Fic: To Die Will Be an Awfully Big Adventure

[silver-apples.livejournal.com]

Title: To Die Will Be an Awfully Big Adventure
Author: silver_apples
Written for: tiger_flame
Rating: PG
Prompt: Reunion after Remus dies.
Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, Remus finds himself reunited with friends and family, exploring the afterlife.
A/N: Thanks to westwardlee for the beta read!

“I don’t see why I can’t go,” Dora whined, following Remus into the main room.

“Someone has to stay with Teddy,” Remus pointed out, taking down the Floo powder jar.

“So you stay! I’m the trained Auror!”

Remus returned the jar to the mantle and gently gripped Dora’s arms. “Please, Dora. This is going to be bad. You know it too. Stay home, be safe. I can’t fight if I’m worrying about you, and you shouldn’t be up and fighting.”

“I’m fine,” she insisted. “I gave birth almost three months ago. You transformed into a werewolf two weeks ago. Of the two of us, I’ve had more recovery time.”

Remus smiled. “True. On the other hand, I can’t feed Teddy, and you can.” Dora huffed in annoyance and glared up at him. Remus kissed her on the nose. “I need to do this. I haven’t been much help to Harry. No help at all, really. I know you’ve been trained, and I know you’re good, but,” he swallowed, trying to stay calm and in control while memories threatened to overwhelm him, “I was there for the beginning. I lost everything. And then I lost it again when Sirius died. I need to be there for the end. I need to help finish it. And, forgive me for forcing you into the role of the wife and mother waiting at home, but I don’t think I could survive losing you too.”

“You think I can survive losing you? Maybe I wasn’t fighting in the first war, but I fought in this one. I’ve lost people too. My father, my cousin, my mentor, my friends--I can’t lose you!”

Remus chuckled weakly. “Lose me? Give me some credit, Dora. I may not have been formally trained, but I did learn to duel from Moody and Dumbledore. I have survived everything the world’s thrown at me, and I have no intention of breaking that habit now.” He kissed her. “Now, I have to go before all the good Death Eaters are taken. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He grinned, cocky and confident. “I’ll make sure you’re invited to the victory celebration.”

Dora smiled, blinking back tears. “You better. Be careful, Remus.”

