Death Be Not Proud
Dizmius A. Cheers to John Donne, for my use of the first line of his sonnet to death, the line continues as follows: ..Though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.
*Chapter Two*
August 2nd, 1996
A warm morning sun fell through the windows and made the stone floors of the small church just outside Godric's Hollow glow with a yellow warmth. A service of remembrance. Once falling through the veil, there was no way to retrieve Sirius' body, making a proper funeral pointless. It was better to remember the dead than to wallow in the pity that the coffin they were mourning for would be empty.
Remus wandered up to the lectern and stood behind it, surveying the empty pews. Sunlight was good, Sirius had loved the sun, he'd spent hours basking in its heat in the afternoons of idleness during Hogwarts. He had seen so little sun for just over a decade, Azkaban being in a permanent storm, due to the Dementors' desired habitat, it was a good thing that it would be sunny for this day to bid Sirius farewell. Someone pushed open the large wooden doors at the end of the church and silhouetted by the light behind him, stood Harry Potter.
"Harry." Remus tried his best to sound welcoming, biting back the thousand things he wanted to tell his best friend's son, but now simply didn't seem the right time.
"Snape's outside." Harry muttered, resentful that his Godfather's worst enemy had the sheer audacity to come here. "He wants to speak to you."
"Oh." Remus' heart fell even further. If Snape had some last jeering comment to make, some last request that would make everything seem so more difficult, then Remus would just turn away and leave them all. Every single one of them. Taking a deep breath, he walked outside into the sunlight, giving Harry what he hoped was a heartening attempt at a smile as they passed.
"Lupin." Severus Snape stood at the edge of a row of decaying gravestones. "Dumbledore sent urgent word a few minutes ago. It's Azkaban."
Remus pricked up attention at that, relieved it had nothing to do with Sirius for once. "What's happened?"
"They've found Demona." Severus almost whispered, "The Order, has found Demona's body in the basement of Azkaban's lot of cells."
"Demona? Demona who?" Remus frowned, not recognising.
"Oh for Goodness sake!" Severus rolled his eyes "Desdemona DuCruet! DuCruet, DuCruet! Remember her? Little Miss I Couldn't Even Pass My Potions OWL Slytherin Desdemona!"
"Desdemona who spent all of her fifth year torturing Lily because of some Potions essay?" Remus gasped, "The same Desdemona who Lily hit with the Annus Annullis curse in the Death Eater raids of 1981?"
"The very same." Snape folded his arms in the sleeves of his robes. "They've taken her to Grimmauld Place."
"Why?!" Remus almost choked, "They can't do that! Sirius!" He shook his head, "Is she revived?"
"No." Snape hissed, "And she will stay there until they have found whatever the counter curse is and got Desdemona back to normal instead of this ridiculous suspended petrified state she's currently in!"
"You WANT another Death Eater to handle?" Remus looked surprised, "I know you had this obsession with her in Hogwarts, but that was a long time ago. I. I cant believe I'm talking to you about your lack of a love life on an occasion like this! We can discuss this later."
"Very well, but don't be surprised when you get back to see Desdemona on the table." Snape did not move as Remus expected him to.
"You're staying?"
Snape nodded curtly, and turned away, leaving Remus to ponder on why he was still here, he couldn't want to attend the service, not after the grudges he held against Sirius. There was no further time for thought as people started arriving, greeting Remus with pitying faces. Once the pews were as full as to be expected, with Snape sitting alone at the back of the rows, in a dark corner of the church, Remus took himself up to the lectern and glanced at the figure of Dumbledore for reassurance. He had gone with his plan and had arranged nothing, letting the words speak for themselves as they chose to come forward.
He cleared his throat and began with what seemed most appropriate. "If Sirius could be here now, he'd laugh and say he was pleased so many people turned up, then he'd ask to see the supply of cake and alcohol." He smiled briefly. "You all knew and remember Sirius for different reasons, some." he flicked his eyes up at Snape "might not be so cheerful, but you remember him nonetheless as the bright, overly bright perhaps. the bright, energetic to the point of hyperactivity, dark haired god he always liked to think he was."
