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SIYE Time:18:26 on 28th March 2024
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The Veil
By Mutt N Feathers

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Category: Post-OotP, Holidays
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Drama
Warnings: Death
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 113
Summary: In the fall of 1996 Harry finds a book about the ancient holidays just before Samhain, or what has become Hallowe'en. Tradition says communication with the dead is possible. Harry enlists Ginny to help him find out if its true.
Hitcount: Story Total: 59010; Chapter Total: 2750
Awards: View Trophy Room






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Chapter 4:

Lily listened intently to what the goddess was saying to her. The story surprised and frightened her.

“Did you just say that James isn’t gone either?”

“Yes,” the goddess replied.

“But he was murdered before me.”

“We know, and my counterpart is with him as we speak. Your love, like that of his parents, was not only rooted in affection and commitment for one another; but also, in a concern for the greater good. The two of you shared this in life, and because of it, you were rewarded in your death. Unfortunately, that means your work on the earthly plane is not done.”

“Harry?”

“Yes, Harry,” the goddess said with an air of seriousness. “Voldemort, Tom Riddle is his real name, he persists in his desire to murder your son. The boy has done miraculously in his ability to defend himself, but defence is not enough. I fear he will not have enough time to adequately prepare himself before Tom will strike again. Forces are amassing on the side of darkness, and we must secure our legions as well. There are only days until the veil will be thin enough for the others to join us.”

“Others, what others?” Lily asked quickly. “You said James wasn’t gone, not really. Who else has died?”

“James has been with his parents these many years. Elizabeth and Reginald Potter will be restored, at least temporarily, as well. Sirius Black will also be returned to this plane, for his falling through The Veil housed in the Ministry of Magic didn’t kill him, only displace him.”

Lily’s heart began to race, and worry thrummed through every cell in her body. “If Harry hasn’t been with Sirius all these years, then who raised my son?” The goddess hesitated. “Tell me who raised my boy!”

“He was taken to the only remaining biological family he had,” the elder spirit said softly. “Petunia raised him.”

Lily looked around the room at the destruction, and her vision went blurry through her tears. She squeezed her son’s Griffin tighter. “Please, tell me she loved and cared for him? I know she hated that I was a witch and was so wretchedly green with envy, but she didn’t hold that against my boy. Please, tell me they raised Dudley and Harry as brothers.”

“I wish —”
“Wait, what about Anwen, Sirius’ girlfriend. Why didn’t she raise Harry? Our will specifically said he was to be with them in the event we died.” The goddess shook her head.

“Are any of us left living?” Lily whispered defeatedly, waiting to hear that no one in their circle had lived.

“Remus is still alive,” the goddess said, alighting hope within Lily again. “Harry is close to him, now. There is one other who remains among the living.”

“Who?” Lily said with an expectant tone.

“Peter Pettigrew is alive.”

“How? How did he survive all these years? Sirius knew he was the Secret-Keeper, he’s the one who suggested it. He hoped to draw Voldemort’s attention, therefore keeping Peter, and by extension us, safe. How did the Death Eaters find out it was him?”

“Peter was already a follower of Tom’s by then. You unwittingly led Voldemort to your door.”

“Oh, lord, no,” Lily said before she began to weep. The goddess opened her arms to hold the girl. Lily cried for all that had been lost, the mistakes they’d made, the time which had passed her by. She was still in the throes of her tearful release when a sound came from the area of the front door. She’d already been told that only magical folks could even see the house, although they could not approach. Who was coming in? She hoped it was Remus, for she needed a friend right now.

“Lily,” the man said, and she lifted her watery eyes.

“James,” she uttered back before he was upon her and holding her in a tight embrace.

*****

“He made it through,” Sirius thought a bit stunned. They’d tried so many times to go back through the Veil, him especially after he’d accidentally fallen through. He had hated his cousin before this, but now he felt a burning passion of hatred for her that he could express only in terms of a roiling volcano on the cusp of spewing hot ash, magma, and rock about the landscape. When he was first on the run, after Harry had freed him from Azkaban, he’d gone to the Hawaii to recuperate and heal. He’d spent an entire day watching the lava flow from the red gashes among the stones and into the sea. The boiling, sizzling, steaming conjunction perfectly personified everything going on inside of him.

Only Remus knew exactly what his years in Azkaban had done to him — physically, psychologically, and emotionally. Initially, he was ignored by his captors, he was a traitor and murderer in their eyes. For weeks at a time, no one would speak to him, just shoved his food through the bars. Yes, the Dementors would patrol the halls, but he’d merely switch to Padfoot and remain that way until they were gone. He spent this time building up his muscles and strength, something he’d not done when he had his wand. When his moment came for escape, he was determined to be prepared for it.

That all changed about five years before he’d ultimately escaped. Suddenly he had visitors, and they weren’t people he wanted to see. Family members, former Death Eaters, others with hatred in their souls. They came to see him, curse him, and the once conscious staff of Azkaban let it happen. Oddly, he’d be tortured to the point of near death, and then allowed to heal. When the Muggle style torture began, he prayed for death. When he realized Peter was still alive — from a discarded Daily Prophet no less — it gave his life meaning again. The physical strength he’d built up needed to be cast aside, quickly. Harry was in danger. It wasn’t hard to do, he stopped his exercise routine; it was getting harder to do anyway since the prison officials were now starving him.

His most prominent blow came from the news of HER; he never spoke her name aloud for the pain. He didn’t find out about her death until he’d been in for five years. When Dumbledore had taken Harry from him, he assumed it was to take the child to her. The plan was that they’d raise Harry together. All the years she’d not come, he believed it was because she was in hiding. He only mourned her when he was changed into Padfoot, as showing any emotion would have given others ammunition to taunt him with. He’d only admitted to Elizabeth that returning to life outside of Azkaban without her was comparably desolate as the years he was ignored. When he first fell through, he searched for her in limbo; but like Lily, she was nowhere. Lily had come back to life by some miraculous magic and a gift of the goddess; perhaps she would too. Then again, she’d believed in more than just what happened here on earth; she believed in heaven. Maybe she was there.

“Sirius, are you all right, dear?” Elizabeth asked him.

“Yeah, glad James was able to go to Lily.” Sirius had turned away from her because Elizabeth Potter could read his face the same way someone with Occlumency skills could read his mind. He didn’t want her to see the pain and loss he was sure his eyes betrayed. “They have work to do to take care of —”

“I know all of that,” she said before she turned him to look at her. “I also know you were hoping we’d hear something of An–”

“Don’t say her name, please,” he begged. “I hoped…”

“Oh, my boy,” Elizabeth said, wrapping her arms around his middle as he was too tall for the petite woman to comfortably reach to his neck. He was a foot taller than her. “I’m sure if she could, she would be here with you. It gave me such joy to know both my boys had fallen in love with such brilliant women. Someday, I do believe that.”

Sirius wasn’t sure if he believed her, but he whispered in her ear as he bent down to take comfort in her hug, “Thanks, Mum.”

“Elizabeth, Sirius, come look. He found her, and the goddess is with them.”

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