An emense thanks to Kumy for the amazing(ly quick :) ) BETA job. Thanks ever so, dear!
Searching for Friends
Floating. Wondering when I will finally get to go to James and Lily. Searching for days – hours? Could it be weeks? Years, perhaps? – Trying to find the end of this dismal black.
But it never ends. They say so, too, do my cell mates. It is as bad as Azkaban. They wail for their lost loved ones. They wail, and insist. Insist that there is no end to the blackness.
They are wrong. When I was frantically searching for freedom at one time – I do not even know how long ago – mayhap minutes, mayhap months, for time means nothing here – a man told me different. He said that we would all go back to the other side when the Master returned. We would see our loved ones then, but no sooner.
So I wait, and I hope. I hope that on the other side is James. If I do go back to the world I used to know, I pray that my loved ones are safe, and unharmed by the war. But I do not pace as I used to, or snap at every passerby. There is no way out, and anger will not help me. My cell mates – well, they’re just like me - trapped in this dim prison.
So I wait. I wait, and think of James, and Lily. Of Remus, the last living true Marauder, of my cousin Tonks, and her mother, Andromeda, the other black sheep. Of Harry, the image of his father, who had his knack for trouble, but hated it like we never did, Ron and Hermione and their adventures together, past and future. Of Ginny, and her bat-bogey curse, of Fred and George, and their wicked sense of humor, so much like mine had been. Of McGonagall, a woman who taught both her trade and her manners to others, and of Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts.
~*~*~*~*~
"I am getting impatient," the cold voice drawled.
"We-we're working a-as f-fast as we can, Master," a second voice stuttered.
"Work faster still. It is the one force the blasted Order has not yet sabotaged."
"It will be done, Master." The stuttering voice was getting closer to the door.
The coward is backing up! Tonks thought in disgust. She cast a quick muffling spell around her and Disapparated. As soon as she arrived at the Burrow, she let out a long string of curses at the traitor. Did he always have to ruin everything?
She needed to know what Voldemort's new weapon was for the sake of the Order…and she had to leave because that coward had to back up from his so-called “Master.”
As she turned around to go to the kitchen in order to fill her stomach, her thigh collided with the corner of one of the sofas. Tonks let out another stream of curses. Normally she was used to her clumsiness, but she was in a rotten mood.
"You know," a voice remarked in her ear. "We normally like our air clear, rather than blue." Tonks grinned and turned around into Remus's embrace.
He kissed her gingerly on the tip of the nose. "Let's go sweeten your temper on Molly's dinner, and then you can give us what you learned.”
Tonks nodded eagerly and walked to the kitchen with Remus, his arm firmly around her waist.
~*~*~*~*~
"Be quiet!" snapped Bella. "Do you want to be discovered?"
"It doesn't matter," retorted Fenrir. "We can fight them off easily."
"The Dark Lord would not have time to work his magic. Just shut your muzzle in matters you know nothing about, Greyback." Lucius ordered coldly. Fenrir growled his reply.
"Move aside," a new voice ordered.
All those present hastened to obey their master. A narrow aisle formed between the Dark Lord and his prey. The Dark Lord stalked down it briskly, raising his wand in the process. His near-invisible lips moved silently as he chanted the spell. The wind that ruffled the edges of the Veil grew stronger, nearly parting the cloth with buffets of air.
Still, the Dark Lord chanted on, even as his followers drew back. The Veil flew open violently and a column of wind – spirits, emerged through the worn drapery.
~*~*~*~*~
Suddenly not floating. I am pulled into a giant vortex with the rest of my cellmates as I hear an eerily familiar voice ring through the darkness. I fight to attach a name to the voice, but I don't have to work hard for long. A strange sensation, one reverse to the one that brought me into my cage ensues. Then, I am in the room in the Department of Mysteries, surrounded by all my worst enemies.
The lipless mouth of my friends' murderer opens in a merciless grin. "You know what you must do," he comments. All my cellmates quiver. I do not. I will not fear this evil man. "You also know what awaits you should you refuse, or fail. Go, my Deathly Hallows." My cell-mates scatter in every direction, taking care not to touch even a single Death Eater.
I remain. I do not obey murderers. Men who have no heart to love. Soulless men with no conscience. That would make me like them.
"Ah, if it isn't my dear cousin," I hear Bella say.
"And how would you know if it is him?" I hear a growl of a reply.
"He is the only addition that wasn't there last time around when everyone followed our Master’s orders. He's only been hear for a year and a half."
"Indeed." Voldemort says coldly. "Well then, Mr. Black. What delightful job should we have you do?"
I try to reply. A howl emerges instead. I look at myself. I am a gust of mist, but no more. I have no differentiating feature. To him, I am just another lost soul.
Bella cackles. Her master gives another lipless smirk. "You will find all those you care for. You will find and embrace them." All his pet followers laugh in reply to his apparently funny remark.
There is nothing I want more than to hug my friends, but if he told me to I will not. Only evil ever emerges from his mouth.
But my body does not obey my mind. I am pulled off in a direction I can only guess leads to one of my beloved. I fight it, but it is halfhearted. After what I learned to be 18 months of nothing but black loneliness, I needed to see someone I had missed. My thoughts go back to the present, for they had gone back to that cold, cold prison.
In front of me is Moony, fighting off a group of Death Eaters. I fill with rage and I fight to scatter them. Instead, my body pulls me to Moony, and gives him an enveloping hug. I feel him take in one last shattered breath as he dies in my arms. I long to continue holding him, to mourn for my friend. But my body thinks differently. It continues on its deathly path as I hear Molly's cry of sorrow as she sees Remus lying there. My own body is stiff with grief and I wail with it. If I had eyes, I would have been crying.
Then I see him. Ron is standing there, fighting off Death Eaters as Hermione works on a complicated spell behind him. I fight with all my might to stop my body, but to no avail. As I float towards him, I can see visions of him, with Hermione, discussing Harry with me after one of his whose? Harry or Ron’s? tantrums.
Then, I have him in my arms, and he is dead. I wail again, and my body is about to attack the weeping Hermione as somebody jumps in front of her.
James! my mind thinks upon seeing him. Even my body freezes. Then I see the eyes, and it is Lily. My body goes backwards. It is my godson. I see tears gripping down his cheeks as he yells at me to back off. Like Lily. And James. Lily and James. My body is tugged back through time and space as I go to join my friends.
Tears wash my face. I killed Moony and Ron. I couldn’t have. I couldn't have. I fall to my knees. Arms press my head against a firm chest. A hand squeezes my shoulder.
"It was not your fault." My best friend states. His wife nods her agreement.
“Is Remus here yet?”
“We’re all here. Sirius, you’re home.”