One Last Breath

One Last Breath

hold me now
i'm six feet from the edge
and i'm thinking
maybe six feet
ain't so far down....
one last breath
creed

Harry Potter stood with his arms wide open, as if he were a bird ready to sail from the railing of the tower on which he stood. It was dusk, and the sky had a pale, washed-out look to it, the array of colors dying over the horizon. The wind swirled lazily around him, lifting his bangs in and out of his exposed eyes. His glasses had fallen off long ago, plummeting to the cold stone ground below. Harry was so high up he hadn't even heard them shatter.

You have some many reasons to do it. He thought, looking down into the darkness. So many. His mind rolled over to earlier that day.

Hermione was coming briskly from the library, her nose in a book, as always.

"Hermione," he said, touching her arm gently.

"I have nothing to say to you, Harry." She looked up from her book, the tears already watering in her eyes. How he wanted to hold her, stroke her long, sleek hair, kiss her; tell her everything was going to be fine.

"But everything's not going to be fine, Harry! Ron's...." her voice trembled with emotion, the tears pouring freely down her cheeks like little rivers, "Ron's...." she couldn't bring herself to say it.

He felt his own eyes begin to weal with tears. "Don't you see, though? That doesn't mean....that doesn't mean you should push me away."

She turned her back to him and put her head down, her shoulders shaking with silent sobs. She hated to be seen crying. She thought it made her look weak and vulnerable-which, in return, made Harry's heart flutter and his knees feel weak.

"Hermione...." he whispered so quietly he would have been surprised if she heard him, "Hermione, will you listen to me?" He walked around to the front of her.

Slowly, she looked up at him, her eyes full of anguish. "I'm sorry, Harry. I just can't-it's too hard....I," her voice hitched sharply, "please? Understand."

He nodded numbly, watching her walk away. She turned the corner, giving one last defeated look over her shoulder. He cried, then.

Harry took one last breath, then felt his body take flight, soaring downward in the cool night air. The last thing to pass through his mind was the image of him, Hermione and Ron meeting for the first time on the Hogwarts Express.

" '...You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon.'

And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.

Fini.