Chapter 35
Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter
Alice Prewett, Sirius and Bellatrix Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, James Potter, Lily Evans, Mary MacDonald, and Marlene McKinnon stand side by side, looking at the Hogwarts Express. The moment they step onto that train, their final year at Hogwarts commences. Frank, Narcissa, and Lucius stand off to the side, looking amused. They'd finished last year but had come to see the others off.
"Do you want one of us to say a few words?" Monty asks them, chuckles go through the group before James nods.
"Sure, why not." The adults and siblings look around, a moment later Lyall clears his throat.
"It's always a long road to get through school, but for you nine it's been even more so. For every year you've had a challenge or twelve to face, each more dangerous and troublesome than the last. Yet here you stand, stronger and prouder than ever. Every one of us here with you is so very proud of the people you have become, and we will be just as proud of whoever you grow to be. We miss you every year, but we know that you are where you are meant to be. A year from now you'll be done with Hogwarts, no doubt putting yourselves in unnecessary danger knowing you lot, and you'll look back on these years with a sort of exasperated fondness that never goes away. The first year you're all told that your Hogwarts house will be like your family, and that's true. But I think you'll also find that you've formed a kinship with everyone you attended with, and that's something that never goes away. Stand tall kids, and most importantly, stand together." The group applaud him, most a bit misty eyed.
At last good byes are exchanged and everyone begins getting on the train. The Marauders hang back for a moment, looking at one another anxiously.
"Seven years Mates, we did it," James tells them, Sirius smirks.
"Well, we're not done yet. We've nine months left of pranking." Remus sighs, Peter rolls his eyes, James chuckles.
"Well then, we'd best get started."
"DELILAH ANN POTTER, WHAT IN GODRIC'S NAME DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?!" James whisper yells as he happens upon his baby sister and her boyfriend in a hallway at two am.
"Snogging?" Del offers, James glares at her.
"You're to young for that Del, snogging is how you get pregnant, do you want to get pregnant?!"
"…Jimmy, Mum and Dad did have the talk with you, right?" James' glare deepens.
"Del…"
"I'm fifteen Jim, I know you worry, but at some point, you have to let me grow up." James sighs, why did his little sister always have to remain calm and be compassionate to his side of things instead of getting angry and yelling like a normal person?
"Just go back to your dorms, both of you," James says, sending Tom a pointed look, the man smirked in an altogether far too Slytherin like manner. James is quite worried about him. Del says he's been acting weird, and others have started noticing too. Still, Sirius asked he not get involved yet, so unless Del specifically requests it or something major happens, he won't. Then again, Sirius seems to be locking him out of a lot of things lately.
The year had started off well, everyone as close as they've always been but…everyone's drifting. Peter and Mary are always together lately, and Marlene is always with them. To most she might seem like a third wheel, but James knew Marlene and Mary are like he and Phia, though to a lesser degree. If anything, Peter is third-wheeling, like friendship third-wheeling except in an actual relationship. The point is, none of them are ever around and Sirius spends all his time with Del, Tom, and Nari. Remus and Bellatrix hang out with Slytherins most of the time now, Severus is…James doesn't want to think about that. Alice is there, she hangs out with he and Lily a lot, so there's that he supposes. Plus, as head boy he's super busy anyway. But…it's their seventh year, the last chance they have to be a group together and…and no one wants to but him. Lily says they're just growing up, that maybe James needs to accept that things will be different out of Hogwarts and everyone's getting ready to move on. Maybe he's just more behind everyone else but, he can't accept that. He just can't.
"You all right, Honey?" Lily asks, wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder, he presses a kiss to the top of her head and nods.
"Yeah, just thinking we ought to get the group together. Sirius' birthday is next week after all." Lily nods her agreement.
"Party in Gryffindor tower?" He nods, "Let's hope no one nearly dies, or actually dies." James groans, dropping his head to his chest.
"Lily, seriously, why would you say that?!" Lily laughs.
"Come on, our rounds finished hours ago, and we've been wandering around pointlessly, we should go to bed."
