CHAPTER 23: The Marauders

'WAKE UP GUYS!'

James had long ago developed this habit of screaming at the top of his lungs to bring his friends out of sleep. He had always been an early riser, it seemed physically impossible for him to stay in bed once he had woken up, which he done very early.

'Mate, we don't have any classes today, get lost!' Peter Pettigrew mumbled into his pillow, caught in a state of being half awake and half asleep.

'We're going home today, Pete! I thought you'd like to have a lot of time to pack, and reminisce over everything we've done this year and, oh yeah, PREPARE FOR THE END OF YEAR PRANK TONIGHT?!'

James felt his face form a look of pure shock at the fact that his friends still weren't bothering to get up. It had been over a week since Remus had been released from St Mungo's and they had been planning this prank ever since, right down to the details. Why weren't they excited?

'Well, don't act too excited,' James said sarcastically.

'Yeah, I'm ecstatic. We pull off this fantastic prank tonight and then I get to home to my fantastic family and am locked in my room until September. Yeah, I can't wait,' Sirius groaned, not moving from his bed.

'Yeah, and I'll get to go home and take care of my broken mother and adjust to the idea that my dad is gone and doesn't care anymore,' Peter grumbled, still not fully awake.

'And I'll get to stay at home alone, because my parents don't have time for me. Not even enough time to visit me when I was in St Mungo's,' Remus sighed, pulling his covers up over his shoulders.

'...Your parents didn't visit you?' James repeated, unable to imagine the situation.

'Nope. No letter, no message, no contact at all,' Remus replied sleepily.

'James, I'm really excited for the prank tonight, really I am, but I just don't want to leave today. I don't want to have to go back home,' Sirius sighed, resigning to the fact that he was not going to get any more sleep and sitting up.

'My home is Hogwarts now,' Remus smiled, sitting up as well.

'Me too,' Peter said, finally awake and alert.

James didn't really know what to say. He knew that his friend's home lives weren't great but he never imagined that they would be so bad that they wouldn't want to go back to them. Hogwarts was his home as well now, his friends were his family, but he missed his parents sometimes. He couldn't imagine a life without the feeling that no matter how bad things got he would always have his mother and father to support him and try to pick up the pieces. He didn't want to feel sorry for his friends, he knew that they didn't want that, but he couldn't help but feel a little bit guilty that his life seemed so much easier than theirs.

'Merlin, this is all getting a bit personal,' Sirius laughed, throwing the covers off his bed and standing up. 'It's prank time guys, get your lazy arses up!'

All of the details had been discussed, decided upon, finalised, changed, and then finalised again until the four friends were happy that the prank was ready. Finally satisfied, they fell onto their beds and begun packing to go home. Each of them had decided upon a different approach of doing so. James packed casually, trying to disguise that fact that he was actually quite excited to be going home so as not to upset his friends. Peter idly dropped his possessions and clothes into his trunk, not really caring what fell where, as long as the thing would close it would be fine. Remus folded all of his clothes neatly, meticulously placing them in his trunk, then changing his mind about the order of things and taking everything out to start again. Sirius, on the other hand, grabbed all of his clothes in an unfolded bundle and shoved them in his trunk as fast as he could, getting it over and done with as quickly as possible. He sat on his bed waiting for the others to finish, getting more and more bored as the minutes drew on.

'You know, we've been to some pretty cool places this year. I mean, how many people have found the kitchens, let alone in their first year,' Sirius grinned, an idea forming in his head.

'Yeah, it's been a great year,' James agreed, clambering on top of his trunk in a vain attempt to get it to close.

'I know that look, Sirius. What are you planning?' Remus laughed, recognising the mischievous glint in his friend's eye.

'Oh, just that we've never ventured into the girls dormitory...' the tall boy replied, slyly grinning at the thought.

'Oh, Sirius...' Peter sighed, laughing.

'Come on, this is boring! First to get up to the girls dorm and steal their make-up wins,' Sirius said.

