Among the Ranks of Heroes by Chaser921
Chapter Notes: Thanks very much to my wonderful beta Yemeron, who helped me whip this story into shape. Thanks very much also to J.K. Rowling, who is kind enough to let me play with her marvelous characters and their world.
He was floating, falling in emptiness. There didn’t seem to be anything solid here except himself. Just mist, blackness, and whispers in the dark.
“Sirius Black?”
This voice sounded close, and he spun around to find its source. Or rather, he tried. Instead, he did a kind of slow rolling flip and ended up on his back. Except that he wasn’t lying on anything.
He frowned.
A woman drifted into view. She was…well, she appeared to be young. There was no grey in her long blonde braids, and her face was smooth. Yet, at the same time, she seemed to exude an aura of age, or rather, timelessness. She wore shining silver armor, and the silver helm she wore over her braids was decorated with a pair of sweeping wings. She carried a plain shield, and an intricately carved sword hung at her side.
She smiled at him.
“Who are you?” he asked roughly, tightening his grip around the wand in his right hand.
She seemed to hesitate, as if she herself was not entirely sure of her identity.
“I suppose you may call me Skuld. It is one of my oldest names. My favorite, really.”
He looked at her sharply.
“What do you mean, one of your names? How many do you have?”
“I am what you would call a goddess. There have been many myths built around me, and I have many names. I have a place in nearly every pantheon of gods in nearly every religion. Except for the new ones, which only follow one god.”
He blinked and stared incredulously at her as she paused.
“Is there a particular mythology you are familiar with, Sirius Black? It will be easier if I can explain everything without listing several different names every time I refer to something.”
“Well…to be honest, I was never really into that sort of thing. Never wondered whether there were ‘Higher Powers,’ or anything like that.”
He grinned
“I guess you’re my proof there is. Unless I’m dreaming or something, in which case I have a very overactive imagination!”
She laughed.
“Did you never wonder where prophecies came from? Did you never wonder what happens to the soul when a person dies?”
He shrugged and shook his head ruefully as she continued.
“It is of little consequence. But as to mythologies, I myself prefer the Norse branch, and I will explain everything to you in those terms.”
He scrutinized her as she answered the question in his eyes.
“It is the only pantheon in which my form is that of a young woman. The Greeks and Romans make me old, and it is not as enjoyable. I am usually hunch-backed and hideously wrinkled, not to mention stiff with age.”
Sirius opened his mouth again to ask her exactly which goddess she was, but she answered his question before he could ask it.
“I am one of three sisters who control the Threads of Life and dictate man’s destiny. Many name us the Fates, though the Norsemen called us the Norns”
She paused.
“You have heard of us, have you not?”
Sirius frowned, thinking. Then he found it; a long-forgotten piece of information lodged somewhere in the back of his mind. He had heard of the Fates in History of Magic during his sixth year. Binns had touched on the various Muggle mythologies, mainly to explain how they were influenced by witches and wizards. One of his fellow Marauders, Remus Lupin, had been interested in the subject, and done a bit of his own research.
Sirius’s frown turned to a smile as he remembered that cold afternoon, when all the Marauders crowded around the Gryffindor fire. As Remus regaled them with interesting tidbits he found in his books, he and James had played a few games of wizard’s chess while Peter watched and gave unneeded advice.
“The Fates control Destiny and the Threads of Life, don’t they? But aren’t there three of you? Which one are you?” he asked.
“Yes, there are three of us. My two sisters spin and measure human lives. I set their destiny and cut their threads when it is time. My sisters are, shall we say, the physical representations of the Past and the Present. I am the Future. I know what lies ahead. That is how I knew that you would be here.”
“And why are you here? What could you possibly want with me?”
She hesitated.
“In addition to my position as one of the Fates, I often ride as a Valkyrie, especially when I know a hero will die in battle.”
He frowned. The term tickled his memory, but he couldn’t quite recall what it was.
“What’s a Valkyrie? And what do they have to do with dead heroes?”
She sighed.
“Valkyries are warrior goddesses who ride over the fields of war and retrieve the souls of fallen heroes, the Einherjar. We bring them to Valhalla, the warrior’s paradise.”
He frowned again.
“But why are you here now? And where are we, exactly?”
“I am here to retrieve your soul and take you to Valhalla,” she said gently. “You are one of the Einherjar now. You are dead, Sirius.”
He blinked, speechless.
“I’m…dead? Are you sure? I don’t feel dead.”
He extended his left arm and examined it closely, bending his elbow and wrist and flexing his fingers. His muscles felt the same, and his arm looked the same. He even pinched himself, and it hurt enough to make him yelp.
She smiled sadly.
