Disclaimer: Okay, I don't own Harry Potter, Remus and Sirius aren't gay in this one, and READ ON! I think I covered everything. Yeah. Probably.
Sirius Black and Remus Lupin stood outside of Minerva McGonagall's office nervously, cloaks rustling, shoes tapping, as they waited for her to respond to their knock.
"You'd think we wouldn't be here almost twenty years after graduating," Remus finally commented dryly.
"Just be glad. I don't think she can put us in detention anymore," Sirius added, shaking his head lightly, his black hair cleaner than the summer before, when he'd been hiding out in the cave. Although, he'd almost rather trade eating rats than living in his family's home again.
Finally, Professor McGonagall responded. "Come on in."
"Took you awhile Minnie," Sirius greeted her as they walked into her office.
She gave him a stern look. "I see the years have done nothing to you Mr. Black. Please take a seat."
"Of course not," Sirius replied cheerfully, although his haunted eyes said otherwise. Professor McGonagall took notice, but didn't say anything. Times had changed since the famous Marauders had entered Hogwarts for the first time. "I'm a Black."
"Remus, good to see you," Professor McGonagall greeted Lupin, and he dipped his head in response.
"So why've you called us here?" Sirius asked, cocking his head as he took around the similar surroundings. James and him had spent so much time in this office as teenagers, that Sirius knew this place hadn't changed much.
"Professor Dumbledore is going to reinstate the Order, and wishes to know if you two are willing to rejoin."
"Come off it Mi-" Sirius began, before being paused as Professor McGonagall gave him a stern gaze.
"With all due respect Professor," Remus began. "You already know we'd be happy to join. We don't need to be asked. Is there anything else you'd like to discuss?"
'Of course,' Professor McGonagall thought wryly. 'I forgot even the shy one knows me too well. Those four spent way too much time talking to me back then.'
"In other words, Remus means, are we in trouble?" Sirius filled in helpfully.
"Well," Professor McGonagall sighed finally. "While I'll refrain from commenting on the possibility that you two have managed to pull a prank this many years out of school, I simply wanted to ask you two about the Anamagi transformation that I now know happened in this school."
She peered through her glasses at the two of them, and saw a familiar sheepish look, that reminded her of the four teenage boys who had once sat in her office, explaining to her why on earth they'd jinxed whomever it happened to be that day.
"And I'd like to ask you about a little jinx on my cabinet that has been going on ever since the last day of your seventh year."
"Oh that," Sirius laughed, a bark-like sound that rang familiar in the halls. "It still works? Well, Remus, I think you owe me some chocolate now."
As Remus shrugged, Professor McGonagall looked at the two of them, looking slightly amused. "James jinxed the cabinet on our last detention in your office. You know how whenever someone tries to open it, it starts telling the weather forecast in an obnoxious tone? Well talking always was James' specialty. We just thought you might like something to remember us by. In case it got a little too quiet for your liking," Remus explained, a twinkle in his eyes returning, it seemed, after years of sorrow and pain.
"Er, we can un-jinx it if you'd like," Sirius ventured, noting Professor McGonagall's disapproving glance that she was so apt at giving people. "If you need to use it after fifteen some years."
Professor McGonagall glanced over at the jinxed cabinet, and with a jolt of sadness, realized it was one of the last few traces of James Potter that she had left that weren't just memories. With a sentimental feel, she thought of the extraordinary magic that had gone on in the seven years that those four had been around. "I'll keep it around," she finally decided. "For a reminder."
"Of what?" Remus asked curiously.
Of three students, let us not mention the fourth, whose friendship couldn't be torn apart, even by death.
"To keep me from getting too old. Now tell me about the Animagi trials," Professor McGonagall prompted.
"Well," Sirius began slowly, glancing at Remus, who gave a slight nod. "It all started in third year actually. We figured out Remus's furry little problem by the end of first year, but we couldn't figure out how the hell we were going to help him."
"And I was pretty certain I didn't want help. I didn't want the three of them killing themselves or getting bitten or anything to try to help me," Remus added.