"You know, speaking of beds. I was thinking, after we graduate…maybe we could get a place for ourselves?" Lily turns around and links her arms over his neck, leaning back in his hold and smiling.
"James Potter, are you asking me to move in with you?" James blushes slightly.
"Maybe…well, yes. Yes, I am. What do you think?" She leans in and kisses him, nodding when she pulls back.
"I'd love to." She leans in to kiss him again, a kiss he gratefully returns.
"Dammit Del, don't pretend to know anything about what living there is like," Tom hisses at his girlfriend before turning and storming out of the library, pushing past Bellatrix and Remus on his way. The two watch him leave in bewilderment before turning back to see Del packing up her things and wiping away tears.
"Del?" Remus asks, she looks up, wiping away tears but no more hurriedly than before. It was one thing Remus has always admired about the girl from the day he met her, she doesn't hold anything back. She doesn't see the point in hiding things, and she never lies.
"Remy, hey. Sorry you had to see that." Remus smiles kindly at her.
"You two okay?" Del nods.
"Yeah, it's not us. He's just having a hard time during the holidays."
"Sirius mentioned he's been a little off lately, is there anything we can do?" Bellatrix asks the girl, Del smiles at her but shakes her head.
"That's kind of you, but no, I don't think so. I'll let you know if that changes though." Bellatrix nods, "I'll see you both around." The two of them wave as she leaves.
"Sometimes I wonder how that child is related to James Potter in any way." Remus snickers.
"You and me both, Trixie."
He and Bellatrix locate the book they were looking for and leave the library, passing Regulus on the way. Something then occurs to Remus, he hands the book to Bellatrix.
"Hey, I'll meet you back in the dungeons, I've just…got to take care of something," He tells her before rushing back to the library.
Looking in he finds Regulus in one of the shelves and walks over.
"Black." Regulus walks up and raises an eyebrow at Remus who leans against the shelf, arms crossed as he regards him thoughtfully, "How'd you get around the block?" Regulus snorts.
"Frightfully easily, your block works on desires not intent. If there is one thing you can count on in life Lupin, it's that I do not want to harm my brother. Good day, Half-breed," Regulus says, then leaves, Remus bites his lip as he thinks that over.
"Remy?" a voice comes from behind him, Remus turns and sees Sirius there, "Were you just talking to Reg?" he asks after staring at Remus' lip for a moment too long and making Remus blush and release it.
"Um, I was, yes."
"Everything okay?"
"I wanted to know how he got around my block." Sirius eyes widen, he hadn't thought of that.
"And?"
"Intent and desire. He intended to torture you, but by no means did he desire to. Need to alter that spell somehow in case there's a need to use it again. Somehow though, I don't think putting it on the Little Marauder is a good idea."
"I still can't believe I didn't notice my little brother is gay."
"Not everyone flaunts their sexuality like you do Sirius." Sirius chuckles, then looks at Remus and laughs harder, "What?"
"Nothing, just remembering the first time I questioned it," He explains, Remus blushes again and chuckles.
"Ah, you mean the time I uh, helped you out?" Sirius nods, still laughing, "To be a kid again. We were so naïve."
"Thought we knew it all though, didn't we? Like the weight of the world was on our shoulders."
"Yeah, and our biggest problem was if James and Sev were going to be getting along that week or not."
"Or if McGonagall was going to catch us at our latest prank."
"I miss those days," Remus tells him, looking nostalgic, Sirius turns to face him properly.
"I don't."
"You don't?"
"I mean, I suppose I miss some things but, friendships and everything were so temperamental back then, everything little thing could make an enemy for life and others would make you think you were in love with someone even though you had absolutely no idea what love is," Sirius tells him, Remus chuckles and nods, "Things are more complicated now but, they're also more solid. I wouldn't trade knowing I'll always have you guys for all the innocence and feelings of safety in the world." Remus nods.
"I guess you're right."
"I'm always right, Remy." Remus chuckles, Sirius suddenly perks up, looking behind him.
"What?" Remus asks turning around.
