"you have me. until the very last star in the galaxy dies, you have me."
With a war on the rise, 8 friends must try to understand their importance in a world that is slowly crumbling around them. Darkness appears out of every place in their lives...
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"fate has a weird way of circling back over paths that were meant to cross"
It was lunchtime when James and Lily sat in the back of a quiet cafe with Cleo and Sirius across from them at the table. The cafe was somewhat busy, and the hum of chatter from other patrons hid them. Harry napped gently in his carriage beside the table, and the four adults sat with coffees in front of them that were hardly touched.
After getting over the initial surprise in the park, the four had been taken to tears at the sight of one another. There was a good amount of hugging and kissing and hugging some more before it was suggested they find somewhere else to catch up that wasn't so out in the open. As much as James and Lily wanted to bring their closest friends back home with them, there was no way anyone would get through the protective charms surrounding the house, not even Sirius and Cleo.
Hence they found themselves circled around a tight table in the farthest corner of a crowded cafe at lunchtime.
"Harry is turning into quite the strapping young lad, isn't he?" Sirius said to no one in particular. Both of the child's godparents had barely been able to take their eyes off of him.
"Takes after his father that way, he does," James nodded before muttering a small "ow" when Lily's foot connected with his shin underneath the table.
"I feel like so much has happened, and yet nothing has," Cleo said to them.
"Queenie, it's been ten months since we've seen each other. You've got to have something to update us on," James chuckled. So Sirius and Cleo took turns discussing what they'd been up to; the search for the Lestrange brothers, the goings-on (or lack thereof) of the Order of the Phoenix, and the lives of Remus and Peter, as far as they knew.
"To tell you the truth, we all feel a little left in the dark," Sirius grimaced. "Cleo and I have felt somewhat useless the last little while, which is why we decided to take a short holiday."
Cleo did not miss the way Lily and James' shoulders seemed to drop slightly. "I'm sorry," she added, reaching her hand across the table to take Lily's and give it a squeeze. "Sometimes it just feels like there's no end in sight."
A waitress interrupted them for a moment to drop off their lunches. After she left, James leaned forward and sighed. "Talk about feeling useless, mate. We've been completely cut off since we left. Only a word here and there from Dumbledore or Mad-Eye, but beyond that...nothing."
"What about Peter?" Cleo asked before she could think.
"What about him?" Lily replied.
"I mean, he is your Secret Keeper. And your whereabouts are supposed to be kept secret, and
yet," she paused, letting James and Lily's faces turn down in slight shame at their very poor secret-keeping abilities, "here we all are."
"He doesn't even know, I imagine. Or if he does, we haven't heard from him," James shook his head. "As far as we know, Wormtail has known where we've been every step of the way, but he's never been allowed to contact us."
