Into the Spirit World

By Moony

Well, this idea randomly came up, when at Paddy's un-birthday party, she told me about her theory why Sirius never whispered back to Harry in the mirror. I was going to make it humorous, but I decided not to. Enjoy! –Moony

All characters you recognize in this story are JK Rowling's. All others are mine, unless otherwise said so. (Yes, Aisling is mine. Please ask permission if you want to use her)

Chapter 1

Sirius felt himself falling. The moth-eaten veil passed over his face, and he saw no more of the Department of Mysteries. His hands groped for something to grab and pull himself up. He had to kill Bellatrix. And Harry…

But there was nothing but space and darkness. Sirius felt he was falling through a hole that had no bottom. All he saw was blackness. At what seemed like hours, his head hit something hard and he blanked out.

Sirius awoke again, and jumped up, snatching his wand. There was no longer and ominous, empty black space. He felt lightheaded and strange. Now he was standing in a pretty garden, and no one was in sight. Where the hell was he?! And why did the Ministry have that stupid veil in the Department? The thought brought him back.

"Dammit!" he cursed. Harry and Bellatrix were still out there, and he was spending time in a flower garden. He needed to find the archway. He knew Harry would be worrying, and he couldn't cause Harry that worry.

But something stopped him. In the distance, he saw what looked like Harry. Thank god! He's ok! Sirius thought. But as Harry came closer, Sirius realized it was not Harry. It was…

"James?" Sirius croaked.

This is crazy. James is dead!

But Sirius knew this was James. But James was dead… how could he be seeing him again, still alive and well?

"Yeah, 's me Padfoot."

"But… but… you're dead Prongs…" James said.

I think I'm going mad.

"Yeah… I am; took you fifteen years to figure out?" James joked, and grinned.

"Am I going mad or something? Where the HELL is this place? Am I hallucinating? You're dead! Dead people don't come back! How can I be talking to my dead best friend? You're dead. Living people don't talk to dead people…"

A sad look came over James' face.

"You don't get it yet?"

"No! What the hell is going on?"

"Sirius… you're dead. You've joined our world now."

The words hit Sirius full force. He felt the wind blow out from him.

"Ok, I thought I was mad before – but this is ridiculous! I just fell through that stupid veil…"

"The Veil of Death," James murmured.

"HELL! What the hell is going on?"

"Look Padfoot, I know this is coming pretty fast, but… you really are dead."

"If I'm dead, why am I standing here, shouldn't I be er… I dunno, dead and not living? Look, my heart is beating!" he said, putting his hand over his heart.

But it was not.

"Hell, am I really dead?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you… you're in the Sprit World, Sirius."

The two were quiet for a minute. Then suddenly, Sirius gave a yell.

"But Harry! He… he…"

James gave Sirius a sad look again.

"Harry's gonna… he's gonna… He has no one James! He has no dad! He has no one! And… and… He… the prophecy… no one can protect him!"

Sirius whipped around, "You have to show me where the archway is. You have to!"

"I can't…I don't know where it is… and even if I did, we couldn't go there anyway… we're different from them now…"

Sirius heard a faint yell… it sounded like his name.

"He's calling me James, he's calling me. I have to get to him. I have to tell him I'm ok. I have to…"

"I wish he would call me…"

James looked at his feet.

"He never got to know me. I never got to… I never got to escort him to the Hogwarts Express. I never got to teach him the passageways of the school. I never got to send him Christmas presents… he never knew me. But he knows you… and I'm glad for that."

Sirius couldn't control himself. Hell, maybe it was all a dream.

As the two sat there in silence, another figure appeared. Sirius squinted. Red, flowing hair… green eyes that sparkled miles away… was it Lily? And she came closer.

"Lily!" Sirius said in disbelief.

"Sirius?" Lily looked surprised.

"James, what is Sirius doing here? Harry needs him! What happened? How'd you… how'd? What the hell? You're not supposed to be – how did you… does Dumbledore… What is going on?!"

