* Making plans *

Waiting for Aggy to return from the ministry where she had started auror training, Lily couldn't believe that it had been a month since graduation. A month since James had proposed to her down by the lake and a month since they had caught the Hogwart's express for the last time.

Turning back from gazing out of the window Lily surveyed the flat that she and Aggy now called home. It had all been thanks to Professor McGonagall that they had had somewhere to live after leaving school. It wasn't much but it was all theirs and she was just grateful that she hadn't had to go crawling back to Petunia. Lily knew that wouldn't have been pleasant, especially after the last meeting between them when she had gone to collect the remainder of her things from her parents old home.

With her thoughts focused on her family Lily smiled as she caught sight of the large wooden framed mirror over the dusty brick fireplace. Lily smiled to her self at the memory of Rowan's brief visit and the look on James' face when he had come bounding into the flat only to come face to face with the full compliment of Rowan and friends. The self-imposed protectors of her honour had made it their mission to furnish the quaint little flat that was situated on the far edge of Diagon Alley.

It was the perfect place for them both, Aggy and Lily could walk to the ministry and now they had been put on the floo network Lily no longer had to head over to the Leaky Cauldron to go training. As her thoughts fell onto the subject of training Lily panicked slightly and remembered why she was waiting for Aggy to come home. Jonesy in his wisdom as the manager of Puddlemere United had that afternoon after training decided it was time move her up to the first team. She had only six weeks left until she would have to play in her first professional game as a chaser and she was terrified.

The click of the front door brought Lily's eyes back into focus and she turned to greet her friend.

"Lily I'm home, honey," came the shout from the entrance hall as Aggy closed the front door.

Rolling her eyes Lily groaned but smirked at her best friend as she walked into the small cosy sitting room.

Watching Aggy laugh Lily said, "What's got you so happy today?"

Flopping down onto the old comfy sofa Aggy chuckled as she said, "We got assigned partners today."

"And?" Lily asked.

"It's like being back at Hogwart's, I got assigned Danny and Sirius got Patrick Boot!" Aggy said with a roguish smile spreading across her face.

Lily couldn't help her self and laughed at the thought of Patrick and Sirius together, the Ministry really didn't know what they had let themselves in for with that pair.

Together the two girls made a pot of tea and then settled down in the sitting room to tell each other all about their respective days.

Life had fallen into an easy pattern for the two young witches. Both had been given the opportunity to follow their dreams after School had finished. Aggy had been accepted into the auror training academy along with Danny and Sirius. Lily was now a fully-fledged member of Puddlemere united to the great joy of all her male friends who were now guaranteed tickets to every game but she had also been offered a job with the Ministry to work in the experimental charms department with Janice Flitwick. At first Lily had been demented at the thought of not being able to take the post due to her Quidditch commitments but Professor Flitwick's sister had worked her schedule around her training sessions and games.

With the tea pot drained of it's contents the girls quickly got themselves moving as tonight was to be wedding planning night. Marie and Annie were coming over and together the infamous four were going to sort out wedding plans. So far they had two weddings to organise, Annie and Danny were to be the first as they had chosen to elope at Halloween mostly due to Danny becoming an auror and the fact that they knew that both sets of parents would never agree to them getting married straight out of school. Following them would be Lily and James at Christmas.

It was now the beginning of August and tonight they were going to bring together the research each girl had been conducting on the ins and outs of getting married. Marie's job had been to find out about the little chapel in Hogsmeade. Having easy access to the Ministry Aggy and Lily were charged with finding out about the legal requirements to getting married. Annie on the other hand was heading up the wardrobe department, mostly due to the fact that she now worked for Madame Malkin.

Lily was surprised by the similarities between Wizard and Muggle weddings. Marie had found out from the old Priest that they needed to give him four weeks notice and had to have a minimum of two witnesses. Lily and Aggy had discovered that they could get a Ministry official to attend the wedding or they could take the documents and lodge them at the Ministry the following day. Madame Malkin had agreed with Annie that as long as she worked on the robes she could have them at cost.

