Title: Timeless Treasures
Author: RoboTitaness (fr0st6yte)
Fandom: Harry Potter
Characters: Minerva McGonagall, Remus Lupin, James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, Lily Evans
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Angst
Summary: Time passes quickly, and Minerva McGonagall knew more secrets than her students expected.
The year is 1984. November of 1984.
It's been three years now. Three years since Voldemort was destroyed. Three years since the wizarding world was free. Three years since peace was established.
Three years since Minerva lost five of her most memorable students. The Marauders, she mused. Enthusiastic, intelligent mischief-makers, who believed they had a leg up on every professor in the castle.
Minerva spared herself a small smile. They may have had their secrets, but she knew more than they thought.
The corridor in behind the tapestry, for instance. Their Den, as they called it. A place, she wasn't sure even Lily Evans knew about. A space belonging to four boys, found during their first year. A memoir, a scrapbook, that told a story unlike any others she'd ever read, while living in the Hogwarts' Library as a student.
She walked down, eyes riveted on the wall.
A picture here, of four children. Taken outside, the boys were standing around a tree by the lake. Two with black hair, one messy, one long, each with an arm around a brunette and a blond respectively. The bespectacled boy was rubbing his knuckles on the brunette's head, as the latter struggled and laughed. When he finally pulled away, he sent the taller boy a shy grin. The other black haired kid was pulling the short blond boy up against him, both grinning mischievously, studiously ignoring their friends.
Another picture, this time, inside, in the Hospital Wing. The brunette was laying on the bed, staring at his friends, emotions varying from shock to worry to elation flashing on his face. Two other boys in the picture - the bespectacled one and the blonde - were sitting on the edge of the bed, both smiling softly at the boy. None of them payed any attention to the camera or the cameraman.
Minerva passed more pictures. Some had Lily Evans or Dorcas Meadows or other schoolmates in them. Some had all four Marauders, some seemed to be in the middle of their pranks. With each passing pictures, memories flooded into her mind. Of when they charmed the entire floor of the dungeons to ice, so that no one was able to get to the Potions classroom accident free. Of Head Boy and Prefect badges. Of summer weddings and baby blankets. Of when they had a plan for every Welcome Feast. For when their Halloween prank brightened up her days as the Death Eater attacks became more prominent.
How they lit up the whole school, even as the days got darker.
As she neared the end, she saw their faces tighten. Saw more clenched jaws and more pain in their eyes. Fists and bruises. Weariness and anger.
But never despair. Never hopelessness.
Her students sometimes thought she was heartless, she knew. Sometimes, she wasn't even sure of her own heart. But when she saw the end of the tunnel, she slid down to her knees, and leaned forward to touch, first her hand, then her forehead, to the writing.
We are lions: strong, bold, loyal.
Made of bonds tested by pain and trial.
Unbroken, we are, unbroken we shall remain,
For we are brothers, never to be each others' bane.
Though we solemnly swear,
That we are up to no good,
We bring this journey to an end,
And, so for now, mischief managed.
Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs
The Marauders
A/N:
Cross posted on ArchiveOfOurOwn (fr0st6yte)
Based on a challenge for angst between me, XtaticPearl, and Kiernaserea. Expect more stories to follow!
Thanks for reading!
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