"That's what I'd like to know…" Sirius muttered.

"He obviously died Lily."

"But how? So quick? This wasn't supposed to… but… who?"

"Bellatrix…" Sirius muttered, "I was in the Department of Mysteries. And me and Bellatrix were dueling. She shot a spell right at my chest."

"And you died?!"

"No! I couldn't've died from that. And it caught me off guard and I fell… behind that archway in the department."

"Stupid Ministry," Lily said bitterly, "Just keeping the Veil of Death right there, where accidents can happen. Oh, what's Harry going to do now? I'm going to talk to the council."

With that, she disappeared.

Sirius… The echo came across. Sirius wanted to run back to Harry, let him know he was all right, comfort him.

"Well, why don't we go to er… Ash Alley?"

"What's that?"

"Shopping Sirius! What's going on in that crazed mind of yours, come on!"

"But Harry…"

"Sirius, listen to me," James said firmly, "There's nothing you can do for Harry. Believe me, I know. Lily and me, we've been trying. Trying for the past fifteen years to try and connect with him. And we couldn't. The only time we could was when the Prior Incantantum (I think I spelled that wrong). We were just helpless as he fought Voldemort all those years, and we wanted to run down and protect him. But we couldn't. You have to let go Sirius. We can't do anything…"

"But there has to be something!"

James shook his head sadly, "There isn't Sirius, there isn't."

"What about – what about a Time Turner? I can go back, and just not… not… I'll kill Voldemort before he gets to the DoM."

But they both knew it was impossible.

Sirius kept hearing the yells of Harry in his head, and he felt guilty. He had let Harry down.

Even the delicious ice cream of the Spirit World did not soothe his guilt. Of course, he knew it was worse for James, to have suffered fifteen years without being able to do anything. On a happier note, he was with his best friend again. But he had given up Harry, and he badly wanted to be with them both. He knew the times of Marauders were gone now, he knew that, and it wasn't the same carefree tone as it had been in the old times. He knew Harry needed help. He would need to cope, and knowing Harry, he would kill himself to try and be with him – and as badly as Sirius wanted to be with Harry and James, he knew that Harry dying would be horrible. He only hoped Dumbledore would be able to do something.

Dumbledore…

Maybe Dumbledore was the reason he was here. Sirius then felt a pang of guilt again. He knew Dumbledore was only trying to keep him safe…

But then again, it was of course, a fault, and it made him crazy, having only Kreacher as company…

Sirius shook the evil voice out of his head. The world needed Dumbledore and the world needed Harry. They would have to work it out. Sirius wasn't important. Sirius was just a knight, a knight that had died. In the end, Harry would be the only one needed.

"Sirius."

James' voice broke into his thoughts.

"Yeah?"

"Well, maybe you could cheer up a little… I thought… I thought I'd be really happy to see you again, and you too. I thought… I dunno what I thought, but I'm not as joyful as I wanted to be."

Then James whacked himself.

"I sound so selfish! Harry's there, there's no joyfulness in that…" he stared sadly.

"The world is becoming dark Sirius. Harry's the only one who can defeat Voldemort, and now with you gone…"

"He still doesn't know the prophecy… and right now, if he doesn't know why…" Sirius said.

"I'm sure Dumbledore has told him. I'm sure Dumbledore would have realized it."

The two friend stared out the window, until a bouncy, cheery voice broke the sad tone,

"HELLO JAMES!"

Sirius and James jumped. A girl with chestnut, wild hair was there, her eyes shining, and she was wearing a big grin.

"Hello Aisling," James said, and gave Sirius the look, Oh god, get her off my butt.

"Who's he? Old friend? When did you find him? Did he die last week? Today? Yesterday? The day before yesterday? The day before yesterday's yesterday?"

"Aisling!"

"I'm sorry, I know… it takes time to get used to the Spirit World. But you will love it!"

