A/N: All the characters contained herein belong to and have been created by Ms. Rowling. Enjoy :)

" Only one couple were still battling, apparently unaware of the new arrival. Harry saw Sirius duck Bellatrix's jet of red light: He was laughing at her. "Come on, you can do better than that!" he yelled, his voice echoing around the cavernous room.

The second jet of light hit Sirius squarely on the chest.

The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock.

Harry released Neville, though he was unaware of doing so. He was jumping down the steps again, pulling out his wand, as Dumbledore turned to the dias too.

It seemed to take Sirius an age to fall. His body curved in a graceful arc through the ragged veil hanging from the arch..."

-Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix

Sirius came slowly to consciousness upon the cold stone floor of the Ministry. The events of the previous moments played through his mind, ending with one coherent, all consuming thought... Harry.

He rose quickly and looked around realizing he was alone. Which could only mean one thing in his mind, they had lost. His friends would not leave him for dead. Harry would never leave him for dead.

"Merlin no! Harry!" he shouted.

From behind him a voice he thought never to hear again answered him. "He's not here Padfoot old friend."

Not daring to believe, hardly daring to breath Sirius turned slowly to see the two people he thought never to see again. It was a miracle, plain and simple. He rushed over, hugging them both.

"James...Lily...But how?...You're alive?...Merlin...Does Harry know?... They have him James...Voldemort... We have to save him!" The words tumbled over each other in their rush to leave his mouth.

James and Lily regarded Sirius sadly for a moment before speaking.

"Harry is safe... for now. He's with Remus and Dumbledore" said Lily.
"So you've seen him then? He knows you're alive? How? How did this happen?"

James sighed. "Padfoot...I'm so sorry."

"Sorry? Prongs what on earth could you have to be sorry for? You're alive!" Sirius laughed from the sheer joy of that knowledge, from the joy of seeing his friend, the man he considered his brother, again.

"But Sirius... I'm not."

"Well you're certainly not a ghost, so how else could we possibly be standing here having this discussion...unless.." All the color drained from his face and he sank to his knees as reality set in.

"I'm...we're...dead?" Sirius managed to croak out. James nodded slowly in reply.
"No...No! That's not possible! This has to be a trick or something."

Lily sighed and knelt down beside him. "I wish that it were Sirius, but when Bellatrix hit you with that curse you fell through the veil. James and I tried to reach out to you and Harry, tried to stop both of you from coming here but..." Lily spread her hands in a helpless gesture. Her green eyes, so very like Harry's, filled with concern for her friend.

"No! I can't leave Harry alone! Not again! Not when he needs me the most! I should've listened. I should've stayed behind at Grimmauld Place. This is all my fault." Sirius put his head in his hands, bowed with guilt.

"Padfoot, you have a choice you know. You can stay here and rage at the unfairness of it all...or you can help Harry." James said as he put a comforting hand on Sirius' shoulder.

"Wh-what do you mean I can still help him? I'm dead...How the bloody hell can I help him?"

"You sacrificed your life for Harry, that creates an unbreakable bond, and, while we can't be there to talk to Harry or pick up the pieces for him when his life has gone so terribly wrong, we can still help him. We can still guide him and watch over him. Think back Sirius. Think back to your time in Azkaban and you'll know what I mean."

Sirius shivered at the thought. "I nearly went mad in there Prongs. I would've if I wasn't determined to find Wormtail, determined to avenge you. It was the only thing that kept me sane."

"Was it Padfoot? Are you sure about that?"

Suddenly Sirius remembered how, just when he thought he would lose his last bit of sanity, just when it had gotten the worst, he'd remember James. He remembered the pranks they'd played back in Hogwarts, James and Lily's wedding, Harry's birth, being named Harry's godfather. All of Sirius' happiest memories would come to him just when he needed them the most. He'd wrap them around himself like a shield against the darkness of the dementors.

"You." breathed Sirius, " You were there Prongs. You kept me sane."

James nodded solemnly. "I've never left you Sirius. Never left my son. Neither of us has," he said pulling Lily gently to her feet.

"And now," said Lily "He needs us more than ever."

"All of us," added James. "If you're willing."

"If I'm willing?!!! Of course I'm willing!"

"Good." said Lily. "Because he needs us desperately. Right now."

The scene shifted suddenly, and the room was once more filled with people. Sirius, however, had eyes only for one person.

Harry was struggling with all his might to get to the veil, screaming Sirius' name over and over again. Lupin fought to keep Harry calm, trying to reach him to make him understand that his godfather was gone.

Tears streamed down Sirius' face as he realized that he was the source of this anguish for Harry. "He's hurting so badly, " he said.

Lily nodded, her green eyes reflecting her son's pain.

"How can you do this? How can you watch him like this and not do something?"

"We can do something. In fact, that's why we're here." Lily walked over to Harry and gently placed her hand on his shoulder. "He's gone Harry. You know Sirius would come back if he could. You know he could never hear that kind of pain in your voice and do nothing."

Harry finally collapsed as realization set in. Tears streamed down his face as Neville and Lupin tried to comfort him.

