Until You're Resting Here with Me

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Until You're Resting Here with Me by ZzzShiroNeko

Songfic to "Here with Me" by Dido

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I didn't hear you leave

Hermione looked up the ceiling of her bedroom in her parent's home in Muggle Manchester as she plopped her tired body onto her bed. She had just come home from her graduation ceremony. She still had her cap and gown on but she decided not to take it off just yet. Finally, she had finishing her magical schooling and she is now ready to face the rest of the Wizarding world. The Ministry of Magic had given her a job as an Auror, months before she even graduated because they've known about her good grades for years.

I wonder how am I still here

But on this day, her Graduation day, a supposed day of celebration, she felt like there was nothing for her to celebrate about. It was the end of her school year. That meant no more late night cramming sessions (or as should Ron says, "reading the book for the tenth bloody time"), sneaking around the halls without getting caught, fearing detentions, Common Room mishaps or the boys dancing around like maniacs and the girls looking at them as if they had just turned furry and had grown another head. But what she'd miss most of all were the life-threatening adventures with Harry and Ron.

And I don't want to move a thing

It might change my memory

Many people would find graduation as another door opening up for them. Many people would find graduation as a start of their life. They can finally able to be in the workforce and be a part of society. Some of them are offered jobs, some weren't. But that was one of the joys of being titled a "grown-up." Just having to wake up everyday and having to go to work can be enjoying to some people. But that was far from Hermione's mind. Hermione wondered how she is going to get through life without Harry.

Oh I am what I am, I'll do what I want,

But I can't hide.

She and Harry had started dating in their fifth year and by Christmastime had been declared an official couple by Ron himself. Through the remaining years Harry was still alive, she protected him, nagged him not to do anything risky or to go look for Voldemort. She and Ron kept a close eye on him, stayed close to his side, pinned him down if he became hardheaded trying to cross the lines they had made and yelled at him whenever he broke a rule. But that didn't help at all.

I won't go,

I won't sleep

In their seventh year, Harry found out through some reliable (uh yeah) source that Voldemort was about to attack Hogwarts. Being Harry, he looked for him (without Hermione and Ron's knowledge, of course) in the middle of the night and found him in the Salazar Slytherin's Secret Chamber. When Harry got to the chamber, Voldemort was already there with about twenty Death Eaters. Voldemort, feeling omnipotent, ordered his minions to leave killing Harry to him. As they dueled, Harry and Voldemort hexed each other with the Killing Curse. Again, Voldemort's curse backfired on him, and instead of having to have to deal with just one curse, he was hit with two. In an instant, Voldemort crumpled to ashes, his spirit readily sucked into hell. While the other scared Death Eaters started to run for their lives, some stayed behind, fighting in their master's honor. One by one, curse after curse, the Death Eaters fell due to Harry's wand. They all kept their distance from Harry but one was brave enough to even come close to Harry and stabbed him in the heart from behind with Slytherin's sword. That instantly took Harry's life.

I can't breathe,

Until you're resting here with me

The next afternoon, after not finding Harry anywhere, Hermione entered the girl's haunted bathroom, helping in the search. She screamed for Myrtle who readily appeared and told her that Harry had been there the night before but Myrtle did not notice him leaving. Hermione started to panic and screamed for his name. As she was about to leave the bathroom to get the teachers, she stumbled on a Gryffindor scarf. She knew that instant it was Harry's because she had embroidered a Snitch and the word "Seeker" on the other edge of Harry's scarf, opposite the Gryffindor emblem. As she looked up from picking the scarf from the floor, she noticed something she has not seen when she first entered the bathroom. The sink looked different from what she was used to and was larger than she was used to. At that moment, Ron appeared at the bathroom door, his eyes about as wide as his mouth. He knew the Chambers was opened again but he could not hide his fear from Hermione.

I won't leave,

I can't hide

Dumbledore made sure that Ron and Hermione were to stay in his office as the other teachers checked the Chambers. As Snape entered the office room, even with his usual lifeless lackluster face, Hermione knew that something awful had happened to Harry. Hermione felt her knees buckle as her tears flowed from her eyes. Ron was right beside her, also crying, and, as Hermione never saw him do before, was bawling like a baby. The teachers carried Harry's body from out of the Chambers and the bathroom in a stretcher, covered in white sheets. Hermione and Ron watched by the door as they lugged Harry's body through the school. Hermione all but saw was the blood on the sheets from where Harry's heart was and his right hand hanging down from the stretcher, clenching his wand, covered in blood and dirt.

