Chapter 32

Pomp and Circumstance

"Merlin, I'm bored," Sirius complained as he stretched his arms over the couch he was sprawled on in the Gryffindor Common Room with the rest of the gang.

"Sirius, we've only been done with our N.E.W.T.s for three days. Surely, you cannot be bored already," Sarah insisted.

"Yes," Remus agreed. "Weren't you the one saying that your brain had been liquefied because of all the testing?"

"Do you reckon that could ever actually happen?" Peter asked curiously through bites of his fourth chocolate frog.

"Really, Wormtail?" James asked dryly.

"Sorry," Peter apologized, shrugging as he reached for another frog.

"Sirius, we've been driving ourselves up the wall studying. This has been the first real break we've had in nearly a month. I don't think it's possible to be bored already," Rory insisted.

"Nope, I'm definitely bored," Sirius said.

"Sirius, mate, you're my best friend," James told him sincerely as he grinned at his friend. "But sometimes you are the biggest prat in the universe."

"I thought that was your title, James," Lily teased, messing up his hair with her fingers.

"Aww, thanks, Lils," James replied sardonically in a sugary sweet voice.

"Personally," Remus voiced as he brought his attention away from the flickering flames that were roaring in the fireplace. "I'm rather pleased that we have a break before the end of term. We get to enjoy our last few days at Hogwarts in peace."

"That's so weird! 'Our last few days!' I can't believe school's over," Rory replied.

"Yeah," Peter agreed. "After seven years, they are finally kicking us out."

"James, mate, do you remember when we had that expulsion scare in Fifth Year?"

James nodded and snickered. "I almost felt bad for the Slytherins."

"Almost being the imperative word there," Sirius agreed, mimicking James's mischievous grin.

"I'm gonna miss the Castle," Lily sighed. "It's been my home for so long. All of my important events have happened in these walls."

"Like getting together with James," Sarah said.

"And snogging James," Rory added.

"And how James is going to—" Sirius began, but James silenced him with a swift kick in the shin.

"Not all of my life is about James," Lily argued.

"Just the best parts, right, Lils?" James asked, throwing his arm around her shoulder.

"If you want to call them that," Lily responded, biting back a smile.

"I dunno," Rory contemplated, returning to an earlier subject. "I'm pretty excited about moving on."

"That's because you get to play Quidditch for the Wimbourne Wasps," Sirius grumbled.

"Jealous, Sirius?" Rory taunted.

"You get to play Quidditch!" Sirius reiterated. "And you get to be paid for it."

"You're just mad because I'm a better Beater than you."

"You are not! I could have moved on to the professionals, too, if James and I hadn't decided to be bloody aurors."

"Yes," Sarah chimed in. "Those who can't be healers become aurors," she teased, reveling in the prestige of her future profession.

"Being an auror is much better than being a healer. You get to duel dark wizards. Healers just mop up the mess," James argued.

"He's right," Sirius added. 'Being an auror is like living the dream."

"So you are giving up a life filled with Quidditch fame for the dream of becoming an auror with your boyfriend," Remus snickered.

"How sweet," Sarah agreed.

"We are not a gay couple!" James and Sirius shrieked together.

"Do you guys realize that they have to repeat that far too often?" Peter asked.

"Obviously there must be some truth to it, Pete," Remus replied, his eyes aglow with amusement.

"Is there?" Lily asked Rory.

"Not even a little bit," Rory answered, making Sirius smirk with cockiness.

"Maybe it's just James then," Lily mused.

"Guys, let's just sit back and enjoy our remaining time together," James said, stopping all the chuckling and side conversations.

After a couple of hours, the group dispersed, breaking off into couples. Remus and Sarah, however, decided to stay in the Common Room. This was mostly because Sarah had drifted off to sleep in Remus's arms. He had thought she looked too peaceful to wake her. Instead, Remus watched her sleep as he played with her brown hair, twirling it in between his long fingers. Her eyes were shut and her mouth was slightly agape, drawing attention to her lips.

Eventually, Sarah stirred. She yawned and smiled up at Remus. "Hi," she greeted him sleepily.

"Hi, Sassy," Remus replied, bending down to kiss the top of her head.

