Disclaimer: I still don't own HP.

A/N: I would like to dedicate this chapter to the real Emily and Victor, aged respectively seven and eleven at their deaths. Also to Leo, age twelve.

We will never forget them. May they rest in peace.

Epilogue

Remus returned to school two weeks later. The Healers kept him at the hospital over the full moon on November 15th and released him the following Monday. He slipped quietly into the back of Charms, where James and Sirius were entertaining the class by arguing heatedly with Professor Flitwick over levitating charms. Flitwick was returning their arguments just as heatedly, clearly enjoying himself. No-one noticed Remus until the end of the lesson.

"Moony!" James crowed, clapping him on the back. "You're back!"

"You feeling okay?" Peter asked.

"Yeah." A familiar smile was spreading over Remus's face.

"Glad you're back, Remus," Adriana said as she passed them. Lily and Kathryn made noises in the affirmative before moving away.

"Whoa." Remus stared after the girls. "Since when have they said anything nice to us?"

"Since October twenty-ninth," Sirius said. "I guess we forgot to mention that when we came to visit."

"You mean to tell me that they've been acting weird for three weeks?"

"Well . . ."

Adriana descended on the boys before class the next morning, clutching the latest Witch Weekly. "Guess what?"

"Chicken butt," James and Sirius said together.

"You really should have seen that coming," Remus told her.

"Now kindly go away," Peter said. "Whatever it is, we don't care."

"Thanks, I love you too."

James and Sirius stared at her.

"I won the contest!" she squealed.

"What contest?"

"The short story contest."

Peter looked interested. "A short story contest?"

"Yeah. Look, I know it doesn't really matter to you guys – especially now that we're being horrible to each other again – but I thought you should know cause, I wrote about you. And us. You know, first year, some of the weirder things we did."

Now all four boys were staring at her.

"You can read it if you want," she said, shoving the magazine into Peter's hands, suddenly looking very embarrassed. "I got to go. See you later."

When she had gone, Peter opened the magazine and read the story aloud.

"Damn, she's a good writer," James observed at the end.

"I think she's allergic to commas," Peter said critically.

"Stop nitpicking," Remus said. "Merlin, Pete, we all know you can write –"

"Yeah," Sirius said wickedly, "your problem is writing down the correct facts."

Peter chucked the magazine at his head.

Months passed. Kathryn fell down the stairs twenty-three more times by Adriana's count. Peter melted two cauldrons and spent a great deal of time in detention. Gryffindor played Hufflepuff for the Quidditch Cup, losing by twenty points. The prefect Emily Campbell had a hysterical fit in the common room one May evening, sobbing that she would just quit school and never take her N.E.W.T.s, because O.W.L.s were hard enough. Kathryn refused Sirius when he finally got up the nerve to ask her out. All the third years passed their exams – some only by a hair.

When school let out for the summer, all the seventh year girls cried because they would never be back. Several other girls cried, just because they felt like it. James promised to invite all the Marauders to stay, but Sirius said gloomily that his parents probably wouldn't let him go.

Eerily enough, Emily Campbell's prediction that she would never take N.E.W.T.s came horribly true. Over the summer, Voldemort gained yet more power and more followers. Following the example of parents and various politicians, most students began to refuse to say his name. The Dark Lord and his Death Eaters staged several carefully coordinated attacks.

Emily, along with third year Victor Van Dugan, never came back to Hogwarts.

Although the "Echinodermaga incident" was on the minds of many, none mentioned it until the next fall.

"It's October twenty-ninth," Sirius hissed to James at the end of History of Magic.

"Yeah . . . so?" James busied himself stuffing rolls of parchment into his bag.

"October twenty-ninth," Sirius insisted.

"I know. And yesterday was the twenty-eighth, and tomorrow's the thirtieth."

"The twenty-ninth. Of October."

James straightened up and peered worriedly at Sirius. "You feeling all right?"

"I feel fine," Sirius said irritably. "I can't believe you don't remember what October twenty-ninth is."

James sighed. "Of course I remember," he said quietly, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder. "I just don't see why anyone in their right mind would bring it up. Are you sure you're okay?"

Sirius rolled his eyes, picking up his own bag, and the boys started toward the door. "I've just been thinking –"

"I knew something was wrong."

