Thursday 1st September 1977

Platform nine and three quarters was just as busy as it was every year on September first. Maybe a few parents held their children closer than usual, the goodbyes were a little more tearful, and on closer inspection many of the adults and older students were tense and kept their wands close at hand – but this was nearly Hogwarts, and Hogwarts was safe. For every worried face in the crowd there were five carefree children shouting to their friends as they ran up and down the platform next to the long scarlet steam engine.

The minute hand on the clock ticked forwards, and a guard called five minutes to departure. The hectic movement on the platform increased suddenly as everyone shoved oversized cases full of robes and books onto the train and last minute goodbyes were made.

"Have you got your wand, Millie?" one frantic parent called. Further down the platform, someone was unsuccessfully trying to push a cauldron through an open window.

The bells rang for eleven am, and doors slammed shut all along the train, muffling the noise from the platform. Sirius and James waved to Mr and Mrs Potter one last time through the little window in the door, and headed down the train to find an empty compartment. A few tiny first years dashed past them in the opposite direction, clutching their brand new wands.

"We were never that small – tell me I was never that small Prongs, they probably can't even reach the Dungbomb shelf in Zonko's." Sirius peered in through the doors until they finally found one with no one else in and wedged their cases onto the luggage rack, James nearly dropping his onto his face.

"Yeah yeah, hilarious," he grumbled as Sirius laughed, fixing his glasses "I have to run though, pre-meeting meeting soon – you'll be alright on your own?"

"I'm not sure how I'll cope without your company for more than five seconds after this summer Prongs, but I'm sure I can find a way. Don't be late to your… Did you seriously just say pre-meeting meeting?" Sirius snorted.

"Well I know how you pine without me," James winked at him and headed straight back out of the door.

"Hey, have you told her yet?" Sirius shouted after him, but got no reply. He sighed, and settled back into the cushions to wait for the arrival of the rest of their friends… for their final journey to Hogwarts, and their last year – last Halloween, last Hogsmeade trips, last time sharing a dormitory.

Before he could get too lost in premature nostalgia, the door slid open, and he jumped out of his seat to launch himself at a tired and worn looking Remus. It was only a few days past the full moon, Sirius remembered a second too late, and they somewhat predictably went down on the ground in a pile of limbs. Remus was laughing though, and hugging him back with one arm (rubbing his ribs with the other, where he had fallen onto his case). Sirius bounced back up onto his feet and tugged Remus up, carefully ignoring the fact that he maybe liked touching Remus a little more than he maybe should (as he had all summer, when his stomach had started doing stupid backflippy things over every letter). Sirius was not one to repress his feelings, and had spent all summer flirting his (rather fantastic, if he did say so himself) arse off with Remus and had gotten precisely nothing in response. Sirius knew what 'no' looked like when he saw it, and right now he saw it in flashing neon letters above Remus' head. He made his interest perfectly clear, Remus continued acting exactly as he had always done, so now Sirius was going to follow suit and deal with it.

James made his way down the crowded Hogwarts Express, smiling and waving to people he recognised, and ducked into a toilet halfway down to change into his school uniform. He stood in front of the mirror as he pinned his badge to the front of his robes, and ran his hands through his hair until it looked a bit less like his mother had just tried to flatten it down. This would be the year that everything worked out – it had to be.

Despite having Sirius move in, he'd had an awful lot of time that summer to just think. And the thoughts he came out with at the end weren't entirely pleasant ones. This was the final year at Hogwarts for all of them, and alongside the usual mix of excitement and sadness and terror at the real world (particularly as it was right now – but he could forget all of that when he was in the castle) was the problem of one Lily Evans. Not that he heard from her once all holidays – and that was the issue, wasn't it. Of course he didn't hear from her, he never did when they were away from Hogwarts. Complete silence was the norm for them, and what they would presumably revert to when everyone when their separate ways at the end of seventh year, because whatever else they were (not much, and nowhere near as much as James would like), they weren't friends.

