For alyssialui's The Hogwarts Games on HPFC.
Prompt: What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
A Wonderful World
by padfoot
...
He can see the Potters' front yard.
The rose garden that Mrs Potter planted – pinks, reds, purples, yellows – a cacophony of colour against the emerald green lawn. The hideous cherub statue that Mr Potter gave his wife as a prank, which has a face that looks disconcertingly similar to the stuffed house elf heads at Grimmauld Place. The large stone brick that James lugged off the Hogwarts grounds so that he could Apparate it home, because apparently sending home more portable parts of the castle was too easy.
Sirius was never sure if the Potters even knew where that stone brick had come from. He smiles at that thought. Maybe now he can ask them.
It's a startling thing, knowing that he's going to die. And it takes much longer than Sirius expects it to.
There's the heat of the battle – the sweat, the adrenalin, the pulse hammering in his chest and his neck and his wrists that makes him feel more alive than he has been in years. There's Tonks, shooting him a smile, so like her mother's. There's Remus, tall and brave and strong, and Sirius truly believes that man will live forever, which is good, because he deserves to. There's Harry – so like James, so almost-James that every so often Sirius thinks he is James – who also deserves to live forever, but Sirius knows in his heart that he probably won't.
People like them aren't made to live forever.
But the Potters' front yard… somehow, against all odds, it's eternal.
The sky above it is shining blue, dotted with pure, perfect white clouds. A tall green tree is silhouetted against the sky, standing atop the hill out the back like a beacon. That tree was the first view Sirius had ever gotten of this place. It makes his heart ache, to know he's going back there again.
He wonders if Mrs Potter will be there, asking him, "How are you doing, dear?" with more love in her eyes than Sirius had ever known before. He wonders if Mr Potter will be there, investigating his latest harebrained idea for a world-changing gadget (it was Muggle broomsticks one summer, and empty Butterbeer bottles the next) (Sirius and James had been happy to help supply the empty Butterbeer bottles).
He wonders if James will be there.
Not doing anything, really. Probably with an arm around Lily, in fact, whispering nonsense into her ear with an expression that made Sirius just know they were making fun of him. But being there, nonetheless.
He likes the thought of all that.
It makes death not just more bearable, but wonderful. Sirius smiles at that – at death, at the way it spends all of life pretending to be dark and looming and awful. He laughs at it. It's so easy, so calm, so beautifully easy, in the end.
As he falls back, he sees the Potters' front yard.
And he thinks to himself,
What a wonderful world.