Chapter 22 (Last Words)
Sirius Black walked back into the Potter Manor because he had no other place to go.
"Damn you, James!" He slammed the doors shut and picked up the vase and threw it on the floor.
He couldn't complain. The man had sheltered him for years. But, did he not trust him? After all these years, how could James not trust him? He was going to look for him. Of course, he would. James had given so much. He loved him still. But, he had a question. WHY DID HE NOT TRUST HIM?
Sirius fell down on the floor and his screams echoed in the empty house. The doorbell rang.
"Who is it?" He opened the door angrily.
"I am Kessler." The attorney had returned. "Mr. Potter's attorney."
"So?"
"I need to talk to Sirius Black." He said.
"I am Sirius Black." Sirius wiped his face.
"I have to give you this." He handed a letter to Sirius as he had done a few hours ago to Lily.
Sirius recognized the Potter seal on the letter. James wrote this in his father's offices. It must be important.
He ripped it open angrily and came inside.
"Padfoot,
I know by now you must know that Lily has left for the safe house and not disclosed the whereabouts to you. I know you must be mad. You must have slammed the door and broken the vase you hate. And screamed."
Sirius smiled for a brief second. That was exactly what he did.
"I asked her not to tell you because you would then be an accomplice. People would torture for information about them. It is better that you don't know. A letter is enclosed for you…..the day Voldemort dies, this parchment will show you the whereabouts of Lily and the kids. And, you can go get them. If not you…Remus shall get the same letter. If not Remus, Peter will get a letter. McGonagall or Dumbledore will if neither of you survive."
Sirius took a seat.
"No one knows where I am. Isn't that right? If anyone is out looking for me, tell them to stop. Don't risk their lives for me. I have been in this war for nearly four years, you really think I am so stupid that I would get caught? I didn't get caught, Padfoot. I sold myself."
Sirius nearly had a heart attack. Sold himself?
"I bound myself in an Unbreakable Vow with Snape."
"Snivellious?" Sirius thought James was out of his mind.
"You must be thinking I have gone out of my mind. Sirius, I did it for the love of my life and the most beautiful two kids I had."
'Had?'
"There is no living person alive who knows Lily's location now. And, Snape has promised me a simple thing. Something, he has probably wished for a long time. Let's just say it is a gift for me to him. I need one last favor from you, Padfoot. Live…..See an end to the war and bring my wife and kids to the home they should have."
"Where are you?" He screamed at the paper as he turned it over.
"Padfoot, stop looking for me. Because, if you are getting this letter I am probably long dead."
"No…." Sirius fell down from the sofa. "No…."
"I didn't tell Lily about my promises with Snape. Because, I knew she would come to stop me or die in the attempt. And, she can't know. Not now. She won't survive in that place knowing that I am not going to come get her some day. She needs hope. Harry is safe but his location must be safe. I am content with the fact that with my death this secret shall be buried."
Sirius's heart broke into a million pieces.
"Goodbye, Padfoot. It has been my greatest joy having you in my life.
Your brother,
Prongs."
"No…" Sirius's face was covered with tears. "What did you do, Prongs?"
He held his head in hands.
"God. What did you do?"
James Potter had walked out in broad daylight, dropping his letters at a muggle attorney and signing off all his property to Lily, Rose, Harry and Sirius. He went straight to make a deal with the man he thought he never wanted to see. But, that was the only man who could help him. He wouldn't save Harry, James knew that. But, he would save Lily.
Lily Potter came into the small cottage with a garden in the outskirts of Wales. She had no idea James owned this place. She didn't know that James had made this place bit by bit…..just for her. He listened to everything she described about her dream home. He had thought he would take her here for the first time on her twenty-fifth birthday. Gift her the house of her dreams. The house was now hers…..but, James wouldn't be there to see her.
"Mama, mama." Rose came running into the garden. "Come play with us."
She turned.
Lily didn't know what was happening. She was living here and she counted the days till she came out. She spent the days with her children. Counting the days so she could be reunited with the love of her life. She sat in the garden, looking at the roses. Hoping he would be here. She wanted him. She wanted him to just stand in front of her and smile. She yearned to see him. Her nights spent with her wedding pictures in her arms.
