A/N- This is an EXTREMELY short one-shot... I might elaborate and make it a humor/fluff piece... with a bit of angst... it is about the afterlife... but for the time being, this is it. It goes in slight partnership with my longer work, Nineteen Years Later which I suggest you lot read but it's really up to you. So HERE is the story. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer- I own nothing. Except the clothes on my back. And those, too, are debatably, not mine.

"Sirius, how am I not supposed to worry when people have been dropping in left and right?" Lily Potter screeched at a very harassed looking man sitting in a squashy arm chair.

"Well, look at it this way, either he doesn't show up and we're all happy for him or he does and we get to see him again…" Sirius attempted to reason but Lily merely became more hysterical.

"I don't want to see him again, Sirius! Because if I see him again here, it means he's dead," she continued yelling. Sirius sighed tiredly. Next to him, James was now trying his hand at consoling Lily. Sirius tuned them out. As much as he wouldn't admit it, he was worried, too. It seemed that life in the afterlife was a majority worrying. With all these new residents, Sirius's greatest fear was that a familiar face was among them. He fought the urge to stand up and go to a window.

A window was just that… a window into the other world. You would just think of a living person and you could see them in the window. Sirius had spent his first few months at a window, watching Harry suffer through his death and then slowly regain his footing. It was torture watching them and not being able to communicate in anyway. Now, almost two years later, he had settled into a sort of normalcy with James, Lily and Dumbledore. The silence caught his attention. Lily had stopped screaming. "So are we alright then?" he asked jovially.

Lily nodded stiffly, settling herself into James's lap. James shot Sirius a wry smile and a sort of comfort slipped over them.

"Acid Pop?" came a serene voice from the chair opposite Sirius.

"No thanks," James shook his head and Lily followed suit.

"Alright then, Dumbledore, I'll take one," Sirius answered, taking one graciously from the former headmaster.

"I think we should play chess. James is still upset over his previous lose to me, right?" Lily teased, getting up and conjuring a magnificent set of wizard's chess. Sirius jeered and a light blush crept into James's cheeks but he took her up on the challenge. Dumbledore laughed good-naturedly and the noise attracted another marauder…

"This is bound to be epic," Wormtail twittered excitedly. Wormtail normally wasn't with his old school friends. He preferred other company. But seeing as how he had changed at the last moment, Sirius, James and Lily had opted to forgive him and he occasionally swept down for a visit.

The game was halfway over, with Lily in the lead again, when a particularly large shipment of people arrived from King's Cross. "Must be a hell of a battle," Sirius noted a bit enviously, keeping his attention focused on the game. "James, move your knight over this way…"

"Look!" Lily cried, her voice ripe with sadness. "Look! Sirius! James! Albus!" she continued, tears beginning to fall out of her eyes. "It's Remus."

There was an extremely uneasy silence among them as Lupin, looking extremely dazed, wandered with the rest of the crowd. "I'll go fetch him then," Sirius stood up abruptly. "You lot keep playing." He wound his way through the crowd, occasionally giving someone an impatient shove. Finally, he tapped Remus, who turned around slowly. "Welcome, Moony."

"Sirius…." Remus whispered, blinking like a cat in the sun, trying to figure out what had happened. Sirius gave him a few moments and the minute the color had drained from his cheeks, he knew it was time to cut in but he wasn't quick enough. "Am I dead?" he asked needlessly.

"Afraid so, mate," he answered uneasily. He could see the wheels turning furiously in his friend's head. "Come on, Lily, James, Albus and Wormtail are playing chess," he said gently, guiding his friend away from the platform.

"But Tonks! Tonks!" he screamed, anguish dripping from every syllable he uttered. "Sirius, what if they kill her? What will happen to Teddy?"

"Harry'll happen to Teddy," Sirius explained coolly. "Look, you can see where Tonks is… these windows show you the life of the person you wish to see. You can't communicate with them of course but it's better than nothing," he explained though he sometimes wondered if that was true.

