The last few days were spent with Demi and Sirius sneaking around and hoping sincerely that the others (James especially) did not figure out what was going on.

Needless to say, James had his mind on other things. Well, one thing in particular; Lily.

Having spent the past five years getting told 'no' was becoming tiresome to the others, but James continued to haunt Lily. He'd asked her out on several occasions, and Lily was losing her patience. On the platform, she'd hexed James with a toenail curse, and left him howling as he attempted to pry off his shoes.

"He deserved it," Lily said when asked for her reasoning. "I mean, you can only be patient for so long."

Frank smirked, "I'm surprised you lasted this long without bringing magic into it." He and Alice were sitting together in the compartment, along with Marlene, Demi, and Kiaria.

"I've only been here for one year and I don't even want to ask you out," Marlene said as she rested her head on Kiaria's shoulders.

The two girls had grown close, having spent a majority of their time with a couple (Alice and Frank), and while no one was sure whether the pair were going out or not, they were beginning to place bets on when the news would become public.

Something that Demi and Sirius found, the others were doing to them.

"Did you know Moony has ten galleons on us getting together?" Sirius asked one day, as the pair were sitting in the Room of Requirement.

"Smart man, that Remus" Demi replied as she and Sirius talked.

"So, what are you doing for the holidays?" Marlene asked, snapping Demi out of her reverie.

"Oh, I uh, dunno. Just going to hang around with James and play Quidditch I guess" she replied, putting her feet up on the seat infront of her. "You?"

Marlene sighed, "Weddings. Too many weddings."

"I never minded weddings," said Frank. "For example, Bilius Weasley was at a wedding that I went to, and he was the life of the party. Downed an entire bottle of Firewhiskey, ran to the centre of the dance floor, hitched up his robes and started to pull flowers out of his-"

He was cut off as the sound of laughter carried on from the aisle. The Marauders had been standing there looking for seats and heard the entire story.

"Oh, that's hilarious" said Remus, wiping his eyes, as the other three roared with laughter.

They quickly sat down with the others, much to Lily's displeasure.

"I have to go to the Weasley's when I get back," said Alice. "Molly's had her son and, if the rumors are true she's about to have another child."

Kiaria whistled, "That's a bloody factory."

"Seems painful as shit though," Demi added, as she and Kiaria exchanged disgusted looks.

"Wait, you don't want kids!" Sirius shouted from beside Frank, who gave Sirius a rude hand gesture.

Everyone turned to face him, and watched as his face grew red. "Carry on, carry on" he muttered, glancing around the compartment.

Demi shook her head, while the others gave him bizarre looks. "Anyway, she's already had two kids, and last I remember she just had Bill," Demi said.

"Time flies when you're having fun," muttered Peter.

"I don't think that taking care of a living thing counts as fun, Wormtail," grumbled James, as he pulled out a pack of exploding snap.

"Those are banned Potter," said Lily, sticking out her hand. "Give them to me please."

James gave her an incredulous look, "Oh come on Evans, just try to rebel at least once before school is completely over. We won't tell anyone, we swear." He placed his hand over his heart and nodded to the other Marauders to follow suit.

Lily was getting quite tired of James' foolish tendencies and headed out into the corridor for some, "non-idiot polluted air." She slammed the door of the compartment shut and headed down the carriage.

"Well, you seem to have pissed her off nicely," said Demi as she shuffled the cards, which Lily had forgotten to confiscate.

"Yeah, well what are you going to do, huh?" James muttered as he picked up his cards and began to add to the pile.

"Maybe you should deflate your head a bit," said Kiaira, ducking Jamea' arm.

James laughed, "My head is not that big, okay? She's just exaggerating." He placed another card on top and the minute Peter bent forwards to do the same, the deck blew up, singing his eyebrows.

Frank regarded Peter for a moment, "That reminds me; we're going to be learning human transfiguration next year, aren't we?"

The Marauders and Demi exchanged looks, while Marlene nodded "Yeah we are! I've never been so excited! I mean, imagine being able to change how you look just by the flick of your wand!"

"The pranking possibilities are endless" said Sirius, making the others laugh.

Just then, they heard a loud 'BANG' come from the end of the compartment, followed by a cloud of thick, purple smoke. They all stood up and drew their wands; James and Remus being sat by the door opened it quickly and headed down the aisle.

There, by the entrance to what was commonly known as the Slytherin Carriage was Lily, her wand out and an amused look on her face. Remus looked past her shoulder and saw a boy with dark purple tentacles all over his face.

"Severus?" asked Remus, looking down at the boy curiously.

