Final Tears

- Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

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The sun was setting and the sky was a blaze of blues, purples, pinks and rich golds. The trees surrounding the clearing were overflowing with delicate white flowers. Several of the blossoms drifted slowly to the ground, landing on the smooth varnished surface of two blackwood coffins lying side by side.

The sombre atmosphere seemed to dominate the area. Hermione was there, crying unashamedly as her husband, Ron, held his arm around her waist and seemed to battling with tears himself. Seamus and Dean were also standing there, still in shock. Neville, Sirius and Remus had passed away in the war, but Hagrid was there, howling for the boy who had never judged him on his heritage. Lavender and Pavarati were also crying, comforted by Minerva McGonagall. Ginny stood alone, resolutely tall by Harry´s coffin, holding a crumpled letter tightly in her hand.

Snape was there too, the only mourner for Draco. Standing next to him was Professor Dumbledore. The twinkle was gone from his eyes and his long black cloak made him look like the frail old man he really was. He cleared his throat and stood in front of the mourners.

"I knew Harry quite well. I knew him as a child and I became close to him during his years at Hogwarts. He wasn´t just a hero; he was a son, a friend, a love, but most of all he was a great man. He believed and fought for the greater good.

He wasn´t perfect. He broke rules, freed prisoners and could speak to snakes.

But he was willing to die for us, so that we could be saved.

Yes he saved the world. Twice.

But it was his selflessness, his loyalty, his kindness and his pure stubbornness that we will remember most about him."

Snape then came forward then, his gaze avoiding the coffins.

"Draco was my godson. I knew him from the day he was born. I was, in fact, one of the few people he trusted.

Everyone knows he was an arrogant prat. However, few people saw the side of him that I did. The side that would help up a fallen housemate, that would do his friend´s homework or deliberately lose a chess game to make someone feel better.

Leading a double life as a spy was never easy for him. But he gave the job everything he had to save someone who would never even say thank you. And he did it because he believed it was right.

He didn´t have a scar, but that doesn´t make him any less honourable."

With that, Snape turned and left the clearing, walking slowly up to the castle. Ginny, the final speaker, now stepped forward. There were no tearstains on her cheeks and she looked serene as she looked her audience in the eye.

"Harry and Draco were heroes. Yet they didn´t die in the war. They died by their own hands, alone. They didn´t die for the Light or to save another, they died because they wanted to.

You stand here and cry, say that it´s terrible and sad, but you forget that death was their choice. They cut their own wrists, with their own knives in their own apartments.

Draco was a slimy, underhanded snake who earnt his place in Slytherin. And Harry," Ginny laughed, a trifle desperately, "Harry was a soft-hearted idiot who was only famous because of the scar on his forehead. And Honourable? He proposed to me while he dreamed of Draco every night."

Ginny glared at the shocked mourners in front of her, silently daring them to argue with her. No one said a word.

"I will not pretend they were perfect just because they´re dead and I will not grieve for them!"

Hermione gasped and Ron looked ready to throttle his sister.

"I will not grieve for them," Ginny repeated. "Why should I? The love between them was so strong and so intense that they died for it. They could stand in the Great Hall and all they saw was each other. Most people would give anything for a love like that.

You shy around the fact that their greatest enemy became their greatest love. But they were suited for each other. They lived their lives with an intensity that none of us could comprehend, because they realised that every second of life is unbelievably precious.

As everything faded around them they stayed true to each other.

You say I should mourn them?" Gin shook her head; "I envy them. For three years they had a love that eclipsed even them. I would give the heart from my body to have that for one second.

I hope that, wherever they are, they are together loving each other for eternity."

A single tear slipped down her cheek and fell onto the coffin in front of her.

"I hope you´ve found your peace Harry," she whispered, slowly placing a single rose on the coffins.

The clearing soon became silent once more save for the chirping of small thrushes as they settled for the evening. The blossoms had stopped falling and, visible in the muted light of dusk, were two white headstones. And lying between them was Ginny´s rose, a red rose. The rose of love triumphant.