"He can hear us?" Sirius said in wonder.

"No" said Lily. "Not on any conscious level anyway. He can feel us sometimes and we can get our point across if he's not too angry to listen. He thinks the ideas come from him but..." Lily looked sadly at her grieving son.

"He can't see us or hear us. We can never hug him, or tell him how proud of him we are. We can guide him, however, and comfort him, and help him to find the right path." said James.

They followed Harry through the Ministry as he pursued Bellatrix, watched in horror as, in anger and grief, he attempted one of the unforgivables. Then... Voldemort appeared. Sirius sucked in a sharp breath.

"James! we've got to help him!" Lily exclaimed. But James was no longer there.

"Where the bloody hell did he go?" Sirius snarled as the confrontation between Harry and Voldemort escalated.

"I have nothing more to say to you Potter," he said quietly. You have irked me too often, for too long. AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Unthinking, Sirius threw himself in front of Harry in a futile effort to block the curse. Almost simultaneously, James reappeared followed closely by Albus Dumbledore who, with a flick of his wrist enchanted the golden fountain statues to protect Harry. They watched as Dumbledore and Voldemort battled, the very air around them crackling with magic. Stood by, as Voldemort possessed Harry.

"Padfoot...Quickly...Harry needs us. We need to make him remember the love in his life, not the pain. If we don't..."

The three ran to Harry and each placed a hand on him. Sirius concentrated with every fiber of his being on all his happiest moments with Harry, on every ounce of love he felt for him, and suddenly Harry was free.

They collapsed exhausted to their knees, as ministry members began to flood the chamber. Sirius started to rise, instinctively fleeing from the aurors who were entering the room, until he realized he no longer needed to.

"Well, that's one benefit of being dead... no more running." he muttered to himself.

Beside him, James chuckled through his exhaustion. "Have I mentioned how much I missed you?"

Sirius grinned. "No...but I'll be willing to listen to you expound upon it at great length."

Lily rolled her eyes. "If you boys are finished.. Harry is leaving and we really should follow."

"Right." said James. "OK..lesson number one Padfoot. To get to Harry...or anyone for that matter... all you have to do is concentrate on them very hard. Kind of like apparation, but you're concentrating on the person, not the place."

Sirius did as James instructed and the scene shifted again. He found himself in Dumbledore's office, with a grieving and very angry Harry. As Sirius watched Harry rage, the guilt built within him.

"He needs to get past this anger." Lily said, the worry back in her voice. "We can't reach him when he's like this."

James put a comforting arm around her, but his eyes held the same worries as his wife's. They continued to watch as Dumbledore appeared and Harry vented his rage and grief on the headmaster. They stood by while Dumbledore spoke to Harry, while he at long last revealed his destiny, and told him of the prophecy.

"Finally!" exclaimed James and Sirius almost in unison, and then exchanged nearly identical grins.

They watched as Dumbledore sent Harry off to his bed and watched over him as he fell into an exhausted sleep.

Lily sat near Harry's head, stroking his hair and watching her son as she'd done every night of his life. James stood at the foot of the bed, Sirius at his side.

"He's been through so much," said Sirius. "How can you stand by and watch it all?"

"Some days," said James slowly, "are worse than others. Today was one of the worst."

"But," Lily chimed in, "We also get to be there for all of the good things too."

James nodded in agreement, "I've seen every one of his quidditch matches. I saw him fly for the first time. I watched him produce his first patronus." He grinned suddenly, "I even got to see his first kiss, even if it was with that weepy little Cho girl."

"Now James..." Lily began.

"Don't now James me. You didn't like her either."

"Personally, " said Sirius. "I've never quite understood why he didn't just give in to the inevitable and snatch up Ginny Weasley."

"Hah!" said James triumphantly. "I told you that's who Harry should be with, and Padfoot agrees."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Great. Now you two get to gang up on me again. Had to go and die didn't you?" she said teasingly to Sirius.

"Prongs?" said Sirius consideringly after a while. "How much can we interfere? What exactly are the limits?"

"Well...We can't make direct contact but we have quite a bit of lee-way otherwise. "

"So if a person wanted to say...kick Wormtail or chuck a book at Snivellus that would be direct contact?"

"'Fraid so Padfoot. On the other hand... well let's just say Hermione getting a cat was no accident." said James with a mischievious grin.

Sirius laughed his short bark-like laugh and then considered some more. "Hrmmm" he said. "Think we could convince Buckbeak that house elf tastes like ferret?"

"Sirius!"Lily said. "It is abominable the way house elves are treated already and you want to..."

"Kidding Lils....only kidding."

James meanwhile was looking out the window to the dark grounds below. "Ya know Padfoot...It's been an awfully long time since I've had a good moonlit run."

Sirius grinned evilly. "Last one to the forest has to smell Snape's undershorts!"

Suddenly the great black dog was standing where Sirius had been and just as suddenly it faded from view, followed closely by the large buck which stood where James had been.

Lily smiled, tears in her eyes, "And the Marauders ride again," she murmured as she too faded from view.

A/N Thanks for reading it! Please review!