Chapter 42 - The Last Day of Term
Peter was quite sure he had failed all his NEWTs, especially his charms exam, which he still felt mortified whenever he thought about.
He couldn't believe what a fool he'd made of himself. Surely the whole female population was laughing about him behind his back, and none of them would want to date him now.
"Peter?"
He looked up from his pie and mash to see a girl. She was a Hufflepuff and he thought he might have recognised her from one he had sung to while swinging on the banisters yesterday. Oh how embarrassing!
"Yes?" He said reluctantly.
The girl flushed. "I, er, just wanted to give you this." And she dropped a note onto the table which Sirius, who had been watching the exchange like an eager wolf, instantly snatched from him.
"Dear Peter," he read as he unravelled the note and held it out of Peter's reach. "I just wanted to say that I would very much like to 'meet-ye'" bloody hell I don't know who I'm more embarrassed for. 'Would you like to go to Hogsmeade together next weekend?' Oh, is it a Hogsmeade weekend?"
Of course the four of them snuck into the village through the secret passageways so frequently it really made no difference to them whether they had permission to go or not.
"Well, she's not my type, but she is a girl." Sirius said dispassionately, dropping the note onto the table and looking over at where the blonde girl was sitting with her friends, glancing quickly over at them every so often, as if to see what effect her note had had on the boys. "And you've got to learn somehow I suppose, haven't you?"
Peter blushed. He wasn't at all sure he wanted to discuss that with Sirius, who clearly had no problems in the girl department. Or with James, who was getting married in two months. When did they all get so grown up? He hadn't even… well, now wasn't the right time for that conversation.
Professor McGonagall approached their table and Sirius, on seeing her coming, ducked quickly beneath it.
"I know you're down there." The deputy head said, knocking on the table and causing Sirius to poke his head back out sheepishly. "I was going to ask which one of you transfigured Mr Filch's face onto the suit of armour in the entrance hall, but now I suppose I needn't."
"Thanks Professor. Always the best way." Sirius said, sitting himself back up on the bench.
She fixed him with a cold look. "I suppose you think as there's only a week left of term you're somehow immune from punishment?"
"Well, I must admit I hoped." He said, smiling at her in what he clearly thought was a winning kind of way. "I thought you might appreciate the spellwork. It was tricky getting the right expression, but I remembered what you said about visualising the image in your mind and I think I got it about right."
Peter laughed. It certainly wasn't a flattering picture of the caretaker.
McGonagall frowned at him. "I'm glad you think it was funny, Mr Pettigrew. Mr Filch was very upset. He had to walk past it to get to the broom cupboard. It is not funny." She snapped as James snorted and Sirius looked down at the table, his lips twitching.
"I want you to put it back to how it was and apologise to Mr Filch." She told Sirius.
Peter was surprised. As transfiguration teacher, couldn't she have done that herself?
"I'm afraid I can't, Professor." He said, looking genuinely a bit guilty now.
"What do you mean you can't?!"
"Er… I'm afraid I made it irreversible."
In the end, the suit of armour with Filch's face on was moved to the seventh floor corridor, where the first years had invented a game whereby they would ask it increasingly rude questions, someone else hiding behind the statue, 'answering' them in Filch's wheezy voice.
Unfortunately for McGonagall, Sirius was not finished creating trouble at Hogwarts quite yet. While the rest of their year spent their time planning what they would be doing after Hogwarts or trying to fit in one last romance before term was out, he and James were frequently to be found with their heads together in the common room, plotting.
Lily peered over James' shoulder at the parchment he and Sirius were scribbling on. She snorted. "That's pathetic, Potter. If you want to get everyone in the castle out to the lake you'll have to do better than a caterwauling charm."
She joined them to offer some thoughts and before long, most of Gryffindor and some of the seventh years from the other houses were involved in planning the end of year joke too.
"Oh I'm so glad we get to do this together!" Mary said as the students gathered together in the classroom James used for his Defence Association (or Mouldy Voldy) meetings. "Muggles have something called a 'muck up day' back home, where the sixth formers mess up the school on their last day. My friends are putting chickens in the library and painting the gate pink for theirs."
