The Marauders Year Five Part 2 #Wattys2017

Glad You're Alive

Glad You're Alive

The next day was Sunday and nearly all the Gryffindors slept in because of the party and all the firewhiskey that had been consumed at it. Sirius was still in bed after lunch, when James finally dragged him out of bed, threatening to transfigure his mattress into a soggy sponge if he didn't move. He noticed when he tugged on Sirius's arms, trying to yank him out from beneath the covers that Remus wasn't lying about the scars and it twisted James's stomach to see them.

It was beautiful outside and the sun was brilliant, so James came up with the idea of going outside to the pitch and playing a bit of one-on-one quaffle passing, which Sirius reluctantly agreed to do, and complained about the entire time they walked through the castle. "You know that Sunday is the day of rest, don't you Prongs? Centuries of people have fought wars and eaten ration food in order to provide us with this most sacred of days - the day that should be called Hangover Day..."

"Oh stop being lazy!" James said, gripping his broom. "Maybe if you're nice I'll even let you use my broom, rather than one of the shoddy school broom."

Sirius yawned. "Great, let me go faster while I'm hungover and potentially dangerous while airborne... seems smart..."

They'd reached the courtyard at the foot of Ravenclaw tower and stepped through the door into the sun and Sirius groaned and shielded his eyes with his arm. "Are we you even going to be able to see the damned quaffle?" Sirius demanded, squinting across the courtyard. "Can barely see you in this horrible light."

"What are you, a mole?" James demanded.

Sirius mumbled something about moles having a good life that didn't involve their best mates hauling them off into the sky with migraines.

They were headed across the courtyard when he realized something. "Sirius. When were those four trees planted?" he pointed about at the trees in the corners of the courtyard - a rowan, a birch, an oak, and a holly. The trees that were planted in memorial of Maryrose. The trees that should never have been planted in this timeline because Maryrose was not in need or a memorial. She was alive and well and -- actually, ironically, she was standing beneath the holly tree, laughing with Marty Brown and a couple other Hufflepuff girls whose names slipped his mind.

Sirius looked around, "Haven't they always been there?"

"No," James answered.

"Well - I dunno, maybe Hagrid got bored," Sirius said with a shrug. "If I kept track of every tree I ever saw... bloody hell."

James felt really uneasy looking at the trees, like they were ghosts that he had to walk past. Maryrose looked up and saw him and Sirius walking across the courtyard, James with his broomstick over one shoulder, and she said something to dismiss herself from the girls and started over. James felt his stomach flip and he looked about, as though her talking to him would upset the trees. As though the trees knew what he'd done.

"I was wondering where my boyfriend was," Maryrose said, walking up and falling into step beside James and Sirius. She smiled up at James with bright blue eyes. Her hair was a lovely shade of purple and short, a pixie cut, like Alice Prewitt's.

"I wish so bloody much I could do that," Sirius murmured jealously, looking at her hair.

Maryrose laughed, "If I could teach you, I would, but it's something you've got to be born with."

"I'm too stupid to learn anyway," Sirius muttered and he nodded to the Bell Tower gate to indicate he'd meet James there and James waved him off. Sirius hurried out the gate and leaned against the stone, sitting on the steps, and drew a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket and proceeded to sit, looking over the grounds toward the pitch, smoking.