The Marauders: Year Seven Part Two

The Power and the Weakness of Love

The thing about the power of love is that people of all sorts underestimate it; most especially the sorts like Voldemort, those who have never had it, and never will. It's delicate but strong. Just one ounce of love can heal the greatest wounds, solve the most impossible problems, and gird the strongest fighters. Love is the key to the determination theorm, after all, and is there by the single most powerful gift that we have. And it can be given in abundance, freely.

It was love all those years ago that had levitated the Giant Squid out of the blackness of the lake before Hogwarts, when James Potter had run onto the grounds, and pulled that cephelapod out of the depths with his magic... It had been love that drove Lily Evans mad when James was taken by Voldemort to Havmork, that had made her and the Marauders climb  into a Morris Mini and drive across half a continent to rescue him, through the dark and the ice. It had been love that she had used to defy the Dark Lord - shouting no! at him as though he was a little child. Love had created the nerve she'd needed to save him then, and it would be that love that would one day do so, so much more...

It was love that generated the opportunity for Precious Seconds. Love that made it possible to pause time and bring a person from one place to another within it. Love from his son that had given Charlus Potter the precious seconds he needed to keep breathing when the Dragon Pox had nearly taken his life in St. Mungo's... and love from his other son that would give him the gift of not being alone when the day would finally come that the precious seconds ran out... It was Dora's love that gave him strength everyday,  to smile and joke and laugh through the pain of the fire burning constantly in his lungs. It was love that gave Dora the strength to gouge thick scales from her husband's back each night, though the process was quite difficult and rather nasty to do - though it left thick scars on his skin that would only turn into more scales to remove the next night... Love drove them both to make sacrifices for each other, and it was love that they felt in the silence of the empty house now that their boy was fully grown. Love was what filled the empty spaces.

It was with love that Molly Weasley lay in bed next to Arthur, the night after the great battle at Fallengunder, her large belly - so big it looked ready to pop, despite having another two months to incubate. Arthur held her, and Molly held his hand with one hand and clutched in her other fist were two spoons that Gideon and Fabian had taken from a drawer in the kitchen at Fallengunder castle. A reminder of sacrificing love to represent Molly's twins on her clock, which was powered by love, which finally, finally had all the spoons pointing at the word Home.

It was love that had Gideon and Fabian Prewett asleep on their sister's living room, their legs criss-crossing one another, for they were too tall to both fit without overlapping, but both twins were comforted knowing the other was there and breathing and alive and well after  all they'd been through. Across Gideon's chest lay Percy Weasley, a little lump of warm skin and baby powder. Charlie lay across Fabian, too, clutching a stuffed dragon and sleeping peacefully. 

Upstairs, way, way upstairs in the dark of his attic room, Bilius Weasley had been crying because of love that was taken away, because of all the faces e would never see again. And the ghoul sat on one of the pipes, beating a sad tattoo with an old shoe, mirroring the brokenness of Bilius. But it was love that had little Bill Weasley pushing open the door to his uncle's bedroom, carrying a fresh handkerchief and a mug of hot chocolate because he was certain that a dementor was making his uncle sad. Bill and Bilius sat together up in the attic, sharing the hot chocolate - for Bilius had produced a tea cup to pour half into, and the ghoul finally was able to fall asleep as the pair of them sat together. It was love that would give Bilius the strength and hope to go on.

"With love," that was how Ned Veigler had signed the letters that Newt Scamander - finally freed from his suitcase by Albus Dumbledore in the aftermath of the battle - had found that contained the wills of Ned's wishes for all of the things he had after his death. It was with love that Ned Veigler had signed them, and with love that Newt Scamander would see to it that they made it to their recipients as soon as he could. It was with love that Elva Greenwood would inherit Fallengunder castle, and with love that she would choose to keep Ned Veigler's dream alive, with love that Elva would ask Newt to find and appoint another who was as kind and gentle as Ned Veigler, who could fix the castle up and make it into the school that he had envisioned. And it would be with love that Newt Scamander would realize exactly who it was that would be perfect for such a thing...