"the basis of optimism is sheer terror."
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DINNER WAS AWKWARD. And that was the understatement of the century. Draco was dressed in the same outfit, and Harry was still singing under his breath to annoy him across the table. I was next to Ron who pretended he couldn't hear Draco's angry scraping against the plate with his knife, or Harry's horrible singing. Hermione looked helplessly between me and Sirius, and Sirius seemed to enjoy it too much.
"Sirius," I asked loudly. "Isn't Moony coming tonight?"
"No, Merlin," he chuckled. "Not tonight."
"Why?" Hermione asked curiously. I met Harry's eyes across the table and smirked lightly. Draco raised his eyebrows turning towards Hermione.
"I forgot about Granger," he muttered, gracefully after swallowing his food, unlike Harry, who laughed with a mouthful of food.
"Sirius is initiating us to the adult life today, 'Mione," Harry said. Ron turned towards me, confusion in his bright blue eyes.
"He got mead and firewhiskey," I said. "We're drinking today."
"Skylar!" Hermione gasped.
"Aren't you going to?" I asked. I never truly believed Hermione was a prude.
"Of course I'm going to, but," she sighed. "I needed a little more time to prepare."
"Well," Sirius laughed. "You have a few hours. You don't want to drink on a full stomach."
"Why are we drinking?" Ron asked. "Suddenly? In the middle of all this?"
"That's exactly why we're drinking, Weasley," Draco said. "Because it's the middle of all this."
"A distraction," Harry said. "It's only a matter of days till I turn seventeen and we set out for the last Horcrux."
Silence set on the table for just a split second and then Hermione told me, "I read your journal."
I raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you scared?"
"Terrified," she sighed. "But I also believe most of it won't happen. For instance-"
"Not now, Hermione," I paused her. "Today, we don't talk about all that."
"To the last few days of freedom," Sirius said standing up.
We all held up an imaginary toast.
-
"If you had a drink," Draco said pouring mead into glasses, with accurately measured sparkling water and liquor, skillfully, "for every bad decision you made, how drunk would you be?"
He handed the glasses of fowl-smelling Irish blend to all off us, and held one himself, against the light, observing the brown liquid.
"I'd be a little tipsy," Hermione said, making a face at the smell. "Sober enough to drive back home."
"Drunk," Ron said. "Severely drunk but probably in my senses."
"Me too," Draco said, chuckling a little. "Drunk. But probably not in my senses."
Harry caught my eyes across the table and with a deadpanned tone, both of us said, "I'd be dead."
"We know," Hermione laughed and Ron sniggered.
"So, how do we drink this?" Harry asked.
"Let's play a game," I suggested wickedly. "It's a muggle game. It's called Never Have I Ever."
"Oh, yes!" Hermione said gleefully. "We'll say something that we never did, and whoever did it would have to take a shot!"
I was glad Sirius had left us to this, andnwe were all huddled in the living room, around the fireplace. His idea for supervision wasn't recommendable.
"Yes," I said. "I'd start. Never have I ever," and I wondered. "Never have I ever set a snake on other people."
"How on Earth do you know that?" Harry snapped, taking a shot of the mead, and passing the glass to Draco, who, with a flick of his wand, refilled it.
"Excuse me, what?" Draco sputtered.
"Look, the snake wanted to go to Brazil," Harry rubbed his temples, wincing from the burning alcohol. "I was eleven. It seemed reasonable at that time."
"Who did you set it on?" Draco asked, who wasn't aware of the story because he spent his whole second year hating on Harry.
"My cousin Dudley," Harry grinned. "I hated him. He made my life miserable. Who's next?"
"I'll go," Hermione said. "We'll go counter clockwise. Never have I ever cheated on a test."
Ron, Harry and Draco swiftly took their shots, and I raised my eyebrow at Draco.
"What?" He said with a straight face from the alcohol, unlike Ron who spluttered and had mead running down his chin. "I was fourteen, and the Potion was hard to make."
"Oh," I said, nodding. Potions. Understandable.
