Remus knew he was dead as soon as he heard the words of the Killing Curse. He knew he'd be unable to dodge the jet of green fire that flew from Antonin Dolohov's wand. The last thing he saw in his mind's eye was Tonks's smile as she held the turquoise-haired baby for the first time.
He gasped a huge, rasping breath as his eyes fluttered open again. He was lying on the floor of the Forbidden Forest, he knew that for sure. As soon as his eyes fell on the tree that had been scratched so much it ought to be dead, he knew exactly where he was.
"'bout time you got woke up," said a voice off to his left.
Remus jumped about a mile into the air in his haste to stand at Sirius's voice. He spun toward Sirius, who was leaning against a nearby tree. James was slightly further away, also leaning into one of the trees.
"What do you mean, Sirius?" Remus asked wryly.
"You've been laying on that bit of grass for about—what was it, James? Ten minutes? Twenty?"
James rolled his eyes. "Oh Moony…ignore Padfoot there, he's just messing with you. Nah, you just got here."
Remus let out an exasperated sight. "Really, Sirius? That's mature."
Sirius stuck his tongue out, and James said, "He's just pissed because you married and had a baby with his cousin's daughter."
He blushed at once. And then had a thought. "Merlin…Sirius you don't think she…she didn't follow me to Hogwarts, did she?"
The two men shared a look. "Well," Sirius said, "about that…she might have…just a bit…Moony, you know I'll kill you all over again if anything happens to her, right?."
After a minute or two of silence, James said, "C'mon, Lily gets the feeling that Harry's gonna be calling us back soon. We should all be together for that…"
Remus followed him, almost blindly.
As they left the little clearing, Sirius said, "By the way, James decided to be a prat and forgive Wormy."