A/N: I just wanted to thank the whopping 6 people who have reviewed, especially Hillary (of Hillary and Jess). I don't know why people aren't reviewing either? I don't even know if any one has read this besides the mere 6 reviewers, but... I enjoy writing this, its helping to relieve all the stress in my life, and therefore, I will forge on. However, if you review, it makes me happier, and I write better. So without further ado, chapter 5:

Harry awoke early in the morning, wide awake. Before he even looked across the room he knew Ron was still asleep (it was obvious with the loud snorts coming from him every few seconds). He walked over to the window in the room and looked out, the sun was just rising. He knew wasn't going to be able to fall back asleep so he decided to shower now before there was competition for the bathroom.

Harry grabbed some of his new clothes for the day, and tip-toed down the creaky hallway, making sure he didn't wake anyone. He took a nice long shower and got dressed. He proceeded down the stairs, again very cautiously. The house was dead silent, and he assumed it was because everyone was asleep. He, however, was starving and felt it wouldn't be disruptive to make himself some breakfast.

Upon entering the kitchen, he was surprised to see Hermione in a pink fuzzy bathrobe reading a book and drinking tea.

"Oh," Hermione gasped, "Harry you startled me, I didn't even hear you coming."

"I was trying not to wake anyone up. Speaking of which, what are you doing up so early?" Harry asked his friend.

"I'm always up this early; I've always been an early riser. What about you? You didn't have any bad dreams, did you?" Hermione asked with concern in her voice.

"No, no reason, I just happened to get up very early this morning, and now I'm starving so I was coming down to make breakfast." Harry told her.

"I see, well, now that you mention it, I'm getting quite hungry myself. Care to make some breakfast together?" Hermione asked, putting her book mark on the page she was reading.

"Sure, I'm not that bad of a cook, I used to have to make food for the Dursleys sometimes." Harry told her.

"Great, I'm not too bad either; I used to help my mum all the time when I was little." Hermione said, looking down at the floor sadly as she remembered where her parents were now.

"Ok then, pancakes, bacon, and sausage?" Harry asked as he raised one eyebrow at Hermione.

"Pancakes, bacon, sausage, and toast, we'll make it for everyone," Hermione suggested.

"Sounds good, but we better go fast, my appetite just reached Ron level," Harry said making Hermione laugh.

The two friends took out the frying pans and food and began their cooking. Harry was frying the bacon and sausage, Hermione was making the toast, and they took turns flipping the pancakes (everyone's favorite part).

When they were almost through cooking, Hermione finally got the courage to continue the conversation she had started last night, "So Harry, are there any girls that you are interested in right now?" Hermione asked trying to sound casual.

"No, well, I hadn't really thought of it, you know, lot on my mind," Harry said, sounding a lot more offensive than he meant to.

"Oh, because, well, there's some one out there who likes you, but I don't want to say who, and well, you should consider liking them," Hermione said, clearly struggling with her words.

"It's not, you don't..." Harry stuttered, disbelieving that Hermione would ever like him.

"No! It's not me, it's honestly some one I know," Hermione said quickly.

"Oh, few, no offense, but I think you are just too much of a sister," Harry said.

"Well don't worry, I'd say you're too much of a brother."

"Well now that that's settled, who is this admirer I have?" Harry said with a mischievous glint in his green eyes.

"I'm not telling you, Harry. But if you think, you will get it, and maybe you'll like them back." Hermione said.

"Hermione, I don't like puzzles," but right before Harry was about to plead for her to tell him, they heard footsteps coming down the stairs. The rest of the household had woken up and was coming down the stairs.

"..Overslept, should have had breakfast ready by now, so sorry," Harry and Hermione heard Mrs. Weasley's voice coming down the stairs.

When Mrs. Weasley saw them putting food on the table she was shocked, "You two didn't have to make breakfast! You should be sleeping."

"Oh, well we were up early anyway so we thought it would be fun," Hermione told her.

"Who cares who made the food, let's just eat it," Ron said, still sounding quite tired. He sat down at the table and served himself a large stack of pancakes, plenty of bacon and sausage, and a few pieces of toast. He already had his face stuffed before the rest sat down.

"Oys dish weery ood!" Ron exclaimed with his mouth full of food.

"What?" Ginny asked, looking at him with disgust.

Before Ron got the chance to swallow Hermione said, "He said 'Guys this is really good'".

"You can understand Ron-With-Food language?" Remus asked.

Hermione started to blush, "Well, yes, I mean he talks with food in his mouth all the time, so I've gotten used to it."

Ron smiled at Hermione; it said a lot that she knew him so well that she could understand what he was saying with a mouth full of food.

"Where's Fred and George?" Harry asked Ron.

