Harry didn't think Hermione could die. She was too brilliant, too much the genius, to die. And in the end, it was pure stupid luck – Goyle hadn't even intended to hit her. And if he'd only got the incantation right, then she would have been fine, but being Goyle, he had to bugger it up, and by the time the Healers got there, it was too late.

Harry wanted to kill him. He fell into this black hole of rage that would have gladly ripped Goyle's arms from his torso. He'd killed Hermione.

How dare he?

But Ron…someone had to keep Ron awake, keep him moving before he burst. If anyone could die of a broken heart, it was Ron. So, Harry didn't make Goyle bleed, he just walked. Back and forth until they'd taken…the body away, and Mrs Weasley came and Harry could finally sit down and realize it.

Telling her parents was the worst –

Except the funeral was the worst –

Except the first time he saw Ron, without Hermione, was the worst.

In the end Harry couldn't face any more, and retreated into a dark little flat in a nothing little district of London. He could hear Hermione criticising his decisions. At least he didn't have a House Elf.

He still saw people of course; saw Ron practically drinking his hair white, saw Luna tripping down Diagon Alley on her errands. Ginny arrived at his door one night – all dressed up and sobbing beyond belief. She'd got OUTSTANDING on all her N.E.W.T.S , and all she could think of was how proud Hermione would have been.

Harry put her to bed, and slept on the couch. It was as though everything inside was frozen. Deep down, Ginny was still the most amazing girl he'd ever met, the girl he…loved, but he couldn't seem to feel it. Without Hermione, he seemed to have lost the art of being happy. He couldn't muster the energy to sort out his relationship with Ginny, and they seemed to fall into being 'more than friends'. He couldn't muster the energy to get a job and started working with the twins in WWW.

It wasn't satisfying, but there was food on the table. And as many times as he and Ginny fought, separated and came back together in a sobbing heap, at least he had her. It was a haphazard life.

Ron though, couldn't even manage that. He ended up selling brooms in Diagon Alley; working mainly to finance drinking sessions. He was so angry at the world for not having Hermione in it, that it shouldn't have surprised anyone when he disappeared for a month, shortly after what would have been Hermione's twenty-third birthday. Ginny eventually found him somewhere outside Hogsmeade, but she would never talk about it.

Ron raged on for nearly twelve years before the fight went out of him. He married a Muggle woman – a perfectly nice, sweet woman who couldn't hold a candle to Hermione. They were never especially happy. Lavender Brown talked knowingly about how poor Ron had made a 'poor choice.'

Harry woke up one day and realized he was Thirty-five, Ginny was pregnant and she was actually going to leave him if he didn't sort things out. Hermione would've killed him, so he did the right thing – bought a ring and a cottage with what was left of his inheritance, and they lived off Ginny's earnings from then on. He was happy, in a sort-of happy way – but he knew he could have done better.

Should have done better.