Chapter Text
When Sirius fell, it happened at a snail's pace and within a heartbeat at the same time. Callisia couldn't stop it; she had only been a step behind, a hairsbreadth away.
The fighting had led to people being scattered across the chamber, all drawn into their own duels Members of the Order fought Death eaters, many had fallen to jinks and hexes. Nymphadora was laying at the bottom of the dais steps, Dolohov was stuck under a Full Body-Bind curse, a masked death eater was still clutching their face from where Neville had jabbed Hermione's wand into his eye, Mad-eye was still unconscious from the effects of Dolohov's Impediment Jinx. Kingsley was still active, dueling another Death Eater across the chamber and Lupin had drawn Lucius Malfoy's attention onto himself; ordering the two remaining teenagers to get back to the others from the D.A and leave.
Callisia and Neville tried to get out, truly they did try to do as Lupin said. But as they were making their way across the chamber, dodging spell streams and curses, the prophecy fell from Neville's pocket when he hadn't been able to stay still under the effect of a Dancing Feet Spell and it shattered on the floor with a crash that seemed to be louder then the shouts and spell blasts. Both fifteen year olds could only stare at the shattered glass and dissipating mist that had previously whispered a prophecy.
Now there was no way for the Death Eaters to gain possession of it, so there was no way it would fall into Voldemort's hands. One less worry.
Dumbledore appeared then, each line of his face carved with a fury that was unfamiliar on someone that usually seemed so grandfatherly. The great wizard held his wand aloft as he charged straight past Callisia and Neville, heading directly into the fray. The reaction of the Death Eaters upon noticing the headmaster's arrival were reactions of shock that quickly turned to fear as they attempted to flee his path and escape his sights. One Death Eater, face obscured by a mask, attempted to flee up the chamber wall; Dumbledore blocked his path with a deft flick of his wand.
The battle felt like it was over now that Dumbledore had arrived and the Death Eaters were more concerned with attempting to escape the old man's wrath then facing him. Even the one that Kingsley had been fighting had become more interested in getting out of the chamber then winning their duel.
Only two people were still battling. Bellatrix and Sirius. The cousins gave no indication that they had even noticed the change in the chamber's atmosphere that came with Dumbledore's furious presence. The cousins were evenly matched it seemed, neither one appearing to have the continuous upper hand over the other as the tide of the battle was in a constant swing.
Sirius was laughing, taunting his cousin with each duck and dodge he managed as Bellatrix grew more furious with each joke and taunt the son of House Black laughed over at her expense. He ducked a jet of red light, still laughing, still taunting. "Come on," He called over to his duelling foe, the smile on his face wasn't mirrored back at him as Bellatrix snarled like a rabid wolf. Sirius' voice echoed through the cavernous chamber. "You can do better then that!"
Another spell, silent and precise, aimed directly at Sirius' chest. He didn't manage to dodge this time. Callisia watched as a jet of dark orange light hit her godfather in the centre of his chest, she watched as his face went still, laughter dying on his lips yet the mirth hadn't quiet faded from his face as his eyes widened in shock. Callisia let go of Neville as a silence covered the chamber, no more laughter bouncing off the walls, no mare taunts echoing across the chamber, just silence.
Callisia didn't notice Dumbledore also turning to look at the dais as she watched Sirius with shock and partial fear. It felt like he was falling slowly, like even gravity was trying to stop his trajectory but failed in the end. He fell gracefully, like someone willingly sinking into water, only it was water that he fell into and there was no splash to follow the fall.
Callisia didn't realise that she was moving under she was closer to the dais, close enough to see Sirius's face more clearly. Callisia saw the mixture of surprise and fear on her godfather's face as he fell into the ancient doorway. The veil seemed to catch him as he fell, cradling him as he sunk deeper into its hold, passing through the magic that so many great witches and wizards studied religiously but still struggled to truly understand.
"Grab her!" Dumbledore yelled unable to reach his student as she ran up the steps of the dais, so close to the veil, so close to Sirius. Lupin, no longer distracted by Lucius Malfoy turned and sprinted across the room, jumping up onto the dais just in time to grab Callisia around the chest just steps away from the veil.