"No offence MacDonald, but that's not going on the list." Sirius said, gesturing the chalkboard on which they were brainstorming suggestions for chaos.
"What about drawing moustaches on all the portraits?" Alice Bennett of Hufflepuff suggested.
"Too tame."
"Turning the stairs to the entrance hall into a slide?"
"Could be fun." James conceded. "What would be better is if we could teach it to recognise when the Slytherins are coming. Like the staircase to the girls' dormitories only recognises boys. Which is incredibly sexist, incidentally."
"Let's not target the Slytherins." Lily said. "This should be fun for everyone."
"But where's the fun in that?!" Sirius said.
"Well maybe we need to be more creative." Lily said, frowning at the chalkboard. And then she smiled. "I think I have an idea…"
Though Peter was required to help with some of the 'muck up day' prank planning, he did still find time to meet up with Martha Midgen in Hogsmeade. He didn't think too much of her acne and it was inconvenient that she had the same name as his pet rat, but she'd been pleasant enough, all things considered. They agreed to meet at his place over the summer, to which he would be returning before undertaking some training led by Moody.
He wasn't sure what he felt about life after Hogwarts. He wasn't sure what he felt about his life at Hogwarts come to that. He'd been so determined to make a success of himself and be someone important, but all he'd succeeded in doing was being 'James and Sirius' friend'.
No one ever noticed Peter when they were around. They were like colourful fireworks, full of ideas and enthusiasm, and people were just captivated by their excitable energy. Remus had done well too. He was a prefect and Peter was sure he would get 'outstandings' in his NEWTs. But then there was Peter. Their fat little lump of a friend, forever trailing after them and always in trouble with McGonagall for late homework.
It was so unfair. Hogwarts had been his chance to be someone important, and now he was stuck with his brilliant friends after Hogwarts too.
"I think you'd be brilliant as an auror." Martha told him as they pinched some tarts from the kitchens to take out to the lake. "You're in Gryffindor so you must be brave."
Yes he was, wasn't he? "What else?" He asked Martha.
"Er…" Matha faltered. "You're loyal." She said quickly. "You've been friends with the same people for seven years, and you're staying in touch with them after Hogwarts too. That's wonderful."
Peter scowled. Why did everything always come back to bloody James and Sirius?
The most irritating thing about them was how much they knew they were brilliant too. They'd commandeered their DADA teacher, Professor Vance, into going for a drink with them in Hogsmeade and seemed to think it was entirely thanks to the two of them that she was signing up for the Order now too.
"She'd have done it anyway." Peter said a little irritably as they spoke of their drink with 'Emmeline' that night in the common room.
Though the papers weren't calling the current situation a 'war' yet, they might as well be. It was surely getting harder and harder for people with any knowledge of defence to justify not taking action.
"Except bloody Yaxley who signed up for the other side." Sirius said darkly.
"And Snivellus." James added. "Whatever else you say about him, he knows some good spells."
Sirius took up James' offer to add a few additional comments about the Slytherin boy.
"Why do you have to be so angry all the time?" Lily asked him, rolling her eyes at Sirius' creative and rather rude insults.
"Believe me Evans, if you saw things the way I do you'd be pretty pissed off too."
Lily frowned at him. "Don't worry." James interjected before either of them could speak. "He doesn't mean anything." He gave Sirius a 'don't talk about stuff like that in front of my girlfriend' kind of look and struck up a conversation about flutterby bushes instead.
The end of year prank was organised for the last day of term.
The majority of the Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students had a role to play, as well as Faith Rowle of Slytherin, who seemed to be holding out some hope that Sirius might suddenly decide he was indeed in love with her if she played her part in the prank well enough.
"Not bad." He told her, helping her reposition the banner in the entrance hall as he passed it on his mayhem organisation patrol (to which he had taken with about as much discipline and leadership as an army general).
"We're all going to be expelled!" Alice Bennett said, bringing her hands to her face as she saw the banner.
"Want me to take your name off the signatures?" Sirius asked her, grinning.
