Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any other known character from the Harry Potter series. I do own the plot and a few characters.
Well ladies and gentlemen this is the end. No more 'Breath of Life'…this is the first story I finished and I'm proud of it. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. I apologize for my three-month absence but consider that in those months the story changed to what it is today. This chapter is the final and I don't really plan on changing it or anything. Hope you like it no matter what. Like I said on the one before things will not get better. I would really like to thank all the readers and my lovely reviewers. I love you all. Well I'll let you read now.
Chapter 41 – The end comes…
Iris was dead. Sirius couldn't believe his eyes as he approached her limp body. Her chest was not moving up and down as it should be and he couldn't hear her breathe. He kneeled beside her and grabbed her hand. It was cold and applied no pressure on his. His head fell on her chest and silence met his ears. No heartbeat, no nothing. Just death. Tears fell from his eyes as he grabbed her limp body and held her close to him. He wanted to scream at the top of his lungs but he didn't want to betray the rest of the Order. In pain he started to rock back and forth with Iris's body in his arms. He cried harder and was taking all of his will power for him to not start crying loudly. He looked down and noticed there were more Death eaters gathered there. His blood began to boil and he wished he could just jump down and kill them all. The arrival of Remus cut his trail of dark thoughts.
"Sirius, what happened? What's wrong with Iris?" Remus asked in near shock.
"She's dead Remus."
"How? She can't be dead. The potion…and no one knows we are here." Remus said crouching down besides them.
"I don't think she took it. And you may think this sounds crazy but…I think I did it."
"What?"
"I was back there and I don't remember getting here. I had my wand in my hand and I have a blank." Sirius explained, pointing to the box where he had been hiding and to the wand on the floor a few feet away.
"It is not possible Sirius."
"See for yourself. Hide behind the box and do the 'last spell' spell on my wand." His eyes were pleading. Even if he didn't like what they could find out he wanted to know for sure. Remus understood and moved slowly towards the wand and then behind the box Sirius had been previously.
"Prior Incantato!" he whispered and watched in horror as the ghost of Iris came out of the tip of Sirius's wand. "Deletrius!" the ghost disappeared immediately, even before it came all the way out. Swallowing hard he came out of his hideout and looked at Sirius in utter shock. Sirius was now having real trouble in keeping quiet and Remus noticed this. Thinking quickly he used the silencing charm on his friend. When Sirius noticed what he had done he allowed himself to scream. Lupin watched with tears in his eyes as he saw Sirius open his mouth in what seemed like a fierce scream. Remus closed his eyes but forced himself to get back on the horse and make sure the plan was set in motion. He would have to make up some excuse for Sirius and Iris's absence but they couldn't get distracted. He went to Sirius and told him what he was going to do. Sirius nodded half-heartedly and watched in silence as Remus went back to his place. He leaned back against the column and closed his eyes, Iris's limp body still on his arms. He wouldn't let go even if a Death Eater came to threaten him.
When Sirius opened his eyes he noticed he was no longer sitting against the column but against a wall. He also noticed that Iris was no longer in his arms. He got up quickly and panicked. He started running around until he figured he was now on the first floor and there were people all around him. He gazed into their faces. Remus had a cut on his left cheek but other than that seemed to be all right. Hermione was holding her side and seemed to be having some trouble breathing. Ron was holding her to him and had a somewhat bleeding nose. The twins seemed fine and so did the rest of the Weasleys. Harry looked really, really tired and had several cuts on him. Dumbledore was standing near Tonks who was hovering over a fallen body. The fallen body of Kingsley to be exact. Sirius noticed other bodies on the floor. On a corner of the big room were the bodies of the Death Eaters all tied together nicely. They all seemed unconscious, as were the bodies of the members of the Order. They would be coming to their senses soon. But one of them wasn't. Sirius struggled to find Iris and found her as soon as he found Sarah. She was crying harder than he had been if that was possible. She was a complete mess. Sirius approached them, half of his mind wanting it all to be just a bad dream and the other half accusing him of the situation. That half was completely right. Sirius had killed his love. Iris was dead because of him. Sarah raised her head when she heard him approach. Her eyes were full of anger when she got up and moved to attack Sirius.
"How could you? How could you let this happen?" she yelled at him.
She was still moving to attack him and he wasn't exactly planning to move away. However Remus got a hold of her before she reached him. She fell into violent sobs as Remus held on to her.
"I'm sorry." Sirius whispered.
"It's the second time she dies because of you. And this time she went to a place I can get her from. She's really dead this time Sirius." She tried to scream at him but her sobs weren't allowing her.
Sirius closed his eyes as Sarah's words hit his ears, heart and soul. He couldn't take much more of it but her next words were what really ripped him apart even further.
"I hate you Sirius and I hope you burn in hell." She yelled with confidence this time.
Silence fell on the big room for a while before Remus's whispers ended it. He was trying to control his wife but it was proving futile. She just sobbed harder and harder and Sirius felt he was going to throw up. He was feeling sick and dizzy and hardly noticed when Harry rested his hand on his shoulder. He fell on his knees and Harry hugged his kneeling form. Soon they were both crying hard. Sirius heard Dumbledore's voice saying softly to everyone present there.
