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Vera The Potter kitchen had always been the center of the family life. James had never quite lost his voracious teenage appetite and Harry had inherited the Seeker metabolism. The two of them would often stay up late, consuming massive amounts of vitals while pouring over plans and papers. By default Lily would be there as well, the only one able to prepare said food. "Oi! The Quidditch league is starting up again in the spring. " Harry thumped the newspaper down on the table. "They've asked me to send out the opening Snitch!" "Wonderful!" James said around a mouthful of eggs. "Can we get tickets?" "I imagine they'll give us a box." Harry sat down hard in a chair and dug into the wonderfully greasy breakfast in front of him. "Thanks, Mum." "Your welcome darling." She kissed him lightly on the temple, before producing a tightly wrapped scroll sporting the Ministry seal. "This came for you this morning." "Oh. Do you think...." The unspoken fear filled the room. "Well, we won't know till you open it." James said with false joviality. With a sigh, Harry broke the seal and unraveled the parchment. His eyes flickered behind his glasses, expression unreadable. Finally, he set it down. "They want me to the be the new Minister. Fudge is being officially deposed this time tomorrow." Glasses came off and he reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. Lily and James exchanged a look, but both came up empty. Their son was hardly a child with his graying hair and years of battle command, but this was too much, surely for a twenty one year old. "Will you do it?" Lily asked quietly. Harry smiled weakly at her. "I don't see that I have a choice. If I don't, they'll find someone else, someone less qualified and maybe someone just as corrupt as Fudge." He stood and paced wearily. "There's no time to find someone perfectly suited for the job and I find myself singularly unemployed. If I really think about it, I don't really have much of a choice in a job right about now. " "I'm sure there's someone..." "No, Mum. This is something I have to do." He managed a grim smile. "I should probably go. I can't imagine how much there is to do." "All right, don't work to hard. Remember they need you more then you need them." James said gruffly pulling his only child into a hug. "Sure, Dad." But Harry wasn't too sure about that. They finished breakfast in silence. "Where's Siri?" James asked when the dishes were washed and there was nothing left to say. "Where do you think? I heard him get up early this morning and Apperate." She brushed a kiss against his cheek. "Be sure to get him to eat something, I swear he's wasting away." Without further warning, James Apperated away landing perfectly in the newest part of the oldest wizirding cemetery in the U.K. In the distance, a willowy figure, long black hair wispy from the breeze, stood on a grave and stared down incomprehension. Sirius didn't even react when James laid a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Siri. It's time to go home." "Why did they all have to die, Jamie? Why all of them...." The gravestone in front of them was for Remus, who'd fallen in one of the first true battles. In the area that Sirius scanned also boasted the graves of Arabella Figg, Sirius' fiance, they would have married a mere few days after she was killed at Bath and Evan Bulstrode, a good friend to them all. Even Peter was buried a few feet away, the word Betrayer his scanty legacy. And others, a whole three acres of those they had once known and spoken too and made plans with. It was something they were all dealing with, but it seemed to have hit Sirius particularly hard. Since wheedling Regulus out of the Death Eaters and into giving them information, Sirius' loves had died one after the other. First Remus who had been Sirius' dearest friend, then Arabella who he'd planned a long and happy life with. The Marauders had been decimated, leaving only the two of them and there wasn't a day that went by that James didn't expect to hear Remus' shy comments or Peter's tentative laugh. "I don't know, Siri. I really don't." "So much pain and death all because of one old power hungry fuck." The anger was old and tired. "I want to die, Jamie. I think. I'd like to just go to sleep and not wake up." "Oh, Merlin, Sirius don't say that. Please." Jamie pulled him into a tight hug. There was barely any response and he could feel how very frail his old friend had become. Nothing more then bones and skin. "You can't leave me." "You've got Lily and Harry. Oh, Jamie, all I've got is a few solid memories and a family by proxy. After Remy and Bella....I lived to fight, to take down that shit, but now...I'm a hollowed shell, Jamie. There's no love or caring left in me. I don't want to be a ghost before I'm dead." "Please, Siri...." Jamie suppressed tears. "Don't make me lose you too." Sirius pulled out of the embrace. "The Sirius you knew and cared for died a long time ago. He's here among the gravestones with every smile and shred of optimism. I'm all that's left." He shook his shaggy head. "Take me home, Prongs. I have some things to take care of." For lack of anything better, James Apperated them back to Godric's Hollow. Sirius disappeared up to his room and James flew to find Lily. Together they'd figure something out. They always did. Snape slammed another volume shut and rubbed at reddening eyes. Across from him, Ron was sleeping, his cheek pillowed on the books. They had pushed through the day, attempting to wring the last of the information from useless texts. Piles of parchments with notes in his tight handwriting littered his workroom. The man across from the table wheezed a little in his sleep and turned restlessly. The crazed spikes had been deflated for the day, lying in a messy pile across dictating parchment. There was no sense in waking him. Ginny had promised to come pick him up in the morning after seeing how much they were determined to get done. "Wingadium Mazalosa." Ron rose gently from his seat and promptly curled into a ball in midair. Using his wand as a lead, he brought the slumbering body into the bedroom he'd once hoped would be Draco's. He settled him into the bed and after a moment's thought, summoned a blanket and