"Hey, Harry!" Sirius exclaimed. "Going somewhere?"

Harry jumped and whirled around, coming face to face with the ghost of Sirius Black. Sirius was now pearly and translucent— the intangible form of a ghost. But aside from that, Sirius looked just as he had the moment he fell through the veil— like he had fallen through the veil and into Harry's room. Harry froze, the sight of Sirius in his room incomprehensible and impossible.

"I know my beauty is stunning, but really, this," Sirius said, gesturing at Harry's face and body language, "is a bit much."

"Sirius?" Harry exclaimed, breaking out of his shock. "You're here?"

Sirius straightened up and brushed off his shoulders. "In the flesh!" He looked down at his pearly, translucent body. "Or in the ghost, I suppose."

"But I thought you were trapped in the Department of Mysteries."

Sirius tilted his head to the side and frowned. Then his expression morphed into one of understanding. "You were going to break me out of the Department of Mysteries, weren't you?"

Harry looked away and flushed. "I just— I thought you were trapped there, and I couldn't stand the thought of it."

"Oh, pup," Sirius said. He took a silent step forward and set his hand on Harry's shoulder. Only he didn't quite manage it. His hand passed through Harry's body, leaving behind an icy chill.

Harry shuddered.

"Right," Sirius muttered, "I'm going to have to get used to that." He took a step away from Harry and tucked his hands into his pockets.

"So…" Harry said, trailing off. Whether or not his plan to rescue Sirius would have worked, this felt too easy— too lucky to be true. Harry was beginning to wonder if Sirius was really here, or if he was a figment of Harry's imagination, brought about by Harry's desperation for Sirius to not be dead.

"So," Sirius returned.

Harry shrugged helplessly, still too shocked to think of anything to say.

"I have to ask," Sirius said eventually, "what made you think I was trapped in the Department of Mysteries?"

Harry reached up to rub at the back of his neck and realized that his hood was still up. He shoved the hood down, then went ahead and rubbed at his neck. "Does that mean you weren't trapped there?" Harry asked, avoiding the question.

Sirius shook his head. "Where I was is a bit complicated—"

Harry glared.

"—and I am more than happy to explain. But I must admit that I'm curious about your plan and whatever it was that made you believe that I needed rescue in the first place."

Harry knew he wasn't going to get out of answering Sirius, even though he now felt ridiculous about the whole thing. To postpone the moment he had to respond, he took his time in stripping off his hoodie and replacing his cloak and wand beneath his loose floorboard.

In the meantime, Sirius had been walking around Harry's room, poking at the broken toys on the shelves.

When Harry sat down on his bed, Sirius perked up and hurried over to sit down on Harry's chair. He fell through to the ground.

Harry laughed, then slapped his hand over his mouth to cover the sound. He sent a wary glance at his door, then looked back to Sirius, who had stood up.

"I'd like to see you do a better job of being a ghost," Sirius said, indignant. Then he glared at the chair and slowly lowered himself onto it. This time, he managed to not fall to the ground.

Harry's heart leapt. "Are you—" he started to say.

Sirius shook his head. "I am merely floating above the surface of the chair. I cannot interact with anything in the physical world."

Harry's shoulders slumped forward. "Yeah, that makes sense."

"Now, I want to hear about what hare-brained plan you thought up to go rescue me from the Ministry— and everything else too."

Harry scratched at the back of his neck again, stalling for just a bit longer. "I thought that there might be wards on the room where you had d—" Harry's voice hitched, but he forced his way through it— "died that kept you from leaving. It seemed like the sort of thing that the Unspeakables would have done, especially with that veil there."

Sirius stayed silent for a long moment, and Harry was afraid he was going to ask why Harry had been so sure that Sirius had come back as a ghost. "Alright, I can understand that. So, what was your plan to do it?"

Harry groaned, though he was privately relieved this was what Sirius had chosen to ask. He got to his feet and opened the top drawer on his desk, pulling out the paper where he had laid out his plan.

"Here," Harry said, holding out the piece of paper.

"Be a dear and hold that up for me," Sirius said, grinning.

"Oh, right," Harry said. He shifted his grip on the paper so he was holding it up in front of Sirius's face. Harry couldn't believe he hadn't realized that Sirius couldn't even hold up a piece of paper anymore. Harry watched out of the corner of his eye as Sirius read through his plan but could discern nothing of the man's thoughts from his face.

"Alright," Sirius said, shoving his hand through the sheet of paper.

