Chapter 40
Hermione ran towards her fiancé who had just fallen to the floor to his death. "Avada Kadavra!" Hermione yelled and killed the death eater who killed Fred.
She dropped to her knees by Fred's dead body and sobbed. "Wake up Fred!" She yelled and patted him on the face. "Fred wake up! Please wake up!" she cried and looked him. She slumped over his body and sobbed into his chest, wetting his shirt. "Fred." She muttered and looked at him. He was dead. His eyes were glossy and stared without seeing. "Fred I'm so sorry. I love you so much." She cried hysterically. A warm hand went to her shoulder and she turned around. Harry was standing there, tears forming in his own green eyes.
Hermione stood up and hugged her best friend and let the tears fall onto his ripped shirt. "I'm so sorry Hermione." He whispered in her ear.
She looked up and saw Ginny crying into Ron's shoulder. Ron had a blank expression. So many of the Weasley's had died already.
Mrs. Weasley walked over to Ron and Ginny. "What's wrong?" She asked, her expression worried.
"Fred." Ginny managed to choke out as she sobbed. Mrs. Weasley turned around and gasped. She ran to her son who was on the floor and hugged him, looking at his face.
"Fred!" She patted his face. "FRED!" Hermione pulled away from Harry's embrace and looked at the battle. She had to fight. For Fred.
She tugged on Harry's shirt and motioned to grab Ginny and Ron. "I'm so sorry Ginny." Hermione sobbed as she hugged her best friend. "I'm so sorry. But we have to fight. For Fred. Now, let's go break Voldemort's shield!" The four whipped there wands out and ran to where Voldemort stood.
They shot spell after spell at the shield, hoping to break through it. Soon, everyone caught on and helped. All the good people were trying to break the shield while the death eaters were trying to stop them. Harry put a force field around the good people and allowed for them to shoot spells out of it but no let spells get in.
There was a crack in the barely visible, transparent shield. Harry urged everyone to hit at that specific spot, as they were doing so, one of the death eaters set off another bomb, it crashed down another wall and brook Harry's shield.
He felt himself being buried under all the rubble, he saw Hermione as she fell under it too and she called for his name.
"Hermione!" He called and then he hit his head and blacked out. Hermione felt herself being covered in stuff and everything went dark, but she wasn't passed out, the light was just blocked.
"Harry. Ron. Ginny." She croaked out and coughed. Someone reached there hand into the wreckage and grabbed Hermione's arm and pulled her up.
"Luna!" Hermione said and flung herself onto Luna for a hug.
"Hermione! Are you okay?"
"I think-" she coughed "-I'm okay. Ron, Harry and Ginny are in there and some other people were hit too."
"Okay." Luna looked for them and Hermione scanned the great hall. Voldemort was gone. Hermione grabbed her wand that was luckily in her jacket pocket. She lumped out of the great hall, un noticed.
"Harry!" She heard Luna shout from behind her and she looked to see Luna supporting am unconscious Harry. "Help someone!" Mrs. Weasley came rushing forward and set down Harry to see if he was alive.
Hermione sighed and continued walking outside. She covered her eyes as she walked past Fred's dead body. She couldn't look at him, it was torture. She saw Voldemort on the bridge, talking to fellow death eaters. This was it.
She grabbed her wand and limped closer to the Voldemort, unnoticed, or she thought. "Avada Kadavra." He shouted as she got close. He missed her by half in inch. "I will do it." He said and turned around, smirking.
"Either you die or we both die. My love is already dead, I mine as well be too." Hermione said, putting on a brave face but she was really shaking from head to toe.
Voldemort laughed his high laugh which made Hermione's hair stand on end and shivers run through her body. The sun was setting behind the bridge and despite everything that was going on, it was beautiful. The color reminded Hermione of Fred's hair and she felt her eyes sting with tears.
"It's true." Hermione said, she stepped closer to him. "You will die today, you will never come back and I will destroy the stones!" He laughed again, mockingly.
"And do you know how to destroy the stones?" He asked.
"Oh yeah of course." She lied and he frowned at her. She honestly had no idea how to destroy the stones.
"Your lying." He whispered. "Your lying!" He repeated, now yelling.
"I'm not." Hermione replied calmly. "I'm not lying at all."
"How do you destroy it then?" He asked her, twiddling his wand in his hand. Hermione thought of something fast. "TELL ME!" He yelled so loud, a few death eaters flinched.
"Well," she said, still stalling while she thought of a way. Then it hit her. "Well you destroy them like you do with your horcruxes." His eyes flashed red and Hermione flinched. She knew she had the right answer. His red, snake like eyes bore into her soft brown ones.
"Avada Kadavra!" He said and she dodged the curse by a foot.
