Sitting on the edge

The wind rustled his hair and tore at his clothes. An owl passed in front of the haggard man, but he didn't seem to notice. He sat on the edge of his world sunken deep in thought. Even fear didn't reach him when a strong gush of wind from behind almost tipped him forward, where he would fall for tens of meters before joining his friends. A sigh escaped the mouth of Sirius Black. Tears showed themselves in his eyes.

He hadn't had a family until he was eleven and he had met them on a train. He remembered that the green eyes of the man he loved more than himself sparkled behind his glasses when he had introduced himself as "The failure of the Black house". It had all been so easy after that. He had always had him to fall back on. He would never be alone again.

Or so he thought.

James took him in when he left the house of the ones that had given birth to him. That was when he had realised the truth he had known deep in his heart for years. He was his brother more than any amount of blood could make you and Sirius would do anything he could to help him.
He helped him capture his own family in the form of Lily Evans. They would be happy together he knew when he had seen them in each other's arms. They would live and love each other until they were old and grey, surrounded by grandchildren.

Or so it would have been, but all that had been ripped away.

The man with eyes sunken deeper than the deepest pit looked up out over the world, but he could find no joy in the beauty in front of him. They weren't here any more. His family was dead and he had nothing more to live for. His eyes dropped to his hands and then shifted over the edge of the rooftop. He sat high on the building that scraped the sky and if he wanted to, he could fall through the clouds and break that sky to join his friends. His eyes glazed over again.

James took his hand, tears of joy in his eyes as he nodded to answer the stream of questions Sirius was bombarding him with.
"We named him Harry," James choked out. "After her grandfather."
Sirius enveloped him in a hug and clapped the happiest man in the world on the back.
"We want you to be his godfather," James said, igniting fireworks in Sirius' heart.

Another owl flew inches past the haggard man, but he didn't look as haggard as a few moments before. He sat up straighter with a determined look on his gaunt face. A spark of life had entered his dead eyes.
He swung his legs back over the railing and stepped onto the rooftop.

His family wasn't gone. The sun of Lily's and James' life, their son was still alive. His godson was still there.

The hollowness left by the absence of James felt a little less hollow as stepped on his motorcycle. He took one last look over the railing - almost wistfully - and flew off into the owl populated sky, away from the skyscraper that almost took his life and towards the last piece of James Potter that was still left in this world.