Teddy and the Marauders

twenty-five

Chapter 25

The Seventh Years

"Our last spring break ever! Who is ready for some major pranking?" Sirius yelled through the empty halls of Hogwarts

"Sirius, lower your voice. Just because the students aren't here doesn't mean the teachers left." Victoire reminded him.

"Aw come one Weasley, lighten up." Vic sent him a chilly glare.

"You shouldn't call me that. At the very least call me Wilson."

"But where's the fun?" Sirius nudged her shoulder "There's danger in calling you Weasley. It's a bit of a thrill."

"Well if you two are done flirting over there-" James was cut of by Teddy retching.

"Might I remind you Sirius is about forty years older than Vic?" A collective shudder went through the seventh years

"Let's never speak of this again..."

"Agreed."

"F-filch 4 minutes South." Peter informed them.

"We aren't doing anything wrong, we shouldn't need to hide from Filch." Dorcas groaned as they all ducked into an empty classroom.

"But we're on our way to do something bad." Remus reminded her

"Right, I know." Dorcas said "But he doesn't know that."

"Oh, Please!" Lily laughed "With these four with us, we could be going to Dumbledore's funeral and he would think we were doing something bad." Victoire let out a choked cough at the mention of a funeral.

"No!" Alice cried "Not Dumbledore."

"Don't worry," Teddy whispered "Not for a while."

"And he wasn't murdered" Vic added "If that makes you feel better."

"Filch is gone." Peter announced, breaking the silence.

"On we move!" James pointed through the air and moved to the door.

"James?" Lily called after him

"Yes?" he replied politely.

"You forgot this." she held up his shoulder bag full of pranking supplies

"Right, yes, thank you."

The ten students moved through the halls of the school. They moved in a mixture of skipping, running, walking, and laughing --if you can move by laughing. They only had to hide in one other classroom but this time it was to avoid Filch's awful cat, Mrs. Norris.

"We are here!" Sirius announced once they arrived on the steps of the main entrance of the school.

"I'm still confused as to what we're doing." Marlene admit. She had been quieter and not speaking as much since her parent's death.

"Well, my dear Marlene," Sirius said sarcastically. "Prongs, Moony, Wormtail, and I," he pointed to each person, "are putting on a show for you ladies with Teddy as our technical assistant."

"A show?" Lily echoed "What sort of show?"

"Well, Evans, as you know the Marauder's specialty is pranking, but what you might not know is that pranking supplies can be quite beautiful even when they aren't being set against anyone."

"I'm surprised the lot of you can appreciate anything beautiful." Alice joked

"We always aim to surprise." James said while sorting through his bag.

The boys set up a range of things along the path while the girls settled themselves on the steps. After about ten minutes, Remus, James, and Sirius all made their way to the steps. Peter and teddy both stayed on either side of the steps with the supplies laid out in rows. James had sat down a couple of steps below Lily, but she moved down to sit next to him.

"So, what?" she said "Peter and Teddy run the show while you watch?"

"Precisely." James said quietly.

"Two minutes!" Sirius called. The setting sun threw a beautiful orange light over the sky and over the faces of the friends.

"What made you guys decide to do this?" Lily tried to strike up another conversation with James. He had been avoiding speaking to her ever since winter break and they had seen the photos that Vic and Ted had shown them.

"I guess since we have more pranking supplies than we could ever use in one term." James shrugged

"Not because you wanted to do something nice for your friends?" Lily poked his shoulder

"Well yeah, that too obviously."

"Why don't you just save the supplies for after Hogwarts?"

"I don't know" James admit "Pranking just feels more like a Hogwarts thing."

"Really? I would have thought that pranking was a 'James Potter defining feature' thing."

"There's more to me than pranking." Lily didn't respond.

"10..." Sirius started to count down. Peter and Teddy were the first to join in, but the other soon started counting too. "9... 8... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1!" Teddy let loose a beautiful firework into the early night's sky. It exploded into a frenzy of shades of red and gold, the Gryffindor colours.

"Look at Teddy there." Lily pointed to him. He was going through his rows but his eyes always flicked back to a specific spot on the steps If you followed his gaze, you would see Victoire who was watching the show in delight. "I think he really loves her."

"Oh, so you do know what love is." James whispered bitterly.

"What?"

"Nothing." James replied quickly. He wasn't so much watching the show but staring at his hands.

"No you said something there." Lily said pointedly "What did you say?"

"No, it's nothing, I was just commenting on how you can see love when it come to other people but not when it's staring you in the face." he made a point to stare at her.

"You can't be serious." Lily deadpanned "You don't like me like that. You just want what you can't have."

"You can't tell me how I feel Evans. I know how I feel about you but I gave up after the wedding photos. You obviously don't like me so I took a hint. It may have taken me longer than an average human, but I took it."

"James?"

"What?"

"I always liked the name Harry." James looked up from his hands and saw Lily staring intently at him. She leaned toward James and pressed her lips against his. It was a quick kiss, but there were fireworks, literally. Lily moved away and searched James' face. It was blank, unreadable and stunned.

"James?" she whispered. James moved toward her and cupped her face in his hand. He kissed her with a fierce longing.

A cheer rose around them. They broke apart and saw the show was over. Whether it was cut short on account of them or it had ended they weren't quite sure. What they did know is the cheers weren't for the show but for the kiss. Even some teachers, who had joined the audience sometime during the show, were cheering. Notably Dumbledore and McGonagall were among them. Both James and Lily flushed brighter than Lily's hair.

"Hey, Evans?"

"Yes, Potter?"

"Do you want to go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?"

"I love to."

Another cheer broke out.

(A/N: Hey! another update for ya. Wow three days in a row. I'm impressed with myself. I hope you guys like it because it was a struggle. My laptop crashed 3 times while I was writing it. Just so you know, I haven't forgotten about Vic being bitten. I will address it don't worry. I'll even tell you about her first full moon. Also, THE JILY SHIP HAS SAILED. Love you all <3 -Jul)