Things Change

Prologue

With Ron gone and Harry missing, Hermione could feel nothing but hopelessness. 

The end is near, she kept telling herself. It has to be. 

Whatever that end may be, Hermione honestly didn't care. She just wanted it to stop.

Whilst the two cried over Ron, a crowd had started amassing outside the doors. Hermione suddenly realized that everyone had gone quiet and then she lifted her head to see what was happening. That brown hair and those round glasses were unmistakably Harry. Her heart fluttered at the sight of her friend, but shattered when she processed what was happening. 

It was Harry. He was here. Except he was draped lifelessly over Hagrid's arms. His limbs swung side to side with each of Hagrid's steps. Hagrid placed Harry down on the ground, taking care to watch his head.

Voldemort appeared as the death eaters parted to let him through. His steps were slow and he took his time in examining the crowd. He looked ill, it was undeniable. Hermione knew it was because Voldemort has just lost one of his final horcruxes. She couldn't feel happy about that knowing what is had cost.

She blamed herself partly. When Harry had told them what he discovered from Snape's memories, he promised that he wasn't going to sacrifice himself. 

I should have stayed with him.

"Harry Potter is dead," Voldemort eventually called out. Her started circling Harry's body and pushed him with his foot for good measure. 

"You see? He's dead. The boy who lived is dead. Nothing but a boy who relied on others to sacrifice themselves for him." 

Hermione knew the words coming out of his mouth weren't true. Harry was so much more than that. The death eaters on the other hand, were eating up the speech. Some praising Voldemort's actions, others continued to mock Harry. A select few had slipped into the outskirts of the crowd and remained quiet. Amongst those few, Hermione saw the blonde hair of Malfoy and his mother.

On the other side of the opening, cries and screams poured out as people began to accept their defeat. Voldemort only let them go on for a moment before he silenced the crowd. The air felt thick as he held up his arms and continued to speak. 

"You all have two choices. Surrender and pledge your allegiance to me." There was a pause as a devilish smirk crept across the snake-like features. "Or die. The choice seems simple enough to me, but I'm sure some of you will make a foolish decision."

Voldemort lowered his arms and people began to whisper to each other. No one made any movement to join Voldemort. In his mind, that meant everyone had made their decision. He clucked his tongue a few times while shaking his head in disapproval. Without wasting anymore time, Voldemort made a gesture to his followers and gave them permission to kill whoever was left. 

That was the intention anyway. The death eaters didn't move when they were commanded. Everyone was distracted by the chaos unfolding in front of Hagrid. Harry had disappeared and his voice echoed from across the courtyard. 

"Did you think it would be that easy, Tom?"

If Voldemort had looked ill before, he was on the brink of death now. He grabbed onto a nearby arm to support himself as he whirled around to face Harry. 

"Harry Potter," he cooed. 

Voldemort immediately aimed his wand at Harry, not wanting to give him a chance to escape. Harry jumped and hid from the curses as he was without a wand. As others tried to intervene, they were stopped by deatheaters. 

It must have been an unspoken rule amongst them that no one could interfere with Voldemort killing Harry. 

Everything was slowly descending back into chaos as Voldemort blew up pillar after pillar and the death eaters started fighting the remaining members of the other side. Ginny and Hermione stayed together and fought death eaters they didn't recognize. 

No one could have predicted what came next, especially Voldemort himself. None other than Draco Malfoy had darted into the opening. 

"Potter," he frantically called out. 

Harry glanced over as Draco threw him his wand and then Draco disappeared into the mass of black robes. 

Harry went on the offensive now that he too had a wand. Everyone was engrossed in their own fights trying to stay alive. After what seemed like hours, there was a scream. The scream was so violent that the walls of the castle shook and the ground began to vibrate. 

Voldemort dropped to his knees and clutched his head. Opposite of him, Neville limped out holding the sword of Godric Gryffindor that was covered in blood. Neville side stepped to reveal the severed head and corpse of Nagini. 

The final horcrux had been destroyed. Harry took Voldemort's weakness as his shot to take him out. Harry threw spell after spell, but Voldemort only became more deadly and fearful with the loss of the snake. 

Harry ducked behind the remains of a stone pillar as Voldemort blew up the spot he stood seconds before. 

""There are no more horcruxes. It's just me and you now, Tom," Harry called out from his hiding spot. "Neither can live while the other survives, isn't that how it goes? Unfortunately for you, only one of us is going to be leaving for good."

Harry peeked around the pillar and unsuccessfully tried to disarm Voldemort. Voldemort was panting as he seethed with rage. His chest rattled as he laughed in response to Harry's threat. 

"You think you will triumph? The same boy who has only survived because Dumbledore was pulling the strings? Surely you don't think you can beat me."

Voldemort exploded the remaining structure surrounding Harry. 

"Or are you referring to Dumbledore's favorite solution again? Is it love?" 

It was clear that Voldemort was taunting Harry and trying to get a reaction out of him. Voldemort needed him to be out in the open to kill him. 

"Who's going to sacrifice themselves this time now that dear mother and father are dead?" 

Harry fell right into the trap. He jumped out and tried once again to disarm Voldemort. 

"Don't you dare talk about my parents," he commanded. 

Just as the first rays of light spilled over the top of the castle, Voldemort and Harry cast their spells in unison. Harry attempted to disarm Voldemort, and Voldemort was attempting to kill Harry. The two spells collided with a bang that was big enough to stop the fighting around them. For a minute, everyone just stared as the rays of light battled each other. 

It took what felt like an eternity for Harry to overpower Voldemort's curse. He wasn't sure how he did it, but his wand, the one gifted by Draco, had just defeated the Elder Wand. The deflected killing curse rebounded and hit Voldemort.

His white body fell to the ground.

The crowd was quiet for a moment, waiting anxiously to see if he'd get back up. When it appeared that it was truly over, people started cheering and hugging. Death eaters were fleeing to prevent capture. 

Draco stood only a few feet away from Hermione. The two made eye contact for the briefest second before he was pulled off by his mother. As Hermione stared at the place she had been standing, she was aggressively pulled into an embrace by Harry. 

"Hermione," he was shaking her now.  "It's over!" 

Hermione didn't want him to notice his friend's lifeless body. She wished they could live in this moment for a little longer to prevent Harry from feeling the pain she and Ginny had experienced. When Harry saw Ginny holding her dead brother's hand, his eyes began to fill with tears. Hermione couldn't make out what he was saying, but he started cursing and blaming himself as well. 

It was quite the devastating scene, was all Hermione could think about. The Golden Trio was breaking apart. At least it was over.

It's all over.