I'll Follow You Anywhere

The day went by really fast. We all decided that we did really well on our exams except for Lily; apparently she freaked out on one of the questions and turned a spoon into a giant, rainbow colored trout instead of a mouse. But we were all still convinced that we did good. Before I knew it, I was lying down to go to sleep.

The last thought I had in my mind was that tomorrow was the day where I told Lora how I felt, and for the first time in months, I wasn't nervous about it.

-29-

I sighed again as I stared out of the large, clear window. I was in the boy's dormitory, sitting on the large sill next to the glass wall. I didn't sleep well though the night, probably because dreams of losing Lora plagued my mind continuously. I would wake up in the middle of the night, soaked in resentment with sorrow trickling down the back of my neck. Hope seemed lost for the morning time but worry had taken it's place, making my fragile heart heavy.

The sun was just peaking over the dark horizon. Simple rays of light frayed across the edge of the distance. No fair stars hung in the heavy sky above of us and clouds instead took their space, blanketing the dark world high over me. They gave no sign of rain but they still foreshadowed my dark fate. Maybe they would give way to light though; perhaps the sun would peak out in between their lofty covers and would rise to fill the sky with the beaming streams of joy. Those beams would dry up every tear that I had ever had and would bring a new love into my life, whose would be called-

"Lora," I whispered to the world around me, not receiving an answer from it's cold, unwavering silence. The only response that I received was a simple nuzzle from Jack, who was sitting, sleeping, in my arms. I had found him at the foot of my bed when I stirred this morning and he decided to follow me to the window and resume his nap there.

Two small birds fly across the sky together in unison, their spirits intertwined. Perhaps that could Lora and I; intertwined emotionally…maybe physically. I laughed to myself at this and continued to look out of the window, my mind now racing to close thoughts of leaving the home I had known for so long now: Hogwarts.

I remembered the first day that I ever came to Hogwarts, a small, nervous boy trying to hide his nervousness. Then I met James and we immediately became best friends. It was just a connection we had. After that we invited Remus then Peter to join into our friendship and thus formed The Marauders. After all of this time we've all still stuck together and remained faithful to one another. Sure, there have been a few fights, whether they were of verbal or physical means, but we've always fused back together in the end. We've been through so much together: Remus telling us he was a werewolf was a major thing. But we helped him through it and we still are. Then we all became Animagi's together, which was a bond that we would never lose. We've been through many different girlfriends, bad and good grades, injuries and various victories. James saved me from my own family and invited me into his. That was something I would never forget. I didn't ever want to leave my friends and I knew deep down that I would never really have to. However large the distance between us would be, we would always be best friends. We would always be The Marauders.

"We'll always be friends," I whispered once again, stating this fact for the world to hear. I heard someone chuckle and I looked over to see James watching me. He nodded as he got up and sat across from me on the sill.

"Yeah, we'll always be The Marauders," he agreed as he turned his vision to the world next to us. The sun was now entering our side of the world and was casting it's warm and welcoming light into our window, though it was still somewhat dark outside.

"How long have you been up?" I asked curiously, turning to James for his answer.

"Ever since you said 'Lora'," he replied, sending me a comforting smile. I nodded and continued to look outside as I rubbed Jack's back gently. "It'll be okay Sirius. No matter what happens out there, you and Lora will always be friends," James said as he built up my heart again. Hearing him say this made my heavy and hard heart a bit lighter and softer.

"I just want to be more than that," I replied softly. Being friends with Lora meant the world to me but I still wanted to be something more. I wanted to be able to hold her and tell her that I love her and listen as she said the same to me. I wanted to be able to settle down with her one day and start a family.

"Oh, you will be," James chuckled as he stood back up and gathered some clothes that he had set out for himself last night. We had packed all of our stuff up so that we didn't have to do it in the morning and that meant that we had to set our clothes for today and our robe out on top of our trunks. Our dormitory seemed so empty without the pictures, frames, broken quills and letters from home that normally littered our bedstand tables. The dirty clothes and trash that we had kicked under our beds were cleaned out and now the room looked just as it did when we arrived at the beginning of this year and every year before it. This had been my home for the past seven years and for years before this one we had had to clean it out just like we have done before. The only different thing about it was that we wouldn't be coming back next year.

"Morning," Remus muttered as he woke up Peter and made his way over to us. I replied with a 'good morning' to both of them and got up myself to get ready for the day ahead. For the next hour I proceeded to wait for James to finish taking a shower. Then I took a shower myself and continued to get ready for the big day ahead. When all four of us were finished, about two hours later, we made our way down to the common room in high spirits for the day ahead of us. Lora was sitting down on the couch in the common room, chatting quietly with Lily. When she saw us coming down, her bright, blue eyes lit up and she smiled as she motioned for us to come sit down with them. I nested onto the couch next to her with Jack at my heels. He jumped onto Lora's lap and she rubbed his back as she bid him a good morning.

