Down the Rabbit Hole | J. POTTER

0 | epilogue

"We have to get to the meeting, Prongs," Sirius reminded him as he leaned against the doorframe of his bedroom. "Dumbledore is expecting us."

"I'm coming down with a cold or something," he excused, coughing for effect.

This happened time from time. He would be fine one day and then the next it was like it was right after Val had left for America. He would refuse to leave his room and stay in bed all day, not eating or drinking anything.

Sirius huffed before he left the room, joining Remus in the kitchen. "It's been a year. Shouldn't he have, you know, moved on by now?"

Remus frowned, "It's not that easy. He-"

"He loved her, I know," Sirius cut him off. "But still."

"Not loved, he loves her," he corrected. "As in still does. I don't see that going away anytime soon if ever."

"I knew that girl was bad news," he groaned. "I knew she was going to hurt him."

"I hardly think now is the time for you to say I told you so," he replied. "Besides, it's not as though she wanted to hurt him."

"Yeah, yeah," he waved off, "Hurt people hurt people. I know. But she shouldn't have left him." His eyes flickered down to what was in front of Remus. "What's that?"

"An invitation."

"To?"

"Our wedding," Remus explained. "Whenever that may be." While the pair may have been engaged, same sex marriage was still illegal. Hopefully that would change soon.

He snorted, "Okay, I'll bite. Who's it for?" He hesitated, tapping the card against the table. "Remus."

"It's for Val."

"You're joking," he huffed. "You can't invite her!"

"You forget that she was a large part of our lives too," Remus reminded him. "And don't think I don't know that you've been staying in touch."

"Shh," he said, taking a seat across from him, "Prongs could hear you." He ran a hand over his face, "What are we going to do with him?"

"I don't know," he frowned. "But maybe he needs to see her. You know, closure and what not."

"Assuming we can ever get him out of bed."

Remus huffed, "I got it."

While it took time, Remus was eventually able to coax James out of bed. They managed to shove him into a pair of clean clothes and seeing as getting him to shower was out of the question, a few spells did the trick.

James hated when he got like this more than Remus and Sirius did which said a lot. He couldn't understand why it still bothered him so much after all this time. Why he could be perfectly fine one day and then all the sudden it was like someone had pulled his heart out of his chest and crushed it right in front of him.

Because whereas James had gone more than willingly down the rabbit hole, his eyes shut as he trusted the process, Val had not. Val had managed to keep her head on straight and that was something James would be forever bitter about.

While James sat at the table in the Great Hall with his two newly engaged best friends at his side, he had never felt more alone. Val was in a completely different country, as far away from him as she could get.

"We're just waiting on the diplomats from America to arrive and then we can began," Dumbledore announced. The Order meeting consisted of the usual members however in addition to that audience was the wizarding diplomats from the countries who were willing to help in the war. It wasn't all that big of a surprise that they were waiting on the Americans.