"No way, Remy look!" He grabs a book, laughing as he hands it to Remus who reads the title.
Silencing Charms and How They Work
"You can find out what would happen if you charmed the cloak, the answers in the book!" Remus starts laughing too.
"Oh Merlin, I'd forgotten about that entire adventure, you know I never did find out the answer." Sirius blushes furiously, clearing his throat.
"I did."
"What?" Remus asks, looking confused.
"Find the answer, I did. That's how I knew it was in the book, I found it in there in first year. I was going to tell you, but something came up, I honestly don't remember what. Probably it was something to do with the vial, anyway I never got around to telling you. Charming the cloak would be difficult, the muffiato charm silences an area so you could just move it along with you, but putting the silencing charm on the actual cloak would be as difficult as making the cloak invisible to begin with," Sirius tells him, "Of course you've done that now so, maybe you'll manage it." Remus beams at him, impulsively pulling him into a hug.
"You did research for me?" Sirius shrugs.
"I'd do anything for you, Moons." Remus looks into his eyes, for some reason, he doesn't know why, he thinks there's something more important to say than reassuring him that goes both ways.
"I believe you."
"Do you remember that time we realised that our kids would be doing this one day?" Peter asks the Marauders and Bellatrix as the whole group sat around the common room, the four look over at him, three fond looks and one strained smile.
"I still say you'll name him Harry, and I still say he'll be famous," Sirius declares, James chuckles slightly, sending a quick look to Lily, hoping she doesn't know what they're talking about.
"Name who Harry?" Lily asks, dammit Lils! James thinks.
"Your first child with James. We think he'll be named Harry Potter, Prongs says he's purposely not going to name his son Harry just because Sirius and I predicted it." Lily looks a bit sad but also amused.
"What if we get a girl?" Lily asks, Sirius seems confused at the wording, but Remus shrugs.
"That was the other part of the prediction, first child, son, Harry, famous."
"What about the second child then, oh wise ones?"
"How many children are we having Lily?" James asks suddenly, looking panicked, Lily chuckles at him, the rest of the group looking amused.
"Hmmm, Sirius, gender?" Sirius taps his chin, looking them both over in consideration.
"Girl. Remus, name?" Remus thinks it over for a moment before nodding.
"Adelaide." The group looks at him.
"Adelaide, really?"
"Your family has boring names so far. Lily, James, Harry, spice it up a bit, would you?" They all laugh.
"Well, I can guarantee, no child of mine will ever be named Adelaide, and I've never been huge on the name Harry. Though I must admit, Harry Potter is a pretty good name."
"Harry Potter? Is there something you need to tell me James?" Del asks, walking in, James laughs.
"No, Del, we're just talking about Sirius and Remus thinking Lily and I are going to name our child Harry but neither of us like the name." Del chuckles as Tom looks amused.
"Why not? I've always loved the name Harry," He tells them, Del looks thoughtful.
"Del, do you remember that pact we made when we were kids?" James asks, laughing, Del laughs too as her eyes light up in remembrance.
"Oh yes, I was sick, and Mum was stressed so I asked you to help her clean up."
"And I said I would if you name your future child after me."
"Geez, steep price," Mary tells them with a chuckle, they all laugh.
"I'm going to miss this. Hanging around here with you guys," Marlene says, everyone goes quiet, a sombre air taking hold, before Sirius starts laughing.
"Oh, don't be an idiot, two weeks after we graduate, and we'll be at one of our houses doing the exact same thing. For real guys, we'll be out and in the world but this group, we'll never change."
"Let's make a pact then. Once a month we go to one of our houses and all crash there, future children and all."
"We could do it at the monthly wizarding dinner thing?" Lily suggests, they all nod, agreeing strongly.
"This includes you two once you graduate," Alice tells Tom and Del who chuckle and nod.
"All right, let's do this properly. Everyone repeat after me, I, insert name here."
"I, insert name here," Sirius glares at them all, none fix it, he sighs.
"Solemnly swear to spend the third Friday of every month with my group upon graduation of Hogwarts unless Death or severe illness keep me away, and even then, I shall attend in spirit." They all repeat it perfectly, then Frank adds a bit on.
