Disclaimer: I do not own anything harry potterish

CharliexBlack: I'm afraid so hun. hope you liked the story.

PPP: I'm glad that you liked my chapter. I got the title from the houses. Serpent is the Slytherin Snake. Feline is the Gryffindor Lion.


The air resonated with the twittering of joyful birds. A sultry wind blew the scents of rich flowers in their beautiful prime, trees thickly blanketed in leaves, and all of the other wonderful scents of summer at the peak of its bloom. A harsh and cruel mockery of the day to those gathered. Kayleigh stood, a formal black silk gown stretched over her taut belly, the sun's heat being absorbed by the dullest of all colours, making sweat trickle down the back of her neck, and her legs ache from the fatigue of supporting the additional weight of her child and the pain of losing her best friend. Remus, noticing her discomfort, wrapped his arm around her back, silently offering support.

A flag in the Gryffindor colours covered the deep mahogany coffin that was being lowered gently into the ground as the priest blessed the body and prayed for the soul which had recently departed from it. A dish of earth was passed to a heart broken man, who was watching the coffins descent with ever growing grief and longing. Startled, he looked up at the man who passed the soil to him, before taking a handful, and dropping it into the hole; a tear rolling down his face as it thudded on the hard wood. It was a cue to everyone assembled that they should leave. Men began to cover the coffin with the soil they had excavated, and Sirius winced with every spadeful. It seemed too final. She, Charlotte, the only woman he had truly loved was dead. And every grain of earth only served to separate them further. Finally, the diggers had finished their task, and Sirius was left alone. Truly alone.

Sinking to his knees, ragged sobs tore themselves from his chest, clawed his throat to bloody shreds. As racking coughs punctuated his weeping, he burrowed and scrabbled feverishly through the dirt, trying to reunite himself with Charlotte once more. It wasn't fair. He went there to save her, but ended up killing her. If he hadn't have let Lucius get to him as much as he had done, he would have seen Draco enter. The wet-behind-the-ears Death Eater would have been no match for him, and then he could have concentrated on his enemy. Such thoughts had taunted him ever since he saw Charlotte fall. Haunting his dreams along with the memory of her toppling out of the open window. Accepting defeat at last and arms burning from the effort of digging, Sirius slumped into the ground, and cried.

The sun, in shame of its jolly smile in the face of such sorrow, sailed through the sky, and sank. Dusk came, and dew dampened Sirius' robes. Tears still trailed down his exhausted face. On the wind came the whisper of a memory, just a trace of past conversations. Charlotte's voice resonated on the breeze. 'Death is not the end. I love you.' The breeze turned his head, a brushed fallen petals and leaves into a multi-hued rainbow which formed the figure of a woman, a very familiar woman who smiled at Sirius, before settling to the ground again. 'I'll always be there for you.' Finding strength, Sirius patted the earth back into it's place, before kissing the headstone. For he knew that the ones we loved would never truly leave us, and that on the other side of this world, Charlotte, his beloved angel, would be waiting for him. And there they would dance in the world once more.

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glint on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you wake in the morning hush,
I am the swift, uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starlight at night.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.
I am not there, I do not sleep.
Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there, I did not die!


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