With everything discussed it was time to commit the plans for Annie and Danny's wedding to parchment first. Marie and Aggy sat at the old drop leafed table and worked out the schedule of events. Annie and Lily worked on the design and colours of robes. They may be eloping but Annie wanted to be married in traditional wedding robes, having been a bridesmaid at her brothers friends weddings Lily was able to give Annie some pointers.

Satisfied that they had everything was now under control with the Halloween wedding plans all attention was turned to Lily.

Smiling at her friends Lily said, "It's been set James and I are getting married on Christmas eve." Lily paused before saying, "At Hogwarts."

"When was this organized?" Marie asked a little stunned.

"I only found out yesterday, James had suggested it and when he went back to Hogwarts he went to see Professor Dumbledore," Lily explained. "James said that the Professor almost whooped with joy and thought it was a great idea. It seems we are going to be married in the great hall by Professor Dumbledore himself."

Frowning Marie asked, "Can he do that?"

At this Lily just shrugged and said, "It was his suggestion, so I guess it must be ok."

After a moment of stunned silence the small sitting room was filled with shouts and screeches of joy as four teenage girls jumped up and down hugging each other at the prospect of a second wedding and at Hogwarts to boot.

Soon another set of parchments was filled with notes and plans. Colours organized, outfits designed and decorations planned.

Anybody looking through the sitting room window that night would have seen on first glance four overly excited teenagers but only on closer examination would they have noted the pain being masked on one of the girl's faces.

* ~ *~~* ~ *

On the other side of London in what could be termed a bachelor pad at best, a pit of squalor at worst sat six young men drinking butterbeer and chatting happily. Unlike their female counterparts weddings only made up about 10 percent of their evening. No fuss or major planning involved, just reminders of promises made on days gone by. For Danny it was a case of making sure that Patrick Boot his fellow Ravenclaw would fulfil the promise they had made the day after the graduation ball.

Not long after James and Remus had arrived at the old house that Sirius, Danny, Patrick and Peter shared, James had taken Sirius to one side. Up in Sirius's bedroom James had filled him in on the conversation that he had with Professor Dumbledore about marrying Lily at Hogwarts. Sirius simply nodded at the silent request and in the private of the messy front bedroom the boys embraced as brothers sealing a pact made on the Quidditch pitch the day they had left Hogwarts weeks earlier.

* ~ * ~~ * ~ *
As the night wore on in each home decisions were made to go to bed. Over at the girls flat extra beds were transfigured in Lily's bedroom and the girls re-created their old Hogwarts dorm room. Where as over at the boys' house Remus and James accepted a set of blankets and got comfy on the squishy sofas in the warm dark sitting room.

Tomorrow they were all meeting up and heading over to the Ministry for their apparition test.

* ~ * ~~ * ~ *
By ten o'clock the next morning eight newly graduated Hogwarts students had assembled in front of the Ministry building. After much hugging and kissing the early morning greetings were over.

Looking around Lily and noticed that Peter was missing. "James, were is Peter. I thought he was going to do his test today?" Lily asked.

But it was Sirius who answered with a roll of his eyes. "He said he didn't fell too well this morning and didn't fell up to it."

After a "what a surprise" from Annie, the small group moved up the steps and through the front doors of the old building. Once inside the Lily and Aggy came face to face with Betty Madely, one of the witches they had met the summer before who worked the desk at wizard services.

"Hi Betty," Lily said.

"Hello girls and what can we do for you young ones today?" she asked.

Smiling at her Aggy said, "We're booked in to do our apparition tests today."

Casting her eye around the group Betty smiled and pointing towards the fireplace she said, "Well you know the routine, just call for magical transportation."

One by one the friends stepped up to the fireplace cast the floo powder into the flames and swirled away through the floo system of the Ministry of magic. Fortunately for Lily James had gone before her and was there to catch her as she tumbled from the sparkling green flames.

