Party
Lily watched amused as James and Sirius climbed up on one of the tables in the common room.
“Everybody! Listen up!” James got everyone’s attention and gestured to Sirius. As the party progressed Sirius’ black hair had gone from being out to being held back by his wand but he pulled it out now, causing his hair to tumble down his shoulders, to hold it like a microphone.
Sirius started in a faux serious tone “I would just like to announce to everyone here that I understand. You will miss us.” Here Sirius faked a sad nod and wiped a tear from below his eye. Lily turned to Mary beside her to share an amused look before looking back at the boys standing on the table, undoubtedly drunk, or at the very least tipsy.
“It will surely be dull without us here to make sure everyone is enjoying their time.” James continued their tirade, with a similar tone. “So as one final parting gift before our party ends, we leave this. To ensure, you and all who come will remember us.” James and Sirius then reached and pulled Peter and Remus up onto the table alongside them. Together as one, smiling to each other, they chanted a spell Lily hadn’t heard before with their wands each pointing towards the ceiling.
Out shot a bright light from each, a warm orange from Remus, bright red from James, green for Peter and maroon from Sirius. Everyone’s gaze followed it up to the vaulted ceiling, there out of the light formed words which seemed to have a slight glow to them, making them distinguishable from the ceiling. MISCHIEF MANAGED - THE MARAUDERS WERE HERE. As soon as they were clear they seemed to stick themselves to the ceiling, in a bright assortment of colors. Seeing their ‘mark for future generations’ work, the boys whopped in joy and jumped off the table.
From her seat on the couch Lily could hear and see James excitedly exclaiming to Remus while holding his arms and almost jumping with joy “It stuck! We did it!”
Sirius replied “Hell, yeah we did Prongs, never doubted it for a second.”
After a short while, James and Peter joined Lily and Mary, sitting across from them on the next couch over. “So, how’d you like it? We figured if we’re going to leave, we have to leave something here for the next, undoubtedly more boring, generations. Remus even managed to add a notice me not charm into the spell on it geared towards the faculty. We also figured out how to make sure it sticks up there for at least a century.” James gushed to the two girls.
“Well it's certainly something. You and your legacy are staying here for good it seems.”
James smiled fondly, having calmed slightly since his performance “That is the goal.”
Soon, Marlene came over to them, dragging along Dorcas behind her, though she didn’t look entirely unwilling. “Hey, Pete, Lils, Mare, James. I managed to drag Dorcas along.” She gave a mischievous smirk with a lowered voice, “three guesses how I convinced her.”
“Ew, Marls! We grew up together. You’re basically my sister, I do not need to hear about that.” Peter exclaimed immediately with a jerk, a grimace flashing across his face, and his eye slamming shut as if to ward off the thoughts. The expression of disgust was one mirrored on James’ face.
With a laugh she corrected him. “Get your mind out of the gutter, Pettigrew. I bribed her with chocolate frogs and bon bons.”
“So this is how Gryffindor party?” Dorcas chimed in, looking around. “This is the full party? No after party?”
“Of course there’s an after party. Who do you think we are? Amateurs?” James scoffed. “This is our last school Gryffindor party, we are savoring the in house portion of it while it lasts. Then once that clock strikes midnight, that's when our real party begins.” James smirked and gestured to the large clock resting up over the doorway to the dorm. It read 11:38 right now. Twenty four minutes to go.
“So what happens then? You go up into someone's private dorm and drink and talk till you pass out? That sounds dull.” Dorcas teased.
“Upstairs to the dorms? No, no, no, why would we go upstairs to the dorms when we have a perfectly good courtyard right there?” James gestured behind him, out the windows, with a smile on his face.
“You can’t be serious? That's just asking to be caught. Practically every professor can see out into the yard from their rooms. Not to mention you won’t be hard to spot and identify seeing as there would be no one else stupid enough to go out, breaking curfew and acting like a drunk loon no doubt.”
“We have our way.” James finished with a shrug.
“Mmm hmm, we’ll see.” Dorcas turned to Marlene who had been sitting beside her, practically plastered to her side. “We’re going tonight, and my friends are coming along. We’ll see just how the marauders party on their last night." Lily practically heard the quotation marks Dorcas was using on their nickname.
“Ooo newbies, that means a new game.” Mary chimed in. Dorcas looked over to the girls, confusion and askance clear on her face. “Well, the parties had started with only Remus, Sirius, Peter and James. The story goes that Remus taught them all how to play a muggle game, Truth or Dare and they played it and got drunk for the night. Then, Lily and I were invited to one and there had to be a new game this time, because there were new people, so we played Never Have I Ever. Then, I remember, for a few, Alice and Frank were invited before they graduated and we played Hide and Seek. Fabian and Gideon got invited sometimes too and with them came Capture the Flag. When Marlene came we introduced Cops and Robbers right?” Mary asked for confirmation from both the blonde and redhead, both sending her a nod of agreement.
“Yes, so Remus and then Lily have been choosing a new game every time we have new people. After the first time with the newbies we can play any other game of course but since this is your first and our last we need a new game for today.” Go out with a bang.
~~~~
Once the clock struck twelve, in pairs, the group began to leave the dorms and make their way down the stairs in the quiet halls. Unsurprisingly, Lily and Mary were there first. Remus and Sirius joined soon after, curled together even as they walked as usual. Soon, Remus moved over to the side once beckoned over by Lily. After some quiet explaining they began talking, debating, and deciding upon what today’s game would be. Marlene and Dorcas came next, with Barty and Evan following behind them. Finally, Pandora and Regulus came, being led by James and Peter. James turned, walking backward, gesturing with his hands emphatically while talking to Pandora.
Once the twelve of them had finally grouped together, Lily and Remus having rejoined the group, they began making their way out of the castle and onto the grassy yard.
“Okay, so I’m assuming things have been explained for the rest of the newbies.” After receiving a nod, Lily continued, “the game is Tag. One person will be ‘It’. As ‘it’ your goal is to find the other players and chase them down until you can ‘tag’ them, which is basically just touching any part of them. Once you do, you will say “tag, you’re it”. Once tagged you cannot tag who tagged you, you have to go after someone else. Any questions?”
Barty raised his hand as if he was in a classroom. With a roll of her eyes, Lily said “Yes, Barty?”
“How do you win?”
“How do you– you don’t win at tag, well I guess, if you go on untagged you’ve won. That’s not the point, just run.”
“When does it end?”
“When the game always ends, at sunrise.” Remus answered Pandora’s question.
“And how exactly are we going to play this game? It's midnight and we’re outside in the dark, there’s no light.” Regulus asked this time.
“I’m so glad you asked Black.” James’ voice answered. “Watch and learn.” James casted yet another original spell while pointing out towards the castle. Again a light flew out of his wand, a warm golden yellow this time. About 70 meters out it stopped, slowly the light expanded outwards, further and further and curving as it went. Finally, there was a glowing dome around where they stood. “There we go” James started, pocketing his wand, “Warming charms, light and of course the obligatory disillusionment charm to keep us from notice.”
“Nice, Potter. Good to see you’re useful for something.” Barty teased. James gave a dry chuckle.
“Let's get this show on the road! Who is going to be It first?” Sirius asked.