"Oh they rarely come to breakfast, always out around the clubs at night or working at the store so they come home late and sleep in," Ginny told Harry.

"My compliments to you, Hermione and Harry. I had no idea you two were such excellent chefs. My kids would be lost if they ever found their way to the cooking part of a kitchen." Mrs. Weasley said.

"Thanks, got a lot of practice with the Dursleys," Harry said, serving himself some food.

"How'd you learn Hermione," Mrs. Weasley asked.

"Well, when I was little, I used to always try and help my mom in the kitchen. And then on big holidays like Christmas I would help her prepare everything and she'd teach me how to make certain dishes, it was really great."

It was evident from Mrs. Weasley's expression that she felt bad for asking, Hermione looked immediately grief stricken. "I have an idea! How about this Christmas you and Ginny help me prepare everything?"

"Really? You'd want that?" Hermione asked, eyes looking brighter.

"Oh course, dear," Mrs. Weasley said warmly as she reached over to Hermione and held her hand, "You know that you're practically a daughter to me."

Hermione, speechless, just smiled back at her. The rest of the table just watched the two like it was a TV show.

"Whoo," Lupin said, putting his fork and knife down on his plate with a clatter, "I am stuffed, good meal Hermione and Harry."

"Thanks," Harry said.

"I wonder if OWL's will come today," Hermione said.

"Ugh, I hope not," Ron said, fearing the bad grades he could have gotten.

"Oh come on Ron, even you studied, I'm sure you'll do fine," Hermione said, as she started cleaning up.

"Oh no, Hermione, let me clean up, you cooked," Mrs. Weasley said, beginning to bustle about the kitchen.

"Oh, thanks Mrs. Weasley. Well I have a book I'd like to finish, so I'm going to just go up to my room and read," Hermione said as she exited the room.

"Anyone up for some chess? Harry?" Ron said, turning to Harry with a grin.

"Er, Ron, you beat me 3 times yesterday, I'm not sure how much it does for my self esteem," Harry told his friend.

"I'll play you," Ginny said, "You're not that great."

"Oh, we'll see what you say after this game," Ron said, challenging his sister.

The brother and sister left and headed to Ron's room for an intense round of chess.

"Well I have to go get ready, I need to stop by the office," Mr. Weasley said as he pushed back his chair and stood up.

"But Arthur it's Sunday!"

"I know, but we're having a crisis with a man who is selling enchanted vacuum cleaners."

"Enchanted what?" Mrs. Weasley asked, looking very confused.

"I'll tell you later, I'm late!" Mr. Weasley said as he rushed out the door.

"So Harry," Remus said finally speaking up, "you up for some quality time now?"

"Sure,"

"Ok, first I have something I need to give you, it was your birthday yesterday after all, and your 16th no less," Remus said, motioning for Harry to follow him out of the room.

They left the kitchen and trudged up the stairs to Remus's room. Harry had yet to see his room and noticed it was the same as his since Sirius's makeovers. It had a deep red paint and a border of gold across the top of the walls. He had a queen sized bed with a rich gold comforter, and there was a huge bookcase which probably held more books than Hermione had ever owned, which really says a lot.

"As you might know, not many items of your parents survived that night..." Lupin said, drifting off a little, "But Sirius on the other hand, got his own flat before even your parents did. So, when Sirius got sent to Azkaban, being his only living best friend, I got most of his stuff. And so, for your birthday, I give you this," Remus went to his closet, took out a small trunk and placed it in front of Harry.

"What's in it?" Harry asked, never taking his eyes off of it.

"A bunch of Sirius's stuff from school, he sort of threw it in his closet and forgot about it," Remus stopped talking to look at Harry who was looking mesmorized by the box. The anticipation was evident in his rich green eyes and he hadn't blinked in at least a minute. "Well, go ahead, open it up," Remus said to Harry, eager to see Harry's reaction.

Still not removing his eyes from the dark red trunk, Harry walked over to it and kneeled beside it. He slowly moved his finger across the gold plate which was engraved with "SPB".

"What was Sirius's middle name," Harry asked, finally looking up at Remus.

"Polaris, it was his great uncle's name I believe," Remus replied with reminiscent look on his face

Harry continued to move his hand across the trunk; he moved it down to three gold clasps. He undid them each slowly, and continued to lift the top of the trunk off. The trunk was rather cluttered, but still held a lot. One by one, Harry took things out and arranged them on the floor around him.

He first removed a navy blue bound book. Remus immediately started laughing, "Oh boy! I forgot all about that! Well, you actually may want that book, I believe it came in very handy for Sirius, it was practically his bible our first few years at school."

"A Man's Guide to Women?" Harry asked as he read the title.

