One of my favorite arcs of the Harry Potter series was the arc of the Marauders. It was the story of four boys who ruled
the school in the 70s. James Potter,
Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin. They never went into much detail about them in the films, which was extremely disappointing.
Fortunately, I'm going to tell you the group's entire story in this video.
Starting from each of them arriving at Hogwarts all the way to each one of their deaths.
So let's start with Remus Lupin. When he was a young boy,
he was bitten by a werewolf named Greyback, who was one of Voldemort's Death Eaters. Remus and his parents never thought
he'd be able to go to Hogwarts because most parents wouldn't want their kids exposed to someone like him.
But then Dumbledore became headmaster, and he was sympathetic.
He said as long as they took certain precautions, there should be no reason why he shouldn't be able to come to school.
Remus was allowed to go to Hogwarts when he turned 11. Two other boys in his year, James Potter and Sirius Black, met aboard the
Hogwarts Express. The two were in the same compartment of the train as a girl named Lily Evans and a boy named Severus Snape.
James heard Snape say he wanted to be in Slytherin House. "Who wants to be in Slytherin?
I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?" The question was directed at Sirius. "My whole family had been in Slytherin."
"Blimey and I thought you seemed all right!"
Sirius grinned at this and said, "maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading if you got the choice?"
"Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!"
Snape made a despairing noise at this. "You've got a problem with that?" "No, if you'd rather be brawny than brainy."
"Where are you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither!"
James roared with laughter at this, and Lily got angry and she and Snape left as James and Sirius continued to laugh at Snape.
Meanwhile, Lupin met a slow boy named Peter Pettigrew and
decided to take pity on him. The four of them were all sorted into Gryffindor, James getting exactly what he wanted and
Sirius breaking his pure blood family
tradition. After the
sorting, James and Sirius took an interest in Lupin and also Peter, due to Lupin taking pity on him. The four of them were
inseparable after that. The precautions that Dumbledore took to ensure Lupin's and the other students safety
included in the building of a shack just outside the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade, the village right next to the school,
along with planting a tree called the Whomping Willow, whose branches would hit you hard if you got close to them, and finally a tunnel
that led from the Whomping Willow to the shack. Every month when the full moon came,
Lupin would go through the tunnel of the Whomping Willow and would
transform into a werewolf in the shack. The shack would later be referred to as the Shrieking Shack because it was considered haunted by the
villagers, due to them hearing screams and howls. They thought that they were hearing violent spirits. In actuality, the screams and howls were Lupin
when he transformed.
Dumbledore would encourage the idea of the shack being haunted so that people wouldn't get suspicious.
And it was also a good way to keep people away from the shack,
villagers being too scared to approach the violent spirits. Lupin said that the
transformations were terrible and that it was very painful to turn into a werewolf.
Lupin was separated from humans to bite, so he bit and scratched himself instead. Now, as I said, the four boys were inseparable.
Remus, the quick-witted one, tried to keep the group in check,
but often times failed. Sirius was a very good-looking kid and often had girls looking at him dreamily,
but he really took notice. James was a Quidditch star who was extremely confident and cocky and bordered somewhat on arrogance.
He had a habit of rumpling his hair as though to make sure it didn't get too tidy and to make it look like he
just got off his
broomstick. He would often carry a golden snitch around and would show off playing with it, letting it fly away a few feet until he
snatched it out of the air. Finally, Peter was the very slow boy who followed the three others around. Professor McGonagall
stated that he was a stupid and foolish boy who
hero-worshipped the others.
Peter wasn't really good at anything and often looked for people more powerful than him to protect him, something
he would see later in his life.
Lupin disappeared every month and obviously James, Sirius, and Peter noticed that one of their best friends went missing all the time.
