Rebirth {Marauders Era}

PROLOGUE: I'M SORRY JAMES, I FAILED

Sirius felt nothing. It was bliss...

He had felt very little pain before the green engulfed him and his eyes closed. His last thought had been: I'm sorry James, I failed. In his last moment, he had seen Harry's face contort into indescribable agony at losing the last thing that had mattered to him, and Moony's shell shocked expression as he too lost his last friend. He still had Peter, but Peter had died to them all the moment he betrayed them. Blimey, Wormy had been the first to die now hadn't he?

He imagined his friends laughing together as they sat on the express, Lily finally on James's arm, all of them eagerly awaiting their last year. Then he saw James pacing as he waited for Harry to be born, then holding Harry. And before all that, he remembered running through the forest as a dog, with a wolf and a rat and a stag. A rat. Peter Pettigrew. A bloody sneak. He should have seen it! And because he didn't...well, he ruined everything didn't he? His friends dead, his best mate dead, all because Sirius Black decided to make a rat, who ratted them out, a secret keeper. How bloody thick was he?

Then he saw the stag bowing to him, and the werewolf gazing at him serenely. He remembered this, all of these wonderful times as Moony Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

Then he remembered they were gone, all gone, through closed eyes as he drifted through the void. James and Lily, dead. Remus, shunned. Peter, a traitor, and himself a wanted man, now a dead man. But how could he be wanted if he was dead? Questions like this flitted through his mind. Then one, more of a joke really, which would have made him laugh (And he was sure James was rolling in his grave at how sadly amusing it was) had he the capability: Sirius Black, the womanizer, who had the attention of all the ladies, died single. Wow.

The world held no meaning, as Sirius Orion Black waited to find the afterlife, and live with James yet again. Then it seemed he heard a slight whisper. So that's what you then, eh? So be it. I'll let you decide what you want.

The world shook, and Sirius moaned, though he had found himself previously incapable.

Suddenly he felt as if he was being shaken. Impossible. But he was, and slowly a voice breached his ears through the void.

"Padfoot..." It whispered.

He didn't recognize it at first, but it sounded like...no, it couldn't be! It simply wasn't possible, unless he had found his way to the afterlife. It repeated itself.

It was him. Sirius felt his eyes fill with tears. James. His chest suddenly filled with air, and he gasped as he tasted the sweetness of it, with the musk of James, and the...the smell of the Hogwarts Express? That was strange.

"Prongs?" He muttered. Then he heard snickering in the background.

"Blimey, How many bottles of firewhiskey did you drink? Wake up Sirius!" Sirius knew that voice too, it was Lily. He had found them, in the afterlife. Or so he had thought before he heard two others laughing and Remus say: "Wake up Padfoot, we're here!"

He sounded so much younger and carefree. Sirius felt his heart crush in a panic. But then it hardened. Moony wasn't dead, so where was he? Neither was Peter, though he should be, he wasn't. He opened his eyes to see that first memory, all his friends surrounding him, happy and peaceful. He felt tears well in his eyes and wiped at them, making it seem like he was just rubbing his eyes.

Then he stopped. All those memories flooded from his mind and he was confused as to why he was in tears. He was with friends.

He was seventeen, he was a carefree Sirius Black. And best of all, he was a best mate again.