Sirius Black's Twin

Selfish

It was a sad day in the Potter house. Lily Potter was sobbing into her husband, James', shirt and he was holding her tightly to him. Their son was zooming around on his toy broomstickhis godfather, Sirius, had gotten him. Their son, Harry, would never know about the tragedy of his mother's friend's death.

"I - I just c-can't believe she's g-gone," Lily sobbed, wiping her eyes. "There were no deaths in a long t-time and then M-Marlene's name pops up on the Daily Prohphet. . ."

James hushed his wife. He did this for two reasons, reason number one because he didn't like to hear Lily so heartbroken, reason number two is because Harry was starting to look a bit teary himself.

"We can't even attend her funeral," Lily said. "I never told her how much she meant to me."

"She always known that, Lily," James said. "She's your friend. And she's happier now, away from all this mess."

"I miss her so much," Lily cried.

"I miss her too," James mumbled, fighting tears himself.

Though Lily and Marlene were really close, during the time he had joined the Order of the Pheonix he and Marlene had become good friends and her death was a terrible blow to him almost as much as it was to Lily.

"Do you think Claws knows?" Lily asked, using Lyra's nickname like she did with the others. Ever since they told her their secrets, she had grown fond of the nicknames.

"She has to," James said. "It's the first death is weeks, it'll be all over the prophet."

Lily started to shake with sobs again, thinking of how she had picked up the prophet, hoping for good news, and ended up screaming in horror.

Miles and miles away, Lyra sat solomnly in front of her fireplace withher daughter in her arms while her son was sleeping in his crib upstairs. Lyra had seen the Daily Prophet and she was forcing herself not to cry; crying did no good.

Lyra looked down at her daughter, Lynx, and felt really selfish all of a sudden.

How could she bring a child into a world like this? When Voldemort wasn't even merciful enough to spare an innocent woman?

Lyra felt the presence of Nick behind her, and knew that he was wondering whether to leave her alone or to comfort her. With Lyra it was hard to tell how she would react.

"Why did we have them, Nick?" Lyra said, staring at the dancing flames in front of her; they reflected in her light grey eyes.

"Have who?" Nick asked, making no move to put an arm around his wife. "Our kids?"

Lyra turned her head and looked straight into Nick's brown eyes.

Nick, taken aback, shrugged stiffly. "We wanted a family. We wanted to raise children."

"Why, though?" Lyra asked, looking truthfully confused. "Why now? Why in the middle of a war?"

"We needed some happiness," Nick said, his expression softening as he sat next to his wife. "We needed a reason to keep fighting. Our children are our reasons."

"Yes, exactly," Lyra sighed. "We needed happiness, but what about Lynx's and Will's happiness? How can they be happy in a world like this; in a world where evil runs free?"

"The wars not going to go on forever, Lyra," Nick chuckled. "By the time they're older they'll never even remember any of this."

"You think so?" Lyra asked, looking desperatly at her husband for some reasurance. "Because I'm feeling incredibly selfish for dragging them into this."

"You are the most selfless person I know," Nick said, kissing Lyra and wrapping his arms around both her and Lynx.

Upstairs, they both jumped when they heard Will start to wail loudly. Nick chuckled. "He always had the best timing, didn't he?"

Lyra, for the first time in a long time, gave a genuine laugh.