Hermione's gazes. Ron's mouth is set into a grim line; after a minute, Hermione's eyes fill with tears.

Then they're all throwing their arms around each other at once, and Hermione's crying and Harry's shaking and trying not to, and Ron is just radiating heat and is voice is thick as he says, "You're a right foul git, Harry bloody Potter."

And Harry squeezes them tighter and gives a choked laugh and as it grows into borderline hysterical, all he can say is simply, "I love you, too," and then it turns into dry sobs and thank God, thank God we're alive.

Hermione murmurs something that might be, "We do love you, Harry," into his side, but she hits him afterward (she doesn't try very hard so it doesn't hurt) and he isn't really sure; and Ron's ears are a little red because he doesn't deal with this kind of stuff and that's just the way he is, but he says something to Hermione that Harry doesn't hear because he's too busy gasping for breath but it's either good or bad because it makes her cry even harder.

They're all mashed together in a mass of limbs and bodies with their hearts banging off each other, and they're not okay yet, but they will be, someday, and all Harry knows is Ron and Hermione and his heart beating I'm alive, I'm alive,

I

am

alive.

A/N: DH2 gave me a new obsession with the trio. this came from that. although, i have to admit, in my ideal version, harry goes to find ginny... but that's just me.

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thanks for reading.

~whispered touches

disclaimer: i do not own harry potter. it belongs to JKR. no copyright infringement is intended.