The Last Marauder

Birthday

The two following weeks indicated that this would turn out to become the best holiday Harry had ever had in his life.

Harry and Sirius spent their time playing Quidditch in the huge garden behind Sirius' house. Sirius turned out to be an excellent Quidditch player, he had been a beater on the house team while he was at school.

Two more times they went to London and Sirius also showed Harry the area around his new home. The rest of the time was filled with homework and storytelling in front of the fireplace during the evenings. Most of the times Remus joined them and the two told Harry about the Marauders and their pranks.

On the evening of July 30^th , the day before Harry's sixteenth birthday, however, they forced Harry to tell about his own adventures during the times in which he had not known them. So far, there had never been the time to catch up on his first two years at school. So Harry started telling.

Harry told them about his own adventures during the first two years at Hogwarts and Remus and especially Sirius could hardly believe what he had experienced.

After Harry had finished his tale about the basilisk in the Chamber of Secrets, Sirius just shook his head. He and Remus both looked flabbergasted.

"And the Ministry states that Hogwarts is safe? I don't want to think about what could have happened."

"Relax Sirius. Nothing has happened and looking back I can say that I had rather exiting years at Hogwarts so far. At least the first three years were very adventurous."

"You can nearly compete with the Marauders, Harry."

Remus grinned.

"Nearly? Sirius, those stories were far better than locking Snape into the girl's restroom for the entire night. Polyjuice Potion to get into the Slytherin Common Room, why did none of us have that idea?"

"Because it would have gone horribly wrong. None of us was as talented as Hermione is. We would have poisoned ourselves and you know it."

Remus nodded and laughed. Sirius checked his watch and looked at Harry.

"Time for bed. Tomorrow is going to be a long day and the two of us still have a lot of preparations to do."

He smiled at his godson and gently pushed him out of the room.

Harry went into his bedroom, put on his pyjamas and lay down on his four-poster. Hands behind his back he looked around the room. During the last two weeks he had decorated it with the help of Sirius. Posters of the Chudley Cannons covered the walls, orange dressed players zoomed in and out of sight from time to time. In the far corner stood a desk and a large shelf with books. Next to it stood his wardrobe. The large windowsill was covered with small pillows and Harry often sat there and looked into the forest behind the house.

Sirius had enchanted the ceiling so that it showed the nightly sky and the stars.

Harry sighed. He had been here for hardly two weeks but this felt more like home than any other place had ever done. Tomorrow was his birthday but he really didn't need any presents at all. Sirius would be there, Remus, Hermione and the Weasleys. That would be enough presents for him.

Harry closed his eyes and fell asleep.

"Good morning!"

Harry shook his head lazily and opened his eyes. Sirius was standing in the doorframe and beamed at his godson.

"What time is it?"

"Half past seven. Time to get up."

Harry frowned his brow and shifted himself into a sitting position while Sirius sat down on the bed and pulled his godson into a tight embrace.

"Happy birthday Harry."

Harry smiled. "Are the others there yet?"

"Nope. Remus will come soon and make a birthday breakfast. I don't know why, I think he's afraid that I will blow up the kitchen."

"He has his point. Last week you nearly set the house on fire."

"That was an accident!"

"You tried to extinguish burning oil with water!"

Sirius laughed.

"Okay, maybe I'm not the most talented cook in the world, I admit that. But now, get up. There's something I need to talk about before the others get here."

Sirius left and Harry slowly went into the bathroom. After a long hot shower he dressed and went downstairs where Sirius directed him into the kitchen.

"Don't go into the living room before I tell you, okay?"

"Okay."

"Coffee? Tea? Hot chocolate?"

"Coffee please. I need something to wake me up."

Sirius placed a large cup of coffee in front of Harry and sat down beside him.

"Now, what did you want to talk about?"

Sirius shifted uneasily in his chair and pulled out a folder from a briefcase next to the table.

"I don't know whether your birthday is the right day for it but...well...now that I've started."

He put the folder to the table in front of Harry. Harry wondered what it was that made his godfather so nervous and wanted to open the folder. Sirius hand made him stop.

"Wait a moment. First I want you to know something.

I know that I am not your father and that I can never take his place. I don't try to do so. And it's only two more years until you'll be coming of age so it's rather late. You don't need to answer right now, okay? If you need time to think about it then take the time you need. No pressure, okay?"

Sirius removed his hand from the folder and Harry opened it. Inside were official looking papers. Harry scanned them.

'Sirius Black...godfather and guardian...Harry James Potter...case of adoption...'

Harry looked up and his gaze met a very nervous Sirius next to him.

"Adoption papers?"

