AN: I know I've been gone for a very long time and I can't promise I'm back now I'm just putting up another chapter since I'm on break from my classes now. Thank you to those readers who are left and still care about this, I appreciate your support and if you fancy sending a review my way I wouldn't stop you (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

The Woes of the Red Heads

James and Lily returned early from their honeymoon, the second they heard about the attack in fact. But stfl they arrived too late to be of any help. By the time they arrived at the hospital everyone had long been cared for and were dolefully sitting in the waiting room for updates on Sirius's condition. The newlyweds had found about the Weasley brothers outside of the hospital via patronus sent by Dumbledore.

Even though he knew what he had to face he was still shocked by the sight. Remus was sitting with his arm around Andy, he had bandages covering his foot and a crutch next to him along with an assortment of bruises covering his exposed flesh. Andy had similar wrapping on her chest and neck, her left eye was black and blue. Benjy was in a similar position with Marlene with his arm around her. He was cradling his left arm and had a few bruises and band-aids but aside from that's seemed fine, Marlene only had a large white bandage on her cheek nothing else damaged was visibly though by the way she sat and held her side it appeared to be causing her pain. Heather was sitting beside Laura, she only had some bruising and bandages, nothing seemed serious, Laura had a white bandage around her head and there was a faint red dot seeping through, she must've been hit by a curse which would cause it to have continuous bleeding. Chris was next to them with his arm in a sling and shoulder bound tight, but other then the minor wounds he held that seemed to be the only thing. Peter was there as well, but he held no wounds, he must not have made it in time to do any fighting.

Lily was the first to make their presence known as she stepped forward, the souls of her shoes clicking heavily in the silent room. Slowly the people looked up but gave her no smiles of reassurance. Remus was the first to stand, he leaned heavily on the crutch as his adrenaline rush was now gone and he could no longer walk on it without some help.

He approached the two solemnly and opened his mouth to speak but found he couldn't say anything so he promptly shut it, James on the other hand has something to say. "Where's Sirius?" He asked quietly, still unaware of his friends condition, at this point he was assuming the worst.

"Alive." Remus said quickly to rid James's mind of any foul thoughts. "He's resting in his room, the healers won't let any of us in right now. You can try, maybe they'll let you in for a minute or so."

He nodded and placed his hand on the small of Lily's back to guide her over to Remus, silently telling her to sit and wait with them while he spoke with the healers. She nodded and went with Remus helping him with his crutch as he sat down beside any and she took the seat on the other side of him.

James redirected himself over to the counter where a medi-witch sat quietly. "Um, hello, could I have the room number of Sirius Black?"

She gave him a sympathetic look, she must've known the whole situation due to the mass amount of injured people in her waiting room. "I'm sorry, he's resting, the healers aren't permitting visitors at the moment."

"Please, he's… he's my best friend. I - I have to see him, I have to know he okay."

She sighed and sucked on her teeth in thought for a moment before looking back up at him and giving a soft smile, the rest of the friends had seen him why shouldn't he if it was only for a moment? "Alright, but only for a few minutes, he needs his rest."

"Yes, okay, thank you, thank you so much." James said feeling like he was out of breath as he took deep breaths trying to slow his heart rate.

"He's lucky," she said as she led him down the hall and to a nearby door, "to have friends like you and the rest of them out there, especially in times like these." She finished gravely opening the door for him. "I'll be back in five minutes."

"Thank you." He said once more as she smiled and closed the door behind him leaving him alone in the room with Sirius.

James stood in the doorway for a minute staring down at his long time best friend. He had never seen him look so… helpless. There was a bandage around his head with a large red splotch staining the white. That side of his face was also covered in bruises and his eye was probably swollen shut. The crisp white blanket was pulled up to his chest so James couldn't see any of his other possible injuries but he suspected that was al there was. He didn't see any enlarged parts on his legs or stomach where there would be a cast and there weren't any crutches handy, though with that had wound Sirius wouldn't be getting up any time soon.

Slowly he approached the bed and sat down in the empty chair beside it. On the table beside the bed he saw a various assortment of healing potions and bandages. He was thankful Sirius got a private room, he didn't think he could be in here with someone else even if they were unconscious, especially if their family came in or something. That would be just awful.

He looked back down at his friend and furrowed his brow, was Sirius twitching? Yes, his was twitching. James leaned forward and gripped the weak hand of his friends in his own.

"Sirius… Padfoot? C'mon, mate, wake up let me know your okay."