“Always.” He tossed a pinch of Floo powder in the fireplace and called out “Hog’s Head” as he stepped through.
~~~~~
Remus lay still for a moment, trying to catch his breath. He raised one hand to his chest, rubbing the spot the curse had hit. It didn’t hurt. He opened his eyes.

“Yargh!” A face, too close to distinguish features, hovered over him. He shoved at the body above him, rolling away and scrambling to his feet as he drew his wand.

Laughter. Remus blinked down at the man he’d been about to hex. Dark hair, tan skin, tears running down his face as he laughed, clutching his sides. “You should have seen your face,” he gasped out between laughs. Standing behind him, James and Lily were snickering, leaning against each other and grinning.

Remus lowered his wand, confused. After a second he gave up thinking, dropped his wand, hauled a still-laughing Sirius to his feet, and pulled him into a tight, one-armed hug. He stretched out his other arm, grabbing James and tugging him close. Lily followed, and the four friends embraced. Remus sniffed, and childishly rubbed his nose on Sirius’ shoulder. If Sirius noticed, he didn’t object.

“Missed you all so much,” Remus whispered.

“Oh, Moony,” James said, giving him another squeeze before stepping back. “I’m so sorry we left you. We never should have doubted you.”

Remus untangled himself from Sirius and Lily enough to grip James’ hand. “Forgiven. I forgave you the second I realized.”

“I know. I had to say it anyway.”

Lily kissed Remus’ cheek. “It’s good to see you again,” she said. She grinned, glancing at Sirius. “Some of us have been pretty unbearable without you.”

Sirius snorted, finally letting go of Remus, only to claim his hand and link their fingers together. “Like you and Prongs have been more than a few feet apart for the past sixteen years. You’re worse now than when you were newlyweds.”

“We aren’t always together,” James protested. Lily smiled and leaned against him.

Remus looked around. They were in a field that stretched to the horizon in every direction. Other than green grass and blue sky, there was nothing to see. “Where are we?” he asked. He’d never been sure what to expect from the afterlife, but three other people and an empty field had never even occurred to him as a possibility.

Sirius shrugged. “Nowhere, really. Just waiting for you.” He hugged Remus again. “I’ve missed you.”

Remus let himself enjoy the embrace for a minute before pulling back, remembering the life he‘d just left. “Harry?”

“Still fighting,” James said proudly. “We‘ve been watching, but took a break to welcome you.”

“We can watch? Can we--” The others were shaking their heads before he even finished his question.

“If we could help, communicate at all, don‘t you think we would have?” Lily asked, and Remus sighed, nodding his head.

“You have no idea how frustrating it is,” Sirius growled, and for a second the young man in front of him flickered into the broken man that had haunted Grimmauld Place, then once again turned young. “Watching, waiting, and not doing anything!”

James gripped Sirius’ shoulder comfortingly. “We know. We’ve been doing it for years now. But I think we‘re nearing the end. Once Voldemort is defeated for good…” he shrugged, “I don’t know what will happen then. But I think we’ll move on.”

“What do you mean?” Remus asked, looking around in puzzlement. “This isn’t it?”

Lily shook her head. “Lots of people come this way, but most don’t stay. We think it has to do with unfinished business and connections to the living. Like Muggle ghost stories.”

Remus was about to ask if they’d really spent the last sixteen years in a field when the air in front of them shimmered. He could see a corridor, hazy and dim, and faceless shadows moving in it. The closest shadow fell backwards, drifting down like it was falling through water, and Remus stared in horror as the grays brightened into pink hair and pale skin. Dora lay at his feet, eyes closed, not breathing. Remus didn’t notice the corridor vanishing as he dropped to his knees, pulling Dora into his arms.

“She’s not breathing!”

“Um, Moony?”

Remus looked up at his friends to see them smiling at him. He wanted to yell at them for just standing there when his wife was dead, but then realized the flaw in that line of thought. “Oh. Right.” He looked back at Dora, frowning in confusion, and raised one hand to his mouth, breathing heavily on his palm. “This doesn’t make sense.”

“We think it’s habit,” Lily explained. “You think you need to breathe, so you breathe. Your brain hasn’t figured out that you don’t have a body.”

“Once you do figure out you don’t have a body, you can make change how you look.” James grinned. “Make yourself any age you want, twist yourself into all kinds of shapes. Of course, I figured it out pretty quickly,” he preened. “Being an Animagus, changing shape comes naturally.”

“Tonks’ll do well, too,” Sirius pointed out. “She’s a Metamorphmagus.”

“I can be young again?” Remus asked. “I can transform at will?” His eyes widened. “I can not transform?”

His friends laughed. “You are young,” Lily pointed out. “You can’t be more than twenty-two. Have been since you woke up.”

Remus gaped at her and was about to demand someone find a mirror for him when Dora stirred. Promptly forgetting about his appearance, he cradled her to his chest. “Dora?”

Her eyes opened and she took a breath. Not a gasping for air breath, just normal breathing, as if she’d never stopped. “Remus?” She raised a hand to his face.

“Why didn’t you stay home?” he asked, holding her tightly. He felt a tear trickle down his cheek, but ignored it.

“I couldn’t,” she whispered. “Harry needed all the fighters he could get, and I felt like I was going mad wondering what was happening.” She smiled. “I’m half-Black, you know. In our family, ‘going mad’ isn’t just hyperbole, and we’ve never been good at sitting at home when there’s fighting to be done.”

Sirius barked a laugh, and Dora jerked, pulling free from Remus to sit up and gape at her cousin. “Sirius?” She blushed, ducking her head and reaching for Remus’ hand.

“Hey, Tonks,” Sirius said, rocking on his heels. “Rumor has it you took over the job of consoling my boyfriend once I was out of the picture.”

“I…” Dora bit her lip, and Remus glared at Sirius. Sirius laughed.

“Good for you. ‘Bout time someone made an honest man out of him.”

“Merlin knows Sirius never would have,” Lily muttered.

James helped Dora to her feet and Remus stood as well, absently brushing off the seat of his robes. Remus put his arm around Dora’s waist, hugging her to him. “I’d like you all to meet Mrs. Dora Lupin. Dora, these are James and Lily Potter, and you know Sirius, of course.”