Sirius nodded. "As I said, you don't need to sign them if you don't want to. Take time to think about it..."

He was interrupted and nearly thrown off his chair when Harry flung into his arms and hugged him.

"I don't need time to think about it! Yes! YES! Thank you so much Sirius, that's the best birthday present I've ever had!"

Sirius was startled by Harry's reaction but carefully hugged him back.

"You're sure about it? You don't need to do that because you think I want you to."

"I know that you want to do that and I'm doing this because I've never been more sure about anything in my entire life. You are my family and I want to have that officially."

Harry grabbed a pen and shifted through the pages.

"Where do I have to sign?"

"Let me see...there."

He pointed at a page and Harry scribbled his signature onto the line at the bottom. He pushed the papers towards Sirius.

"Your turn."

Sirius smiled and signed the paper. "Done." He looked at Harry and pulled him close once more.

"Thank you Harry. You don't know how much that means to me."

"Not as much as it means to me."

They let go and Sirius turned away. He didn't want Harry to see the tears in his eyes but the movement with his sleeve across his face was unmistakable. It wouldn't have mattered anyway for Harry was crying as well.

"Now where is Remus? I could do with a breakfast!"

Ten minutes later sounds from the living room indicated that Remus Lupin had arrived. He stepped into the kitchen and gave Harry a warm hug.

"Happy birthday Harry. Hungry?"

"Thank you. And yes, I'm starving. Someone felt the urge to throw me out of bed in the middle of the night!"

Remus laughed and turned towards the fridge.

"Just give me fifteen minutes. I would tell you to wait in the living room, but you can't go there yet or it would spoil the surprise."

"More surprises?"

Remus threw a questioning look at Sirius who nodded and beamed.

"We've just signed the papers."

"That's great! Sirius, Harry, I'm so happy for you!"

He pulled both of them into a bone breaking hug.

"Moony, I appreciate it very much that you're so happy for us but we're starving. And if you don't let go we'll be suffocating as well."

Remus laughed and turned towards the fridge again.

Fifteen minutes later the table was laden with chocolate chip pancakes, maple syrup, scrambled eggs, toast, sausages, jam, juice, milk and tea.

They all started eating as if they really were close to starvation. Harry enjoyed his birthday breakfast very much, he couldn't recall when he had been so happy for the last time.

"Finished?"

Sirius' voice broke his chain of thoughts.

"Yeah, it was great. Thank you Remus."

"You're perfectly welcome. Now, why don't we go into the living room? Your guests should be arriving soon."

They got up and went into the living room. Harry was stunned by what he saw there.

A large banner behind the sofa read "Happy Birthday Harry" in coloured and sparkling letters. The entire room was decorated with balloons and confetti, the stereo in the corner played the Witches Rock station and a large pile of packages was lying in one corner of the room.

Sirius was watching Harry concernedly.

"Too childish?"

Harry beamed.

"Perfect!"

At that moment the flames in the fireplace turned blue and green and only seconds later Hermione stepped out. She brushed and straightened her robes then ran towards Harry and hugged him.

"Happy birthday Harry!"

"Hi 'Mione. How are you doing?"

"Fine since I know that you're with Sirius right now. I was so worried about you."

Before Harry could answer that he found himself in a bone crushing bear hug from Ron.

"Happy birthday mate! Great to finally have a birthday party with you!"

"Yeah, I agree."

Harry turned around and saw that now the entire Weasley family had stepped out of the fireplace. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were there, the twins, Ron of course and Ginny, but also Percy, Bill and Charlie. He found himself in a chaos of hugs and kisses and just before he thought that he would suffocate they let go of him.

"It's so great that all of you have come."

Sirius cleared his throat from the other side of the room.

"Now, why don't we all sit down and you open up your presents?"

When all the chairs, armchairs and sofas in the house were occupied with guests Harry stared at the huge pile of packages that now lay on the coffee table.

"They're all for me?"

He sounded like a little child, but he really could not believe it. Sirius grinned.

"As far as I know, you're the only one whose birthday it is. Come on now, open them up. I'm curious."

Harry didn't know where to start and picked up one package at random. The card attached said 'Molly and Arthur'. Harry ripped off the paper and found a leather bound album. When he opened it, a picture of the entire Weasley family smiled and waved at him. Molly and Arthur stood in front of their house and beamed, Charlie and Bill tried to push each other out of the picture, Fred and George emptied a package of itching powder into the back of Percy's robes who tried to scratch his back and lost all of his intended dignity. Molly started telling the twins off. In the middle of the picture was Ron, he beamed into the camera and had one arm around Hermione's shoulder and one around Harry's. The picture had been taken at the end of the previous summer, Harry remembered.

