All That's Left of What Was
AS HARRY AND FREYA were finding out the crushing news of Buckbeak's trial, Remus Lupin was facing a trial of his own.
He stared down at the map on his desk, wide-eyed, as he stood with his hands braced on either side looking at the cursive slanted words of their names...
"Open." he whispered, though he knew those weren't the right words.
He didn't want to say the right words for if he didn't, then-
As though an invisible hand were writing upon it, words appeared on the smooth surface of the map.
"Prongs presents his questionable concern to the person reading this, for your robes are quite a mess."
"Padfoot agrees, but he would like to add that despite the robes the person attempting to read this is almost as dashing as Padfoot himself."
"Moony would like to represent his astonishment that the person reading this would get the answer to the opening of this map wrong and would like to advise Padfoot to quit joking."
"Wormtail waves enthusiastically with the mention to hurry up, for it's always so much fun when the map opens."
Lupin blinked, tracing his fingers over the words as he remembered.
"James, what are we going to do with this map?" asked Remus by the time they were seventh years, when it was just him and James taking a stroll outside. Peter and Sirius had gotten detention; Sirius for pranking a Slytherin and Peter for helping. "We're almost done with Hogwarts."
James had thought about it.
"I reckon we leave it here, Loony. So, the next generation of troublemakers will be able to use it for centuries and onwards!" James grinned, "This map will last as long as the friendship of its creators!"
"And how long will that be?" asked Lupin, amused.
James bonked him lightly on the head.
"Why, how silly of you to ask." said James then with a laugh. "Forever, Moony Loons. Forever and always."
The sound of Peeves cackling madly about something outside his door startled Remus out of his thoughts and once he regained his sense of the presence he looked to the map quizzically, seeing dark splotches on the page. It only took him a minute to realize why as he quickly wiped his face away and stared down at the map, they'd worked so hard on back then. The map they'd worked on together.
"Ah, Prongs," said Remus softly as he looked at the words of his friends, them all writing complaints on how long he would be keeping the map open. "You were partly right...It lasted. The map. It lasted."
Remus let out a heartbroken sound as he rubbed a hand over his still burning eyes.
"It just lasted longer than we did."