"Erm… I'm Sirius…" Sirius said, not knowing what to do.

"Oh right, introductions. Haha. Silly me! I'm Aisling Poroir. I'm James' friend."

Sirius glanced at his best friend, who gave him another look, She wishes!

"How old are you? Are you the same age as James? Where did you live? Did you have a wife? Did you have kids? Did you go to Hogwarts? Were you in Gryffindor? Huh? Huh?"

"I'm thirty-two. And James is two days older than me. I lived in Surrey. I was single, and I didn't have kids. I went to Hogwarts, I was in Gryffindor."

"Wait a minute…" Aisling said, staring back at him, "You're Sirius Black!"

"Yeah, I am."

"OH! OH! James told me all about you! I'm so sorry about what happened, and I want to kill that Peter Pettigrew! Was Azkaban horrible? Were the Dementors evil? Were you scared during your escape? How did it feel to have the whole world think you were a mass murderer?"

"Um, not to be rude, but how old are you?"

"Oh, I'm thirteen."

"You died that young?"

"Oooh… yes. I'll tell you, I went to Hogwarts two years ago, and then in my second year, I accidentally fell onto the tracks, and the express… it ran over me and… and… it was horrible. I felt hotness and pain and…"

Aisling shook.

"Then I remember floating away, up here, and then I opened my eyes, and looked down, and my parents were looking over my body. And then I met James, and we became friends."

Aisling said, smiling again.

"And I guess dying isn't so bad, 'cuz now I get to hang out with thirty-year-olds and have a buncha fun!"

"Um, are you always this optimistic and cheery?"

"Oh no, once, Matt pushed me into the bookshelf, and I got really mad!" Aisling replied, all the while smiling and talking in a happy tone.

"I'm sure you did Aisling."

"I did!"

"Well…"

"Oh look, there's Milly! I promised we were gonna go shopping for new jewelry today, bye!"

With that, Aisling walked out of the shop.

"That was weird," Sirius said.

"Yup. That be Aisling. She has a crush on me, and she's extremely annoying."

Sirius laughed, "But you're already with Lily."

"You think that'd stop her?"

They laughed together. It was almost like old times. For a moment, Sirius forgot that he was thirty. He forgot about the Order, and Harry. He felt he was back at Hogwarts in The Three Broomsticks, talking with James again. But then guilt crept back in, at the thought of the suffering back in the real world.

What could he do? There was no way, James had said so.

There's a way to everything. Where there's a will, there's a way.

But he couldn't do it today. He would try, maybe later, but for now, he needed to take things slowly. It was strange. Being dead was almost like being alive, in a way. Like a new life, in the Spirit World. You were dead, but you didn't feel dead. Sirius knew what a ghost felt like. A ghost existed, but did not exist. They floated between life and death. Perhaps a ghost life would have been better, maybe it would have. He would get to be with Harry at least.

But to be in the Spirit World meant you were brave. It meant you weren't afraid of death, and Sirius was proud of that.

It was so confusing. Now he could still eat ice cream, and he was talking to James, his best friend.

Sirius sighed. Perhaps it was all a dream? Maybe he would wake up and be back in the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black. Maybe Kreacher would walk in and wake him up as he ate his ice cream. Maybe Buckbeak would give a loud screech and snap him from the dream. He hoped it was a dream. But he hoped it wasn't. But he hoped it was. It was an aching choice. Harry or James. He wanted to be with James so badly, but he wanted to be with Harry too.

Maybe Harry could die and come here…

At the moment the thought came, Sirius shook it out of his mind. That was selfish. Without Harry, the whole world would be gone. Muggles would be affected. No, the world needed Harry more than he.

Sirius did not know what to think. He did not know what he wanted, except to be a teenager again, carefree and happy. All his best friends with him. But times were over, and he was a thirty-year-old, stuck in the Spirit World, dead, when his godson most needed him. Hell, how did it come to this?