"rain will make the flowers grow"

*

Curses and hexes rained through the snowy air. Figures blocked, ducked, and retaliated, but in the dark, it was hard to distinguish who was who. A loud crack was hardly distinguishable over the din of chaos in the yard.

Kriss ran up to Arthur Weasley, Remus in tow. "It's been half an hour! What happened?" She yelled, throwing a shield charm strong enough to protect them all for a solid minute or two. Both men stared at the advanced magic for a moment before snapping out of it.

"We don't know! Somehow, the lot of them knew we were here!"

"Here..." Kriss muttered. A new feeling of terror filled her. "Arthur, are the kids still here?"

His already pale face whitened and he glanced back at his home, which was thankfully untouched. Pushing the glasses up his nose with his knuckle, he said, "We didn't have time to evacuate them. It all happened so fast. Molly's in the cellar with them inside, but-"

"Leave it to me." Kriss expertly cut over him and ran to the house without another word, where she wrenched open the back door and moved through the cluttered rooms as fast as her feet could carry her.

The girl's heart beat double time. She'd never been in a fight like this, and she hated hurting people. It was why she wanted to take care of magical creatures and travel the world. What if someone was killed? What if she killed someone?

What if Adam's here?

"Molly!" She yelled, her voice cracking as she threw open doors, not sure which one led to the cellar. Barely sparing a glance at the bizarre clock on the wall, she noticed that all of the spoons pointed to MORTAL PERIL. "Molly? Where are you guys?"

"Down here! We're down here!"

Kriss followed the sound of her voice down a set of narrow stairs and into a dark, damp room that smelled like onions. Molly sat on a wooden crate, cradling the infant twins to her chest with a horrified expression. The youngest boy sat on the ground, holding onto her leg while tears slid down his cheeks. One of the boys clutched a stuffed dragon like a lifeline and the oldest one hugged him, his face solemn.

"Listen, we need your help up there," Kriss said hurriedly, raiding a hand to silence Molly, who opened her mouth to protest. "I know. I know you want to stay with them. There are so many Death Eaters up there, though. We need all the wands we can get. I've got a plan. It's, well, it's mad, but it's better than sitting helpless in the cellar and we need you out there, Molly."

"You can't go, Mummy!" wailed the boy attached to her leg. "Stay safe with us!"

"Hush, Percy. It'll be all right, I promise." Even though her voice quivered, she patted him comfortingly on his curly red head and turned to Kriss.

In those big hazel eyes, all fear melted away. Kriss saw something else there: the fierce love of a mother. Something that no one should ever mess with.

"If it keeps them safe, I'll do anything. What did you have in mind?"

Kriss held up a suitcase.

*

Blood gushed down Eva's face as she fought against a masked opponent. That sickening crunch and the following pain barely fazed her as she was too caught up in the adrenaline of the moment.

How many times had she suffered from a broken nose by now? Six, she thought, now seven. Six years of playing keeper accounted for four of them. A nasty trip down the moving staircases added another break to the roster, and accidentally  wandering into a hotbed of Marauder pranks on April Fools Day of 1972 brought the tally up to six.

And now that stupid Death Eater broke her nose for the seventh stinking time!

"Impedimenta!" She shouted, ducking as another curse flew her way.

"Brandi! Who bloodied up your pretty face?"

"That one," she said playfully, pointing to one of her two opponents.

Fabian flicked his wrist and a white spell whizzed towards the Death Eater, who seized up and fell over, immobilized. "Better?"

"Much."

"We'll have to fix it up after," he said, winking. "But I've got to say, you're cute with a smashed nose, Angel. Brings back quite a few memories."

"LISTEN HERE, PREWETT, IF YOU FLIRT WITH MY WIFE, I WILL END YOU!"

"Black, I'm fighting enough people as it is! I'm not adding you to the list!"

Despite everything, Eva laughed.

*

"Hey, are you okay?" Remus yelled to Kriss as she ran out of the house, Molly right behind her. He quickly wrapped his arms around her shaking form while Molly went to join her husband.

She nodded, wiggling out of his embrace so as to not let her guard down even for a moment. "Yeah. The kids are okay, too."

"Good."

"Moony! Look out, they brought friends!" Peter shouted, pointing his wand to the sky. Remus followed his gaze and felt his stomach drop.

Dementors.

They swooped down, their presence adding an unnaturally cold chill to the January air. Remus felt all of the hairs on his neck stand up, his senses still heightened from his recent transformation.

"I knew it," Kriss mumbled, staring up at them in fear. "We waited too long. They're with You-Know-Who now."

