Disclaimer: All belongs to the great mind of J.K. Rowling, she just lets me take her characters out of the toy box and mess with their lives.

A/N: Still trying to earn your love again with chapters 24-30.

Chapter 26

June 1978

It had been the blink of an eye it felt like, and yet at the same time I couldn't really remember my life before I had come to this castle. This was home for so many of us, Sirius and Remus maybe more then anybody else, but now we were preparing to leave it. This was the sanctuary that had kept us safe from the war that waged around us, or at least as safe as it could. This was the place where we learned not only how to control what we were, but also where we discovered who we were. Now it was time to say good-bye, to go out and face the real world, and we just had to hope that we had learned all we needed to in these hallowed halls.

"Hogwarts, Hogwarts," Remus started as he sat between my legs on a hill that let us see out over the castle and the grounds. Most of the other seventh year students were busy with their parents after our ceremony. Lily and Peter's parents had left moments before, and they had come to join Sirius, Remus, and I. I was sitting between Sirius' legs with his arms wrapped so that he could hold both Remus and I, and my arms were wrapped around Remus. My chin rested on Remus' shoulder, and Sirius' rested on mine. Peter was leaning against the tree behind us, and Lily sat so her back pressed against my leg.

"Hoggy Warty Hogwarts," we all joined him.

Teach us something, please.

Whether we be old and bald

Or young with scabby knees,
Our heads could do with filling
With some interesting stuff,
For now they're bare and full of air,
Dead flies and bits of fluff,
So teach us things worth knowing,
Bring back what we've forgot,
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,
And learn until our brains all rot."

We laughed at the end, my forehead taking the place my chin had resided on Remus' shoulder, and Sirius' head pressed against my back. Lily shook her head, and I couldn't see what Peter was doing. Then as our laughter died, we sobered again, realizing that really it was over. Hogwarts had taught us all it could, our heads were as full as it could get them, even if that wasn't very full. It had done it's best, and we had done what we could to get what it had to offer us, and now it was over. I felt Sirius kiss the back of my head, knowing he knew I was thinking again.

"I just," Lily sighed, and we turned to look at her. "I can't believe it's over." We nodded our agreement before we turned to look back over the grounds. There was the spot behind the tree by the lake we had claimed as ours in our first year. Some of our best ideas had come from that spot, like the map. We could see the Shrieking Shack, and the forest where we had spent some of the best nights of our lives. The place just under the Gryffindor Tower where we used to have snowball fights during the coldest days of the winter. Places where we pulled our pranks and bullied Snivellus, places where I used to waist my life asking Lily out. Places where my pups and I would escape and be together just so we could get out of our room "Let's do something." Lily said breaking us out of our reveries again.

"Hogsmeade," Sirius offered.

"No not like that," Lily shook her head. "There was this thing my mum and I used to do when I was little, called a rose and a thorn. I had to tell her two things that I did that day that I really enjoyed, and then something that wasn't that great. So let's go around saying two of our best memories from the last seven years, and something we had to learn from." She explained, we looked at her like she was crazy, but agreed. "I'll go first, the first time I walked into the Great Hall and saw the enchanted ceiling and was sorted into Gryffindor, was one of my best memories." She looked at Remus.

"The night I told these two that I was gay and instead of not wanting anything to do with me, they gave me two of the best years of my life, so far." Remus answered and I kissed the back of his head.

"Christmas of last year, when we gave each other our chains." I said as I pulled at Remus'.

"Day after the full moon in October of Sixth year," Sirius said, and Remus and I knew what he was talking about. "It was the first time we said we loved each other," he explained for Lily and Peter.

"The first time I got bullied," Peter said for his turn. "Not really the bullying itself, but what these three did afterward. They found the third year that had been picking on me, and even though he was thirteen and they were only eleven, they dragged him into a bathroom. Sirius put a dungbomb in the toilet, and they gave the guy a swirly. It was the first time people saw that I had friends that had my back, and realized I wasn't a smart person to mess with." My pups and I laughed at the memory. Lily shook her head at our First Year antics.

"The day I got my O.W.L results, I had achieved an O in every class." Lily started the next round off proudly.

"The day that I found out they had become animagi for me," Remus answered. "That was the first time I started to have an idea of what Prongs meant when he kept saying he loved me."

"The first time we did a prank," I continued. "Sirius laughed for his first time, and Remus almost smiled. Yeah Peter was happy to, but Pete you had a good life." I explained, hoping he'd understand why I had enjoyed it more because of my pups reactions then his.

