Author's Note: I wrote this for a prompt from the Marauder's Era Challenge. The song prompt is I Lived by One Republic and I hope I gave it justice. I wanted to do more and make another one-shot or multi-chaptered fic with the same prompt but I don't think that's allowed. Hope you guys enjoy this anyway!
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Until our Mischief is Managed
The day Harry James Potter was born, four men cried.
James Charlus Potter, Sirius Orion Black III, Remus John Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.
Each men vowed to protect the boy, any way they could.
Lily was already sleeping when James took Harry out to show him off to his three best friends, Harry's Uncles.
"Harry, meet your Uncle Moony, Wormtail and Padfoot," he said, his voice hoarse and cracking from emotion as he showed his boy off.
Sirius took him first.
"The first marauder kid," the Black heir mused, smiling through his tears, "What do you think Moony? You think the little hairy baby would live up to our names?" addressing the werewolf beside him, who just nodded mutely before wiping his tears on the cuffs of his sweater.
"Wormtail?" he asked the other, who, like the werewolf, was crying whilst nodding. It took the rat animagus only a minute though before adding, "We'll teach him how to fly, won't we?"
"Of course!" Added James immediately.
"Our little Harry will fly and not fear the fall," said Remus knowingly, giving a watery smile to his friends, who understood the context immediately.
"Prepare him from that damn prophecy too," said Peter absentmindedly, as they had a lull in the conversation.
"He'd be famous, I bet," Sirius said after a while, dispelling the tension after Peter's remark.
"More famous than the marauders if he's to fulfill that damn prophecy, that's for sure," said Remus, "They'll be screaming his name from all parts of the world," he added as an afterthought while the grim animagus transferred the kid to his trembling hands from nerves of dropping his pup.
"Do you think he'd be shit at girls like Prongs here?" remarked Remus after a while, making all the men laugh as James yelled an indignant, "Hey!" from where he stood, closer to his friends who were still cooing at the small bundle of joy.
"Well, I just wish, if my boy did fall in love, he'd give it all he has, you know?" James said after a while as he shifted his eyes towards his son, "It was a tough six years for me, you remember? Trying and failing to love another other than Lily?" he added idly as his friends just nodded in response.
"I hope he won't suffer," Sirius said with a sigh, "Or that even if he does, he'll just grit through the pain and learn from it," he continued, as he plopped down on the nearby chair, James and Peter sitting on his either side adding another lull in their conversation before James broke the silence.
"He'll be fine, Pads," and in a lower voice he said, "As you said, he'd have either all of us or most of us growing up," and stopped as he heaved a heavy sigh before loudly adding, "I, on the other hand, wish I could live long enough to bear witness to all his joys and all his pains – and all those broken bones he'll be sure to have once he started in Hogwarts but…" James started, his smile fading to melancholy as his best friend immediately asked him to stop from that train of thought.
"You'll be there," he said, sounding sure and adding, "We'll all be there, won't we guys?" immediately earning a nod from Remus and Peter and a grateful smile from James.
It was at that night that the four men continued to cry and coo at the boy, each heart breaking, knowing for a fact that the possibility for Harry being the chosen one for the prophecy is now in an all-time high, considering he was born just as the seventh month dies.
"He would live," said James after a while as he stood up to take the kid from Peter who had to pry the kid from Remus to get his turn, "He would live, like we lived," making the three other marauder smile at James.
"Harry James Potter, the boy who'll live" said Peter, making all the men laugh.
Unknown to the four men however, that in just a little over a year after that gathering, they would be crying for the same reasons - broken promises, and for the same boy, until the time they all meet again.
