7th year
"As I was saying, Mr. Black, veritaserum is an extremely difficult potion. As you are all 7th years, I expect you all to do well on making this advanced potion. One lunar phase must be completed in order for the potion to be full effect. Please open your books and turn to page 237, and begin brewing. No further instructions are needed, so please, get to it. Partners only!" Addressed Slughorn. James and Sirius, Peter and Alice, and Remus and Lily partnered up. "Sir, what are we going to do with the potion next month when it's completed?" One short, dark haired girl asked curiously. "We will test it of course! We will place your potion in pumpkin juice and ask a few obvious questions such as 'Who is Headmaster of Hogwarts?' in front of the classroom. Those who answer incorrectly will not receive full credit because as you know, veritaserum forces you to tell the whole, entire truth." Remus and Lily started brewing immediately, while Peter struggled to properly crush his wormwood. Sirius and James fooled around, but still at least had the right ingredients in front of them. "Mate, when we leave the classroom is the potion still going to be in effect?" Sirius half complained half genuinely asked. Remus over heard him and responded, "No, if Slughorn didn't give us an anidote before leaving the class, it'd be illegal."
After spending quite some time preparing the potion, class was dismissed and everyone put their materials away. Potions was the last class of the day, so the Marauders and Lily headed up to the common room. Alice and Marlene went to the owlery. "So, what do you guys want to do until dinner?" Lily asked, sitting on the couch with James. "Well, we could go down to the quidditch field and play tag on brooms." Suggested Sirius, yawning. "Tired?" Remus commented. "Just a bit." "Me too, I'm going up to the dorms. See you guys at dinner!" "Poor guy, the full moon is in a few days." Lily sympathized, looking up at Sirius as if to tell him to after him. "That makes two of us, see ya!" He said, taking in the hint.
"Moooony, you okay? Want some chocolate?" "No and yes," he groaned. Sirius sat next to him on his bed. "What's wrong? You aren't really tired, are you?" "No." Remus took a bite of chocolate. "I'm just being stupid, it's fine." "Mhm, Moony what's wrong? You've been acting weird for the past three days." Remus sat up and leaned into Sirius, resting his head on his shoulder. "Okay, so let's think of this hypothetically. There's Person A who likes Person B and Person C knows, and wants Person A to ask out Person B. But Person B can never like Person A because of a certain something, so they don't want to ask out Person B. Person A has fancied them for the past four years, and Person C is getting annoyed at them for not doing anything about it yet. Person D jokingly says Person A and B should get together. Person C somehow tolerates Person D, and is dating them even if they are kind of a jerk. That's why Person A should listen to Person C but they don't want to because they don't want to mess things up with Person B. Get it?" Sirius looked at him with no expression. "Person C sounds smart." "Person C is indeed very smart." Remus cuddled his head into Sirius even more so he couldn't see his blush. "Person A should listen to Person C, ask out Person B, and er insult Person D?" Remus laughed, "If only it were that easy. I dunno, Person C is bright, but I just don't know what they have in mind, ya know?" "I get it. Just two questions. 1. Are you Person A? and 2. How does Person A know Person B doesn't like them?" Sirius gently brought Remus' chin up so he could look him in the eye. "I'm Person A and I just know, because...erm...well I-I just know." "Well, anybody would be lucky to have such an amazing guy." He continued after handing Remus more chocolate, "I'm sure of that, ok?" "Whatever." "Moony?" "Yes Padfoot?" Mumbled Remus who was leaning into Sirius again. "Promise me you'll talk to Person B about it within the next month." "No promises." "Or no chocolate from me for three months!" Remus whinned. "Fiiiine."
The two of them sat together, quietly talking for the remainder of the time before heading down to dinner. James seemed to be telling an over-exaggerated version of the time he dodged three bludgers at once, caught the snitch, and kicked a quaffle into the hoop. What actually happened? James Potter fell off his broom dodging the bludgers, flailing his arms around which miraculously caught the golden snitch, and accidentally kicked a quaffle into the hoop when he freaked out from seeing how close to the ground he was. Yeah. Impressive, right? Remus and Sirius sat down across from James and began eating. "Better after sleeping?" He asked them. "Yeah. Much." Remus said smiling. Sirius just nodded. "Well, you two missed the best game of Exploding Snap. Lily put a charm on the cards so not only did they explode sporadically, but they also revealed something embarrassing about the last person to touch the card! It was hilarious, right Pete?" Peter looked at him and shook his head. He still wasn't over his second card exploding on him and shouting "Peter Pettigrew has never kissed someone at Hogwarts!" Thanks, Lily.
