Chapter Six

"I guess I should have planned this out better first."

Kagome stood in front of the Veil, her head tilted as she tried to figure out how she was going to retrieve Sirius' body from its depths. After staring at it from a distance for a few moments, she moved closer and began circling it. After a few rotations, she stopped in front of it again.

She sighed. "So…staying alive won't be a problem since I have Tenseiga. At least I don't think it will be a problem." She cast an uncertain glance down at the sword and received a comforting pulse in response. She grinned and continued talking to herself. "I just need to figure out how I'm gonna find my way back out of there." She became silent once more as she continued to stare at the Veil. Suddenly, she began talking to herself again after a few more moments. "Well, my magic works differently than a normal magical being's because it's based in my miko powers more than anything else, so I should still be able to perform magic in there, right?" Her head tilted in contemplation again. "I suppose I should test that theory out."

She took a deep breath and then formed a powerful barrier around herself with her miko powers. "This should be enough to test my magic in the Veil at least." She took another breath and then without further hesitation stepped into the Veil.

/

"No, I will not be at the school for long. I-"

Dumbledore, who had been walking alongside Sesshoumaru on the way to the Headmaster's office, looked over to the demon in confusion at the unfinished sentence. "Lord Sesshoumaru? Is something wrong?"

Sesshoumaru's golden eyes were wide in disbelief and his mouth had dropped open a bit as he tried to form the words to answer the old human's question. "I-" Suddenly his hair flew into his face as he shook his head to clear it long enough to form a coherent sentence. His eyes moved to meet Dumbledore's blue ones and he finally answered, "She's dead."

The headmaster's brow wrinkled in puzzlement. "Who is dead, my lord?"

"Kagome."

/

At the sound of a gasp, Harry and Hermione turned from Ron's still-unconscious form to find Shippou's clawed hand clasped in his robe, over his heart. His eyes started to tear up and he began to breathe harshly.

"Shippou?" The boy's watery blue-green eyes turned toward Hermione, and she suddenly knew that something was seriously wrong. "What's happened Shippou?"

"I can't sense her. I can always sense her! The only reason I can think of for not being able to is…is…" He broke off as his silent tears now became sobs.

Hermione was confused for a moment, but took only a few seconds to realize that the smaller boy was referring to his mother, and that he was implying that she had died. "No! No, Shippou. There must be some other explanation. Maybe she's just gone too far away or something so you can't sense her. That must be it! Maybe she flooed back to Japan or something and forgot to tell you!"

His sobs abruptly changed to tearful laughter as his eyes were enveloped in understanding. "That's it!" Another half-sob, half-laugh escaped his mouth as he tried to explain. "She has gone somewhere! I knew that too! I can't believe that I freaked out!" The laughs took on a hysterical edge, and as they continued they again began to turn to sobs. Hermione moved forward to embrace the smaller boy as he apologized for his behavior. "I'm so- so s-sorry! I know she m-must be alright, b-but I c-can't stop c-crying!"

"Ssh. You were scared something had happened to your mother. It's perfectly understandable to be relieved. Just go ahead and let it out. It'll make you feel better," Hermione said as she rubbed Shippou's back soothingly.

Harry just looked on in confusion and slight apprehension as Shippou cried and Hermione comforted. After all of the tears had stopped and Shippou pulled away from Hermione's embrace, he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and apologized to the two humans that were currently conscious.

"Oh hush, Shippou. You have nothing to apologize for. Right Harry?"

"Uh, right." He was quiet for only a second more before he asked, "So, where did your mum go exactly? It is her you were talking about, right?"

Shippou's eyes widened, which combined with his tear-stained cheeks made him look completely innocent as he lied and said, "Uh…China?"

/

"Huh. This is really creepy."

The glowing pink ball that was Kagome's barrier stood out starkly against the darkness within the Veil. The glow of her energy was able to light up the area around her, but pitch black nothingness met the light mere feet from her body. A multitude of whispers, however, kept the Veil's interior from experiencing the silence typically associated with death.

Kagome shivered. "Okay, I want out of here." But instead of moving back the way she came, the miko took a few steps forward before freezing. "Maybe it's not a good idea to walk around in here. Umm…okay, a test. Right." She took a deep breath and then extended a hand in front of her body. With another breath for concentration, the hand began to glow softly as Kagome stated "Lumos" in a voice that did not betray her nervousness about her surroundings.

The bodiless whispers stopped momentarily at the display of magic within the void, but began again more excitedly as an entirely different type of light began to emit from Kagome's hand. And then, with a grin of satisfaction she ended the spell. "Yes!" She celebrated her small victory for a moment more before she contemplated her next actions. Another grin appeared on her face as she suddenly exclaimed, "Maybe I don't need to find his body!"

