In one single moment, everything fell apart.

I froze, momentarily paralysed by fear. "Florence!" I shouted. I ran towards her at full speed, just wishing I could get to her sooner.

She pulled the fang out of her stomach, exposing the open wound in her stomach. She began to fall to the floor as if in slow motion. I reached for her just in time and caught her in my arms.

I fell onto my knees with her still in arms. The basilisk fang lay beside her, drenched in her blood. My shaky hands held her close to me as I slowly became covered in her blood.

I could barely breathe. I could barely talk. I could barely move. My body was burning with fear.

How has this happened?! Everything was fine just a moment ago?! She had finally killed Bellatrix?!

My voice broke. "No.......no-"

Hermione collapsed onto the floor, in a shaky, sobbing mess as Ron held her.

Florence's once rosy cheeks were now as pale as snow. All the warmth had drained from her body. Her eyelashes fluttered as she fought every second to keep them open.

Ron looked around frantically. "HELP! HE-"

"Ron. Don't." She managed out.

This silenced him immediately.

"I need to do this."

"Why?" Hermione sobbed.

"What have you done?" I whispered as I leaned into her, my tears splashing onto her blood soaked top.

"Forgive me, H-Harry." She struggled out as she looked at me with big, sad filled eyes.

"The jokes over now." I said through a voice crack. "You've had your fun, okay? Sit up."

Ron touched my shoulder. "Harry mate, it's no joke. Just be with her."

"Florence, you don't understand. I-I can't lose you. I can't." I sobbed, shaking my head in denial. "Don't leave me. Please."

She locked her eyes into mine as she stroked my tear streaked face. "Oh Harry, I'd never leave you. Never. I'll always be beside you. P-Promise me one thing, will you?"

"Anything, my love. Anything." I held her hand as though I'd never let go.

"Kill him."

Another wave of tears poured from my eyes as I nodded. I leaned into her, looking into her blue eyes that were draining of colour every second.

"Don't forget me and all the things we did." She said, through haunted eyes. "Remember all the real things in life."

"You are the only thing that's real to me." I whispered shakily as I felt my throat closing up. "You and your stupid polaroid camera."

She simply smiled. A weak smile, but none the less a beautiful one.

"I-I hope-I hope-I just hope-" I stuttered uncontrollably, but stopped as I watched her move.

Florence reached into her pocket, took my hand, and placed the small vial with the memory in it. The one that Dumbledore gave her.

"It sounds as though you're in most need of hope." She said, breathing out a small laugh.

I began stroking her hair. Possibly for the last time.

She took my hand and squeezed it weakly. "I love you. Hold on to that."

"No. Don't say that." I cried. "Don't. It's not goodbye. It's not goodbye."

She coughed and spoke up. "Harry, I need to tell you...."

"Tell me what?" I asked quickly.

"Why........ I did it."

I leaned down to hug her, pressing my wet cheek against hers.

"I'm.........I'm a...........horcrux." She said, almost like a whisper.

"Keep talking to me Florence. I can save you, we just need some help. Keep-"

I froze.

She's a-

The words hit me like a slap to the face.

Horcrux.

A million moments, memories, thoughts, pictures, conversations flashed through my mind.

I quickly pulled away and looked at her. Her eyes were shut, her body was stiff. Her hand fell from my grip hit against the floor. 

It was too late.

I was too late.

"Flo?" I whispered, waiting for a response, waiting for a flash of her blue eyes.

I felt the sting of every silence hit my chest like a bullet.

"Flo?" I repeated, not allowing myself to grasp the possibility of this situation.

"FLO?!" I cried.

My world had shattered so many times in my life, but this one was different. This one couldn't be fixed.

I looked over to Ron and Hermione, desperate for something we could do.

They were hugging each other between tears.

"Hermione?" I asked her.

She looked up at me and shook her head. There was nothing we could do.

They moved next to me and pulled me into a tight hug. It was like our hug earlier, just without Florence. It felt empty, and lifeless without those extra arms that meant so much.

"That's why she did it." I said in realisation as we pulled away.

"What?" Ron asked.

"That's why she stabbed herself with the basilisk fang." I choked through my tears. "She killed the part of Voldemort's soul inside her."

"Wait a minute......no she can't be a-" Ron stopped talking and looked at me. "Horcrux. She's a horcrux."

Hermione looked to the floor as horror filled her expression. "I was the one who let her hold the basilisk fang." She buried her face in Ron's shoulder and began sobbing once again. "Oh it's all my fault!"

"Mione don't say that. Don't." Ron whispered as he stroked her hair, just as I did to Florence. "You didn't know."

All my sadness turned into anger. Anger at Voldemort. He is the reason that the only girl I've ever loved is gone.

And he will pay.

I tucked the memory she had given me into my pocket and stood up, grabbing the blood covered basilisk fang.

