He did not take any notice of the surrounding 'town' in which they stood. Did not care for the fact that it freakishly resembled a certain place where his best mate had been born, and later orphaned.

Because all Ronald Weasley saw as he stood shivering in 'Godrics Hollow' was the woman opposite him, the woman whom he'd loved from the moment he'd first ever laid eyes on her.

Yes, she had been infuriating, annoying and a stuck up insufferable know-it-all. But she'd been his - from the very beginning at the tender age of eleven, even if he had not known it at the time, the beautiful Gryffindor had completely stolen his heart.

"Hermione," he whispered, his voice choking and stumbling in his horror, the rest of his sentence left unsaid:

What have we done?

******

The embroidered number sixty-nine on his tracksuit blurred before Hermione's eyes.

He had laughed, of course, when he'd first been assigned that silly number ("Blimey! Sixty-nine! This is definitely a sign that they know what our favourite activity is.").

"Ron," she whispered back, her voice trembling as the pouch of marbles shook in her hand. Ten of them. Ten in which she or Ron needed to end up with in order to survive.

They had three choices to make within thirty minutes. Either she lived, he lived, or neither of them lived.

The last one was not an option for Hermione. They had gotten this far. One of them needed to get out of this place in order to go home and help their families.

What was left of them, anyway.

Straight away, she attempted to hand Ron her marbles. "Take them-" she gasped breathlessly, "you need to go back to your mother and let her know that at least one of her sons survived-"

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Ron hissed, snatching his hand away, "I would sooner die than let you sacrifice yourself like this! I made a promise that I'd look after you and I will keep it!"

"Don't be stupid, Ronald!" Hermione scolded, feeling the panic clench her chest. "Think about Molly, Arthur and Ginny! They cannot afford to suffer anymore loss."

"And your parents can, can they? Their only child?!"

"They don't even know I exist! Their memories are safely modified, remember?!"

Ron silently shook his head, his mouth opening and closing. It was with a sinking heart that Hermione knew he had no argument. Of course it had to be her.

Slowly putting the bag of marbles down at her feet, she looked at him, holding out a trembling hand once she straightened up again.

"We have just under thirty minutes," she whispered, tears already spilling down her cheeks, "let us make the most of it."

As he reached out and touched her fingertips, she closed her eyes, sobbing that little bit harder.

"You, Hermione Granger, are the best thing that has ever happened to me."

With as much strength as she could muster, Hermione opened her eyes, blinking away the tears which blurred the vision of the man she had planned a long and wondrous future with.

*****

"I'm sorry about Lavender. It was just physical... you know?"

As soon as the words left Ron's mouth, he regretted them. They had just a handful of minutes left and he was wasting them talking about his ex.

He just wanted Hermione to know that he was sorry for every stupid thing he'd ever done to hurt her.

They were sat side by side on a bench opposite the 'church', and she looked up sharply at him, her eyes narrowing in a way that made him gulp.

"You know," she said, a smirk twisting at her lips, "that was pretty much how it was between me and Viktor, too."

"Stop that." Ron said at once, tightening his arm around her waist, trying to ignore the pink guard who stood near by... waiting. "Talk to me about something else, instead."

"You started it by bringing up Lavender! Okay, okay. What will we call our first child?"

Ron thought about it, trying to ignore the violent twist in his stomach, knowing that it he would never ever see Hermione cradling a child in her arms, their child. "Harry."

Hermione looked up at him, her face falling in horror. "Surely you are not serious?!"

"Of course," Ron chuckled, his tone half hearted, not even being able to contemplate the mass of names his brothers had left behind.

Bill... Charlie... Percy... Fred... George...

"I've always liked the name Rose," Hermione said wistfully, looking with sad eyes into the distance, "I used to picture having a daughter with a head of tight curls like mine, and rosey cherub cheeks which shone whenever she smiled."

The tightness in Ron's chest grew too much, he never thought this amount of emotional pain could be possible.

"I can't do this," he choked, holding his wife tightly to him, burying his face in her hair. "Please don't make me live a life without you in it."

"Remember our wedding day?" Hermione whispered, her voice carrying a hint of a smile. "It was the happiest day of my life."

