~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"For a shield form the storm
For a friend
For al love to keep me safe and warm
I turn to you
For the strength to be strong
For the will to carry on . . ." - Christina Aguilera, "I turn to you"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 22 - Farewell Daddy
May 26 came all too fast for some people.
Inside of a dark, cold room, a lone girl with red hair sat, her shoulders heaving with sobs, and the sound echoed through the usually cheerful bedroom.
All of the drapes were drawn against the ever-present glare of the sun, not one single ray of light was emitted into the room. The fire had been put out many hours ago.
"Why? Why did you take him from me?" was the mantra that echoed in the otherwise silent room.
~*~*~*~*~
James cleared the fireplace as soon as he arrived at the Evans Manor. Soon afterwards, Sirius, Kayla, Remus, and Aria were assembled in the wide entrance hall. Simultaneously, the five friends looked down at their black attire and brushed off the soot that had managed to get on them.
Kayla glanced up at James as she brushed the skirt of her long, black dress. "James," she whispered her voice hoarse from crying so much. "I think that you better be the one to go and see Lily first.
"I think," she broke off, her voice starting to crumble. Kayla took a deep breath, determined to finish what she wanted to say before she started to cry again. "I think that she'd appreciate it more if you were there to comfort her more than anyone else."
James looked up from his sleeves at the sound of his name and looked straight into Kayla's eyes. He nodded his agreement to what she had to say and looked gravely at the winding marble stairs that he knew led up to Lily's room.
He released a sigh and began walking towards them, scared to his marrow of what he might find once he reached her room. 'Will she even let me near her?' he wondered as he started down the hall that led to her room. 'Will she even talk to me? Will she even accept any-' he suddenly snapped out of his daze and realized that he had arrived at Lily's room. He looked at the wood paneling, trying to figure out what to do next.
When he realized that the only thing that there was to do was to open the door and comfort his girlfriend, he ran a nervous hand through his hair before he laid his hand on the brass doorknob.
The first thing James noticed as he stepped into the room was the darkness. He had to squint his eyes to make out the form of his girlfriend, sitting on the edge of her bed crying. Then he noticed the coldness as he shut the door and walk over to her on silent feet.
~*~*~*~*~
Lily jumped as she felt a warm, hard arm wrap around her shoulders and pull her face towards the shoulder. Lily could smell his cologne. It was so . . . male, so him. "James," she whispered on a sob. "He's gone, James, gone!" she cried out as she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in the hollow of his neck, and clutched him to her as if her every life depended on it. Which in her opinion, it did.
"Shh. It's okay Lily, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. Shhh," James whispered soothingly to her as he gently rubbed his hands in circles on her back in an attempt to soothe her.
Eventually Lily's sobs quieted and she began to hiccup a little. "My head hurts, my heart hurts, and I don't even think that I have the strength to walk anymore," Lily said quietly, her voice going hoarse from her crying.
"It's okay," James said as he leaned back so that he could get a good look at her. "I'll help you walk, we can perform a headache spell on you, and eventually your heart will stop aching."
Lily looked up, into his eyes and stared at him. "Do you really think so?" she asked, referring to her pain going away, because at this point, she really didn't think that it was possible for it to do so.
James looked down at his girlfriend and smirked. "Am I ever wrong?" he asked, trying to coax a smile out of her before they had to go to the service.
Lily narrowed her eyes at him and haughtily replied, "Yes. You were wrong when you said that we'd never get caught when we did that prank on the Slytherins two years ago when we had to actually go into the dorms. And you were wrong when you said that that stupid idiot of a squid was friendly. And you were wrong when you said that Professor McGonagall was nice. And you were wrong when you said-"
"Okay! I get the point, I get the point!" James yelled out in defeat. So, he'd been wrong a 'few' times, it was normal. And then James' eyes narrowed in thought.
"When did I ever say that the squid was nice?" he asked, trying to remember when he would have said that, considering that thing always tried to get him in the water.
"First year, when we were on the boats going across the lake, and the boat tipped over because Sirius thought that it'd be funny to plant a handful of Fireworks in Kayla's hair. Which, of course, made her get up and turn around after she put out the fire that had started in her hair and try to punch Sirius, but she ended up over balancing the boat, and the four of us all tipped over and ended up in the lake," she explained, her eyes twinkling a little at the memory.
