Life Number Three
Chapter 1
As she looked down in amazement at the crumpled heap of a man in front of her, Hermione Granger couldn't quite believe her eyes. Although she had spent each of her lunch hours for the past couple of months in this very room, pointing her wand and hollering innumerable spells at this mysterious veil, she hadn't once managed to produce anything more than a ripple. So long had she been trying without so much as a hint of success that she had completely resigned herself to the fact that it simply wasn't going to happen. Now, in the moment when in all honesty it seemed as though she had achieved her purpose, she was reluctant to have faith in what her eyes were telling her brain.
Noooononononono, said the voice in her head. Blink woman, wake up, get a grip on yourself. I know that it seems you've just brought a dead man back to life, but no, you've got to be kidding, what a ridiculous notion!
Hermione was a person who clung for dear life to rationality and logic, and this just seemed a little too far fetched – even in the world of witchcraft and wizardry. She'd simply never known, or even read about, any other case where someone had been brought back from the dead. Elixer of life yes, immortalised in a diary yes, saved from death by your mother's love yes, but never this.
Yet as the lithe form of Sirius Black (at least she presumed it was him without having performed a closer inspection yet) lay no more than a metre away from her, the evidence was starting to mount. She could even hear what she thought was faint breathing. She moved slowly and cautiously towards him, having absolutely no notion of what to expect in terms of a reaction from one who had spent the last four years being dead. Was it really him? The same him? Would he recognise her? Would he be damaged?
She knew that if it did turn out to be the same Sirius as the one who disappeared into the veil on that terrible day four years ago, then he would be thrilled to be back in the land of the living with his godson and all his friends, but she didn't want to assume anything at this stage.
Moving ever closer she was just about to reach out and touch his back when he spun around, eyes wide. "Watch yourself," he said in a fairly menacing tone. In hindsight this was a perfectly understandable reaction to the situation, but at the time Hermione was startled to say the least and fell backwards onto the floor.
He was completely still and staring at her. The look on his face was one of extreme trepidation and shock (hers probably looked quite the same). His intense grey eyes however were starting to show signs of recognition. She thought about opening her mouth to say something except she didn't want to unnerve him any more than what was already obvious, so she just returned his gaze giving him what she figured was the best possible chance to recognise her and relax a little.
After what seemed an eternity he sputtered, "H..h..hermione?" He raised his eyebrows at the same time as if begging his question to be answered in the affirmative. "Yes Sirius, it's me. Hermione Granger." Although this seemed a much more formal tone that she had ever taken with him before, she wanted to give him every reason to trust that she was indeed herself. "What the bloody hell's going on?"
Every muscle relaxed and he allowed himself to fall back down in a disheveled heap on the floor, satisfied for the moment that he wasn't in immediate danger. Whatever was going on it couldn't be worse than death, right?
"Merlin's beard Sirius, I don't even know where to start. I think you're real, you seem real, do you feel real?"
"I certainly feel different to what I did floating around in there." He said pointing his hand in the direction of the veil.
It dawned on her that of course Sirius knew what the veil was. He'd never been in it before, but he knew it existed, and on the day when he fell into it, he probably knew at the time exactly what was going on. That's not to say that the whole ordeal would have been any less painful. Not by a long way, she ventured.
Ok so let me just turn on my professional auto-pilot here.
What we should do first is get you to St Mungo's. They've got a much better chance than me of being able to determine what sort of state you're in.
"Living or dead you mean?"
"I don't mean it to sound so cold, but yes. Surely you're just as curious to know as I am?"
"Only if I'm alive." He said in a sombre tone. "If I'm still dead I think I'd rather just wander around in blissful ignorance thanks."
She smiled sympathetically at him and crouched down beside him, getting ready to apparate them both to the emergency department at St Mungo's. She thought she should do him the courtesy of explaining the plan just in case he was still confused.
"I'm going to apparate us to the hospital alright?"
"Yeah alright. I'm ready when you are."
