Marauders

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief Makers Are proud to present THE MARAUDER'S MAP"

- Introduction to the Marauder's Map

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

Canon
The Marauders meet in their first year at Hogwarts. James and Sirius become friends as soon as they meet on the Hogwarts Express. At Hogwarts, they are joined by Remus and Peter after the Sorting Ceremony, being the four sorted into Gryffindor.

In their second year, Sirius, James and Peter discover that Remus is a werewolf. At some point, James, Sirius, and Peter decide to become Animagi (wizards who can transform into an animal at will), as this would make the werewolf transformations more bearable for Remus. In their fifth year, they complete the Animagus transformation: Sirius is able to turn into a shaggy black dog known as Padfoot, James into a stag known as Prongs, and Peter into a rat known as Wormtail. Every full moon, they all escape and join Remus in the Shrieking Shack. In their Animagus form, James and Sirius are large enough to contain Remus during his transformations month after month; while Peter is small and nimble enough to get past the Whomping Willow's defenses, so the group can get to the Shrieking Shack. The Marauders are frequently out of their beds at night to explore Hogwarts' grounds and the village of Hogsmeade during Lupins' transformation.

Between their fifth and seventh years, the four of them create the Marauder's Map, a small scroll of enchanted parchment that pointes out the castle grounds and every inhabitant of the school, from ghosts to staff and students, in minute detail. Simultaneously, Sirius runs away from home to start living with James and his parents. This strengthens the bond between the two.

During their time at Hogwarts, the Marauders earn a reputation as mischievous, but also as bullies. The main target of their bullying is Severus Snape, a Slytherin student. The animosity between Severus and the Marauders dates back to the first interaction between Snape and James and Sirius, which occurred on the same day that James and Sirius met and befriended each other on the Hogwarts Express. This rivalry would grow between James and Snape because of Lily Evans, for whom they both vied for her affection. The only one who disagrees with such abuse towards Severus was Remus, who later remarked that he regretted never doing anything to prevent it.

Following graduation, the Marauders join the Order of the Phoenix. They fight alongside each other to work towards defeating Lord Voldemort. When James and Lily go into hiding, they first entrust their secret location to Sirius. However, upon realizing that he might be in danger of revealing their location, he entrusts the secret to Peter. Peter then reveals the truth to Voldemort, which causes the murders of Lily and James, but also the downfall of Voldemort at the hands of the infant Harry.

Sirius is wrongly sentenced to Azakaban after confronting Peter, who turns into his unregistered Animagus form and flees, causing witnesses to believe that Sirius killed him. Twelve years later, the three remaining Marauders are reunited at Hogwarts. Sirius tries to kill Peter in revenge, but is stopped. Peter escapes, and regroups with what remains of Voldemort. Sirius and Remus rejoin the Order of the Phoenix.

Sirius is killed at the hands of his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, in Harry's fifth year. Peter dies in Harry's seventh year, after his magical hand strangles him in the Malfoy's basement. Remus dies during the Battle of Hogwarts. When Harry uses the Resurrection Stone prior to sacrificing himself to Voldemort, he is given the opportunity to speak again with Remus, Sirius, and his parents, James and Lily.

Fanon
Marauders era fanfiction is extremely popular within the Harry Potter fandom. The ship currently has over 3800 works under it on AO3, and even more on other fanfiction websites. It is popular to the point where many consider it to have it's own fanbase, and some fans of the works haven't seen or read the original Harry Potter source material. Many who enjoy this era and the friendship tend to not consider themselves as part of the HP fandom at large. The ship's popularity is due to how close they were and how far they would go for each other. The friendship's tragic end only add to its charm.

Many fans of the Marauders choose to exclude Peter Pettigrew from the friend group, due to his later betrayal of James and Lily. Some fans will simply write Peter out of their stories all together, while others will portray the other Marauders as only being his friend because they "pity" him. Still others will show Peter's "darker" implications in their Marauders stories, setting him up for his betrayal and eventual turn to the dark side.

Within Marauders fanfiction, the most popular romantic ships are Wolfstar and Jily. Peter is often not given a romance.

Fandom

 * FAN FICTION


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Variations

 * Jamus is the ship between James Potter and Remus Lupin
 * Starbucks is the ship between Sirius Black and James Potter
 * Wolfstar is the ship between Sirius Black and Remus Lupin