The Durmstrang Potter Twin

Kids

Tara's POV

A year since that call. A year of non-stop missions, attacks, killings. Over and over again, it repeated. I kept in touch with my friends from Durmstrang, made sure that I knew if one of them was killed. I attended funeral after funeral. And yet, somehow my spirits had yet to drain entirely. Sirius and James and Peter and Remus and Lily. Marlene and Dorcas stayed with all of us for a time before they found their own place in hiding together. Tonks graduated and joined us in our communal home.

And then one night, Sirius and Remus and I returned home to find Lily and James clutching at each other, James crying silent tears of joy. It took me seconds to figure out what had happened and I joined their embrace whispering silent congratulations.

Nineteen. James had proposed.

A week later, they called us into common room with looks of excitement and fear on their faces and announced they were pregnant. I began making connections in my head. They were married a month later, Lily barely beginning to show. Mum and Dad were so proud, sitting up at the front row. I stood as one of Lily's five bridesmaids. Sirius, Remus, Peter, Frank and Arthur were James's groomsmen. 

At the reception, Sirius got roaring drunk and I dragged him home as Lily and James left on their brief honeymoon to some place in the Caribbean. 

They returned, happy, unscathed. And I was happy for them. But scared. Frightened by the things I was thinking of, knowing what was to happen.

A week after they returned, Mum and Dad were announced by healers to have dragon pox. And that at their age, they wouldn't last the week. I held James to me, stone-cold, staring at my father who laid in the bed next to my mother at the Potter Mansion. 

That night, I went back, as James was comforted by Lily in their bedroom and Sirius stared blankly at the wall. He did not ask where I was going or what I was doing.

My father put his hand on mine when I sat down on the chair next to his bed.

"You should not be here," he said.

I shook my head," It is my choice. I am immune to the disease as it is."

He looked at me," I do not know why you have come, Tara."

"There is a storm coming, Dad. A storm that will rip apart families and destroy my brother and Lily. And it will leave their child alive."

He wheezed, smoke trailing from his mouth," That storm is already here, Tara, darling."

"No. These are just the warning breezes, the smell in the air that signals rain. The storm has yet to come."

"Why are you telling me this, Tara? There is nothing your mother and I can do."

"I know. But I needed to tell someone."

He settled back on his pillow with a groan," So it seems your brother may be joining us with the gods sooner than I thought."

I looked down," If it does come to that, Dad, I want you to say hello to him for me because I will not be able to visit for a time."

He nodded softly, eyes beginning to droop," I want you to stay strong, Tara. You have always been strong. But you must stand strong and hold your brother up and hold Sirius up. I have never met someone as strong as you are, Tara. I want you to know that. It will not be until tomorrow when I have succumbed to the disease more and am no longer able to speak to you or them. Your mother succumbed to that portion of the disease faster than I did. Listen, Tara, I love you and your mother loves you, despite being unable to tell you. We love all of you, but you must be reminded of that, Tara. You cannot shut them out now or when we die. You must stand strong for them because what is to come will hurt them more and more."