There was no disguising the obvious uncertainty in his voice, but there wasn't much more she could be doing right now to ease his troubled mind, he'd just have to trust her and soon enough he'd realise that she was doing the right thing by him.
-------
When they arrived in the waiting area, the place was a hive of activity. Hermione mused for a moment about the fact that she was standing there with a man she'd possibly just brought back from the dead leaning heavily on her arm, and nobody had even noticed them there.
She walked Sirius slowly up to the counter where they were greeted (too nice a word perhaps) by a nurse, who only looked halfway up from her paperwork and mumbled, "Welcome to St Mungo's. What can we help you with today?"
"Ahem." Hermione cleared her throat, hoping that the woman would look up, recognise him and eradicate the need for her to explain the whole bizarre situation. But no luck. So instead she very calmly stated, "I'd like to admit a patient please."
"What is the nature of his injury?"
"Umm, well undetermined actually, that's why I brought him here."
"Name." She demanded in the same droll tone.
"Ah, Sirius Black."
Ahah, that'd caught the snooty nurse's attention. She looked up with a scowl and replied angrily, "think you're funny do you, using the magical health system as the butt of some horrid practical joke?"
"No maam, I swear to you I am being completely genuine." She tugged on Sirius' sleeve for him to show the nurse his face, in the hope that she might accept the undoubtedly outrageous claim she was making.
Sure enough, the nurse turned a spectacular shade of white, and had to replace herself in her seat, before hollering frantically for a doctor. When the doctor arrived, the nurse was positively shaking with astonishment. Hermione felt quite pleased with herself for dealing with the whole situation with much more dignity than this woman, who looked easily twice her age.
"Doctor this is……….." that was the last straw. It was too much for the nurse. Without uttering another syllable, she fainted.
The doctor looked up immediately to see what the cause of this bizarre turn of events was, and immediately understood what had come over the nurse.
"But you're dead." He said slowly, not in a hurtful way, but rather matter-of-factly.
"Well to tell you the truth I'm a bit over being dead," said Sirius, sounding as exhausted as he looked, but wanting desperately to be taken seriously. "I'm actually hoping that you can prove I'm alive again."
At that moment, Hermione felt a sincere admiration for the man beside her that only came with the distinct feeling of familiarity with his returning character. For what it was worth, she felt and thought that he really was back.
Twenty minutes later, Hermione was getting dangerously close to losing her composure altogether and becoming hysterically excited about the whole situation. Of course it wasn't helping that she was sitting in the waiting area all alone with nothing to occupy her thoughts but her own wildly-running imagination.
As soon as Sirius had gone in for an examination (which was naturally straight away, having caught the doctor's undivided attention immediately) Hermione had sent owls to Remus and Dumbledore, figuring that they were a good place to start and she didn't want to go overboard just yet until she really knew what was going on. She was thinking particularly of Harry, who on one hand would be mortified that he hadn't been the first to be told, but on the other hand would never forgive her if she had gotten his hopes up unnecessarily. She was secretly hoping that as well as being very excited about the events that had taken place that afternoon, the two Professors might both also, as the two most intelligent wizards she knew, be able to shed some light on what the hell had actually happened. Yes she'd been there alright, but she had absolutely no idea how she'd managed to pull this one out of the hat.
Dumbledore was the first to pop into the room with a broad smile on his wise old face, seemingly unperturbed by the craziness of the situation. It never ceased to amaze Hermione the way he always seemed to know what was going on, and so remained completely calm in even the most unnerving circumstances. Remus on the other hand, was a mere mortal (sort of) and hadn't mastered the fine art of disguising his feelings completely. He looked positively awestruck when he arrived just moments later, also with a pop. He looked towards Dumbledore for answers, not Hermione, but rather than being offended by this (for she knew that Remus respected her very much) she was instead both pleased and relieved to have relinquished control of the situation to her old headmaster. Now she was just going to sit back and enjoy the ride.