Well, here's chapter two and there's going to be more soon. (Probably. Actually, knowing me, it might be tomorrow and it might be in two weeks, but whatever) I actually like the original ending quite a lot (Probably because there are lots of fics about Sirius coming back, but I don't think I've seen anything like that). If I ever write a sequel (I might do it after Book7, if it inspires me), it's probably going to follow the original ending. But I think I've got some nice ideas for this one too...
II(:
Chapter two
For a moment he couldn't see or hear anything. This was odd. He had expected to see his life flashing in front of his eyes, but he didn't. But Padfoot had said…
Suddenly he understood. When you went through that thing, you saw your counterpart's memories. But they were about to enter a world where he did not have a counterpart! How much trouble was he in? He should have thought about it a few seconds earlier. It was too late now!
XXX
After a few seconds Procyon found himself standing in the empty room with the Veil, still holding on to the dog's tail. The animal turned its head, let out a short growl and pulled its tail out of the boy's hand. Procyon was feeling really stupid now. The dog turned back into a man and looked down at the boy.
'What do you think you're doing?' Padfoot asked angrily.
Procyon, who had just learnt the true meaning of the words "It just seemed like a good idea at the time", stared down at his own feet as if he had never seen them before.
'What were you thinking?' the man asked.
'It just… ' the boy hesitated 'seemed like a good idea at the time…'
'Do you realize - ?'
'Yeah… I guess I wasn't thinking at all… I'm sorry… What do we do now?' Procyon asked.
'I guess we'd better get out of here before somebody finds us.'
'What about me?' the boy wanted to know 'Should I go with you or try to - ?'
'NO!' Padfoot wouldn't even let him finish the sentence 'You can't just go through that thing and hope you turn up in the right world,' he explained 'It's just too dangerous. Maybe we'll find a way to send you back later. For now, I guess I'm responsible for you. That's what you wanted, isn't it?' he asked.
'All right,' Procyon said 'So where do we go now?'
XXX
They agreed that the faster they get out of the building the better. A moment later Procyon learnt that Apparating actually felt rather unpleasant. He had always really wanted to try it, but when he actually got the chance, he was glad it only took a few seconds.
'What is this place?' he asked looking around. It looked familiar, but… no… it couldn't be…
'Home,' said Padfoot. There was a hint of irony in his voice.
So it really was home. It felt strange to see it looking like this, especially if you had only just been there a few days ago and it had looked… well… like your home. To be honest, the house had never been the most pleasant place in the world, but now, with the peeling wallpapers and a thick layer of dust covering everything, it looked just plain creepy. It almost seemed like a haunted house. For a moment the horrifying idea of his grandmother's ghost still hanging around here crossed Procyon's mind.
'I guess noone's been there since I left,' said Padfoot, looking around 'I thought the Order would still be using it - '
'The Order's been using this place?' Procyon asked 'You have some nerve.'
Padfoot stared at the boy in shock.
'What?' Procyon asked 'Did I say something wrong?'
'It's not supposed to be possible,' the man whispered.
'What?' Procyon didn't understand.
'I just told you about the Headquarters. But… only Dumbledore can…'
'I still don't get it.'
'There was a Fidelius Charm on the place… er… last time I was here. Dumbledore was the Secret Keeper. Only he could reveal the information.'
'That means the Charm is gone?' Procyon finally understood.
'I guess it makes sense,' Padfoot said slowly 'Noone's been here for a long time. They must have found a different place.'
'Either that or we're in the wrong universe,' Procyon said, suddenly even more frightened.
'You are,' Padfoot replied 'But I don't think I am. The flashbacks seemed right.'
'Flashbacks?'
'Memories,' the man explained 'The ones I saw when w went through that veil.'
'I didn't see anything,' the boy said 'That's because there's no other me in this world, right?'
'That would make sense. I saw your dad's life when I went through the thing the first time and my own this time.'
'Good,' Procyon was relieved 'At least we know where we are.'
XXX
Although neither of them was overly fond of the place, they decided to look around a bit first. Right now, half an hour later, Procyon was sitting alone, staring at the tapestry with the family tree on the wall. It was quite different from the one he knew. First of all his name wasn't on it. Neither was his brother's or his sister's. (He wondered how Cassie would react if she ever heard of this.) None of them had ever been there at all. Where his father had been was only a small burn-mark, and a little to the right from it the name Regulus Black with two dates under it instead of only one. Before seeing that Procyon had not fully realized how different this world was from his own. Now, after a few minutes of staring at it, he thought there were probably still many things he wasn't fully aware of.
'Yeah, this looks like the right world,' he suddenly heard a voice behind him 'Most things are still when I left them last year. It's almost scary.'
He turned around to see Padfoot standing there.
'Didn't hear you coming,' Procyon said and then he pointed at the tree 'I was looking at this,' he explained 'It's so different.'
'Bet it is,' Padfoot agreed 'I've never seen the other one. It's still a bit strange.' He pointed at Uncle Regulus's death-date. 'I talked to him only this morning and this thing tells me he's been dead for sixteen years.'
'Yeah. I wonder what would happen if he came here,' Procyon said trying not to think about how disturbing his own situation was 'Would he… see his own death?'
'Come on,' Padfoot said 'We can't stay here forever.'
'Where are we going?' Procyon asked standing up.
'We need to let some people know I'm back,' Padfoot told him 'And probably tell someone about you.'
They walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Procyon noticed there was an abandoned plate on the large table with something very mouldy on it. It was impossible to tell what it had been, but apparently someone had, long ago, been eating in the kitchen. Back in his world only the House-Elves did anything at all in there. People only entered it when they needed to use the fireplace. Oh, well, this was a different world.
'Noone even cleaned that up,' Padfoot noticed the plate too 'Well, I'm not doing it now.'
They headed for the fireplace, lit a fire and started to look for Floo powder.
'So where are we going?' Procyon asked.
'The Burrow,' the man finally told him.
That made sense. The Weasleys were known to support Dumbledore. Procyon wouldn't be surprised if their house had become the new headquarters.
'All right,' he said when they finally found the Floo powder 'I think you should go first. They don't know me.'
A moment later he regretted this decision. The house that had been his home only a while ago was even more frightening when he was all alone. He followed as fast as he could.
