Y/N stared up at the place she used to call home. At the place she had happy memories. At the place she had grown up into the person she was today. Hogwarts, the place where magic became real life, was being attacked. Flashes of green ricocheted against the gray stone of Hogwarts, taking countless lives with it. Everything was going wrong, and she couldn't help but pull Harry Potter, her boyfriend, closer to her.

"I don't want to lose you," Y/N whispered, holding tight to Harry. Her fingers dug into his arms, but he didn't seem to mind because he was holding onto her just as tight. "Harry, I can't lose you now."

"We have no idea what's going to happen tonight," Harry whispered back to her. Even in the face of danger, the light in his eyes made her heart slow down. Just looking at him made her body react positively. "None of us know what's going to happen." His eyes flickered over to Ron and Hermione who were standing close to them, keeping watch for any Death Eaters. "All we know is that we have to protect each other so we can defeat Voldemort once and for all."

"We have to get moving," Hermione said, interrupting her and Harry. Y/N didn't mind, though, because Hermione was right. "We have to find the diadem before Voldemort gets to it."

"Let's go."

The four of them had each other's backs as they traversed through the battle-torn Hogwarts. They had to watch out for flying curses and spells while also trying to find the Room of Requirement in the rubble of what used to be their school. Death Eaters were everywhere, fighting the students and professors, trying to take their freedom from them.

It didn't take them that long to get to the Room of Requirement since there were four sets of eyes between them to help watch out for Death Eaters. However, the Room of Requirement looked extremely different than the last time she had seen it. There were mountains and piles of things standing as tall as the ceiling. How in the world were they going to find Ravenclaw's diadem in this mess?

"Look who we have here," a voice said behind them. "Potter really thought he could get away from us without getting hurt."

The four of them whirled around to see Malfoy and his henchmen standing in the doorway to the Room of Requirement. A grin decorated his face, looking just like he did in their first year together when he made fun of her muggle father dying because of Voldemort. Y/N desperately wanted to punch that smirk off of his face. 

Y/N glanced at Harry, Ron, and Hermione. It seemed like all four of them were thinking the same thing: run. With a quick nod, she took off running through the piles of things around her, hoping she wouldn't get lost in this madness. Thankfully for her, Hermione had followed her, so she wasn't exactly alone.

"We have to find the boys and get that diadem," Hermione told her. "Quickly, too. Who knows what Malfoy is going to do now that he knows we're in here?"

"Which way did Harry and Ron run?" Y/N asked.

"I don't know."

Hermione and Y/N didn't have to wonder about that for much longer because Harry and Ron found them just as a roar echoed around them. "What was that?" Ron asked, glancing around them. "And why did it suddenly get so much hotter in here?"

"I think someone set this place on fire," Harry answered. "We have to hurry."

As the fire raged on behind them, Y/N was confident that her, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were going to make it. They just had to get to the diadem, one of the last horcruxes, before Malfoy and his henchmen. This was it; they were on the verge of a victory. 

"I think I can see it!" Harry shouted, pointing up to a mountain of objects on their right. Something glinted in the firelight atop the crest, looking almost heavenly in the flames around them. "You three stay and watch down here, okay? Then we can get out of this place."

"Be careful," Ron said to Harry, worry creasing his brow. "We don't need you to fall and lose the diadem before we even have it."

Harry didn't answer Ron. He smiled at each of them before turning around to climb up the mountain of things. The three of them held their wands out in front of them to protect Harry from Malfoy. At first, Y/N thought they were safe and that Malfoy hadn't found them, but her hope dissipated from her chest when she saw him approaching them.

"Avada kedavra," Malfoy said, pointing his wand directly at Y/N. 

She quickly dodged the green spell, jumping closer to another pile of things instead of the one Harry was currently climbing. Before she could go back to help her friends, she heard something crash against the ground behind her. Hands gripped her arms, pulling her away from her friends. In shock, Y/N dropped her wand to the ground, it clattering to the side like a useless piece of junk. She tried and tried to fight against whoever was holding onto her, but their grip was too strong on her to break free. 

"You're coming with me, little mudblood," a voice whispered in her ear as he dragged her away from everyone. 

So far, Ron and Hermione hadn't noticed that she was gone because they were too busy fighting Malfoy and his henchmen. There was no way she could scream over the sound of the fire roaring around them; they wouldn't be able to hear her at all. It was up to her to get out of this mess, and she didn't even have her wand on her anymore.