"…attend in spirit. And should anyone fail to uphold that, the rest of us will sit around, always waiting." They all grin,
"Always waiting."
"All right guys, it's third term. We're coming up to that pivotal point," James tells the Marauders who have holed up in their dorm and banned entry to anyone else, including Bellatrix, Lily, and Mary, much to their disgruntlement. Apparently saying Marauders first in this scenario gets them glares instead of indulging smiles.
"Right, we had an agreement, seven years ago," Sirius reminds them, Remus nods.
"We'd do the first big prank of the year, and on the last day of our final year…"
"We'd do the same one, only better," Peter adds, they all nod.
"So, I've been thinking. We can get into all the common rooms so long as we bribe a Hufflepuff because Del refuses to give away the password. My point is, we release a frog in all of them, then a bunch in other places, and some in the Great Hall."
"Sirius, how are we going to walk around the school with a bunch of enchanted frogs?" Remus asks him, James grins.
"We take a frog from each location to the next, so long as we don't let it jump, it won't multiply."
"We're going to have to walk into the Great Hall carrying a frog without anyone noticing we have a frog. They can't see until it's too late," Peter tells them. A few years ago, James and Sirius would have gotten annoyed with him for that, but they know now he's being intelligent and has thought of how this detail will be very important.
"We have two invisibility cloaks, surely we can manage to smuggle in a frog or two."
"Whatever position your hand is in is going to be weird and our house knows we have the cloaks, it'd be frightfully obvious."
"Plus, we only have one cloak now," Remus adds, looking sheepish, the others sigh and look at him questioningly, "Don't give me shit."
"You set it on fire, didn't you?"
"There was a mishap with an experimental spell and yes, the cloak did catch fire, but I did not set it on fir-stop looking at me like that!" Sirius shakes his head with a sigh, James and Peter rolling their eyes at Remus.
"Moving on, Wormtail has a point about it being obvious."
"What do we do then?" Everyone sits around, thinking.
An hour later a bunch of plans have been thought up and discarded, parchment strewn around the floor from the occasional diagrams used to explain an idea. Sirius lays on a bed, his head hanging off the side. James is laying with his legs up the side of a wall, Peter is throwing a ball up and down because the slight distraction helps him think, and Remus is pacing.
"What if we didn't have to hide the frog," James suddenly asks, staring at the ceiling, the others look over at him.
"But we do."
"What if we hid ourselves instead?"
"We put ourselves under the cloak, walk around the hall dropping frogs," Remus says, catching on, James turns and gets up.
"Exactly." Peter stills the ball and looks at them.
"We're going to be the first people anyone looks to, they'll notice if we aren't there."
"Yes," Sirius says as he gets up, wobbling slightly from the blood rushing to his head, "But they're going to know it's us anyway."
"We may get caught with Part 1 anyway, without the map we won't know if anyone's coming while we're in the common rooms," Remus points out, the Marauders all go silent for a moment as they always do out of respect for their lost treasure. Stupid Filch had confiscated it a week before the Snape incident last year.
"We'll go in pairs. If we do this during dinner, we'll have time. Hufflepuff and Slytherin are close together, and if we run, we'll make it between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Whoever does Hufflepuff and Slytherin will need to do the Great Hall too because the other two won't make it down. But this way if one gets caught, the others can still continue the plan."
"Well, it's not like they can give us detention at that point," James points out with a laugh, everyone agrees with Peter's plan.
"Okay, James and I are the best runners, so I think we should do the two towers," Sirius tells them, James shakes his head.
"No way we answer the riddle to get into Ravenclaw, Remus has to go on that one."
"Plus, if how he ran that time Lily got cursed is any indication, he can run damned fast," Peter points out, Remus shrugs.
"Lycanthropy is good for some things I suppose."
