There was quite the disarray of usual arrangements in the Gryffindor common room the day after Remus's birthday. Instead of Hollis on the couch with him, she and James had passed out on top of one another after he helped her in the bathroom, with both of their heads leaning on the others.
Just next to them, Sirius, Lily, and Peter all had their shoulders next to one another's arms in some form or fashion, cramming them all onto one cramped, cushy chair that was barely supporting the trio.
Remus was the only person who had ended up falling asleep in his bed that night after eating a solid three bars of chocolate and then making a two in the morning run to the kitchens to replenish the stock so that the cabinet wouldn't become empty.
He walked down the stairs with a small headache that barely bothered him from his hangover. After the many painful mornings after full moons, firewhiskey seemed like a tiny poke in his side that he could easily tolerate without a blink of an eye.
At the scene of his five unconscious friends all piled on top of one another on two pieces of furniture, Remus both smiled slightly and then frowned as he rubbed where his fingers had been bruised from the night.
"James," he muttered, nudging his friend's shoulder lightly. "Prongs, wake up."
At this disruption, the Potter jolted his neck up, instantly regretted it, and let out a moan before slamming his head down aggressively on the armrest of the orange couch.
"My head hurts like a bitch," he whined as Remus pulled his arm up. "Wait, Hol's still asleep."
Looking down and seeing that he was right, the tall boy let go of his friend and gave him time to throw a blanket over the Rosier he had his arm wrapped around before continuing.
"Okay, would you mind explaining what happened last night?" prompted James, rubbing his forehead. "That firewhiskey was a ticking bomb, I should have known."
Remus sighed a bit before answering, knowing that the alcohol had gotten the best of him.
"I knocked the cigarette out of her hand, like, an inch away from her face."
The Chaser simply rubbed his forehead again, leaning against one of the tapestry covered walls.
"Brilliantly done, Moony," he said sourly, giving Remus a scolding glance. "Of all people."
"Well, she said something about, uhm, Regulus, and I guess I just got angry," he replied sheepishly. "Not that that's an excuse, obviously."
The Potter immediately straightened at these words, his bleary expression becoming sharp and focused.
"What, what did she say-"
He was cut off by Sirius's loud shout at Lily and Hollis, who were both already giggling.
"I thought we discussed this, ladies!" the Black boy cried, throwing his hands in the air. "I thought I warned you to get me out of there before I came back as a dog!"
"I'm sorry," Lily wheezed, leaning against Hollis for support as her head ached from the laughing. "But you just looked so stupid, and I couldn't."
"Yea, this polaroid tells me that much!" Sirius exclaimed, waving a picture of his as a dog eating James's Exploding Snap deck.
"No one knew it was you," Hollis reassured him. "Just some crazy stray. I don't even really remember that much from last night, I doubt anyone else does either."
This statement made Remus and James exchange a meaningful glance before rejoining their friends by the fire from the wall they had walked over to for a more private discussion.
"So do you remember anything?" James asked forwardly, making Remus cringe a bit.
Hollis gave him a fraction of an odd, suspicious look before answering.
"Not much, no," she replied honestly. "I think I was mad at some point, but that comes with the firewhiskey, right?"
"Right," Remus confirmed, nodding his head as he rested his chin on her head. "Just comes with the firewhiskey."
Next to them, James felt a bit odd keeping their fight from Hollis but knew that it ultimately wasn't his decision to make.
"Let's go get some breakfast," Peter declared. "I'm hungry as hell."
The other five nodded in agreement; none of them had any food in their systems after throwing up half the night.
Their entrance to the Great Hall was suspected by the student body after knowing that it had been Remus's birthday the previous night, yet that didn't make it any less amusing to see the best friends all leaning on one another for support as they walked slowly over to the Gryffindor table.
"You would think that they would restrain from the drinking on a Tuesday night," McGonagall muttered in dismay and amusement as she watched Sirius fall backward off a bench. "Even if it is Mr. Lupin's birthday."
"Ah, let them be young," Dumbledore replied, mirth twinking in his pale blue eyes. "They will be leaving Hogwarts soon, I don't believe any of them want to waste that short remaining time here."
"You know, I really am going to miss those Marauders," Sprout said sentimentally. "They can be rather irritable, but they certainly keep us on our toes."
"Yesterday, Miss Rosier and Mr. Lupin hexed all of my student's inkpots to rapidly change colors whenever one of them missed a question before they turned in their quiz so that they could all get good marks because I told them that I would buy them all chocolate frogs if they did."
"You think that's bad? Potter, Black, and Rosier decided to get their brooms and spray my entire class with Sleeping Solution that they somehow modified to work on contact with skin so that all the fourth years fell asleep."
"That is rather impressive," Slughorn remarked, unsure even as the Potions master how they had been able to pull of the changing of the already complex potion. "Their talents are undeniable, even if they do choose to use them on pranks."
"Oh, I'm certain they'll come back to visit," Flitwick added on with confidence. "And cause even more mischief either directly or passing knowledge down through their kids."
"Oh, please don't say that," McGonagall said, rubbing her temples. "Can you imagine a Lupin and Rosier child?"
"Oh no," Sprout groaned. "You know, then I might need to get some firewhiskey from the kitchens as well."
"Well, I wish them all the most of happiness after they graduate," Dumbledore said with a soft smile. "No matter how troublesome their children may be."
Meanwhile, the Marauders were starting to catch on that the professors might be gossiping about them.
