Chapter One
’I cannot believe they’ve cancelled our tour,’ Sirius says just a second before he payed down on the couch. ‘Like how dare they do this to us? We’re the MARAUDERS, and they cancel our tour because we haven’t sold enough tickets and our reputation isn’t good enough, bla bla bla.’ He does air quotes at that last bit.
’They’re right though. That’s the part that hurts, that they’re right. It’s a fucking disaster.’
It does hurt. Sirius, James and Peter sacrificed everything for their careers. James and Peter were friends since before they can remember, together with Marlene McKinnon of course. So when Sirius became James’s best friend when they were eleven, he automatically got Peter and Marlene as a package deal. And they’ve been inseparable ever since.
The boys started making music together when they were fourteen. At 15, they started actually performing it. They became very popular very quickly. When they were 17, they dropped out of school to fully focus on their music careers.
Marlene also left school at 17. She wanted to focus on her singing career aswell, and she had enough credit to graduate (due to way much summer school, her parents wanted her to stay on top of her school work at all times), she figured why not?
Now, at the age of 18 and 19, they’re wondering if leaving school a year early was the biggest mistake of their lives.
’James they aren’t right, and you know it. They just say we care too little about others in the community, even though we’ve done a lot of very nice things for fans in the past. We just haven’t posted it online because we wanted to respect our fans privacy, and now people think we’re narcissists. That’s what hurts. It hurts so much, that we need to distract ourselves from that. Anyone has any suggestions?’ Peter offers.
’Ugh I could use a distraction, amazing plan Pete. Let’s get extremely wasted.’ Marlene suggests as she enters James’s apartment.
’Wait Marls where did you even come from? Anyways doesn’t matter, what do you need a distraction from?’ Sirius asks.
’Yeah, didn’t you just book a new gig?’ James asks, while at the same time embracing his childhood friend.
Marlene shrugs. ‘Quit.’
’What why?’
’Well Pete, you try working for Lucius Malfoy for a few minutes. He made me polish his shoes for gods sake.’ She gags at the flashback. ‘And now I can’t get any new gigs, because he told everybody that I was difficult to work with, a snob, etc etc.’
’Oh my god, he did?’ Sirius looks disgusted.
’Pads isn’t he married to your cousin?’
’I don’t know James, and I quite frankly do not care. Back to what Marlene was saying, have you got some beer in this apartment? We’re going to get absolutely wasted.’
——
James and Marlene cannot stop whining.
’I miss Reg so much. Like he would be able to kiss all of this shit better’ (Sirius gags dramatically of course) ‘but he had to go to stupid Paris for his stupid school.’
Regulus and Dorcas left for France two weeks ago. They’re doing a mandatory exchange program for their final year, so they will be gone for another month and a half. This left Marlene and James heartbroken, and they cannot stop talking about their partners, especially when they’re drunk.
’I miss Dorcas. And I miss her hair, and her Lips, and her face, and her neck, I miss her chest, her arms, her stomach, and I especially miss her-mhmbwueb.’
’Okay let’s stop right there,’ says Peter, who currently has his hand over Marlene’s mouth.
’I miss the time when our shows actually sold out.’
’Yeah Pads, we all do. Now instead of focusing on the fact that our shows are a fucking disaster, let’s focus on how to fix it.’
’Great pep talk Prongs, thank you so much for that.’
’We’re still celebrities. We still have power. There’s a simple way we can be famous and love ourselves while still appear to be decent human beings. We should become like, celebrity activists or something. Maybe repair our brand?’ Marlene pauses for a few seconds. ‘I don’t know I’m drunk as shit.’
Peter makes a face that looks as if she’s just told him he’s won the lottery. ‘Wait no Marls, that’s actually a really good idea. Like we stop world hunger or something. Then it’ll get to the news, everyone will love us, and boom, we’re a hit again!’
’Solve world hunger? That’s pretty ambitious Wormtail.’
’Well do you have any better?’
Sirius is silent for a little moment. ‘Yeah, okay, valid point.’
’What about like, poverty? Or recycling?’ James says, still looking absolutely wasted.
’You guys keep going, think of anything, as long as it’s not fucking recycling. Stupidest idea James has ever had. I’ll check what’s trending right now.’
While Marlene pulls out her phone, The Marauders, being, well, the Marauders, immediately continue coming up with stupid shit.
’Well, parking is such a bitch, we should fix that.’
’The fact that people still sell ugly clothes. Like what’s wrong with you?’
’We should get rid of Meringue. Because it looks so much better than it tastes.’
’Everyone shut up!’ Marlene suddenly interrupts. ‘What about this girl? She’s all over Twitter’
James, Sirius and Peter come looks behind her to make sure they can see her phone.
’This lesbian girl called Lily Evans from Hogsmeade wanted to take her girlfriend to the prom, but the Parent Teacher Association went ballistic and cancelled prom! They actually cancelled prom!’
’Oh my god are they even allowed to do that?’
’No!’ Marlene says before she continues. ‘It says here the school board isn’t actually going to do anything about it, they think Prom isn’t their territory, it’s that of the student council and PTA. The only person on her side is her Class representative called Remus Lupin. There’s a video of him giving an interview.’
Marlene opens the video, and everyone gets around her. On the video is a boy, looking to be around 18 years old, obviously in his last year.
’The first thing I’m going to do is contact the Hogsmeade city’s attorney. This is not about school rules anymore, this is a civil right case.’
’Wait really?’ The camera quickly shifts over to a girl, whom they all assume must be Lily.
Remus continues. ‘And I’m betting pressure from them will stop these bigots cold. It better, because if word gets out, people are going to get mad.’
Marlene stops the video, and Sirius is immediately pacing.
’We have got to come over there and raise holy hell!’
’We are going to storm over to..’ Pete pauses for a second, ‘hogs-whatever…’
’Hogsmeade’ James corrects.
’Yes, that, we are going to storm over to Hogsmeade and be the biggest thing that’s ever happened in Hogsmeade since, whatever happened in Hogsmeade!’
’Yeah!!’ Sirius cheers.
’We need to make t shirts. We’re going to have a rally!’ James says enthusiastically.
’Yeah and with picket signs!’ Peter joins in
’And posters.’ Sirius says, because of course he does.
’Okay let’s go and get in the fucking car already, let’s go!’
’Yeah!’ Sirius and Peter cheer.
’Marls, we’re drunk as shit.’
’James is correct, let’s sleep this off and then drive with a hangover tomorrow morning!’
’Yeah!’ Everybody cheers this time.