"Surprisingly, it was Peter who gave us the idea. Bloody twit. But he did have his great moments sometimes. He found out in this book, that werewolves wouldn't be as tempted to hurt animals. But it's not like we could transform into animals extremely easily without trace. Until, you gave us the idea Professor," Sirius continued, grinning fondly at the memories.
"How?" Professor McGonagall asked, furrowing her eyebrows.
Remus stepped in, explaining, "You know the first lesson you taught in third year. Unless I'm mistaken, the one you always teach as the first lesson of third year?"
Anamagi. Professor McGonagall realized with a shock. They'd gotten an idea from one of her lessons. "So you actually listen to my lessons. I always assumed you four were too busy fooling around to listen."
"Ah but Professor Minnie, we always have time to listen to you," Sirius responded, tilting his chair on two legs in a rather endearingly familiar way. "Anyways," he added hastily, as Professor McGonagall opened her mouth to comment on his use of her name. "We finally got the idea to become Anamagi, but it wasn't easy to get to the books. So we had to coax them out of Madame Pince or distract her while we grabbed them."
"The day the library exploded," Professor McGonagall realized. "We never managed to pin it on you four, although I do believe Madame was ready to put a knife through whoever did it."
Remus nodded, continuing the story, "And Sirius grabbed the books we needed, and we looked through them for ages, trying to get the facts right."
"So you two did see the gruesome pictures then?"
The two of them nodded.
"And you continued?"
They nodded again.
"Unbelievable," Professor McGonagall muttered under her breath. "Continue," she nodded.
"So we needed the potion, and the power to do the spell, and all that mental rubbish," Sirius continued. "It said that the potion took six months to brew, so we started that in fourth year."
"But we didn't have half the ingredients," Remus filled in. "Because they weren't in the student cupboard, so we had to nick it from somewhere."
"And so you four took it from Professor Slughorn's study didn't you?" Professor McGonagall asked, recalling the great scandal in the potions room when half the ingredients had disappeared.
"Yeah, since he'd cast a spell on his potions room since second year, when we took all his bezeors, James levitated all of it out, but it took ages. Practically the entire day."
"And the day after, James couldn't lift his arm, he'd held it in place for so long, so he-"
"-he claimed to have fallen off his broom."
"Yeah, but we couldn't let him look like a moron, at least, not on his own, since he was the best quidditch player on the team; what would they think if he'd 'fallen off his broom?' So, I faked that I fell off my broom too."
"And then, once we got the ingredients, we needed a place to do them, so we tried the Room of Requirment for a week, but it was too insecure. There were other people who knew about it already. We attempted the kitchens, but it was too distracting. Then we tried Moaning Myrtle's, but she had like, a weird crush on Prongs, sorry, I mean James, or something."
"The week where he ran around screaming that he was cursed," Remus filled in for Professor McGonagall.
"-right, and then finally, we did it in our dorm. We just hid it inside the closet, that way it was easier to get to," Sirius finished.
"Once we finished the potion, we decided that either James or Sirius had to do the first spell, because they were the best at Transfiguration. Of course, we chose James, because he had better concentration, so long as Lily wasn't around of course. Sirius can get distracted by a fly."
"Hey in my defense, I was a dog when that happened," Sirius said.
"Of course," Remus rolled his eyes. "And of course, he set the basic transformation spell on the three of them, but that made it extremely hard to do magic for him, because you can easily get tired and stuff. In fact, it knocked him out for a day. But we couldn't explain why to the teachers, so we had to cause a distraction to take out classes for the day until he woke up."
"The day the castle flooded, and then receded mysteriously the day after?" Professor McGonagall asked.
The two of them nodded.
"Of course. We figured out it was you guys, but we couldn't figure out for the life of us why you would've done it, so all you guys got was detentions unless my memory is failing me," she sighed.
"No, you're right. But the three of them had to do the spell. It really was a test, fail, try again process."