Callisia had been right there, reaching out to grab her godfather by the plum velvet of his waistcoat as he slipped beyond the veil and disappeared from their sight. She had been right there, she had felt the velvet brush against her fingertips, she had almost caught him. She could take another step, reach further into the veil and grab him, pull him back; he had only just fallen through, he must only be behind the curtain, she could pull him out, she could get him back.
The veil shifted at the disturbance of something passing through before fluttering back into place.
Arms wrapped around her chest, pulling her back from the doorway before she could take another step into the veil. Callisia heard Bellatrix's triumphant scream, hysterical with twisted joy that cut through the silence of the chamber. To Callisia, her scream meant nothing; Sirius had just fallen through, he would reappear any second now, fallen onto the dais floor on the other side.
He would appear on the other side at any moment, he would be fine.
He would land on the other side at any moment, falling from the doorway.
He would be on the other side of the large ancient structure, any second now.
He would appear.
He would be fine.
She would see him again and he would smile and go straight back to showing Bellatrix up in their duel.
He would be okay.
He wouldn't leave her.
He couldn't leave her too.
She couldn't lose him too.
Callisia struggled against the arms around her, she watched the veil and waited for Sirius to step back out. Nothing. The veil didn't shift or flutter, Sirius didn't step around the large stone pillars at the side. Nothing. No sign of him. Callisia struggled harder.
"SIRIUS!" Callisia screamed. It was a sound of pure untamed emotion, something that was too wild to hold in, something that was not only heard but felt deeply, the kind of shout that left an impression in the memories of those that heard it. It was more then just a shout or a scream, it was a plea, a cry of a child who didn't want to lose what little family she still had, it was mourning and refusal, it was grief and anger, longing and begging for him to come back. "Sirius!"
Callisia struggled against Remus as he tried to pull her away from the ancient doorway, her shoes slipped against the marble if the dais as she tried to get out of his hold, tried to get back to the veil so she could get to Sirius. He needed her help, she had to pull him back out, she had to. She had been right there.
Remus' voice was quiet in her ear, mournful. "There's nothing you can do, Lisia." Callisia didn't stop struggling, fighting against his hold around her, hitting her hands against his forearms to get him to let her go. Let her try. "It's-"
Callisia knew what he was going to say, 'It's too late'. But it wasn't, she could get him, she knew she could. He just had to let her go so she could try. "He just went through!" She agured, struggling in his arms as his hold got tighter around her. "We can still save him, I can get him! We can reach him!"
"It's too late, Lisia--" Remus told her, holding her to his chest as she fought against him viciously.
No. No. Callisia couldn't accept that, she wouldn't accept that. Not for Sirius. They had plans, he had made promises; there was still so much they were going to do. HE was going to be a free man one day, she was going to live with him and he was going to teach her how to make her grandmother's Dal Tadka, they were supposed to visit Patiala together to see where Euphemia had grown up, she was going to finally learn about her family heritage and he was going to tell her stories about her parents as they laughed and eat ridiculous amount of chocolate fudge cake, his favourite.
So many tomorrows, snatched away with a silent spell. Gone with a faded laugh.
And if she accepted that it was too late, if she accepted that there was nothing she could do, if she didn't try, then what?
All those plans and all those promises disappear; taken away before they ever got close to happening. It wasn't fair. Sirius deserved more then just acceptance of things being unchangable. She had to try, she had to attempt to save him before giving up, he deserved that ad so much more. So many people had failed him before, accepted that what had happened couldn't be changed, Callisia wouldn't be one of those people. She wasn't going to just give up.
Callisia hit against Remus arm hard, finger nail scratching into his skin as she tried to peel his arms off of her. Remus held tight, Callisia was vaguely aware of the fact that he too was crying, tears feeling onto her hair as he held her against his shaking chest. "Let me go! I can still save him!" She told him, scratching against the back of his hands, trying to move his grip off of her. "He's only just gone through, Remus, I can save him. I know I can."
