Quite frankly, life sucked for Sirius Black. Falling through the veil hadn't been the best thing for him. He wasn't dead, but he was also sure that he wasn't quite alive. In fact, he could very well have been a zombie - an Inferius - but whatever he was, he was now living in water of a temperature he could not feel and in a cave of little light. He was trapped amongst many, many dead bodies, and had been for almost a year, now.
So much for the study of the afterlife, he thought.
And now, for the first time since he had fallen through the veil, he heard voices. Real, human voices. It was so amazing, he'd almost forgotten how to speak himself.
"Accio Horcrux!" an all too familiar voice shouted, and Sirius jumped out of the water to see what he hoped were true. There, twenty feet away from him, were Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore.
I knew it! thought Sirius, They came for me! They spent a year searching for me and now they've come back for me! I'm saved at last!
He swam through the water eagerly to get to the other side of the dark lake - I'm coming, Harry! I'm coming! - but when he surfaced on the other side, Harry and Albus had vanished. He turned around and saw them sitting on the island in the middle of the lake. He assumed they'd gone over there to look for him, so he swam all the way back to the island. From under the water he saw a hand an a goblet scoop up the water.
"HARRY!"
Exceited, Sirius climbed out of the water and grabbed Harry's wrist. He pulled him across the rock.
"Harry, it's me, Sirius! I'm so glad you found me! Came here and give your godfather a hug!"
But Harry clung to the rock. He pointed his wand at Sirius and yelled, "Petrificus Totalus!"
Sirius felt the spell hit him in the chest and he fell backwards into the water. Odd, he must not have recognised me. He swam back up to the rock, but there were too many inferi for him to be able to get up. Annoyed, he pulled one of them back into the water and climbed into his spot. He pushed and shove others back so he could get to Harry.
"Harry, it's been such a long time! I think you should calm down - don't worry, these guys won't hurt you - just calm down and we can have a nice nice godfather-to-godson talk. I have so much to catch up on! Come and give me a hug!" He walked forwards with his arms outstretched.
"SECTUMSEMPRA!"
Sirius looked down. There were gashes in his robe front.
"Now you're just being ridiculous. Here, come with me, I'll take you down into my hut. It's nice and warm down there, I'm sure you'll like it." He walked around behind Harry, who shouted "Sectumsempra!" again, this time hitting a child inferi. "Don't hurt Michael! He's really nice once you get to know him. Come, now, we can sit and talk over a nice bottle of butterbeer."
Sirius wrapped his arms around his godson, picked him up and carried him towards the water.
But suddenly, there was a light of crimson and gold from behind them. A ring of fire ran the edges of the island from Dumbledore's wand. Sirius dropped Harry in suprise. He felt the inferi around him bumping him and trying to get out of the way of the fire. Sirius was only confused, now. What was Dumbledore doing? Why didn't he want Harry to talk with Sirius? Perhaps he thought Sirius had changed, that his new friends had made him evil.
"Albus, don't worry. I haven't changed one bit! It's still the good old Sirius at heart, here! I'm not going to - OH GOD, IT BURNS! IT BURNS! WHY, PROFESSOR! WHY!"
Sirius had been pushed into the flames by the others. He was now running wildly about the island on fire.
"IT BURNS! IT BURNS! HARRY! HARRY, WHERE ARE YOU? STOP THE BURNING, ALBUS! I'M SORRY FOR ALL THE SCHOOL PRANKS! I'M SORRY FOR SENDING SNAPE TO HIS ALMOST-DOOM! I'M SORRY FOR THAT ILLEGAL HEX ON AUBREY! PLEASE PUT THE FLAMES OUT!" There was a splash as he fell into the water and the flames were put out. By the time he rose from the water, Harry and Dumbledore were long gone. They obviously hadn't recognised him, and obviously never would.
This is marvellous. Sirius thought. An eternity here. I don't even get to die and see James and Lily. I'll never see anyone I know, ever again. Ah well, no point in dwelling on these things. Maybe Aaron will be up for a game of poker...
And so it was that life sucked for Sirius Black. Well, not quite so much after winning five games of Inferi Poker.