Remus nodded numbly and raised his wand, his fingers trembling. Because even though dementors swarmed over them, he still felt ashamed of his Patronus. He rarely cast corporeal Patronuses, choosing instead to create powerful shields.

A silvery animal ran past him. It reared on its hind legs and kicked at the dementors, chasing the closest ones away. Slowly, a slight warmth returned. The Patronus chased after more of the hooded creatures, but not before Remus recognized its form.

A werewolf.

Wide-eyed, he turned to Kriss, who lowered her wand with a slight smile on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, then shook her head. Words weren't needed between them. Instead, she pulled Remus in for a passionately rough kiss, a very out of character move for the shy girl, and ran off.

Even with the battle waging around him, Remus watched her go, a dazed smile on his scarred face.

"Lupin," a voice growled, snapping him out of his reverie. Fenrir Greyback stepped out of the shadows, grinning darkly. His beady black eyes followed Kriss as she sprinted back into the fray, shooting stunning hexes with immense skill. "You survived."

Remus didn't miss the contempt in his voice, and his own matched it. "Barely,"  he spat, drawing his wand.

"Did your cute little girlfriend kiss the all scratches better, boy?" He sneered.

"You shut up about her!" Remus moved faster than Greyback would have ever imagined possible. "Expelliarmus!"

Remus caught his opponent's wand from the air and stowed it in his pocket. As Greyback charged for him, he slashed his wand through the air, using a nonverbal spell that threw him against a tree. He crumpled to the ground and Remus felt a strong sense of pride in his abilities. This emotion only filled him for a moment, though, because he knew the fight was far from over.

*

Lily and James stood back to back, deflecting any hexes sent their way. They worked together extremely well with James on the offensive and Lily on the defensive.

"Did you finish the invitations?" Lily asked casually as she shot a neat stunner at one of the hooded figures, who toppled to the ground. "I want to send them out soon, you know."

"I, um... no."

"Why not?" She exclaimed. "You had one job!"

"Well-" He disarmed another one and sent him flying backward, "-I had a really good start, but then Eva pointed out that I put all of the cards in the wrong way, so we had to start over."

"You bloody idiot."

"Your bloody idiot, you mean."

"Just shut up and pay attention to the fight, Potter!"

He snuck a kiss on the cheek when a brief window of opportunity presented itself and ducked away from Lily's oncoming smack. "Gladly. Stupefy!"

*

Sirius had never felt so dead in his entire life.

The dementors surrounded him in darkness, their bitter cold making it impossible to imagine warmth. Right before they arrived, Dolohov had disarmed him. It was through a stupid move on his part. Being cocky worked well in school, but in real life, it brought nothing but trouble. His wisecracks left him to grope around in the thin layer of snow for his wand with the knowledge that someone had probably snatched it up already.

Meanwhile, the dementors drew closer. He tried to fight off their negative effects with positive thoughts as he searched, but his attempts were futile.

Memories began to fill his mind, flashes of terrible moments he never wanted to relive.

"Blood traitor. Filth. Disgrace."

"Crucio!"

"What do you want to do, wind up in Azkaban at seventeen?"

"I did get hurt tonight! I did! And you weren't there! He was! And you treated him like dirt! He's your brother and you treated him like dirt!"

"Stop saying it's okay! None of this is okay!"

"I suppose nature might just finish the girl off, though. Should I tell him what I did to his Mudblood plaything?"

"If they don't figure out something soon, Lily thinks she's going to bleed out."

"Maybe that's why I always look out for myself! Because no one else fucking does! I stayed and you ran, so who's really the coward here?"

He tried to run, but they were everywhere. He felt the cold, dark nothingness start to consume him as the dementors neared, feeding off of all of the memories that made his life worth living. The late nights turned early mornings, the carefully planned and executed pranks, the kisses under the birch tree by the Black Lake. Those wretched creatures took souls for their own pleasure and left behind nothing but horror in their wake.

His chest felt too tight. He couldn't breathe. The world seemed to be closing in on him.

"Help," he managed to get out, leaning heavily against a tree.

The Potters were dead...

Regulus was dead...

And Sirius Black collapsed.

*

Eva saw Sirius fall and a scream of fear escaped her lips. Sending such a strong stunner that it instantly knocked out the Death Eater she had been locked in combat with, she raced through the yard, almost slipping in the snow.

"Expecto Patronum!"

The silvery butterfly flew ahead, battling those disgusting creatures. Size didn't matter. Her Patronus was small yet mighty, chasing away its adversaries.

She threw herself onto the ground next to Sirius and instantly felt for a pulse on his clammy wrist, nearly crying in relief when she found one. The dementors hadn't taken everything from him.

