The Elementals

Chapter 25: The Bridge Between Life And Death

I'm NOT JK Rowling and I do not own Harry Potter anything you don't recognise belongs to me!

Albus was numb. He gave a small nod to Rose's words, this couldn't be happening, but it was. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Shauna trying to console a distraught Keith with whispered condolences, he couldn't blame him, what would Keith do without Alice...what would he do without Alice?

At that moment, rays of golden light lit the sky as the sun began to rise. Other students began to cheer enthusiastically, happy that the Cult was gone and they had survived. Albus wished he could be cheering with them. He scooped Alice into his arms and stood before walking back to the castle, carrying her still body bridal style.

It could have been hours later when Alice finally opened her eyes. Her hazel eyes stared up at never-ending whiteness and then slowly, as if it were being painted by an artist before her eyes, the whiteness slowly became a wooden ceiling, blue and bronze drapes hung around her…was she in back in the castle?

She pushed herself up into a sitting position and rubbed her eyes. How had she survived? She was lying in her bed…in her dormitory as if she had woken from a horrible nightmare but she could remember everything. The Cult, Ellesheil, Albus, the black flames…her sacrifice to save him. She should be dead...how had she survived. She was still wearing her elemental uniform; she could have just been unconscious.

Then she saw a woman sitting patiently on the bed opposite to her, she knew who it was and she felt a mix of happiness and sadness.

"Hello Alice." the woman greeted her as she stood and approached her. She looked like she was in her early twenties with long golden hair, a heart-shaped face like Alice's own and a pair of kind cobalt eyes, the same shade as Keith. Alice knew her from some of her father's photographs, a kind young woman who was always laughing. Her grandmother, Samantha, who had died when her father was only a young child.

"This can't be happening." Alice muttered, more to herself than to Samantha. Samantha sat down on the end of Alice's bed looking sympathetic. "Am…Am I dead?" she asked after a minute.

To her immense surprise, and slight relief, Samantha shook her head.

"No." she replied "You're not dead…but you aren't quite alive either."

Alice frowned, how could she not be alive but not be dead either…it didn't make sense. Samantha seemed to sense her confusion and elaborated.

"At the moment you're at the point that you could go either way. You could die or you could live…your body's struggling because it's trying to heal but you ultimately decide whether you die or live."

Alice's frown deepened.

Samantha reached out to Alice and placed her hand over the spot where Ellesheil's flames had made contact. Almost instantly an agonizing burning pain erupted in her chest, Alice couldn't scream only gasp in pain, her lungs felt as if someone had set them on fire. Samantha removed her hand and the pain went with it.

Alice quickly pulled the sash off her tunic and threw the tunic over her head and pulled down her shirt to get a good view of the area that should have been burnt. There was no mark, no scar, no burn…nothing to indicate anything had happened even though Alice knew that there should have been.

"What the-" Alice muttered.

"You won't see the damage here." Samantha said softly "Your body is back in your world. You're in the Spirit World now, your body assumes the state it was in when you were happiest in your life."

"The what?" Alice asked confused, she had never heard of anywhere called the 'Spirit World' before "I don't understand…what's the Spirit World?"

"The place where the souls of the dead find peace." Samantha explained.

"Does the Spirit World always look like Hogwarts?" Alice asked whilst glancing around at the Ravenclaw dormitory.

"No, when people like you, people on the verge of death but not yet dead, arrive in the Spirit World, the landscape always changes to a place where that person feels safe or happy." Samantha answered.

Alice drew her knees up to her chest, she didn't feel safe and she certainly wasn't happy, but she couldn't bring herself to regret putting herself in this position. She would probably do it again without hesitation.

"So…what happens now?" Alice asked tentatively.

"That it is for you to decide." Samantha replied, sliding closer to Alice and brushing some of her bangs from her face "You could go back to your friends or you could stay here with your grandfather and me."

Alice's hazel eyes lit up at these words, her grandfather, Sirius Black was here too?

"Granddad's here too?" The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it. Samantha didn't seem to react to the stupidity of the question but nodded her head with a smile

"Yes he is, and we are so proud of you and your brother, although your grandfather seems to find it very amusing to make bets with James Potter on whether it would be you or Albus who would take out the most Cult members."