"Never have I ever snogged Malfoy," Ron said abruptly, smirking at my direction. I rolled my eyes and took a shot, the disgusting burning sensation going down my throat.
"Never have I ever," Harry paused. There was hardly anything he didn't do. "Never have I ever purposely put my name in the Goblet of Fire."
"Oh, please, you're targeting me!" I snapped taking another shot.
"Never have I ever shoplifted," Draco said. I glared at him, and again took a shot. "Really? You shoplifted?" He asked me.
"I lived in an orphanage Draco," I said. "I hardly got anything I wanted. I shoplifted to get something I wanted."
"What did you steal?" Ron asked.
"A packet of gum," I said sheepishly. "Never have I ever missed my train to Hogwarts."
Ron and Harry took a shot, again wincing and making faces. I smirked.
"Never have I ever driven an enchanted car to Hogwarts," Hermione said. They glared, taking shots again.
"Yes I remember," Draco laughed. "It was all over the paper."
"You wish you were cool enough to drive a flying car to Hogwarts at twelve, Malfoy," Ron smirked.
"Id rather not, thank you," Draco said, suddenly taking a shot.
"Why'd you take that shot for?" Hermione asked, annoyed that a rule was broken.
"I want to drink," he said. "Weasley, your turn."
"Never have I ever obsessed over Malfoy," Ron said.
Harry and I sighed, taking shots.
"When did you obsess over me?" Draco asked curiously.
"When did I not?" I shrugged.
When we were a whole bottle of mead down, I realized Harry was quite right to say that both of us would be dead if we took a shot for every time we made a bad decision or did something reckless. Soon, we were all slurring our words- Draco had gone into his post-alcohol trance and was making things levitate around the room again. Harry seemed fiddly and agitated that he couldn't use magic. I had subconsciously made a force field around us, making the hair on all our heads sticking around. Hermione was ranting, still a little soberer than the rest, about something I couldn't bother to listen, and Ron had taken a strange interest in listening to her, for the first time ever. I looked at the two of them, and targetted my magic there. I lost control and ended up pushing Ron with magic onto Hermione.
I gasped and then I giggled, pushing a disgruntled looking Ron back onto a red-faced Hermione, and said, "Now kiss!"
"Skylar!" Ron grunted, pushing away from Hermione and glaring at my direction. I would have been threatened if he actually managed to look at me, but his drunk eyes just looked at my forehead.
"Ronald!" I mimicked him.
"Ah, come on Weasley," Draco groaned with a slur. Hot. "We've all seen how you look at Granger!"
"This is war!" Harry screamed suddenly. We jumped at his outburst and my magic sent Hermione flying onto Ron now.
"Skylar stop manhandling us!" She screeched, as Draco raised his fist into the air, Reparifors after Harry, "This is war!"
"You know," I giggled. "In the foretold, it's also mentioned who's gonna marry who."
"Apparently I was supposed to marry Asmalda Gregory," Draco said. I frowned at him.
"Who's Asmalda Gregory?"
"You said I was going to marry her," he frowned as well.
I facepalmed. "No I said you married Astoria Greengrass."
"At least he got the initials right," Harry muttered. "Hey. HEY! Do we win the war?"
"Yes!" I laughed. "We win!"
"And we'll win even more now," Draco said gleefully. "We have Slytherins on our side this time."
"It's like a movie," Hermione said dreamily.
"A what?" Ron sputtered.
"You won't get it," she smiled dreamily.
"Hey, HEY!"
"What?" I looked at Harry, annoyed.
"Who's your favorite Marauder?"
"Remus," I said without blinking, but quietly, so that Sirius doesn't overhear.
"Why?"
"He's a freaking werewolf," I said excitedly. "A wizard, a smartass wizard, and a aurantwerewolf, and kind, and he's a Marauder."
"But he's too good," Harry said. "I like Sirius more."
"I know," I laughed. "But Remus isn't better than the rest. He's just smart enough to not get caught."
"And," Ron said loudly. "None of us like, scabbers. All in favor, say aye!"
