Disclaimer: not mine, never was, never will be. I only own the plot, and a few new creations of my own. :'(

Chapter 4-Long Awaited Arrivals

Harry made his way down the hallway to his room in a slow, thoughtful manner. When he got there, he opened his trunk and pulled out two pieces of parchment, some ink, and a quill. He settled himself down at the desk that was situated on the back wall and wrote two identical letters:

How's your summer going? Mine's been lousy for a while, but for once, things have started to pick up.

I'm at headquarters now, I just arrived last night. I'm going to be getting more lessons, but with Dumbledore. There is a lot to tell you, but seeing as it isn't safe to owl confidential information, you'll just have to wait-sorry.

I was hoping that you could come to headquarters soon and stay for the rest of the summer. It is actually quite dull here, just being me and Dobby, with the occasional visit from Dumbledore.

Owl me back with your answer to my invitation.

Hoping to see you soon.

Harry

Addressing one each to Ron and Hermione, he got up to go find Hedwig. He hadn't noticed where Dobby had put her the night before, and he was about to go find the house-elf to ask, when the owl flew into the room and landed on Harry's shoulder.

Harry smiled at her and offered his arm so he could set her on the desk. "I need you to take these letters to Ron and Hermione, okay Hedwig?" The snowy owl hooted a soft reply before taking off towards the door.

Harry went over to his bed and threw himself upon it. Having never before even touched the bed, Harry was now in a sleepy heaven. The mattress must have been magical, because it was incredibly soft; it felt like he was floating on air. He heaved a heavy sigh and pondered his summer so far. A short and miserable two weeks with the Dursleys, followed by an abrupt kidnapping by the Order, a new inheritance, and hoards of new information. I could definitely use a pensieve now, Harry thought, moments before falling into a deep, dreamless slumber.

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The summer was now already halfway through, and still Harry was alone at his house. Well, alone isn't really the right word, because there were always at least 5 Order members there at any one time. However, the people that Harry really wanted to see had yet to arrive. He received replies from both Ron and Hermione after sending his letters, and both of them had sounded extremely relieved by his more detailed note (previously, his usual letter read, "I'm fine. Harry."). Unfortunately, neither could come immediately. Ron's mum was reluctant to let him go anywhere without her, and Hermione and her parents were vacationing in Australia. So, after sorting out a few details, Harry arranged for his friends (and the entire Weasley family) to be at headquarters two days before his birthday.

Meanwhile, Harry had been taking occlumency from Dumbledore. Each time, Dumbledore would do his little trick and 'stop time,' and teacher and pupil would commence in lessons for one or two hours. Harry was slowly improving. He was frustrated, though, because he had been working extremely hard on the method Dumbledore had described during their first meeting the night Harry arrived at Number 12, and was making little progress.

"Patience is a virtue, Harry, patience is a virtue," Dumbledore would say whenever Harry got angry.

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Two days before Harry's birthday, the aspiring boy-who-still-wants-to-live was to be found pacing the entrance hall to 12 Grimmuald Place. It was 12:21, according to his watch, and his friends were supposed to arrive at 12:30.

"Harry, if you keep at it the way you're doing, you'll have a nice little trench in the middle of the hall. Relax." It was Remus Lupin. He had recently taken to squatting at Harry's place and headquarters and the two had become quite chummy. The two could relate on many levels, and being able to talk to each other about Sirius had lessened the stressful emotions both were feeling. Harry showed Remus the portrait in his room, and when his ex-professor saw it, he smiled with twinkling eyes. It seemed to bring closure to the man the same way it brought closure for Harry.

"I know, Remus. I'm just so-well, excited, I guess. It's been a long and boring couple of weeks. Nothing against you or anything, but I just miss my friends." He halted his pacing and took a seat in the chair Remus had conjured next to his own.

Before he could get comfortable, however, the doorbell rang, and Harry was out of the chair faster than you can say, "I am way too obsessed with Harry Potter and I have too much time on my hands so I am writing this story for the heck of it."

A huge grin spread across our hero's face when he greeted his friends.

