"What's that? What's that... little bright specter of light beaming through the cracks? What's - what's that? ODAAAAAAAAAAAIR'S THE SUN!"

The sunlight burst into the room and exploded onto Jasper's face. "Oh gods!" he groaned loudly, and clapped his hands to his face, covering his eyes and rolling to press into the cushions. "Bloody shut that thing off!"

"The sun? Sorry mate, it isn't possible!" Sirius flung himself over the back of the couch and landed beside Jasper's legs, shaking him by the knees. "Riiiiise and shine popkin!!!"

Jasper groaned.

"Finding yourself a wee hung over this morning?" Sirius teased. "Finding it hard to function?"

"Oi careful before you find my foot up your --"

"Ahem!" Lily cleared her throat to announce her presence and Sirius chortled as Jasper moaned and pressed harder into the couch cushions. Visions of things he dreamed - but had he been dreaming? - rushed into his head and blurry, but terribly embarrassing words tumbled through his memory.

Had he actually challenged James Potter to a duel over Lily Evans?

"Morning," Lily said.

"Mornin' Lilith. You see what the hippogriff dragged in last night?" Sirius waved at the lump of Jasper on the couch.

"I do." Lily leaned against the couch back. "How're you feeling, Jaz? James said you were a real mess when you showed up last night."

"Still am," came the muffled reply.

Lily reached down and rubbed Jasper's back, her palm stroking along his spine. "I'm sorry to hear that," she said.

"Don't you just find it heart breaking?" Sirius intoned.

Lily glared at him and he chuckled, but he did get up, disappearing into the kitchen rather quickly.

Jasper rolled over to look up at Lily. He was aware his mouth was no doubt putting off an odor like a dragon's maw but there wasn't much to do for it. That was the least of his embarrassments at the moment. He felt his face flushing hot. Jasper closed his eyes, steeling himself to find the bravery in himself to ask the question. A voice in the back of his mind, which he'd secretly begun calling his "Inner Sirius Black", piped up - FIND? And Jasper had to try not to laugh. He would've failed at trying not to, too, if it wasn't for how incredibly embarrassing the potential answer to the question he had to ask could possibly be. Eyes still wrenched closed, he asked, "Lily, did I -- did I do or say anything... you know... particularly stupid last night?"

"Besides snore?" Lily giggled. "You were out cold when I came home." She smiled so kindly and her beautiful green eyes shone with such sincerity that the anxiety pounding through Jasper's veins instantly seemed to evaporate and he breathed out all that awful tension, his shoulders releasing the tightness.

James came down the hallway then, saw Jasper and Lily talking, bristled slightly, muttered, "Morning Odair," and went on into the kitchen.

Ah, Jasper thought. So I did do something particularly stupid after all.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"For knocking out on our couch?" Lily laughed, "It's no bother, Jasper, you're quite welcome. Anytime." She smiled warmly.

Jasper felt something akin to relief wash through him. Had he not said all the stupid things he'd thought he had? His heart rate picked up and he navigated carefully, "Yeah, and whatever else I've done. I don't remember anything really." He glanced at the kitchen doorway. Sirius's voice was floating out, though quietly enough that Jasper couldn't tell what he was saying.

Lily smiled, "As far as I know, you just slept." She patted the top of Jasper's head. "Come on, Jazzy, let's go and fetch some breakfast before the two nutters eat every crumb in the flat." She waved her hand and headed for the kitchen.

Jasper sent a silent prayer to the gods, begging for their help in keeping him at least moderately out of trouble.

In the kitchen, Sirius was sitting backwards on one of the chairs at the table, tongue hanging out, pretending to be begging like a dog as James laughed and hovered a piece of bacon in the air over Sirius's head. Remus, who had been up even before Sirius, was hidden behind the Daily Prophet, only visible by his fingers curled 'round the page, and his forehead over the top of the page. Lily had sat next to James and magicked up an extra chair for Jasper across from them, and now waved for him to set himself down. James released the hover charm on the bacon slice as Jasper sat and it fell, slapping Sirius soggily across the eyes as it landed.

"Achin' bacon!" Sirius cried, and he plucked it off his face, shoved it into his mouth in one giant folded up ball, and turned to Jasper, who was directly beside him, speaking with his mouth full, "Shonisshhuvootuhjondushodar."

"What?" Jasper blinked in confusion.

"He said, 'so nice of you to join us, Odair'," Remus's voice came from behind the paper, which fluttered as he turned the page.

"Remus speaks Siriusese," said James, answering the look on Jasper's face. He tucked an arm around Lily's shoulders and hugged her.

Jasper nodded, "I see," he said.

"How is Ethel?" Lily asked.

"Probably wondering where I am about now, actually," he murmured. He stared down at the table, his hair curling 'round his forehead. He sighed heavily. "I just couldn't go back to the flat. Every time I'm there, I just keep waiting for Edgar to come out from his room, or to be sitting in the living room or the kitchen... I expect him to be there, and he --" Jasper paused and shook his head, "He isn't."

Sirius nudged his chair closer to Jasper's and put his hand on Jasper's hand on the table top at exactly the same time that Lily reached across and did the same thing. Their hands touched and Sirius felt something - something electric shoot through his nerves at her touch, and he looked at her in surprise. Her face turned pink and she drew back, their eyes meeting solidly across the table.

