Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all associated characters and situations are property of J.K. Rowling. I make no claim to ownership

Time.
Something that is so important to us but in the larger scheme of things, so trivial. When we are bored, time mocks us by going ever so slowly yet when we are in the middle of having fun; time is a blur as if it was never even there in the first place.
We are always told to never waste our time and use it wisely, to not waste such a precious item on unimportant matters such as sleeping for an extraordinary amount of time.
"Never waste our time and use it wisely"? That's exactly what Sirius Black was not doing. He was sleeping for an extraordinary amount of time.
"PADFOOT! Get your lazy arse up. We only have an hour till the train leaves", Remus Lupin exasperatedly but fondly exclaimed as he looked at one of his best friends sprawled on his bed like the crazed lunatic he was. For those of you who do not know who Sirius Black is, he was like the son of the Devil with his high cheekbones, grey eyes that could pull you in effortlessly; his always perfect but windswept dark as the night sky hair that made him look like a young rock star and endless amounts of charm and charisma which the girls(and some boys) loved. He was called Padfoot by his friends because he was an animagus. An animagus was a person who could turn into an animal and back. His animagus form was a big, shaggy dog which was as black as the ace of spades. He along with James Potter and Peter Petiggrew learnt how to be animagi to help Remus.
"Moony, you wanker", Sirius whined like the 6-year-old kid he was most of the time. "You know I need my beauty sleep especially after last night. The things that happened exhausted me which you caused. You just were just insatiable Moony, why did you wake me up earlier?! Don't you know? We only have an hour till the train leaves" Sirius jumped off his bed and ran towards the bathroom as if he were being hunted. Remus had then realized that he had been more excitable than usual the night before and it was because the wolf in him knew it was leaving its home forever.
Remus Lupin was different from other people in the literal sense. He was a werewolf and that was why he was called Moony by his friends. Every month on the day of the full moon, his bones would break and stretch, his eyes would turn dark yellow, he would grow a snout with sharp canine like teeth and would instil fear in humans regardless of race, gender and age. He was a monster in every way possible and according to some people, he had to be killed for the greater good of humankind. The people who knew what Remus was, knew him as a genius, a bookworm, a guy who hated violence unless it was in self-defence and an all-around good guy
Remus's knees suddenly felt weak. He knew he was going to miss Hogwarts after today. It was his last day of Hogwarts along with his three best friends: James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. James Potter was the "official" leader of their little quartet. James was that popular kid you knew at school, the guy whom ladies loved, the guy who was talented at everything he did and was a bit arrogant. James was called Prongs by the rest of his friends as his animagus form was a caramel coloured stag with two big antlers.
He was the Quidditch team captain and loved every single minute of it. To the people who didn't know what Quidditch was, it was the national sport of The British Wizarding World. It was the equivalent of soccer except for the fact it was played on brooms and there were four balls: the Golden Snitch, the Quaffle and the Bludgers.
The aim of the game was to score the most points and/or catch the Golden Snitch. In all honesty, to Remus the only important position was the Seeker whose job was to catch the Snitch which was worth 150 points and catching it as fast as possible could give your team an easy win with no opposition.
People had different opinions on Quidditch. Some people viewed it as a sport which only the reckless, foolish and thrill-seeking play while others thought that Quidditch was the best sport ever to exist and would withstand the test of time. Remus was on the former side as he just did not, could not and would never understand the appeal of Quidditch unlike James.
Every girl had eyes on James but James only had eyes for Lily Evans, the only girl to ever reject him once let alone multiple times. You would have thought that he learnt that Lily would have never gone out with him even if they were the last two people on Earth.
James had tried every trick in the book to get her to say yes. He even once on Valentines Day had more than 100 bouquets of flowers delivered to Lily but not any mere flowers for he was James Potter. He had gotten Lily lilies. He had thought that she would thank him for getting such a thoughtful gift and go out with him instead she had slapped him on the face in front of everybody and said with the harshness only Lily Evans could and had, " You know what Potter? I actually had thought for a second there that you had a good bone in you but I can't believe you!! You had the audacity to send me lilies".
Needless to say after being rejected James was obsessed with her saying yes to going out with him except there was a slight problem. Lily despised James with a passion which was as fierce and bright as her red hair and emerald green eyes. Remus's lips smirked, at the memories of Lily always calling out James of "having an over inflated head with an even bigger ego". They would always fight like cats and dogs, sworn mortal enemies you could say.
Sirius had told James numerous times over the years," the sexual frustration between you and "Hell-flower" is crazy, just kiss her and get it over with Prongs but noooo, you want to do it the gentlemanly way. Trust me Prongs, just kiss her". You would have thought that Sirius would have learnt his lesson of saying that to James after the first time he had gotten hexed but apparently he hadn't.
