Okay, this is only my second fic, and I'm writing it while I'm in the middle of writer's block for my first one. This is only a one shot and the other is multi chapter, so this will be the first one I ever post. (Yay, I'm so proud of myself!) On with the story!
Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist directs you were to go
Lily Evans was in her seventh year and Hogwarts and on her way to McGonagall's office for the end of year career choice meeting with her head of house. In this meeting she would have to pick once and for all what she was going to do with her life after she left Hogwarts.
This would be the last time she ever walked into McGonagall's office, the last time she ever saw this corridor in Hogwarts. This was actually the last day of her final term. Her trunk was completely packed and she had triple checked everything to make sure nothing was forgotten.
She remembered her first year when she met her three best friends, and that insufferable brat James Potter had been. Second year she learned to fly a broom well; first year she nearly broke her neck now she actually made the team as a chaser.
Third year was her first trips to Hogsmeade, and fourth year was pretty normal. Fifth year she aced all her O.W.L.'s. Sixth year she finally made her first patronus. Seventh year was the year she finally let herself admit she liked (and might someday love) James Potter, and dated him all year, and enjoyed proving to Sirius and Remus that girls could kick arse when they started betting on her and James.
"Hello Ms. Evans," McGonagall's eyes smiled at one of her favorite students but otherwise showed no sign of preference.
"I think I'd like to work at the Ministry."
So make the best of this test and don't ask why
It's not a question but a lesson learned in time
James Potter waited impatiently in the Common Room before deciding to go out for one last haunt with Mooney and Padfoot before Lily returned from her meeting with McGonagall. (Wormtail was nowhere to be found.)
But what could they do? What would be worthy of their the last day of the last term at Hogwarts? He knew then that there was nothing they could ever do to do justice to the best year of his life with his mates and the girl he had been falling for since second year. But they had to try, so he animated the coin that he knew Sirius always kept in his pocket. It wasn't a galleon, sickle or knut; it was a Muggle coin that apparently had a picture of a wolf on it that looked rather like his dog form.
Five minutes later the three of them snuck out under his invisibility cloak and snuck around looking for something, anything, any prank worthy of pulling to be the final end to their time at Hogwarts.
As he passed the detention room as it had come to be known by the Marauders, he thought of the time in second year when he, Padfoot and Mooney had been traced as the source of one of their first pranks as the Marauders (this was before Wormtail had entered the picture). Evans was there with them. He remembered having already had it bad for her, but when he asked her why she was there in the typical way of conversation between the two of them, he fell so hard he hadn't since gotten up. Her answer had been, "As if it's any of your business, Potter. But if you really want to find out, keep it up. Then if you were to sell the pictures, the money might actually be enough to buy you an actual life." Filch at this point told him she got in a duel with another student and put them in the hospital wing just for insulting her family. When prompted, they year and house of the student was extricated from him. It was a fifth year Slytheryn.
It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life
Sirius jumped up off his bed to grab Mooney and meet James in the Common Room to go on one last haunt as the original three Marauders. He had been thinking about his years at Hogwarts. First year he was put in Griffindor, instead of Slytheryn like the rest of his family. But then again he was never very ambitious and was always braver than them because he didn't feel like he had anything to loose. And in Griffindor her met his 2 best friends ever who would always be there. Second year they officially became the Marauders, and officially became brothers forever, no matter how different they all were and how unlikely in would have been that they get along.
Third and fourth year were pretty uneventful, it was pretty surprising that after all the pranks they pulled that they only got caught once. (Though they served plenty of detentions for forgotten homework and missed class.)
Fifth year he passed his O.W.L.'s and even got a couple E's and one O. Sixth year he decided he wanted to work for the ministry, and seventh he didn't get expelled.
It's was all the best time of his entire life with his best mates who were more like brothers to him, and Evans who he actually got along very well with, almost like an older brother of sorts. His time at Hogwarts would always be the time he thought of when he needed the comfort of a happy memory.
So take the photographs and still frames in your mind
Hanging on the shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos and memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while
Remus wandered around the corridors under Prongs invisibility cloak with Padfoot and the aforementioned and infamous Prongs. He thought of all their amazing pranks, like the time in third year when they'd all flown on brooms up to the girls dorm over Christmas break and charmed all the furniture to be coated in snow that the girls couldn't dig off.
He loved his time at Hogwarts, and his favorite times where when his mates had finally managed to reach animagus ability and kept him company as animals during the full moon.
