Wasted Wish on a Falling Star
lone astronomer
Summary: After being married about 3 weeks, everyone finds out Allya's secret. James, Lils, Sirius, Mioré, Ally, Remus & co go into hiding. The twins are born. Voldemort is beaten. And much, much more…
Disclaimer: If I owned it, it wouldn't be on the web. It's J. K. Rowling's. Sadly, I make no money from this. But if you want to make a charity donation… just kidding!
Author's Note: Too lazy. Read on, loyal knights!!
SIRIUS: Where'd that come from?
ME: I have no idea… And I apologize for the AF (Angst-Factor) in this one… something bad had to happen- Voldemort has to be beaten or there can be no 'happily ever after'. Also, I didn't want things to turn out like they do in the cannon, so I, er, improvised- Thus, Morgana Faye Potter was born… (kudos to she who gave me the name!)
SIRIUS: Oh, sweet Mother of God… here we go…
* * *
Part One: A Decision, A Withdrawal, and An Arrival
…All I am
All I'll be
Everything in this world
All that I'll ever need
Is in your eyes, shining at me
When you smile I can feel
All my passion unfolding
Your hand brushes mine
And a thousand sensations
Seduce me 'cause I
I do
Cherish you
For the rest of my life
You don't have to think twice
I will
Love you still
From the depths of my soul
It's beyond my control
I've waited so long to say this to you
If you're asking do I love you this much
I do
-98 Degrees, I Do
* * *
As the first pink rays of light peeked over the hills of what had once been known as the Nightrunner estate, two- er, make that five beings inside the house- awoke to smells of delectable bacon on the main floor.
One of these beings was not human. Lupus was as his name suggested- a wolf, through and through. He awoke first, and then he awoke the others- jumping on Remus and Allya's bed and waking the other four members of the household.
Two of these members were as of yet unknown to the others. They are, of course, very important to the story, that much is true. The other two occupants of the bed awoke slowly, leisurely, as they could afford to do on Sundays.
"Do we really have to get up?" Ally asked, her voice coming from somewhere between a pillow and Remus' shoulder.
"No," Remus answered, just as sleepily. "It's Saturday… go away, Lupus…"
"Don't tell him to go away!" she mumbled. "Lupus is a good boy, aren't you, Lupus?" Lupus dragged his enormous body onto the bed and began licking Allya's face. "Okay, okay. Maybe not a good boy-" Remus looked amused; Lupus looked abashed- "But Mummy wuvs him anyway…" She stopped for a moment, amused by her own actions. "What's gotten into me? Honestly, 'Mummy wuvs him'. Good Greek gods…" her voice trailed off. Oh, no.
Remus felt Ally's spine stiffen, and held her close. "What's the matter?" he asked quietly.
Making a conscious effort to loosen up, Allya softened against his side. "Nothing," she answered. "Just something I said."
Lily, James, Harry, Sirius and Mioré were right on time for lunch. Although everyone was enchanted by the little guy, the meeting of the friends was a solemn one.
"We've made ourselves targets," James said finally, when the debating session was drawing to a close. "And there's just no other way."
Mioré sighed a deep, soul-crushing sigh. "You're right, of course," she said softly. "You're always right. But…" she swallowed. "How? We can't very well just pick up and leave…"
"Who said we had to go anywhere?" Lily asked, speaking for the first time in a long while. Harry was oddly quiet… even Lupus wasn't making a sound.
Several pairs of questioning eyes turned on Lily, who explained. "The Fidelius charm," she said.
All was quiet for a few moments.
"I still don't think we need to go into hiding," Remus said finally. "There's no proof that the Dark Forces are after us… And anyway, if all of us went into hiding, who'd be the secret-keeper?"
"Exactly," Sirius agreed. "The Dark Side is powerful, there's no denying that- but they wouldn't come after us. We're too high-profile."
"That's exactly why they would come after us, Sirius," Lily said quietly. "We're not safe here."
"Like hell!"
Allya turned to them, silently and without a word. Her blue eyes were full of pain- pain the likes of which had rarely been seen in her. "I think," she said after a long, pregnant pause, "that I can convince you." No one spoke for a moment- Allya had been unnaturally quiet for the entire discussion. "You're ready to listen, then," she said softly. "Good." Her eyes searched around the dining room. "Lupus?" The faithful wolf appeared at her side, waiting expectantly for Allya's command. "Take Remus to your brother," Allya said in a voice only barely audible for the wolf.
Lupus wasted no time- in seconds, Remus was pulled out through the back door into the backyard.