Sirius's eyes fluttered.

"That's it, Pads, wake up."

A few more moments of fluttering and twitching paid off when James was staring at Sirius's dark blue eyes. Of course, they were half closed and confused beyond belief but they were open and aware.

"Hey, Padfoot, welcome back to the world of the living."

"Jimmy…?" Sirius breathed trying his best to focus his blurry eyes on the messy haired man before him.

"Yeah, I'm here, honeymoon ended a little early."

"Wha' 'appened?" Sirius moaned.

"Death Eater attack, remember? From what I hear you were quite the brave little soldier going into battle. Is it coming back to you now? You got a pretty hard knock to the head."

"My hair?" Sirius asked trying to bring his hand up to feel if his hair was still in tact only to be held back by James's own hand.

"Is fine." James answered calming Sirius down for a moment.

There was a silence between the two until Sirius looked down, now noticing James holding his hand. "Dude," he began raising his eyebrow at the stag animagus. "Could you be any more gay?"

James quickly pulled his hand away. "I just got married."

"Then Lily has quite the surprise ahead of her, doesn't she?" Sirius said taking a few deep breaths; he was still a bit weak.

James smirked. "I see your feeling better."

"Never better… So, I'm sorry you and Lils had to cut the honeymoon short."

"Don't be, not your fault Voldemort attacked. If it weren't for you we probably wouldn't have gone at all you were the one who told us to leave."

Sirius nodded only to jar the pain in his head and he winced. "So, how's everyone else?"

James swallowed, it was apparent that he still didn't know about Gideon and Fabian. "Fine… everyone in your group is fine…"

Sirius raised a brow. "But?"

"But… Gideon and Fabien they… they didn't make it. I got a message from Dumbledore just outside, everyone's still at Hogwarts… Five death eaters closed in on them according to Dumbledore."

Sirius was speechless, the Prewett brothers were brilliant wizards, it could be argued they were the strongest of them aside from the elder wizards and witches. If they could be brought down any of them could be next. "Oh Merlin…" He finally whispered.

"Yeah."

Sirius blinked tiredly, he didn't want to sleep now but the potions the healers pumped into his system were taking over. James must've noticed this because he patted the bed and stood. "Get some sleep, Pads."

"I'm not tired, Prongsy." He sighed rubbing his eye that wasn't currently swollen shut.

"Don't lie." James scolded softly.

"You used to lie all the time, I think Lily's having a good influence on you… its sickening." Sirius sighed.

James smirked. "Yeah well, maybe we should go to a pub when all this is over. Get some fun back."

"Yeah…" Sirius said barley above a whisper as his eyes slid shut.

"Sleep well, Pads," James said walking to the door as Sirius slipped into a blissful potions induced sleep where the horrors of Voldemort didn't touch.

He sighed when he shut the door behind him, giving the medi-witch a small smile as he passed by her and walked back to his friends. He was wordless as he took the empty chair beside Lily and folded his hands on his lap, staring at the floor.

"How is he?" Remus whispered, afraid to raise his voice any further.

"He'll be okay." James said still feeling the after effects of seeing his best friend, one of the strongest people he knew so weak. He couldn't help but smirk when he thought about how Sirius would react to all this later, no doubt he'd deny every bit of it. He'd say he was playing a part for sympathy… he was so predictable.

"Is he sleeping?" Laura squeaked from a few chairs down.

"Now he is, yeah, I'm not sure if he was awake when I went in or if I woke him up but he is now. Those potions they gave him really wore him out."

"Good." She breathed and pulled her legs up to her chest to relax.

The mood in the room was horrid, it was as if death himself was standing before them ready to pick another one of them off, and in a way, he was. The death of the Prewett brothers brought up the harsh reality that any of them could be next. This wasn't the first death the Order had sustained by far, there was Caradoc who no one really liked what with him being Slytherin and a great deal prejudice, but he was fighting the good fight. Edgar was next which was a terrible blow them and now not long later Gideon and Fabian were gone. They didn't even have enough time to recover from Edgar, now this…

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

The brother's funeral had arrived quicker then expected, the Prewetts wanted to get it done and over before something else awful happened. The group was to arrive at James and Lily's home and then head to the funeral together to meet with the rest of the grievers. Sirius was staying with them temporarily since the healers didn't want him on his own so soon after a head injury which turned out to be more serious then Sirius lead on. He had a minor concussion and the healers were surprised there wasn't any permanent damage. James laughed it off and said Sirius's head was too thick to get hurt that badly.