James thought about this and smiled. He remembered that moment perfectly, because his favorite part of that story is when they finally reached the Great Hall, and were waiting for Professor Peirt - the headmistress from their first year - and Kayla turned around and socked Sirius in the stomach right when the doors opened.
Just then, someone knocked on the door, making both Lily and James look at it and snap out of their memories.
"Come in." Lily called in a small voice, fearing that it was someone who had come to tell her that it was time for the service to start.
Kayla's head sneaked from around the corner of the door and searched the dark contents of the room. "Lily?" she called out when she couldn't find her.
"On the bed." Was all that Kayla could hear, and she assumed that it was Lily's voice, but it sounded so . . . small to her.
Kayla stepped away from the door, made sure that Sirius was following her, and began to make her way towards the bed, hoping that everything was how it was normally so that she didn't end up tripping on anything. 'Sirius,' she thought, 'could find his own way around, and trip all he wants.'
Kayla came to a stop in front of Lily and squinted in an attempt to see her. She sighed and walked over to a curtain and opened it an inch, just enough to let a ray of light into the otherwise dark room.
She then turned her attention back to her friend, her sister, and gazed at her. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, she had tear stains on her cheeks, but other than that and the pallor of her skin, she looked clean and proper in her knee length black dress with a square cut bust line, and two inch thick shoulder straps, black shoes, and her hair up in a French twist.
Kayla then walked back over to Lily, knelt before her, and laid her head on Lily's knees as she always had when she needed comfort from something.
"God," Kayla whispered as she felt tears prick her eyes again. She fought them, and when she was sure that she had won the battle she stood back up and faced Lily again.
~*~*~*~
Lily looked at Kayla, and saw the tears shimmering in her eyes, the red, puff skin around them, and the deathly white color of her normally tan skin. She ignored the loud "omphf" that came from Sirius as he was still trying to find his way across her room, and concentrated on Kayla.
She was wearing a long, full-skirted dress that had a slit that went to mid- thigh on one side, a scoop neckline, and long fit sleeves. Her black, curly hair was in a low, sophisticated bun, and her feet, to Lily's shock, were incased in heels.
"Lily," Kayla said, and with that one word, she knew why Kayla had come here. It was time. It was time to go and say her final good-byes.
Lily felt tears slide down her cheeks again, but paid them no heed as she slowly stood up. She could feel James' arms supporting her as she wobbled, and one of his arms slide safely around her waist as she began to walk towards the door. Lily stopped and, without turning held out her hand.
Kayla came up and grasped onto her hand, and felt Sirius slide his arm around her waist, much as James had done with Lily. The group made their way down the stairs slowly, no one talking, too lost in their thoughts to start up a conversation.
James looked down at his black arms sleeves on his tux, just thinking about how different things could be if Mr. Evans was still here.
On the opposite end, Sirius was doing much the same.
Before any of them had even noticed that they had begun to walk outside, they were inside of the small, intimate church that was placed on the grounds of the manor. They all began to make their way up front to the seats that had been saved for them. Lily sat next to her crying mother, and James sat next to Lily, pausing to kiss Alexandra on the cheek before sitting down. Sirius and Kayla sat down on the pew across from them along with Aria and Remus.
"Go sit with your own family, Potter," Petunia hissed as he sat next to her. James looked at the blonde haired woman with disgust, and then looked away. In all truth, Petunia Dursely looked as if she had done some serious years on crack. Her face was hollow and thin in some places, and her eyes seemed to be sunken into her head. 'The years had not been pleasant for this young . . . lady,' James mused.
Suddenly, the priest began the ceremony and James adverted his attention to him.
Somewhere in the middle of the never ending ceremony - or at least it seemed like it - the priest asked for the people who would be sharing their memories. Lily stood up shakily and made her way to the podium.
"Even though God chose him to part,
He'll always be with us inside the heart.
He's not gone forever though;
We'll be with him again, this I know.
He's in a whole new world now,
And he'll send us, he'll show us how.
He'll show us how to live on strong.
He's in Heaven, where he belongs.
We'll never know why God chose him to go;
It was just his time and he let us know.