Lupin seemed to be shaking under Sirius's grip as the pair wound their way to an unoccupied window. It seemed a free one was scarce when a new lot came in. As Lupin approached a window, Sirius stepped back, giving him some privacy.

"Nymphadora Tonks! Tonks!" he heard Remus shout at the window but it remained resolutely blank. He turned to Sirius calmly. "You told me I could see her," he whispered, still trembling. "You told me I could see her!" he said again, this time much louder. Sirius ran to him, trying to calm him.

"That means she's coming," came Sirius's revelation. Remus trembled even more ferociously. Sirius hadn't meant to say it aloud. James, thankfully, had appeared, looking quite flustered. ("Lily won again," he explained.)

"Remus, you can't stop death. It's as natural as life. Come on," James coaxed and Lupin finally followed. Once they had pulled up a chair and Lupin had stopped pacing long enough to sit in it, another train came. A pair of chattering voices drew nearer.

"Bloody hell! If I'd known I'd be in such company, I'd have brought George with me!" Came the startled voice of Fred.

Sirius and Remus both looked up, distinct grief in their faces upon hearing the voices.

"Wotcher, Sirius," Tonks greeted, inclining her head towards Albus, Lily, Wormtail and James in turn. Lupin stood up and the two embraced. Everyone looked away.

"You know what Tonks and I were talking about on the way here?" Fred inquired, laying himself comfortably on the floor. "That it's really selfish for those who stay alive to think we left them. They just as much left us," he pointed out.

"Who are you?" Lily interrupted somewhat untactifully.

"Sorry. Fred and Geor…. Fred Weasley," he answered, looking somewhat confused. Slowly, sorrow etched itself onto every feature on his face.

"Lily Potter," the woman stretched out her hand for a shake but Fred seemed to have detached himself from his body.

Sirius quickly whispered an explanation to both Lily and James and the two of them looked at the boy sympathetically. "Did you know Harry?" she asked somewhat tearfully.

Fred nodded mutely.

"Excuse me, you all, but I must go," Dumbledore stood up quickly. "Harry's at King's Cross and I must persuade him to go back and finish the battle." Everyone knew better than to ask how he was privy to this knowledge. James and Sirius began to open their mouth in protest but Dumbledore silenced them. "I believe it better if I go alone. I hope you will understand but we don't want to give him any incentive to stay."

"Of course not, Professor," a sullen voice came from the corner.

"Hell, Sirius, we're putting up locks tomorrow," James sighed impatiently. One of the cons of having a house right on the platform was that people came and went as they pleased, as though the house, like the platform, was public property.

"Severus?" Lily spoke, utterly perplexed.

"Lily."

"Snivellus," James, Lupin and Sirius rang together. Wormtail muffled a shriek.

"Snape?" Tonks added. Fred remained silent.

"Well, I'll leave you all to greet each other. I really must be off," and with the shutting of a door, Dumbledore had left.

Sirius and James went off into the corner, no doubt in an attempt to hex Snape. Upon seeing their motive, Lily ran after them and then all four disappeared into the adjacent study. Tonks and Remus remained wrapped in each others arms, so close their tears were mingling on their cheeks. "What about Teddy?" Tonks asked, burying her head in his chest.

"Harry will take care of him," he tried to sound reassuring but his voice was quavering.

Fred, on the other hand, seemed unable to speak. He remained stationary, staring at the chess board. It seemed it had finally registered on him that he had lost his twin.

The scene was exactly the same when Dumbledore returned. "Harry is on his way back," he announced to the room and then drifted into the study where he was, no doubt, going to make the announcement again.

The night slowly became day and everyone still seemed drowned in sorrow. But the battle was over, now they simply had to adjust to afterlife with the new arrivals.