let it drift over the prone young man. He stood for a long moment, watching the chest rise and fall. The strange eyes covered and muted, leaving the battered, scarred body behind. "Good night, Ron." He said softly, turning to go. "Night, Severus." Came the slurred reply. Snape turned tight on his heels, but there was no sense of movement. Hesitantly, he left, missing the slight curl of a smile on Ron's lips before he slid into deeper sleep. Severus retreated, bemused and exhausted to his own bedroom where Draco was already nested among the blankets. "Move over." He commanded. In his sleep, Draco obeyed, moving slowly to one side. Satisfied, he changed rapidly into loose black sleep pants and shirt, before moving into the pre-warmed bed. Once he was settled, Draco moved again, cuddling into his side, one arm around the stuffed Crup Severus had give to him on his sixth birthday. This was not the life young Severus had been expecting to live by the time he was forty, but it would do. The morning was das disgustingly domestic. He woke to an empty bed, typical. Draco rarely slept past six. The petit blond was already digging into a house-elf delivered breakfast. Ron was sitting groggily next to him, spikes completely deflated, in a strange haphazard pattern of red stripes against stubbled scalp. He picked restlessly at the meal in front of him, but seemed much more concentrated on the large cup of coffee. The eyes were red rimmed around the silver. "Awake early then?" "I don't sleep much anymore." Was the terse reply. "We're done, aren't we?" "What do you mean?" Severus calmly buttered his toast and sipped at well-sugared cup of tea. "We've read all the texts, there's nothing to find. You're classes begin in three months or so. Thanks for your time, but I might as well face it. I'm going to live and die a ward of the state." "Save the melodramatics." He neatly bit and chewed into one dripping toast point. "I have no intention on giving up because a few musty books don't have the answers. And as far as your worries about my classroom, I assure you all is in hand. I have all of my original lesson plans safely preserved and the classroom needs little updating. " "What do you plan to do then?" "Test, prod and poke. I hoped to find the answers in books so as not to turn to more...brutish...methods, but there seems to be no way around it. " He nibbled again and took a long warming sip of tea. "It would help if you were to consider spending some of your nights here, so that I may observe your reactions. As well you know, some potions take longer to take effect then others." "You'd be willing to put me up?" "Of course. If I solve this, I shall be immortalized. That's worth you cluttering up my apartments for few short days." "I slept in Draco's room last night....isn't he going to be put out?" The blond in question was cheerfully dipping his hash browns into the jam and devouring them. "Draco prefers to sleep with me." Silver eyes widened and a flicker of contempt passed over his face. " I will thank you to keep your disgusting thoughts to yourself. Draco's nightmares are very vivid and if left to his own devises, he barely sleeps." "Oh." There was a long silence, filled with Draco's humming. "I'm sorry...I've spent a long time thinking the worst of everyone. It's a hard habit to unlearn." "I know." "It will be nice to be here, anyway. It's a lot quieter." "I imagine a half dozen Weasleys make something of an unbearable racket." "Yes, but no just that....you and Draco.. you're thoughts are quieter. Especially his." He nodded in the cheerful blonde's directions. "Everything is fairly simple in there and you simply don't let yourself loose control. All your emotions are quiet, even the powerful one. My family is all passions and loose ends. It gets very...loud." "I can see how that would be." The knock startled them all. Draco was gone in a blur, the bedroom door slamming behind him. "Must be Ginny." Severus answered with little aplomb. "Ah. Ms. Weasley. There has been a change in plan. You're brother will not be returning with you." "What?!" "I'm fine, Ginny." Ron rose unsteadily and picked his way through the room to his sister's side. "Just a new phase of research. Could you pack some clothes and things for me and bring them here?" "But..." Her unease spiked and bled away. "I'm a big boy, Ginny. I can make my own decisions." "Of course." But Ron felt her waffling. "I was a Lt. General of the Third Troop, Virginia. I think I can choose where I sleep at night. Now go home and get my things together. And send someone else with them, I don't think I want to see you for a while." "But..." "I believe he has made himself clear, Ms. Weasley. Remove yourself from my door." Years haven't dimmed the Professor Snape command power and she did remove herself. "Thanks." "Mmmm." Snape turned back to the worktable. "Come, I have the first of several diagnostics to run." "Please, Regulus. We've run out of ideas." "Glad to know that I'm a last resort." Was the bitter retort. Hermione squeezed his hand. "But you might know something, anything...it's like he's got no will to live." "If that's true then there's certainly nothing I can do." He moved to the window and in the dying light, James had to blink to shake away the image of a younger Sirius. "I may not know my brother well, but if he is determined to die then he has truly no reason left to live." "How can you say that!" James demanded. "He was the most vital, fun-loving..." "That's just it. I always thought that Sirius' lust for life would get him through the hardest times, but no matter how strong the spirit....there's a breaking point, Mr. Potter. It sounds like Sirius reached his a long time ago. It wouldn't surprise me if he's been staying alive for you, Lily and Harry for a long time now. If you really love him," He shivered and Hermione touched his arm lightly, "then let him go." "I can't accept that." "Then be prepared to watch him die a slow rotting death." He buried himself in warm safety of his fiancŽe's arms. "He's survived so much, Mr. Potter. Why force him to live out a life that will always be empty?" It was so close to Sirius' own words that James shivered. Without another word, he left, leaving the couple behind to soothe each other. next part last part << |