Only Us
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep
-Robert Frost
Harry should have known that something important was going to happen that day. He should have realised it immediately, from the moment he woke up. For when he finally opened his eyes, it was not to a smiling Ron, telling him to get up, but to a distraught Hermione, yelling at him that there had been an attack, and he had to come downstairs quickly.
Harry leapt out of bed, grabbing his wand and invisibility cloak as he ran across the room and down the rickety stairs, ignoring the screams of the portraits in the hall. When he entered the kitchen, he stopped, shocked by the scene that was in front of him.
Lupin was sitting opposite McGonagall at the table, his head in his hands, and Tonks crying into his shoulder. Kingsley Shacklebolt was pacing the room, seemingly unaware of Harry’s entrance. Moody was facing the wall, brooding, though Harry knew that his magical eye was watching him as he went and sat next to Hermione, who wouldn’t look at him, but stared determinedly at a blank spot on the wall, a tear in her eye.
Looking around the room at the Order members, Harry noticed that there wasn’t a single red hair in the place. Where were the Weasleys?
“What happened?”
No one answered him. Feeling anxious, he asked them again.
“Who’s been attacked? Why won’t anyone answer me? Where’re Ron and Ginny? What happened?”
They all looked at each other, deciding who would speak first. Harry was about to ask them again, when Lupin stood up and began to speak, his pale complexion and tired eyes now more prominent than ever.
“Harry, you must understand that we live in dark times, and when you are doing a job as dangerous as ours, there is a risk that someone will get hurt,” Harry’s chest tightened as Lupin went on, “I ‘m afraid the Weasleys were attacked on their return from France.”
“And….” Harry did not dare think of what he might say next.
“The Healers did the best they could, Harry. They didn’t make it.”
“No,” Harry stared at them each in turn, half-expecting one of them to yell ‘surprise!’ But after a full minute, the meaning of what Lupin had just said finally began to sink in.
“No. They’re not dead. They’re not,” They couldn’t be dead. They just couldn’t be.
“Harry…”
“No!”
He jumped up, and saw Hermione looking at him with an expression of sadness, pity and something that Harry couldn’t quite recognise.
“How could we let something like this happen? Today was Bill’s wedding! It was…it was meant to be so happy…” It was the only thing that had kept him going in these dark times, when there seemed to be walls closing in, blocking out everything that had once been.
“Harry…I know this must be hard for you…but there are things to attend to now that the Weasleys are gone.”
Harry stared incredulously around the room at the expectant, tear-stained faces of the Order. They seemed so depleted without the familiar faces of the Weasleys who he had come to consider his family. But Lupin’s words had angered him beyond anything he’d felt before, and even his sadness could not smother it.
“They haven’t even been dead for a day and already you want to get down to business?” he said. “Do you even feel pain?”
“Of course I do Harry, it’s just that after this attack-”
“No!” Harry cut across him, with a voice so full of rage that Lupin stepped back. He looked around at the shocked faces once more, then turned and stormed out of the kitchen and out the front door. Even as he was turning around, he could still hear the wailing of the portraits in the house that was now disappearing into nothingness between the two houses next door.
As he Apparated into the Weasleys’ back yard, he looked around once, confirming what he hadn’t dared believe until now. The streamers, waiting in anticipation for the wedding, looked somehow forlorn without people to celebrate with. The trees, filled with fairies, weren’t even moving, as though they too knew of the great tragedy that had occurred.
Harry unlocked the front door, recoiling as he stepped inside to the smell of burnt food, knowing for certain now that they weren’t coming back. He walked up the rickety staircase, silently grieving each time he passed someone’s door. Charlie... gone. Bill…gone. Fred and George…he would miss them so much. Percy…he even felt sad that he was gone.
Ginny…oh God, Ginny. Why hadn’t he said goodbye one last time? He should have said so many things to her. Why had he broken it off? They could have had a few last weeks together before this.
He climbed the final staircase, his angry tears becoming ones of sadness as he walked into the room that he and Ron had spent so much time in. The same orange wallpaper still peeling off the walls, the same old fishtank sitting on the windowsill, the same unmade bed, its bedspread covered in some kind of liquid that had obviously been dropped from a height. He dropped onto it, his brain full to bursting with thoughts of pain and regret, and also of the things he would now have to accomplish alone. For it would be too much to bear if he took someone with him, only to lose them in a situation beyond his control. He was alone now. And even though all he wanted was to snuggle beneath the blankets and stay there forever, the thought of a world ruled by evil kept him in the mindset that he needed to find the Horcruxes that would be in his mind until all this was over.
It was then that he heard the quiet knock at the door. At first he though he was imagining it. But then he heard it again. Hardly daring to believe his own ears, he got off the bed, went to the door, and opened it.
The bushy brown hair said it all before he’d even seen her face. In this nightmare he’d forgotten all about her. But it was surprising what a surge of relief and love he felt towards her when he first looked into her sad, wide eyes. He wasn’t alone after all.
“Oh, Harry,” she said, seeing the look in his eyes. “Are you ok?”
Harry looked at her in amazement for a moment. “What do you think Hermione? Do you think I’m ok? How would you feel if your best friend and the closest thing you had to family had just been killed by death eaters? I don’t know how you could ask something like that. Do you even know what I’m going through?”
He regretted his words almost instantly as Hermione swelled in anger, her voice threatening and hard.
“No, Harry, I’ve been secretly plotting against you all this time,” she said sarcastically. “And now my plan is ruined! Whose side do you think I’m on? In case you hadn’t noticed, Ron was my friend too! You’re not the only one who’s lost someone you loved, alright? I know the Weasleys were like family to you, and Ginny was more! But I cared about them too, so you can stop acting like you’re the only one who’s been hurt!”
Harry watched, still a bit shocked by her sudden outburst, as she walked slowly towards the window, looking out at the remains of what would have been Bill’s wedding, She then turned and faced him again, a tear in her eye.
“I know you don’t want me to go with you, Harry, to kill Voldemort. I know you don’t want to lose me, because I’m all you have left. But that’s why I have to go. Because it’s only us now, Harry, and you need someone. You can’t do this alone,” she paused, struggling to string together the words she knew she had to say. “And I ...I don’t want to lose you either.”
Harry saw the tears rolling down her face, and the confused, sad look in her eyes. He felt her shoulders shaking within his arms, and her hair brushing against his cheek. He could hear her sobbing into his shoulder, and he could smell her fresh, flowery scent as she buried her head in his neck. He could practically taste her lips upon his own as he leant down, bringing them ever closer.
But he didn’t remember why he did it. He didn’t even remember thinking about it. All he knew was that when their mouths finally met, nothing else mattered anyore; everything in the world was beautiful again, and that moment was all that he wanted.
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep
Only Us by chocomaniac
Chapter Notes: Hi everybody! This is my fourth published fanfic and my second one-shot. Please be nice, and i hope you enjoy it!
chlo
xoxo
PS. Obviously the Harry Potter world, characters, etc, belong to JK. No hard feelings to anyone that thought I was her. It's not your fault I'm such a good writer.