::Time skip to 3 days later in the Hospital Wing::
Remus could see his friends approaching his bed. Lily looked like she'd seen a ghost, James looked like he'd been punched in the stomach, Peter's jaw was dropped, and Sirius- Sirius wasn't there. Lily said she was going to talk to Madam Promfrey to ask about the injuries he sustained. "Guys, can you stop looking at me like someone poured gasoline on me and is holding a lit match? I'll be fine in a few more days." Remus requested. "Sorry. You just, you look a lot worse than you usually do after a transformation." James muttered. "Gee, thanks. It's not much worse though. I just have more broken bones than usual and lost a larger amount of blood. Which is why I still have to lay in this bed for a few more days." Lily walked to Remus' bedside and held his hand. "Are you okay? Do you need anything?" She said, concern in her voice. "Lily, I'm okay. I just need rest. Uh, would you mind telling me where Sirius is though?" She smiled and explained that Sirius hadn't been paying attention in Charms, and had detention with Professor Flitwick. "Ah, makes sense. You guys should probably leave before Madam Promfrey kicks you out, literally. I need rest anyways." The two Marauders and Lily let Remus sleep and headed up to the common room. "Did you see his face when he saw us come in without Padfoot? Poor guy." James started when the reached the portrait . "James, shut up will you? I'm sure the exact minute Sirius is out of detention he will go to the Hospital Wing." "Yeah, the exact minute. Don't you ever think Sirius kind of, I dunno, gives Remus a different type of attention? Different, like a kind he wouldn't give any of us." James inquired, now walking up the stairs to the dorm. "James. I'm going to say this in the nicest way possible. Stop being a git, how Sirius acts towards Remus is none of our business. Forget it!" "She's right, ya know. Like always." Peter added, earning a glare from Prongs.
Since it was Friday, Flitwick kept Sirius in detention until midnight. When he finally got out of class, he rushed up to the Hospital Wing. Madam Promfrey wasn't too pleased to see him. "Oh come on, Poppy! I haven't seen him since the full moon. The others got to see him. I won't even wake him up, just let me see him. Please." He begged, adding in a charming smile at the end. "Fine. Two conditions. One, you stop calling me by my first name, and two, you're out of here within 45 minutes." She pointed to the farthest bed on the left in the corner. Sirius walked over, being cautious so he didn't wake any other patients. However there weren't many. Just six others. A Hufflepuff boy with platinum blonde hair that had fallen down a moving staircase, a third year Ravenclaw that burned her arm in potions, three first year Slytherins with dragon pox, and another Gryffindor that looked like they were in a coma. Sirius sat in the chair next to the werewolf and grabbed his hand gently. Remus opened his eyes and rolled over to look at him. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to wake you." He apologized, blushing. "Heightened senses. One of the perks of being a werewolf. Not really tired anyway, I've been sleeping most of the day." He sleepily said. His sleepy voice is adorable, Sirius thought.
"Why are you here?" Continued Remus. "Well," he started, "actually I don't know. I just wanted to make sure you're okay. I don't think I've ever missed a monthly visit after your transformation. You are okay, right? You do look paler than usual." "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine in a few more days. But um...were you planning on just holding my hand for 45 minutes while I slept?" He laughed softly, hoping Sirius couldn't see the redness in his cheeks in the dark room. "Uh...yeah. Well not like that, not in a creepy stalker way!" They both laughed and talked until Madam Promfrey pushed Sirius out.
James and Peter were still awake when their friend walked through the portrait. "Let me guess. You got out of detention around midnight, talked Poppy into letting you see Remus, then got kicked out?" James guessed. "How'd y-" "Just a guess." James laughed.
::Time skip to 6 days later::
"Now class, I have come up with an idea. We will vote on this, majority rules. As you know, nine days ago we began brewing veritaserum. This leaves 19 days until we test the potion. Now, I will be giving you an anecdote before you leave the classroom, however I thought I'd offer you the chance to ask one person one question before I give them the counter potion. Of course you would whisper the question to me before whispering it to them. If I do not approve of your question I will not allow it to be asked. IF I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO ASK A QUESTION AND YOU ASK AN INAPPROPRIATE ONE THAT I DID NOT APPROVE OF, ALL OF YOUR HOUSE POINTS WILL BE TAKEN AWAY! Now, let's vote. Put your heads down. All in favor of giving you chances at asking one question, raise your wands. Mmm okay. All in favor of only the questions I ask? I see. Heads up. You will be given the chance to ask one question! Aaaand class dismissed five minutes early because I have nothing further to add on this matter."
