(A/N): Review replies for ch. 1 are on the profile! I'm really sorry this took so long. Something was wrong with the computer.I don't want you to have to wait any longer, so here. Read.

Last time: "…And with that, Sirius could see a white spark in the distance."

See Disclaimer on chapter 1.

Beyond the Veil

Chapter Two: It's A Big World Out There

Huh. Where'd that come from? I could've sworn it wasn't there a second ago.

Maybe someone other than me is here! Maybe they've got a candle.

However it got there, I'm going to it...hey, maybe it's that white light people are supposed to follow when they die. Maybe mine was just…delayed or something.

Yeah, and maybe I'm really the Minister of Magic and having an awfully long, terrible dream. Yeah right.

Maybe I'm nutters.

Sirius looked down at his feet; apparently they had stopped moving.

So now I've lost the ability to think and walk at the same time. Great. I'd better start moving before I can't walk at all. At least this time I actually have a destination. Forward and onward, feet!

So Sirius, with a bit more spring in his step, took off toward the seemingly floating speck of white light. It was slightly flickering, like that of strong candlelight, but the glow was such a pure white color, one that could never be produced by fire.

The man was displeased to find that the light was very small because of its distance away from him, not because of its actual size. And it wasn't getting any bigger.

At this rate I'll be here forever!

Well…

I'd be here forever anyway. At least there's something to do.

:A Millennia Later (In Sirius' opinion):

Sirius, with all his intelligence, decided that a run to the light would be a much better idea as he thought he'd finally be getting somewhere.

He was wrong.

Breathing heavily, Sirius sat on the cold, hard, pitch-black floor. He threw his iciest glare at the light far off in the distance, one that was perfected under the awful care of his Pureblood-maniac parents. He usually reserved the look for only the worst members of the 'Most Ancient and Noble House of Black'.

Most Ancient and Noble House of Black, my wand! More like the most ancient and filthy house of cobwebs.

But the light was teasing him. It was mocking him mercilessly. It deserved the worst stuff he had.

"Why can't I just be there already?" Sirius let out with a fierce canine growl, and followed it with a long string of expletives.

Whoa.

And Sirius was quite right to be astonished, because the small light that one moment ago had been so far off was now right above the wizard's head. It was one of the most curious things Sirius had ever seen. The light was radiating from some sort of wire encased in a small glass globe, and the globe was hanging from the ceiling(which Sirius could not see before) on a metal chain. A string dropped down from somewhere above the globe, reaching all the way down into Sirius' reach for who knows what purpose. The globe was close to his head, and the heat emanating from the wire made his current position quite uncomfortable. But he would not budge from his seat on the ground in fear that the light would dash away.

Interesting. Time to play with this.

"Can I have a chair to sit in?"

Instantly a hard-backed wooden chair appeared, and Sirius was surprised to find that he was already seated in it. But it made his back ache.

"A comfortable chair?"

A purple and red chintz armchair reminiscent of Albus Dumbledore's chair-conjuring prowess formed around Sirius. He immediately sank so far into the deep cushioning that his next, probably vulgar, words were incoherent.

After much deliberation on Sirius' part and much smart-alecky behavior on the unknown chair-creator's part, Sirius finally found himself in a comfortable armchair that was still in a position that makes sitting possible and was still in the vicinity of the light.

So, this place or whoever runs it responds to my commands. But it likes to have some fun. I think if I weren't in this situation, I'd like this omnipresent being, who or whatever it is...

Sirius heard a squelching noise. It took him a while to realize that it was the sound of his stomach growling.

Ok, I'm going to have to word this really well in order for it to work.

"I would like a table the correct size and height for me to eat from. I would also like this table to be in the correct position and right in front of me, not floating up in the air please. On this table I would like a plate that is large enough to hold my serving of food yet small enough to fit on the tabletop. On this plate I would like a medium rare steak the size of my palms that tastes as it should and does not give off a nasty smell."

Sirius let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in. The table was exactly the way he had it pictured in his mind, like a personal section of one of the tables in the Great Hall at Hogwarts. There were some vegetables (Ew.) on his plate along with the perfect steak; he didn't know who asked for those. There was even a goblet of pumpkin juice awaiting him, along with cutlery, which in his hunger he hadn't thought of.

Since when did this person decide to be so nice? Where are all the games? Shouldn't they be trying to frustrate me, not make me leap for joy?

The food gave off a lovely aroma.

Enough questions.

Sirius tucked in to his plate of delicious food. He had never been so hungry… well, other than the time after he escaped from Azkaban and had to live on rats.

Forkful after forkful of food, Sirius never relented from his devouring to take a breath. When he was finally finished, he found himself breathing deeply. He had to wait a while before he could ask for the next thing he wanted.

"I wish this place actually looked like a place, not a vast dark oblivion, for Merlin's sake! Could you make it look like… Hogwarts for me? Please?"

It astonished Sirius every time something changed in his little world, but this was the most awesome change of all. Everything was just as he remembered from his last visit to Hogwarts in Harry's third year, or at least everything he could see at the moment was the same. He was currently standing in the Great Hall, which was very appropriate as he had just finished eating.

Something's different.

What, other than the fact that you're just now standing in your old alma-mater even though you're dead?

No, something else. I hear…voices.

Maybe you're mad. But I definitely hear something. And since when did I have arguments with myself?

Sirius turned around to find that the Great Hall was currently filled with people. They didn't have the uniformity that a group of Hogwarts students would have, all in black, and the group was mostly older than Hogwarts-age. But they were all eating, and they were all staring.

Right at him.

"What are you looking at?" Sirius barked. Most of them knew enough to avert their eyes, and the male wizard swaggered out of the hall.

So my scary face still works… comforting to know.

He began to climb the stairs; he had something he wanted to do.

When Sirius reached the portrait of the Fat Lady, he had expected to see just that: the portrait of the Fat Lady. But when he got to the entrance of Gryffindor Tower, there was no painting, only a hole with a person standing guard over it. That person was wearing a pink dress, and she looked quite familiar. It was the Fat Lady herself!

"Er… hello," Sirius said to the woman, quite unlike his confident self.

"You can't come in here," the Fat Lady replied in her usual voice.

"Why ever not?"

"Well… first of all, you don't have the password. And secondly, the two people living in here asked me not to let anyone in."

"And which two people might that be?" Sirius had a hunch, but he needed to get it confirmed... for all he knew they could be any two people that had gone to Hogwarts in their lifetimes and got sorted into Gryffindor House.

"Why, James and Lily Potter, of course!"

(A/N): Yeah, I know it, I'm evil. Leaving that cliffy on you. And with my update track record, it might look like you won't be getting another chapter for a while. I'm going to try my hardest to get in another chapter soon... but Ihave an English project due Tuesday(wince).

And, I know this wasn't very long. But it was longer than my previous writing efforts. I'm working at it. Had some computer issues like I said before, so that's why this wasn't up MUCH MUCH sooner. I'm sorry! Show that you've forgiven me (or not) by reviewing! Tell me what you think! Make predictions! Flame me! (yes, I'm giving you permission!) I don't care! Every little bit counts! So click theperiwinkle"go" button!And again, review replies for last chapter should be up on the profile.

----Rosie

P.S. REVIEW! PLEASE!