Well, here is chapter 4. Huge thanks go to those who reviewed!

Silence followed their conversation, as they finished eating breakfast. It was clear though; to Remus at least, that Harry had something else he wanted to talk about. Harry however, did not know how to begin about Sirius. Remus was one of Sirius' best friends; surely it was a sore spot for him too.

"...Remus", he began, unsure of himself. "I just...um...I was wondering...the veil...what is it?" he finally managed to stammer out.

Remus' features suddenly softened. "Harry, I am not an Unspeakable, and nor do I pretend to be one. I don't know what the veil is." He said all this very softly, and as Harry looked into his eyes, he saw grief.

"You don't have any idea?" Harry pressed, though he too spoke softly. "Not even a guess?"

Remus thought about this. "I have many guesses, Harry, but that is all they are; guesses. I do know this though; the veil has captivated the minds of Unspeakables for centuries. No one knows for certain its power, what it is used for, or when it came to be about. It is one of the biggest mysteries of wizard kind."

"But then I don't understand", said Harry. "If you don't know what the veil does, how did you know that Sirius was..." he left the sentence hanging, not wanting to say it.

"I felt it", said Remus, his voice cracking. "In here", he continued, patting his chest. "I can't explain it better then that, but when it happened, I just knew." Remus now had tears down his face, and Harry realized, perhaps for the first time, that Remus had no one left. He had now lost James Potter and Sirius Black, his two best friends, and the last friend he had left was fighting for the forces of evil.

He hasn't lost everyone though, thought Harry, he still has me. Harry wanted to say something to Remus, something to show him how much he appreciated how Remus looked after him.

"Sirius..." Harry began. It hurt to say his name, but he continued anyway. "Sirius was like a brother to me, Remus. He was always there. Always. And lately I've been thinking about what you are to me. I only just decided." Here Harry took a deep breath before continuing. "You're always looking after me, helping me. I don't think you realize how much I appreciate it, but I do. You're like a father to me Remus", he finished, tears running down his face and his voice cracking

Harry spent a very comfortable couple of weeks in Grimmauld Place. Remus, it turned out, was an incredibly fun person to be around. He always had something new and exciting planned, and Harry suspected that was due to him once having been a marauder.

Not only was Remus good at having fun, he was also extremely handy when it came to homework. Anything Harry had trouble with, Lupin knew the answer. He helped Harry with a particularly nasty potions essay on invisibility solutions, as well as a 5-foot transfiguration essay on animal transformations.

All in all, thought Harry as he headed to bed on the eve of his birthday, it was definitely up there as one the best summer breaks he had ever had.

"Follow me Harry", said Ginny in his dream. "Just follow, I have something important to show you." And of she ran, leading Harry down a labyrinth of corridors and archways. Any time Harry nearly caught up to her, she would run faster until he could barely tell which way she had gone.

The chase went of for what seemed like an eternity, but neither Ginny nor Harry got tired. Ginny rounded a sharp corner and Harry followed her, nearly running in to her for she had stopped just round the bend.

"This is it, Harry", she whispered. "This is what you have to see...open the door." Harry obeyed, and found himself in a room he could easily recognize. It was the room where Sirius had died. In the middle of the room, between an ancient stone archway, hung the veil.

"Come on", said Ginny, and she grabbed him by the wrist and led him down stone step after stone step, until there were feet away from the dais on which the archway stood.

"All you have to do is walk through it Harry" whispered Ginny. "That's all you have to do. If you walk through there you can see them. You know who I mean."

Walk through? Thought Harry. Why not, cant do any harm, can it?

"Harry", called Ginny. "Hurry up. If you're scared I'll go first. I'm not scared."

Did he really want to walk through that veil?

"Harry", she called again. He was coming. He stepped onto the dais, pulled back the veil and-

"Harry! Wake up already, it's you birthday, or don't you want presents?" It was Remus.

"I'm up, I'm up", Harry grumbled, getting out of bed.

