Title: Goodbye my lover
Summary: Sometimes saying goodbye, is the hardest thing to do.
Pairing: Remus/Sirius/Harry
Rating: PG
Warning: Character Death, implied Mpreg, unbetad ;)
Author Note: This was written for the wonderful
just_heidi, who gave me this mean prompt after finishing my
rsbigbang.
Harry had never thought that this day would come, the day where he would have to say goodbye to one of his lovers. Of course he had seen the signs; they hadn’t been hard to miss. Shortly after their baby had been born Remus had started to grow quieter. Sirius had been the first one to worry, and had expressed it as soon as he had gotten the chance. Of course Remus, being who he was, had brushed it off. Eventually he even had seemed to be his old self old self again after a few months, Harry had forgotten about all his worry.
However as time had continued to go by he had noticed that Remus seemed to be needing more and more sleep, that his appetite had lessened and most of all the full moons had taken more and more energy of him. With every full moon that had passed Harry had watched how Sirius would do everything just to get their lover quicker back to health, and every time it seemed to be working less and less. And then it had been Teddy who noticed that something was up with Remus.
The small boy had always been very sensitive of what was going on around him, which had made him the more receptive about the changes in his father. So Harry had ended up watching Teddy, watching how he would attempt already at such a young age to take care of his father. It were the small things, like attempting to grab his attention, make him lie down for the afternoon nap with him, or just spend hours playing at his side as if he was keeping a watchful eye over him. It had seemed endearing at first, but soon enough Harry noticed that it was more of worry and concern, and that made his heart ache.
It was by the time they were celebrating their daughters second birthday, Remus was visibly growing old. He had grown completely grey by then and Harry had watched along with Sirius how Remus seemed to bed retreating more and more. The full moons were starting to get even harder on the man, and as the last moon suddenly seemed to be standing on their doorstep, Harry wished he could curse it away.
He could still remember the day as if it had only happened minutes ago. Remus had been full of energy, the first time since months, and they had even joked around for hours before the moon finally started to rise above in the sky and the Black Lupin Potter pack was there instead. Their baby girl was still very much of a puppy, while Teddy was already starting to grow more and more. And if Harry could have, he would have smiled as he saw how proud Moony always looked down at his son. The full moon passed as usual, they had spend the night outside and only as the sun was starting to peak up again they headed back inside of their house.
Only this time when Harry had been back in his human self, and was ready to help Sirius to get the kids back into bed, Moony was still lying on the ground looking exhausted. Teddy who was always still so energetic after a full moon had been instantly at his father’s side, patting gently between the wolf’s ears.
“Isn’t daddy going to be back?” Teddy asked in his usual childlike innocence that broke Harry’s heart. Harry had immediately looked over at Sirius, not knowing what he was supposed to say, and he had to control himself the hardest as he saw the serious expression on his lover’s face. It had held all the answers that Harry had needed, and for the first time since long he felt like breaking down.
But he had put the brave face on. They had had to because of the kids.
Once they had made sure that Moony was comfortable, that the kids had gotten their last cuddle with him, Sirius had arranged for them to stay over with Hermione and Ron, so they wouldn’t have to witness watching their father die.
Harry shuddered at the memory of the image from Moony lying curled up in front of the fireplace, blankets and pillows surrounding him, to steady and keep him warm. They hadn’t known what else to do, so they had just sat at the wolf’s side, hoping that maybe there was simply some other reason for this all and that Remus would reappear on once more at their feet.
But as the night came, and exhaustion was already tugging at Harry’s body, Moony was still there. Sirius had tried to force him to go to bed, but Harry hadn’t budged. He could sleep later. Now he was going to stay with Remus, no matter how much his body protested. At the end however he had fallen asleep, curled up against Moony’s side, with Padfoot’s snout just barely touching his shoulder from where it was resting on Moony’s stomach.
When he did wake up it was sometime late in the night, and Harry sat up in shock as the wolf next to him had grown extremely still.
“Sirius!” Harry had called out hoarsely, and the Animagus had been back in his human state in mere seconds. Not daring to interfere, Harry had watched how Sirius had reached out to take Moony’s head in his hands pulling it gently on to his lap, his large hands now caressing slowly through the fur.
“It’s okay Moony… you can go now, greet James from me, I’ll take care of everyone, I promise,” Sirius whispered hoarsely, and Harry felt a sob break from his lips as he saw the tears running down Sirius’s cheeks. It was a rare sight to see the other man cry and he knew right at that moment that the time had come and that their pack had lost one of their members.
It had taken over half an hour before Remus finally transformed, and Harry watched with anguish as Remus took his last breaths and then eventually simply seemed to be falling asleep.
Harry couldn’t remember much of what had happened the next 42 hours. Apparently Sirius had already done a lot of the planning ahead of time, and then had only needed to put them into action. Now a week later, they were standing at the graveyard they had decided to burry Remus, just along with his parents.
It was a wonderful day, the sun was shining and he couldn’t help but look once up into the sky trying his hardest not to cry as he knew that Remus wouldn’t have wanted that way.
“Ready to go?” Sirius asked after a while, and Harry looked back at the other man as he felt his hand on his shoulder. Harry nodded slowly and then watched Sirius getting the children together so that they could walk a bit and then apparate back home. It was clear that Sirius was the head of the pack right now, and there was no moment that Harry had wanted to fight for that position. His time would come, and he had to admit that he didn’t want it to happen any time soon.
Letting out a heavy sigh, he once more looked back at Remus’s grave. Crouching down he touched Remus’s engraved name with his fingertips. “Goodbye Remus,” he said softly, leaning in to press a kiss against the stone before moving to get up again.
He smiled as he saw his daughter standing patiently next to him, and reached down to pick her up in his arms. Pressing a kiss against her head, he went over to join Sirius and Teddy. They’d be alright; they had each other and Remus in their hearts that was all what they needed.