Disclaimer: The basic idea of Hogwarts and Lily, James and Sirius are J. K. Rowling's, but the rest is mine.
Author's note: Hello my loyal subjects and welcome to the sixth chapter of my story. Yes, I've finally got round to writing it, but I have been writing a spoof with my co-author The morrigan three, which is coming on pretty well, and I recommend it to anybody with a slightly odd sense of humour. I would like to say Suilaid, mellon nin to Templa Otmena, and hi to Tonks, I don't know if you ever still pop back to see if I've updated, but I'd like to thank you again for the time you spent reading the other chapters and reviewing. To The morrigan three I would simply like to say, "Let's write the chapter at Helm's Deep," because, dear readers, it's going to be one hell of a chapter. Thank you.
Resurgem
The following morning, Sirius had gotten over the shock of food seemingly appear out of nowhere and was tucking into a bacon sandwich. James ate at a more sedate pace and studied the ceiling again. It was back to its usual cloudy grey but James was still puzzled about the previous night's display. Lily, picking at a piece of toast, laid her hand on his arm, "It was probably nothing."
James smiled at her, "Yes, you'll be right as usual." He turned to Sirius. "Shall we look around the rest of the castle today?"
"Yes, something around here must make me remember something. I did spend seven years of my life here."
Lily looked thoughtful, "How about the library?"
James choked on his cup of tea. "Library?" he spluttered, "Talk about the most unlikely place in the whole building!"
"No, there might be something about this veil in there, we should look."
"That's why I married her," James told Sirius proudly, "She's the brains and I'm the brawn."
Lily smiled and elbowed him, "You've got brains too, you just choose not to use them."
Sirius watched them bicker good-naturedly with a strong feeling of nostalgia. The library was as good a guess as any, he supposed.
They walked into the hushed library and looked at the row upon row of bookcases, stretching the full length of the room. 'There must be hundreds of thousands of books here', thought Sirius to himself. James scratched his head and turned to Lily, "Where do we start?"
Lily frowned. "Which category would 'mysterious crumbling arches that are a pathway between the living and the dead' be under?"
Sirius walked along the ends of the rows until he came to the section listed under V. "Vampires, Vanishing, Vaticination*, Veils. Ahhh." Sirius halted and studied the books dedicated to 'veils'. He could clearly see the rippling black curtain in his mind and hopefully there would be something here that would explain what it was. He chose a dusty leather- bound volume at random, titled 'Transitus per Dimensii'**.
It was in a foreign language he had no hope of understanding but he flicked through to see if there were any diagrams. He was surprised to notice that a large chunk of the middle had been burnt out, and he decided this did not bode well for his plight, but chose a few more books and scanned them to see if there was any mention of transportation between the living and the dead.
The last book he picked up was black and the peeling gold letters simply said 'Resurgem' ***. Sirius sat of the floor and began to read.
'Study of life after death. Ancient druids wielded great power and tried to find a way to bring the dead back to life by retrieving the soul. They created archways to the world of the dead and volunteers passed through, never to return. Terrible catastrophes occurred as otherworldly forces escaped the gateways. The gateways were destroyed due to fears that the veil between the living and the dead would rip entirely.'
Sirius shut the book and looked up, watching people walk past or sit down at a table and read. They didn't look very dangerous, but he suspected the thunderstorm in the ceiling of the Great Hall had something to do with his coming. At least he now knew how he got here; he must have walked through a Druid's Veil. The book did not mention why he had lost his memory though, probably because those who went through never came back so nobody would know. The thought sent a chill down his spine.
James appeared at the end of the row and looked down to see his best friend sat on the floor with his head in his hands. He squatted down next to him.
"Don't worry, there's bound to be something here. It's not like we're going anywhere is it?"
Sirius gave him a weak smile and James helped him up.
"I know what the veil is," he told James, "but not how to get back through it, or even if I can. The hole I crawled through to get here disappeared as soon as I entered the common room."
"Maybe Lily will come up with something," James told Sirius confidently, "she always has an answer for everything."
Lily finished reading the book Sirius found and leant back in her chair, crossing her arms. James sat forward expectantly.
"Well?"
She sighed. "I don't know. If you can't leave the way you came in, maybe you can leave by the way we came in."
Sirius frowned, "You didn't just appear here then?"
James laughed, "No. After I, well, died, I sort of floated for a bit, then Lily took my hand and we moved upwards towards a blinding light. Then we were in a tunnel, the sides were swirling and occasionally I caught glimpses of other places through the walls. Then, in front of us, there was an opening and as we walked towards it, it got bigger and bigger and I could see the castle, and the grounds, and the Forbidden Forest. We stepped through and the gates at the end of the drive materialised. I turned to Lily and she said, "We're here."
