Hello readers… Let me start off by saying that as I post this first chapter, I have just turned 18 years old…

Secondly, as I have just turned 18 years old, that should tip you off to the fact that I am by no means JK Rowling… I'll make this statement now, it goes for the entire story, and I don't plan on repeating myself.

Thirdly, this is a romance story, as you will soon understand, why, how and what not, but it will not be in this first chapter.

Lastly, just so that you understand, the event of this chapter, the entire conversation takes place after Harry drops the deathly hallows stone, and has killed Voldemort. So technically, yes, it is deathly hallows compatible, and not epilogue compatible. Everything that happened up until the epilogue has happened in this story. It does contain spoilers… if you can even call it spoilers anymore because anyone reading HP fanfiction who hasn't finished the 7th book by now are not very loyal HP fans.

If you have any questions at the end of this chapter, you are more than welcome to ask… I might simply tell you that the answer will be dealt with in later chapters, or I might answer your question… remember that it never hurts to ask.

Also I have a quote for you… It has nothing to do with the story; I just thought it was funny and that you should hear it:

"Look at the real successes, the people who make a lot more money than you – Elton John, Captain Kangaroo, anybody from Saudi Arabia, Big Bird, and so on. They all dress funny- and they all succeed. Are you catching on?" – Dave Barry

So I hope you enjoy, Back from Beyond

Chrys

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"Stay here… if only for a few minutes… there are some things we need to talk to you all about." James said to the three people standing in front of him.

"What do you mean stay here? What's going on Prongs?" Remus asked staring at James; he had his arm wrapped around Tonks, who was crying silently.

"When Harry dropped the stone, it transported us back here. This is a, well, I supposed you could call it a middle ground." Lily said, intent upon reminding everyone that she was still there, "You three need to wait here, you have…unfinished business."

"You cannot mean that we are going to turn into ghosts… I've been here three years now! Surely, if I was meant to be a ghost, I would have turned into one by now." Sirius said, growing slightly frustrated and angry.

They were standing in a gray room. The room was bare except for a few things; one was a stone archway that held the veil, the second was a plain door situated on the wall opposite of the veil. Sirius had spent three years here, listening to the voices and noises from behind both the veil and the door. He had tried both gateways many times, trying to walk back through the veil, and when that didn't work, he even resigned himself to step through the other door into the afterlife… but for some reason that door wouldn't open for him.

"I didn't say you were supposed to be ghosts - I said all three of you have unfinished business." Lily answered softly.

"What about you two… you've always had unfinished business," Sirius said, in an obvious reference to their son.

"We were meant to die Sirius." James started, hugging his wife closer to him as he wiped a tear from his eye. "It had to be Harry. Neville never would have been able to deal with everything that Harry did. We had to die; we learned that everything would be okay when we stepped through that door over there." James said nodding his head to the door behind them.

Remus and Tonks were ingesting this all quite calmly. Both were grieving the loss of contact with their son, but at least they had each other. Sirius, on the other hand was lost, alone, and in pain.

"You knew what was going to happen?" Sirius asked, staring at James as if the fate of the world rested on his answer.

"When you pass through the door, you find out just what your role in everything was. You're able to see what is going to happen… do not get me wrong, Sirius, we stayed in this room for days on end, screaming at the veil, trying to push through, trying to get back to Harry and to you guys. When we finally moved through the door, we were shown everything. We were shown Peter, and you, and Azkaban, and how horribly Lily's sister would treat Harry, but we also saw you three coming together in his third year, just as we saw him defeat Voldemort again and again, and we knew that everything would be just fine."

"So why do you want us to stay here? Why can't we go through?" Tonks asked, lifting her head from Remus' chest to ask James.

"There are things that none of you know about, things that happened to Harry and his friends when you weren't around that have, well, have set up the ability for you to return." James turned to Sirius, "That is why you have not been able to walk through the door. It is your destiny to go back." Sirius started to say something here but James held up his hand, "Remus and Tonks, you two have a choice… you can come with us, go to the afterlife, watch the world grow and change from afar, or you can go back with Sirius."

Remus was the first to speak, "But you already know what we are going to choose, since in the afterlife you can see the future right?"

"Only on some things - while much of fate is predetermined it still resides on choices. Voldemort had three choices. Number one: he could kill us, mark Harry as his equal, and there was a 90 chance that Harry would destroy him in the end, depending on a few other choices. Number Two: he could kill the Longbottoms, mark Neville as equal, and he would have had a 50 chance of taking over the world. Or Number three: he could have ignored the prophecy, and would have taken over the wizarding world, until an uprising from his own Death Eaters would have destroyed him. All three fates were a possibility; fortunately for us he chose the first."

"Do you know what happens to us if we choose to go back?" Tonks asked.

"We haven't looked as we didn't want to influence your decision either way; it's completely up to you." Lily answered quickly, giving a heartwarming smile to Tonks. If there was anyone in the room who knew what Tonks was going through right now, it was Lily. Having to leave behind your only child, not knowing what was happening to him was torture for a mother.