The following pages showed various pictures of the Weasleys and of Harry's visits at the Burrow. Harry looked up at Molly and Arthur.

"Thank you so much. This is great!"

Molly smiled.

"Just remember that you're always welcome at the Burrow. You're a part of our family as well."

Arthur nodded.

"Thank you."

Harry opened another package before he would get too emotional. It was book sized.

"Do I need to look at the card or am I right in guessing that this one is from you Hermione?" Ron looked at his girlfriend.

"Oh shut up Ron. There's nothing wrong with books."

Harry shook his head and opened up the package. Of course it was a book. The title read 'Talking to snakes. Learning to control an often misunderstood ability. By Harper Rattling.' Harry looked up.

"How come you know that I always wanted something like that?"

Hermione blushed. "Well, we're living in each other's pocket for nearly the entire year. And Madam Pince once told me that you searched the library for books on Parselmouths. So I thought this might be the right thing."

"Thank you so much 'Mione!"

Harry hugged her.

"Here mate, open that one!"

Ron handed him a package.

"That's from me!"

Harry opened it and found a small book titled 'Quidditch tactics for team captains' and a smaller box. When Harry opened it, a well known tiny golden ball zoomed out through the room.

"You play Quidditch for five years now and now that you can do training throughout the summer of course you need a snitch. You can also shrink it and use it for catching training inside of the house. And that book has an entire chapter on cheating!"

Harry beamed.

"Thanks mate! That's great!"

The other packages held a pair of dragon hide gloves from Charlie which were very good for Quidditch during the winter, Bill gave him a training set on cursing and curse breaking, Percy had a biography of different Aurors for him. Harry had told him the previous summer that he thought about becoming an Auror after school like Sirius and his father. Ginny gave him a leather band with an emerald gem attached to it.

"It's charmed. It has a protection spell on it. I don't know if it works but I thought it was a good idea."

"Ginny, it's beautiful. And judged from the past years I can do with a good protection spell."

He hugged her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. From the colour her face turned to, Sirius guessed that the crush Harry had told him about was not over yet. He smiled.

Fred and George gave him a huge box which he opened carefully.

"Don't worry, it won't explode."

"I just wanted to be on the safe side."

Inside of the box were many smaller ones.

"What are those?"

"Samples." George grinned. "If we want to open up the Joke Shop next year we need a certain stock of jokes to begin with. Those are samples of all our tricks and jokes with guides on how to use them. At the bottom is a leaflet with some useful counter spells, just in case."

"George and Fred Weasley! You are not serious about this!"

Molly yelled at her sons but the twinkle in her eyes betrayed her. She had gotten used to the career plans of her sons over the years.

Sirius meanwhile had grabbed the box and scanned the contents. His eyes were bright as if he was a child on Christmas day. Harry pulled the box from his godfather's hands.

"Hey! Those are mine. Maybe I give you some of them if you ask politely."

Sirius stuck his tongue out.

"I only wanted to check whether there are some pranks I could use on good old Moony!"

"Sirius! Remember? Never play a prank on a fellow Marauder! Marauder rule number one!"

"It has been broken before Remus. And if I remember right it was 'Never play a life threatening prank on a fellow Marauder'."

Both laughed but Fred's and George's jaws had dropped and they stared at Sirius and their professor in disbelief.

"You are...the Marauders?"

"Creators of the Marauder's Map?"

Sirius grinned. "The very ones. Did Harry never tell you?"

The twins shook their heads. "No, he didn't."

"Well, then let me introduce Moony to you. I myself am Padfoot. Harry's father James was Prongs and a fellow classmate named Peter was Wormtail. But Remus and I are the remaining Marauders."

Fred still shook his head but then bowed in front of Sirius and Remus.

"We owe you very much. Life would have been less interesting without your map." He grinned. "We tried to keep your tradition up."

"And from what Harry has told me you succeeded. Couldn't have wished for different successors."

"Professor Lupin is a Marauder." George shook his head. "I don't know whether I will ever be able to see you as a teacher again."

Lupin laughed and then turned towards Harry again. He pointed at the last package on the table.

"Open it up. It's from Sirius and me."

"You really don't need to give me another present. You've done so much already."

Sirius interrupted.

"But we want to. Now open it up."

The package was very large and Harry had difficulties in moving it without throwing the other presents onto the floor.

On top of the package was a black book. Harry opened it up and his jaw dropped.

Journal of James Potter

He looked at his godfather.

"James started writing a journal during our fifth year. In there is his entire relationship with your mother and the first year of your life. Remus has had it during my time in Azkaban and we thought that now you're old enough to handle it."

