Remus was sitting at the banquet for the seventh year students. It was a sort of graduation ceremony. In years prior when the school had been much larger (when students from all over western Europe had come to Hogwarts to be educated), they had held actual ceremonies for graduation, but now the graduating class was forty-three students large and nobody could justify a grand ceremony in such dark times.
Claire's fingers were laced through Remus's under the table. Parents had been invited, though not all came. Claire's and Sirius's were conspicuously not present, but Mrs. Potter had come on behalf on her son and the twins. Lily's friendly parents were present as well, and Peter's sweet, elderly mother. Remus's parents had made it, and were sitting next to Olivia's father, Peter Cromwell, who was one of the most highly recognizable public figures in the wizarding world.
"The world as we know it has certainly changed," Professor Dumbledore said in his clear, firm voice. "For those of you here for your children, I'm sure you all realize what a different sort of environment your newly qualified wizards are entering to the one you all found yourselves in years ago. And to the students, I'm sure you yourselves are painfully aware of the fact, as one of your number is not with us here tonight."
He nodded at the empty seat at the Gryffindor circular table that was left in Mary's memory. Margery Kunzman openly sobbed at this. Olivia flinched visibly and Remus saw Sirius gently rub her shoulder. Mary's death had been a heavy blow, but not as heavy as Olivia's horrible reaction to it, attempting to cut her own wrists with a cursed blade. She had been so distraught that Sirius and James had had to hold her down and wrench the blade from her grasp. Mary's chair might not have been the only empty seat in the Hall; there might have been three.
For after running away from home, well before Mary's tragic end, Claire had even tried to kill herself a couple of times, although the adults had never heard about those attempts. One scary incident, of course, had been when she starved herself, but Remus, Sirius, and Audrey, had all caught her on separate occasions attempting to either overdose on pain relieving potions or the one time Audrey had caught Claire attempting to provoke several of the more dangerous plants in Greenhouse Three. Remus had never been so scared as when he had held Claire, shaking, in his arms, trying to make a potion to purge her system with one had as he held her tightly to both comfort and restrain her. Once he had forced the cure down her throat, she cried herself to sleep in his arms.
Yes, there very easily could have been three empty seats at the Gryffindor table. Thank Merlin it was only one.
"This was one of the brightest, one of the most promising classes Hogwarts has seen in many years," Dumbledore went on. "The talent in any single House exceeds the talent of the last several years as whole classes. The professors have long talked about this class to me, either to praise their incredible talent or to bemoan their incredible appetite for trouble."
Parents and students chuckled, and Sirius and James high-fived over Claire's head. Dumbledore granted the Gryffindor table a hint of a smile.
"Yes, this year has shown their talents in many ways, be it school-wide pranks, forbidden duels, incredibly entertaining Quidditch matches, or the sheer number of points they earned for their remarkable coursework. Never before has so small a group received so many N.E.W.T.s in total. Some of you worked very hard for those N.E.W.T.s, certainly, but what shocks me is the number of students who received an impressive number of N.E.W.T.s without studying at all."
Once again, Sirius and James high-fived, but this time Olivia and Claire did as well. Several parents chuckled once more at this, and even Professor McGonagall's usually-disapproving stare seemed more like a look of pride as she regarded the Gryffindor table. Yes, Peter's N.E.W.T.s were nothing to brag about, and Kurt and Margery did reasonably well, but the rest of the table had topped the year, almost without even trying.
"It is time for each Professor to give out awards for excellence in their respective subjects, as well as a few extracurricular awards, and then we will hear from our Head Boy and Girl to end the banquet."
Professor Babbling stood and said, "For Ancient Runes, the prizes for achievement go to Claire Black and Remus Lupin of Gryffindor!"
Remus was surprised, but he and Claire, still holding hands, went up to collect their awards. He tried to ignore the vigorous applause and wolf-whistles of their friends, but Claire turned and winked at their friends, causing the commotion to escalate even further.
