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Forever Young


James didn’t bother sleeping at all, choosing to stay awake since the rays of light were just crossing the horizon as Sirius finally sank down into one of the pillows and piles of blankets by the smouldering fire and fell asleep. He stared at Sirius’s chest as it raised and fell with his breathing. He folded his hands and leaned his chin against the fist, thinking about everything that Sirius had said, deciding how to confront the morning sun with his new batch of information.

Remus stirred as the sun was coming up, taking a deep breath through his nose and rolling over, blinking awake. James sat up as he realized Remus was up and shook the mood off himself, smiling over at his friend. “Mornin’ mate,” James said, “Good sleep?”

“Once I was too asleep to feel the headache,” Remus replied, rolling over. He spotted Sirius, his hair stringy and hanging over his face. “Looks like he’s had a rougher time of it than me.”

James looked over at Sirius, snorted, then turned back to Remus, “Oh you have no idea.”

Remus stretched and sat up, hugging his knees. “Blimey it’s hot already,” he complained. He grinned, “Hey, we should wake the fellas up and go for a swim.”

“A swim?” James looked intrigued. “Yeah, that sounds bloody fantastic. But, uh, let’s give Sirius a bit to recover. We’ll leave him a note.”

“Alright.”

They shook Peter awake and scrawled out a note for Sirius, which James left right by his face, then the three of them ran through the trees for the lake, Remus leading the way. “I’m going to do a bloody cannonball right into the water!” James announced, unbuttoning his shirt as he went and chucking it into a bush as he fought with the buttons on his pants. Peter was struggling with his fly, too, as was Remus. Remus got them off first and ran in his undershorts for the water, splashing through to his ankles, “It’s warm,” he said, grabbing some water and wiping it over his arms as Peter splashed in. James finally got his pants down and kicked them off into a pile at the edge of the little patch of sand that led up to the water’s edge, then rushed across to the water until he was in up to his chest and ducked under.

James floated about on his back, his arms up behind his head and blowing water out of his mouth into the air. “This is fantastic. You lot have got the right idea. All this fresh air, it’s like the perfect life. No rules, nothing to hold you back.”

“Yeah, it’s brilliant,” Remus agreed.

“I love it here, really,” James said.

“Me, too!” Peter said, grinning.

Far off in the trees, there was a great loud whistle and James looked up. There was a huge stone bridge that spanned across two outcroppings of highland looming over them, about 20 meters up over the widest part of the lake. James stared as the long whistle echoed through the trees again. “Is that a train?” Peter asked.

“It is; goes by every morning,” Remus replied, “Scared us half to death the first time we heard it. I thought Sirius was going through the tent roof.” He laughed, “Leaped off that couch with his wand waving like nobody’s business, howling and screamin’ he was armed.” Remus grinned. “It was bloody brilliant. Wish I’d had some film to get it on tape.”

“I cannot picture Sirius scared,” Peter said with a snicker.

“I can picture him running amok in his shorts screaming he was armed, though,” James laughed, then he stood up and grabbed a murky stick from the bottom of the lake, coated with green slime, and waved it about like a wand, imitating how he pictured Sirius reacting to the train - which admittedly looked an awful lot like Sirius had looked the night before, walking through the forest all drunk and crazy.

Remus laughed, “That’s an awful lot like how he looked, yes.”

High above, the train was just reaching the bridge, the steam looming up over the trees. The boys stopped goofing about to look up at it as the water seemed to ripple around them, echoing off the vibrations from the supporting beams that reached into the water as the great black engine roared out of the trees and onto the bridge. James swam a bit closer to Remus and Peter, his eyes wide as Peter lowered in the water so he was sitting on the silty bottom, the surface ‘round his neck. The train thundered across, emitting another low, haunting whistle that seemed to shake in their very nerves. James looked enraptured by it.

“Fantastic,” he mumbled.

“Louder than bloody hell,” came a voice from the shore and all three of them turned about to see Sirius standing there, looking rather hung-over and miserable. “What’s a guy gotta do to sleep in ‘round here? Bliiimey.”

