Because I Could Not Stop For Death

I don't own the vast majority of the characters used herein. Sirius Lupin, Chase Pryce, and William Rite, however, are mine.

Author: Rochelle B, with a little aid from Solis Starchild aka Aloysha

Series: The Pack.

Rating: Pg-13, maybe R

Timeline: Post 'OotP'. Remus is 38 (but, uh, don't say it out loud.) Sirius is 37, Harry is 15, and Siri is 14. Everyone else falls into place from there.

Pairings: Remus Lupin/Sirius Black. Others as the story progresses.

Summery: Remus is stressed. Sirius is gone, his son ran away, and the Malfoys want Grimmauld Place. Then Remus is given a spark of hope, and a way to Hades, and decides to get his mate back no matter what.

Notes: You may want to read "Never Tell", "Should Have Been", and maybe "You're the Only One I See' before you get into this. (YtOOIS is really just a long interlude thing, most of which will be gone over in this story. Plus it's not done…) "Puppets" may also be helpful reading, if you're interested in the Snape clan at all, otherwise continue on.

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Prelude: The Watcher
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"I can't send you back." The man said finally, glowing red eyes regarding him from behind a curtain of white hair. He was a big man, much taller than Sirius, and solidly built. He looked bored, as if he had other things he'd much rather be doing.

To be blunt Sirius didn't give a damn what else he thought he had to be doing.

"Why the hell not?" The man arched an eyebrow, as if amused. Then again the God of Death probably didn't get a lot of this as most people probably cowered and whimpered. Sirius wasn't much for those types of activities.

"Sirius-"

"What? You're the only who said I didn't belong here, so why the hell can't he send me back?"

Koori, the God of Lost Souls, twitched. "Because you're bloody well dead aren't you, you goddamn mother fucking idiot! Just because you weren't slated to die doesn't make you any less dead, understand? Stop being such an asshole! It's not like we made you fall through that infernal contraption or made your godson a moron! I mean…shit, but that kid is stupid."

His violet eyes blazed for a moment, then he coughed and color filled his pale cheeks. Sirius just blinked. "Sorry. I'm a touch off balance. Lord Hades, my outburst-"

"Quite all right." Hades smiled almost fondly. Sirius shivered, thinking such an expression didn't belong on a man who looked so…well, fearsome. "I understand. Losing three of your favorite power sources at once would put anyone on edge."

The younger god nodded and raked his fingers through his own snow colored hair. He looked no older than Sirius' godson, Harry, but in reality had a few hundred years behind him. And he looked weary, as if he hadn't slept in days.

"You see Mr. Black, you, your mate, and your son, were quite the energy boost for my son. If I could send you back I would."

Sirius looked at the violet-eyed god. "I would have thought the world is full of lost souls."

"Lost souls I need to guide to their proper place in life." Koori's voice was hoarse suddenly. He put a hand to his head and sighed. "They don't give me power, they drain it. But you…you're selfless. You wish to guide people, help them. That gives me power. But I've lost you, your mate is withering, and your son has left me."

"Left?"

"He has, unknowingly, given his heart to the Goddess of Strife and Pain. Eris is rather pleased with her new find." Koori's lips twisted. "She hasn't been this happy since Voldemort fell under her sway."

"Siri can't…he's not-"

"He is hurting." Hades said, waving a hand.

Two hourglasses appeared before Sirius. One had a base of cherry wood and a few deep cracks ran through the glass. Golden-brown grains of sand fell through slowly. The amount in the top was much smaller than that in the bottom. The other one was black metal, which reflected the torchlight of the throne room dimly. The sand was a reddish-gold and very little of it rested in the bottom chamber.

"This is your mates time on Earth. As you can see its running out quickly. Funny creatures those werewolves. They can leave for three hundred years on their own, but the moment their mates dies their time is cut down into months."

