"James. Prongs! Oh Potter!" Sirius whispered in a singsong voice.
"What?" James growled, as he was shaken awake. "Put that bloody thing out will you?" he nodded towards lit wand Sirius was gleefully waving around the dormitory.
"We're going out. Coming?"
"Might as well," he sighed, "Cloak's in the bottom of my tr-never mind," he said as Sirius produced with a flourish a handful of silvery fabric. He'd never really grasped the concept of privacy.
"Got the map?"
"Yup."
A little while later and they were sitting together under James's cloak on one of the tables in the Great Hall (Gryffindor, naturally). Sirius had managed to pinch some Fire Whisky from somewhere and they were taking turns to swig from the bottle.
"Completely honestly, are you happy or sad we're leaving?" James asked.
"Happy," Sirius said at once. "Real life here we come!"
"Me to!" agreed Peter.
"What about you Moony?"
He thought for a second.
"Sad." He said at last.
"Why?!" Sirius asked in bewilderment, as though leaving school was the best thing that could possibly happen.
"It's all right for you, you lot could do anything you wanted. No one's going to want to hire…. Someone like me," he finished, staring dismally into the half empty bottle.
"I thought you wanted to be a teacher. Dumbledore would hire you," James said, desperate to cheer up his friend.
"Do you honestly think parents will want me teaching their children?" Remus asked, taking a long drink and handing the bottle back to Sirius.
"Oh, didn't think of that," James admitted.
"Lucky you." Remus said, and for the first time, James heard a hint of bitterness in his friend's voice.
"Stop worrying! It's going to be good,"
"How do you know?"
"Just trust me." Sirius said confidently.
"I seem to remember that the last time you said that." Remus replied with a shiver.
"It's not my fault Snivellus moved at the last moment! You shouldn't have been standing behind him if you're so touchy about getting cursed!"
James tuned out of his friends' bickering and watched the stars swirling above them. He tried to lie back to get a better view, only the table was slightly higher up than he had expected and he cracked his head on the wood.
Not that that did much to take the drunken smile of his face.
Made him laugh though.
It was only when the bottle had been drunk, they had laughed themselves hoarse and James was beginning to feel the pain in his head that they decided to call it a night.
They'd covered themselves in the cloak and had just made it out of the Hall when they heard footsteps behind them.
"Who is it?" James whispered.
"Dunno," Sirius slurred. "Probably Filch."
"Look on the map!"
"I don't have it. You've got it."
"If I had it why would I have asked you?!"
"WELL I DON'T HAVE IT!"
"Keep you're voice down!" James implored as the footsteps in the Hall came to a sudden halt. "Remus, do have you it?"
"No."
"Pete?"
"Why would he have it?" Sirius asked.
James swore as a sobering thought hit him.
"I left it in the Hall," he said guiltily. Sirius gave him a look so furious that James was extremely glad that his friend didn't have his wand with him. He had a feeling that if he had, he'd be in a great amount of pain right now.
This seemed to have sobered the other Marauders as well.
"Go and get it then!" Sirius hissed without a trace of any slur.
"Filch is in there!"
"It's your bloody fault it's in there in the first place so YOU can go and get it back."
Scowling and muttering James crept back into the Hall and over to the table they had been sitting on, trying to avoid Filch who was skulking around the edges of the room. Out the corner of his eye he saw the Marauders Map balancing on the edge and made a grab for it, forgetting he was wearing the cloak. The movement caused the map to flutter to the ground, catching Filch's eye. Immediately he pounced on it and held it up, cackling with delight.
James prayed that Filch would put it back. At that moment James was torn between running at Filch and trying to snatch it back; or he standing back and hoping that Filch thought it was just a scrap of parchment and leave it behind.
But, by the time James had made up his mind what to do, Filch had moved off and was shuffling out of the Hall with Mrs Norris following him.
James fought the urge to give that scummy little cat of his a kick.
Following him out in to the Entrance Hall he stopped as Filch bent over to examine a spot of mud on the floor. He aimed a kick at the back of Filch's knees, and caught the Marauders Map as Filch was sent sprawling across the floor.
And then kicked Mrs Norris for good measure.
