Shooting Star

Chapter Sixty-Eight

"Harry!" I screamed, running through the crowds. "Harry!"
I found him shortly as he stumbled out of the Great Hall. "Harry Potter!" I pulled him to me.
He clung onto me. "I love you, Mum." He whispered.
I stroked his hair. "I love you too, baby."
"Snape, he's dead. He's in the Shrieking Shack. Voldemort killed him. I'm sorry, Mum." Harry let me go, and wouldn't look at me.
I fought back tears, but a few escaped.
"You were right. He was trying to protect me the whole time. His last words... He told me I had my mother's eyes..." He said as I looked into Lily's eyes.
Sirius ran up and engulfed us both. "Oh, thank God." He whispered, kissing the top of my head.
I heard myself sigh in relief.
"Has anybody seen Remus?" Sirius asked when he let us go.
"He's in the Great Hall. He's all right." Harry wouldn't meet either of our eyes.
"Oh, good. I'm gonna--"
"Wait just a minute, Sirius." I said. I sucked in my tears, gripping his hand. "Harry, what are you going to do?" I asked, holding his hand too.
"I've got to go." He said.
"No." Sirius and I both said.
"I'm a Horcrux." Harry said.
My grip relaxed on both of their hands at the news. "What?"
"I'm a Horcrux. Dumbledore knew. Snape was angry. He said that Dumbledore was raising me like an animal to slaughter."
"Harry..."
"I've got to go." He clutched a ring in his hand. "I didn't want to run into anybody."
"What's that?" I asked him.
"The Resurrection Stone." He turned it in his hand. "It was in the Snitch Dumbledore left me."
"Who do you see?" Sirius asked, voice thick.
"James and Lily. And Cedric." He said, looking around as he said the names.
I fought back tears. "Oh, Harry..." I whispered. "Please, Harry. Please don't go."
"I have to, Mum. I'm sorry. You can't stop me."
I nodded, pressing my lips together. I can't cry.
Sirius pulled Harry into a hug. "I'm sorry, kid. I love you." He said.
"I love you too, Dad." Harry hugged him tightly. "And just so you guys no, James and Lily said thank you."
I couldn't stop the tears now. I kept them slow, but they came anyways. I pulled Harry into a hug. "I love you, Harry. I'm so proud of you."
"I love you too." He hugged me back.
We watched him walk away. He's grown into such a wonderful, brave man....
"Will you help me get Severus' body from the Shrieking Shack?" I asked.
We went to the Shrieking Shack through a tunnel under the Whomping Willow that I knew the boys had used to many times. I saw Severus' body and turned around, squeezing my eyes closed and pressing my hand to my lips.
I can't do this.
Sirius put his arm around me.
I sobbed into his shirt, but then remembered we didn't have much time, and that Remus was needing us, and sucked it up.
We took Severus' body to the Great Hall. Sirius did the work, really. I just followed.
Sirius lowered Severus' body gently to the ground and ran over to Remus, who was kneeling beside his wife's body.
I knelt beside Severus and laid him out flat, pushing the hair from his face and straightened his robes. "I love you, Sev..." I whispered.
I stared at him, unconsciously squeezing his hand in mine. I remember walking in this room for the first time with Severus and Lily. Then we'd been separated, and I'd taken a seat between Lily Evans and Sirius Black. I remember meeting up with Severus in the library or out front all those times, studying, him watching Lily over the book he was holding. I remember him putting his arm protectively in front of me when Sirius, James, Remus and Peter would come by and talk to us because it scared me so much. I remember him calling Lily a mudblood, and how bad he felt. I remembered how he had gone straight past James Potter's corpse and to Lily's and completely ignored the crying baby in the crib, and how angry I'd been after I'd had time to think, and him feeling bad about that too. I remember him awkwardly hugging me as I cried or hyperventilated all throughout the school years, and even after.
"Thank you for protecting Harry." I whispered, knowing he couldn't hear me. I balled up his robe in my fist without realizing it. "Thank you, Sev."
When I stood, I saw the Weasley's hovering and crying over somebody. I scanned them, doing a headcount. There was only one hovering twin, and that one was missing an ear. Fred Weasley was dead. He would never get those autographs.
I went up and put my hand on Molly Weasley's shoulder, kneeling beside her. She turned to me and hugged me, and we sobbed.
"Go to Remus, dear." She said after a while, still crying. "I'm all right." We could hear Remus' heart-wrenching sobs from here.
I went to Remus and Sirius. Remus still knelt beside Tonks, his hands enveloping one of hers. Sirius knelt beside him, a hand on his shoulder. He had his head bent, like people do when they pray at the altar at church. He looked up at me, revealing tears streaming silently down his face. I was almost certain that most of them had their source in the pain of his best friend, rather than in the loss of a close friend, although I was sure some were for her. When Remus Lupin was in pain, everybody was.
I knelt on Remus' other side after sharing a look with Sirius. I reached out and put a hand on Remus' arm, and he removed one of his hand's from Tonks' and put it over mine.
How were we supposed to tell Tonks' parents?
We all gathered outside to await Voldemort.
Harry. My God, Harry. How could I have been crazy enough to let my child walk into certain death? What the hell is wrong with me? I should have not let him go. How could I?
Voldemort came with Hagrid carrying a little body and sobbing. Harry Potter looked so little in his big arms.
"Harry Potter is dead!" Voldemort shouted to everybody.
I had known, but I had refused to believe it.
"NO!" I screamed along with several other people. I started forward with my wand, but Luna Lovegood held me back. She had grabbed Sirius too.
"Wait." Was all she said.
"Harry." Remus whispered.
I couldn't focus on what was happening, but then I saw Harry stand up. I burst into tears and sat down where I stood. Remus put his hand on my shoulder.
There was a tense moment where Voldemort and Harry held their spells, their wands connected. Avada Kedavra and Expelliarmus.
Then Voldemort fell with a thud.
Death Eaters started disapparating, and people started talking.
I ran forward and got to Harry before anybody else did. I clutched onto him, crying in pure joy. Everybody was surrounding us now, and it was basically one big group hug.
"You're coming home with us." I told Harry.
Sirius went with Remus to get Teddy. He didn't want to let Remus be alone for even a second. Harry and I went home--after he and Ginny did something that one might have called snogging.
We sat on the couch to await the boys. I didn't like to cry in front of anybody, much less Harry, but I couldn't seem to stop crying. Harry put his arm around me.
"I'm so proud of you, Harry." I said through my tears.
"Thank you." His voice cracked. "I'm sorry I've been so rough on Snape all these years. I should have listened to you."
Sev, my God...
"It's all right, baby." I kissed his head.
My brave, strong baby...