Author's note: This was written according to a prompt by tumblr user affirmednothing-deniednothing, who wanted the Marauders being sad and comforting each other. I'm not sure if I fit the brief exactly, but there's definitely sadness and some comfort, and a healthy dose of tragedy-through-situational-irony. I am utterly incapable of reading Marauders fic without being affected by their futures, which naturally means that I'm incapable of writing Marauder's fic without keeping their eventual fates in mind.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling. No money is being made from this story.
After they finished their N.E.W.T.S but before the end of the school year, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs met in the Shrieking Shack armed with firewhiskey from the Hog's Head and food from the Hogwarts kitchens. The occasion was officially a festive one, a celebration of the end of years of scholastic tyranny and unjust imprisonment for the sake of education. Sirius snuck fireworks in under his cloak, while James and Peter supplied 7 years of schoolbooks for celebratory burning. (Remus insisted on keeping all of his like the know-it-all he was, and Sirius' were too filled with excellent caricatures and witty remarks about various professors to sacrifice.) They assembled in the second bedroom, otherwise known as the one Moony didn't habitually destroy, and Remus set to work lighting a smokeless fire in the long unused grate. Sirius sprawled on the floor, setting the bag of provisions down and pawing through it greedily. James smacked his hand away.
"Not yet," he said. "Keep those hands to yourself."
Sirius rolled his eyes but obligingly removed his hands from the bag. Remus finished fiddling with the fire, while Peter returned from closing the curtains to keep away suspicious eyes. He joined the other three on the floor, looking impossibly awkward for someone who'd been sitting in circles on the floor for most of his adolescent existence. Sirius shot James a pleading look. It was James' turn to roll his eyes but he nodded. Sirius' hand shot back into the provisions bag and emerged triumphantly clutching a large bottle of firewhiskey, which he uncorked with his teeth.
"To freedom!" he said, holding it up, then took a long swallow and passed the bottle to Peter.
"To whiskey," Peter said, taking a much smaller drink of his own.
"To excellent scores on our exams," Remus offered when the bottle passed to him. He drank and ignored the face Sirius made at the mention of past exams.
"To the future," James finished, and took a large gulp. The bottle was nearly half empty when James set it down.
"To food," Sirius said firmly, not particularly wanting to either think about or toast the future. He dug into the bag once more and passed out sandwiches, keeping the plumpest one to himself. It wasn't as though they were lacking in food, after all. The House Elves of Hogwarts seemed to think that their duty wouldn't be done until every student was impossibly fat and constantly stuffed.
"So, Padfoot," James said, swallowing his mouthful with some difficulty. "Have you thought about our final prank?"
Sirius grinned, reaching out to drink more of the firewhiskey. "Have I?" he asked with mock outrage. "As if I'd let such a fine occasion pass without planning something extraordinary!"
"Is it the kind of extraordinary that gets us all detention and loses us two hundred house points?" Peter wanted to know.
Sirius rolled his eyes. "The beauty in being nearly finished, my friend, is that they can't put us in detention anymore and it doesn't matter how many points we lose. Ravenclaw's got the Cup anyway, so as long as we don't let Slytherin beat us we're golden."
"And yet somehow none of that fills me with any confidence," Remus said dryly. "What have you been planning?"
Sirius grinned and conjured a piece of parchment and a quill and began sketching a diagram of the great hall. As he drew he explained his plan, providing visual indications of where the fireworks would go and precisely how many of the chairs would be taught to dance. When he finished he looked up at James and Remus for approval.
"It's a thought," James said, and from his tone Sirius knew that he'd slipped into serious planning mode. He conjured his own quill and took the parchment from Sirius. "If we changed the position of this firework to here and redistributed the Hufflepuff chairs like this..." he trailed off, muttering to himself. Sirius grinned, settling himself back to watch as James filled in the details and sorted out the problems of his plan. Remus too bent over the parchment, muttering to himself and consulting with James about details. After a few minutes they waved Sirius over and the three of them poured over the crude sketch, discussing the necessary spellwork and preparation. Peter sat a little ways away, staring into the fire without interrupting his friends. The other three paid him no mind.
It took about two hours and nearly all the food to iron out all the obvious kinks and figure out the basic plan needed to set it all in motion. Later, Sirius knew, they would double and triple check that plan, streamlining it and assigning roles and making extra certain that everything would go as expected. This was their last shot, their final chance to make an impression on the school. All of them were set on going out with not one but several bangs.
Sirius drained the last of the first bottle of firewhiskey, enjoying the warmth spreading through his body each time he swallowed, and opened the second bottle, passing it to James. Remus declined the bottle when it was offered to him in turn, taking out a flask of pumpkin juice instead. Remus hated being drunk. Sirius wasn't sure why - being drunk was the best way to avoid reality for a while and Merlin knew Remus had as much reason to hate reality as Sirius himself - but he'd long ago accepted that his friend was just mental sometimes. After the Incident he wasn't about to push Remus past his comfort zones and risk a revocation of his forgiveness.
"So," Peter said, speaking for the first time in a while and reaching for the bottle. "What are you going to do next year?"
It was a subject they'd discussed before, but it had never held quite the same weight as it did in that moment and Sirius felt his stomach sink slightly. He swiped the bottle from Peter and drank deeply.
"I've been accepted into Auror training," James said. "And Lily's going to apprentice under Flitwick to get her Charms mastery."
Sirius tried not to make a face at the reminder of his best friend's romantic success and almost succeeded. "I'm off to auror training too," he said, to distract the others from remembering Evans' still relatively newfound position as James' girlfriend. "Figure I'll get a flat in London as far away from my family as possible, maybe in the muggle part. Moony?"
Remus grimaced. "I don't know," he said, just like he always did. "I'd like to find a job at a bookshop somewhere, if I can."