When they had sat back down and the crowd settled, Professor Vector stood and said, "For Arithmancy, the prizes for achievement go to Claire Black and Remus Lupin!"
Remus couldn't hide his shock this time, and Claire actually had to drag him by the hand to get him up front to accept their awards.
Professor Sinistra stood and said, "The prizes for Astronomy go to Eva Morecomb of Slytherin and Sirius Black of Gryffindor!"
Remus clapped heartily for his friend as Sirius swaggered to the front of the Hall with all of the confidence of a well-bred racehorse, which Remus supposed was sort of what Sirius was. After all, his family had even inbred in places to keep them with the purest of blood.
Professor Kettleburn stood and said, "The prizes for Care of Magical Creatures go to Lily Evans and Remus Lupin of Gryffindor!"
Remus was still shocked as Claire pushed him forward. Why had he won so many prizes? Sure Sirius and James… Surely they had done better than him? They were both so incredibly talented, so much better than he was at nearly everything…
"For Charms," Professor Flitwick squeaked, "the prizes for achievement go to Lily Evans and Sirius Black!"
"For Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Professor Pennyforth, "the prizes for achievement are awarded to Olivia Cromwell of Gryffindor and Severus Snape of Slytherin."
The clapping for this was only enthusiastic at the Slytherin table and amongst the parents. There was actually a dark pause amongst the rest of the school, as Severus Snape had actually horribly injured Olivia several times in the course of both sanctioned and unsanctioned duels, putting her in the hospital for several months all told, single-handedly. A careful observer would have noted the tremble in Olivia's hand as she accepted her award.
Professor Phythia stood and said, "The prizes for Divination go to Olivia Cromwell of Gryffindor and Davey Gudgeon of Hufflepuff. Although Davey never Saw in class, he made an excellent and good-natured subject and never failed to make our time in Divination interesting."
Sirius snorted loudly, even as he clapped for Olivia, who actually was a Seer. Davey Gudgeon was an accident-prone boy who they had nearly killed several times with pranks, though never on purpose. Half of the time when Olivia was "foretelling" and accident Davey would be having, it was because she was already aware of plans to blow up his cauldron or anger his Snargaluff later that day.
Professor Sprout stood and smiled down at them all.
"The prizes for Herbology," she said happily, "go to Lily Evans and Severus Snape!"
More tension at the Gryffindor Table, although they clapped stubbornly for Lily. After the falling out between the redheaded Gryffindor and the greasy Slytherin, there had always been an element of awkwardness to the fact that they excelled at many of the same subjects.
Professor Binns hovered forward slightly and said firmly, "The prizes for achievement in History of Magic go to Claire and Sirius Black of Gryffindor!"
That surprised absolutely no one. For one thing, their family had basically lectured them their whole lives about the long and illustrious traditions of Blacks in history. For another, much of History of Magic had a lot to do with the Black family and its offshoots, so they were more than prepared for the class and never studied a minute for it. In fact, Remus had caught them both sleeping, most days.
Professor Equnius stood and said, "For Muggle Studies, the prizes go to Lily Evans and Sirius Black of Gryffindor!"
The Gryffindor table laughed and cheered at this. It was a bit unfair. Lily, being a Muggle, really shouldn't have even taken Muggle Studies, but she couldn't resist and easy O. Sirius, of course, in an effort to rebel as much as possible against his parents, had devoted himself more to the study of Muggles and Muggle culture than really anything else in his whole time at school.
"For Potions," Professor Slughorn proclaimed proudly, "the prizes for achievement go to Lily Evans of Gryffindor and Severus Snape of Slytherin!"
That came as no surprise, although Remus suspected that choosing Lily had been less of an obvious thing than choosing Snape, seeing how Olivia and Claire were also phenomenal at Potions. Slughorn rarely missed an opportunity to tell them so, in fact."
"The prizes for achievement in Transfiguration," Professor McGonagall said proudly, "go to Olivia Cromwell and James Potter of Gryffindor!"
