Chapter Text
I followed Sirius into the Veil of Death in a bid to try to get him back, dodging all attempts to stop me.
But as soon as he was in, and my fingers touched the veil, a lot happened in an instant.
It wasn't called the Veil of Death for nothing.
Sirius died instantly while me? I'm in Limbo...and a 'shadow' that rang alarm bells in my head made me know I'm before something big.
It reached out to me and took something from me. A...mutilated face I recognized. I'd know, something similar left Quirrell years ago.
Cheat me, will you? it sounded like raspy-voiced men speaking all at once. You cannot cheat death. Time will always come. and he crushed the piece of Voldemort that shrieked in indescribable agony. As for you young lady...his destiny has been foretold. He was destined to be here by malice around you and him. You cannot save.
That was to my horror.
The implications alone...my mind connected to who's invested in his death. Being a Black who's the last male heir left who has full control despite his status, the next beneficiary is me. I know that. But with both of us here...it'll go to Malfoy no doubt. Then there's me. He would have been my Legal Guardian if not for Pettigrew, and useless government. Not even a Fair Trial nor Veritaserum when Snape threatened me with it before!
They want him out of the way because of both me and the gold under his name.
But, you can choose your ending. You chose to be here. You decided your fate. Sirius Black or nothing, that you'd rather die than have no family. That is why you are here. I realized this being is Death. I have met many mortals...very few made the same choice you did. And you are a living vessel of this scammer trying to scam me of rightful dues. And like many mortals, you have a wish. An honest wish buried in your mind, but unable to comprehend for you know not by word or knowledge, yet your heart screams for it. After all...how can you know what you were made to never know, or have?
'I was made to...?'
Yes...after all, by design, you are just convenience to them as the Girl-Who-Lived. The girl who gives and gives yet gets nothing back from anyone she is forced to give to and give way to. That is what I see. And you are constantly reminded of what you are to them. Any try to deviate from their design, you are forced into guilt, made to feel bad for trying to want for yourself instead of wanting for them. Your true self holds resentment within you while you were controlled in such a manner. That only this man here lets you be...you. They didn't like that. Hence the mockery of Occlumency Lessons is simply a snowball effect.
Now I was horrified as I realized it. Those crappy lessons instead made my mind more open than closed against Him! I was deeply shaken and looked ready to puke. See?
'W-what...what...'
What can, and what should you do? You can choose. But no changing Sirius Black is dead. You managed to escape by being a living Phylactery against your will, and you have something of mine that I will take back. So what do you want?
She choked.
'Sirius complained to me about his life...that my grandparents showed him what parents should really be like to children that he realized his whole life is nothing but a dungheap of wrong. And he had a lot of time to think in prison and being a fugitive.' I choked out. 'Can the two of us have what we truly wanted? You saw what we are in our souls. Our buried honest wishes.'
Family. A warm home. Great friends. And meeting someone 'just for them' to have their own family with and have the same warm home. Most mortals wish for wealth and power but all it came to was emptiness in the end. Very few chose the ending to happiness. Very well. Time works differently here mortal. Sirius Black has already reincarnated. There are many worlds and many time periods. Souls reincarnate as a blank slate...usually. But you have something of mine you don't know you have that protects you from being wiped into a blank slate just like him, that when you go, you are still You. Will you give it back to me willingly?
'I don't know and I really don't know. Heck, I know nothing about my own family!' I spluttered out in incredulous exasperation. 'I'd never know my family has anything of yours! And again, I was made to never know so I'd die a martyr against Riddle wasn't I?!'
Death chuckled in affirmation to my exasperated outrage. 'Damnit! Dumbledore and everyone around me!! I have no idea nor knowledge, but I'll give it back whatever it is!'
Death showed me what I was using for years that I face-faulted. 'I-isn't that on sale in some magic shop somewhere? How on earth is that yours?'
Well, shall I tell you the story of three brothers who managed to cheat me by not dying on a certain day? It was over a millennia ago, I think. Death made a 'smiley mouth' appear in its shadow. So they dared to bargain with me! Insolent things...but I obliged with my own catch. One wanted to be the strongest wizard? I gave him a wand that made him powerful. Idiot bragged about having the most powerful wand in the world and he's now the most powerful and nobody and nothing can kill him. Needless to say, he made a lot of enemies and a fight over it began. He died in a week.
I thought, "Idiot! That's the obvious ending! That moron invited death another way!!"
The second brother got his wish to see and speak to his wife. But she's a ghost. A cold ghost as her body returned to earth long ago and she is sad she cannot touch, kiss and hug him. This pushed him to despair and killed himself to be with her, so that's two. well, that one's a tragedy in the making...one murdered by ambition, the other offed himself.
The third simply wants to live until his lifespan ends or die by natural causes. No murder, no poison, no accidents in the world will kill him. His wish is inherited by his descendants. And their household is given the same boon by simply having my cloak in their possession even if its stored away.
In short, nobody can cheat Death!
Your family descended from this brother that as long as they have my cloak whether they use it or not, all lived to the end of their granted lifespans or died by illness. Has third brother forgotten illness falls in the rules of 'natural causes'? it cackled. Your grandparents died of Dragon Pox as an example, a year before your parents' deaths. I believe Sirius told you that. Death reminded her. Well, they did ask for a reasonable request...so I was patient with this brother and his children. He raised his children well at least, making good life choices, a wisdom his descendants all had until their time came or illness took them. They didn't care about dying because they lived a good life that they died satisfied and ready to go with me.
You have inherited the same gift, until you and your family chose to die for each other without hesitation long before their time. Dying by murder as Betrayal brought Death to their door and in your case, chasing after Sirius into a certain-death artifact hoping to catch him in time to save him. You three effectively broke past the power of my Cloak out of Love. said Death, showing her, her parents' last night. And your father's death powered your mother's magic that powered the spell she cast on you that no evil can touch you...until Voldemort took your blood so he can touch you safely. And you chose to die trying to save your godfather and you even wished that he would have a good family in his next life as he imagined it before you wished for yourself.
Pure Love is rare in mortals. They achieve crazy things even at their own expense and they don't care as long as it protects those they hold dear. Your breed are rare while I have seen greedy, selfish and self-serving souls more. As a result, I sometimes, look the other way even if rules are broken because in the end...intent matters. Remember this well. See you again when its your true time to die.
Those were the last words of the being. And next thing I know...I'm reborn.
As a baby.