The Final Day: A Marauder's Tribute
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or the Marauders; if I did, then Pettigrew would be dead and James and Lily would be alive:)
A/N: Just an idea for a one-shot...it's probably been done a lot, but I've never actually read one:) Pretty much just the Marauderes and Lily's last day at Hogwarts, 7th year. Read and Review!
"Padfoot! C'mon Sirius, wake up!"
James smirked at Moony's hopeless attempts to wake up their best friend, Sirius Black. Moony was fighting a losing battle there; Sirius was impossible to wake up in the morning, as the boys well knew from seven years of dorming with him.
And that was pretty much the moment James realized that they wouldn't be dorming together anymore; the Marauders would be split up, going their seperate ways, and never again staying up all night in the dorm...no more games of Truth or Dare, no more sneaking into the kitchen after midnight, no more pranks...
"Sirius, wake up right now." James said suddenly. When Sirius didn't even flinch at the harsh tone in his best friend's voice, James walked over to Sirius's bed. He pulled the pillow out from under Padfoot's head, and then threw it at him. When that didn't do anything, James began to get agitated. He pulled his wand from his robes, and shouted a furitive, "Aguamenta!"
Instantly, a shower of water fell over Sirius, and he sat up in his now-soaked bed, gasping. "Blimme mate! What was that for?"
"Oh good, you're up." Remus said cheerfully. "We were just going to breakfast. Care to join us, Padfoot?"
"That's all you wanted?" Sirius asked incredulously. "Well, then t'wasn't very nice of you to wake me up...gimme just a few more hours..."
"Sirius!" James said. "If you're forgetting, this is our last day at Hogwarts...?"
"So?" Sirius mumbled as he fell back down on his bed.
"Oh, fine." James said. "If you don't want to be a part of the very last Marauder prank ever..."
Sirius sat up more quickly than James's eyes could see. One moment he was half-asleep, the next, he was standing next to James with a more than eager expression on his face.
"You've thought of something?" he asked James excitedly. "Well, out with it then! Tell me, tell me, tell me!"
James laughed at Sirius; they'd been trying to come up with a last-day prank for weeks, but always found a reason not to go with their options. Each of them tried to pass it off as something as simple as, "Come on! We're the Marauders! Surely we can come up with something better than that!" But truthfully, none of them wanted to see the Marauder-ing end.
"Not something." James corrected, smiling. "Somethings. We are the Marauders after all, gents...why do we have to go out with a simple bang? We deserve a 21 gun salute!"
Sirius stared at him blankly. "What in Merlin's name is a 21 gun salute?"
"Muggle thing." James said nonchalantly. "Lilyflower told me that Muggle soldiers do it to honor someone who's died in battle or something...so why can't we have a 21 gun salute to honor the best seven years Hogwarts has ever seen?"
James and Remus had grins that were so big, James thought their faces were going to break.
"You're bloody brilliant, you are." Sirius told his best friend.
"Out with it then." Remus said. "Sirius, go get Wormtail...we need James to tell us this brilliant plan of his."
"Well? What do you think?" James asked, analyzing the reactions of the other Marauders.
"I think Minnie's gonna wet herself in all the excitement." Sirius laughed. "That's brilliant, mate! Bloody brilliant!"
Moony and Wormtail gave similar signs of approval, and James beamed; he had come up with the very last Marauder pranks that Hogwarts would ever see.
"So when do we start this wonderful and perfect chain of pranks?" Sirius asked, almost reverently.
"Breakfast." James said. "We'll need all day if we're going to go through all of them."
"Brilliant." Moony said. "It's not even six yet; breakfast won't start for two more hours...that's plenty of time to set up Prank #1."
"Not even six?" Padfoot asked increduloulsy. "Six in the morning? You told me it was well past noon!"
"Ah!" Moony shouted. "So you were awake!"
"Of course!" Sirius grumbled. "S'not easy to sleep with your constant babble in my ear!"
"Alright, boys. Settle down now...don't want to kill each other before this now, do we?" James asked, smirking.