Tears shot into Harry's eyes and quickly he returned to the other contents of the package. There was a large book on the process of becoming an animagus which made Sirius give Harry a secretive look. Harry understood. If he wanted, Sirius would teach him how to become an animagus.

"I think Fred and George will envy you for the last part of the present Harry."

Harry looked a little puzzled because the last part of the present was another book. But it was empty.

"Why? What is it?"

"Now Harry! Try to figure out how it works."

Harry thought hard for a moment but the hint about Fred and George finally gave him the clue he needed. He pulled out his wand from the pocket of his robes, pointed it at the first page and said:

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Immediately words formed on the empty pages.

Welcome friend! Misters Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs proudly present: The Marauder's Journal. Choose a page, repeat the declaration and the Marauders will show you how to make Hogwarts an interesting place. Enjoy!

The words faded again but before Harry could say anything, new words formed. This time Harry could recognize his godfather's untidy scrawl and Remus' handwriting. They took turns in writing.

Dear Harry! Happy 16^th birthday! This journal will show you the Marauder's time at Hogwarts. We have started writing it during our second year and believe me, it is worth reading. There are some stories worth telling in it.

What your godfather wants to tell you is that you can read or own view onto the pranks we played and on how your father, Sirius and Peter managed to become animagi. We always wrote things down after they happened and have not changed it since. We hope you like it.

Enjoy your birthday!

Remus and Sirius

P.S. Remember that I am responsible for you now. Don't get yourself into trouble like we did. Find out which mistakes we made when we got caught and avoid them.

Again what your godfather means is: Don't try to do those things yourself. You'll only get yourself into trouble. Don't be as catastrophic as we were. Stay out of trouble.

No, I meant that he should try not to get caught!

Harry, don't try those pranks. I know a Marauder's handwriting and after all I am your teacher!

Spoil-sport!

The words faded again and Harry looked up. Everybody was looking at him expectantly. Harry shook his head in disbelief. He got up and pulled his godfather and Remus into a tight embrace.

"Thank you so much! I can't thank you enough!"

Sirius patted Harry's back.

"It's okay. Those things were meant to be handed to our children and up to now you're the only Marauder offspring that exists."

They let go of each other and Sirius turned towards their guests again.

"Well, I think it's time for the cake. Agree?"

Twelve heads nodded and they began to arrange the living room so that they could have their coffee and cake there. Mrs. Weasley had brought a huge chocolate cake with icing and Harry realized that he was hungry again. When he checked his watch he realized that it was already past noon. The unpacking had taken more than two hours.

After coffee and tea they went outside and had a match of Quidditch.

Sirius, Mr. Weasley, Bill, Charlie and Percy played against Harry, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny. Hermione refereed. Harry soon realized that Charlie really was an excellent seeker, two times he had seen the snitch before Harry had and only luck prevented them from losing the game. But in the end Harry's team won after he had caught the snitch in a spectacular dive. His team mates were congratulating him when Sirius stormed towards his godson. He was panting.

"Don't...ever...dive towards...the ground at...such a speed...again! I thought...you would crash! Do you want...to give me a...heart attack?"

Harry looked at him and grinned.

"Sirius, you're getting old."

Remus broke into a laughing fit and distracted Sirius' attention from Harry. He changed into a dog and started chasing Remus through the garden. Remus could hardly run because he still was laughing so hard and in the end Sirius threw him to the ground. Sirius groaned but Remus only patted his head.

"Good dog. Now, let's go inside, shall we?"

Sirius changed back and shook his head.

"Everyone has turned against me. I can't believe it."

In the evening they had a barbeque in the garden and it was long after midnight when the last Weasley's went home. Ron and Hermione promised to visit Harry for a week near the end of the holiday and left through the fireplace. Sirius fell back onto the sofa.

"Now, that was a party. I can't move anymore."

Remus wanted to say something but Sirius raised his hand.

"If you tell me once more that I get old I will hex you into next month."

"You behave like children, did you know that?"

Both men turned towards Harry.

"Hey, I didn't say I don't like it. Thank you for the party, it was just great."

"Glad you liked it. Now, I don't know what you do now but I need to go to bed. Remus, do you stay here?"

"You only want me to help you clean up tomorrow, don't you?"

"No. I'm a wizard, don't forget that. Cleaning up is no problem. But making breakfast..."

Remus laughed.

"Convinced. Good night you two."

"Good night Remus."

"Yeah, good night."

Harry was so tired that he was asleep the moment his head touched his pillow. His last thoughts were that this had definitely been the best birthday of his life.