In the End

It was Hermione's turn to say goodbye to the two boys. The first coffin was made of black wood with the Gryffindor crest, a crest made of solid gold and thousands of small rubies. The second coffin was also made of black wood, but it had the Slytherin crest made of solid silver and emeralds.

These were the coffins of the greatest heroes of the War: Harry Potter, "the Boy Who Lived", and Draco Malfoy. Surprised? You shouldn't be. The two never liked each other, but became close allies during their seventh year at Hogwarts, when the pressure was building up. For Harry, the pressure of saving the world. For Draco, the pressure to help destroy it. Dumbledore made the two cooperate, but he couldn't force them to like each other. They tolerated each other for the sake of the mission. In time, their cooperation turned into a great friendship, based mostly on trust, since they couldn't stand each other's characters. This happened after Draco and Hermione became friends, of course. The two of them shared an interest in books and careful planning which convinced Draco to stop calling her a mudblood and even consider her "Slytherin material". He thought that if she was born a pureblood she would have been sorted into his House. She politely dismissed the thought, claming she was not evil or sadistic enough to be a Slytherin. They stopped this little argument when they broke into laughter, starting a friendship as strong as those inside the Trio.

Now both Draco and Harry were dead, after defeating Voldemort. It was Lucius Malfoy who had killed them, right before being cursed to death by the Order. They were buried side by side, in matching coffins. The only difference was that the coffins had the crest of the House each of them belonged to, as homage to the school they lived and died in. Yes, the battle took place on Hogwarts grounds, in the Dark Forest, and they were killed by the lake when they were getting back to the school. Lucius had shot from behind, not leaving them a chance to fight back.

Hermione approached the coffins with absolute calm. The boys she most admired in the world, the boy she loved were being buried. All her tears had been shed in the previous two nights, all her trembling was gone, and she felt nothing but calm. She couldn't cry anymore, she couldn't even think about not seeing them again. All that was done for long ago.

She placed four roses on each coffin: one white, one yellow, one red and one black. Then she stood there, in trance, looking at the empty tombs that were about to be filled with dirt and bodies. Slender Seeker bodies to be exact. A black-haired man and a fair-haired one. Green eyes and grey eyes, never to open again. They will never know that it was twilight now, that there was a wonderfully colored sky: red and gold in the west, blue and grey in the east.

She walked back to where the others were standing: Ginny, Neville and Seamus. All the other Weasleys were dead, even Ron. He had been buried the day before because the body was in too bad condition to wait another day. Dean had died in the battle too, but like Justin's, his body had been turned to dust by the curse. The wind blew it away soon after that. Ginny had survived by miracle, and she was only allowed to leave the hospital for the funerals. Many had died, and they were buried all over the isles, so the survivors had to Floo and Portkey themselves every two hours or so to attend the ceremonies. It was already the fourth that day, but the only one where the church was full. The cemetery was full too, but everybody wanted to say goodbye and thank the two victims properly. Both the boys were buried in a cemetery because the Potter crypt had been wiped off the face of the earth when Harry was one year old, and Draco was considered a traitor by his family and couldn't be buried next to his "worthy" ancestors, by his mother's orders. She didn't blame him for switching sides, but he couldn't be buried next to his Dark relatives. So the only thing that showed his origin was the Malfoy crest on his modest tombstone, and his name under it.

Ginny was next. She put a yellow rose on each tomb and went back to the group, where she started sobbing miserably. She, too, loved the two and she was mourning them more than she mourned her own family. At least her family knew what they meant to her, while the boys didn't have a clue. And now it was too late. The twilight was slowly turning into night while people said goodbye. The group left the cemetery two hours later to attend another funeral, this time in Ireland. As they took a final look at the fresh tombs, they realised they would never get over the loss. The loss of the only boys who could defeat Voldemort, the boys who sacrificed themselves to save everyone else, the people they cared about as well as those they didn't know.

Harry James Potter and Draco Phineas Malfoy were gone.