THE WOLVES | R.L.

Chapter 38

Disclaimer: The Harry Potter World belongs to J.K. Rowling.

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Chapter 38

It had only been a year ago that Fleamont and Euphemia Potter had passed away of Dragon Pox—Astra had only got to see her grandparents a couple of times in her lifetime, and Harry Potter never got to see Fleamont and Euphemia.

And now...Lily and James were also gone.

What and who else was the world going to take from Ardelle Potter?

"He left."

Marlene sat there on the chair, eyes wide and skin pale, her son asleep in her arms.

"What?" Ardelle asked, frowning as she sat down in the chair opposite her friend, "What do you mean, 'he left'?"

"I mean," Marlene said impatiently, her eyes snapping over to glare at Ardelle, "he left. Sirius left—he said he was going to find Pettigrew—,"

"He did..." Ardelle swallowed and blinked back the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes, "He didn't betray Lily and James?"

Marlene didn't reply for a long moment, which just made Ardelle feel even more nervous.

She didn't want to believe that Sirius had betrayed Lily and James, even if he had. But now she was having some suspicions that perhaps it wasn't Sirius who had betrayed the Potters...

"No," Marlene said at last, "He didn't. I know he didn't—he wouldn't. He wouldn't."

Then Marlene began muttering under her breath, as though she was reassuring herself that Sirius wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't.

"I know he wouldn't," Ardelle said softly, getting up from her chair and going over to hug her friend, carefully manoeuvring herself around Leo to avoid from waking up the little boy, "But he's gone."

The Marauders had been torn apart.

Sirius had been sent to Azkaban for a crime that neither Ardelle nor Remus believed he had committed.

Peter had vanished, supposedly 'murdered' by Sirius.

James was...gone.

Lily was...gone.

And Ardelle and Remus and Marlene were just...alone.

***

"What?" Ardelle screamed, "WHAT! SHE CAN'T BE GONE! SHE CAN'T BE! SHE CAN'T BE!"

She slammed the Daily Prophet onto the table—the one that had Sirius' laughing face on the front page with the article documenting his crime—

And then Ardelle Potter burst into tears for the eighteenth time that week.

"Ardie," Remus said gently, wrapping an arm around his wife, "Don't cry."

But despite his words, his voice was shaky and he sighed sadly as a tear fell down his cheek and landed on his collar.

Ardelle didn't want to cry—she didn't cry much. Throughout her years at Hogwarts, she hadn't cried much at all.

She was usually a happy person.

She was the girl who always had a smile on her face, the girl who was always bubbling with laughter.

But life had thrown too much onto her shoulders all at once and she'd just collapsed.

"I'm sorry," Ardelle said as she calmed herself and wiped away her tears, burying herself in her husband's embrace, "I'm sorry, Rem. I didn't want to—I didn't want to cry again."

But the moment she finished speaking those words, she started crying again.

"You don't have to apologise, Ardelle," Remus said quietly with a shake of his head, "Don't be sorry for crying.

But it wasn't long before Remus started crying, too.

"She can't be gone! She can't be—she can't be—," Ardelle sobbed, "Remus, Remus...what's going to happen to Leo?"

Remus just pulled Ardelle closer to him and sighed, wiped his tears away with his sleeve and said, "We'll find a way, Ardie. Marlene...Dumbledore told me that she was attacked. By Bellatrix Lestrange. Bellatrix went to her house—where she was mourning and Leo was, at the time, with the Weasleys—and then Bellatrix broke in and just—just—," Remus shakily exhaled, "Bellatrix was sent to Azkaban immediately—but—,"

He couldn't continue, because he started crying, "Why are they all gone, Ardie? They're all gone..."

There was a moment of long silence, interrupted only by Remus and Ardelle's tears and crying.

"Rem," Ardelle said quietly after a while, "We don't have the details yet. We need to...we need to go find Dumbledore. We need to ask him what will happen to Leo. He'll—he'll be all alone—and I don't want him sent off somewhere to some other family—I want him to grow up knowing who his parents—," She sniffled and let another tear fall from her eye, "—were."

"W-we'll go later," Remus replied softly.

"I—,"

"Momma?"

The couple had forgotten that their daughter had been asleep in her crib just a few metres away from them—Astra must've been interrupted by her parents' crying.

Ardelle shakily exhaled and said, "Come here, Astra."

She got to her feet and went over to the little girl's crib, hoisting Astra into her arms and carefully made her way back to Remus.

Remus and Ardelle silently hugged their daughter between them—and while at first Astra looked confused, soon she just smiled and let her parents hug her.

Author's Note:

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SnowWayOwl

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