The Princess of Light

Chapter 5.39 (Behind the veil)

"Well, this is just great! Just amazingly, annoyingly peachy!" Aurora groaned, kicking the stone archway again.

From this side, the archway looked far newer and less sinister than from the other side. The archway was made of white marble and there were blooming branches of multi-coloured flowers spiralling all along the smooth, white stone.

Aurora sighed. It seemed as though the way in, was far, far easier than getting out again.

But that wasn't much of a surprise if she was right about where exactly she was at the moment.

She had been dead before. She knew what it felt like. She recognised the atmosphere on this side of the archway. The air was light and fresh, not hot, or cold...just pleasant air to breathe in.

There was no sun to cast its hot rays down on Aurora's head, no icy winds or thick rain.

There was nothing. The air was still, like the dark sky overhead.

It was night, or at least, that's what Aurora thought. She couldn't be sure because there were no stars, nor a moon anywhere to be seen. She just assumed that it worked the same way as with the living.

But despite the darkness of the sky and the missing sun, Aurora had no trouble seeing.

If anything, this world was lighter on the ground than the other one was.

Aurora hadn't even noticed the darkness at first. She had looked through the bright, white archway, to the blackness behind it and had assumed it was the veil...it wasn't until she put her hand through, that she noticed that there was, in fact, no veil at all, and that the archway was completely see-through.

She was also glad to find that the voices she had heard from the other side, hadn't approached her...

She wasn't afraid of Death, or the dead...ghosts at Hogwarts weren't scary at all...

But being among them, with no idea if she was supposed to be there or not, and without any knowledge of how the dead behaved...she'd rather they just stay away.

Aurora realised that she wasn't going to be able to go through the archway back to her own world anytime soon, and she refused to walk down the hill on which the archway stood to see what else there was. She was determined to keep a close watch on her only way out of here.

So with a sigh she sank down to sit with her back against the arch, and rested her arms on her knees while she moved her head back to rest agsinst the cold stone of the arch.

And she waited...

~~~~
Aurora had no idea how much time had passed. The sky hadn't gone any lighter, nor had there been any movement on or around the hill. Everything was as silent, still and as eerily dark as it had been when she had stumbled through the veil.

Aurora wondered if time even passed here at all. There was no need for it, after all, the things that lived here weren't going to go anywhere, so why would the whole time - space thing remain in the afterlife?

But time must've passed somewhere. If it wasn't here, than it had to be over there...because she heard a sound like the swishing of a cloak. Aurora jumped up, wand in hand and looked around in search for possible threats to her...life?

But she saw nothing. That is until she looked at the patch of grass right in front of the archway. A man was lying there wearing a light grey shirt and dark trousers. His hair was a little messy and he was still clutching a wand in his hand.

He had landed on his back so his face was clearly visible as it looked up at the dark sky with unseeing silver eyes.

"Papa?" Aurora gasped. She immediately fell down on her knees and started shaking him. "Come on, Sirius, don't be dead in the afterlife. That's such a sad waste of eternity."