Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry Term 12 - Gryffindor House

Challenges listed below

The very last thing Sirius remembered doing was falling. It felt like it would never end. If he had to guess, he would say that he had been falling for approximately 2 weeks now. He was wrong, of course. He had been falling for a few hours only. Who said it was a short path to the afterlife?

Sirius let out a humourless laugh. He had been falling, so that meant his horrible mother had been right. He was going straight to Hell, a place he thought didn't even exist. He felt his body slow down, until he completely stopped falling hovering two feet up in the air. And then gravity took over all at once and he met the ground with a thump.

He got up, still unable to make out a single coherent thought and looked around. It definitely didn't look like Hell. In fact, it looked oddly familiar. Right in front of him was a cottage he had visited almost every single day since he left Hogwarts and before he went to Azkaban. Godric's Hollow, bathed in a silver glow. Before he could make out what that meant, the door slammed opened and a 21-year-old raven-haired man came running out, throwing himself at Sirius.

"For Godric's sake, Pads. You look terrible," said James with his legs wrapped around Sirius' waist and arms around the man's neck. They did that all the time during Hogwarts. They would see each other walking the halls, run and jump, attaching themselves koala-style to the other one.

Sirius blinked twice to recover from the shock and convince himself that it was really James Potter who had attacked him and whom he was holding onto for dear life (or death?). When he did, the only thing that came out of his mouth was "You live in the same house. Why do you live in the same house?"

James laughed, getting down, and took a step aside so Sirius could see the cottage better.

"What? You wanted me to live in the Grimmauld Place?" Sirius winced. "Yeah, I thought so. Everything here is what you want it to be. Lily wanted the house, since we didn't get to spend much time there before we, y'know, died."

"Wait… Everything?"

"Yes, my dear Padfoot." James grew a beard right before Sirius' eyes. "C'mon now. I know you didn't want to look like you've been trampled by a Hippogriff."

"Fourteen years and Lily still wasn't able to teach you manners." Sirius shook his head mockingly. "Hold on, what do I look like?"

"A git," said a female voice, coming from the cottage window, where a beautiful redhead lent on the windowsill smiling. "A 22-year-old git."

"But why 22?"

"Beats me, honestly. I guess they choose the moment we peaked in life," mocked Lily.

"C'mon, Pet. You know I never peaked. I was always at the top. Prongs, on the other hand…"

"In case you were wondering, I am, by definition, the best version of myself, thank you very much."

As Lily laughed, Sirius froze. The mundaneness of it all dawning on him. There he was, talking to his two best friends like nothing had changed, making fun of each other like not even a week had gone by, and yet everything was different. They were dead. All three of them had died trying to save Harry.

"Harry," Sirius whispered. "Prongs, where's Harry? We were fighting some Death Eaters and…"

"Pads, breathe," said James soothingly running his hand through his friend's back, as soon as he noticed his speech picking up speed. "Harry is fine. Heartbroken over losing his Godfather, but he's fine. Now come, let's get inside."

Sirius let out a breath and followed James towards the house. There was so much he wanted to ask, so much he wanted to do, but the only thing he could do was watch Lily and James Potter inside their cottage just like he did all those years ago.

"Okay, I have a question. Aren't you bored out of your minds here? It doesn't look like there's much to do."

"Are you kidding me? Have you met my husband?" Lily shot James an accusatory look. "Sometimes I wish I could be bored and just sit down to watch Harry 24/7, but James insists that our son needs his privacy, so he only lets us watch it a couple of hours a day."

"And what do you do with the rest of it?"

"It depends. He spent two years turning me into the greatest Seeker the afterlife has ever seen, then we decided to build Marlene's house from scratch. We decorated it. We redecorated ours. We started a garden, we got another cat, we started trying to cook fancy recipes and make different drinks. Oh, you should see the recipe books they have here, Cubs. It goes on forever."

Sirius eyes watered. He couldn't decide if it was the thought of them having a happy afterlife together, or Marlene being there with them, or Lily calling him Cubs. No one else called him that, except for her. She started right after she found out how much of a monster his mother was and decided that, from then on, she was going to be his mum.

"Speaking of her, weren't we supposed to go over to her place for dinner tonight?"

"Yes, we were," said the redhead kissing her husband on the cheek. "I'll just let her know that we're bringing Sirius over."

Lily took her right hand to her mouth, like she was telling a secret to no one in particular and said "Hey, Marly. Sirius just got here. We're bringing him over. Hope you made enough food this time."

"The winds carry our messages here," explained James, watching Sirius tilt his head in confusion.

"Okay, that is quite the odd way to communi-"

"BLACK DIED? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" Marlene's voice came from nowhere, followed by a loud laugh. "The Sirius Black, the one who liked to say he was immortal? Please, bring him over right now. I need to see this with my very own eyes."

Sirius rolled his eyes. Marlene hadn't changed a bit, apparently. What was it with the afterlife and people remaining their immature young-adult selves? He looked over at a grinning James with his arm wrapped around Lily's shoulders and decided that whatever it was, he liked it.

"Are we going to keep Marlene waiting? She is on her 187th cake of that book and will most definitely kill us if we're late," chimed Lily, dragging her boys by the hands towards the door.

Sirius smiled. He never thought he would be so glad to die.

"Huh, I guess Dumbledore was right, then."

"Dumbledore? What are on about, Pads?"

"Isn't he the one who says that death may be the greatest of all human blessings?"

"Morbid." Lily made a face at him. "And no, he says that it is an adventure or something. Socrates is the one who talks about the blessing. Why? Feeling pretty blessed right now, Cubs?"

"Actually, yes," he replied, kissing the top of her head. "Very much so."

Word count: 1194

Challenges:

Writing Club March

Character Appreciation - #12 Dialogue: "In case you were wondering, I am, by definition, the best version of myself." (Bonus)

Show Time - #22 Working My Way Back to You – (food) Cake

Amber's Attic - #29 (color) silver

Liza's Loves - #12 Raspberry Diva - Write about Sirius Black

Lizzy's Loft - #26(genre) Friendship

Scamander's Case - #7 (word) immortal

Film Festival - #19 (word) friend

Insane Prompt Challenge

#705 – Quote – "Death may be the greatest of all human blessings" - Socrates

Seasonal Winter Challenge

Days of the Year - January 1st - New Year's Day: Write about a new beginning.

Colours - #6 Silver

Slytherin Challenge - #49. Fraternal

History of Winter - #4. Prompt: Write about losing something in order to gain something else.