A few people tittered in the audience, it was a good start, Remus supposed.
"He didn't have the best pick of lives, any of you who remember or have heard of his family will understand why, there were. certain moral differences between them which led to his leaving just after his OWLs. He went to stay with James Potter, and things were heading for an up. I've heard people call them brothers, and in some ways they were perhaps more than brothers, they were the best of two alike minds, except as Sirius would always insist, he had the better hairstyle of the two. As I recall once, "straight off the Diagon Alley fashion week", which of course was another little joke of his."
Remus frowned as he saw Percy Weasley in the audience, what on earth did he want to come here for? Molly would surely say something. "However, the fact remains that Sirius Black left us as a wanted man. A man wrongly accused of murdering countless muggles and leading the Dark Lord, Lord Volde. mort to the Potters." He paused. "For years, I believed this to be the truth, but as I later found out, it was not. Sirius Black was never a murderer, never capable of leading his friends to their deaths, and spent the better part of a decade in jail, in agony over something he never did. There are many people who would never want to believe this, namely the families of those involved, not just muggle but Wizarding too. But you cannot shield what is true, and I hope that someday the Ministry will find it inside themselves to acknowledge their mistake as we all have done."
A moment of silence as Remus collected his thoughts, after which he then continued - "Sirius never had the chance to have a family of his own, and I have the feeling he would have made a brilliant father. He was definitely the best brother and friend I could ever have hoped for, and anybody who was friends with him could only agree that he brightened up every room he went into, wherever he went. Padfoot, wherever you are now, I know you are brightening up the place there too. And we. we all miss you, and bid you farewell."
Remus sniffed, he never wanted to say farewell, and the bit about the Ministry was going to provoke unnecessary attention, especially after Percy's arrival, but there was little more to be said, so he stepped down from the lectern and fell into a deep and mournful silence as the organ struck up its final song of remembrance and the people filed slowly out of the small church into the brilliant sunshine.
TBC
Rather short, I know, but I wanted this to stand alone as a chapter, rather than try to link it through to something else.
Dizmius A. Cheers to John Donne, for my use of the first line of his sonnet to death, the line continues as follows: ..Though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.
*Chapter Two*
August 2nd, 1996
A warm morning sun fell through the windows and made the stone floors of the small church just outside Godric's Hollow glow with a yellow warmth. A service of remembrance. Once falling through the veil, there was no way to retrieve Sirius' body, making a proper funeral pointless. It was better to remember the dead than to wallow in the pity that the coffin they were mourning for would be empty.
Remus wandered up to the lectern and stood behind it, surveying the empty pews. Sunlight was good, Sirius had loved the sun, he'd spent hours basking in its heat in the afternoons of idleness during Hogwarts. He had seen so little sun for just over a decade, Azkaban being in a permanent storm, due to the Dementors' desired habitat, it was a good thing that it would be sunny for this day to bid Sirius farewell. Someone pushed open the large wooden doors at the end of the church and silhouetted by the light behind him, stood Harry Potter.
"Harry." Remus tried his best to sound welcoming, biting back the thousand things he wanted to tell his best friend's son, but now simply didn't seem the right time.
"Snape's outside." Harry muttered, resentful that his Godfather's worst enemy had the sheer audacity to come here. "He wants to speak to you."
"Oh." Remus' heart fell even further. If Snape had some last jeering comment to make, some last request that would make everything seem so more difficult, then Remus would just turn away and leave them all. Every single one of them. Taking a deep breath, he walked outside into the sunlight, giving Harry what he hoped was a heartening attempt at a smile as they passed.
"Lupin." Severus Snape stood at the edge of a row of decaying gravestones. "Dumbledore sent urgent word a few minutes ago. It's Azkaban."
Remus pricked up attention at that, relieved it had nothing to do with Sirius for once. "What's happened?"
"They've found Demona." Severus almost whispered, "The Order, has found Demona's body in the basement of Azkaban's lot of cells."
"Demona? Demona who?" Remus frowned, not recognising.