'Their make-up?' James repeated, grinning.

'Planning to wear it on yourself, Sirius?' Remus laughed.

'Oh, no, not me. The loser will be wearing it.'

'Well, it's not going to be me,' Peter said, shutting over his now packed trunk. 'Ready to go?'

'You bet. Right, on three!'

'One.'

'Two.'

'...THREE!'

Four boys charged out of the room at full speed heading towards the winding staircase that they knew lead to the girls bedrooms. Sirius was in the lead, with a surprisingly quick Remus only a hairs width behind him, James jumping forward trying to grab either of their ankles and Peter bringing up the rear. At the same moment, Sirius and Remus leapt forward and opened the first door that they came to, and the red head of Lily Evans whipped around in surprise.

'Si-Rem-What are you doing here? Get out! How did you even get up here?!'

'Why wouldn't we be able to get up he-?'

Remus never got to finish his question as the stairs that they were still on suddenly began a steep incline slope. Sirius lurched forward and grabbed a mascara brush out of Mary MacDonald's hand and screamed 'I won, I won!' before tumbling down into the Common Room with his friends.

The four of them lay in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, which had by this time returned to steps, laughing and pointing at the mascara that Sirius had accidentally painted on their faces as they tried to clamber out of their heap.

'Well, hello Evans,' James smirked, looking up to see the flaming red hair of the girl in question with her piercing emerald green eyes. James felt a strange feeling deep in his chest as he looked into her face, her beautiful face.

'Don't 'hello' me, Potter,' she hissed, snatching the mascara back from Sirius and stomping back up to her dormitory shouting behind her 'You lot are nothing but a no-good bunch of marauders!' and slamming the door for good measure.

The four friends sat in silence, looking at each other and then burst out laughing.

'Nice look, Remus,' Sirius guffawed, pointing at the black line of mascara creating a large black highlight in his golden brown hair and across his forehead.

'Thanks, Sirius!' Remus grinned, flicking his fringe out of his eyes.

'You really couldn't have made it more obvious, James,' Peter giggled, accepting a hand up from the friend in question.

'Made what more obvious?'

'That you fancy Evans!'

'WHAT?! I do not! She's not – I mean, it's not as if – I'm not – It's not – URGH, SHUT UP PETE!' James stuttered, eyes widening at the accusation which he suddenly realised was true.

'Aw, how sweet. Ickle Jamesy and Evans,' Sirius cooed, earning him a punch in the side of the head by James, which exploded into a full scale play fight, tumbling about the Common Room with Peter cheering them on and Remus rolling his eyes, picking up a book and sitting in his favourite seat by the fire to read, but not bothering to rub the black make-up off his face.

'You know, I've been thinking about what Lily said to us,' James said to his friends, who were all lounging about on their beds.

'I wonder why,' Sirius whispered, winking to Peter and Remus who each grinned their reply while James threw a pillow at him.

'Seriously, I have. She called us a word; it was a pretty cool word.'

'She called you 'Potter', mate,' Peter laughed.

'No, she said it to all of us.'

'Marauders?' Remus said, propping himself up on his elbows.

'That's the one!'

'Yeah, what about it?' Sirius asked, eyebrows creased in confusion.

'It's just a good word,' James stated lazily.

'It sounds like a name of a group,' Peter said.

'Like us,' Sirius slowly added on, seeing where this was going.

'I suppose with all of the pranks you are all going to attempt, a name is needed,' Remus suggested.

'Pranks that WE will attempt, Remus, you're part of this too,' Peter grinned, winking at his friend.

'Evans will really love the fact that she named us,' James laughed.

'Well, that's that sorted then. We've got a prank tonight, and we will announce ourselves then. Remus, do you happen to know any way to do that?' Sirius asked, looking over at the smallest boy, who was the best at Charms.

'I'm sure I could come up with something by tonight,' Remus replied, smiling.

'Well, there we go. From now on, we are 'The Marauders'!' James laughed.

