"The first thing you have to understand about the Veil is that it isn't a veil."
"If it isn't a veil, then what is it?"
"It doesn't matter what it is. It just isn't a veil."
"Why not?"
"Stop asking questions. Do you want to know the story or not?"
"Sorry."
"That's quite alright."
An old man and a young boy sat on a large rock in the middle of a green forest. A paper bag containing sandwiches sat in between them. The boy kept glancing at it hungrily (in his opinion, it had been quite a while since breakfast), but the old man seemed unaware of its existence.
"So do you understand that the Veil isn't a veil?"
"Yes," the boy said, beginning to get impatient.
"What is the Veil?"
"Erm…not a veil?"
"Well done. And why isn't it a veil?"
"I don't know, you wouldn't tell me!"
The old man chuckled. "Quite right. Alright, so you want to hear the story of the Veil?"
"Yes!" The boy exclaimed. He was being rather impertinent, and by now his mother would have sent him to bed without supper, but the old man seemed more amused than annoyed. At least, the boy thought so. His long white beard hid his smile, but, if one looked closely, they would see the twinkle in his eye.
"Very well then. Do you see the Veil? The archway in the centre of the clearing?"
The boy wondered how he couldn't. He had been staring at it in wonder for the past ten minutes, and straining his ears to understand the whispering that he could hear coming from it.
"Yes, I see it."
"Well, that archway wasn't always here. It has been moved around from place to place since to dawn of time. At least, that's what the rumours don't know where it came from originally. There are many places around the world like it; they don't look like veils, though. But they do the same thing."
The boy interrupted at this point. "What does it do?" His eyes were wide, and he had completely forgotten the sandwiches.
"Patience, young Romulus. We will get to that soon enough.
"The Veil was strongly magical, and, out of fear that it was dangerous, the ministry seized it. This was about the time of the First Great War, and, as their resources were tied up fighting Lord Voldemort, they sent it into a secure room in the Department of Mysteries.
"After a few years, the war was won, temporarily of course. As the false peace followed, the Veil was investigated. No one could work out its secrets; in fact, very few people were willing to try once they had seen it. It seemed to intimidate people.
"Three people were sent to walk through the Veil before the Second Great War. Only two came out the other side."
"What happened to the other one?" Romulus asked. The old man smiled.
"The ministry never found out, and probably never will. But I'll tell you later; that is the second part of my story.
"At the start of the Second Great War, there was a battle in the Department of Mysteries. Eventually, the fight was taken into the room with the veil. In this fight was Sirius Black."
Romulus let out a small gasp. He had, of course, heard the tales of the War, and Sirius had become a sort of idol for the boy. He always wanted to hear about Sirius, although the tales his family would tell him always stopped short of his hero's death.
"Did he die?" He asked, in a hushed voice. The old man nodded gravely.
"In a way. He got hit with a spell and fell through the Veil. Harry Potter, his godson, wanted to go after him, but he was held back."
"Would Harry Potter have died too?"
"No. Harry would have been like the other two, and would have passed right through and come out safe and sound the other side."
"Why?"
"It will become clearer when I explain what happens when you pass through the Veil."
"Can you explain it now? Please?"
"I'm getting there. Now, the Veil, and the other areas like it, is actually a rift between this world and the spirit world. It's the reason why we have ghosts. When you die, you cross the void and go to the other side, but ghosts choose to come back through into the world of the living.
"The same is in reverse. When you physically walk through the Veil, you head to a world of spirits. But you can't see the spirits, so it just looks like you spend your time walking in a wasteland. Your only company is the other people like you."
"You sound as though you've been there."
"I'm one of the rare few who have known someone who's gone there. I think I might be the only person in the world to have spoken to them after they've come back."
"Who was it?" Romulus's eyes were wide open with reverence. "Who was it, Grandfather Teddy?"
Teddy looked at his grandson gravely. "It was my father, who went in search of his lover after my mother died."
"Who was his lover?"
"Sirius Black."