Chapter 2: Home At Last
Part I
Not for the first time, Lily Evans Potter was searching for Sirius Black in vain, squeezing herself through the large, packed crowd. The world of the afterlife was new and strange to him, so everything around him had distracted Sirius, and he had managed to escape Lily's and her husband James' side and had quickly wandered off to places of interest. He never stayed put in one spot for long, either, and by the time Lily and James came, huffing and puffing to the place where he had previously been, Sirius had gone off yet again another place somewhere.
Not only did looking for Sirius equate to trying to find a needle in a haystack, but also to finding a curious newborn puppy who was sniffing and moving around. In short, it was impossible, but then, Lily thought angrily to herself as she looked for Sirius, the thing about hanging around with Sirius all your life and now for your entire afterlife, you began to think everything was impossible.
Lily was giving up hope when she caught sight of the back of a long, black-haired man immersed in a small leaflet among a group of people. This group was following some sort of tour guide. Lily grinned, quite wickedly at that, and stealthily like a cat she crept nearer towards the unsuspecting man. She tensed, ready to spring. Then ---
"GOTCHA'! You trouble-making little wanker, why I ought to --- oh damn!!!!"
People's heads turned; there was a wave of commotion, and amongst the commotion Lily let out a war cry, and her victim let out a small squeak, and she seized the man from behind by the arm. As she roughly whirled him around, however, the smile of triumph died on Lily's lips and her lips parted in stunned surprise. Instead of looking down upon a sheepish-looking Sirius Black she instead found herself looking into the wide, round eyes of a complete stranger, an absolutely terrified look on the poor guy's face.
Lily's cheeks blossomed, and she wrung the man's hands repeatedly and apologized, "I'm so sorry! I --- I thought you were someone else."
People all around her stared at Lily and spoke indistinctly in low tones. The man himself barely gave a dazed nod of his head, before turning his back on Lily and following the group, whom after staring at Lily for a while, shook their heads, and continued walking once more. Even as he walked away, Lily could hear him, as well as many others around him, murmuring their apprehensive and fearful wonders if there would be anymore of these lunatics in the afterlife. Great, Lily thought, letting out a small groan, I've already ruined their first time here.
Even as she thought this, however, an amused voice came floating from somewhere behind.
"Looking for someone?"
Lily whipped around, and she saw whom she had originally meant to jump and give a good scare. Marching over to Sirius Black, placing her hands on her hips, she gave him a good long glare. "Why in the bloody hell did you have to go off like that Sirius? For cripe's sake, Sirius, do you know how hard it is to find you around here? Or finding you at all?"
Sirius grinned broadly. "My apologies, Lily. I've just been doing a bit of wandering. This is going to be my home for the rest of my afterlife, after all. I've got to get a look around."
"So you like the place?" James had just strolled over to Sirius's side. He didn't look disheveled or flustered like Lily at all save for his usually untidy hair. Evidently, he had let his wife do all the hard work of re-locating his best friend.
Sirius's eyes sparkled. "Like it? I love it!"
"Good as Hogsmeade, this place, isn't it?" James said, grinning.
"Sod Hogsmeade, this place is wicked!" Sirius replied, his face flushed with excitement.
. ..and so it was. The plane of the Great Beyond stretched for countless miles. It was large and widespread. The streets were literally paved with gold, and the streets were bustling with great activity. Numerous, grand and magnificent structures dotted the sides of these streets. Some of the buildings, Sirius had noted with awe and wonder, were even built out of sweets and candy. It was like Earth, except where things on Earth had their limits and were simply pretty, everything here in the world of the afterlife was everlasting and drop-dead beautiful. Also, where distress and poverty were still present in certain places on Earth, there was no sign of any of it here. Everything around Sirius was rich and lively. The atmosphere around Sirius was nothing more than cheerful and merry.
"Well as good as this place is, you can't live here until you come with me to the Registry Office," Lily snapped crossly, cuffing both Sirius and James by the shoulder and dragging the two men back towards a short, strict-looking brick building standing only a few feet away from the train station where they had just left. Sirius's heart filled with foreboding, and as he came closer he eyed the steel doors in trepidation and anxiety. James seemed to read Sirius's mind, and he clapped Sirius on the back in reassurance.