After the feast, the pupils of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry left the Great Hall with various different shades of red paint splattered about them as the roof had begun to apparently sag and the red paint fell from above, with 'The Marauders' spelled out in the stars of the enchanted ceiling, some of Remus's best sorcery. Everyone found it hilarious, except the Slytherins, who were absolutely disgusted at the fact they had the colour of Gryffindor all over them, and talk had immediately turned to what or whom these 'Marauders' were. At the sight of the words, Lily Evans had glared along the Gryffindor table towards the four boys who were too busy throwing paint at each other to notice or care. The swarm of pupils all headed to their dormitories to get their belongings before departing from the school, and saying goodbye to another school year. They were all caught up in a buzz of excited chatter, but the marauders headed towards the scarlet of the Hogwarts Express with much despondency. None of them wanted to leave. Sirius did not want to go home, where he would be treated like garbage, locked in his room, beaten, shunned. Remus didn't want to go back to being alone. His parents weren't even around enough to reply to any of his letters, or visit him in hospital. He had resigned himself to the fact that they didn't really care about him or what he done anymore. Peter still hadn't quite adjusted to the fact that his father would not be there when he got back. Even though he was always away anyway, it was always a comfort that he would be there if he wasn't busy, but now there's no hope. He wasn't coming back. And his mother was so damaged, so broken by what had happened to her that she had become so distant. James didn't have any problems at home, but he felt somehow guilty that his friends would be having such a terrible time and he wouldn't be able to do anything about it. He didn't want to leave them, they had become like his brothers. He couldn't stand the thought of Sirius being locked in his room, alone the whole time. It made him feel sick to imagine Remus spending the days in his house, forgetting to eat again, or, if by some miracle one of his parents bothered to turn up to see him, not even knowing or caring that he spent a week in St Mungo's. He was worried by the thought of Peter having to come to terms with his father leaving his mother on his own because his mother is so far gone she wouldn't be able to help him through it. James appreciated his home life all the more from meeting his friends, but he wished that he could make things as good for them as it was for him.

The train ride passed all together far too quickly. It seemed that they had just sat down when they had to get off at King's Cross Station. Peter began to worry. Who would be there to pick him up? He couldn't get home on his own and his mother wouldn't be able to come and get him. Remus had similar concerns. For all he knew his parents didn't even know that he was meant to be coming home today. It's not as if they had been paying much attention to his life recently. Sirius dreaded seeing his family. Surely they would wait until they got home before punishing him for the many various things they would feel like punishing him for, whether they actually happened or not? Oh, why did they have to leave Hogwarts?

Stepping off the train, the platform was almost empty. The Marauders had taken as long as they possibly could to get their trunks and get off the train. James spotted his parents waiting for him on a nearby bench and felt his stomach clench. He didn't want to leave his friends yet. Sirius looked up to see his father glowering at him from the other end of the platform, his mother looking at her son with a look of pure hate and disgust on her face. Sirius felt the sudden urge to cry but pushed it down; he would not give them the satisfaction. Peter's heart done a strange little leap when he saw his mother standing next to a wall, clutching her wand so tightly to her side it was a wonder how she hadn't snapped it, being supported by Peter's big cousin Isaac. He blinked hard to make sure he wasn't dreaming but she really was there. He couldn't help but smile. Remus couldn't see either of his parents. Instead his uncle stood leaning against the wall, staring at him. Perfect. His parents couldn't even be bothered to come and get him so they sent his uncle, who hated him with a passion, to get him instead. These holidays were going to be even worse than the last, he could feel it.

James, Sirius, Peter and Remus looked at each other for a second before whispering a 'goodbye then' and walking off to their families, Sirius and Remus smiling at how happy they knew Peter and James would be to see their parents again, James and Peter feeling sorry for Sirius and Remus, who they knew would be wishing for the walk to their relatives to never end.

With heavy hearts, but the promise of letters, the four friends left the platform one by one, looking back at one another until they had all disappeared from sight.