"Flitwick, Sluggy, Sprout, Minnie, and Dumbles keep glancing over here," Sirius whispered from the corner of his mouth. "And it's starting to make me nervous."
"James, did you make sure that you used the charm on the portrait?" Hollis asked with alarm.
"Of course I did," the Potter scoffed, rolling his eyes at the suggestion.
"Well, the Slytherins found out somehow," Remus pointed out thoughtfully. "So you most definitely forgot."
The five students and five professors made very awkward eye contact across the Great Hall.
"Okay, they definitely know we are talking about them," Sprout declared. "Too smart for their own good, those Marauders."
"It's going to get them in some real trouble one day."
"Well let's hope not too soon."
"Let's hope indeed."
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡ ﾟ+..｡*ﾟ+
One of the Marauder's favorite sections of the varying shores of the Black Lake was the one the farthest away from the castle, about a half-hour's walk.
This place ventured to by almost no one but the five was the only shore that had sand instead of greyed pebbles or seas of soft, damp moss.
The late March sky was a platinum grey that gave the whole day a dim, pale light with the sun only as an even more pasty orb in the sky behind the thick mask of clouds. This textured canvas reflected down onto the mirror like surface of the lake with a smooth motion of an invisible brush, completely untouched by any ripples or watery divot because of the still air.
The thick, grainy sand that bordered this shining water was a dark rust, almost orange color that provided a bit of color to the otherwise grey, yet still beautiful scenery.
Five pairs of footprints sunk through its formerly smooth surface.
Well, three of them belonged to animals.
Remus and Peter watched with amusement as a stag, dog, and fox all jumped on top of one another with playful barks and squeaks as they sprayed up both sand and water from the shore on one another.
The polaroid had its schedule, similar to the Map among the Marauders. Whoever was in possession of the camera that day had the task of recording the day, not only with pictures but collecting things like leaves to press into the book or pocket passed notes to glue into their book later.
Today, Peter was the one with the camera, and he squinted his eyes to capture the frame of the three animals frolicking on the shore of the Black Lake before setting the camera down along with his bag on the sand to spread out the blanket Remus had brought.
"I don't care if you have your uniform on, James Potter, that was your decision!" Hollis shouted with a giggle as she and Sirius coated the scarlet tie and crisp white shirt with a solid layer of sand.
The two purebloods bumped tattoos.
"You got it all over my glasses!" James shouted, furiously wiping off the copper frames with the corner of his shirt, only to realize that this made them more sandy and groan in frustration.
Remus and Hollis exchanged a grin as the Chaser went down by the water to clean them, just as they had hoped with their very similar thinking minds when it came to mischief.
Little did they know, though, that James had intentionally gone by the shore knowing that his friends would try to push him in.
Just as Sirius was about to put all of his force into shoving his friend into the water, the hazel eyed boy whipped around and used his friend's off center of gravity to in turn made him fall into the water, completely submerging his body for a few seconds.
Hollis slapped her hand over her mouth and looked up to Remus, who was laughing as Sirius squeezed the water out from his inky black hair with narrowed eyes.
"Oh, you're going to pay for that one, Potter."
James's eyes widened with mock fear that quickly turned genuine when Sirius knocked him so hard in the shoulder that he fell into the water as well.
Peter ran over to try and help them out but only ended up falling flat on his face as well after slipping over a smooth, algae covered stone unfortunately placed right below his feet.
Deciding that it was no longer fun to only watch her friends, Hollis grabbed Remus's arm and dragged him towards the water with a large smile of her own.
The two of them both immediately stepped back at how cold the water was, but the Rosier much more so.
I don't think it's the way out there we should be worried about. It's the way back.
I can do it, Rosier. And I really don't want to hurt you.
I've done it before, I can do it again.
Just a few more, I promise, then this is all going to be over and we're going to get you out of this alive.
"What is it?" Remus asked with concern, seeing Hollis step back suddenly from the water as if it had scalded her. "Are you alright?"
Blinking her brown eyes a few times, the Slytherin looked back to the blanket and smiled as much as she could at Remus.
"I'm fine, you just go ahead," she told him confidently, letting go of his hand. "Just don't really want to get in the water right now."
Remus gave her a bit of an odd look but nodded knowing that she must not really want to talk about it.
Hollis watched from a dozen yards away or so with a smile as the four boys got sand in their hair and splashed water all over each other's faces, making them cough and blink before laughing and instantly getting revenge.
"Mental, aren't they?" a soft, remorseful voice from behind her asked.
Hollis turned to see Marlene.
"I suppose," she replied coldly, not wanting to do anything without Sirius giving his reaction first. "Why don't you tell them that?"
"Tell us what-" Remus started to ask with a large smile on his face that instantly fell when he saw the blonde girl standing there.
James and Peter's gazed flicked nervously to Sirius, also having the same reaction as Hollis to see his reaction before displaying their own. He was, in fact, the person that Marlene had hurt the most. And when it came to things like these, the Marauders were a group unit.
"Why is everyone looking at me?" Sirius asked, a small grin slowly forming on his face. "I'm not the one controlling how cold the water's gonna be for her when she stops standing there like an idiot and gets in with us."
Marlene's face split into a smile, nearly ready to cry from relief but knowing that she would ruin the light-heartedness of his decision.
"We missed you, Marls."
"Honestly, your stupidity has been lacking."
"Things were a bit more boring."
"Like hell."
awh so cute i cant - this chapter came from your requests <3
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