Dora grinned, her usual cheerfulness restored. “Hi. You should be proud of Harry. He’s a wonderful boy.”

“We know,” Lily said. “We’ve been watching.”

“Speaking of watching,” Sirius said with a leer, “does your being a Metamorphmagus make you so flexible, or was it the Auror training?”

Dora and Remus both blushed, and Remus hissed, “Sirius!” sounding absolutely mortified.

“Don’t listen to him,” Lily ordered. “We didn’t watch that. We respect the living’s privacy.”

“Lily does at any rate,” James said cheerfully, “and the rest of us do as she says.”

“Dora!” a voice shouted behind them, and they turned to see Ted Tonks running across the field.

“Dad!” Dora squealed and ran towards him. Between one step and the next, she changed into a child, throwing herself into her father’s arms. He spun her around, laughing, then hugged her tightly.

“I don’t mind, really,” Sirius said to Remus, “at least not much, although I’d like to point out you promised her ‘till death do us part,’ and you promised me forever, so I get you here, but doesn’t the age gap bother you, just a little?”

“Shut up, Sirius,” Remus and Lily said in unison. Remus lessened the sting of the reprimand by kissing Sirius’ cheek, but walked towards his wife and father-in-law before Sirius could return the kiss.

Ted put Dora down and she grew into an adult, reaching a hand out to Remus and wiping her eyes with her other hand. “Till death do us part?” she repeated, looking over his shoulder at his friends.

Remus nodded, smiling sadly, and leaned forward to kiss her cheek. “Never doubt that I loved you, do love you, as best I could.”

She nodded. “I knew when I married you,” she said softly, looking over at Sirius.

Remus turned his attention to Ted. “I tried to make her stay home.”

“My fault,” Ted said. “I spoiled her when she was a kid, and now she won’t listen when someone tells her no.” He embraced Remus, much to the other man’s surprise. “I know you did your best by my little girl,” he said, pulling back but keeping his hands on Remus’ shoulders. “And I know ‘Dromeda and I weren’t the most welcoming in-laws. You’re a good man, Remus; I don’t think there’s anyone who could have made Dora happier, and that’s what really matters.” He shook his head. “You’d think after the hell the Blacks put us through, we’d have known better than to object to Dora’s choices. Anyway, I know it’s a little late, but I just wanted to say ‘Welcome to the family.’ And thanks for naming your son after me.”

“There was no other name we could have given him,” Remus whispered, choked up by Ted’s acceptance. His chest felt tight, and then he realized it wasn’t just emotion. It felt like something was pulling him from the inside.

“Moony!” James shouted. “We have to go! Harry needs us!”

Remus stepped back. “I have to go,” he apologized, not understanding but knowing that, dead or not, he still had a part to play in this battle.

“Take care,” Dora said.

Remus kissed her good-bye and jogged over to his friends. The air in front of them was shimmering again, only now he could see trees instead of stone walls.

Harry turned the ring for a third time, and Remus was back in the Forbidden Forest. Harry stood in front of him, and even as he was staring longingly at his parents, asking in a lost and frightened voice if it would hurt, Remus found himself marveling at how grown-up he was, so different from the confused, impulsive thirteen-year-old Remus had taught.

They watched from the side as Harry confronted Voldemort. James and Lily hugged each other, their gazes never leaving their son even as tears streamed down their cheeks. Sirius took Remus’ hand, and Remus leaned into the taller man’s side, watching with pride as Harry sacrificed himself.

When Harry fell, the forest faded. Remus blinked, confused as the world came into focus and he found himself on a train. Sirius was looking around, his brow furrowed. James and Lily, whether it was because they had more experience with being dead or some kind of parent-sense, turned to stare out at the platform where Harry and Dumbledore were talking, half-shrouded by mist that gradually cleared.

“What are they saying?” Sirius asked, crowding forward in spite of being tall enough to see over everyone’s head.

“Shh,” Lily hissed.

“Why? Can you hear anything?”

Remus watched Harry and Dumbledore, wishing he could read lips. They spoke for some time, and then Harry faded away. Lily cried out, and Remus felt like his stomach was twisting into knots as he watched the boy he’d always thought of as part of his family vanish, realizing for the first time he’d never told Harry that he’d loved him like a son, and it had nothing to do with Harry being his friends’ son, his lover’s godson, or with Harry being Remus’ student, and everything to do with Harry.

James sat down, slumping in the corner of the seat. “I’m a lousy father,” he whispered.

“What?”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You’re a great dad, Prongs!”

James shook his head. “He’s gone. He’s alive. Somehow, he survived again.” He looked up at his wife and friends, tears in his eyes. “I wanted him to die,” he confessed. “Every time he was in danger, every time it looked like he didn’t have a chance, I was glad. I love him, and I’m proud of him, but no matter how much I want him to have a long and happy life, I just want to hold my son, and I don’t want to wait any longer.”

Lily sat next to him, pulling his head to her shoulder. “I know,” she whispered. “I want him to live, and I want him with us. All these years watching him fight, and I never figured out if I was rooting for him to win or lose. I don’t care about Voldemort or the war anymore, just Harry. The rest only matters because it matters to him.”

Sirius was nodding, and Remus, still new to the whole dead-thing, realized for the first time none of his friends had grieved his death. Why would they? On this side of the Veil, death was about reunions and possibilities. He looked over to the place where Harry had sat. Dumbledore was gone now too. Remus glanced back at his friends. James was crying. That was just wrong.

He remembered how his friends had comforted him around the full moon, and blurted out the first phrase that came to mind. “The moon will set.” The others looked at him, clearly puzzled. “The moon will set,” Remus repeated, “and wane. It’s only full for a short time. You just have to wait it out.” He smiled. “The metaphor works really well with Harry, doesn’t it? Every time you think his moon has set, it rises again. But one day,” Remus shrugged, “well, even the Boy Who Lived will die sometime. Until then, don’t begrudge him his life. He’s worked hard for it, and so have a lot of other people, ourselves included. Let his moon shine for awhile.”

