Someone shook Rebecca awake and she cracked open her eyes at Lily holding something in her hands.
"Lily, it is a Saturday, if this is not a matter of life and death, I will kill you." Rebecca grumbled as she pulled herself up and Lily held a letter out in front of her.
"It's our NEWT scores." Lily said and Rebecca groaned and flopped back on to her pillow face first.
"Becky don't you want to know your scores?" Lily asked and Rebecca mumbled something incomprehensible in to the pillow.
"What?" Lily asked confused and Rebecca lifted her head.
"Yes but it is not exactly something I want to wake up to, it might ruin my whole day." She said and put her face back in to the pillow.
"It could make your day, come on think positive, I am sure you did great." Lily said and Rebecca sighed and sat up.
"Why don't you read it that way I can go back to sleep without worry?" Rebecca said and pushed the letter towards Lily.
"Will you read mine? I am too nervous to look at them." Lily said holding out her letter to Rebecca.
"Sure." She said and opened the letter and looked at the scores. Lily looked at Rebecca's with a grin and squealed.
"Becky you got five O's and an E in History of Magic." Lily said and looked at Rebecca excitedly and Rebecca looked at Lily's with a frown.
"What's wrong?" Lily asked concerned and Rebecca looked back at the scores.
"Lily I am not going to lie, it looks grim." She said and rubbed the back of her neck and bit her lip. "You failed everything." She said and looked back at Lily who stared in horror.
"What?" She asked and grabbed the letter from her and Rebecca started to laugh and Lily glared at her.
"Becky that's not funny." She muttered and gave a sigh at the scores.
"Like you would get anything other than straight O's." Rebecca said and rolled back on her pillow and pulled the covers over her.
"Now please let me sleep." Rebecca said and pulled the covers over her head and suddenly the door flew open and Jenny and Tessa came in squealing and Rebecca groaned as they started to talk animatedly about their scores.
"Yeah I thought I was going to get more sleep. Silly me." She muttered and sat up and walked to the bathroom to get ready for breakfast.
Rebecca came downstairs and saw Remus sitting on the couch with a book in hand and she sat down next to him on the couch.
"Hey Becky, how did you do?"
"Alright, got an O in everything but History, thanks for helping me in Ruins, I don't think I would have gotten an O if you hadn't helped me all year."
"No problem."
"How did you do?" She asked as she saw his letter sticking out of the pages of his book.
"Same as you, all O's and an E in History."
"Lily got straight O's, but like that wasn't predictable. What did James get?"
"Straight O's, same as Padfoot. Wormtail barely scraped 4 O's and 2 E's."
"That's great, James only needs like 5 O's to be an Auror right?"
"Yeah, he is pretty excited about it."
"What is Sirius going to do?"
"I don't know, he never really had anything in mind, said he wanted to keep his options open."
"Right, what an achiever." She muttered with a roll of her eyes. "Come on lets go get some breakfast." She said and got up.
"I was going to wait for Wormtail and Pads."
"Alright well I'll see you downstairs." She said and he nodded and she walked towards the portrait and soon sensed someone by her.
"They don't need me to wait for them." He said with a small smile and they headed out together.
Soon graduation day was upon them, Rebecca stared around the dorm room as she watched the girls pack up their things, and Jenny and Tessa were party crying while Rebecca saw Lily holding back tears as she made her bed.
"Can you believe it, it's our last day here." Lily said sounding choked as she put a small stack of books in to her trunk. Rebecca leaned her head against the window as she looked out to the lake, Kimba sat in her lap purring loudly as she stroked him slowly.
"It seems like just yesterday we got here, how did time fly by so quickly?" Jenny choked out as she sat down on the bed and Tessa sat down next to her and put an arm around her.
"Thank goodness this mascara is waterproof." Jenny said with a small laugh.
"At least we will be seeing each other after school." Lily offered and Rebecca frowned.
"I think I would rather it be under better circumstances that we will be seeing each other." She said with a sigh and picked up Kimba as she stood up and set him aside.
"So you are for sure staying?" Jenny asked and Rebecca nodded and closed her trunk and sat down on it. "My parents weren't exactly pleased with such short notice but I think they will be happy to have an empty nest. Remus suggested I get a room at a place called the Leaky Cauldron until I move in to an apartment."