Once more her hand was extended and began to glow. This time, however, the glow was accompanied by a soft "Accio." The whispers stopped again and waited, as Kagome did, for something to occur. After five minutes of nothing happening, Kagome sighed in disappointment and closed her eyes in frustration. The whispers did not start again though, and Kagome soon noticed this fact. "Why is it still quiet?"

Movement caught out of the corner of her eyes attracted her attention. She turned her head to find that her Summoning spell did, in fact, work. Sirius' body came to a stop just outside her barrier and in one swift movement she extended the barrier to encase him and then took several steps backward until she was once more outside of the Veil.

Once back in the Department of Mysteries, Kagome released the barrier and stared at the Veil in disbelief. "That was way easier than I thought it'd be!" She shook her head slightly to regain her senses, and then dropped to her knees to get a better look at Sirius. 'Oh, he's kinda cute for a dead guy.' She quickly glanced over his body to make sure that nothing was wrong—besides the fact that he was dead—and gasped. "He's breathing!" Her voice reverberated off of the walls of the cavernous room, causing her to clamp a hand over her mouth sheepishly. But even this small mistake could not dampen the brilliant smile that was slowly spreading across her face.

Taking care not to be too loud this time, Kagome started rambling to herself. "I can't believe he's alive! This should make everything so much easier! This means his body still contains his soul, right? So I don't have to find a way to recall it to his body!" She quickly grabbed and unsheathed Tenseiga and stood to swing it across Sirius' body but then suddenly hesitated. "If he's breathing does that mean that he's in a coma or something? Can Tenseiga even take care of something like that? I mean, it's not death and it's not an injury…" Shaking her head to stop her own digression, Kagome once more took a stance to swing the sword.

/

'Where am I? I was...fighting…before. Why?' Sirius' breathing became more stable as he rejoined the land of the living, but his mind was slow to recover as he sluggishly attempted to figure out where he was, and why he was there. It took only a moment to start remembering the circumstances of his disorientation, however. 'The Department of Mysteries…Harry's in danger…Harry…' "Harry!" Sirius suddenly yelled, jolting into a sitting position. He looked around the chamber wildly, expecting to find the continuing battle. He was surprised to find only a concerned young woman.

"Are you alright?" Kagome's eyes shown with worry as she observed the mildly panicking man before her, but she made no move to approach him. When she received no answer, she tried again. "Sirius? Are you alright?"

"Who are you? What's going on? Where's Harry?" Sirius was firing off questions rapidly, trying to find his godson and make sure he was safe. His mind suddenly caught up with his mouth though, when he asked, "How do you know my name?"

Kagome made a calming noise and said, "You need to calm down, okay? Breathe deep for a minute, and when you've calmed down a bit I'll explain." The older man still looked bewildered, but followed her instructions despite any reservations he may have had about her. When both his breathing and his shifting eyes were mostly steady, she began to answer his questions. "My name is Kagome Higurashi. I'm the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, and I'm a friend of Harry's, which, by the way, is how I know your name." That got his full attention. He opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a hand to stall another flood of questions. "Harry is safe at Hogwarts, and he misses you a lot. You've been 'dead' for months, Sirius," she said, using air quotes to let him know that he hadn't really been dead.

"What do you mean dead? I'm obviously alive! And months? I couldn't have been out for more than a couple of hours!" Sirius began to get hysterical again, and she had to wait for him to calm down before responding.

"Sirius, during your fight with Bellatrix Lestrange, you were hit with a spell that sent you through the Veil. You were assumed dead, and from what Harry told me, he reacted to your death quite violently. He actually tried to use the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix." Sirius' eyes widened at that, and he looked dismayed. Seeing this, Kagome explained that Harry had of course failed because he lacked true intent to cause pain, and then continued. "Lord Voldemort and Uncle Albus apparently showed up shortly after that, a big fight ensued, Harry was temporarily possessed, and eventually the Minister showed up with some Aurors in time to see that Voldemort is alive. It's been months since then, Sirius, and Harry has been depressed. He misses you, and I think it's about time for him to get his godfather back."

By the time she was finished speaking Sirius was doing a very good impression of a fish, and despite the seriousness of the situation, Kagome couldn't help but giggle and point it out to him. He immediately clamped his mouth shut and blushed. As a distraction from his obvious embarrassment, he asked more questions. "So I've been dead for months. How am I here now then? And was anyone else hurt in that battle?"

