CHAPTER FOUR
Veiled
"The veil," Luna repeated. "I can take you there, beyond it. The Ministry discovered some things ..tomorrow night is Halloween, the only time people can pass freely between the realms without consequence."
Harry hesitated, then grinned nervously. "Yeah, of course. Are you sure about this?"
"I've given it a lot of thought," replied Luna, eyes focusing on a point beyond Harry. A gentle smile graced her features, and her head tilted ever so slightly to the side. "I have to give my mother something."
"All right," said Harry. "I'll meet you down here in the common room during the feast tomorrow."
"I'll be here."
"See you later," Harry responded, breaths quickening. He wasn't aware that his legs were taking him to his dormitory where the shards of Sirius's mirror lay at the bottom of his trunk. He rummaged through it hastily, relaxing only when he felt the pieces. He pulled out his wand and said clearly, "Reparo!"
The shards of glass flew together and into the frame. Harry looked into it, his own reflection filling the space.
"I'm coming, Sirius," he said. Harry then set the mirror gently back into his trunk and headed to the Great Hall for dinner.
The next day seemed to pass like a blur before Harry. Dazedly he went to his classes, and when it was time for dinner, it seemed like a breath of fresh air -he'd just woken up from a great slumber.
He raced to the Gryffindor common room. Luna was already there, sitting neatly on a chintz armchair.
"Ready?" asked Harry breathlessly. Luna nodded.
"Let's go," she said simply.
Harry had never wondered how they were going to get there -the year before, they'd ridden thestrals to the Department of Mysteries.
"I have some meat," said Luna, as though reading his thoughts. "For the thestrals."
They crossed the field towards Hagrid's hut, but turned away and headed for the forest instead. On another occasion in a different life, Harry might have cracked a grin -he and his friends had gone into the so-called "Forbidden" forest so many times, he'd lost count. But this was now, and he would soon be on his way to the Department of Mysteries to ..
To what? A little voice in his mind asked. What did he expect to find there? Ghosts drifting beneath the veil's ragged edges, crossing effortlessly from one world to the next? Did he, perhaps, hope to see Sirius's lean and untidy body sprawled across the steps leading to the dais, grinning at him, Harry, as he entered the Room of Death?
"Can people come back from the dead, Luna?" Harry asked as they stopped on the outskirts of the forest. Luna held the meat high, wafting the smell to penetrate the dense foliage.
"You want to resurrect Sirius," stated Luna simply. Then she shook her head. "It can't be done. Sirius can't be brought back into this world."
Harry nodded, then caught a glimpse of movement in the corner of his eye. Three thestrals were approaching him and Luna, rugged, ghostlike bodies trotting easily through the night and fog.
Harry swung his body to sit astride the thestral nearest to him. To his right, Luna was already mounted.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Yeah."
Harry squeezed his heels into the creature's sides and flattened himself against its neck, wrapping his hands around chunks of the black mane. It leapt into the sky, wingbeats stirring the air against Harry's cheeks. Luna rode alongside, sitting easily.
After what seemed like hours, they touched down outside the Ministry of Magic. Harry hurriedly got them through the visitor center and down into the dark corridor that had always been lit by torches in his dreams. Their footsteps clattered noisily as they headed for the circular room.
Harry opened the door and realized that he didn't remember which door the Room of Death led to. He and Luna checked all the doors, marking each as they shut it again, until there was only one door that they had not tried. He caught her eye and nodded, willing his heart to slow its breathless racing. He extended a hand, touching the doorknob. His fingers clasped the handle briefly, then pulled the door open.
It looked the same as it had the night Sirius had gone through. There were no bodies strewn about, no ghosts fluttering eerily through the still night air. Harry pulled Sirius's mirror out of his pocket. Luna's presence left his mind as he stepped forward cautiously to the veil. Once again he felt rather than heard the voices, the presence of people lurking just out of sight. He whipped his head around, trying to catch them off guard, but saw no one.
Then it registered that he was not alone. Luna was wandering around, eyes closed and face raised as though an angel was bestowing a blessing upon her. She was not watching.