"You can come stay with me Becky, I am sure my parents wouldn't mind." Lily said as she closed her trunk and grabbed her robes and threw them on.
"Thanks but I am sort of looking forward to having my own place, getting a job and starting my training."
"I can't wait to start training, I am so excited we can do it together" Lily said with a smile.
"Yeah me too. We should probably be heading down to the Great Hall." Rebecca said and got up off her trunk.
"I just need to pack a few more things." Jenny said as she got up and continued with her packing.
"Me too."
"Alright well I am going to go down to the common room; I'll meet you guys down there." Rebecca said and headed to the door.
"Me too, see you guys down there." Lily said and followed her out and they went down to the common room where they saw the boys sitting around whispering to each other.
"Hello beautiful." James said with a grin as he walked over to Lily and she stopped in her step and Rebecca looked at her and saw Lily's eyes water up and James stared at her dead in step unsure of what to do. Lily started to cry and James' eyes got wide as he looked at Rebecca who motioned him to go to her and he rushed over to her and wrapped his arms around her and she cried in to his chest and Rebecca looked at Remus who gave her a wary look and she rolled her eyes.
"Don't worry I wont be turning on the water works any time soon." She said with a laugh and sat down next to him on the couch and sighed and looked at Remus who sat casually on the couch staring in to the fire with a look of deep thought on his face.
"Everything alright?" She asked as she nudged him with her foot and he shrugged, not even turning from the fire.
"Just thinking about…well you know? Everything. I mean we have been here for 7 years and I keep expecting to be back here next year but I know that's not true." He said and looked at her.
"Don't worry, everything will be fine, and I only say that because I want to be optimistic about the future even though in reality I am actually pessimistic."
"Gee thanks Becky." He said sarcastically and she laughed.
"No problem, any time." She said with a grin.
They all soon made their way down to the Great Hall, quietly chatting among each other. They got checked in with Filch at the door who gave the boys a glare as they got their names checked off and they took their seats at the table and the boys looked around and glanced at each other and Lily poked James in the arm and he looked at her with a distracted look on his face.
"You better not ruin the ceremony." She said and he continued to look around and she poked him again and he looked at her and she gave an annoyed look. "I mean it, if you ruin this ceremony I will never forgive you." She said and his face softened.
"I wouldn't even dream of doing such a thing. What would make you think such a thing?"
"Don't play dumb with me; I know you guys have been planning something. I would highly suggest that you do nothing and sit here and enjoy the ceremony like everyone else." She said and James sighed and kissed the top of her head.
"Of course." He said with a sweet smile.
Rebecca saw Sirius glance at James and give him a nod as James gave him a nod and he pulled his wand out under the table and suddenly the lights went out in the Great Hall and everyone started to scream and Rebecca felt Remus leave her side and she looked up as a few candles above them flickered back on in the shape of the word 'ARSE' and the hall erupted in to laughter before the lights came back on and McGonagall went around trying to shush people up as an uproar of laughter and conversation rose. Rebecca looked around the table and saw not only was Remus missing but so were the other three boys and Lily rolled her eyes at James' missing table and grumbled under her breath. Rebecca looked up at Dumbledore who had a smile on his face as McGonagall calmed everyone down.
"Yes very funny, now sit down and be quiet." She said and suddenly there was a small explosion and she got the hall's attention and eventually the whole hall got quiet again. Dumbledore stood up and looked at everyone in the hall with a broad smile on his face.
"Welcome my wonderful Seventh Years," said Dumbledore, standing and smiling at them all, "to your final step into the real world!"
There was some applause before Dumbledore held up his hands, signaling silence.
"I want to thank every single one of you, for sharing seven very important years of your lives with us. Thank you very much, we appreciate it. And now I would like to warn you, and please, do not take this as the caution of an old man, take these words to heart. I warn you that what you have been reading in the Daily Prophet, deaths at Voldemort's hand," (almost the entire Hall flinched as one, except, of course, the Slytherins) "are most certainly true, and once more, they are far worse than you have ever imagined. Up until now, you have been sheltered from this reality, and now you must deal with it. Please, I beg you all, to be careful, weary, and above all else, smart about your decisions as young adults. For that is what you are now, you are no longer children." He paused and looked around the hall at the new generation of adults he would be sending out into the world, "And now my graduates, tuck in."