"Can you believe this? By Merlin, if the Ministry Of Magic heard about what he's allowing his class to do!" Remus said as they walked to transfiguration. "This is great! I have 19 days to figure out what I'm going to ask and to who." James shouted in excitement. "You know, if Person B has potions with us you could always make your question about that." Sirius whispered to Remus, smirking.
"Are you or not?" Lily asked Remus once the common room cleared, leaving only a few third years in the corner discussing the independence of an auror or whatever. As if that made sense. "I dunno, I mean it was Sirius who put the idea in my head! I just- FINE! If you stop giving me the death stare, I'll make my question to Sirius about a future relationship while he's under veritaserum. Slughorn still has to approve of it though." Concluded Remus, wondering if he could somehow live without three months of chocolate from Sirius. "Yes! Okay, this will be great! I'd ask you to promise to me, but I thought...maybe we could use the Unbreakable Vow instead?" Lily said, way too excited for her own good. "Absolutely not! Lily! You do realize what you're saying, right? Hey you have to ask Sirius Black if he'd be in a relationship with you while he's under a truth serum, OR YOU WILL DIE!" "Yeahh, that uh, that was not my brightest moment." Lily said, clearly embarrassed. She continued, "I'm just thrilled that you're going to finally ask him out!"
::Time skip to 4 days later in the library::
James and Lily sat together, Bowtruckles; Their Tree, opened in front of them. "This book is useless!" James sighed, looking down at the essay he was supposed to be writing and comparing it to Lily's. "James, you're just not reading the right pages. Did you even bother looking at the index? Of course not. Check page 407, that's where you'll get information about the importance of finding them the perfect habitat." Lily said, not even looking up from her essay, which was almost a foot and a half long now. James' parchment was only filled about seven inches, which was really close to nothing. "Um, Lily, can we take a quick break for a second." He pleaded. Lily, sensing this could be a serious conversation, put her quill down and put the cork in her bottle of ink. "So um, the other day I walked out of the dorm and I saw you talking to Remus. You two looked like you were discussing something of great importance, and I just wanted to confirm with you that nothing was wrong." Lily smiled and reassured him that if something was wrong she'd let him know. "Are you sure? If I've done something wrong I want to make it right. Please, there isn't anything wrong, right?" Lily pecked him on the cheek, appreciating his concern. "I promise. Now get back to your care of magical creatures essay. It has to be three feet, and you're not even a third of the way done."
::Time skip to 9 days later::
"Ugh, McGonagall was so unfair in choosing our consequence! All we did was transfigure the mimbulus mimbletonia into daisyroot draught instead of fresh water! It's not like it was enough to get us drunk! Now she says we have to polish each and every one of the trophies in Dumbledore's office? How is that fair?" James complained. Him and Peter were in for quite the night. As Head of House, she decided it was okay for them to spend as much time as needed to clean each and every one by hand as it was Friday. "Well, it is pretty important to master transfiguring plants into water. That's something you might need to use in the future." Remus replied, Lily agreeing. "Whatever." Both Peter and James said. "Come on Prongs, might as well get a head start on it." Wormtail said, already walking away.
Later on that night Sirius walked out to the lake. There weren't any students out, and the tranquility was overall calming. He grabbed a few stones and started skipping them, something Remus taught him back in third year. He skipped an old looking, goldish colored stone. Just then the Giant Squid reached one tentacle out, grabbed the stone, and flung it back in Sirius' direction full force. Sirius ducked, but heard a loud "OUCH!" from behind him, followed by several curse words he was sure he hadn't heard that voice use in a very long time. "Oi, mate why in Merlin's name would you anger the Giant Squid like that?" Remus said, walking over to him while rubbing his hand along his jaw, presumably where the stone hit him. "Well, I didn't mean to!" He beamed, joking with Remus about the time he sneaked into the Slytherin common room in first year and nearly peed himself when the Giant Squid swam by.
"Soooo?"
"Soooo? Pads, why on Earth are you out here at ten to midnight?"
"I needed air."
"So you come out here and play catch with a dangerous sea creature?"
"If you wanna think 'bout it like that then yes, yes I did come out here and play catch with a dangerous sea creature."
"You're an idiot."
"Yes but I'm a lovable idiot."
"That's quite possible the most Sirius Black thing to say."
"Indeed it is."