Harry started up the steps as though in slow motion, then picked up speed and flung himself through the veil.
"Harry!" cried Luna, tearing herself away from her graced trance.
-----
"Would you look at that," said a tall, dark haired man.
"I would," replied another man, thin with black hair and glasses. "I dunno Padfoot, it's just one of those gits who chuck themselves in here every Halloween."
"I know that," replied the first man. "Merlin, Prongs, you underestimate me."
"Let's welcome him, then," James Potter said to his friend. "Find out why he's here?"
"Does it really matter?" asked Sirius sulkily. "Either way, he's dead."
"In twenty-four hours," corrected James.
"Hey Prongs, this visit has been really great. You're sure you have to go back?"
"Yeah," James said heavily, lowering his head. "If I stay in the wrong world -that is to say, the world behind this veil, the dementors .."
"Alright, alright, I hear you," Sirius said. "I suppose the same would happen if I tried to follow you back to your world?"
"The very same."
"So where are all these new arrivals going to go?" Sirius frowned slightly.
James shuddered. "They're still alive when they go through, so they're getting pushed into the middle ground, I guess. Unless they can overcome the dementors, they can sort themselves into whichever world."
Sirius became quiet just then, sitting moodily to the side, listening intently.
-----
There was a silence so mute it was deafening, a roaring wind whistling past his ears and his vision clouded by blurry haze. There was a ring of endless light to his front and right, and he crawled through the shadows towards it. He didn't know why, there was just a natural attraction that drew him to it, if only he could make it -
The cold gripped him suddenly, enveloping him in its clammy, rattling grasp. Harry blanched. The light was extinguished, and he didn't know up from down anymore. He knew what it was ..he heard the slow, deliberate breaths, felt the slick hands feel the air inches away from his face. But he was afraid to back up, knowing that there was more than one, much more than one.
Harry whipped out his wand and held it high over his head, bellowing, "Expecto Patronum!" He concentrated on the single most happy thought he could. As the idea of finding Sirius, of being reunited with his godfather burst into his mind, a dazzling white stag erupted from the tip of his wand, circling around him and driving off the dementors. But then in the light cast by his Patronus's glow, Harry saw a dementor cast away his hood and extend its hands still farther towards Harry's neck.
"No!" he gasped, struggling to hold onto his happy thought. "Expecto -Expecto Patronum!"
His stag was fading, its light was going out.
"Sirius!" Harry shouted, sweat running down his face as he tried to refocus his thoughts. "Expecto patronum!"
-----
Sirius rose quickly. He knew that voice, knew the name it was calling. He'd only heard one person shout that particular spell that particular way, and he knew who it was by the calling.
"Where are you going?" asked James.
"Prongs, old man," said Sirius, gripping his friend's arm tightly. "It's Harry. Harry's here, fighting the dementors."
James's face was terrible to watch. It paled, then contorted into a series of raw emotion. Then it slackened and his eyes lowered, lips firmly pressed together. His eyebrows knitted together.
"Why -is -he -here?" he snarled breathlessly, pushing past Sirius and sprinting towards the field of darkness that lay just beyond his vision. Sirius followed, heart in his throat. And then he nearly stopped dead at the realization Harry had called for him, not James. Somehow he forced himself to keep running, pursuing the shadows that were attacking Harry.
Then Sirius heard his name called again, louder and closer this time. He picked up speed, passing James. Then he stumbled as his friend knocked him in the chest. They were on the borders of the darkness now, just two figures prowling the edges of the original home of dementors.
Rage filled Sirius's being. James -his best friend in the world -was preventing him from seeing Harry. He scrambled to his feet, then James clouted him again, pinning him to the ground.
"SIRIUS!" he bellowed. "You CANNOT go in there!"
"Oh yeah?" retorted Sirius breathlessly, struggling against James. "And why not?"
"It will be the end of you, and you will never be able to see Harry again!"
"I'm already dead, I've been here way past twenty four hours."
"No -I mean, you will vanish for good. Now you have some form, you can talk to me and I can talk to you. If you go in there, you'll be gone. Do you understand me?"
