It's A Wonderful Life, Sirius
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter :(
Author's Note: Just an idea I had after watching the movie. Enjoy the fic and happy holidays, everybody! :D
The snow fell steadily on the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. It was only a day before Christmas, and most of the students had gone home for the holidays. Our story begins in Gryffindor Tower, whose only residents at this time were three first year boys, a third year witch, and a group of sixth year miscreants who referred to themselves proudly as "The Marauders".
In the sixth year boys' dormitory, one of those miscreants, who went by the name of Remus Lupin, was uncharacteristically angry. His face was red with that feeling of anger, and he was yelling more loudly than he ever had before.
"Sirius! I asked you to do one thing! One! Are you that incompetent that you can't even follow simple directions?"
"Moony, I'm sorry!" said Sirius, thrusting his hands into the air in innocence. He was backed against a wall near his bed, watching Remus with puppy dog eyes. "I didn't know that you-"
"Sirius, mate," said a third boy, James Potter, from near Remus. "You really did it this time."
From a corner the fourth boy, a pudgy fellow called Peter Pettigrew, watched the entire exchange with eager interest.
"You swore you'd change after that incident with Snape," fumed Remus, beginning to pace in his frustration. "And I believed you! But no! You're just as irresponsible as ever, maybe even more so. And I'm sick of it, Sirius! You don't contribute, you don't volunteer to help anyone unless there's something in it for you, and you treat people like it doesn't matter if you hurt their feelings! I needed to use Harold to send that parcel! I told you a month ago after Reginald died that I would need your owl to send out my application! I told you that it was due on December 26, and that if I didn't send it in I wouldn't be allowed to come back to Hogwarts! The Ministry needs to be updated on my condition every year or else they'll send me away someplace 'secure'! But apparently I don't matter enough to you for you to remember that!"
"Remus, I'm so sorry, I just-"
"Forgot!" concluded Remus. "You just forgot that my future depended on your owl. Thanks a lot for that, mate, it's nice to know that my friendship means something to you."
"You could have used James's owl." said Sirius sheepishly, regretting the words as soon as they left his mouth. Remus, if possible, became even more irate.
"You know that Mable doesn't actually belong to James, and that his parents have to use her over the holidays! Or did you forget that, too?"
"James-" pleaded Sirius, turning to his best friend for help. "Prongs, tell him-"
But James just shook his head sadly. "I'm sorry, mate. But you really should have been more responsible."
"Ha! Who are you today? The pot or the kettle?"
"Hey, I'm responsible." defended James, level-headed. "I never forget anything, I always hand in my essays, and I don't forget certain werewolf applications that happen to be quite important to our werewolf best friend that decide his future at school with us."
Sirius became even more frantic. He scraped to find an excuse. He scraped to find a defense. But there weren't any, and in his heart, he knew that. But he felt so guilty that he didn't even realize what he was saying. "Remus, it wasn't my fault! You should have reminded me!"
"I did!" screamed Remus. "Four times this month alone!"
"Sirius," sighed James. "Why don't you just...go somewhere for tonight?"
"W-What?"
"We don't want you here!" screeched Remus hoarsely. He was losing his voice from all the yelling. "In fact, I never want to see you again! I don't care where you go or what you do but don't come back! We forgave you for nearly letting me eat Snape because you promised you'd be more responsible, but now we know that you're irresponsible and a liar! You're not a good friend, Sirius! Just...go. Go somewhere. Goodbye."
James gazed sadly at Sirius, but did not come to his defense.
Sirius felt his heart break. First he ran away from home because he wasn't wanted there, and now his friends were giving up on him, too? He felt tears springing to his grey eyes, and dashed from the dorm before his friends...or, rather, ex-friends, could see him cry.
Sirius sat morosley in the dormitory for the seventh year boys. They had all gone home for Christmas, so the room was empty and cold. Much like how Sirius felt. He stared sadly out the window, watching the snow fall and cover the grounds. He couldn't remember ever feeling so alone. If he died right then and there, would anyone even care?
"Ah, my dear boy. I can assure you that your life is more valuable than you think." came a wise and familiar voice from behind Sirius. The younger boy jumped, startled, and turned around to see his Headmaster standing there with a knowing look on his wrinkled face.