Harry jumped, the sudden appearance of the ghostly hand startling him. He rolled his eyes at Sirius, then shoved the paper into the desk drawer and sat back down on his bed.

"Two things: first and most importantly, you didn't react at all to me calling you a deer. Which, as it is a terrible pun, warranted at least an eye roll. Second of all, while that was a reasonably thought out plan, it was obviously quite unnecessary. I am here now, so shelve all your breaking and entering plans until we figure out how to turn a ghost invisible, since I will utterly ruin your plans as I am now."

"Er— sorry?" Harry said. "And thank you?"

"It's alright, we have plenty of time to work on your pun recognition skills," Sirius said, putting up his hand to pat Harry's shoulder, then thinking better of it and stopping.

"Right," said Harry, dubious. Then, remembering Sirius's earlier promise, he changed the subject. "So where were you if you weren't trapped in the Ministry?"

Sirius shifted on top of his seat. "You may want to settle in, this could be a bit of a story to tell."

Harry glanced down at his comfortable position on his bed. He waved his hand forward, indicating that Sirius could continue.

"Well, as you can see, I did not die, so I was not in the afterlife, or wherever it is that we go after we die. But— I was somewhere close to that. I was in an in-between place, a crossroads of sorts. It looked a lot like King's Cross, actually, if King's Cross was devoid of color and inexplicably eerie.

"At first I was completely and utterly alone. Sometime later— it could have been minutes or hours or even days, it is impossible to say as time flowed differently there— I heard voices through the fog." Sirius paused, taking in a deep breath.

Harry scooted forward, eager to hear who Sirius had met.

"It was your parents, looking just as I remembered them. I was absolutely delighted by this, since I've always enjoyed lording my superior age over James in particular— but now I really look older," Sirius said, grinning. "As soon as I saw him and his young face, I had to give him a noogie.

"We spent an eternity and no time at all catching up— time ebbed and flowed around us," Sirius waved his hands around in demonstration, "leaving behind no trace of its passage, so I cannot say how long we talked." Sirius paused and sighed before continuing.

"At some point during our conversation, I was overcome by an urge to board a train with Lily and James. But then I heard you say my name, loud and clear, as if you were right in front of me. My memories of the time I've spent with you came to the forefront of my mind, all at once.

"I could remember it all in vivid detail, all the way back to when I held you just after you were born— and I just couldn't board that train," Sirius gestured in a slashing motion. "I just couldn't. So, I grabbed Lily and James in one last goodbye hug, then King's Cross faded to black. Next thing I knew, I was coming to, right here in your room. You know the rest from there!"

"You got to talk to my parents?" Harry burst out. It was all he could think about— his parents and Sirius, in the same place, all together.

Sirius nodded.

"Why didn't you go with them, then?" Harry couldn't imagine getting to see his parents and then turning away from the opportunity to stay with them. But that was what Sirius had chosen to do.

Sirius stared at him. "Obviously I couldn't just leave. There are too many attractive people still on Earth for me to seduce, and you can't have one-night stands when you're dead!"

There was a moment where Harry almost took Sirius seriously, but then he remembered what Sirius was like. "I meant it, Sirius! Why didn't you go with my parents?"

"Because of you, pup," Sirius said, smiling. "I told you, as soon as our experiences together came to me, that was it. I could never have left you alone here, not when there was any other option."

Harry swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat, unable to speak or even look at Sirius. Harry nodded.

"Which reminds me," Sirius continued, "your parents want you to know that they would have come back if they could. They had no idea that you would end up here with the Dursleys. They thought that you would be raised by me, a prospect that was apparently peaceful enough that they both went on," Sirius said with a grin.

Harry bit his lip and did his best to keep the tears he could feel building up from falling. There was something so reassuring about knowing that his parents hadn't wanted this for him. It was something he had always thought, had forced himself to believe. But now he knew for sure, and that fact was so comforting that he almost lost his battle not to cry.

Harry wanted to ask about what else Sirius had talked about with his parents, but Sirius had already told him so much that it almost felt intrusive to ask for more.

Deep down, Harry could feel that itching and burning curiosity building up again, but he shoved it down, at least for now. Now that Sirius was a ghost, Harry had all the time in the world to ask about his parents.

"So, you're here to stay?" Harry asked, just to be sure.

"Sure am," Sirius said. "You're my tether here. Wherever you go, I will follow."

AN: thank you for reading! please review!