"No," Peter said. "I agreed with you, that was a good day. I was happy because it looked like we were going to be able to make these two happy. Course you went and made them a whole lot happier then I'll even try." We shared another laugh at this.

"When Moony forgave me for my mistakes in Fifth Year," Sirius answered, and Remus pulled out of my arms to kiss him. His head had been hanging, and Remus had to lift it before he could press their lips together. We both knew that even if we had forgiven Sirius for his actions that year, he hadn't.

"My worst memory is the day that Sev first called me a mudblood." Lily's voice had grown quiet at this round. Remus and I both reached out a hand to comfort her. Severus Snape had once been her best friend, and now he was as good as her enemy.

"My worst memory is something I choose not to speak of, because it is forgiven, and in the past, and the only one that still holds onto it needs to let it go." Remus continued the thorn round. Sirius pressed his forehead to my shoulder, and Remus' hand reached back to lock in our lover's hair. I turned as best I could to press a kiss to his temple. Lily had turned to look at Remus questioningly, but when she saw the scene she just smiled. She didn't know what had happened, and she never would, but she did understand that it was something that we had to deal with.

"January," was my only answer for this round, and I found that maybe Remus wasn't only talking about Sirius' actions in our Fifth year, because he looked at me with the same look of forgiveness he had given Sirius moments before. Sirius brushed his lips against the back of my head.

"Well my worst memory was when a certain annoying red-head couldn't keep he nose out from behind a tapestry, and her loud mouth went and announced my business to the rest of the world." Sirius said this as he glared playfully at Lily. She turned around and smiled apologetically.

"Um," Peter paused. "I don't know, I mean yeah Remus' worst memory, and James worst memories were some of the worst times the four of us ever went through, but they're taken and not really my memories. I don't think I have one, I've been kind of...I don't know, blessed. I have great friends, and no real worst memories because of that." Lily and Remus smiled at his answer.

"Lame," I mumbled.

"Ponce," Sirius added. We turned to see that Peter was raising his brow at Sirius' comment. I don't know when that boy will realize, he is not in the best position to be using that insult anymore.

"Fine, how about this, " Ah, fuck, Remus, Sirius, God, James, Moony, Padfoot," Peter finally answered in his best attempt of a sex pleased voice. Lily and Remus blushed, and my eyes grew wide.

"Made such an impression on you that you remember exactly what we said that day," Sirius growled triumphantly.

"More like got burned into my ears so that every time I see your closed curtains I hear those words echoing in my mind." Peter argued. "Yeah, that would be my worst memory ever." We shared another laugh at this, or maybe it was his sharp nod.

"Who was your favorite person you met in the last five years?" Lily asked when we sobered. "Mine was Slughorn." I rolled my eyes at this, of course her favorite had been the potions master.

"Dumbledore," Remus answered, "wouldn't have been allowed to come here if it wasn't for him." I pulled him tightly to me, trying to convey how glad I was that he was allowed to come to our school.

"The Prewitt Brothers," I answered with a bit of god-like worship in my tone. Those two men had taught us so much.

"McGoogles," Sirius said happily. "Best damn witch that ever walked these halls, if I do say so myself." He said a bit biased. If I worshiped the Prewitt Brothers, then Sirius worshiped our transfiguration professor. She was one of the few women that were able to stand up to Sirius and stand their ground when they did so. Sirius had a charm that everyone was drawn to, and the few that were able to resist him he chased more. He wouldn't have said he chased the professor, but he loved trying to press her buttons.

"Snivellus," Peter answered. We all turned to him in confusion or shock, or a nice mixture of the two. "Not because I like him as a person," Peter explained with an evil grin. "He provided us with a nice amount of entertainment." My pups and I laughed at this, Lily glared at us.

"I would ask who your least favorite person to meet over the last few years was," Lily started, "but I have a feeling that I'm going to get..."

"Snivellus," All four of us boys shouted in her ear. She moved forward a little and covered her ears.

"That," she said as she started to lower her hands. "Mine was Lucius Malfoy, I think he is responsible for the way that Severus turned out to be." After thinking about it for a minute, we nodded that this could be true.

"Lily," Sirius said after we had lapsed back into silence for a moment. "Peter," Remus was sitting in my arms so that we could share a look that only the three of us could read the true meaning of. "Do you two want to go see what the House-elves made for dinner?" He suggested before brushing his lips against my neck.