Lupin made up all sorts of stories, like his mother being ill and he had to go home to see her. He was terrified that
his friends would desert him if they found out the truth of what he was, because apart from the
transformations, Lupin said he was happier than he had ever been, because for the first time ever he had friends. In the second year,
Sirius, James, and Peter finally figured out why Lupin was leaving every month and put together that he was a werewolf and to
Lupin surprise, they didn't desert him at all. Instead,
they did something that would make Lupin's transformations, not only bearable,
but the best times of his life. The three of them became Animagi, meaning they could
transform from human to animal at will. It took them three years to figure out how to do it, and in their fifth year,
they were finally successful.
And they could each turn into a different animal at will. They couldn't keep Lupin company as humans,
so they kept in company as animals, because as Lupin said a werewolf is "only a danger to people." James turned into a stag,
Sirius turned into a black dog, and Peter turned into a rat. Three of them would sneak out of the castle at night under
James's invisibility cloak and would transform once they got out on the grounds.
Peter, being the smallest, would sneak under the branches of the whomping willow and would touch the knot in the tree that would freeze it.
They would then go down the tunnel and join Lupin. The boys gave each other nicknames. Sirius was Padfoot,
Peter was Wormtail, James was Prongs, and Lupin was Moony.
And they gave their group the nickname the Marauders. Lupin said that under their influence,
he became less dangerous and while his body was still wolfish, his mind seemed to become less
so when he was in the company of his friends. As time went on, they would start to leave the shack and would roam the
school grounds and the village of Hogsmeade.
James and Sirius were large enough animals that they were able to keep Lupin in check as a werewolf.
Throughout the many times that they would leave the shack, there were many near misses of Lupin losing control. After it happened,
they would laugh about it at the time.
"I doubt whether any students ever found out more about the Hogwarts grounds and Hogsmeade than we did." Because of this knowledge,
they were able to write the Marauders Map. "Messrs. Moony,
Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs are proud to present
the Marauders Map?"
Which showed the entire school grounds along with Hogsmeade, where each person in the castle was at any given second. "So you mean this
map shows.." "Everyone." "Everyone!" "Everywhere."
"Where they are." "What they're doing." "Every minute." "Of every day."
And showed all the secret tunnels and passageways throughout the grounds and leading to Hogsmeade. "There are seven secret passageways,
paths to the castle." To reveal the map, you say, "I solemnly swear
that I am up to no good." and to hide its secrets, you say,
"Mischief managed."
The continual rivalry of the Marauders and Snape was very present in their years at Hogwarts. Snape had been sorted into Slytherin,
so they were already natural enemies, according to their houses.
But the boys took it to another level.
One day, Sirius told Snape, who was very interested in where Lupin was going every month, how to get past the Whomping Willow to see
Lupin. But when James heard what Sirius had done, he went after Snape and grabbed him, a great personal risk of his own and
saved Snape from being killed by Lupin. Snape had seen down the end of the tunnel and saw what Lupin was.
Dumbledore told Snape he was forbidden to tell anybody about Lupin. James started to take an interest in Lily Evans, the redheaded muggle-born girl
he had met on the train. And he often rumpled up his hair as he always did whenever he saw her. He showed off with
a snitch and bullied people to get her attention,
granted none of that actually worked. During their fifth year, Lupin was appointed one of the prefects of their house,
but he frequently let his friends get away with more than he should have.
And although Lupin never took part, he would later regret never stepping in the stop Sirius and James from bullying Snape and others.
One day after they finished their
O.W.L.S.
They made fun of Peter for not being able to answer a question on the test, that was to identify five signs of a werewolf.
"How thick are you Wormtail? You run around with a werewolf once a month!"
The four sat down by the lake and James spotted Lily, and of course started to rumple up his hair and take out a snitch.
Sirius said he was bored and wished it was full moon.
James then pointed out Snape to Sirius. James and Sirius got up while Lupin and Pettigrew remained sitting.
James and Sirius disarmed Snape and knock him over.
"How'd the exam go Snivelly?" "I was watching him, his nose was touching the parchment. There'll grease marks all over it!
They won't be able to read a word!" "You wait!" "Wait for what? What are you gonna
do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?"
Snape cursed at them.
