Blood Status || Marauders Era

Chapter 89|| Graduation

"Let's carve our names into the wall," James said suddenly. I was lying on Sirius' bed, resting my head on his shoulder, the rest of the boys in their respective beds when James come up with the idea. "To make sure our legacy always continues at Hogwarts, like our names will always be here, we are of course an important part of the history here. The Marauders will remain known for generations. That kind of a carving," James said cheerfully.

"Sounds like a plan, why not?" Sirius said, getting up from our position, leaving my head to drop down harshly. As the two boys held their wands and pointed them at a section on the wall, already planning on carving it now, Remus sat up suddenly straight, "You're carving your name now? Like destroying school property without a second thought? Now?" The two boys gave him a glance but ultimately shrugged, muttering a 'yep' or 'sounds about right'.

With that, they wrote their names onto the wall 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬, 𝙎𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙪𝙨, ᴾᵉᵗᵉʳ and a reluctant 𝑅𝑒𝓂𝓊𝓈. They all then turned to look at me expectantly, as I stared a them and after a few seconds, I realised what they wanted. "You want me to add my name too?" I asked as they all nodded, some more vigorous than the others. I grabbed my wand and added my name under theirs, 𝓐𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓷𝓪.

"There you go, we'll stay at Hogwarts forever, and our memories will remain here for years to come," James explained. It was a nice thought, and the carvings hid well behind the chest of drawers that were placed in front of it. There was however more interesting things to deal with as the very next day was the Hogwarts Graduation Ceremony, every seventh year and their parents were invited, but I hoped not to see any of my family there.

Saturday started very normally, it was breakfast in the Great Hall after getting changed and ready for the day. After breakfast, there was time to do whatever we wanted, which usually included sitting by the Black Lake, which was normal for the weekend, and that was exactly what we did. However, after lunch, the day went differently, we were dressed in our uniform, and were told by Heads of Houses to wait outside of the Great Hall.

"Right everyone, you'll get to sit with your families very soon, they are arriving as I speak, I just need to confirm some arrangements with certain people," McGonagall spoke, I knew that I would miss her, and she secretly would miss us all too. One thing I knew was that she would talk to the people with Muggle or busy parents to make sure they could sit with someone else. However I did not expect her to come and talk to myself and Sirius.

"Pattinson, Black, your parents did not accept the invitation nor send back a letter to make other arrangements," she paused waiting for a reaction but the two of us just laughed and so, she continued, "we had a letter from Mr and Mrs Potter making other options and they said that they would be more than happy to be there for the both of you at the ceremony." As the Professor talked, I felt warm inside and was happy to know that the adults were thinking of us.

The graduation started five minutes later and, as the seventh year students walked in, we broke off to sit with family or other arrangements. Our group ended up with James, Sirius, Lily, and myself and then Peter and his parents, and Remus and his parents came to sit with us too, all of the adults making interesting small talk. Adding to the discussion was Lily who thanked them tons of times.

The acceptance letters were read in alphabetical order and so, Sirius was the first out of all of us to get his letter, keeping the grades to himself and when cautiously told by McGonagall to make a speech, he grinned. "Thank you Minnie, I'm going to miss you dearly," James laughed at the pun, "I would like to say something simple but impactful, I know everyone's going to miss my charming looks and wild personality. Nothing I can do about that however, I do apologise."

He paused for dramatic effect and continued, "Hogwarts has been a crazy bunch of years for me, meeting great friends, actually great family, meeting you of course Minnie. I also had the strange opportunity to meet my girlfriend, yes you heard me Professor. But I guess I want to just wrap this up with a highly confusing but much needed, 'Mischief Managed'." I could tell from the way everyone reacted that people would miss him.

The next from the Marauders to speak was Remus and he kept his speech and acceptance much shorter, saying, "I appreciate the wonderful life that Hogwarts has given me and for the people that it has helped me meet. I am so lucky they accept me for me and for that, I will always be appreciative. Mischief Managed." Some of us knew he was referencing to the fact he was a werewolf and the Marauders Map closing spell.

I was the next person to go but as I got up, I could feel everyone's eyes on me and wondered if I could just run away, and would have if it was not for Sirius giving me a nudge. I walked up to the front of the Great Hall and for me, it felt like it took hours to just reach the Professors and once I did, I wished I was still walking. The feeling of a hundred people staring at you was very unnerving.

I spoke hesitantly to the crowd, "Hi there. I'm supposed to be saying thank you, and so I will do just that, I thank my friends for helping me grow to be the person I am today, I thank the people I now call my own family for accepting me into their lives and keeping me safe and happy, I thank my Professors for teaching me everything to get me to graduate, I thank Sirius for keeping my emotions everywhere and testing my patience every month. I thank everyone for everything."

I was going to walk away but I heard a voice shout from the back of the room, "Say the thing!" I knew what they were asking but had not planned on doing it at all so I awkwardly said, "Mischief Managed?" James and Sirius stood up immediately, clapping very loudly, making everyone in the room laugh, and so I could get back to my seat without feeling awkward or uncomfortable. "Thank you," I whispered. In return, he held my hand.

Peter was after me and if I was bad, anyone would agree that Peter was worse, he stood there for a minute, in silence, and when prompted to speak, he held the acceptance letter tightly in his hands, and then said, "Thanks guys. Friends, family, Professors, the Marauders. I appreciate it guys, I really do. Mischief Managed." He then walked back to his seat, his knuckles whitening as they squeezed into a fist.

James was the last of the Marauders to accept that he had graduated, but instead of doing things how everyone else had done them, he opened his letter, glanced at his results and laughed, "Hey guys, I got good grades to be honest, I could probably be an auror with these, thanks guys." He turned to his right and gave McGonagall a hug, while she stood in shock, barely moving.

James then broke apart and acted like nothing had happened, "I would like to accept these results with the help of my wonderful Professors and Lily, of course, she helped with Potions for sure. Even though I was still great on my own, nobody forget that. I would like to tell my parents and my fellow Marauders and all of my cool Gryffindor friends that I love them. I would also like to give Snappy Snape a place in this speech, hope you get a nice bathroom. Mischief Managed."

Many of the students laughed at his end request and loved to hear his speech however many of the families were very confused and even some of the Professors were clueless. McGonagall however rolled her eyes and give him a stern look as he ran off, giving the Slytherin table a wink on his way back. The only other interesting result of this was when Snape gave his speech, Sirius and James were clapping and cheering all the way through.

Finally, the ceremony ended with a speech from Dumbledore, it was short and it was memorable, much like the old man himself, "And so, that is it for another year. I wish the class of 1978 good luck with the rest of their lives ahead of them. I wish you all very well. You may now feel free to leave the Great Hall and spend time with your families. Your train leaves at 11 am tomorrow."

"Can you believe that we've finished now? We just don't come back next year. I bet I'm still going to get out of bed ready for the train by accident," Dorcas joked, walking in front of us, going up to her common room. Evelyn and Pandora laughed, the latter giving her opinion, "I'm not. I'll probably be asleep, I won't have an alarm to wake up to. It will feel weird however, I'm so very used to avoiding my relatives, I don't know how that will work now."