Author's Note: Written for the Missing Moments Competition by RandomEternally on the HPFC forum. The prompt was "Sirius - beyond the veil."
Introducing a new series! Any guesses as to who the kids are? (;
The first thing he noticed was that it was dark. It was odd, though, that he could sense that, because he could see perfectly fine – as though the darkness had an unusual quality to it, and didn't hide things as it did normally.
The second thing he noticed was that he was surrounded by people. But they were wholly unremarkable people, and he found that his gaze slid away every time he tried to look directly at one of them. Some seemed familiar, but he hadn't the slightest idea why. He had a vague sense that it had something to do with death.
"So, you're the latest one."
That was an old man sitting close by. As soon as he spoke, it became easier to focus on him.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?" the old man responded.
About to retort with the classic, "I asked first," the younger man stopped as he realized he didn't know the answer to that question. In fact, he couldn't remember anything, including how he got here. So instead he said, "Why can't I remember anything? Am I dead?"
The old man chuckled. "No. No one here is dead, just forgotten." He waved an arm, taking in the rest of the people. "You see them? They barely exist anymore. Some of them have nearly faded completely. This is, I imagine, where people go when somebody wants them to disappear."
"Why aren't you like them?"
"I'm the newest person here. See this man?" The old man pointed to an even older fellow with long gray hair and a vacant expression that the younger man could see if he looked at him sideways. "He was the one who told me about this place when I came. As you can see, he's since been forgotten all the way. I guess somebody still remembers me."
The younger man frowned. "I don't want to be forgotten."
"Don't worry, you've a while yet, I think. Depends how many people knew you in the first place, of course." The old man patted the ground next to him, and the younger man sat. "I like to call myself Rory, though I don't know where the name came from. It's nice to have a name. Got any ideas for yours?"
The younger man thought for a moment. "Snuffles," he said.
"All right, Snuffles. Well, you're in for a long wait, but maybe we can pass the time. I've been alone since old Winston there passed out of memory."
There was no real sense of time here, but Snuffles guessed that it hadn't been more than a few years before Rory was forgotten. At his friend's request, Snuffles set Rory up next to Winston while he was still there a little, because it would be hard to move him once he stopped being able to even look at him properly.
They might not notice, Rory and Winston, but at least they'd have a sort of companionship. Snuffles, of course, was left with no one.
There were times when he wished someone else would enter the realm of the forgotten, just so he'd have someone to talk to. But these moments never lasted long. No one deserved to come here. More often he wished he could leave.
Sometimes he'd shout at the people around him, just to have the satisfaction of saying something, even if they couldn't hear him. Sometimes he'd shout at the people out in the world, cursing them for sending him here – for sending anyone here.
There were voices. Listening to them, he was pretty sure he'd heard them when Rory was still awake, but he hadn't realized it at the time. Now he thought he was hearing people who were talking about him. He could almost, but not quite, catch what they were saying. Once or twice he even thought he heard someone say "Snuffles," but of course he had no way of knowing for sure.
He'd had a conversation with Rory once that went like this:
"I want to get out of here," said Snuffles. "Isn't there some way to leave? Or to let people know we're here and need rescuing?"
"There's nothing like that," said Rory. "I've looked everywhere. There's simply no way out. As far as I can tell, there's no way in, either, but maybe it's just so high up we can't see it or reach it." He pointed upwards. "So unless you can fly up there and look, you're out of luck."
What if somebody lowered a rope?
"What if somebody lowered a rope?" Snuffles shouted at the ceiling, or whatever was up there. "Or a ladder or something?"
Nobody replied, of course, but he kept shouting it regularly, just in case. After all, he needed something to do with his time besides stare sideways at people who barely existed.
The voices were a lot closer than normal. In fact, now that he was paying attention, he realized he could actually hear what they were saying.
"– but you have to be careful, it's enchanted, and you don't want to fall through, that won't help him." It was a boy, and a young one at that.
"Are you sure this is going to work?" A girl's voice. "You'd think somebody would've tried this already, wouldn't you?"
"Why would they?" said a third voice, another boy. "I'm pretty sure the veil's here so they can get rid of people, not bring them back."
Snuffles chose this moment to yell, "Is somebody there?"
"I heard him," said the first boy instantly. "It's him, I swear! Just like I heard in my dreams!"
"I don't hear anything," said the girl. "Just whispering. D'you really think a rope will work?"
"YES!" Snuffles jumped up, unable to contain his excitement. Was he really about to be rescued? "Throw me a rope! I've got to get out of here! You have no idea how boring it is!"
"The rope, Anna, come on."
Snuffles strained his eyes at the darkness above him, which, unlike the darkness around him, worked very well to hide whatever was up there. He spent a moment worrying about whether the rope would be long enough, but his worries were knocked aside as the rope smacked him on the top of the head. Quickly, before the kids above could change their minds, he grasped the rope and gave a tug.
There was a gasp. "I felt something! Like somebody pulling it!" said the girl.
"He's there! Come on, pull!"
And slowly, but surely, Snuffles felt himself being raised out of the realm of the forgotten. Below him, though he didn't notice, the others who normally did nothing were looking up to watch the spectacle.