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paulamcgIn the Top Five Meme pink_ink asked about my favourite Marauders moments. I don’t think that in canon there’s a single good moment with all the four Marauders present. Perhaps a brief moment in the memory scene before the tormenting of Snape starts, but even there I’m not very fond of the clumsy joke Remus makes about the exam question. I am forced to introduce some moments from my own fic! :) Thank you so much, pink_ink!
These are in chronological order. It was hard to choose. There’s so much more where these come from…
1. “It was there still in the morning?” Peter said in the dormitory on the following day, with incredulity apparent in his voice. “It was with… it… all night… A rat spent the night there with you? Together with you! A rat…”
“What if…” Sirius cut in, “if we were rats, we could be with you.”
“Maybe I just failed to catch it.”
“I doubt you even tried,” James said. “You said the rat was right there, by your side… not scared.”
“Is it possible…” I said mainly to myself. “You know, I must find out if…”
“If we could be rats!” Peter’s voice was strangely stifled, but he chuckled, and I couldn’t tell if there was more than simple amusement behind it.
“Don’t be silly,” I hurried to say. “If the wolf kills animals or not…”
(Remus Lupin and the Revolt of the Creatures, Chapter Thirteen: Volunteering to Change)
(All the other links are to short stories on AO3.)
2. “We have not become Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs so as to let you chase us around in a squalid room and bore yourself to sleeping through the rest of the beautiful, luminous night. We’ve done it to make these nights the best times of your life. We’ll let you out.”
“No!” Remus breathes it out at once, with all the strength of his breath.
“Yes!” James is triumphant.
Now I remember that he’s said it before, in April. We’ll let it out. Or did he say him? That led to the talk about expeditions. But we’ve started inside the castle, and obviously without a wolf, whereas Remus has done some beautiful work on drawing corridors and staircases, and concealing them level by level in the depths of his special artistry parchment, although there’re so far no secrets besides our passwords themselves. Yes, that’s the good idea to replace James’s. I don’t want to have anything to do with a monster running free around Hogsmeade, and I’m ignoring what James has said.
But Sirius has changed back. He’s struggling to sit up, holding Remus’s both hands, and must let go one, but continues to squeeze the other. “Don’t you dare do that, too, without considering!”
“I have considered and planned it since last spring. Ever since I knew I’d be a bigger animal.” James waves his arms high, indicating the majestic stag, and resumes pacing. “We can keep the wolf in check. He won’t get near humans. Besides, he’ll be even less anxious when free.”
“No,” Remus says in a low, controlled voice. “I’m already more anxious just thinking about it, the possibility that I…”
“How can you be so sure!” Sirius cuts in, not with a genuine question.
But James answers one, “I can be sure, because I’ve already done it. I set him free in the Cotswolds.”
“Fuck.” Now the low voice is Sirius’s.
Remus has closed his eyes. He looks pale despite the remains of his beautiful tan.
Our Most Noble Prank
3. “T’was just an idea,” Peter’s saying.
“A great one!” James lashes with his wand towards Remus and me, and seals the door behind us with his personal, voiceless charm.
With the cloak on his shoulders, with his head the only visible part of him, he kneels to lift his mattress and gets the map from under it. “Of course, you must go. And I’m going to try and get into that tunnel with you. Show me where exactly the entrance is! There’re so many statues of ugly witches.”
“I pointed out the statue to Remus when we passed it yesterday. Hey…” Peter turns towards the two of us.
There’s a pause, then a frown – his recurring signals to remind me that I’m getting too far, or too close, depending on how you take it: close to my Moony.
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” James has tapped the map with his wand.
Peter starts again, “Hey Moony, have you marked it on the map yet?”
I move aside – just where I want, regardless of what Wormy thinks about it. I’m Remus’s closest friend now, and it’s perfectly natural that I can go and rummage in his trunk, looking for his thickest pair of socks, and that I consider this the most urgent task, even though I am, of course, excited about the new tunnel.
Here, a soft, woollen pair. Lowering the lid of the trunk, I see all three of them at James’s bed: James himself still on his knees, Peter standing, bent to slide his wand over the parchment, looking for the right part of the castle – “Third floor, the corridor here” – and my Moony sitting cross-legged on the coverlet.