Panting, he arrived at the boys' dormitories, having sprinted all the way back.
"There's your……..bloody……map," he threw it at Sirius. "Why you wanted it is beyond me,"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"That after tomorrow it's not going to be any use. It only shows Hogwarts doesn't it."
"So what do you want to do with it?"
James shrugged.
"Put in the first year dormitories tomorrow. The school's going to be quiet without Moony Wormtail Padfoot and Prongs. Let one of the new kids find it and stir things up a bit," Remus said with a smile.
"The next generation of Marauders? Sounds good to me," James grinned.
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"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" Lily asked, dabbing delicately at her eyes with makeup running in streaks down her face.
"Are you sure?" James asked hesitantly.
"No, really I'm……..fine!" she rushed before she burst into tears.
"Last day today," James said, trying to start a conversation. But he only managed to cause a fresh wave of tears. "But it's not really ending, it's just another beginning really….." he stuttered desperate to stop her crying.
Another wave.
Completely out of his depth, as usual when it came to female emotions, he did, as usual, the only thing he could think of.
"What do you want?" Sirius appeared in the doorway half a minute later.
James pointed helplessly to the sofa, where Lily was trying desperately to control herself and regain what little dignity she had left.
"Oh god," Sirius groaned, "BELLE!"
"What?" she appeared beside him. He also pointed helplessly to Lily and shrugged. Rolling her eyes at her friends' incompetence Isabelle coughed something that sounded like 'Pathetic!" and went over to help her friend.
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"Last breakfast," Peter pointed out, as they walked in a line in to the Great Hall. James and Sirius gave him a murderous look. Isabelle had tried and failed to comfort Lily, and broken down herself. In desperation Mia had been found, then Ciara, then (with great reluctance form Sirius) Ellis had just about succeeded in cheering them up.
"Well now that's over we should probably start packing," James said as he finished his last mouthful of breakfast.
"YOU HAVEN'T PACKED YET?!"
"Of course I've…..packed….. I just need to…..finish you know, double check everything," James stuttered and pulled a face at Sirius when Lily's back was turned.
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"Have you seen my little book?"
"What little book?"
"Black, marblely, got a flower on the front. Where the hell is it? It was right here, WHERE IS IT?"
"You mean this one?" Ellis held it up with an evil smile. "Lets see what you've got inside it……"
"NO! ELLIS QUINN GIVE IT BACK!" Smiling Ellis threw the book back and carried on packing.
"We've got an hour left," Mia pointed out, and then immediately wished she hadn't.
She bit her lip to hold back a sob but failed miserably. Crying on the last day was, evidently, contagious. Within a minute they were all snivelling.
Hearing the wail that erupted from the Common Room Sirius appeared at the bottom of the stairs.
"What's wro- oh god," he groaned for the second time that day.
"What is it?" James called down from boys' dormitories.
"It's alright, they're at it again!" Sirius yelled back. "Cheer up," he told them "British stiff upper lip and all that crap,"
"I'm not British can I cry?" Isabelle asked.
"NO! No one's allowed to cry! It's good! It's a new place to live, new people, new work, a whole new life!" Sirius said excitedly. However, this obviously didn't have the effect he was hoping for- a loud wail sounded from one of the girls.
He seemed to have given up. He gave an odd sort of grunt, stomped back up the stairs and slammed the door behind him.
This, although entirely unintentional, managed to do what Sirius had been trying to do all morning-
It shut them up.
"Did you just here that?" Mia asked grinning, she copied Sirius's snort sending the rest of the girls into giggles. When they had finally managed to control themselves she did it again, and began to laugh helplessly with the rest.
"What is it this time?" Sirius asked, looking more and more short tempered each time he appeared.
"Nothing!" they chorused. Only to burst into hysterical laughter once his back was turned. Rolling his eyes his stamped back upstairs and continued to slam his possessions into his trunk.
"What is it with girls? First they're crying their eyes out, now they're in hysterics," he muttered.
"I thought you didn't even try to understand them,"
"I'm not saying that I want to get why they do every little thing, but a slight inkling would be helpful."