"Where'd everybody go?" she asked, looking around.

"They left about a half-hour ago."

"So you've just been watching me sleep since then?"

"Yep."

"That's a little stalkery," Sarah teased, sitting up and nudging Remus in the arm.

"I was trying to commit everything about you to memory," Remus whispered. "Your hair," he said, running his fingers through it. "Your eyes," he continued, trailing his fingers along the contours of her face. "Your smile." He paused before saying, "Your lips."

Sarah gasped quietly as Remus deepened the kiss that inevitably took place after that little speech.

When the couple broke free, breathing heavily, Remus rested his forehead onto Sarah's. "I love you," he told her.

"I love you too, Remus. And just so you know, you don't need to be able to recall me perfectly."

"Why's that?"

"I'm not going anywhere."

Rory giggled as she raced Sirius to the Room of Requirement. He beat her by only a second. "Okay," she gasped, struggling to breathe. "What is it that you require?"

Sirius grinned at her and then walked in front of the room three times before a door appeared, admitting them entrance.

Rory laughed as she entered the room. "A bed, Sirius? I should have known," she joked.

Her laughter subsided when she saw the intense expression on his face.

"What's wrong?" she asked, her voice filled with worry.

"Nothing," Sirius realized. "Absolutely nothing's wrong. For the first time in my life, I feel like everything is right. I've never felt like that before."

"Things have been feeling a lot like that for me, as well," Rory agreed slowly.

"And it's not just because school is over or because my best mates and I are all together. It's because of you, Aurora Daniels. No girl has ever made me feel the way you do. You are on my mind constantly, and I never want to be away from you. I love you so much."

"I love you too, Sirius," Rory said.

"Rory, the bed is here for a reason," Sirius murmured cautiously.

"Yeah, I figured that."

"Would it be okay? I mean, Merlin, I've never done this before--"

"Really? Are all the Marauders so inexperienced then, as well? Sarah is obviously the lucky one, I suppose. You never would guess by looking at him that Remus was the only one that's not a prude," Rory rambled, trying to ease the tension.

"Rory," Sirius said, eliminating all the space between the two of them. "Rory," he whispered urgently into her ear and then once more in a far gentler tone.

"Okay," she decided, staring into his gray eyes with her blue ones.

"Lils!" James yelled from his room as he yanked out every item of clothing from his many drawers, haphazardly throwing them onto his bed.

"What?" she shouted back from a couch in their Common Room.

"Have you seen my shirt?"

"Why are you looking for a shirt?"

"I'm packing," James answered from his room as he scanned the heaps of clothes on his bed and floor.

"James!" Lily scolded. "We still have one more day before our graduation. Why are you packing at—" Lily paused to glance at her watch. "12:12 at night?" she finished.

"I felt the inspiration to pack," he replied, not seeing Lily shake her head at his capricious nature. "I want to get it done early, anyway. Now, to go back to my original question, have you seen my shirt?"

"Which shirt?"

"My shirt!"

"You have to be more specific than that, James!" Lily called, chuckling. "You have dozens of shirts!"

"It's shirtlike!"

"That's real helpful!"

"Oh, Merlin, it's the one that says, 'Save a Broom, Ride a chaser' on the front!"

"Yeah, I've seen it!"

"Well," James began in frustration. "Where is it?"

"Hang on," Lily replied, dragging herself off of the couch to go into her bedroom. About a minute later, she walked into James's room with the aforementioned shirt in hand.

"Here you go," she said, handing it to him.

"Why did you have my shirt?"

Lily shrugged. "I dunno. It reminds me of you, I guess. It still has your smell imprinted in it. It's my favorite pajamas."

James blanched. "Wait, you wear this to bed?"

"It's big enough on me to fit like a nightgown," she explained.

"Never mind, you can keep it," James said, giving it back to her.

"Thanks," Lily replied, returning his smile.

"Oh, Sweet Merlin, that girl," James murmured to himself as he watched her leave his room.

The next day, Lily started packing up her clothes, as well, ignoring James's snide comments about his belongings already being ready to transport. She shut him up, however, when she reminded him that he had been up till four in the morning packing and it had only taken her about an hour. The couple met up with the rest of the group for lunch, spending time together until dinner. They reminisced about past years' memories and made odd predictions about the future. Sirius and Rory seemed particularly happy.