Kagome confirmed that there were no other casualties in the battle—although there were several arrests—and then explained that he hadn't actually been dead when she found him. He shot her a look that clearly implied that she was crazy, and she huffed. "It's true! When I brought your body out of the Veil to revive you, you were already breathing. Since you had been removed from the environment that was keeping you in your coma-like states, you probably would have eventually recovered on your own. Tenseiga and I only sped up the process."

"You mean your original plan was to revive me? That's impossible! The dead can't come back to life! And who's Tenseiga anyways?"

"Not who, what. Tenseiga is a legendary sword of healing that has the power to bring back the dead. There are limitations, of course, one of which is that it needs a body in order to work right. So even if you hadn't been breathing, I probably could have brought you back." She tilted her head in contemplation. "Then again, Tenseiga may not have found you worthy of being revived, or you might have been content with being dead. Who knows?" She shrugged. "That's why I didn't tell Harry about my plan though. I didn't want to get his hopes up, only to have them crushed when you stayed dead."

There was silence for several moments, neither of them knowing what else to say. Sirius was trying to figure out how to ask if they could leave the Ministry, when Kagome suddenly bolted up from her slumped position. "Oh! I forgot to tell you! Shortly after your death the Ministry declared you innocent. You were completely cleared of all the charges you were imprisoned for, and Fudge even gave a public apology for such 'grave injustice' or some crap like that." She grinned at him, but he just stared at her in disbelief (yet again). She had just started to feel nervous under his stare, when he suddenly lurched forward to catch her in a bear hug.

She was about to ask him what the hell he was doing, but he let out a bark-like laugh and dragged them both to their feet only to spin her around in happiness and grin like an idiot. When he stopped, he continued to hold her and grin until he caught sight of her blush. The sight of the red on her cheeks brought him crashing back down from his euphoric high and, realizing that he just pulled a stranger into a rather intimate position, he quickly released her and stepped back with an awkward cough, a blush blooming on his cheeks as well. "Sorry. Got carried away there."

Desperately trying to get the flush off of her face, she quickly replied with a "No problem." The two stood in another awkward silence before Kagome cleared her throat and suggested that they leave.

"Hey, umm, Kagome?" Once he had her attention, he asked, "I can see Harry, right?"

"Well duh. Of course you can see him. I didn't bring you back to life just to keep you a secret from him. You're gonna come to Hogwarts with me as a surprise for him! Ooh, how are we gonna make our grand entrance? We gotta plan this out Sirius!" Her sudden shift in demeanor caught the man off guard, but he grinned at her excitement.

"We've gotta pull off a prank! My friends and I were infamous in school, ya know? It's been over a decade since I stepped into the school as a free man, so my grand re-entrance needs to involve a prank of epic proportions!" Now it was her turn to grin at his excitement. As she half-listened to him spout out ideas, she couldn't help but think that his smile made him seem years younger—and even hotter. 'What? What's with that cheesy, clichéd thought? I mean the guy's good looking and all, but I definitely should NOT be thinking about that right now! We're supposed to be planning an entrance and a reunion!'

Regardless of her internal scolding, a blush had formed on her face and Sirius had noticed through his ramblings. He surprised himself though when a thought of 'She's cute' flitted across his mind. Kagome suddenly wasn't the only one with a blush on her face, but being the bold Gryffindor he was, Sirius just had to bring up the subject on his mind. "Hey Kagome? Are you seeing anyone right now?"

"What?"

She nearly tripped over her own feet with that question, and his blush disappeared to be replaced by yet another grin. "Is that a yes or a no?"

"Are you seriously asking me that right now? Not only do you not know me, but you were just brought back to life! Well, kinda. But that's beside the point!"

"You still didn't answer the question."

She had stopped after her near fall, and was now staring at Sirius like he was insane (which might be a little bit true). She hesitated for a moment but then answered truthfully. "No. I'm not seeing anyone right now."

"So…You wanna go out some time?"

She continued to stare at him, but then gave a small laugh of disbelief. "Are you serious?" She suddenly smacked a hand over her mouth when the 's' word came out, but before she could take the question back, he smirked and answered.

"Well yes. As a matter of fact I am."

She groaned at the corny pun and said, "Just for that, if you were actually asking me out, my answer is 'no' now."

"That's not fair!"

He pouted at her and it was her turn to smirk as she leaned forward to teasingly pinch his cheeks. "Aww, you're such a cute widdle baby!"

He quickly wiped the pout off of his face and yelled, "Oi! Not funny!"