"I'm going now."

"Going where?" Hermione asked.

"To kill him." I walked off before either of them got a chance to reply.

I made sure to stay alert as I made my way down a long hallway towards the bridge. I had led Voldemort in here earlier, he must be somewhere.

Then I saw it. The trail of his cloak, the hiss of his snake.

I ducked behind a wall and pulled out the basilisk fang. "Stupefy!" I yelled as I heard the sound of his approach.

He instantly blocked it and shot another spell at me. I dodged it before he started sending spell after spell my way.

I could see Nagini slithering slowly up the stairs behind him.

He apparated so he was behind me and tried to shoot a killing curse at me. I blocked it just in time, looking back to see Nagini was getting closer.

I shot a spell at the roof and it came crumbling down, exactly like what happened to me earlier.

If I had just escaped the falling bricks earlier, I could've saved Florence. She would be alive right now. She would be-

I snapped back to reality and shook off the thought. I have to focus. I have to do this for her. I have to kill him.

I moved towards Nagini with the fang before I saw Voldemort had apparated onto another set of stairs.

I jumped down onto the stairs beneath me as he launched a black smoke at me. I fell to the ground amongst the smoke. Whatever it was, it destroyed the basilisk fang.

Shit. I've got nothing.

Nagini slowly began slithering towards me as I tried to drag myself away. She has almost reached me when she was thrown off my trail by someone throwing rocks at her.

Now, Voldemort.

He followed quickly after me all the way to the astronomy tower. He shot a spell at the bridge I was walking on, sending me falling down. I got up the minute I fell, ready to attack again.

A rope wrapped around my arms, then my neck, then my chest. Voldemort lifted me up into the air so he could get a clear shot of me.

"Florence......is dead." I croaked.

The ropes stopped tying themselves around me. Voldemort froze. Upon his face, I saw something I never expected. If you blinked you would've missed it.

Emotion.

A flicker of shock and sadness.

"What is it Tom? Grieving your daughter? Bit late aren't you?" I struggled out. "You ruin her life by not caring for her, and begin to when she's gone?!" I yelled, tears strolling down my face.

Voldemort's snake-like face turned expressionless. "Florence was nothing to me but a storage space."

"She's so much more than that and you know it. You've always known it, deep down."

A wicked smile formed across his face now. "She is nothing alive, and she is nothing dead. Her death is as meaningless as your parents, boy."

"LIAR!" I yelled.

I tilted my wand and shot a spell at his foot. He was thrown back as he let out a groan of frustration. The ropes around me untied themselves and he was backed into a corner.

"You were right-" I started before he slapped me right across the face. "When you told Professor Snape the wand was failing you. It will always fail you."

"I killed Snape!" He yelled.

We were backed to the edge of the castle. The cool breeze howling through the ruins around us and a long drop down.

"But what if the wand never belonged to Snape? What if it's allegiance was alway to someone else? Come on, Tom. Let's finish this the way we started it. Together."

I grabbed his neck and threw myself off the tower, taking him down with me.

I made sure to grab on to him as tight as possible. We fought each other while we flew through the air and he apparated us back to the courtyard. We landed hard on the ground, scraping against the concrete as we came to a stop.

Both of us ended up on different sides of the courtyard.

Our wands were in the middle.

I reached for mines before he could get to his and immediately got up. "Expellairmus!"

"Avada Kedavra!"

The spells hit each other at the exact same time. Just like in the graveyard four years ago.

I held on as hard as I could, thinking of everything I had to fight for.

He was winning. The curse was getting closer and closer to me, once again. I prepared for defeat. I should've known I'd never win, but I won't go out without a fight.

And then I felt a familiar pain from within me. The same pain I felt when Florence jammed that fang into her stomach, the same pain as a horcrux being destroyed.

The last one. It had been destroyed.

We both fell to the ground, momentarily wincing in pain.

Only, I felt stronger than before.

We both raised our wands to eachother and were locked in a dual again. Except this time, I was winning.

The elder wand flew out of Voldemort's hand and into the air. I jumped up and caught it perfectly in mine.

He froze. He knew he had lost. For a moment everything was still. Seconds later his skin began withering away as he cried out in pain and disappeared into the air as flakes of darkness.

I did it.

It's finally over.

Voldemort is dead.

----

I walked into the great hall to see it was much brighter than when I was last in there.

Friends and families being reunited.

Less dead.

A newfound sense of safety.

I smiled as I looked around the room for her.

I saw Ron, Hermione, the Weasley's and many other students and nurses all crowded around someone.

It hit me.

I remembered.

I would never find her.

Because she's gone.

I ran over to her. Florence was still in the same position as she was when I left. Her heart necklace shimmering in the rising sunlight.

The realisation hit me for real this time.

Our always and forever would never be.