In the late evening, the Marauders excused themselves from their significant others in the Gryffindor Common Room and anxiously climbed up the stairs to the Marauder Dorm. A few minutes later, they emerged from the stairs, their eyes glinting with impishness.

"You aren't going to tell us what you are up to, are you?" Lily asked, eyeing the boys.

"Not in the likely, Evans," Sirius replied as he followed Remus out of the Common Room.

"Meet you in our Dorm later, Lils," James told her, winking, before he, too, exited.

"We have the strangest boyfriends," Sarah sighed after all of the boys were out of sight.

"Seriously," Rory added before all three girls broke out into fits of giggling.

The boys began their quest at the kitchens, food being positively necessary for the night's upcoming events. Plus, the house-elves had extra treacle tart left over from dinner, which, after all, was James's favorite. From there, they moved on to the Great Hall.

Peter removed the hoards of dungbombs he had hidden in his cloak and strategically placed them inside the room, awaiting their time to be sent off the next morning; their odor had been charmed to be only apparent to the Slytherins. Remus was in charge of putting a complicated charm on the tables of the other houses's tables that would make them all change the color of all of the Ravenclaw, Slytherin, and Hufflepuff student's uniforms into scarlet and gold, placing the words "Gryffindor: The Only House Worthy of the Marauders" on the back of their robes. Sirius, who had always been fond of bright colors, set up the fireworks that were also charmed to ignite the next morning during breakfast. James had the job of enchanting the ceiling sky to form clouds the next morning in the shape of a werewolf, a rat, a dog, a stag, and, of course, seeing that he was James, a lily.

After each Marauder had completed his specific assignment, they worked together to turn every surface of the Great Hall into Gryffindor colors. The floors, tables, even the spoons were a rich, golden color. Meanwhile, the walls, draperies, and portraits became scarlet. Once the Great Hall had been fully decorated, the boys moved on to the rest of the school. They separated, wands out as they transformed the Castle. After about an hour, they met up at the entrance to the Slytherin Common Room.

"I think this calls for something special, boys," Sirius said, his eyes practically overly mischievous.

"What did you have in mind, Padfoot?" James asked, grinning with excitement.

"Well, Moony, seeing as you know the most about the subject, how do you feel about howling?"

"Nothing like it, Padfoot," Remus replied, even he being unable to resist the thrill of misbehaving.

"Good. Because I was thinking the Slytherins have been expecting some post."

"Excellent," Peter breathed with a wicked grin.

The boys spent the better part of an hour coming up with witty, obnoxious things to greet the Slytherins up with the next morning. They had all agreed that the best howler was the one that urged the Slytherins to "find out for themselves what happens when you tickle a sleeping dragon, especially when they are sporting enough grease in their hair to really combust." 

As they were about to leave the area, Sirius noticed something silver whizzing above them. He squinted up at it and then smirked.

"Oi, Peeves!" he shouted.

Peeves turned around, cackling malevolently, but then nearly smiled when he saw the speaker.

"Sirius!" he replied in a voice that could be compared to admiration. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Just having one last prank," Sirius answered, smiling roguishly at his friends.

"It looks like it will be your best," Peeves answered appreciatively.

"Hey, Peeves, can you do us a favor?" Sirius asked.

"Anything for the Marauders," Peeves replied instantly.

"Give this slime," Sirius jerked his head in the direction of the Slytherin Dorm. "Some trouble."

"Marauder style," James added, grinning widely.

"Happy to oblige!" Peeves responded naughtily before zooming away.

"Where to now, do you reckon?" Peter asked.

"Where's the nearest broom closet?" James responded.

"See, mate, that's why people are always saying you don't ride your broom straight, if you know what I mean. You just can't say that kind of stuff when you are around guys as attractive as Moony and I. No offense, Pete."

"None taken."

"I wasn't offering to snog you, Sirius," James replied, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, were you looking for something a little more interesting?" Sirius retorted with an impish wink.

"We have one more thing we need to do," James announced.

"Oh, right," Sirius replied, sobering up instantly. "To the broom closet where almost all of Prongs's sick fantasies about Evans came true!" he declared, marching forward.

