Title: Untitled

Summary: James and Sirius get another chance at life, only weeks after Sirius' death. Book 6 disregard. SBJP HPDM.

A/N: I'm disregarding anything that was revealed in book 6 unless I make a particular reference to it. Also this is slash; if you don't like it, don't read it.

Disclaimer: I do not claim to own Harry Potter, any of its characters or ideas, just this story. If anybody knows where I can buy Sirius would they please tell me?

Enjoy!

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"I'm bored." Said Sirius; swinging his legs off the side table he was sitting on. "How long does it take the Guardians to process the recently deceased? I mean, I've been dead for about five minutes and I'm already bored, how have stuck it out this long? It's been fourteen bloody years. And where's Lily?" Sirius sighed in frustration. There were so many unanswered questions. He'd always thought death would bring some sort of clarity. Instead all he had was some more confusion and a lot of worrying about the people he had left behind. He looked at his companion, former lover and best friend.

"Usually not long, and I stuck it out until now because I had no choice. The Guardians told me when I got here that my 'earthly tasks have not yet been fulfilled' and that I just had to…wait until it was the right time to complete them. Lily already passed through the Final Gateway; apparently she'd done what she was supposed to. She died for the child she carried." James sounded bitter as he thought of the Lily and her ability to find Eternal Rest, while he had had to wait in Limbo for over an earth decade.

Limbo itself was not unpleasant; it looked like a rather large hotel, where people waited for their turn with the Guardians - ethereal creatures that decided your eternal fate. As far as James knew, the Guardians were neutral, and only really cared about each of 'spirits' achieving their own destinies, regardless of the effect on the Mortal Plane.

Suddenly a glowing orb materialised in front of the two friends. Several other people (well, spiritual manifestations) looked up as the orb began to pulsate with energy.

"I've seen this happen before. We have to touch it…it works kind of like a portkey, except it doesn't activate until everyone who needs to be touching it is." James explained quietly to Sirius. "I think it's waiting for us." Tentatively, they reached out and as their hands made contact with the orb a painless tingling ran throughout their bodies, intensifying with every second.

After a moment, the feeling dissipated, and James and Sirius materialised on the floor of a stone chamber lit by glowing torches that flickered with a blue flame.

"It is time to reveal your fates." The bodiless voice echoed around the room. A swirl of mist rushed past the now standing Sirius and James, circling in the air, before twisting into a tall, pale apparently male Guardian. Black leathery wings that provided a sharp contrast with the pale flesh stretched outwards, while a thin tail wrapped itself around the creature's body. The Guardian wore a simple toga style dress covered his body, floating mysteriously along the ground. He shook his mane of long, deep purple hair, and surveyed the people in front of him with glinting silver eyes.

James shivered at the sight of the Guardian, though he had seen them before, while Sirius looked on in fascination, his grey eyes glinting at the prospect of looking at the magnificent being before him.

"James Harold Potter and Sirius Orion Black, in one way or another, the lives you were meant to have were ruined by circumstances not of your own making. As a consequence, you will not be allowed to pass through the Final Gateway and into the Plane of Eternal Rest. Instead you will be returned to the Mortal Plane until the time of your deaths. It has been decided that as your lives were linked not only by fate, but by your own love," The Guardian paused for a moment, "that your physical representations should be returned to the Mortal Plane together, and that they should be of when your combined destiny ended, in your calendar that would be 9:15 pm, October 31st 1981."

The Guardian waved his hand in a complex motion, creating another glowing orb on his fingertips.

"Sending spirits back to the Mortal Plane as anything other than ghosts takes time and effort, luckily we have had almost fourteen years to prepare for this, so only a few final arrangements remain. You will be returned to your world by way of the Outer Gateway that Sirius Orion Black passed through in approximately two mortal months, that is, two mortal months from when Sirius Orion Black entered Limbo, though in our time it is only two days. This orb holds any information you might want on your resurrection. Also, and most importantly, when it glows with a blue light and emits a high pitched whistle, touch it in unison and the Council of Guardians will transport you back. Good Luck with your fates."

The Guardian disintegrated into silver mist, leaving the orb suspended in the air, glowing faintly red.

James turned to Sirius and asked, "Did you understand anything that was just going on?"

"I think we get to go back James, we get to go back to the real world."

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"Professor, there's a Ministry official who has apparently been waiting in the hall for over an hour to see you. The gargoyles wouldn't let him in." Said McGonagall as she entered the Headmaster's office; placing a long roll of parchment on the desk. "I need you to approve the list of next year's new students."

"I'll look it over, Minerva, please send the Ministry employee up on your way out." The witch nodded, recognising the dismissal, and left the office silently. A few moments later a knock resounded around the circular room, followed by the heavy oak door being pushed open and a short, skinny man in drab grey robes entering.

"Good morning Headmaster, I am Arnold Griggs with the Division for the Investigation of Weird and Unexplainable Occurrences. At approximately 8:27 this morning, two men who were previously assumed dead appeared in the Department of Mysteries. Since being taken into a secretive custody, they have repeatedly demanded to see you, and, as far as we can tell, they are who the claim to be and seem to pose no immediate threat to the security of the Wizarding world, we see no reason to deny their request. We would also like your assistance in confirming their identities." Dumbledore raised an eyebrow at the stuffy, almost rehearsed speech given by the Ministry official. Typical.