Sirius walked out of the guest room as he fixed his tie, there was still a white bandage on his temple only now it was no longer bleeding so they didn't need to worry about a red spot appearing on it in the middle of the ceremony. He stepped into the kitchen to see Lily with her hands wrapped around a mug filled with something, he was surprised she was ready this early, normally she was the one who took the longest. James was no where in sight, he must've still been in their bedroom.

"How you holding up, Lil?" He asked as he leaned against the counter beside her.

"Good." She answered shortly and quietly as he placed her mug on the counter and turned so she could fix his bandage, even though he just put it on she felt the tape was wearing off a little. "I suppose we should be used to such losses by now, this is a war after all…"

"You should never be used to losses like this." Sirius said as she pressed lightly on his bandage. "War or no war."

She sighed and backed away from him to lean against the counter once more. At this point James walked in fixing his own tie much like Sirius had done earlier.

"No one's here yet?" He asked stepping into the room.

Lily shook her head but before she could get any words out the door swung open to reveal Remus entering still leaning heavily on his cane.

"Where's Andy?" Lily asked.

"She's popping over to Heather's to make sure she's getting ready, really I think she just doesn't wanna stay in one place too long right now. She's not really good at this sort of thing…" He trailed off and stood next to James.

Lily sighed and whipped her eyes, mindful of the light makeup she was wearing for the occasion. "Well, we're leaving in about ten minutes."

"She'll be here by then, I think they're taking the floo from Heathers."

She nodded and picked up the mug again to take a tentative sip.

There was a knocked at the door. "Come in!" James called, they all knew who it would be, Laura was the only one out of the eight who still felt it necessary to knock, all the rest just waltzed right in.

She mumbled a soft greeting and shut the door behind her. "I saw Peter out the window in the hall," she explained. "He'll be here in a moment… Where're Andy and Heather?" She asked upon noticing their absence from the room, particularly with Remus being here and Andy not.

"Andy's at Heathers now." Remus explained again. "They'll be here in a few minutes."

"Good." She nodded and took in a deep breath as the door opened and peter walked in, giving them all a simple wave and remaining silent.

Several minutes of silence passed by they heard the floo network activate in the other room, the group rushed in to see Andy stepping out and, like the rest of the girls, she was wearing a skirt which was unusual for her. Heather came out next and she too had an ankle length skirt on with a black jacket, they all looked very modest.

"Hi." Heather greeted stepping to them. "Are we ready?"

"Yeah," Lily whispered. "How are we getting there? Floo or apparation?"

"Portkey, actually." James answered automatically. "It's outside in the front." He explained.

They wandered out to the portkey which was an old broken pot that sat on the deck. They all touched it without another word and with a powerful tug at their naval they were transported to the funeral. They realized when they landed that perhaps a portkey was not the best way to go; the travel had disturbed their already upset stomachs in their grief.

When they entered the graveyard they were bombarded by a wave of sadness, people were crying and hugging and the group felt oddly out of place for some reason even though they considered themselves good friends with the brothers. Off in the front they spotted Molly crying into the shoulder of Arthur who was holding her tight, they wanted to go and give her their condolences but they felt as though they would be intruding on a private moment so she strayed from her and went to the back where they saw some other members of the Order.

Marlene was first to see them coming she gave them a small smile. "Hi, glad to see you all could come."

"Wouldn't miss it." Sirius said pushing at the ground with his toe and glanced back to the front, the caskets were closed, normally they would be open and then sealed with magic before being lowering into the ground but he supposed there wasn't enough left of the brothers to have an open casket, and if there was it wouldn't be a pretty sight.

"Have you talked to anyone yet?" Benjy asked.

James shook his head. "Haven't even signed the book."

He looked down and scuffed his shoes on the ground. "Yeah, well, better go do that before they start the ceremony."

James silently agreed the only reason they didn't sign in yet was because the book was in the front where Molly was and they didn't want to run into her, not yet. He cleared his throat, the conversation was awkward, they always were at funerals, it was like this at Edgar's funeral too.

"Come on," Laura said tugging at Andy and Lily's arms while looking at Heather and Marlene. "Let's go sign in." She was better at consoling people, her and Lily, when they ran into Lily they would know what to say.

"This sucks." Sirius sniffed as he ran a hand over his face.

"Yeah," Benjy agreed as his eyes began to sparkle with unshed tears. "It really does."