Disclaimer: Harry Potter does not belong to me. All rights go to JK Rowling/Warner Bros. I do not profit in any way.
James and Lily Potter didn't have a funeral.
They didn't have any living relatives to pay for it.
Remus Lupin only had enough money to buy the two handsome oak coffins, and to cover the cost of the burial.
Remus stood at the newly dug graves, feeling entirely empty.
There wasn't anyone left to stand there with him. Peter was dead. Sirius had killed them.
Marlene, Mary, Benjy.
Dead. Dead. Dead.
All lying in cold graves like these.
Alice and Frank. He'd visited them once. Their glassy eyes slid right over him.
He was alone. More so than he'd ever been.
It was anger that had fizzled through Remus's veins at first. He'd welcomed it. It was a distraction. He could rage at Sirius and his terrible betrayal, and forget the result.
But the anger was gone now. And nothing had replaced it.
He was hollow, and it scared him to death.
The November wind nipped at his skin, turning his sallow cheeks a pinker hue. Still, Remus stood there. Trying to feel something… anything.
But why should he feel a connection to the shallow graves? Only Lily and James's bodies were four feet under (for he suspected he hadn't paid enough for the full six) - James's laugh, Lily's blush, her witty comments and his sharp retorts. They didn't lie under the earth. They were gone.
Remus took a few steps back from the grave, letting his feet lead him down the familiar street, to the cottage.
What was left of it, at least.
There was a new, shiny sign outside, telling the story of Lily and James like they were already characters in a history book.
He hated it.
Because they weren't heroes who gave their lives for the wizarding world. Lily and James were two people, caught up too young, trying to protect their son as best they could.
They weren't martyrs. They were human beings. One man, one woman, head-over-heels in love with each other.
They were his friends.
And so Remus was the first to carve his message into the sign.
I'll always miss you, James and Lily. Long live Harry Potter.
Harry would hardly register the message years later, ignorant to Remus's involvement.
When it was done, Remus put his wand away in his pocket, and he entered the garden, his expression unchanged.
The flowers that Lily had so laboriously planted when they'd bought the cottage were wilting. Remus doubted that they'd live for much longer anyway, so he had no qualms about picking them.
One. Two. Three.
Three dead friends.
Three dead flowers.
Remus walked back to the graveyard, and he placed the three white tulips in front of his friends' joint headstone.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
The pain started to burn within him. His eyes started to water.
And in that moment, Remus wouldn't have wished it away for the world.