"Yes, you see, out of our group, Sirius was, well how do I say this, the ladies' man. While your father always had his eyes set on Lily Evans, Sirius dated quite a few girls, probably every one in our year and more. So this book is where he learned his 'moves' I guess you could say."

"What's this?" Harry said, pulling out a large book, he guessed it was a photo album.

"That's a photo album, Sirius thought the muggle camera was the greatest invention in the world for bugging people. He would go around flashing it in everyone's faces right when they weren't expecting it," Remus was smiling and looking off into space as the memories rushed back to him.

Harry opened up the photo album to a random page and saw an upside down picture of the tops of Remus and his father's heads. Eager to see what else was in the box, he put the photo album down next to the book and looked in the trunk. There was a stack of loose pieces of parchment, so Harry decided to take them out.

"Sirius's old quidditch plays, you see, James was captain, but Sirius was an awful good chaser, and James felt bad that he was captain and Sirius wasn't, so he would have Sirius help him write plays for the team. Maybe those will come in handy for you this year?" Remus said.

"Huh?" Harry asked, unsure of what Remus was talking about

"You know, if your captain, Angelina is gone after all."

"Oh, I hadn't even thought about it." Harry said, now starting to wonder if he would get quidditch captain this year. Fred, George, Angelina, Katie AND Alicia were gone. He was the only returning person who was actually good. He'd think on it later.

He reached into the trunk and pulled out a small black book. Remus chuckled loudly, "Sirius wanted to make sure he always had an array of date possibilities, so every time he met a girl he'd write her name down in what he referred to as "the book" along with her address so he could find her after school ended."

Harry flipped through the pages and was surprised to see so many names. Well there's ONE difference between me and my godfather, he got girls, and I got manic depression, Harry thought.

Harry reached back inside and pulled out another book.

"The History of Goblin Rebellions?" Harry asked, looking at it with disgust.

"Oh, no, no. Take out your wand, tap the book once and say Monthly Mayhem." Remus told Harry in his deep Professor voice.

Harry did as he was told, and the ugly brown book turned into a brightly colored red book labeled, "A Beginners Guide to Becoming an Animagi". There were random bits of parchment sticking out from the book in different places.

"Well, as you know, it took the three of them quite a few years to learn to be animagis, and this is the book that taught them. Those bits of parchment sticking out are probably their notes on the progress they made," Remus said as he sat down beside Harry by the trunk.

Harry flipped open to a random page with a piece of parchment in it. There were diagrams on the page of a wizard putting a charm on himself. Harry read the caption below the charm, "Next put on the Commoror Vestis spell, follow the hand motion in the diagram above. This spell will allow the transformation from animal back to Human to restore the clothes that were present before the original transformation occurred," the text continued, but Harry stopped reading because he was laughing.

"What's so funny," Remus asked.

"On the piece of parchment that has their notes it says "4/12/74, Sirius has successfully placed the charm. After 5 tries, Peter has successfully placed the charm. James has also successfully placed the charm in his first try, he does however regret that he cannot transform from his stag into a naked James in front of Lily Evans."

Remus laughed at that too as he happily recalled his old friends, "Oh yes, Sirius was always making fun of your dad for liking your mom. Because, as you can tell now, Sirius never really settled down liking one girl for a long period of time. I guess you could say it wasn't his style," Remus finished with another laugh.

Harry stared at Sirius's writing a little longer, and suddenly, instead of feeling sad at how he would never receive a letter with the scrawled handwriting anymore, he was happy that he had seen it at all. He was happy he got to know this man who was such a huge part of his father's life. It made him smile to remember Sirius's antics, to hear stories about him, to remember how good his godfather was to him. He placed the book back in the trunk and turned towards Remus.

"Does it hurt?" Harry asked, before he even had time to think about what he was saying.

"Does what hurt?" Remus asked back, still smiling from remembering his best friends.

"Having both your best friends dead, and the other a traitor, how do you bear to think about them," Harry asked.

"I... well... Harry it's hard," Remus said, looking from the floor into Harry's eyes, "There isn't a day when I don't think about them, and how my life has been sad with out them. When your parents died, I thought it was the end of the world. James was one of my brothers, and Lily... well she always understood. She helped me through many rough times. Loosing the two of them was like getting two slaps in the face. Then Sirius, when I heard, it was ten times worse. I thought he betrayed our best friend, and then I thought he killed Peter two. It was devastating; I almost didn't make it through those first few weeks.

"But, eventually, you realize there's nothing you can do about it. They're no longer on earth, but they never really leave you. I'll always be able to remember them. Sometimes I even feel their presence, see your mom smile at me or hear your dad laughing at something crazy I've done. When I realized back in your third year that Sirius was innocent, that he was alive, and we could be friends again I think it was the happiest moment since your parents' death. I didn't get to spend a lot of time with him, but just knowing he was innocent and seeing him again that one time in the shrieking shack just improved my life so much."