The angels were calling on him that night,
And he felt safe to give up his fight.
He's at peace now forevermore;
We have to remember he'll never again be sore.
He's not in any pain at all;
He's up in Heaven, standing tall.
Just one last thing before I end,
One last message I have to send. I love you, Dad, with all my heart.
I always have, right from the start." Lily began, her voice breaking with the last two verses.
"My Father was everything to me, he was my role model, he was my friend, he was . . .well, my Father. I loved him, with everything I had, and I never thought that I'd love another like him until nine months ago, but that is neither here nor there in this speech.
"I remember when I was about twelve years old, I had just gotten home from school, and he was waiting for me by the door. He didn't even give me time to put my things away, all he did was pick me up, throw me over his shoulder and walk out towards the beach. Turns out that he only wanted to throw me into the water, but I remember just feeling like I was on top of the world for ten seconds before I hit that water. Then he came in with me, and that feeling returned. I knew, I knew that he loved me, that he missed me, that he'd do anything for me in that moment.
"He was always trying to protect me, save me from anything and everything, most commonly boys - which got on my nerves very often - and I really don't think that I ever got to thank him for that," she said, her voice starting to hitch with emotions.
"One thing that I am glad of though, is that the last thing that he had heard coming out of my mouth is, 'I love you so much Daddy, and I always will.' Some kids let their parents go and their last words to them were mean, or they left things unsaid, or they whished that they could have muttered those three words at least one more time, I'm not one of them. I know that he would come back from the dead and beat me silly with a frying pan if I ever even thought about wanting to change how things have already turned out. Wait," Lily said as an after thought. "Maybe I should think about it. Hear that Dad? Now, will you pop up with that frying pan now?" she asked on a sob, and received a few chuckles from some people.
"But anyways, my Father has to be the most . . . loving, caring, sweet, nice, decent person that I know. I will always remember sitting by the fire having a marshmallow fight with him because he decided that he wanted to steal one of my many pillows. And I will always remember him trying to suck up to mom when she caught us with marshmallows in our hair, in the fire, on the couches, everywhere. That didn't work mind you, but I remember the four hours that it took us to clean that stupid room up, and falling asleep in his arms when we became too tired to get up and move off of the couch. Those are the things that I've decided to remember about him, and I've decided to try to wipe out all of the memories of him shooing my boyfriends away, of him telling me no, and of him making me mad at him in any way.
"This speech might not have helped you get what I'm trying to talk about, so I'll tell you. You'll never in a million years, find another Nicolas Tristian Evans. If you do, please make sure that it is not my Father. Now, if it is, please send him back so that I can make sure that he learns his lesson.
"I do have one thing that I will always regret," Lily said after the chuckles died down, and everything became silent in the intimate and packed church. "I will always regret that he will never be able to play, and be able to teach my children what he has taught me. That, is something that I will always wish that I could change," she said, then broke down and cried as she sat back down in between her mother and James.
James knew that he was blushing at the mention of children, but didn't care. He slid his arms around Lily and held her to him as she cried.
~*~*~*~
"The first time I started to think of Mr. Evans as Dad was when I was about 10. I had been staying over with Lily and her family because my parents were on a trip, and this particular night, I was reading a book in his library. This was a place you quickly learned to stay out of unless you wanted to get your head cut off. But anyways, I was reading a book, 'Oliver Twist' to be exact, but I was having some troubles understanding some of the words. So Mr. Evans walks in and looks at me with his brow raised in a question that you just knew meant, 'What are you doing?' I smiled at him and asked him if he could help me finish reading that book, since I liked it and wanted to finish it.
"I thought that he was going to say no and get out of my library, but all he did was smile at me, walk over to the couch and sit next to me. He then threw his arm on the back of the couch, over my head, and told me to read. That night, I fell asleep in his lap reading. The next morning I woke up on the same couch, in the same position. It seems as if he had a fondness for falling asleep on the couches, for that was what he was doing.
"I remember just looking at him, and wishing that he was my Father, that just for once I could call him my Father." She whispered, but it was still heard due to the microphone that was on the podium. "He woke up, and I remember him looking at me, and before I could stop myself I had called him, 'Father'. I was so horrified! What would he do, what would he say? But, all he did was smile at me and say, 'I'd love to have you as a daughter. It seems as if you're here enough to be thought as one.' And ever since that day, that's what he has been to me. My Father.
