A/N: this chapter was inspired by a tumblr post by audaciousescapades and cameralinz.

/

Miss Rowling leaned back in her chair and sipped from her tea. It was the perfect temperature, as always. The Story Store really had a magical way of making tea.

Knowing them, it was possible there was actual magic involved somehow.

There were two people on the other side of the desk. One was the female owner of the store, who had taken her usual form which looked like a blond twenty-ish year old woman with spectacles. Next to her was one of her assistants. This one always looked like a gangly boy who appeared around sixteen years old (even though he clearly had to be much older than this), with freckles, red hair and green eyes that constantly moved when he was nervous. With his freckles and red hair, he reminded her a bit of Ron.

"Uhum," the boy cleared his throat. "May I ask you something, Miss Rowling?"

"Sure," she said.

"Why did Lupin have to die?"

Miss Rowling frowned. "Well, of course he had to die. Isn't it obvious why?"

"Uhm, not really," the boy said. "Why did you have to kill my favorite character?"

The woman next to him hissed something she didn't quite catch. It sounded like parseltongue to her. Did she just say his name?

No, that wasn't possible. No one at the Story Store had a name of any kind. Not that she knew at least.

She intended to say 'it's okay', but she was too caught up in what he had said.

"You mean," Miss Rowling said. "Your favorite character is not Luna? Ye, what is wrong with you?" She looked a bit disgusted.

"Well, Luna is a close second," the boy admitted. "But that doesn't answer my question."

She sighed. "Look. Remus is part of the Marauder Mirror Metaphor, he was bound to die at some point."

"The what?"

She took a deep breath. This would take a while.

"Remus was the smart one, the geeky one that was never particularly popular, the one that followed the rules. Because if this, he never had many friends and he never dared telling the few friends he did have they were out going too far. Remus felt terribly guilty about their dangerous nightly adventures which endangered everyone in Hogsmeade, but never told this to James and Sirius because he was afraid of losing them. This was his big fatal flaw.

James on the other hand was popular, a talented Quidditch player, handsome and a natural born leader. Because of this, he became an arrogant asshole.

If you look at Sirius, you'll notice he had his flaws as well. His family despised him as a blood-traitor so he felt lonely. He became convinced the world despised him, so he despised them back. He ran away at sixteen and where did he go? To James, his only friend. Sirius yearned for approval and acceptance and in order to get this, he started bullying Snape.

Lastly, Peter Pettigrew was small, not very talented and deeply unpopular. He wanted to stand in the spotlight, so he grabbed the first chance he ever got and betrayed his friends." She took another gulp of delicious tea. "This leaves two important people from the past: Snape and Lily.

Snape is obvious. He was bullied and because of this, he chose to despise everyone and destroy as much lives as he could, that's why he joined Voldemort: he wanted everyone to die. He only realised his mistakes after Lily and James were killed.

Lily's fatal flaw is less obvious, but it's still there. She dated James, even though she knew he was bullying her childhood friend. She let Snape down even when she was in a perfect position to help him. She pursued her own selfish desires and cut off her ties with the only friend she ever had before coming to Hogwarts."

"So, that's why all these characters had to die?" The boy asked.

"They have to be redeemed," Miss Rowling explained. "All six of them have a counterpart in the new generation. Someone in a very similar situation but who acted differently.

Hermione is Lupin. She's smart and cares for the rules, but unlike him, she was never afraid to tell her friends they were out of bounds. She considered being a good person more important than avoiding arguments with her friends. She redeemed him by not making the same mistakes despite being in a pretty much identical situation. We can do the right thing regardless of our situation.

Harry mirrors James, quite literally. He's the popular one, natural born leader, naturally good at Quidditch. But Harry never became an arrogant asshole. He chose to use his popularity to found Dumbledore's Army, to teach people to defend themselves, to help the weak stand up for themselves. And so James was redeemed as well.

Ron is Sirius' counterpart. He was despised by his peers, the full blood wizards for being a 'blood-traitor'. He was completely overshadowed by his brothers, but he didn't work it out on his friends, he didn't start lashing out to others. He chose another path and learned that being the big hero isn't that important and that helping outside of the spotlight comes with its own rewards (kissing Hermione is certainly a big reward.)

Neville mirrors Peter Pettigrew: he wasn't talented at all, was never in the spotlight, but instead of betraying his friends, he chose to work hard and eventually, he succeeded.

Luna represents what Snape could have been. She was bullied for being different, but she chose to say 'screw them'. She remained her own self, reveling in her uniqueness instead of rejected it for approval.

And finally, Ginny mirrors Lily. She came up for Luna when no one else would, because she liked her and because she did not take the easy way of looking the other way.

To metaphorically righten the past mistakes of their counterparts, to show that people can make a different choice, can choose not to slip to the darkness even in hard circumstances, the past has to die. To be redeemed by the new generation, the old one has to die, that's why Peter Pettigrew died, that's why Snape and Sirius died, and that's why Lupin dies." She put down her, now-empty, cup.

"But you couldn't do it, could you?" The boy said. "You couldn't kill Lupin."

"No," she admitted. "I kept pushing it back and back, and eventually, I reached the final battle, the only battle left. So I quickly brushed over it and only realized my mistake later on. Lupin deserved a better death. He deserved more than a vague mention of his demise somewhere at the end."

"And so the future redeems you as well."

"Yeah," she said. "The movie pulled it off perfectly. Remus and Tonks reaching for each other, killed before they could hold hands. And then when Harry told him about his son, Remus told him that 'others would tell him what his mother and father died for. And one day, he would understand'. So in the end, Lupin got the death he deserved. The one I couldn't give them."

"And so, everyone gets redeemed eventually."