"I'm really sorry, mate," James said, voice heavy. "I know how it feels to lose somebody that close to you. My Dad --" he stopped, took a deep breath and continued, "But you'll find your way through it. And you've got Ethel." He placed a bit of emphasis on this portion of his miniature speech, his eyes slipping to where Lily's hand hovered over Sirius's and Jasper's awkwardly before them. His eyes moved up and he noticed Sirius and Lily's eyes locked, the conversation that was silently taking place between them through their eyes, the way Sirius's head cocked slightly and Lily's lashes fluttered... James's brow furrowed. 

Remus had folded the newspaper. "You have to do Edgar honor," he said, lifting his cup of Ovaltine from the table and holding it in his palms, the heat radiating into his hands comfortingly. He looked at Jasper with pitying eyes, "That's the best way to remember your brother now. By honoring him. By doing the things that would make him most proud of you."

Sirius broke his stare with Lily and turned to look at Remus now, knowing Remus was thinking of Ned Viegler. He lay his second hand on Remus's and gave him a rueful smile.

Jasper nodded, "I know, I know... I just wish -- I mean... It should've been me who sacrificed... it should've been me, not Edgar."

James said, "Jasper, things happen to each of us for a reason. I reckon that your reason will become evident someday. You'll know when it is, and you'll remember this moment and you'll understand that you had a reason to be spared. Edgar saved you for a reason."

Jasper hung his head, nodding slightly, eyes on the grain of the wood on the table top.

"And anyone would be daft not to be proud of you, Jasper," Lily toned in. "Edgar was certainly extremely proud of you. You've been through so much but you still are so good, so patient, and so kind. I've seen you at the Ice Cream parlor, you're the sweetest to all the children that come in, and you always have such a wonderful outlook on life..."

Jasper sighed. "It's getting hard to anymore," he admitted. "The way things are... the way everything's been... the war, the deaths... It's so mindless, it's terrible. All this hatred, all the bloodshed and the pain and suffering. Sometimes -- sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be worth it just to throw in the towel, so to say, and let the old bastard win just to end all this rubbish."

"Because it wouldn't end," Sirius said, "It doesn't end with Moldyshorts winning. He wouldn't be satisfied with conquering the Wizarding World, no he'd want to go on and conquer the Muggles next. And then there'd be so much more fighting, so much more death. The muggles can't even defend themselves properly.... You know that, though. You know that You Know Who can't win."

"It would be easier," Jasper replied. "Than fighting."

"Sometimes," James said, "We have to choose between right and easy and the right choice isn't easy. It never is. In fact, the right choice is usually the hardest one, and the easy choice might seem easier, but really that's just another one of Voldemort's lies."

Lily nodded in agreement, and so did Remus and Sirius. "You're too good, Jaz, you'd never let the darkness win out."

Jasper looked up, meeting each of their eyes, though he lingered on Lily's. "Thank you. All of you. For caring, for talking about this, for not thinking less of me for my thoughts and all." 

"Anytime, Jasper," Remus said.

"Literally any time," Sirius nodded enthusiastically. "Need an ear at noon? You can talk to me. At half two in the morning? James will be there for you, mate." 

James said, "Try not to need us at half two." 

Jasper laughed, "I'll do my best."

Edgar Bones sat in the Caradoc Dearborn's office, in the chair behind Caradoc's desk. There was a stack of unfinished paperwork and an irritated owl on her perch, shuffling her wings about and watching Edgar uneasily - even though Edgar had given her several owl nuts in an attempt to satisfy her. He looked at the photograph of Caradoc's family, his son and his daughter in law, their infant son who had just been born the year before. There was a frame bearing a photograph of Caradoc's late wife, who'd been killed years before by a suspected Deatheater. 

On the wall, Caradoc's certificate of completion of the Auror Training Program hung in a shiny gold frame, right beside the various certificates from universities that Caradoc had attended in addition to the program in preparation for his work as an Auror. Stacks of files sat in bankers boxes on the floor surrounding the desk, haphazard and disorganized.

The official report said that Caradoc had been stripped of his soul by a Dementor's Kiss, right there in the lobby to the Office of the Minister. But Edgar himself had been witness many times when criminals had been tried and sentenced to the Dementor's Kiss. He had heard the screaming - the sort of screams that could chill to the very bones of a man and rattle the nerves like no other sound could do... And when he'd interviewed the Minister and his Secretary, Edgar had found that neither of them had heard the sound of Caradoc Dearborn's demise. How could they not have heard it? If Caradoc had truly been kissed by the Dementor, the sound would have been excruciating to hear... Positively excruciating. Coupled with the fact that there was no souless body remaining... Well, Edgar Bones did not believe Caradoc Dearborn was truly dead. Or, at least, if he were, then it was not from the Kiss - at least not in the Minister's office.

Edgar knew it was very unlikely that he would find Caradoc alive, whatever had happened, but he couldn't just move on. Caradoc Dearborn was one of his own, one of his closest colleagues and friends... 

He opened the top drawer and, finding nothing but office supplies, he closed it and opened the second... the third.. then switched to the other side and opened the top drawer again on this side...  He stared at the drawer, then reached in and pulled out a small box. He lifted it up out of the drawer and popped open the lid. A look of confusion crossed his strong features. 

"What in Godric's name...?"