Never x2 (land of dreams)
As he passes through the veil he remembers...
He remembers James and Lily. He remembers his parents and he remembers Hogwarts. Making friends and playing pranks. He remembers becoming animagi. He remembers the war and all the deaths, so many of his friends dead before their time. The secret keeper and Peter's betrayal. He remembers Azkaban and then Harry.
And in somewhere in a small part of his mind he remembers the few weeks he spent with someone from inside a book.
He hopes he isn't so lonely any more.
Islands, Sirius thinks, are vastly overrated. Indeed the one he is resting on is drab and dry and so...boring.
Dustfinger feels the flames taste his body and hopes that he has changed his ways enough to stay out of hell. He is sadly wrong.
:::::::
The first bit of colour and excitement the convict has seen in months appears in the form of a man playing with matches. He sits down next to him and reaches out to touch the flame.
When Dustfinger turns to get a look at the intruder, Sirius gasps in shock. But, for a change, it is not at the scars but from recognition.
"You!" Twin shouts of surprise are snatched from their lips and carried across the winds.
Dustfinger gets up and runs. He would be the first to admit that he is a coward. And some parts of your life are there to be forgotten; this man is one of them.
Sirius is left staring at the fire and burning his fingers.
:::::::::
As a dog his sense of smell is better and the other is easier to track down.
The dog curls round the man's legs and sleeps.
The prisoner dreams of two weeks he spent trapped in a dungeon somewhere. Captured by Death Eaters and stuck with a man who didn't believe in magic but could control the flames and insisted he came from the pages of a book.
The dead man dreams of the two weeks and how this man (this miracle) had gotten them out somehow. How they had suddenly just been somewhere else and the younger man (he couldn't be older than twenty) had fixed his injuries, made sure he was somewhere safe and run off to goodness knows where.
He has tried very hard to forget those days.
:::::::::
Even with covering his tracks he is found easily by the next morning. He wakes to find a dog curled round his legs and a lion-bird-thing considering him hungrily. Irritated, he wonders why his Hell could not be the afterlife like normal people.
As the bird-thing squawks again and the dog wakes up, Dustfinger scrambles backward, being dead he doesn't need food but that doesn't mean he doesn't want it and he has already discovered that there is none here. These two are alive and probably vicious.
The dog stretches and elongates, turning itself into a human.
"That is the creepiest thing I have ever seen." Dustfinger states from his position; backed up against the wall.
"You obviously haven't lived long enough then." Says Sirius Black.
"Doesn't everyone who dies think that?"
"I'm not dead." The other says bemusedly.
"I am."
"Oh. So is this heaven or hell?"
"The small island in the middle of the ocean with no food and only a nutter who thinks he's a wizard for company" he says pointedly.
:::::::::
They swap stories. Explaining everything.
The Inkworld and the Wizarding world.
Maggie – a surrogate daughter and Harry – a surrogate son.
Years trapped here in the real world and years spent trapped in a cell.
Fire.
War.
And yet more war.
:::::::::
Late one night Sirius kisses Dustfinger. Capturing his lips with the fire Roxanne's have been missing lately.
The kiss is over too quickly and Black is apologising. Saying that he has been so lonely and he wanted to be with someone again. He runs away afterwards.
Dustfinger tries to find him but as he lacks the superior senses of the other man he fails in the task. He is lonely too.
Sirius returns the next day with a loaf of bread and some scraps of meat as an apology. Though Dustfinger has already forgiven him it warms his heart to see food that the other has risked his freedom for.
:::::::::
"Have you ever thought that you could be dead?"
Sirius turns to face him. It is dark and cold and he almost drowned today. He just wants to sleep.
"I used to. When I was in Azkaban."
"No, I mean here. Maybe we're both dead and this is Hell."
"It's not." Sirius says with as much confidence as he can muster at this time of the night.
"But how do you know?"
Sirius sighs and props himself up on one spindly elbow. "Because I am not dying here. I am not going to die with most of my friends thinking I'm a traitor."
Dustfinger accepts the answer and falls asleep quickly. Sirius is left awake pondering the possibility of truth in his companion's words.
In reality the only reason he denied Dustfinger's theory was that he is having far too good a time to be in Hell.
::::::::::
They scrounge hats from somewhere; old fashioned fedoras that usually turn up in bad gangster movies. And even with Dustfinger's scars and Sirius being who he is the hats still attract the most attention when the venture out.
They do not leave their island often. But when they do they spend most of the time in back-alleys and rarely frequented areas of cities.
Away from the crowds and noise that frightens Sirius and the street-performers and bookshops that irritate Dustfinger.
::::::::::
Dustfinger tells his companion of his friend Clouddancer; and they talk about flying. Sirius talks about his old motorbike, he calls it freedom and Dustfinger asks no more. And Dustfinger tells tales of trees as high as the mountains.
They go up on Buckbeak later.
Afterwards they climb into bed together without thinking. Both are too tired to worry about it now.
That night they dream of things lost. Of dancing and fights and pretty women. Of spells and magic and men with scruffy hair.
The dreams are the same really.
By morning both men's dreams have turned to nightmares. And they are holding each other for comfort and protection.
And if one's hold is a little too tight or one strays a little too close to their more personal body parts, well, neither mentions it.
::::::::::
Mo – Silvertongue – starts appearing in Dustfinger's dreams. They gather from the small bits he remembers in the morning that they are going to try to read him back to life.
Sirius act happy for his friend but inside he is crying. Why do all his friends leave him?
Dustfinger is happy. Since he came here all he wanted was to get back. But he worries about Sirius and wishes he could come with him. The problem is that would make his friends here unhappy which in turn would make Sirius feel even worse.
And anyway Mo did not know about the wizard.
He consoles himself with the thought that if his afterlife is this world then maybe his friend's will be his own world.
::::::::::::
He leaves in October.
They had snuck into a muggle cinema and were watching a bad horror film. Neither noticed the change until only his torso remained.
Dustfinger leans round to show Sirius what is happening and then before he can leave completely kisses him passionately until he is gone and there is nothing to show he was ever there except an old hat, a burnt patch of grass and the taste of fire on one lonely wizard's lips.
:::::::::::::
Neither man ever mentions those days to their friends.
But sometimes they dream of another world. One where they catch glimpses of men their hearts call out for.
My first crossover! Not my last though: I'm planning a weird HP/LesMis thing too...
I really want to know how you feel about this (hint, hint). Siriusly though I would like to know if it was any good. If you review I'll dedicate my next oneshot to you. (Well, I will if I ever finish anything ;))
I think I messed up the timeline in both stories a bit but eh...artistic liscence?
If anyone reading this also reads Lost and Lonely, I'm sorry about the long wait and I'm still no closer to getting another chapter up. :(