"No, it's too late now." Alice said, shaking her head. "I just didn't realise it would be quite so… personal."
Sirius grinned at the banner. It was a picture of Dumbledore, stirring a cauldron, from which little messages written by each of them issued like steam.
Thanks for the laughs, Dumbey!
Azkaban is better than this prison!
Won't be seeing ya!
"It's brilliant." Sirius said, smiling proudly at the thing.
Peter wasn't sure which message Sirius had added to the banner, but presumably not the last one as they'd be seeing Dumbledore frequently for Order (or 'auror') training. He wasn't sure how he'd know what Azkaban was like and whether or not it was worse than Hogwarts though (obviously).
…
It was six in the morning. They'd been up since five covering the castle with banners, transfiguring suits of armour and portraits and setting off trip jinxes at various points (mainly near the toilets for maximum disruption).
They had indeed transfigured the staircase to the entrance hall into a slide which was a lot of fun, but unfortunately meant they couldn't get back up again very easily afterwards.
"We should install a rope lift like you have when you go skiing." Jame suggested, which Peter couldn't understand as his mother had never been able to afford to take them skiing.
"It's a bugger." Sirius admitted, hands on his hips as he frowned at the marble slide. "Oh well. Once everyone's down they're down. It makes it more fun this way I suppose. More contained."
"But what about the corridor I painted purple?"
"It'll still be there tomorrow. Now let's focus our efforts on the great hall!" Sirius grinned, leading the charge next door.
As the first students arrived for breakfast that morning, they were met (firstly) by the slide down to the entrance hall, the enormous banner of Dumbledore, another featuring the words 'class of '78' as well as a number of more creative additions (including one that made Peter blush a little to look at).
But it was the great hall where most of the chaos reigned. Peter looked around now, from where Sirius was fixing the magical megaphone on the staff dais to where Michael and Alice were putting the finishing touches on the house tables.
Peter picked up one of the pieces of paper Bessie had been scattering across the Slytherin table. It was a rather unflattering photo of Slughorn with the words: 'missing: last seen with bottle of mead and crystallised pineapple. Reward for return: ask the Slytherins'.
There were similar photos of their teachers with captions scattered up and down the house tables (including, Peter had to admire Sirius' nerve) the staff's.
He picked up one of McGonagall. 'Scottish wildcat seeks romance. Looking for a good time, not a long time ("I'm one hundred and eighty!")' Sweet Merlin. She was going to murder him!
"Like it?" Sirius grinned. "Sprout's is better." He picked up one of their herbology teacher. 'Head of the 'puffs seeks fellow plant enthusiast. For smoking or other dirty things.'
"Sirius." Peter said, staring horrified at the paper. "You can't say that!"
"Oh it's fine." Sirius said with a grin. "If she doesn't want to admit she's a pothead she can at least admit she wants a good… sprouting." He finished quickly as James ran over.
"Mate, we've got a problem." James said, panting a little as he reached them. "Peeves says he won't do it. He thinks we're trying to take over."
"Oh sodding hell." Sirius said. "Didn't I tell you to mind his ego? I know he's dead, but it's still about the size of the castle. He has to be in charge. Can't you tell him he can paint Dumbledore's study pink if that's what it really takes?"
"I thought you said Dumbledore's study was off limits?"
"Well, I hoped to avoid it." Sirius said. "But if it means he's back on our side again, we'd better let him. Shall I come and talk to him with you?"
"Better not mate. No offence, but you're a terrible negotiator. I'll ask Lily to do it."
Lily was, it transpired, a very good negotiator. She'd somehow managed to charm Slughorn into letting them borrow his gramophone for the day which currently stood on the staff dais, being attended to by Mary who was trying to get it to play anything other than old jazz records.
She'd also managed to persuade the house elves to send sweets, chocolate and butterbeer up to the breakfast tables too. Peter wasn't sure who had been more eager to oblige her…
There were more delighted cries as students continued to join them. The first staff member to the table (an old wizard called Professor Ali who taught ancient runes) had taken one glance at the chaos, shrugged, then moved one of Sirius' fliers from in front of him and began to eat his breakfast, daily prophet propped up in front of him as though there was nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever.
