Title: In the Sweet Hereafter

Character/Relationships: Sirius, James/Lily, Regulus

Rating: PG

Warnings: Character Deaths but canon

Author's Notes: Written for Week 3 of Harry Potter Last Author Standing. The prompt was Reunion. I liked this but had some issues with the ending.

He fell: through dark and through light; for mere moments and for eons; drifting to the ground like a leaf falling from a tree and plummeting to the ground with a great velocity that would surely leave him with broken bones.

It was over with an abruptness that left him breathless. He stumbled to his feet, his mind trying to grasp what had happened when Bella - sweet, mad, Bella - sent him through the Veil. He figured he was dead. No other answer made sense.

"Should have realized you'd be the first to join us," a much beloved voice said. Sirius spun around, his heart in his throat as he gazed with shocked eyes at the once familiar visages before him, ones he now only saw in his nightmares.

Messy black hair, hazel eyes almost hidden by rounded spectacles, a tall, lean form, a lithe red head with familiar green eyes hanging over his shoulder. They smiled at him and he fell to the ground, his mouth gaping as he took them in. "James? Lily?" his voice hoarse with shock.

"Who else would greet you, Padfoot?" James asked and helped Sirius to his feet. He hugged him and Sirius sobbed into his shoulder. Lily moved to embrace him too, and they had a strange three-way hug. It was almost too much for him. He had never thought to be reunited with his best friend and his wife again.

They murmured words of comfort as he collapsed into them. It could have taken years or mere minutes; Sirius didn't really know. All he knew was that when he finished, when he finally calmed down and stopped sniffling, he felt a clarity he hadn't felt since before that awful Halloween all those years ago.

"How?" he finally asked.

"You're dead," another male voice drawled. Turning, Sirius saw another familiar face: his brother.

"Regulus?" he asked and started forward before remembering the last time he saw him and halted.

"Brother," Regulus nodded and sighed, opening his arms for a hug. Sirius didn't waste time and flew into them; he remembered how close they once were, and how later, they eschewed each other's presence the moment he fled to the Potter's. How they ended upon opposite sides of the war. None of that seemed to matter, not now, not when he had his baby brother in his arms once again.

"What now?" Sirius finally asked and the Potters joined the two brothers.

James shrugged. "Now… you do what we do. Watch the living. Hope we won't see anyone we love join us until they've lived a full life."

"That's it?"

"We can't do much else," Lily said gently.

"But… Harry…" Sirius said and looked sad.

James and Lily looked pained and he felt the guilt he had felt ever since he had stumbled into Godric's Hollow to find them dead. "I'm sorry. It's my fault."

"It's not your fault!" James insisted and grasped his shoulder in comfort. "We were fated to die so that Harry could live."

"But…" Sirius started to protest but Lily covered his mouth with her hand.

"From the moment Voldemort heard part of the prophecy, we were marked," she explained.

"It's not fair," he said.

"No, it's not," James agreed. He looked over to Regulus and nodded. "We have a lot to tell you."

Sirius looked confused but they didn't let him wonder for long. Regulus explained that he had left the Death Eaters after discovering Voldemort had created horcruxes, something that horrified both brothers. It was considered such an evil magic that no Black would ever attempt it. As if that weren't enough, James told of the decisions Dumbledore had made about Harry, and all that his son had suffered, both before Hogwarts and afterwards.

"I shouldn't have gone after Peter," Sirius said and hung his head in shame. The fog that encircled his mind since his incarceration in Azkaban lifted and he suddenly saw all the myriad ways in which he had messed up.

"It's not your fault," James insisted, but Sirius didn't believe him. Just being here with James and Lily and Regulus forced him to re-evaluate his own actions, to see how he hadn't treated Harry fairly or looked after him like he should have. And now he was dead and couldn't change any of it. It wasn't fair.

"Stop your self pity," Regulus scolded and bopped his brother on the head. "You can't change the past."

"I know," Sirius choked out but it didn't make him feel better.

"We have a plan," Lily said and her eyes sparkled with the same hidden fire he had seen during the war.

"What can we do?" Sirius asked.

"Not too much, but we're going to do everything we can to make sure Harry doesn't join us anytime soon," James informed him.

"Anything you need," Sirius pledged. For the first time in a long time, he felt invigorated, felt like he could make a difference and maybe, just maybe, atone for all his sins.

"Here's what we'll do…" Lily began and the three men listened as she began to outline the limited ways in which they could help Harry defeat Voldemort. None of them wanted Harry to join them, not before he had lived a full and happy life.

Maybe later Sirius could process what it meant to be dead, could reconnect with his brother and learn who he was. Could forgive himself for suggesting Peter to Lily and James and going after him instead of protecting Harry. For not taking Bella more seriously when they fought and surviving to help his godson in the tasks before him.

So much to regret but now, with Lily and James and Regulus by his side, Sirius focused on the important task of keeping Harry alive. He could do nothing else.