If there was one thing that Remus knew well, it was survivor's guilt. He knew what it was like to be the one that got left behind. The one that kept losing others while all he could do was watch because nothing seemed good enough to stop it. In the first war he had lost his friends. His best friends, the ones that had managed to make him feel like he belonged. In the second war he had lost his best friend for a second time, along with other friends and his own mentor.

So he understood Harry's fear. He understood at least some of what he was feeling, and he most definitely understood that need for reassurance.

What he didn't know, though, was what to say, exactly.

"Harry, you have my word that I will do everything in my power to live through this war. Everything. I will not be foolish enough to throw myself into battles that I know I will not win, and I think this served me as a lesson that dealing with things on my own when I don't know my opponent well enough is not the best approach. But I have every intention to live through this war.

"If I ever underestimated how much my family means to me," he continued, his voice even more quiet, "I don't now. I know how much you all mean to me, and the last thing I ever want is to lose you again. Last time I made many mistakes, and I must have made at least one in that last battle, but I am not willing to make more."

He paused once more, looking away briefly, but he turned back to him once he spoke again. "I'm sorry."