Professor McGonagall was significantly less amused. Correctly identifying Sirius as a chief troublemaker, she attempted to pin him down near the Gryffindor table but he had brightly told her he 'needed to go and set off the fireworks' and 'could it wait?'
Dumbledore, it turned out, was quite delighted with their endeavours. He beamed at the photo of himself (this time with the words 'magical mystery man') and then at the hall at large. He moved to the megaphone they had installed at the front of the hall, tapped it once and said "may I?"
They all turned to him. "You don't mind if I…" he waved his wand at the gramophone which quietened enough for them to be able to hear him.
Sirius was watching him a little nervously. He paused with his wand tip to the first Dr Filibuster firework, clearly waiting to see what the headmaster's reaction would be before causing yet more chaos.
Dumbledore beamed at them. "What an unusual state to find our great hall in!" He said. "And quite a lot of effort it must have taken to achieve too. Who do we have to thank for it?"
Sirius and James instantly raised their hands, as did the majority of the others. Peter thought he'd wait for Dumbledore's next words before admitting to any role he himself played.
"Excellent." Dumbledore said. "I think I'll award…" he did a quick calculation of hands, "forty points to Gryffindor, forty to Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw and… five to Slytherin."
Sirius doubled over and clutched his sides at this brilliant turn of events. Peter looked over at the Slytherin table. The seventh years were looking over at them with stony faces.
"A bit of inter-house unity and good humour is no bad thing! Provided it stays clean." Dumbledore said. "And not too disruptive, if you please."
He waved his wand and the music started up again. "Oh I do like this one!" He said, smiling as he walked back to the staff table.
And Sirius set off his fireworks.
Fortunately Lily did manage to placate Peeves as they needed him to cause enough chaos in the final period of lessons to bring everyone in the castle out to the grounds, to where his classmates had organised what could only be described as a sort of beach party.
There was a bar, pink inflatable flamingos and lilos floating in the lake, as well as a large sign which read 'please don't feed the giant squid', which had been Michael Abbott's idea.
"Drink, Minerva?" Sirius asked their head of house as she stormed over to him, her transfiguration class hurrying along in her furious wake.
She looked like she might have been angry enough to hit him. "No thank you, Black." She said coldly, glaring from him to the herbology class, who had just arrived and were (along with Sprout) throwing off their shoes to paddle in the lake.
"But it's such a lovely day!" Sirius said, gesturing at the blue sky and grinning at her. "Surely you don't want to be stuck inside transfiguring snails on a glorious afternoon like this?"
Her third years tittered behind her.
McGonagall turned a furious gaze on them before turning back to Sirius. "You are to tell Peeves to stop his racket so we can continue with our lessons or I'll…"
Peter thought he saw Sirius' lip twitch as she fought for what to say next.
"Ah, hello Professor McGonagall!" Dumbledore said, joining them all outside. "Well, I had hoped to write a letter to the minister, but as Peeves has made it quite impossible, I suppose I will join you all. Have you had a drink, Minerva?"
And so the entire school spent the final hour of lessons outside by the lake. James fired up Slughorn's gramophone and led the dancing with Lily while Sirius and Peter jumped in the water.
The giant squid was indeed fed as it made an appearance to see what all the chaos (and intruders into its home) was all about. One of the little first years even tried to ride it, but it quickly vanished under the surface and did not reappear.
In the great hall, the celebrations continued. This time with a 'ceremony' organised by James and Sirius, in which they read out a 'most likely to' for every student in their year.
Lily had managed to hastily amend Snape's from 'end up in a deep fat fryer' to 'be head of Slytherin house'. Faith Rowle had to help with the other Slytherins, for which none of the Gryffindors could think of anything polite enough to say that could be shared in front of Dumbledore.
"You're fucking joking!" Sirius had (impolitely) said, laughing as he accepted the 'most likely to end up in Azkaban' award. "Well, fair enough. But it had better be for something really worth it."
Peter had received the award for 'eat the most cream cakes in one sitting' which he found rude and insulting. Remus was awarded 'most likely to teach at Hogwarts,' which Peter felt was the most accurate of them all.
