Oh frabjous day, calloo callay! I chortle in my joy! The end is finally here. Thank you so much for all your reviews, and for sticking with this incredibly slow and long story! It's been fun ot write, most of the time, despite the set-backs with the tedious computer... grumble But here we are, sunset and camdon!

Chapter Thirty: Yay!!! The Last Chapter!!!

"What's up with you? You're looking disgustingly chirpy," Madame Pomfrey commented suspiciously, as she passed Professor Harlem's bed in the Hospital Wing.

"I may well look chirpy," he replied, smiling up at the young nurse. "For today is the long-awaited eclipse."

"Oh," she smiled back sweetly. "Won't that be nice. But I hate to tell you, Professor, that you are in no shape to go up on that Tower and look at the sky. You're staying here with me."

Harlem stared at her incredulously. "In my outrage I must beg to differ, dear lady." The smile came back to his face as he said, "I think your care and knowledge has led me to a very speedy recovery, and I shall be absolutely fine by this afternoon."

Madame Pomfrey could scarcely resist the charming smile. "We'll see," she told him, and turned to go back to her office.

Harlem looked across at the Gryffindor students. He, Sirius, Peter and James had been in there for a full day and a half now, and were all recovering nicely. They chatted with each other all the time, much to Madame Pomfrey's exasperation; she was still in the mind that they needed rest. Snape was also still there, but didn't join in with the conversation, choosing instead to read. He had asked if he could move back to his common room, but Madame Pomfrey was having none of it. She relented slightly and put a screen around his bed, which Sirius and James found hilarious.

"Did you hear that?" Harlem asked them now, pointing over to the office. "She's not gonna let me watch the eclipse!"

"Big deal," James replied, grinning, as he knew this would annoy the teacher. The Marauders found it easy to bounce off Harlem, as he was so much like a kid himself.

"Big deal?" he repeated. "Sirius – you appreciate the subject: tell him this is a big event."

"It's a big event, James," Sirius said.

Harlem scowled, and then looked back towards the office. "Hey," he hissed over to the three Marauders, who looked curiously up at him from their card game. "She's not looking – let's just go now."

"Go where?" James asked.

"To the Tower, to see the eclipse!" Harlem said impatiently.

"Yeah, I'm up for that," Sirius agreed immediately, throwing his cards down and getting out of bed. The four of them quietly pulled on their cloaks over their pyjamas and checked one last time that they would go unnoticed. Madame Pomfrey was still busy in her office.

"Right, as one shepherd said to the other, let's get the flock out of here," Harlem told the three students, and they walked straight out the door.

When they got up to the Tower they met the rest of the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, already up there as Harlem had instructed them; he was very pleased to see that they had all turned up. Over in a corner were Bethan, Sarah, Remus and Lily.

Harlem nudged Sirius and pointed over to them. "Across the dusty desert lies the promised land," he said.

Sirius gave him a funny look and went with James and Peter to join their friends. They looked surprised to see them out of their beds.

"Did Madame Pomfrey let you out?" Sarah asked.

"No, we made a break for it," James replied. "It was Harlem's idea; that guy's got nerve I'm glad I don't have in my teeth," he added.

Across the Tower Professor Harlem was passing things round to all the students. When whatever it was reached the Gryffindors, they looked down curiously at what looked like ordinary, dark wrap-around shades.

"You must wear these when the eclipse comes," Harlem told them. "They're magically enhanced to protect your eyes."

"I'm putting mine on now, deffo!" James cried in jubilation.

Sirius stood next to Bethan, leaning on the wall. "Are you okay?" he asked, while behind him James was trying to get Lily to wear her shades, too. "About Marley, I mean – I didn't get to talk to you about it the other day."

"Well you did say a little bit about it," she replied.

"Really, when?" Sirius frowned in confusion.

"When you first were in the Hospital Wing. Me and Remus were there, and you woke up, and you said something†you just said he was a bastard and stuff, and then you went back to sleep."

"Oh." Sirius gave a short laugh. "I don't remember that."

"Oh." Bethan sounded slightly disappointed, then said, "I'm okay, though, now that you ask. What about you? You weren't looking so good last time I saw you."

"I'm good," he answered, hoping he hadn't hurt her feelings. "It takes more than the "Cruciatus Curse" to hurt Sirius Black!" Bethan laughed at the mocking way he had said the name of the curse.

"Who was it?" he asked after a few moments.

"What?" she frowned.

"Well, you said Branson had been cheating on you – do you know who it was?" he prompted.

"Oh." She looked out over the grounds. "It was the other Beater on the Ravenclaw team... Laura Fodden."

Sirius couldn't help but chuckle to himself upon hearing this news. Bethan looked up at him sharply. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"I'm not laughing at you," he grinned, wishing he could stop. "It's just – I know that girl, y'know; I mean, I know her... She's nice," he said, "But I think nice and easy would be the choice phrase to use to describe her."

"Oh thanks a lot, Sirius, that makes me feel much better!" Bethan scolded him.

Sirius stopped laughing. "What I mean is: if he would give you up for a girl like Laura Fodden, then it's obvious that he never appreciated you in the first place, isn't it?" Sirius hadn't told her that he'd got the black eye he was currently sporting from Branson, and he didn't intend to. "He never knew what he had, and now he's lost you, and he'll never get the chance to have you back," he said quietly. "Right?"

