So Much to Say

[Professor Takumi Satoshi]

The first weekend after Tanaka arrived, Takumi had decided to take a walk around the grounds for the first time since he had arrived. His last memory of these grounds was vastly different than they were now. Back then, bodies fouled the air, blood soaked the grass, smoke darkened the clouds...fear electrified the air with screams and incantations. Those were terrifying times to be a child. Especially at this school.

He had repeatedly stood up to the Carrows and endured their torture to protect the younger students, he along with Neville Longbottom and Aiden's Erichson formed a resistance against the dark wizards on the school grounds, he'd fought on the front lines and stared death in the face...never once showing fear. He couldn't. Not when so many were looking to him for leadership.

His steps brought him to the one spot in the whole of the grounds that he could have died never seeing again. The grass had grown lush, and the cherry tree he'd planted there had grown beautifully...but he could only see it for what it was then. The place where she died.

He stood, transfixed. Watching the late summer breeze make the leaves dance. It carried a scent that could have doubled as her hair to his senses and his eyes closed tightly.

"Stay in the castle!"

"No, Takumi! I'm coming with you!"

He turned to the blonde girl, and pulled her into a deep kiss, after he pulled away, his hands took a hold of her shoulders.

"Keep the children calm, keep them safe. I will be back!"

"No!! I won't let you face them alone."

Oh, how she squeezed his hands. Those blue eyes filled with fear...and tears.

"I love you, Tia." He said, softly, brushing those tears away. "But, I will not allow you to put yourself in harm's way for my sake. The children need you. Keep them inside. Lower levels."

"I love you, Taki. Stay safe."

He left the castle with other 7th years, scanning impatiently for Harry Potter. He was off somewhere, but the battle would not wait for him to arrive.

Death eaters came in force, and he fought like a demon sent from hell to crush them. He moved like a monsters, casting their own wicked spells back against them. Things were fine until he heard her again.

"Taki!" She cast past him to strike down the appirating death eater, but he'd shot the wand out of her hand.

The fear on her face...

He ran to her, shielding her from harm with his own body, snarling like the dread wolf. She moved so easily with him that she could have been his own shadow. However, one missed step was all it took.

"Avada Kedava!"

He heard the spell as it was cast, and prepared to take it for her, but when it didn't strike him, he looked back just as she was falling in a spray of blood and his heart stopped.

The strangled cry from his lips formed before he started fighting with all he had.

He lived.

After the fight, he'd clung to that soft, cold skin and tears dripped from his eyes as he rocked her in his arms. He wouldn't let her go. Even when the Hedarvary Hufflepiff tried to pull him away, all he could do was give a low scream of pain and cling tighter. It took the boy two hours of coaxing to get him to let go.

"Tia..." Takumi said softly to the tree. "I wish you were here. So much has changed."

[Professor Takumi Satoshi]

There was a solitary stone bench beneath that tree and the older man took care in perching there, laying his head back against the bark of the tree with his eyes closed. The silence outside of the castle was calming, and the smell of the tree was coyly akin to the smell of Tia's hair that he remembered so well. The sound of the breeze slipping between the leaves made him inhale deeply before he began to speak with his eyes still closed.

"I know, it's been a while. I'm sorry, darling. It's been...nineteen years since the war now, my love. Those of us that still walk, have not forgotten the fight. I became the Potions professor here, because I remember how much you adored the class. I try so hard to keep the kids interested, and every now and again, I catch one that has the same passion for learning as you did burning in their eyes and it keeps you alive to me." He took a deep breath and turned his head, letting his cheek press against the bark in an almost intimate manner.

"Do you remember my siblings, love? Of course you do. You loved them too. Sayuri has been married twice now,the first was to a good man who died far too young. But, not before giving her a son. The second man is also a good man, and he's British. It's like what we would have been." He cleared his throat, "Her son, my nephew, you would have loved him. He's a brilliant boy. Taking lessons to become a Healer when he leaves school. That's what you wanted to do too, wasn't it?" He chuckled. "He's also engaged to the absolute love of his life. That was a bit of a frightening process, actually. No one knew Aito was seeing someone at school here, and the family was forced to enter him into an arranged marriage to keep our nobility. When the time came, he was not the same boy that left for school. He was angry. Cold. Distant. It wasn't until then that I found out he'd been seeing someone and the boy had had to break up with him because of an arranged marriage agreement in his own family. Oh, Tia, I fought our family so hard to get him out of this. I hated seeing him like that, it almost reminded me of myself after the war." A soft sigh broke up the words before he continued, "Nothing worked, and I was sent to pick up the person he was to marry. When I arrived, the boy looked more miserable than Aito did. Though, this story has a happy ending. He happened to be the person that Aito was dating at school. They're so happy together and it warms my heart to think that there's always someone out there that is made to complete your soul like that. I still believe that you were mine...just taken away from me too soon."

Tears welled in his eyes and he took a deep breath, "Oh, and Ren? He's been getting better. I remember how worried you were about him after he came home from school and was such a wreck. Well, he's adopted a little girl and a little boy and they have absolutely changed him for the better. He was still pretty depressed up until very recently, but he was also just approved for a dragon sanctuary on the Lundy island. He's been spending his time with an Auror that went to school with you and I, love. I can't rightly recall Sebastian's surname, but I'm sure I'd remember if I saw him."

His arm slid about the slender trunk and he sighed softly. "Oh, love. I miss you more every single day. I'm so sorry that I failed to protect you...I'm so sorry..." His throat tightened and he took in a slow breath. "I would trade places with you if I could, just so that the world could benefit from your brilliance...rather than my ignorance. You could teach these children more than just potions, you could teach them how to love themselves, to take care of their problems bravely, to gracefully accept challenges...I just teach them how to brew potions. That's all I'm really good for right now, I hate to say."

He shook his head, knowing she was looking down on him and shaking her head with a dramatic roll of her eyes. He was always too harsh on himself.