25th June, 1972

Detentions were the worst. We sat at desks in McGonagall's classroom, our textbooks spread out before us, not allowed to talk or pass notes. I spent a good deal of time staring off out the window or across the desks in amusement at the curtain of ginger hair that fell from Lily's head as she bent over her parchment, taking notes from her books. We certainly had no lack of reason to study, either, quite honestly.

The end of term had been approaching rather quickly, which meant exams in every class, and we had spent the greater part of the last month studying spells that would've been suited for dueling in the forest, not what was actually being assigned in our classrooms. Consequently, Peter had become a nervous wreck, reciting bits of information from books no matter what time of day it was, or where we were in the castle. Remus told me that even in the middle of the night, he had to wake Peter up, telling him to shut it, for he'd been reciting potion ingredients in his sleep.

Moody continued teaching Defense Against the Arts for the rest of the term, and the Slytherins continued to complain about it in the Great Hall. Lucius Malfoy still sneered at Bilius Weasley, who sneered right back, and the Ravenclaw Quidditch team managed to win their final game against Slytherin, causing them to reclaim the lead in the running for the House Cup, which made everyone quite happy - especially Gwen Jones, the Ravenclaw Quidditch captain.

The Great Hall was decorated in bronze and blue for the End-of-Term Feast, and three of the house tables cheered when it was announced officially that Ravenclaw had won. All but the Slytherins were quite pleased with the results.

Nothing more was said to any of us about the night in the forest with the Dark Lord, though Lily continued to implore Sirius to go to Dumbledore every opportunity she had. She didn't seem to be exactly friends with the boys, but they were on better speaking terms than they had been earlier in the year, when Lily had refused to talked to them at all. Thankfully, I no longer was the middleman between the two parties. We seemed to be a lot closer, which made me really happy. Lily even invited me to spend a week of the summer at her house, to which I excitedly accepted.

Today was our very last day at Hogwarts. The sun was shining on the grounds and warming the grass, and the boys and I went out onto the grounds to enjoy ourselves in the sunlight. We stood at the edge of the lake, under the tree where we'd had our rainy day picnic earlier in the year. James and I were having a competition skipping rocks across the surface of the water, while the three others lazily daydreamed in the shade. Of the five of us, James, Peter and I were looking forward to the summer most, while both Remus and Sirius were dreading the break.

Remus said, "It's awfully lonely back home, I haven't got any friends there. I'm going to miss you lot."

"Me, too, mate," said Sirius. "Even our house elf detests me back home."

Remus frowned, "My mum and dad are afraid of me when the moon's coming 'round," he sighed and dragged a stick through some loose sand before him, drawing a pattern. He forced an apologetic smile. "Being alone's just a part of this whole werewolf gig, though. I'm quite used to it, I suppose." He sighed.

"You better write us," I suggested.

Remus smiled ruefully, "I would, but werewolves lack the opposable thumbs."
"So write us when you aren't a wolf, then," I chuckled.

26th June, 1972

Alice knocked on our door early in the morning to remind Lily and I that it was leaving day, and that we all had to leave our bags behind to be brought down to Hogsmeade Station.

The carriage to Hogsmeade contained me, the four boys, Bilius, Derek, Alice and Lily. As the carriage bumbled along, we broke off into two separate conversations: the boys and I going on about next year's Quidditch team as Alice told Lily how she could go about signing up for a subscription to Teen Witch. The ride seemed very short.

On the platform, we lost sight of one another, the four boys and I carefully sticking together until we'd claimed ourselves a compartment and James and I shoved Archie and Bubo up on the luggage rack.

I stared out the window, through the fog, at the spires and turrets of Hogwarts, only just visible over the distance and gloomy weather. There was a part of me that felt less like I was going home and more as though I was leaving it. It was an odd feeling. I looked 'round at the other four. Peter was already complaining about when the witch with the snack trolley would come as James teased him for always being hungry. Sirius was laughing so hard the edges of his eyes were crinkling, and Remus was clutching him, shaking with laughter as well. I smiled at my little family of friends for a moment, admiring them before joining in.

