Chapter 19

Funeral

By Pence Auryion and Majhica Santose

The next couple days were hard on everyone. Remus was given the rest of the week off, and Pence just cut all her classes to be with him. The others had found out about the death from the paper, they were also skipping most classes.

Remus received a letter Thursday night, saying that his mother's funeral was Friday afternoon. Dumbledore gave all six of them permission to go, because he said that Pence, James, Sirius, Maj, and Peter would just sneak out anyways.
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"Hey, Remus, you okay?" asked Pence, "Wait…don't answer that, sorry."
"It's okay…" he said, though Pence knew it wasn't. The six were in London, staying at the Leaky Cauldron for the funeral. Pence and Remus sat in their room, both were wearing all black.
"Sad." Remus said quietly.
"What?" Pence asked a bit confused.
"Everyone's so sad;" he explained, "Maj and Sirius haven't snogged, or even held hands since they found out. Peter's cut back on eating…and James isn't obsessive about Lily. It's too sad for them."
"Well yea," Pence said, "It's your mom…and you're their best friend. We care about you Moony."
"Pence…" Remus said softly before pulling her into a hug. "Thanks, for everything you've ever done for me. I love you." Pence smiled,
"I love you too, Rem." They stood there for a moment,
"Well, we'd better go get everyone else, it's almost time to head to the church." Pence grabbed her jacket and opened the door.
"I'll be down in a minute." Remus said. Pence nodded and closed the door.

Pence walked down the hallway to the room where everyone else was. She knocked on the door; Maj answered.
"Hey," Maj said, letting Pence step inside, "Prongs is still trying to get his hair to go down." she smiled weakly.
"How's Moony holding up?" asked Sirius coming over.
"He's doing pretty well, actually. He's gonna meet us downstairs." Pence said, ignoring the cigarette in Sirius's mouth. Maj looked at her watch,
"Meh, we'd better get going." she said.
"Wormtail, Prongs…get your arses in gear, let's go!" yelled Sirius. Several seconds later, Peter and James came into the room dressed in black like the rest of them. They all went downstairs, soon joined by Remus.
They took a taxi to a small church on the outskirts of town. As they got out of the cab, Sirius handed the driver some money and put on a pair of sunglasses. Walking into the church, Pence took Remus's hand suddenly; he looked over at her.
"People look at me strange when I'm in churches. I almost didn't go to my family's funeral because of it." she said quietly. Remus nodded as he scanned through the crowd of people, until he found his father. They all walked over to him.
"Dad," Remus said, "this is Pence Auryion, and Majhica Santose." he indicated them both, "and you remember Sirius, James, and Peter?"
"Of course," Remus's father attempted a smile, "How are you all?"
"We're holding up…" Maj said, taking Sirius's hand.
"Lovely," Remus's dad said in a way that seemed so unlike how someone would act at their wife's funeral, "Well, we'd better go sit down."
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After the funeral, they went to the reception in the church basement. Pence, James, and Peter stayed with Remus while he was bombarded by relatives. Sirius was sitting on the church steps, smoking a cigarette, still wearing his sunglasses. Maj went and sat down by him.
"I can't do that again…" Sirius said, putting out his cigarette.
"What do you mean?" asked Maj.
"A funeral…I've never been to one before. The only people in my family that have died were all very distant, or they died when I was too young to remember." Maj nodded, and then paused before she said,
"By the way, what's with the sunglasses?" Sirius smirked and took the glasses off.
"My family almost never went to church," he said, "but one of the first times we did, a Catholic priest told me he could see a demon in my eyes. That was when I was ten…now, it's just habit to wear sunglasses whenever I get around a church." Maj laughed,
"You're crazy…but I love you anyways." she smiled and kissed him.
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They all got back to the Leaky Cauldron around ten; they were supposed to leave the next morning at eight, so they all had to get some rest.
"You did good tonight, Rem." Pence said as he lay down on the couch.
"Mm…I don't ever want to go to another funeral again. Especially another person that's close to me."
"Hopefully you won't have to babe." Pence said, lowering herself into Remus's arms.
"This is weird…Monday we were just hoping we wouldn't get too beat up so we could go to classes…" Remus said, "and now, here we are, getting back from…my mum's funeral."
"Yea," Pence agreed, "You know, I've never felt as old as I do right now." she gave a little smile, "But I don't want to think anymore tonight…I just want to sleep. Sleep is good."
"Amen to that," Remus yawned, closing his eyes.