August [j.p]

042- Sir, I think he's bleeding out

Keep your helmet, keep your life, son
Just a flesh wound, here's your rifle
Crawling up the beaches now
-
epiphany

⋇⋆✦⋆⋇

31 October 1981

Sirius Black didn't know what came over him, all he knew was that the roaring in his ears was too loud.

His fist on Peter's nose made a satisfying crack that only egged him on more. Not even a second later his fist was being launched back.

He was uncontrollable, the rage coursing through him untamable.

"How could you fucking do this to us!" He shouted as his fist made contact with Peter's jaw. He didn't even feel the boy's sharp nails scratching his face and his feet kicking his abdomen.

"How could you fucking do this to us?" He repeated this time, but rather than rage it was a question. Soon he was sobbing as the boy shoved him off.

Sirius let Peter get up from underneath him and simply lay in the dirt sobbing. Rain started pouring from the heavens, and Sirius let the cold droplets fall on his face and felt the hard ground soften into mud beneath him. He felt Remus's body over his, felt his lover's cold, scarred hands on his cheeks and his chapped lips on his own.

"Why does everyone always leave me." His voice cracked as he buried his face in Remus's worn out sweater.

"I'm never leaving you." Remus whispered back. "Not in this lifetime and not in the next."

James spun around as he heard the front door creak open, revealed a half-awake Frank and Alice, tightly wrapped in a robe.

"What's going on?" Frank shouted from the porch, unable to see clearly through the rain.

"Get Alice, get Neville and get out of here!" James shouted at them, cupping his hands over his mouth to make his words carry through the persistent rain.

"Oh don't take the boy, that would be a shame." James moved his neck so fast he could already feel the whiplash.

There, in the same cloak Peter wore stood Lucius Malfoy. His silvery hair hitting his shoulders and his grey eyes unyielding. With him stood seven other hooded figures. James could only just make them out, Lestrange, Carrow, Zabini, Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Avery.

They were vastly outnumbered.
He felt Sirius and Remus on either side of him, their hands entwining with his.

They were brothers, until the very end. They grew up together, they laughed together, they found love together and now they would die together.

James always thought death would scare him, but he wasn't scared at all. How lucky he was, to have loved and to have been loved in his short life.

Moments before the first spell was fired he heard the words of August Williams. That precious sentence she spoke into the darkness.

"Brown hair boy, my heart would row any and every ocean should you ever call."

Yes, he was unbelievably lucky. And he would die knowing that he had found a love so great and so profound that it made the galaxies and stars pale in comparison

"Stupefy" He shouted and got lost in curses and dodging flashes of color.

He could hear Remus and Sirius shouting spells beside him as they stood back to back.

"We're not going to win if we shout ninny spells like this." Sirius shouted above the chaos.

"Siriu-" James started to argue.