The Resurrection of Sirius

13

From Beyond the Veil

Using Thestrals (Ron and Hermione being the only ones who couldn't see them,) the four of them reached the Ministry of Magic in a fairly short time.

They'd waited until eleven at night to leave, waiting the hours away in Willow's office in silence. Willow figured that it'd be easier to go without being seen at night, with the cover of darkness on their side. Also, it had to be late to avoid others being there.

The four of them squished into the phone booth and the nearest to the receiver dialed six, two, four, four, two.

Down the shaft they went... This was bringing back memories for Harry. The last time he'd been here, we was going to save the person they were about to resurrect... Although Sirius would indeed be back that night, Harry still felt guilty. If only he hadn't gone to save Sirius, he wouldn't have died in the first place. And Hermione was right, he did have a "saving people thing," come to think of --

"The Ministry of Magic wishes you a pleasant day." The cool voice of the operator interrupted Harry's angry thoughts.

There was silence as their small group walked along the main level of the Ministry of Magic.

The doors of the lift clanked open loudly and Harry pressed a button on the panel.

"Department of Mysteries," the voice said as the gates clanked open.

Walking down that corridor was almost enough to make Harry turn back and head home, forgetting the whole thing. It brought back too many harsh memories of last year: Umbridge, Occlumency with Snape, all those dreams, the day of his Disciplinary Hearing, and, of course, that day little less than a year ago when Sirius had died.

Willow was about to close the door behind them when they stepped into that circular room when Hermione told her not to. "The room will spin and we won't be able to find our way anywhere..." She trailed off as if she, too, did not want to think about what had happened last year.

"Which room is it... let's split up," Ron said. "We can cover more rooms that way."

Everyone nodded once and separated. Harry opened one door... Two doors... His third door was the door to the Brain Room. He closed it with a snap as he remembered what had happened to Ron when he'd touched one of the brains.

"Over here!" Willow hissed. She held open a door and everyone went inside, each as nervous as the other.

***

Willow set down her bag at the foot of the stairs. All eyes were on her. The success of this entire spell, she realized, relied mainly on her. Kneeling on the ground, she began to unload the ingredients for the spell: ten white candles, ten black candles, her book, and a small container filled with white sand.

"Here, Harry, sit cross-legged and draw a circle around yourself." She handed Harry the container.

"Ron, Hermione -- set up the candles and light them." Willow had to concentrate on breathing slowly to help relax her nerves. Rarely had she been this nervous, although it was silly -- Sirius was taken by mystical ways, so technically it should be okay to bring him back. So why was she so nervous?

Ah, because the last time she'd done serious black magick, she'd given in to the darkness. But she knew this time it wouldn't happen. She mustn't let it, because if she did, the first to go would most likely be these three wonderful sixteen-year olds in front of her.

Taking a deep breath, Willow opened the book in her hands to the bookmarked page. And then she began to read:

"Osiris, hear my words. You have taken from us the mind, body, and soul of Sirius Black. I bid that you give him back to us, his whole, his being."

A gust of wind blew the candles out. Willow glanced up and nodded to Ron and Hermione, who immediately began to re-light them. Satisfied, Willow continued.

"Osiris, give us that which you have taken from us. I command thee, give us back what you have taken --"

***

There was another gust of wind. Harry shivered, although it was not a cold wind -- everything was exactly like the dream he'd had, right down to the number of candles Ron and Hermione re-lit each. And then, as Harry looked up at the veil, it blew open. Hundreds upon hundreds of ghosts floated around nonchalantly.

"Sirius Black, step forward and reveal thyself."

And he did. Harry could not repress a gasp when he saw the translucent figure of his godfather floating there, with other ghosts half-visible through him. There he stood, looking straight ahead unblinkingly.

Willow snapped the book shut and allowed it to fall to the floor to emphasize her magical capabilities, to add a bit of zing to her spell.

***

The stress was much more than she'd expected. Although she hadn't planned on it, Willow had to drop the book and use both hands to help in the calling forth of Sirius' spirit:

"Sirius Black, come forward. Come, Sirius, come! Come!" By now, Willow was practically screaming, not just with magickal stress but with fear -- fear that the darkness inside of her would come out, fear that the spell would not work and Harry and the others would be devastated. And pain. The pain was unusual and unexpected. Somehow, her fight to keep her hair red and her face vein-free was causing pain. She could feel her hair being blown about behind her and was not sure if the wind surrounded her or everyone else, but as she looked up and opened her eyes, she saw that Hermione's hair was being blown about too.

"COME!" Willow bellowed.

With her final command, the wind increased to hurricane level and Willow saw the ghost of Sirius Black blown out form the veil's dome. She'd succeeded. With a sigh of relief, she let her hands fall to her sides and felt the darkness wash away. But wait -- what was that standing by the veil? Obviously, it was another ghost... It was leaning casually against the post supporting the raggedy old piece of black cloth.

This ghost was a girl, Willow noticed. It straightened and Willow saw that it was the ghost of her dead lover, Tara Maclay.

"Tara --" The ground was suddenly falling away, and with it the vision of Tara.

***

"Sirius!" Harry threw himself at his godfather in a hug.

"Harry!" Sirius hugged his godson tightly.

Whatever had happened behind that veil, it was hell. He wasn't sure where exactly he'd been, but wherever it was it was certainly some other dimension. And for some reason, there was absolutely no shrimp...

"Oh Sirius, we missed you so much!" Hermione now threw herself at him, a few tears falling from her eyes.

"Hello, Hermione..."

After Ron had also hugged him, Sirius had to know... "How long was I gone?"

"Close to ten months," Harry said.

"Was it only that long?" In that demon-filled, shrimp-less world, it had felt like centuries. As if each hour were a day, each day a year. He relayed this to the others.

