"We let them happen because there's a high probability we could make things worse," Remus answered Sirius, just as softly, before turning to look at James. "We don't rattle around, we work with the others to rebuild our society, rebuild a better society."
He moved back to his own bed and climbed into the middle. Facing two men who were the closest thing he'd had to family left, he pulled his knee up to his chest to rest his chin on. "You think I like the idea of how much was lost? That I wouldn't change it in a heartbeat if I thought we wouldn't be doing more harm than good? But, no matter how much we plan, there's no way of telling what changing things might do, what harm we could be doing to others to get our happy endings."
Sighing softly, he closed his eyes for a moment. "How much of what happened had to happen that way in order for the good things to happen? Do you want to know what Savannah said to me yesterday, when she realized who I was? 'Oh, you're the werewolf that started the reforms.' Because of who I became, society finally started to improve for my kind. How much of that was because of what I'd seen and done in the years between wars? How much of that would I have missed by not going to the continent after the war to try and outrun my grief? And that's just me. How many of the advances wouldn't have happened because the war ended early and experiences changed? Snape became a professor, Headmaster, a hero. But, if the war ended early, if Voldemort was killed, would he have changed sides? Voldemort was less stable mentally during the second war, but had a strong grip on his people in ours. If he died outright, no sense he just disappeared and would come back, especially with no one knowing who he really was, would someone have stepped into his place? Maybe not immediately, but in ten, twenty years? We can learn how to stop the things we know from happening. But, there is absolutely no way to know what effect those changes will have on the rest of the magical world. Anything bad that happened and shouldn't have? That would be on us because we played God with everyone's life."