Lily would disappear off and live her undoubtedly fantastic life and James would go off in another direction and never hear from her again. Maybe one day he'll hear about her wedding and have a little shock that he hasn't thought of her in months or even years (and who is he kidding, he can't imagine going more than a day without thinking about Lily) and now she's just the girl he used to have a crush on for seven years that never went anywhere, and maybe he can't quite remember what she looks like anymore, just a flash of red hair and the knowledge that she was the prettiest girl he'd ever seen ad what if one day he can't quite grasp the exact feeling in his stomach when she smiles because he was an idiot anymore and –

And he's been in this bathroom for longer than is really acceptable having the same freak out he's been having all summer. James washed his hands and left, continuing along the train. The conclusion he'd come to, at about three am one somewhat tipsy night after one of his parents' parties, was that this year he had to get his shit together. He would be a model student if he had to be (kind of. Whenever a lot of staff members were watching and Snivellus wasn't involved, anyway), but this was his last ever chance with Lily and he was not going to throw it all away. As if someone somewhere knew about James' brand new mid-year resolution, his letter had come the next morning. He reached the end carriage, and sat down to wait.

Since his second year Remus had always looked forwards to going back to Hogwarts more than nearly anything. He loved his parents dearly, but he had never quite recovered from the surprise of finding three friends who not only looked straight past the fact that one of their best friends turned into a dangerous animal once a month, but then decided that the only logical solution was to become illegal Animagi. The guilt gnawed at him on long nights when he couldn't get to sleep, but never enough to make them stop – he was too selfish to tell them no. During the school year, he could almost ignore the fact that he was loathed by most of the magical community… But now it was nearly over. The illusion was about to shatter, and Remus couldn't help but wonder if this time next year he would be alone and feral.

He reached Sirius' compartment and shook his head as if to get rid of these thoughts before opening the door. Within seconds, he found himself on the ground underneath Sirius, laughing as he was pulled to his feet before they both fell back into their seats.

"How was summer, tell me everything," Sirius demanded quickly.

"I saw you two weeks ago and sent you three letters since then; would you like to hear the fascinating story of my packing?" Remus avoided the topic of the last full moon – and also the topic of how strangely Sirius had been acting this summer, because it couldn't possibly mean what Remus secretly wished it did.

Peter Pettigrew's case was full to bursting. Every single textbook from the last six years, plus his new ones, was jammed in with his clothes and chocolate frog cards and everything else. As a result, it weighed about twice as much as it should, and took five times longer than usual to drag along the corridor. The only thing on his mind (other than finding his friends, and hopefully soon) was passing his N.E.W.T.s.

He finally found the right compartment and opened the door. Sirius' and Remus' greetings were quickly interrupted by the enormous thud as he dropped his case to the ground.

"Blimey Pete, what have you got in there, bricks?" Sirius asked. Peter flushed and muttered out a few excuses. James and Sirius sailed through exams without seeming to try at all, and Remus might have his nose in a book half of the time but Peter was pretty sure he didn't actually need to study. They would all become Aurors or something, and he would be left behind.

He struggled with his case for a few minutes, pushing and pulling at it in a hopeless attempt to get it onto the luggage rack, before Remus took pity on him and levitated it up.

"You've been very quiet this summer Pete, you have to tell us everything – wait, is there a girl involved?!" Sirius interrogated him. Peter laughed weakly.

"No! Just busy, you know, family things, and, stuff." Which wasn't entirely a lie, his family would probably be disappointed if he failed, but he couldn't admit that he spent most of his time studying (or that it seemed to be a hopeless case). The conversation turned back to the upcoming year, and Sirius pulled out a pack of cards for a round of Exploding Snap.

"Okay, but this year we've got it in the bag. Hufflepuff's best players all graduated, and James-" Marlene ignored Lily's automatic annoyed expressions "- has some kind of brutal training plan apparently, there's not a chance of us losing the cup this time!"

"That's great Marlene, we will be at every match… but I asked what time it is, I forgot my watch."

"Oh, your meeting starts in five minutes, Head Girl," Marlene gave her an apologetic smile as Lily swore and dived for her trunk, books dropping to the floor as she dug her robes and badge out. She hurried down the corridor, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited outside the nearest bathroom. A frightened looking first year in oversized robes emerged clutching Muggle clothes and Lily ducked straight in. This was not exactly the start to her final year at Hogwarts that she had imagined, she reflected as she struggled with her tights. She was already late, she didn't even know who the Head Boy was yet, and – she opened the bathroom door just as a dark haired figure walked past and pulled it shut quickly. And Lily would be leaving Hogwarts, leaving Severus, and she didn't know quite how she felt about that yet.

