Empty Chairs
Empty Chairs
There's a grief that
can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on
and on
Empty chairs at empty
tables
Now my friends are dead
and gone
Remus stared at the silent and empty great
hall. Three days before the start of the school year was always
the most silent at Hogwarts. Remus remembered that from his own
school days, from the times he had to come early before the full
moon. His eyes lingered on one silent table, almost...seeing the
past in that moment of time.
Here they talked of
revolution
Here it was they lit the
flame
Here they sang about
tomorrow
And tomorrow never came.
"Lily, put the book down, James didn't
mean it....Did you?" Sirius asked, leaning over to his best
friend.
James glared at Sirius, though there
was laughter lurking in his eyes. "Of
course not!"
"Guys," Came Peter's timid voice.
"I think young Harry is awake."
Lily sighed and gave Remus back his book on
dark creatures before picking up baby Harry and bouncing him to
stop his crying.
Remus sighed and sat back down, frowning at
James who was laughing over their battle plans.
From the table in the
corner
They could see a world
reborn
And they rose with
voices ringing
I can hear them now!
The very words that they
had sung
Became their last
communion
On the lowly barricade..
At dawn.
Sirius wiped a way as it started it's journey
down his dirty cheek, that so many had taken that day. He sat on
the staff table, staring at the chair that had once held his best
friend. Echoes of laughter and jokes, of joy untold sounded
through the air as he stared at that one point in space and time.
Oh my friends, my
friends forgive me.
That I live and you are
gone
There's a grief that
can't be spoken
There's a pain goes on
and on
Peter's beady eyes focused through the misty
haze of tears at the high staff table, made higher by the fact he
was only three inches high. He lay curled up in the hard wooden
chair, memories flowing across his rat mind at a remarkable rate
of speed for a brain so small. Memories filled with a bittersweet
pain, filled with the horrible knowledge of what he did and what
he sacrificed to live. His friends were gone, dead and lost to
him by his own actions, and still he remembered their smiling
faces that held love for him.
Phantom faces at the
window
Phantom shadows on the
floor
Empty chairs at empty
tables
Where my friends will
meet no more.
"Well done Peter!" James called
banging his fist on the table. Sirius and Remus joined in the
noise, causing the young wizard to blush with pride as he changed
from a human, into a rat and back again in quick succession.
"Finally!" Remus said, hugging their
youngest friend tightly, almost spinning him around.
Sirius beamed at his third best friend before
pouring him a goblet of the strongest whiskey James had in
offering. "We now have a way to be with our friend at all
times."
"Here, Here!" James said, raising his
own goblet of whiskey. "To Peter Pettigrew, Animagi!"
Oh my friends, my
friends, don't ask me
What your sacrifice was
for
Empty chairs at empty
tables
Where my friends will
sing no more
Dumbledore watched young Harry Potter as he lay
in the hospital wing, pale and crying. He had learned the truth,
finally, about everything that had happened that long ago night.
Dumbledore turned away from the silent tears of Harry's and
headed up to his office. Locking himself in his study, he
silently unlocked a desk drawer, and pulled out a fading photo of
four smiling wizards and one bemused witch. Their smiles and
waves did a little to lighten Dumbledore's heart and he smiled
through his tears as the Marauder's danced and waved across the
picture. He laughed lightly as James and Sirius tackled poor
Peter, hauling him up to the front of the group. So much
happiness, lost in one dark moment. Did the ends, really justify
the means?