She woke up to the sound of a voice. It seemed to be coming from inside her head, and it echoed in her ears. She knew that voice, anyone could recognize the cold and unnerving tone that belonged to Voldemort. As she layed on the ground, confused as to how she had gotten there, the words finally started to register through her mind. Voldemort was telling everyone exactly what they dreaded to hear, what they had been trying to avoid. He was telling them that Harry Potter was dead.

And she remembered it, the movie-like scene that had unfolded just before he went to face his demise. She remembered how she had tried to convince him to stay, how she had unwillingly accepted his faith and how she had offered to die next to him. And most importantly, the kiss they had used as a way of transmitting all their thoughts and feelings to each other, to show their unconditional love. But then he had tricked her by making her fall asleep, preventing her from accompanying him to a certain death, leaving her to her own devices. Although it had just happened a while ago, it felt like it had been years. It was all like a dream that drifted farther and farther away with each passing second.

He was gone now, and Voldemort was gloating over his death. She felt the ire rise in her and her blood started to boil with rage. She was mad at him for leaving her alone, when all she had ever wanted was to stand beside him through thick and thin, to die next to the person she loved more than life itself. She was mad at Voldemort for making them go through hell and destroying what she cared the most for. She was mad at herself for not being there so they could face death together.

He was gone, but it wasn't over yet, and it wouldn't be until that madman was dead. As she saw people starting to come out of the Great Hall, nervous and intrigued as to whether the things they were hearing were true or false; she stood up, determination showing all over her face. She would finish him, she would make sure that Harry's death wasn't in vain. And only after that, she would find a way to be with her best friend again.

No one spared more than a glance to her as they saw that she was already at the main entrance, completely oblivious of what had ocurred in the spot she was standing in not so long ago. She spotted a bunch of red-heads at the front of the group, who inmediately came to her. Ginny pulled her into a bone crushing hug, and said "I thought you were dead". She obviously had listened to her conversation with Ron and had jumped to the conclusion that she had gone with Harry. When she released her, Ginny looked around, probably expecting to see Harry safe and sound, but he wasn't there. When the ginger looked at her questioningly, she just shook her head, wordlessly confirming her fears. The younger girl's face fell, but she steeled herself too and linked her arm through Hermione's, pulling her along.

Everyone went outside, but they halted when they saw Vodemort, his Death Eaters and Hagrid's shaking form carrying the corpse of the boy-who-lived. She felt all the air leave her lungs as she saw him like that. A hole formed in her stomach and a sharp pain invaded the left side of her chest. Her brain barely registered the sound of Voldemort's voice and the shouts coming from the crowd. She couldn't breathe, she wanted to throw out and she hunched in a futile attempt to reduce the pain. She watched in horror as her best friend's body was placed on the ground and wondered how she hadn't died because of the pain yet. She saw with the corner of her eye as Neville stepped forward and defied the Dark Lord, her focus almost completely on Harry's corpse. Even when Neville's head was covered with the Selecting Hat and then set on fire, her gaze never wavered.

And then all hell broke loose. She only caught glimpses of everything that happened: arrows flying through the sky, Neville cutting Nagini's head off, more allies arriving, Grawp screaming out for Hagrid, curses and spells starting to fly, people running inside… and Harry standing up, pulling his invisibility cloak from under his shirt and covering himself with it. She was so shocked that she would have stayed rooted to the spot gaping if it weren't for Ginny, whose arm was still linked through hers, and who was pulling her inside the castle once more. It all happened so fast that she wasn't even sure she had seen him for real or if it was just a creation of her mind that refused to believe he was really dead. She didn't have time to dwell on it anyway, as Ginny suddenly stopped, causing her to snap out of her musings. She found herself inside the Great Hall, and right in front of her was no other than Bellatrix Lestrange, pointing menacingly at them with her wand. How that witch had managed to get there so fast, she had no idea. She pulled out her wand from heaven knows where and went into defense mode in a split second. The teenagers started dueling the crazy witch, and Luna suddenly appeared and helped them. Hermione was firing spells as fast as she could, constantly ducking and avoiding the ones that were sent at her and casting shields in front of her and her two friends, but Bellatrix was an excellent opponent and handled the three attackers with expertise.

When a killing curse flew dangerously close to Ginny's head, Molly Weasley appeared and started dueling with the Death Eater, forcing the three girls out of the battle with the psycho. She then noticed that the only duels taking place in the Great Hall where Bella's and Voldemort's, but the number was soon reduced to one as Molly's spell hit Bellatrix s in her chest, finishing her for once and all. When Voldemort saw his right hand being defeated, he tried to kill the matron, but a magic shield prevented him from achieving his goal. Nobody knew where it had come from, until they saw Harry Potter appear out of thin air.

She hadn't been wrong, she hadn't been imagining things. He was alive, and he had been hiding under his invisibility cloak. Her mind was procesing the sudden turn of events while he taunted Voldemort with his explanations. Sudden light seemed to iluminate the room, and they attacked each other with their signature spells. However, Voldemort's killing curse bounced and hit him instead of it's inicial target. And just like that, he was dead.

For a few moments, everything was quiet as they all came to terms with the fact that it was all over, that the wizard that had kept the country in a war for so many years was finally gone and could no longer hurt anyone. Cheers and exclamations of joy were heard all over the place, and before she could stop herself she was running towards him. She trapped him in a tight embrace, and even though everyone followed her example and tried to hug him too, they felt like they were the only ones in the room, in the entire world.

With that simple hug, she told him all the things she had been feeling during those excruciating moments she had thought he was dead; and he in turn apologized for leaving her behind and making her go through all that pain. They didn't need words to express themselves, they just had to look into each others eyes to know everything would be fine from that moment on, that they would be together and they wouldn't be separated ever again. After all, what wouldn't they do for each other?

And that's all, folks! What do you think about it? R&R

Sorry for making you wait so long, lazyness took a hold of me and I couldn't get rid of it until this day (I also had to check the book to make sure my story went along with the canon as much as possible, so that didn't help very much). Thanks for your support and your nice comments (it IS a two-shot, it just wasn't finished yet), and don't forget to check my other story "In the shadows". Please, do read it, I feel bad that the first chapter of this two-shot got more attention than my long story in which I poured all my creativity into *crying inside*