At their destination, the boys huddled around each other outside the closet, and James removed the Marauder's Map from his pocket. He tapped his wand to the parchment as all four boys said in unison, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

They examined the Map for a period of time, savoring its magic for the last time.

"Dumbledore is always pacing, isn't he?" Remus asked, motioning towards a part of the parchment.

"It's to make up for all the pent-up sexual aggression he has," Sirius replied knowledgeably.

"Not the story with McGonagall again, Sirius," Peter sighed.

"No, Wormtail. That's rubbish. Dumbledore doesn't exactly drink from the same pumpkin juice as the rest of us, minus James, of course."

"Sirius, you never cease to amaze me," Remus replied in awe.

"Yeah," James added. "You take stupidity to so many new levels," he teased, resulting in him getting elbowed in the ribs. "Ohh, Lily is in my room!" James said, pointing to the spot on the map.

"And your love of Evans will always astound me, mate," Sirius laughed.

"I'm gonna miss this," Remus sighed.

"Marauders for life, Moony," Sirius told him.

"Of course we are. How could I be so foolish as to ever think anything else, eh, Wormtail?"

"Isn't that the truth, Padfoot?" Peter asked.

"Siriusly speaking, right, Prongs?"

"Marauders always," James concluded as he motioned for the others to help him wipe the map clear. "Mischief Mangaged," all four boys whispered in unison. Together, they folded the map and slipped it under the door of the broom closet, ready to await the next band of troublemakers who would wreak havoc upon the school.

After parting from his friends, James walked jauntily back to the Heads' Dorm, an ecstatic grin still etched upon his face, even despite the extreme lateness of the hour. Although Violet seemed very irked that James had disturbed her slumber, so tired, even, that she did not even attempt to flirt with him, nothing could dampen his spirits as he told her, "Lily going stag," and meandered to his bed, where he found an already sleeping redhead waiting for him, wearing his shirt.

The next morning, the inhabitants of Hogwarts woke up to find themselves in quite a perplexing situation. It took the teachers all day to remove their spells and make the Castle suitable for the graduation ceremony the next day. However, by the way McGonagall's eyes shone when she first glimpsed the Great Hall covered in Gryffindor lavishness, James could have swore she did not really mean it when she said she was going to follow through on her threat to make the Marauders all start over again as First Years next year so they would finally learn something. After all, James doubted the woman could take much more of Sirius.

On the morning of graduation, James rushed off to the Marauder Dorm to get dressed with his friends. Unfortunately, he's James.

"Merlin, James," Sirius said, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. "Don't you know any other hour besides six in the bloody morning?"

"Sorry, Padfoot, it's an important day."

"And some of us need our beauty sleep," Sirius countered sleepily before flopping face-first back onto his bed and covering his head with his pillow.

James laughed before stealing the pillow out of Sirius's grasp. "You've already been replaced as Hogwarts's Number One Hottie, Number Two. Stop trying."

This got Sirius up. "I'm not number two! You're number two!"

"Oh," Remus said, his hair still damp from the bucket of water James had poured onto him as a wake-up call. "Are you guys still fighting over who is second to my extreme sexiness?" Remus asked, a smirk still lingering on his face from the night before.

"Why can't I ever be the hottest Marauder?" Peter asked.

Then, all four boys broke out into hysterical laughter.

After they stole Remus's "secret" supply of chocolate and ate it as breakfast, the boys took turns taking showers and got ready for the upcoming ceremony.

"I just don't know if I can do this," James told Remus as he re-tied his tie for the umpteenth time.

"Is this what you want?" Remus asked him.

James looked him earnestly in the eyes. "More than anything," he admitted.

"Then you can do it," Remus encouraged him simply.

"Okay," James said. "I can do this."

"You can do this."

"I can do this," James repeated again.

"What are you doing?" Sirius asked, emerging from his shower. "Or, whom, I suppose would be more appropriate," he finished with a grin.

"Shut up, Sirius," James retorted, trying to hide his grin. James's fingers moved back to trying to fix his tie. "Rubbish tie," he muttered, grabbing at his untidy hair. "What's the point of wearing one if it won't even bloody tie. It's a tie. It's supposed to ruddy tie!"