"Professor Dumbledore," sniffled Sirius, wiping the remaining tears from his eyes. He'd been crying for an hour straight. "W-What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same question, Mr. Black." chuckled Dumbledore lightly, taking a seat next to Sirius on one of the beds. "A little bird told me that you may require some assistance."
"Don't know how you can help me much, sir." said Sirius glumly. "Even if you could help me get Remus's application to the Ministry on time, they'd still be angry with me. I guess I'm just not very important in the world."
"But Sirius," said Dumbledore. "You're more important than you could possibly imagine."
"Thanks sir," replied Sirius. "But I don't think you're right about that."
"Oh?" questioned Dumbledore. He offered Sirius his arm, and raised an eyebrow. "Would you like to bet on that, my boy?"
Sirius looked confused, but knew from experience to just trust Dumbledore. He took the old man's arm, and the next thing he knew, he was being whisked away to a place that was definitely not the seventh years' dorm.
"What are we doing back up here, sir? I figured you knew...they don't ever wanna see me again."
"Just watch, Sirius. Watch and learn."
The scene played in front of Sirius just like he was watching a movie. The three Marauders in the room did not acknowledge the existance of him or Dumbledore - it was like they weren't even there. It was light outside, Sirius could tell by looking out the window, and it wasn't snowing anymore. Peter was curled up in his bed, watching James and Remus with frightened eyes. James and Remus were standing in the middle of the room, presumably arguing, and James was crying like mad.
"It's your fault, Remus! I was mad too, but I was trying to be gentle with him! You couldn't wait to get rid of him!" yelled James in grief, not even trying to hide his tears.
"Why would I need to be gentle?" spat Remus in anger, his entire face red. To one on the outside, it would appear as though Remus didn't care a lick about Sirius, but Sirius had known Remus long enough to know that anger and hatred was the way Remus dealt with grief.
"You didn't know!" cried James. "But I knew, because I'm the one he's living with!"
"W-What?"
"Sirius ran away from Grimmauld Place," explained James through his sobs. "He was living with me! He felt like his family didn't love him anymore, and then we had to go and turn - our - backs - on - him! And now he's dead! And it's all our fault!"
Remus couldn't control himself. He broke down as well, and he and James embraced in a brotherly hug. Peter wiped his beady little eyes from his spot on the bed.
"Sirius, mate," cried James. "I'm so sorry! I let you down, and I'm sorry. If I could go back and change what happened, I would! I know you - messed - up - but..." But James couldn't continue his apology, as he was crying too hard even to speak.
Sirius turned to Dumbledore.
"Sir, what's going on?"
"This is tomorrow, Sirius." explained Dumbledore kindly. "Christmas Day. I recall a belief of yours that if you were dead your friends wouldn't care?" Dumbledore gestured to the three sobbing Marauders in the dorm. "I think this more than proves your worth to them."
"I bet they just feel guilty." said Sirius sourly, rolling his eyes. "They've always been the ones to put blame on themselves. I bet that if I'd never been born they'd be a lot better off, though. Then there'd be nothing to feel guilty about. They'd just be happy and Sirius-free."
Professor Dumbledore looked thoughtful for a moment, before once again offering Sirius his arm. "Let's take a look then, shall we?"
Sirius shrugged, and took his Headmaster's arm once again.
The dorm looked a lot cleaner. The beds were made, and the room hardly looked lived in. The only one in there this time, however, was James.
"Why's James all alone?" asked Sirius, walking over to his best mate slowly. James didn't look sad, but he didn't look happy, either. He didn't look like a sixteen year old boy was supposed to on Christmas. "Where are his friends?"
"He doesn't have any," said Dumbledore in a sad, gravelly voice.
"What do you mean?" asked Sirius in shock. "Remus and Peter -?"
"Never befriended him." explained Dumbledore. "Do you recall how you four became friends in the first place, Sirius?"
"'Course I do!" exclaimed Sirius, excited to be the one recounting the tale instead of James for once. "James and I became friends on the train ride here, and became the 'Dynamic Duo'. Pulled some of the best pranks in all of Hogwarts history in our first few weeks! But we wanted to get to know the other two boys in our dorm, so we started with Remus. He was reluctant to even introduce himself to us because he saw how much trouble we were, but I convinced him! And then Peter simply followed Remus's lead, I assume because he didn't want to be the only loner."