As they entered the building, Sirius saw a sign above the doors reading Registry Building. In the lobby, on the wall to Sirius's left side Sirius saw an index of sorts, informing visitors the whereabouts of various offices. Lily went right past the wall without a backward glance, however. Apparently she already knew this place quite well. Lily beckoned James and Sirius come over, and the two hurried up to her side. The three stood in front of a lift. Lily pressed a button to go up, and down the lift came, the gates opened, and the three stepped into. Lily pushed another button to go up to the second floor. The gates closed, and they were moving up a level. The lift came to a stop, the gates opened once more, and the three stepped out again. Sirius heard the clang of the gates as they snapped shut again behind him as he followed James and Lily down a dark corridor. Finally, after twisting to the right and then to the left, Lily stopped in front of Room 297. The door was slightly ajar, and very easily Lily, James, and Sirius pushed inside.
The room was wide and spacious. In this room there were several chairs propped up against the wall. They were all taken up, and several people were sitting and waiting. A bit off to the front and to the side of these chairs was a pretty, curvy sort of woman sitting in front of a short desk. She wore a crisp and cleanly outfit, and on her shirt she pinned on a nametag that read SKYLO, SORA. A couple stood in front of Sora Skylo's desk, and they were engaging Ms. Skylo in a small talk. The conversations were very brief, and pretty soon everybody else in the room were finishing up their discussions with Ms. Skylo and were leaving. It had been only seven minutes when Sirius's turn had come.
Lily briskly went up to the woman and informed Ms. Skylo, "We're here to sign Sirius Black in."
Ms. Skylo was examining Sirius more finely than even he was used to, and she smiled at him rather flirtatiously.
"Welcome to the afterlife, Mr. Black." She said throatily in what she clearly thought was a sexy voice.
"Erm...thanks." Sirius said uneasily, heat rising up his cheeks. He shuffled his feet on the ground rather uncomfortably.
Lily eyed Ms. Skylo, her mouth quirking. She said very suddenly, "He has a wife and fourteen kids back on Earth, Sora."
Ms. Skylo's eyebrows knitted together, and her smile faltered. "Y--You do?"
Sirius looked at Lily blankly. "I---I do?" James elbowed Sirius in the ribs, and Sirius affirmed hastily, "Why yes, I do."
Sora's smile died and turned sour. She swore, muttering, "Another possible lover bites the dust."
As she did this, Sirius turned to Lily and James, looking positively flummoxed. James smirked, and Lily, smiling slightly, bent over and whispered in Sirius's ear, "She died young, before she ever got a husband. She took this job because it was the perfect way to finish her unfinished business. Its the perfect opportunity for meeting new people and getting acquainted with them. You should've seen her hit on James."
Sora was still sulking when she went over to a small file cabinet and went rummaging through all the folders. She took one out, and Sirius caught a glimpse of his own name scrawled. She carefully pried open Sirius's file. Sora carefully extracted a single piece of paper out and handed Sirius the sheet. "Here," Sora said in a monotone. "This is a fact sheet. Check if all the information in it is correct. If it is, put down your signature at the bottom of the paper. Then put everything back into the file and give me the folder back."
As Sora retreated to her seat, and, taking out a pair of spectacles from her shirt pocket, took out several other sheets of paper, and started reading, Sirius took to examining the paper he had in his own hands. Sirius's eyes scanned the paper. As he read from the top, Sirius saw that, to his slight astonishment and immense discomfort, the paper indeed listed various facts about him, all of which were, of course, true; facts like him being a wizard, his birthdate, his deathdate, the cause of his death, his ethnicity, his nationality, his sex, his hair color, his eye color, his height, his weight, and --- Sirius gulped --- his marital status. He wasn't, of course, really married but had said so otherwise. Sirius must've had a look of horror on his face because after taking a glance at him, she asked in mild interest, "Something wrong?"
"No, no," Sirius vaguely muttered, but then he spotted something that caught his attention. "Well yes," Sirius said suddenly, thrusting the paper towards Sora. "It says here that I don't have unfinished business and I --- " Sirius began, but James cut Sirius off.
