Dead Serious.
By me, Valerie:)
Disclaimer: JKR and Warner Brothers hold the rights etc to Harry Potter, and by now, I'm sure all you little kiddies know that.
A/N Yes, this contains Order of the Phoenix spoilers. It is my feeble attempt to lighten the mood of that rather nasty shock at the end of the book, which I have yet to recover from…
He didn't have a clue what was going on as he fell through the black fabric, not until he slammed hard into stone floor did Sirius come to his senses.
"I'M GOING TO KILL HER!" He roared, jumping to his feet, wand out, clawing at the veil. "SHE'S DEAD! I'M GONNA KILL HER!!!"
"Err… Sirius, I don't think that's, err… possible. "
Sirius whipped around. That voice was familiar. "Harry? " Sirius blinked and shook his. "JAMES! HELP! HARRY! DEATH EATERS! COUS…" He returned to clawing at the veil, trying to get back out.
"WHAT?! HARRY! MY SON! " James seemed to forget whatever the minor fact was that made getting out impossible, and joined Sirius trying to get out.
"You boys are impossible. "
Sirius, for a second time, stopped his futile attempts to get through the veil, and turned around. The veil seemed to settle as James did the same. "Oh, err… hi Lily. " James said, nervously messing up his hair, wincing with embarrassment. Sirius blinked, trying to figure out what was going on.
"James, you know perfectly well we're stuck on this side. And Sirius, you've, " Lily looked up towards the ceiling trying to think of the best way to break the news to him, "stuffed it. "
"You're joking. "
"Nope, she's dead serious, Padfoot. "
"Time out, you mean I'm dead Sirius, right? "
"Basically, you're as good as pushing daisies. "
"Deceased. "
"Croaked. "
"Bought the farm. "
"Come to join us on the big Quidditch pitch in the sky. "
"Minus the fact there is no sky here really. "
"Good point. "
"So, I'm dead? " Sirius slumped down on the floor and waited for the shock to kick in.
"Looking on the brighter side of things, "Lily said, sitting down in a rather comfortable looking art deco chair she managed to pull out of thin air, "you've got pretty decent company…"
"And you're not in Hell. " James added, sitting down in a chair of his own, which looked vaguely like the ones from the Gryffindor common room.
"No, but we did write our good friend Lucy, " Lily carried on, in an almost cheery, dark tone.
"Lucifer, to save good ol' Peter a nice little seat…"
"Preferably near Brutus…"
"We think they'd get on quite well…"
"In the lovely, cool, ninth and bottom level of Hell. "
Sirius cocked his head to the side. "Wonder where that would put us Blood Traitors… Time out, so there is a Hell? "
James laughed. "We don't know for sure. Almost hope there is…"
"… But then we might be in trouble for holding a tad bit of a grudge. "
"Yeah, 12 years in Azkaban` then eternity in Hell. "
There was a low in the conversation. "What's all happening out there? " Lily asked, almost afraid of the answer. "How's Harry? "
Sirius stared at the black veil. It seemed to be torturing him. He could hear what sounded to be the finish up of a battle. Was that Dumbledore? Remus is definitely out there. Harry, too. Just on the other side… And Bellatrix.
"You alright, Padfoot? " James asked, seeing his friend's pained expression.
Sirius gave a small nod. "Harry, and some of his school friends, Neville, Ginny and Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, she's Muggle born, and another girl I didn't recognize, " he started slowly, trying to make sense of all that had happened, "came here, to the Department of Mysteries that is. If in understood Severus correct, he's supposedly spying for us, " Sirius explained, seeing James's rather poorly concealed look of shock, "Harry rushed head first into an ambush here. We got over here as fast as possible. Me, Remus, Moody, Tonks and Kingsley. Ginny Weasley was the only one of them we could see still conscious, Harry and the Neville were nowhere to be found. She pointed us where to go. Harry and Neville were trying to battle off a half a dozen or so. I took on Dolohov. Harry took the prophecy. We dueled. Harry petrified him. Bellatrix sent two killing curses in our direction, missing us both. Took her on. Stunning spells everywhere. I laughed at her, egging her on, asking her if that was the best she could do…"
"So, that was you we heard laughing out there…"
"Yeah. I don't know how things are going at this moment. Voldemort as probably appeared, seeing his beloved Bella is out there. " Sirius's voice was full of hate now. He blinked, and continued to stare at the veil, blaming himself for the mess out there. If he didn't put his guard down for that one second, he could still be out there, protecting Harry.
"Sirius, we haven't had to draw up any more chairs for family members in the last few minutes, so we can hope things are going pretty well out there. "
"And if Voldemort is out there, Dumbledore must be, too. So stop blaming yourself for every little, bloody thing that goes wrong, Padfoot. "
Sirius's gaze shifted from the black veil to James. "?" About sums up what he said.
"Padfoot, " James said simply, flicking his hand so that a chair identical to his own appeared under Sirius, bringing him to eye level with Lily and James, "You've always had a bit of a habit of blaming yourself when something horrible happened to any of us. " Sirius opened is mouth to speak, but James kept on talking, making sure Sirius would be unable to get a word in. "Now, sometimes, I'll grant you it was deserved, but hey, I'd have rather have gone laughing than shaking with fear. And now we've just got to trust Dumbledore and the rest of the Order out there. Now, what were you going to say? "
"It's my fault you and Lily are here, Prongs. I was a coward and told you to switch to Peter. "
"We wouldn't have listened to you if we weren't thinking along the same lines." Lily said, brushing what Sirius had just said off. "Would you like a hot chocolate? Maybe a butterbeer? " Lily produced three mugs of butterbeer with a snap of her fingers. "You get pretty use to how things work around here after a while. It's not that much different from being alive, just a little more dead…"