"Aye!"
"What the hell is a scabbers?" Draco asked, dropping a lamp he was levitating.
"The traitor, Draco," I said. "I told you. The fourth Marauder. Who ratted out Harry's parents!"
"Oh,"he said in recognition. And then he laughed. "Remember when we had to transfigure rats into cups?"
"Yeah."
"Remember how Weasley fucked up and it was a furry cup with a tail? Imagine how different everything would be if Weasley fucked up more and accidentally un-animagus'd Peter Pettigrew!"
I frowned. "Why didn't I think of this when I was trying to change the past?" I felt weird, suddenly. "Everything would have been so different then!"
"Hey," Harry said loudly. "You were thirteen! Don't be so hard on yourself!"
I paused, taking a chug directly from the bottle, my tongue and throat now immune to the burning, and passed the bottle to Ron, who look a gulp bigger than his capability, and sputtered it out of his nose.
"I cannot save everyone," I muttered. "I wanted to save Tom Riddle."
"Excuse me, what?" Harry snapped.
"Well," I quickly said. "He wasn't supposed to be bad. He was wronged badly. You should know. You know how his childhood was. And on top of that, he was made out of love potion. Children conceived out of love potion are practically incapable of emotions!" I said running out of breath. "No wonder he was a cold, egoistic narcissist. And no one bothered to try hard enough to penetrate into this cold-hearted boy-"
"Penetrate," Hermione laughed.
"Oh, shut up!"
"I could've saved so many people if I had accidentally travelled back too far, into Tom's time," I laughed. "He's too far gone now. Oh, well," I took another chug.
"Oh," Ron said suddenly. "I completed forgot about it!"
He stood up and stumbled ungracefully to the end of the living room sofa, where there was a bad he had brought with himself when he arrived. He almost fell over, bending down to pick it up. Harry wolf-whistled for whatever reason, and Ron flushed, turning back with a box wrapped in colorful wrapping paper. He handed the box to Draco, who dropped everything he was levitating and took it.
"Mum felt bad that you had to spend your birthday in Hogwarts last year," Ron slurred falling back next to Hermione. "You know, with Voldemort breathing down your neck and all," he continued as we eyed Draco, as he carefully opened the wrapper, unlike Harry who tore through everything that came his way. "Besides, after the Battle at Hogwarts, we all trust you completely so-"
Draco held up a forest green jumper from the wrapped parcel and a look of recognition dawned on him. His eyes widened ever so slightly. He had probably seen the Weasleys all wear matching jumpers with their initials all the time in Hogwarts after Christmas. He held up his Forest Green jumper with a bright silver "D" knitted on it, surrounded by a charmed knitting of the Golden Snitch, fluttering.
"Mum says welcome to the Family."
The waterworks had begun before any of us had the chance to pull ourselves together. Silent sobs and tears escaped from Draco Malfoy as he gripped the sweater.
"What-"
"Malfoy if you don't like it I can ask mum to take it back," Ron said, alarmed.
"No," Draco choked. "I love it. Tell Mrs Weasley I said thanks."
"Then why are you crying?" Harry asked, loudly.
"Because it's a present, you daft idiot," Draco said through his tears. "My parents would just buy something from some shop for me. This- Mrs Weasley- made this for me-"
The strangest thing happened next. Harry and Ron scuttled over and tried comforting Draco. Harry awkwardly wrapped his arms around Draco's shoulders and Ron petted his hair. I almost snorted. Draco swatted Ron's arm away and said, "Not the hair!"
"Merlin, fine!" Ron moved away. It became quiet suddenly and then Draco spoke again.
"I always wanted to friends with you three," he spoke, slurring and sobbing at the same time. "I never really meant anything bad I did. I was just- I don't know how to explain this. I guess I was expected to behave a certain way? Because of my family. And I felt the need to do it because I really didn't want to disappoint them. . .but I don't know why I did what they expected either. . ."
