Flowers. He needs to pick flowers. The witch from Diagon Alley shoves a pamphlet in his face which details all the different kinds of flowers, all the different colors, all the different arrangements he has to pick from.
"I don't care," Remus says tonelessly as he shoves the pamphlet back at her. "Pick whatever you think would look best."
He has to order the coffins. Mahogany, the finest that can be found on such short notice. He pays the shop owner with money from his own pocket. The ministry has allowed him access to the Potters' Gringotts vault to pay for the funeral, but Remus wants to give one more present to the people who did so much for him.
Next he orders the grave marker. James and Lily would be buried in the Godric's Hollow cemetery. He bitterly reflects on the fact that this place was not their home. They had lived there for less than two years. It would have become their home had they been allowed to live and watch their children grow up there; it would have become their home had they been allowed to live there unconcealed and without a cloak of fear covering them.
Remus decides to get only one headstone for his two friends. They were united in life, he reasons, and they were united in their last moments by their sacrifice for their son. It was only fitting they be united in their graves as well.
He decides on marble, so bright he thinks it would light up in the night. The thought almost makes him smile. James and Lily, two of the brightest, liveliest people he knew, would continue to bring light to darkness even from their caskets.
When he is tasked with writing the epitaph Remus turns to his books. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." He writes that down on a piece of parchment.
But death cannot be destroyed, Remus thinks desolately as he walks to the funeral. Death will always win. It had defeated Remus; that much is certain. For there should really be four coffins at this funeral, not two. They could not bury Peter, as there was no body to be found. And Sirius was dead as far as Remus was concerned.
Yes, Remus thinks as he opens the heavy door and walks into the little Godric's Hollow church, death really couldn't take anything more from him. Nothing could break him anymore.
Or so he thinks until he walks into the church and spots the two coffins, laid side by side. The witch did a marvelous job choosing and arranging the flowers. They look lovely, but Remus's eyes fill with tears as he stares at them.
He had been wrong; this could break him.
The two coffins were adorned with hundreds and hundreds of lilies, wrapping around the polished wood as though clutching it in an embrace.
Remus carefully takes one of the lilies and holds it to his chest before crumpling into the closest chair, his head in his hands and the lily sitting on his lap.
They were gone; all he had left of them was a flower; death had won.
He was broken.