Y/N was powerless as the person dragged her away from the Room of Requirement. She had no idea where they were taking her, but she knew it was far away from her friends and Harry before she could help them defeat Voldemort. Whoever had a hold of her must have been a Death Eater. Who could it be, though?

She got her answer when the person shoved her to the ground in a dark hallway in Hogwarts. As she was falling to the ground, she noticed the platinum hair shining in the dim lights around them. Lucius Malfoy had taken her from the Room of Requirement, which didn't make any sense to her. His son was already fighting her there. Why would he take her when Draco was about to kill her?

"Thank you, Lucius," a breathy voice said in the darkness in front of her. "Hold the girl before she runs away. She is very important."

Lucius grabbed Y/N by the arm, dragging her up again. Her eyes went wide when she saw Voldemort standing in front of her. The man who had started this whole war wanted her for some reason. Deep in her heart, she knew the reason he wanted her: to get closer to Harry Potter. She was the key to getting Harry to Voldemort. Her and Harry knew that when this whole thing started, but she was willing to stay with him through thick and thin. 

It was absolutely silent where they were. Most of the battles were happening outside, but she knew the battle that was about to happen was the most important one of the night. There was no way she could take on Voldemort, though. She didn't have her wand, and she wasn't strong enough to physically fight him. She would do anything to get rid of him.

"Let her go!"

Y/N would have fallen down if it weren't for Lucius holding her up. Why in the world was Harry here? He shouldn't have come at all. He needed to protect himself, not come to rescue her. She didn't want him to rescue her. She would much rather sacrifice herself to help win the war than whatever Harry had in mind.

"Harry Potter," Voldemort breathed out. He took a step closer to him, holding his wand out in front of him. "Finally."

"Let her go," Harry repeated fiercely. He wouldn't meet her eyes at all as she tried to get his attention. "I'm here now. This is what you wanted, right?"

"Of course."

"You have me, so let her go."

Voldemort smiled a cold smile as he stared at Harry. Y/N wanted to scream at Harry to run, but before she could do that, Voldemort whispered, "Avada kedavra."

Y/N wasn't sure if the haunting screams that she heard around her were from her or not. She couldn't really focus on anything besides the sight of Harry Potter's lifeless body crashing to the ground. The light that used to live in his eyes was gone as they stared at her from across the room. 

She shoved Lucius Malfoy away from her with a sudden burst of strength, racing over to Harry. Falling to her knees, Y/N grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him as hard as she could. Her tears spilled onto his breathless chest with each shake. His head lolled back every time she lifted his torso off the ground. Harry Potter was dead. The love of her life was gone forever. 

Laughter rose up behind her. Y/N couldn't let go of Harry to even try to look at who thought this image was funny. She didn't want to let go of him because she knew she would never be able to touch him again. Maybe if she didn't let go of him, he would miraculously wake up and hold her in his arms forever. 

That didn't happen, though. Harry really was gone. She couldn't feel a pulse at all in his body, and his chest wasn't rising and falling like it normally did. He was gone. He wasn't ever coming back to her.

Y/N slowly stood up, brushing the tears away. Even though she didn't have her wand, she was ready to throw herself at Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy and fight for her lost love. She was ready to kill them for what they had done to her.

However, before she could even get a step closer to the two men she hated more than anything else in the world, something grabbed her from behind. Letting out a yell, she tried to get away again, but this person was also too strong for her. Something slipped over her body, and Voldemort and Lucius Malfoy were saying something about how she had disappeared.

"It's me, Y/N," Ron whispered in her ear as he pulled her away from Harry's lifeless body. "Harry gave me the invisibility cloak before he came to get you so I could rescue you two. I'm going to get you and Harry out of here."

"Harry's gone."

"He left you alone with Voldemort?"

"He died, Ron. He sacrificed himself for me. He's gone."

The two of them nearly tumbled to the ground as her words echoed around her mind. However, they didn't stop running. Everything around them was a blur to Y/N. She couldn't focus on anything besides the empty feeling in her chest at the thought of leaving Harry's body behind with Voldemort. 

The courtyard looked absolutely demolished in the early morning light as her and Ron finally made it back to everyone else -- their friends, their family, their professors, the ones who survived through the night -- that had tried to fight for justice and goodness. By that time, though, all her tears had dried up. Every single emotion in her chest had sunk below the depths of the waters, leaving her feeling numb and hopeless. They had lost the war. They had lost Harry Potter. Everything was dark and dreary.

