For I Live In You

To Hermione, Harry had always been just a guy. Your simple average guy. Well, maybe not to average. After all, he was the boy who lived. To Harry, he was much less than the by who lived, he was the boy who was living, living a life as normally a teenage super-famous-hero could live. Well, not really too normal. Harry is after all, a wizard and Hermione is a witch.

Hermione gave Harry a once-over as he walked through the door to the great hall for breakfast. She sighed. He has put on his Quidditch robes.

"Harry," Hermione said as he sat down.

"Yes?" Harry looked down at the table trying to decide what to eat for breakfast.

"Do you have a game today?"

"No, why?" Harry asked, gathering toast and jam near his plate.

"You have on your Quidditch robes."

Harry looked down and saw the scarlet and yellow, instead of the assigned black of Hogwarts. He frowned.

"What time is it?" Harry asked.

Hermione looked to her watch. "Eight thirty-four. Why?"

"I still have time to change then," Harry said, standing up.

"You had better not be late for class again," Hermione said, putting an emphasis on again to tease him for being late because of his long talks with his "favorite" professor, Gilderoy Lockhart.

"Yeah, yeah, I won't." Harry left the great hall with a frown and prayer that he would be able to wear the right clothes for the remainder of the day.

***

Hermione had thought back on this and remembered her old school days. They were nice, and full of happiness, as Hogwarts was the first place that Hermione had ever felt right. She sighed. Felt right? Nothing, lately, had been feeling right. Not since the death of the one she loved.

She remembered his passion of Quidditch and his determination to be seen as a strong individual, his need to be known as somebody, although not necessarily someone special, just someone who fits into the crowd sometimes, and other times, someone who would stand out and shine. He had shined alright. He was always shining to her. Even after his death, he was shining.

It was a short while ago, his death. Although, to her, it was happening, now, all the time.

***

She had seen him. His eyes had been so beautiful and loving as he looked to her. She screamed as his eyes closed and his heart beat for the last time. She ran towards him, dropping her wand in her movement. She dropped to her knees and cried over him.

Then, she heard the his killer's laughter. The killer was mocking her love for him. How dare he, HOW DARE HE! She had flown into a rage. She looked up to the killer as he stood over her and her dead love.

"Aww.. Miss Granger, I never knew you had such feelings. I would have killed you first had I known. He would have suffered more." The killer's voice was long and snakelike, his tongue hissing out every word, every painful word.

"You... you've KILLED HIM," she screamed the last two words, disbelieving them in her own head.

"I know, it's amazing, that curse, gets right into your heart doesn't it?" His evil red eyes shown through the darkness, and the moon illuminated his murderous hands. My wand, she thought, where is it? She spotted her wand far away, too far from him to be left alone. If only I could put him into a safe state, where he'll be safe while I dispose of the killer. His wand, she realized, would be the key to making his weep, making him want to never live again, making his want to never terrorize anyone ever again.

"How dare you..." she whispered, taking his wand in her hand. "HOW DARE YOU!" she screamed, standing up from her ground position.

"How dare I? How dare he! He has taken all my glory and put it in his hands, then destroyed it! How dare I? No, you have it wrong... how dare he?" The killer's mouth had been moving, but Hermione hadn't been listening. All she concentrated on was facing her love's wand towards his body on the ground to protect him, to save him.

"There is no point, Miss Granger. He's dead. You couldn't save him, you couldn't claim the glory that I have now claimed," the killer said. "He's dead. Gone forever." His face went into what one might call a smile and Hermione felt like being sick. This... thing that was once human was glad that he has killed her one and only true love. He was glad.

"Glory. GLORY! That is all you care about? GLORY!?" She began fighting her rage, her fury.

"Don't you see, you Muggle fool, glory is what creates us. It moves us into place."

"What place?" She was trying to stall him, until help could come. Help, if only, Hermione thought, trying to get the thoughts of pure loathing out of her head.

"The place we redeem through pain, through suffering, through DEATH!" The last word tore through her, and she found herself summoning all her power, love, and hatred to fight, what could possibly be her last battle.

***

She had killed him. The killer was dead and the killer now had his own killer.

Tears streaked her face as she remembered the killer's and her love's last words. They were the same.

"Always, will you remember me, as I now live in you."

Coming from her love, the words were beautiful and wonderful. They showed Hermione his true love for her no matter how different or apart they had become. He would always live through her with their love.

Coming from the killer, the words haunted her, as she knew that they would always haunt her. They demonstrated the power that hate holds in one's life. The killer would always live through her with their hate.

Those words, she knew, would fascinate and haunt her for the rest of her life.

***

She couldn't face the people, the rejoicing people. They were happy. The killer was dead. Finally and really dead. Her love was dead too. It wasn't worth the death of the one she loved, though so many people had told her it was. No matter what, his death was never to be forgotten, at least, not by her. The people rejoicing right now might forget, but she never would forget.

Both deaths would always live through her.

***

The funeral was long and hard. So many people had come. She stood in the back, while strangers filled the front, watching as the man before them told of her love's life.

He had wanted to come out to show the world what a wonderful person her love was. The old man, Dumbledore by name, had come out of his retirement to give his final goodbye. She stepped forward through the crowd, as the old man spoke. As the people saw her, they allowed her to come forward with no opposition. She would see him for the last time.

"He tried to grow up as any would, with hopes of a normal life despite his not-so-normal past. He was a man, who needed no attention for himself, but gave his attention to everyone that needed his help. He was always there for any of his friends. He was always a true Gryffindor, displaying bravery for a better world tomorrow. His last battle was one... to...be...remembered..." His words began become muffled, as if something else was blocking out what the old headmaster was saying, until they became inaudible all together.

Hermione found herself stepping up to the place where the old man now stood. He gave her an understanding look and moved from his position without a word.

The audience looked to her, and she looked at them. Some faces held some familiar traits and she paused and conjured a special memory as she saw each familiar face.

"We are all here today," she began. "To remember the one who now lies before you. The one who was once the boy who was living, and who now is the man who lived. As I watched his death, my heart, tore in two. He was the one I loved. The one I still love, although, after this day, I shall no longer see his face physically. Mentally, I'll always see his face, his green eyes, his black hair, his wonderful smile, and I'll always remember every time he looked my way at Hogwarts and gave me a smile just because I was his friend. Over the past years, I have become more than just his friend. I had become his best friend. His one and only love. And he has become my best friend, my one and only true love. He knew his death was approaching, so he told me these last words, before he was gone." A tear ran down her already tear stained face. She closed her eyes. "Always, will you remember me, as I now live in you." She took in a small but visible breath as she opened her eyes. "These words are the words that will haunt me. These are the words that will save me." She suddenly smiled. "Yes, always will he live in me, but always will he die in me also. Always will he be my best friend, always will he go on, through my heart, and yours, but mostly, always will he be smiling that smile that he was best known for, that smile that brought people together, that smile that changed wizard history, that smile that promised me a lifetime of happiness with him, but also that smile of the one and only Harry Potter." She stepped away from her position and went to look at him one last time. She pressed her fingers to her lips and placed them on his cheek. In that moment, it was just Hermione and Harry together one last time until eternity.