1981, how much things had changed over the past year. There had been some happy occasions but many unhappy ones. Alice and Frank had a baby boy named Nevile, after being a week overdue. Lily and James had their baby boy Harry the day after Frank and Alice.

Marlene McKinnon was the first of the group to be killed, she had said goodbye to Sirius before she supposedly headed for a family holiday. Her whole family had been found dead in the family home three days later. It was shortly after that Dumbledore confided in James and Lily about Voldemort trying to find them and kill them and their son. They had gone into hiding, with Sirius as their secret keeper.

The war had ended on Halloween that year, when Sirius had betrayed the location of his best friends to Voldemort. Lily and James had been murdered that night, their fifteen month old son had destroyed the evil wizard. Harry would bear the lightning shaped scar on his forehead for the rest of his life. Dumbledore had sent the boy to live with his only living relatives, his mother's sister.

Alice and Frank had been tortured into insanity by four of Voldemort's followers. The Death Eaters seemed to believe that the Aurors knew the location of their master, who they believed still lived. They were to spend the rest of their days in St Mungo's, not recognising anyone, even their own son.

Peter was dead too, killed by Sirius along with several innocent muggles. Remus guessed, that Sirius had taken Marlene's death so badly that it had driven him mad. Peter had gone to confront Sirius over his betrayal of Lily and James only to be blasted to smithereens, only a finger was left behind. His mother was devastated.

He couldn't believe how Sirius could have betrayed them all. His best friend had hated the Dark Arts, he had run away from his own pureblood family because of the belief that purebloods were superior. But he knew now that Sirius had never been the person who they all thought he was, a loyal friend. He had been a secret spy to Voldemort.

Remus sat in the conservatory of his parents house, thinking of his lost friends. He and Mary had agreed to spend some time with their families. They had lost all their friends in such a short period of time that it seemed natural to have some time alone.

An owl dropped a letter onto his lap and he tore it open to read:

Dear Remus,

Believe me when I say that I'm sorry for this and I regret doing this but I cannot continue like this. This is harder than when I did it the first time, but the first time it was because we were drifting apart. This time it's because I've lost too much already and I can't cope with more.

I've lost my three best friends, two dead, the other doesn't know who she is. I know the war has ended but after what has happened to Alice and Frank, I cannot bear to lose you too. Someone else of Voldemort's followers could come after you and I'm barely coping as it is.

I wish that I could turn back time and prevent Lily and James from dying, then Frank and Alice would still be with us too. It's the babies that I feel sorry for, not having their parents to be there for them. Those boys did nothing and yet they have to grow up without the wonderful people that were their parents.

This is the last time you will hear from me, the decision has been difficult but I'm integrating back into the muggle world. I refuse to have anything to do with the magical world. All I've known is loss and bloodshed in the magical world, at least in the muggle world I have my family who can help me regain a normal life, one not tarnished by so much loss.

Be happy Remus, for me. I hope that one day you can find someone to marry and maybe have children, if life is kind to you. I hope that your transformations become more bearable in the future and that you can love again. It's going to be hard for me, I didn't think I could ever love someone as much as I love you.

Knowing you has been amazing, you are the most kind and wonderful person I've ever met. The past few years with you have been the best of my life and I will remember them fondly as I grow old.

I love you, with all my heart I love you.

Goodbye my love. Goodbye my friend.

Love

Mary.

As he crunched the letter into a ball, he exhaled heavily.

Now was the time for a new start.

A/N: So this is the end, I'm sorry if you dislike the ending but we all know that Remus goes on to marry Tonks and have Teddy, he and Mary weren't a lasting couple.

Thanks to all of you for your support and reviews over the past few months. I enjoyed writing The Lily and How Things Change and I'm sad to see it come to an end. But the good news is that I plan to write more Lily and James fics with all these characters in those in the near future. The next Jily fic is The Stag and The Doe so please give this a read and review.

Hope you enjoyed it :)