Marauders

Marauders is the friendship between James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew from the Harry Potter fandom.

Canon
The Marauders were four boys who were sorted into Gryffindor in 1971. Remus Lupin was a werewolf and because of that, the other three became unregistered Animagi. The four made up the nicknames Prongs (James), Padfoot (Sirius), Moony (Remus) and Wormtail (Peter) based on their animal forms.

The four were troublemakers who frequently broke school rules to explore regions of the castle. They created the Marauder's Map, which allowed them to track everyone in the Hogwarts castle.

James and Sirius frequently bullied Slytherin student Severus Snape while Peter cheered them on. Even though he disapproved of the bullying, Remus did not try to stop them.

After graduating from Hogwarts, the Marauders joined the original Order of the Phoenix, a group that fought against Lord Voldemort. Unbeknownst to the other Marauders, Peter Pettigrew betrayed the Order and became a spy for Voldemort.

After a prophecy involving a Chosen One, James was forced into hiding along with his wife and son. They originally chose Sirius as their Secret Keeper, but later changed it to Peter as they thought Voldemort wouldn't expect it. They never told Remus about the change as Sirius was suspecting he was a spy for Voldemort. The spy was actually Peter and he told Voldemort where the Potters were hiding. This lead to James getting killed in an attempt to let his wife and son escape, and later Lily sacrificing her life to save Harry.

Shortly afterwards, Sirius confronted Peter about his traitorous actions. Peter escaped by casting a powerful curse, framing his death and killing 12 Muggles in the process. Sirius was sentenced to Azkaban for the crime for which he was framed while Peter went on to live with the Weasleys in his rat form under the name Scabbers. Remus believed Sirius was guilty.

Twelve years later, Sirius escaped from Azkaban after seeing Peter's rat form on a newspaper, and went to look for him. The majority of wizards, including Remus, believed Sirius was after Harry and attempting to kill him. That year, Remus Lupin became the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts.

Near the end of the school year, Remus discovered Peter was still alive on the Marauder's Map. He followed Peter to the Shrieking Shack, where Sirius was confronting the Golden Trio. As Remus arrived, he and Sirius revealed Scabbers was actually Peter Pettigrew.

When the Second Wizarding War, Remus and Sirius joined the second Order of the Phoenix. Both Sirius and Remus died in battles of the war. Sirius died fighting alongside Harry in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. Remus died two years later in the Battle of Hogwarts. Peter Pettigrew was killed by his silver hand earlier that year after he refused to kill Harry due to his life debt to him.

Sirius, Remus and James, along with Lily, later appeared through the Resurrection Stone when Harry went to face Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest.

Remus' son, Teddy Remus Lupin, was Harry Potter's godson. Harry later had a son called James Sirius Potter, named after two of the Marauders.

Fanon
The Marauders are popular in fanfiction. Fanfiction taking place during their Hogwarts years is commonly referred to the "Marauders era" by fans. Many fans want an official book of the Marauders' school years.

Fandom
AO3

FanFiction
 * The Marauders' Era community on FanFiction
 * The Best Marauders Stories community on FanFiction
 * The Marauders community on FanFiction

Trivia

 * The term "Marauders" became a popular term to refer to the four after the Marauder's Map.
 * The Marauders died in the opposite order from which their nicknames appear on the Marauder's Map.