Splatters of Red and Gold

Epilogue

"Mena! She is gorgeous! Is she a Metamorphagus? Or is it dye?" Aravyn asked.
"She is a Metamorphagus! Teddy and I are so proud!" Andromena said, tussling her young daughter's bubblegum pink hair. The girl hobbled around, her overlarge overalls tripping her up.
Suddenly a bright ball of light burst through the door and spoke in the terrified voice of Alice Longbottom.
"Andromena! The death eaters are coming for us, you have to get Neville out of here please, help us!" Then the ball disappeared.
"I'm sorry, Aravyn, I must go!" Mena said, getting to her feet.
"I'm coming with you!" She said. They both apparated to the Longbottom residence.
The dark mark hung eerily over the house.
"On the top floor! Take him to Augusta Longbottom, she is his grandmother!" Andromena said then rushed inside.
Aravyn apparated into the upstairs bedroom window, two death eaters immediately turned to her, sending hexes her way.
"Incendio! Stupify!" She shot at them both.  They fell with dull thunks on the floor. Aravyn scooped up the child and disapparated to a small, outter village cottage.
"Augusta?" Aravyn asked.
"Who are you?" Snapped the old woman.
"I am Aravyn Andonovski. I'm a member of the order and I'm going to protect your family!" She pushed the baby into the woman's arms. "Neville?" The woman crowed to the baby.
Arevyn disapparated again.
She was back at the Longbottom home, she stormed in and immediately ducked under a flying curse.
"Patrificus Totalus!" She shouted, causing a large blonde death eater to freeze and collapse.
Bellatrix, the other death eater there, disapparated. Andromena ran to her friend, hugging her.
"Mena, you need to go home, get Ted and Nymphadora and leave," Aravyn said, pushing her away quickly.
"W-where are you going?" Andromena asked.
"To find Sirius!" She cast a patronus that sprinted away, hopefully to Kingsley Shackelbolt or Albus Dumbledore, informing them that the Longbottoms had been attacked. Then she disapparated.
Sirius however, did not get to see Aravyn, at least, not until she couldn't speak to him again.
No, Aravyn disapparated to a hideaway Sirius had been to a few times. She found there, however, Bellatrix Lestrange and Finir Greyback.
The last time Sirius ever heard her voice was from a sparkling patronus that burst threw the door of the Lupin Residence.
"Sirius, I'm so sorry! I heard what happened to James and Lily, I couldn't be there." Her voice gasped. "I was protecting the Longbottom baby, and Andromena, I'm sorry I couldn't say goodbye," the was another shuddering gasp. "They had such a beautiful baby, both families did. I wouldn't be a very good mother, I really wouldn't. I want to see your face one last time, but of course, my time is short and I'm afraid it my be impossible. I am at the cliff face hide away, you know of where I speak. Tell Moony that I would have always been there for him," Remus felt a lone tear fall down his to-soon-aged face. "I love you Sirius, dear, don't forget me," then the patronus faded into thin air.
"Sirius mate," Remus turned to his friend but he had already disapparated.
Aravyn laid in a pool of blood and sticky black hair that had been lopped from her beautiful head.
There were carvings all over her arms and legs and bare stomach: blood traitor, filth, freak, Mudblood, wolf, etc.
Then there were the scratches, the bites, and blood.
Sirius fell to his knees, tears running down his smooth, pale face. He pulled his best friend, the girl of his dreams, into his lap, he pulled the abandoned dagger from her stomach and placed his head on her chest. Tears slid down his cheeks as sobs racked his body.
"I loved you since the day I saw you on the train. I chased you for a year before I was finally rewarded. I will miss you."
He let his lips touch her gently. One last goodbye.
He disapparated to the Lupin home again, then on, to Godrics Hallow. Rage swept him as he gazed upon the ruins of his best mate's home. A hulking man stood on the walk, fat tears sliding down his face.
"Please Hagrid," Sirius whispered. "Let me take the boy- I'm his Godfather," he pleaded.
"I can't Sirius, I'm sorry," Hagrid broke into a strangled sob again.
Sirius sighed. "I left my motorcycle down the road in a garage, take him on that," he said, brushing the small scar on the now sleeping baby's face. Then he disapparated to find his long time friend Peter Pettigrew.
Sirius Black deserved to grow old and wrinkled by laughing lines, given to him by his oldest friends and beautiful wife. But he did not get that. No. He grew old watching his greatest friends lay down their lives, the love and laughter drained out of him for twelve years, giving him frown lines in place of laugh lines.
As Severus Snape once told us: life isn't fair... Some more than ever.