Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter franchise, nor any of the various anime, games, or whatnot that may be crossed-over now or in the future. (Almost) all the characters and settings in this story are the property of their respective creators, which are not me. There will be one notable exception, but that is quite a ways off in the future yet. Anyways...

PROLOGUE

- Excerpt from Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, by J.K. Rowling -

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 red 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 steps again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore, too, turned towards the dias.

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 antient doorway and disappeared behind the veil, which fluttered for a moment as though in a high wind, then fell back into place.

- End excerpt -

Wait, what just happened? thought Sirius, as he slipped backwards through the arch. He saw the look of dread upon his godson's face, James's son, who was charging down the steps towards him. Sirius was about to call out to Harry, but as he passed through the veil everything went dark, and his voice failed him.

An unknown time later...

Sirius floated through the nothingness. He could see nothing, not even his own body. He could hear nothing, not even his own breath. He could feel nothing, not even his heartbeat. He did not even know how long he'd been here, as there was nothing to mark the passage of moments. The concept of time was practically meaningless here. Was he dead? He didn't know. He would have thought that James and Lily would have welcomed him upon arriving in the afterlife, but neither of them, nor anyone else, were here.

His cousin Bellatrix had cursed him. It hadn't even been a powerful curse, barely strong enough to stun him, but apparently that had still been enough to knock him backwards through the literal doorway to "the next great adventure," as Dumbledore had been prone to calling it.

The next great adventure. Please, if this was the next great adventure, I'd rather sit it out, Sirius thought.

After what seemed like an eternity hanging in the void, Sirius became aware of something... else... in the darkness. It started as a glow in the distance, of an odd green colour. It reminded him of the green light of the killing curse, but the shade was slightly off.

He drifted towards the source of the glow, or perhaps it drifted closer to him. Maybe both, it was impossible to tell in the otherwise featureless emptiness. The glow got larger and brighter as Sirius got closer to it. As it got brighter, he found his senses returning. He could see himself again. His breath sounded wonderful to his ears. He rejoiced in the sound of his own heartbeat. Soon, Sirius was face-to-face with the source of the glow. Or, he would be if it had a face.

The glow was being caused by a strange, egg-shaped blob that hung in the emptiness. Sirius knew it was probably a bad idea, but he reached out to touch it. He was already dead anyway, he figured, what could it do? Kill him again?

When his hand came into contact with the blob, he felt a tugging sensation, as if the blob was trying to pull his hand in. He tried to pull his hand free, but found there was some sort of suction - his hand was stuck. Struggling to pull his hand out, the blob began tugging as well. It quickly engulfed Sirius's arm up to his elbow, then his shoulder.

"PADFOOT," a deep, ominous voice called out from the darkness. It had a somewhat familiar sound to it, like it belonged to someone he knew. Sirius stopped struggling for a moment.

"Who's there?" he called out. Then, as the blob resumed it's attempt to draw him in, he turned his attention back to it and once again tried to pull his arm free.

"HARRY STILL NEEDS YOU, PADFOOT. YOU MUST FIND YOUR WAY BACK."

"No shit, Sherlock!" Sirius shouted back at the voice, apparently unaware that he was using a modern Muggle colloquialism. "But if you haven't noticed, there aren't really any landmarks here! And unless you have directions back to Earth, I'm kinda stuck here!"

"Merlin's beard, Sirius, you are an idiot!" called a second voice, this one more feminine than the first. A familiar red-headed woman manifested near him.

"Lily? Is that you? Then the other voice must be..."

"Yeah, it's me, James. Sorry, Padfoot, but it's so rare I get to use the OMINOUS VOICE." James appeared beside Lily. Sirius-ly though, you need to get home. Harry is going to be in a lot of trouble for a while, and he needs his godfather's help. The green thing here is a portal, but we can't use it. Only you can. It won't take you home, though, it's only the first step on a long journey..."

Upon seeing his deceased friend, Sirius nearly burst into tears. He would have embraced his fellow dead man, but with one arm em-portaled, it wasn't possible. Still, he tried his best to perform a one-arm man-hug with ol' Prongs.

Once they finally released each other, Sirius looked James in the eye. Nodding ever-so-slightly, "I won't let you down," he said. He turned to the green blob that still held his arm.

He stopped resisting, deciding that where-ever it took him probably better than just floating about in the endless void. And he had to get back to Harry somehow, after all. He closed his eyes and let the blob completely absorb him.

For a moment, everything went white. Though Sirius did not know where the portal would take him, he knew one thing. Harry needed him. The same determination that enabled Sirius to do the impossible and escape from Azkaban prison returned, and he would stop at nothing until he once again stood at his godson's side.

Well, there's the prologue. +2 Internet points to anyone who can guess where Sirius ends up first. I'd award more, but it should be pretty obvious to anyone familiar with the correct work.