Always A Legend
By Misha

Disclaimer- Everything belongs to J.K. Rowling and is not mine, however much I might wish differently. However, I am not making any money off of this, so please do not sue me!

Author's Notes- This is a short, angsty Harry/Hermione fanfic. They're my favourite couple and I just couldn't resist. It's set at the end of their seventh year and is told from Hermione's PoV. I hope you like it, enjoy!

Rating- PG-13

Pairing- Harry/Hermione

Summery- As graduation approaches, Hermione thinks about the greatest hero that the wizarding world ever knew and the legacy that he left behind after his premature death.

And it seems to me you lived your life
Like a candle in the wind:
Never fading with the sunset
When the rain set in.
And your footsteps will always fall here,
Along England's greenest hills;
Your candle's burned out long before
Your legend ever will.
- Elton John, Candle In the Wind '97

Graduation is tomorrow.

My final day at Hogwarts. I will miss it. I loved it here over the years.

But not this past one.

Every day of this last year has been Hell and not just for me. The whole school, the whole wizarding world, is having a hard time letting go.

Tomorrow there is going to be a special segment about you at the ceremony. You would have hated it, wouldn't you?

You hated the fame. You just wanted to be normal.

You once told me that there were times when you almost wished for the obscurity of your first ten years with the Dursleys.

But, you were denied that the moment you came to Hogwarts.

And now, your name will always be known. Even more so than before.

You are the greatest hero the wizarding world ever saw. You were seventeen, yet you are forever a legend.

Ron sometimes resented being the shadow. Harry Potter's best friend. Always fading under your glory.

But never me. I loved everything to do with you. And if that meant walking in your shadow, so be it.

But I hate you too.

I realize now that you knew what was going to happen. That when you went to confront Voldemort that last day, you must have known that you would probably be dead.

Yet, you came to me. You told me that you loved me, had always loved me.

Oh, I know that you told the truth. I could see it in your eyes, feel it almost as strongly as I could feel my own love for you.

That is why I gave myself to you that night. I do not regret it. I do not regret the fact that we had one perfect night together. That for a moment, we were one.

That memory has haunted me for the last year, but it has also helped keep me sane. 'Cause I remember you and know that you loved me.

Still, sometimes I do hate you for telling me.

Because maybe it would have been easier if I had just gone on believing that you never returned my feelings. Maybe then I would have been able to move on someday. I would not be plagued with the memories of something I will never have again.

Of course I would not have any memories at all, at least not memories like that, and that would be even worse I think.

I do not know.

All I know is that you are dead. And that I am alone.

I want something more. Something that I can never have. I want you to be alive or I want to be dead.

But neither is going to happen, at least not right now.

More than once I considered taking my own life, but I did not, because I knew that you would the idea.

You would never have taken the easy way out. And neither will I.

Besides, you would have wanted me to live and to be happy.

I will do one, but I am not sure that the other is possible. Not without you.

You were my happiness, my sunshine. Just like you were for so many other people. You were the hope that kept us going through the darkest days. We all had faith that in the end, you would save us.

And you did. But at a price none of us ever imagined.

We never thought that we would lose you. That we would have to live our lives without Harry Potter, without the Boy Who Lived.

I especially never thought that I would have to live mine without you. I spent so much time fantasising about what it would be like to spend my future with you, that the idea of a lifetime without you is even more bleak.

Because I know that there will never be anyone else like you.

And I am not just talking about all your great deeds. No, I am talking about the man. Rather the boy, you never made it past your teenage years, never grew old, never had children...

Almost though.

For like a moment, I thought I was pregnant. I was scared, but happy. 'Cause a baby would have been something of yours to hold on to forever. But it was not meant to be.

And I am left missing you.

You were my first and only lover. I adored you, loved you since the summer after my fourth year.

But more than that, you were my best friend. I know that it was the three of us, you, Ron, and I. But, as much as I care for Ron, I was always closer to you.

Even before I fell in love with you. There was just something so special about you.

Something that will insure that you will always be a legend and that your memory will never die.

The End