Sirius laughed. "You're so predictable," he said. "Of course you want to work with books all day."
"Are you somehow suggesting that you could have made it this far without my books?" Remus wanted to know, raising his eyebrows in that way only Moony could manage.
"Not at all," Sirius assured him. "But it wouldn't hurt you to branch out a little. Live on the wild side!"
"I think I do rather enough of that already," Remus said firmly. "You'll forgive me for wanting a bit of peace and quiet for once."
James laughed, shoving a tin of biscuits towards Remus. "You're forgiven," he said. "Peter? Your plans?"
Peter shrugged. "I guess I'll try to find a job," he said, looking down at the floor. "Something easy and boring that I can do without any specialized skills." He said this bluntly, having long since resigned himself to being fairly consistently terrible at everything without help from his friends. Sirius had to wonder whether Peter would actually be able to find a job at all, what with his lack of blood connections and generalized incompetence. He resolved to ask around and see if any of his various acquaintances needed someone to do menial tasks.
"It's hard to believe that this is almost over," Remus said, picking at a biscuit. He was getting crumbs all over his robes and the floor, but for once the normally fastidious young man didn't seem to notice. He was staring past the others, eyes unfocused. "One more week and we're done." He sighed.
Sirius nodded. "Feels like we've been here forever," he said. "I can't believe there was actually a time I didn't know you guys."
"We're moving on to better things," Peter said, looking up at last. "Our lives can finally start."
Sirius heard a bitter laugh. It took him a moment to identify it as Remus'. "The start of a life of poverty and hatred," he said dryly. "Definitely worth celebrating, that." It occurred to Sirius that maybe it was a good idea Remus didn't drink much - he could be plenty morose enough while sober.
"Come on now," James said before Sirius could open his mouth. "Don't think that way Remus. It's all going to be fine, trust me. Marauders stick together, remember?"
Remus nodded, though he did not look convinced. Peter was looking at the floor again, hand kneading the fabric of his robes absently. Sirius took another drink, uncomfortable with the dark turn the mood had taken.
"James is right," he said. "We're seventeen! We've got the whole world ahead of us! I've escaped from my parents, Moony's got himself a perfect set of N.E.W.T.S. and you two are permitted to bask in our brilliance. What more could we want?"
"We don't have our scores back yet," Remus objected, though he seemed marginally more relaxed.
Sirius waved that away. "You know you did," he said. "You always do." He raised the bottle. "To Moony, who's too bloody smart for his own good." He drained it in a single gulp, belching steam. It occurred to him that he'd had rather a lot but he reached for the third bottle anyway. If he couldn't get drunk at his own end of the year party when could he?
James stole the bottle from Sirius before he could take a drink and took a swallow himself. He set it out of Sirius' reach and ignored his friend's scowl. "You'll do brilliantly," he told Remus firmly. "And if you run into trouble with anyone we'll show them why no one messes with the Marauders."
"I would appreciate the sentiment more if I thought you were smart enough not to get yourself kicked out of the Auror training program for the sake of my non-existent honor," Remus said, but he looked pleased.
"Marauder's honor, not just yours," Sirius said. "They mess with one of us they mess with all of us, remember?"
Remus rolled his eyes. "Yes, I remember. I also remember how very many times you've had detention for taking that sentiment rather farther than it was intended."
"Battle scars," Sirius said. "Proof of my dedication to the Cause."
"You don't have a Cause," Peter said. "You just want to make your parents mad."
Everyone turned to stare at him. James automatically reached out and stopped Sirius from going for his wand. Even Remus' eyes were narrowed. Peter shrank back under the combined force of three glares.
"I… I mean," he stammered.
"Shut up," Sirius snapped, the sting of betrayal coloring his words. "I know what you mean." It was his turn to laugh humorlessly. "Nothing that hasn't said before. Thought you'd be better than that Wormtail, but I guess not." He felt something unidentifiable but definitely unpleasant coursing through him and reached for the bottle of firewhiskey. After a moment James handed it to him and Sirius drank deeply.
"Sirius is as committed to the light as the rest of us," James said firmly. "Shame on you for suggesting otherwise. You know better than that."
"No, let him be," Sirius said, firewhiskey making him bitter and even more reckless than usual. "It's not his fault, he's just saying what everyone's thinking. Why should I be committed to the light except to rebel? I'm a Black. Dark magic runs in my blood. What possible reason would I have for betraying that? Why should I be any different?" He realized he was nearly shouting and subsided, breathing heavily, still not sure if he was angry or something else.
James put a hand on his shoulder, forcing Sirius to turn and look at him. "We know you're different," he said. "Marauders stick together, remember? It's not only Moony's honor we've promised to defend."
"I can look after myself," Sirius said, but he didn't pull away.
"But you don't have to," James said, and squeezed his shoulder. He beckoned for the others to come closer, eyes intense. When all four of them were sitting so close their knees almost touched, food sack forgotten to one side of the tight circle, James looked at them all in turn. "Whatever happens after this," he said gravely. "Whatever we do, whatever we see, whatever we become, we'll stick together. Because we're Marauders and we don't let our fellow Marauders down."
Sirius felt himself nodding despite everything. James gave him a reassuring look then grinned, relaxing. "Right. Now that we've got that sorted, I believe we had a bonfire planned?"
Slowly the tension melted from the room as Peter brought out the sack full of textbooks and dumped them out in the middle of the circle. Sirius looked around at the other three, a grin forming on his face. Everyone else might hate him or question his motives but they didn't matter. These three, the best friends he'd ever had, his family in every sense that mattered, they believed in him and that was all he needed. He pulled out his fireworks and as Moony lit a portable fire under the pile of textbooks he let one of them off, snickering as Peter started at the sudden noise.