Hello! I've been loving reading your metas (especially about Hinny, since I could never quite articulate why I thought they didn't work) and I was wondering: what do you think of the Mauraders friendship? To me it seems a bit baffling, but that could just be JKR's poor grasp of timelines and details.
But it seems that the Mauraders are a close friend group (like, you don't make the map and spend 3 years working on an illegal and potentially fatal Animagus transfiguration on a lark) that as soon as they graduate and join the Order they seem to fall apart. Which I can buy, given the high stress low trust environment they're in, but it seems weird that only Sirius and Remus suspect each other, and I don't think we know why? I could also be forgetting something.
I talked about the Mauraders as individuals a bit here, but their friendship is not as close-knit and happy as the fandom likes to think. I think their dynamic was always more complicated than that.
Like, what you have is James & Sirius who practically fell into friendship at first sight, and have always been the closest in the Marauders group. Remus and Peter were a little bit afterthought. I mean, in SWM, James and Sirius respect each other:
“If it bothers you,” he said, stuffing the Snitch back in his pocket.
Harry had the distinct impression that Sirius was the only one for
whom James would have stopped showing off.
“Well, I thought that paper was a piece of cake,” he heard Sirius say. “I’ll be surprised if I don’t get Outstanding on it at least.”
“Me too,” said James.
But clearly, don't share that same respect for Remus, whose lycanthropy isn't taken seriously:
“Did you like question ten, Moony?” asked Sirius as they emerged into the entrance hall.
“Loved it,” said Lupin briskly. “ ‘Give five signs that identify the werewolf.’ Excellent question.”
“D’you think you managed to get all the signs?” said James in tones of mock concern.
“Think I did,” said Lupin seriously
“I’m bored,” said Sirius. “Wish it was full moon.”
“You might,” said Lupin darkly from behind his book.
Or Peter who is always the butt of the joke:
Wormtail was the only one who didn’t laugh.
“I got the snout shape, the pupils of the eyes, and the tufted tail,” he said anxiously, “but I couldn’t think what else —”
“How thick are you, Wormtail?” said James impatiently. “You run round with a werewolf once a month —”
“Keep your voice down,” implored Lupin.
“Put that away, will you?” said Sirius finally, as James made a fine catch and Wormtail let out a cheer. “Before Wormtail wets himself from excitement.”
Wormtail turned slightly pink but James grinned.
There is a reason in PoA everyone mentions James and Sirius in the same breath, but they don't mention Remus. There is a reason James and Sirius were: "you didn't see one without the other" and the other Marauders weren't brought up. They weren't as close.
Like, I know from what I've seen in my high school that teenagers' friendships can be really weird and not necessarily good friendships (adult friendships can be like that too, I just think it's easier to fall into in a school-like environment where you are together most of the day — especially in a boarding school, I mean, they shared a dormitory, hey were together 24/7 for 7 years, they kinda had to be friendly with each other). The Mauraders have an unequal dynamic; they aren't the picture of a perfect friend group.
Sirius and James lived together (with Lily) after graduating, but Remus and Peter didn't. It all follows the same pattern.
This friend group was built around James and his charisma. Sirius is probably more alright with Dark Magic than James was ("The world isn't divided into good people and Deat Eaters"), but I'd go on a limb and say he never told James that because just like Remus and Peter he was desperate to be liked by James (I think he saw James liking him as a sign of his goodness and not being like his family). The difference is, James saw Sirius as an equal and respected him in a way he didn't Remus and Peter. He liked them, he liked their attention, but I don't think he saw them as equals to himself and Sirius.
Sirius clearly didn't see Peter and Remus as the same as James. He is the one making fun of Peter more than the others. I think he didn't think Peter would betray them because he looks down on him. He thought Peter worships James too much to betray him (a little projection of his own sense of loyalty as well) — and he was wrong.
The friendship fell apart becouse it was built on sharing a dorm room and being silly together, not on real respect and connection (at least in the case of Remus and Peter. Peter liked being part of the group, Remus was glad to have friends at all, Sirius wanted to be everything his family wasn't, and James was just being himself and had fun). When I read Sirius and Remus' interactions in PoA and later, they always gave me a weird vibe. Like they are both desperate for a sense of normalcy and connection that they remembered from school, but are both completely different people than they were back then, and even then, they weren't as close as either of them was to James. They are both trying to replace James with the other. (If only more Wolfstar fics portrayed them like that and like they weren't that close in school, I might've been more into it)
To illustrate, I always saw their dynamic when at school as something like this:
James also suspected Remus, Remus never doubted Sirius was to blame when he was sent to Azkaban because this entire friend group was around James. And it was also a mess. So, it just makes sense. Sirius never really respected Remus as much as James and Remus knew that.
TL;DR, the Mauraders weren't that close-knit of a friend group as the Mauraders fandom likes to believe.