Bethan smiled. "Right," she whispered. "Thanks, that actually did make me feel much better," she laughed, and went forward to hug him. "And it's because you said it."

Surprised at first that she was hugging him, Sirius tentatively put his arms round her and held her tight, feeling her soft curls against his face.

"Yeah, well I never liked him anyway," he joked half-heartedly.

"I know," she said, looking up at him with a half-smile on her face. "And all because he beat you at Quidditch?"

Sirius looked down at her. He was tempted now to tell her the truth... but he held his tongue for another time. "Yeah, that's right," he answered finally. "I never could stand a beating at the game.

"Everyone put their fly goggles on, it's starting!" came Harlem's Irish drawl across the Tower. Sirius and Bethan broke apart immediately and picked out their shades.

Everyone looked strange as Sirius saw them, all staring up at the sky with the ridiculous black glasses on. He followed their gaze and turned his face to the sun. The goggles were amazing; it was just like having normal sight, but none of the sun's glare affected him.

They watched as the moon moved slowly in front of the sun, as though it was eating its way across it. Soon the sun was completely covered, and the sky went dark, as dark as night. In fact, like at night, some of the brightest stars came on display; Sirius the Dog Star was the most visible. They felt the air become distinctly cooler, and saw lots of birds flying back to roost in the treetops, and owls flying out the windows of the Owlery in one of the distant towers. As the sun disappeared, feathery streamers of light suddenly appeared around the dark disc of the moon.

"Those are part of the sun's corona - its outer atmosphere," Harlem told them softly. His voice seemed strangely loud in the unusual environment.

After a few minutes of quiet darkness, during which more stars came out, and the owls hooted to one another, beads of light appeared at the edge of the moon.

"Those drops of light you see around the moon are caused by the sunlight streaming between the jagged mountains and valleys on the moon," Harlem said, and again his voice seemed to echo around the tower top.

Soon after this the sun slowly reappeared again as the moon moved across it, and normal daylight returned. The stars disappeared and the confused birds came out again from the trees, or went back to the Owlery.

"Okay, you can remove your goggles now," Harlem told them softly. They all did, except James, who had to be forced to reluctantly take his off.

Sirius shielded his eyes from the sun and looked up at the still visible moon. He folded his arms and leant them on the wall, gazing out at the Forbidden Forest and the mountains beyond. He felt someone next to him and looked round in surprise. It was Remus.

"Pretty impressive, huh?" Sirius said; he'd enjoyed the eclipse very much. "I'm sure Harlem will go into great orgasmic excitement during our next lesson when we talk about it."

Remus made a face. "I hope not. I saw you with Bethan just now –"

"You don't beat around the bush, do you?!" Sirius joked.

"I just wanted to know how it went," Remus said. "Did you tell her?"

"Tell her what?" Sirius asked annoyingly.

"That you love her."

"No. She only just broke up with Branson, you know," Sirius reminded him. "I'll wait till she can, you know – love again."

"She only went out with him to get over you," Remus told him.

"Well then, I'm sure we won't have to wait for very long." Sirius smiled slightly, but inside he beamed. "You worry too much, Moony."

"No, I worry the exact right amount – you can never worry too much," Remus replied. "Anyway, you always complicate things too much."

"I don't complicate things," Sirius said in his usual lazy manner. "That's just the way things get by themselves."

"Fine, have it your way," Remus said grudgingly. He looked round at the others, messing around and teasing Harlem about his love for anything in the sky. "How's Peter doing?" he asked.

Sirius followed his gaze to where Peter was doing his best to join in with the jokes. "Alright, I s'pose. He hasn't really spoken to me about the whole Adriana thing. I think he's probably embarrassed about me being right."

"Yeah, and about her using him to get into our group," Remus added. "It's gotta be a kick in the head, right?"

Sirius nodded. "And now we don't even know where she's gone."

"It's lucky she didn't try and get him onto her side, or something..."

Sirius looked at him. "You mean as another spy?" he asked doubtfully, and shook his head. "Wormtail would never do that."

"Yeah, I know," Remus said quickly. "I was just thinking..."

"I know," Sirius grinned. "Don't worry, Moony, nobody doubts the loyalty of a Marauder." He turned to lean on the wall again, and looked out over the school grounds. The sun was back to normal now, and its rays shone down through the wisps of cloud in the blue sky, illuminating the gentle waves of the lake and warming his face as he watched his friends.

"What a comedy," he muttered with a lop-sided grin, and added to Remus, "It's all a bit tragic, really, isn't it?"

"What is?"

"Everything." He didn't really know what he was talking about, so finished by declaring, "Every day is a pantomime!"

Remus frowned. "No it isn't," he laughed.

"Oh yes it is!" Sirius looked over Remus' shoulder and saw James creeping up behind him. "Look out behind you, Moony!" he warned, still grinning.

"Oh, very funny – quit with the pantomime analogy already!" Remus said, just before James rugby-tackled him to the ground, much to everyone's amusement.

A bit of a lame ending, but it has to stop somewhere, guys! Oh, by the way, Professor Harlem - who was a lot cooler in my head, so sorry if he was a bit annoying - is completely based on Bono (of U2 fame); hence the fly goggles. And Marley Branson is based on Marlon Brando - see what I did there, with the names? Eh, eh? So if you're unfamiliar with him, then see A Streetcar Named Desire, because he looks great in that, and that's exactly what Marley looks like! Again, cheers for the reviews... until next time...