Food appeared in front of them, and the Hall irrupted with voices as everyone started grabbing food.
"I can't believe they are missing their own graduation." Lily muttered bitterly as she got herself some food and paused and looked at James' plate and filled his plate, Rebecca filled Remus' and Peters and motioned to Jenny to fill Sirius' plate for him.
'They'll be back, that wasn't half as dramatic as they deserve.' Rebecca said with a chuckle.
BANG.
It was so loud the entire hall got quiet and everyone looked at each other before going back to their food and conversation.
"What was that?" Lily asked Rebecca who shrugged and continued with her food.
"Did you hear that?" Jenny asked as there were several small pops coming from outside the Great Hall, each getting louder Suddenly there was loud fast pops coming from the Slytherin table and everyone looked over as the Slytherins fell out of their seats and backed away from the seats as the whole hall laughed and suddenly the candles all went out and Rebecca felt someone sit next to her as fireworks started to go off and made figures in the ceiling and everyone stared up at them in awe until it was dark again and there was a spotlight on the door as it burst open and a terrified Mrs. Norris came running in covered it flashing colored paint and jumped on the Slytherin table and clutched to the robes and covered them in flashing paint. A banner fell from the ceiling that read "Enter the Drag Queen" and Filch came in as the cutlery started to sing. "I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and gay!" and the students started to laugh at the sight of Filch, whose hair was sticking up every which way and covered in multi colored flashing paint.
The cutlery continued to sing as Filch looked around angrily.
"Where are those good for nothing little devils?' He yelled and McGonagall walked up to try and calm him down.
"Now Argus we shouldn't jump to conclusions." She said slowly unsure of her words. "Who do you suspect did this?" She asked trying to keep a straight face at the bright colored angry man in front of her.
"I don't need to suspect, it was Black, Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew." He said as he pointed a finger at the boys who looked up innocently.
The ceremony had been put on halt as the teachers tried to figure out how to unstick the paint but it seemed to be sticking fast.
"You know very well who it was Minerva." He hissed as McGonagall turned her attention to the group sitting innocently trying not to laugh at Filch.
"We've been here the whole time Professor." James said innocently and she gave him a look as the other boys agreed.
"Is this true Miss Evans?" McGonagall asked and Lily smiled.
"Yes it is Professor, they came in and got their names checked off and have been here since then." She said and the others nodded and McGonagall looked at Filch as more anger spread across his face.
"Little lying brats." He yelled.
"Are you calling us all liars? Because I'm sure the rest of Gryffindor would vouch for them." Rebecca said as she looked down the table and most of the people nodded.
Filch yelled before rushing out of the Great Hall with Mrs. Norris following behind. McGonagall gave Lily a look before returning to the head table.
'Oh my god Lily, I never knew you had it in you." Jenny said with a grin.
"I did.' James said and kissed her cheek.
"You guys are legends you know that?" Tessa said with a wide grin.
'How was that for a last prank?" James asked proudly.
"Amazing and you got away with it." Rebecca said and he laughed.
"Thanks for everything." He said and she nodded as Lily looked at her in disbelief.
"YOU helped them?" She asked shocked and Rebecca nodded.
"I wanted to make sure it was memorable."
'Not like it wouldn't have been without those supplies." James said smugly.
"I'm sure it would have." She said with a roll of her eyes.
The ceremony continued along with a few speakers and the quidditch team went up to receive the Cup and the whole hall burst in to applause with the exception of the Slytherins who all glared. Then Lily as Head girl and top of the year went up to give the farewell speech. She looked ready to cry as she got up to the podium and gave Dumbledore a smile before turning to the students and she took a deep breath.
"Good Evening fellow students, Professors and guests. I was asked to write a speech as your Head Girl talking about how much we've grown and what wonderful people we are going to be in the real world. A speech of hope. I tried, and I got this far. Then I made the mistake of letting my close friends write a part each. Needless to say I had to throw it in the fire and start again. But you know what? You don't need to be told about your future. We already know that we're not children anymore, and we've been saying it ever since we were 10. If only they would listen to us! So, I won't talk your ear off, we've already had three speeches and you don't need another. All I have to say is, WE RULE!" She said and the students burst in to applause and she gave a bow and shook Dumbledore and McGonagall's hands before walking back to the table and giving James a kiss.