"I agree with James." Wormtail said in a small voice.
"Course you do, Wormtail." Sirius smirked.
"Alright, are we going to do this, or not?" James threatened.
"Course we are." Sirius laughed. "As if it was ever in question."
"Right then." Remus said. "Let's go!"
"Alright, what is it? You four have been sitting there for ten minutes grinning like idiots. What did you do?"
James almost laughed at the accusatory tone of Lily's voice. She and the Marauders had been sitting at the breakfast table, waiting for Dumbledore's famous "Last Full Day of School" speech before breakfast was served.
"Now Lilyflower," James said in a tone of mock innocence. "Haven't you known us long enough to know that a good Marauder never reveals his secrets?"
"Yes, but-" Lily began, but Sirius cut her off.
"And haven't you known us long enough to know that you'll find out what we did in due time?"
"Well, I suppose, but as Head Girl, I'm not sure that you should be-"
"And furthermore," Remus concluded. "Haven't you known us long enough to at least have an idea of what we did?"
"You better not kill anyone." Lily grumbled, giving up her attempts to figure out what on Earth the Marauders had done.
"There. That's a good girl." Sirius smirked, patting Lily on the head.
"She's not a bloody dog, Sirius." James said, getting defensive. Sirius had to hold back laughter; James was always so bloody protective of his girlfriend.
"I think I of all people know that, Prongs." Sirius smirked.
"What do you mean?" Lily asked, glancing at the four Marauders with interest; in all the time she'd been dating James (almost ten months!) she still hadn't learned their 'furry little secret'.
"Nothing." Remus laughed.
Lily sighed, and at that moment, Dumbledore entered the hall.
"All I can say is," James whispered in Lily's ear. "that I'm bloody glad I paid attention in Charm's class last term."
Lily was trying to think of everything that they'd learned last term that the Marauders would have used for a prank, when Dumbledore's loud voice rang out through the hall.
"Another year, gone!" Dumbledore announced. "And what a delightful year it's been!" Dumbledore glanced pointedly at the Marauders, who all laughed, before continuing. "We have our Quidditch Champions, of course-" Dumbledore looked down at the Gryffindor table, and James and Sirius high-fived each other.
"We have had the finest Head Boy and Girl that Hogwarts has seen these many years," Dumbledore looked to James and Lily. Lily blushed, but James beamed with pride. "And - of course - we have the winners of the House Cup."
Everyone sucked in a shocked breath - was Dumbledore actually going to tell them who won at breakfast? He always saved that as a treat for the last feast.
"But - of course - that will not be announced until this evening." Dumbledore smiled. "Now, I do believe that Professor McGonagall had an announcemnt to make before we begin this wonderful breakast. Professor?" Dumbledore gestured for McGonagall to stand and make her annoucement.
McGonagall looked directly at the Marauders when she spoke. "I would just like to remind all of you, that it's not too late to continue losing points. Any rule-breaking or prank-pulling will restult in point deduction."
The Marauders almost doubled over in laughter, and Lily groaned; if they cost Gryffindor the House Cup, she was going to murder them.
With that, the breakfast food appeared on the table. Lily thought for a moment that maybe the Marauders wanted to win the House Cup more than they wanted to pull a prank, and maybe they wouldn't do anything.
That's when the first Slytherin screamed.
It was Annabelle Marsh, a pug-faced girl with the world's worst temper. At her loud screech, everyone in the room turned to stare at the Slytherin Table, then to the Marauders, then back to the Slytherin Table.
At first, everyone wondered what was wrong. There seemed to be nothing that was physically the matter with Annabelle. Maybe she'd just gone mad and screamed? But then, in a booming, loud voice, she yelled,
"SLYTHERIN STINKS! WE DON'T DESERVE THE HOUSE CUP! GRYFFINDOR DOES FOREVER! AND THE MARAUDERS ARE AMAZNG!"
As the rest of the Hall burst out in laughter, Lily whispered to Remus, "How did you lot manage that?"
"Simple truth syrum." Remus laughed, and Lily rolled her eyes.