"And so, once, Sirius turned like, half dog, half human, it was quite hilarious really, but we lied and said he got hit by a bludger during a private practice, and that he couldn't go to class all day. We faked a note from Madame Pomfrey. And once, James got antlers, but he couldn't change it back, so-"
"So you gave the whole school antlers. Including yourselves right?" Professor McGonagall asked, recalling that day. "I was surprised. It was one of the few pranks that you guys included yourselves in."
"Well we got it eventually," Sirius beamed proudly. "James and I transformed properly on the same day actually. Peter took another two weeks, but he got it eventually."
"It was brilliant," Remus agreed. "It really did help when they started coming on full moons."
Professor McGonagall remembered how shocked she'd been when Remus had come back into the hospital for the first time, with only two or three minor scratches, and had been able to return to classes the day after. She hadn't realized then. But she realized now.
"James was a stag of course, which is why he was called Prongs." And it explained Harry's Patronus. "I was a dog, hence, Padfoot. And Peter was a rat. We should've seen it coming. He's not a rat for nothing," Sirius spat the last part, and the three of them sat in silence for a moment, before he finally added cheerfully, "That's really it. But of course, being Anamagi had a lot of perks," Sirius grinned. "It made it easier to pull a lot of pranks.
"So, James, Peter, and you decided to become illegal Anamagi, at age thirteen, and decided to explode a library and steal potion ingreidents, then went through trial and error, all to help Remus," Professor McGonagall summarized, shaking her head.
The two of them nodded.
"Unbelievable," she sighed. It was unbelievable really, understanding how some of these pranks had actually coincided with the events that had taken place.
After a short conversation, the two of them bidded Professor McGonagall goodbye, and she saw them off, watching the two of them walk out the door.
This hadn't been the future she'd seen for either of them. It was almost impossible to believe that Sirius would've gone to jail, and that Remus would be jobless, and practically homeless.
She also didn't see, that this would be the last two marauders she would ever see together.
A year later, Dumbledore had gravely informed her that, Sirius Black had been killed by Bellatrix Lestrange.
It explained Harry's sudden sadness, his sudden inability to communicate, to stay in one place for too long.
As she stared at Grimmauld Place, Professor McGonagall was wordless.
A year and a half later, as she listened to Potterwatch quietly in her office, away from the ears of the Carrows and Snape, the traitorous Headmaster, she'd heard that Peter Pettigrew had apparently committed suicide.
She was surprised to feel a pang of sadness hit her, but then again, he had been a part of them. The Marauders. Now, Remus was the only Marauder left. Of course, after Sirius died, Remus had been the only true Marauder left, but now, he really was the last. And at age 38, he was the last of them.
So here she stood now, amidst the floors of the temporarily paused Great Battle, as Lord Voldemort allowed them to "care for their wounded and dead", she stood staring down at the peaceful, pale face of Remus Lupin. He was gone now.
But along with him, were a bundle of secrets. As much as Sirius and Remus had told her three years ago, there were many secrets, many pranks, that had not been shared. Secrets that perhaps, were best to be with only the four of them.
Professor McGonagall saw, out of the corner of her eye, Harry Potter run out of the Great Hall, like his life depended on it. Evidently, he had seen Remus as well. She sighed, wiping a single tear that had run down her face.
James had gone first, dying for his wife, and for a baby who was now a seventeen year old fighting a fully grown, trained man's battle.
Sirius had departed next, fighting side by side with James' son. Kingsley said he'd died with a smile on his face, true to the very end.
Peter had left third, committing suicide. Perhaps he felt guilty for what he'd done. What he'd caused. But perhaps, he loved his friends. He just loved himself more.
Remus had died in battle, fighting for the Wizarding World, defending James' son, for a world of peace.
Professor McGonagall shook her head, wiping away another tear, before walking on, knowing there was a battle yet to come. But as she walked away, she couldn't help but glance back, and feel a flash of memories, as she lowered her head.
Friends. Friends until the bitter end.
"Memories last forever, never do they die. Friends stay together, never say goodbye."
A/N: So, what'd you think? I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile, but it's spring break and stuff, so I've been developing some ideas. :) I hope you liked this one-shot. Tell me what you think alright? Sorry for any typos...REVIEW? Lots of Love-Catherine