Chapter 7

A Bittersweet Reunion

Harry fell onto a hard, gray floor.

"Sorry it's so hard," said a voice. "Only someone's gone and stolen the cushions."

Harry sat up, confused.

"What?" he said, looking up, and his eyes met a crinkly old man in clothes most likely found at the Renaissance Festival.

"I said, 'Sorry about the hard landing,'" the man replied, and offered a hand to lift Harry up off the grayish floor.

"Wait a minute," Harry said, standing. "How did I get here? I was with Ginny-Voldemort…Hogwarts?" he mumbled lamely, trying to piece things together.

"Yes, you were," the old man said. "but then you died, and now you're here, in Afterlife."

"Afterlife?"

"You know, where every wizard goes when he dies, all that talk abou' seeing dead friends and family when you 'cross over' and suchlike."

"Oh." It was all he could say.

The man cocked his ear and ushered Harry behind him. "Got another one comin' in now, you might want 't' stand back."

Harry backed away hastily as an old woman, scarcely taller than his elbow, appeared where Harry had just been lying.

"It's about time," the old woman said exasperatedly. "If I hadn't gone off by the time my son-in-law had gotten there, I would've had to do it myself!" And she hobbled through a pair of gray doors.

"You go on through now, young man," the wizard said.

"And do what?" Harry asked. "Where do I go?"

"Go find a family member, or party it up with those American fraternity brothers and the Never-Ending beer keg down the hall. Trust American wizards to die with one of those clutched in their hand." The man cocked his ear again. "I don't care whatcha do. It's your Afterlife."

Harry turned and walked through the double doors into…well he didn't know how to describe it. A room that seemed to be both inside and outside at the same time, that had couches, chairs, tables, swimming pools, grass, cows, monkeys, ferrets, clouds, pyramids-just about everything. But that wasn't the weirdest part. No sooner had he stopped and looked around, people started standing up, staring at him in unabashedly. Some even started clapping as he passed.

You would think I'd be used to this, thought Harry. But I'm not.

He didn't know what he was looking for, but he found it. A mane of untidy black hair sitting at a table with his godfather and professor Dumbledore, and a woman with startling green eyes. Just like his. He crept up on the table cautiously. People had stopped cheering now.

Sirius saw him first, getting up from the table quickly.

"Harry."

Lily Potter looked up at the mention of her son's name and he was instantly scooped into a hug. "Oh, Harry!" she said. " I missed you so much! Look how big you are!"

"Jesus, Lily, let him breathe," Harry's father said, standing up, and Harry came face to face with an almost direct likeness of himself, a few years older. Holy crap, it's like looking in a mirror, isn't it?" he said to Harry.

"I told you," Sirius said. "If it wasn't for his eyes, I would have thought he was you."

"And I can see why," Lily said. "Oh, you've grown to be so handsome…"

James grinned at Sirius behind Lily's back, pointing to himself. Sirius whacked him on the back of his head. "You try to turn every comment she makes one about you, don't you?" Sirius said, rolling his eyes.

Harry grinned inwardly. It felt good to be hugged by his own mother, laughing at his own father. He was surrounded by his family for the first time in his life, and it felt good. Only something was missing, something big, torn out of his heart.

"That was a romantic thing you did for that young woman," his mother said, and Ginny swarmed into his mind's eye. He would never see her again…

"What?" Harry asked, confused.

"We saw the last, I don't know, ten minutes or so of your life, mate," Sirius said.

"Yep, made your mother cry," James added.

"Do you know if Voldemort…?"

"Yep."

"So Ginny…"

"As far as I know."

Harry closed his eyes in pain. His chest constricted with the absence of Ginny beside him. He was separated from her forever. Even though he was glad beyond possibility that he was with his mother and father and Sirius, it was a bittersweet reunion.