They all erupted with cheers for this, knowing that it couldn't have been anyone else. Olivia had single-handedly mastered the steps to Animagus transformation in their fifth year, and she and James managed to teach the others in less than a week (namely Peter and Sirius), and despite their absolute lack of effort, they easily scored points time and time again from a begrudging Professor McGonagall for their astonishingly good wandwork.
"The prizes for excellence in Quidditch," Madam Hooch announced, "have been awarded to Olivia Cromwell and James Potter of Gryffindor, two of the most natural athletes this school has ever seen."
At this, there was an incredible roar of support from all but the Slytherin table, as James and Olivia had led Gryffindor to pummeling Slytherin in the race for the Quidditch cup.
"The prize for citizenship," Professor McGonagall said, the Hall instantly going silent, "for Gryffindor House goes to Lily Evans."
Lily blushed profusely as she rushed forward to get her award.
"The prize for citizenship for Hufflepuff House," Professor Sprout said happily, "is for Kiki Sitzer."
"The prize for citizenship for Ravenclaw House," squeaked Professor Flitwick merrily, "goes to Jiki Sitzer."
Kiki's twin rushed forward, smiling and waving at the Gryffindors as they cheered loudly for her. She had been Sirius's first girlfriend, when they were young, and the whole group had been rather fond of her since. Rumor had it that her boyfriend, Xenophilius Lovegood, who had graduated a few years prior, had asked her to marry him. Remus didn't get a good look at her left hand as she accepted her prize, but the gasps and delighted squeals and whispers that rang out through the hall amongst the females was enough of a confirmation to him that the rumors were true.
"For Slytherin House," Slughorn said, puffing himself up importantly, "the prize for citizenship goes to Eva Morecomb."
Olivia frowned as her cousin went to collect his prize, and James leaned forward and hissed, "Because the whole year are going off to become Death Eaters and she was his least vicious choice!"
Lily gave him a disapproving look, but even her own worried expression that the disapproving glare melted into mirrored Remus's own thought that James, however biased and angry the statement had been, was probably right. And James being right only turned out well about forty percent of the time.
"A few more things before I turn the floor over to the Head Boy and Girl," Professor Dumbledore said kindly. "We've decided as a staff that it might be interesting to give out an award this year for the most number of detentions."
There was a murmur of excitement in the Hall, particularly at the Gryffindor table. Dumbledore held up his hand and the room quieted instantly.
"The most interesting thing, perhaps, about this decision is that we excepted one or two people to receive the prize. When we counted up the records, however, we found ourselves with a four-way tie on our hands. So, it is with great pleasure that I award Claire and Sirius Black, Olivia Cromwell, and James Potter the first and probably last annual prize for number of detentions served. They ended with one hundred and twelve detentions each. My recommendation," he added, eyes twinkling as the four proudly made their way forward, "is that you not put this particular prize on your CVs."
There was laughter and a surprisingly loud round of applause, to which the four charlatans hammed up the moment, bowing and blowing kisses to their adoring fans the whole way back to their seats, strutting like they owned the castle.
"Next, the prize for general academic achievement goes to," Dumbledore said, pausing for slight dramatic effect, "a tie between Lily Evans and James Potter of Gryffindor!"
There was a surprised roar of applause. The second prize of the year never had a tie, and certainly most had expected Lily to take the top prize. Still, Lily and James looked incredibly pleased as they went forward to accept their awards.
"And finally, the prize for topping the year goes to," he paused again, "Miss Olivia Cromwell of Gryffindor!"
