Raleigh Parker

Raleigh Parker sat in her favorite chair and began flipping through a book titled The Heroes of the Battle of Hogwarts. Filled with mini biographies of deaths during the battle and a forward by each of the Golden Trio, it was a sad, yet brilliant book. She had just read about the death of Colin Creevey which has been touching, yet depressing. He'd been hardly sixteen, and then, there had been the death of Fred Weasley. That had also pained her immensely. Dead at tender, young ages. It made her throat ache and her want to burst into heart-wrenching sobs, but as she flipped to the next page, her heart stopped.

Remus Lupin.

She closed her eyes tightly and thought for a second. "Remus!" she called gleefully.

"What?" he called back mockingly.

"I want a piggy-back ride!"

She remembered his bursting into laughter and picking her up with easy and carrying her around the Lake until she'd finally jumped down. She'd given him a huge bear hug and smiled brightly.

It had been a brilliant time – her Seventh year at Hogwarts. As a Gryffindor, she was brave, especially since she was friends with the beautiful, yet temperamental Lily Evans and the Marauders. She and Lily had actually been best friends and well, her and the Marauders had simply been friends. She'd always liked Remus; they did their homework together, but her and James and Sirius and Peter had grown on her because of their slight increase of maturity, and yet hilarious personalities. She remembered how she'd sit beneath a solemn, prideful tree and talk to them. Sometimes, she was just with Remus and they would have deep conversations that she adored. Sometimes, she'd talk with James about Lily. And when she talked with Sirius, she'd simply told jokes and had an amazing time. She'd rarely talked to Peter, but when she had, it had been touching and sweet, how they'd talked about his love life, or as he had put it, lack thereof.

Yet, no one had expected what would come. Lily and James – dead. Sirius, a proclaimed murderer. Peter, dead. And Remus? Simply somewhere in the world. She'd lost all contact with them.

But reading his name in the book still hurt like hell.

Remus had been her savior, her protector when things didn't go well or she just needed someone. And now, they were all dead. Although she was glad Sirius had been proven innocent, she'd hated the fact that Peter had gone down the wrong path. Yet, she'd always thought that she'd have good ol' Moony, even if they hadn't been in contact for over ten years. Still, she had thought that if something were to happen, she would've been able to owl the dear werewolf. But those hopes were shattered like a glass up speeding toward the ground and breaking into millions of tiny, dangerous shards. And when you stepped into them, they hurt like hell.

And right now, that was all she could feel.