She laughed, but thinking back on the conversation gave her an idea. "Hmm…You know what? Yeah, I'll go out with you. Right now. We still haven't decided what to do for our surprise entrance, so let's go get something to eat and we'll plan. We'll have to put a glamour on you, of course, to keep your 'resurrection' a secret. That sound okay to you?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Well then, let's get outta here and get some food! I bet it's almost early enough for breakfast by now!"

/

"'Ey 'Arry?"

"Swallow Ronald!"

The redhead glared at his female friend, but complied with her order before continuing. "What's wrong mate? I thought your mood was getting better, but you're acting all depressed again."

Harry just blinked out of his daze and looked at his friend for a moment. "I'm alright. I'm just thinking 's all."

Hermione was just about to express her concern for her raven-haired friend as well, but they were interrupted by Harry's head snapping to the open doorway of the Great Hall, where Kagome walked in nonchalantly, as if she hadn't disappeared for a night. She walked up to the head table and sat in her customary spot and struck up a conversation with Professor McGonagall of all people.

The trio exchanged confused glances, but returned to their food fairly soon, knowing that their questions wouldn't be answered just yet.

/

Minerva McGonagall was confused. It was not often that she found herself in such a state, but it had become increasingly common ever since her colleague/student had been hired as the DADA professor. That did not mean that she didn't enjoy the girls' company—Merlin knows that their times together are always fun—but Kagome was often very random with her conversations. It was for this reason, Minerva mused, that they were discussing her Animagus form at breakfast. They weren't even discussing the transformation in general—just McGonagall's own form. While confused, the older woman had no problems with the topic, however.

"I've seen you transform before, but I've never noticed it. They really look just like your glasses?"

"Yes, although I'm not quite sure how you could have missed them. My markings are very distinctive."

"Really? Could you transform so I can see?"

Again, McGonagall was confused, but she saw no harm in humoring the girl. She effortlessly shifted into her cat form, but just as the transformation was complete she heard barking. Her head shot toward the still-open doors of the Great Hall, and was surprised to see a giant black dog running toward her. The thought of changing back did not even cross her mind, as some obscure animal instinct told her to run. She bolted from underneath the staff table toward her Gryffindors, but the dog she didn't want to thinking about recognizing followed, barking the whole time.

Around the hall, students and teachers alike stared in bewilderment. Only Kagome seemed outright amused, and she couldn't hold back her giggles any longer. Between gasping laughs, she yelled, "Change back already, Minerva!"

The shout snapped the woman out of her dog-induced fear and she shifted back to her normal harsh-looking human self. The dog slid to a stop in front of her and started to make strange snuffling noises, almost like it was laughing. Without even thinking about what she was saying, McGonagall yelled, "Sirius Black! How dare you! Detention!" After the words left her mouth, she and everyone else in the hall froze. Her hands flew to her mouth as she gave a shuddering gasp, and stared at the pleased dog. The dog actually managed to grin and then stood on his back legs to plant his front paws on her shoulders and give her a big, wet doggy kiss.

With another snuffling laugh he retreated to the nearby Gryffindor table to find his godson. It didn't take long to spot the boy, who looked like he didn't know whether to cry, laugh, or have a temper tantrum. When the Animagus approached him, the boy settled for a shuddering laugh and hugged his dog of a godfather around the neck. "It really is you, isn't it? She brought you back!" The dog nuzzled his neck in reassurance before pulling away and shifting into the previously-deceased godfather of the Boy-Who-Lived.

"Hey kiddo. Heard that bastard Snape was giving you a hard time, so I just had to come back to kick his arse." Sirius sent a half-joke and a shaky smile at his godson, hoping that Harry really did believe it was him.

His fears were proven unfounded when Harry—his brilliantly brave godson who he thought deserved so much more—threw all dignity to the wind and tackle-hugged his godfather in front of the entire school.

/\\\\\/\\\\\/\\\\\

Well, it's been a while huh? Now, something that anyone who still reads this thing should know: I'm not sure I'm gonna go any further than this. I'm gonna label it as 'complete' simply because I'm not all that interested in writing it anymore, but I obviously didn't create a definitive end, so if I ever decide to pick it up again then I can. My stories have stretched over years now, and my writing just isn't improving enough for my taste. I might write a oneshot or two in the future, but I think I'm content to just leave this kinda open-ended. Let your imaginations deal with the Voldemort problem and the world's response to Sirius and to McGonagall's reaction to the prank and anything else I didn't deal with. ^_^

This chapter was completely unedited by the way, so if there are any glaring mistakes it's because I didn't proofread (or reread previous chapters to see what I wrote).

So…Thank you to everyone who has ever put me or this story on alert or on their favorites, and thank you for all of the reviews that I have received (and will hopefully continue to receive)!