The End of the Marauders

What Happens After Death

    I awoke with a start, and glanced around me at my surroundings. I immediately reconized it as the Gryffindor common room. I wonder where Tonks is. I walked towards the steps of the boys dormitory, and heard familiar laughter. A deep chuckle that I hadn't heard for sixteen years, and I had yearned to hear every day. And a bark-like laugh that stopped me dead in my tracks. Sirius' death still haunted me, probaly because I had witnessed it, and had to restrain Harry from trying to save him.

    I walked upstairs quickly and quietly, with my wand out. I had died, why was I hear listening to my dead friends laugh? When I reached our dormitory, the door was slightly open, and I saw James lounging on the bed, looking like he had in our seventh year. I saw Sirius on his bed next to him, looking like he had before he went to Azkaban, and although his eyes were slightly haunted, having James had definitely made him happy. His handsome features were curved in a smile.

   I opened the door and took in the scene. Sirius and James were looking at me, joy etched in their every pores. On James bed, I saw the map and his Cloak of Invisibility. It like a scene from our days in Hogwarts, before everything went to shit. I was suddenly tackled to the floor in a hug, and, peering down, I saw James and Sirius hugging me firmly in what Lily always referred to as a 'Man Hug'. They stood up and pulled me up with them.

    "Where the hell am I?" I asked, after a silence of contentedness.

   There was that beautiful combination of bark-like laughter and the deep chuckles I hadn't heard in so many years.

    "We're in Hogwarts, you moron," James replied, still beaming.

    "Well, I can see that, Prongs. I mean, I died! What am I doing hear with you two?" They turned solemn when I said I died, but immediately brightened.

    "Moony, when you die, you get taken to the place you were most happy, looking how you did when you were most happy. Everyone, all of our friends, are here, and relatively the same age. Turns out, we were all happiest when we were here in sixth or seventh year. But you can change you age if you really want to. You could be an ickle first year or an old seventh year!" Sirius explained, and throughout his explanation, I could feel my eyes widen and jaw drop. That, of course, deepen their smirks.

     I ran into the bathroom, and sure enough, I saw myself from when I was seventeen. My eyes, however, still contained the pain I had gained over the last sixteen years.

    "Dumbledore is here, you can talk to him if you want, Moony," James said, the smirk on his face evident in his voice. I did want to see Dumbledore, but right now, Tonks was the person I wanted to see most.

    At that, I ran downstairs and out of the common room, Padfoot and Prongs following. I ran into the great hall, and found that Prongs and Padfoot had not been lying. I saw so many people that had died, Lily, Marlene, the Longbottom's (although they looked like ghosts, because only their spirits was dead), Mad Eye, James' parents, and Dumbledore. Suddenly, a flash of pink darted towards me, tackled me to the floor, and kissed me smack on the lips. Tonks.

    "Tonks! Oh, thank Merlin your here!"  I exclaimed, kissing her forehead.

   "Of course I'm here! My home was always Hogwarts," she replied, her eyes looking at me with nothing but love and joy, mirroring how I felt.

    I hugged her tightly, and then pulled her over the Lily, Marlene, and the Longbottom's. I hugged each person in turn, and no words could explain how happy I was. I had my best friends, my wife, it was even better than old times, because we didn't have the threat of Voldemort hanging over our heads. We talked and laughed like we had back then. We were in the middle of dessert, when a thought struck me and I almost choked.