"He was with you all night?" she asked as she looked up to me. I nodded as I raised my hand to my mouth to cover the yawn that was escaping out into the red and gold plastered room. "Jack, I thought you were sleeping with me last night," she said as she laughed to the young pup. He barked in reply though none of us had the slightest clue as to what he was trying to say.

"Well he gets around," James joked as he wrapped his arm around Lily, sending a gentle smile and blush onto her face. Lora threw a pillow at him as we all laughed. She rolled her eyes at me as I made a face at her, showing off my immaturity.

"Morning, all," McGonagall said as she strode into the room, more sprightly than usual. We were all somewhat surprised to see her in our common room; after all, she hardly ever came in here except to post things up for us to find out about but no one ever saw her doing that. I think the last time she came in here and we saw her was before our first Quidditch match against Slytherin. Even that was a surprise though (not the win but seeing her in there was a surprise.)

"Morning, Professor," we chimed as she strode over to us. She had a nice smile on her face, which was even rarer than seeing her in our homely common room.

"Are you all ready for the day's events?" she asked as she stood in front of us. We nodded in unison. "Good. Goodness, I can't believe that you lot are graduating Hogwarts today. It seemed like just yesterday that I was calling your names to be sorted. Oh, it didn't seem that long ago that Mr.Black, Mr. Potter and Ms. Clense were causing trouble in my class too."

"Oh, I think that was last week actually," I joked. We all laughed casually and I noticed a tear forming in McGonagall's eye. She wiped it away quickly though.

"Well, I was looking for the six of you so I'm glad I found you. Dumbledore would like a word with later on after you all graduate, understand?" she said, her briskness back in her voice now. We nodded and she bid us a farewell as she exited the common room.

"Mum and Dad should be here and minute now so do you want to go see if they're here?" James asked me as he stood up, still clutching onto Lily's hand. I looked over and saw that she had a nervous expression running across her and I just figured that it was because she was about to meet her boyfriend's parents. I nodded and soon enough all six of us were on our way down to the Great Hall to see if any of the parents were allowed into the school grounds yet. I saw of a few of the graduating students chatting with their parents as they roamed the school along the way down there and soon enough, I saw Mr. and Mrs. Potter.

"Oh, James! Sirius!" Mrs. Potter said as she rushed over to give us a hug. I blushed as Lora giggled. Over James' mum's shoulder I saw Mr. Potter walking over, laughing to himself.

"Hey Mummy," James said, smiling broadly as he hugged his mum. His dad came forward and gave me a warm hello. After we were finished greeting his parents, James pulled a stiff Lily over. She blushed deeply and muttered a small hello.

"This is Lily-"

"Oh, you're Lily? Oh James never stops talking about you," Mrs. Potter interrupted. I saw James blush a deeper red than Lily's hair and give his mum a warning eye. Lora and I giggled profusely at this and had to cover our mouths to hide it.

"Mum! This is Lily. She's my boo," James said, which only made me and Lora laugh harder, even making Remus laugh this time. Lily grew a deeper red though and bit her lip.

"You're what?" Mr. Potter asked, breaking his silence. Both of James' parents had puzzled looks on their faces at what James had said.

"My boo. You know, my girlfriend," Prongs replied, rolling his eyes at his parent's unknowingness of the word 'boo'.

"Oh, James. Just say girlfriend then," his mother muttered as she reached over and gave Lily a hug. James' 'boo' seemed completely surprised by this but returned the hug gratefully.

"Pleasure to meet you, Lily," Mr. Potter said as he shook her hand gently. She nodded and smiled that his parents were warming to her.

Soon enough, everyone's parents were there (except for mine of course). Lora's parents came separately shortly after we greeted James' parents. Her mum came first, who looks a ton like Lora. They both have the same dark brown hair and the slim figure but the only difference is that her mum has hazel eyes, not blue. Plus her mum is just strict and not as fun as Lora so she didn't have that joyful air about her. Then her dad came a moment later and Lora's dad is awesome. He jokes around a lot so that’s where Lora get's her humor from. Plus he's where she gets her blue eyes from. Those are the only resemblances they share because her dad is bald.