A knock at the door reminded her that now was definitely not the time to figure it out, and she dashed down the rest of the corridor, shoving her jeans into her bag as she went. She flung open the door to the Prefect's carriage at the end of the train.

"Hey, hi, sorry, I'm not too late am I, I left my watch at home…" Lily trailed off as the only other occupant of the room got up, running one hand through his hair.

"Only ten minutes Evans, I'll let you off for now," James Potter was standing in front of her, Head Boy badge and all. Lily opened her mouth, and then closed it again.

"… Right."

Lily collapsed into a seat opposite Marlene in one of the carriages waiting to take them up to the castle.

"Lily!" Elizabeth cried, jumping to her feet to hug her. A second later they were joined by Jenny, and Lily had to elbow her way out from under her friends so that she could breathe properly.

"What took you so long Lils, we thought we must have missed you," Jenny asked, nudging her over for more seat space "Any exciting gossip from the Prefect's meeting? Who's the new Head Boy?"

"Please tell me it's that Ravenclaw prefect," Elizabeth mock fanned herself.

"Yes Lily, who is the mysterious new Head Boy?" Marlene asked, smirking at her. Lily groaned and let her head drop into her hands, muttering.

"Sorry, didn't quite catch that?" Marlene looked positively gleeful.

"IT'S JAMES FUCKING POTTER AS YOU DAMN WELL KNOW!" The other girls collapsed into laughter.

"Oh my god," Jenny gasped out, still laughing.

"Yeah, Sirius told me," said Marlene.

"This year is going to be wonderful," Eliza declared.

"I don't think you know what that word means, and you're all terrible people."

"Ah Lily, you love us really!"

The carriage pulled up to the front steps, and they continued gossiping all the way in to the Great Hall. They had just sat down at the Gryffindor table when a loud voice came from behind them.

"If it isn't four of my absolute favourite people!" Sirius dropped onto the bench opposite, grinning. "James, James, sit down, our Heads should be sitting together." James, Remus and Peter joined them, rolling their eyes at Sirius and chattering excitedly. Lily directed her gaze away from James, scowling.

While they were talking the new first years had filed in, led by Professor McGonagall, and were standing in front of the teachers' table. The hall fell silent, staring at the ragged sorting hat. One of the many rips opened, and it began to sing.

"I swear some of this is the same as from our first year," Sirius whispered.

They all applauded the new students as one by one they were sorted and sent to sit at their new house tables, and finally Professor McGonagall was carrying the stool ad sorting hat away and Professor Dumbledore stood.

"Welcome, welcome, new students and old, to another year at Hogwarts! I just have a few quick words before we can enjoy our no doubt excellent feast. Firstly, I'm sure you will join me in welcoming Professor Earley, who will be taking the position of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher as Professor Bowman has chosen to take an early retirement." There was a polite round of applause as the new teacher stood up briefly.

"Secondly, the heads of houses and myself have agreed upon the appointment of Miss Lily Evans and Mr James Potter, both of Gryffindor, as Head Girl and Head Boy this year, and we hope to see them working together for an exciting year at Hogwarts." Lily resisted the urge to hide under the table, instead staring off at a patch of wall while most of the other students clapped and Sirius made as much enthusiastic noise as he could.

"Now – let's eat!" Dumbledore clapped his hands, and the plates filled with mountains of food. A few of the first years gasped. Lily picked out all of her favourite foods within reach, trying not to watch the mildly disgusting display of Sirius loading his plate with absolutely everything including the mint humbugs.

"So, Quidditch."

Marlene swallowed quickly, and within seconds she and James were deep in a tactical discussion of the upcoming season, Sirius commenting whenever his mouth was empty enough. Remus caught Lily's eye and rolled his eyes.

By the time dessert had appeared and been eaten, Lily was half asleep. Jenny and Elizabeth were leaning on each other's shoulders, regretting the last two bowls of ice cream, and Peter was actually asleep on the table. The plates finally emptied, and Lily pushed herself to her feet unwillingly. She opened her mouth to speak, but someone beat her to it.