Lily, James, Sirius and Mioré rose to follow- but Allya held up her hand. "Sit back down," she said quietly. "He's got to do this by himself. Trust me."
Remus followed the timber wolf- or tried to follow; he wasn't sure (Lupus was way ahead of him)- out past many gardens and reflecting pools, gazebos and plantations of several types of fruit tree, wondering what he was doing. Questions- he'd never had so many of them- ran through his brain like chickens with their heads cut off. Whatever this was, it was big. Allya wasn't even following him- she was afraid.
Afraid of what, Remus didn't know. But if Ally was afraid, it definitely wasn't a good sign. Finally, he caught sight of Lupus again. He was sitting stoically- perfectly poised, perfectly still, head down and looking for all the world like a child praying. Remus was taken aback- not by the fact that Lupus seemed so childlike, but by what lay ahead of him.
Tombstones. Row upon row, nearly a hundred of them in all, if Remus' estimation was correct. Each one was covered by creeping rosebushes, nearly to the point where the names were covered.
He swallowed hard and stepped forwards, walking down the rows and glancing upon name after name, date after date. They started with 'Elora Nightrunner' in sixteen-ten… That was a long time ago, Remus reflected. Several times there were large gaps in the lines, and he suspected that many of the Nightrunners had either been lost somewhere along the way or buried in another cemetery. He paused when he came to the last row- Catalina and B. Morris Nightrunner, he thought to himself. Wonder what her parents would have thought of me?
His heart stopped in his throat when he saw that there was another, smaller gravestone beyond that. It read quite simply, Jonathan Lupin.
Jonathan Lupin
, Remus thought. Oh, God…When he walked back in again, he was in a total daze- Allya rose quickly to give him a hug, then he sat down, still numb. "You're going to tell them?" he asked hoarsely, swallowing the lump in his throat.
Allya nodded. "We'll be back…"
She led them out through the kitchen and down the exact route that Remus and Lupus had taken, only Lupus was now keeping Remus company on the sofa in one of the living rooms. She did not walk through each row of stones, but rather skipped to the most recent one, her loyal friends trailing behind her the whole way. When they were close enough to read the words, she finally spoke again. "It was my sister, you know… Aylla. She did this to him. To us. To our Jonathan. And now her soul is dead… she cannot escape Azkaban, not with the Hit Wizards guarding it all the time." (The Dementors were sacked, remember?) Allya let out a deep sigh. "She cannot hurt us anymore… but heaven knows she's hurt us enough."
Sirius would have been the first to recover his voice… but he didn't have anything to say. Mioré squeezed his hand reassuringly, biting her lower lip. "We're so sorry."
Lily and James could only stare, and Harry didn't understand. Lily pulled her child closer to herself, and James wrapped his arms around the both of them.
"Okay," Sirius finally said. "Into hiding it is."
It wasn't a month after Sirius and Mioré were finally married that their plan took shape- the six of them chose to reside in the Nightrunner mansion, as there was more than enough room for everyone (and more could always be made with just the flick of a wand if reproduction got really out of control). The Fidelius Charm was performed by the Queen of Charms herself, Lily Potter, upon Lindsay Jones, and for quite some time things went by uneventfully.
"Remus?" Allya asked quietly into the darkness, wondering if her husband was already sleeping.
"Mm," came the sleepy answer.
"What-" she paused a moment, rephrasing her question. "What do you think about children?" she asked quietly, her voice betraying no emotion. It wouldn't do to convey her feelings- Jonathan, she thought miserably.
"Like 'em," Remus managed, voice somewhat muffled by his pillow.
"Ehm- I meant," Ally rephrased once more, hoping she wasn't giving too much away, "I suppose I meant, 'What do you think about our having children?' Or not having children," she added quickly.
Remus Lupin suddenly found himself wide awake. He pulled his head up from his pillow and regarded her with a keen expression- she knew that he was reading her features for any excess information. Finally, he sighed and covered his face with one hand; he stayed that way for a while.
"Remus?" she asked again, gently tugging his hand away. The wetness on his palm surprised her, she kissed the tearstained skin and brushed his rather shaggy hair back out of his eyes. "You think it's too dangerous," she realized with a sinking sensation.
He rubbed at his eyes again. "That's not it. Not quite," he managed, hoarsely. "I just- I…" he paused another moment, fumbling for words, examining the night sky out the window. "I thought you wouldn't want any." The bitterness in the words 'thought' and 'wouldn't' wasn't completely concealed. "Not after Jonathan…" he left the sentence hanging, as she could infer the rest.
