This story is finished...i'm just redoing things that I want to fix.
I'll probably put up a chapter a day.
Please read and review!!!!
It's my favorite story that I've written.
Chapter One
Checking Up On Old Friends
Sirius Black stared intently over the top of his cards. His best friend, James Potter, stared back at him, just as stony faced. He was going to win this time, he knew it. James's wife, Lily, was also playing, and so was Albus Dumbledore, a new entrant into their dreary gray world of Afterlife.
"All right Sirius," James said. "It's all or nothing."
"You're going down, James," Sirius said, grinning inwardly. Halfway through his motion of putting down his winning hand of cards, a screen popped up through the table and scattered the cards everywhere. "No," Sirius said dejectedly. "Why does someone have to die right when I am about to win?"
"Why do we even have to watch at all?" Dumbledore asked.
"Because someone way back complained about having to answer the repeated question, 'How did you snuff it?' and so now we have to watch everyone die, to simplify things. Most of the time people are just dying of old age, which gets pretty boring after a while. But occasionally we get a frantic Death Eater chase or a poison or something that drags away from the monotony of old geezer after old geezer." Lily looked disparagingly at Sirius.
"Ah, not another old guy," James said, staring at the screen. The group watched in silence as an old man, lying on is deathbed, spoke his final goodbyes and last wishes in a wheezy voice to his surrounding family. Extended family, by the looks of it.
"Wait a second…" Sirius said, peering into the screen. "Is that-is that Remus Lupin? Standing off to the left?"
"What?" James asked. "Oh, yes, I think it is! Man, he looks different. Old. I almost didn't recognize him."
"And Tonks too, I believe," Dumbledore said.
"Who's Tonks?"
"The one with the black hair by Lupin," Sirius put in.
"A new member of the Order," Dumbledore said. "A rather vivacious Auror, if I do say so myself."
They turned back to the screen again, just in time for the old man to say, "And Remus, I am glad I have gotten to know you in this past year, with you and my dear daughter Nymphadora. You are truly a helpful son-in-law."
Lupin smiled wanly. "I try, sir," he said softly.
"That's why I want you and Nymphadora to have the cottage by the sea," the old man went on. "I know that my being ill has monopolized the first year of your marriage, and I want to give some back." And then the old man died, and just before the screens clouded over and went black, they saw Lupin hold a sobbing Nymphadora in his arms and kiss the top of her head. Then the screen faded back into the table.
"Lupin? Married?" James asked incredulously. "Why didn't you tell us?" he rounded on Sirius.
"Hey," Sirius said. "I'm as surprised as you. I wasn't even under the impression that they knew each other that well. It must have been after Dumbledore died."
"I think it's romantic," Lily said. "I'm glad Remus has found someone. He's been so alone his whole life."
"I'm going to go find that old man," James said, getting up from the table, and, upon his return with the old man, the table proceeded to question him about everything from when he first met Lupin to the wedding decorations, to his mannerisms.
"The one thing that I remember most about that wedding was that Harry Potter was there!" he said, not knowing that Harry's parents were sitting next to him. "He was such a nice boy, too. He and his girlfriend sat next to me at the banquet I think. A very intelligent young man."
When the old man left, James had a foolish grin on his face. "That was enlightening," he said.
"Do you know anything about this girlfriend of Harry's?" Lily asked Dumbledore. "You were the one who saw him in school last."
"How do you know it was-"
"The last I heard was that Harry was currently going out with Miss Ginny Weasley," Dumbledore said, cutting James off.
"One of Molly's children?" Lily asked.
"The Weasley's finally got a girl?" James asked.
"Yes," Sirius said. "And a very free spirited one, at that."
The screen popped up again and they watched as a middle-aged woman was hunted down by a frenzied Death Eater.
"Does that satisfy your thirst for a more exciting death, Sirius?" Lily asked scathingly.
"Certainly it does. I'm sure you guys appreciated the break from the monotony of old age when you watched me die."
"No, I did not!" Lily said. "I thought it was horrible. I wanted to watch you die of old age."
"I didn't!" James said. "I wanted to watch you put up a he Death Eater fight. Which by the way, mate, was really-" Lily cut him off with an icy stare. "I mean, so did I…want to see you as a old man…"
"Well, after thirteen years in Azkaban, I wasn't entirely sure I'd make it that far," Sirius said.
"I think you would have seen old age, Sirius, if you hadn't been so desperate to get out of your house," Dumbledore said.
"Yes, you were quite reckless on that point," Lily said.
"Can we stop talking about me, please?" Sirius said. "Who wants to start another card game?"
"I think we should give the casino manager back his cards," Lily said.
"We can go pillage something interesting off the Egyptains," James said ecstatically. "Since they are the only ones who bury they're entire life's possessions with them. Everyone else just has what ever they had on them when they died, which is usually nothing. Or lint. And there was someone with a Muggle yo-yo…"
"If I had known that I would be able to use whatever I had on me in the Afterlife, I would have stuffed Monopoly or something into my pocket."
"If I had a dime for every time you've said that," Lily said to James. "I'd be a millionaire."
The death-watching screen came up again before James had a chance to stand up and walk to the Egyptians, so he sat down with a sigh, which hastily changed to a gasp of horror.
"It's Hogwarts!" he said hoarsely.
They all stared in horror as a mass of Death Eaters marched up to the gate, Voldemort in the lead.
