Chapter 1

A meeting of old friends

Only one pair was still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: he was laughing at her. "Come on, you can do better than that!"

He yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room. The second jet of light hit him squarely on the chest. The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.

Harry released Neville, though he was unaware of doing so. He was jumping down the stairs again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore, too, turned towards the dais. It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall: his body curved in a graceful arc as he sank backwards through the ragged veil hanging from the arch. Harry saw the look of mingled fear and surprise on his godfather's wasted, once-handsome face as he fell through the ancient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place.

Harry heard Bellatrix Lestrange's triumphant scream but knew it meant nothing – Sirius had just fallen through the archway, he would reappear from the other side any second…

But Sirius did not reappear. "SIRIUS!" Harry yelled. "SIRIUS!"

Sirius lay motionless on his back, gazing emptilly at the ceiling. After falling through the ragged veil, he could only hear faint cries, some containing his own name. His mind worked slowly, until it focused on one particular familiar voice, the voice of his godson. His heart began pounding hard in his chest, and this brought life and pain into his limps.

He groaned and sat up looking around.

All he could remember clearly was the grin on his cousin's face, as she had hit him in the chest with her spell and caused him to fall through the curtain. He rubbed his head and looked puzzled at the emptiness around him. He couldn't figure out if it was a room shrouded in darkness, or if he had been transported somewhere else. Suddenly he felt a presence of someone else, and a hand grab hold on his shoulder.

He spun around, and found himself looking at the face of his best friend from his days at Hogwarts.

"James?" he said, disbelief shaking his voice while allowing the other man to draw him to his feet. The man was clad in wizard robes, had dark unruly hair and a pair of hazel brown eyes sparkling with emotion through his glasses. He nodded as if no words could express how he felt at this particular moment.

A movement behind the man distracted Sirius and a woman emerged from the shadows.

Sirius, eyes wide open, gazed at the appearance of Lily Potter complete with vividly red hair and a teasing but friendly expression in her green eyes he had begun to associate with the face and nature of his godson. "James, Lily, what are you doing here?" Sirius said, he words echoing in the emptiness around them. He looked around for the curtain as if wanting to shout out to Remus and Harry that he had found something they just had to see. "We could ask you the same question," James Potter said head tilted slightly as if something disapproving had just happened, "you were not supposed to be here you know, at least not at the present time." Sirius turned to face him his face bearing a look of utter puzzlement. Lily laughed, slipped past her husband and embraced Sirius who could do nothing more than give in for the tears that he had been holding back for so many years.

"Thank you" she whispered, "for looking after Harry." "I haven't" Sirius replied, pulling away from her exasperation stopping the tears "I was sent to Azkaban, he went to the Dursleys, I only escaped two years ago, and…" his voice trailed off, as Lily's green eyes fixed him with their penetrating gaze. "We know, but you have done more for him in that little time, than my sister has in 15 years, and for that, we thank you" "Yeah, Padfoot" the sound of his dead friend's voice combined with his old pet name startled Sirius as James moved closer to him, and shook his hand. "Lily's right. You have done so much for Harry, that we could be giving you thanks all the way from here to infinity and still be in your debt." "You were the ones who made him what he is," Sirius said, lump threatening in his throat, "I should be thanking you". "Enough of all the thanks" Lily said; taking Sirius's other hand, dragging him away from the curtain. "We really shouldn't be staying here, let's go home" she said to James, and he nodded.

Before Sirius could ask any of them what in hell they were talking about, he found himself in the kitchen of James and Lily's house in Godrick's Hollow, before it was destroyed that night almost 15 years ago. "What in hell?" he said out loud, forcing a smile to cross James's face. "No no, this isn't hell; I would've hoped that you had higher thoughts of me and Lily than that!" He laughed. "What?" Sirius said his voice weak and all too befuddled to actually understand what was being said. Lily guided him to a chair at the wooden table then made her way to the kettle in order to make some tea. "How come this place isn't ruined?" Sirius asked, looking around the ones so familiar surroundings. "I have to be completely honest with you, Sirius, if you are to understand this" James said, sitting down and looking gravely at his best friend.

"You do know what happened when you fell through that curtain, right?" Sirius shook his head in a confused manner, forcing James to stand up and cry out in desperation "For Merlin's sake Sirius, you're dead!" Lily moved over from the corner with three cups of tea on a tray. "That really wasn't necessary, James. Can't you remember how we felt?" "This is absurd" whispered Sirius, "I just fell through a curtain, obviously I'm unconscious right now, that's why I can talk to you guys, but I swear I could hear Harry shouting my name back there, so I'll be waking up any time now."

he said, as if assuring himself there was noting wrong. "You won't be waking, mate" James said, sorrow in his voice. "We know that all to well. And we heard Harry too. Wonder how he looks like now?" He added. "He looks just like you James," Sirius said, smiling at the thought of his godson, "only, he's got Lily's eyes" he finished looking at Lily, padding her arm "you two have a wonderful boy".

At that Lily couldn't take it anymore and burst into tears. "It's just so lonely to live here without him" she sobbed; "when we were offered to come back here and live in this illusion of our own house, I didn't think of the consequences." "What consequences?" Sirius asked, looking at James. James sighed and gestured to Sirius to follow him. They moved up the stairs James first, Sirius following, and Lily at the back, tears still running down her cheeks. James pushed a door open, and let Sirius enter first. Sirius found himself looking at a light blue room, full of baby stuff and a cot.

Pictures of family and the four marauders occupied the walls. Lily took a deep breath behind him, and buried her face in the robes of her husband. "As you can see," James said "Noting has changed. At first we thought it was a good thing, but as the years passes, it just becomes more and more painful."

Sirius picked up a teddy bear that he himself had given Harry. He nodded.

"I can imagine that" he said, stroking the teddy bear, "I felt the same when I was in Azkaban, well at least in the beginning. After a while it only encouraged the dementors to come by my cell more often, so I transformed into my animagus form, it, all the feelings I mean, became more bearable when I didn't have to deal with them in a human way." For a moment they all stood silent and let all the emotions run through them. It almost felt like Harry had died and not them.

"We should go downstairs again." Lily said, "the tea's getting cold". They made their way down the stairs and sat at the table.

"Listen, you have got to help me get back." It busted out of Sirius "I can't stay here, I mean, its nice being here with you two, but I just can't stop living right now, like this.

I didn't get a chance to say goodbye." He continued, then, realising the meaning of his words looked at James: "I'm so sorry James, Lily; I didn't mean it like that. I'm so selfish" "No, no you're not. You're just not used to talking to us about your feelings. It just so happens that our feelings on this area are the same. We all love Harry and neither of us got a chance to say goodbye." Lily assured him. "But there must be a way of getting back" Sirius exclaimed, not ready to accept the truth.

"I'm afraid not." James said, "unless… Dumbledore is still the headmaster of Hogwarts, isn't he?" "Yes" said Sirius, "but I can't see how that's going to help me get back." "Actually it can, has Harry told you about when he found the Mirror of Erised?" Lily asked. "Only briefly. He found this mirror thing and when he stood in front of it, he could see you guys." Sirius answered. "Exactly," Lily said, "that mirror shows your deepest desire, and it was Dumbledore who put it there where he was sure it would be easy for Harry to find." "Now why would Dumbledore do such a thing?" Sirius said, impatient to get to the part of the story that involved him going back. "Because, mate," James said, with a devilish grin on his lips, "we asked him to."