"Remus," she said softly, turning his head to face her again. Her eyes held a certain amount of hurt that was easily readable for him. "You thought I didn't want kids?"
"You thought I didn't want them?"
They both smiled and snuggled closer in the darkness. "So glad we're in agreement."
Remus chuckled softly, the movements of his chest and stomach sending small chills up Ally's spine. "Hear, hear."
Within a few weeks, it became apparent to Allya that there were some things she just couldn't keep secret from certain people- from Remus, for instance. Sitting in the study in her favorite chair, reading a book about magical children with extreme abilities, she suppressed the urge to sigh contentedly- or exasperatedly, as the case might have been.
Almost three months now
, she reflected. I ought to tell him. And she should have- but it was only a month and a half since Remus found out about Jonathan. And she didn't want him to worry… she didn't want him to flip out… Allya remembered when Lily was pregnant with Harry- James had insisted on following her around day and night, carrying her up flights of stairs… She wrinkled her nose. If her assumptions were quite correct, in her final stages, there would be no way Remus would be able to lift her… another colorful mental curse. What have I gotten myself into this time?Back inside from a rather rough game of three-person Quidditch involving James, Sirius, and Remus (a demonstration for little Harry), Remus paused in the doorway to the study, watching Ally turn pages with the greatest care. Mhmm. Something's up. Her feet were pulled up into the chair with her, her long, wavy hair pulled back in a ponytail, her violet eyes absorbed in her book. She didn't even notice him until his shadow fell over the pages and his hands massaged her shoulders.
Allya looked up then, unable to stop a content smile from spreading after a warm kiss. "Morning, Sunshine," he greeted, pulling up a footstool near to her chair and leaning his head back into her lap.
"Morning yourself," Ally returned, somewhat preoccupied, sliding her book down the side of the chair for safekeeping. A solemn look appeared on her face- and, as Allya was about as serious as, well, Sirius most days, this was unusual. Mioré and Lily, who already knew, saw the look from outside the study and ushered their respective husbands away. "Can we talk?"
Uh-oh.
"Why don't I like the sound of that?" Remus asked, smiling dryly.Allya winced. "I don't know." Remus' expression indicated- no, stated clearly- that he didn't believe her for a second. She sighed. "Okay. Good that you're sitting down."
Remus swallowed, thinking that, in all likelihood, he wasn't going to like this one bit. "Shoot," he said, bracing himself for the worst.
Allya took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Em…" she started, then found that she couldn't continue without regrouping. "Remember that talk we had last month?" she asked finally.
She's
what? Remus' numb mind thought. "You're…" Remus blinked. Her anxiety level just didn't correspond with what she had just told him. "Is that all?" he asked, grinning.Allya regarded him as if he'd suddenly sprouted horns, and smacked him with a pillow. "What do you mean, 'is that all'? This happens to be a big deal-" But she could say no more, and Remus couldn't either- his unexpressed joy was rolling off of him in waves, manifesting itself in his kiss. Allya sighed contentedly. "You know, Moldy Voldie and the Dark Forces (A/n: sounds like a band name… ooh! I'm gonna use that for a cliché!) aside, life just may be perfect after all."
"And how exactly do you propose we tell them?" Allya asked, laying on her back and patting her stomach fondly. "It's certainly not something we're going to be able to keep secret for much longer."
"Oh," Remus said, planting a kiss on Ally's slightly swollen abdomen, "I'm sure we'll think of something. And if we don't, they'll guess in a couple of weeks."
"That they will," Ally agreed, laughing at herself. "And imagine when we tell them we're having twins-"
There was a muffled thump out in the hallway, and a startled exclamation that sounded something like, "She- whaaaaat?". Allya and Remus exchanged bemused looks. "Sirius," they chorused.
Allya tossed on a robe quickly over her undergarments and they opened the door to find Sirius sitting there, rubbing his rump with one hand.
"Caught in the act," Remus declared, mock-glowering at his friend.
There was a laugh from further down the hall. "Look who's talking."
"Good morning, James," Allya said agreeably. "Is there something I can do for you this fine day?"
James' reply was disrupted by the fact that Lily and Mioré were both trying to strangle Allya. "How far along are you?" Lily asked, pulling back and attempting to judge the extension of her friend's stomach.
"About three months now."
"Mm," Mioré mused aloud. "About a month farther than I am, then."
There was absolute silence in the hallway, broken finally by James' laughter. "The priceless look on your face, Padfoot…"
Slowly, the widest grin Lily had ever seen spread itself across Sirius' face. "What- you're- damn, this is going to be one full mansion."
