Disclaimer: I own nothing but part of the plot and a couple characters.
Author's Note: I hope this longer chapter satisfies those of you who have been asking for longer chapters. If you don't think it's long enough, sorry. It is what it is. By the way, the long passage in Italics is Bennett's memory. Enjoy!
Not the Last
Chapter 6-Discoveries
"What to do, what to do?" Bennett thought to himself. He had spent the last hour watching muggle television. He had decided he should do something semi-productive.
When Bennett couldn't find anything to do he cleaned. He would grab every cleaning product he could find and clean everything in easiest reach.
Bennett started going through the cupboards in Remus's kitchen. After a long hunt, he found some dusters, a bottle of floor polish, and a mop.
He hurried through the house, covering every inch that wasn't spotless. Bennett was quick, but thorough. By the time he was finished he was exhausted, but the house looked amazing.
Felling useful and proud, Bennett flopped down on the couch and fell into a deep sleep almost instantly.
Remus came home from the job interview he had been at a few hours after Bennett had fallen asleep.
Remus felt a bit deflated and grumpy. The interviewer said they would contact him at a later date, but he highly doubted he would get the job. The interviewer didn't hide the look of disgust on her face very well when she read his medical records. In other words, she didn't really fancy having a werewolf work for her.
However, as soon as he stepped into his house a smile crossed his face.
He crossed the threshold and walked over to the couch where he gently prodded his snoozing friend awake.
"I would have to say that this entire house is complete and utter proof that you haven't lost your touch."
Bennett smiled and said, "There wasn't much on muggle television and I thought about you being at a job interview trying to find work. I felt sort-of useless, so I did this."
Remus chuckled before he took a more serious tone.
"In my mind, you will never, not even for a second, be considered useless."
"...Thank you, Remus. I think you might be the only one who thinks that," Bennett replied quietly.
Remus extended his hand to his best friend as he said, "I think I could name a few more people."
"You think?" Bennett asked, his eyes twinkling.
"I misspoke. I know I can name more people who think you're worth something," Remus said with a decisive tone of voice. He once again extended his hand, which Bennett gladly accepted.
As Remus helped him up they shared grateful smiles. For they had both lost their three other closest friends in a little over two weeks. Yet, they still had each other.
James...Lily...Sirius!
The names kept repeating over and over in Bennett's mind as he tossed and turned in his sleep.
He finally awoke with a start, breathing hard and covered in sweat.
Bennett held his head in his hands.
"This has gone on too long," he admitted to himself quietly.
He jumped out of bed and went down the stairs, being careful not to wake Remus.
Once he reached the living room, he had trouble deciphering why he came down there in the first place. There was nothing there that could possibly help him. There was nothing that would help him connect the dots in the mystery of James and Lily's deaths.
Bennett started pacing across the room, growing angrier and more frustrated by the second.
Finding nothing better, Bennett chucked a pillow at Remus's bookcases.
As the pillow hit the ground, so did a book.
"Blast," Bennett mumbled as he walked over to the fallen book.
A look of recognition and surprise crossed his face as he picked it up. He hadn't seen this book in many years. He had had a copy of his own at one point, but it had gotten lost over the years.
In his hands he held his yearbook from his seventh year at Hogwarts.
Bennett's anger and frustration seemed to melt away as he sat in one of Remus's armchairs and started flipping through the book.
He smiled as all the memories of the past came flooding back.
As he turned to the page where their graduating class was pictured, a few stray pictures fell out.
Bennett chuckled as he looked at pictures from the day they graduated. He could remember the conversation they all had before they took the picture:
"Oi, Marauders! Get over here!" James called to his friends.
"What's the bloody hurry, Prongs? We've graduated; we've got our whole lives ahead of us!" Sirius replied as James kept hurriedly beckoning them over.
"I want to take a picture with the five idiots I call my friends before I leave. And I still have to talk to Lily. Oh, I hope she hasn't left yet," James said quickly in explanation, a hint of panic in his voice.
"James, calm down. I saw her over by the lake earlier. She's saying really long good-bye's to all her friends. She's not going anytime soon," Remus assured him.
"Ok. Wait, where's Wormtail!" James exclaimed as he spun every which-way, trying to locate his final friend.
"I haven't seen him since early this morning, actually," Bennett said with a suspicious look on his face.
James looked around desperately one last time before saying, "I guess we'll have to take the picture without him because my parents are getting impatient and I really need to talk to Lily."
They got into formation in front of the camera.
"This is it," Bennett whispered to his brother as they waited for the flash of the camera. James smiled back at him as the camera clicked, taking the picture.
"Well, if I am not needed for anything else, I'm afraid I'll have to be on my way," Sirius said, clapping his hands together.
"I admit that I also have to go," Remus told James also.
"Well, I guess this is good-bye, guys."
"Oh, come on, Prongs! Don't be a prat. It's only farewell for a little while," Sirius said exasperatedly.
Bennett and James laughed. Both knew whole-heartedly that Sirius would never change.
After they exchanged manly hugs, (if there was such a thing), they bid each other farewell and offered good luck in their later adventures.
As the Potter brothers watched two of their oldest friends walk away, Bennett turned to his brother once again and said, "Don't you think you should go find Lily?"
"Yeah, I should," James said, nervously clutching something in his pocket.
"You're going to ask her to marry you, aren't you?" Bennett asked quietly.
"How'd you know?" James said.
"I always suspected it would happen. And I also saw the ring on your bedside table last night," he responded matter-of-factly.
James shook his head in wonder as he walked down to where Lily stood by the lake.
He pulled her aside from her group of friends. He got down on one knee and held the ring out to her.
Bennett smiled as Lily jumped up and down as she threw her arms around James.
As Lily calmed down, James looked over at Bennett and gave him the thumbs-up sign.
Bennett returned the gesture and mouthed one word.
"Congratulations."
Bennett looked at the picture again as his recollection ended.
Then it hit him. He had forgotten one of the dots in the puzzle that had caused the deaths of James and Lily.
Wormtail.