"Greetings Mr. Griggs, I would be happy to help the Ministry out, as they have always been so supportive to me." Griggs cleared his thought abashedly. "May I ask who are the gentlemen who have mysteriously reappeared?"

"Oh, well, they claim to be James Potter and Sirius Black." He replied, handing what looked like a picture of the twenty-one year old men dressed in Ministry work robes, only the magical date stamp was of that very morning.

Dumbledore moved surprisingly fast for a person of his age, heading straight towards his fire without another word, Griggs trailing behind, barely making it past the hearth and into the now green flames as the headmaster flooed to the Ministry building.

Not even stopping to check in his wand, Dumbledore proceeded straight to the floor where the Division for the Investigation of Weird and Unexplainable Occurrences (a subdivision of the Department of Mysteries) was located. He paused for a moment when he entered a hallway lined with several holding rooms, where he assumed the latest unexplainable occurrences were being kept as he waited for Griggs to show him which door to go through.

Griggs indicated the second door on the left, and Dumbledore strode through, sweeping the room in a quick glance before focussing on the room's only occupants.

James and Sirius were sitting quite close together at the metal table in the centre of the small room, their fingers loosely intertwined on the steel surface. They were whispering to each other, despite being alone and casting glances at the 'mirror' that covered one wall, a muggle-influenced two-way mirror.

They almost leapt up at the sight of their previous headmaster.

"Professor?" Asked James slowly.

"Are you really James Harold Potter?" He asked, James nodded and Dumbledore turned to Griggs. "Have they been questioned with Veritaserum?" Griggs replied the affirmative. "And they maintained the are James Potter and Sirius Black?" Griggs nodded again.

"Where is Minister Fudge?" Dumbledore asked. Griggs coughed and indicated the mirror. Dumbledore resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Minister, please come in now. A moment later Cornelius Fudge walked through the mirror, looking very put out that his 'secret' hiding place had been revealed (ignoring the fact that the two men in custody were previously Aurors and knew how holding rooms worked) He was followed by a man and a woman in Auror robes, the mirror rippled before returning to its previously solid states.

"Minister." Dumbledore greeted politely, "Are you willing to grant these men, if they are really Mr. Black and Mr. Potter, immunity for anything I may reveal in affirming their identities?" He asked, wasting no time with pleasantries, extracting exactly what he wanted with minimal effort as the Minister sputtered a 'yes, of course'.

"Gentlemen, I believe that an Animagus form can not be reproduced, if you will…" He indicated the floor space to his left with a wave of his arm.

"Wait a minute," Interrupted Fudge, who had apparently regained his bearings, "What do Animaguses have to do with anything." Dumbledore apparently didn't hear him and stepped back, allowing James and Sirius to stand in a large enough space to transform.

"Animagi forms are impossible to replicate, and are one of the only types of magic that most wizards can do without a wand…not that most wizards can perfect an Animagus transformation. Me and James did, and that's what the headmaster is checking, whether or not we have the right Animagi forms."

James and Sirius stood a little way apart from each other, then proceeded to do what looked like a completely effortless metamorphosis in a gleaming white stag and a grim-like dog. The Minister, along with his two Aurors and Griggs leapt back in surprise, Dumbledore merely smiled.

"Minister, I fully believe that these men are indeed James Harold Potter and Sirius Orion Black. Do you concur?" Fudge nodded, though his gaze never left the stag that was shaking his head proudly or the dog that seemed to be grinning, displaying his dangerous teeth.

"I assume you can arrange for a reversal on the death certificates that have been issued." Dumbledore continued, while Fudge finally managed to draw his sights away from the Animagi.

"Yes, yes. Griggs, get on that."

"Minister, I'm sure you wont protest to these gentlemen being free to go, as they have commited no crime. I am sure you can understand that they want to see their families."

"Albus, there is the matter of Mr. Blacks Azkaban sentence-"

"Which I am sure you can compensate him for at a later date, as you anounced a month ago as being incorrect."

"Yes, I suppose I did. But what about them being Animaguses, it's illegal, you know." He said matter of factly.

"You granted them immunity when I entered the room, I am sure they will register as Animagi as soon as possible. I'm sure you can make a brief statement to the press explaining their resurection."

"But we don't know how they did it!" He finally exclaimed, indicating the now human Sirius and James.

"And I'm sure the press will take much pleasure from their endevours to find out the truth. For now I will be taking Misters Black and Potter to see their family and friends. Don't you agree they deserve to know before they read about it in the evening news?"

"Yes, yes, of course, I'll owl you if we need anything else?" It sounded like a question, but off Dumbledore's look he continued, "But I'm sure we can manage by ourselves. Have a good day." With that he toddled off out of the room, his Auror (who smiled and shook Sirus' and James' hands) and Griggs (who merely glared at them for giving him more paperwork) folowing.

"Sirius, James, it is truly wonderful to see you alive and well. I know several people who would be overjoyed to see you. We shouldn't keep them waiting, shoud we?" James and Sirius shook their heads and headed out of the holding room, almost apprehensive smiles on their faces.

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Right, that's it for Chapter One, I hope you liked it, hopefull the next chapter should be up by tomorrow or Sunday. Hopefully the next chapter will have some light slash, though it will be getting progressively heavier.

Please review, constructive critisism is welcome and appriciated.

Also, any title suggestions will be taken gratefully.