Sirius swung at him half-heartedly. "I've been thinking about . . . everything, you know – Emily and Victor . . . Hatabie –"

"I hate him."

"I know. So do I. But I was thinking about him . . . and you –"

"Me?" James stopped dead in the middle of the corridor, staring at Sirius. "What does any of this have to do with me?"

"Oh, come on!" Sirius exclaimed. "You can't have forgotten all that bloody reporter told us –"

"Load of bull, that's what she told us."

"James. Quit pretending with me. You remember, you remember all of it; I know you do." Sirius stared intently into James's face.

" . . . Damn it." James dropped his gaze to the floor. "Why do you always have to see right through me?"

Sirius clapped him on the back. "I'm your best friend. It's in my job description."

"Mmm. What else is in the job description, driving me crazy?"

"Naturally. But to get back to the matter at hand . . ."

"What matter at hand? It's all over and we haven't heard so much as a whisper about me since then." People were yelling at them to move, so James started walking again.

Sirius hurried to catch up with him. "But it's not all over. Look at Emily and Victor. Look at what almost happened last year. Anything could happen anytime –"

"You sound like Dumbledore."

"James . . ."

James stopped walking again and grabbed Sirius by the shoulders, forcing him to look at him. "Sirius, mate, you worry too much. I'm not going anywhere. I plan on graduating, living a long healthy life and having eight children. Okay?"

Sirius opened his mouth to reply, but at that moment, Peter and Remus came up behind them. "Why are you two looking so glum?" Peter wanted to know.

"I think you're scaring people," Remus added. "They're thinking, 'oh my god, it's half of the Marauders having a serious dis –"

"It's October twenty-ninth," Sirius interrupted.

"Don't remind me," Peter mumbled.

Remus, on the other hand, looked genuinely puzzled. "Are you feeling all right?"

James burst out laughing. "Only you could forget that," he chortled.

"Stop laughing at me," Remus protested. "What did I forget? That Potions test's not today, is it?"

"It's tomorrow, blockhead," Sirius said. "We don't even have Potions today."

"Right." Remus looked sheepish. "Don't make me panic, alright, I get all mixed up."

"And then you forget the days of the week," Peter supplied. "Real smooth."

"Actually, we all do that, don't we," James said thoughtfully. No longer laughing, he was remembering a certain Quidditch practice that both he and Sirius had missed.

"Forget the days of the week?" Sirius now said incredulously. "I know them, listen: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday –"

"Idiot," Remus said. "Don't you know Thursday comes first?"

"It does?" Sirius paused, confused. ". . . Shut up."

James laughed so hard that tears sprang to his eyes. "I'm going to lord that one over you for years!"

Sirius made a face at him and pulled out his wand threateningly.

"Oh no you don't!" Remus snatched it away. "Don't forget what you did to Alice Seward yesterday, the poor girl was in tears –"

"It'll grow out –"

"Not for months, it won't, she's got ridiculously long hair –"

"And that wasn't just me, it was James and me."

"And you did have to use an irreversible hex, didn't you?"

Both Peter and James were now laughing at the bickering pair as Sirius grabbed his wand back. "All right, all right, I'll apologize to Al. Happy?"

"Al, is it?" Peter smirked.

"Oh, go away."

"Sorry, no can do."

Remus looked between them and checked his watch. "We're late for lunch."

"Aaah!" Peter yelped. "I'm hungry."

"Race you."

"Readysetgo!" Peter took off uncharacteristically fast.

Remus sped after him. "Sirius, you owe me one!" he called over his shoulder, laughing.

James looked over at Sirius, grinning, ready to open his mouth and say, "Al?" But Sirius was staring after Remus and Peter, looking melancholy.

James sighed again, and they walked in silence for a moment.

"Did I tell you my plan for Snivellus this week?" James asked finally.

"The one involving horns and hot sauce?"

"Yeah."

"That was my plan."

"I knew that!"

"Sure you did." Sirius smirked. "So . . . James . . . who you planning on having those eight children with? Wouldn't be a girl by the name of Ev –"

"SHUT UP!"

The magical community heard no more of Myles Hatabie. No body was ever found. Only two people knew what happened to this Death Eater who failed his assignment, and they weren't about to talk.

Dead men tell no secrets. Neither do Dark Lords.

finis

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