Remus held her tighter still. So tight that it was hard to breath, or maybe it was Callisia's own emotional turmoil that made it hard for her to breath. Remus had stopped trying to pull her away, they now stood on the edge of the dais, only a dozen or so feel from where Sirius had last stood, from the veil that had taken him from them.
Time meant nothing under the long shadow of grief and loss. What had happened and what was happening meant nothing yet it all seemed to twist together into a muddle of sounds and feelings, action and reactions. Nothing seemed important anymore. Only Sirius, only the echo of his laugh, the memory of his smile, was distinguishable from the blurred of her mind.
Remus ignored the scratched across his skin, ignoring the hits against his arms. "It's too late, Callisia." He whispered, his voice thick with his own grief of the loss of the last of his friends. "There's nothing you can do; He's gone. He's gone."
Callisia stopped fighting, she stopped struggling. Because wasn't that just her lot in life. She had been right there, and yet it wasn't enough, she had been too slow, a step behind and breath away. She had been a moment away yet too late at the same time. Just like with Cedric, she had been right there, she had known something wasn't right but she hadn't acted in time; she had also been too late and Cedric had died because of it.
Nothing she could do. She wasn't a stranger to that either. She had been told that her whole life. There was never another option for her, was there? Nothing she could do but go back to the Dursleys every summer. Nothing she could do but get locked in her cupboard or her room at the slightest hint of anything abnormal. Nothing she could do but accept that everyone around her knew best. Nothing she could do but accept that other people knew more about her family, her parents then she did. Nothing she could do but to fight and struggle against, to run Voldemort, always ten steps behind. Nothing she could do but be left in the dark.
Nothing she could do but let her godfather fall. Nothing she could do but let Sirius die.
Why? Why was that? Why was there never anything she could do? Why was she never allowed to at least try? Because other people told her so? Because other people thought they knew best about what she should do? How come everyone around her got to have an opinion about what she should do and she was never asked? And even when they did ask it felt like they had an answer that they wanted from her, a response that they expected to hear and she couldn't go off script. McGonagall had asked her what occupation she had wanted in the future, Callisia had said Auror because that had felt like the expected answer; Callisia Potter, Girl-Who-Lived and saviour of the Wizarding World, grows up to become a Auror. It had sounded right, so Callisia had ignored the thought of maybe becoming a teacher or a healer, two occupations that she had considered and researched a lot in her limited spare time while Auror work hadn't even been thought that her mind had lingered on for long.
And maybe there is nothing that she can do, maybe Sirius is gone. But they don't know that, no one knows what the veil actually is, all they know is that it is ancient and that the department of mysteries had to be build around its cavernous chamber because they could move it. So there was a chance no matter how big or small that chance may be, that Sirius could be alive, that the fall through the veil may not have killed him.
Callisia was will to reach for that chance, because if she didn't at least try, then it meant giving up, it meant basically letting Sirius die when there is a chance that he could live. She had to try.
She can't stop Bellatrix's spell, it has already been cast. She can't stop Sirius from falling into the veil, that already happened. She can't change the past, she can't undo what was done, the moment to intervene in those matters has already passed, slipping by like water in a river. All Callisia had was the now and the here.
There nothing she can do until she decides there is. Inaction is ended with action not acceptable. Callisia is done accepting that there was nothing that could be done just because people tell her so. There's always a way, it might not be easy, might not be comfortable or convenient, but there is a way, as long as someone is willing to try.
Today was going to be the day that Callisia tried.
Today was going to be the day that she stopped just accepting what people told her without question.
Because today, is within her control. What she does and says, thinks and feels; it's hers to decide, hers to control. No one can take that from her, she wasn't going to allow anyone to take it from her; not anymore. She can't change what already happened, tomorrow's gone, it had slipped through her fingers before she had noticed all the things she wanted to do differently. Tomorrow is filled with possibilities and maybes, all reliant on the actions and moments of today. Here and now may be the consequence of there and then, but it is also the foundation of what will be and can be.
Today we can only live, love, do and believe.