"James was not as successful at convincing Remus to befriend him as you were, I'm afraid." said Dumbledore sadly, shaking his head. "Without you around to balance out the pranking, James found his jokes were oftentimes dangerous, and he got into more trouble than he meant to. No one woud be friends with him after he accidently set the Ravenclaw Common Room on fire. He almost killed several students because of it. Peter steered clear of him altogether because he was so afraid, and Remus didn't want any friends after he saw what the boys in his year were like."
"So you're saying that Peter and James and Remus are all friendless losers? That's stupid." commented Sirius.
"No," continued Dumbledore. "Peter has plenty of friends - in his House."
"His House?" querried Sirius. "What mean you by that, Dumbles?"
"In his Second Year, Peter asked to be re-Sorted. He was put into Slytherin House, where he made himself some friends." said Dumbledore.
"Slytherin?" exclaimed Sirius in disblief. "Peter in Slytherin?"
"I'm afraid so."
Sirius looked back to James, who looked pale and lonely sitting alone in his dorm. His face was worn and tired, and he looked much older than sixteen. His eyes looked haunted, and Sirius felt horrible. "What about Remus?" he asked, to get his mind off of James.
Dumbledore didn't answer.
Sirius turned around to ask again. "Dumbledore? What about Remus?"
Dumbledore took a deep breath before answering Sirius. "He died, I'm afriad. In his fifth year. He went to the Shack like he always did, but hurt himself too badly. He was uncontrolled and dangerous, and clawed himself in the chest with great force."
"He...died?" asked Sirius blackly, his voice taking on a depressed and hollow tone. "Because he wasn't...controlled?"
"Yes." said Dumbledore. "Although I can't imagine how that happened differently...unless you had somehow come up with a way to make Remus's time as a werewolf more bearable, so he didn't do himself as much harm." Dumbledore gave Sirius a knowing look. Of course! The Animagi!
Sirius turned back to James one last time. "So...I suppose they aren't better off without me, are they?"
Sirius turned to face Dumbledore once more, but he was gone. Sirius turned to face James again, but he was gone, too. In fact, Sirius wasn't even in his dorm any longer - he was back in the dorm of the seventh year boys, and snow was visible outside the window.
Sirius jumped out of bed immediately, and ran up the steps to the dormitory of the sixth year boys. He thrust the door open to find James, Remus, and Peter sitting on the floor talking. They stopped immediately when Sirius entered, and glared at him.
"What do you want?" asked Remus darkly.
Seeing that Remus was perfectly well and not dead, Sirius grinned and ran to him. He hugged his friend with all his might.
"Moony!" he exclaimed cheerfully. "Merry Christmas, mate! I'm so glad you're not dead!"
This attitude caught Remus completely off-guard, and he wasn't sure how to respond. "Er..."
"Don't worry, mate." said Sirius seriously. "I'm going to take your application to Dumbledore and have him give it to the Minister for Magic in person. And I swear that I'll be more responsible from now on."
Next, Sirius turned to see Peter, sweet innocent, Gryffindor Peter. "Ah, Wormtail! I'm just glad you're not evil, mate."
Peter gave Sirius a confused smile, and said, "Er...me, too?"
Then, Sirius turned to James, whose eyes were happy and youthful.
"Prongs!" said Sirius happily. "Mate, I'm so happy that your dead and hollow eyes aren't shimmering with the ghosts of your horrible, Ravenclaw-killing past."
"Me too!" said James happily. Then he seemed to realize what Sirius had said and he backtracked. "Wait, what?"
"Sirius, mate, what's gotten into you?" asked Remus, raising an eyebrow. "You've never been the optimistic type."
"Let's just say, I had an out-of-body experience." said Sirius cryptically. "And it gave me a different perspective, you know?"
"Well I'm...glad it helped, then?" said James unsurely.
"Me too!" said Sirius giddily. "Me too! Merry Christmas, fellow comrades!"
So...I had a ton of fun writing this, and I hope you had a ton of fun reading this! And reviews...well, those would just be the icing ontop of a very yummy cake :) thanks for reading!