The thing is that it wasn't meant to end this way. It was supposed to end in light and happiness and slowly passing away in sleep, lying together in love, knowing that they were meant to be (because they were). Instead it ended in yelling and flashing green light and that dreadful feeling in your stomach when you know that you've failed them all. Their love started with arguments and noise and realization when they were seventeen years old, it shouldn't have ended that way as well at twenty one.
Lily with her tangled red hair and her never ending laughter, once you saw her you just knew that it wasn't meant to end this way, not at all. With her wish for the world to be at peace and her love for everything bright, because she couldn't take all this darkness (coming for her, reaching, always lingering, taking those she loved) never again. Lily Evans with her passion and ambition and her wishes, those sad totally unrealistic wishes, knew when she was in love when she was seventeen years old. Her toothy smile and her always moving, never stopping, always tapping feet, it wasn't meant to end this way.
James with his mess of black hair resting atop his head and his crooked grin, once you saw him you knew, you knew that it wasn't supposed to end this way. No one predicted that it would even start this way because honestly did anyone see them when they were younger? But rotten teenagers grow up into smiling men and when they do girls with red hair might just come back, they might just forgive those rotten teenagers, because that is what one does when they realize that they've made a mistake. James Potter with his jokes and desires and his noise, knew he was in love when he was fifteen years old. The thing is that it just wasn't meant to end this way.
The others should have, would have, cared but how could they have? One half was dead (mangled into bits, strangled, lying so very still, so still) and the other half was cheering (cheering because no more death, cheering because no one else had to die, cheering because even though their friends were all dead, they were still here and that was okay). The whole world was so happy that their suffering had ended that they never considered that it just wasn't meant to end this way.
Voldemort didn't care that they were meant to live much longer in love, that it wasn't supposed to end this way. All he cared was that there a baby that might destroy him and that this was his only chance. To him, this baby wasn't a person, but a chance at a better life, and that was all that really mattered to him. It didn't matter to him that the fates had woven a much different ending into their tapestries of life and that this just wasn't fair, because he had been in love once and that really hadn't worked out.
Severus Snape couldn't care less about the outcome of the dreaded prophecy, until it could be about his Lily, of course. He had known Lily since he had been around nine years old and he wasn't going to let her go at twenty-one. He didn't want it to end this way, he knew that it might end this way, that didn't mean that he ever wanted this. When Severus was fifteen years old, he made a mistake. This mistake was something that didn't have take backs and was a mistake that changed his life for the worst (all his fault, all his fault, all his fault). He called his Lily that terrible word and it had all gone downhill from there. He didn't mean for it to end this way, he had hoped that it wouldn't end this way, it definitely ended this way for a reason.
Albus Dumbledore was a smart man, no one could deny that, it was a very well known fact. He was smart in the ways of the world, in the ways of obscure books, in the ways of anything that could ever really be known, except for one thing: love. He had been in love, once when he was young and that had truly backfired straight back into his face. Even though he couldn't be considered a true expert in the ways of love, Albus was sure that when Lily Evans and James Potter had fallen into its depths, they were never going to be coming back out. They were truly meant to be together forever and forever. When he had heard the prophecy, he didn't think that it would end this way. He didn't think that it was ever going to end this way, it just couldn't when it came to James and Lily could it?
Remus Lupin believed that he was a monster, that much was an absolute. When he stepped onto that train when he was eleven years old and met the best friends that he would ever have, he fully believed that. One of the cleverest people that they had ever met (something that they had reminded him repeatedly, this of course, was before they were dead and all gone)
he knew that it wasn't meant to end this way, this was about Lily and James, he very well felt that his life would end that way and he had accepted that, for he was a monster. Lily and James with their neverbreaking, always constant, love from the day that they had decided that they could actually love each other, seemed to be everlasting. That was what Remus thought, at least. The two were everlasting and nothing terrible could ever happen to them (even though they were a part of a goddamned war), they were to be together forever. That was what the fates had thought too. Remus knew that it just wasn't meant to end this way (everlasting, constant, always in love), but it did anyway.
Peter Pettigrew wasn't the most confident person in the world, he wasn't clever, he wasn't thought to be handsome, he couldn't play Quidditch, it didn't appear that he had much going for him. That's probably why he came to be under the Dark Lord, but if Peter had one thing that everyone knew, it was that he was funny. He could tell the funniest jokes in the best of times and he always knew what to say that would make everyone laugh, laughing so hard that tears were streaming down their faces, laughing so hard that they couldn't breathe, laughing so hard that they forgot what they were laughing about. When Peter was eleven years old, he didn't think, never really considered, that he would be the reason that his friends were dead. He knew that their love was pure, meant to be, but he had never really considered that it would end this way, with him standing at the wrong side of the fight. Peter never really thought about how this was going to end.
Sirius Black did care, he did care that this wasn't the way that was woven, in fact, he cared so much that he managed to get himself locked in the wizard prison for it. The wizard prison of despair, death, seeping coldness, ruining madness, and all that wasn't really meant for a human being. Sirius with his messy, dark hair and the cackling laughter that defined him all so well, cared so much that the world punished him. When he had first laid those grey eyes of his onto the two, he felt that it wasn't going to end with death and despair, but rather happiness and light. Sirius cared so much for his brother that he had met when he was eleven years old, that when he saw his still body (so still, unmoving, unsmiling, glassy eyes wide open, staring at him with disappointment) he didn't feel anything at all. You see, it just wasn't meant to end this way, the fates didn't feel that, James Potter didn't feel that, Lily Potter didn't feel that, Remus Lupin didn't feel that, Peter Pettigrew kind of felt that, but he really didn't want that, Albus Dumbledore hoped that it wouldn't end the way he hoped, and finally, Sirius Black never thought that for one second that anything would end this way. But it did end that way, so their opinions didn't really matter, now did they?
When it did end that way, there weren't enough people to realize that it just shouldn't have ended (there was Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Lily Potter, James Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape, and Peter Pettigrew) this way, they were all too busy cheering, cheering because guess what! The world would finally be at peace, but it wouldn't really be at peace, would it? Everything happens for a reason, there was an alternate fateful string for a reason. The fates had woven a string, a string that was meant to end with happiness and light and contentment, but had instead ended with all this sadness (no one there to mourn, all this death, why did it have to be this way?).