Chapter One: Love and Life

Ben, Mal, Jay, Evie, and Dude all stood (except for Dude who sat) outside in the graveyard looking down upon their dearly departed friend's gravestone.

Carlos Oliver De'Vil

Born: May 28th, 1999

Died: July 6th, 2019

You will be in our hearts FOREVER!

Dude started whimpering as he gazed down upon the pawprints that were on either side of the last line. "I hope that I left my pawprints on your heart," he began before heaving a sad sigh. "because you certainly left them on mine." He finished. "Or handprints, or whatever." He added while glancing up at everybody else and then back down again.

"Does anybody want to say anything?" Mal wondered while everybody else continued gazing down at the stone but Evie just simply just shook her head and sniffed while tears continued rolling down her cheeks.

"I don't think that there are enough words to describe what a beautiful and wonderful person that he was." She told her.

"Yeah, I guess that you're right." Mal began. "One thing is for sure though,.. I really wish that I could have said goodbye to him when I had the chance." She said with a sniff while resting her head down upon Ben's shoulder as tears silently rolled down her cheeks.

"Shh,.. it's alright." He whispered before kissing the top of her head and then resting his chin down upon it as he embraced her and soothingly rubbed her back in small circles. "It's going to be okay. Everything's going to be alright." He reassured her softly before kissing the top of her head again. That's when suddenly Uma cleared her throat from behind them and they all turned around to look at her and noticed that she had a bouquet of red and white roses inside her hands.

"I brought these for him. I figured that you might want them." She explained as Mal quickly glanced up at her not removing her head off of the top of Ben's shoulder and sniffed while wiping away her tears.

"Thanks Uma." She replied before everybody started grabbing a flower and then Uma squatted down in front of Dude.

"Here." She told him as he quickly sat up and grabbed the stem of a red rose and held it in-between his teeth.

Mal led the front of the line and then laid her white rose on top of Carlos' grave, followed by Evie who laid a red one, Jay and Ben laid down white ones, and finally it was Dude's turn to lay his red one down. After he was finished he started whining again and then he took a deep breath and let out a long and heavy sigh.

"So long buddy." He said as he bowed down in front of his grave. Ben got down on his knees, followed by Jay, Mal, Evie, and finally Uma.

A few minutes later they started walking back to the castle together and that's when they met up with Harry. "Oh,.. great!" Uma exclaimed through her clenched teeth and a roll of her eyes. "Please somebody tell me why he literally follows me everywhere I go?" she questioned but Ben just simply grinned at her.

"Isn't it obvious?" he questioned her back.

"I think that somebody has a crush on you." Mal said with a grin. "Come on guys, let's give these two their space." She said while letting out a tiny giggle.

"No Mal don't you dare leave me alone with him." She began before turning her head to look over her shoulder. "Mal!" she snapped inside a whisper with a stamp of her foot as they turned around to walk away from her.

"Hey." Harry began as he finished walking over to her and with another roll of her eyes Uma slowly turned back to face him.

"What do you want Harry?" she questioned him reluctantly.

"Actually, I was wondering how Mal and everybody else are doing." He said.

"They're doing fine." She replied before she turned back around and started walking away from him. "Now if you'll excuse me I promised Evie that I would help out with Mal's baby shower." She told him.

"Do they know if it's going to be a boy or a girl yet?" he wondered.

"I don't know, it's their baby why are you asking me?" she questioned him back.

"Listen Uma, I was just wondering,.. if you aren't doing anything this weekend,.. would you maybe want to hang out together?" he asked her as she simply just shook her head and stifled a laugh.

"You just never give up do you?" she began. "You're always following me around and finding ways to talk to me and spend time with me." she pointed out.

"Well, that's because I like you." He told her as she suddenly let out a rather small gasp and stopped to look at him. "Compared to the kinds of things that we used to do, that doesn't really seem like that much of a crime." He told her with a shake of his head.

"Uh look Harry, you're a really nice guy and all and I really care about you, but just as a friend. The truth is that I've had my heart broken before and I'm really not comfortable to start dating again." She told him.

"Really? You've never told me that you were romantically involved with somebody." He said.

"Well that's because number one I didn't think that it was yours or anybody else's business, and number two it really hurt me to talk about it." She explained.

"So what happened?" he asked her as she narrowed her eyebrows and glared at him angrily. "Didn't you hear what I just said!?" she cried.

"Look, Uma I'm sorry, I just wanted to know who he was so I could show him what happens when I get angry." He told her.

"Listen Harry, it's probably for the better that you don't know he is. He's a lot stronger and even more powerful than we are and I wouldn't want you to get hurt." She explained. "I care about you too much. I'm sorry Harry." She apologized before she turned around and ran away.