The Marauders Graduation

The Marauders Graduation From The Point of View of Sirius Black

I was sitting in the male Gryffindor section in the great hall, legs outstretched, arms folded over my chest, and head arched back on my chair admiring the sunny ceiling. I watched the clouds melt away as they came in contact with the wall, only to reemerge on the opposite end of the hall. It was remarkably interesting compared to the long boring speeches about "growing old".

The microphone whined again. Wincing I glanced up towards the podium as the Hufflepuff girl tried to recollect herself and with a shaky voice, continue her speech. I sighed, wondering how long this was going to take when I saw Lily looking right at me, her eyes like daggers. She gestured for me to sit up and pay attention, so I quickly busied myself with the Ravenclaw house flag on the wall, a smile creeping up my face as I slid further down in my chair.

I was so intrigued by the remarkable architecture of the wall to my left that I nearly missed the sound of my best friend letting out an unmistakable "break the awkward silence" cough that bounced off the walls. I snapped my head to the front, sat straight up in my chair making my back pop and replaced my folded arms with two big thumbs up directed towards the black haired, bright eyed, four eyes standing behind the owl winged podium. My smile reached my ears as I caught Lily rolling her eyes. James winked at me then began his speech.

"To begin with, I'd like to take this opportunity to publically apologize to Professor Mcgonagall for the excessive amount of detentions I received. How am I graduating you ask? I have no idea."- He looked back at the Professor who had a magical smile on her face then turned back to face the four houses as our chuckles came to a soft murmur.-"It could have been a 7 year supply of liquid luck, or more specifically the hardly deserved assistance from a beautiful red-head. Both highly likely, but you can decide which scenario to believe.

"Now, some of you may be thinking that this is the end, the end of second chances when you fail a test, the end of friendships made in these halls, the end of the magic that Hogwarts holds, the end of our mischief. We have had this thought too often in our minds. I surely thought it was the end when I walked into detention for the first time, but no it was not the end. (There were 73 more that followed). I thought it was the end during fifth year when-if not for Peter and Remus-Sirius and I would have missed our .O.W.L.s because we chose the wrong time to sleep in. But look around, so often we thought it was the end, but here we are now only minutes away from stepping outside into a new life.

"Our lives are only beginning after today. There is no knowing which way our wands will lead us. Some of us may be getting married, starting a family, or working in Diagon Alley, maybe becoming an Auror, or Minister of Magic, others a professor here at Hogwarts, it's possible that some may end up in Azkaban, (I'm looking at you Slytherins)," The Great Hall roared with laughter from all of the houses except the Slytherins who were not amused. I Immediately let out a loud cough into my fist yelling "Snivellus". Remus and Peter doubled over in their chairs with laughter. James let a laugh escape his lips, immediately cutting it short as the sound echoed off the walls. His eyes stayed on the papers in front of him while his smile stretched to his ears. I looked back at Snape in the Slytherin section making sure he knew it was me who announced it.

The laughter continued until I saw Dumbledore rise from his seat with his wand on his neck. "Quiet" was all he said but it rattled our bones and killed the commotion. Although our smiles stayed plastered on our faces.

James recollected himself and continued. "On a more serious note, it is impossible to predict and hard to comprehend that in the upcoming years, some of us may pass on to the other side." The atmosphere changed drastically when he said this. Suffocating silence engulfed the hall as though the light has been sucked from the room. No one breathed, no one moved, no one blinked. It was clear that not one person in the hall had ever even thought about thinking of such a thing.