A/N: I decided to re-upload this again, because there were quite a few things that needed to be done. First of all,
keep in mind that I am from Holland, and this is written between the 3rd and 4th book. The 4th book wasn’t out
in Holland at the time I wrote it!

A Friend Lost

by Atlantica
 
 
 

As Harry, Ron and Hermione walked down the street, they wondered how it had gotten so far. One
of their best friends had died. In a terrible way. They walked in silence.

As they came nearer to the graveyard, Hermione started crying.

"Hush, hush. Calm down, Herm," said Ron.

"I know I shouldn’t be crying like this. I just can’t believe he is…," she couldn’t go on.

"He is dead, Hermione. He doesn’t come back. Not even if you cry your heart out."

"Thank you Ron," said Hermione and she dried her tears.

Harry just stood there, thinking of his best friend. They were on good terms since his friends father
had died, and since that moment Harry saved him, they’d done everything together. He couldn’t stop
thinking about how full of life his friend had been. It seemed to Harry that all he ever did was laughing.
Well, after what had happened. Harry’s thoughts went to a nice summer evening in September…
 

"Hi Harry! How’re you doing today?"

"I’m fine. And you?"

"Not so good, I’m afraid."

"What? Why not?"

"Got ya! Hahaha! You really thought something was going on, right?"

"Yes I did. But you are such a great actor. I really believed it… For a moment!"

At that moment, a cloud blocked the sun.

"It’s getting chilly, let’s go in," said Harry.

"I want to look a bit more at the lake, OK?"

"Alright. See ya!"
 

Harry saw the film playing in his head.

The storm, that came all of a sudden. The big wave. His friend had just turned around to get into the
castle and didn’t see the wave. Harry ran out of the castle, yelling at his friend to run. His friend looked
at Harry and started to laugh.

"Worried, Harry? I can take some water!"

At that moment, the wave crashed down on them. Harry stood on the edge of it, so he had just gotten
a lot of water pouring down on him. His friend had disappeared in the wave. Harry ran towards him and
tried to pull him to a dry piece of ground. Another wave came, even bigger than the past one. Harry
knew they couldn’t make it, but at the same moment he thought that, he saw Ron and Hermione standing
next to him. Together they struggled towards the door. They got in, although Harry didn’t know how.

"Harry! Wake up! Earth to Harry!" Heard Harry from a distance. "Snap out of it!"

"I’m back, take it easy Ron!"

"You looked like you were hypnotized or something."

Harry hadn’t noticed that they were walking towards a newly dug grave. The flowers that remembered
of the funeral earlier were still fresh.

Harry kneeled at the grave. "I am so terribly sorry, my friend. I wish I could turn back time, but I can’t."
Finally, Harry let out the tears that had been hunting him since he heard the news.

He really thought he could save him, just like he did in September. He failed. He failed his friend. Why
should he live on?
 

It had rained for more then a week. The pupils at Hogwarts were becoming bored of playing chess.
Hermione had taught them some muggle card-games, but they became bored of that too.

That evening, a big, unnatural storm passed Hogwarts. Dumbledore had called every student to the
big hall, to await the end of the storm. Only his friend stayed in the dungeons. He figured, that the
storm could easier blow the building away then the dungeons. When Harry didn’t find him in the
Great Hall, he searched for him in the dungeons, as he knew that his friend thought that they would
be saver there. His friend had him that when there was another storm.

Harry walked through the dungeons, but couldn’t find his friend anywhere. He decided to go deeper
in, although he didn’t like the look of the flames from the candles on the wall. There were too many
shadows. As he walked around a corner, he heard fighting. He began running, and stopped dead in
his tracks when he saw that his friend was being attacked. The creatures bit him in every possible
place and he was defending himself weakly, as he had lost to much blood. Harry ran up to the
creatures and started shouting at them. Their attention was drawn to him. His first thought was "God,
they are hideous!", but then again, who was he to judge? They probably thought he was hideous.
These creatures had never seen daylight, that was for sure. Harry killed 2 with a curse, but the third
was harder to get. As hefought, he felt that he was becoming tired and made a few mistakes, causing
the creature to bite him. He was loosing blood fast. He hadn’t looked where the other creature had
gone, but when he heard some sounds, he could guess. With one lucky strike, he finished the beast off.
When he turned in the direction where the sounds came from, his stomach turned upside-down. The
creature had a knife in his hands and was chopping small body parts off of his friend. There was
blood everywhere. Finally, the creature had seen enough blood, and left the body at the cold floor.
Harry crawled towards his friend and saw him die. He cried. The day after that night, they finally
found them. Harry had fainted, because of the blood loss. The storm had passed by, the sun was
shining again. Nothing remembered of that night.
 

