July 10

"I was proud of you, love," I said as Sirius was making tea this morning.

"And why is that?"

"Because you didn't lie to Snape about us."

"I told you I wasn't going to lie anymore, didn't I?"

"Yes, but saying something and actually doing it are two different things."

"I see what you mean," he said, pouring himself a cup of tea and taking a sip. "You know," he said, a few minutes later, "Myrtle really surprised me."

"I think she might have surprised herself," I said.

We sipped in silence for a while, and I thought. Neither of us had known that Myrtle had any sense of humor, that she'd had potential to be more then a sobbing spectre. Who knows what else she could have been? But Voldemort had killed her, ruined her chances to be all that she could have been.

"Do you think James and Lily would have had any more kids?" Sirius asked suddenly.

"I think so."

"I bet you would have been the godfather for the next one, had there been one."

"Maybe."

"No, you would have been. They loved you, Remus."

But we would never know, just like we would never know what might have happened to Myrtle or Cedric Diggory or all of the others Voldemort had killed.

~~*~~

When I arrived home from work, Sirius was lying on the couch with one hand over his eyes. "Are you awake?" I asked.

"Yes."

I sat down next to him and gently lifted the hand off his eyes. "What's the matter, Sirius?"

"I went back to bed after you left for work," he said, his voice strangely choked-sounding. "And I had a dream…a dream that you were dead and I was alone…" He suddenly flung his arms around me and sobbed into my chest. "Remus, don't ever leave me…"

I stroked his hair. "Hey, hey, it's all right, I'm here," I whispered. "I'm not leaving you."

He looked up at me and I lightly brushed the tears from his face. "Dreams can be pretty realistic sometimes, can't they."

"Yeah." He sat up some more and brushed his hair back. "It just seemed so real that even after I knew it was only a dream it still upset me."

"I've had some dreams like that too," I said, remembering the one I'd had right after I started teaching at Hogwarts. In that dream, I forgot to take the Wolfsbane Potion and slaughtered half the school.

I suddenly realized there was light, airy music coming from the corner. "Oh, I turned on the wireless," said Sirius once he noticed me looking at it. "Thought it might calm me down."

I stood up and held out my hand to him. "Dance with me."

His hand enclosed around mine and he rose from the couch. We walked over to an open area of the floor and he wrapped one arm around my waist and held me close.

"I love you," he whispered in my ear as we swayed to the music.

"You're the best thing that ever happened to me," I answered.

THE END