A Family Reunited (A Teddy Lupin Afterlife Story) (Book 4)

Chapter 3: Preparation

Teddy woke almost immediately but he was momentarily blinded by white, just pure white...but soon his eyes came into focus and he found that he was standing in a perfectly clean and peacefully empty King's Cross Station.

"What am I...where am I?" he cried in bewilderment.

Then he realised after recalling what had happened; he had died. So he must have passed onto the afterlife. But what was this afterlife was his question.

He noticed he was naked and wished he had come here with some of his old clothing back home, and as he thought this, he found himself draped in white soft robes, which felt relieving.

Then he heard the moans of the weak, bloodied and crippled Voldemort...although it didn't look quite as bad as when Harry had seen him, but he was still far from any recovery.

Teddy recognised who and what he was from descriptions he was given by Harry and felt a surge of anger. He went to kick the creature in the face...but knew that even Harry would not have wanted that, so he desisted.

Voldemort wearily looked at him with curiosity at why he was spared more agony...then groaned into blindness of all else once more.

Teddy turned away before he changed his mind, and then a train pulled into view. A door opened and Teddy knew he was to board it, as he could see nothing beyond the misty station. He climbed aboard, the door swung closed and he was being taken away into the mist.

At first, he could see nothing from his compartment window, and then he saw little blotches that must have been fellow dead people, but why were they out in this limbo? But then he noticed that each blotch was being accompanied by a golden glow at least fifty yards from each one. He was immensely curious.

Soon his train slowed down to a standstill. His door opened of its own accord once more and he stepped out, jumping to the ground, since there was no platform, not even strictly speaking, a ground, just misty whiteness, a perfect limbo.

Then up ahead, he saw it. It was a door that was glowing gold in his direction and without a second thought, he made his way towards it. He was praying that Victoire was awaiting him on the other side. But he failed to consider that not only his recently dead wife was there, but also the possibility he now had to reunite with so many people from his past.

He soon reached his door and even though he could see nothing past it, but white heavenly light, he stepped through, ready for whatever awaited him.

As Teddy entered, the door closed at once and vanished. He was surprised, but then he noticed that he was not entirely in white light anymore. He was standing in the living room of his own home with cleanliness, pure warmth and heavenly colour. It had all the appearance of a dream house that not even the greatest of architects could pull off.

Then he saw sat in comfortable, soft green couches were two people. One was his wife, Victoire, smiling beautifully and radiantly, tearing up to see her husband once again. The other was a man that Teddy had never met before, but he felt sure he had seen a photo of the grinning face in its youth, it belonged to Harry's godfather and his father's best friend, Sirius Black.

"Teddy!" cried Victoire and she leapt from the couch and jumped into his arms. He burst into tears of joy. He had his wife back after a year of loneliness. And better yet, she was young and beautiful and healthy. And for the first time since his arrival, he noticed that he too looked young again. His hair had turned heart red.

Sirius smiled at them and could not believe that he was in the presence of his best friend's long lost son.

Teddy let go of Victoire, whom turned serious and sat down patting for him to sit beside her. He did so, but with Sirius' stern look, he felt he was about to be put through an intervention.