A/N: A bit of a drabble for Mi High Lover's Resurrection Tribute challenge. I was given Fabian Prewett, and book seven :)
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil
—Shakespeare, Hamlet
Gideon and I were playing exploding snap when Sirius appeared.
"It's starting." The words were soft, solemn, so unlike the dark Marauder, that his meaning couldn't be missed, and we dropped the cards in our haste to follow him. Everyone was already gathered at the seeing place. James and Lily were standing, a slight trill of nervousness vibrating through the air around them. Lily's hand was firmly in James' and they were trying, perhaps in vain, to avoid staring at the movie-like picture that played before them. Their son was out there—might very well die—and yet again there was nothing they could do about it.
We exchanged greetings, the same nervousness falling over each and every one of us, but in a strangely distanced way, as though the pictures splayed across our vision were really just part of a movie, rather than being events which bore more relevance than could possibly be expressed. And the image was strange, really. It wasn't coherent. Layers of different scenes played at the same time and in the same place within our sight. Somehow, though, we were able to understand what was going on in each simultaneously. Harry was moving quickly towards the Ravenclaw common room, determination in his heart as always. Order members and Aurors were swarming purposefully towards Hogwarts from all across Britain. Friends and relatives were herding in through the Hog's Head, a mixture of fear and resolve.
This was it, we knew. The war that we, the dead, had failed to finish ourselves was about to come to its final conclusion. Regret twanged briefly in my heart—regret that I couldn't be a part of it, and regret that we'd left our war to be inherited by the next generation, by our future. The deaths of those that fell tonight would be upon the heads of the long departed, and the weight of that knowledge rested heavily upon me, upon us, as the battle broke out so far beyond our reach.