Grief and Graves
[Severus' POV]
Severus couldn't believe that Remus would just up and leave like that. Yes, he understood the man's grief but just leaving was beyond what he had imagined. He had thought that they would joke about Dumbledore's terrible mission idea but no, Lupin had to up and go with it. Just leave, like that. Leaving everything behind.
He forced himself to let go of his original thought: coward.
No, Lupin wasn't a coward.... he was justified in his actions... regardless if Severus liked them or not.
He stayed a little longer, watching the still form on the bed.
He hated himself for letting this happen, for not understanding what she had been trying to tell him when she had needed him most. For not realizing what was happening all school year. For not doing anything about all the pain she had been caused. For not going to fight by her side. Now two people were dead, and the girl he cared about most wasn't far from it, and it was all his fault. He should have done something, anything. Anything to stop this.
Forcing himself to break his train of thought, he saw the time out of the corner of his eye and realized that his godson was coming over and he had to get home.
Glancing around, he hesitated before kissing her gently on the forehead and pulling the covers a little higher. Then, realizing he was acting like Molly Weasley, he made a bee-line for the door.
He left Saint Mungo's, turned into an alleyway, and disapparated.
He appeared outside his house and walked inside, passing through his wards.
Grabbing the parchment he was working on, he sat down at the kitchen table, pushing other projects out of the way to make room.
There was a ding as an authorised person entered the wards. Draco had arrived.
"How's she doing?" he asked as walked into Snape's kitchen. He asked the same question every time and every time the answer was the same.
"Nothing." The potions master said glumly "no change, you know the papers would be all over it, I can't tell you any more than you know."
"Yeah but you can see her, I can't even do that. I just." He collapsed into a chair, "I just wanna help her and there's nothing I can do."
"You can stay safe, that's what you can do, and by doing that you can be there to help her once she can."
The boy looked at him silently and Severus took it as an excuse to get back to what he was doing.
He dipped his quill back into his ink and continued to write about the defensive spell he was working on. He crossed out his earlier statement of its properties and tried to rewrite them in a better way.
"Severus," Draco said suddenly, voice shaky.
Severus looked up at him,
He was staring at him, a tear in his eyes and his hands shaking.
"What's wrong?" Severus asked, worried.
"They're talking about forcing me to get the mark. I don't want to, I- I'm really scared, I don't know what to do." He scrubbed his hand across his face.
Severus walked over to his godson, placing his hands on Draco's shoulders.
"I will care about you no matter what happens. If you're forced to get it it's not your fault and having it won't make you a bad person."
"What about Hari?" He asked quietly.
"Hari won't care."
"But-"
"She'll know it's not your fault." Severus said firmly, "she'll understand, she trusts you and knows what your life is like. She'll know you didn't have a choice."
"That's even assuming she'll get better. I don't- how am I supposed to carry on without her like everything's ok!?" He said angrily, his eyes flashing, "She was, IS the ONLY good part of my life!! I can't-" his voice broke, "I can't live without her."
"Draco-"
He seemed to snarl, "I'm going to kill the dark lord, I will tear down his forces and end him."
"Draco look at me."
The boy, no, the young man spun to face him and Severus could see the full force of the anger and pain in his eyes, too much, far too much, they were all too young, far too young.
"It may kill me but I swear he will be dead before I am. I'm going to kill him."
"Draco Malfoy!" Severus said, matching his tone.
"What!?" He snapped.
"Only Hari can kill him."
"What!? What does that mean!? How do you know that?"
"That doesn't matter." Severus said, "what matters is that only Hari can kill him, so you're wasting your energy trying. Spend it helping her prepare once she's better instead. Take out his forces, make him weaker sure, but you are incapable of killing him, so don't get yourself killed trying."
"But-"
"I can't lose you, and neither can she. She needs you, so don't go get yourself killed because then how will you help her!? If you won't listen to anything else then at least listen to that."
"Fine!" He snapped, and stomped off.
Well, Severus thought, better angry than dead.
• • •
[Fred's POV]
Fred Weasley sat alone in the garden, a singular gravestone and dirt that was no longer quite fresh lay in front of him. He didn't know where his twin was, probably inside comforting his mother. She was probably crying again, she always was nowadays.
The grief was too much for him, he didn't like people or emotions very much, that was George's thing. He'd rather be outside on his own.
He felt someone come up behind him.
"Hey," Ginny said softly, "you doing alright?"
"Yeah," he replied quietly, "I just miss him... even though he annoyed me most of the time."
They both knew who he was talking about.
"Yeah, he was rather annoying but we still loved him. He may have been a git, but he was our git."
Fred smiled softly, "yeah."
"Did Professor Lupin ever tell you what he thinks happened?" Ginny asked, "I don't think he meant to tell me, it was more accidental, he made me promise not to tell mom though."
"He didn't." Fred said, "the ministry just told us that he was accidentally killed in a skirmish with death eaters."
"Lupin said he thinks it wasn't an accident. He thinks Ron stood between Hari and Voldemort and fought him, that he died a hero."
"That's our Ron." Fred smiled sadly, a tear dripping down his cheek. "Fighting for the right thing, even if he was too blind to see it most of the time."
"He was an idiot." Ginny laughed.
Fred nodded, turning back to face his grave.
They sat in silence for a while. Fred picked up a dead leaf, shredding it as he thought.
"Is mom doing better?" He asked after some time had passed, "After what happened this morning?"
"Yeah, she's doing alright."
"Any news on Hari?" He asked un-hopefully, but the answer was always the same.
"Nothing..... sorry... She may be my friend but I know how much you love her... I'm really sorry Fred. "
"No, it's...I- I just wish I'd been there."
His little sister put her hand on his shoulder, "don't blame yourself alright? It's not your fault. They chose to do what they did."
She seemed so much older now, the light in her eyes seeming warrior-like, full of determination.
"I'm going to go check on stuff, come back inside soon alright." She turned to leave.
"Gin?"
"Yeah?" She turned back to him.
"I know you're planning to start a new resistance, start to create an army from the Children of The Basilisk when you go back to Hogwarts this year." He continued despite the shock on her face that he knew. "I believe in you and I'm not going to stop you, but please, be careful alright?"
"I'll be careful, I promise..." she smiled slightly, "and I've learned better than to ask how you about my secret business."
"You've learned well then. See you inside little sis."