"Do you want us to go see what the house-elves made for dinner?" Lily asked, but she didn't need an answer when she saw Sirius sucking on the pulse point of my neck, and Remus and I had caught each other into a kiss. I don't know if she and Peter left seconds afterward or not, I do know they left, and on that hill was just my pups and I.

We had had a lot of good memories, lots of laughs and adventures. We had had a few bad memories, things that we would want to correct, but could only be forgiven for. We had learned things, some of those things were taught to us from books and lectures. Most of those things were taught to us by taking chances, or making mistakes.

"I wish I would have told you two sooner," Remus said as he broke away from me. Sirius moved so that he no longer sat behind me, and pulled Remus into a kiss that told him to forget the past and what could have been, and just focus on the here and now. As Sirius kissed him, he lead Remus to the ground, and I came behind them to help Sirius get the clothes off of our lover. Sirius made room so that while he kissed Remus, I could press kisses down his body.

When Remus was bare before us, they turned and as a united front pushed me into the grass. Remus took the spot of kissing me, while Sirius removed my clothes. Then Remus and I moved together and did the same for Sirius, me kissing Sirius, as Remus removed his clothes. When we were all bare on that hill looking out over the grounds we moved again so that Remus could move into me and Sirius could move into him.

"I didn't tell them my real rose," I said as Remus and Sirius started to move out of me. They looked at me quizzically. "I mean yes the two I said were great memories, but my favorite memory was when my soul got joined to yours. I love you two, and I want to spend forever with you."

"That was mine too," Remus replied. "James Harold Potter, I love you." He said as he brushed his hand against my jaw. "Sirius Orion Black," he said as he turned to lock eyes with Sirius. "I love you."

"Remus John Lupin," Sirius sighed, "I love you." He pressed a chaste kiss to Remus' lips before turning to me. "James Harold Potter, I love you." His hand gripped for mine, and I gave it to him.

"Sirius Orion Black," I said as I squeezed his hand, "I love you." I looked for Remus' hand, and once it was in mine said, "Remus John Lupin, I love you." Remus' other hand gripped my waist, and Sirius' free arm wrapped around Remus. Our bodies were in a line, but our arms formed a circle around us. It was another of those moments where schools, doors, laws, nothing existed but us. Only the movements of our bodies against each other. Only the sounds that only we could elicit from the others.

I don't know who did it first, but eventually we weren't looking at each other as we moved, but the castle we had called home for seven years. They say home is where the heart is, and if my heart belongs to Sirius and Remus then wherever they are is home. We had made seven years of memories together, but I prayed we had many more to come. I couldn't wait to get back to our flat and start building a life together. So Remus wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life yet, but it actually had me excited to be the one taking care of them. There were things we'd still have to put up with, namely Bradshaw and the ministry, but a year would go by quickly and we were free to do whatever we wanted.

"Stop," I heard Sirius call, and he pulled me away from my thoughts. "Why must you always do that?" I laughed as I found they were looking at me again. "Do I have to pound harder in order to get you to just focus on me?" My eyebrow twitched at the threat, and they did just that. With the faster movement it wasn't long before the three of us were coming and calling for each other. As soon as our bodies went limp, they crashed to me, and I caught them into a kiss. Then they rolled, and Remus tugged on us.

"Werewolf," I warned. "I'm done." He laughed and pulled us to him again. We moved so that I was laying on him, and Sirius was on my back. I sighed, loving the feel of being enveloped between them. Their warmth being the only thing I felt, even though it was long past night fall, and the trees were swaying.

"Spend forever with me James," Remus asked, and I nodded under his chin. "Spend forever with me Sirius," he asked again and I felt Sirius' nod against my back.

There was nothing I wanted more then to keep that promise to Remus. I had made mistakes over the past year, but I would do anything to not let making that promise fall into one of that category. I was so in love with them that the idea of not spending forever with them broke my heart. Sometimes when I looked at Lily that is what I saw, not being allowed to spend forever in the arms of the only two people I could ever love that much. I may have loved Lily, but she was not the one I needed for my whole life. She was the one I used to hide my secrets from the rest of the world. Remus and Sirius were the ones that my life revolved around, everything I did, I did for them.

A/N: So, cool little tidbit about the United States of America's First Family, the Rose and Thorn thing is actually something that Barack and Michelle Obama have their daughters do every night. They told Barbara Walters about it, so every time she interviews them, she has them do it to. I love it, and am trying to start a tradition that on birthdays and stuff my family does it. They're lame, but I can control my characters enough to make them do it. What did you think?