"Hold on, I've got an idea!" Sirius says, jumping up excitedly, "Oh we've been over thinking this. Okay, here's the plan. Remus, you're going to do Ravenclaw tower, we'll do Gryffindor before we leave. Peter, James, and I will use the cloak to do the other two. With your hearing, you'll know if someone is coming, and we'll be hidden. No chance of being stopped. With us that close, and you running, we'll make it to the Great Hall in time. Then we put the cloak around a crate and levitate it in, put it under out table and take the lid off, and wait for the chaos to ensue." The other three grin excitedly.
"We are evil freakin' geniuses sometimes."
"Oh yeah, I love us."
"Best group ever."
"Marauders, one and all."
A month before school ends, Marlene comes rushing into the common room, she stands on the coffee table and gets everyone's attention.
"Excuse me, fellow Gryffindors. It has come to my attention, that it has been far too long since we showed our house pride. This year is the first since 1971 that Gryffindor is going to win the House Cup, that much is obvious and will remain so if Remy stays away from Binns and keeps his mouth shut. Which he will do, because I've been silencio-ing him every History lesson since the incident before the Teacher's Point War. My point is, we need to celebrate this. So, for those of you youngling's that won't know this, when Gryffindor gets together, we usually do it pretty loudly, I think the older generations know what I mean," Marlene tells them all, the students of a year and two years below them all look excited, "IT'S TIME FOR A FAREWELL CELEBRATORY MUSCIAL NUMBER!"
"WHOOOOOOO!"
"What song?" Frank asks, looking excited.
"Oh, I don't just mean singing. We have enough musicians here to have an entire fucking band playing, so we're going to do that. Have some instruments set up in a corner of the hall, and the minute it's announced we've won, I want Remy on guitar, we'll have young Lucy on drums. We need someone who can play piano…" Marlene says, looking around, Remus' eyes light up.
"I have an idea."
"So, has it occurred to anyone this musical number will be at the same time we planned the prank?" Peter asks, James waves a hand.
"We'll leave the Great Hall out of it. Do this, everyone opens the doors, then suddenly, frogs." The others nod their agreement.
They spend every free moment rehearsing for that final month, which of course, made things difficult for those taking their OWLs and NEWTs. So, Remus sets up a study group on Thursdays, making himself and Lily available to help.
"Severus," Remus says, stopping the boy in the hallway, the boy looks at him with wide and fearful eyes, Remus is pretty sure that for a moment he only sees the wolf.
"R-Remy," Severus replies, before clearing his throat.
"Listen, I know things have been hard for many reasons and not exactly lately. But Gryffindor is doing a thing for the end of the year, kind of a celebration of our graduation and our winning of the house cup finally and just general house pride."
"What's your point?" Remus sighs.
"You once said that Gryffindor is your real house, and I realise we really haven't shown that well lately, but we want you to know that you're welcome to join us. And…I'm sorry about what happened." Severus looks at Remus who stands clutching one arm and biting his lip, Severus sighs.
"It wasn't your fault, you weren't in control. It…frankly it scared the crap out of me, and I still don't feel safe on full moons just because I know what's out there. But I know it wasn't you, not this setting of you anyway. Sometimes instinct gets the better of Moony, I know that." Remus nods, "I won't be joining you, one of you tried to kill me and the rest of the group completely abandoned me without letting me explain anything, just jumping to conclusions. While I understand the shock at the time…I can't reconcile the friends I thought I had with people who don't bother trying to work out why. I miss Gryffindor, Slytherin has always been a dreary place, but at least I'm not expecting something that, apparently, isn't where I thought it was," Severus says this all in a quiet and calm voice, Remus nods his understanding.
"I know it doesn't change everything that's happened, and by this point you don't owe us an explanation, but I would like to hear what you have to say." Severus sighs.
"I never had a good one, because thinking back I thought something was important enough to justify this, but it wasn't, and now I can't get out without risking a lot of people I care about. The thing is, we made a deal, it's complicated, how I got into this situation, but at that point it was either make a deal or die. I thought if I did make a deal with him about joining, at the very least we could get something out of it."
"What could be so important?" Remus asks him, trying to not jump to conclusions and get angry again, Severus sighs.