After a moment’s silence, James straightened and wiped his face. “That speech is better when I do it,” he declared, but smiled at Remus. “Thanks.”

The train jerked suddenly, and Remus lost his balance, Sirius catching him as he fell and pulling him down on the seat. “Where are we going?” Remus asked, and the others shrugged. They were young suddenly, like they had the first time Remus had seen them, at the start of First Year.

James jumped to his feet, his grief over losing Harry again apparently forgotten. “I’m going to find the snack trolley,” he announced. Even though he looked like a child again, Remus still found it odd to hear James’ familiar baritone replaced with the nearly forgotten higher-pitch of childhood. For a dizzying moment Remus felt like he really was on his way to Hogwarts for the first time. Then James turned and offered his hand to Lily, who smiled and accepted it without a single insult or hex. Seeing young Lily getting along with James was possibly the most surreal thing yet, Remus thought. Then James opened the compartment door and stepped into the passageway, paused, and called to them, “You two may want to get out here,” and Remus realized that there was still more strangeness to come.

Remus and Sirius followed James and Lily into the passage. In front of their compartment it looked like the Hogwarts Express, but a few yards to each side the train hallway blurred and wavered, and past the blurriness were paths that branched outward, apparently not bothered by the fact that the side of the train should be there.

“That’s the road to my house,” Lily said, pointing at a paved road to their left, lined with houses.

“And that’s my front door,” James added, pointing to the path next to Lily’s, leading to a large white house with a dark wood door.

“That’s my house,” Remus said, looking to the right, “and Grimmauld Place.” His childhood home looked bright and welcoming, with flowers blooming in the garden and the yard slightly overgrown. Number 12 Grimmauld Place had been restored to its former glory, exuding elegance and wealth, and sat alone on the street.

“I’m not going there,” Sirius said, and now he was the haughty sixteen-year-old who had run away from home. He squeezed Remus’ hand. “I’ll go say hello the Potters. You don’t mind, right Prongs?”

“My parents are your parents,” James answered. The two boys headed off together, and Lily and Remus went their respective ways as well.

The second he stepped on the path to his front door, it was as if his life, his death, all fell away, and he was a child, running inside to tell his parents about his day. His father picked him up and tossed him in the air while Remus squealed, and he heard his mother good-naturedly scolding them both. He was home.

His father handed him to his mother, who hugged him tightly. “Oh, Remus, we’re so proud of you. I’m so sorry you had to go through all of that alone.”

“I survived,” Remus said, and laughed as he realized the absurdity of that statement. The laugh came out as giggles, and the sound so surprised him that he giggled harder, laughing uncontrollable as his parents joined in. It took him several minutes to settle down, gasping for breath and tears on his cheeks, but finally he was quiet, leaning against his mother as his father rubbed his back. “I missed you,” Remus whispered.

“I know, baby,” his mother cooed. “But you’re home now.”

Remus nodded and closed his eyes, content to just feel. When he opened his eyes again he was lying on the couch, covered with a blanket. As he sat up, he realized he was an adult again, and wondered how long it would take to control the age shifts. He stood and headed to the kitchen, where his parents were sitting at the table talking. They stood as he entered, and he hugged them both. His mother fussed over him and his father brought him a drink, and they sat around the table.

“Tell us everything,” his mother said.

“Couldn’t you see?”

“Yes,” his father said, “but we want to hear it from you.”

Remus shook his head, remembering the long years alone, scrounging for work. “I’d rather not. I just want to forget.”

“Wasn’t there anything good?” his mother asked. “Was it all so painful that you wish you’d died years ago?”

Remus stared into his drink. “No. There was good.” He thought for a minute. “I suppose the best place to start is with the most recent. Would you like to hear about your grandson, and how he managed to spit up on me three times before he was even twenty-four hours old?” Remus regaled his parents with stories of Teddy and Dora, relaxing as more good memories came to him, strangely separated from the grief, worry, and hardship that had tainted them throughout so much of his life.

They talked for hours, eating a delicious dinner of all of Remus’ old favorites, before his father declared it was time for bed. Remus was not at all tired, but then he hadn’t been hungry until the food had been put in front of him, so he obeyed, kissing his parents good night and heading up the stairs to his old room, wondering if he’d be a child or adult when he got there. He paused by the window in the hallway, looking out. The yard was dark, the moon half-full. He thought he could see, sandwiched between his reflection and the yard, a town, houses flickering past, barely distinguishable in the night except for a few lights still on. After watching for a minute or two, he resolved to think about it later, and went to his room.

He was not surprised when he opened the door and saw, not his bedroom, but the flat he’d shared with Sirius. He stepped in, and there was Sirius, sitting upside down on the old plaid sofa, with his feet flung over the back and his head pointing towards the floor. The wireless was playing a song that had been popular when they were students, and Remus laughed as Sirius yelled “Moony!” and tried to get to his feet, only to lose his balance and end up sprawled across the floor.

“Hello Padfoot. Miss me?”

Sirius got to his feet, looking offended. “I did, but then you laughed at me and now I think I’m better off without you.”

“You don’t mean it,” Remus said, walking over to him and kissing him lightly.

“Hmm. Convince me.”

Remus smiled, pulling Sirius into his arms and devoting himself to kissing his lover thoroughly. I could spend eternity like this, he thought. Sirius, of course, could not, and soon his hands were moving purposefully over Remus’ body and under his clothes. “Want to see if the bedroom’s how we left it?” Sirius asked.

“Love to.”
~~~~
“I saw Regulus,” Sirius said, fingers drawing lines over Remus’ bare back.

