Disclaimer: The quotes from OotP belongs completely to J. K. Rowling, just like everything else HP.
This story was written especially for fondued jicama. Mwah!

Sunshine

He felt nothing but the chill. It started at his fingertips, where the veil had touched his skin, and it spread to consume his entire body. He felt numb. This shouldn't happen. His eyes searched frantically for Harry, for his godson, but it was suddenly so very dark around him...

"SIRIUS!"

So very dark. He felt a pang of fear as he remembered all those years in Azkaban. He had felt cold like this, he had tried to see through darkness like this, and if he listened for it he could hear the raspy breathing of the Dementors.

"SIRIUS!"
"There's nothing you can do, Harry ­"

It shouldn't end this way. It couldn't end. Then there was a light, and he felt a little better. He had heard about the light. That meant that he had at least done something right.

"Get him, save him, he's only just gone through!"

He felt... light. Very light. As the cold completely took him over, he felt how something broke. Something... snapped, and suddenly there was warmth and light. He could feel sunshine on his hand. His pale skin, that hadn't felt such a thing in many years, burned with the sudden heat. He noticed that his eyes were closed. He opened them.

"- it's too late, Harry."
"We can still reach him ­"

He was standing outside, on a green field. The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and far away there was the glittering of the sea. The air smelled of roses, and when he looked around he could see a collection of rosebushes not far away. Two people stood there by those bushes, holding hands, and his breath got caught in his throat. There was one man and one woman, both so painfully familiar that he didn't know what to do. He couldn't look them in the eyes.

"There's nothing you can do, Harry..."

The woman smiled at him and waved, her red hair flying in the wind and getting in her face. The man beside her pushed up his glasses that had been sliding down his nose, grinned at Sirius and brought the woman's hand to his own lips to kiss it. Sirius took one step closer, not believing, not daring to believe...

"... nothing..."

The beautiful pair laughed and he could finally meet their gazes. There was nothing but compassion and love looking back at him, and his lips quirked a hopeful smile. The man in front of him opened his mouth to speak...

"... he's gone."

"Hullo, Padfoot."