"He might not have been the person responsible for my being here, but in many ways, he is my Father. He taught me how to love, he taught me right and wrong, he taught me everything worth knowing. And he saved me and sheltered me, and nourished me back to health in my darkest hour in my life. He is the one that I will always remember being there." She said as she swiped away the tears the insisted on falling down her cheeks and made her way back to Sirius, who kissed her temple and got up.
~*~*~*~
James, Sirius, Remus, Richard - Mr. Evans friend, William- Sirius' Dad, and James' Father Michael, all stood up and walked over to the coffin and lifted it up. As they walked down the hall, people began to file out of their seats and follow. Lily, Kayla, Alexandra, and Aria being in the lead.
As everyone reached the gravesite, the tears became heavier, the sobs louder, and the gloomy atmosphere gloomier.
As everyone said their last good-byes, the clouds began to come in and drip rain on the occupants around the grave. Slowly, one by one, friends and family began dropping flowers by his coffin. Then, as a team, Tiffany Potter - James' Mother, Lily, Alexandra, Kayla, Aria, and Dianna Black - Sirius's Mother, all walked up to the coffin itself, looking almost as if this was planned before hand, and placed a single flower on it.
Lily's was a single white Lily.
Kayla's was a white tulip.
Aria's was a sprig of Lavender.
Lastly, the respected Mother's all held a vibrant red rose and placed it on the coffin and Alexandra then withdrew another rose, this one white and laid it upon them also.
With this done, the lady's stepped back, one by one into the arms of loved ones.
Everyone watched as the coffin was slowly lowered to the ground, then just as slowly started to leave. Soon, the only ones left were Kayla, Sirius, Lily, James, Aria, Remus, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, Alexandra, Mr. and Mrs. Black, and the couple who had remained quiet the whole time, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin.
They all looked down at the newly turned ground and then back up, into the eyes of others before turning as a group for the house.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: The poem that Lily recites is called, "Dad" by Katrina Eileen Kirk.
"For a shield form the storm
For a friend
For al love to keep me safe and warm
I turn to you
For the strength to be strong
For the will to carry on . . ." - Christina Aguilera, "I turn to you"
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 22 - Farewell Daddy
May 26 came all too fast for some people.
Inside of a dark, cold room, a lone girl with red hair sat, her shoulders heaving with sobs, and the sound echoed through the usually cheerful bedroom.
All of the drapes were drawn against the ever-present glare of the sun, not one single ray of light was emitted into the room. The fire had been put out many hours ago.
"Why? Why did you take him from me?" was the mantra that echoed in the otherwise silent room.
~*~*~*~*~
James cleared the fireplace as soon as he arrived at the Evans Manor. Soon afterwards, Sirius, Kayla, Remus, and Aria were assembled in the wide entrance hall. Simultaneously, the five friends looked down at their black attire and brushed off the soot that had managed to get on them.
Kayla glanced up at James as she brushed the skirt of her long, black dress. "James," she whispered her voice hoarse from crying so much. "I think that you better be the one to go and see Lily first.
"I think," she broke off, her voice starting to crumble. Kayla took a deep breath, determined to finish what she wanted to say before she started to cry again. "I think that she'd appreciate it more if you were there to comfort her more than anyone else."
James looked up from his sleeves at the sound of his name and looked straight into Kayla's eyes. He nodded his agreement to what she had to say and looked gravely at the winding marble stairs that he knew led up to Lily's room.
He released a sigh and began walking towards them, scared to his marrow of what he might find once he reached her room. 'Will she even let me near her?' he wondered as he started down the hall that led to her room. 'Will she even talk to me? Will she even accept any-' he suddenly snapped out of his daze and realized that he had arrived at Lily's room. He looked at the wood paneling, trying to figure out what to do next.
When he realized that the only thing that there was to do was to open the door and comfort his girlfriend, he ran a nervous hand through his hair before he laid his hand on the brass doorknob.
The first thing James noticed as he stepped into the room was the darkness. He had to squint his eyes to make out the form of his girlfriend, sitting on the edge of her bed crying. Then he noticed the coldness as he shut the door and walk over to her on silent feet.