"Gryffindors! First year Gryffindors follow me!" She turned to see James shouting and waving one arm in the air, trying to attract the attention of all the Gryffindors. "Just go to bed you two, you look dead," he added more quietly.

"Thanks," Lily said, surprised, and glanced down at Remus, who looked as though standing might be beyond him. She offered a hand, and stumbled off after Marlene towards Gryffindor tower. Behind them James continued calling over the crowds and trying to herd the first years.

Friday 2nd September 1977

"Why can't we just start on Monday?" A bleary eyed Sirius muttered into his breakfast. Professor McGonagall was walking down the Gryffindor table, distributing timetables for the year. Remus rolled his eyes, ignoring Sirius in favour of the Daily Prophet. "This is just a completely unnecessary extra Friday, come on, it's pointless!"

At this point Professor McGonagall reached them, dropping rolls of parchment down in between the plates of bacon and bowls of cereal. They all reached for them with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"Double Transfiguration first thing, Herbology, Charms, Care of Magical Creatures… Ah excellent, free after last break!" James exclaimed.

"Must be nice to have less spectacularly shitty frees," Sirius complained.

"Free after Charms," Remus said smugly.

"How the fuck, you're taking more subjects than me that's not fair!"

"Don't start you two – Pete, what've you got?" James cut in.

"I'm only free last thing," he said sadly.

"Ah, bad luck mate."

Further down the Gryffindor table, Lily was eating her toast in peace. Or at least, she was until Marlene and Elizabeth sat down opposite her, loudly comparing timetables.

"Are you okay Lily?" Marlene asked innocently.

"… Yes, why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, there's no Potions today, and we know how you pine- hey! You're supposed to be setting a good example!" Marlene laughed, flicking the dry cereal that Lily had thrown out of her hair.

"Do you think they put Muggle Studies and Divination together at the end of the day just to torture the people who take them because they think it's a skive?" Elizabeth asked.

"I mean, they're not wrong. I'm predicted at least an Exceeds Expectations and I handed in about two essays last year," Marlene pointed out.

"Well, that probably did exceed their expectations if they know you," said Elizabeth. Marlene made a rude hand gesture in response.

"We'd better get going if we want to get our books before class though, it's nearly half eight." Lily stood up, retrieving her bag from under the table. "Also, is Jenny even awake yet?"

Sirius arrived at Transfiguration just as the start of class bell rang, shooting a winning smile at Professor McGonagall, who ignored him and promptly launched into her start of year speech.

"As I'm sure you are all well aware by now, your final N.E.W.T. year is incredibly important to your futures. You are all fully capable of achieving at least an Acceptable at the end of this year, but exams are just nine months away and there is a lot of work to be done. Today we will be working on one of the most difficult N.E.W.T. level topics to give you time to practice sufficiently: major human transfiguration. I do not think I need to tell you how dangerous this potentially is, and we will spend the first hour working on the theory covered in chapter nine of your textbook, which you have of course all read over the holidays as I requested. Can anyone tell me the three principles of human transfiguration?"

The four Marauders exchanged looks. Peter was almost vibrating with excitement at the thought of doing well in classes – becoming illegal Animagi over the course of their third and fourth years gave them an awful lot of experience with human transfiguration.

They left the class two hours later, bypassing the queue for Professor McGonagall to remove some of the more interesting extra protrusions that their classmates had developed (the back of Sirius' head had a few interesting lumps, but those were intentional on James' part and no one really felt like telling him).

The Gryffindor common room that evening was full of loud younger years, looking forwards to the weekend and excited from the start of term. James pinned the Quidditch try-outs notice next to a poster reminding them about curfew times, and went to join his friends.

"This is ridiculous. I swear we have more homework already than in the last six years combined." Sirius was trying to read Remus' Charms homework upside down across the table with little success. "And Moony is making me do it on a Friday night Prongs, tell him how wrong that is!"

"The more we do now, the less we do on the weekend, and I'm not making you do anything!"

"I swear we have this exact conversation every year. OI, MARLENE!" James shouted suddenly. Marlene, who had just emerged from the girls' dorm, made her way across the common room towards him, Lily and Jenny trailing after her.

"Try-outs a week tomorrow, I want the whole team there. We need a new beater, and a replacement chaser after that bloody dick decided he wants to focus on his exams – no skipping McKinnon, I can't find a chaser without a keeper to test them on."

