Dying Wish

Dying Wish

A Park: 11^th of December, 2003

A young woman sat alone in the park one late winter afternoon, her chestnut brown hair was pinned up in a simple bun but a couple of strands had worked their way loose and were blowing gently across her face. She didn't seem to notice her hair, nor did she seem to mind the chill in the wind. She just sat there, staring into the dark green wood in front of her. Then, suddenly, she shivered as if finally realising how cold it was, and pulled her jacket tightly around her.

“Why am I here?” she thought to herself “I've been waiting for half an hour and he still hasn't turned up! Why have I waited in the cold for someone I swore I never wanted to see again?”

Then she sat back on the bench and let the threatening flood of memories wash over her.

* * * * *

Hogwarts: 31^st of May, 1998

After a particularly nasty Potions lesson Harry came up to Hermione looking sort of anxious. Hermione had seen this look a lot recently with a school dance for the 6^th and 7^th Year students coming up, it was the look of someone trying to ask someone out. She’d tried to avoid anyone asking her out and it hadn’t been that hard, she had already been spending a lot of time in the library so when she had started spending even more time there in the lead up to the dance no one had commented. It seemed as if avoiding some feelings coming out of friendships was impossible though because here was Harry, looking like he was about to ask her out.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad,” Hermione reasoned with herself “Maybe he wants to just go as friends, maybe…”

But her thoughts were interrupted by Harry. “Hermione, would you like to come to the dance with me?”

“As friends?” she started, looking at her shoes “Sure Harry! I’d love to, it’ll be fu-”

“N- I mean yes. As friends,” he said a little reluctantly.

She didn’t believe this for a second but was glad that he had said it.

“Well, we’re late for class… I’ll see you at lunch!” she said and rushed off.

He stood there a while, stunned, before realising he was late too and rushing off to his class.

*

On her way to lunch she found Ron waiting for someone with a small posy of slightly wilted flowers and an embarrassed grin.

“Who are you waiting for?” she asked.

“Oh, no one special…”

“With flowers?” she arched her eyebrow, smiling. "It’s probably some pretty girl for the dance… About 10^th on his list after Blaise…" she thought to herself.

“Yeah, no one special. Just you.”

“Oh Ron. I’m already going with someone else...”

“Who?” he asked, surprised.

“Harry, he asked me right after Potions.”

“What?! But, last night I was…” he trailed off, looking furious.

“I’m sorry Ron, I didn’t realise it meant that much to you.”

“No, it’s not you. It’s Harry… Don’t worry about it.”

He walked off, leaving her standing there stunned. Suddenly she didn’t feel so hungry; she hated it when her best friends fought. She walked towards the library with the vague thought of working on a Study of Ancient Runes assignment. Reaching the library and looking through a large book her mind started drifting. Usually the library was a haven for her, where she could go and relax immersing herself in her work, but today she couldn’t stop thinking about her friends.

She did feel a little flattered that in the one morning two of the boys she admired most had asked her out, but they were her friends, she didn’t like them in that way. She was surprised at Ron’s reaction too, why was he so mad at Harry?

Sighing, she closed the book with a thud and returned it to the shelf. Looking at the clock she realised it was almost time for classes to start again and her books were up in her dormitory. She started off towards the Gryffindor Tower but she hadn’t walked far when she heard Ron’s voice floating down the hall. She turned to walk another way to the tower but then she heard Harry’s voice too. They were fighting. She froze and listened to them.

“-never said anything! I had no idea!” protested Harry.

“That’s a load of crap and you know it Harry! Just last night I was telling you that I liked her and wanted to ask her to the dance!”

“You might think you did but you didn’t. I don’t remember you saying anything.”

“You heard me; you were talking to me too! You told me to ask her out!”

Hermione shook herself to stop listening and ran into another corridor and slowly took a different route to the tower. She didn’t want to be the cause of her friends’ fight; she’d have to tell Harry she couldn’t go to the dance with him. Going through the portrait hole she was surprised to find Ron and Harry up there already, acting a bit hostile towards each other. She walked into the room and they both looked over towards the portrait hole. Seeing her Ron waved and walked up towards his dormitory and Harry sat there and looked at her.

“I heard you and Ron fighting,” she stated.

“Oh, I knew we were a bit close to the library.”

“Yes, you were… Harry, I can’t go with you to the dance if it’s going to cause fights between you and Ron.”

“Yeah, I understand,” he said dispiritedly.

She went up to her dormitory to get her things and when she came back down she found Ron there but no sign of Harry.

“I’m not going with Harry anymore Ron.”

“So you’ll come with me?” he asked, excited.

“No, I’m not going with either of you. I can’t, I heard you fighting.”

“Oh,” Ron replied numbly.

“Well, I’m off to class. I’ll see you after,” and she left.

She didn’t think much of it during class. Hopefully Ron and Harry would be over it all by dinner and everything would be back to normal.

Not quite.

Entering the Great Hall a little late for dinner she found Harry and Ron on opposite sides of the Gryffindor table talking to other people and very obviously ignoring each other. Both had seats next to them empty which were the only seats left at the table. Ron, seeing her, waved and gestured to the seat next to him. Harry, seeing Ron, did the same.

“They’re trying to make me choose! They’re being completely immature!” she thought angrily and stormed out. For the second time that day she wasn’t hungry at meal time.

*

After that things spiralled out of control. Both hated the other and wanted Hermione to take a side and ultimately go to the dance with them. It went from doing little nice things for her like getting doors and sending little gifts while ignoring each other to trying to out-do each other with gifts and having full-on fights. And, apart from annoying Hermione a lot with their fighting, they also wouldn’t leave her alone as they each tried to make sure the other didn’t “get” her. Exams were coming up and she couldn’t concentrate, she had no privacy and got really annoyed and stressed with it all.