And they told him to wash his mouth out as they waved their wands, and pink bubbles came from his mouth and started to choke
him. Lily came over and told them to stop. James tells her that if she goes out with him,
then he'll do what she says and leave Snape alone for good.
She replies by saying that she'd rather go out with the squid from the Great Lake.
Snape calls Lily a Mudblood for trying to help and James tells him to apologize.
But Lily tells him that he's just as bad as Snape and that he makes her sick, and then walks away.
"What is it with her?" "Reading between the lines, I'd say she thinks you're a bit conceited mate."
James, even angrier now turns back to Snape and continues to bully him.
"Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's trousers?"
The summer that followed, Sirius ran away from home because he hated his family and their pure blood mania. His family was
convinced that to be a Black practically made you royalty. He ran away to James's house. "Where did you go?"
"Your dad's. I was always welcome at the Potters." He later said to Harry, "Your grandparents were really good about it.
They sort of adopted me as a second son."
He went there during school holidays, making him and James even closer and almost like real brothers now. When Sirius turned 17,
making him of age in the Wizarding World,
he got a place of his own with money that his uncle left him. During their seventh year at Hogwarts,
they matured a lot and Lily took notice of this and actually started to like James, and during their seventh year
they started dating. They no longer bullied and hexed people for fun, although
They would hex Snape from time to time in secret, and Snape wouldn't hesitate to fire back. James matured the most and was even appointed
head boy, despite the fact that he was never a prefect. The four finished their seven years at Hogwarts,
Sirius, James, and Lupin with top marks and Peter just barely
passing. All four of them, as well as Lily joined the Order of the Phoenix, Dumbledore's alliance to fight
Voldemort and his Death Eaters. In a short prequel story that Rowling wrote in 2008.
That was a story of Sirius and James who ran a motorbike chase and Sirius' famous flying motorcycle, although, they weren't flying here,
they were on the ground. They're being chased by muggle
cops who are trying to book them for speeding and riding without a helmet.
They turned into an alley and the cops think that they have them, but three Wizards riding broomsticks flew down toward the alley.
James and Sirius used magic to make the police car fly in the air and the three men on the broomsticks crash into the car.
James and Sirius then leave the stunned muggle police. It's unknown who was chasing them,
but I think a good guess would be that they were Death Eaters.
This is a logical guess because they're in the Order and are regularly
fighting and standing against Voldemort and his army, so they might have been on a mission for the Order. Lily and James
eventually get married and Sirius was James' best man.
Lily and James have a child they named Harry James Potter and they made Sirius his godfather. The four friends stayed close,
especially because they were on the Order together.
Eventually, however, Peter would start giving information to Voldemort, as he saw no good reason to oppose him. Once again,
we see Peter hiding behind powerful people.
And he believed that Voldemort was the one who could protect him the most.
Eventually, they realized someone close to them is giving Voldemort information about them.
When it comes to light that Voldemort heard a prophecy that had the potential to be about James and Lily's son,
Dumbledore recommended that they assign a secret keeper, in doing this, no one is able to give up their location
except for the secret keeper. If anyone else tried, it would be physically impossible
and they couldn't do it, even if they wanted to. Originally, they were gonna make Sirius the secret keeper,
But Sirius decided that that was too obvious.
Unfortunately, Lupin was on a mission for the Order at the time in the Northern part of the country.
So instead they decided to go with someone who Voldemort wouldn't expect, someone weak. Peter Pettigrew.
They made Sirius the decoy and the only people that knew of the switch were Lily, James, Sirius, and Peter, leaving Dumbledore,
Lupin, and the rest of the Order in the dark. After Peter was named secret keeper,
he was able to tell Voldemort exactly where the Potters were. In the year 1981 on Halloween,
Voldemort went to Lily and James' house and killed both of them orphaning their baby boy, Harry.
That night, Sirius went to Peter's hiding place they had arranged for him and found him missing with no sign of a struggle.
Sirius got worried and rode his famous motorbike to Lily and James'. He found them both on the ground,
dead.