"No, really." she said.
James laughed loudly, and Lily asked, "What?"
"Remus wasn't joking."
"Okay Moony...checklist. What's next?"
It was about eleven o'clock. There weren't really any classes, considering it was the last day of school, but students still had to go to their classrooms for about fifteen minutes to collect anything they might have left there and whatnot. The Marauders were meeting up after Potions; it was nearly lunch, and they needed to know what great prank was next to be pulled.
"Okay. So," Remus said. "We slipped Anabelle Marsh the truth syrum, we switched the Fat Lady with that portrait of the talking dog, we gave Professor Binns those puking pastels-"
"And what a sight that was!" Sirius grinned. "I thought Evans was going to faint from disgust! I mean, who knew ghosts could vomit?"
"Anyway-" Remus continued pointedly. "We dyed all of Severus's-"
"Snivellous's." Sirius and James corrected at the same time.
"Fine, Snivellous's," Remus sighed. "Clothes pink, and we colored the Slytherin Common Room in Gryffindor colors."
"How did you two manage to get their password?" Peter asked Sirius and James nervously.
"I'm Head Boy; I'm required to have access to all of the common rooms." James grinned evilly.
"I still don't know what Dumbledore was thinking, letting you have the Slytherin Common Room password." Remus laughed, shaking his head.
"It was required, Moony." Sirius laughed. "And what made it funnier was the fact that Minnie was the one that gave it to him!"
James ignored Sirius, and instead asked Moony, "Okay. What's next?"
"Oh, please tell me it's the spell for-"
But Sirius didn't even finish his question, because Remus simply nodded, and James chuckled evilly.
"I would just like to take this most opportune moment, to tell you seventh years how much I've enjoyed having you in my Charms class." Professor Flitwick began. The Marauders, Lily, the other seventh year Gryffindors, and the Slytherins were sitting in Flitwick's tiny classroom, listening to their Charms Professor get emotional about them leaving. "You are all exceptionally bright young witches and wizards, and I know that you will all go on to do great things in your lives."
"Ready?" Peter whispered to Remus. Remus nodded, and muttered an incantation. The spell was directed at Lily, who raised her hand in the middle of Flitwick's emotional, "Once a Hogwarts student, always a Hogwarts student" bit.
"Yes, Miss Evans?" Flitwick asked, taken aback that his star student was interrupting him.
"Are you going to teach us anything?" she asked eagerly. James and Sirius stared at her like she was mental, and Remus and Peter snickered.
"I beg your pardon, Miss Evans?" Flitwick asked, dabbing the last of the tears from his eyes with his teeny-tiny hankerchief.
"This is Charms Class, isn't it? Aren't you going to teach us a new spell? Or maybe give us some homework! Oh, wouldn't you please give us some homework, Professor? We can get it done during class! You're never done learning at Hogwarts, even on the last day!" Lily gushed.
"Miss Evans, I would think that you would all be glad that classes are over, not begging for them to continue." Professor Flitwick said, obviously confused.
"Oh, I can never be glad when there's not anything new to learn, oh dearest Professor Flitwick!" Lily yelled. Then, she suddenly stood up and yelled, "So that's it then? You're not going to teach us a thing? I used to like you, you know! You were my favorite teacher! But if you're not going to teach us anything, then I can't bare to look at you, you awful man!"
At this, Remus and Peter were in hysterics, tears falling from their eyes they were laughing so hard. Professor Flitwick noticed this, and narrowed his eyes at the two sniggering Marauders.
James was furious.
"I am going to kill you!" he yelled. Everyone in Professor Flitwick's room silently agreed that this was a very, er, interesting lesson. "You told me that you were going to use the spell on Frank! Why would you, how could you, oh you two better run!"
"James, don't you agree with me?" Lily asked innocently, grinning much too widely at her boyfriend. "Don't you want more homework?"
"Take the curse off her!" James yelled at Remus.
"S'not a curse." Remus laughed. "Just a friendly incantation."
"Take the curse off her." James growled, narrowing his eyes at his werewolf friend.