"Where's Harry?" Professor McGonagall asked. She stood at the front of the group, close to a pair of Death Eaters who were each holding a stack of wands. Exhaustion was written across her face, but she still looked ready to fight until her lungs gave out to bring upon a brighter day. "And why did all the Death Eaters disappear?"

"Harry's dead," Y/N announced to everyone around. Everyone who had loved Harry Potter like their own brother, like their own son, like their own blood. These people around her had become Harry's family after Voldemort had taken everything away from him. "Harry Potter, the boy who lived, has now tasted death for the last time. Now, he's in paradise with his mum and dad, living the life he should have. He's in a better place."

"But we aren't!" Seamus shouted at her. His face was streaked with dirt from the battle, but there were lines down his face that were washed in tears. "We are in a place filled with hatred and injustice. Harry left us in this awful bloody place."

Y/N swallowed hard. Was Seamus blaming Harry for the world they were going to live in? Was he blaming him for leaving them to pick up the pieces of a broken world? She wasn't really sure. The only thing she knew was that Harry would not have wanted to leave them like this. He wouldn't purposefully put anyone through this pain. 

"Seamus, you need to keep those comments to yourself," Ron snarled. He had a fierce look on his face that was aimed toward Seamus. 

"What will you do if I don't?"

"Harry wouldn't any of us to fight each other," Hermione said quickly. She grabbed onto Ron's arm, holding him close to her so he wouldn't attack Seamus in the middle of the courtyard. She glanced at Y/N and nodded slightly at her. "He would want us to band together to fight Voldemort. Though it seems like he has won, we still are here to fight, right?"

"How can we fight when we don't have our wands?" Ginny asked. The look in her eyes made Y/N hold back a sob. She looked absolutely destroyed and devastated. Was that what she looked like, too? "It's over, Hermione. Harry's dead, and Voldemort has won. There's nothing else we can do."

Y/N hated that she agreed with Ginny. Though she knew that Harry would have wanted them to fight until they won, she wasn't sure if she could do it. Every centimeter of her body was screaming to just lay down on the ground and fade into nothingness. That was the only way she knew how to let go of all this pain in her heart.

"Expelliarmus!"

Y/N frowned. The only person who ever used that spell for just about anything was Harry. But that couldn't have been right because he was dead. Hope still bloomed in her chest as she slowly spun around. Collective gasps echoed around the courtyard when everyone saw Harry Potter standing on top of the broken ground, pointing his wand toward someone in the Great Hall. The boy who died was now the one who survived.

Tears of joy sprung into her eyes at the sight of him. He was alive! Nothing seemed to matter to her anymore because she knew he was somehow alive. The love of her life shot her a look with a grin and a wink, and she knew somehow that she had something to do with him coming back to life. 

Before she could run up to him and give him a hug, though, Voldemort stepped out into the courtyard. He looked absolutely confused as to why Harry Potter was standing in front of him. That gave Harry enough time to end this nightmare once and for all by killing the man who had taken everything from him. In just a matter of seconds, their lives had changed for the better.

Everyone around her swarmed around Harry as he made his way over to them. Still, she found him in the surging crowd, and she pulled him into the tightest hug she had ever given. His heart beat steadily against hers, telling her that he truly was alive again.

"You saved me, Y/N," he whispered to her. She could hear his voice over the rejoicing shouts around them. "The love you have for me saved me."

"How?"

"The love between us resurrected me from death." He held her tight before pulling away from her. She kept her hands secured around his neck to make sure he never got away from her again. "I was in a sort of coma, and the only thing I could see was you. That was when I realized that I love you more than anything else in this world. I love you, Y/N."

"I love you, too, Harry."

"I can't imagine what you were feeling with me gone," he said with a shake of his head. She swallowed hard at the thought of him dead. "That's why I need to ask you something."

"Yeah?"

"Will you be my wife? I can't ever live without you, Y/N. We've faced death together, and you still stuck by my side."

Y/N smiled up at Harry Potter. She knew exactly what she was going to do. There wasn't a doubt in her mind to her answer. "Yes. I will marry you."

Harry pulled her close and kissed her in the middle of their friends and professors and family. Their cheers drowned out all the pain and hurt in her heart. Everything was right again. Harry was alive, and they were together. That was all she needed in this life.