"Remember your years here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and now I bid you a fond farewell. Congratulations." He said and clapped his hands and a large banner from the roof fell and swung down with a little something odd about it as it read:
"Congratulations class of 1977-78."
That was normal but underneath was an addition which seemed to be in James' handwriting.
"Now Piss off!"
Everyone headed back to their room for last minute things and soon everyone was standing around the common room, Lily was hugging James as she dried her red eyes, Jenny and Tessa cried in to each others arms as Rebecca sat on the couch with Remus and Sirius while Peter sat on the floor leaning against one of the chairs and Rebecca turned and looked at Remus.
"Well I suppose we should be getting down to the station." Remus said as he stood up and looked at Rebecca.
"But I don't want to leave." Peter groaned as he leaned his head back on the chair.
"Yeah neither do any of us but I would rather not have McGonagall come up here and kick us out. Besides we want to get a good seat." He said and Rebecca held out her hand to Remus and he took it lightly and pulled her up.
"Thanks." She said and grabbed her back pack and slung it over her shoulder and soon everyone was heading down to the train station.
"How did you guys manage to pull off all that?" Rebecca asked as she sat down next to the window and the boys exchanged smiles.
"Well this morning Padfoot, Wormy and I snuck down to the Great Hall before the decorations had been put up and that's when we moved the candles and put the firecrackers that Becky gave us under the Slytherin seats." James said.
"Then during the decorations Prongs managed to write on the banners before they put them up." Sirius said.
"How did you not get pinged for that?" Jenny asked.
"Well we got all the prefects and heads in on it, well except for Avery and Crouch, and Lily because she came late." James said with a smile.
"How did you get them out of there?" Lily asked.
"We started to sing and they were so disgusted they left." James said with a laugh. "Then we came back and went down to the Great Hall and got our names checked off and put our plan in to action. We used the candles as a distraction and snuck out with the help of my invisibility cloak and snuck in to Filch's office with gun powder-." He said and Lily's eyebrows shot up.
"Gun powder?"
"Yes Lily, gun powder…well ok, it was dungbomb gun powder, we didn't want to actually kill the poor little man, we lined the inside of the fireplace with the paintballs that Becky gave us and mixed them with anti- makeup remover that Padfoot got from some girl." He said and Rebecca scoffed and rolled her eyes and Sirius rolled his eyes at her. "We got under the cloak as soon as Filch came in to the office and waited outside for him to come in and use the floo powder."
"How did you know he would?" Jenny asked.
"Ah, well you see, our dear caretaker is a Squib!" Sirius said with a bark-like laugh.
"And better yet, he's part of that KwikSpell scam. He receives a letter from them every day at 6pm." James said.
"How do you know that?" Lily asked curiously.
"Prongs was checking each day." Sirius said.
"Now, to get the letters he has to use Floo Powder to fire talk with the receptionist of the company. It's a safety measure to make sure the right person gets it, and it's not being sent out to muggles or something." James said and looked at Sirius. So we waited until he went to throw the powder in to the fireplace and BOOM! As soon as the powder exploded we threw in the smoke stuff that Becky made and those paint balls that we had also mixed with the anti make up remover. We then booked it back to the Great Hall. We used the clay that Andrew gave us and turned it in to a dog which chased Mrs. Norris in to the Great Hall, of course Filch came running after her. We lined the hall with dungbombs that went off as he approached and with a little wand work the rest is history." Remus finished with a very pleased grin.
"If I have EVER given you guys less credit than you deserve for your little pranks, I am so sorry" said Lily, "That was brilliant!" She said and James gave her a kiss on the cheek.
The rest of the train ride went by slowly, Rebecca stared out the window watching the scenery go by. Staying in Europe had never been her plan, she was supposed to go home, get a job, maybe meet a guy, get married, have some kids and live out the rest of her days. What if she didn't come out alive in this war? What would she have to show for anything? For goodness sake she was only 17 years old, she had hardly lived and here she was signing up her name to fight against Voldemort and his out to conquer the world plan. She felt something nudge her foot and she tore her eyes away from the window and Remus looked at her concerned.
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah, everything is fine, just got a lot on my mind." She said with a shrug and looked around the compartment and saw that it was only her, Remus and Peter who was currently sleeping.