"What about me? GODDAMN IT why don't I get a choice?" Sirius was yelling…very loudly, in fact, at no one in particular, but at the whole situation itself.

James moved over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "You made your choice already."

Sirius placed his opposite arm on James shoulder and bowed his head, "What choice?"

"When you went to the Ministry, you made the choice to save Harry. Since then your fate as well as Harry's and a few other peoples has been sealed until the next choice, of which I can tell you that yours will come a short while after you go back."

Sirius looked up into James' eyes; it was evident how much guilt and pain Sirius had endured since Voldemort had killed his best friend. Hearing now that it was the only way helped to ease that guilt, but not much. "If Remus and Tonks can go back… doesn't that means you and Lily can too? You can come back with me?"

James understood the pain that laced every one of Sirius words, "No Pads… we can't go back. We've already been to the afterlife; we've moved on, there is no turning back from there…"

Sirius' head fell once more and he pulled James into his arms and hugged him. James held him and said, "It's not your fault Sirius: none of it is your fault. Think about it this way, if I would have made you the secret keeper, Voldemort never would have found us, and he would have gone after Neville. If he had done that he wouldn't be destroyed today… the war would have raged on for years, killing all of us, even Harry…"

"There had to be a better way…" Sirius whispered softly.

"There wasn't, Padfoot… this is the way it had to be. Please stop blaming yourself, it all worked out in the end, and you get to go back…" James pleaded with him. He hated seeing anyone suffer, especially his best friend.

"I would have died for you," Sirius said letting tears fall quietly from his eyes, "Know that Prongs, I would have died for you."

"I know Sirius, but you did something even better, you died for my son. There is no greater gift that you could have given me, or Lily, than protecting our son."

Sirius nodded and hugged James again. Sirius stayed silent when James slowly broke the hug and moved back over to his wife, who had been talking to Remus and Tonks the entire time.

"We are going to go back… Teddy needs us, as does Harry and so many others…" Remus said, making James break out in a grin, and Sirius to give a slightly lopsided smile.

"That's great Moony. Now there are a few things that we can tell you." James motioned with his hand for them to sit down, to which they all complied, Remus sitting against the wall, Tonks braced against his chest between his legs, Sirius sitting next to them, and James and Lily facing them, leaning against each other.

"First off, in about three month's regular time… which is slightly slower than time here, all three of you will feel a pull, directing you towards the veil. It is important that all three of you move through it at the same time, because this pull will not happen again, the person performing the spell on the other side will have made a mistake and that is what is going to pull you through. You cannot tell anyone of what you found out from behind the veil, you need to act like you don't remember. As time goes on you will slowly forget everything that happened after you died and will only be able to remember the last moments of your life and coming out of the veil again," James told them.

Sirius and Remus nodded at each other with the same thought in mind, "Wonderful,, another thing we can't tell Harry…"

But James and Lily didn't notice it. Lily spoke this time, "Pertaining to you, Remus," she gave him a small smile, "When you return, you will no longer be a werewolf, but instead an Animagius of a wolf… it is a gift that we have been asked to pass on to you if you were to choose to go back. The Ministry is bound to ask you how this happened… don't tell them you're an Animagus, simply write it off as a side effect of coming back from the dead, and be done with it."

Remus was surprised and nodded at Lily's words, "Will I still have all of the scarring?" He queried, his tone neutral, as if the answer had no effect on anything.

"No… The scarring will be gone." Lily answered, knowing just how happy this news would make him.

Lily turned her attention to Tonks, "Your abilities will remain the same, so don't worry about losing them. At first you may get a few changes that weren't what you meant to do, but it will come back and behave regular fairly soon."

James then turned to Sirius, "Pads… when you get back you will look just like you did when you fell through the veil." Sirius just nodded at this and James went on, "And all of you will still have the ability to have children."

Tonks looked up at Remus, smiling as he leaned down and kissed her, "We can give our Teddy brothers and sisters." Remus said softly, making everyone in the room smile.

After a few minutes of silence Sirius looked up, "If you can't come back… why can you be here now?"

"When Harry gripped the stone, it called us to him, just like it did you. This is the place that traveling souls must go through, so it only makes sense that once he dropped the stone that we would come back here, just to go through the door again. Now that we are here we can stay for however long we want… but we can never go back. We thought you wouldn't mind if we stayed until just before you three went through…" James answered him.

"That would be great Prongs… you have no idea how much we have missed you two…" Remus said in a voice brimming with pain and longing.

"Believe me Moony, we have missed you all as well… and we felt exactly how much, every time Harry looked into the Mirror of Erised, every time Sirius cried out in his cell that he was sorry… we felt your pain…" Lily answered him, wanting to convey to them that they hadn't been forgotten.

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Please review… it would make the best Birthday Gift ever…::Muah:: kisses for all reviewers.