Yes, that made a bit more sense, Remus thought to himself as he joined the ecstatic applause for their good friend, his first love. The awards took into account scores, he knew, as well as a teacher vote and a vote from the prefects. People had probably been very torn deciding which of the three to vote for. Remus himself had voted for Olivia, of course, but he had felt quite guilty for it. After all, they were all his close friends. But the way Olivia glowed with pride when she accepted her award made Remus feel as though he had absolutely made the right choice. Lily and James, they were happy. They had each other, they were getting married… Life was good for them. Olivia, like Claire, had had a much rougher go of things, and her worst days were probably still to come. But in that moment, she looked so happy a little bit of him forgot himself and fell in love with her all over again, despite the kiss she gave Sirius as she sat back down and despite the fact that Claire was holding his hand. Olivia might never be his again, Claire might be the love of his life, but he would always love Olivia in a special way that no one else could understand.
James and Lily each spoke very briefly, knowing that the class was not interested in long, drawn out speeches. They all wanted to get to dessert and goodbyes.
"Lily's making me go first," James said with a smirk, "because she wants to undo any damage I might inflict in the course of my speech." The crowd chuckled. "Firstly, I wanted to say a heartfelt thank-you to the parents here tonight. Some of you have come a long way, and I know that long-distance travel isn't the safest right now. We wanted to thank you for taking the time and risk to come and celebrate with us.
"But you know," he continued seriously, "it's not really much of a celebration. In another year, perhaps, I would be up here recounting several of the stories that led to a few of those hundred and twelve detentions, or saying that thirty four of those will always be worth it because they were acquired in the course of attempting to win the affections of Miss Lily Evans. But this year, we've got an empty seat at the table I sat at, just as the dormitory Lily and our friends have slept in has had an empty bed for months. Tonight, I want to talk a bit about what we're facing, because although none of us want to look it in the eye, it's there."
He cleared his throat and paused, looking out across the deathly silent Hall.
"Tonight, my mother is sitting in the audience, and my little sister is sleeping upstairs. Not long ago, my father was murdered by the Death Eaters."
A shiver went through the crowd, though a few of the Slytherins sat a little straighter.
"Two of my best friends actually ran away from home because they refused to accept the ideology of pureblood supremacy, and they were punished for it… severely."
Claire winced and squeezed Remus's hand tightly. James didn't know the details of her ordeal, despite the fact that the twins had taken refuge at his house, but Remus knew what her father had done to her, knew the extent of the physical and psychological scarring the vicious man had left on his only daughter.
"One of my closest friends will forever be physically scarred by the attempts of pureblood supremacists to kidnap and torture her in the last few years alone, and that's not even taking into account the extreme emotional damage and the fact that she can't even drink enough pain medication or sleeping potions to relieve her suffering without poisoning herself after all of her troubles."
Olivia bit her lip, a single tear rolling down her face.
"We're qualified wizards now," James said softly, but in the quiet Hall his voice carried to every ear. "We're legal adults and qualified, but we're just kids. We've grown up far too fast. Trust me, for those of you who have yet to experience this, the sight of the body of a friend will haunt you the rest of your life." He gazed down at Mary's empty chair, cleared his throat again, and continued, "But we don't really have a choice. This is a war, whether we like it or not, and even by not taking sides, we're still taking sides. Choosing not to choose will only cause more death, more destruction, more loss, and the most painfully, more years at Hogwarts with empty chairs and broken souls.
"I don't expect you all to drop everything, put your lives on hold, and join a side in this war, although some of us will choose to do just that. I do, however, want to say that no matter what you choose, someday your life will be pulled into the fight, and you'll find yourself needing to stand for something. If you don't make those choices now, if you don't choose the right over the easy while right still feels right, you may find yourself in a situation where you're making a choice you'll regret for the sake of the easiness of it.
"Down the road," he said, little more strongly, "our own children will be sitting here, hopefully without empty chairs at the tables, hopefully telling stories of pranks against Professor McGonagall, Quidditch victories, and friendship. But how many of us will still be here to see it?" He looked down at his classmates. "How many empty seats will there be in the parents' section? Thank you."
There was a strong applause, led vigorously by Professor Dumbledore, and Remus shivered. The table that would have had nine already had ten. Of the nine of them, realistically, how many would actually be here for their own children? How many would even survive the war?