When he got there, Hagrid was there too. Hagrid was on a mission from
Dumbledore to get Harry from the house and to bring him to his aunt and uncle's house. Hagrid said that Sirius looked white and
shaken. Hagrid comforted Sirius. Sirius then asked Hagrid to let him take Harry because he was his godfather.
Dumbledore had of course not planned to take Harry to Sirius because he was left in the dark and still thought that Sirius was the
secret keeper, and that Sirius was the one that betrayed Lily and James.
Hagrid followed through with what Dumbledore said and told him that he was the one who was gonna take Harry. Sirius gave Hagrid his motorbike
so that he could get to Harry's aunt and uncle's house and says he won't need it anymore.
Sirius, enraged and heartbroken,
tracked Peter down and cornered him in a street filled with muggles. Peter cried out that it was Sirius who betrayed the Potters. Peter made
an explosion go off with his wand
that killed 12 muggles, cut off one of his fingers, and turned into his Animagus form as a rat and a
escaped. He left behind a severed finger, 12 dead muggles and
Sirius, making it look like Sirius committed a brutal murder of a total of 13 people. "Black was vicious. He didn't kill Pettigrew.
He destroyed him!
A finger. That's all that was left, a finger."
Sirius was sentenced to life in prison in Azkaban. During his years in prison,
he wasn't affected by the dementors, the guards of Azkaban
like the other prisoners were, because he was able to focus on his innocence,
which he said was more of an obsession rather than a happy thought. Also dementors have difficulty sensing the less complex
emotions of animals - another way that he was able to keep his sanity was by switching to his Animagus form.
During the time that Sirius was locked up, Lupin continued to try and find work,
but was denied everywhere because of his condition, and he had to take extremely low-paying jobs there were far below his skill level, and
eventually he fell into poverty. Lupin was left all alone without any of his friends, the friends that at one time had made him
so happy. He thought two of them were dead and the other betrayed them all.
Peter went into hiding from both the Order and the Death Eaters,
but mainly the Death Eaters because Voldemort had met his demise on the information that Peter had given him and he was scared that the
Death Eaters would go after him for this. He remained in his rat form and eventually came into ownership of Percy Weasley, who named him,
Scabbers and would later be passed down to Ron. The reason he chose to be owned by a wizard family was so he could track the
news of the Wizarding World and listen for Voldemort, his master to return.
12 years after the death of Lily and James,
Lupin finally found a job back at Hogwarts as the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Once again he had Dumbledore to thank for that,
who tracked him down that summer and offered him a job.
That same summer, Sirius escaped from Azkaban
and he was the first to ever do so. He did it by turning into a dog, making it easy for him to slip past
the dementors.
His reason for finally escaping was because he saw Peter in a picture of the Weasleys in the Daily Prophet.
And he had a missing toe, just like Peter would have a missing finger.
Peter or as he was known to the heroes of the story, Scabbers,
started to get really sick and lose a lot of weight after he finds out that Sirius had escaped.
This is because Peter was terrified that Sirius would come after him.
Everyone is scared for Harry's safety because of Sirius' escape. Everyone's still thinking that he was a powerful dark wizard,
faithful to Voldemort. Eventually, Sirius makes his way to Hogwarts. Hermione's cat,
Crookshanks, helps Sirius get to Peter once by giving him the password to the Gryffindor Tower. "Is it possible that you let a
mysterious man into Gryffindor Tower tonight?"
"Certainly, good lady. He had the password." and by Crookshanks actually attempting to kill Peter himself. "Your cat killed him!" "Rubbish."
Unfortunately both attempts failed. One night, three of the four Marauders have a reunion. When Lupin sees Peter Pettigrew on the Marauders' Map
along with Sirius, Harry, Ron, and Hermione.
And they all meet in the Shrieking Shack, where Lupin, Harry, Hermione, and Ron finally find out the truth.
"You sold James and Lily to Voldemort, didn't you?"
"I didn't mean to! What would you have done?"