"Though hopefully not at the same time as Snivellus if he's on the staff too." James had said, as they left the dais and returned to their table to eat. "Imagine having to work with the greasy git. You won't even be able to hex him in the corridor."
"We don't all have an urge to hex Snape in the corridor." Remus told him, frowning. "Some of us can coexist perfectly peacefully."
"There's no such thing as peaceful coexistence." Sirius said, rolling his eyes. "That's why you've got to fight all the time."
"Bollocks." James said. "My family exists in peace. I don't see why others can't."
Peter expected Sirius to argue with him. To say that it was impossible for everyone to live like the Potters (who Peter had met too and agreed were the perfect example of peaceful existence), but he didn't.
"Maybe someday, eh?" He said with a smile.
The evening meal was rounded off with another round of fireworks and a spectacular food fight before the students departed for their respective common rooms to continue the party (to varying degrees of disorder) into the night.
"Have you boys been drinking?" McGonagall demanded, turning up in the common room at midnight and (quite rightly) assuming they wouldn't be in bed yet.
Peter saw Sirius glance at the bottle of firewhisky on the nearby table. He'd said it 'didn't matter since they'd basically already graduated' but still looked somewhat nervous as McGonagall's eyes followed his to the bottle.
She picked it up and raised her eyebrows at him.
"Cheers." He grinned, recovering quickly. "Care to join us?"
"I want everyone in bed right now." McGonagall said to the room at large. "I know it's the end of term but rules are still rules."
Oh wasn't that good advice to live by? Hang on, what was it she'd just said?
The carpet suddenly swam alarmingly beneath Peter.
"Mr Pettigrew, are you alright?" Came McGonagall's face (or both her faces, rather.)
"Er, yeah." Peter slurred. And then he was sick all over her shoes.
…
"Feeling better, Pettigrew?" James asked him the next morning as he awoke with a banging headache and feeling like someone had turned the brightness up in the room to a blinding degree.
He groaned and rolled over. What had happened last night? Oh yeah, the party. And… oh no. He sat up in bed, his heart pounding. He'd kissed Mary MacDonald.
"Well done mate!" Sirius said, throwing a pillow at him. "Nice to see you finally getting some action with Mary! Though I thought you and that Hufflepuff girl were a thing?"
They were. Oh sod it. What had he gone and done?
"Don't worry, she won't find out." Sirius grinned as if he'd guessed what Peter was thinking. "Er, I mean, that was a bit of a dick move mate." He amended as James shot him a disapproving look.
Sirius was one to talk. He usually had about three girlfriends on the go at once. What right did he have to tell Peter how to behave with girls?
He ruminated bitterly as he hauled himself painfully out of bed and into the shower. Why was it that if Sirius did something it was OK, but if anyone else did, it wasn't? He was so arrogant it was unbelievable and now Peter would have to put up with his stupid comments for the next year in training too. Fortunately they'd been told most of the training would be 'on the job', and he supposed they'd be working with the experienced Order members at first. He hoped he wouldn't be stuck with Sirius too much. All he ever did was make Peter feel rubbish.
"Oh leave me alone." He groaned as he emerged back in the dormitory and Sirius (in time honoured tradition) tried to whip him with a towel.
"Alright Wormtail, we understand." Sirius said, throwing the towel over his shoulder and making his way to the bathroom himself. "I'm sure you'll feel better after a good breakfast."
Peter had to grudgingly admit his friend was right. He did feel better after breakfast.
The Hogwarts express to take them back to London was due to leave at eleven, and while Peter would have quite liked to have sat in a quiet room with his head down for the rest of the morning, his friends had other plans.
"Will you sign my yearbook, Professor?" Sirius asked McGonagall, holding out the book to her and grinning. "I've left you some space right there. I hope it's big enough for all the wonderful things you've got to say about me."
McGonagall frowned down her glasses at him. "I hear from Dumbledore that you, Potter, Pettigrew and Lupin are to be joining the Order of the Phoenix." She said, ignoring Sirius' proffered quill.