We wouldn't have children. We wouldn't have our townhouse. We wouldn't have each other.

I didn't know how to function. I didn't know what to do. So I did the only thing that my body was telling me to do.

I yelled.

A single yell to force all of the pain, anger, and despair that was bursting to escape.

I yelled so loud that every head in the great hall turned towards me. But I didn't care. I just wanted her back. Nothing else mattered to me.

Not Voldemort's death, and for once, not my other friends pain.

Just Florence.

Molly Weasley hurried over to me and took me into her arms. We had both lost the people we loved most.

"Shh, shh. It's alright dear." She cooed as she rubbed my back.

I sobbed silently into her shoulder as other students watched Florence with tears rolling down their faces. Nurses fussed over her and began moving her onto a carrier bed.

Why is it that when the story ends we begin to feel most of it?

I pulled away from Molly and put my hand into my back pocket and felt something glass. I pulled it out. It was the memory that Dumbledore gave Florence. She gave it to me, I almost forgot.

"Use it when you are in most need of hope."

I needed it. There couldn't be any other moment than now. I've never been so sure.

I ran up the stairs, over and under the rubble and destruction that the war had caused.

I opened the doors to Dumbledore's office and hurried over to the penseive. I removed the top from the vial and poured the memory into the penseive.

I took a deep breath in and dunked my head in.

A trillion colours faded into shapes and objects around me. They all started to take shape. Lots of shapes.

Memories.

They were memories. My own memories. And Florence was there.

It was moments from our life together.

When we first met.

I couldn't stop thinking about what happened back on the train, the dementor, Professor Lupin, the horrible feeling. My mind was scrambling for any answers as to what had just happened.

I had just told Fred and George about it all. They just told me 'Don't worry about it mate.' Typical.

Across the table Hermione was reading, and Ron was doing was he did best......eat.

"Hey look there's Florence!" I heard Fred say to George. They both clapped and smiled at someone.

Florence, that's a pretty name, it's one I haven't heard before.

I looked up from my plate to the teachers stand, and my eyes found who they were talking about.

I froze.

Wow.

When I realised I liked her.

We walked through multiple halls and up the long winding stairs. We went through the door and walked out to the Astronomy Tower.

"Oh wow." She gasped as we entered. "It's so pretty up here. I didn't even know it existed."

The tower seemed to look even prettier tonight, but maybe that was because she was here.

"It's one of my favourite places." I said proudly.

"I can see why." She smiled and I could see the dimples on either side of her cheeks again. There was a gentle wind that swept through her long ginger locks.

"Cmon, let's talk now."

"Oooo talk." She mimicked me and I laughed.

She slowly walked over to the barriers and looked out at the stars, the moonlight swept over her face.
"Aren't stars the most beautiful thing, Harry?" She asked, not taking her eyes off them.

"Yeah, yeah they are." I replied, but I wasn't looking at the stars.

The first time I got the courage to flirt.

She looked up and saw me staring at me.

"Caught you." She smiled.

"What can I say, you hypnotise me Florence."

"Will I always hypnotise you Harry?" She laughed.

"Forever, Florence. Always and forever."

She laughed lightly and blushed. "Someone got brave this year."

"Maybe, or maybe I've just decided to start going after the things I want."

"And what is it that you want Mr Potter?"

"It's a secret, Miss Bailey." I answered.

Our first kiss.

"I can't do this anymore." I cut her off.

She looked at the ground. "Do what?"

"This. This whole thing. I know you think you're protecting us, but you don't need to. We can all protect ourselves. We miss you Flo......I miss you." I said, as I stood up from my bed and walked towards her.

"I know Harry. I miss you all too, but trust me, it's better this way."

"Not, it's not, you don't understand. We don't care about these 'consequences'. We just want you back."

Even though I was saying 'we' I really meant 'I'. She looked down and stayed silent, not knowing what to say.

I walked up to her and held both of her hands in mine.

"Please."

She looked up at me, not realising how close our faces really were. We were just inches apart, just like that night at the Astronomy tower.

Her eyes locked onto mine and it felt as though I couldn't look away.

She closed the space between us and pressed her lips against mine. I immediately kissed back and pressed her body against the door behind.

My body felt as though it was a firework and it has just been lit. It felt as though we were the only two people in the world. She pulled away after a moment that I had only ever seen in my dreams.

She saw my wide smile across and beamed back at me.

"You're brilliant." I said, feeling the happiest I've ever felt.

"So, does this mean you like me back?" She asked nervously.

"Are you kidding? Since the first day we met."

She hit my arm playfully. "Took you long enough."

"It was well worth the wait for you."

Our first I love you.

We were fully yelling now. Thank god there was no one else in the corridor.

"I told you I'm fine! Okay?! It's none of your bloody business what happens to me anyway!" She yelled.

"If your willing to let her torture you, then it is my