“Hmm,” Remus answered, turning his head to peer at Sirius through his hair. “How was he?”

Sirius shrugged. “Obnoxious, arrogant, rude. Yelled at me for mistreating Kreacher. Told me that no matter how bad his mistakes were, at least he’d had the decency to die early because of them instead of prolonging the misery and fixing nothing. Bastard. We hexed each other a few times. Hexes work here, but they don’t last long. Don’t hurt much either. Just kind of uncomfortable. Then Reg said I should come home and see our parents. I told him not to be stupid, and he said he couldn’t help it, it ran in the family.” Sirius sighed. “So I hugged him and mussed up his hair, and promised I’d stop by sometime, but if Mum starts screeching at me, I’ll hex her mouth shut. And he said we should have lunch sometime at the Leaky Cauldron, and I should bring my friends, because he was curious to meet anyone who could stand my company for more than ten minutes.”

Remus blinked at him. “We’re having lunch with Regulus?”

“Eventually. No one really sets times for anything here. Things just happen when you’re ready for them to happen.”

“Oh.” Remus considered this. “I’m not ready for that to happen.” He sat up. “I am ready for ice cream. Let’s go to Fortescue’s.”

Diagon Alley, it turned out, was right outside their door. Sirius grumbled that if this kept up, he’d never have a chance to ride his bike, but Remus felt confident that if Sirius wanted to ride, he’d find a road or a patch of sky waiting for him. They walked hand in hand down the Alley, and no one said anything, no one even gave them a second look. At the ice cream parlor they found Fortescue sitting outside telling stories to children, their favorite ice cream flavors sitting on the counter, and an auburn-haired man waving to them from one of the tables. They took their ice cream over to the man and his blond companion, and when they got closer Sirius blurted “Dumbledore?”