~*~*~*~*~
Lily jumped as she felt a warm, hard arm wrap around her shoulders and pull her face towards the shoulder. Lily could smell his cologne. It was so . . . male, so him. "James," she whispered on a sob. "He's gone, James, gone!" she cried out as she wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in the hollow of his neck, and clutched him to her as if her every life depended on it. Which in her opinion, it did.
"Shh. It's okay Lily, I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. Shhh," James whispered soothingly to her as he gently rubbed his hands in circles on her back in an attempt to soothe her.
Eventually Lily's sobs quieted and she began to hiccup a little. "My head hurts, my heart hurts, and I don't even think that I have the strength to walk anymore," Lily said quietly, her voice going hoarse from her crying.
"It's okay," James said as he leaned back so that he could get a good look at her. "I'll help you walk, we can perform a headache spell on you, and eventually your heart will stop aching."
Lily looked up, into his eyes and stared at him. "Do you really think so?" she asked, referring to her pain going away, because at this point, she really didn't think that it was possible for it to do so.
James looked down at his girlfriend and smirked. "Am I ever wrong?" he asked, trying to coax a smile out of her before they had to go to the service.
Lily narrowed her eyes at him and haughtily replied, "Yes. You were wrong when you said that we'd never get caught when we did that prank on the Slytherins two years ago when we had to actually go into the dorms. And you were wrong when you said that that stupid idiot of a squid was friendly. And you were wrong when you said that Professor McGonagall was nice. And you were wrong when you said-"
"Okay! I get the point, I get the point!" James yelled out in defeat. So, he'd been wrong a 'few' times, it was normal. And then James' eyes narrowed in thought.
"When did I ever say that the squid was nice?" he asked, trying to remember when he would have said that, considering that thing always tried to get him in the water.
"First year, when we were on the boats going across the lake, and the boat tipped over because Sirius thought that it'd be funny to plant a handful of Fireworks in Kayla's hair. Which, of course, made her get up and turn around after she put out the fire that had started in her hair and try to punch Sirius, but she ended up over balancing the boat, and the four of us all tipped over and ended up in the lake," she explained, her eyes twinkling a little at the memory.
James thought about this and smiled. He remembered that moment perfectly, because his favorite part of that story is when they finally reached the Great Hall, and were waiting for Professor Peirt - the headmistress from their first year - and Kayla turned around and socked Sirius in the stomach right when the doors opened.
Just then, someone knocked on the door, making both Lily and James look at it and snap out of their memories.
"Come in." Lily called in a small voice, fearing that it was someone who had come to tell her that it was time for the service to start.
Kayla's head sneaked from around the corner of the door and searched the dark contents of the room. "Lily?" she called out when she couldn't find her.
"On the bed." Was all that Kayla could hear, and she assumed that it was Lily's voice, but it sounded so . . . small to her.
Kayla stepped away from the door, made sure that Sirius was following her, and began to make her way towards the bed, hoping that everything was how it was normally so that she didn't end up tripping on anything. 'Sirius,' she thought, 'could find his own way around, and trip all he wants.'
Kayla came to a stop in front of Lily and squinted in an attempt to see her. She sighed and walked over to a curtain and opened it an inch, just enough to let a ray of light into the otherwise dark room.
She then turned her attention back to her friend, her sister, and gazed at her. Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, she had tear stains on her cheeks, but other than that and the pallor of her skin, she looked clean and proper in her knee length black dress with a square cut bust line, and two inch thick shoulder straps, black shoes, and her hair up in a French twist.
Kayla then walked back over to Lily, knelt before her, and laid her head on Lily's knees as she always had when she needed comfort from something.
"God," Kayla whispered as she felt tears prick her eyes again. She fought them, and when she was sure that she had won the battle she stood back up and faced Lily again.
~*~*~*~
Lily looked at Kayla, and saw the tears shimmering in her eyes, the red, puff skin around them, and the deathly white color of her normally tan skin. She ignored the loud "omphf" that came from Sirius as he was still trying to find his way across her room, and concentrated on Kayla.
She was wearing a long, full-skirted dress that had a slit that went to mid- thigh on one side, a scoop neckline, and long fit sleeves. Her black, curly hair was in a low, sophisticated bun, and her feet, to Lily's shock, were incased in heels.
