SNAP! Chapter 2: War Torn
AN: Not as much talking in this one. It's a bit more solemn. Please don't flame, I did my best to try and not make anything to severe or awkward. Review please! I am begging you. If you review I will update Five Date Rule… probably…
Disclaimer: Sadly, the scale hasn't moved yet. Not that anyone really expected it to…
"You many kiss the bride!" James swept Lily into a kiss as Alice pulled out a camera and snapped a picture. Grinning at her, the newlyweds made their way over. "Let's party!" Sirius shouted, pulling his girlfriend Marlene into a tight embrace. For the rest of the night the old school friends partied, drank, and laughed. They had all managed to keep in touch, though Peter had been drifting away a little of late. They had kept the tradition of always having a camera on them, and had continued to scrapbook their lives. There were pictures of Lily and James on dates, Marlene and Sirius on dates, Alice (and her fiancé, Frank Longbottom) on dates. There were pictures of engagement nights, and other important events. But they also had many silly pictures of drinking and dancing in bars and getting into full-on mischief (that bit was mostly Sirius' doing). All of them had joined the Order of the Phoenix, and they had plenty of pictures from there as well. And now, tonight, they would be pasting the last picture in their newest scrapbook.
"This is number… what?" Marlene drawled, a little drunk, as the group sat in a circle, surrounded by wedding gifts in Lily and James' new apartment, working on the scrapbook. "A billion-million-trillion-gajillian." Sirius slurred, the most drunk of them all. Giggling, Alice said, "Sirius, dear, I do not believe that gajillian is a word." "IT IS TOO!" Sirius stood up. The way he looked with his hands on his hips and a drunken expression on his face was comical and they snapped a picture, then taking time to take one more of the whole group. Laughing, they put in the finishing touches to the book. Suddenly, they heard an owl tapping on the window. They all drew their wands. You couldn't be too careful these days. James took the letter from the bird, who promptly flew away. "It's from Dumbledore!" he said.
He opened it and there was a scrap of parchment that said, "Congratulations Potters, as well as all of your friends who I'm sure are there with you. I know you all have been making scrapbooks, and as your wedding gift, I have something to contribute. I hope you don't find this a little odd." The slanty signature read 'Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore'. The group chuckled, shaking their heads at Dumbledore's mention of being odd. James pulled out the old photo and gasped. The others came over and took a look. It was the picture of them on the day of graduation down under the beech tree. Lily was sitting beside James, who was leaning on his elbows, legs out in front of him, crossed at the ankles. Lily rested her head on his chest, sitting likewise. Marlene was bickering happily with Sirius; they sat thigh-to-thigh, Indian style to James' left. Remus sat, smiling serenely, leaning against the beech tree; Peter was laughing from the shadows, making a goofy face, as Alice, on Lily's other side, giggled at them. The first scrapbook lay on the ground in the middle of the circle they made.
They looked up at each other. Though they were all smiling, they still felt a bit sad. What they would each give to go back to those happy carefree days, where war was just a threat and not a reality. Lily summoned their first book, and on the very last page pasted the picture, and added in script, "These were the days of the Marauders and the Three. James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Black, Marlene McKinnon, Remus Lupin, Alice Conroy, and Peter Pettigrew. Long live the Golden Days." They all grinned down at it.
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A few years later, the group sat once again in a circle. This time, though, they all visibly seemed a few years older. The war was taking its toll. Carefree Sirius know looked like he didn't know how to laugh. Marlene was dead. She had been one of the first to fall in this horrid war. The funeral had been a sad affair. Sirius had cried for the first time in his life, and had been living with the Potters for a while now. Peter was rarely present. They had seen him maybe once in the past few months. Alice and her husband Frank, had their son, Neville, a happy, plump baby, with them. Lily and James sat with their own son, Harry, in their living room. Remus looked twice as old as the rest of them, as he had been away working with other werewolves as he had been told to do. But they were all looking forward to today. Today was the three-year anniversary of their graduation from Hogwarts. After snapping a photo for old times sake to finish off this latest scrapbook, Lily, named official scrapbook holder, summoned the chest that held the books. She opened it up, and pulled out the twenty or so books. They cracked open the first book and began to remember. At once the atmosphere lightened, and for a few moments at least, the danger looming over them was forgotten, as they reveled in the happiness of the good old days, and the fun times of the not-so-good days following them. There was only one moment of silence, and that was after the picture of Sirius proposing to Marlene a week before her death. They had all been tense to see his reaction to the picture. He surprised them by swinging his godson, Harry, into his arms and pointing at the picture said, "That, Harry, was the most beautiful woman in the world…besides your mother at least." Lily smiled wryly at him. "I was going to marry her, but the nasty Death Eaters took her away from me. But I won't let them take you away from me will I?" One-year-old Harry gazed up at him solemnly. Sirius laughed and tickled the boy, and the adults started flipping the pages again.
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It was October 31st. Lily and James were laughing in their living room, playing with their tiny son. Harry zoomed by on his broom, nearly knocking down a picture from the wall. James' Chaser-toned hand-eye coordination allowed him to catch the photo, and sit back on the sofa, examining it as his son flew around the house, his wife sitting next to him. Taken shortly before Marlene died, it was the last picture of the Marauders, the Three, and Frank happy before the true horrors of the war had hit. They were all standing arm in arm laughing at some long forgotten joke. Lily started to tear up. Marlene was dead, and Alice and her husband Frank had been tortured to the point of insanity for information. Now in St. Mungo's for the rest of their lives, their tiny little son had been shipped off to his grandmother's. Sirius, carefree trouble making Sirius, was now exactly what his name suggested. He had become so intense in fighting, for Marlene's memory, that he was one of the Order's best assets. He still dropped in regularly though, to play with his godson and talk with the Potters. He had his own apartment now, somewhere in Diagon Alley. Remus had moved from job to job to job, being rejected. He was spending most of his time with the werewolves, and it was taking a toll on their already thin, wan, serious friend. Peter no one had heard from since the night a year ago that the Potters had asked him to be Secret Keeper. Secretly, both James and Lily thought that Sirius would have been a better choice, but neither told the other. "Come along Harry dear, it's time for bed." Lily called to her son, who came whizzing in and James amused him, making colored sparks with his wand for a while. "Seriously now Harry, it's time for beddy-by." James scooped him up and handed him to Lily, wrapping his arms around his family. "I love you guys" he whispered, almost indecipherably. Then he tossed his wand to the couch and stood up and stretched, as Lily walked to the stairs. Suddenly, he heard the door bang open. Rushing into the hall, his heart almost stopped when he saw who was at the door. "Lily! Take Harry and run! I'll hold him off!" He gave one last, loving look to his wife and only child before turning around just in time to see a blinding flash of green light… and then the first of the Marauders to do so fell to the ground, dead. Voldemort stepped over and moved on to his next victims.
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BOOM!
The right side of the house blew up into the cool autumn air. As the dust settled, the only sound was of a baby crying, as torn pieces of photos came floating down between the ruins of the small house. The shelf that had held the chest of scrapbooks had exploded, sending wayward scraps of pictures everywhere. One picture swirled and twirled in the cool breeze and came to settle near a cracked frame. Looking up out of the photograph was the group of teenagers on their last day of school. And in the cracked frame it rested on smiled the same group (plus Frank) laughing as young adults.
The days of Lily and James Potter were over, but the days of their son Harry had just begun. Nearby, a beam in the house broke in half, seeming to poignantly finalize the events of the day.
SNAP!
A/N: Ahhhhh! I'm ready to cry… that ALWAYS makes me sad. Cheer me up with reviews?? The pretty button is right there… \/ \/ \/