I go and sit down on the edge of the bed, and lay the ball of socks on Moony’s lap. His left hand brushes mine as well as the wool when reaching out to touch a dot of green ink on the map. And after he withdraws his finger, a perfect miniature painting emerges: the statue of a humpbacked, one-eyed witch.
“Wicked!” James exclaims.
“You’re amazing.” I’ve ended up admiring the artist instead of his work, and doing it tenderly.
“Isn’t it?” Peter’s certainly proud of his own achievement – and for a reason.
As a rat trying to escape Filch’s cat – stupidly – by climbing on a statue, and by accident spotting a crack in it, almost falling in. Big Deal. But returning to examine the crack, first in man form, with a hand, then venturing in as a rat, and even following the tunnel he found until its end! All by himself, before reporting to us. He’s perhaps no such coward I’ve thought – and definitely no such tag-along as he’s made our teachers consider him, so as to appear as innocent of our pranks.
With Tender Patience
4. “Perhaps. I should listen to them, too,” Remus replies to Peter. “But Queen are the best I know so far.”
The two of them are walking side by side as Peter’s leading our way towards Hyde Park. We couldn’t possibly go astray in this stream of young Muggles, but he likes to demonstrate that he’s the one in our gang with the most experience about the non-magical side of the capital.
During Peter’s rave about the Who, I’ve been slowed down a bit by holding my arm around Lily’s waist, but I can see clearly enough Remus’s tender and concerned expression when he glances back at Sirius just behind him. Poor Padfoot! His Moony understands perhaps even better than I do why he feels uncomfortable in crowds and would rather resort to his dog form.
“How well can you know any queen?” Sirius asks, clearly trying his best to sound relaxed and playful.
“Lily’s invited me a couple of times,” Remus starts his explanation, “to help her and Alice arrange pictures on their walls and such, choose curtains…”
“Of course, you’re the expert in interior decoration,” Peter cuts in sarcastically. “We can see that in your rented room.”
That’s a bit mean, but Remus only smiles. “In there I’ve got a special minimalistic style.
More and More Exciting Muggle Music
5. The sand in my shoes has helped me keep only that song in my mind all the rest of the way, through the fields, under the hazy blue and huge sky. Now after that crossroads, this straight ahead must be the final stretch. Over there it’ll turn into the Strood, the causeway built by the Romans, or was it the Saxons, never mind. But…
“It’s sunk under water!” I exclaim, having stopped Grim.
James arrives beside me, staring ahead with wide eyes.
Peter laughs. “No, the water’s risen.” Of course. “We’re so lucky!” Is he serious?
“Oh yes, you told me,” James says. Why haven’t they told me, who’s responsible for the arrangements?
“It’s fascinating to see. And not very frequent, rising to this level, I mean. Great coincidence!”
Remus spares me from asking, “What’s so fortunate about a flood?”
“You know, the high tide comes twice a day. But it rises high enough to cover the Strood only for about a week every month,” Peter explains smugly. “And we’re lucky to see it.”
“But how can we now get to the island?” I hope this is not a stupid question. “If you knew, you could have checked, or asked me to check when the tide’s this high.”
“Oh, the tide will be low enough in an hour or so. We’ll wait and watch.”
It does look wondrous how the water washes the paving ever closer to us, and further towards the island, all I can see of the road are the railings. And a car! Still far, and approaching slowly, cleaving a path through the sea, raising a high wave on either side.
“Yes, look!” James has noticed it, too. “There will be some daredevils to watch. Most people must know the tide times, as there’s nobody else...”
Peter interrupts him. “Pads, don’t even think about riding into the water!”
“No. Grim doesn’t like saltwater.” I’m still speaking when I register rough voices: shouting, swearing. The car on the Strood is a convertible, and there are five young men in it, laughing… some of them even pointing towards us. “I’ve just thought of something else.”
Starting the bike, I glance at Remus. “You trust me?” I rather just mouth than say aloud.
He grins and nods when Grim’s already turning under us.
“Sorry, mates! Don’t want to wait here. See you by the beach huts. It’s no use you following, you know...”
James is about to start the moped but gives up. “Pads, it’s not reliable yet!”
“At short distance it is!” I wonder if he can hear my reply since I’m speeding up.
