Flash.
Remus knows it's a dream, because Sirius is holding him. The moon is full, and it's bathing them in light, and Sirius is holding him.
"What do you see?" Remus asks him.
"The moon," Sirius says.
He shakes his head. "That's not what I mean, Padfoot."
"Then what do you mean?" he asks.
"You know what I mean."
Sirius nods. "You have to ask me." It's not Sirius' rule, it just is.
"What do you see beyond the Veil?" Remus asks.
Flash.
Harry raises his wand, and his hand is shaking. "I'll kill you," he threatens, but he's not sure he can.
"Why?" asks Voldemort.
"You killed him," he trembles. "He died because – because of –"
"You killed him," Voldemort replies.
"You tricked me," he snarls, backing away, feeling the rage swelling up in him.
"You wanted to be tricked. He wanted to be tricked. Yes, it was a trap," the Dark Lord agrees. "Will you lecture me on right and wrong, Harry? On fair and just? Will you tell me that what I did was evil?"
And Harry can't keep his hand from shaking.
"Should I have sent you an owl, and asked you to please break into the Department of Mysteries?" he continues. "Would you have gone if I'd asked nicely?"
"Sirius," Harry says, but he doesn't mean to say it out loud.
"I didn't kill him," Voldemort says, and Harry's scar burns.
"You would have," he manages around gasps of pain.
"Trust me, Harry, I'd have killed you first."
Flash.
Hermione is begging Dumbledore. The answer is so easy, she knows just what to do. She's not sure how many turns it will take, but she's certain it can be done. She is, after all, the cleverest witch of her age.
But he's not listening, and so she tries to make him feel bad. It's just a dream, so she can do that, because she's not really acting like a spoiled brat. She doesn't really want to break a thousand wizarding laws. Because Sirius isn't really dead.
"It was all for nothing," she's saying, and she wonders how much of this desperation, this begging, is an act. "We changed it all so that he could die again."
"You changed it so he could live," he reminds her. "And he did live."
"For two years," she cries. "And he spent one of those years on the run, and the other locked away in that awful house, he hated it there – he just wanted to help, and –"
"I cannot give you a Time Turner, Miss Granger," Dumbledore sighs. "The Veil exists for a reason. People do not pass through it casually, unless they are destined to pass through it. Did it ever occur to you that by passing through the Veil, Sirius could set into motion the chain of events that could end the war?"
But Hermione is shaking her head; it's too many coulds, and no Sirius. "You mean his death," she says, and she knows she's about to cry. "The Order needs him, Professor, Harry needs him –"
"The Order has lost many of its own before, and I daresay they must survive it again," he says.
"But – sir, what about Professor Lupin?" she asks desperately. "He's – I don't know, he's all alone now, sir –"
"Remus is quite capable of taking care of himself," Dumbledore assures her.
"But Professor!" she cries. "Couldn't you see?" Because Hermione, she sees. She's always seen. Maybe it wasn't there before, but she's seen how Sirius and Remus acted together. And the headmaster, he didn't see. Sirius died before he could see.
"The question, Miss Granger, is can you see," he counters.
She blinks. "See what?"
"Beyond the Veil," he says.
Flash.
"There's nothing beyond the Veil," Harry says.
"Do you know that?" Voldemort asks. "Have you been beyond the Veil, Harry?"
"There's nothing beyond the Veil," he repeats.
"Have you seen beyond it? Black is beyond the Veil, Harry."
"Sirius is dead," Harry snarls, and saying his name makes his heart feel like it's on fire. How dare Voldemort talk about Sirius, he's the reason –
"Gone," the Dark Lord nods. "But not dead."
"I saw Bellatrix kill him," he says softly, angrily.
"You saw him fall," he agrees. "But did you see him die?"
"I saw him fall –" Harry stops, and his eyes widen.
"Beyond the Veil," Voldemort finishes.
Flash.
"What's beyond the Veil?" Hermione realizes, forgetting her desperation.
Dumbledore shakes his head. "I can't answer that, Miss Granger."
"You mean you won't answer it," she says with frustration.
"This is not a place where I can tell you of the Veil," he says. "These are your dreams, and in your dreams, you cannot learn anything that you do not already know."
"Then why are you here?" she demands. "You're telling me everything I don't know!"
"That's where you're wrong," the headmaster tells her. "I'm not telling you anything that you didn't already know on some level, Miss Granger. You know that only those who have been Beyond can say what is beyond the Veil."
Her brain is working on overtime. "Can it be survived?" she asks. "I mean – could a person pass through and live?"
Dumbledore sighs. "Survival is completely beside the point."
It doesn't make sense, but maybe that's because it's a dream, and maybe that's why she can find the logic in this mass of what should be useless information. And she feels that kernel of hope in her chest, and it scares her, but she knows that she can't let go of it. And the headmaster is right: it's not about survival, because that implies living, and the Veil has nothing to do with life itself, only Death. She tries to think of how to word it.
"Did Sirius survive it?" she asks, because survival isn't the point, but Sirius is.
Flash.
"Did Sirius survive it?" Harry asks, and he can't even dare to hope.
Voldemort's red eyes gleam. "That's the question, isn't it? I can't answer that, Harry."
A wind picks up, ruffling their robes, and it echoes Harry's rising anger. "You bloody well can!" he shouts, wand hand steadying.
"The Veil isn't about survival, Harry," says Voldemort, but he's not talking like Voldemort, his voice is lowering. And suddenly Harry is really afraid. "The Veil isn't about life. The Veil surpasses life. Living is the only game you lose in the end, Harry. The Veil isn't life, or Death. The Veil is nothing."
"But you said –" Harry begins, and then it's Voldemort talking again, and Harry's not so afraid anymore.
"Why should you believe anything I say?" his enemy asks him. "This is, after all, just a dream."
Harry ignores him. "Is he still there?" he asks.
"You can't see, can you?" Voldemort is amused.
Harry wants to scream. "See what?"
Flash.
"What do you see beyond the Veil?" Remus asks.
"There's nothing beyond the Veil," Sirius says.
They're quiet for a moment, and even though he waits for an answer, Remus is just glad to hold him again. Because he didn't get to hold him again before he died. He let a silly disagreement stop him from ever holding Sirius again. And now he's gone.
"But?" he presses softly. "What do you see?"
Eyes that can't possibly be a dead man's look at him tenderly.
"I see you, Moony," Sirius tells him simply.