"Yeah, pity Harry was too busy being captured by You-Know-Who to have joined us," Ron muttered, remembering the rushed, intimate and not quite official ceremony they had just days after the Battle of Hogwarts.

They had been afraid of being captured, afraid that they would be killed without sealing their love for one another. But, somehow, the two of them managed to evade being caught, instead keeping their heads down low and hiding out with the rest of the Weasleys in Shell Cottage.

The Burrow had been destroyed by Death Eaters, of course. After Harry, the Weasley's were top of Voldemort's most wanted list. They needed the money to flee the country and start a life away from the horror of Voldemort's anti-Muggle world.

"I remember the wedding night," Ron chortled, recalling in his mind's eye how he had undressed his new wife as though he were unwrapping the most exquisite gift in the world.

The sex had been utterly mind blowing. They had to muffle each other's cries, gagging the other with their hands, terrified his parents might be listening in. He was addicted to her, he realised later. All he wanted to do was make love to her over and over again.

Something he would never get to do again.

"I always imagined that we'd have two children," Hermione whispered, her words breaking Ron's heart even further. "One of each. A mini you and a mini me."

"What would we call our son?" Ron asked, his voice thick with trying not to cry.

"Not Harry. Maybe something like Hugh instead?"

Ron wrinkled his nose. "Nah. Not a fan. How about Hugo?"

Hermione's eyes sparkled brightly as she looked up at him. "Hugo, I like it. Rose and Hugo, our two beautiful children."

Just then, a loud bang echoed through the fake town, making the both of them flinch.

"Player 453, eliminated."

Ron dared glance at the clock. Fifteen minutes remaining. He would make each one count.

Clasping her left hand, he kissed each finger, lingering on the one that contained his grandmother's wedding ring.

"They would both be in Gryffindor, of course," he said, "once Harry finally pulls his finger out and rids the world of that noseless twat."

"Of course," Hermione smiled, tilting her face up to lightly kiss the tip of his nose. "And Rose will be Keeper, just like her talented father."

"Oh, so you're going to cheat on me with Oliver Wood, are you?!"

The laughter that left her lips was like beautiful music to his ears. He would never forget it. "Oh, Ron, stop putting yourself down. You are a brilliant Keeper. Just like you're a perfect husband and will be a wonderful, loving, caring father, too."

The lump in his throat was excruciating as he opened his mouth in an attempt to respond, his voice hoarse.

"Not without you, Hermione. Never without you."

He could feel the tears roll down his cheeks, cursing himself for breaking his promise not to spend their final moments crying. But how could he not? He was going to be parted from his soulmate and that hurt him more than he could bear.

"Hush, don't cry," she sang softly, cupping a warm hand to his cheek as her thumb wiped away his tears. "Just promise me you'll go on to live a full and happy life once you get out of here. Promise me you'll have those children and give them the love and laughter that they deserve."

But he could not promise her that. Instead, all he could do was hold her tightly as his body shook in immeasurable grief, never wanting to let his sweet Hermione go.

She hummed in his ear, soothing him with her voice. A song fell from her lips; a Muggle song that she said her mother once used to sing to her.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey. You'll never know dear, how much I love you, so please don't take my sunshine away."

*****

When she came to the end of the song, Hermione noticed the timer was down to one minute.

She found she was no longer afraid, the power of her love for Ronald Weasley giving her the strength she needed to walk to her death.

"Here," she whispered, placing her pouch of marbles in his hand. "Go on, my love."

Shaking, he lifted his head, his bloodshot eyes filled with tears as he looked at her. "Hermione... no-"

But she quickly shushed him, closing his fingers around the pouch, making sure her marbles were clasped in his hand.

"I love you, Ronald Weasley. I've always loved you."

With all her strength she kissed his forehead and stood shakily to her feet, trying to ignore the sound of his sobbing as she turned to the pink guard who had spent the entire thirty minutes waiting over them in anticipation.

With a defiant nod of her head, Hermione looked into the barrel of the gun as the guard pointed it in her face.

The last thing she heard was a deafening bang, before the world went black.

"Player 070, eliminated."

*****