"I can fight them off," Sirius protested bitterly, fists still beating against James's gangly body. "I did before."
James rolled his eyes. "Padfoot, you're still recovering from what happened last time. Fine, maybe you did make it past them -but barely. Listen to me -just wait here for Harry to come out. I know he'll be alright -he's faced dementors before."
Sirius sat resolutely still on the grass, staring intently into the inky blackness. "Harry!" he called. "HARRY! Don't give in!"
-----
Harry froze at the sound of Sirius's voice, so near and yet so far away. Yet it gave him strength, and with a last surge of energy, he shouted to the night, "Expecto Patronum!" His stag grew stronger and brighter than ever, such was its potency that Harry could not stare into the light directly. He raised a hand to shield his eyes. When he lowered it, the dementors were gone, and the spiral of light had reappeared. Hands still gripping his wand tightly, he moved forward cautiously.
He eventually reached the ring of light, and he stuck his head through, looking around. Then his stomach jolted unpleasantly, and he squirmed, trying to control the eruption in his soul.
His father sat on the grass, eyes widening at first when he saw his son, but then smiled. Sirius was pulling at the grass moodily, then as he saw Harry, a grin replaced his solemn expression. His eyes lit up, then darkened. He frowned.
Harry scrambled through the ring of light, falling into this world of light. On second glance, his father's smile looked rather strained.
James walked forward to hug Harry uncertainly, while Sirius stood off to the side, watching James and Harry stonily.
Harry had dreamed of this moment for so long, being able to finally meet his father should have been a dream come true -but it felt like a hollow victory. He backed out of James's embrace uncomfortably as he realized that the only person he could ever call his father was Sirius.
-----
Luna mounted her thestral and flew back to Hogwarts, a dark streak against the silvery moon.
Several hours later, she stood outside Dumbledore's office. The gargoyles sprang aside and Dumbledore emerged.
"Ah, Ms. Lovegood," he said quietly. "What brings you here?"
"It's Harry," replied Luna thickly. "He went through the veil."
Veiled
"The veil," Luna repeated. "I can take you there, beyond it. The Ministry discovered some things ..tomorrow night is Halloween, the only time people can pass freely between the realms without consequence."
Harry hesitated, then grinned nervously. "Yeah, of course. Are you sure about this?"
"I've given it a lot of thought," replied Luna, eyes focusing on a point beyond Harry. A gentle smile graced her features, and her head tilted ever so slightly to the side. "I have to give my mother something."
"All right," said Harry. "I'll meet you down here in the common room during the feast tomorrow."
"I'll be here."
"See you later," Harry responded, breaths quickening. He wasn't aware that his legs were taking him to his dormitory where the shards of Sirius's mirror lay at the bottom of his trunk. He rummaged through it hastily, relaxing only when he felt the pieces. He pulled out his wand and said clearly, "Reparo!"
The shards of glass flew together and into the frame. Harry looked into it, his own reflection filling the space.
"I'm coming, Sirius," he said. Harry then set the mirror gently back into his trunk and headed to the Great Hall for dinner.
The next day seemed to pass like a blur before Harry. Dazedly he went to his classes, and when it was time for dinner, it seemed like a breath of fresh air -he'd just woken up from a great slumber.
He raced to the Gryffindor common room. Luna was already there, sitting neatly on a chintz armchair.
"Ready?" asked Harry breathlessly. Luna nodded.
"Let's go," she said simply.
Harry had never wondered how they were going to get there -the year before, they'd ridden thestrals to the Department of Mysteries.
"I have some meat," said Luna, as though reading his thoughts. "For the thestrals."
They crossed the field towards Hagrid's hut, but turned away and headed for the forest instead. On another occasion in a different life, Harry might have cracked a grin -he and his friends had gone into the so-called "Forbidden" forest so many times, he'd lost count. But this was now, and he would soon be on his way to the Department of Mysteries to ..
