Sirius is dead.
The corpse lies on the ground in a dark, empty room. The head is tilted in the last moments, eyes dull, empty, staring at the light streaming under the crack in the closed door. There are faint voices as the family has after dinner drinks downstairs.
The blood still streams out of the body, not into the favourite leather jacket and band T-shirt but into the scrapes and furrows in the wood. The corpse bleeds out and out and out, warmth dragged from the body and trickling over until the very last divot of wood is filled in red.
A pulse, and then the red blood turns black. It warps, lifts up, sinks back down and time runs in reverse as the blood streams out of the ritual circle and pours back through the gaping cut in the body's neck.
Pale skin turns darker as the blood returns and compared to the hours of bloodletting before, it takes only a moment for the body to be refilled. The cut seals over.
A heartbeat starts, then a wheeze and Sirius blinks, fingers twitching. He gasps, rolls over and presses his forehead to the wood, hair slipping down to cover his face. Sirius claws at the floorboards and staggers up, almost falls but something pushes him upright, steadies him and fills his body with strength.
Sirius' limp becomes a smooth stride and he slams open the door, startling Regulus curled up by the opposite wall. "Reggie!" Sirius cheers as he opens his arms, eye wide and grin splitting his face into something macabre.
Regulus lets out a strangled cry as he's launched upright, into a hug that buries him into Sirius' chest.
"I'm going to fucking kill someone," Sirius laughs too loud, ruffling Regulus' hair too roughly. "I'll burn fucking that bitch like the muggles do and then I'll rip this place apart nail by fucking nail."
"Sirius," Regulus says quietly, shrinking back. His eyes dart to the peeling wallpaper, to the floating dust and the holes disintegrating the walls.
Sirius' grabs Regulus, hands on either side of his face. "You need anything, baby bro, I got you. Just go to your room right now and don't get in my fucking way."
Bellatrix is the first one up the stairs and Sirius throws her right back down without looking away from Regulus' eyes. He plants a kiss on Regulus' forehead with an exaggerated mwah and shoves him aside.
He breaks the stairs as he walks. It splinters and snaps under his feet. He's walking on floating debris and it's easy, like breathing. He knows it's just the high of the ritual, that this will fade as the power settles inside him, but for now it's more than enough.
The family scatters as he approaches. When he summons fire it's black like his blood, like his magic, like his soul and the portrait of his however-many-greats grandmother who keeps giving him shit for his eyeliner disappears.
He stops, head snapping to the side from the force of the spell. Walberga stands in front of him, wand out. His face bleeds black, a large, deep cut across one ear, through his cheek and just under his lips to fall off his chin. He bleeds and then it stops, wavers, blood slips upwards and sinks back into his skin as it heals over.
"Now it's my turn," Sirius says and his laughter is drowned out by screaming. He steps over Walberga's detached arm on the ground and pauses near Orion. "You're still a piece of shit, but thanks anyway."
Sirius whistles as he trots outside and finally pulls out his wand only to summon the Knight Bus.
Harry is leaning against older Sirius in the hallway, sitting up against the wall just beside where James is hidden underneath. There's a game board over where James is, Cluedo, and they wait for Remus to come back and take his turn. Older Sirius tried to send Harry off to so he could take a peek and cheat but Harry has wizened up.
Remus walks back into the trick hallway with younger Sirius following him, Sirius himself looking a bit manic.
"He in there?" Sirius asks with a laugh, dropping to his knees, shoving the gameboard aside, spilling a tiny rope and candelabra, before flopping stomach down. "Jamie!" he calls and knocks on the wood.
"He can't hear you," Harry points out. "Are you…feeling okay?"
"Peachy fucking keen," Sirius says with a smile like baring teeth.
"You actually did it?" Black asks, eyeing his younger self up and down.
"Just as shitty as I thought it'd be," Sirius admits happily. "Who's winning the game?"
"That depends if Black cheated while I was gone," Remus points out, twisting his arm out again because the potions Euphemia gave him healed his arm but now it feels a bit stiff.
"I didn't let him," Harry says confidently.
Black starts laughing.
"Did you?" Harry asks in shock. "No, but I was here the whole time."
"Yeah, I didn't see anything," Black says innocently with a smirk. "Come on, let's keeps playing."
Remus turns on Harry. "Did he cheat?"
"I…didn't see him?" Harry admits. "He could be lying. I think this is psychological warfare."
"Are you telling the truth?" Remus insists to Harry. "Because Sirius will cheat and James will back him up half the time."
"I swear I didn't see him cheat!" Harry cries.
Black only laughs wickedly again.
"Here, I'll join your team," Sirius says, rolling like a pencil over to Remus' side of the hallway.
"No, you suck at board games, that's why you have to cheat all the time," Remus dismisses.
There's rapid clicking and the floorboards start to shift. The four scramble up quickly and Harry snatches the board but all the little pieces fall through the opening slats and rain down on clenched teeth of clay.
The clay opens like a gaping maw, like claws and James is sleeping inside peacefully, still wearing the white robe, barefoot and with vines wrapping the crown of his head.
"Dad?" Harry calls, leaning over hesitantly.
James makes a snuffling sound and squints his eyes open. He mumbles something and rolls over. The clay starts to close again and Harry is screaming and Black has his wand out and James is jerking fully awake. They drag him out right before the floorboards close again and James ends up sprawled on the ground.
"I need a nap," James slurs, drained of magic and exhausted.
"You slept for almost three weeks," Harry admits. "You…missed Christmas…? I mean I still got you a present."
James might be saying something but he's already asleep again. Euphemia and Fleamont are hustling around the corner, having been alerted to the shift in magic.
"Best to let him sleep it off," Fleamont says, pulling out his wand.
"I've got him," Sirius says and flicks his fingers, James levitating up.
"Nice," Remus muses.
"Kinda sick," Sirius says smugly as he ushers a floating James down the hall, taking him to the bedroom. "It hasn't settled down yet so you wanna see me rearrange space time?"
"Can we go to the moon?" Harry asks as he follows, and then darts a glance at Remus. "Or – wait, what would happen to Moony?"
Older Sirius looks positively delighted by the idea. "As soon as I figure out extreme long-distance portkeys? Straight to the moon."
"Just be safe about it," Euphemia tsks.
In the end they talk about space travel while they pick up a game of Go Fish at the end of James' bed, Sirius and Remus pressing close to either side of a sleeping James and finally -finally- relaxing.