"Mr. Potter-" Flitwick tried, but his voice was drowned out by Lily's yelling of,
"PROFESSOR FLITWICK, THEY'RE INTERUPTING YOUR LESSON! PLEASE, I'M BEGGING YOU, JUST TEACH!"
"James, it's only a joke-" Peter started out timidly, but James's screams of, "I DON'T FIND IT VERY FUNNY! TAKE THE CURSE OFF HER!" cut him off.
Frank Longbottom - being as slow as he was - suddenly yelled, "Hey! You were going to use the curse on me?"
"All in good fun, Frankie." Sirius smirked.
"Well I don't find it very-" Frank began, but he was cut off by one of the Slytherins yelling,
"Professor Flitwick, you're letting them get away with this? They should lose a thousand points for all this disruption! They should lose their stupid Quidditch Cup!"
"Okay, you did not just insult Quidditch!" Sirius shouted at the Slytherin Prefect. "That's the worst - how could you even - urgh! - Scrougify!"
Sirius shouted the spell at the Slytherin girl, and there were soap bubbles instantly pouring from her mouth. While Professor Flitwick was trying to remember the counter curse, James was losing his mind at Remus, Lily was still begging for work, and Peter was trying to get a word in edgewise.
"-one of my best friends would ever do this to-"
"-just a harmless joke meant for the amusement of-"
"-James, please, I-"
"-I can write it really fast, Professor! Only seven, or I'll even let six simple rolls of parchment slip on the Incantation of-"
"-you're embarrasing her in front of all the slimy snakes, and that's not-"
"-it's a joke! You've done much worse, now-"
"-James, please-"
That was one class Professor Flitwick never ever forgot.
"Help me Padfoot, please!"
"What do you want to do?"
"Get back at Remus for doing that to Lily!"
"Well...what did you have in mind?"
After lunch (during which James refused to even look at him or Peter), Remus Lupin headed back to the Gryffindor common room. He'd been with Professor Flitwick for a few minutes, apologizing repeatedly for all the disruptions. Once he got to the portrait of the Fat Lady (Professor McGonagall had gotten rid of the talking dog), he said the password, and walked into the common room.
James, Sirius, Lily, and Peter were the only ones in the room. Peter was cowering in the corner with his hands over his eyes, his back turned to the other three. Lily was standing far away from James and Sirius, and she was crying. James and Sirius had moved all of the furniture out of the way, and James had his wand pointed at Sirius.
"Padfoot, how could you?" James screeched; Prongs was more angry than Remus had ever seen him.
"Mate, I'm so sorry! We didn't want you to find out this way!" Sirius defended, obviously scared out of his wits.
"James, I didn't want it to end like this!" Lily sobbed, falling to the floor.
James spared a glance at her. "But you did want it to end; you've made that perfectly clear!"
"Whoa-" Lupin said. "What on earth is-"
"I hate you!" James yelled at Sirius. "I hate you so much! You should have been in Slytherin, you filthy traitor!"
"Prongs, you've been my best mate for years! Why are you-"
"Don't even go there with me Sirius! Crucio!"
Remus's eyes almost bulged out of his head as the James flung the curse at Sirius. Sirius fell to the ground with a grunt, and repeatedly screamed in pain.
"You deserve everything you get, you filthy excuse for a-"
"James, don't!" Remus yelled. "Padfoot's your friend!"
"I could end you, right now, and no one would care!" James yelled at Sirius.
"I would care!" Remus yelled frantically, as he searched all through his robes for his own wand.
"James, please!" Lily begged.
"And I hate you too!" James screeched at Lily. Then, he aimed his wand at her and yelled, "Crucio!"
"Okay, enough!" Remus yelled. "James, stop it! Why on earth would you- they're your friends - James, James, JAMES!"
James spared one look at Remus - who was standing there with his mouth open looking ready to cry at the pain that James was causing two of his best friends - and bursted out laughing.
"Okay Padfoot, Lilyflower, I think we scared him good enough!" James chortled. Lily and Sirius instantly stopped screaming and writhing, and stood up, laughing madly. Peter got up too; had they all been in on it?