"Well, however much you don't know, you still know a hell of a lot more than me," James replied, looking lovingly at the Quidditch robes he was about to give back. "Are you sure they really need them? I mean, the cost of new robes is nothing for the school,"
"You have to give them back, Prongs," Sirius said with a small smile.
"But-"
"No, James you can't. James muttered something under his breath, looking like a sulking child but followed his friend downstairs.
Ten minutes later and Potter 7, Black 6, Quinn 4 and Morgan 2 were lying on Professor McGonagall's desk. It had taken Sirius almost five minutes to persuade James to leave it behind.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Where did you two disappear off to?"
They had been packed onto the Hogwarts Express and were well on their way back to London when James and Sirius disappeared.
"Nowhere." James replied.
Perhaps it was the fact that Sirius was now staring determinedly out the window; or that James didn't quite meet her eye when he replied made Lily think that they weren't being entirely honest….. then something clicked.
"So is he a different shape… size…. species?" she asked.
"Colour," Sirius answered with an evil grin.
"YOU TURNED SNAPE A DIFFERENT COLOUR?!" she asked in disbelief.
"Yup." Sirius answered proudly. Remus opened his mouth, as though he was about to say something, and then closed it like he'd changed his mind.
"Blue. With purple limbs." James explained.
"He looks like he's shut his hands in a door," Sirius added gleefully.
"Come on!" James said in reply to Lily's disapproving look. "It's the last time I'll ever curse him. I promise!"
"Only because today's the last day you'll ever see him!" Lily pointed out.
"Well then there's no way I can break my promise is there?"
Rolling her eyes but smiling all the same, she sighed.
There's no arguing with Marauder Logic.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Lily? Lily?" James whispered.
"What?" she muttered blearily,
"We're in London,"
"Wha- huh?" and then she paused as understanding hit her. "I fell asleep?! THE LAST JOURNEY HOME AND I FELL ASLEEP?!"
"Just for a bit," Mia squeaked. "We're home now,"
There was a silence in the carriage as this sunk into all of them.
They were going home.
James considered flatly refusing to get off the train. But then he was going to live with Lily- Perhaps the only thing worth leaving Hogwarts for.
"I'll see you soon, promise?"
"Course you will!" Isabelle agreed with Lily.
"I'll call you once you're settled in," Ellis promised, "Good luck with James Lils," she added with a smile.
Gradually the station began to clear as parents walked off with their children, having to listen to a years worth of exploits and adventures; and the seventh years realised with a sigh that they couldn't avoid their parents any longer. Sirius's family had gone up to meet his brother, pointedly ignoring their eldest son. He faltered for a second as he caught sight of them, but quickly recovered and went back to joking with James's parents.
Isabelle, likewise, was standing with her family; her father was glaring at Sirius's long hair and arrogant manner with obvious disapproval.
Lily was almost finished saying her goodbyes when she got to Sirius and tried to think of what she could possibly say. She'd gone from hating him, to being a mate and then to considering him on of her best friends in less than a year.
"Sirius…..I…." she began.
"Yeah," he said with a smile. "I know."
"See you soon?"
"You're living with James aren't you." Sirius asked as though it was obvious.
"Then I guess I'll see you tomorrow," she replied laughing.
"Are you done yet?" James asked sliding an arm around Lily's waist.
"Yeah," she sighed taking a last look around the station, "I guess so,"
"Get a move on you two!" Sirius called out, standing in a group with the other seventh years. Rolling their eyes, they joined him.
And then together, they walked out of the station and outinto the Big Bad World.
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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER REVIEWED!!!! That's it! Finished.
Sorry this took so long to put up, things kind of got in the way (holidays, school, bonfire night)
I'm sorry (again!)the last chapter was a bit kaputt but I suppose thats what you get with three keys and jet lag.
Thanks cilverblood (where I live, Ellis isn't nasty more..... normal. To be honest i dont really like Sirius pairings either, especially at Hogwarts, Isabelle wasn't supposedto last very long but now i needher to finish my story. Oops!) LilyE78(I know! I completly forgot that she was supposed to be muggleborn but there you go.) Secludedark, SJRsgirl, and shan!
Leo x