Disclaimer: If I owned them, I wouldn't even be writing this chapter because they'd still be alive.

A/N: This took me awhile to work out, mainly because I wasn't sure how I wanted to write this and I wasn't sure how to portray the afterlife or Remus' lycanthropy (yet it was still one of the first ones I finished). Suggestions for improvement are appreciated, but please don't rant about how my view of either of these things is wrong. I was also going to write the scene where everyone mourns the people who died, but it wasn't coming out right, so that's why this is the last chapter even though I promised you two more.

When Remus opened his eyes he didn't know where he was. He was in the middle of a large field, surrounded by a forest. It reminded him of a place in the Forbidden Forest that he used to go to with his fellow Marauders, except the trees looked less, well, forbidding. How did I get here? He wondered. He could remember the battle at Hogwarts. He had just finished dueling with a Death Eater when he turned around and-

-Was hit with a killing curse.

"Well, judging by the look of comprehension on your face I'm assuming you know where you are. You figured it out a lot quicker than I did," a voice behind him said. Remus spun around and pointed his wand at the person, who held his hands up and just grinned. "Now, is that anyway to treat your fellow Marauder?"

"Sirius?" Remus knew he should have been expecting this, but it was still a shock to see his friend. He grinned, "You look remarkable well, for a dead person."

Sirius let out a bark of laughter. "Well, so do you Moony," he said. "We were actually worried that you may stay the way you were before, even though we're all younger."

"We?"

"Well really, did you expect to die and not see us again?" A familiar voice said. Remus turned slowly around to look at James, who had his arm around Lily. "And you were supposed to be the smart one," James joked.

Lily walked over to him and gave him a hug. "It's great to see you," she said softly. "I only wish it was under better circumstances."

"Now that's not what you were saying before when he attacked our son," James said as he joined the group. "I'm not sure who was angrier- his mom, his dad, or his godfather."

At the mention of sons, Remus froze. It hit him that he wouldn't be able to be a part of Teddy's life, that he wouldn't be able to hold his wife again. Sure, he was with his friends, but he had left everyone else that he had loved behind.

"Remus, what is it?" Sirius asked.

"Tonks… Teddy…" He choked out, trying hard not to cry.

James walked over to him and put his arm around his friend, not saying anything. He knew how hard it was to die and leave behind your friends, family, and son. Lily looked over Remus' shoulder and smiled. "Remus, look," she said, pointing.

Remus turned around and stared. It was Tonks, glancing around the field with a puzzled look on her face. Her eyes locked with his and comprehension dawned on her face. Remus shrugged James' arm off and ran over to her. She clung to him, as if afraid that if she let go he'd disappear. She was crying, babbling about Teddy and her mother and the others that were still alive.

"It's okay Tonks, it's okay…" He murmured, trying to calm her down.

"Here Tonks, let me show you something…" Lily said, walking over to them. "There's a way you can watch your son. You can't communicate with him, but you can still watch over him. I'm Lily by the way, Lily Potter…" Lily led her away into the forest, leaving the Marauders alone in the field.

"So, what do you guys do around here?" Remus asked, looking around the field.

James laughed. "Whatever we want, really. We eat and sleep out of habit, rather than necessity, so a lot of the time we either check up on things in the world of the living or hang out around here. Things have been more amusing since Padfoot came; we've been pranking each other a lot."

"And now the true Marauders are back together!" Sirius said gleefully. "We're going to have so much fun now!"

XXXXX

Apart from his rather unexpected visit to the "world of the living", as James would say, the afterlife was turning out to be a nice, relaxing place. He had already lost count of the number of times James and Padfoot had attempted to pull pranks on people, either the ones in their group of friends or the visitors they had, including James' and Lily's parents, Remus' parents, and Tonks' dad.

They had thrown their own celebration when Harry defeated Voldemort and quite a few people had shown up for that, including their parents, Fred Weasley, and Colin Creevey, a boy Remus remembered teaching at Hogwarts.

After that things had settled into sort of a routine, if you could even call it that. In the morning everyone would check up on various people. After that, at least one person would be pranked. Other than that, there was no set schedule for the day.

The day after Harry defeated Voldemort, Sirius and Remus had gotten a bit of a shock. Everyone was still depressed about the deaths from the last battle, especially Harry. Hermione had come mentioned something about something Tonks had said, that Sirius and Lupin had had a promise to howl for each other when they were gone. She felt it was a good way to remember everyone and an easier way of expressing grief. Ginny was the first to howl, followed by Harry, Ron and Hermione, Dean, Seamus, and Luna, Bill and Fleur, Mr. and Mrs. Weasely, the teachers, then the rest of the hall.