"Where did everyone go?"
"Went to walk around. You've been really quiet, are you sure everything is alright?"
"Yeah everything is fine, just thinking about you know, stuff. I have to go home and get my stuff packed and bring it out here, start looking for an apartment, get a job, start training, I don't know it all seems a little overwhelming." She said and he leaned forward and hesitantly took her hands and looked up at her.
"It's going to be alright." He said and she smiled and let out a sigh.
"I wish I was as optimistic as you Remus." She said and touched his face lightly and he looked out the window and looked back at her.
"Why not be?"
"Remus, we're about to enter a war, how can you be optimistic at all?" She asked and he let go of her hands lightly and leaned back in his seat.
"Well I look at what I have, wonderful friends, and an amazing family. I try not to look at that other stuff."
"You cant just ignore everything else Remus, people are going to die, there are always casualties in war whether you like it or not and I wish it was as simple as just looking at the good stuff but all that can be taken away so quickly, you need to remember nothing is forever." She said and looked out the window and then looked back at him as he stared at the floor.
"Remus I don't say it to bring you down because I wouldn't want you anything less than optimistic but you also need to be realistic."
"You sound like you know from experience Becky." He said with a roll of his eyes.
"I don't know from experience but I know from history, although I am not incredibly good at it I know that there are always casualties, we lose things and we win things but that's all part of war. Besides, Dumbledore said that we could very well die, we all knew that when we signed our names up now it's something that we are going to have to deal with." She said and got up and grabbed her bag and pulled out her wallet. "I'm going to get something from the cart, would you like something?" She asked and he shook his head and picked up his book from the seat and opened it up as she walked out and walked down the train in search of the cart.
She walked down the hallway back to the compartment and nearly ran in to someone as they stepped out of one of the compartments, nearly dropping her stuff and she looked at Rabastan who gave her a glare.
"Out of my way mudblood." He spat and went to push her aside and she gave him a hard shove back in to the wall.
"Don't you push me out of the way and don't you dare call me a mudblood you asshole prick." She spat and the compartment opened and she saw several Slytherins with wands in their hands looking between her and Rabastan.
"Might want to watch it Walcott." He said as he straightened out his clothes.
"Oh yeah?" She asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and he held his wand loosely in his hand and she looked at it and back up to him. "I don't really feel like dealing with you right now so I will just let this go." She said and walked past him and he grabbed her arm and she turned back to him as he got in her face.
"Next time we meet you won't be so lucky." He said quietly and she pushed his hand off and glared at him and continued down the hall.
She came back to the compartment and saw that everyone had returned and she took her spot by the window and Andrew nudged her.
"I'm fine." She said and opened up the chocolate frog box and started to munch on it while thinking of Rabastan's words.
They soon got to the train station and everyone grabbed their things, Rebecca grabbed Kimba from up in the rack and he hissed at Remus as she walked out with him and Rebecca shot him a frown and he shrugged as she walked out and everyone met each other outside.
"Well I guess this is it huh? The last step." James said as he looked at everyone, his arm around Lily as he planted a kiss on top of her head.
"Yeah, it's the real world out there." Jenny said as they all looked at the barrier.
"Well I guess we will see you all later I suppose." Michael said as he looked at everyone and they all looked to Andrew and James held out his hand to him.
"See you around mate." He said and Andrew took his hand and shook it and shook everyone else's hand and Rebecca gave everyone a hug.
"If you need help moving just ask." Lily said as she gave her a hug and Rebecca nodded before stepping up to Remus.
"I'll see you in a few days yeah?" She asked and he nodded and she smiled and gave him a small hug.
"See you guys later." She said as she went to grab her trunk but Andrew beat her to it.
"Yes the perfect little gentleman huh?" Rebecca said with a roll of her eyes and he smiled.
"Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself Miss Princess." He said and stuck out his tongue at her and loaded the trunk on to the cart and they headed out of the platform and looked around the station as they saw the students leaving with their families and they headed out of the station and caught a cab.
Wow i can honestly say I feel like i have just left Hogwarts, i'm going to miss it but what a way to go out huh?
Thanks for reading i hope you enjoyed it, and those of you who reviewed thank you so much.
I am going out of town for a few days so i hope that this can hold you over until i get up the next chapter.
Review? I think so. have a good weekend everyone!