What Once Was

Prologue: The Mystery of the Veil

He felt himself tumble through swirls of silvery mist, causing his skin to tingle. He decided it was the mist, and not the tumbling into a seemingly bottomless pit. But then again, Sirius Black had no idea if he was tumbling, or the misty pit was bottomless in the first place.

He assumed it was death as that his last memory was falling through a veil in the Department of Mysteries. He had gone to save his godson, Harry from Voldemort. Ironically, Harry had though he was saving Sirius. In the midst of the battle Sirius fell. Not a curse, not even a shove. He fell. Right through the veil while dueling his own cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange!

He couldn't imagine the place beyond the veil being Heaven or Hell. It was more of an empty nothingness. Slowly he stopped tumbling, but he wished that he hadn't. He had stopped just in time to see Kingsley appear, wither in pain. His expression suggested to Sirius that he was screaming, but no noise came out. Panicking, Sirius went to grab the member of the Order of the Phoenix, but his hand went through his shoulder.

"IS THIS SOME SORT OF TORTURE?!" he yelled, holding his hands to his head. He realized that his hands were of blood, flesh, and bone, yet Kingsley was a spirit. He reached his hand out toward his friend again.

"I wouldn't do that," a woman calmly demanded. "You don't want him to become trapped here, do you?"

"I don't think so," he said while turning around. "Alice! Alice Longbottom! What are you doing here? You're supposed to be in Saint Mungo's."

"Is that what they did with my body? I was always curious about that."

"You were diagnosed insane from torture."

Alice paused for a moment, think. Finally she replied, "When a person is attacked with the Cruciatus Curse, part of their soul comes here. If the curse is held long enough, your soul can't come out. That's what happened to Frank and me," she said quietly. "It's also why you can't touch him, or most others here for that matter. His body, and parts of his soul, are still in the world of the living."

"That's what this place is?" he questioned, "a place for people who aren't alive but aren't dead? Who have bodies still alive in the real world?" Sirius felt a headache coming due to confusion.

"For the most part. Victims of the Cruciatus, and the Imerious curses as well as the Dementor's kiss. When their bodies die, their soul leaves. As for the people who were attacked by Avada Kedavra, their spirits are here to stay. Then there are people who went through the veil for some reason or another. The battle you fought in the Department of Mysteries, what was the battle for?"

"How did you figure that out?" he questioned and then clarified. "Voldemort is trying to get the prophecy. You always were quick Alice. Piecing together clues. Clues which no one else can see."

"There's only one open veil, and with so many Death Eaters and Order members being hit by the Cruciatus! I can't remember the last time so many souls came here in one day. Even children. Harry Potter, N-Neville. My son, hit by what caused his parents' insanity.... But poor Lily. Harry keeps coming, flickering between reality and here. Cedric Diggory, a young man killed by Voldemort last year, he said that Harry has pains in his scar. Could it have anything to do with being cursed when he was a baby?"

"Yeah. Dumbledore thinks so, anyway. Him, Neville, and some of their friends fell into a trap of Voldemort," he paused, unsure of what else to say.

"Neville was such a nervous child. He still is. He'll talk to me sometimes, wherever my body may be. Sometimes I even understand him."

"Did you say Lily is here?" Sirius asked, after a moment of silence, not sure how to reply to Alice.

"James too. They're over there." In the distance he could see a sobbing Lily between James and Frank, both comforting her. She and James looked solid and real, and not at all spirits. Somehow he managed to get over there, despite there being no ground.

"Lily, Harry's safe. Dumbledore is with him." He tried to comfort her by putting a hand on her shoulder, but it went right through. Lily, however, took comfort in what he said.

"Padfoot?" James said. "How did you manage to land yourself here?"