Fourth year they had gone to Hogsmeade and found a wizard in a less trafficked tavern than the Three Broomsticks that could give them a tattoo, and they all got one of a dog's foot with a crescent moon in the center of the main pad that made up the foot and not the toes. The two outside toes had deer antlers growing out of them and the whole thing was encircled by a worm's tail.
Sometimes he thought it wasn't worth fighting what he struggled not to succumb to every full moon, but Padfoot and Prongs, and Wormtail when he could manage the transformation made it ever so much easier, and he had the best times of his life at Hogwarts. It was so worth it no matter what he thought when he was desperate before James and Sirius finally managed to transfigure all the way to an animal state.
It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life
The first prank they ever pulled as the Marauders, the one they got caught for that night in second year when they served detention with Lily. They would charm all the knight statues to reenact the Knights of the Round Table. And it would be monumental, because this time it would work. This was the last time they would ever have a chance to do anything as the Marauder's, they age and era of their rule was coming to an end, but they would go out with a bang.
The age of the Marauder's was coming to an end, but they would pass on the legacy to the first years, and they would leave the mark of their time here, they would leave a lasting legacy to mark the end of the seven years they spent here at Hogwarts. They would leave a mark to mark the end of the best time of their lives.
It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life
They would've anyway, except when they were halfway through, Lily's voice echoed through the corridors. "Oh boys, mind if I lend a hand?"
Their response was answer enough; they actually responded instead of denying any involvement in this.
"Lily?"
"How did you know it was us?"
"How did you find us?"
She couldn't exactly tell who was who as they yelled over each other, but suddenly James threw the cloak off, smiled and says in mock arrogance, and challenging her at the same time, "Like you could do it any better."
She smirked, one corner of her mouth coming up as a warning James knew very well; it very clearly said 'did you really just say that', 'do you really want to go there', and 'watch me'.
Turning around she used a charm that animated all the remaining knight statues and reanimated the ones the boys had already gotten to.
Then she used a spell that the boys couldn't identify as a charm, hex, curse or otherwise to transform the Great Hall in the very front of the school into a changing scene that switched between different places in Camelot depending on what part of the story the knights had reached.
James, Sirius, and Remus stared at her in awe before they burst into applause. Remus gave Lily a brotherly hug, and they all laughed at how much they had all changed, and what an amazing time they had at Hogwarts. Sirius jokingly kissed Lily while she was laughing, aiming to tease James and expecting to be punched upside the head by James.
Instead Lily bit his tongue and kneed him in the place where no one had ever dared kick Sirius before, where no one ever wanted to be kicked.
And instead of being mad, Sirius just stared in awe at the courage of the tiny red head his best friend was dating.
James and Remus just cheered and whooped even more and gave her a Marauder's name of her very own, which turned out to be her animagus that no one knew she had discovered: Tiger. James and Lily shared a sweet kiss as Sirius nursed his pride, his bleeding tongue, and his aching crotch, but yet still was laughing at the fire in Lily's smile.
It's something unpredictable but in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life
That night at the farewell dinner, Dumbledore's knowing smile and wink towards the Griffindor table made sure that they never for a second doubted that he knew exactly who had done it. But instead of calling them out, he put the reenactment on pause and made his speech, which he amended at the end with, "And now as this year draws to a close let us eat one more meal together as we watch the charming display that has been created for us just outside the doors of this Dining Hall."
And with that he temporarily removed the walls and started the reenactment of the Knights over.
Lily, James, Remus and Sirius sat and ate and laughed and overall enjoyed each other's company as they watched the knights perform. But mostly, they just had fun remembering the years they had spent at Hogwarts that would always be the time of their lives.
James remembered the time that Lily told him the memory she used to conjure her first patronus was the first time he kissed her.
Lily remembered the instant in which she realized that James had changed, and that he had done it for her.
Sirius remembered the time he and Remus and James transfigured the gargoyles on the Slytheryn's tower that only they went to, into cute cuddly bunnies made of stone and McGonagall had given them an automatic A on the next test.
Remus thought of the endless hours his two best friends in the world had spent on becoming animagusess to help him during the full moon.
But mostly they all thought of the time they had spent together, and how nothing would ever top the best seven years of their lives that had been spent at Hogwarts.
The song was Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) by Green Day. I do not own them or Harry Potter. There. I said. As much as I wish I did, I own no part of this story but the plot.