"I would have died! I would have died rather than betray my friends!"
Lupin and Sirius are about to kill Peter, but Harry steps in to stop them. "That was a noble thing you did back there.
He doesn't deserve it."
"Well, I just didn't think my dad wouldn't have wanted his two best friends
to become killers." Sirius and Harry finally meet each other properly and have a bond right away. "You look so like your father.
Except your eyes. You have-"
"My mother's eyes." Sirius even offers for Harry to live with him once his name is cleared.
Unfortunately, everything goes wrong when Lupin turns into a werewolf.
Sirius is captured by the dementors and Peter escapes when he turns into a rat again.
Harry and Hermione free Sirius and Sirius goes into hiding, unable to clear his name,
after Peter escaped.
Lupin resigns as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher when Dumbledore gets angry letters from parents when it gets out that one of the professors
at Hogwarts is a werewolf. Peter goes off to find Voldemort and eventually finds him and helps him come back to a full body.
He sacrifices his own hand to bring him back
[Scream of pain]
and Voldemort rewards him with a replacement hand, more and more powerful and much stronger than his original one. Lupin and Sirius rejoin the Order of
the Phoenix for the start of the second Wizarding War. While Sirius and Lupin go on a mission to save Harry and his friends,
Bellatrix Lestrange, Sirius' cousin, kills him in the chaos of the fight.
Lupin holds Harry back, just as heartbroken as Harry, but he had to stay strong.
He couldn't show any signs of weakness for the boy who had lost his mother, father, and now his godfather.
The second Wizarding War continues and Peter continues to serve Voldemort while Lupin fights against Peter,
Voldemort, and the Death Eaters. The two of them being the only Marauders left.
Lupin falls in love with a fellow Order member named Nymphadora Tonks and eventually they get married and Tonks becomes pregnant with their son.
As Harry, Ron, and Hermione are on their mission to find
horcruxes, Lupin meets up with them at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. He told them how upset he was for making Tonks an outcast due to
her being married to a werewolf and voiced his fear that their son might also be a werewolf. He decides to run away and offer
Harry, Ron, and Hermione help on their mission. Harry calls him a coward for not wanting to stick by his wife and unborn son,
and Lupin leaves extremely angry.
Eventually Lupin comes to his senses and
realizes that Harry was right, and he rejoins Tonks and eventually she gives birth to their baby boy.
They named him Teddy. One night while Harry, Ron, and Hermione were on their mission looking for Horcruxes,
they get captured and brought to Malfoy Manor where Peter was
stationed. Harry and Ron manage to wrestle Peter's wand from him until Peter starts to choke Harry with his strong silver
replacement hand that Voldemort gave to him. Harry then reminds Peter that he saved his life when he stopped Lupin and Sirius from killing him
in the Shrieking Shack. "You're going to kill me, after I saved your life?
You owe me, Wormtail!"
Peter let go immediately and his eyes were filled with terror as his own hand went toward his throat
and he started to strangle himself. Harry tried to stop him, but he was too strong.
Wormtail's eyes rolled upward in his purple face. He gave one last twitch, and he was still.
Lupin, the last of the Marauders left,
continued to fight in the Order of the Phoenix until the final battle of the second Wizarding War; the battle of Hogwarts,
Where Lupin fought a Death Eater named Dolohov and was killed, marking the end of the Marauders. In
death, three of the four of them all come to Harry due to the Resurrection Stone before Harry gives his life. "I'm sorry. I
never wanted any of you to die for me." Harry apologizes to Lupin for his death. "And Remus..
your son." "Others will tell him what his mother and father died for.
One day,
he'll understand." Sirius assures Harry that death doesn't hurt. "Quicker than falling asleep."
and James tells Harry that they'll be with him forever. "You'll stay with me?" "until
the end."
James, Sirius, and Lupin send Harry
the boy that saw each of them as a father figure, to face his fate. And the Marauders' final comforting act.
The boy that they all loved.
(♪)
[music fades]