Remus looked away from the scene and wiped his eyes. Sirius came over and put his arm around his friend. "When we made that promise, I honestly intended to follow through with it," he said. "I didn't when you went to Azkaban, but I did when you died Sirius. I just never thought that anyone would notice."

Sirius just shook his head. "Remus, it's the best way for everyone to grieve. You even said once that sometimes it was easier to express things in a howl, simply because you can pour your soul into it and not worry about words. Besides," he continued, a grin spreading across his face, "I think we may have just started a new tradition."

Remus laughed and gave his friend a playful push. "Don't get your hopes up Padfoot," he said. "After all, why would anyone want to start a tradition involving something you did?"

Sirius growled and tackled his friend, leading into a mock fight, which became a mock duel. James broke it up only after Sirius had purple hair and orange skin and Remus was talking backwards.

"!kcalB, revo t'nsi sihT" He yelled, only to send his friends into fits of laughter. After all, whoever said dead people had to be serious?

XXXXX

There were some times when things were serious though. For instance, Remus couldn't ignore the moon phases or the fact that the full moon was getting closer and closer. He didn't want to believe that he would still be cursed, even in death, but life as a werewolf had taught him not to get his hopes up about anything.

"Don't worry Remus, the full moon is still a week away," James said when he brought the topic up. "No matter what happens, we're here for you Moony." He knew his friends were there for him, but he still couldn't help feeling extremely worried at the thought of spending an eternity of full moons as a werewolf.

The sun was starting to set on the night of the full moon and Remus was sitting in the grass next to Tonks, who was amusing Lily by changing into an identical copy of her. He was also supposed refereeing the mock fight that James and Sirius were having in their Animagus forms. Although neither would intentionally hurt the other, and even if they did they would heal incredibly fast, sometimes they needed to be separated.

Remus, however, wasn't paying attention to any of these things. He was remembering the times they had wandered to the spot very similar to this field during the full moons. His mind was less wolfish during those full moons, and if he closed his eyes he could remember the feeling of running through the field with his friends, chasing them across the grass. He could remember howling happily throughout all of it, even though his paws were cut from the rocks and he was exhausted.

He could remember the feeling of the wind blowing through his fur. He could visualize these things so clearly it was almost like he actually had fur, paws, and a tail. "Remus? Moony?" James asked, his voice sounding extremely worried. "Sirius, it isn't moon rise yet, is it?"

"No, and we would've heard him transform," Sirius said.

Remus frowned, but didn't open his eyes right away. When he did, he yelped as he realized he was colorblind, then yelped again when he realized that he had yelped. He was a wolf, but the moon hadn't risen yet.

"Remus, are you alright?" James repeated. He pulled out his wand, ready to use the spell to bring an Animagus back to their human form. He wasn't sure if it would work, but he was going to try if Remus didn't answer.

Remus nodded and everyone let out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, a large, black dog jumped in front of him, growling playfully. Remus barked and pounced on him and soon, the two of them were involved in a mock fight.

"Okay you two, break it up!" James said, pointing his wand at them.

They separated and Sirius instantly turned back into a human. Remus had to concentrate on it, simply because he wasn't used to it. When he did become a human again, he stood up and asked, "Do I look the same or are there wolf ears sticking out the top of my head?"

That caused the others to laugh, but James was still frowning. "Remus, you didn't become an Animagus, did you?" He asked.

Remus shook his head, but before he could answer Tonks gasped. "Remus, look," she said softly, pointing up into the sky. Everyone looked up and stared at the full moon that was shining down on the small group.

Remus looked up, tears in his eyes. He had wished and hoped for this moment for years, but had never really believed that there would be a time when he could look at the full moon through human eyes. "It makes sense," he said softly. "The curse can't work in the afterlife because, well, it's the afterlife. The wolf is still a part of me though, so I can't get rid of it, so it's become almost like an Animagus. I wonder if it still works when the moon isn't full…"

Sirius laughed. "Who cares Moony? You're normal!" The others cheered, laughed, and clapped, all of them smiling for their friend.

"C'mon Remus, I think Moony and Padfoot need to howl together once more, wouldn't you say?" Sirius said. Without a moment's hesitation from either of them, they both changed into their animal forms and lifted their heads to the sky, letting out a long, loud howl that was pure happiness.

James ran over to them halfway through their howl, already a stag, and tagged them with his antlers before dashing across the field. Sirius and Remus growled at being interrupted, but gave chase anyways. After all, the Marauders were running under the moonlight again, and that was all that mattered.