Work Text:
Friday, May 31st, 2013
Sirius fiddled with his ear lobe as he stared at the stone wall. Up until a year ago, a scythe earring had dangled from it. The earring, along with the knife pendant hanging from his neck, had been missed when the guards had searched him over eleven years ago and confiscated every other piece of jewelry. Perks of the Mist.
The scythe he had lost last year in what, at the time, had felt like a fever dream. At first he had thought he was dreaming, seeing James as he’d been back in their first years at Hogwarts. But James didn’t have bright green eyes.
Harry had looked at him, scared for his life with a man standing just behind him, pointing his wand at Sirius’ godson’s back. Stuck in Azkaban, there wasn’t much Sirius could do, so he had dropped the earring in Harry’s pocket.
When he had come back to himself in Azkaban, the earring had been gone, missing for the first time since Sirius had gotten it when he was fourteen. There hadn’t been any whispers of anything bad happening to Harry Potter, so Sirius hoped he had helped.
Sirius leaned back on his mattress to stare up at the ceiling. It wasn’t really a mattress though, more a thin mat, barely anything to protect him from the cold, stone floor.
The stones on the ceiling weren’t any different than the ones on the wall or the floor. They were the same drag gray, cracking rock. Sirius was convinced he would die of boredom before they found Pettigrew.
He closed his eyes. Maybe he’d be able to sleep. If only he could ignore the screams of the other prisoners.
“Sirius!”
Sirius jerked up, banging his forehead against something hard..
“Dad?”
Thanatos was leaning over Sirius, not the slightest bit moved by the fact that his son had just head butted him.
“We must hurry.”
“What?” Sirius asked. He rubbed his forehead as he sat the rest of the way up. “Dad, what’s going on?”
“Harry’s dying,” Thanatos said. He reached out and grabbed Sirius’ freezing cold hands. “There’s no time. I cannot interfere directly, but you can. You must force him to hold on until help can arrive.”
Sirius had no time to ask what in the name of Lord Hades his father was talking about. Between one blink and the next, Sirius was no longer viewing the walls of his cell. He could still feel warmth on his hands, his father’s hands still gripping his own tightly, but Sirius couldn’t see them.
Instead, he saw his own hands, but years younger, the calluses from years of touching nothing but stone were gone. The stem of red spider lilies tattooed on the side of his forearm, his only colored tattoo, was bright and fresh again, like when he’d just gotten them after Harry’s birth.
He was in a giant cavern. The corpse of a giant snake lay on the floor just a few yards from him. Sirius was more concerned with what, who, lay in front of what must have been a basilisk. A teenager was in between Harry and Sirius, saying something, but Sirius couldn’t hear him. He rushed to Harry’s side and collapsed next to him.
As Sirius watched, Harry’s soul separated from his body, ready to float away to the Underworld.
“Hold on, Prongslet.”
He reached out and grabbed onto Harry’s hands, clenching tight around Harry’s ghostly hands.
“Sirius? Am I dead?”
Harry was looking between Sirius and his physical body, still too in shock to be scared.
“Not yet,” Sirius said. “But you will be soon. You have to hold on till help can get here.”
Already, Sirius could feel Harry’s soul trying to break free, trying to move on. He held on tighter, refusing to let go. Already, he could feel the strain of trying to hold back Harry. It wasn’t natural for a soul to remain on Earth after death. Holding Harry on Earth was keeping almost all of Sirius’ strength.
“How are you here?” Harry asked, staring up at Sirius. “What’s happening?”
“Thanatos came to me in Azkaban,” Sirius said. “He told me you were going to die. When I performed the ritual to keep you safe from Voldemort, I left a piece of myself inside you, not my soul, but a part of the godly power that makes me a demigod.”
“So not a horcrux?” Harry asked.
“No,” Sirius said, shaking his head. “More like the godly essence that ran through me, but it can never fully detach from me. It left us connected. It’s allowing me to be here with you now. It’s what’s letting me hold your soul back from journeying to the Underworld.”
“You can’t hold it forever.”
Harry’s form flickered even as he spoke, and Sirius gripped on tighter.
“You’ll have to let me go,” Harry continued. “You’ll have to let me go. Will you tell dad I love him? And I’m sorry.”
Sirius could feel sweat dripping down his forehead, but he wasn’t sure if it was on his physical body or this metaphysical one. He reached out and wrapped his arms around Harry’s spirit. Harry rested his head against Sirius’ chest. A jolt of power filled Sirius, and Sirius recognized Thanatos’ cold but comforting powers.
“I can hold you long enough,” Sirius promised.
In the physical world, a phoenix was landing next to Harry’s body. It bent its head over Harry’s blood-soaked arm.
“Watch,” Sirius said.
Harry’s form stopped flickering as the both watched the phoenix cry onto Harry’s wound.
“I love you.” Sirius let go of Harry’s spirit, releasing him. “And don’t forget.”
He fingered the scythe earring that was hanging from its usual place along with all the other piercings that were back in place in his ears. He watched Harry reach into his own pocket before his spirit was sucked back into his physical body.
Between one blink and the next, Sirius was no longer viewing the walls of the cavern.
He was back in his cell, his father smiling at him.
“You did it, Sirius.”
Sirius nodded. He glanced at the tattoo on his arm where the red had entirely faded from the spider lilies.
Harry’s tattoo.
“That’s twice now,” Sirius said.
He looked at Thanatos, and the god of death was no longer smiling.
“I can’t take this anymore, Dad.” Sirius lay carefully back down. “What’s the chance Harry survives next time? And I can’t even help at all with the others. What if Percy dies before I get out?”
“I wish I could help you, Sirius.”
Thanatos laid a gentle hand on Sirius’ shoulder, and Sirius let his head flop to the side.
“I need to get out of here.”