Stolen Time

Absence of Fear

Wherever they were, it mirrored a place where they'd been happy. It looked like the house, down to the gouge on the banister where she'd dropped her cauldron while she was in school. Occasionally, they could see Teddy, but he wasn't sure about the passage of time. The tiny glimpses they were able to see didn't tell them much.

He didn't recognize himself at first. The absence of the myriad scars on his face and torso startled him. He hadn't noticed until she had said something, in the confusion afterwards, when they were still learning how to cope with their new situation. His hands fascinated him, especially. He couldn't recall a time when there hadn't been small lines crisscrossing the backs of his hands and fingers.

He lay on his back, watching the stars emerge from the inky night sky, unheeding of the snow packed under his body. Stargazing was so much better when it was cold. They stood out in sharp relief against the crisp winter skies. His eyes flicked to one side, and his mouth dropped open in disbelief.

He held up a hand in front of his face, a sense of wonder spreading through him. His face turned the to brightly shining full moon overhead.

Remus Lupin hadn't looked at the full moon without a sense of fear and trepidation for most of his life.

He didn't hear the sound of footsteps crunching through the snow behind him. 'What are you looking at?' she asked softly, crouching behind him, her arms encircling his waist.

'It's beautiful...' he breathed, indicating the moon. He turned his head, and ran his hand through Tonks' hair, watching the play of moonlight on the light brown waves. 'I've never seen it this way before.'

xxxxxx

Crack In the Facade

The two dark-haired men perched stiffly on a flat boulder, assiduously avoiding each other's gaze. Occasionally, one would run an agitated hand through his short, messy hair. The other kept his eyes fixed firmly on the toes of his shoes, his straight black hair forming curtains on either side of his face, effectively hiding his apprehension from the other man.

'How long are they going to sit there?' Sirius growled irritably.

'Well, you know Prongsie, Pads,' Remus said calmly. 'He's as stubborn as that rock they're on.'

'Men,' snorted Lily.

'Can't live with them, can't kill them,' Tonks added in an undertone.

'They've been there all bloody day,' sighed Sirius, kicking at a pebble.

'Come on,' Lily urged. 'Let's leave them in peace.'

'Do we have to?' Remus asked, a mischievous glint in his eyes, echoes of the Marauder shining through them. 'This ought to be entertaining...'

'Five Galleons that Sniv - Erm, I mean, Severus, breaks first,' Sirius choked.

'Oh, for the love of Godric Gryffindor,' huffed Tonks. 'Children. The lot of you.' The stern expression she wore nearly slipped as Remus beamed at her in childlike amusement. Her lips twitched, but Tonks tossed her head and stalked away. She couldn't stay angry at him for long when he displayed such unbridled joy, even if it was at his best friend's expense.

Lily nudged Sirius. 'Go on, then... Leave them be. They're not going to do a thing while we're treating them like some sort of show.'

Regretfully, Sirius pushed himself to his feet and wandered away, whistling softly through his teeth. He'd rabbit it out of James later.

Lily cleared her throat significantly, glaring at Remus, who sheepishly grinned and trailed after Tonks.

Lily stood in the shadows watching them, her arms wrapped around the trunk of a large elm tree. She was too far away to hear what they said, if anything at all.

The shadows began to lengthen, deepening in the fading daylight when James finally opened his mouth. His lips barely moved and it seemed to cost him a great deal of effort to expel the words. 'Thank you. For my son,' he said tightly, so low, Snape nearly had to ask him to repeat himself.

Snape briefly considered asking James to say it again, just to hear him concede this small measure of defeat. Instead, he nodded jerkily, his eyes still remaining on the toes of his shoes.

James grunted once in acknowledgement and rose from his seat. His eyes turned toward Lily, partially hidden by the large tree, but he could see the blaze of her hair shimmer in the gloom of the shadows it cast. He strode in her direction, pausing long enough to take her hand, and they disappeared into the valley.

Snape lingered on the boulder, biting back the bile that rose in the back of his throat.

It seemed some things never would change.

xxxxxx

Forgive To Forget

Gone was the laughing, smiling boy of their youth. In his place was a bent, wizened, elderly man. It had startled Albus to see Gellert as an old man, but he mused to himself that it must equally startle Gellert to see him like this, his once-vibrant auburn hair gone silver with age.

Albus yearned to close the chasm between them. To forgive Gellert for everything. But he could still see the surprised, yet strangely blank, expression on his sister's face as she fell to the floor. To this day, Albus still didn't know exactly who had killed her. He couldn't forgive Gellert for destroying his illusions - mostly because it had colored the way he dealt with people. He had willfully attempted to maintain people's illusions of themselves to the point of nearly causing harm. It had nearly killed Harry when he was fifteen, because Albus had been so unwilling to pull down the carefully constructed delusion that all was well for Harry's sake.

Forgiveness was not something that came easily to Albus.

Even now.

Slowly, painfully, Albus closed his eyes to the one person he'd loved with total abandon and turned away. He couldn't do it.

Not yet.