"...and he does, but its the same unfinished business we all have. You know, leaving our loved ones and watching over them."
"I see...so he really won't be needing to take on any job, then...." Sora held the sheet of paper into the air, squinting her eyes and peering at the paper closely. "Yet if what I'm reading is right, you still didn't live your life to the fullest, and your life was never really that happy."
Sirius's throat constricted. "No, it wasn't."
"Then I'm afraid you really will have to see the Healer to heal your life's burden and weariness. We're currently making arrangements to squeeze you into the Healer's schedule. I'll give you a call at your place when we've got you an appointment."
"Thanks," Sirius said sincerely, but even as he took the fact sheet back from Sora and put down his signature, a sudden thought struck him. "My place? I have a place?"
The corners of Sora's mouth actually turned up, and she chuckled. "Why yes, you do. The Higher Powers have been preparing for your arrival. They've known all along who you are, and when you were coming. They've been renovating Lily and James' house for you. You'll be wanting to live with them, I assume?"
"Of course!" Sirius said with such fierce honesty that Lily and James couldn't help but crack two smiles.
Sirius frowned deeply. "Wait....don't I have to pay for all this?"
Sora laughed. "You don't need money around here in the Great Beyond; you don't need to buy anything. As I've said, preparations have been made for your arrival. You have already been given everything you need, in addition to everything you deserve. Your life was a place where you worked, and your afterlife is a place where YOU'RE paid." Here-----" Sora fumbled for what appeared to be a stack of paper in the pockets of her dress robes and withdrew her hand to reveal a few leaflets, and Sirius saw many titles on them like A Git's Guide To The Great Beyond, and All You Need To Know About Being Dead. "Take some; I was going to give it to you, anyway. I daresay they're pretty helpful and will answer any question you may have concerning the afterlife."
"Thanks," Sirius said happily as he exchanged the fact sheet for the pamphlets. As he, Lily, and James turned heel and was exiting through the door, he was more than ready and eager to get on with his afterlife when he heard Sora shriek,
"You ruddy LIAR, you said you were married!"
Sirius made a mad dash for the lift.
Part I
Not for the first time, Lily Evans Potter was searching for Sirius Black in vain, squeezing herself through the large, packed crowd. The world of the afterlife was new and strange to him, so everything around him had distracted Sirius, and he had managed to escape Lily's and her husband James' side and had quickly wandered off to places of interest. He never stayed put in one spot for long, either, and by the time Lily and James came, huffing and puffing to the place where he had previously been, Sirius had gone off yet again another place somewhere.
Not only did looking for Sirius equate to trying to find a needle in a haystack, but also to finding a curious newborn puppy who was sniffing and moving around. In short, it was impossible, but then, Lily thought angrily to herself as she looked for Sirius, the thing about hanging around with Sirius all your life and now for your entire afterlife, you began to think everything was impossible.
Lily was giving up hope when she caught sight of the back of a long, black-haired man immersed in a small leaflet among a group of people. This group was following some sort of tour guide. Lily grinned, quite wickedly at that, and stealthily like a cat she crept nearer towards the unsuspecting man. She tensed, ready to spring. Then ---
"GOTCHA'! You trouble-making little wanker, why I ought to --- oh damn!!!!"
People's heads turned; there was a wave of commotion, and amongst the commotion Lily let out a war cry, and her victim let out a small squeak, and she seized the man from behind by the arm. As she roughly whirled him around, however, the smile of triumph died on Lily's lips and her lips parted in stunned surprise. Instead of looking down upon a sheepish-looking Sirius Black she instead found herself looking into the wide, round eyes of a complete stranger, an absolutely terrified look on the poor guy's face.
Lily's cheeks blossomed, and she wrung the man's hands repeatedly and apologized, "I'm so sorry! I --- I thought you were someone else."
People all around her stared at Lily and spoke indistinctly in low tones. The man himself barely gave a dazed nod of his head, before turning his back on Lily and following the group, whom after staring at Lily for a while, shook their heads, and continued walking once more. Even as he walked away, Lily could hear him, as well as many others around him, murmuring their apprehensive and fearful wonders if there would be anymore of these lunatics in the afterlife. Great, Lily thought, letting out a small groan, I've already ruined their first time here.
