After the Fall: A Remus Lupin Story

After the Fall

A war torn Wizarding World was not a working one. Every day Remus walked down the same streets, and every day the same windows were boarded. Lily and James' little Harry was literally a light in all the darkness. He'd been living with Sirius, which meant Remus and Caroline were able to visit him often. The way he tottered around without a care in the world...it was adorable. It was hard to think he'd saved the world from Voldemort. Lucky, he didn't know he'd be going to Lily and James' funeral soon. Caroline had been asked to speak at the service(okay, so maybe Remus had planned everything and wanted Caroline to speak). Remus didn't know if he was going to make it through the first minute without breaking down.

"How is the writing going?" Remus asked, trying to take his mind off of the present.

Caroline held him tighter, his heartbeat seeming to be the only thing to calm her down as her gaze moved to a picture over his shoulder- a picture of her, and Lily. She missed her terribly, and when Remus was out, she would often write about her, tears mixing with ink more times than one.

"It's going" she forced out. Lily had been her maid of honor at their wedding, she helped her organize everything- and James had walked her down the aisle, seeing as she didn't have family to do so. The writing she had about her other best friend was stored away in a folder, Remus didn't know about it, and he needn't know. But now... she had to write her speech, for her best friend's funeral, she had put it off for so long...

She tore her eyes away from the picture, instead nuzzling his neck and squeezing her eyes shut, her thoughts going to Harry. The boy was only a year old, having so much going on in his little world- she envied that he could barely remember what had happened. She felt a tear leave her eye, but she made sure it didn't hit his neck- she never wanted him to worry about her, even though she was a mess on the inside.

"Cari?" Remus knelt down to be at eye level with his wife, knowing that whatever she said, she wasn't okay right now. None of them were. James and Lily had meant so much to their friends. "You know, if anything's wrong, you can tell me. You can talk to me, okay?" He wiped Caroline's tears away with a gentle thumb and kissed her forehead.

"I'm always here to listen."

She looked at her husband, her eyes were usually so warm, so happy- but now they were sad, lifeless. "I just miss them" she whispered, leaning back into him and holding onto him tightly. She was angry, angry because they were gone, angry because the Ministry was taking her husband away, angry because she couldn't do anything to help poor Harry.

She wanted to scream, to break something. But she knew if she did that she'd completely break down- so she nuzzled herself further into his chest, letting a few more tears fall. After a few long silent moments she managed to calm herself down enough to look at him clearly. She pulled away and looked up at him. He hadn't really changed since school, he'd just gotten more rugged, while she had gotten more... well more ginger.

"It'll be ok, just have to try again tomorrow, or you can take a break, stay home..." she trailed off quietly. "I made tea, and I wasn't sure what you wanted for dinner but I was thinking maybe breakfast for dinner" she rambled, needing to get her mind off of it- off of them.

"Tea and breakfast for dinner sound perfect," Remus smiled, stroking Caroline's bright red hair, trying to be reassuring when he couldn't sufficiently reassure himself.

"And I think I'll stay home tomorrow. The next day is the funeral, and, you know, we haven't had much time together since graduation."

It was sad but true-Remus' days were always spent fruitlessly looking for jobs while Caroline's were writing poem after poem. It seemed one of the only times the two of them really connected was during the full moon, which was a sorry excuse for anything, since that meant Remus turned into a werewolf and needed to cast a spell beforehand to make sure he wouldn't accidentally kill the love of his life.