Oy…you have no idea how long it took me to write this chapter…I'm clearly not getting enough caffeine. Anyway, school starts next Monday…it's so dumb cuz they're like report to your passports (like homeroom) for you schedules on your first day but they don't bother to tell you what you passport is…ugh…I hope I don't get that evil snack bar teacher…he's um…easily offended…thinks I called him a Nazi or something once and screamed his head off at me…geez…um…I'm rambling as if someone cared…yeah, ok here's chapter nine.
New A/N: Er...I decided to restart this fan fic after um...reading Harry Potter over the weekend. So anyway, I had this chapter done over the summer but never got done typing it. I'm of course, supposed to be analyzing, in essay form, the role of women in A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (go and read it) and doing my formal outline and Summary of Evidence for my history of internal assessment (the wonders of IBs), so nothing like procrastinating.
There's a large amount of dragging in this chapter for some reason, no I don't mean cross-dressing, just random characters pulling people random places.
So read and review ppl, read and review!
Chapter Nine : : Sirius
"Is that him?" Lily pointed at the back of someone with spiky and tousled hair. He was the only bit of color in the place.
"Yep, really stands out, doesn't he?" Sirius said.
"Yeah, probably because he's the only one who's in Technicolor," Lily replied.
"Technicolor?" Sirius gave her a quizzical look.
"Color, Sirius, color," Lily looked exasperated.
"Uh…right," Sirius said absentmindedly and quickly pulled Lily through the door of a building before it closed.
"Wonder what he's doing here," Sirius mumbled as he looked around the huge entrance hall of the building. The whole hall was made of gold and marble. The floor was white marble with gold gilding and the walls were gold plated with majestic swirls that turned and twisted around each other that, if looked at for too long, made one dizzy. Giant pillars reached up to the vaulted ceiling to some infinite height. Footsteps and voices and an occasional telephone ring echoed through the massive chamber. Well, that's what it would have been had there been color.
Lily giggled as she turned his attention toward shiny gold lettering on the back of the marble entrance hall.
"Sirius Technologies?" There was a dog howling up at a star next to the embossed letters.
"What the hell?" Sirius barely got a good look at the rest of the hall before being dragged by Lily into the elevator James had just stepped into.
"Do you think he can see us?" Lily asked. It was evident that James could as his eyes widened. At the same time, Sirius and Lily were stunned too as they recognized the two women next to James.
"Sorry to say this, but Star seems to being doing better than you," Sirius eyed the grown up replicas of Steorra and Lily up and down, "And I don't remember her boobs being that big."
"Shut up, moron," Lily elbowed him, hard, and looked at James.
"Hi James, how are you?" she said pleasantly.
James rubbed his eyes and looked at them again, "Sirius? Lily?"
"Yes?" the grown up Lily answered.
"Yeah, yeah, it's us. But shut up because no one else can see us," Sirius whispered quickly.
"You don't have to whisper, you know, it's not like they can hear us either," Lily said. "But he's right James. We'll have to meet you somewhere where we can talk in private."
James continued staring at them with a stunned look.
"James, hon, are you all right?" The grown-up Lily asked concernedly.
"Yes…yes, I think so," James replied, and looked away.
The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open.
"The fifty-seventh floor?" Lily gasped, "Oh geez…I'm…I think I'm going to hyperventilate."
"Afraid of heights?" Sirius chuckled.
"Gee, ya think?" Lily snapped and timidly stepped out of the elevator.
"Come on, it's not like you can see how far up you—" Sirius stopped as he stepped into the hall, and his breath was taken away. The corridor was really a giant hall, much like the entrance hall, or rather, a glass version of it. The walls, the floor was all made of glass. Below, you could see all the way down to the first floor entrance hall, which was just a tiny golden glow. Apparently, the middle of the building was hollow. All around them, the view was breathtaking through the walls, with everything within one hundred miles visible; even in black and white, it was just amazing. Glass doors led to different corridors, apparently all made of glass. A few people came in and out through the glass doors, all rushing to et whatever they were doing done quickly as to get off of this floor quickly.
"You were saying?" Lily said and shuddered as she took a look through the windows, or rather the walls.
"Um…yeah…sorry," Sirius said and followed the party of Steorra, Lily and James through one of the glass doors.
The women's' high heels clicked almost annoyingly against the floor of the tunnel-like hallway, made entirely of glass. They walked for what seemed like an eternity as the trek was slow. No one wanted to put too much pressure on the glass floor. Finally, they arrived at a set of black, wooded doors. The Sirius Technologies logo that was in the entrance hall was on this set of doors too.
Steorra pushed them open, revealing a huge office. A good-sized housed could've fit in there. The office was made of glass and the black wood the door was made of. Lights were set around the room, the glass reflecting and refracting the rays in a million different directions.
There was a black desk at the head of the room, and behind it, sat Sirius Black, about ten years older in a wrinkled-looking white dress shirt, his hair tied back in a ponytail, staring at his computer screen and eating a slice of pizza.