"I'm not going to go with either of you, OK?!" yelled Hermione as a fight broke out over who would carry her books to Herbology, "I'm sick of these fights. You’re both acting like complete jerks. You've willingly sacrificed your friendship for a girl! LEAVE ME ALONE!" and she stormed off to her dorm.

That’d put an end to most of it, Ron and Harry still hated each other but didn’t try to compete anymore, but now none of the once close trio talked to each other. The dance came and went, Ron and Harry went and each had a date but Hermione had decided not to go. They had graduated soon after and each went their separate ways.

* * * * *

And that was what had happened. She’d moved to France, become a teacher at Beauxbatons, then left and had written a series of successful textbooks. She’d cut most ties with Britain, only ever returning to visit Muggle relatives and occasionally Professor McGonagall. No one she’d been at Hogwarts with had contacted her for a long time, there had been a few half-hearted attempts on her part to try to keep in contact with a few of the people but they had dwindled to the occasional note at holidays. Except for the note that had arrived a few days ago…

* * * * *

Hermione’s Flat: 5^th of December, 2003

Hermione leant back in her easy chair with a mug of hot chocolate to think. Although she hadn't owled Harry or Ron and they hadn't owled her since graduation she'd heard about Harry in papers and magazines but knew nothing about Ron. Christmas letters outlining the year’s events had never mentioned Harry or Ron and she had become curious about what was happening but didn’t want to bring the subject up. She wondered what Ron was doing and if Ron and Harry were friends. As she was thinking about all this a white ball came flying through the owl flap and onto the coffee table, narrowly missing the hot chocolate.

Hermione jumped in surprise and leant over to see what it was. The ball turned out to be a white-snowy owl bearing a small note. After removing the note she turned to take care of the owl. As she was setting it up with food and water she noticed it looked oddly familiar. After setting up the owl she looked at the note again to try and guess who it was from. The address was written in English so it probably came from the UK but none of her contacts owned a snowy owl... Finally she gave up trying to guess and opened the note. It appeared to have been hastily scribbled and at one place the ink had run where either a tear or a drop of rain had hit it.

“Hermione,

“I know you never wanted to hear from me again but something horrible has happened. Meet me at the park near your flat at the seat near the playground overlooking the woods at 3pm, December 11^th.

“-Harry”

She re-read the short message and sat back to think it over. She felt both happy and worried as she sat there. She was happy that she'd see Harry again and worried over the news. What could this horrible news be? If it was enough to make Harry contact her it was probably really bad. By some strange coincidence he’d picked her favourite seat in the park, where she liked to sit and think with the sound of playing children just far away enough to not be able to hear the actual words and where she could sit and look at the trees.

* * * * *

The Park: 11^th of December, 2003

So here she was, still waiting, not minding that the rain was now coming down steadily. She was just staring out into the wood, deep in thought. If she hadn't been thinking as much she might have seen the young man walking down the path towards her, she might have seen the way his face lighted up when he saw her, but being Hermione she didn't see any of this type of thing and the first she knew that he was there was when he spoke.

"Hermione?" he said, tentatively.

She looked up and as she saw him many thoughts and feelings came over her but she ended up wearing a huge smile and not caring what the horrible news was.

"Harry!" she exclaimed as she leapt up and gave him a big hug, "It's been so long! I wish I'd kept in touch! It was so silly to stop talking to you and Ron over what happened… What's been happening? How’s Ron?"

She stepped back and looked him up and down. He seemed taller and a bit more built. His messy hair seemed neater. Overall he looked healthier than the scrawny kid that came back from summer holidays looking half-starved but as soon as she looked at his face she remembered why he was there in the first place.

"Oh yes, the bad news..." she said, sitting down and patting the spot next to her invitingly.

He sat down and looked at her sadly; he opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it and closed it again. They sat there in silence for a while and then he said it, plain and simple.

"Hermione, Ron is dead."

Hermione couldn't believe it, "Dead? Ron? He can't be! I never said good-bye to him... How?"

"Well a Death Eater that had avoided Azkaban wanted to get his revenge on me. He tried to kill me with a hex that I didn’t recognise as Ron and I were walking but missed and got Ron instead. We weren’t expecting it; it’d been so long since anyone had tried anything like that… I restrained the Death Eater and then tried to help Ron but it was too late, he died a little while after I got to him. He wasn’t in pain though, he was perfectly peaceful. He was just dying…"

He spoke so calmly about it that it scared Hermione but she suddenly saw tears were beginning to stream down his face. She put her arm around his shoulders, he put his head on her shoulder and they sat together and mourned their lost friend.

* * * * *

Hermione’s Flat: 15^th of December, 2003

Harry stayed at Hermione's place for a while as they caught up with what else had been happening. One day he decided to tell her the second part of the news.

"Hermione?"

"Yes?”

"There's something I didn't tell you about Ron's death."

"What?"

"Well, as Ron was dying he told me that I should get back in touch with you and that he wished he hadn’t made such a huge deal over the dance and that you and I should have gone together. He wanted us to be there for each other. Hermione, I think we both know that when I asked you to the dance I didn’t mean just as friends and I still feel the same way about you now. I’d be happy to just be friends though; I’ve missed you so mu-”

He was cut off by Hermione, who had walked over to him while he had been talking and kissed him lightly on his lips.

“I’ve missed you too.”