A gift fic for Bex (DobbyRocksSocks) – (A belated) Merry Christmas!
Fourth Time is the Charm
The first time they try to take a photo of 'The Marauders' (a nickname that came from a comment – or rather reprimand- of Professor McGonagall), the four boys are gathered in their dormitory at the very top of Gryffindor tower after their first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Spellbooks, quills, sneakers and dirty socks lay scattered across the room waiting to be packed into trunks before the morning when the scarlet steam engine, The Hogwarts Express, will take them back to London for the summer. The only one of the boys who has even made an effort to pack is the pale and thin, sandy-blonde haired Remus Lupin, who is struggling to fit everything in his small trunk. Making some room for his sweaters, he lifts up a battered old camera which had once belonged to his Great-grandfather John.
"Cool," remarked Sirius, the camera having caught his eye.
"What's cool?" asked James and Peter simultaneously, turning to face Remus and Sirius.
"Oh, it's just an old camera I got from my Great-grandfather," Remus replied, the tips of his ears turning pink.
"We should take a photo of all of us!" suggested James, jumping on top of his bed, "C'mon, Remus. Could we get all four of us in?"
"I think so," Remus replied hesitantly, "there is a sort of timer to take the photo automatically."
"That's brilliant!" said Sirius, smiling widely, "Let's all be jumping on the bed as well!"
"Great idea, Sirius!" Peter piped up.
Remus' smile started to widen as he tapped the camera and muttered "Wingardium Leviosa," causing the camera to hover just in front of James' bed where the four boys stood on top of the duvet. "We've got five seconds," Remus told the other boys.
"Ready?" Sirius yelled, "Jump!"
The four boys began to jump up and down in time with the click of the camera as it counted down: Click, Click, Click, Click, Click – "WHAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
A flash of purple smoke went off blinding the boys, who began blinking rapidly and looking for each other as the smoke began to clear.
"Where's James?" Peter asked, looking worriedly at Sirius and Remus.
Remus' heart froze in his chest, had his camera vanished James?
A low groan from the floor caught the boys' attention, and a wave of relief rolled through Remus - James had not vanished, but was instead sprawled out on the floor.
Pulling himself up to stand, James looked back at the other boys through crooked and smashed glasses, "S'not funny."
Sirius disagreed, and burst out into a loud, laughing bark, pointing at James and finally collapsing onto the bed.
The laughter was infectious, and soon all four boys were writhing around, barely able to breath from laughing.
When their laughter had died down to small, irregular chuckles, James said, "Can't wait to see that photo, mum'll be so pleased."
The first thing Remus did when he arrived home was develop the film out of his camera, and that weekend, his family's tawny owl flew across England to deliver three copies to his new best friends.
That night, four boys showed their parents a photo of three boys jumping joyfully on a Gryffindor four-poster bed while a fourth flew out of the frame having bounced slightly out of sync with the others, to various reactions (ranging from very amused to not very amused).
Remus used a sticking charm to put the photograph on his ceiling, and watched James fly out of the frame every night, counting down the days until he would be back with his best friends. Besides, he thought to himself, they had another six years to get a good photo of The Marauders.
Take two of the 'Official Marauders Photograph' was scheduled for June of 1973.
"None of that flying out of the frame rubbish this time, Potter," Sirius joked, pulling James into a headlock.
"Or at least do it a bit more stylishly on your broom!" suggested Peter, reaching up to slap James on the shoulder.
"Hardy har har," James scowled, "I'm sure that's why Remus has set this up."
James, Peter and Sirius stood at the edge of the Great Lake as Remus set up the camera with several taps of his wand. "Ready?" he asked, looking up, jogging across stand next to Sirius.
Sirius wrapped his other arm about Remus, and the four boys listened to the clicks of the camera counting down... Click, Click, Click, Click, Click – "WHAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
"Bloody hell," James said, "Peter's gone!"
Behind them, Peter cried out for help, "HELP! HELP ME!" as he was waved in the air, a giant tentacle wrapped around his waist – The Giant Squid had plucked him off the shore and was waving him around like a magic wand.
Sirius doubled over immediately in laughter, while James frantically sprinted along the shoreline, Remus lagging behind him (not having his Quidditch fitness) to try and rescue Peter.
By the time they managed to get Peter out of the Giant Squid's grip, the four boys were exhausted. Remus, however, was determined to develop the film, and see whether the photo was still okay. Setting up his cauldron in the dormitory, the four boys gathered around to watch the colours and shape develop on the white paper, and sure enough Peter was snatched up by the squid, being waved around helplessly, silently screaming.
"I'm starting to think we're cursed," James muttered darkly.
Given their bad luck, the four boys don't try to take a photo again until the end of their fifth year at Hogwarts.
"Third time's the charm, my mum says," Remus tells the other boys as he smiles weakly and sets up his battered old camera once again.