At Remus's words he remembered the time in the shrieking shack when Sirius and Lupin embraced like brothers separated for eternity. He wondered what he would do if he lost Ron or Hermione, if he would be as brave as Lupin, or if he would just give it all up.

"I guess your right, I don't know how I'd feel if I'd never met Sirius," Harry said contemplatively.

"You know Harry, Sirius really looked at you as his son, he was very proud of you. And I just know that your parents would be too."

"I know," Harry said, his eyes seeming to glisten with unshed tears.

"I have something else we need to talk about," Remus said as he went over to his desk on the other side of the room. He opened up a drawer and took out a letter and handed it to Harry.

"What's this?" Harry asked looking from the envelope to Remus.

"It's Sirius's will, all Order members are asked to make one since by just being in the Order they are putting themselves at risk.

Harry opened up the envelope and pulled out 3 pieces of parchment.

"The one on top is for you," Remus told him pointing to the one that said "Harry" on the top.

Harry read will,

Harry:

I'm sorry to say that I have not fulfilled my duties as your godfather, I'm sorry I never succeeded in raising you and watching you grow up. I know this is difficult for you, Harry, but I'm still with you. I'll always be with you. I'm with your parents now, and though we can't physically be there for you, we're with you in your heart.

It's too bad I had to go and die before the war was over, we could have played some good quidditch together! But you must not think about what we could have done, you must think about what we were able to do. I'm so grateful still that you saved my life, Harry. I couldn't be prouder of what you've come to be like. And, no matter how many times people tell you, your parents would be so proud. I'll ask them now that I'm with them if they're proud, if they say they aren't proud I'll strike you with lightning or something, so you know.

Since you are my one and only godson, I give you 1/4 my gold at Gringotts, spend it well (like on a nice new broom or a present for your girlfriend!). But don't spend it all, remember that the gold in the bank is all you have. I also ask that you try hard in school, and never give up on anything. You're a powerful wizard, Harry. I know you'll go far.

Also, I give you Grimmauld Place. Please let the Order continue to use it for as long as they need it. Let it be a home for anyone who needs a place to stay, as your grandfather did for me. I started finishing the house, but I didn't finish. There is a book in my room on how to do it magically, if you ever get bored like I did (but then again you're not trapped in this house like a prisoner).

Finally, I have asked Remus to adopt you. If I am gone, that means you no longer have a legal guardian. You never thought you had one the first 13 years of your life, but you did, even though I was in Azkaban. I have given Remus in his section of the will an adoption form, but in order for it to be complete you must sign it too. If you don't want to, I understand, you're getting older and independent. But remember, Moony is the last marauder. He was also your parents' best friend, and I consider him a brother like I did James. I know he considers you like a son and will do anything for you.

Well, I guess its time for me to be going, ha ha. Have a good time, Harry. Never forget to have fun, and always remember that I'm still in your heart.

Yours truly forever,

Sirius P. Black

Harry finally looked up from the letter at Remus and saw Remus staring worriedly at him. Remus was squeezing his hands tightly and when Harry looked at him he looked away quickly.

"I... Here... this is..." Lupin reached into his pocket again and pulled out another piece of parchment. "Well, if you want it, this is the adoption paper. Before you say anything, just know, well Harry I consider you my son. I know I'm not much, and I'm not funny and wild like Sirius or anything, but I'm here, and I know what your dad would have wanted for you. And...

"Remus, stop!" Harry said, holding up his hands to indicate that Remus didn't have to go on.

"I understand Harry... wouldn't want dull old Moony..."

"No!" Harry said interrupting Remus again, "I mean I already decided the minute I read it, of course I want you as my guardian! I wouldn't want anything else."

"You mean you don't want the Weasleys or any one else?" Remus asked, as the color came back into his face slowly.

"Well I love Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, but they're Ron's parents. And they've already got a lot on their hands, and it just wouldn't be the same with out a Marauder always around!" Harry said smiling at Remus.

"Well then, I already signed it, so all you have to do is sign here," Remus said as he held out the parchment and a quill.

Harry signed with a big smile on his face and handed it back to Lupin.

Lupin to the paper, and put it on his desk. "Welcome to the family!" Remus said as he held out his hand to shake Harry's. Harry grasped Lupin's hand firmly and pulled him into hug and the two patted each other hard on the back.

A/N: Well, that was a little difficult to write, but I enjoyed it. Tell me if you think anyone's out of character, I'm trying, really hard. But I feel like no one really reads this story, so if you read it, please review, even if you say like, "it sucked" or "it was ok" at least I'll know some ones out there.

Please tell me if you have any suggestions/questions and I'll try and update again soon!

-Lauren (sportzgrl627)