Sirius reached out and touched the older glass hesitantly, knowing without a doubt who it belonged to; almost afraid he would break it and end Remus' life in that moment. It felt solid in his hands and he could hear a heartbeat pounding in his ears. It was familiar and, in its own way, soothing. He closed his eyes and was willing to swear he could feel the heart beating in time to his own.

"And when he dies your son will demand retribution. In return for the life of the one who took yours he will sell his soul and cause a wave of death unlike any caused by a single person before him." Hades snorted softly. "It'll be quite impressive actually. No one will see it coming. He's quite mild tempered after all."

Sirius eyed the other glass warily. An image of his son, with bright blue eyes, an easy smile and tangled black hair came to mind. He could not picture Siri killing even a fly let alone enough people to impress the God of Death. He found he didn't really want to picture it.

"He's going to kill Bella. For killing me and Remus."

"Not to mention his little friend, the vampire." Hades said and this time an hourglass appeared in his palm. For a moment the pure white thing took Sirius aback, from the sand to the metal that made up its base. Then he noticed the sand was almost run out, even less was in the top chamber than was in Remus'. He held it out and Sirius took it and the cool metal pressed into his hand.

This heartbeat was slow, almost frighteningly so. Chase Pryce was without a doubt the vampire that the god meant. It looked like Death was going to find the teen very soon.

"You can't just let this happen." Sirius said, looking up at the god. "You have to stop this."

"I can't change the fate of mortals." Hades said, shrugging. "But, as I said, you and your family have been a great help to my son so I'll grant you this: You may watch in Koori's pool those you care for until such a time as your mate dies and you both pass into the next world."

"Watch?" The word came out as a low hiss. Sirius was tempted to try and strangle the man. How could he tell him the horrible fate of his family only to tell him he had to watch it all take place as if it were some sort of gift. He didn't want to watch it he wanted to fix it.

But Koori had a hand on his shoulder and some kind of warm feeling spread throughout his body from that point. The desire to fight drained away along with everything else in his body. He was very tired all of a sudden.

He, with a sigh, allowed himself to be lead out of the room. The halls were made of black marble, with white and red veins running through them, and the occasional window cut out. Sirius looked out a few and found each one seemed to hold a completely different world. The first held people, thousands of them, screaming in some sort of torment only they could see.

The next held man dressed in what looked like uniforms from various time periods, army uniforms and warriors garb, in a great hall laughing and drinking. The next one he looked into looked like a great fielding, with little cottages dotting the area, with people dressed in white moving about, clearly content.

There were others, but he didn't look at them.

All too quickly Koori was turning into a room and tugging him along. He wasn't sure what he expected, but to step into what seemed to be a scene from a Roman novel wasn't it. Tall white marble pillars stretched to the sky, as did the trees that seemed to go forever in ever direction.

Koori led the way to a cobblestone path between the rows of pillars. Vines of the most…vibrant green Sirius had ever encountered weaved a canopy of sorts above their heads, crisscrossing beautifully and blooming with red, violet, and black blooms.

"This is my temple and forest. Or it was in 100 BC. I imagine Mortals have knocked it down and now have the nerve to wonder why they have no motivation or ambition in life." He let out a sigh. "Mortals don't pay us much mind anymore, knocking down whatever they see fit, putting no thought into how long it took my mother to make the desert bloom like this."

"You're over two thousand years old." Sirius said, wondering if his awe was apparent. Koori turned, eyebrow going up and laughed.

"No way. I'm only 700, still a Godling. I haven't even begun to come into my real power yet. Sure, I send out nice vibes and the occasional burst of motivation, but other than that I'm useless." He chuckled again and turned. "No, my father had this built for me a long time ago. I guess you could say he's been waiting for me a while."

As he spoke he reached out and touched one of the pillars. The ground rumbled then split to revel steps, or what looked like clay. He walked down, a torch appearing in his hand. Sirius followed, looking around. The cave was rather plain, save some crude drawings on the wall. The walls were gray stone, the ground dirt, and dust raised up in little puffs. The light of the torch illuminated it as it drifted back to the ground.

