Title: Life Goes On
Word Count: 561

Life goes on.

You're four years old, and your leg is throbbing and Mummy is crying in the other room. Daddy's been gone for what seems like days, and something strange stirs in your blood as the moon grows rounder, and there's no explanation for any of it. It's strange when it happens, and painful, and Mummy is still crying but she's trying to tell you something, and finally you understand that this is how things will be for you, every month for the rest of your life.

Surely at this revelation the sun will stop moving across the sky. But Mummy calms down eventually, and Daddy comes back home, grimmer, but at least he's there, and as long as you don't ever talk about the special room in the basement then everything is okay. Life goes on.

You're eleven years old, and you're going to a new place, far away from home, where the people don't know you, and you can't tell anyone - anyone at all - on pain of death. You're constantly reminded on the platform about the special preparations that have been made, and the immense debt you owe to Professor Dumbledore, and under it all is the constant warning, Be Careful.

You're careful for a year and a half, until your roommates corner you one night and demand an explanation for the absences. Your entire world has come crashing down, and you're certain that the ground itself will swallow you up. Later they'll tell you how pale your face got. But their initial disgust is mixed with curiosity, and soon they seem to be used to the idea. They even develop their own way to share this with you, and secrets, which were once dark and shameful, become glorious. Life goes on.

You're twenty-one years old, ostensibly working as a clerk in one of the seediest shops in Knockturn Alley, but you're actually monitoring the dregs of society to hear what those in high places cannot. The pay is scanty and the hours are long, but you feel as if you're really accomplishing something, finally. You know they'll find your body in a dark alley one day, but you see what you're fighting for in the curve of a child's smile, and you know that it's worth it.

Then you hear the news. Two of your best friends from Hogwarts, and a woman you loved like a sister, killed like dogs. And worse, by a man you would have trusted with your very soul. It defies understanding. Everyone in the pub is cheering and shouting, but you turn your coat collar up and go back out into the cold. Surely at this the world will stop turning. Certainly this spells the end of all things.

But even after spending a week lying in bed, listlessly staring at the wall, the bills still have to be paid. The cupboard has to be stocked. And so, as always, life goes on, and all you can do is shoulder the burden and move through day after grey day.

Fourteen years later, the Boy Who Lived corners you, Lily's eyes staring through James' hair, and demands to know how you can move on, how you can act as if he never existed. You look into him and see everything that has gone before. And there's only one answer you can give him.