"Sirius," she whispered, moving his head into her lap so he wasn't lying completely in snow. He was cold enough. "I'm here."

After a minute or two of silence, Sirius let out a weak cough and his eyelids fluttered open, face drained of all color.

"Hi Blondie," he muttered weakly as she wrapped him in a tight hug. He could barely move, still trapped in that endless trance of terrible memories. "The dementors-"

"I know, it's okay. I've got you. You're safe now."

"But the dementors-"

"I've got you."

Peter ran up to them, his eyes wide with fear. He hated being unable to perform the Patronus charm, but the second the dementors were gone, he was running for his brother.

His cold fingers gripped their hands, searching for any warmth. "Azkaban must be like hell."

*

The snow continued to fall as jinxes shot through the air. Multiple Death Eaters had fallen, but the Order was suffering, too. Marlene was among the injured, having taken two stunning spells to the chest at one point in the battle. No one had time to assess losses, though. They just fought like their lives depended on it, because tonight, they did.

It wasn't like school. They couldn't ask a professor for a do-over. This was life and death. Each mistake cost them valuable time, each error led to a mishap.

Minerva McGonagall used her spare moments to check on her students, praying that each of them made it out of this safely. She knew that a day like this would come. She helped Dumbledore to recruit them, after all. Nonetheless, it still hurt her heart to see these children fighting, bleeding, and falling, all in the name of freedom.

Why them?

This war began in the early sixties, before they were even a thought. And yet, they joined the fight without question, hoping for a brighter future.

If this didn't start with them, she thought to herself, why are they all willing to die to end it?

*

Remus focused on the fight, recalling all of the useful hexes and jinxes from his textbooks. Never in his wildest nightmares had he really pictured war to be so... blurry, but it was true. Nothing felt clear, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was whatever came next.

This was the way of a survivor, and Remus Lupin had always been a survivor.

"There are too many of them!" Lily cried out, blocking another curse that came her way. She looked exhausted. Merlin, he was exhausted. How long had they been fighting? Why wasn't the Ministry here yet? "What do we do?"

He sighed and gave her a sympathetic look. "We fight."

They saved each other over and over, just like pairings were doing all across the lawn of the Burrow. Eva had joined the fight once again, but Peter remained behind to protect a still dazed Sirius. The Prewetts were well-known in the Ministry and the Auror Department as an unstoppable team, but their comradery brought their fighting skills to the next level, working of one mind. James, ever the defender, scooped Marlene's unconscious body up and carried her towards the house as quickly as he could. Dorcas took on three Death Eaters at once. Molly and Arthur dueled opponents with the air of those who didn't duel often, but it made no difference. They had something worth fighting for.

An anguished scream pierced the air, and Remus' entire world collapsed.

No. No, not her. Please, not her.

He reached Kriss right before she fell to the ground, unable to hold herself up any longer. Blood poured from a multitude of scratches and wounds all over her body, staining the snow a garish red. He recognized them as the unmistakeable injuries inflicted by a werewolf, and Fenrir Greyback was nowhere to be seen, confirming his worst fears. He knew no countercurses, no way to save her. He just knew that she was his everything.

He'd left her before, but he never thought she'd be taken away from him.

"Kriss, hey, it's me." He cradled her in his arms, his voice shaky as he lowered her to the ground, but he refused to let her go.

Her beautiful blue eyes found his and a single tear slipped down her cheek. It crossed over that scar that he had given her, touched the lips that usually curved into the softest smile he'd ever seen.

"Remus," she whispered, each breath taking great deal of effort. His own name sounded like pain. "I- I'm so sorry."

"No," he said. "No apologies. No goodbyes. We don't need them."

With a trembling hand, Kriss reached up to touch his tear-stained face. He held her hand there, gripping onto it like a dying man desperately holding onto life.

"Please, you've got to stay with me. I- I love you!"

The fight raged on around them but Remus didn't hear anything except her shallow breathing. She wanted to tell him everything, but their forever had come to an abrupt halt.

"Remus," she whispered, smiling the slightest bit at him. For a split second, everything was fine. He saw a small breath escape her lips, visible in the air on the winter night, and waited for the next one.

It never came.

All of the strength in her hand suddenly vanished and he felt it fall. Carefully, he lowered it to the ground, terrified of the light that left her sparkling eyes dull.

"Kriss," he whispered raggedly, brushing a few stray hairs out of her face, that beautiful face he had kissed all over. "Hey, come on. You're okay. We're all okay. We're all okay. Do you hear me? Kriss, please. Please don't leave me!"

Tears began to fall faster down his face as he held her close to him, rocking her limp body as he cried.

i'm very upset right now.

i'm also very sorry.

comment if you feel like it.