"It's a terrible loss. She will most definitely be missed. But we will have time to mourn over her in peace now. For it is over. Voldemort has been destroyed. Now let's all go home and calm ourselves." He said and looked at Sarah, who was still being held by Remus and sobbing, hard. The ones not crying nodded and silently everyone left the warehouse. That part was over. But now came something that would prove to be even worse.
No one knew exactly how to break the news to Katherine. Sirius entered his house carrying Iris bridal style followed by Harry, Ron and Hermione who had insisted to come with them. Remus was torn between staying with Sirius or follow Sarah as she stormed the hallway towards her room crying. Sirius nodded softly to him and he went after his wife.
Katherine and Rosh were playing happily when Sirius entered the living room. The kids looked up and smiled, happy to seem them. However their smiles faded fast as their eyes fell upon Iris's body. Katherine got up slowly and approached her parents even more slowly. She opened her mouth in shock.
"Mommy?" she asked softly. Sirius closed his eyes. It was too much for him to face his daughter.
"What happened to Aunt Iris?" Rosh asked also coming closer to them.
"It was an accident. I…I killed her." Sirius said bravely.
Hermione grabbed Ron's hand and Ron squeezed Harry's shoulder. Katherine's eyes were getting wide as she realized what her father had just said.
"You killed mommy?" she asked.
Sirius didn't answer. He just lowered his head and started crying again. Harry saw in Katherine's eyes an anger he had never imagined possible in a 5-year old. He actually thought she was going to make them all explode. Unexpectedly she just screamed a felt 'I hate you' and stormed out of the living room. No one knew how to react after that.
Katherine never left her room after that day and Rosh was the only person she talked to. Iris was now laying on their bed and there she would remain until Sirius decided against it. He spent most of his time there, just watching her peaceful face. It had been two weeks already but he wasn't budging. No one could get him out of the room. He had hardly eaten during those two weeks and he only ate anything substantial when Remus left a tray by his door. And that wasn't often because he had to sneak food from the kitchen due to Sarah forbidding him to give food to that 'rotting piece of meat' as she now called Sirius.
"Let him starve. That way he can get what he deserves." She had said two days after the incident.
Remus had decided to ignore her and sneaked food to feed his friend. He had lost him twice and wasn't going for a third time.
The days passed slowly. Almost a month after that dreadful day Katherine left her room and went to the room where Sarah was working on something.
"Hello Aunt Sarah." The little girl said softly.
"Hello there sweety. How are you?" Sarah asked looking up from her work. Both of them had red, puffy eyes from all the crying.
Katherine shrugged and started looking around the shelves the room had. They were filled with books and little vials. One caught Katherine's attention because it was standing on a table rather than a shelf.
"What is this?" she asked holding it up.
"That is a very strong poison. It was meaning to throw it away but I guess it slipped my mind."
"Oh!" Kat said simply. She eyed the vial and it's content for a while before her eyes sparkled. "Do you mind if I throw it out for you?" she asked, hiding a smirk.
"Not at all. I would thank you if you did."
"Than you can thank me. I'm flushing it down the toilet." Katherine said grinning a bit.
"You do that." Sarah said smiling.
Katherine left the room holding the vial and went to the kitchen. She had no intention of flushing it down the toilet.
A week later Remus was climbing the stairs to Sirius's room with another tray of food in his hands. He would leave it at the door and leave. However the sight of another tray on the floor made him frown. Upon closer inspection he saw it was the one he had brought two days ago. A bad feeling came to him as he sensed a faint bad smell coming from inside the room. Not that the food on the tray smelled good, but the one coming from the room was different. It smelled of…death. Remus frowned harder. Sirius would never let Iris smell. He had taken precautions to make sure that never happened. However Remus was sure he smelled death coming from the room. Trembling from head to toe he grabbed the door handle. Slowly he opened the door and almost chocked when he looked inside. Iris was laying on the bed as she had been for the past month. However Sirius was sprawled beside her. Remus approached his friend thinking he was probably sleeping. He placed his hand on his neck and felt nothing. With fear he turned Sirius to the side a bit and the look on his friends' face was enough to make him sick. Sirius's eyes were open but lifeless. However he had a look of despair mixed with contentment. It looked as if he had suffered in his death yet he was happy to be dieing. Remus fell to the floor and started crying. His hand came into contact with something on the floor. It was a cup. Beside it was a small spot and after closer inspection he figured it was a tea spot. Remus looked up. Sirius had been poisoned. Instead of crying he fell into a state of shock and didn't even see when Harry entered the room.
"Sirius?" he said.
Remus snapped out of his state of shock and restarted crying. Harry fell to his knees and started crying as well. On his mind was one thought. He had destroyed Voldemort but lost the ones he loved. Life sucked.
Well look on the bright side people: you may get a nice surprise soon ;)
Cheers
