He was walking down a long, long hallway.
There was nothing, there was no one else there.
It was shrouded in mist, tendrils of white fog reaching out to curl around his arms and legs, caressing him as if he was something special.
Perhaps the one thing he knew he had never been.
The light was dim, muted, almost nonexistent, except for a single light at the end, the very, very end.
It was a bright light.
Perhaps too bright, because he squinted and raised an arm to shield his face from the glow.
And suddenly there was a shadow in the middle of that bright light, a shadow that looked familiar…oh, it looked so familiar.
And suddenly he wasn't in a hallway any longer.
Suddenly he was back at King's Cross Station.
He could see a little girl, with bright eyes and shiny hair bouncing along the tracks, waving to who knows whom.
And he saw a little boy, with hair so black it seemed to vanish into the shadows, and gray eyes that were dull, even on this exciting day, walking stiffly into a compartment, nodding only once to a boy obviously much older than him.
And then he was in the middle of the Great Hall of Hogwarts, gazing at a scene that he remembered so well it hurt.
That same little boy, a bit older, holding that same little girl, a bit older as well, in his arms, clutching her tightly to protect her from the falling chandelier above.
And then it was the middle of the night, above the lake, with the mocking voices of five boys resounding across the water, as that boy ran, a look of pure terror on his face, through the grounds and into the water, reaching, reaching, to grab hold of that one thing so precious to him.
And then the scene changed again, one last time, for a single moment.
He glimpsed white.
Pure, pure white.
He was back in the hallway, with that faraway figure suddenly in front of him.
He looked at her, her eyes full of love and admiration, hope and endless longing.
And she lifted a hand to touch his cheek, and he could almost feel it, that brief flutter of her fingertips across his skin.
She was so very close…and yet, so very, very far.
Her lips parted, as if to speak, and he knew exactly what she was going to say.
And his lips parted, to say those words for her, but then the light glowed brighter than ever before and the fluttering of her fingertips faded to nothing and she seemed to disappear as he clutched in a futile attempt to catch her fading image, that selfsame look of pure terror exploding into existence on his face once again.
But this time, this time, his hands found nothing, no purchase, no warm, living, breathing precious being.
This time…this time Sirius Black woke up, clutching his sheets, sweat pouring down his body as his wide eyes took in the pounding rain outside his window.
The sounds of the rest of the Order reached him from downstairs, but he sank back into bed, his fast breathing gently slowing.
His eyes closed again, for that one moment, as if to see again that wonderful dream of dreams.
And he could feel his lips parting, to say those words for her, but they seemed to die in his mouth, choke his tongue.
And then finally he let go, slipping back into slumber, into a dream of no dreams, for no dream was a dream without…her.
"I love you."
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Hmmmmm….I find this a rather interesting ficlet if I do say so myself. :P I initially started this as a sort of response to lauralovessirius's message, and then it managed to turn itself into something that I really have no idea what to do with. -.-
But I do believe this is the first one-shot I've written that is quite obviously about Autumn and Sirius…hopefully this will ward off the hate mail I've been getting for not starting the sequel as promised. ;)
Ah, well, please, as always, read and review!
Fanta-Faerie