They all did have nightmares, which was rather awkward, since they all woke up, some screaming, some to the screaming. Sirius and Remus were on the floor in sleeping bags, James was in his bed next to his friends, and Arthur and Merlin were on the other side of the room.
"Ok, Remus was right." James panted, Sirius yelped and covered Remus' ears,
"Don't tell him that!" He said, "He'll get all big headed, and think he's always right!" Remus pushed him off him.
"Bloody snakes man! They're so gross!" James mumbled shivering.
"You guys wanna... not go back to sleep?" Remus asked, he really didn't like dreaming about werewolves.
"how about you tell a story." James said leaning over the edge of his bed.
"Merlin!" Arthur groaned rolling over.
"Ahm, how's about I tell you about the time Arthur's dad accidentally married a troll?"
"How about no." Arthur said,
"ok, how about the time you nearly married a fairy who wanted to drown you?"
"No."
"The time you nearly married that -"
"How about no marriages?" The Marauders were all cracking up by then, and Merlin was smiling ear to ear.
"Aw!" James and Sirius whined.
"How about you Cathal?" Remus asked
"You want to hear about Freya." Merlin said, Remus nodded, "That's not a very happy story." He said,
"Can we hear it?" James asked, Merlin looked at Arthur who shrugged. He'd tell the story, but in a modernized fashion.
"Ok, it all started awhile ago. Arthur was in charge of the small police force of the town, and his father was... mayor." Merlin said, "a bounty hunter arrested a young girl, said she was cursed-"
"Ok hold up, what?" Sirius asked
"Arthur's from an old fashioned town, anyway, They were going to... well, I let her out, and hid her in Arthur's father's basement."
"How didn't they notice?"
"Well, see, they lived in a mansion, and I was basically a butler for Arthur, so I could come and go as I pleased, either way, I stole a portion of Arthur's food every day-" Merlin explained
"Said I was getting fat." Arthur pouted
"I never straight out said that, you just assumed it." Merlin shrugged, smiling, "I protected her and we started to fall in love." He said,
"You even got thrown in prison for her." Arthur said, "I had to come bale you out."
"It wasn't prison persay, just a holding cell." Merlin mumbled, "I thought our relationship was good, it looked promising, we just had to get out of the city."
"Meanwhile, I had my hands full trying to figure out what was attacking the citizens of my town." Arthur said, "and my father really wanted us to find out where Merlin's girlfriend disappear to."
"I caught wind of it all but didn't think much of it, until one day when I found a beast in the basement.-"
"A werewolf?" Sirius asked, Merlin suddenly noticed the boys were practically right in front of him, they'd been moving closer so much, "no, she was a... a big black leopard with wings, I watched as if transformed back into my Freya, she'd been cursed as a child by a witch whose son she accidentally killed with her magic. She'd been cursed to kill every night. I understood why she hadn't wanted me te trust her, and I told her we'd run away together. At the time I believed I was different as well, I'd never met another person with magic who wasn't trying to kill Arthur or his da' so I didn't trust myself all that much either." We were going to run away the next night, I stole a nice dress from Arthur's sister, Morg-er-Morgan and food from Arthur. When I went downstairs I couldn't find Freya anywhere."
"That's because she was out as a beast unwillingly trying to murder more innocent people." Arthur said, "me and my friends were trying to destroy her before she could hurt anyone else, we didn't realize she was a human trapped inside the body of that beast!" Arthur said, "I hate to say it, but I was the one who dealt her the mortal wound."
"When I found them it was too late, the beast seemed to show remorse though as I helped it downstairs where it became Freya and I tried to heal her." Merlin said. "I failed and brought her to the nearby lake, where I placed her on a pier and sent her off, lighting it on fire as it floated away." The Marauders were I shock,
"That's so sad!" James cried.
"I warned you." Merlin said.
"Perhaps we should tell him about the time the hobgoblin turned my ears into donkey ears, and made my father so bald he refused to leave his room." Arthur said
"What!?" James and Sirius asked,
"Shhh!" Remus shushed them, and Merlin laughed,
"I accidentally let a hobgoblin out and it possessed my mentor and ward, so that he went around prankin' everyone."
"Uh oh." Remus said
"What?" They all asked,
"I think they've been possessed as well!" Remus said, They laughed and Sirius ruffled his hair.
Merlin told the story until they'd all fallen back to sleep, laughing the whole way to unconsciousness.