Remus grinned. “How’s that whiskey treating you this morning, Padfoot?” Sirius made a very rude gesture indeed. The others started laughing.




Lily sat on a chair in the backyard by a plastic kiddie pool, her ankles in the water, laying on her back, tanning under the sun. She’d dozed off slightly while reading a book about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, which was now laying across her chest. Suddenly there was a shadow cast over the sunlight and Lily squinted up and could just see the silhouette of her sister through the rays of sun.

“Freak, mother wants you,” Petunia said shortly, and she turned on her heel and flounced away.

Lily sat up, the book tumbling to the ground beside the chair, her ankles splashing in the water. She pulled her hair over her shoulder, fixing it with a hair tie, kicking her feet dry as she walked barefoot across the lawn to the backdoor of the house. Tuney was just walking out of the kitchen when Lily stepped inside, her slim frame only mostly covered in a two piece yellow polka dotted bathing suit. She slipped onto one of the bar stools by the counter and yawned, taking up an apple slice from a bowl of them on the counter. Mrs. Evans was working on slicing a large stack of them with a knife. “Tuney said you needed me, mum?” Lily asked.

Before Mrs. Evans could say anything about it, Lily pulled her wand from the knot of hair on her head and waved it at the remaining apples in the pile, peeling, coring, slicing, and adding them all into the bowl for her as she worked on cutting up the one she was working on. She looked surprised, then delighted.

“Thank you,” Mrs. Evans said with a laugh. Lily smiled. “I was curious when you were wanting to go to get your school things, dear. I thought that perhaps we could plan a whole family outing - you, your father, maybe even get Petunia to come along… We could make a whole thing of it, all of us together! Wouldn’t that be lovely?”

Lily thought that Petunia at Diagon Alley would be literally the least lovely thing she’d ever pictured in all of her life. And honestly, now that she was getting older, being at Diagon Alley with her parents, marvelling over everything like they were at an amusement park, was hardly appealing, either. Especially since muggles were hardly safe in the wizarding community at the time being, thanks to Voldemort… Nothing like putting a target on one’s back, acting like that at Diagon Alley. She thought of Charlus Potter and Honey Pettigrew, what she’d heard about them, and both of them were purebloods!

“Mum, I’ve been planning going with Marlene and Annalee,” Lily said, rolling her eyes, “I told you, forever ago!”

“I know, but I thought a bit of family time might be in order, seeing as we’ve hardly spent any time together, the four of us, and -- you know how much your father and I enjoy seeing a bit of - of your world.” Mrs. Evans smiled timidly at this. “It’s just so wonderful.”

Lily took another piece of apple and chewed it slowly to keep herself busy from answering a moment while she thought. She watched her mum pour the bowl full of them into a waiting crust and wiggle a pie bird into the center of them. “I know you think it’s wonderful mum, but I’m getting older… Are you going with Tuney to get her school things at the shops?”

“Well, no,” Mrs. Evans admitted, and she rolled the top crust over her pie, “But we’ve seen the shops, dear. Petunia’s old enough to go along to the shops herself.”

“We’re the same age, mother. Give or take a couple minutes. Remember?” Lily said, raising an eyebrow.

“I know dear, but… Well, it’s just not as exciting. You understand.” Mrs. Evans smiled and started using the extra pie crust dough to create tiny doughy apples to decorate the top of the pie with. Lily watched as her fingers crafted a tiny little apple, complete with stem, and gently placed it right on top, in the very center. Lily loved those little doughy apples. They were her favorite part of the whole pie - all crisp and crunchy by the time they’d finished cooking, like a little apple-shaped cookie. It was a detail that her mother never, ever forgot about her pies.

Lily felt awful, breaking her parents hearts by uninviting them to Diagon Alley. But it was for their own safety, and for hers, too.

“Mum, I’m fourteen, I’m going into fourth year. Please. I don’t want to go to Diagon Alley with my folks. None of the other kids are going with their parents. Don’t make me look uncool, mum. Please.” Lily gave her begging eyes.

Mrs. Evans sighed, “Alright.” She put the pie in the oven.