To what? A little voice in his mind asked. What did he expect to find there? Ghosts drifting beneath the veil's ragged edges, crossing effortlessly from one world to the next? Did he, perhaps, hope to see Sirius's lean and untidy body sprawled across the steps leading to the dais, grinning at him, Harry, as he entered the Room of Death?
"Can people come back from the dead, Luna?" Harry asked as they stopped on the outskirts of the forest. Luna held the meat high, wafting the smell to penetrate the dense foliage.
"You want to resurrect Sirius," stated Luna simply. Then she shook her head. "It can't be done. Sirius can't be brought back into this world."
Harry nodded, then caught a glimpse of movement in the corner of his eye. Three thestrals were approaching him and Luna, rugged, ghostlike bodies trotting easily through the night and fog.
Harry swung his body to sit astride the thestral nearest to him. To his right, Luna was already mounted.
"Ready?" she asked.
"Yeah."
Harry squeezed his heels into the creature's sides and flattened himself against its neck, wrapping his hands around chunks of the black mane. It leapt into the sky, wingbeats stirring the air against Harry's cheeks. Luna rode alongside, sitting easily.
After what seemed like hours, they touched down outside the Ministry of Magic. Harry hurriedly got them through the visitor center and down into the dark corridor that had always been lit by torches in his dreams. Their footsteps clattered noisily as they headed for the circular room.
Harry opened the door and realized that he didn't remember which door the Room of Death led to. He and Luna checked all the doors, marking each as they shut it again, until there was only one door that they had not tried. He caught her eye and nodded, willing his heart to slow its breathless racing. He extended a hand, touching the doorknob. His fingers clasped the handle briefly, then pulled the door open.
It looked the same as it had the night Sirius had gone through. There were no bodies strewn about, no ghosts fluttering eerily through the still night air. Harry pulled Sirius's mirror out of his pocket. Luna's presence left his mind as he stepped forward cautiously to the veil. Once again he felt rather than heard the voices, the presence of people lurking just out of sight. He whipped his head around, trying to catch them off guard, but saw no one.
Then it registered that he was not alone. Luna was wandering around, eyes closed and face raised as though an angel was bestowing a blessing upon her. She was not watching.
Harry started up the steps as though in slow motion, then picked up speed and flung himself through the veil.
"Harry!" cried Luna, tearing herself away from her graced trance.
-----
"Would you look at that," said a tall, dark haired man.
"I would," replied another man, thin with black hair and glasses. "I dunno Padfoot, it's just one of those gits who chuck themselves in here every Halloween."
"I know that," replied the first man. "Merlin, Prongs, you underestimate me."
"Let's welcome him, then," James Potter said to his friend. "Find out why he's here?"
"Does it really matter?" asked Sirius sulkily. "Either way, he's dead."
"In twenty-four hours," corrected James.
"Hey Prongs, this visit has been really great. You're sure you have to go back?"
"Yeah," James said heavily, lowering his head. "If I stay in the wrong world -that is to say, the world behind this veil, the dementors .."
"Alright, alright, I hear you," Sirius said. "I suppose the same would happen if I tried to follow you back to your world?"
"The very same."
"So where are all these new arrivals going to go?" Sirius frowned slightly.
James shuddered. "They're still alive when they go through, so they're getting pushed into the middle ground, I guess. Unless they can overcome the dementors, they can sort themselves into whichever world."
Sirius became quiet just then, sitting moodily to the side, listening intently.
-----
There was a silence so mute it was deafening, a roaring wind whistling past his ears and his vision clouded by blurry haze. There was a ring of endless light to his front and right, and he crawled through the shadows towards it. He didn't know why, there was just a natural attraction that drew him to it, if only he could make it -
The cold gripped him suddenly, enveloping him in its clammy, rattling grasp. Harry blanched. The light was extinguished, and he didn't know up from down anymore. He knew what it was ..he heard the slow, deliberate breaths, felt the slick hands feel the air inches away from his face. But he was afraid to back up, knowing that there was more than one, much more than one.