Everyone laughed.
The birth of twins into the Jade-Lupin family was to be a joyous occasion; Lindsay (with Madam Pomfrey along) came to visit and everyone congregated in the hallway just outside the bedroom. Madam Pomfrey, being who she was, wouldn't let anyone else in the room.
Remus seemed to be driven crazy- Allya's tortured yelps drove him off the edge, and he was wearing a hole in the wooden floor. "Stop it, Remus," Mioré commanded. "You're making me dizzy…" And she didn't look good- although perhaps she was a little nervous about what was to happen when the child in her stomach wanted to make a first appearance.
Ally screamed again- and Remus winced. He'd only heard her scream like that once or twice before… the memories weren't making him smile, either. Something was definitely bothering him.
(Three hours earlier…)
Upon her arrival at the Nightrunner (well, Lupin, now) estate, Madam Pomfrey had embraced her fellow students like old friends- which, they were. She'd known them so well, as James (Quidditch), Remus and Allya (Quidditch, werewolves) and Sirius (Quidditch, pranks gone wrong) tended to visit her rather often. Even Lily and Mioré had been in to visit once or twice, not the shortest of which was the time Mioré had gotten herself kidnapped by one of the Dark Lord's henchmen.
Poppy had seemed to take an unnatural delight in seeing Harry- perhaps, as a nurse, she was just naturally attached to children. "You've all been busy, I see," she'd commented, noting two rather- okay, okay, extremely- swollen bellies and a bouncing 'baby' boy. She'd taken to Harry immediately, commenting on how like his parents he was. Just looking at Harry had given her a feeling of immense pride- this was her students' child! He was perfect. Never mind his messy, James-like hair and the unfocused green eyes that were undoubtedly going to cause him to need glasses. He was perfect. Poppy had tickled his rotund little belly.
That's when Allya had gasped and collapsed into a chair.
"Now?" Sirius had asked incredulously. "I must admit, Madam Pomfrey, you have excellent timing…"
"The name's Poppy, dear," she'd said, preoccupied. "Well then! Up to the bedroom we go, unless you'd rather have them in the living room…"
"Now?" Remus had asked.
"Now," Allya had confirmed, just before they'd helped her up the stairs.
"Well," she said, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Bet you're glad that's over."
Ally only nodded. "Good grief… Hope Remus doesn't want any more kids…"
"Shall I let him in?" Poppy asked, eyeing the door suspiciously. "You really should rest first…"
"Oh, let him in, Poppy," Allya pleaded. "After all, they're his kids, too…"
Poppy Pomfrey's nose twitched. It was a small, almost unnoticeable twitch, but it was there- Allya flushed, reading the thoughts that crossed her nurse's mind. Finally, Pomfrey grinned. "I, ah, figured that."
She poked her head out the doorway, surveyed the hallway with a bit of amusement, and checked her watch. No wonder. It was 2:04 AM. James and Lily were leaning back against the wall, both asleep, James' arms around Lily's shoulders. Mioré and Sirius were against another wall, using each other's heads as pillows. Finally, Remus was seated, back to the wall right beside the door, a hand covering his eyes, desperately trying to stay awake. He seemed to notice something, and stated his observation out loud. "She's not screaming anymore." And thank God, he added mentally.
Poppy grinned at him. "You can come in now, Remus," she said, moving out of his way.
The room was dark and just a trifle on the warm side. The curtains were pulled back from the window, and a quarter-moon could be seen peeking over the tops of the hills. This full moon is not going to be pretty, Remus thought vaguely, finally sitting on the edge of the bed. Allya looked up at him with tired sapphire eyes. "Good morning, sunshine," he said, smiling at her.
"Good morning yourself," she replied, stifling a yawn in favor of a kiss. "Want to see them now?" she asked, eyes sparkling. Remus could only nod.
He was a bit numb as Madam Pomfrey slipped a tiny bundle into his arms- but the numb feeling quickly lost to care, and he made sure to hold him correctly. "She's beautiful…" A tear of joy coursed down his face and onto the infant's hand.
Allya laughed- the sound seemed to blend in with the room perfectly. "That's your son, Remus." The same thing struck both of them at the same time-
"Blimey!" Remus exclaimed. "Don't tell me we forgot to think up names for them?"
"You had other things on your mind," James reproved him gently, entering the room quietly with Lily, Sirius, and Mioré in tow. Madam Pomfrey looked scandalized at the thought that there were five visitors in her patients' bedroom.
"So we thought of some for you," Mioré continued for him, pulling a slip of paper from a pocket. "Now, James and Sirius, being as they are, thought of a boy's name for you- Gavin."
