Baptism: Through the Veil

He could still see everything that was happening around him. He could feel the cold draft of the Department of Mysteries, could still feel the solid floor which he knew no longer rested beneath his feet. Yet, full comprehension of his current situation evaded him... Ruining the overall serenity of his departure.
Oddly enough, he could describe the sweeping change only as a sort of immersion. It was as if he was drowning, an eerie liquid cold spreading across his epidermis. Above him, fleshy familiar faces remained... Distorted by the strangeness he had stumbled into.

Slowly, he pivoted his head. He was submersed in some sort of navy darkness. It was wholesome, yet cold. It was uninviting, yet embracing. It was complicated and hateful and... He had never felt so uncomfortable. Sitting across the dinner table, his mother glaring at him with those disappointed black eyes was, now, comparable to a party in the Gryffindor common room.
Those memories felt warm and... Suddenly far-off. The faces of his classmates and family members seemed to be distorted just as those rippling above him, their imprints on his memory fading. He hadn't been prepared for that. His mind panicked, trying to describe the familiar situations which had just recently comforted him. His mates... He knew their names.
Yet, he found that he could no longer curve his tongue around them.

His mind sunk into blankness, similar to that which he was currently sinking through. Something didn't feel right. He continued to descend lower and lower, a pressure building on his lungs. It seemed to press everything he knew out of him. The tormented life he had so carelessly led seemed to run from him, the scars fading from his cranium. Above, the fleshy ripples started fading to gray and, within moments, he could not even remember what he had been looking at before the darkness overtook him.

He felt blurry - as though his existence, the one which he had been so sure of, was somehow no longer coherent. It felt as if all the years he had tallied upon that dismal prison wall never really counted.
Forcing his chin to meet his chest, he studied himself. He did not appear to be wearing any clothes - something which he had neither noticed until that moment nor seemed to mind. No sort of bristles or black whiskers met his chest - the facial hair which he had been sure he was sporting these days gone. The tattoos he had collected over the years seemed to lift off of him, the emptiness he seemed to be sliding through breaking down the inky components. The mistakes were erased... He felt oddly new.
It was only at that point that he began to consider shouting out for someone. Inside, however, he felt that opening his mouth would result in an invasion of water, flooding his lungs and drowning him. He would...
He would die. Gone, erased from the world he had only just recaptured. Or had he? His mind seemed to have been oblivated... There were memories no longer there that he had been sure existed in the confinement of his mind. Lifting his hand upward, he studied the pale white limb in the indeterminable light. His eyes traced the white hand, gliding over the wrist... The thumb. His orbs met knuckle and nail and everything in-between.
No longer living... It suddenly occurred to him that he could not remember his last breath... Could not remember a lot of things, in all honesty.

It was in that moment that Sirius Black accepted the fact that he was dead. And he finally felt his body hit something solid. Eyes slamming shut, a searing pain expanded across his back. He felt as though he had been falling through that damned space for years... Or maybe only moments. And he wasn't sure... He was simply happy. So happy to feel.

"Padfoot," A familiar voice, eerie and surreal, reached his ears.

Sirius' eyes opened cautiously, afraid of the pain which usually followed the lifting of eyelids underwater. Yet, no pain followed. A warm sort of light was filling the space above Sirius. He felt the softest sort of cushion beneath him, all sense of pain and unknowing leaving him.
Eyes finding his hands once more, he noticed his fingers had already woven themselves through the thick green blades of grass he laid upon. His previous thoughts seemed void and faded like the others he no longer strained to compare them to.
Sirius Black's eyes took in the scene, searching for the voice which had aroused him. He was clothed once more, he noticed... Familiar black slacks, familiar black sweater, familiar red and gold patch upon his chest...
Home, he smiled. His eyes found the owner of the voice and his heart sang.

"Mate - are you alright?"
"Yeah..." Sirius said breathlessly, taking his friend's hand and pulling him to his feet. He dusted off his pants, trying to hide his youthful smile. "I'm bloody brilliant."
James Potter smiled at his friend, "I'm happy to see you... So glad you're finally here."
Sirius nodded, looking from James to Lily, who was also bearing an elated smile.
Replying with bated breath, Sirius nodded, "I'm just happy to be home, mate."
♥


Hope you all enjoyed this one shot (: It was inspired by a homily the pastor of my church made a few months ago. I really loved this idea of heaven being more of an acceptance of death and a journey to one's true home.
♥ Caitlyn