It was nine months when the garden gate opened. She thought she was hallucinating, she had seen James many times. But, it was never true. She ran……she ran outside. When she saw Sirius Black. That's when she knew it was real. If she were in a dream it would have been James walking through that gate. With his stupid grin, his hair messy as always, his blue eyes sparkling. If she closed her eyes, she could hear him say,
"Come, Love ...don't you like your new house."
But, it was Sirius. He opened the doors and came inside.
"Oh, thank God." He hugged her. "Lily! God, I am glad you are safe."
She looked at him, her eyes gazed at him expectantly. Sirius turned away. He couldn't look into her eyes.
"No…" She shook her head, "Don't say it, Sirius."
"I wish I wasn't saying it, Lil." He held her arms, "Don't you know how hard it is for me!"
Tears ran down her face.
"How long?" She asked.
As little Rose ran towards them.
"Come here, Rainie." Sirius picked her up. "Come here, gorgeous."
He swung her around. He called her Rainie.
"How long, Sirius?" Lily shouted.
"The day you got the letter." He saw baby Harry walk into the room with little steps.
"What?" She murmured. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"He told me not to." He held Harry in his arms. "Like he told you not to tell me."
"But….why?" She sat down. "Tell me. Tell me!"
"He said….you would need hope in this place." Sirius said. "Even if I wanted to…….he never told me where you were, not until Voldemort was gone."
He took out his wallet and took out the tattered parchment he kept with all time. He had learned it. The words echoed in his mind day after day, night after night.
Lily read it.
"Oh God…" Lily shook her head, "How could he…..How could he do this?"
"He saved you, Lily." Sirius took her into his arms. "He saved his children."
James Potter was dead. She was a widow. She had been a widow for nearly a year and she didn't even know. She took her kids into her arms and sat down on the floor. She sobbed as Rose wiped her face.
"Mama, mama, mama, mama…." She heard Harry and Rose being upset at her crying. She didn't care…..
After almost a year, Lily Potter returned to the Potter Manor. The whole place was as she left it. Sirius hadn't changed a thing. Not that he didn't to…..he wanted James's widow to come back to her husband's house as she left it. She had just settled in and put the picture of her wedding back where it was. James smiled at her. He always smiled. She smiled back…..but a sad smile. She heard the doorbell.
"Mr. Kessler?" Lily was confused.
What was he doing here now? What he could possibly want from her?
"Mrs. Potter?" He said, "I am sorry for your loss. I heard through Mr. Black of your husband's death."
She nodded.
"But, I was instructed to give you this in the event if Mr. Potter died before you came back home."
Mr. Kessler was saying what he was told by James. And, when would leave James's property, he would forget everything about her and James.
"Thank you, Mr. Kessler."
Another letter. She took it. James was a person who liked working in detail. But, she didn't know how much detail he planned in.
"Welcome back, wife.
I am happy that you are back at the house. It is your house now. It belongs to you now, love. Mad at me? For letting that Snivellious kill me? Or not telling you? Or just mad in general because there are so many things I did wrong and you can't yell at me anymore."
She smiled. Tears ran on her face. She had been crying a lot lately.
"You will be mad, I am sure. And, sad. Probably, this is the very moment where you shall know how I felt at the death of my parents or Rainie and I am sorry because I know how you feel. I hate it that I left you in a position like this. But, know this that times have changed. You shall have a nice life. My children will have a nice life, a protected life. My dad's store is still there at Diagon Alley. It had an income that shall get you all by nicely. And, an expert potioneer like yourself, you can expand the line further. Keep the Potter shop alive, Lil…it was something I was supposed to do."
He had thought of everything.
"I don't know where I will be buried but I am pretty sure Padfoot knows because he's the one who's known everything since the beginning. Tell my children about me…..tell them good things about me, Lil. I am sorry that I won't be there to see them grow up but I am sure you'll manage.
Love you as I always did. I shall love you always and forever.
James Potter."
His signature was scrawled at the bottom of it and a ring had slipped out of it. She didn't notice before. She picked it up. It was his family ring, the Potter family ring that would be Harry's in seventeen years. He didn't give up his wedding ring because he had asked to be buried with it.
He had given this ring to her so she could give it to his son one day. On his seventeenth birthday when he came of age but till then she would keep it safe. She wore the ring with her wedding ring. The only pieces of jewelry Mrs. James Potter was ever seen wearing after that day were the ones that were given to her by her dead husband.
(THAT'S ALL ,FOLKS!)