"Why do I have to come then? Am I supposed to just fly around and pretend to look for the snitch as a distraction?" Sirius whined as Marlene elbowed him over on the sofa.

"Team spirit, you'll be there or you'll be gone," James said firmly.

Lily joined Remus on the other sofa, pulling out her own Charms essay and textbook. They worked in silence for a few minutes until Sirius interrupted.

"You know Lily, your handwriting is much nicer than Remus'"

"Thank- Hey, no, I've been working on this all afternoon, do your own!"

Saturday 10th September 1977

The second Saturday of term dawned bright and sunny. James got up early, dressed, and headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. To his surprise, he spotted Lily already at the Gryffindor table, alone.

"Morning Evans, what has you up this early?" he asked, sliding onto the bench opposite her. Lily looked up from her coffee and blinked in surprise.

"… Please don't speak to me before ten am."

"You realise it's a Saturday right, you don't actually need to be awake yet," James pointed out. Lily looked tired, he realised belatedly.

"I had Prefect duty last night. One vomiting fourth year, three minor incidents in the library corridor, and a homesick first year. Some of us have not had the luxury of sleep yet Potter."

James shot a pointed look at her coffee "Why aren't you sleeping now then?"

"Four pages of Herbology questions, two feet of Transfiguration, one chapter of Charms reading, Arithmancy number chart," Lily listed off.

"You seem remarkably awake."

"This is my fourth cup. What are you doing up anyway?" Lily absentmindedly added two sugar cubes to her current coffee before downing it.

"Quidditch try-outs! I have big plans this year Evans, big plans."

"Oh fuck. Right, the library awaits, I'll see you at tonight's Prefect meeting."

James stared after her for a moment, shaking his head. He was still lost in his thoughts when he was joined by Marlene. The hall slowly filled as they went over the new tactics for the season.

"We need some younger people – three of the team are graduating this year, and that's captain, seeker and chaser, everyone else is a sixth year, our whole team will be knocked out in a few years if we don't recruit a few third or fourth years at least and get them up to scratch before we leave," James argued.

"But if they're not good enough already then we just throw away this year's victory!" Marlene gestured wildly with her fork.

"Maybe you should just wait and see, since you don't even know who's going to try out yet," Remus pointed out, sitting down next to them and buttering some toast.

"Maybe we should go and see, since we're starting in fifteen minutes and Sirius is over by the doors," said James.

Remus excused himself to head to the library, and the others headed down the Quidditch pitch where a small crowd was building at the feet of the goalposts at one end.

"Alright everyone, listen up!" James shouted "We're looking for a beater and a chaser, so if you don't want to play one of those then go now or feel free to fly for substitute positions. We'll start off by splitting you into smaller groups and flying a few laps to see how you handle a broomstick – so if you don't have your own, go grab one from the shed now and let's get going!"

A stack of books dropped onto the other side of Lily's table and she jerked awake with a start, looking up to see Remus with an amused expression on his face.

"You're supposed to be the nice one," she complained sleepily.

"Sorry, someone misinformed you. Tired?" he sat down and pulled a quill, ink and parchment from his bag.

"Homesick first year in the common room when I got back late from patrolling, didn't seem worth going to bed once I was done with that."

"Ah. And now there's too much work," Remus said sympathetically.

"Mountains, if this is only the first proper week I don't know how we're going to make it through the year."

"I'll do you a deal – finish that essay and I'll sneak us some good coffee."

"Marry me," Lily sighed dramatically.

"Don't let James head you say that," Remus laughed, flipping open his Ancient Runes textbook. Lily laughed as well, and then stopped. She'd been trying to put her finger on what was off about James' behaviour all week, and here it was – he hadn't asked her out once, or flirted with her really, even as a joke. Was he planning something bigger, lulling everyone into a false sense of security?

Lily dismissed these thoughts as paranoia and forced her attention back onto her Transfiguration essay. The two of them worked mostly in silence for the rest of the morning, Remus occasionally nudging Lily to keep her awake and Lily questioning him on human transfiguration.

"Done!" Lily cried victoriously, earning a sharp look from the passing librarian "Two feet, one and a quarter inches."

"Well done," Remus muttered, buried in his translation.

