qlfc
magpies, keeper
semifinal
phantom
There was only black.
Or was it just white? In that single moment of confusion and blindness, she couldn't discern between the two extremes. Her throat constricted as flickering stars erupted in her vision. She stumbled backward, her leg colliding with an invisible barrier, and tumbled over nothingness into a dream-like state of weightlessness.
Her mind clouded over. Something extended towards her, too blurry to make out, and in her desperation, she clung to it.
Suddenly, the world righted itself again, though remnants of dizziness still clung to the edges of her mind like cobwebs. A face she thought she'd never see again swam into focus, as familiar as her own reflection.
It was Sirius Black, his hand clasped in hers.
"Lily?" His voice trembled with uncertainty, as if he couldn't quite believe his own eyes.
Lily's mind whirred in confusion as she tried in vain to recall what had transpired before everything had gone dark. (Wasn't she supposed to be dead?) She remembered pounding footsteps, a slamming door, a bone-chilling scream-and then nothing.
"What is this?" She rubbed at her eyes, thick liquid coming away on her fingertips, and blinked them open properly.
She immediately regretted it.
Her surroundings–they were alien and strange. Colours seared her eyes with their intensity, and the air felt too fresh, too new. The familiar scent of dust had been replaced by something sharper.
It was all too much.
"I don't know what happened," Sirius said, and she turned to look at him, her body tense. "I thought I was done for, falling through the Veil. But then I saw you, and you took my hand. We just...fell out. And now..." He trailed off, looking around with something akin to wonder and fear combined into one before pointing behind him. "That's the Veil. We're in the Department of Mysteries."
(Why was she here?)
Lily's panic rose like bile in her throat. "I have no idea what's going on," she admitted.
"I only know a bit," he said apologetically, "but I'd like to know as much as you would."
"What happened that night?" she asked.
Sirius looked at her, confusion etched upon his features. "What night?"
"Halloween. 1981," she said quietly.
Sirius paused, realisation dawning in his eyes. "I hate to tell you this, Lily, but...it's 1996 now."
Lily felt the world drop out from under her as her mind struggled to make sense of this new and impossible reality. She had been wrenched from the cold claws of death and flung fifteen years into a future that was alien to her, and now she stood in the Department of Mysteries with a man who should have remained in her past, only a little less bewildered than she was.
Her eyes were drawn to the Veil, the sinister archway that had claimed so many lives, as whispers and echoes seemed to call to her from beyond its rippling surface. Unconsciously, she stepped towards it, her hand reaching out to brush it.
Sirius called out to her, but his voice seemed muffled and distant, as though separated by a vast expanse of water.
And then she passed through the Veil.
The other side was nothing like she had imagined. There was no heavenly light, no pearly gates, no loved ones waiting with open arms. Only a void, black and endless, stretching forever in all directions.
A profound sense of peace settled over her as she floated in that dark sea. She had always wondered what mysteries lay beyond the veil of death. Now she knew.
It was nothing.
But then something stirred in the darkness-a presence, a tiny whisper in her ear. The words were indistinct but the intent behind them was clear.
(Don't.)
It was a warning.
Lily's eyes flew open as she found herself lying on the floor of the Department of Mysteries, Sirius kneeling anxiously by her side. Relief flooded his features as she awoke, but his eyes held a wariness that told her he understood something she did not.
"What happened?" Her voice was ragged.
Sirius helped her into a sitting position, his expression grim. "I don't know. You just...disappeared for a moment. I thought you were lost forever. That was so, so reckless."
Ironic, she thought. Usually she was the one scolding him, yet she couldn't deny that going through the Veil had been a rash decision.
Lily looked around at the familiar-yet-strange room, struggling to determine what was real and what was merely a product of her imagination. Had she truly passed through the Veil, or had it all been some fevered hallucination brought on by her impossible return to life? Why had she done it? She was so incredibly confused and the simultaneous starkness and brightness of the colors didn't help.
Yet something had changed. She felt an ominous presence observing her, crawling beneath her skin, but when she turned to Sirius, he seemed oblivious.
"Do you feel that?" she whispered.
He looked at her in confusion. "Feel what?"
Lily shook her head, pushing the feeling aside. "Nothing. It's nothing."
(Are you sure?)
But it refused to be ignored. It grew stronger with each passing second, an incessant prickling at the base of her skull. Though she tried to focus on navigating this unfamiliar world she found herself in, the sensation persisted, as irritating as an unreachable itch.
As they left the Department of Mysteries behind, stepping out into the brilliant sunlight, Lily realised with dawning horror what had changed. The world itself, in its entirety, was–was so startlingly different, twisted into a parody of what she knew. The streets, the buildings, even the people themselves were distorted reflections of the world she called home.
She had awoken into a living nightmare.
Sirius was the only one she recognized among the nameless faces, but even he was changed, aged beyond his years, followed by demons she could only guess at.
They walked together down the street, one haunted by ghosts, and one a phantom herself.
Lily wondered fearfully what this strange reality held for them—and what they had left behind.
WC: 1014 (gdocs)
a/n: okay so long story time
Last night I had an activity to do and I was going to submit before then (the submission deadline is in the middle of the night for me) then I felt sick and decided to go to sleep forgetting what I had to do
AHHHHH