I cannot be,

Until you're resting here with me

Still looking her now out of focus ceiling, she imagined Harry's last minutes, when he was hanging on to his dear life. This made her cry more as she already did at the ceremony that same morning. Dumbledore gave a huge speech in remembrance for Harry Potter and his brave deeds. When he was done, there was a standing ovation, even from Draco Malfoy, whose father was the one that stabbed Harry in the back. After the ceremony, Draco shook Hermione's hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek, saying that he regretted torturing the three of them and that he was sorry for what his father has done. Ron and Hermione took his apology, knowing that Draco's words were sincere and true since he had been hanging his head in shame ever since the discovery that Lucius Malfoy had killed the Boy-Who-Lived. Draco also promised that he was going to redeem himself and the Malfoy name by being an Auror, fighting evil right beside Hermione. This made Hermione somewhat relieved at the time.

I don't want to call my friends

They might wake me from this dream

At the Graduation Banquet, Ron had pulled her aside and asked her if she and her parents would like to come over the Burrow for dinner soon. She didn't turn them down, but she didn't say she'd go either. She didn't like making promises. She only made promises if she was sure she can keep it.

And I can't leave this bed

Risk forgetting all that's been

As she continued to lie on her bed, she was not able to control herself. Her thoughts are of Harry again. 'Was he in pain? Or did he die peacefully?' she thought. The day Harry was found dead in cold blood, no one seemed to try or did pry Harry's wand away from his hand since his body was already stiff. She deduced that he was in so much pain right before his death, his pain transferred from the wound through his heart to gripping his wand as hard as he can. How she wished she could hold his soft, warm hands again. How she wished she was there. How she wished she could've stopped everything from happening. But all she could do now was just wish. No matter how much she wishes now, she can never bring Harry back to life.

Oh I am what I am, I'll do what I want,

But I can't hide,

Now, she has to face the cruel world, practically on her own now that she was an adult and was able, with one less worry at the back of her mind. Yes, Lord Voldemort was finally defeated after all his years of reign. Not all of the Death Eaters were captured and sent to Azkaban but Hermione was assured that enough of them were imprisoned that they can no longer band together again. Lucius was given the Dementor's Kiss and that should pretty much end her worries when it came to Death Eaters

I won't go,

I won't sleep

How, at that moment, she wished she was never a witch. She wished that she never entered Hogwarts. If she had only been a normal Muggle, she would never have met Harry Potter, not as a wizard at least. She would have just finished high school and would be entering her intended college in London and majoring in either British Literature or History. If only she wasn't both blessed and cursed with witching blood, she would never have met Harry at all and her heart would not be broken, shattered into a million pieces by his death.

I can't breathe,

Until you're resting here with me

"Hermione dear?" asked her mother from behind her bedroom door. "Are you alright?" Hermione wiped the tears from her eyes as she took of her cap.

"Yeah mum," she answered, trying not to reveal her sorrow. Her voice had been quivering. "I'm just tired."

I am not tired, Mum, her mind shouted. I just can't go on without Harry. I just can't. He's everything to me. How was I supposed to live without him? Life is empty, dull and no longer made any sense.

I won't leave,

Hermione took out a vial containing a blood red potion that she had made a few weeks after Harry had died. She had stashed some of the ingredients from Potions Class and stolen most from Snape's private collection to make this potion. She then walked over to her Hogwarts trunk and pulled out the scarf that belonged to Harry wrapping something solid and rectangular. She unwound the scarf from the item to reveal a framed photograph.

I can't hide

Hermione wrapped the scarf around her neck, even though it wasn't cold enough to wear it, carried the picture frame towards her bed and sat back, her back leaning on the headboard. She placed the picture frame on her lap and stared at it with tears on her already blood-shut eyes. The picture was a moving one as with all photographs in the Wizarding world. It was of her and Harry, taken by Colin Creevey after another one of Harry's fabulous Quidditch wins. It was a photo of her in her uniforms and Harry in his Quidditch robes, one hand around each other's neck, and the other hand in front of them. They seem to be dancing around, laughing and giggling incessantly. Every now and then, Harry in the photograph looked into the real Hermione's eyes, smiling, and glanced then back to the Hermione in the picture. Hermione choked back her tears as she unscrewed the top of the vial, her hands shaking as if she was about to spill the potion.

I cannot be,

"Harry," she said softly before gulping the contents of the vial. She winced due to the disgusting flavor and stench of the potion and lay her head back down on her pillows, closing her eyes as she hugged the picture frame.

Until you're resting here with me

"Until you're resting here with me, Harry," she whispered. "I love you Harry Potter." She opened her eyes one last time before she drifted off to a peaceful slumber, dreaming back to the days she had spent with the Boy-Who-Lived and also the Boy-She-Loved.

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~*~Fin~*~