Hermione Jane Granger welcomed the embraced that was offered by Ronald Weasley, then moved to hug Harry Potter. Their last year of Hogwarts was over and the scarlet Hogwarts Express was waiting for the graduating students to get on.
"I can not believe that this will be our last ride home; the years have gone by so quickly," Hermione thought to hersef. She looked over at he scarlet train over Harry's shoulder and felt hot tears sting her cinnamon brown eyes and streamed down her face, leaving behind a trail of careflly applied mascara.
Harry felt the tears soak through to his shirt, and awkwardly tried to push her away, but to no avail, she only held on tighter to him. She knew that it was getting nothing acclomplished, but she felt as though he was her last lifeline to her way of life at school. Hermione was to be married to Ron as soon as their return to the muggle world. Harry would go looking for the final Horcrux....the one that was residing inside of Voldemort. Ron pried Hermione off of Harry and pulled her back into arms. He patted her hair gently and rubbed his hand up and down her back.
"Everything will be alright, Hermione, everything will work out...somehow," Ron said so that only she could hear him. Hermione began to calm down and her breathing became normal again. He knew that his words held an empty promise, but he knew that it was the only thing that would be able to calm her down.
After many goodbyes, they got onto the Hogwarts Express. The Hogwarts students respected the golden trio for all that they had went through together in their years at the school and decided to give them a compartment to themselves. Silence filled the compartment the three of them began to become immersed in their own troubled thoughts.
Hermione knew that there was a possibility that this could be the last time for the golden trio to be together as school friends. Or ever.
But Hermione tried to suppress the thoughts of death that kept on presenting themselves in the front of her mind. She leaned her head on Ron's chest as her eyes locked with Harry's piercing green ones. Those green eyes had always been there when she was upset and confused, attempting to understand and comfort her. Hermione had seen real pain in those eyes and she felt so helpless when she found that she could not comfort him as he did her. She knew that Harry still had much to face and at the thought her eyes filled with tears once again. She kept back the tears as long as possible, but soon a sob ripped through her and the tears came pouring down her face.
Ron looked down at her with sympathy and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him, her sobs were muffled against his chest. Ron held her close and tried to tell her comforting things, "Hermione, nothing will change, we will stil be together...," he trailed off as he realized that he was once again making empty promises.
Hermione's tears stopped without warning and she pulled herself out of his grasp. She looked up at Ron with her tear streaked face and saw the startled look that she had caused. Ron's face turned from startled to hurt as he looked at her and was wondering why she had jerked away.
"Hermione...," Ron started, but Hermione was already at the compartment door, pulling at it. But Harry and Ron had known Hermione too long to not anticipate this and locked the
door before she could go anywhere. Ron and Harry got up at the same time and pulled her down so that they were all sitting on the same seat. Hermione did not pull away, but sat there, as if in shock.
Hermione was the first to speak, "Why did you lie to me?" She was staring straight ahead, but it was obvious that she was speaking to Ron.
"Hermione, I was just trying to make you feel better."
She turned to face Ron, "You don't have to lie to calm me down, I am a big girl. Please tell me the truth about what could happen."
Ron looked at Harry for help and all that Harry could do was nod at the red head and hope that he would say the right thing to her. Hermione can be scary when she is mad. Ron let out a sigh and looked Hermione in the eyes and began to talk.
"Hermione, we honestly do not know what will happen. We are all targets and I can not promise that we will all be alive by the end of this year." He took a deep breath and Harry took the chance to say something that he felt was important. He touched her shoulder and at the feeling she turned around.
"But that was the worst thing that could happen. Ron and I have discussed what could happen and we decided that the best thing that could happen is if you two got married, I defeated Voldemort and no more innocent lives would be lost. Right now we need to enjoy this last ride home and make the most of the time that we do have together."
Hermione hugged Harry tightly around the neck and turned around to give Ron a kiss on the lips. A smile slowly appeared on her face as she saw their sense.
"I guess that you two are right. Lets just have fun on the ride home." Hermione got up and got out the wizards chess set for them to play. Harry and Ron gave each other puzzled looks. Hermione caught them and explained, "I want to see you two play one more game."
Harry and Ron smiled and set up the game. Of course, Ron won and Harry graciously lost to him. The rest of the time they laughed and joked and visited the days when their biggest fear was Snape taking away an unfair number of house points from Gryffindor. The train pulled into the station too soon. Ron and Hermione went to the Burrow and Harry to Godric's Hollow.
Ron and Hermione got married a few weeks later and on the September 1, the day that the three of them met for the first time on the Hogwarts Express, they got the news that Harry had killed Voldemort, but Harry had died from injuries that he got during the final battle. The golden trio was no more.
At least they would always remember their last ride on the Hogwart Express.
Author's Chapter Notes:
I really hope that you like the fic