"Yeah, we can't wait!" James said enthusiastically.
She looked at James and her face broke into a smile. "Well done." She said. "I'm glad to see you finally putting your considerable talents to some good use."
Peter wondered if either of his friends would think to apologise to her for all the trouble they'd caused during their seven years at Hogwarts. They were surely responsible for half of McGonagall's grey hairs and without them he expected that her life would have been a considerably easier one.
"I must say I've always admired your spirit." She said, smiling at them again. "It frustrated me to see you not channeling it into your studies, but I suppose I can appreciate that transfiguring snails isn't everyone's cup of tea."
"Thanks Professor." Sirius grinned at her. "Mind if I quote you on that?" And he held out his yearbook again.
His friends found it much easier to get compliments from the other members of staff than they had with McGonagall. Professor Sprout actually hugged them as they approached her for a final farewell, and there were tears in Professor Flitwick's eyes as he shook their hands and wished them every success with their futures.
Peter supposed that just as they had grown familiar with the teachers, the teachers had grown familiar with (and in many cases, fond of) them. Seven years was a long time to spend watching someone grow up after all.
The emotions of the staff however were nothing compared to those of the girls. Sylvie, Mary, Bessie and Lily were all sitting in a huddle at the Gryffindor table, weeping and hugging each other. "Oh!" Sylvie wailed. "I remember when I was first sorted here! And Mary, you were so kind, asking me if I'd tried the treacle tart to try and distract me from my homesickness."
"I remember our first day of lessons!" Mary wept. "McGonagall had us turning matchsticks into needles!"
"And Black and Potter hexed Snape in defence against the dark arts!" Bessie added. "I thought they'd be expelled on their very first day! But they made it through in the end. We all did. Oh I'm going to miss you so much!" She broke into sobs too.
The boys of course did not need to exchange any tearful goodbyes as they would be meeting Dumbledore the very next week for their official induction into the Order. They did however exchange a few farewells with some of the other students in their year.
"So long, Mulciber!" Sirius said, punching the Slytherin boy on the shoulder in what might (or might not) have been a playful way. "I'm going to miss seeing your ugly face around."
Mulciber scowled (as if to prove Sirius' point) and stalked off.
"We probably will see him around." James said after his retreating back. "Since it's his lot who we'll be fighting when we join the Order."
"Oh well, let's call it a truce for today." Sirius said in a shocking (and uncharacteristic) show of diplomacy.
"Bye, Severus." Remus waved at Snape as the Slytherin boy made to leave the great hall.
Snape turned to look at him. Then he looked at Peter, James and Sirius. "Piss off." He said and he turned his back on them too.
…
Waving one last goodbye to the castle and the teachers who had gathered outside to see them off, the students boarded the little carriages that would take them to Hogsmeade station to board the Hogwarts Express back to London for the last time.
"Feels weird thinking we won't be going back there in September." Sirius said as he frowned back at the school. "It's been kind of like a home, hasn't it?"
It had been home. Peter felt a huge sense of loss and the strange feeling that they'd all been thrown out of a nest before being ready to fly as the castle faded from view. He sometimes felt just as anxious and insecure as the eleven year old who first knocked on James and Sirius' compartment and tried on the sorting hat.
The sorting hat…
He didn't like to think about his sorting if he could at all help it. The words the hat said to him had haunted him throughout most of his entire school career, coming back to him every time James or Sirius made an unkind comment about the Slytherins (so very often indeed).
He knew he'd only been eleven and he knew that people changed. He'd changed, hadn't he? He was brave now and he had proven himself to be loyal and a good friend. What's more, he'd be fighting for the Order. He'd finally be able to prove himself as a success there.
There were times though, and as they boarded the train which would take them away from Hogwarts for good, this was one of them, that he recalled the hat's words to him at the age of eleven.
'You would do well in Slytherin'. It had said.
...
A/N: A big THANK YOU to Neverenoughmarauders for beta reading this chapter for me. Also many thanks to Oxford High School GDST for the role it played in inspiring the muck up day scenes. I hope the pink paint came off in the end...