Ring around the roses

The children were singing, though Remus didn’t really hear them, walking along with James in St James’s Park.

"So what’s the problem then?" he asked, and James buried his face in his hands.

"I want to get her something," he explained. "But I don’t know what. I mean, I’ve got the ring, but I want something to go along with it."

"So why come to me?" Remus asked dubiously. "I’m hardly the best person to ask what to get a person to go with an engagement ring."

James rubbed his forehead with his hand. "Well, no, but—you understand these things. Better than I do, at least. And far better than Sirius does."

"I don’t know about that." Remus smiled slightly and looked up at the slightly overcast sky. "He can be a fair romantic when he wants to be."

James waved this off. "Anyway, he’d probably just laugh at me," he said dismissively. "And you were the only one I knew to ask. Any ideas, Moony?"

"Hmmm," Remus said, his gaze sweeping around the park, past the children laughing and singing nursery rhymes at each other, and stopped by a splash of red. He smiled. "Well, you can’t go wrong with roses."

A pocket full of posies

They didn’t go out much at night anymore, not when there were so many things happening in the dark that didn’t happen in the light. Truth be told, they didn’t go out much at all anymore, but that night was an exception.

"Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning," Remus murmured, looking up at the night sky.

"Growing up isn’t all it’s cracked up to be," Sirius said, hands stuffed in the pockets of his Muggle jeans.

"Not much is," Remus replied. Pessimism was catching, spreading like wildfire through the ranks of Dumbledore’s Order, encouraged by magic of pain and death.

"Some things are," Sirius said, bringing a hand up to thread lightly through Remus’s hair. They smiled.

"Some things are," Remus agreed, drawing closer to Sirius, who rested his chin on Remus’s shoulder and closed his eyes.

"Do you think James and Lily are ready to be parents?" Sirius asked, his eyes still closed.

"They’ll be fine," Remus said, and briefly wondered when he’d gotten to be the reassuring one.

Sirius sighed, pressed a kiss to the side of Remus’s neck before stepping back. "Harry’s going to have to grow up in this world," he said quietly, slight wonderment evidence in his voice. He looked up at the stars, and down again at Remus’s smiling eyes.

"He’ll be fine," Remus said. "He’s James and Lily’s son, and your godson. He’ll be nothing if not fine."

Sirius reached in the pockets of his outer robes and brought out a small posy of flowers. "Come on," he said, taking Remus’s hand in his free one. "Let’s go give this to Lily. She certainly deserves it, after working so hard to bring him into the world." They started up the path towards James and Lily’s house in Godric’s Hollow, and inside, Remus could hear Lily singing nursery rhymes to her son. He smiled.

Ashes, ashes

"Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust," he murmured. "Rest in peace, James and Lily." He carefully knelt and placed a bouquet of roses on the shared headstone, and closed his eyes for a moment, wishing things had happened differently.

"You’ll be all right, Remus?"

Remus looked up and nodded briefly. "I’ll be fine," he told his former headmaster. He looked back at the headstone, at the names engraved on it. It occurred to him then that James and Lily were just names and dates and memories now, and words on a gravestone proclaiming that they loved their son enough to die for him.

Remus didn’t cry. His eyes burned and his throat caught, but his cheeks were dry as he looked at Dumbledore again. "Let’s go," he said quietly, standing up and brushing dirt off his black Muggle trousers.

Together, and saying nothing, he and Dumbledore left the cemetery. The last ones to leave. Remus quietly suspected that Dumbledore had stayed to make sure Remus didn’t do anything…drastic, but Remus didn’t mind. It was nice, just quietly walking with someone whose very presence was support. He could hear children in a back garden playing and laughing and singing nursery rhymes at each other, but the sky was overcast, and James, Lily, and Peter were dead, and Sirius was worse than, and Remus walked home.

We all fall down

Remus walked along the paths in St James’s Park, occasionally stopping to look at the overcast sky and wondering when it was going to rain. He didn’t have to wait long for the droplets of water to start falling, and he stopped the let the rain wash over him.

Rain, falling.

Tears, falling.

James, falling, and Lily, following.

Peter, running, and then, falling.

Sirius, falling.

Remus wondered when he would fall too.

The rain didn’t seem to deter the children from laughing and playing in the park. He stopped to watch four of them, holding hands and running in a circle, singing. "Ring around the roses, a pocket full of posies. Ashes, ashes, we all fall down."

They fell.

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