Marauder for Life and in Death


Summary: Padfoot has always had the last laugh. And in death, it will be no different, as his beloved cousin and her friends will find out soon enough.


A very large circular table sat in the middle of a very large room.

The room was of dreary and rather uncomfortable looking cobblestone on all surfaces but the furniture's, which was only a couple of chairs so hard they might as well be stone and a table so tastefully ugly it might as well be firewood.

It also had the one entrance, which had caused a commotion as some of the people sitting at the table had met each other. Who were these people?

The Malfoy family, headed by Lucius, released 'due to lack of evidence' by order of Minister Fudge. To his left sat his son Draco and to his right sat his wife Narcissa, all three looking prim, proper and well groomed despite the undeserving room.

To Narcissa's right sat her sister, who even now was grinning like a lunatic and looking around excitedly, much as if she were a child introduced to something new. Contrary to Narcissa's well cared for appearance, Bellatrix looked more like she had just woken up and forgot to eat for a month, looking like a hairy skeleton with skin.

To her right sat her husband and his brother, Rudolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, respectively. Both were brutish men approaching their fifth decade who looked as gaunt as Bellatrix herself, and this made the once vaguely dissimilar brothers even more alike, Azkaban draining their life and turning them into skeletons with skin themselves.

Further to the right was one Peter Pettigrew, looking extremely uncomfortable and shifting on his chair. From the way certain of his bodyparts twitched every once in a while, it was clear that he had been subjected to the torture curse just a few minutes prior.

Moving on from Peter was Walden McNair, who looked grumpy about being forced to leave his great axe behind when he strode into Gringotts.

Antonin Dolohov, a manic glint to his eyes, was next to McNair, smiling as he looked indiscriminately at Narcissa's bust, which caused her to frown, but a glance from her husband kept her from sneering at the idiot openly.

At the head of the table sat Tom Marvolo Riddle, in all of his snakey glory, looking bored. Intensely so. Regardless, he sat as dignified as he could, which wasn't very, given that he wasn't given a throne to sit in, like he should have, but he'd deal with these goblins' disrespect later. To his right, more and more death eaters completed the round table.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, a Goblin that nobody cared to name strode in with a snarl on his face. "As everyone is gathered, we shall honor the will of the fallen and-"

"Excuse me," began Narcissa, standing up. "I must attend to the call of nature," she explained, pushing her chair back.

Lucius looked thoughtful. "Draco, accompany her. It wouldn't do for a lady of her standing to walk alone in Gringotts," he said, looking at his wife and nodding.

"Very well, but make it quick. We shall start without you."

"But mother! I have to inherit the Black State!" whined Draco, as he pouted at his mother, who just shook her head and dragged him off.

"Your father will tell you anything that you missed. Come along, Draco," Narcissa said, taking Draco with her as she left.

Finally, the Goblin stopped sneering at the two retreating guests to Gringotts bank. "The will to be read is in this letter. It was requested that it be opened and read by yourself," the Goblin said, looking at Voldemort. "Probably a gesture of respect and deference," and there was a barely restrained contempt at that sentence that anyone with two braincells to rub together could pick up.

Voldemort would punish the goblins, and punish them hard, for their disrespect.

With that, the Goblin left and Tom Marvolo Riddle picked up the letter, opening it and unfolding the muggle paper.

"... 'This is the last will and testament of Sirius Orion Black... Marauder for Life and in Death'," said Tom, frowning in confusion.

Peter tried to dive under the table, but the entire room was covered by the conflagration that ensued, and it reduced him to ash as well.

Hearing an explosion and feeling the ground shaking, Narcissa Malfoy, widow to Lucius Malfoy, fell to the ground and wept for her husband, for the man who had collaborated and conspired with Sirius Black in order to protect his family from the Dark Lord.