This is a brand new story, you probably know that I got used to OotP and now I spend my precious time on making up ways in which SB returns.

Because SB is not dead!!!!

Of course, I own... bla bla bla... only my characters.

SUMMARY:

Behind the veil, on his way to heaven or somewhere, SB meets a woman. He sees only her sad, green eyes, but immediately understands that she is his reason to live. He is found in the Ministry alive and decides to look for that girl though nobody believes it's possible (both: to find her and to be sure he's in love). Will he find her? Will she love him?

Enjoy and review!!!

TITLE: TIME FOR US

PROLOGUE

It was a long, dark, wet tunnel. The walls were made of stone and there was no pavement, but some kind of muddy ground. HE found it disgusting. And, to his astonishment, nobody else seemed to notice that or care about. In fact, everyone else in this place looked like ghosts, however their colours and transparency were different from ghosts he used to know. They all knew where to go. Nobody turned back. They all followed some kind of force. It lead them to the better world, Sirius was sure of that, peaceful and fearless. Trouble less.

He felt something strange. He felt that he was different from the souls (because, he didn't know why, but he was just sure about it, this confidence made him happy, he wanted to believe in souls, in other world where those, who had died, live happily ever after), the immaterial creatures that surrounded him. He felt dirty and humanlike. He touched his body (he had to trust this sense, because he was unable to see anything but the ghosts) with his hands and then, just to compare, he touched the walls: he could feel the material they were made of, the walls and his body. And it definitely was real. He was angry, he was so mad. Why wasn't he a happy, willing soul as all the other dead people? Why had somebody decided, without even bothering to ask him, that he wasn't good enough to be totally, completely DEAD? He wanted so much to die and to follow those people to that paradise or something. He wanted to die exactly in this way and he couldn't have chosen a better moment. He felt so lonely, useless, immature in the world. He failed in every single field, he tried. He was unable to save the people he loved, his best friends; the other of his friends who was still alive was much more mature and understood so much more that Sirius found it often hard to talk to him.

His worst failure was that, because of his arrogance, pride and risky way of life, he was totally unable to protect his godson. At first, he allowed all the bad people to send him to Azkaban and couldn't take care of Harry's childhood. Then, he still behaved like a teenage prank-player, when Harry needed a friend and a father. Harry knew and experienced so many tragic things and was still clever and thought right. And he was brave, not risky. He was more mature than his almost-40-year-old godfather. Sirius could've been the best at school, he knew he was intelligent and bright minded, but there was god damn part of his soul that made it difficult for him to behave reasonably and properly. The tears appeared in his eyes, because he suddenly realised something: he was so egoistic that he wanted to be dead. He thought he was wrong, as usual, he imagined that Harry needed him no more and would be happier without him. Oh, how stupid Sirius was. He judged things wrongly: he thought Harry needed a godfather he wanted to be but in fact he needed Sirius.

"Yes, my good old mate Padfoot," he whispered to himself, "as always you were wrong."

And now he was standing alone in the crowd of happy souls who were approaching their perfect destination. He was standing and wondering whether he should follow them or go back, but how was he to go back? He had no idea how he happened to be there, he remembered falling through the veil, and then, after hours or so of blackout, he found himself there. He was lost. He wanted to move, but the mud on the ground stuck him. The colourful ghosts weren't paying any attention to his trial to get out of that place. He tried to ask what he should do (well, after so many years of self-convenience, he finally understood that there's no shame in asking questions), but he was invisible to them, he thought.

"Great," he thought. "I wanted to die, so I'm here, definitely not totally dead. And surely if I wanted to turn back the time, I would be happily dead in heaven with my friends, waiting for others... what!?"

-- * -- * -- * -- * -- * --

A young, slender, lost lady found herself in a cold (how could she feel temperature, she was supposed to be dead). She could remember quite clearly that she'd been shot with a Muggle gun into the chest. The man who shot was an old Polish supporter of Voldemort, who she was fighting against. She recalled her unsuccessful trials to convince Polish Ministry of Magic to announce Voldemort's return, but nobody listened to her and Maltcshock, pure-blood stupid fan of Dark Lord's, wanted to get rid of the only person in such a big country who was for peace and Dumbledore and against war, fear and death.

Her life wasn't happy, especially since she was informed about Voldemort's return. She found herself always lonely, even with people she called friends or family. Lonely, completely lost and armless. She was mentally prepared for death and she was quite sure she wouldn't fight even if she wasn't astonished by the shot.

But, if she wanted to die and was prepared, why wasn't she able to be like all the happy souls that flew round her, following their heaven destination.

She was walking slowly in the direction the ghosts showed, close to the stone wall. Her fingers were enjoying the touch of cold material and the sudden touch of warm, human-like object made her stop.

-- - -- - ** * ** * -- - -- -

He looked around, because he felt somebody touched him. None of the souls could have done that. And then, in the darkness, he saw a shape of another person, different from the passing creatures. He wanted to touch her, but was unable to move. He thought it was a woman not only because she was smaller than him, but because of the peace that appeared with her arrival. Was she, too, ALMOST dead?

He was staring at her, he couldn't see exactly how she looked. In the shadow of the tunnel only her eyes were visible to him. She lifted her head and gazed at him. Sirius was totally unable to take his eyes from her. She had big, beautiful and endlessly sad eyes in the colour of grass. They were calmly green. He tried to smile to her, to talk to her, to touch her, but was unable to do anything but stare.

She was also stuck and willing to talk to him. But she was unable. At first she could have walked and talked to herself in the long, wet tunnel and now, when she really wanted to ask him, who he was, what was he doing there, she couldn't open her mouth. She wondered if he had the same problem, because the man didn't speak, too. All she could do was to stare into his deep, warm, chestnut brown eyes. Her first impression of his eyes was the mixture of anger (that he was there?) and sadness (because he died, or because of something he'd done, she couldn't tell).

Suddenly, she felt that forgotten tenderness appeared deep in her heart, like a fresh breeze. Oh, she needed no fresh air, she was to be dead, she definitely wasn't to fall in love after her own death! Afterwards, well, after the discovery of a feeling towards the man, she felt sadness, that the happiness she could have met on Earth was gone, because she was dead. She never met a man she could have fallen in love with and meeting him right now, on their way to heaven, was hugely unfair, it was a complete misunderstanding, it...

** - ** - ** - ** -

Sirius couldn't talk to her so he decided to read from her eyes. They were amazing to him and so beautiful. Why haven't he met her before? Was she a witch on Earth? He immediately understood that he would sink in her eyes forever, that a place, where she was, was (or rather: would have been) a perfect place for him. He FORGOT about the problems that'd been troubling him all his way in the tunnel. Because, and he felt younger, lighter and happier at that thought, there were no other matters but their happiness. Every other thing, everyone else in the world could go on without him, but she was the person he should have lived and cared for.

But they were both dead, and Sirius thought that God, or whoever ran the whole universe, played an ironical joke on him: he, Sirius Black, finally fell desperately in love, and (that was the joke) he was no longer alive.

"That's so unfair, baby," he thought staring into her understanding eyes. "We should've met before. We... Fuck, this is an insane misunderstanding and why..."

He was not allowed to finish his thought. An invisible force pulled him backwards and upwards. He caught the very last glance of the girl, she was, too, frightened, and was being taken by the same or similar force in a different direction. A second later he must have fainted, because he remembered no more.

AN

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