"But what...? How could you...? I saw...?" Lupin stuttered, dumbfounded.
"You saw me point a stick at Sirius and Lily and yell some words; and then you saw the greatest acting debut in Potter Family History!" James laughed.
It was dinner.
All had been forgiven between the four Marauders and Lily, and the Marauders were preparing for the final pranks.
They'd already set off dungbombs in the girl's lavatory. They already slipped Professor Slughorn a love potion, that made him fall head over heels in love with Professor McGonagall. But that was just the tip of the iceburg.
The Marauders and Lily sat at the Gryffindor Table in the Great Hall, laughing at a pointless joke that Sirius had told. The feast had already begun; Dumbledore had already given his speech, and announced that Gryffindor had won the House Cup. Needless to say, everyone was in very high spirits (save the murderous looking Slytherins).
"Ready Sirius?" James whispered to his best mate.
"Course I am." Sirius grinned. "But do I actually have to take the potion? Can't I just fake it?"
"No." Remus said. "It'll be more convincing if you don't burst out laughing in the middle of it."
"What's Sirius going to do?" Lily asked, eyeing the four Marauders suspiciously.
Sirius sighed. "Flower, how many times must we tell you-?"
"I know, I know, "A good Marauder never reveals his secrets." blah, blah blah." Lily did a weak impression of James's deep voice, which earned her quite a few laughs. She watched as James slipped a little potion into Sirius's hands, Sirius never taking his eyes off of Professor McGonagall.
And then, Lily watched in horror as Sirius stood up in the middle of the Great Hall, and-
"MINERVA MCGONAGALL!" Sirius yelled. "I AM IN LOVE WITH YOU! I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN LOVE WITH YOU! AND NOW THAT I'M GRADUATING, OUR LOVE CAN FLOURISH AND BLOSSOM!"
"Mr. Black!" McGonagall said sharply. "How dare you-"
"Our love is like a helpless baby bird!" Sirius shrieked. "Won't you care for it with me, Minnie? Won't you love our helpless little birdie?"
"Mr. Black, I-" McGonagall looked like she was going to punch something, earning many laughs from James, Remus, Peter, and Lily.
"I can wait!" Sirius said quickly. "We can wait, my love, until I'm eighteen! That's quite soon, I can wait another month! For my love for you will never end! I would wait for you forever!"
"MR. BLACK!" McGonagall roared. "Why I have never-!"
That's when McGonagall noticed the loud laughs coming from the Gryffindor Table, and James was certain that he'd never seen Minnie look quite so murderous.
"Potter!" she screeched.
While the rest of the Great Hall was still bursting with laughter, James tossed the antidote to Sirius, who took it happily. When he was free of the love potion, he bowed to the many students and teachers, and said, "Thank you, thank you, you've been an excellent crowd!"
"DETENTION!" McGonagall yelled.
"For how long, Minnie?" Sirius chortled. "We leave tomorrow!"
"Why you-!"
Later that night, the four Marauders were in detention in McGonagall's Office.
"Can't believe she gave us detention on the last day of school." Sirius grumbled.
"You'll miss this one day, Padfoot." James laughed. "You'll be old one day and wish that you could go back to the days when you were in detention with that 'Potter' you used to hang with."
"Used to?" Sirius asked. "Blimme mate, you make it sound like the end of school is the end of the Marauders."
"In a way...isn't it?" Lupin asked.
"No!" Sirius yelled. "Course not! We'll always be friends, we'll always play jokes, we'll always hate Slytherins, we'll-"
"But what if we go our seperate ways?" James asked. "Maybe not even intentionally, but with Moldy Shorts rising to power, you never know-"
"Don't talk like that, Prongsie!" Sirius said. "The Marauders will be together forever - we can't be pulled apart by some stupid Dark Wizard! As long as we stick together, we can make it through anything!"
The rest of the Marauders looked dumbfounded, and Sirius asked, "What?"