Callisia chose to believe that she could do something, she can try and save her godfather. She understood that maybe there isn't anything she could do, maybe Sirius is actually gone, that maybe the veil is a passage way into the afterlife like so many had theorised. But maybe it isn't, maybe what people thought was wrong. Maybe Sirius was alive and in need of help. She wouldn't know unless she tried.
And she was going to try. Callisia Potter was going to try and if she did succeed then that meant she had lived up to her family name, done something so utterly Potter-like and did the impossible. Again.
She was going to save her godfather. Even if she had to bargain with death itself, she was going to get Sirius back.
Suddenly, it was as if her thoughts had altered something inside her. Suddenly she could see more, hear more, and feel more. She couldn't put it into words what was happening, it was as if time had stilled and she became connected to the world around her, as if she was connected to everything and everyone, all at once. As if the world was laid bare before her, no secrets, no lies, just what is. She could feel everything, even foot step against marble, every heart beating in the chest of Death Eaters and Order members alike, every breath of cold air that those within the chamber took. She could feel the broken glass that had once held the prophecy as the pieces lay on the stone floor, she could feel the stone arch of the Veil as the shroud fluttered almost tauntingly. She could feel the bump on the back on Neville's head, and the scratches on his arms as if the injuries were her own. She could feel the darkness in Bellatrix; a cold tar like thing, a viscous and twisted; the feel of it made Callisia's stomach churn and her skin crawl. She pushed the darkness away, and unnoticed to her Bellatrix, who had still been mid scream about her triumph of Sirius, was thrown back, colliding with the wall a distant behind her. Callisia could feel the light around her, the glowing warmth and protection that unlike the darkness didn't slowly leak and cling together but instead glowed and shines and radiated outwards, illumination the area around the people. The cavern chamber felt warmer and looked brighter because of it. Behind her, directly behind her, Callisia could feel Remus's grief, his sorrow. It was so potent now, so overwhelming among the cacophony of sounds and feelings that Callisia could truly focus on it; it was a bitter thing, a sour feeling.
Callisia could see and feel everything, in a way she hadn't been able to only a heart beat before. Everything around her, within the chamber ad beyond, it was open to her now. As if she was now a part of something that had previously been hidden from her, previously been unknown to her. Yet it felt right, as if this was the way it was meant to be, as if this was the way she was always meant to see the world and she had just never realised it.
Callisia understood what to do, she didn't know how she understood, only that apart of her that she hadn't been aware of, already knew what to do. She reached for the flow of magic that existed all around, from air and stone, from deep within herself. She reached for it, and it answered her call, responding to her wish and her desires.
Her voice was a whisper and a shout, spoken softly yet carrying across the chamber all the same. "Let go." she whispered, staring forwards, staring at the veil.
Remus was thrown back. He flew through the air and landing harshly onto the stone a few dozen feet away from the dais. Pushed back by something unseen, it hadn't been a strong and sudden gust of wind, it had been something that wasn't seen but felt, something that was old and young at the same time, something that had yet to be discovered yet had always existed. It hadn't been magic, not fully, not as they understood magic to be; it had been different, primal and powerful.
Callisia didn't hesitate once she was free from Remus' hold, she didn't linger, she didn't glance back. She just ran; ran straight towards the Veil. Towards Sirius and the unknown. She felt more people arrive in the chamber, felt their footsteps against the stone, she heard someone call her name, panicked and frightened, maybe it had Ron or maybe it had been Remus she didn't know. She felt it when Dumbledore raised his wand and aimed it at her as she neared the Veil, she felt his intention, the silent stunning spell he cast, she felt the spell move through the air, heading directly at her. If it hit her, she would go down, she wouldn't reach the veil and she would've failed Sirius. She couldn't let that happen. She waved her arm through the air at her side, she felt the spell retract and return in the direction it came, shifting intentions to her will; she didn't want to hurt the old headmaster, just make it so he couldn't try and stop her again. The spell complied and upon its return Dumbledore's wand was thrown from his hand, the headmaster's head turned in surprise, looking from his now empty hand, to the elder wand now laying feet away from him to Callisia Potter who was steps away from the Veil of Death.
