Lion Heart³ | James Potter

six

15th of June, Thursday, 1978

(Castle On the Hill//Ed Sheeran)

James stepped forwards and slowly peeled the tape off the wall, finally removing the last bit of paper off the now packed-down, paper mural.

He held the picture Marco had taken of the five Marauders a few Christmases ago in his hands, turning to the group behind him. "That's it, I guess."

All five of them looked around the room, the walls feeling naked now that you could actually see them. "Huh," Andrea huffed, studying the walls that still had a fair bit of tape and torn bits of paper stuck to them.

"What?" Remus questioned her.

"It feels weird with the walls all empty. How is anyone supposed to sleep in here, just staring at the blank stones?" 

The others looked around, feeling the same way. 

She had made fun the first time she had come to their dorm, but Andrea had loved the mural just as much as the rest of them. And now it was gone, ready for new first-years to take over.

"This doesn't feel right," Sirius mumbled with a frown. "What's that?" James questioned him, placing the picture on top of the enormous pile of paper in his trunk. "There should be some evidence left behind from us, don't you think?"

"How about the smell? I'm pretty sure no one's going to be able to get rid of that," Andrea mocked him. Sirius gave her an unimpressed look. "You stay here voluntarily, you know," he threw back.

Before the two got caught in a fight, James had an idea. "I know what we could do!" he declared happily.

He quickly shoved Peter's heavy trunk out of the way and stepped onto the fake floorboard, making it pop up.

"Has that always been there?" Andrea asked in surprise. 

They had never shown her this brilliant hiding spot before. James grinned up at her. "Yeah. This is where we hid the map while we were working on it."

At the mention of their precious map, all eyes turned to Sirius in hard glares. Sirius groaned as they all accused him. 

"Come on, how many times do I have to say I'm sorry? It was just as much James' fault as it was mine! He was the one looking at the map and was supposed to keep an eye out for Filch. And he was the one holding it when Filch confiscated it!"

Remus put a comforting arm around his shoulders. "We know, Pads," he chuckled. James pointed to his open trunk. "Someone pass me a handful of stuff," he said, gesturing to their collection.

Peter grabbed the top of the pile and handed it over to James, who then stuffed it into the hidden hole in the floor.

The picture he had admired, a post-it with a poem from Sirius, a drawing of an animated werewolf and a piece of paper all five of them had written on, kept a conversation going for over two weeks.

Happy with what he had placed there, James returned the floorboard and stood again, smiling at his friends.

"Now, some clever student who finds the hiding space can see this and think about what amazing people the Marauders must've been. And when we're all famous wizards and witch, because of our awesome work with the Order, they can get excited and say they have memorabilia from our school days."

Andrea wrapped her arms around his waist and stood up on her toes, pecking his cheek. "Everlasting legends," she grinned up at him.

Gathering their luggage the five of them started trudging down the stairs, dragging all the bags down with them.