The two Gryffindors walked around the edge of the grounds bordering the Forbidden Forest, or as Sirius and James like to call it "The Highly Discouraged Forest." They had just gotten done talking about an assignment in D.A.D.A when Sirius asked if Remus knew who he was going to ask his question to in potions next Friday. "Yeah. Person C kind of gave me this death stare that pushed me over the edge." He smiled to himself, still amazed that he agreed for Lily. "Ohh, you mean like the death stare Lily used to give James just before she punched him after he asked her out for the 109th time that week?" "Yes, exactly like that death stare, Padfoot."
::Time skip to 5 days later in History of Magic::
"That concludes our chapter on spell inventing in 1298. Please get into partners and begin your essays on the four main spells perfected during this year. If you need to review, books on the second to last shelf would be useful, pages 23 through 31. Papers are due Monday, two feet of parchment." Announced Professor Binns. Sirius grabbed a book and sat with Remus, occasionally asking him for clarification. By the time he had eight inches done, Moony was handing in his paper early. "How? How do you do it? How do you manage to write so quickly? How do you always have such quality work to hand in? How do you so effortlessly do work without complaining or losing your mind? How are you so smart? How are you so perfect?" Was that last question supposed to be said out loud? Nope. "To answer questions one through six, I study. To answer question seven, uh, I dunno. How do you think that despite my many imperfections?" Remus responded, catching Lily's eye as she looked over at him, beaming.
"They are so in love and you cannot tell me otherwise, Lily." James commented, sitting at the table beside Sirius and Remus'. "Well I'm not going to deny that it certainly sounds like it." She confessed, getting up to turn in her work early as well.
At breakfast the next morning the post was heavier than usual. Peter got a letter from his mom saying something along the lines of 'Your father and I are thinking of you. Study hard for your important exams this final year.' and a few other lines updating him on what's going on at home. Classes were pretty boring. In Astronomy they just got an extra long lecture because some Slytherin boy with the darkest eyes called it "a useless lesson we'll never use in life." In charms they were just dumped an excessive amount of homework, and in potions they handed in their veritaserum assignment.
Thursday was at least more eventful. Remus was awoken by James and Sirius having a pointless, stupid, though entertaining argument over if Sirius ate everything a dog shouldn't eat while in animagus form if he would die or not. "Guys, why would you have this conversation at six thirty in the bloody morning?" He complained. "Whatever, all I'm saying is that if you get drunk off your arse one day and eat a ton of chocolate as Padfoot, don't come whining to me, worried if you'll die." James said as he walked in the bathroom and turned on the shower. Remus got dressed and muttered something along the lines of "Lovable idiot," and headed down to breakfast.
During breakfast a 7th year Ravenclaw girl the Marauders recognized from DADA opened a howler. "...AND IF YOU EVER DECIDE TO TRY THAT AGAIN WITHOUT RUNNING IT BY ME AGAIN I SWEAR TO MERLIN I WILL MARCH DOWN TO HOGWARTS MYSELF AND MAKE YOUR LAST FEW MONTHS OF SCHOOL THE LAST OF YOUR LIFE AS WELL! *Slightly quieter voice in the background* OKAY ELAINE, I THINK MISS PATHILDA UNDERSTANDS PERFECTLY WELL WHY SHE SHOULD NOT DO WHATEVER IT IS YOU'RE MAD AT HER FOR. LET'S NOT GIVE DEATH THREATS TO OUR OWN OFFSPRING NOW." The howler was another three minutes long. At the end of it everyone in the great hall was laughing, including Hagrid, Slughorn, and Dumbledore.
Then during care of magical creatures, a bunch of muggle-borns completely lost it when a half-blood commented about someone called Steve Irwin and how much he would love to train acromantulas.
In DADA Dumbledore came in to inspect the lesson and was attacked by a loose pixie. What was a pixie doing in DADA? Nobody knew, but it was hilarious.
Potions was the last class of the day. Professor Slughorn reminded his students that tomorrow their advanced veritaserum potion would be ready and tested in front of the entire class. Someone asked if he himself would be under the influence of it as well. "Yes. I think I will take some of the most powerful potion in the world and proceed to tell my class of 17 year olds information they should not retain. I do think that is quite a brilliant idea, anyone else?" Laughter erupted around the classroom.
