The Many Gruesome Deaths of Severus Snape

Epilogue: Passing It On

"That's all?" Harry asked incredulously as he finished Peter's story in The Many Gruesome Deaths of Severus Snape. "You could've come up with so many more violent deaths!"

"We planned to do one story for each Marauder, lad," Remus said. "And then we planned to show it to our own kids when we had them."

"Did you all plan to get married?" Harry asked curiously.

"Well, James and Lily were meant for each other as far as we were concerned," Remus explained. "We all thought that Sirius would get married to some girl or another once he actually settled down, I believe he went out with . . . two-dozen girls over the course of our seven years. Then, there was me, I was a charmer with the ladies, believe it or not."

"You?" Harry asked, cracking up.

"Don't look so surprised," said Remus, pretending to be stern. "I knew how to say the right things to them and didn't treat them simply like objects."

"My dad or Sirius didn't do that, did they?"

"Your father didn't . . . not much, anyway, but I won't pretend that Sirius didn't now and again," Remus admitted. "But even if I did get married, my lycanthrope would be passed on to my children, but they knew that I would love their own kids as much as my own."

"What about Peter?"

"We all figured Peter wouldn't meet anyone, but never said that to his face. We always said he'd meet someone along the line, but I don't think he believed it himself." He immediately became grimmer as he thought of Peter.

"It was so obvious all along, He was always the weakest of all of you and needed you to stand up for him, Remus," Harry commented, seeming to read his guardian's mind, though he wasn't at all skilled at Legilimency. "Not that I'm blaming you," he added hastily and Remus nodded. "But . . . I mean, he even mentioned Voldemort in his story. . . ." He trailed off incredulously.

"I know exactly what you mean, Harry," Remus said. "It seems so obvious now that he would be the one to turn out bad, all along. Why, when you were just one, all of us were wondering who the spy in the Order was, because all of this information was leaking out, but we never thought that it would be Peter. We never thought of him being the weakest and wanting . . . needing . . . power more than anything else, like that Raven of Power idea, he had. I thought that that was so funny, but I never suspected. . . ." He buried his head in his hands and Harry placed a hand on his guardian's shoulder.

"It wasn't your fault," he said, doing his best to comfort the man.

"It wasn't yours either, Harry," Remus said, lifting his head up to gaze at Harry with his amber eyes, sparkling now with unshed tears.

"I wasn't even alive, then," Harry said. "And I was only one when mum and dad were killed."

"You know what I mean," Remus said, leaning forward and his eyes burned into Harry's creating a single image . . . Sirius. Harry gasped as if he'd just been burned. "It is not your fault," Remus said firmly.

"Yes, it is," Harry said softly. "He came to save me and he was killed. He died because of me and more will die because of me," he finished grimly.

"Oh, lad, he came to save you because he loved you," Remus moaned. "And you came to try and rescue him because you loved him, and I will never blame you for loving someone, never." Remus grasped his charge firmly by the shoulders.

"But it won't just be Sirius," Harry said agitatedly. "More people are going to die, but they can't stop him, he's coming after me!"

"Who, Harry?"

"Voldemort. It was in a prophecy that was made before I was born that in the end I had to kill Voldemort or he had to kill me and he knows that, so he's coming after me," Harry said. "Professor Dumbledore told me," he added quickly as he saw Remus looking at him quizzically, as though fearful for his sanity.

"You can't be serious, Harry," Remus said incredulously.

"I'm more serious than I've ever been in my whole life, Remus. Voldemort is going to keep coming after me until he kills me or I kill him, so any person who cares about the great Harry Potter and gets in Voldemort's path is going down with me like my parents and Sirius." Harry looked down and tried not to let Remus see the solitary tear go down his cheek.

Unfortunately, Remus saw and he hugged Harry tightly. "Let it out, Harry," he whispered. "Let it out." Harry gave a heart-wrenching sob and shuddered in Remus's arms and Remus held him tightly while the Boy-Who-Lived sobbed his heart out into his guardian's shoulder, sobbing everything out that he had been keeping bottled up inside him for three long weeks, sobbed out all the pain that he'd been feeling since Sirius had died, no, since the beginning of last summer when all this misery had started. Harry sobbed until he had no more tears left in him and he pulled away from Remus's tight embrace. Harry saw that the last Marauder was also wiping something wet from his cheeks and he immediately gazed fixedly at a knot in the wooden floorboards, allowing Remus to keep his dignity. "I think we're basically done here," Remus finally commented. "This place looks much more fit to live in now."

"Yeah, we could rent this place out to Muggle tourists," Harry said with a laugh. "I can see it now, Twelve Grimmauld Place, enter at your own risk." He let out a chuckle at the thought of Muggles discovering that the mirrors told them to tuck in their shirt and the wastepaper basket burping now and again.

Remus chuckled. "Yes, that would be funny," he agreed, standing up and dusting off his robes. "I think we've had enough for today, don't you?"

"Definitely," Harry said, turning to leave with his guardian. Then, upon noticing the stories of Snape still left on the floor. "Remus, don't you want to keep this, you know, as a kind of memento of your years with the Marauders?"

"I wouldn't use it, Harry," Remus said with a chuckle. "Locked away in my trunk for years, more like and then I'd discover it on my deathbed and wonder what it was all about. I think it's time I passed it on, Sirius would have wanted me to."

"But what would I do with it?" Harry asked incredulously.

"There were four Marauders and there are many more of you and your friends. There's still plenty of blank parchment left and I'm sure you have some yourself. You do the math," Remus said. "Plus, I think you'll need some laughs in the times ahead."

"Well said," Harry said, picking up the story. "Well said."