(1997)
Remus is sitting, cross-legged, by the black water of the gutter, watching a water-logged Prophet float dismally by. He sees the date: the tenth of March. His birthday. How odd. He thinks on birthdays past: the last one, with Sirius back and Dora by his side, had been the best he could remember for a very long time. But he mustn't think about that, not now. Sirius is gone, again, and he has been foolish, stupid - a bloody idiot - for letting himself in that deep with her. He frantically tries to think of something else, but the pent-up emotions come spilling out of the dam he's built around them, and he shudders, leaning back against the cold cement as images flash across his mind. The rainbow of colors, the brilliant smile, the dark, sparkling eyes, the small, defiant form, which had once pressed so close to his own, they are gone.
No, he is gone. They will still be there, some day, for someone else, but he is forever gone from them, of that he is sure. Something brushes his cheek, and instinctively, his hand reaches for it but finds only wet. Fool. He hadn't meant to cry. Cry, as if it wasn't his own bloody fault. His knuckles press furiously against his treacherous eyes, to no avail. Soon enough, the exhaustion of the last few nights takes over, bows his back, hiding his face in his hands as he cries himself out by the murky black water of the gutter.
A/N: The title is a song name, look it up; it's by Neko Case, and it fits this. Please review, as usual, tell me what you thought - what you really, honestly thought, mind. :) Everything is J. K. Rowling's, of course, I just enjoy fleshing out this particular subplot of hers.
Note to Harry Potter authors here on FF, esp. Kuri333, shimotsuki, and HeidiBug731: Thank you all, for letting small-minded me read your works. You, my friends, are my inspiration. Thank you.