Christmas break started next week, and Loralei knew when she woke up that morning that something was wrong. So when she and James were called to Dumbledore's office she already knew what happened.

"Dad's dead, isn't he?" Loralei asked as she walked in.

Dumbledore nodded. "He already planned his funeral. Only you two are supposed to be there, along with whoever else you want."

Loralei nodded. "I assumed."

"He decided to be cremated, and he would like for you too to put him in the same grave as his wife." Dumbledore told him. "He also has a message for you."

The Potter's waited for Dumbledore to say something, but he didn't.

"What is it?" James finally prompted.

"He loves you both, and he saved this for James." Dumbledore held out a gold ring. Their father's wedding ring.

"I have Mom's." Loralei took a long gold chain out from under her shirt, where the gold ring was hanging. "Do you know where her engagement ring went?" Loralei asked Dumbledore.

He shook his head. "No, but I do know that James will be seventeen in March, and that he will be in charge of both of you until you are seventeen, and you will be given your inheritance."

Loralei nodded. "Well at least he's with Mom now." Somehow it was easier losing her second parent, rather than the first. "We can get Sirius to apparate us to the cemetery this weekend, and we can go to the house."

James nodded. "That sounds fine." He looked to Dumbledore. "Where are his ashes?"

Everything was very unemotional, and robotic. Like they just wanted to get this done and deal with the emotional part later. They also were used to their idea of their father being gone. He wasn't really fully there since their mother died, and James knew when Loralei said that their father was going to die soon that it was true. It was sad, but their father was already gone while he was still alive.

Dumbledore told them, and they left, telling him that they would be leaving right after the tests with Sirius. He agreed, and gave his condolences.

After they left the office, Loralei turned to James.

"Looks like it's just us now." She sighed, crossing her arms.

James nodded, slipping their father's wedding ring on his finger. "You better go find your boyfriend and tell him."

"Where are you going?" Loralei asked.

"I'm going to talk to Lily." James told her. "She's nice to talk to about stuff like this, plus we were going to study in the library."

Loralei nodded, happy that her best friend and her brother were getting along. "And, he's not my boyfriend yet."

"Yeah, well you might as well be. You traumatized the firsties when you thought you were alone."

"Not my fault, everyone was supposed to be in class." Loralei pouted, before turning to talk away.

"Lore?" He called after her.

"Yes?" She turned around, and faced him again.

"I'm really sorry about everything I said to you last summer, you know that, right?" He said this so sincerely, no one, not even Severus Snape could say he didn't mean it.

She smiled slightly, the corners of her lips turning up a bit. "Getting called a whore everyday by you did put a damper on our relationship."

"Sirius and Remus were right to make stop." He told her. "But I never apologized for saying it. Family's supposed to stick together, right?"

Loralei nodded. "I forgive you."

He smiled slightly. "Thank you."

"Now, go get your princess charming." She told him. "She likes when people are on time."

"I know." He nodded. "Do you really think she likes me?"

"Now that you're not a prick, yes." Loralei told him. "This Christmas, lets invite the guys and Lily over, then it won't be so empty. Like on boxing day through the end of holiday."

James nodded. "Good idea, let's do that."

"I have a meeting with Witch Weekly two days before Christmas Eve." She told him. "Other than that I'm free."

James nodded. "We can talk about it later, okay?"

Loralei nodded. "Yeah, just tell me what we're going to do. The house elves are probably getting the house ready for Christmas right now."

James nodded again. "I wonder what it's going to be like at home without them."

"It's never going to be the same." She told him. "I'll tell you that."

"I know."

"So he's dead?" Sirius asked. "Just like that?"

They were alone in the common room, both of them had off periods since Divination was canceled, and Loralei was curled up on Sirius' lap.

"Just like that." Loralei replied simply. "James and I are supposed to bury his ashes in our mother's grave, and we were wondering if you'd go with us."