"Regulus would never be harmed or killed by the Dark Lord or any of his people, should you ever be in danger we could protect you without being marked as traitors so long as none of his people die, and…" Severus trails off, Remus frowns.
"And?"
"And Narcissa never takes the mark." Remus' eyes widen as it clicks.
"He did come by that night…you and Lucius, you joined him."
"So, did Narcissa, she just hasn't taken the mark. Remus we, we fought him, we did. We tried to kill him, Narcissa even threw a chandelier at him, which, by the way, top ten things I've ever seen, anyway, we had him good for a moment there, but a mistake was made, and he beat us. At that point it was either negotiate or we all die. I know now that we should have died but I thought it would be worth it to protect you and Reg as best we could. Now if I turn on him, your name has been mentioned and he's curious and I won't be able to protect you, the deal will be forfeit. He'll kill Reg to make a point, and if he knows about my relationship with Lily and James, which he probably does, he'll kill and torture them too. I just…I wanted to do the right thing and now I'm just trying to get us all out of this alive." Remus walks forward and hugs Severus tightly, a hug he returns, then he pulls back but keeps a hold of Severus' shoulders as he looks at him intently.
"You got yourself and both of them out of there alive, and you are protecting us now. When Regulus got Sirius out of Grimmauld Place, he sent a note telling Sirius to live and fight another day. There will come a chance for you to join our side again. Until then Sev, for god's sake, survive." Severus smiles a teary smile.
"And when he makes me do something unforgivable?" Remus sighs.
"You may not be able to forgive yourself, but we'll forgive you. And if it's so bad, just leave. Come home to us, we'll all be willing to take the risk of your defection. Grab Reg, Lucius, and Narc and run like hell. We'll be waiting." Severus chuckles wetly.
"Always waiting."
"Is he joining us?" Mary asks as Remus walks into the hall they've commandeered for practice. Well, he says commandeered, no one knows they are using it, but that's beside the point.
"No but, I think things are going to be okay with him. It might take a while, but it'll be okay." The house seems happy with that, Remus turns to Sirius, "He's still pissed at you, though."
"Well, I did try to kill him so…fair enough."
"Please tell me you mean that metaphorically and things aren't getting completely out of hand again," Kingsley requests, Sirius chuckles.
"No, things got completely out of hand, but it's all good again now, no more attempted murders."
"You lot are too free with the whole taking someone's life thing," Dorcas tells them, Peter snorts.
"We're growing up in war time, did you expect us to think taking someone's life is this big taboo thing that never happens? Do you really think that?"
"Of course not, it happens all the time, but it's a thing for adults to do."
"We're graduating in three weeks Dorcas," Alice points out, "Not that I'm condoning murder, I'm just saying."
"Have we all been raised to be psychopaths?" Emmeline Vance asks, Remus snorted.
"I think you need to be scary to be a psychopath."
"Hey, I'm a scary goblin, remember!" Remus smiles at her and nods.
"Yeah, I remember." She grins back at him, "Also, we'd be sociopaths. Psychopaths are when your born with it, sociopaths are when circumstances during life, usually childhood, are what cause the problem."
"You are such a nerd."
"Annnyyway, let's get on with this. I've got the dance number worked out too, we just need to be in sync. Remy, who'd you get to do the piano?" Remus smiles mischievously at Mary.
"Don't worry about it. They're practicing, and I promise it'll come together properly." Mary sighs but nods.
"Why do you even do History of Magic anymore?" Marlene asks Remus as they enter the common room, the two of them are the only ones of their friends to continue the subject.
"Because I love it. I's fascinating and I really love the subject. I enjoy the work, I like knowing where we came from, what lead to now."
"Then why must you make it so hard?"
"Because our teacher is pigheaded and boring and annoying." Marlene sighs.
"Well, it's our last exam. In two hours we will have finished, so don't be a dick when he gives his speech at the beginning." Remus rolls his eyes.
"Fine."
Finally, it's all over, their last exam is done. Marlene and Remus get up, high-fiving as they move to leave.