Remus bit his lip thoughtfully and nodded, regarding the bundle in his arms. "It suits him. What do you think," he asked the baby, who gurgled and yawned, stretching.
Allya smiled. "Gavin it would be, then, if 'Gavin Lupin' didn't rhyme. My poor kids' names will not rhyme, Sirius!" Sirius only grinned at her, then James opened his mouth to say something else. Allya cut him off. "'Gryffin Lupin' rhymes too, so don't even mention it. What of this one?" she peered down at her daughter, whose near-violently violet eyes were making it difficult to concentrate on anything else.
"Lils here likes Guinevere," James said after a pause. "Closely related to Gwenddydd, you know- Merlin's sister. Or Gwendolyn- the moon goddess." Allya opened her mouth to reprimand him once more, but he cut in, "I know, I know, it rhymes! I'll shut up now."
"'Guinevere Lupin' just doesn't sound right," Mioré commented.
Sirius, who had been silent a long time, spoke. "Vera," he said, taking the little girl from Allya's arms a moment. "Vera Jade Lupin." The child's eyes sparkled and she gurgled a happy laugh.
"I guess that settles that!" Ally exclaimed. "Thank you, Sirius."
"No problem," he answered, handing the baby- who had just slobbered all over his robes- back to Allya.
"Got a name for this little guy?" Remus asked, shifting his sleeping son to face the other way. The boy woke up, fussing a bit, until Remus put him back the way he was before.
Mioré looked at his face- a small birthmark beneath the jaw, blue eyes so customary of a baby that would darken to who-knew-what color in a few years- "He's going to break some hearts, that one," she said, smiling at him. "Merlin save the many girls who get in the way of Cupid's arrow."
"That's it," Remus said, answering his own question.
"Remus, you are not calling my son Cupid-"
"No," he answered grinning at his new baby boy. "Archer."
Allya froze a moment, reclining in bed thoughtfully. "Archer Fox," she whispered, pondering something. Madam Pomfrey ushered everyone else out of the room.
* * *
Part Two: Victory and Tragedy
Oh, thinking about our younger years
There was only you and me
We were young and wild and free
Now nothing can take you away from me
We've been down that road before
But that's over now
You keep me coming back for more
Baby you're all that I want
When you're laying here in my arms
I'm finding it hard to believe
We're in heaven
And loving is all that I need
And I found it there in your heart
Is it too hard to see?
We're in heaven…
-Bryan Adams, Heaven
A/n: Jeepers. I just gave way too much away… Oh I'm gonna cry…
* * *
Life in the Lupin household continued almost as normal- or not. The twins- albeit happy babies- plus Harry, plus Mioré's new baby girl, Sierra, livened things up a bit. There were midnight feedings to be fed, diapers to be changed, clothes to be washed, and a whole host of other activities. Luckily, Harry was much less troublesome to the new kids than they had originally feared- he only managed to make Sierra cry once.
The Lupin, Black and Potter children grew, as children tend to do, and finally when the twins were six months old, the adults congregated in the kitchen for another important discussion.
"They can't grow up in isolation," were James' final words on the matter.
"But James!" Lily cried. "The Dark Lord is as powerful as ever!"
"And he isn't likely to lose power any time soon," Sirius pointed out, "therefore it makes little sense to sit here and cower while others wage war against him."
"To do so we would risk our lives, our children's lives…" That was Remus.
"Not to do so would mean certain death, if only spiritually and socially." Mioré.
"We cannot live these sheltered lives any more," James finally told everyone. "My children-" (Lily put her tongue into her cheek to refrain from interrupting him)- "will not grow up hiding from the world. You can stay if you wish," he said, coming to his closing remarks. "But I can't live like this any more. Are you coming, Lily, or not?"
Lily flinched. That's not fair. She sighed. "I know better than to argue with you on this, but can we wait a couple of months?"
James frowned, "Well, I didn't mean we had to reappear tomorrow," he said, "but a few months? Why a few-"
Lily sat there, fiddling with the cuff of her sleeve, not meeting anyone's eyes. Ally smirked, Sirius looked a bit concerned, and James finally cracked a grin. "Well. A few months it is, then." He thought a moment. "Five, is it?"
"Four and a half," Lily whispered.
"Four and a half!" James yelled, rattling the windows in their frames. "Lord, woman, you'd better start eating more!"
A cry came from the nursery on the first-floor (the size of a small gymnasium, but still a nursery). "That'll be Vera," Allya said automatically, leaving the room. A split second later Archer woke up, and Remus followed Ally to attend to him.
