Empty Chairs at Empty Tables

There's a grief that can't be spoken

There's a pain goes on and on

Empty chairs at empty tables

Now my friends are dead and gone.

Remus Lupin slowly walked through the door into the deserted, boarded up old shack. The shack that held so many memories of his school days and the friends he'd shared them with. During Voldemort's first reign of terror, they had often met there to discuss... well... just about everything.

Here they talked of revolution

Here it was they lit the flame

Here, they had discussed tactics and mourned over friends they had lost already. Here they had sworn that they would always stay together: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs forever.

Here they sang about tomorrow

And tomorrow never came

They spoke of their plans for the future here. James planned to have a family with Lily, to settle down. Sirius wanted to open a shop where he could make flying motorbikes (he was never quite ready to settle down, Remus remembered). Peter... well... Peter never really had any plans for the future. As for himself, Remus wanted to be a teacher. Tomorrow, James had said once. We'll have plenty of time to do everything we want tomorrow. Sirius had replied, Yup, and all together.

But tomorrow hadn't come for the four friends. James died on that fateful Halloween night, trying to hold off Voldemort so that Lily could escape with Harry. Peter might as well have died. The boy they all knew and loved died the night he betrayed the Potters' whereabouts. And Sirius...

Only one couple were still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival...Sirius [ducked] Bellatrix's jet of red light: he was laughing at her. "Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.

The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest.

The laughter had not quite died on his face, but his eyes widened in shock...

It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall. His body curved in a graceful arch as he sank backward through the ragged veil hanging from the arch...(Rowling 805-6)

Sirius had died in battle, as he would have wished. Only Remus remained of the once so tight-knit group of friends.

From the table in the corner

They could see a world reborn

And they rose with voices ringing

I can hear them now

Remus could almost hear their voices: Sirius's bark-like laugh, James's steady, secure voice, Peter's trusting presence... They had been so sure that they would win the war, that they'd all live their dreams, that it would all turn out alright.

The very words that they had sung

Became their last communion

On the lonely barricade at dawn

Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me

That I live and you are gone

There's a grief that can't be spoken

There's a pain goes on and on

They had made a promise to fight together to the end. At the time, Remus hadn't realized how literally his friends had taken that. He looked around the shack, remembering their words. We live together we fight together. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs forever...

Remus had often wondered why he was the only one left. Why he had been chosen to stay while all his friends had gone.

Phantom faces at the window

Phantom shadows on the floor

Empty chairs at empty tables

Where my friends will meet no more

This place, so many memories, Remus thought, looking around. He could almost see the last time they had all been here together. He looked over at the bed, where he remembered James and Sirius sitting, speaking in hushed tones. He'd known that they were talking about him, known they suspected him of treachery, but he never said anything. Looking at the old, worn floor, he remembered Peter sitting against the wall, his shadow falling in front of him, alone and segregated like always.

Oh my friends, my friends, don't ask me

What your sacrifice was for

As all these memories surfaced, Remus felt himself growing angry. Why, he thought. Why did they give so much to something they knew they might not win? Why did they make such a choice?

Empty chairs at empty tables,

Where my friends will sing no more

With a sigh, Remus stood up to go. Before he left, he took one last look around at the shack where he had spent so many happy times. James, Sirius, and Peter lived there still, though their loved ones would never see them again.