Sirius Black wasn't himself during dinner. He hardly ate any of his food, and excused himself early and walked up to the dorms. About 15 minutes later James walked in and sat next to him. "Padfoot what's wrong?" He asked, genuinely concerned. Sirius sighed. "Okay, but this conversation stays between us, I don't care if it doesn't make much sense. Person A told Person B a story almost a month ago. Person B was convinced the story was about them, and certainly hoped it was. Person A told Person B that they had talked to Person C and were about to do something they promised Person B they'd do within a month. Well the month is almost over and Person A has yet to say anything to Person B, when they were so convinced they had a chance at being Person A's version of Person B. I know that doesn't make much sense, but work with it, yeah? Oh, and then there's Person D who said something about Person A and B that Person C agreed on that made Person B feel all warm inside, hoping it was true."
After having a long, hypothetical talk using 'Person [variable]' type of names, James had cheered Sirius up enough to go down to the common room. When they walked down, Moony was tutoring second years in multiple subjects. Marlene, Alice, Emmaline, and Lily were giggling to themselves on the couch, while some fifth years propped up in front of a few books and at least twelve feet of parchment looked like they'd been up for four days straight.
"Mooooony! Wormtaillll! Prongssss! Get up! It's Friday and we've got an important day ahead of us!" Sirius called as he pulled on his robes. "Can beh jub say sweep for tem more mins?" James said, obviously still have asleep. "JAMES GET UP YOU'RE GOING TO BE LATE FOR A QUIDDITCH MATCH!" Remus shouted sitting up in bed. Sure enough, James rushed out of bed and began to get ready at lightning speed while Remus and Sirius laughed a lot harder than they should have. "Wait, it's not Sunday, is it? We don't have a quidditch match against Ravenclaw until Sunday, you bastard!" Prongs yelled and threw a pillow at Remus. Peter finally got up, being the quietest of the Marauders by far that morning.
It was as if the entire Gryffindor house had a bowl of sugar dumped in their pumpkin juice that day. Not a single person could stay quiet in any of their classes until they reached potions. The class was dead silent then, nobody knowing exactly what to say. "Right. Let's get to it. Everyone grab your potion and get with your original partner. I will call you one by one to drink the potion and be questioned. If you answer the question correctly, you will receive full marks. Even if your partner goes up and tests the potion, I will require both students answer in front of the classroom. I will then ask if any students would like to ask you one appropriate question. Whispering, only!" Slughorn said, and everyone raced around to find the potion in a bottle marked with their partner's name next to theirs. "Marsha Hoggins." Slughorn called out. Miss Hoggins walked up and took a swig of her potion in front of the class. "Tell me, what school do you attend?" The professor asked from the side of the room. "Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry." She responded in her normal, bubbly voice. "Great! Does anyone wish to ask her a question? Line up in front of me and recite the question before asking her." A few of her friends lined up, laughing at her response. "Thydus Forman." He took a sip and looked at Slughorn. "What is todays date?" "Today is August 21st, 1897." He answered. A few giggles and a sigh from his partner came from the class. "Right. Um, partial credit. Seeing as that was incorrect, nobody shall ask him any questions. "James Potter." "Oh great. This'll be interesting." Sirius whispered. "What is your blood status?" "Pure-blood, sir." "Good job, line up if you wish to ask something." A few people lined up, but were sent back by Slughorn for "inappropriate questions." leaving Lily the only one allowed to whisper a question. She walked back to her seat beside Remus blushing, James smiling before drinking the anecdote. Five more students were called up before Sirius Black was called. "Mr. Black, how many fingers am I holding up?" Slughorn held up two fingers. "Two." He replied quickly. Remus went up to ask him a question. Lily smiled wider than she had in quite some time. James smirked, and Peter rose his eyebrows.
Remus whispered into Sirius' ear, softy but confidently. "What would you say if I asked you out on a date?" Sirius responded a lot louder than a whisper, making the rest of the class confused. "YES, ABSOLUTELY, IT'S ABOUT FREAKING TIME!" He yelled, making James turn to Lily, who looked like she won ten million dollars. Remus didn't care about anything else in the moment, and pulled Sirius into a kiss. A soft, but full-of-love kiss. Every single person in the classroom either said 'awww' or was too shocked to even properly react. Lily cheered as loud as she could, acting like it was the biggest quidditch match of the century.
After potions the Marauders headed up to the common room. It was the best day of Remus and Sirius' lives. Remus forgot about the fact that the full moon would be out in a few short hours, and Sirius didn't have to worry about if Remus liked him or not. "I love you, Moony." "I love you too, Padfoot." "You guys have no idea how much better it will be around here now that you two finally got together!" James chimed in. The Marauders and Lily laughed.
Thank you for reading! Let me know what you thought of this! It's almost 3 AM and I'm positive it was dreadful, but hopefully you thought otherwise!
Word count- 4,664