"Pretty sure you promised me coffee," Lily yawned "I won't get this Arithmancy chart done without it, and you wouldn't want to be responsible for Professor Vector murdering me, would you?"

"… Fine, I'll be twenty minutes – don't fall asleep while I'm gone." Remus disappeared around the corner of the nearest bookshelf. Lily stood and stretched, and started returning some of the many Transfiguration textbooks spread over her desk. With no work to distract her, she kept returning to the question of James. Why was he acting so… un Potter-like? Obviously she preferred him not asking her out every time he saw her, it wasn't like she would ever say yes and he drove her mad, but a non-irritating James was… confusing.

Lily's thoughts were interrupted by Remus clearing his throat behind her.

"Well, you aren't sleeping, but I'm pretty sure the floor isn't that fascinating."

"Shut up, I'm tired." Lily stuck her tongue out. He rolled his eyes and gestured towards their table, where two large mugs of coffee sat.

"How did you even get those in here, Madam Pince will have your head if she catches us." Lily sipped her coffee, smiling.

"Marauder secrets – more than my life is worth to tell you," Remus grinned, returning to his seat.

James was waiting outside the empty classroom that they had claimed for Prefect meetings when Lily and Remus arrived, lauhing and nudging one another all the way down the corridor.

"Everything all right?" James asked, raising his eyebrows at Lily as she slid down the wall onto the floor, laughing so hard she was crying.

"Yeah… I'm cutting you off of the caffeine, those last two cups were probably a bad idea," Remus got out, still laughing.

"Caffeine is never a bad idea. Never," Lily said seriously, and then ruined the effect by bursting out laughing again.

"Okay then?" James opened the door and headed in as Remus lent Lily a hand, pulling her upright again. It was stupid to be jealous of the fact that Remus was actually friends with Lily, that they laughed together and spent time together, completely and utterly stupid. They'd been friendly for years, and James had only been behaving himself for a week or so, what did he expect?

By the time all the Prefects had arrived Lily was considerably calmer.

"Right, we'll try and make this quick because let's face it, we've all got better things to be doing-" Lily kicked James under the desk "- but there's a few things we have to get through."

"First, we have to pick Hogsmeade weekend dates for the term to pass on to the staff. This is pretty straightforward, we just do the same every year – middle of October, last weekend before Christmas," Lily took over, digging notes out of her bag.

"Second, this year we have the Christmas ball – we need volunteers to plan and organise it, preferably people who aren't doing N.E.W.T.s this year. If you're interested then let James know at the end and he'll give you more details."

"On a more serious note, Prefect powers are to be used responsibly, any sign of abuse and your position can be taken away. Some people could do with remembering this," James spoke up while Lily was yawning. "And on a considerably less serious note, the new bathroom password is eucalyptus, if comes into effect at midnight tomorrow."

"Right, we'll leave it there for tonight, unless anyone has any issues with the patrol rota… no?"

The room broke up slowly, some lingering to discuss the Christmas ball excitedly – it only took place every other year, and the last one had apparently been a night to remember. Lily had snuck out straight after the dinner once everyone was distracted and spent the night sitting in an empty corridor with Severus, talking and laughing and playing games until well after the ball had officially ended. They had traded stories and hopes and memories of when they were nine and everything had been so simple, and Lily had thought that they could fix everything that was changing between them. It had been one of the last real good times they'd had together – Severus spent more and more time with Avery and Mulciber and their lot, and they didn't keep their dislike of Muggleborns secret. And then…

"Knut for your thoughts?" Lily looked up, startled. James had broken away from the ball conversation and was standing in front of her; in fact, the room was nearly empty.

"Just really, really ready for sleep," she said, standing up. They walked back to Gryffindor Tower mostly in silence, where Lily headed straight for the girls' dormitory with a quick goodnight.

A/N: I'm crossposting this here from AO3 (after a long hiatus from ffn on a different profile, I ended up reading something here and figured I should), so if you're feeling impatient head over there for the 100% up to date version. If you'd rather enjoy a regularly updating fic, stick here! I'm aiming to upload a chapter here once a fortnight until I run out.

On the subject of the actual fic... I wrote most of this over the course of two Camp NaNoWriMos, for a bit of fun. The working title was "Obligatory seventh year Marauders fic", and that probably tells you everything you need to know :p