The deed was easier said than done. Even after Sirius had shown Fred the window, Fred remained in a fit of depression. Lupin and Tonks had basically moved in front of a window themselves, watching over Teddy. Lily and James had also taken to the window nearest their house, beaming with pride as they watched Harry resume his own life.

A few months later and slowly, those who had been attached to the window started drifting back to James and Lily's house where all of them were temporarily staying. Fred was now bent on a plan to communicate with George. When James had pointed out that it was impossible, Fred simply replied that anything was possible with enough nerve.

Nineteen Years Later

"Got it!" Fred called excitedly, bouncing into the kitchen, causing Lupin to spill hot tea all over himself.

"It had better be a genius idea…. I've burned my entire upper body," he chided playfully.

"Well, what is it, Fred?" Lily asked from her post on the stove. "And I'll have you lot know that it's not easy cooking for the five of you. At least Tonks tries to help…." she shook her head disapprovingly.

"Where's everyone else?" Fred demanded, still positively brimming with excitement.

"Asleep, where else?" Lupin laughed lightly. "Tonks is in the entrance hall tidying up though." There was a crash from the room as if to illustrate his point.

"Bless her soul," Fred could have sworn she heard Lily mutter as she continued to stir a pot of porridge.

"Alright, well, I'll tell you two then. We're not allowed to pass through to the people but we can mess around with animals all we want. I know, I've been practicing for nineteen years. So I'm going to send George an owl!" he cheered and with that, he disappeared.

Lupin sighed and straightened his newspaper and the door opened to reveal a very groggy James. "Where's the food?" he asked quietly, sitting across from Lupin.

"Honestly, why does he wake up before he's conscious?" Lily pondered, putting eggs on the stove.

"Because if not, he'd be asleep for a good long bit," Snape pointed out rudely, entering from the far side of the house. It had been an adventure, sharing the house with Snape. To accommodate him, she had had to build a room on the opposite side of the house from Sirius and James.

"Someone's using the Marauder's Map," Lupin pointed out keenly as someone tried, unsuccessfully, to open the map. The parchment permanently stuck to the table read: Harry James Potter demands this map to open! He sighed. Harry knew how to use the map, he just wanted to talk to his dad, godfather and his ex-Professor. "Master Prongs is currently catatonic, Master Padfoot is well into sleep and Master Moony would like to finish his tea in peace," he scribbled down.

"Tell him I say hi!" Lily added.

"And Lily says hi. And Master Moony also says that Harry should perhaps feed his children breakfast," he added. The words disappeared into the parchment.

"Alright, without further ado, breakfast!" Lily chirped happily. How she was a morning person was beyond any of them.

Within minutes, the smell of a wonderfully cooked breakfast had awoken Sirius, who quickly joined them at the table. "Tonks! Breakfast!" Lupin called and soon, a pink-haired woman appeared, wearing a sheepish grin.

"I'll clean up the mess in the hall after breakfast, Lily. I'm really sorry," she continued but Lily shook her head.

"Don't worry about it," she said good-naturedly. "Let's all tuck in now, shall we?"

There was clanging of forks against plates and they all ate in appreciative silence.

"Where's Dumbledore?" James asked once he was somewhat revived.

"He's out. He'll be back by dinner though, which you lot are cooking," she said pointedly, looking at each of the Marauders in turn.

"Out of all of them, you had to marry this one," Sirius rolled his eyes but laughed. "Kidding, Lils, kidding," he said when he realized Lily was glaring daggers at him.

"Okay, so I was thinking, we should play Quidditch today," suggested Sirius excitedly, his mouth absolutely full of toast.

"How about you make sure to swallow your food before you speak?" offered Snape tartly, his lips curling into a horrible sneer.

"Now, let's not fight at breakfast…"

"But Lily, he's asking for it!" Sirius shouted indignantly.

Lily turned her attention to her porridge as beams of light began flying across the table. Lupin suppressed a laugh. "If you think this is bad…. you should have been here for dinner last night…"

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xoxo

yours truly