“Quite sure. When you fell through the Veil, you fell into the world of the spirits. It is a kind of…in-between place, rather like the Christian Purgatory. The souls rest and wait here before they go to their final destinations. You are unusual in that you came directly here, body andsoul.”
“But…but I can’t be dead! I have too much left to do! Voldemort still has to be defeated! And what about Harry? He needs me! I’m his godfather!”
She shrugged.
“Harry has his own destiny to fulfill.”
She tilted her head, as if listening to something he could not hear.
“And I believe he knows it now.”
Sirius’s brow furrowed as he strained to hear what she did, but only faint whispers met his ears.
“Harry walks among the ranks of the greatest heroes. He follows Siegfried, Beowulf, Cûchulainn, Fionn, Theseus, Perseus, Merlin, and Arthur. He, like they did, must meet evil and throw it down, at least, for a time.”
“What do you mean, ‘at least for a time’? Does that mean Voldemort will return?”
“Evil always returns. It is one of the universe’s most powerful forces. Your friend Dumbledore understood this well when he said, ‘It is important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then can evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated.’ Because of this, we gods have to make sure there is always a hero to face evil, to guide him, and to provide him with the tools he needs to keep fighting it.”
She paused before speaking again, as if to give her next words greater weight.
“But I am not concerned with Harry and the battle he must eventually fight at present.”
She held out a hand and opened her mouth to speak again, but Sirius burst forth furiously before she could do so.
“What do you mean, you’re not concerned with Harry? He’s my godson! And who are you to dictate his future? Thanks to you he lost his parents and has been through more pain and suffering than anyone his age has any right to be! Why did it have to be his destiny to fight Voldemort? Why couldn’t he have had a happy, normal life? And why did so many have to die for him to become a hero?!”
Skuld seemed to slump slightly as he hit her with his tirade, but let him shout until he was hoarse. When he had finished, still trembling with the force of his anger, she began to speak again.
“Sirius, I did not want this for Harry any more than you did. But someone, some person, some child, had to become a hero. He had to be taught how to achieve his destiny. Harry could not do what he has to do without the experiences he has had. And as for why him…”
Her voice trailed off, and she sighed again.
“No explanation I can give you will be satisfactory to you. Just know that we know that he has it in him to become a hero, and that we did our best to ensure that he does so.”
She raised her head then and stared directly into his eyes. Her blue-grey gaze pierced into him, stilling the exclamations that rose to his lips. Her voice grew cold as she spoke.
“Ask yourself, Sirius Black, if your concern is only for your godson, or if you do not think he can do this alone. Do you truly believe in him? Or do you want to be there for yourself, because you do not think he can succeed without your help?”
He opened his mouth to reply furiously, but the words died in the back of his throat. He dropped his gaze and ran a hand wearily through his long hair, unconsciously imitating his godson and best friend.
“Of course I believe in him, I just…I just don’t want him to have to do it alone, that’s all. And…nearly everyone Harry’s lost, I’ve lost too. I want revenge for their deaths as much as Harry does.”
He raised his eyes to see that hers had softened, and now looked rather sadly at him.
“I know you do, Sirius. I may not be mortal, but I know revenge. We gods experience our share of the messier human emotions, and, being gods, cause much more grief and pain when we do.”
She floated closer to him.
“Let go, Sirius,” she said quietly. “Let go of grief and anger and pain. Let go of worry and weariness and fear. Harry is on his own now. You may look in on him from time to time, but only look. You do not have a place in his life anymore.”
He bit his lip and looked over his shoulder towards the invisible gate that he had fallen through.
“I can’t even say goodbye?”
She smiled sadly.
“A hero rarely says goodbye. His path does not usually allow him time to say it. But you will see him again, in time.”
She raised her hand again and extended it towards him.
“Now, come. They are waiting for you in Valhalla. Or Elysium or Paradise or Annwn or Svarga or whatever version of the afterlife you choose to believe in.”
He hesitated, his hand hovering in the air.
“Who’s waiting for me?”
She smiled.
“Your friends. Your fellow Einherjar. The ones you lost. They have been waiting fifteen years for you to join them.”
His eyes lit up.
“James? And Lily?”
She nodded.
“And your brother, Regulus. Perhaps he can explain to you how he came to be there.”
Sirius’s eyebrows rose skeptically as he finally placed his hand in hers.
“My brother? What’d he do to become a hero? I rather thought he was a bit of a coward myself.”
Skuld laughed as a pinprick of light appeared behind her, a pinprick that swiftly grew into an opening big enough to admit them both. He could just see the outlines of three people on the other side, outlines he knew.
Sirius smiled as he entered the tunnel of light that led to his next grand adventure.