"It's okay Draco," Hermione spoke quietly. "Children tend to do what's asked of them or expected of them as a child, because of the fear of disapproval or abandonment. When you're young, you don't really look for a moral cause in doing things. You just do because you're expected to do. And the only reason you do is because of the fear of disapproval. It's alright Draco," Hermione smiled faintly. "You're not a bad person."
Draco choked. Harry hugged him tighter. Draco sneered. "Not that close yet, Potter!"
"I like how he said yet," I laughed. "It means there's a chance!"
-
"Sirius!" Someone screamed, and I jolted awake, to see Remus Lupin standing at the fireplace looking disgruntled. I squinted, the light was too bright. I waved my hand and the curtains closed.
"Why are you screaming?" I whimpered, the noise was hurting my head. He raised an eyebrow and motioned around the room. I looked around.
We were all asleep in the living room- Hermione was on the chunky armchair with Ron on the ground next to her, their fingers touching slight. Harry was sprawled across the floor like the Giant Squid, his glasses held in his hand, in a dangerous angle. Draco and I were cuddled together in the big sofa in the center. "Oh," I said.
"Did Sirius make you all drink?" Remus asked.
"He didn't make us," I groaned. "He suggested and we took it."
"Oh!" A voice squeaked from the doorway, and Sirius appeared. "Moony-"
"Don't Moony me!" Remus snapped. And my heart slightly fluttered at the wolfstar happening. "They're barely seventeen!"
"Remus don't act like you didn't have a flask of firewhiskey all the time on you during the OWLs!" Sirius said sarcastically.
"I was under stress!" Remus retorted, getting red. "It was a full moon between the exams!"
"They're stressed too," Sirius said. "They're kids. And they deserve to enjoy this. Look-is that a Weasley sweater?"
He pointed at the forest green jumped at the edge of the sofa. Memories of last night, involving tears and involuntary bonding between all my boys, came flooding back to me. I sat up slowly, careful not to elbow Draco, and landed on the floor light. Harry stirred, and turned around wildly, throwing a leg over Ron.
"Yes," I muttered standing up. "Molly sent one for Draco to welcome him to the family."
"Oh," Remus muttered, dramatically putting a hand on his chest. "See, Sirius, that's how you welcome people into the family!"
"I didn't welcome anyone anywhere. I initiated them," Sirius smirked. I didn't know what it meant, but clearly Remus did. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline and then he threw his hands up.
"They're not us, Sirius!"
"Oh, but they are," Sirius said gleefully. "Don't tell me they don't remind you of us."
"Excuse me," I said quietly. "Us as in. . ."
"The Marauders," Remus sighed. "Sirius is under the impression that you lot are us."
"Oh," I squeaked, ignoring the pain in my head. "Yes!"
"It's not a good thing."
"You're right!" I jumped to the two of them. "It's a great thing! We're Marauders 2.0!"
Remus stared at me, gaping slightly, as Sirius smirked. "This is why," Remus ran a hand through his hair. "I told Nymphadora I shouldn't have left the kids with you."
I jumped up, hugging Remus, turned and hugged Sirius too. At this, Remus couldn't stay mad any longer, so he just chuckled.
"I have news though," he said.
"What is it?" Sirius asked seriously, but by the look on Remus's face I knew what was coming. My hand flew to my mouth to prevent me from screaming and waking up the rest who were still sleeping.
"Tonks is pregnant!"
"How do you know?" Remus asked with a slight redness to his face.
"I know everything!" I squeaked. "I can't wait for the rest of them to know! Little Lupin!"
I ran back to my room, and straight into the shower, hearing Sirius talking excitedly with Remus booking the godfather place again.
Everything was happening great. We were a big group. We were the Marauders and more. We were happy and Harry and Ron and Draco were getting alone, and Hermione and Ron were passed out drunk. Everything was going great. I wondered for how long.
I shook my head, soaking in the warm water. Everything will be fine. I will go back to Hogwarts. Draco will remain here, for no one can know he's alive. The Trio will go and destroy the cup. And Voldemort would know that no matter how great he is, he was bested by a school full of kids determined to fight for what they think is right.
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