This time there is no possible way that anything could go wrong, the four boys are in a deserted corridor of the school that they are sure is completely safe after scanning every inch for the Marauder's Map.
They gather in front of a beautifully ornate mirror, ready for what will finally be a good photo they assure themselves.
"Assume the position, boys!" James says as the familiar sound of the camera timer begins.
Click, Click, Click, Click, Click – "WHAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
This time when the smoke clears, it is Sirius who is missing, or at least half of him is. He appears to have been sawn in half by the mirror.
James, Remus and Peter grab onto his shoes and pull. Sirius wiggles in resistance, but allows himself to be pulled out from the mirror.
"Gerroff!" he says as his mouth reappears, kicking away the other boy's hands.
"Not again," Peter says, shaking his head, knowing that another photo is ruined.
"Calm down Wormtail, I think we may have stumbled on an early Christmas present…"
The four boys took the secret passage out to Hogsmeade emerging in the back of Gladrags, and headed to the Three Broomsticks to celebrate, their third failed photo attempt (almost) forgotten.
"It's okay James, I know how to use a camera!" Lily huffed, snatching the camera back off of James. Remus winced as he watched the Polaroid camera Sirius had given him for his seventeenth birthday act as a tug-o-war between the couple.
Sirius laughed, "Oh Lily, you could not possibly understand the momentous responsibility that has been bestowed upon you."
Lily looked confused, and Remus clarified, "We've been trying to get a good photo of the four of us for the last seven years."
Lily couldn't help but giggle, "You mean you four can manage to turn all the Slytherins' hair green for a week, but you haven't been able to take a photo?"
The tips of all four boys' ears went pink.
"Oh come on you nutters, let's get this photo then," Lily laughed, pushing James towards the other boys. "Say cheese!"
With a flash, the photo slid out of the side of the camera (which James had cleverly help modify to deliver wizarding photos with aerosolised developing solution), and the four boys dove forward to look at the photo which Lily snatched up and held to her chest.
"Lilyyyy," James whined, "Pleaseeeeee."
"It hasn't finished developing yet, besides, I'll be the judge of whether it's a good photo or not."
She lifted up a corner from her chest to take a peek, and looking back at the expectant seventeen year-old boys hovering around her told them firmly, "A watched pot never boils."
"Don't you mean 'a watched cauldron never boils'?" Peter asked.
"It's the muggle version," Remus said, answering Peter.
"Oh bollocks to this, is it done yet, Evans?" Sirius asked, moving forward.
Lily pulled the photo away putting it at arm's length, and evaluating it as if it were a great masterpiece in the National Gallery.
"It's awful," she said frowning, "the composition's all wrong…nevermind the choice of subjects-"
The four boys rushed to stand behind her and see the photo.
Arms around each other, the four boys laughed, waved and smiled up at their real-life counterparts with the warm June sun glinting off the lake and the castle rising up, tall and majestic behind them.
It was perfect.
"Only joking," Lily said, "Congratulations boys, your perfect group photo at last."
Fourteen years later, Remus Lupin noticed a large barn owl, just like the one that used to deliver his Hogwarts letters, flying towards the kitchen window of his shack in the north of England.
Shaking his head, he continues eating his porridge, startled when the bird lands in front of him on the small table.
A parchment envelope with Remus Lupin in untidy scrawl is tied to its leg, and Remus pulls it off, his heart pounding in his chest.
The letter is from Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper at Hogwarts, someone Remus has not seen or heard of in a long time.
Dear Remus,
Know we haven't spoken in a while, but am trying to track down some photos of James and Lily for Harry.
He has been living with his Muggle aunt and uncle and doesn't have anything to remember them by.
Would appreciate if you have any photos you can send along.
Hope life is treating you well,
Hagrid
Remus put down the letter, speechless. Had so much time really gone past that Harry was now at Hogwarts?
He went to the large box he kept under his bed which held all of his photos, and took out ones of James and Lily's wedding, Christmas 1979, and Harry's birth, smiling as he thumbed through each happy memory – the best of his life – captured and immortalised on paper.
Soon he had a handful of photos of James and Lily ready to send, and was just tying the envelope to the bird's leg when he remembered – "Just wait," he told the bird, who hooted in response.
He ran to the bookshelf and pulled out a very old and battered copy of Hogwarts: A History, and opening the cover he saw the seventeen year-old Marauders smiling and waving up at him, not a care in the world.
Harry had to have this photo, this perfect photo, of The Marauders. Remus only hoped that one day he could explain to Harry in person how important that photo was, not only for who was in it, but how long it had taken them to get it. He was sure Harry would love hearing that story as much as James loved telling it.
He turned it over and wrote in his thin, loopy script: Fourth time is the charm. The Marauders, June 1978.