A/N: For principessa05. Hugs for all!
Let the Sandman Come
Remus J. Lupin sat by his desk in his room at Grimmauld Place number Twelve. He was thinking. Not thinking too hard, of course, since that hurt too much. Now he was the only Marauder left to fight Voldemort. He felt strangely empty. James was dead. Sirius was dead. Peter had left the side of the good forever.
Remus sighed. For the first time in many years, he felt truly alone. He looked over his shoulder at the bed. No point in being awake anyway. He might as well try to rest. There would be times when he wouldn't be allowed to sleep for days, oh yes, so he might as well enjoy it while he still could.
Crawling in between the sheets, Remus let his mind wander. If he'd allowed Harry to go after his godfather when the boy cried his name, would Sirius still be alive? Would Harry have been able to save him? He knew the answer already: No, of course not. The mysteries of that Veil was a closely guarded secret, but one thing about it was common knowledge and that was that no one had ever escaped from it. It had been too late already. Remus pitied the poor boy, who was now an orphan for the second time in his young life.
'His wounds will heal,' he thought as he closed his eyes and tried to relax. 'They always heal, though it might take time.'
Remus drifted off into sleep and blissful oblivion.
He was dreaming.
Sirius was looking at him from his place on the bed. It was a young Sirius, the Sirius he remembered from the youth, the Sirius without a care in the world. He seemed oddly out of place in the grey dullness of Remus' adult room. Sirius was too alive, too real to be of this world.
"I haven't really left, you know," he said and stretched out lazily on his back. "Never will."
"I know," said Remus, and his voice was that of an adult. "I still hear you everywhere, Padfoot. Your laugh. And your face is in every picture I see."
"That is very melodramatical of you, Moony. I didn't know you cared that much."
"That's because you are a damn fool."
Sirius chuckled. "True. It's the Black way, I'm afraid." He shrugged. "Oh well, life goes on."
"Not for you."
"Again with the drama. Stop it, it doesn't suit you."
Remus glared at him. "If you had just stayed here like we told you to, then none of this would've happened. Did you even think about how any of this would effect Harry?" He didn't wait for an answer. "And now looked what happened! You died, you daft GIT. And you left Harry all alone."
The young Sirius looked at him, with the genuine sadness in his eyes masked as anger. "So that is why you're dreaming of me, Moony? After all these years, I thought you'd cherish my memory a little differently."
He was starting to look a little faint around the edges, and Remus felt a sudden pang of terror that he'd go away.
"I'm sorry," he said, rubbing his temples and sinking deeper into his brown leather chair. "I just need someone to blame. I need a reason. You can't just be gone."
"Blame Bellatrix then. She was the one to do the deed, after all."
"Oh, it would be all too easy to hate Bellatrix Lestrange, Padfoot. But I need more than that. I need to know why."
"The Lord works in mysterious ways. Isn't that what the Muggles use to say?"
Despite his grief, Remus dared to smile a little. "You were never a religious man, why start now?"
Sirius shrugged again. "Better safe than sorry. You never know what's behind the light." His grey eyes got something dreamy about them. "Except that there is a garden... with roses." He looked up and met Remus' eyes. "I have to go soon," he said. "And I know it's sad and everything, but... but I think it'll be all right in the end, somehow. Things always turns out okay for you, Moony."
"Not without you or James, it won't. Or Peter, for that matter," he added, although his face turned grim by the thought of their friends betrayal.
"You were always the strong one. The silent bookish type, a rather brilliant student, and the best friend one could ask for. It's important that you know this." Sirius hesitated. "You'll see me again. And James, and Lily. We'll all be waiting for you, when that time comes. And it will come, for it's really... war now. Again."
"I thought you said you'd never leave for real."
"I said once that I should live forever, remember?"
Remus nodded. "I remember. It was at James and Lily's wedding. Right before they cut the cake."
Sirius smirked. "Yeah. And look at me now. So really, when it comes to it, what do I know?"
And Remus woke up, and he looked out the window, where a shining star finally gave up and gave away it's light to the new morning.