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even though we never said it to each other
we knew.
The moment he died she swore she felt it. Her chest ached with an unforgivable pain and her mind went fuzzy. It felt like a small piece of her was ripped out with bare hands. She knew logically she was probably being ridiculous. He was fine. He was fine . So she went on, she kept fighting and she didn't give up or slow down. She shot spell after spell and she ignored the ache in her soul telling her she needed to find him because surely he was fine .
She ran to the Great Hall to find him. Harry was there with all of the Weasley family. She didn’t see him or even hear him but she knew he just had to be with his family. He was. Oh god he was.
The moment she saw his body she collapsed, it felt like all of the air in the room was gone, suffocating her and nobody saw. She started directly at his body, her lungs not functioning properly in a crowded room. She wasn’t thinking logically, she knew she was out in the open and unsafe and acting like a fucking baby .
She thinks she crawled to him, her pathway cleared and the room was dramatically silent. She knew she looked a right mess, her clothes but also her face. She felt the tears streaming down, landing on the floor and her hands. She felt hands on her but she was pretty sure she snarled and they backed off slightly but didn’t leave her. They stayed.
Perhaps she should’ve known not to get involved, she should have separated herself from the situation. Any of them living through this was highly improbable. But he was Fred Weasley. He deserved to live. More than her even. So why was she sobbing and crawling towards his dead body? Did he know? Did he know she would’ve died for him? Did he know she loved him?
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Standing with his parents in the Great Hall after the battle was a surreal experience. His father being guarded and watched by Kingsley Shacklebolt but giving the honor of being able to speak with himself and mother.
Everything seemed to pause when the Great Hall doors burst open and Granger came running through. She looked terrible. Thin with her clothes almost draping her body, there was blood in her hair and cuts up and down her arms and legs. He winced when he saw the peek of her scar from her left arm but her appearance was just a small, minuscule even thing that anyone could have noticed.
It was her face. She looked like she was searching for someone, turning to his mother slightly he saw her watching her as well. Turning his eyes back to Granger he watched as she saw Potter and Weasley but when she looked down at their feet she collapsed.
Hermione Granger collapsed on the floor and started clawing at her chest like her heart had gotten ripped out. Everyone was looking now, if they weren’t before. He heard the Auror speaking to his father pause and it seemed like he sucked in a breath at the display. It was eerily silent, no one knew what to do or even what to say. Draco assumed one of her friends would have ran to her but it seemed they were so confused.
He thought it couldn’t get worse but she started gasping, choking really. On nothing at all. She started sobbing and choking and he didn’t know what to do or say or even how to react because surely Hermione Granger was stronger than this.. right?
He was pretty sure he watched Hermione Granger die that day and nobody did anything.
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Harry had felt overjoyed before he arrived at the Great Hall. He did it. Tom Riddle was dead and he could finally breathe . The air suddenly seemed shallow the moment he saw all of the Weasley’s surrounding and mourning Fred.
He looked around for Hermione but she wasn’t there, he had known about Fred and Hermione. She didn’t tell him of course but he knew her. He saw her sit in the tent and wait by the radio waiting to hear his name, praying she never would and the relief on her face when they never did. He saw her glances towards him and saw her smiles when he would glance and smile at her but she never brought it up and so Harry didn’t either.
Watching his best friend burst into the Great Hall whipping her face left and right looking for him , he saw the slight relief on her face when he saw her but her perusal didn’t stop, until she landed on him, his body. Watching her collapse and start clawing at her chest broke a part of him. Watching her as she hyperventilated and he just stood there. He didn’t know what to do when she started sobbing and he felt more than heard the silence that had taken over the Great Hall. He just watched as she started gasping and choking on nothing and he just watched as she started crawling to his body.
He was pretty sure he watched his best friend die that day and he didn’t do anything.
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His brother died for him. He was dead. Memories assaulted him as he stood with his hand covering his mouth looking down at Fred. Memories of arguments, pranks, talks, and secrets.
When the Great Hall doors burst open Percy didn’t bother looking up. He kept his gaze on his brother. Suddenly he heard her. Heard her collapse and he looked up. Seeing Hermione Granger see his brother stole his breath from him. Her hands were clawing at her chest, like she could feel their souls breaking apart. The silence was broken by her broken sob, the sounds of her choking on nothing but the air. He heard his mother exclaim softly telling Harry and Ron to go to her and ask what in the world could possibly be happening to the poor girl. Harry stood still and Ron didn’t even look up from Fred. Percy knew, just knew that Fred would want one of them to comfort her, to be there for her. He loved her and had told Percy he planned to marry her one day if he could convince her.
So Percy stepped forward and he started walking to her and he dropped behind her and he tried, he really tried to grab her but she snarled at him and being touched seemed to have broken her more because she started mumbling, talking rather loudly actually.
“ I need him”
“Why him-” a choke and a gasp “Anyone but him.”
He grabbed her shoulders and he picked her up from the ground and she started shaking. Started yanking and almost hit him in the face, Charlie came next to help him just to grab her. No one bothered with spells, she was so distraught he knew she needed this, this moment of grief.
“Percy,” she gasped his name and looked at his face, the Hall still completely silent as her brown eyes connected with his blue. Her entire body was shaking and she was still moving. “Did h-he know? Percy please tell me he knew I lo-loved him please Percy tell me he knew”
She yanked free of Charlie’s grip to simply run into Bill. We all held her as she cried and she kept going.
“My s-soul hurts, I c-can’t breathe”
“Take me. Me. Me. Me.”
“Why him? Please please please.”
It seems as though this must have gone on for a long time, it was only a span of a few minutes and they held her the entire time. He knew Fred loved her and Fred knew she loved him so they all stood there and held her because they knew Fred would have done the same for any of them.
She shook in their arms, gasping and choking on empty air.
He knew with absolute certainty that he watched Hermione die that day but he held her while it happened.
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i think i’ll miss you forever