"Stupefy!" He shouted and she fell back and hit her head. Hermione clutched her bleeding wound and glared at Voldemort. He pointed his wand at her and was about to kill her. Her own wand was too far away from her to reach.
"Avada Kadavra" he said and a streak of green light erupted from his wand and went straight towards Hermione.
It bounced off of something in front of Hermione and bounced back and hit a death eater in the face, killing him.
Hermione turned around and Luna, Ginny, Neville, Seamus, Dean, Lee, Ron, Angelina, Alicia, Katie, Cho, Harry, Padma and Parvati were standing there with their wands out. There was a force field in front of her.
Luna helped Hermione up with a smile. "Ready?" She asked everyone and they nodded. "On three," she whispered as Voldemort looked at them suspiciously. "On three we will all say the killing curse."
"One," she said and looked around "two" and as soon as the words left her mouth, she took the shield down and yelled three.
"AVADA KADAVRA!" Voldemort yelled.
"AVADA KADAVRA!" Everyone chorused. The good peoples light from the spell connected in the center and shot at Voldemort's light.
"This is for Fred!" Hermione yelled.
"For Fred!" Everyone chorused back to her.
"For Josh!" Padma yelled.
"For Josh."
"For Hannah and her boyfriend!" Ginny yelled.
"For Hannah and her boyfriend!"
"For Lavender!" Ron yelled loudly.
"For Lavender!"
"For Charlie and Mini!" Ginny said, on the verge of tears.
"For Charlie and Mini!"
"For George!" Lee yelled.
"For George!"
"And for everyone else!" Harry yelled.
"For everyone else!" They were all still holding their wands, trying to defeat Voldemort once and for all. Voldemort laughed coldly at them.
"Love is for fools!" He sniggered.
"Love is what is going to defeat you!" Neville yelled. They all thought hard about the ones they loved, suddenly, their wands were over powering Voldemort's. Then the curse hit him.
And then with a yelp, he fell to the floor and turned to dust. Everyone Just stared for a second, not sure what had happened. Then they looked at one another and cheered.
The remaining death eaters looked at one another cautiously then the good people started shooting them with spells and they fell off the bridge. Everyone started clapping and high fiving each other but all Hermione could think of was her children.
She ran thorough the great hall that was filled with injured people and quickly made her way to the seventh floor. When she was in the corridor she gasped. There were dead bodies. Bodies of people from the room of requirement!
Hermione went next to where the door should appear and it did. She barged in and saw the dead girls brother holding her two kids while an older woman held James who she was bottle
Feeding. Teddy was asleep in a crib.
"Nymphadora! George!" Hermione squealed and ran to her children. They made happy sounds when they saw her and basically jumped to her arms.
"Is the war over?" Someone asked and Hermione nodded as she looked at her babies. Ginny burst into the room and looked for her kids. She took James since he was awake and hugged him and kissed him.
Just then Teddy woke up and his hair was a turquoise color. "Mommy?" He asked Ginny and she bit her lip and looked to Hermione for help.
"Tell him later who his parents were." Hermione instructs her and she nods.
"Yes sweetie. I'm here." She says and kisses him on the head.
"Everyone, we should go to the great hall." Hermione announces and there is mutters of agreement as the room clears out.
Down at the great hall, Harry stands up on the podium where Dumbledore would stand when he gave his start of term speech. Around the podium was broken but it still stood, to Harry it was a symbol; no matter how hard they try to get rid of it, Hogwarts will always be here in some way.
He cleared his throat and no one quoted down they were all talking loudly. Ginny walked up to the podium and handed their children to Harry. "LISTEN UP!" She yelled across the room. They all jerked their heads and stoop talking instantly. Ginny smiled, took the children and walked back to where she was standing, next to Hermione.
"Okay," Harry said, he wasn't sure how to start this "so, we have defeated Voldemort!" Most people cheered loudly at that but Hermione couldn't, she was still broken.
"Now, if anyone is injured, please move to the left of the room, if you are not injured, move to the right." Some people scurried around. Hermione had a few cuts and scratches but nothing too bad so she stayed on the right side with Ginny.
"Now, I need three people to help the injured ones to the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey will take care of you there." Mrs. Weasley, Percy and Cho went to help people to the hospital.
"Okay, so as you can see, Hogwarts needs rebuilding and um, well we need to rebuild it." Harry announced awkwardly, he hated being the center of attention.
"Now?" Someone complained and Harry pursed his lips and ignored the person.
"First, I say that we take all the bodies, move them to the great hall and have a funeral. So what do you say?" There was a murmur and then they all said yes.
"Brilliant." He said. "So let's split up and look for the um, bodies."