Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned
by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books,
Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made
and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
"Thankful"
by Christine Anderson
aka Lilly Malfoy
She is thankful for a surprising number of things, given the state of her world. She is thankful for small things and for greater ones, for major things and for minor ones. Some days, even most days, she is thankful for most everything she has- for everyone in her life.
Love, and friendship- family, really, of a sort that has nothing to do with blood, and everything to do with kinship of the spirit. Alastor. Blaise. Tara. Allie. Tonks. Susan. Neville... She is thankful for the presence of such people in her life, for their presence, their support, their love. She is thankful to have them standing with her in these desperate times.
And she is thankful, too, for chances- for the chances they have now to win, the chance to try. She is thankful that chance exists.
She is thankful that great as their losses have been, they have not been any worse.
She is thankful for every moment that they have.
*
She is thankful when it's over. When they stand, worn and weary and not altogether unscarred, but victorious at last. She's thankful that victory did not come at too terrible a price, that more was not asked of them in return for it. (And she hates herself for being grateful, because there were those who lost everything she is lucky enough still to have.) She's thankful for the survival of those she loves. She's thankful that for all that has been lost to get to this point, she still has what is most important to her, her husband and their daughter.
She is thankful, always, for Alastor and for Emily.