"Here," Remus said soothingly before whipping out his wand and charming James's tie into place.

"Thanks."

"Ready to go graduate, guys?" Peter asked.

"I can do this," James whispered to himself before following his friends out of their Dorm.

At the graduation, James saw Lily, but he didn't have time to talk to her because he was rushed into his seat on the make-shift stage in the Great Hall. He spotted his mum and dad in the audience and waved to them, but his mum was too busy trying to get Sirius's attention to notice her own son. "Figures," James muttered under his breath. He straightened up in his chair as Dumbledore called everyone to order and began his speech. James felt bad for not really listening to his speech, knowing it would probably be filled with wisdom and inspiration, but he was too busy fiddling with something in the pocket of his dress robes.

James heard Sirius's name being called, which caused him to finally pay attention to his environment. Sirius strode up to Dumbledore, clapping the old man on the back before he approached McGonagall.

"Oh, Minne, I'm going to miss you," he told her, his voice filling the Great Hall.

"I'm sure that we will see each other again, despite you no longer being my student," she told him curtly, though James could swear he saw her lips curl into a smile.

"That would be lovely," he replied before beginning to walk away.

"Is that really it, Mister Black?" McGonagall called to him, surprising James and Sirius immensely. "After seven years of sexually harassing me, you finally stop once you graduate?"

James covered his mouth with his hand to stultify his snickering.

"As much as we both know you want me to, Minnie," Sirius answered her with a wink, walking towards her again. "I am already in love with the most amazing girl, and I won't do anything to jeopardize that, even if you have been pining for me since First Year when you met me at the Sorting. Ours will always be a forbidden love, Minnie," he whispered to her before kissing her on the cheek. Sirius then walked off towards Rory, disregarding seat arrangements, completely oblivious to the thunderous applause the rest of the Seventh Years were giving him.

James laughter finally subsided in time for his name to be called. James walked up to Dumbledore and shook his hand. "Congratulations, James," the Headmaster told him, his eyes twinkling. "I knew I was right about you and Miss Evans," he added quietly before turning to address "Price, Kerry."

McGonagall handed James his diploma before also shaking his hand. "Control your friend," she advised him.

James laughed and replied, "I dunno if that's even possible now, Professor McGonagall."

"You're right."

Instead of returning to his seat, James snuck up to Lily from behind her. "Let's get out of here," he whispered into her ear before grabbing her hand and whisking her out of the Castle.

"James!" Lily exclaimed. "We can't leave now!"

"Why not?" James asked, practically running now.

"There's a ceremony going on! We're the Head Boy and Head Girl! We can't just leave!"

"Lils," James said, his running ceased as they had reached his destination: the old birch tree by the lake. He motioned to her diploma. "You have a piece of parchment in your hand that says that none of those teachers in there can yell at you anymore."

"It just says that we have completed our education at Hogwarts, James, not that we can run amuck and do anything we please."

"Doesn't it, though?" he asked. "We're done. There's nothing they can do to stop us. We're not their students anymore."

"I guess that's true," Lily agreed, warming up to the idea. Suddenly, her eyes filled with excitement. "Merlin!" she shrieked.

"No, my name is James," he told her.

"James!" she said, nudging him in the arm. "We graduated!"

"Yes, we did," he replied amusedly.

Lily squealed and then engulfed James in a hug and kissed him.

"I can't believe it," she breathed as she broke the kiss. "We graduated. We are graduates," she said, testing the way it sounded on her lips.

"Lily," James said, guiding her over to the tree.

"James, do you remember when I pushed you into the lake?" she asked, laughing.

"Yes," he said. "And our first kiss was here too, can you recall that one?"

"Like I could forget," she replied.

"I am a pretty decent snogger, aren't I?" he asked cockily.

Lily rolled her eyes at him.

"What do you have to tell me, James? Is this about Sirius's gift?" she asked.

"Sirius's gift?" James asked, perplexed.

"He wanted to get you a graduation gift. Apparently, what you want more than anything else is for me to jump out of a cake for you. I decided to humor him for a while, but when I saw the outfit--"

James exploded with laughter. Eventually, he calmed down. "That's not why we're here," James said, taking a deep breath and looking into her emerald green eyes. "Lily," he started earnestly.

