Chapter Text
“So, we’re all in agreement then?”
The window was open, letting in a soft breeze that made the curtains flutter. Sounds of birds chirping, and younger Hogwarts students enjoying the last few days of the semester before summer break floated up from the fields below. The sun shone into the room.
The marauders dorm was filled with all their friends, stretching out on beds and across the floor. James and Lily cuddled together on his bed, the rest of them in similar positions around the room.
James looked around at the family he’d built over his years at Hogwarts. Marlene and Peter who he’d known since childhood. Sirius and Remus, quiet boys who’d been assigned to the same dorm at eleven, who he had the pleasure of watching evolve into their confident selves. Mary, Dorcas and Alice, girls he had little chances to get close to but had managed to anyway. Lily, the love of his life, who he’s prepared to spend the rest of his life loving. He’d die for these people. He’d kill for them.
His voice shook slightly as he asked, “After graduation, we’re all joining the Order?”
James had brought the prospect of joining his parents and other influential wizards in the fight against Voldemort and his blood purist Death Eaters up to his friends.
“Don’t really have any other choice do we?” Marlene scoffed from where she was laid across her girlfriend’s lap on the floor. She rubbed her hands over his face.
The air felt thick. Hazy sun heating the room as the war on their horizon settled over the silence surrounding them. None said a word as they looked around, taking in the moments before deciding their fates.
Mary leaned into Remus’s side on his bed. She picked at her nails while mumbling, “I mean… we don’t have to fight. No one is making us.”
“Mary…”
“No, I know! We’ve been sat in here talking for hours!” She stood up and turned on Lily, her curly hair flying around her face. Her voice cracked, lips trembling as she spoke, “If we do nothing, we’re letting them win. If we do nothing, we’ll be killed. We do nothing, we’re no better than those disgusting blood purists who are killing people like you and me! I get it. It’s fight or be complacent in a fucking genocide! I’m just… I don’t like it!”
“Nobody likes it,” Sirius grumbled. He pulled on the ripped edge of his trousers, shoulders slumped in defeat.
Mary sat back down, and Remus put an arm over her shoulders. He rubbed her arm and sighed.
“We’re all in agreement. After grad, we fight,” Remus said. Everyone in the room nodded somberly.
Thoughts raced through each of their minds. A million unspoken words flooded the air around them. Questions of who would make it out alive, how long they could keep this up, will they ever be all together like this again? Why do they have to grow up so fast? Regrets from things they never did, moments they wished they could redo, childhood memories they still wanted to make. If they looked back on their days within these magical castle walls, what would they remember? What would they see, feel, miss?
“I wish we had better options,” If the room hadn’t been silent, Alice’s words would’ve been missed, but everyone heard her whispered plea. Her voice was devoid of emotion as she closed her eyes and said it again.
“I wish there wasn’t a war,” Peter whispered back.
“I wish we didn’t have to leave,” Sirius's voice cracked.
“I like to think,” Dorcas started. She inhaled shakily, running her fingers through Marlene’s choppy hair, “that, somewhere, in some other universe, there is no war. We all get to do what we want after graduation, and we never have to worry about Death Eaters hiding in dark corners.”
“In another universe,” Lily parrotted.
“In another universe,” James looked down at his bed spread. A small smile ghosted across his face as he looked back up, “I never turned down the Chudley Cannons. I’d make captain within, I don't know, five years? And we win every Quidditch World Cup.”
Peter smiled back, “Three years probably.”
“Captain in three years, yeah. Some other universe.”
“I would write books,” Remus hugged Mary closer to him. “In this other universe. Books that help kids like me, or kids like us, feel seen.”
Sirius jumped up, his iconic grin plastered back on his face. He threw his arms up in triumph, “I’d be a cool rockstar! Like Bowie or Queen! Playing my music to sold out stadiums! I’d make people feel things.”
“I’d like to travel. Explore different wizarding cultures,” Peter added. He laid down on his stomach to look over the end of his bed at Marlene, “I like this game.”
“I’d be captain of the Holihead Harpies!” Marlene called.
“I was going to say that!”
“Co-captain of the Holiheads! With my beautiful, fabulous girlfriend, whom I get to love openly and freely and get married to because it’s a different universe and anything I want can be true.”
Dorcas laughed, “What she said. Married to the love of my life, leading the Holiheads to the Quidditch World Cup where we beat Potter’s wannabe ass.”
James laughed, “I’d love to see that.”
Mary laughed along. She tapped a finger to her chin, “I think I’d design fashion. Wizard and muggle fashion. I want little girls to look in magazines and see me, someone who looks just like them.”
“Potions Master,” Lily blurted out. “I would be Potions Master. Here.”
“You’d make a wonderful Potions Master, Lils,” Sirius said softly.
“Do you mean that?”
“I do. Every kid who came through your classroom would know they can achieve greatness, because you’re there.”
“Sap,” Lily blushed. “Alice? What about you?”
Alice sighed and looked out the window wistfully. Her eyes glistened, “Maybe, I’d be a mother?”
“You’d be a great mom,” Marlene said quickly.
“Stay at home mom. With two kids!” Alice said confidently, “And Frank would take over my dad’s business and I’d bring the kids by to surprise him at work all the time.”
“That’s so sweet,” Mary sighed.
“I’d like to be a dad,” James said. “After I’ve made it in the Cannons of course.”
“Of course,” Lily kissed his cheek.
“You’re definitely dad material,” Peter announced.
“You’d be the kind of dad to let his daughter put makeup on him and do his nails,” Mary nodded. “Girl dad vibes.”
Everyone laughed at that. Smiles graced all their faces as they thought about this universe where all their dreams come true. James couldn’t help but feel a tug in his chest. He can’t see the future, he doesn’t know what is in store for them all, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t do everything he can to keep his friends smiling carefree like this forever.
Lily stood up from beside him and strode over to her bag. She pulled out a quill and parchment. “We should write this down. Our dreams for ourselves in a universe where there is no war.” She scrawled ‘in another universe’ across the top and handed the parchment to James.
One by one, they all wrote down their dreams, and accepted that they’ll never get live them.
But, at least, somewhere, somewhen, a different version of them in a different universe would.
Maybe someday, a dream will be achieved.