Words: Holly Morris

1307 pages. Over 500,000 words. Spanning 25 years, three decades, this fan-fiction has changed the Harry Potter fandom forever.  

All The Young Dudes is a Marauder’s fan-fiction on the website Archive Of Our Own by anonymous writer MsKingBean89, written between March 2017 and November 2018. Based in late 20th century England, the story is laced with popular music of the time, stigmas and laws that created meaningful discussions and divides into politics, friendships, and the foundation of the muggle and the wizarding world, and of course, magic. It is one of the most famous fan-fictions of all time, has won multiple online awards and has been translated into over twenty languages. Its accolades exceed many whose work has been published by traditional publishing houses, and its fanbase is one of the most loyal and passionate to exist. 

It is well known that as long as the original seven books have been published, fans have been desperate for a prequel series centered around Harry’s parents and their friends at Hogwarts. Not only would this reintroduce us to characters we were already familiar with, but it would also provide answers to questions that the fans have been plaguing author J.K. Rowling for almost fifteen years: how did Lily and James fall in love? What was it like for Sirius Black, fighting a war he knew would mean opposing his entire family? And, the most crucial question that has plagued me since I was a child, why did Peter Pettigrew betray his friends to Lord Voldermort? 

Despite all the rave reviews, I was skeptical about reading All The Young Dudes. I’ve seen the fan-art, the edits, the dream casts if it were ever adapted. I’d heard the rumours about Sirius and Remus’s love story being the stuff of legends. I know the magic that fan-fiction holds. But I have too many times experienced the soul-crushing disappointment and frustration in a tale not living up to the hype. This is Harry Potter, the book series which changed my life, in jeopardy here. Sirius Black is my favourite character. Fans have dubbed this book the unofficial eighth book in the series; there are huge expectations here. What if it’s a waste of my time? What if I cannot read these characters the same way again because I have been exposed to pale intimations? No. I was determined not to risk that. But it seemed that the more I tried to stay away, the more the fan-fiction followed me. Eventually, worn down, I gave in. The summer of 2021 was the time I was going to see if the rumours were true. 

Those five weeks of reading All The Young Dudes were a journey of emotions that I have not felt since reading the original series. It was as if I, too, were at Hogwarts, running around with the Marauders and staying up late at night with them in their dormitory, being entrusted with their deepest secrets and darkest fears. I would lose hours of sleep and read hundreds of pages a sitting. It only took me as long as it did to read it because I didn’t want it to end so soon. It felt like I had finally come home after a long journey. 

The story is told primarily through the eyes of Remus Lupin, who was a character I always felt was missing something when he first arrived in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Lupin was like a sketch of a character, clearly there but not quite finished. Now, however, Remus Lupin has become one of my favourite narrators of all time. We have a refreshingly honest perspective of growing up through Remus’s fear of being discovered about being a werewolf, his estrangement from everyday family life, and his conflicting emotions for his best friend. In addition, we get more insight into what it’s like to be a regular Hogwarts student, something we lacked due to Harry’s trials and damaging expectations and sacrifices of being “the boy who lived”. The Marauders stealing fireworks and waking up Gryffindor tower at three in the morning to wish Lupin a happy birthday. Lupin using the Marauders Map to find Peter and his girlfriend in a broom closet, then using the same method to sneak out of Hogwarts to get drunk on Sirius’s birthday. The camping trip to Cornwall, the Christmas holidays at the Potters, Sirius and Remus sneaking into Professor Flitwick’s classroom so they could make out without being interrupted. It’s all innocent, immature, exhilaratingly teenage things. We are, after all, talking about a boarding school with thousands of horny teenagers who can do magic. 

Then to have the war slowly infiltrate their lives, first in the papers then in their everyday decisions, was a chilling depiction of what war does and how it can change people. We watch four teenage boys become four men thrust into battle, desperate to save those they love, only to be betrayed and torn apart. It reveals the cracks in everything. The stigma and internalised homophobia in the wizarding world, the class divide, the segregation of “half-breeds”, the expectation of pureblood families, all of these now have origins and explanations which J.K. Rowling once again did not dive into the previous books. Sirius’s family would rather him marry his cousin than mess up the bloodline and then torture him nearly to death when he refused. We don’t see them through the eyes of a fifteen-year-old boy anymore, but their fully broken and beautiful selves. It’s what makes their deaths that much more painful because we have now felt like we, too, have just lost a dear friend. 

I am snowballing in emotions whilst writing this; I cannot talk about All The Young Dudes without crying. I could say so many things about this story that it would become dissertation length, footnotes and all. I am not overdramatic when I say this book has changed my life, which confuses me even more about why Rowling didn’t write this book sooner. 

J. K. Rowling has always avoided the pleas about her writing a book based around the Marauders. She claims it’s because prequels aren’t as successful, but I don’t doubt that if she did decide to pick up the pen and write this book herself, she would no longer hold the claim over the story as much as she could’ve done. The Marauders, in my opinion, no longer belong to her. The base of her characters are still there: Sirius and James, the troublesome teenagers who were adored or hated; Remus, the quiet, pensive moral compass who struggled with his voice; Peter, who was desperate to get his friends approval and therefore bent to every will until it broke him. The Marauders are far from perfect. But now, thanks to All The Young Dudes, that’s not what defines them. Sirius and Remus were destined for each other. James is no longer just the arrogant player Snape loathed or the perfect memory that Sirius fiercely defended. James is the boy who had eyes only for Lily Evans and treated his friends like his brothers, who held his flaws with accountability and grace, and who was the first friend to be there for Lupin whenever he doubted he didn’t belong. Peter Pettigrew’s story and ultimate betrayal is one that Shakespeare himself would be proud of. The slow crushing of Peter’s morals and innocence through his constant desire for approval makes his choices ones which we cannot help but understand, even if he is the reason for Harry growing up without parents. 

Unfortunately, J. K. Rowling couldn’t do that anymore. Her past controversial opinions would mean that the exploration of relationships would be wiped away. She would try too hard to paint Severus Snape into being a character we should like. The muggle world would be forgotten about completely. While a genius for creating this world in the first place, J. K. Rowling is too stuck in the mechanics of what she’s made that she forgets to take a step back and admire what she’s built in the first place. 

All The Young Dudes is now the book for the audience who have been there since the beginning. We are no longer the kids who used to sit in our beds with torches so we could keep reading when our parents put us to bed. The majority of us are now adults who are stressed with work, struggling with finding the balance of mental health and being sociable and asking for practical things at Christmas time instead of what we actually want. All The Young Dudes gave me an invitation back to a world of nostalgia I adore but on my terms, for my age. It’s raunchier, ruder, bleak, dark, honest, and so, so beautiful. When I read the final page, I had tears pouring down my face and a feeling that I had just stepped off the most incredible rollercoaster. 

All The Young Dudes is now my little bit of magic. And I am mental about it.