"Lily," Kayla said, and with that one word, she knew why Kayla had come here. It was time. It was time to go and say her final good-byes.
Lily felt tears slide down her cheeks again, but paid them no heed as she slowly stood up. She could feel James' arms supporting her as she wobbled, and one of his arms slide safely around her waist as she began to walk towards the door. Lily stopped and, without turning held out her hand.
Kayla came up and grasped onto her hand, and felt Sirius slide his arm around her waist, much as James had done with Lily. The group made their way down the stairs slowly, no one talking, too lost in their thoughts to start up a conversation.
James looked down at his black arms sleeves on his tux, just thinking about how different things could be if Mr. Evans was still here.
On the opposite end, Sirius was doing much the same.
Before any of them had even noticed that they had begun to walk outside, they were inside of the small, intimate church that was placed on the grounds of the manor. They all began to make their way up front to the seats that had been saved for them. Lily sat next to her crying mother, and James sat next to Lily, pausing to kiss Alexandra on the cheek before sitting down. Sirius and Kayla sat down on the pew across from them along with Aria and Remus.
"Go sit with your own family, Potter," Petunia hissed as he sat next to her. James looked at the blonde haired woman with disgust, and then looked away. In all truth, Petunia Dursely looked as if she had done some serious years on crack. Her face was hollow and thin in some places, and her eyes seemed to be sunken into her head. 'The years had not been pleasant for this young . . . lady,' James mused.
Suddenly, the priest began the ceremony and James adverted his attention to him.
Somewhere in the middle of the never ending ceremony - or at least it seemed like it - the priest asked for the people who would be sharing their memories. Lily stood up shakily and made her way to the podium.
"Even though God chose him to part,
He'll always be with us inside the heart.
He's not gone forever though;
We'll be with him again, this I know.
He's in a whole new world now,
And he'll send us, he'll show us how.
He'll show us how to live on strong.
He's in Heaven, where he belongs.
We'll never know why God chose him to go;
It was just his time and he let us know.
The angels were calling on him that night,
And he felt safe to give up his fight.
He's at peace now forevermore;
We have to remember he'll never again be sore.
He's not in any pain at all;
He's up in Heaven, standing tall.
Just one last thing before I end,
One last message I have to send. I love you, Dad, with all my heart.
I always have, right from the start." Lily began, her voice breaking with the last two verses.
"My Father was everything to me, he was my role model, he was my friend, he was . . .well, my Father. I loved him, with everything I had, and I never thought that I'd love another like him until nine months ago, but that is neither here nor there in this speech.
"I remember when I was about twelve years old, I had just gotten home from school, and he was waiting for me by the door. He didn't even give me time to put my things away, all he did was pick me up, throw me over his shoulder and walk out towards the beach. Turns out that he only wanted to throw me into the water, but I remember just feeling like I was on top of the world for ten seconds before I hit that water. Then he came in with me, and that feeling returned. I knew, I knew that he loved me, that he missed me, that he'd do anything for me in that moment.
"He was always trying to protect me, save me from anything and everything, most commonly boys - which got on my nerves very often - and I really don't think that I ever got to thank him for that," she said, her voice starting to hitch with emotions.
"One thing that I am glad of though, is that the last thing that he had heard coming out of my mouth is, 'I love you so much Daddy, and I always will.' Some kids let their parents go and their last words to them were mean, or they left things unsaid, or they whished that they could have muttered those three words at least one more time, I'm not one of them. I know that he would come back from the dead and beat me silly with a frying pan if I ever even thought about wanting to change how things have already turned out. Wait," Lily said as an after thought. "Maybe I should think about it. Hear that Dad? Now, will you pop up with that frying pan now?" she asked on a sob, and received a few chuckles from some people.
"But anyways, my Father has to be the most . . . loving, caring, sweet, nice, decent person that I know. I will always remember sitting by the fire having a marshmallow fight with him because he decided that he wanted to steal one of my many pillows. And I will always remember him trying to suck up to mom when she caught us with marshmallows in our hair, in the fire, on the couches, everywhere. That didn't work mind you, but I remember the four hours that it took us to clean that stupid room up, and falling asleep in his arms when we became too tired to get up and move off of the couch. Those are the things that I've decided to remember about him, and I've decided to try to wipe out all of the memories of him shooing my boyfriends away, of him telling me no, and of him making me mad at him in any way.