Harry whipped out his wand and held it high over his head, bellowing, "Expecto Patronum!" He concentrated on the single most happy thought he could. As the idea of finding Sirius, of being reunited with his godfather burst into his mind, a dazzling white stag erupted from the tip of his wand, circling around him and driving off the dementors. But then in the light cast by his Patronus's glow, Harry saw a dementor cast away his hood and extend its hands still farther towards Harry's neck.
"No!" he gasped, struggling to hold onto his happy thought. "Expecto -Expecto Patronum!"
His stag was fading, its light was going out.
"Sirius!" Harry shouted, sweat running down his face as he tried to refocus his thoughts. "Expecto patronum!"
-----
Sirius rose quickly. He knew that voice, knew the name it was calling. He'd only heard one person shout that particular spell that particular way, and he knew who it was by the calling.
"Where are you going?" asked James.
"Prongs, old man," said Sirius, gripping his friend's arm tightly. "It's Harry. Harry's here, fighting the dementors."
James's face was terrible to watch. It paled, then contorted into a series of raw emotion. Then it slackened and his eyes lowered, lips firmly pressed together. His eyebrows knitted together.
"Why -is -he -here?" he snarled breathlessly, pushing past Sirius and sprinting towards the field of darkness that lay just beyond his vision. Sirius followed, heart in his throat. And then he nearly stopped dead at the realization Harry had called for him, not James. Somehow he forced himself to keep running, pursuing the shadows that were attacking Harry.
Then Sirius heard his name called again, louder and closer this time. He picked up speed, passing James. Then he stumbled as his friend knocked him in the chest. They were on the borders of the darkness now, just two figures prowling the edges of the original home of dementors.
Rage filled Sirius's being. James -his best friend in the world -was preventing him from seeing Harry. He scrambled to his feet, then James clouted him again, pinning him to the ground.
"SIRIUS!" he bellowed. "You CANNOT go in there!"
"Oh yeah?" retorted Sirius breathlessly, struggling against James. "And why not?"
"It will be the end of you, and you will never be able to see Harry again!"
"I'm already dead, I've been here way past twenty four hours."
"No -I mean, you will vanish for good. Now you have some form, you can talk to me and I can talk to you. If you go in there, you'll be gone. Do you understand me?"
"I can fight them off," Sirius protested bitterly, fists still beating against James's gangly body. "I did before."
James rolled his eyes. "Padfoot, you're still recovering from what happened last time. Fine, maybe you did make it past them -but barely. Listen to me -just wait here for Harry to come out. I know he'll be alright -he's faced dementors before."
Sirius sat resolutely still on the grass, staring intently into the inky blackness. "Harry!" he called. "HARRY! Don't give in!"
-----
Harry froze at the sound of Sirius's voice, so near and yet so far away. Yet it gave him strength, and with a last surge of energy, he shouted to the night, "Expecto Patronum!" His stag grew stronger and brighter than ever, such was its potency that Harry could not stare into the light directly. He raised a hand to shield his eyes. When he lowered it, the dementors were gone, and the spiral of light had reappeared. Hands still gripping his wand tightly, he moved forward cautiously.
He eventually reached the ring of light, and he stuck his head through, looking around. Then his stomach jolted unpleasantly, and he squirmed, trying to control the eruption in his soul.
His father sat on the grass, eyes widening at first when he saw his son, but then smiled. Sirius was pulling at the grass moodily, then as he saw Harry, a grin replaced his solemn expression. His eyes lit up, then darkened. He frowned.
Harry scrambled through the ring of light, falling into this world of light. On second glance, his father's smile looked rather strained.
James walked forward to hug Harry uncertainly, while Sirius stood off to the side, watching James and Harry stonily.
Harry had dreamed of this moment for so long, being able to finally meet his father should have been a dream come true -but it felt like a hollow victory. He backed out of James's embrace uncomfortably as he realized that the only person he could ever call his father was Sirius.
-----
Luna mounted her thestral and flew back to Hogwarts, a dark streak against the silvery moon.
Several hours later, she stood outside Dumbledore's office. The gargoyles sprang aside and Dumbledore emerged.
"Ah, Ms. Lovegood," he said quietly. "What brings you here?"
"It's Harry," replied Luna thickly. "He went through the veil."