After that Lily's family arrived, somewhat frightened by the wizarding world around them. Lily's sister looked like she had just swallowed a lemon with her face as pinched up like that. Her attitude was just as sour as a lemon also. But Lily's parents loved James and had a nice time talking to Mr. and Mrs. Potter. I think it took away some of their nervousness to be at the wizarding school to talk to his parents who were so down to earth and just kind of normal parents. They had a nice time talking to Lora's dad but her mum kind of stayed silent the whole time. It was obvious that she didn't want to be anywhere near Mr. Clense.

Remus' parents were next to come, both kind of resembling Remus. They both had a gentle face and looked pleased to see him. I could see that he got his blonde hair from his dad because his mum had kind of light brown hair that came in waves. I heard whisper to him to make sure that he was okay and he nodded, happy to see him.

Peter's mum and dad were last, both very closely resembling him. The Pettigrew's were all short and squat, and both his mum and dad had the same blue, watery eyes that he had. Soon enough all of our parents were chatting happily (except for Lora's mum. She went off somewhere to go have a smoke I think.) Professor McGonagall interrupted though, telling us that it was time for the six of us to go ahead and get inside of the Great Hall to get ready to graduate. I saw Mrs. Potter tearing up and she gave James and I one last hug before we left to go get our places in the Great Hall. After what seemed about half an hour of putting us in the order in which we would go and then getting us all presentable, they finally released the parents in. I saw all of our parents sit together near the front. Much to my surprise, I saw Regulus come in too, sitting down near the back. He gave me a quick smile and wave as he glanced at me. Regulus and I weren't very close, seeing as he always took more to listening to my parents and letting himself be brainwashed by them, but it was somewhat comforting to see him there. I waved and smiled in reply as Dumbledore called the event to order.

"Hello graduates, family, and friends. It has been seven years since these students walked through those entrance doors and were called up to be sorted," Dumbledore started, already setting off some tears in the audience. I tuned out the rest of the speech because I really didn't want to hear it. I didn't want to hear how this was the last time that I would probably ever be in the Great Hall. I didn't want to hear about how I was growing up and how I would never come back to Hogwarts. I didn't want to have to listen to him go on about how much I've grown up and how proud he is that we are growing into adults. I didn't want to leave Hogwarts, so I didn't want to listen to his speech. All of the graduates were seated in the front of the audience, a few rows dedicated to us. We were seated in alphabetical order by last name so Lora was only a few people away. I glanced down to her and saw that she was tuning out the speech too, instead deciding to twirl her fingers around. I smiled and she looked up at me, tears forming in her eyes. 'It's okay,' I mouthed to her. She nodded and smiled back to me. There was that sparkle in her eye that I loved so much-

"Hey, get up," the Hufflepuff to my left said to me. I saw that it was time for our row to get up and go graduate. I stood up reluctantly and followed the other people in my line. Soon enough, it was my time.

"Sirius Black," Dumbledore said as I walked forward. I heard of ton of familiar voices cheer as I shook his hand and took my diploma. I smiled as he clapped me on the back and moved on to the next person. Minerva gave me a quick hug and I saw that she had tears in her eyes. 'Thank you' I mouthed to her, not wanting to speak myself for fear that I too might get emotional. She nodded and smiled to me. I kept walking and made it back to my seat.

I've graduated Hogwarts a voice whispered in my head and I had to choke back tears for a moment. When I looked up again, I saw Lora receiving her diploma. She nodded and made her way to Minerva, sobbing as she did so. The hugged each other for a moment and exchanged some words before Minerva nodded and Lora made her way over. I stood up as she came and gave her a hug, letting her wipe her tears on my dress robe. I watched as the rest of my friends graduated, first coming Lily, then Remus, then Peter and finally Prongs.

"Alexander Zabini," Dumbledore called out, letting the last person graduate. After he was seated and Dumbledore gave another short speech, he congratulated us and made it official that we were no longer students at Hogwarts. All of the students cheered and parents rose to their feet in a mixture of clapping and crying. I reached over to Lora and gave her a big hug. She replied with one and I felt her tears trickle down my neck. I looked over her shoulder to James and he gave me a wink.

With all of the parents and students in the Great Hall and no longer in their seats, they place was chaotic. It was nearly impossible to find anyone you were looking for. So I grabbed Lora's hand and began pulling her towards the grand, wooden doors that would let us exit the chaotic room. She held close to me and soon enough, we emerged into fresh air. I didn't let go of her hand as we strolled in silence over to the still lake.

The world around us was growing darker, transforming into night. A glimmer of light was still out there and the lightning bugs were roaming around the grounds, making it simply gorgeous outside. Perfect for what I was about to do.

"Lora," I said quietly as my heart began to beat fast. She looked up at me, listening for what I had to say.

"I…I love you Lora Clense."