The Memoirs of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs

Remus Lupin gazed up at the blackening night sky through the grubby windowpanes in Number 12 Grimmauld Place; he was standing in Sirius' old bedroom. The cloudless night was a deep velvety black, and stars were scattered across the mass of blackness, shining out brightly from their positions in the heavens, like miniscule beacons of radiant light.

Remus' tired eyes scanned the starry sky and lingered on one of the most luminous of stars, the one that lit up the dark sky, the one called Sirius.

It was ironic that one of the brightest stars in the sky was called Sirius, or the Dog Star; because just seven nights ago someone that seemed as bright as this star, Sirius Black, was still alive.

Ever since Sirius died Remus had stood at the window in the cold uninhabited room for hours, gazing up at the stars, and looking at this same star every night, which seemed to glow a little brighter each time. Or maybe it was just Remus' imagination running away with him. But it seemed to Remus that the star was brighter than ever before. Perhaps this is Sirius' way of telling us he's all right, thought Remus, or perhaps it is a sign from the heavens that Sirius is all right. It seemed a little far-fetched, but Remus believed it.

Whenever he gazed at the stars Remus was always reminded of those he held dear and those he had lost; now more than ever.

The pain of losing his friend was still fresh in Remus' heart. It had only been seven nights ago that he had lost his only surviving true friend: Sirius Black.

The scene of Sirius' death from that fateful night at the Ministry of Magic when Sirius had fallen through the veil in the Department of Mysteries, still played over and over in Remus' mind. He could still see the laughter that had not yet died from Sirius' face when Bellatrix Lestrange had hit him in the chest with a spell. He could still see the look of shock mingled with fear on Sirius' face as he fell gracefully through the veil, never to return.

Remus felt utterly alone with his last best friend gone. He was the last surviving Marauder. And now he had to stand alone. Without any of his true friends beside him. It seemed almost unreal to Remus that Sirius was gone.

At that moment Remus had half expected to see Sirius come walking into the room and laugh at him, telling him that it was all a big joke, that he was fine, and that he always would be.

But no one came. The door didn't creak open. There was no barking laugh. No soft fall of footsteps. Nothing.

Remus didn't want to believe it. But it was the truth. Sirius was gone. Padfoot was gone. And he would not be coming back. Not now. Not ever. Silent tears rolled down Remus' cheeks, as grief engulfed him.

He longed for his friend. Longed to hear his grumbling. Longed to hear his voice. But that would never happen again.

Tearing his eyes away from the shining star, Remus walked over to the dusty bedside table. He sifted through the contents. Not knowing exactly why. Suddenly his hands came upon something very old. Something that Remus had never expected to see. It was a red, leather bound book, with silver lettering embellished on the front cover; entitled 'The Memoirs Of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs', a name on which they had all finally agreed on to put on the front cover. It was a journal of sorts. Remus smiled a sad smile, knowing how many memories it contained. Memories of when him and his friends were still young, still carefree.

Remus remembered the day back in their 7^th year when James, Sirius, Peter and himself had the idea to start a journal, it seemed like an age ago. James had suggested it, Remus reminisced, he had said it would be a great thing to do, they could write about and recall important events, and what it was like in their time so that when they were ancient and saggy they could read it and remember the 'good old days' and relive the past, pretending that they were still young. They could read it to their great-grandchildren and say 'I did that,' or 'this is what happened when...'. James had thought that they would always be 'Moony', 'Wormtail', 'Padfoot' and 'Prongs'; that they would always be together. We all did, Remus thought as another tear slid down his cheek, we all thought that this war wasn't going to affect us, that we would be unharmed and unscathed at the end of it. It wasn't even the end of the Second War and already two of his greatest friends were dead, one, a traitor, and the other, himself, was now utterly alone.

Remus sat upon the bed, Sirius' bed, and inspected the book carefully. There were fingerprint imprints in the thick dust on the edges of the book; it looked like it had been opened recently. Perhaps Sirius had started to read it before he died. It wouldn't be surprising that Sirius might have been reading the old book, Remus thought, because it was well known that Sirius was terribly bored and restless due to being caged up in Number 12 Grimmauld Place, as Sirius' name hadn't been cleared yet, he had to stay out of sight. Sirius hated staying in the house, because it meant that he couldn't help out the Order, (a fact of which Snape constantly enjoyed reminding Sirius about) or even see Harry that often. Sirius was the restless type, so when he was told that he had to stay inside the house; he was utterly peeved.

Remus' thoughts went back to the old book that laid in his hands, suddenly he remembered that the book did not open for just anyone, indeed, it only opened at the owner's command, and even then it required some more convincing.

Remus looked at the old leather bound book, in the center of the red leather cover there was a round emblem that looked somewhat like a sickle, only it was pure silver and perfectly rounded, the initials 'M.W.P.P' were engraved on the front in fancy lettering, the emblem looked old and tarnished now, not as Remus remembered it when it was highly polished and shiny. Remus wiped the emblem with the edge of his jumper and suddenly it gave off a warm glow, like it remembered the touch of one of its owners. Remus pulled his wand out and placed the tip of it on the centre of the emblem, with his wand tip placed in the centre he muttered his old nickname "Moony" and suddenly the emblem started to glow increasingly brighter, it glowed ever brighter until the engraved lettering on the emblem changed from 'M.W.P.P' to read 'Welcome Mr. Moony'. Then the lettering faded away and the book fell open to reveal the first page.

All of a sudden words started to appear magically on the page, spreading out and down on the yellowing pages as if an invisible quill was gliding along it at break neck speed. The thing about this book was that it only opened at the reader's command of the password and that when it opened the writing on the pages appeared as if someone was writing it then and there, even though it had been written over twenty years ago. Remus started to read the first page, which was now full of words.