Harry Potter fans have precious little canon insight into the Marauders, specifically their time at Hogwarts, the First Wizarding War, and the aftermath of Halloween 1981. We’d love to see a television series or even another vignette like the one released in 2008. However, it would be hard to top the outstanding work of fan fiction that has broken records and taken the fandom by storm. We’re talking about All the Young Dudes, which was published on Archive of Our Own by the brilliant writer MsKingBean89.

He woke up in the dark. It was too hot in the little room they’d put him in, being early August. Though he supposed that could be the fever. He always had a high temperature, the morning after. They used to put him in a room with a window, but a few months ago he’d been able to smash one of them, and if it hadn’t had bars anyway then he’d have escaped. He’d heard them talking about restraining him as he got older. 

He remembered the feeling of hunger, so intense it transformed into rage. He remembered howling and keening for hours, circling the cell over and over again. Perhaps they’d let him    off lessons today, and he could sleep. It was the summer holiday’s anyway, and not fair that he had to do lessons when all the other boys were allowed to spend all day dossing about,  playing football or watching telly. Sitting up, he stretched carefully, paying attention to every ache and pop of his joints. There was a fresh claw mark behind his left ear, and a deep bite in his right thigh…