AN: Sorry my updates have been so sporadic. COVID hit me much harder than I thought it would, but after seeing the doctor for a routine checkup I'd scheduled months in advance, I have been declared to be in perfect health! Work picked up though, which is another reason things have been so sporadic. Still, I'm working on this story, and hope updates will be more regular soon.

From the bottom of my heart, thank all of you for sticking with me! It really means a lot to have such amazing readers following this story!

"If you could clear up one misunderstanding about your life, which one would you select to rectify?"

Sirius poked his head up from Aristotle's Metaphysics. "Excuse me?"

"If you could clear up one misunderstanding, which would you select to rectify?" Severus asked as he took his place beside Sirius on the couch.

"Honestly." Sirius set the book onto a pile of ten others. "Nothing."

Severus raised an eyebrow.

"I've accepted the fact that this is the only realm which matters at this point in time. Either people on earth will understand my story or they won't. I don't have any control over what people think of me, and I'm beyond the point of caring."

"That's it?" Severus cocked his head. "You spend a good portion of your life in Azkaban falsely accused of a crime, and now there's no misunderstanding you want to have cleared up?"

"Pretty much."

Severus stared at him.

"Look," Sirius' glow was light yellow. "I was able to prove myself to my harshest and ultimately, probably most correct, critic."

"Metatron?"

"Yes, he understood my story. He understood my faults, and tore through all of my defenses. With a little charming though, I was able to convince Metatron I wasn't so bad after all."

"From what Dismas told me, Metatron's girlfriend refused to speak to him until he reconciled with you. That, and needing help to take down Cormac, were the reasons he saw anything positive in you. Your charms had little to do with his acceptance."

"I would've charmed him eventually."

"Somehow I doubt it."

"I charmed you, didn't I?" Sirius smirked. "You are just as hard, if not harder, to please than him, yet you like me now."

"The Trinity put me in a hostage situation with you, and I developed Stockholm Syndrome. My sentiments are nothing more than that, I assure you."

"Sure," he drawled.

If Severus could've huffed, he would've. Instead, he settled for raising his chin and turning away from the other spirit.

"Where is this question coming from anyway?" Sirius' playfulness gave way to a more neutral expression. "Up to this point, you haven't cared about what anyone on earth thought about me. Why do you care now?"

"Hermione has an appointment scheduled with a graduate student tomorrow to clear up a few misunderstandings surrounding my life." Severus returned his gaze to the other spirit.

"She's not going to reveal that you've been speaking with her as a spirit, is she?"

"No, but she did find some," Severus made scare quotes "'memories' nobody else has seen."

"I take it those memories have been smashed."

"They were misplaced when she moved to Australia in a cruel and unfortunate twist of fate. Still she remembers them vividly."

"I'm sure that's just the kind of reliable evidence this student is looking for."

"Perhaps not, but what is more reliable are the notes I wrote on various potions as a spirit. Thankfully my handwriting changed little after death, so any expert would know I wrote them."

"He would be interested in your original writing, now wouldn't he?" Sirius' glow brightened.

"I don't know if he's more fascinated by the memories or the notes, but it honestly matters little. Somehow, Hermione is going to tell him my story. I'll be watching them in the background, ready to let Hermione know if I feel she's missing something. With any luck, we'll debunk all of Rita's slander and the vicious rumors once and for all."

"I'm happy for you."

"Truly?"

"Yeah," Sirius' glow was a warm yellow. "I know what it's like to be unfairly accused of things. That shouldn't happen to you."

"That's why I asked you if there's anything you want to clear up," Severus answered. "Is there any misunderstanding you want cleared up? If so, Hermione and I could get the story out, if not to the graduate student, to someone else studying the war."

"In the context of my relationship with you, there's nothing to clear up," his glow lessened. "I was a horrible arse to you, and I should be vilified for that. Even as an adult, I treated you abysmally. I laughed at my Purgatory trial because I couldn't stop being cruel to you. I deserve to have that known."

"Yes, but in the afterlife, there was more to you than just a bully. After a few months, you became somewhat enjoyable to be around."

"Oh now you like hanging out with me," Sirius leaned into him and batted his eyes.

"Yes, I have such terrible Stockholm syndrome that I find myself tolerating you." Severus shook his head. "The Trinity may not be as loving as I hoped if they're allowing me to grow to care for you."