"Thank you, James," Lily said, obviously brushing tears out of her eyes. "Well, that certainly wasn't what I expected him to talk about," she said with a nervous sort of chuckle, "especially after winning an award for that obscene number of detentions he managed to acquire." There was a bit of laughter to diffuse the tension.
"I'd like to take this opportunity," she said, gaining her voice more firmly, "to thank our professors, without whom even the brightest of us would never have learned a thing. Also, I would like to thank Madam Pomfrey, who worked very hard to keep an incredibly challenging group of students healthy and happy, even when we ourselves had no concern for our own health or well-being."
There was a bit of squirming at the Gryffindor table. Sirius looked pointedly at Claire and Olivia, but Remus refrained from doing so. The girls already felt bad enough about the scares they had put their friends through.
"It has certainly been a wild seven years," Lily continued, "with pranks, parties, and what felt like a duel around every corner. Since James shocked everyone by taking a serious note, I suppose I can indulge my friends who begged me to give you a few less-than-serious facts and figures about this graduating class."
She pulled out a little piece of parchment, unfolded it, and cleared her throat.
"The Marauders," she read, "in seven years, have thrown thirty-five wildly successful parties, were responsible for eighty-four pranks that they are willing to take credit for and/or got in trouble for, were engaged in forty-eight duels of both the sanctioned and non-sanctioned variety, lost a total of one thousand, five hundred and five House Points for Gryffindor, earned a total of two thousand, eight hundred and forty-six house points for Gryffindor, and, in their words, brought general joy and entertainment to the cold stone walls of Hogwarts."
The eruption of cheers that spread through all three non-Slytherin tables and the moderate, begrudging sort of applause that the teachers engaged in was deafening. Remus couldn't fight the smile that curled at his lips at the facts and figures, which he knew were compiled by Olivia and Claire, as a part of their Arithmancy project.
"Also," Lily said when the noise died down, "they would like me to note that there have been four engagement rings in this class, one of which is my own," she added, her face flushing as the cheers exploded again.
"And finally," Lily continued, "I would just like to say that although we're leaving Hogwarts, this isn't good-bye. The years we've spent here will forever be a bonding experience in our hearts, and hopefully the friendships we've made will last a lifetime. Wherever your lives take you, I hope Hogwarts will always be your home, as it will always be mine. Thank you, and goodnight."
But although Remus remembered every word of both speeches as the years went on, James's were, sadly, the truer words spoken to life outside the walls of Hogwarts.
The Order was a tough life, hardest on Olivia, who after a brief and painful separate from Sirius decided she couldn't handle life without him and moved in with him only a week before Lily and James's wedding. Audrey topped her year in Charms, and actually won the citizenship prize for Gryffindor.
Three days later, Mrs. Potter died of old age.
Mr. and Mrs. Evans weren't long for the world, either, and had barely received notice of the pregnancy of their daughter before they died in a car crash.
Olivia, after being captured and tortured several times by Death Eaters, was also discovered to be pregnant, and the child was Sirius's. Before she started to show, however, she left him, not telling him about the child they had made together. Claire told him to be patient, that Olivia would come back when things put themselves in better order, and Sirius, although depressed and distraught, took comfort in his sister's words.
Eva Morecomb killed Olivia on the first birthday of their daughter, Charlotte Vega Cromwell (as her birth certificate said), before she had a chance to tell Sirius about why she had left. In fact, she had been on her way to do just that when she died.
Charlotte was taken into safe-keeping by her grandfather, Peter Cromwell, who was getting very old, too old to work. He was sick, dying even, but he was absolutely delighted that he was able to care for his granddaughter.
Remus, who was secretly working on a mission involving the werewolves, helped Claire and Audrey care for Sirius, who was absolutely distraught at the loss of Olivia. Claire did tell him about Charlotte, and they managed to get him a visit with his daughter at the Cromwell Manor.
Things were bad, Remus thought as he watched Sirius tenderly hold the tiny little body of Charlotte, but they could have been so much worse.