"This speech might not have helped you get what I'm trying to talk about, so I'll tell you. You'll never in a million years, find another Nicolas Tristian Evans. If you do, please make sure that it is not my Father. Now, if it is, please send him back so that I can make sure that he learns his lesson.
"I do have one thing that I will always regret," Lily said after the chuckles died down, and everything became silent in the intimate and packed church. "I will always regret that he will never be able to play, and be able to teach my children what he has taught me. That, is something that I will always wish that I could change," she said, then broke down and cried as she sat back down in between her mother and James.
James knew that he was blushing at the mention of children, but didn't care. He slid his arms around Lily and held her to him as she cried.
~*~*~*~
"The first time I started to think of Mr. Evans as Dad was when I was about 10. I had been staying over with Lily and her family because my parents were on a trip, and this particular night, I was reading a book in his library. This was a place you quickly learned to stay out of unless you wanted to get your head cut off. But anyways, I was reading a book, 'Oliver Twist' to be exact, but I was having some troubles understanding some of the words. So Mr. Evans walks in and looks at me with his brow raised in a question that you just knew meant, 'What are you doing?' I smiled at him and asked him if he could help me finish reading that book, since I liked it and wanted to finish it.
"I thought that he was going to say no and get out of my library, but all he did was smile at me, walk over to the couch and sit next to me. He then threw his arm on the back of the couch, over my head, and told me to read. That night, I fell asleep in his lap reading. The next morning I woke up on the same couch, in the same position. It seems as if he had a fondness for falling asleep on the couches, for that was what he was doing.
"I remember just looking at him, and wishing that he was my Father, that just for once I could call him my Father." She whispered, but it was still heard due to the microphone that was on the podium. "He woke up, and I remember him looking at me, and before I could stop myself I had called him, 'Father'. I was so horrified! What would he do, what would he say? But, all he did was smile at me and say, 'I'd love to have you as a daughter. It seems as if you're here enough to be thought as one.' And ever since that day, that's what he has been to me. My Father.
"He might not have been the person responsible for my being here, but in many ways, he is my Father. He taught me how to love, he taught me right and wrong, he taught me everything worth knowing. And he saved me and sheltered me, and nourished me back to health in my darkest hour in my life. He is the one that I will always remember being there." She said as she swiped away the tears the insisted on falling down her cheeks and made her way back to Sirius, who kissed her temple and got up.
~*~*~*~
James, Sirius, Remus, Richard - Mr. Evans friend, William- Sirius' Dad, and James' Father Michael, all stood up and walked over to the coffin and lifted it up. As they walked down the hall, people began to file out of their seats and follow. Lily, Kayla, Alexandra, and Aria being in the lead.
As everyone reached the gravesite, the tears became heavier, the sobs louder, and the gloomy atmosphere gloomier.
As everyone said their last good-byes, the clouds began to come in and drip rain on the occupants around the grave. Slowly, one by one, friends and family began dropping flowers by his coffin. Then, as a team, Tiffany Potter - James' Mother, Lily, Alexandra, Kayla, Aria, and Dianna Black - Sirius's Mother, all walked up to the coffin itself, looking almost as if this was planned before hand, and placed a single flower on it.
Lily's was a single white Lily.
Kayla's was a white tulip.
Aria's was a sprig of Lavender.
Lastly, the respected Mother's all held a vibrant red rose and placed it on the coffin and Alexandra then withdrew another rose, this one white and laid it upon them also.
With this done, the lady's stepped back, one by one into the arms of loved ones.
Everyone watched as the coffin was slowly lowered to the ground, then just as slowly started to leave. Soon, the only ones left were Kayla, Sirius, Lily, James, Aria, Remus, Mr. and Mrs. Potter, Alexandra, Mr. and Mrs. Black, and the couple who had remained quiet the whole time, Mr. and Mrs. Lupin.
They all looked down at the newly turned ground and then back up, into the eyes of others before turning as a group for the house.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: The poem that Lily recites is called, "Dad" by Katrina Eileen Kirk.