This Little Oyster
pink_ink asked about my favourite Marauders moments. I don’t think that in canon there’s a single good moment with all the four Marauders present. Perhaps a brief moment in the memory scene before the tormenting of Snape starts, but even there I’m not very fond of the clumsy joke Remus makes about the exam question. I am forced to introduce some moments from my own fic! :) Thank you so much, pink_ink!These are in chronological order. It was hard to choose. There’s so much more where these come from…
1. “It was there still in the morning?” Peter said in the dormitory on the following day, with incredulity apparent in his voice. “It was with… it… all night… A rat spent the night there with you? Together with you! A rat…”
“What if…” Sirius cut in, “if we were rats, we could be with you.”
“Maybe I just failed to catch it.”
“I doubt you even tried,” James said. “You said the rat was right there, by your side… not scared.”
“Is it possible…” I said mainly to myself. “You know, I must find out if…”
“If we could be rats!” Peter’s voice was strangely stifled, but he chuckled, and I couldn’t tell if there was more than simple amusement behind it.
“Don’t be silly,” I hurried to say. “If the wolf kills animals or not…”
(Remus Lupin and the Revolt of the Creatures, Chapter Thirteen: Volunteering to Change)
(All the other links are to short stories on AO3.)
2. “We have not become Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs so as to let you chase us around in a squalid room and bore yourself to sleeping through the rest of the beautiful, luminous night. We’ve done it to make these nights the best times of your life. We’ll let you out.”
“No!” Remus breathes it out at once, with all the strength of his breath.
“Yes!” James is triumphant.
Now I remember that he’s said it before, in April. We’ll let it out. Or did he say him? That led to the talk about expeditions. But we’ve started inside the castle, and obviously without a wolf, whereas Remus has done some beautiful work on drawing corridors and staircases, and concealing them level by level in the depths of his special artistry parchment, although there’re so far no secrets besides our passwords themselves. Yes, that’s the good idea to replace James’s. I don’t want to have anything to do with a monster running free around Hogsmeade, and I’m ignoring what James has said.
But Sirius has changed back. He’s struggling to sit up, holding Remus’s both hands, and must let go one, but continues to squeeze the other. “Don’t you dare do that, too, without considering!”
“I have considered and planned it since last spring. Ever since I knew I’d be a bigger animal.” James waves his arms high, indicating the majestic stag, and resumes pacing. “We can keep the wolf in check. He won’t get near humans. Besides, he’ll be even less anxious when free.”
“No,” Remus says in a low, controlled voice. “I’m already more anxious just thinking about it, the possibility that I…”
“How can you be so sure!” Sirius cuts in, not with a genuine question.
But James answers one, “I can be sure, because I’ve already done it. I set him free in the Cotswolds.”
“Fuck.” Now the low voice is Sirius’s.
Remus has closed his eyes. He looks pale despite the remains of his beautiful tan.
Our Most Noble Prank
3. “T’was just an idea,” Peter’s saying.
“A great one!” James lashes with his wand towards Remus and me, and seals the door behind us with his personal, voiceless charm.
With the cloak on his shoulders, with his head the only visible part of him, he kneels to lift his mattress and gets the map from under it. “Of course, you must go. And I’m going to try and get into that tunnel with you. Show me where exactly the entrance is! There’re so many statues of ugly witches.”
“I pointed out the statue to Remus when we passed it yesterday. Hey…” Peter turns towards the two of us.
There’s a pause, then a frown – his recurring signals to remind me that I’m getting too far, or too close, depending on how you take it: close to my Moony.
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.” James has tapped the map with his wand.
Peter starts again, “Hey Moony, have you marked it on the map yet?”
I move aside – just where I want, regardless of what Wormy thinks about it. I’m Remus’s closest friend now, and it’s perfectly natural that I can go and rummage in his trunk, looking for his thickest pair of socks, and that I consider this the most urgent task, even though I am, of course, excited about the new tunnel.
Here, a soft, woollen pair. Lowering the lid of the trunk, I see all three of them at James’s bed: James himself still on his knees, Peter standing, bent to slide his wand over the parchment, looking for the right part of the castle – “Third floor, the corridor here” – and my Moony sitting cross-legged on the coverlet.
