Remus
As the crowds thinned, Remus moved away on his own, needing a moment to just stand there with the graves, much as he had done years earlier. Just a couple weeks' difference, but the days were almost exact parallels of each other. It was too familiar, this graveyard with it's markers for friends and family gone too soon. There'd be time spent at Bill's.
But, Remus needed just a moment, time to say a final good-bye.
He crouched down in front of the marker that bore Harry's name, but he was well within view of Lily and Hope, James and Lily. He'd done with tears the night the news had come, done with weeping for a past that was nothing but pain. Still, it wasn't easy to speak, even with the privacy spells he'd erected ensuring he would not be overheard by those who lingered. He was done mourning the past, but he'd never been good with good-byes.
"Damn Potters," he muttered. "Four generations of you have walked through my life and all of you have broken my heart.
"It's different now, with James and Lily. They were the first, but now they're here again and it's not the same. I guess you really can never go back, even if you can live twice. There's going to be a whole new generation, or a renewal of an older generation? I'm not sure how that works, or why it's easier to speak to a grave that may or may not be empty than it is to speak to flesh and blood. But, maybe it's because the grave can't speak in return and remind me things will never be the same again.
"And, Lily, my first new friend in this time. I suppose I never was able to make you understand how much your friendship meant to me, the easy acceptance you and your brother gave me when I first returned meant more than I can say, not as a memory or myth, but just me. I think you tried to tell me, before you left, that something was wrong. You knew it. But, the spells kept you from being able to make me understand. And I carried the guilt of not understanding until it was too late and you were already gone for a long time. I can't help wondering if I have more to add to it now. When I said you could return your father's daughter to him, I never thought you'd take me literally.
"Or that you'd take Hope with you."
Turning to face Harry's name again, Remus brushed idly at a stray tear he would later refuse to admit shedding. "Harry, you were the friend of adulthood I always thought your father would be. I think it's hardest to say good-bye to you. Forty-four years. That's how long it's been. And, yet, only eight in my memory since the last time I stood here in this graveyard and said good-bye to you and your family. James and Lily were gone, you were unreachable. All I had left was good-bye before I ran away from it all.
"I'm saying good-bye again. But, I'm not running this time, not trying to forget. And, maybe that's why we all came back, why we were chosen instead of countless others who could have been returned -- the circle needed to be closed so that this time, the good-bye is one of sadness, but little regret. It was still too soon for all of you, Harry, Lily, Hope...but there are no regrets for time lost this time. There's still a family here, your family, my family, a few we share. And, you gave that back to me by bringing me home instead of letting me go it alone as I had for years. I don't think I'd have any of this -- Regulus, Sirius, Ted, none of them -- if it hadn't been for that.
"I'm sorry I couldn't give you something back, sorry I couldn't help Lily the way you helped Ted, be there for her in your place as you were for him in mine." Sighing, Remus stood slowly. He moved just as slowly to put a hand on each headstone in turn, first Hope and then Lily, leaving Harry's for last. Then he turned to make his way to Bill's with a whispered "Good-bye".