Title: Forever Young
By: Amanda Feedback: sweety167@yahoo.ca Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I’m just playing with JK Rowling’s toys. I promise to put them back when I’m done, whenever that is. And the song is by Alphaville. Timing: GoF Spoilers: It’ll touch on everything. Summary: It’s not fair to watch youth fade in war. Songfic. Dumbledore’s P.O.V. Completed: October 27, 2005 Notes: My homage to the crazy old coot. *bows down to all things Dumbledore*
How sick is it. How sad.
I’ve watched their fathers and mothers grow and fade. Watched them, stood by them, as they fought and died. And now…I’m here, I’m watching them. Their children, the next generation. Going from youth to death. No steps in between, not nearly enough steps or phases or time. Never enough time.
How unfair. Unfounded. Mean.
Let's dance in style, lets dance for a while
Heaven can wait we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you going to drop the bomb or not?
One minute twirling at a Winter Ball, the next dodging curse after unforgivable curse. Taking one moment to laugh, to smile, to love – one moment too many, one moment too few. Always have to keep their backs up, look out behind them. Looking to the future for a bright spot, a maybe, a future at all. But deep down, knowing that they will never be that lucky. That few of them will ever get that chance.
Any moment could be their last. Any action their last. That’s not a way to live, to be young. To be waiting for the end, watching for that last sign. The sign that tells them it’s all over…
Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power but we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad men
The Marauders swore to live forever. And now, in sad ways, they have. Legends in a map, memories to the very few who still bother remembering. Always children in these walls. Smiling, laughing…loving. Merry pranksters who never gave up, who never could. Who’s spirit was bigger than anything…
It was so short.
Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders we're getting in tune
The music's played by the madmen
Wishing for that far off day. That fantasy of an end, a victory. Of winning, and it all being over. Finished. That shinning moment when life can be a song again, and children are allowed to be children. When innocence is restored. When these children can grow into adults – not forced into it.
But it’s a dream that is too far off. A dream that these children won’t be living.
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever
But there’s safety in them remaining young, forever. A joy they can only keep if they remember what childhood is ment to be. If they can remember the whimsy and fun at all. The key is never loosing that. Never forgetting about the magic of childhood, the simple joy of trying every flavour beans, the surprise of opening your first chocolate frog, the jolt of tasting Muggle treats of sherbet lemon or gummy drops. Of falling in love for the first time, of a first kiss, of a first dance.
Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young
James Potter and Sirius Black. Peter. Remus. Why couldn’t they stay those four boys? Those four happy, laughing, pranking boys? Those four friends for life. Why couldn’t Lily Evans still be that hidden goddess of red hair, green eyes and kindness? Why can’t Frank and Alice still be sending each other shy smiles across The Great Hall? Even so, why can't little Regulus still be sending nasty, exploding messages to his older brother’s dorm room? Or Lucius and Narcissa as bewildered and innocent first years. Arthur and Molly, Gideon and Fabian, Kingsley and Severus.
Grown old, dead, lost.
Why can’t they all still be young?
Why can’t they all still be here, safe? Protected by these stone walls.
Why?
It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth is like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever
So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams are swinging out of the blue
We let them come true
How fast we age. How fast they were forced to. From school to marriage to death. Child to old man. Sometimes in the course of a month. Forced to make decisions and act in ways that were beyond them. That will be beyond these children.
Their shining faces of hope and promise when they step off the Hogwarts express. The glow of a future radiating off of them, only to be dulled by time’s twisted fate.
The adventures they are forced to have. Childhood adventures should never be about life and death and survival. They should be magic and games and laughter. Happy things. Simple things. Cherished things. Never dark things.
That’s why I can never find the right time to tell Harry everything. Why I can never condemn Draco for the sins of his father. Why I can never let my guard down. Why I can never give up hope. Why I refuse to. Why I tried to hold on to that sparkle of what youth should be.
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever
How I wish I could grant them that. Grant them their youth forever, not the twisted youth that will be trapped between these walls and in the memories of silly old men. No, I don’t want them to live forever like that, as textbook moments and wizard trading cards, as fallen heroes and footnotes. As portraits. I want them to live forever in their futures, in their own children, in their own lives.
Not in some frozen moments left over from madmen’s wars.
But as long as these walls stand, as long as these memories are intact, there will always be the chance. There will always be the hope that they can be forever. That they will forever be these twirling and laughing children dancing in dress robes with no worries about a future.