“We’ll go to Harold’s or something together, how’s that? A whole family trip to Harold’s?” Harold’s was a restaurant in town that Petunia particularly liked. It’d been ages since they’d all gone to Harold’s for fish n’ chips together. Lily thought maybe it would make Petunia happy to be going some place she enjoyed and maybe she’d be less horrible toward Lily during the outing if she was happy.

Mrs. Evans wiped her hands on her apron. “Maybe. I’ll talk to your father about it. We’ll see. Now go change and wash up for dinner before your father gets home.”

Lily nodded and got up, eating the last of the apple slice she’d taken, and turned out of the kitchen. Petunia was standing in the hall, just ‘round the corner of the door, a guilty expression on her face. She’d heard everything they’d said. Lily would have expected that hearing her suggest Harold’s might have made Petunia a bit more friendly, but instead she looked positively angry and her mouth was pursed up really tight and she seemed to fume a moment, then hurried off ahead of Lily up the stairs.




“May God bless and keep you always
May your wishes all come true…
May you always do for others
And let others do for youuu…
May you build a ladder tooo the staaaars
And climb on every ruuuung
And may you staaaaay Forever Young.
Mayyyy you staaaaaaay -- forever youuuung!”


Sirius was singing the words loudly, his voice echoing through the trees. The Marauders were sitting ‘round the campfire once more, their plates dirty but empty and their bellies full. Peter was roasting marshmallows, with two stuck up in his cheeks already, and Rey was smiling, poking the fire with a stick to make it blaze up brighter and hotter.

“May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true…
May you always know the truuuth
And see the lights surrounding you!
May you always be courageous…
Stand upright and be strong and
May you staaaaay… forever youuuuung!”


Sirius beat the ground with his heel as he sang, keeping a tune and James hummed along, leaning against the log Sirius was sitting on. Sirius had heard the song a hundred thousand times, he knew every inflection of Bob Dylan’s voice on the record, and he loved it. Loved the cracks of the notes and the message of the lyrics. He’d often laid in bed back at Number 12 Grimmauld Place for the month they’d been apart and listened to this song and thought of the Marauders, thought of the four of them walking together through the castle, of him and Remus out in the woods, of the dreams of one day all of them together sharing adventures out there in the world, grown up with no rules to stop them…

Much like they were this weekend in the woods together.

There were no rules. No boundaries. Anything was possible. They were alive and young and vibrantly in color and they were wildly invincible.

“May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundaaationnn
WHEN THE WINDS OF CHANGES SHIFT!!
May your heart always be joyful
May your song alwaaays be suuung
And maaaay you staaaaay… forever young…
Forever young… forrreeeever youuung…
Maaaaay you staaaay… forever young.”


He smiled, leaning back as he finished the song, looking around at them. Peter clapped his hands, holding his marshmallow stick with his knees and nearly dropping it into the fire’s ashes, scrambling to catch it only just in time as the marshmallow caught on fire. He hurried to blow the fire out, the marshmallow crisp and burned black. He frowned.

“I love it when they’re burnt like that,” announced James.

“You eat it, then,” Peter said, holding the stick out.

James leaned forward, using Sirius’s knee to push himself up with, and bit the marshmallow right off the end of the stick gleefully.

Sirius laughed and when James had sat back he stretched his legs out, his boots reflecting the fire, and laid across the log, looking up at the stars far overhead, the sky visible through the tops of the trees. Gleaming back at him from up there in the sky was a bright star whose colors seemed to change and shift as he watched.

“That’s you,” Remus’s voice suddenly cut into his thoughts.

“What?” Sirius said.

“That star. That bright one there. It’s you. That’s Sirius. The brightest star in the sky.” Remus had looked up at the stars for a moment, too.

Sirius knew it was astronomy, of course, the facts were the facts. That was the constellation Orion the Hunter there in the sky and there was the bright dot of his ankle, his dog, the star Sirius. But something about how Remus said it… it sounded more like a commentary on his mate than a stated fact and it made Sirius flush just a little.