"Good", replied Remus. "When you're dressed come down to the kitchen, I have a special birthday treat for you."

"Does it bite?" grumbled Harry, still not entirely awake. Remus chuckled as he shut the door behind him, and Harry got dressed and went down after Remus. What was that dream all about?

When Harry entered the kitchen, the crowd of people that were crowded around the table immediately preoccupied his thoughts from the dream. Harry was very surprised to see Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ron, Fred, George, Ginny, Hermione, Tonks, Kingsley, and Mundungus Fletcher. He was even more surprised to see an enormous pile of presents covering the kitchen table.

"I figure you never really had a proper birthday party before, so I thought I'd surprise you", said Remus.

"Come and open all your present mate", said Ron, with a grin on his face. If it were possible, Ron had grown even more in the couple of weeks since Harry had seen him. Though he had filled out a bit, so he wasn't looking quite as gangly as he usually did.

"Yeah Harry", said Hermione. "There're heaps of presents here. It is your 16th, after all. Here", she said, handing him a rather large and heavy present. "This one's from me."

"Its not another homework diary, is it?" said Harry with a grin, as he started unwrapping it.

"No", said Hermione, also grinning. "I've resigned myself to the fact that nothing is going to get you two to do your homework on time!"

Harry finally got all of the wrapping of the present. "Wow Hermione, thanks!" Harry was looking at a very large photo album, with a picture of him, Ron and Hermione on the front. It had to have been their first Christmas at Hogwarts. They all looked very young. Harry opened the album and found it full of pictures of himself, Ron, Hermione, and all their friends. There was a very funny one in which Ron was coughing up slugs. Harry suspected Hermione must have gotten it from Collin Creevy.

"This is from me, Ginny, Mum and Dad", said Ron, handing Harry an oddly shaped present.

"Not us though", said George.

"Yeah", said Fred. "We got you something...better." Both the twins had mischievous looking grins on their faces.

Harry went back to unwrapping his present. It appeared to be a small fire grate, with weird looking inscriptions covering every inch of it.

"It's a portable fireplace", said Ron. "It's hooked up to the Floo network, so it will be easier to talk while you're with the muggles."

"It also means I don't have to cover for you if you decide to sneak into a teachers office to talk to someone", said Ginny, smiling warmly at Harry. "By the way, we also got you some Floo Powder."

"You didn't need any encouragement from me!" replied Harry, grinning. "Thank you", he said to Mr. And Mrs. Weasley.

"That's quite all right, dear", said Mrs. Weasley. "We're hoping it might keep you out of trouble a bit."

"Why would Harry want to keep out of trouble?" asked Fred. He and George were holding a very large and oddly shaped present between them.

"Yeah, we got him this, hoping he would continue where we left off", said George, as they put the present on the table in front of Harry.

"This, my dear Harry, is a sample", said Fred. "A sample, of our complete range of merchandise" he continued, as Harry unwrapped.

"Let's see", said George. "We have; Portable Swamp"

"Skiving Snack boxes"

"Ton-Tongue Toffee"

"Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz-bangs"

"Canary Creams"

"And much, much more."

"Thanks guys", said Harry. There did indeed look to be much, much more, but Harry would have to wait till later to experiment. Harry turned to his other presents. There was a book about Aurors from Kingsley, who had found out Harry wanted to be an Auror, and wanted to help him as much as he could. Tonks gave him a huge book full of quidditch plays and broom tricks, which Harry loved. Mundungus gave Harry a present too, but told Harry he wasn't allowed to open it till he got up to his room.

"This is from me, Harry", said Remus. "And Sirius too. We planned it, before he died."

Remus waved his wand, and in front of Harry appeared a bowl of silvery liquid. It wasn't just any bowl; it was a pensive.

"We want you to use it", said Remus. "But also, we put together a memory for you". Remus prodded the pensive with the tip of his wand, and the silvery liquid began to swirl. "Jump in, Harry", said Remus, and Harry obeyed.

Hope you enjoyed it, and let me know what you think by leaving a review!