Sirius sat in silence for a while. Lily reached across and took his hand in hers. "It's okay, it was quite peaceful actually."
"So, not everybody comes here?" Sirius asked.
"No," replied James, "I think you go wherever you were happiest in life. For us that was here." He smiled and brushed a strand of hair away from his wife's face. "But to be blunt, as long as I was with Lily I couldn't have cared less where we ended up."
Sirius grinned, "I think I'll leave you two to make eyes at each other and go down to the Quidditch pitch. Maybe something will jog my memory."
Sirius left them in the library and strolled across the grass to the pitch. Nobody was currently playing and the spectator towers stood out stark against the overcast sky. He walked to the centre and looked upwards, closing his eyes as the memory of a roaring crowd and frantic cheers swept him into the past.
The wind was whipping through his hair and rain was stinging his face as he sped toward the bludger and bashed it towards a player in green. He could feel the tension in the air as he watched James and the other seeker streak down towards the ground where a small gold flash was hovering inches above the grass. The referee's whistle pierced the air and James, triumphant, rose above the other players, the Snitch in his hand, calling "Sirius!, Sirius!, Sirius!"
Sirius snapped back to the present as he realised the shouting was not in his mind. He opened his eyes and saw James loping towards him.
"Sirius! Lily and I have decided that if you want to try and get back to where you came from, you should go down to the main gate and see if you can enter the tunnel we came down."
"Will that work?" Sirius asked.
"We don't know, but you could give it a try." James urged him forward, "Come on, she's waiting on the drive."
Sirius stopped and turned around. He looked at James' face and saw joy, but sadness too. "You don't want me to go."
James stopped too and looked into his friend's eyes. "You could always know what I was thinking," He put his hands on Sirius' shoulders and looked up at the sky, where the sun was emerging from behind a cloud. Light bathed them both and James' eyes, usually hazel, were shadowed. He took a deep breath and gazed earnestly into Sirius' face. "No," James admitted, "I want you to stay here with us so we can spend forever together, living like we lived while at Hogwarts, pulling pranks, finding secret passageways, experimenting with magic and when Harry comes we would live together as a family, but I know that you wouldn't be completely happy." James squeezed his shoulders, "You are my best friend and I know you want to go back into the world of the living, because you're alive." The pain this was causing James was plain to Sirius and he pulled James close.
"I will be back you know. It'll only be a while, just until I decide to die properly."
James snorted and hugged him back, "That's the Sirius I know, cracking a joke at a serious time." He let go and took a deep breath, "Well, I suppose we'd better get this over with. Hopefully, once I get you to the other end, I can find my way back again."
"What?" exclaimed Sirius.
"Well, somebody's got to go with you to make sure you don't get lost. We'd both come, but we don't know how unstable the pathway is. I've more chance of finding my way back alone than risking us both being trapped in different worlds."
"You'd do that for me?" Sirius asked in a whisper.
"Sirius, old chum, I would do anything for you, as I know you would for me and Lily," James replied, "Just promise us a few things."
"Anything." Sirius vowed.
"Cause Voldemort and his Death Eaters as much trouble as possible, find a wonderful woman to marry, have lots of gorgeous kids and live to a ripe old age."
"You've got it." Sirius grinned, "And I'll name two of my children Lily and James."
James laughed, "And I bet they'll cause you as much mischief as we did to my parents." James' smile dimmed, "Also, Sirius, can you keep and eye on Harry. I know he's had it tough and so have we, not being able to watch him grow up and care for him, but he couldn't have a better person than you for a godfather."
Sirius clasped James' hand. "I promise."
They made their way down to the massive stone gateposts, topped with winged boars and supporting wrought iron gates. Beyond it was a swirling pale mist that gave off an aura of deep cold. Sirius watched with anxiety as James said goodbye to Lily. What if he couldn't get back? There was no way he could dissuade James though once he had made up his mind about something so Sirius prayed that he would somehow find his way home, and James could get back to Lily without falling into another place. James walked up beside him and Lily kissed him on the cheek,
"We'll be waiting for you."
"And I'll be waiting for the day we will meet again, hopefully with my memories this time."
She waved them goodbye and James and Sirius walked forward, into the mist.
* Vaticination- The art of forecasting or prediction.
** Transitus per Dimensii- Passage through dimensions
*** Resurgem- 'I will rise again'. (From Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.)