"What is it?" Remus asked quietly, patting Fox (his nickname for Archer) on the back as he paced the room, trying to coax a burp from his son, who just gurgled at him.
"Something's wrong," Allya answered, looking into Vera's eyes and propping her up a little further in the crook of her arm. She turned to look at him, dark eyes wrought with concern. "I got this really bad feeling… then Vera woke up."
"Vera never wakes up unless something bad is going to happen," Remus said quietly, sitting down in the chair and rocking Fox a little. Slowly, his blue-green eyes closed until he lay, dozing, in Remus' tender grasp. They're so beautiful…
Vera sneezed, violet eyes flying closed, spiky mismatched hair shaking with the motion. Allya bent over Harry, who, in his sleep, had tangled his baby blanket about his ankles something awful. In her cradle beside him, Sierra Black stirred listlessly, flailing her arms in her sleep. "Even they know it," she said, biting her lower lip. "Maybe we should all stay in hiding for a while… at least until Morgana is born."
"Morgana?" James said, standing at the doorway.
Allya looked up. "That's her name," she whispered.
"Whose name?" James asked quietly.
"Your daughter's," Ally answered quietly, laying Vera back in her crib and exiting the nursery with Remus on her heels.
James found Lily in their bedroom, her shirt pulled up slightly over her belly, looking in the mirror. She hadn't seen him yet. "Hm… what do you think about Maya, little one? Mirax? Mara?" She's already on the M's, James realized with a sardonic grin.
"Morgana," he said, causing her to look up and smile.
As James enfolded her in a hug, whispering, "I'm sorry I yelled," Lily resumed talking to her stomach.
"And what do you think about 'Morgana,' hm?" she asked it.
The child in her stomach, though young yet and rather small, gave a good kick. "I think she likes it," James said. "Which leaves only the question of how we know she's a she."
Lily smiled elusively. "We just know."
So, four and a half months later, Morgana Faye Potter was born.
When Morgana was born, things changed a bit. Gradually, everyone got out of the house more. Finally, when she was a month old, Ally, Remus, the twins, and the Blacks decided to take a group outing to the wizard park around Hogsmeade.
"Coming, Prongs?" Padfoot asked, grabbing a cloak and a blanket for Sierra even though it was extraordinarily warm for the end of October. "Great opportunity to enjoy the Indian summer…"
"No, thanks," Lily answered, watching James as he regarded Harry amusedly- Harry was standing on his tip-toes trying to see his baby sister. It was plain to see that they adored each other. Morgana yawned and finally closed her eyes- she hadn't slept much the night before. Lily herself yawned. "I think Miss Faye and I are just about ready for a nap. What do you say, Morgana?"
Morgana said nothing- she was fast asleep.
"Guess that settles that," James said, tickling Harry, who laughed and promptly fell on his bottom, looking confused. "Maybe next time, Padfoot."
Allya sat in a swing, holding Fox in one arm and the chain in the other hand, rocking back and forth slowly. "Beautiful day," she commented as Remus took the swing beside her, his pride and joy in his arms.
"Not as beautiful as you." If Ally could have moved an arm without dropping her son, she would have slapped him.
"Flirt."
"Werewolf."
"Sap."
"Diviner."
Allya gave him an abashed look. "That was a low blow," she told him, shaking her head. "I wouldn't have expected it from you."
"But my dear," Remus said, giving her his 'I'm-not-patronizing-you-at-all' look. "I'm not responsible for what you expect." He sniffed meaningfully. "Besides, you called me a sap!"
Allya was in the process of shifting enough to slap Remus good-naturedly, but froze suddenly.
"Ally?" Remus said, looking worried.
Allya's eyes opened wide, then snapped shut suddenly and she gasped.
The door had been blown off. Papers lay strewn on the floor. A woman and two children lay beside them in a heap- the boy was crying and bleeding from a gash on his forehead; the little girl wasn't moving at all but looked excruciatingly pale. The woman's wand lay at the tip of her fingertips, just out of reach, but it didn't look like it mattered.
"Oh, Slytherin," Ally said with feeling.
Remus, scared shitless by the look on her face, ran to get Sirius and Mioré. "Time to go," he told them in his no-nonsense voice. Sirius saw the look on his face and quickly put Sierra back in her stroller.
"Let's go," he said quietly to Mioré.
"Hurry," Allya whispered as Remus pried Fox from her arms and placed him in the double baby buggy, pushing it with one arm and wrapping his other around her.
The front door was open when they got home.