"James," she replied, matching his tone.

" I love you--more than I ever thought it was possible to love someone. You are everything to me and have been for the past seven years of my life. You are so kind and funny and smart and sexy, but it's more than just that. It's you. It's how your hair smells like lavender or that you wear my shirts to go to sleep. It's that you can't concentrate on your books when I'm looking at you, and I can't seem to be able to stop looking at you. No one has ever made me feel like you do-- no one's ever even been worth comparison. I get fidgety if I haven't seen you in at least twenty minutes and even more anxious when I actually see your face, or hear your laugh, or kiss your lips. I can't exist if you're not with me. It's like I was made just to be hopelessly in love with you. That's my only purpose, the only thing I can do perfectly; it's the only thing I want to do with my life. I just want to love you." He reached into his pocket. "Here," he said, offering her the object clenched in his hand.

Lily gazed at the silver object and gasped. "James! That's the butterfly hair clip I lost on the night of the Ball," she said, picking it up and examining it.

"I know. I went back that night to go find it. I needed to make sure that that night was real. That our kiss was real. That you and I together was real, and that you, Lily Evans, the woman I love more than Hogwarts, or Quidditch, or magic, or even Sirius, was real."

Lily beamed at him, her fingers still around the clip, feeling the sparkles and texture of it. Then, her eyes widened and she looked down. Clasped to the clip was a silver ring with a huge princess-cut diamond in the center of it with smaller diamonds encrusted around the band.

"James, what is that?" Lily breathed.

James removed the ring from the clip and held it up to her, getting down on one knee. "Lily Evans," he asked slowly, never tearing his eyes away from her own. "Will you marry me?"

Lily blinked down at him, lost for words. Slowly, she seemed to regain control of her basic motor functions. "Are you serious?" she asked him.

"As Mr. Black himself," James replied softly.

Lily squealed and then flung herself at James, knocking him to the ground. She kissed him fervently. Gasping, she broke away and began to get up. "You know," she told him in a breathless voice. "I'm not going to let you use Sirius puns once we're married."

"Once we're—" James repeated to himself. "Does that mean you're saying yes?" he asked her, rising to his feet suddenly.

"Yes," she answered.

James let out a yell of triumph and then grabbed Lily and spun her around in her circles. They were both laughing when he put her down. "I love you, James Potter," she told him.

"Oh, Lily, I love you too," he replied as he happily slipped the ring onto her left ring finger. James leaned in to kiss her.

"Oi, break it up! Sirius shouted as he, Rory, Remus, Sarah, and Peter walked towards them.

James smiled at Lily apologetically before intertwining her hand in his as they awaited their friends together.

"We were looking everywhere for you, mate, and then we realized that you were you, so you'd be off with Evans."

"Nice thinking, Sirius," Lily replied, laughing. "Only, it's not going to be Evans for much longer. You might have to start calling me Lily."

"Or he could just call you Potter," James suggested, winking at her.

"What?" Rory shrieked.

"James and I are engaged!" Lily squealed in response.

"About bloody time," Sirius muttered. "He's been bugging his mum to give him the Potter engagement ring since we were eleven."

His voice, however, was drowned out by Rory and Sarah's screeching.

After the excitement, hugging, and congratulating finally died down, James wrapped his arms around Lily's waist.

"I can't believe it's all finally over," Lily said, addressing all of her friends before glancing up at James and smiling at him.

"It's not over, Lily," he told her. "It's just the beginning."

The group stared out across the lake, letting that information sink in.

"You know," Sirius said, interrupting their thoughts. "It's when you say stuff like that, James, that people question your sexual preference. You just act like such a girl sometimes. Sorry, Evans, you're the one that's gotta marry him."

James kissed Lily quickly before shooting his best friend a glare. "Shut up, Sirius."

A/N: that's the end! i hope you enjoyed this story! it was a very personal story, near and dear to my heart. happy tears were shed when i finally finished it (mixed in with some bittersweet ones, as well.) thank you so much for reading my story. i hope i was able to entertain you, at least for a little while!

love,

molly