Falling Through Time

Falling Through Time

The darkness surrounded him as he fell deeper and deeper. Sirius looked around, expecting to see the chamber around him, the other side of the archway, something at the very least. But nothing appeared. All he could see was blackness. The rate of his fall slowed, and Sirius looked around to see what was happening. When he looked in front of him again, he saw his mother, as though he were looking through a window. She was lying in her bed in Grimmauld Place, the sheets on the bed were bloody, and a small baby was held in her arms. Sirius grimaced, realizing that he was witnessing his own birth, and that the look on his mother's face was not one of love, but one of pride. She had just produced the Black family heir. The image blacked out as Sirius watched, the cries of the child wringing in his ears.

After a few seconds of blackness, during which Sirius fell farther, another image illuminated. This time a small boy was cornered in a dark room, a man raising a cane above his head. Suddenly, the man clutched at his chest, the cane dropped from his hand and he collapsed to the floorboards. Sirius's father lay dead on the floor, Sirius still huddled in the corner, crying out loud now. The image faded, and the fully grown Sirius fell faster through the darkness.

He came slamming to a halt again, this time in front of an image from the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The house tables were set up and crowded with students. Standing in front of the Head Table stood a number of smaller students, not yet provided with the sweaters, patches, ties and scarves of the houses they would soon join. Sitting proudly at the Slytherin table were Sirius's three cousins. Bellatrix, Andromeda and Narcissa smirked toward a boy standing with the group in front of the hall. The black haired boy looked away from them and turned to his neighbor with a determined look in his eyes. The boy's name was called and he sat on the stool, where the Sorting Hat was placed over his eyes. After a few minutes of careful deliberation, the hat called out 'Gryffindor' and Sirius walked over to join the table decorated in scarlet, glancing over to meet the glares from two of his cousins. Only Andromeda chanced him a congratulatory wink. The image darkened again, and the falling Sirius remembered the howler he had received from his mother the next morning.

The next image that appeared was of three boys alone in a large room. Where one of the boys had been moments before, there now stood a majestic stag. Next to him, a younger Sirius changed into a big, shaggy, black dog. On his other side, a smaller boy disappeared and a rat appeared at the hoof of the stag. As this image too fell into darkness, Sirius looked down to see his fists clenched tightly as he stared at the spot where the rat had been.

The next image displayed showed no signs of human life, but instead the moonlight from the image revealed the silhouettes of creatures, running across a distant hill. The two largest of the four creatures, one a large wolfish creature, the other a large dog turned to each other and began playfully pawing at each other. As the dog took a large swipe at the wolf, the wolf picked up a chase of the dog, and both ran off in the direction of the forest. The stag and rat followed closely behind the pair, all giving the appearance that they were thoroughly enjoying themselves. The shadowed darkness in the latest image engulfed the dark blue of the sky as the next image appeared.

Sirius saw himself, along with his three best friends, sitting in the Three Broomsticks, bottles of butterbeer crowding the table, and the four friends toasting each other. "To us," James said. "Marauders forever," Sirius added. "To graduation," Remus put in. "Cheers," Peter finished. They all took big swigs of their drinks as the image darkened.

And so began the next image. Sirius alone in a flat somewhere in London, a half empty bottle in his hand, his head hung down in depressing so that his head hit his chin. Suddenly, the Sirius in the image threw the bottle into the fire and, with an angry glint in his eye, stormed out of the apartment, his wand clutched tightly in his hand.

The image that appeared next took place only a few hours after the previous one. A street, in the Muggle world, with a huge crater in the middle of it. Smoke surrounding the fallen rubble. Muggle running around screaming, and a man. Standing straight upright in front of a pile of clothes. As a group of wizards in robes began to approach the man, a look of comprehension crossed his face. As the ministry officials drew their wands and the picture began to fade, the man threw back his head and laughed a loud, coarse laugh that echoed in Sirius's mind as he fell further and further.

The next scene that lit up was dim, and difficult to place. It could have been any time during the 4,289 days that Sirius spent in his cell. The cell was small, dark and dingy. The walls were damn, and the door was rusty. Sirius remembered it far too well. A man sat hunched in a corner, but he was so filthy that he blended with his surroundings.

What little light there had been faded, coming back up on the same setting, with one small change. A newspaper, the top half ripped unevenly off, lay on the floor. And now there was no man to be seen. The door opened, and while a scabby hand pushed in a single piece of nearly molded bread, a very thing dog slipped quietly through the crack.

Sirius, falling as he recalled more and more memories of his past, heard faint drum noises. As a heavy beat came down every few seconds, an image would appear in front of him- like a slide show of photographs.

A man, lying half-dead, half-exhausted on a beach.

A dog, crouched in the shadows of a driveway as a boy squinted into the darkness.

Harry, swerving through torrential rains, red Quidditch robes swirling behind him.

Padfoot pulling a kicking and screaming Ron Weasley into the Whomping Willow passage.

That look of dawning realization on Remus's face in the Shrieking Shack, that Sirius promised himself he would never forget.

Severus Snape, lying in a crumpled heap after being hit with several jinxes at once.

A rat, scurrying off into the darkness.

Harry and Hermione's faces coming into and out of view as they helped him escape the dementors.

That dank, dark cave where Sirius lived for nearly a year.

Dumbledore assigning Sirius to his job, and Sirius...shaking hands with Snape.

Sirius, pacing the rooms of his parents' old house, hating to be back there again.

The drum beats began to grow louder, and their pace quickened. The images flashed so quickly that Sirius could hardly see what was in them. Suddenly, the drums stopped. The image that appeared lingered, but nothing moved, as if everything were frozen in time.

The death chamber, and the entire company, were laid out in front of his eyes, exactly as they had been when Bellatrix's spell had hit him.

She was there, standing on the pedestal, her head thrown back in a laugh.

Remus was at the top of the stairs, obviously fighting to restrain Harry, who was pulling away in the direction of the veil.

The drums had started again, pounding a loud, steady beat that Sirius realised matched his own heartbeat.

Then, the drumming grew even louder, and the image in front of Sirius began to zoom- slowly at first, then growing faster- into the veil at the center.

When he flew through the gentle flowing curtains of the veil, he hit a brief spell of darkness, darker than the darkest of nights, pitcher than the pitchest of blacks.

And then suddenly he was alone on his back, clearly on top of something, staring up at something- but he could hear nothing. Taste nothing. Smell nothing. Feel nothing. He could see nothing but pure white light. So bright that it hurt his eyes. But he could not close them. So he was forced to watch. He saw his body jerk suddenly as he left it behind, soaring upward, higher and higher until his body was nothing but another spot of bright white light.

And that was the end for Sirius Black.