A rush of words slurred in the woods rushed through his memory… a flash of James’s face… it would be improper, Sirius had said. Why would it be improper? James had asked… there were falling leaves and slashes made against the brush with a stick… A flash of a memory that made Sirius uncomfortable to recall… What would’ve been improper? He tried to recall what he’d told James...

As his mind worked, Sirius forced a laugh. “I’m not that bright, Rey.” He sat up, knocking James by accident, who pushed Sirius’s leg in retaliation and Sirius made to grab onto James’s shoulder and push him down back. Peter was making a new marshmallow, being careful not to let this one catch fire.

Remus was staring at the flecks of smoldering ash in the pit.

There was a low whistle. The evening train was going through far off in the woods, crossing that bridge on the lake.

“So what do you lot think of our new home, huh?” Sirius asked, “Now that you’ve experienced it a bit?”

“It’s brilliant,” replied James. “I’m tempted to move out here with you, honestly. You’re so free.”

Peter nodded, “Yeah. Nobody’s moping about or telling you what to do, you can do whatever you like.”

“Mind, I wouldn’t fancy it in the winter, but we’ll be at Hogwarts then,” James said. “Seems a perfect situation.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Sirius said.

Remus nudged a log in the firepit. “I like the company.”

Sirius smiled…

”YOU KNOW WHO I WANT TO KISS?” Sirius’s mind exploded with the memory of his words. He remembered tripping… falling over himself, over James, over anything and nothing… a swirl of color and dark trees and lighted wands… ”You act like it’s a huge confession you’re making.” James’s eyes, all magnified by his spectacle lenses. Sirius’s words, ”I’d like to snog Moony.” And the look on James’s face, the look of shock and just a teeny bit of… of horror, perhaps? Sirius felt sick all over again, even without the whiskey (or at least not as much of it). He remembered the feeling of the world spinning. “I can’t go snogging Moony, it would be improper.”

But there were no rules here.

He looked at Moony across the pit, the way the fire sparked and cinders flew up from the stick he was pushing into the logs.

Sirius could get up right now, cross the pit, and kiss Remus right now if he wanted to and nobody would ever know about it except the four of them.

He could see himself doing it, could feel the way it would feel to do it, the way the wind would move over his skin as he walked, and the way his boots would crunch the twigs and leaves under them. The way Rey would look up at him, his face red and blue from the fire and the moonlight. He could grab onto his cheeks, turn his face to the sky so he was looking at two Sirius’s - the bright one and the dim one - and he could lean down and press his mouth ----

Sirius shook himself out of it.

“OI. SIRIUS.” James shouted, “Earth to Sirius, come in Sirius.” He made an astronaut voice by covering his mouth with his palm, trying to sound like a radio.

“What?”

He smirked and they all laughed as Sirius tuned back in.

“Goodness, where in bloody hell had you just gone? Your eyes got all starry and you looked like a man gone mad,” James said, snickering.

Sirius looked about at them. He could still feel the recklessness in his veins from the thoughts of kissing Remus and he needed to get it out. He needed to do something - something mad, something that would put the wind in his hair and the goosebumps on his arms the same as the thought of kissing Remus Lupin did. He looked around and then he grinned wildly and jumped up, an idea occurring to him. “Let’s go diving,” he said.

“Come again?” James asked, looking up. “Diving?”

“Yes, it’ll be brilliant.” Sirius turned and rushed off through the trees. “COME ON YOU LOT!” he shouted back, drawing his wand, “Lumos. LET’S GO!”

James looked at the other two.

“What’s he on about?”

Remus stared at the little light of Sirius’s wand bobbling off in the trees, disappearing between them. “He can’t mean… oh bloody hell.” He dropped the stick and got up, sprinting after the dot of light.

Peter raised an eyebrow and looked at James. James shrugged and jumped up, too, “I’m not being left out of whatever this mess is. You coming Peter?” Nodding, Peter grabbed the marshmallows off his stick and shoved them in his mouth and they charged off after Remus’s lighted wand as it, too, bobbled off ahead of them… like following fireflies through the dark on a mission of madness.