Amazing Grace

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

"Hermione," he whispered, his voice raspy. Several hundred yards away, she snapped her head around, searching for the source of the voice.

"Harry?" her eyes filled up with tears. She had to be hearing things. But her heart was thumping in her chest. Could he really still be alive? "Harry? Is that you?"

"Hermione, help me, please..." he felt tired, so tired. But somehow, he knew that he couldn't fall asleep, or something bad would happen.

She wheeled, scanning the charred ruin that had once been the Hogwarts grounds. "Harry! Keep talking, I'll find you, I promise." Don't panic, Hermione, don't panic, if you're to find him you've GOT to keep your head about you... "Harry? Please keep talking..."

that saved a wretch like me

She ran in the direction of his voice, ignoring the blood that was flowing freely from the gaping wound in her arm. Her graduation robes, which had been a bright, pearlescent white, were stained a dark scarlet in several places, actually, but she knew she had been lucky. She had watched so many of her classmates fall today... it had been horrible. It seemed like years ago that she had given her valedictory speech, even though it had only been this morning... Dumbledore had just given out the last diploma when Voldemort appeared... how he and his veritable army of Death Eaters and Dementors had managed to get into Hogwarts, she did not know. But the battle that had ensued... she let out a choked cry. So many of her friends had gone down - Ron Weasely, Lavender Brown, even Neville Longbottom - and every one of them had fought with bravery that would have made Godric Gryffindor proud. She had used her formidable talents in Charms and Transfiguration to summon Patronuses to keep the Dementors at bay, to keep the less capable Death Eaters confunded, and to change some of the more ordinary objects lying around the corridors into weaponry, but she wished she could have done more. Harry, of course, had gone after Voldemort himself, in a valiant effort to distract him and prevent him from effectively directing his Death Eaters. She had assumed he was dead, but now...

I once was lost but now am found

"Harry!" she screamed, as she saw his familiar face, covered in blood, just peeking out of a lump of robes. She immediately tried every healing charm she knew. After a few moments she had managed to staunch the bleeding to a trickle, but it was obvious he had already lost a lot of it. It had been coming, she could now see, from his scar. She was not shocked to see that it had been opened rather neatly along its zigzagging length, but she absolutely did not want to think about how Voldemort had done it. Or the pain that it must have caused Harry. His face was so much paler than normal, which for Harry was lily white anyway, and his eyes seemed unusually bright. She could only hope that she had not gotten to him too late. She sobbed. For the first time in her life, it seemed, she did not know what to do.

was blind but now I see

"Hermione," Harry croaked. "We... we did good."

She began to cry harder. "Shhh... shhh, Harry, you mustn't waste your strength. It's alright, it's over now, it will be alright, everything will be alright." But she didn't believe her own words. She could see it, in his face. Her best friend was going to die here, in her arms, and there was nothing she could do about it. Nothing at all.

"No... Hermione. Got to tell you something..." he smiled weakly. "Don't know if I'll get another chance, you know..." he winced.

twas grace that taught my heart to fear

"Oh, Harry... don't talk, please..." she was practically begging him. "I'm scared I'll lose you... I was so afraid I'd lost you already... I thought I'd never even have the chance to say goodbye... you were so brave, Harry..." Her mind flashed back to their first year at Hogwarts, when they'd gone to keep Snape from getting the Sorceror's Stone. There are more important things... friendship. Bravery. Oh Harry, do be careful! Her own words rang in her head.

and grace my fear relieved

"I was scared too," Harry said, every word an effort. "Thought he'd... take you... thought I'd never... see... never get to tell... but you're here now..."

how precious did that grace appear

His scar throbbed with pain, though it had faded a little since Hermione had come over. Had she done something to him? Or was it just that he was so glad to see her? His vision swam. Oh, how lovely... now there's two of her. She was so beautiful, had grown so beautiful. He couldn't think when it was exactly that he had started loving her, just knew that it seemed natural. He wanted to tell her, but the words just weren't coming to his lips. It was getting harder to think.

the hour I first believed

"Hermione... this is important..." He didn't say anything for a second, trying to gather up his strength to make it all come out. "You're it, Granger. You're the one. You'll always be the one."

Through many dangers, toils and snares

we have already come.

The words were like a knife through her heart. Harry in love with her? They'd always been close, she knew, but she never thought that he could have felt that way. And yet... it seemed right. They'd been through so much together - they had come of age in a difficult time, to be sure, and sometimes it seemed like they would never make it. But they had, hadn't they? Harry had gotten through every increasingly evil plot of Voldemort's as a student, and now, practically his first act as an adult wizard, he'd managed to defeat him at last. And she had always been there to help, every step of the way, even this last one, hadn't she? Of course he loved her. "Oh, Harry." She began to cry again. "We've wasted so much time, haven't we?"

twas Grace that brought us safe thus far

Harry tried to laugh, but only managed a weak cough. "Never... even would have... made it to second year... without you... always.... saving my bum..."

She smiled through her tears. "Right. Well, you just saved us all from Voldemort, so why don't we call it even, alright?"

and Grace will lead us home

"No, Hermione... I'll never... thank you... enough..." His voice was getting weaker. His eyes closed.

"Harry... I don't know what to do... I've run out of my healing potions, I can't... there's nothing... I can't help you any more... I don't... I don't know what to do, I'm so sorry..." The tears were streaming down her face now, splashing on him, mixing with his blood and washing it away. And suddenly she knew what she had to do... but could she? Was she really strong enough?

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

that saved a wretch like me

With every inch of her being, Hermione focused herself inward. Do it, Hermione. You've got to do it, you know you can... without quite knowing why, she found herself beginning to sing. Her voice had never been lovely, she knew, but now it was changing pitch, changing register, and she felt herself changing as well... she willed it to keep going, kept her voice spilling out, suddenly soft and shimmery, and stretched her body to its own breaking point. Hermione Granger was singing the song of the phoenix, was watching her own arms melt into the wings of the phoenix - and she was crying the tears of the phoenix, as well.

I once was lost but now am found

They fell on Harry, fell on his scar, healing it, sealing it, washing it away forever. A hint of colour came back into his cheeks, his breathing came deeper now, less ragged. She watched as his health came back over him, and it was as though an icy claw had released its hold on her heart. She had done it. She let go of her concentration but knew it would not matter. It was an odd, but necessary, quirk of wizard law. Once a witch had made herself a phoenix, she could never assume her human form again.

was blind but now I see

When he awoke, several hours later, Harry knew what had to have happened for him to be alive now. He looked down, at the brilliant, shining phoenix still waiting at his side, and his own tears were streaming down his face. "Hermione Granger. I love you."

And as another crystalline tear pooled in her eye, she sang her reply - the most beautiful phoenix song there could ever be. As I love you, Harry Potter.