"That was the longest sentence you've ever said Padfoot!" Remus laughed heartily. "Congratulations!"
"Shut up, Moony." Sirius grinned, playfully shoving his friend.
At that moment, Professor McGonagall came in, red rings around her eyes.
"Alright there, Minnie?" Sirius joked.
"Yeah." James agreed. "S'not like you to be late."
"You four-" she said shakily, pointing her finger at the Marauders. "Are easily the worst troublemakers we have ever had at Hogwarts. Complete lack of respect for authority, utter disregard for the rules..." she trailed off, shaking her head. "But-" she allowed. "I...I cannot deny that I will miss having you four in this school. Hogwarts was never more interesting than when the Marauders were here."
"Lily?"
"Oh, James!" Lily said happily, appraising the fact that her boyfriend had just entered the common room. They were the only two there. "You're back from detention."
"Yeah." James smiled, messing up his hair. "Minnie was pretty easy on us...even said she was gonna miss us."
Lily rolled her eyes, and tried to hide the few tears that were escaping them.
"Flower, what's the matter?" James asked, sitting by Lily on the couch.
"I just...can't believe it's over." Lily cried. "I feel like I've grown up here...and now it's ending. And what's going to happen to us, James? I'm not going to get to see you all the time, or meet up with you in the Great Hall for breakfast...and don't ever tell them I said this, but I'm going to miss the Marauders, too."
James held Lily in his arms, and said, "It'll be alright, Flower, I promise. We'll all miss each other, but...it's not the end, this'll never end." James forced Lily to look into his eyes before saying, "Friends never say goodbye."
"Here," James continued, getting off the couch. "I know what'll make you feel better."
James kneeled in front of Lily, holding both of her hands in his own. He looked intently into her eyes before saying, "I love you."
She smiled. "You're right. That did make me feel better."
James rolled his eyes affectionately. "You could say it back, you know."
"I could." Lily giggled. Then, she rolled her eyes too, and said, "I love you, too."
"I have something for you." James said, reaching into his pocket.
"What is it?" Lily asked curiously.
"Ah! There it is." James said, handing Lily a little silver key.
"A key?" she asked. "I'm surprised you even know what a key is."
"Remus told me." James chuckled. "You silly Muggle-borns and your non-magical things."
"Well...what's this key to, exactly?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrows.
James shrugged. "Our new house."
"...What?" Lily asked, staring at James Potter for all she was worth.
"Oh, and this goes with it." James pulled a ring from his pocket, and gave it to Lily.
"James!" she gasped.
"Lily Evans...I love you. I love you so much, and I always have. I don't ever want to lose you, Flower. Will you marry me?"
"Oh...oh, James!" Lily said, beginning to cry even more. "Yes, yes!" she choked out. James beamed, and put the ring on Lily's finger. She squeeled with delight, and James stood up and picked her up. He twirled her around, and said, "So...I guess I'm glad you picked me over the Giant Squid."
Lily laughed, and - from under James's Invisibilty Cloak - the other three Marauders smiled at their friend's happiness.
If you were to look in the dorm of the Marauders that very evening at midnight, you would be shocked (or perhaps not) to see that none of the boys were asleep. They were all sitting on James's bed, laughing at memories of their years at Hogwarts. Each boy had a smile plastered on his face, but each also had tears in his eyes. They were leaving. Their dorm was all packed up. It was ending.
If you were to look in the dorm of the Marauders today, you would find four names carved underneath James Potter's old bed. They'd been worn down with age, but they'd still be there.
If you were to look for the Marauders today, you would never find them. As James had anticipated, they all went their seperate ways, some by choice, others by force. But their seperations weren't forever, never forever, for like James Potter said:
Friends never say goodbye.
Okay, this was meant to be humerous at first, but I'm crying now:'(. Please excuse any mistakes, I typed this rather quickly...wow, this is the longest one-shot I've ever written! It more became like a tribute to the Marauders, y'know? I know that some people were slightly OOC, and that some parts rambled on, but I hope it was okay nonetheless...anywhoo, thanks for reading!
~PeachyKeen13