Hide and Go Seek

Harry didn't know what was wrong with him. He knew there was no way Sirius could be answering his letters, he knew it had to be someone in the household playing a joke, but he wanted to believe it was real so badly ...

This was one part of his life he couldn't tell anyone else. If Ron or Hermione found out ... they'd think he was mad!

Harry even thought himself mad.

As the weeks went by, Harry couldn't help but notice that "Sirius's" answers were becoming more detailed. Sirius began talking about what had happened that night before he had gone to the Department of Mysteries. There was no way any of the Dursleys knew about that ...

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Petunia looked over her latest letter from Mrs. Weasley.

"We were waiting at headquarters, waiting for something to happen. We knew the calm wouldn't last long. The calm before the storm, some might say. Albus Dumbledore hadn't spoken to Harry in so long. We knew it was only a matter of time before something happened ...

"Harry blames Dumbledore, you know. He feels Dumbledore should have told him something ... stop treating him like a child. You know how teenagers get. You want to treat them like adults and are all prepared to, but then they start acting like children again ..."

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Harry woke up the next morning, surprised to see that Sirius had sent a letter to him. It was sitting on the windowsill. He jumped out of bed and ripped open the letter.

"Dear Harry,

"This is important. I want to talk to you about the night I died. I hope you are ready. If not, tear this up and forget I ever wrote this to you."

Harry looked up. Was he ready?

It had been nearly two months since he had had the vision ... He hadn't cried in at least two weeks. He couldn't hear the chant, "Sirius is dead" anymore. The voices had gone away, ever since he had started writing to his godfather ... He was ready.

"I can't explain to you what happens when we go beyond the veil. You aren't supposed to understand that, not until you've died. What I can say is that my death has been harder on the ones I left behind than it has been for myself.

"I can still see you, Harry. I'll be able to watch you at school. You can carry me around with you, your own personal friend. You can hear my advice from behind the veil. You'll know I'm there.

"Don't blame anyone for my death, least of all yourself or Dumbledore or anyone else. I never did what I didn't want to do, Harry. I never believed in all my family's lies, even though they wanted me to. I made the decision to follow you to the Ministry that night. You didn't force me to, Dumbledore didn't force me to, nobody forced me to. I did it.

"Don't worry about me and forget to live, Harry. LIVE. Take life by the shoulders and shake it! Make the most of your time here. You'll join me soon enough, but you've got to LIVE first.

Sirius"

Harry placed the letter carefully on his lap. He had heard the voices behind the veil. He had been stupid back then, had thought that he could pull Sirius back ...

Sirius was stuck behind the veil, but that didn't mean he, Harry, had lost him. He could still hear Sirius's laugh, couldn't he? He could still see Sirius's broadly grinning face, couldn't he?

Sirius was not gone. He was in hiding ... yes, they were only playing hide- and-seek. Harry would search for him, and Sirius would call out tantalizing hints from behind his hiding place ... but Harry would never find him, not until he himself died.

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AN: Depressing, huh? Anyway, I think there will be one more chapter after this ... Hey, did anyone catch the "he, Harry" I threw in? Those drive me crazy in the books! Thanks to everyone who reviewed!

Disclaimer: Everything in this story belongs to JK Rowling. I was just having fun with her creations.