Callisia was nine steps away then six, then three. Then she leapt. She expected to feel something as she leapt into the veil, expected it to feel like passing through a curtain or jumping into water. It didn't feel like that, it didn't feel like anything. It was like she had passed through an open unobstructed doorway. She kept her thoughts on Sirius, one getting to Sirius, on helping Sirius.
The place beyond the veil was dark and void, she tried to call out but her voice was unheard to even herself. There was nothing here. Then, a light; a flash so bright that it consumed the entire void. Callisia had to cover her eyes to stop herself from being blinded. and when she lowered her arm she was in awe of what she saw; the once desolate darkness was now alight with a thousand colours, trillions of stars and suns, billions of planets, millions of star systems and Callisia could see them all. She was floating in the drift of space, still and among the stars, yet she could see everything. She could see life as it began and flourished, she watched as humans and not humans came too be at different paces, she witness war and discord, peace and enlightenment, she listened as language came to be, and changed and shifted, as the old was replaced by the new and eventually forgotten, only to be rediscovered later, she watched communities become society's, become civilisations, she watched and she witnessed, everything that has happened and is happening, it happened all at once and as it had happened, Callisia watched, she watched evolution and advancement, she watched billions of years across millions of planets go by in a blink of a eye and she saw it all.
She saw everything, it passed in a blur, moment after moment, things happening at the same time in vastly different places, saw everything all at once, across a galaxy, she saw monsters and madness, violence and vengeance, she saw the cost of hatred and anger, saw the price of jealousy and the result of love and hope. She saw her own world grown and expand, saw a time when Muggles and Magical didn't live separately but came together and grew as a society, she watched the birth of a religion that took over the world, she watched as stories were twisted and misunderstood but became legends all the same, she saw the birth of a Empire and it's end, she watched the last survivors of her home world leave and sought a new home, she watched as the Terran Empire dissapeared from the galaxy like Atlantis of old. She watched the first construction of a city that would soon become all that the planet was, soon buildings would cover everything and when the people had no where left to build they would build upward, and they wouldn't stop, not when mountains became stories and the oceans dried up, not when the first cities they had build became places of horror and shadows. She watched these people grew and lived and eventually the original settlers died, leaving only stories of the old world and Callisia watched as their descendants would attempt to seek out their old empire, seeking the glory of discovery; these people would find a million other planets instead with a million other civilisations calling those places home. Colonies would form, more wars were fought and sides were picked.
She watched it all. She felt it all, every breath, every beating heart, every blade of grass, every collapsing star and everything in between; everything, everywhere all the time, she felt it as she watched it.
She watched the universe be discovered and connected watched societies join and end and come again. She watched an Order of Warriors keep peace within a galaxy constantly at war. She watched as her history became wrapped in mystery and speculation, as her people became a debated topic. She watched republics form and empires seek control, watched the galaxy fall and remake itself over and over again. Watched languages form and change and alter and switch. Watched cultured start and grow and change and end. She watched it all.
She only could watch. A silent spectator to show she couldn't understand how she was watching. Trillions and trillions of years passed yet to Callisia it felt like it all happen in a matter of seconds and not a moment more.
She watched from her place among the stars, watched as she had been until suddenly she was being dragged back, dragging into the nothingness of space. then she was falling, the vast darkness of space became a blur of colour as she felt the effects of gravity again.
She was falling, Callisia realised, she was falling from somewhere high up and she was falling quick. She didn't fall for long, soon she landed on something hard and flat, hitting something that felt wooden as it broke on impact and she was left on the ground, ground at the strength of the collision with what she can only assume was was the floor. She groaned as she rolled over to push herself up, lifting her head and looking, around to figure out just where she was. Callisia stilled as she stared up at a group of oddly dressed people, some where human and some very much weren't, looking more like they belonged to one of the alien society that the had watched come into exsistance only moments ago, and they were all looking down at her.
"What the...?" Callisia trailed off quietly, wincing at the sharp pain just behind her eyes. Her eyes darting from being to being as they all stared at her. She can definitely say she wasn't back in the Department of Mysteries anymore. Hermione was so going to kill her.