Alice and Lily visited our compartment during the long journey to London, just to say hello. Lily told them she'd see them all next term, and me in three weeks.

The Hogwarts Express pulled into King's Cross in the late afternoon. Peter spotted his mum through the window and squealed with delight because she was holding a plate of his favourite biscuits. On the Platform, he hurriedly said goodbye and abandoned us in a rush to collect his goodies. Remus, James, Sirius and I faced one another and gave a quick four-way hug, our arms over each other's shoulders. "See you three next term," I said.

"See you," answered James. "Same compartment on 1st September, yeah?"

"Yeah," I nodded.

"Write me, you three." Remus said.

"Every day," promised Sirius.

"Hourly," I smirked.

"I'm terrible at letters," said James, "But I'll do my best."

Remus smiled. "Have a nice summer. Don't get into any trouble."

James grinned, "Trouble? Us?"

Sirius added, "Never."

I giggled. "Always."

Remus rolled his eyes, "Bloody hell, you'll be expelled before you even get back to school…" he muttered as he walked away toward his waiting parents across the platform.

James turned to Sirius, "Don't forget the mirror. We'll talk every night. About nine thirty. Okay?"

Sirius nodded, "Nine thirty. Got it."

James skipped away to his parents. I gave Sirius the biggest and deepest hug I could muster with my tiny frame. "Stay safe, mate."

"You, too," answered Sirius. He glanced over and saw his father standing tall at the far side of the platform, looking quite sour. He took a deep breath, "Only a couple months before we'll be back at the castle, though, that's a break."

I nodded, "It's not so long, really."

"Bye," Sirius said with a wave and he started off across Platform 9 ¾ to where his father waited.

I searched the crowd for my parents and finally spotted them. I ran over, carrying Archie's cage, quite pleased to see them. I rushed into my mother's outstretched arms for a greeting hug, followed by a hug to my father as well. "Was that one of your friends?" Dad asked as he let go and held me out to inspect Sirius' retreating figure.

"Yeah," I said, "That was Sirius Black."

Mum raised an eyebrow. "Are you two…"

She trailed off, but I knew what she was implying. "No, Mum!" I scoffed, "It's nothing like that. He's just a friend."

"I see," Mum murmured. "Well, let's go home and you can tell us all about your friends."

"Alright," I said. But I knew I wouldn't tell them about everything.

Some things were better left at Hogwarts, where they belonged.

Wow. Okay. That's the end of Book One! This sounds unbelievably stupid but I've reread this last chapter about three times now for proofreading and such and I get a bit teary-eyed at that ending. It's so DUMB to get sad over your own writing but, oh well. Thank you to everybody who has read this entire silly, self-indulgent fanfiction! Some people have asked about the sequel (like Sweetdreams), so I'll provide some information to that below:

As of right now, I've written about half of year two. However, I'm going to take a bit of a holiday from posting! I'll upload the first chapter of book two in about a week! I'll post an update in this story when that first chapter is out, so you can easily know when it's available. I'm not sure what it's going to be called yet. I want it to be the same style of title as the Harry Potter books (Chamber of Secrets, Order of the Phoenix, etc.) so I feel like I'm going to need to think really hard about what the title will be. Also, I'm going to be designing and drawing a cover for this first book during my week off. It's going to be what all the characters look like in my mind, and I'll upload it to my instagram ( UnlikelyMarten) once I'm done, because I'm sure once it's compressed into a cover size, it'll be hard to see everything properly. It's going to have the marauders, Lily, Sabrina, Lucius, Snape, Derek, and Bilius on it, so it'll be a LOT of people!

So once again, THANK YOU to everyone who has read this story. I'll see you guys in a week!

Feel free to share your favourite moments, or thoughts about this story, and if you have any feedback, let me know!