Even as she thought this, however, an amused voice came floating from somewhere behind.
"Looking for someone?"
Lily whipped around, and she saw whom she had originally meant to jump and give a good scare. Marching over to Sirius Black, placing her hands on her hips, she gave him a good long glare. "Why in the bloody hell did you have to go off like that Sirius? For cripe's sake, Sirius, do you know how hard it is to find you around here? Or finding you at all?"
Sirius grinned broadly. "My apologies, Lily. I've just been doing a bit of wandering. This is going to be my home for the rest of my afterlife, after all. I've got to get a look around."
"So you like the place?" James had just strolled over to Sirius's side. He didn't look disheveled or flustered like Lily at all save for his usually untidy hair. Evidently, he had let his wife do all the hard work of re-locating his best friend.
Sirius's eyes sparkled. "Like it? I love it!"
"Good as Hogsmeade, this place, isn't it?" James said, grinning.
"Sod Hogsmeade, this place is wicked!" Sirius replied, his face flushed with excitement.
. ..and so it was. The plane of the Great Beyond stretched for countless miles. It was large and widespread. The streets were literally paved with gold, and the streets were bustling with great activity. Numerous, grand and magnificent structures dotted the sides of these streets. Some of the buildings, Sirius had noted with awe and wonder, were even built out of sweets and candy. It was like Earth, except where things on Earth had their limits and were simply pretty, everything here in the world of the afterlife was everlasting and drop-dead beautiful. Also, where distress and poverty were still present in certain places on Earth, there was no sign of any of it here. Everything around Sirius was rich and lively. The atmosphere around Sirius was nothing more than cheerful and merry.
"Well as good as this place is, you can't live here until you come with me to the Registry Office," Lily snapped crossly, cuffing both Sirius and James by the shoulder and dragging the two men back towards a short, strict-looking brick building standing only a few feet away from the train station where they had just left. Sirius's heart filled with foreboding, and as he came closer he eyed the steel doors in trepidation and anxiety. James seemed to read Sirius's mind, and he clapped Sirius on the back in reassurance.
As they entered the building, Sirius saw a sign above the doors reading Registry Building. In the lobby, on the wall to Sirius's left side Sirius saw an index of sorts, informing visitors the whereabouts of various offices. Lily went right past the wall without a backward glance, however. Apparently she already knew this place quite well. Lily beckoned James and Sirius come over, and the two hurried up to her side. The three stood in front of a lift. Lily pressed a button to go up, and down the lift came, the gates opened, and the three stepped into. Lily pushed another button to go up to the second floor. The gates closed, and they were moving up a level. The lift came to a stop, the gates opened once more, and the three stepped out again. Sirius heard the clang of the gates as they snapped shut again behind him as he followed James and Lily down a dark corridor. Finally, after twisting to the right and then to the left, Lily stopped in front of Room 297. The door was slightly ajar, and very easily Lily, James, and Sirius pushed inside.
The room was wide and spacious. In this room there were several chairs propped up against the wall. They were all taken up, and several people were sitting and waiting. A bit off to the front and to the side of these chairs was a pretty, curvy sort of woman sitting in front of a short desk. She wore a crisp and cleanly outfit, and on her shirt she pinned on a nametag that read SKYLO, SORA. A couple stood in front of Sora Skylo's desk, and they were engaging Ms. Skylo in a small talk. The conversations were very brief, and pretty soon everybody else in the room were finishing up their discussions with Ms. Skylo and were leaving. It had been only seven minutes when Sirius's turn had come.
Lily briskly went up to the woman and informed Ms. Skylo, "We're here to sign Sirius Black in."
Ms. Skylo was examining Sirius more finely than even he was used to, and she smiled at him rather flirtatiously.
"Welcome to the afterlife, Mr. Black." She said throatily in what she clearly thought was a sexy voice.
"Erm...thanks." Sirius said uneasily, heat rising up his cheeks. He shuffled his feet on the ground rather uncomfortably.
Lily eyed Ms. Skylo, her mouth quirking. She said very suddenly, "He has a wife and fourteen kids back on Earth, Sora."