"Mr Lupin, a word," Binns calls, Marlene sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"I'll wait for you," She tells Remus, walking out as Remus turns and walks back to his Professor's desk.
"Yes Professor?"
"I may not be the most fascinating teacher, but I do love this subject and I don't want it to be taught by someone completely incompetent, which, despite your thoughts, I am not. Should you ever desire to, I would hand the position over to you and move on with my death quite confidently," Binns tells him, "Frustrating as it was, my classes with you were the most interesting thing to happen since Minerva graduated." Remus smiles brightly.
"Thank you, Sir. For the record, I don't think you're completely incompetent. Just mostly." Binns looks frustrated again, "And also, I'll miss this class. My lessons with you were frustrating and annoying yes but, they made me think and they were interesting, and our debates were certainly lively and captivating. I did enjoy being your student even if you drove me nuts."
"As I enjoyed being your teacher, even if you'd have driven me to an early grave were I not already dead." Remus chuckles, "Good luck Mr Lupin."
"And to you Professor Binns."
"What did he want?" Marlene asks when he joins her outside, Remus smirks.
"Offered me his job." Marlene snorts, rolling her eyes as they begin walking.
"Sure he did. Fine, don't tell me." Remus snickers to himself.
"I am happy to announce, for the first time in seven years, Gryffindor wins the house cup!" Gryffindor house shouts out their excitement, jumping up as they yell happily. They all quickly move to their places, much to the confusion of everyone else except Severus.
Lucy and Remus take their positions, and to everyone's surprise, Minerva McGonagall comes down to the piano, Gryffindor calls out happily about it.
Lily takes her place at the front of the 'band'.
"*Life's never easy, this much I know
But I learnt to fight and take it blow by blow
Though this is ending I see in my heart
That moving on or not, we are never apart." The house starts their dance, choreographed by Mary.
"You may not be with me, but this much is true
You'll always have me, and I'll always have you." The house sings.
"Together we've shared a lot
We haven't always stuck together as things get hot
But at the end of the day we've developed a bond
One that will stick next year and beyond," Sirius sings from beside Lily.
"As life goes on and things all change
We'll look back on these years and think the same
Young as we are we have our regret
Even now some friends we are wont to neglect," Remus sings.
"So, you may not be with us, and this may not be new
But you'll always have me, and I'll always have you," The house sings, Remus getting a grin on his face as do the others when they realise whose part is next.
"So, when we leave and know this is it
Stay by my side, and shout…" McGonagall sings beautifully, the Hall being surprised but ecstatic, then the entire house finishes it off with their victory shout.
"EGO VICIT!"
The Hall explodes into applause as the song and dance end, Gryffindor included. The dancers bow, then the band, and then they turn to McGonagall, applauding her specifically. She smiles happily before moving and retaking her seat at the Teacher's table where her colleagues look amused and impressed, she thwacks Dumbledore on her way past after he says something quietly to her.
"Hi all, I'd like to say something. We've had a very interesting few years, made all the more interesting by our resident pranksters and mischief makers, The Marauders! So, I would like to point out how lucky you all are to have at least a year without them, and to congratulate Remy Lupin because that song was entirely written by him!" Lily tells them all.
"Oi! You were all lucky to have us around! And you'll miss us!" James calls, making his voice louder the same way Lily did, magic, Sirius snorts.
"Certainly won't forget us."
"Please tell me you guys haven't done something," Nari calls from the Hufflepuff table, Remus rolls his eyes.
"With the work we put into this, when would we have the time?" Everyone concedes to that point; the Marauders even manage to keep their smirks to themselves as everyone moves to file out of the room. They remain seated until the doors open and they hear ribbitting, suddenly people scream and the frogs start jumping into the hall as well. The Marauders smirk to each other, all thinking the same thing and managing to say it in sync.
"Mischief managed."
Chapter note:
* I couldn't find a song that fit properly, so I wrote one, that's why it's terrible. Anyway, it's called Ego Vicit which is Latin for I Won, or the translation I took, slightly more dramatically, as I am Victorious.