Harry did not notice the painful look on Hermione’s face. Being her best friend hadn’t exactly made her
happy.

Hermione hadn’t expected so many emotions when she saw his grave.
 

They had been lovers. It was the purest kind of love, in their eyes. They knew everything about each
other. Hermione knew that it couldn’t last forever, but she hadn’t thought that it would’ve lasted this
short. She had just discovered new feelings, new thoughts. They had done things she had never did
before. Swimming in the see at night, re-naming all the stars. They also did the one thing men and
women are meant to do. It was wonderful. She wondered why it couldn’t last, the innocence, the
passion. Why had he been ripped away? What was the use of that? He promised her that he would
never leave her. He loved her, that was what he said. And she believed him. They’d been acting like
nothing could stop them, like there was no death in life. Like they would live forever and stay the
way they were now.

It couldn’t, and they knew. But when they were together, they were lost in each other. People didn’t
know it, but he had feelings. He had a heart. He didn’t like to admit it, but when he finally did, it was
like a goodbye. The night of the storm, he had ran of to the dungeons, and she went to the Great Hall.
The had kissed passionately, not wanting to let go. She saw him disappear in the shadows and felt
like something terrible was about to happen.

Now she was standing here. She hadn’t had the courage to come to his funeral, afraid to burst out in
tears. He had a whole life in front of him.
 

Hermione turned the ring on her finger. She knew he wanted to give it to her for their 6 month anniversary.
She had found it next to him. Nobody had noticed her picking it up. On the inside stood engraved: "For
Hermione, the only human who was able to love me." It was simple, but enough. He was too late with
giving it. She wasn’t going to be late to say goodbye, now that she still could.

Ron didn’t like to see his friends crying over the grave of that bastard. They all seemed to have forgotten
what he had done to them. But he didn’t want to hurt them. If they liked him that much, well ,who was he
to stand in their way if they wanted to go to his grave. He had only come her to look at the grave of one of
his greatest enemies. They wouldn’t have to fight anymore. It made him sad, funny enough. He liked the
discussions between them about good and evil. Surprisingly, Ron had defended evil. He didn’t know
why. Maybe because it was so not like him. But perhaps he wanted to be someone else, not the poor
Weasley-kid who wasn’t special. Harry defeated Voldemort, Hermione was very smart, but what could
he do? He often said to himself that friends of people who are famous, are a little famous themselves. It
wasn’t true, and he knew he was lying to himself. He never told anyone, but the Sorting Hat had had doubts
over him. It wanted to shout "Slytherin", but Ron had thought "Gryffindor" really hard. He didn’t want to be
in the evil section. He wished that he had chosen Slytherin, then he would’ve been able to do what he longed
to do all his life. Show people that Ronald Weasley wasn’t ‘just’ the friend of the great Harry Potter. Show
that he could be greater then Harry.

As they stood by the grave, a man watched them. He had failed on one of his pupils again. He had failed to
protect Ginny Weasley in her 5th year. She died because of one mistake by him. The mistake to trust Snape.
Snape had turned out to be a powerful master in the art of making poison. Ginny was his first victim. Things
had happened to her during the school year. No damaging things, but there had been a dead mouse in her
bed, a cat without a head and go on. The night she died, she had been slightly poisoned, and he didn’t know
what kind it was. He had send her to see Snape. He had send her to death. Dumbledore, once a proud man,
now broken, looked older then he ever had. He only had to fight some demons of the past, to make sure
nothing bad would happen to Hogwarts. Once he had done that, he could go in peace. His spirit would
always be around Hogwarts, to help those who needed it.

The three young adults walked away from the grave. Hermione ran back and laid a ring on the grave.
Engraved was:

"Draco, I love you and I always will. Wait for me."