Ms. Skylo's eyebrows knitted together, and her smile faltered. "Y--You do?"
Sirius looked at Lily blankly. "I---I do?" James elbowed Sirius in the ribs, and Sirius affirmed hastily, "Why yes, I do."
Sora's smile died and turned sour. She swore, muttering, "Another possible lover bites the dust."
As she did this, Sirius turned to Lily and James, looking positively flummoxed. James smirked, and Lily, smiling slightly, bent over and whispered in Sirius's ear, "She died young, before she ever got a husband. She took this job because it was the perfect way to finish her unfinished business. Its the perfect opportunity for meeting new people and getting acquainted with them. You should've seen her hit on James."
Sora was still sulking when she went over to a small file cabinet and went rummaging through all the folders. She took one out, and Sirius caught a glimpse of his own name scrawled. She carefully pried open Sirius's file. Sora carefully extracted a single piece of paper out and handed Sirius the sheet. "Here," Sora said in a monotone. "This is a fact sheet. Check if all the information in it is correct. If it is, put down your signature at the bottom of the paper. Then put everything back into the file and give me the folder back."
As Sora retreated to her seat, and, taking out a pair of spectacles from her shirt pocket, took out several other sheets of paper, and started reading, Sirius took to examining the paper he had in his own hands. Sirius's eyes scanned the paper. As he read from the top, Sirius saw that, to his slight astonishment and immense discomfort, the paper indeed listed various facts about him, all of which were, of course, true; facts like him being a wizard, his birthdate, his deathdate, the cause of his death, his ethnicity, his nationality, his sex, his hair color, his eye color, his height, his weight, and --- Sirius gulped --- his marital status. He wasn't, of course, really married but had said so otherwise. Sirius must've had a look of horror on his face because after taking a glance at him, she asked in mild interest, "Something wrong?"
"No, no," Sirius vaguely muttered, but then he spotted something that caught his attention. "Well yes," Sirius said suddenly, thrusting the paper towards Sora. "It says here that I don't have unfinished business and I --- " Sirius began, but James cut Sirius off.
"...and he does, but its the same unfinished business we all have. You know, leaving our loved ones and watching over them."
"I see...so he really won't be needing to take on any job, then...." Sora held the sheet of paper into the air, squinting her eyes and peering at the paper closely. "Yet if what I'm reading is right, you still didn't live your life to the fullest, and your life was never really that happy."
Sirius's throat constricted. "No, it wasn't."
"Then I'm afraid you really will have to see the Healer to heal your life's burden and weariness. We're currently making arrangements to squeeze you into the Healer's schedule. I'll give you a call at your place when we've got you an appointment."
"Thanks," Sirius said sincerely, but even as he took the fact sheet back from Sora and put down his signature, a sudden thought struck him. "My place? I have a place?"
The corners of Sora's mouth actually turned up, and she chuckled. "Why yes, you do. The Higher Powers have been preparing for your arrival. They've known all along who you are, and when you were coming. They've been renovating Lily and James' house for you. You'll be wanting to live with them, I assume?"
"Of course!" Sirius said with such fierce honesty that Lily and James couldn't help but crack two smiles.
Sirius frowned deeply. "Wait....don't I have to pay for all this?"
Sora laughed. "You don't need money around here in the Great Beyond; you don't need to buy anything. As I've said, preparations have been made for your arrival. You have already been given everything you need, in addition to everything you deserve. Your life was a place where you worked, and your afterlife is a place where YOU'RE paid." Here-----" Sora fumbled for what appeared to be a stack of paper in the pockets of her dress robes and withdrew her hand to reveal a few leaflets, and Sirius saw many titles on them like A Git's Guide To The Great Beyond, and All You Need To Know About Being Dead. "Take some; I was going to give it to you, anyway. I daresay they're pretty helpful and will answer any question you may have concerning the afterlife."
"Thanks," Sirius said happily as he exchanged the fact sheet for the pamphlets. As he, Lily, and James turned heel and was exiting through the door, he was more than ready and eager to get on with his afterlife when he heard Sora shriek,
"You ruddy LIAR, you said you were married!"
Sirius made a mad dash for the lift.