"And don't you dare speak to me again!" Lily said, before turning on her heel and budging past Remus and James, who was laughing uncontrollably.

"Oh, oh, she's really outdone herself this time. Well done Evans," James said, clapping and laughing.

Severus gave the two boys a disgusted look before getting up, dusting himself off and heading back in to the Slytherin carriage.

Remus and James headed back to their compartment, where Lily was sitting down, her wand still out and a slightly furious expression on her face. "I didn't mean to hex him, it just happened!" she told the others.

"What did he do?" asked Peter, who was interested in how she managed to give the boy tentacles.

Lily sighed, "I was going to get some air, and I was heading down that way and completely forgot it was the Slytherin carriage. So as I was heading past, Severus showed up and tried to apologize to me again. I told him to stuff his apology up his, you know, (here James sniggered) and I made to turn around. Then he called my family some not-nice words and the next thing I knew, he was laying in front of me covered in tentacles."

"Ah, non-verbal magic. Well done Lily!" said Demi, giving the girl a high-five.

"Shit, we're going to have to learn that next year too!" Alice said, groaning aloud.

Lily laughed at Marlene's comment as she gazed out of the window and saw the counties flying by. "I can't lie though. Ever since Christmas I've dreaded returning home. Petunia's going to be a nightmare when I get back," she said.

"Come on Evans, don't let the muggles get you down," James said, reaching over and patting her on the back.

Lily gave a small smile, "Thanks Potter."

James immediately froze, midway through another pat. "Did- did Evans just thank me?" he asked Sirius, who nodded, looking quite frightened at the maniacal expression on his friend's face.

James jumped up and gave a little whoop of glee, before sitting back down and beaming around at the others. "She thanked me, you know" he said to Peter, pointing over to Lily as though she could not hear him.

Remus glared at Lily, "Now you've set him off."

"And I'm going to have to deal with," here Demi did an accurate impression of James anytime Lily said something to him. "'thanked me, you know. That's what she did . . . Evans' for the rest of the summer!" Demi huffed, looking at Lily and then back at James, "Goddamn it."

The others watched in amusement as James continued to act, for lack of another word; mental.

They all continued to talk until they felt the train slow to a stop in King's Cross, and once they'd unloaded their belongings and were standing on the platform did they truly feel as though the year was over.

Frank was the first to split from the group, watching in horror (along with the others) as his mother pushed her way through the crowds, visible to all by the large stuffed vulture that sat on her hat. Frank quickly said goodbye to them all, before heading off to his mother.

Kairia was next, and was greeted by her mother and father, who helped her load her stuff on to a trolley as she said goodbye to the others.

Marlene was slightly shocked and happy to see her mother standing by the barrier, hoping to catch a glimpse of her daughter. The others watched, smiling, as Marlene and her mother made their way through the barrier.

Alice was shocked to see one of her cousins from Greece here to pick her up from the platform. The young man, who must have been about 17 or 18 was quite handsome and took to Demi and Lily immediately, kissing the pair's hands before leaving abruptly, having noticed the looks on James and Sirius' faces.

Soon, Demi and the Marauders were guiding Lily to the barrier, behind which her parents were waiting to collect her. She and Demi hugged for several minutes, "Feel free to stop by if Petunia's giving you a hard time."

Lily nodded, taken aback by the gesture.

"Yeah, anytime Evans," said James, hoping to get in on Lily's good side before she left. "You can stay in my room, and I'll sleep on the sofa" he added as an afterthought.

Lily shook her head as she went through the barrier. Demi turned to James, who looked quite pleased with himself, "I have nothing to say to you."

Peter was next to go, and was greeted by his mother, who shook hands with the others before disapparating with her son.

"We're going to learn that too," said Remus, looking at where Peter and his mother had just been standing.

"Can't wait! Then I can truly run from home" Sirius said bluntly, turning to the others. "Well gents, I'll see you around," he gave them all a curt nod, before getting a hug from Demi, who, unknown to the others, shoved a piece of parchment into Sirius' coat pocket.

"Stay with us whenever you like Padfoot," said James, patting Sirius on the back.

"Our door's always open," Demi added, watching as Sirius plowed through the crowd towards his mother, who was clicking her tongue and tapping her foot impatiently. She grabbed Sirius by the scruff of his collar, with Regulus linked on her arm before she too disappeared.

Remus waved to his mother, who'd just emerged on the platform and stood by the barrier. With a parting wave, he too left.

"So, ready to go home?" James asked Demi, as they picked up their things.

"Definitely," she replied, and they headed through the barrier back to another summer.