“Yes, of course.” He stroked his beard, short and without a strand of gray, and smiled. “May I introduce my dear friend Gellert? Gellert, these are two of my brightest, and most troublesome, students, Sirius and Remus.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Gellert said as Sirius and Remus sat. Remus heard a baby cry and peered around the table to see a stroller, the baby hidden from view.

“You’ve adopted?” Sirius asked.

“In a way,” Dumbledore said. “It is more of an experiment.”

Sirius and Remus frowned disapprovingly. “You’re experimenting on a baby,” Remus repeated.

Dumbledore chuckled, but Gellert answered. “It is commonly believed that what occurs after death depends on what you did before dying. You are punished or rewarded depending on the state of your soul. Death is stagnant. Once you cease to live, you cease to grow, to learn. We wish to discover if this is true, or if one can repent and reform even after death.”

“It is a joy,” Dumbledore said, “to have my youth again, to see my family and friends, to have the world spread out before me and nothing to keep me from exploring all its wonders, but how dull it will be if I have the secrets of the world at my fingertips, but cannot learn them. What is the point of every day joys and sorrows if we are not changed by them? Why have friends if they do not make us better people, if our relationships do not grow? Why meet with old enemies if we cannot at last learn to set aside that enmity? No,” he shook his head, “I cannot believe that we must stay how we were. This is not death, gentlemen, but a new life, and we would be fools to let the opportunity pass us by, to content ourselves only with those friends and habits that filled our days when we walked the earth.”

“We’re still on the train,” Remus murmured, gazing at the window of the Quidditch supply shop across the street. He could see the reflections of people walking past, but instead of the inside of the shop, behind the reflections scenery flashed past. “We can’t stop moving. Where are we going?”

Dumbledore smiled and took a bite of his ice cream. “The greatest mystery of all. But enough of the speeches. I suspect you had your fill of them some time ago. How has death been treating you two?”

Sirius stabbed at his ice cream with his spoon. “I’m going to visit my parents,” he grumbled, apparently swayed by Dumbledore’s speech, “soon. Today. After I’ve finished my ice cream and snogged Remus behind the bookshop.”

“Sirius!”

“What? It’s where we first kissed, remember? And I need the moral support.”

Remus was blushing. “You don’t have to announce it like that.”

Sirius grinned unrepentedly. “They don’t care, right Dumbledore?”

“Call me Albus, and no. Gellert and I would be the last people to disapprove.”

Gellert grinned and leaned back in his chair as Sirius crowed “I knew it!” and Remus stared in shock.

“But we must be on our way,” Gellert said, standing. “We have our own amends to make before we can move forward.”

Dumbledore stood as well, saying goodbye to Remus and Sirius and heading off down the street, unselfconsciously pushing the stroller with its crying baby.

“You realize,” Remus pointed out, “that if you are going to try to fix your many mistakes and damaged relationships, you’ll have to be nice to Severus?”

Sirius groaned. “Please, Moony. Let me get through the meeting with my parents before you threaten me with Snivellus.” Remus glared, and Sirius sighed. “Snape. Before you threaten me with Snape.”

Remus patted Sirius on the head. “Good boy. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

They finished their ice cream and headed on their way, making plans to visit all their old friends, visit foreign places they’d always talked about, and do all their old favorite activities and all the things they’d always meant to do. Pausing to watch a forest zoom past in the window of one of the shops, Remus leaned into Sirius’ embrace. He’d always thought eternity would be frightening, but now that he was faced with it, it was exciting.

“And if we screw up again,” Sirius said, “we’ll have forever to put things right.”

“No,” Remus said. “If we screw up, we’ll have now to put things right.” He smiled up at Sirius. “No point wasting forever with procrastinations and regrets, after all.”

Sirius tightened his arms around Remus. “Yeah.” Behind them they heard James and Lily calling. Remus knew they’d all accompany Sirius to Grimmauld Place, defending and supporting him if he needed it, and encouraging and rejoicing if, miracle of miracles, the other Blacks had changed enough to welcome their son home.

“Do you think there is a destination?” Remus asked. “Is there a last stop?”

“I think the train stops when we do, when we’re ready,” Lily said as she and James joined them at the window.

“I think it stops when we reach the real heaven,” James said, “the one with harps and haloes and stuff.”

“I think,” Sirius said, “that I wasted enough of my life standing still. Let’s go.” He draped his arms around Remus’ and James’ shoulders and pulled them along the street, Lily laughing as she pulled James’ free arm around her shoulders, and the four quickly fell in step, grinning as they went to explore the futures they’d never got.