It was Halloween night when James and Lily Potter died.
Such a funny word isn’t it?
Died
No one says it anymore. They all say passed or moved on or in a better place. But none of that is true, it’s just a way to make people feel better. What better place could they have been than with their son?
Watching him say his first words and taking his first steps. From his first day at kindy to his graduation at university. His whole life was taken away from them.
Now he has to grow up wondering if he would make them proud, never hearing it from them.
Lily's crimson blood stains Harry as he cries not understanding what's going on. Not understanding why his parents screamed. Why they aren’t putting him to bed and going downstairs to watch a movie together until Harry wakes up needing something? Not understanding he will never experience that again.
Red stains the beige carpet James and Lily were really going to renovate once they had the chance. Harry needs colours in his room after all.
Lily's long red hair covers the fear from her face. The knife hole in her back cried out red tears. She wasn’t meant to leave this early. She was meant to grow old with James until Harry looked after them repaying them for all they did for him. Yet he will never be able to repay them. He won’t even remember what they did for him.
James's body is halfway down the stairs, his neck facing the wrong way. He had tried to defend his family from the intruder but the stairs were messy from Harry's toys. They really had meant to clean up.
They ended up catching the guy who did it. An older man named Tom Riddle who had been trying to rob the potter of their riches; after James confronted him he went to kill the witnesses. Robbing them of not only money but life.
It's now a week later and Sirius black (soon to be Lupin) and Remus Lupin are going through their house. Old house. It doesn't belong to them anymore. The only thing belonging to them is the coffin that they rest in. No one owes anything to the dead.
Remus is clearing out the draws while Sirius mops the floor, completing a list Lily had set James to do that he really was going to do.
He mops the dirt by the back door that Lily left every time she would come in from gardening.
Remus clears James draws and sees a piece of crumpled-up paper. Curious he opens it and finds his best man speech for his and Sirius's wedding.
After finishing the house they sit on the floor for a while. Not moving, not talking bearly even blinking. They only move when the real estate agent comes to tell them to leave.
“Your funeral was beautiful” Sirius whispers to the floor.
—-
It had been a week since Peter's funeral. It was a funny funeral. Only Remus and Sirius had showed up. They didn’t really want to, after all, he had been arrested for accompanying Tom with the murder. But everyone else who would have come is dead. Because he killed them.
They still grew up together so that had to count for something.
No one spoke in his memory like they had done at James and Lily. They hadn’t cried when he was lowered down into the earth. They just stared. He had been lowered with a blanket, Sirius knew what it was like going cold growing up and some chocolate, Remus didn’t want him to go hungry. Even though he doesn't need any of that. He’s dead. Forever.
It was warm when he was lowered. It reminded Sirius of when they were all thirteen. They had skipped school and went to the beach. Sirius bought them all ice cream and then they went swimming. Peter didn’t know how so they spent the whole day teaching him. After that, they jumped off the jeti and slept over at James house.
Now James is gone. And Peter is too.
—-
Sirius was the next to die. He and Remus finally dared to get married. They were supposed to years ago but they couldn’t after the tragedy. They had a nice home together. It was a two-story blue suburban house. What Sirius always wanted.
He told Remus he was just going out to buy some groceries for dinner, then he never came back.
A drunk driver had passed a red light and Sirius only owning a moter bike got the brunt of the force. Remus was always telling him not to drive that death machine.
Remus was unpacking Harry's childhood pictures when he got the call.
—-
Remus died a couple of years after. He had gone old and grey. Harry was now looking after him in his confused state. Harry had left telling him he was just picking up his son, Teddy from school.
Remus didn’t put out his smoke before he went to bed. He perished in the fire when he was asleep, his body being burnt and mangled.
Harry didn’t find out until he got back home with Teddy and saw the charred black house and the pure white body bag.