"Ron, Hermione, everybody-it's so great to see you." Everybody but Hermione grinned right back at him. The female in question sprinted up to her best friend and threw her arms around him, crying tears of joy.

"Oh, Harry! I was so worried about you! We all were. I was so scared when your letters were so short, and then when I got the one from you a couple of weeks ago I was so relieved! I was afraid that what happened in the Ministry of Magic would have devastated you to the point of destruction! I'm so happy you're alright!"

"Her-mion-ee! I can't breath!"

"Oh! Right, sorry Harry." Hermione let him go, teary-eyed and red in the face, yet still smiling.

Harry turned to look at the rest of the group, who were looking slightly worried.

"I'm okay guys, really. I found some closure when I came to this house. Don't worry about me."

The group looked at him doubtfully when he mentioned closure, but Mrs. Weasley interrupted the awkward moment. "Thank goodness you're alright, Harry! Like Hermione said, we were all worried, especially with you living with those Dursleys." She said his relatives' name with a look of disgust on her face. After pulling him into a tight hug, she let him go and walked further into the house with her things.

"Well, I'm thinking maybe you guys want to get situated," Harry asked, and the others nodded their agreement. Harry followed Ron up to the room the two used to share, and Hermione and Ginny made their way to the room they shared.

When the boys arrived at the room, Ron put his stuff by his bed and asked, "Where's all your stuff, mate? I thought we shared a room."

"We used to share a room. I want to wait for Hermione and show you guys my new room."

Ron gave him an appraising look with one eyebrow up and shrugged his shoulders. Two seconds later, Hermione entered the room and asked the same question Ron had.

"Follow me, and you'll find out. You're welcome to come, too Ginny," he said, noticing Ginny entering the room as well.

Harry led the three others down the stairs and into the passage leading to his bedroom. Upon arriving, Ron involuntarily set his face into a bewildered expression, Hermione was (for the first time ever) speechless, and Ginny's eyes doubled in diameter.

"It's not much-but it's home."

"NOT MUCH!?! This is bloody brilliant, Harry! Where did this room come from? It wasn't here the last time we came!" Ron was now looking at Harry like he was crazy.

"All I know is that Sirius made it himself. But you guys haven't even seen the best part of the room." He led them to the mantelpiece and watched their reactions as they gazed upon the portrait of his godfather's animagus. "This is the closure I mentioned before. Somehow, Sirius' anumagus was comforting."

Hermione took her gaze away from the portrait to look at Harry. "His animagus, Harry? That doesn't look like a great black dog to me."

Harry frowned and turned his head to look at the painting. Sure enough, there was no longer a shaggy black dog staring intensely back at him, but a smiling, healthy-looking Sirius was beaming at him from the portrait. Harry was speechless. The portrait took this opportunity to explain a few things.

"Hello, Harry. I've been trying to get your attention for quite sometime, now, but you always seem a little preoccupied. This was entirely true, as Harry had been brooding over the prophecy quite a bit in the absence of anything better to do. "It's nice to finally speak with you." It was acting just like Sirius, right down to the bark-like laugh it emmitted after its pronunciation.

Harry stared for a couple more seconds before snapping back to his senses. "Sirius? But-you were a dog before, and pictures can't-can they?"

"Well, this portrait was specially made. It allows me to disguise myself as the black dog whenever I want. So-on to business-how is everything going? I know this summer must have been lousy without me, but tell me how it went anyways."

Harry was so excited to have a working model of his godfather. They conversed the entire day, talking about the summer, the Order, the best kind of pranks to play, and anything else that seemed good to talk about. It was the best thing that had happened to Harry in quite a while, and when it was time for bed, the group of teenagers were sufficiently tired.

As Harry climbed into bed, he muttered a slurred, "Goonigh, Sirius," to his godfather and thought to himself, This is going to be the greatest summer yet.

A/N: I know, I know, a korny and stupid ending. I was getting a little tired of this chapter. But, don't worry, the things yet to come are going to be great. Oh yeah, PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!