"Oh for Goodness sake!" Severus rolled his eyes "Desdemona DuCruet! DuCruet, DuCruet! Remember her? Little Miss I Couldn't Even Pass My Potions OWL Slytherin Desdemona!"
"Desdemona who spent all of her fifth year torturing Lily because of some Potions essay?" Remus gasped, "The same Desdemona who Lily hit with the Annus Annullis curse in the Death Eater raids of 1981?"
"The very same." Snape folded his arms in the sleeves of his robes. "They've taken her to Grimmauld Place."
"Why?!" Remus almost choked, "They can't do that! Sirius!" He shook his head, "Is she revived?"
"No." Snape hissed, "And she will stay there until they have found whatever the counter curse is and got Desdemona back to normal instead of this ridiculous suspended petrified state she's currently in!"
"You WANT another Death Eater to handle?" Remus looked surprised, "I know you had this obsession with her in Hogwarts, but that was a long time ago. I. I cant believe I'm talking to you about your lack of a love life on an occasion like this! We can discuss this later."
"Very well, but don't be surprised when you get back to see Desdemona on the table." Snape did not move as Remus expected him to.
"You're staying?"
Snape nodded curtly, and turned away, leaving Remus to ponder on why he was still here, he couldn't want to attend the service, not after the grudges he held against Sirius. There was no further time for thought as people started arriving, greeting Remus with pitying faces. Once the pews were as full as to be expected, with Snape sitting alone at the back of the rows, in a dark corner of the church, Remus took himself up to the lectern and glanced at the figure of Dumbledore for reassurance. He had gone with his plan and had arranged nothing, letting the words speak for themselves as they chose to come forward.
He cleared his throat and began with what seemed most appropriate. "If Sirius could be here now, he'd laugh and say he was pleased so many people turned up, then he'd ask to see the supply of cake and alcohol." He smiled briefly. "You all knew and remember Sirius for different reasons, some." he flicked his eyes up at Snape "might not be so cheerful, but you remember him nonetheless as the bright, overly bright perhaps. the bright, energetic to the point of hyperactivity, dark haired god he always liked to think he was."
A few people tittered in the audience, it was a good start, Remus supposed.
"He didn't have the best pick of lives, any of you who remember or have heard of his family will understand why, there were. certain moral differences between them which led to his leaving just after his OWLs. He went to stay with James Potter, and things were heading for an up. I've heard people call them brothers, and in some ways they were perhaps more than brothers, they were the best of two alike minds, except as Sirius would always insist, he had the better hairstyle of the two. As I recall once, "straight off the Diagon Alley fashion week", which of course was another little joke of his."
Remus frowned as he saw Percy Weasley in the audience, what on earth did he want to come here for? Molly would surely say something. "However, the fact remains that Sirius Black left us as a wanted man. A man wrongly accused of murdering countless muggles and leading the Dark Lord, Lord Volde. mort to the Potters." He paused. "For years, I believed this to be the truth, but as I later found out, it was not. Sirius Black was never a murderer, never capable of leading his friends to their deaths, and spent the better part of a decade in jail, in agony over something he never did. There are many people who would never want to believe this, namely the families of those involved, not just muggle but Wizarding too. But you cannot shield what is true, and I hope that someday the Ministry will find it inside themselves to acknowledge their mistake as we all have done."
A moment of silence as Remus collected his thoughts, after which he then continued - "Sirius never had the chance to have a family of his own, and I have the feeling he would have made a brilliant father. He was definitely the best brother and friend I could ever have hoped for, and anybody who was friends with him could only agree that he brightened up every room he went into, wherever he went. Padfoot, wherever you are now, I know you are brightening up the place there too. And we. we all miss you, and bid you farewell."
Remus sniffed, he never wanted to say farewell, and the bit about the Ministry was going to provoke unnecessary attention, especially after Percy's arrival, but there was little more to be said, so he stepped down from the lectern and fell into a deep and mournful silence as the organ struck up its final song of remembrance and the people filed slowly out of the small church into the brilliant sunshine.
TBC
Rather short, I know, but I wanted this to stand alone as a chapter, rather than try to link it through to something else.