"I love you too."

"Love?" Severus jerked away and hit the end of the couch.

Sirius held back his laughter. "Relax, it's only the philios kind of love between friends, but it does apply to my feelings towards you."

"Love is still a strong word."

"The connotation isn't always as strong as people make it out to be. See, there are few words distinguishing the different types of love in the English language. So the different types of love get conflated into one word, which usually implies romance. It's rather unfortunate since the meaning gets lost."

"When the hell did you become so perceptive in philosophy?" Severus sat up straighter.

"When it became clear there was nothing else to do."

"Yes, but when we started you could barely get through Nicomachean Ethics or keep the characters in Plato straight."

"It took some getting used to reading Greek philosophy, but I did it."

"Perhaps that is one perception which should be changed." Severus gave him a small smile. "The perception that you are little more than a shallow dunderhead."

"I was a shallow dunderhead on earth. That fact will never change. As for who I am now well," Sirius winked. "I have an eternity to correct those perceptions."

"You do," Severus' glow brightened.

"Go clear your name and don't worry about me. I'll get everything sorted out once I leave Purgatory."

"You are more focused on living out eternity than I thought you'd ever be."

"It's all we have at the moment."

"Yes, but the mortal realm still exists," Severus noted. "Isn't there anything you'd like from it?"

"Well," Sirius' glow dimmed. "I would like to talk to Harry one more time."

"I thought you saw him quite often," Severus twisted his lips. "At least you did before he tried to harm Hermione and they stopped seeing each other at her work."

"I see him, and I hope he can sense me, but," Sirius turned a light blue. "It isn't the same as conversing with him."

Severus sat up straighter.

"Sometimes I envy you. You can talk to someone you love and can move objects. All I can do is spy on people and hope they sense me. Even if they could sense me though, I cannot interact with them directly."

"I hadn't thought of how frustrating that must be before," Severus admitted. "At first, I envied you because you could go anywhere and see the world whereas I could only see the interior of Hermione's house. I had never thought about watching the world pass you by and doing nothing about it."

"I don't care as much about the world as I do Harry." Sirius' glow was a darker shade of blue. "If I could talk to him though, I would praise the Trinity forever."

"What would you tell him, if you could?" Severus' voice was soft.

"I'd tell him I loved him, and that I was proud of him."

"Is that it?"

"I could say a thousand things honestly, but everything would boil down to those sentiments."

"Perhaps with some persuasion, the Trinity would allow you to speak with Harry."

"When I leave Purgatory, I'm sure they'll let me see him in heaven."

"Perhaps if we begged them, or showed them how much you've grown, they would allow you to interact."

"Maybe, but," Sirius bit his lower lip. "I thought we were meant to help Hermione."

"I'm not convinced of that anymore."

"Oh." Sirius tilted his head.

"I cannot explain it, but I feel as if the Trinity wants me to give Harry peace as well, hence the reason they are allowing me to stay long enough to speak with him through Hermione."

"Maybe they're allowing you to spend an eternity with her, regardless of your forms. Harry may not be a factor."

"I would love that," Severus' glow was a light pink. "It is my fondest desire to spend as much of eternity with her as I can."

"Imagine you saying that when this began," Sirius chuckled.

"I would have thought myself crazy."

"I would've thought you crazy too."

The spirits sat in a comfortable silence for what may have been a few moments, or a few hours. When one was living in eternity, it was difficult to tell.

"Don't worry about clearing my name," Sirius spoke up. "As long as Harry knows I love him, I will be satisfied."

"I will make sure he knows how much you love him," Severus promised.

"If you can do that, then I'll consider you my best friend forever."

"Won't James be jealous if he learned you had a new best friend?"

"He's in Purgatory knee deep in paperwork. What he doesn't know won't kill him," Sirius' smirk returned. "Not that anything can anyway."

"I suppose you can't come back from where he is," Severus admitted. "That being said, I'm only willing to reconcile with one marauder at a time. Don't expect me to be best friends with him anytime in the next few centuries."

"I wouldn't expect that at all," Sirius replied. "Still, you should give him a chance when his Purgatory sentence is over. He may have learned something."

"Only if you serve as a mediator of sorts, especially if he becomes too horrid."

"Deal."

The spirits then embraced, allowing their love to flow to each other.