I go and sit down on the edge of the bed, and lay the ball of socks on Moony’s lap. His left hand brushes mine as well as the wool when reaching out to touch a dot of green ink on the map. And after he withdraws his finger, a perfect miniature painting emerges: the statue of a humpbacked, one-eyed witch.
“Wicked!” James exclaims.
“You’re amazing.” I’ve ended up admiring the artist instead of his work, and doing it tenderly.
“Isn’t it?” Peter’s certainly proud of his own achievement – and for a reason.
As a rat trying to escape Filch’s cat – stupidly – by climbing on a statue, and by accident spotting a crack in it, almost falling in. Big Deal. But returning to examine the crack, first in man form, with a hand, then venturing in as a rat, and even following the tunnel he found until its end! All by himself, before reporting to us. He’s perhaps no such coward I’ve thought – and definitely no such tag-along as he’s made our teachers consider him, so as to appear as innocent of our pranks.
With Tender Patience
4. “Perhaps. I should listen to them, too,” Remus replies to Peter. “But Queen are the best I know so far.”
The two of them are walking side by side as Peter’s leading our way towards Hyde Park. We couldn’t possibly go astray in this stream of young Muggles, but he likes to demonstrate that he’s the one in our gang with the most experience about the non-magical side of the capital.
During Peter’s rave about the Who, I’ve been slowed down a bit by holding my arm around Lily’s waist, but I can see clearly enough Remus’s tender and concerned expression when he glances back at Sirius just behind him. Poor Padfoot! His Moony understands perhaps even better than I do why he feels uncomfortable in crowds and would rather resort to his dog form.
“How well can you know any queen?” Sirius asks, clearly trying his best to sound relaxed and playful.
“Lily’s invited me a couple of times,” Remus starts his explanation, “to help her and Alice arrange pictures on their walls and such, choose curtains…”
“Of course, you’re the expert in interior decoration,” Peter cuts in sarcastically. “We can see that in your rented room.”
That’s a bit mean, but Remus only smiles. “In there I’ve got a special minimalistic style.
More and More Exciting Muggle Music
5. The sand in my shoes has helped me keep only that song in my mind all the rest of the way, through the fields, under the hazy blue and huge sky. Now after that crossroads, this straight ahead must be the final stretch. Over there it’ll turn into the Strood, the causeway built by the Romans, or was it the Saxons, never mind. But…
“It’s sunk under water!” I exclaim, having stopped Grim.
James arrives beside me, staring ahead with wide eyes.
Peter laughs. “No, the water’s risen.” Of course. “We’re so lucky!” Is he serious?
“Oh yes, you told me,” James says. Why haven’t they told me, who’s responsible for the arrangements?
“It’s fascinating to see. And not very frequent, rising to this level, I mean. Great coincidence!”
Remus spares me from asking, “What’s so fortunate about a flood?”
“You know, the high tide comes twice a day. But it rises high enough to cover the Strood only for about a week every month,” Peter explains smugly. “And we’re lucky to see it.”
“But how can we now get to the island?” I hope this is not a stupid question. “If you knew, you could have checked, or asked me to check when the tide’s this high.”
“Oh, the tide will be low enough in an hour or so. We’ll wait and watch.”
It does look wondrous how the water washes the paving ever closer to us, and further towards the island, all I can see of the road are the railings. And a car! Still far, and approaching slowly, cleaving a path through the sea, raising a high wave on either side.
“Yes, look!” James has noticed it, too. “There will be some daredevils to watch. Most people must know the tide times, as there’s nobody else...”
Peter interrupts him. “Pads, don’t even think about riding into the water!”
“No. Grim doesn’t like saltwater.” I’m still speaking when I register rough voices: shouting, swearing. The car on the Strood is a convertible, and there are five young men in it, laughing… some of them even pointing towards us. “I’ve just thought of something else.”
Starting the bike, I glance at Remus. “You trust me?” I rather just mouth than say aloud.
He grins and nods when Grim’s already turning under us.
“Sorry, mates! Don’t want to wait here. See you by the beach huts. It’s no use you following, you know...”
James is about to start the moped but gives up. “Pads, it’s not reliable yet!”
“At short distance it is!” I wonder if he can hear my reply since I’m speeding up.
This Little Oyster