"That's why he likes you. He understands why you're so…loving towards your son. You never thought you'd have a child, and suddenly there he was. He never thought he'd have one, in spite of this temple, and when he had me he was determined to never let me go." He paused, head tilted to the side. "Seriously. I'm a 700 year old virgin. Do you have any idea how depressing that is?"

"Very?"

"Very." The Godling nodded then pressed against a stone slab. It shimmered then vanished, opening the tunnel into a large room. It was bare, save a round pool of water in the center. Koori walked over, waving a hand to both put out his torch and light the hundreds of candles spread about the chamber.

"This is the pool. Just think what you want to see and it'll appear. If you need me call for 'Lady Persephone', she'll tell you how to find me."

He smiled and, with a slight bow, vanished in a spray of black petals. Sirius stared at where he'd been then, shook his head. He was determined to not think about how little sense this made, ending up in the Underworld and making friends with the God of Death and his son.

If he thought about he'd probably lose his mind.

So instead he sat cross-legged by the pool, wondering how exactly this thing worked.

And then it did.

He was small, just slightly bigger thana wolf cub. He darted through the thick forest, panting harshly, but running none the less. Humans, the smell filled his nose and screamed to him of death and he knew he had to escape.

But it was hard. His front leg was wounded and he was starting to lose the feeling, and he could smell his own blood. If it went numb before he found shelter he could die. He didn't know these woods, didn't even know what part of the country he was in (or if this was even his country. It was all so unfamiliar.) but the humans knew. This was their land and they intended to kill him for invading.

Had he been less focused on flight he would have realized this territory also belonged to another wolf. A big one, who had ruled for quite some time.

There were no sounds around him, as if all of the animals had gone silent in order to watch him being hunted down and killed for stealing a chicken (that he hadn't even gotten…). Not even the trees dared to speak or call out to him as they always did.

It was all deathly silent.

Then he stumbled. He couldn't be blamed; his leg had finally gone numb. He tumbled down the side of a overhang, fur catching on sharp rocks and twigs, hair tangling in leaves and weeds, and by the time he reached the bottom, weak skin slamming onto harsh and unforgiving ground.

A thin human boy hit the ground at the bottom of the overhang. He stared up at the overhang he'd just rolled off of with blurry eyes and groaned. He could dimly hear water and smell dirt and he cursed weak human senses for masking the forest from him.

He heard twigs snapping and snorted, feeling the edges of hysteria creeping in. Blood flowed from his shoulder and he was pretty sure his head was bleeding as well. If they were going to shoot him for being a wolf, being a wolf turned boy was going to get him something nasty, like burning at the stake, he just knew it.

Humans sucked.

Something warm and wet nuzzled his face and he blinked, realizing belatedly that his vision was going gray around the edges. Amber colored eyes stared at him and a tongue lapped over his temple.

He let his eyes slide shut, feeling safe.

'Da.'

Hades is, obviously, the God of the Underworld. (Not Death, as Death is actually a chick. But Sirius didn't pay attention in Mythology class.) He judges souls after death, deciding which level of Hades they get to go to. I don't recall how many levels there were, but I do remember Tartarus, the Fields, and the Hall of Warriors.

Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter who was stolen from Earth by Hades and taken to the Underworld, where she became his unwilling bride. She is the Goddess of Spring and Queen of the Underworld.

Koori is the God of Lost Soul, which sounds death related, but is really more about guiding lost mortals to their proper place, providing motivation to achieve. I suppose he could make things grow, like his mother does, if he were so motivated…

Eris is the Goddess of Strife and Discord. Not a nice lady. She's the reason the Trojan War got started, actually…

And I told you all not to get attached to Chase way back and now you know why. That kid is slated for death and his hourglass is just about up.
Chase: Fucking Brilliant. See if I inspire you to write anything anytime soon.