~`~ Wip Wednesday ~`~
The first time Sirius saw a dead body, it lay motionless in an ornately decorated casket at the altar of the village church in which his father was the preacher. The casket was wrought with winding vines and elaborate decorations gilded in touches of gold that made it look as though it was meant to be a permanent fixture upon the altar, a thing to be worshipped along side the crucifix and the man nailed upon it. The inside of the coffin was equally as ornate, full of beautiful white velvets and satins. It looked more comfortable than Sirius's own bed at Grimmauld Place, the manor at the top of the hill. What lay within was formerly a man. His uncle, once, to be precise.
Sirius found it difficult to see anything in the casket but his uncle. He stood, flanked by his tall, sharp-featured mother on one side, and his younger brother, saturnine as always, on the other, and watched his uncle Alphard’s hands clasped serenely over his stomach, as though patiently waiting. His hands seemed, as waxy and translucent as they were, perpetually at the brink of motion.
(This is a snippet of my Creature Fest fic 😌 for Marauders Creature Fest)