Veiled

Archive: Padfoot...Snuffles, not p r o v e n guilty
Summary: Set during the Summer holidays after OotP, Harry at the Dursley's
Pairing: None
Disclaimer: JKR owns everything mentioned here, I don't
Spoilers: OotP

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"Well," Harry thought as he sat on the edge of his bed, "you've made a whole summer without having any contact from the Wizarding world". Actually, that was a slight lie - he had been sending letters every three days to Mad-Eye Moody, as he had been told to, but apart from that he had not written to or seen anyone.

All that would change tomorrow, having to get the Hogwarts Express for the new term. His mind raced back to the last time he got the train to Hogwarts - with Sirius bounding along behind him as the black dog. Harry's face fell - screwing his eyes up, blinking through his tears he picked up the last letter sent to him two days ago. It was a scribbled effort from Ron, saying that his Mum had gone to Diagon Alley and bought Harry's school things for him, and that Ron would meet him by the Hogwarts Express tomorrow.

Never before had Harry wished that the summer holidays would last longer. To return to Hogwarts would be to return to the world with Sirius, or as it would be, the world without him. Tears splashing down on the parchment, Harry looked at the clock: only nine more hours until he'd have to leave Privet Drive and return for another school year.

Harry glanced up at Hedwig's cage - he hadn't seen her for two whole days. Wondering where she could be, he walked slowly to the window. Noticing the black curtains moving slightly in the breeze from the open window, he stopped: those curtains were so like that veil - the veil that he could have easily pulled back, and seen his godfather there grinning back at him, raring to get back into the fight.

Tears welling in his eyes again, he moved slightly closer. He could hear voices now: quiet mutterings from behind the curtains. "Pull yourself together" he told himself "that's not the veil, and it never will be", but still those voices chattered. Harry looked behind him at the locked door. Those voices were definitely coming from behind his curtain, so he edged nearer. Only a few steps in front of the window, he pulled out his wand, and stood still, listening.

Three voices were talking, two men and a woman from what Harry could hear. Taking a deep breath, he moved nearer to the window, and reached out to pull the curtain to one side. Blinking tears out of his eyes, he pulled the curtain more, revealing his open window. But where were the voices coming from?

Leaning out from the open window, he gasped. The faces of three people were looking at him, in much the same way that Sirius' head had appeared in the Hogwarts fire. They caught sight of him, and smiled. Shaking his head in disbelief, he looked again, and sure enough, there were three faces looking down at his: Lily, James and Sirius.

Willing them to come nearer, Harry made to say something, anything, but no words came out. Instead, he too smiled, and waved at them, wondering what they had been saying. Harry beckoned Sirius to come nearer, but he shook his head, mouthing something very similar to "I can't". Harry blinked more tears from his eyes, and looked back at them, but they had disapeared. Looking wildly up and down the street for them, there was a sudden flash of fire and a phoenix feather and parchment fell from the sky.

Catching the parchment, heart racing, Harry read it, and felt the fire warming his heart.

"We're not gone completely - you may not be able to see us, but we're there. Call when you need us"

Maybe the next year at Hogwarts wasn't going to be so bad after all.