Chapter 10

"Do you think they're gone now?" Lily asked.

"Yes, they probably are." James stood as he said and looked at her closely. "Do you want to go now?"

Lily nodded. James picked up the cloak, and then took her hand as they walked out the door. They walked down the road until they reached the wrought iron gateway that lead to the cemetery. With a deep breath, Lily walked through the gateway and walked what seemed to be a familiar path.

"Do you know where it is?" James asked, slightly surprised.

"Yes," Lily smiled. "We used to come up here every Sunday to put flowers on my grandparents' graves. My parents were to be buried next to them." Sure enough, two mounds of fresh earth appear up ahead.

"Do, uh, do you want me to wait here?" James asked uncertainly.

"No, no, please, I want you to come with me." Lily said with concerned eyes.

"Of course!" James answered, "I just didn't want to intrude or anything. When you said you wanted to come here by yourself earlier, I, well, I just wasn't sure."

"No, I want you here." Lily said, relief in her voice.

So James walked up with Lily, and knelt next to her on the grass near the graves. There were no headstones yet, only small metal markers to show where they would be. "It takes a little bit before the grave markers are ready, one of the drawbacks of doing things the muggle way." She sniffed a little.

"I wish you could've met my mum and dad. You'd have loved them." She said, wiping away a tear from the corner of her eye. "My grandma loved flowers, and she had the most beautiful garden you could imagine. When she had my mum, she named her for her favorite flower, the rose. Rose described her perfectly too. She had the sweetest laugh, and everyone loved her. Her hair was red, much redder than mine, and she always had such rosy cheeks and was always smiling. My dad, his names was Harry, and he just adored my mother. He'd always buy her little gifts, or bring her little bouquets of roses," she smiled distantly. "It was his own little joke. He loved that she was named for a flower, and that's why they named my sister and me for some of my mum's favorites. He'd laugh and say he picked the prettiest flowers in the garden when he picked us." She bit her lip as the memories tightened her throat and emotion filled her voice. "Oh, James! I miss them so much! What am I going to do without them?"

James pulled her close in a tight embrace, holding her head near his chest. He stroked her hair as she sobbed, and he felt her warm tears as they soaked through his shirt. He let her stay like that for a while before he answered. When her sobs had quieted to a soft sniffing, and her breathing was close to normal, he lifted her face and looked deep into her astonishingly green eyes and said, "Lily, I don't have all of the answers for you now. I can't tell you what's going to happen next, or how you'll deal with losing you parents. But I can tell you this: you are an extraordinarily strong person. You will make it through all of this. You will be happy again; you will go on with your life. I know you will. And, one day, hopefully a long time from now, you will see your parents again. I also know this. From what you've told me, your parents loved you very much. I know that they'd want you to be happy. They wouldn't want you to stop living your life because you couldn't live it with them. So please Lily, if you won't be happy for yourself, if you won't do that, please be happy for them."

Lily took a deep breath and looked back down at the fresh mounds of earth next to her. "I know, James." She said softly. "I know they'd want me to be happy, I know that. And I try to be. But it's just so hard to find room for happiness when, well, it's like there's this huge black weight pressing down on my chest, and every time I start to think of them, it gets heavier, and sometimes it feels like it's just going to crush me. Like, one day, it'll be so heavy, I just won't be able to breath anymore, and that'll just be the end." She eyes had a far away look as she spoke these words. "You know, when you and I started becoming close, after we'd been together and I'd be thinking of you, or how you kissed me, or just something sweet you'd done, I'd all of the sudden want to go talk to my mom. I'd think of writing her, or finding a telephone to call her; then I'd realize that she's gone. She's gone, and I'll never see her again. Her, or my dad, or, as it's looking, my sister." She looked back up at James. "Like I said, I try to be happy, but sometimes it's really hard."

James' heart was breaking with every word she spoke. He longed to say or do something, anything, to take away her pain, but he knew he couldn't. He knew there wasn't anything anyone could say to take this kind of hurt away.

"I just wish there was something I could do, you know?" Lily sighed regretfully. "I mean, I know it must have been hard for Petunia to put together the funeral, but I really wish I could have helped. I think it might have made it feel like I had given them something, or, I don't know, helped them in some way. But it's too late now." She exhaled sharply and stared at a blade of grass that was mixed in with the dirt on a mound.

"Well," James said thoughtfully. "There is something you could do." Lily looked up at him questioningly. He turned to her and said, "Well, the way I understand it, it'll take a couple of weeks at least for your parents to have proper headstone, correct? That is, if you do it the muggle way. Well, if you wanted to, that could be your gift; it could be what you do for them. It's something you can do for them in just a few minutes. You could conjure one for them."

A thoughtful look played on Lily's features for a moment as she considered this. A slow smile appeared, and she turned from gazing distantly at the blade of grass and focused on James. She didn't say a word, but he could tell by the look on her face that she was pleased by the suggestion.

She looked thoughtful for a moment, and then stood slowly. James also stood and backed away from the graves. She turned away from the rest of the cemetery to a nearby wooded area, pulled her wand out from the pocket of her jacket, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. With a skillful flick of the wand, and a spell muttered indistinctly under her breath, a flash of light blazed through the air. They heard a rumble and trees shook slightly at the edge of the woods. Suddenly, a huge flat stone broke the surface of the soil. When it was completely unearthed, it settled softly onto the ground. Then with another muttered incantation, the dirt was cleared away from the surface.

Lily walked slowly to the stone, and James followed. She stopped when she was about four feet away, and just looked at it. With a look of deep consternation, she stood there for a several minutes and just stared at the stone. Finally, she pushed back her sleeves and cleared her throat, though for what reason, James couldn't tell. She hardly ever spoke her spells above a whisper, unless necessary. And this time was no exception. With a few barely audible words and a flick of the wrist, a bright light surrounded the stone.

After just a few seconds, the light died away, and where the rough stone directly from the earth had been, a smoothly polished one now lay. It was a large one for both of them, and was engraved beautifully. On her father's side, it read 'Harry T. Evans- beloved husband and father.' and on her mother's side, 'J. Rose Evans- beloved wife and mother.' Then, below both of them it said, 'A mother and father who will be forever loved and remembered, a man and woman who will never be forgotten, a love that will last through all of the ages- Harry and Rose.' All around the edges, tendrils of roses were carved so they climbed the sides. They crept up from the middle of the bottom, then met at the top, and formed a heart.

"It's beautiful, Lily," James said as he stood next to her and wrapped and arm around her waist. He looked down at her as she gazed at the stone, "Beautiful."

Lily smiled softly and whispered, "Locomotor stone." Obediently, the stone rose a few inches above the ground and obliged as she directed it to her parent's grave where it settled into the ground. "There you are," she said quietly as she stroked the stone. "Hope you like it." She silently wiped a tear from her cheek with the back of her hand. "I love you." She turned away, unable to take it any longer. She started to walk away, but stopped. She turned one last time to the graves, pointed her wand at the ground and whispered something. Suddenly, green film covered the ground. Grass grew over the graves, and the mounds settled a bit. Right in the center of them, next to the stone, a small plant began to grow. It crept up along the stone and wrapped itself around it. Then, as though it was a sped up nature film, buds formed and roses bloomed.

"It looked so bare," Lily explained quietly. "So fresh and, and raw; raw like the hurt of losing them. I couldn't bare it looking that way." James reached for her and put his arm around her waist. She leaned her head against his chest as they began slowly walking out of the cemetery. Lily glanced back, just once, and whispered a good-bye.