Alice laughed at this, she could imagine her grandfather sitting bragging about a particularly powerful move or taking out two or three Cult members. She became sombre once more

"If you were me...what would you choose?" Alice asked softly. Samantha's expression was unreadable and then after a minute she said

"I never got a chance to choose but if I could...I would hold onto what I had. You have a second chance to have a great life. I never had that choice...let me show you something."

Samantha held out her hand to Alice and, tentatively, Alice took it. All around them the scenery shifted and morphed. Alice was thrown onto her feet as the scene faded in.

They were stood in a small deserted church graveyard. The sun shone and birds chirruped as they flew from tree to tree. Alice knew where she was, in the graveyard in her home town. She looked at Samantha curiously

"Why are we-"

Before Alice could complete the question she heard the gate, that led from the church, squeak. Her head turned to see an old man shuffle into the graveyard with a small bouquet of flowers. She watched silently as he shuffled over to a grave and Samantha motioned for her to get closer.

"Won't he see us?" Alice asked

"No." Samantha shook her head "We're spirits, we're invisible."

"Oh..." Alice said as she and Samantha approached the grave and stood behind it as the elderly man awkwardly bent over to place the flowers in front of the grave.

"I brought you you're favourites...tulips." he addressed the gravestone "They didn't have any red ones...I know they're your favourite."

Alice felt a pang of sympathy for the man, talking to the gravestone as if it would respond to him.

"It's been sixty-five years you know." the man continued "Sixty-five years...can you believe it? It seemed like only yesterday..."

Samantha leaned toward Alice as she noticed Alice wipe away a few stray tears,

"Do you know who that is?" she asked quietly.

Alice peered at the man's face as he continued to address the gravestone. His hair was as white as snow and had receded to the back of his head, his face was covered in deep wrinkles, particularly around his eyes and forehead and his pale skin was covered in liver spots. He stood slightly bent forward and his hands, which were clasped in front of him, were slightly arthritic and the veins stood out in sharp contrast to his pale skin. Alice searches his face for any sign of familiarity and found none.

"No." Alice said "Should I?"

"Look again." Samantha said gently.

Alice obediently turned her eyes to the man again and to her amazement he began to de-age in front of her. His white hair turned grey then black and began to grown back so it became a messy mop on his head, the wrinkles smoothed out and the liver spots disappeared, his back straightened and the veins on his hands disappeared. Alice gasped as she saw who it was.

"Albus..." she whispered. Then she walked around the grave and almost fell over when she saw her own name on the gravestone.

Alice Amata Downes
Born 23rd July 2006
Died 14 April 2023

Alice looked once more at the teenage Albus standing at the grave, his emerald eyes fixed upon the stone in front of him. Alice's eyes turned to Samantha

"Is this what will happen if I...if I stay with you?" Alice asked.

"Albus will never forget you." Samantha said "Neither will Keith, or Rose, or Scorpius or Shauna. You will be a hero,"

Alice looked at Albus and then back to Samantha

"I don't want him to suffer...any of them to suffer...but I want to meet granddad and there's so much I want to know..." Alice trailed off.

Samantha looked at Alice sympathetically and then she reached up to her necklace and undid the clasp.

"Here." she said, holding it out to Alice "Your grandfather gave this to me and now I'm giving it to you."

"I can't take it." Alice said.

"I was always going to pass it down to my daughter, if I ever had one; I never did so I'm giving it to you. If you ever need me you have this."

Alice took the necklace from Samantha and admired the light blue stone with the small carving of a swallow. She pulled the dark blue ribbon around her neck and redid the clasp.

"Thank you...I think I know what to do."

Samantha smiled and pulled Alice into a hug and then everything disappeared in a blinding white light.

Elementals is reaching its conclusion! Yes, you read right, Elementals is almost finished. In about two chapters this fic, which has taken me almost a year to write, is going to finish. I'm planning to write a sequel which I've tentitively named The Elementals: Journey To The Spirit World, if you have any ideas that you want to see happen in the sequel then send them to me in a review.

Thanks for your attention.