"Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world."-McGonagall, HBP
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. The first two lines are directly from DH.
A/N: I've just finished my first re-read of Deathly Hallows in three years…and before I started reading, I knew why I'd put it off. I, quite seriously, loved Lupin as though he were a real person (have done so ever since I read PoA…probably seven or eight years now), and his and Tonks's death genuinely upset me. On a long car ride, I forced myself through the parts that made my stomach turn, and I fought off the memories of a confused and hurt fourteen-year-old. I made it. And I guess I must have grown up a bit, because staring into space as we made our way down the highway, I was finally able to accept the finality of the end of the characters and the series and understand that it doesn't have to mean the end of my time appreciating and putting to use the lessons about love and friendship the books have taught me.
Sorry for the tl;dr. Point: This scene fills a whole for me, in terms of narrative logic…and emotional peace.
"Have you seen Remus?" Dora shouted at Aberforth as he sprinted past.
"He was dueling Dolohov; haven't seen him since!"
Dora turned on her heel and ran after him and the students with him. Ginny was talking somewhere behind her, but Dora heard only the pounding of her heart in her ears.
"Where were they? Where-?" As she reaches the next staircase, her voice dies in her throat, and Aberforth was out of her line of vision. In that moment, she saw only the pair locked in combat at the bottom of the staircase, one with a twisted, dark face and the other with his graying light-brown hair swirling around him as he dodged spells with the dexterity of a man half his age. Still, he was fading fast, and when Dolohov hesitated for a moment as he struggled to fight off a hex, Dora saw Remus's chest heaving as he gasped for breath. Without doing it consciously, she found that she was running towards him, down the staircase, heedless of the flashes of light all around her.
He caught sight of her and did a double take. As his warm brown eyes met hers, a wave of emotions crashed between them, but she discerned them all: shock at her presence, anger that she came, fear that she'll be hurt…and finally, understanding, and an almost desperate tenderness and love that still caused her eyes with tears, nearly than a year after he first admitted his true feelings to her.
Dolohov took his opportunity, and a flash of green light hit Remus square in the chest. He fell straight back, his face still turned towards Dora, and she watched, horrified, as the light disappeared from his eyes.
Dolohov had been caught by another opponent, and he turned away. Dora knelt down at Remus's side, her vision blurred by tears that now rolled freely down her cheeks. Still, she closed his eyes, and sitting helplessly, inert in the middle of a raging battle, the childish wish for him to be sleeping occurred to her and was rejected as the desperate impulse it is. She took his right hand in both of hers, not seeing Bellatrix walk up behind them, muttering to herself, "At last…I shall rid my family of this accursed-this Mudblood's spawn-this blood traitor…"sounding for all the world like her aunt in the painting at 12 Grimmauld Place. She didn't hear Bellatrix pronounce the curse, or feel it strike her between the shoulder blades. As she crumpled forward, a soft, mysterious smile played upon her lips.
"I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge - myth is more potent than history - dreams are more powerful than facts - hope always triumphs over experience - laughter is the cure for grief - love is stronger than death."- Robert Fulghum