"What on Earth-" Sirius' words froze in his throat as he surveyed the front hall.
"Tiny!" Ally screamed, and the little elf came running.
He was bleeding from nose and ears, his right arm hung limp at his side, and his left foot didn't seem to want to support his weight. Large, glistening tears were mixing with the blood on his cheeks. "Mistress, I… I didn't hear him come in- Mistress Potter is still in there, and-"
"Oh, God," Remus said, finally understanding. He pushed past Tiny, Sirius by his side, and ran at full speed until he saw something that made him stop dead in his tracks.
Lily Potter was laying a few feet from Harry and Morgana on the floor- and she wasn't breathing. Harry was grasping at his forehead in agony and screaming; Morgana said nothing at all but was very, very still- Remus could see that her eyeballs had been burned out of their sockets and smoke rose from her nostrils. A scar shaped like a candle's flame sat just between her eyes. James was bent over Lily, tears pouring down his face and onto hers as he placed one last kiss upon cold lips.
In perfect tandem, all four living males in the family room screamed at the tops of their lungs- in sorrow, in anguish, in despair, and in anger.
Allya heard Remus' inhuman howl and let one like it, falling to her knees with her hands across her eyes. "No. No, Lily… Morgana…"
Mioré just stood by Sierra and cried.
Allya allowed another howl to escape her lips- but this one was tangible, physical pain. Transmitorus charm, she realized, wondering why it was so painful.
'Only painful when a person receives from one full of hate and malevolence.'
MacNair's face materialized in the darkness that clouded Allya's vision. 'Perhaps you would like to see how exactly we found your little Mudblood friend.'
Goddamn it,
Allya thought, I knew the MacNair case was important…Suddenly, a vision of their Secretkeeper flashed before closed eyelids. Lindsay was trembling under the onslaught of what was presumably the Cruciatus curse, writhing in agony and begging for mercy. '…The Nightrunner estate… God, they're at the Nightrunner estate… and heaven help them…' Lindsay finally broke under the enormous mental strain and, in a moment of lucidity, pulled her wand and muttered, 'Avada Kedavra' on herself.
"No… Lindsay…" Allya muttered, finally opening her eyes. She could barely focus on Remus' face as he held her in his arms. "Remus… how is James?"
Remus tried to choke back his tears, but it was of no use. "Sirius had to Stun him," he managed to say, taking a moment to ponder why there were no tears on his wife's cheeks. "He needed to sleep."
"How long have I been out for?"
"Almost three hours. What did you See?"
Remus knew her so well- if Allya hadn't been about to do something irrational (start screaming again), she would have been surprised. "MacNair," she said quietly. "I knew MacNair was important." Finally she looked him in the eye and saw the salty droplets coursing down his face. "He tortured Linds… he as good as killed her before she ki-"
Allya couldn't finish her sentence; the initial shock wore off and her voice broke. She felt like a little child who had been left all alone in the world. She felt like Harry might have, had our story gone differently. All Remus could do was sit there and hold her to him while they cried, listening to the soft snoring of three babies, the muffled whining Harry was making, and the final slam of the front door as the men from the Ministry left. I know what I have to do.
"To sum up the entire report, it appears that he's gone for good," said the voice of someone reinstated to the Ministry only hours after the bodies' discovery. Allya Jade Lupin, in her old Auror uniform but not truly a member of that team, addressed the Wizard's Senate. "At least into hiding. The prophecy has been fulfilled, I suppose," she mused to a very tired-looking Professor Dumbledore. "I just had my pronouns mixed up. Even," Ally said quietly, "even Diviners and Unmentionables make mistakes."
Albus shook his head sadly. "This particular accident had nothing to do with you," he said. "You can't pin it all on yourself."
"I can, and I will," Lupin insisted hotly, then sat back down again. "That's all. This meeting is adjourned."
The gavel rang heavily on the wooden table, and at midnight on Halloween, it was declared that Voldemort was finally beaten.
James Potter had never felt quite like this is in his life- his heart torn out, he was nervous, he was trying to be strong, he was doing his best to compose himself, and he was failing miserably.
"No one will blame you for crying," Sirius had taken the time out to tell him. "Lord only knows that I've cried over them enough."