James pined after Lily for years on end and she would always reject him. This cycle continued day after day when suddenly one day they got together. When the entire school saw the two of them, in the middle of dinner, holding hands; multiple things happened simultaneously.
Severus Snape who would have rather died than be friends with James Potter, held his glass so hard that it shattered into pieces. Few pieces pierced his skin which caused blood to ooze out but Snape paid no attention to this as his sworn enemy was romantically involved with his best friend from childhood.
Professor McGonagall who was the Transfiguration Professor and head of Gryffindor house, which the Marauders and Lily were part of, had a knowing smile on her face. She turned to Dumbledore, who was sitting to her right, and whispered"You owe me 5 Galleons Albus. Didn't I tell you they would get together in their sixth year?' Even though the professors were sitting at the Head table at the front of the Great Hall, Remus's enhanced werewolf hearing allowed him to pick up on the conversation
Professor Dumbledore who also was the headmaster had a twinkle in his eyes and smiled benignly at the sight of them. He raised his hand and slowly applauded for them.
Peter Pettigrew who was the last member of their quartet spit his pumpkin juice all over the table at the sight of them. His mouth had shaped in the form of a donut and he was rubbing his eyes so fiercely so that he would wake up from the dream he thought he was in
Sirius looked at them as if it were an normal occurrence that a best friend and the person who hated said best friend had gotten together. He turned to Remus and asked, "So Moony, want to bet a galleon that Prongs and "Hell-flower" relationship doesn't even last for a week?" Remus gladly had took the bet since it was free and easy money.
"Padfoot, may I remind you the last time you made a bet with me? It ended with you jumping in the Great Lake during Winter. McGonagall was not in the slightest bit pleased that you had missed few days of lessons because of a cold which you got over a stupid bet. "Sirius looked at him and said, "So what Moony? It was only like 3 days of lessons and all the free time allowed me to self-reflect"-
"Ha-ha,You self-reflect. That must be a joke. In all the 6 years I have never seen you or known you to quietly sit down and reflect on anything let alone self-reflect" Remus said with a vindictive grin on his face.
"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted", Sirius glared at Remus, "Come on Moony, don't be a stick in the mud. Have some fun and laughter now and then". Sirius looked at Remus with his infamous grin and big, sad and pleading puppy dog eyes which always led to other people giving in to him. Remus readily agreed to the bet before Sirius could move on to Phase 2 of his charm which involved Sirius complimenting you in any and every single way possible about anything and everything all the time until you agreed to whatever he wanted.
As expected, a week later, Sirius had lost the bet.
"Hellooo. Moony you there? Stop being nostalgic and come back to the present" Sirius said to Remus as he shook Remus as if there was an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0. Remus came back to his sense abruptly and as if Sirius had not been waiting for him, Remus walked out of his dormitory. Sirius chased after him and they both walked down to the entrance of Hogwarts silently both deep in memories and thoughts of the future.
"Moony, Padfoot. Where have you guys been all this time…? Remus, I sent you up an hour ago to get Sirius and you both come down now with 15 minutes to spare before the train leaves", James Potter worriedly said he looked at his two best friends. " Calm down Prongs, you know the train would never leave without Hogwarts most popular and star student; me.", Sirius exclaimed in an effort to have a light-hearted atmosphere. James stared at Sirius, "Are you really calling yourself the star student of Hogwarts in all of history Padfoot? You do know that Dumbledore, our Headmaster and the defeater of the Dark Lord and the most powerful wizard people know after Merlin, attended Hogwarts right? Remus just changed the topic not wanting to have Sirius to get all riled up on such a nonsensical thing and wasting all of their time.
"Anyway Prongs, where is Wormtaill? Is he on the train getting a compartment for all of us?". Peter was called Wormtail because of his animagus form. Peters form was a small grey mouse which had a small pink tail which kind of looked like a worm.
As the 5-minute train alert rang, Sirius, Remus and James all walked in a straight file onto the train and caught up with Peter who was waiting in a compartment for them.
The train slowly but surely began to move and smoke steam coming out of its chimney, all four of them in surprising quietness looked fondly back at Hogwarts thinking of the times they had experienced, both the best of times and the worst of times. They each thought back to their most defining moment of their Hogwarts lives. For James, it was getting Lily to say yes and go out with him. For Remus, it was finding out that his friends had accepted him for who he was despite him being a monster and them becoming animagi to help Remus with his transformations. For Sirius, it was getting sorted in Gryffindor and finding friends that would stick by him regardless of his background. For Peter, it was being an actual part of "the quartet" and successfully transforming into an animagus for the very first time.
They all thought back to their final morning of Hogwarts. They had spent seven years of their lives at the school, and they knew they would remember their final morning of it.
As the train rode on into the sunset and Hogwarts fading in the background, a chapter of their lives had ended and it was now time for a new beginning with the uncertainty about the future lying ahead of them.