The Strongest of Us All

Epilogue

I got the strangest feeling that Draco was going to do something stupid back there. But it passed apparently. Looking at Harry seemed to make him calmer after a bit.

He carried him all the way back to Hogwarts. Wouldn't let anyone else touch him. That worries them, I think. I would have been more worried if he'd given up Harry's body without a struggle.

We carried them all back down to Hogwarts. Parvati. Lavender. Best friends even in death. We found them lying next to each other in the middle of the hill. Took the killing curse at the same time. Alastor Moody died when Crucio became too much for him. Neville's alive though. Dean. Seamus. All the Weasleys except for Fred, who took a curse to the face. He's alive, but suffice it to say he and George aren't identical anymore. There are more dead of course. Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs and Slytherins and lower class Gryffindors whose names I never learnt. Whose names will haunt me forever.

So here we are now. Thinking of proper epithets. What to write on Harry's gravestone. Macabre really, but it has to be done. That's what life seems like sometime. A long list of things that must be done.

But for his headstone... We make quiet suggestions, Ron, Draco, Dumbledore and I. Not the Boy Who Lived certainly.

"Hogwarts' Hero."

"He hated that," I say absently, scratching the new scar on my side. "Didn't want to be a hero."

We lapse into thoughtful silence. It's easier to think of Harry's headstone than his lifeless body.

"The Best of Us All."

That's appropriate, surely. I nod.

"No," Draco interrupts. It's the first thing he's said so far actually. "The strongest. He was The Strongest of Us All."

Dumbledore's eyes dim behind his glasses. "That he was." He wraps his arm around Draco's shoulder. "You knew."

Draco nods dumbly. "I can't...stay here right now." His eyes water but he does not blink. Doesn't let the tears come. "I'm going to see about my mother. She tried to help me. She wasn't... she wasn't a Death Eater. Just a spectator really. Tell Snape I have some things... of his mother's."

Dumbledore nods, not surprised or fazed. "And after that?"

Draco smiles, dimly. "Someplace off the coast of the France. I'm looking into a little house with a ghost or two upstairs." He stops to look at Ron and me. "The both of you...and Sirius," he amends, "...are always welcome."

He stands up, slowly, and shakes his shoulders like there's a weight there that needs time to settle. Oh God, he can't go alone. He can't. He just can't. I can't...

"You know," Ron said thoughtfully. "I think...that Hermione and I should go with you."

I turn to look at him. Yes!

It's like he heard me think. He grins his lopsided grin at me. "You can't get rid of us that easy you know. We're like Muggle glue."

Draco stops where he's walking.

"Sirius will be just as stubborn," I add.

Draco turns around and looks at us. God, what's he thinking? His eyes harden for an instant and I despair, but then he shrugs.

"Yeah. All right. Should have known really. No matter where you go it seems like there's a Weasley somewhere." He pauses. "And given your...err, family birth rate, the house should probably be rather large instead of small."

Now it's my turn to smile. And Draco's too. It doesn't quite reach his eyes but we'll work on it. We'll work on it.