Smirking he said, "I can't believe you still fall out."

In return for his kindness Lily swatted him on the arm and said, "Oh shut up James."

Rolling her eyes at the smirks and chuckles she was getting from her friends Lily moved to the desk against the far wall.

Smiling at the old wizard Lily said, "Hello, we are here to take our apparition test."

Swiftly the elderly figure had taken down their names and in pairs they had been assigned an apparition test examiner. The last pair was told to go through the glass door to the left and the rest were told to take a seat.

Smiling at their friends James Potter and Annie Ryan headed off. Fifteen minutes later they were back in the entrance of the Magical transport department happily waving their pass certificates. Next went Remus Lupin and Lily Evans, followed by Marie Devon and Aggy Court and finally it was the turn of Danny Brocklehurst and Sirius Black. After an hour and a half the eight friends were ready to exit the Ministry each the owner of a new apparition certificate. With the rest of the day free they headed off to the Leaky Cauldron for a well deserved butterbeer.

Once inside the dark old pub the girl's head for a table near the fire while the boys headed to the bar. As the boys returned drinks in hand and extra stools pulled up to the long rectangular table, six sets of eyes turned to Danny and Sirius.

Looking at his friend Remus asked the question they all wanted the answer to "Why did it take you two longer than the rest of us?"

At this Danny let out a low throaty laugh and Sirius smiled.

"Well, are you going to tell us or not?" James asked.

Chuckling Sirius said, "There was a slight hiccup with the last part of the test."

A slight confused look on her face Marie said, "What apparating back to the start point?"

At this Sirius nodded and then said, "Alright, it all started well we got the destination and Danny went first. We both hit the mark dead on and the first examiner gave us both full marks. Again we hit the second mark dead on but then on the last leg I miss calculated and instead of picturing the apparition sight, I pictured Danny at the apparition sight and landed on his shoulders."

At this the story came to an end for a second as Danny and Sirius cracked up laughing.

"God, you should have seen the old guys face. It was a picture," Danny said while gulping air between bursts of laughter. "That's not the best bit though, as Sirius realized the guy was about to fail him, he jumped down from my shoulders and turned on the little boy routine."

Shrugging his shoulders Sirius said, "It worked the old wizard let me apparate back to the last check point and then apparate back to him."

Shaking his head Remus said, "Only you Padfoot that could get away with that, a bloody drama queen to the end."

This sent the group off laughing again as Sirius Black; trainee Auror sat pouting and batting his eyelashes at his friends. Another butterbeer was had in the Leaky Cauldron before the friends headed back into Diagon Alley to find a café for lunch before doing some much needed shopping. As dusk descended the friends found them selves in Lily and Aggy's flat, were the girls whipped up some food for dinner and the friends settled down for a night in together before everyone had to head off home.

Eight friends and four couples said their goodbyes late that evening, six of the eight young witches and wizards using their newfound skill to apparate out of the tiny flat. Danny and Sirius managed to frighten Peter out of his wits as they both landed in the sitting room with a loud bump. Marie and Annie apparated into the entrance hall of their parent's homes, to shouts of congratulations from their families as they saw the certificates. While James and Remus landed just on the outskirts of Hogsmeades village and started the long trek up to the old castle that had been their home for the last seven years.

* ~ * ~~ * ~ *

Later that night the events of the day were replayed by each one of the eight friends, as they lay wrapped up in warm blankets and happy smiles on their faces as they drifted off into sleep. With dark times ahead of them and the war effort intensifying by the day, life had to be snatched and enjoyed. Life was uncertain at best but in these times even more so and whatever happiness you could get had to be grabbed quickly and held onto with all your might.

Beta Note: Tear! Such a sweet chapter, the more you review they quicker Madame Padfoot writes!

A/N: Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed the first chapter.  Please don't forget to click the little button and let me know what you think.

Madame Padfoot