A/N: It's my birthday, so as my gift to all my readers, you get a chapter )
Disclaimer: No, I'm still not JK Rowling. I guess I can live with that.
BTW, No, DD, I wasn't about to end it there. Do enjoy, and please review... 'Cause, like I said, it's my birthday )
The silence that had lay over the deserted town of Wodniw was shattered for the first time in decades by two men screamed at each other, and finally the sound of a rotten floor giving way and a body falling through.
Then, the deathly silence returned, as in an old house, a fallen man lay bleeding to death.
"Remus?" A voice in the dark asked of the man who was lying impaled by knives on an old, oak dinning table.
Remus' eyes flickered under his eyelids, but he showed no other sign of life.
"Remus?" The voice asked again, as the figure of a man walked into a ray of moonlight being cast into the room. Still though, Remus remained motionless.
The voices sighed heavily, "You can't save anyone if you won't try, Rem."
Suddenly, Remus' eyes shot open and he gasped for air; there was only one person who'd ever called him that, ever.
He tried to sit up, but found himself being pushed gently back down onto the table by someone with firm, strong hands. "No, stay down, it'll be easier."
"Easier for what?" Remus asked, but received no answer. No verbal answer, at least, as he suddenly felt one of the pieces of silverware being gently pulled from his thigh.
Strangely enough, this didn't hurt, but relaxed him immensely, and after several minutes, with one final tug, Remus realized that all of the cutlery had been removed.
"You just can't keep yourself out of trouble, can you, Rem?" The voice asked, as it's owner offered Remus a hand and pulled him into a sitting position.
Remus ran his hands over his wounds, and was surprised to feel them healed. As he looked at the holes in his clothes, the other person in the room moved fully into the moonlight.
Only then did Remus dare to look and see who it was, until that point fear had kept him from looking. Whether it was fear of being wrong, or fear of being right about the identity of the person in the room with him, he didn't know. But as he looked, he found himself staring into the face of Sirius Black.
But, it wasn't Sirius as he was as he'd fallen behind the veil; it was the face of Sirius that Remus remembered from before Azkaban. Young and handsome, with full, flowing black hair that fell elegantly into his eyes, and framing the features on his face that once again shone with their former glamour.
Remus surmised that death had been kind to Sirius, in a way that life never was.
"Sirius," he breathed, as he rushed off the table to embrace his departed friend.
Sirius returned the hug heartily, and when they broke apart, he was beaming, as Remus had never before seen him smile.
"I've been watching you, Remus. In spite of is all, you've never lost your face, you've always remained true to the Order."
Suddenly it dawned on him. If he were talking to Sirius, actually touching him, then he must be dead as well. He shook his head, "Then you saw me betray the location of Headquarters, and now Greyback has Tonks, and now I'm dead and can't make any of it better."
"Don't worry, Rem. They won't hurt her, she's useful to them, or else they wouldn't have bothered to take her at all.
"As for Headquarters, they – Snape and Greyback – can't tell anyone where it is, and once the Order picks a new Secret Keeper, those two won't even remember where it is anymore. You'll see, everything will work out."
Then, almost as an after though, he added, "Oh, you're not dead."
"Not dead?" Remus asked, taken back. "How am I talking to you, then? I mean, you're dead, right?"
"Of course I am. Don't worry, I haven't just been hiding away this past year, Harry and you would never forgive me that." He sighed sadly, "Yes, Rem, I am dead."
"How then?"
"You're not dead, nor are you alive. You're in the ether, The Crossroads. Everyone comes here after they die, before they pass on. Here they are given the option to continue on and pass, or to return to life."
"Why doesn't everyone just go back, then?"
Remus had never seen Sirius look more offended in all the years he'd known him.
"I mean… wouldn't that make sense?" He asked, trying to fix his unintentional offence.
Maybe it makes sense to people who aren't ready to pass yet, who have a reason to keep on living. Whether we chose to live or pass depends not on what we want, but on what we know we have left to do."
"The seems like a mighty faulty idea." Remus scoffed.
"You're not ready to pass. If you were, you wouldn't question it, Rem."
"But you died! Are you saying you had nothing left to do in life?"
"That's correct."
Remus gaped at Sirius. "You can't be serious, Sir. There were things! There still are! You had to have your innocence proven! You have to see that Harry's safe!"
Sirius sighed, "No, Remus. Everyone knows that I'm innocent now; I don't need to be around for that. As for Harry? You promised you'd look after him, and so you do. And he'll always be safe as long as there are Order members around. There was no need to me to remain on Earth, any longer."
"But what about me? I need you, Sirius."
"You're doing just fine living without me, Rem."
"It's not that! I miss you!"
"Well, there's no reason to, you're surrounded by people who love you. Besides, I told you, I've been watching you."
Ignoring how the comment sounded somewhat stalker-ish, Remus plowed on, "But you haven't been there for me! I don't want to live without you anymore! I'm done hurting, Sirius! I've been through too much, lost too many friends! I'm done! I choose death!"
"I know you have! I did too, but you, you've got things left to do. This place, these Crossroads, it's just for the living and the dead. You're not the first one to be here who wanted to die when they knew that they still had reason to live!
"Think, Remus, think! This pain you feel of losing everyone! Do you want the people you leave behind to mourn for you as you did for me, as you did for James and Lily?"
Remus looked away in shame. "No, but you chose to let us all suffer."
"You're right, I did, and look and what my death has done! It's assured that the truth about Peter has come out; it has spurred Harry to realize that he's got to do! And you, with Tonks, you know if I were still alive you that wouldn't have happened so soon. My death brought about great good, yours won't, Remus."
Suddenly, Remus knew that Sirius was right.
"You'll be going back now, Remus." Sirius said softly, as though each word cut through him like a knife.
"Will I see you again?"
"I don't have that knowledge, Rem, no one does, no really."
"Then how'd you know I was here?"
"I told you, I've been looking in on you."
Sirius looked over Remus' shoulder, and smiled fondly. Remus glanced back and saw the figures of James and Lily silhouetted in a beam of fading light. They both waved, and for a few brief seconds, Remus felt that all was right in the world.
"It's time for you to go back, Rem."
Remus woke up several hours later, still lying on the table. His head pounding, he sat up, only to remember that Greyback had Tonks.
He rolled clumsily off the table, several pieces of silverware falling to the floor as he did so. He looked at them in confusion, vaguely remembering that they'd been stuck in him just as he'd passed out.
He shook the feeling and spun on the spot, disapparating at one for Grimmauld Place, not even daring to think of what he might find as a scene at Headquarters.
As he spun, he thought only of how long he'd been asleep; he had no memory of his meeting with Sirius at the Crossroads of Life and Death.