"Sirius!" Steorra exclaimed, "I told you we were going out to eat tonight with the Potters! Why are you eating already?"
Sirius looked up nervously at Steorra," Oh ha, funny thing happened, hon. You see, there was a pizza boy…and he got lost…and came in to ask for directions…and…"
"A pizza boy came up to the fifty-seventh floor to ask for directions?" Steorra raised an eyebrow.
"There's a surprise," Lily retorted silently as she and the young Sirius stood at the back of the room. "Always knew you'd marry Steorra."
"This isn't the future, it's what James imagines...and he's pretty wacked out," Sirius said and looked up at Steorra, "But wow...she's really hot right now. I think James gave her a nose job too."
"Um…tell you what, Star. I'll buy out that other flower shop down the street from yours and a new car or whatever toy you want," grown-up Sirius said.
Sirius and Lily motioned to James, who jumped and then said, "Uh...I need to use the bathroom, okay?" and quickly left the room.
They traversed back through the glass corridor and onto the landing.
"Who are you people?" were the first words out of James' mouth.
"Lily and Sirius," Lily replied.
"No. Lily and Sirius are in there," James motioned to the door they came out of. "You two are figments of my imagination."
"Then why are you talking to us?" Sirius asked.
James had no response to this.
"Anyway, we're here to take you out of this weird muggle world...despite my...success," Sirius said, rather aloofly.
"No, no no. There is no other world. There is the real world and ...and..." James' voice trailed off. "Look, I want to believe you two. But how am I suppose to when no one else can see you, can prove that you exist?"
"We exist! This world doesn't! Come on, I don't believe you!" Sirius' temper was rising, "how can you just throw away your whole life for...for nothing?"
"This isn't nothing!" James spat vehemently, "I have a job, a wife, and friends!"
Lily slapped him across the face, "Look at you! This isn't you life! This is a life being consumed by your worst fears!"
"Fears? How can I be afraid of a normal life?" He stopped. "Okay, you know what? Why am I even talking to you? You two don't even exist!" And he turned to walk away.
"You wanna know your worst fears, James?" Sirius yelled to his back James stopped. "You're afraid of a life without magic! You're afraid of being trapped in a loveless marriage! And most of all, you're afraid of me being more successful than you are!"
James spun around, looking livid. "You don't exist!" He screamed and ran through the doors to the glass corridors. The doors slammed shut with a resonating bang.
"Well, I think we really got through to him," Sirius said calmly as the door swung back and forth a few times before coming to a complete stop.
There was a whoosh of wind and Dumbledore appeared at their side. "It's time to go," he said and waved his wand. Sirius felt another cold surge of air rushing past him as they once again landed in the infirmary. Someone bopped him on the heard. He turned around. There stood Steorra, who seemed to have grown a couple of feet over the last hour or so. She looked angry.
"Gee, ya think you could be anymore subtle?" She snapped. "You were supposed to help James get over his fears, not make him even more afraid!"
"Ow! Sorry Star..." Sirius rubbed his head, "How was I supposed to know that James would be that stubborn? Anyway, I'd stop hitting me if I were you, seeing as how you're just hurting yourself."
"No, No, mister. I absorb your pain when I feel like it, not automatically." Nevertheless, Sirius felt his pain suddenly subsiding and Steorra rubbing her head in the same spot Sirius had been nursing on his own.
"Anyway, if anyone has a great idea, now would be the time to share," Sirius said, looking form Star to Lily to Dumbledore and then back at Star.
"Can't we just pull him out of that world like you pulled us out?" Lily looked to Dumbledore.
"I'm afraid not. James is a permanent part of his thoughts. You two were not," Dumbledore shook his head.
"Isn't there some spell we could use?" Sirius suggested.
Dumbledore shook his head again.
"No, no. What we need to do is to make him realize how much more he loved this life than that muggle one he's convinced of right now," Steorra said assertively, "We need to gather as many people as possible so that he knows. And someone needs to explain to him why he's in a muggle world, and i think that should be me, seeing as how I brought this upon him and all..."
"No," Lily said firmly, "You need bed rest after this whole...ordeal, and if it makes you feel any better, Sirius will stay behind to look after you."
"Wait a minute! What--" Sirius' protest was cut off with Lily giving him her most scathing glare.
"If you were right about James' fears, and I'm pretty sure they were close, I don't think James needs the thought that you might be better than him to screw this up again." Lily said.
"It's not going to affect him. If anything, it should--"
Steorra shoved her hand into Sirius' face. "You heard the woman. You need to stay here. And since I managed to talk Madam Pomfrey into allowing me to go back to Gryffindor, we have all night to share our innermost feelings and embarrassing moments," Steorra said all this with the utmost dignity.
Sirius growled and trudged tot he door.
"Oh, and will you please send peter Pettigrew, Remus Lupin, and the Gryffindor Quidditch team along?" Dumbledore called after Sirius.
"They get to go and I don't?" Sirius sighed, "life is unfair."