So James stood, at the podium, ready to make the last important speech of his life, shuffling his cue-cards nervously. In a sudden display of inspiration, he threw them over his shoulder into the bushes and began one last tribute to the woman he loved- and to the daughter he'd loved. "'The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things…' For some of us, that time has passed, and none of us will live to see eternity…"
The crowd listened with rapt attention, drawn to every word he spoke. Some pauses were observed, such as when Lily's college friend started bawling all over again, or when Andy Grinforth sneezed, but everyone needed the emotional recounting of James' first few days with Lily. Competing over their general knowledge test at the beginning of the first year, the black eye she gave him in second year, the seventh years' annual Halloween dance… the memories flowed on and on. Finally, "'The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Of shoes, and ships, and sealing wax; of cabbages and kings. And why the sea is boiling hot,'" James paused, remembering the significance of the last few words of the speech when Lily had said it. The tears finally came, and his voice was barely above a whisper. "'And whether pigs have wings.'"
He stood, perfectly still, in front of the double grave, holding two flowers- a single white lily accompanied by a rich red rose, one of the ones growing on the tombs behind the Lupin mansion. The deep ache in his heart refused to go away, and Harry, standing beside him and sniffing in a truly valiant effort not to upset his father by crying, wasn't helping much.
"I never got to say goodbye," he whispered to Lily, the tears falling on the dew-covered flowers. "I never told you I loved you that one last time… I was getting Harry's jacket from outside- you remember, he left it out there and you were worried that it would rain. Well, I couldn't find it, and when I came back in…" James let more of the salty droplets fall to the ground. Why couldn't it have been me? "I still love you, Lily. You can't be gone."
James took another shuddering breath and continued to his lost daughter. "Morgana… you were, quite possibly, the most beautiful child I'd ever seen, perhaps for the sole reason that you were ours. You were always cheerful, laughing, smiling…" He sniffed and placed the flowers between the gravestones; took Harry's hand. "It kills me to think that you'll never smile again." They headed towards the cemetary gate, after one last, "Goodbye."
As the two passed through the archway, a crisp wind stirred, and a voice seemed to whisper, I love you, James.
When she woke up for the third time that night, he was there. Remus held Allya while she quietly confessed her eerie feeling- the one that had begun at the beginning of Lily's second pregnancy, a premonition-like feeling she'd had pertaining to their friend and honorary niece's deaths. It was all Remus could do not to cry with her- but he knew that would make her feel guilty about starting in the first place, so he restrained himself. Instead, he found holding Allya close to him and just comforting her to be strangely therapeutic.
When the usual tears had subsided, he found that Ally just laid there, barely breathing at all, simply clinging to him and burying her face in his neck, kissing him softly.
Finally, Remus took Allya's mouth in his, brushed her hair back from her face, and whispered, "I love you." Then, lowering his eyebrows so that she knew he was serious, he commanded, "Now go to sleep. You have to work in the morning."
Allya grumbled (something like, 'don't remind me,') but loosened her hold on him enough that they could both lay comfortably in bed. "I love you, too," she whispered back, settling further into the fluffy warmth of Remus' protective embrace. And for the first time that night, Allya slept dreamlessly.
Remus, however, laid awake a few moments longer, basking in the cozy environment that Allya provided for him, the feeling of being loved unconditionally, and pondered how James and Harry were sleeping.
Sirius and Mioré, too, were having trouble with nightmares- Sirius more so than Mioré. That night, when she awoke him and informed him that he had been calling out in his sleep again, he was reduced to tears.
"Sirius!" Mioré exclaimed in utter shock. She'd only seen him cry on four occasions prior to the double Potter death- once, for a reason he hadn't disclosed in fifth year, at James' wedding, when she'd agreed to marry him, and at Sierra's birth. "The nightmare again?" she asked, knowing the answer and holding him close as she had before.
Sirius lifted his face a bit. "I can't believe they're gone," he whispered hoarsely. "I can't even begin to imagine what I'd go through, if-"
Mioré pressed a delicate finger to his lips. "None of that. We're safe now. Voldemort is gone, thanks to our friends the Potters. Remember them as they were, and know that Lily and Morgana died to save Harry. And Harry has saved us all."
"That's all very well," said Sirius, now tearless, "but who will save Harry?"
THE END
LONE ASTRONOMER: SORRY, SORRY, SORRY, SORRY!! Yes, it had to end now. I've been working on this one forever. It'll have a sequel, of course, and we'll find out how James and Harry adapt- well, how James adapts; he kinda goes a bit bonkers. I have another sixth year thing going too, you can expect that pretty soon as I have a bunch of vacation days from school. As you may have noticed, I'm obsessed with mini-Marauders. And… and… and… damn, I just lost my train of thought. Reviews appreciated… Sorry again that I had to kill people off, but otherwise there can't be "happily ever after" at the end of my last fic, which I am planning to write someday. So. Arrividerci!