"Oh my God, Sirius... I'm so sorry. If I had known --"

"What could you have done, Harry? I'm thankful that I'm back at all."

"But why would you deserve to go someplace that horrible?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know... Who's that over there?" Whoever it was, they were in the veil, ghostly white.

"I don't know, but she keeps on staring over there..."

"I think that's Tara, Ron," Hermione said.

"Tara? Who's Tara?"

"Don't you remember, Ron? Willow's friend! She told us about her in the beginning of the year," Harry said.

"But she died in America. How could she be here?"

"Spike died in America, too Ron!" Hermione put in.

"Yeah, but didn't we assume there was a Ministry of Magic in America?"

Following the ghost's gaze, Sirius noted that she was staring at a person with bright red hair, lying on the floor. "Is she okay?" he asked, pointing to the motionless person.

"Oh! I didn't even notice her fall!"

***

"Willow?" Hermione poked Willow in the shoulder cautiously. "Willow, are you okay?"

Opening her eyes, she had to squint at the bright light. Had it been this bright before? She sat up and rubbed her eyes. That man over there must be Sirius. She had to stand up -- she didn't like sitting on the floor, especially around someone she didn't know.

"Um, Willow, I'd -- I'd like you to meet Sirius Black. Sirius, this is Willow Rosenberg..."

"Pleased to meet you," Willow said.

"Pleasure's mine," Sirius said, shaking Willow's hand. "After all you did bring me out of there."

The grin was hard to repress. "Don't mention it." Remembering why she'd fainted, or at least what she'd seen right before fainting, Willow quickly turned to the veil. And there it was, still hanging open and Tara's ghost still standing there, with a hint of a smile on her face, so faint it was like the Mona Lisa's.

Noticing Willow was staring at the veil, Ron said, "She won't go away... She just keeps on staring at you."

"Ron, what did I tell you, that's the ghost of Tara Maclay! Willow's old friend," Hermione hissed. She walked over to Willow.

"Um -- we figured you'd like to talk to her or something, so we didn't close the veil."

Willow nodded. "Thank you, Hermione." She walked closer to the tier that the veil was standing on. The grin on her face turned into a smile, which kept getting wider and wider until Willow was sure her face would split.

"Tara? C-can you hear me?"

Tara nodded.

"Um... I miss you. A lot. More than I can say."

"I know." Her voice was so distant, it was like talking to someone on a cell phone with a bad connection. Or one of those speaker-things they have in playgrounds.

"I never stop thinking about how it could be different, if we'd been downstairs or just a foot to the side of the window --"

"I know, Willow. But you have to let me go. You already know that there's no way to bring me back. I miss you too, but I know it'd be selfish of me to wish you were here, because that would mean that you were dead, and then no one else would have you with them. It's time to move on, for both of us."

"But I have moved on! Missing you doesn't mean --"

"Not all the way. I know it hurts Willow, but..." a tear slid down Tara-ghost's cheek and she seemed to sag a little. "But I'm gone now." The ghost straightened and wiped her eye quickly. "There's nothing you can do anymore. I have to go..."

"What -- no!" Willow stepped forward. She tried to reach out to Tara-ghost, to reach out to her and pull her through. Maybe then, Tara could be with her once more and she could stop hurting --

Hermione grabbed Willow's wrist.

"If you put your hand through there, you'll be stuck. Stuck like -- like Sirius was."

Willow looked sadly at the archway. Tara was fading from view, slowly walking backwards, blending in with the other ghosts. It was obvious that she was crying again, silent tears streaming down her face until --

The veil slowly began closing, cutting off the room's main light source. "Tara..." Willow whispered.

"Come on, we'd better leave --" Hermione felt bad for breaking the mournful silence, but who knew when someone might come in here?

"You're right." Willow sniffled and turned from the now closed veil. "Um... We'd better snuff out these candles..."

Hermione walked around the circle, picking up candles and blowing them out. Ron walked in the opposite direction to cut the time in half.

Sighing inside, Willow took the candles from the two and put them in her bag, along with the sand and book.

"Let's get out of here," she said.

"Gladly," Harry said. "This place brings back memories..."

~*~ ~*~ ~*~

Everyone was pretty silent on the way out of the Ministry of Magic. Until --

"Sirius, how are you getting back to Grimmauld Place?"

Sirius looked pointedly at Harry. "I do still remember how to Apparate," he said.

"Oh, right. I wasn't thinking all the way..."

"Since when do you ever think all the way?" Ron poked fun at Harry.

Harry snorted. "Be quiet..."

"Actually, you should be quiet, both of you. You never know when someone is here..."

"Sirius, it's --" Ron checked his watch -- "It's one-thirty in the morning. I think we were here even after that last year."

"You never know. Now shh!" Sirius looked sternly at Ron.

After they reached the top of the telephone booth, Sirius turned to Harry.

"Listen, Harry... I'm not sure if you remember my offer at the end of your third year. But I figured that since Fudge has agreed to admit Voldemort's return, we may be able to clear my name, in which case --"

"In which case I'd be able to live with you! Of course!"

"Not live with me. You still have to live with your aunt and uncle, but stay with me, yes. You could stay for a while over the holidays. I'll talk to Dumbledore."

"You'd better wait to do that," Willow said. "He might not know --"

"Of course he knows. He knows everything," Harry said.

"That's right. Dumbledore's so smart, I'll bet he can even --"

"See through Invisibility Cloaks?" Harry cut in, remembering first year.

"Yeah, why not." Ron started his thought over: "Dumbledore's so smart, I'll bet he can even see through Invisibility Cloaks." He nodded once for emphasis.

"He can." Sirius looked to everyone, who'd conveniently formed a small circle. "I'd better go. I'll see you later." He shook everyone's hand once and, before Harry's heart could beat twice, he was gone.