𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐎𝐑𝐀 | 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬

✧ chapter 48 ✧

1977

That night the seven almost chose to forgo the all nighter tradition. They were exhausted enough as it was when they got eight hours' sleep, they didn't want to imagine what it would be like functioning on no sleep in their current states.

To everyone's surprise, it was Lily who convinced them all not to skip it.

"We can't put our lives on hold forever," she stated as the seven all sat in the common room staring off into space, "we have to start living again sometime. Mary wouldn't want us wasting away like this."

"Mary was always terrible at pulling the all nighter." Marlene smiled, thinking back to the previous year where she and Peter had fallen asleep. The others all smiled fondly at the memory too.

"Let's do it." James stated, getting to his feet.

"Where are you going?" Aurora asked, a quizzical expression on her face.

"To get supplies." James replied, a mischievous glint in his eyes. He came back a few minutes later, arms piled high with snacks and games to entertain themselves with. He also brought down all the bedding off the boys' beds and set up a pillow fort right in the middle of the common room by the main fireplace.

The seven all crawled into the pillow fort and lay side by side, staring up at the makeshift ceiling. It was sagging a little in the middle and the slightest movement may have sent the whole structure toppling to the ground, but it was a nice gesture. In the safety of their pillow fort, the seven felt invincible. The outside world could not touch them through the cotton walls. It was warm and cosy and they all felt like kids again.

"Mary would have loved this." Marlene stated, breaking the silence. Everyone considered her words and nodded in agreement. Everyone always joked that Mary would be a child forever. Aurora used to call her Mary Pan, to which she would reply 'only if you're my Aurora Darling'.

"I wonder where Mary Pan is now?" Aurora asked sadly, still staring up at the ceiling.

"Probably halfway to Neverland by now." Lily replied, smiling sadly.

"Only halfway?" Aurora asked, clearly confused.

"Mary was always terrible at directions." Lily laughed in response.

"Mary Pan would never forget her way to Neverland though." Aurora smiled, remembering her friend's childlike energy.

"Second star to the right," Lily yelled suddenly, "and straight on till morning!" Aurora, Remus and Peter finished, all of them laughing.

"Must be a muggle thing." Sirius whispered to James and Marlene as they watched their friends laughing genuinely for the first time in what felt like centuries. After a few moments, the connotations of what they were saying began to set in however. Mary would never grow up. Like Peter Pan, Mary McDonald would be a child forever.

"Do you think Mary, wherever she is in Neverland, will find herself a new set of lost boys and forget all about us?" Peter asked sadly, his words carrying more weight than even he realised.

"Of course not! The Marauders will always be her favourite lost boys." Aurora reassured, reaching across Marlene to hold Peter's hand.

"One day we will see her again, Peter." Lily tried to reassure.

"Not for a very long time though." James interjected almost threateningly, as if daring anyone else to die on him. He didn't think he could handle another loss.

"Yes, not for a very long time, but we will see her again. One day we'll all fly to Neverland too and it will be like old times. We'll see Mary again, our Mary, and all the years will melt away and we'll be kids again." Lily stated, propping herself up on her elbows to look Peter in the eye. Peter seemed to find some comfort in Lily's words, as did the others, and they all allowed a comfortable silence to fall over their group once again.

"This one's for you, Mary," Aurora whispered into the silence. Either side of her, Lily and Marlene laced their fingers with hers, and slowly everyone else joined hands too. They lapsed into a comfortable silence once again, finally feeling at peace for the first time since Mary died. For ages, they just lay together wordlessly, holding each other's hands and remembering all the good times they had with Mary. In those quiet moments together in their pillow fort, a glimmer of hope shone through in all of them. Thoughts of Mary seemed to stop being painful but rather acted as a comfort of sorts. The first dull rays of hope began shining through the darkness of the looming war and it felt like everything would be okay again.

✧✧✧

"Remember our first ever herbology lesson?" Marlene laughed, opening another chocolate frog and quickly shoving it in her mouth before it had the chance to escape.

"One of the Venomous Tentacular reached out a feeler and grabbed my ankle. It scared me half to death, and do you remember what Mary did?" Marlene managed to finish her sentence between fits of laughter.

"She smacked it with her herbology book and it squirted her right in the face!" Aurora finished, now also laughing.

"Don't forget moments before that when she scolded it for not 'knowing how to treat a lady'." Lily added, making the other girls laugh even harder.

"And who could forget James and Sirius's bold attempt at defending the girls' honour which resulted in them sword fighting the thing with secateurs?" Remus reminded everyone, setting them off laughing again.

"We got a weeks' worth of detentions for that! Apparently our 'pruning technique' rendered the thing useless." Sirius joined in, grabbing another liquorice wand from the pile in front of him.

"It was worth it to defend our ravishing damsels in distress." James added, batting his eyelashes at Marlene. Marlene rolled her eyes and hit James with a pillow, but she was smiling.

"Who remembers when you lot were practising 'defloccatus' as an alternative to shaving your legs and Mary ended up bald as an egg with no eyebrows?" Aurora laughed, remembering back to fourth year.

"Oh, Merlin I forgot about that!" Marlene let out a loud snort, not even embarrassed by the unladylike action.

"Then I tried to grow her hair back and instead gave her a lilac beard that reached her ankles!" Lily scrunched her face up and threw her head back as more laughter erupted from her.

"I can't believe I let you practice on me after that incident. You know, I haven't had any hair from the neck down since." Aurora mused.

"I know," Sirius and Remus replied in unison without thinking. The two of them looked at each other, Remus in confusion and Sirius in fear. Before anyone could start asking questions Aurora interjected again.

"How am I supposed to uphold my good, hippy name without any body hair? Riddle me this, Evans. It's all your fault. I'm a fraudulent feminist hippy." Aurora folded her arms across her chest defiantly, pretending to be angry. This set everyone else off into fits of uncontrollable giggles.

For hours, the seven reminisced on their years at Hogwarts, with particular focus on anecdotes involving Mary. The girl had a knack for getting herself into situations she was not equipped to handle. Ultimately, that had been her undoing, but everyone chose to ignore that fact in favour of more light-hearted conversation. The Gryffindor's had had enough misery to last a lifetime.