"Because you want me there, or because you need a way to get there?" He asked.

"Both." Loralei told him, honestly. "I think dad would've liked you to be there anyway."

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, of course. Anything you want."

"Thank you, love." She turned her head and kissed him lightly. "It's amazing that we are now both parentless, it's only been six months."

"Yeah, but mine are monsters and I chose to leave them." Sirius' arms tightened around her. "Yours were great."

"That's true, but we're really on our own now." Loralei told him. "I mean, we still have the house, and money, but we're taking care of ourselves now."

"We'll make it." He promised.

"I know." Loralei nodded. "It's just going to be so different. I don't know if I'm going to like it."

"Life sucks," He started.

"Then you die." Loralei continued.

"You know we're an annoying couple when we finish each other's sentences." Sirius smiled.

Loralei smiled. "I think I'm going to be okay with that."

"Good, because I am too." He kissed her cheek.

"What do we do now?" James asked as they stood in front of their mother's grave. It was still so new that the grass hadn't even grown over it yet. It had been two months, and they were already moving on. Was that too soon, or were they just forced to move that quickly? To them, it felt like the latter.

Loralei had a shovel resting on her shoulder. "Well if we put his ashes here, they're just going to blow into the wind." She stepped on her mother's grave. "We dig." She swung the shovel down, digging it into the ground. "Why the hell else would I bring a shovel?"

"So you're just going to dig?" Sirius asked. "It's snowing."

"Yeah, well it makes me feel better."

"I can do it with magic." Sirius told her. "You don't have to."

"I want to." She told him.

So the boys let her. They let her slowly shed off her jacket and scarf, and letting the snow get her hair and jumper wet. She couldn't feel anything anyway. She couldn't feel the blisters on her hands, or the biting feeling she got when the wind picked up.

She dug a line down the center of the grave, and she stood back for James to pour it into the earth.

"Should we say something?" Sirius asked as James put his father into the ground.

Only the rustle of the wind through the trees was heard.

"I don't know what to say." Loralei said. "Thanks for dying Dad, you left me a fortune!" Sarcasm leaked into her voice. She shook her head. "You died three months after Mum, Dad. Great timing."

"You said yourself he died of a broken heart." James muttered.

"Yeah, well what about ours?" Loralei replied angrily. "If you had a kid, and the mother died in childbirth, would you die too, or take care of the kid?"

"Take care of the kid." James said.

"Then congratulations, you're braver than our father." She told him.

"There's a difference between a little baby and a teenager, Lore." James argued.

"Yeah, babies can admit they need help, we're expected to take care of ourselves." Loralei started filling back in the dirt.

"Because we can." James told her.

She dug the shovel into the ground and leaned on it. "If you can, then good for you, I however don't want to. I'm sixteen for another eight months, and I intended to keep my childhood for that time. Who's going to protect us now? I doubt if a Death Eater comes to our house that you could be able to fight him off James, we don't have that much dueling experience under our belt."

"Then maybe we should." Sirius spoke up, making the siblings look up to him.

"Pardon?" James asked.

"Maybe we should be better fighters." Sirius told them. "Train the students to become fighters, or at least give them the choice to. We could invite other students wanting to become aurors, or that are definitely on the right side. We can practice with each other. Think about it, after a year and a half of training we could get pretty good."

Loralei and James looked at each other, the argument completely forgotten.

"Lily, Remus, Peter, Alice and Frank." James listed. "At least those."

"Melanie." Loralei added. "We could get a good group, teach spells, and get everyone trained so that they can at least protect themselves."

"Get Dumbledore to let us use some classroom for it." Sirius added.

"Why not just the Room of Requirement?" James asked.

"Because then everyone knows about it." Loralei told him. "It's not just ours to use anymore, and of everything we have, I still love that hideaway."

James nodded. "Agreed."

"Do you really think we can do this?" Loralei asked.

Sirius looked up, it had stopped snowing. "Positive."

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