"Lily," James said although it was slightly muffled by my hair, "Maybe we should head back soon, we need to start packing. The Hogwarts Express leaves in an hour and we don't want to miss it..."

"No, stay!" I said pleadingly, holding him closer to me as we lay under the shade of the tree.

"Okay... you make a very convincing case, Fiancee." James said with a grin.

"I still can't believe it, we're so young..."

"Do you regret saying yes?" James said with a grin although there was an element of worry behind his voice. I thought I would, I felt like I'd suddenly get a sinking feeling that I was rushing into things but it never came. I don't know what it was but he was such an essential part of my life now and losing him for those awful few weeks had made me realise it even more. I wanted and needed him in my life and the ring on my finger seemed to signify that.

"No, I don't. I thought that if I ever got engaged so young I'd feel like I was rushing into things or something but I just... don't. I feel like it was meant to be. I don't know, that probably sounds cheesy."

"Lily Evans, I am the master of cheese. There can never be too cheesy."

"Except for when Peter goes through his rat phase and stockpiles parmesan." I said with a grin.

"... Okay, maybe that's a bit too cheesy." He said, "I can't believe we're getting a married... well, I kind of can, I mean I knew you wouldn't be able to resist my charm forever . It just feels like a dream, I keep having to get Sirius to pinch me. Sirius is so exicted to start planning the wedding - "

"James."

"Yes?"

"When we plan the wedding, it's going to be 5% your choice, 15% my choice and 80% Sirius, isn't it?" I said with a slight grin.

".... Nooo." James said unconvingly, "Okay, maybe but if you kicked up a fuss you could make it only 70% Sirius or even 65% Sirius if you bring out the tears."

"As long as he's paying, I have no objections." I said with a laugh. Sirius did have good tastes and he could apply eyeliner better than me so maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to have him plan my wedding with me.

"If you let him pick the cake, I think he might." James said, planting a small kiss on top of my head, "I still can't believe it, it feels too good to be true. If first year me could see me now..."

"He'd probably have a fit about how goody two shoes you are now. Head boy, sappy romantic." I said, propping myself to face him. The sunlight was dappled across his face, lighting up the silvery scars across his cheek. I think he didn't like them too much but I thought they were beautiful, like little rivers across his face. I absent mindedly traced my finger along his cheek, following the scar down to his chin.

"I'm still getting used to having the scar." James said with a small smile. I'd never seen him insecure about his appearance before, he'd always been quite confident, "I don't like it. I feel... odd."

"I think it's beautiful." I said, kissing his cheek, "It's like little river and it's all shimmery in the light. Anyway, every time you see it you'll remember how brave you were. If you hadn't been there, Thomas might have died."

"That's true." He said, sounding a little more convinced, "Maybe it will grown on me... this sounds weird but I'm going to say it anyway. When I first saw them when I woke up, they looked so distinctive, to me anyway and I thought they were so ugly. I thought you'd hate them as much as I did, I thought they'd ruined me."

"James, that is the craziest thing ever. You are still the most gorgeous specimen of man I have ever seen - "

"Don't tell Sirius. " James said, smiling his famous crooked smile, "I'm not going to disagree with you..."

"Damn it, you tell Sirius. James, I would still be with you even if you didn't have a face..." James's eyes widened and he looked a little disturbed.

"How does that work? Did it get... magiced away?" He said, his face crinkling in thought.

"Magiced away?"

"I can't think of a spell that would erase my face." James said thinking hard, "I hope there's not one, that would be a bit of a tragedy for you and girls everwhere."

"I hope there's not one too, to be honest." I said, the full eeriness of James not having a face setting in. I decided to change the subject, this wasn't a topic I wanted to dwell on, "I can't believe this is our last day. Like after this, we're not coming back. I keep thinking that I'll be back next summer but we won't, we have to go into the real world."

"We could come back anyway, sneak in as a first year." James suggested.

"We could use Polyjuice potion... I actually want to do this? Can we do this?" I said, sitting bolt upright at the possibility of coming back.

"I don't know, the real world sounds kind of nice. I don't really know what it involves or what I'll do but it sounds nice." James said with a smile, "Our wedding will take place in 'the real world'. That's something to look forward to."

"True, I guess I'll just have to accept that we're leaving." I said with a small sigh, lying back down next to him.

"It won't be over though, not really. We'll still all be here, we're not going to dissapear. If you were ever in trouble, I'm sure you could return." Jame said, giving my hand a squeeze, "Anyway, we should head back to the castle now. Packing will take seconds but saying goodbye to our friends won't. You know how weepy Alice gets, I'd set aside half an hour minimum."

"That's true." I stood up slowly, feeling a slight sadness that this would be the last time that me and James would lie under that tree in our Gryffindor Uniform, "It's just so... weird."

We walked back into the castle, our hands entwined. It felt so odd thinking that this would be the last time I walked through some of the corridors as a student. It didn't feel real.

"I hear congratulations are in order." Me and James turned around to see Professor Dumbledore standing in the corridor behin us, a slight hint of a smile on his face, "I trust that you've recovered well from your injuries, Mr Potter?"

"Still a few pains and scars here and there but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger." James said with a shrug.

"Wise words, Mr Potter." Dumbledore said, "Have you given any consideration to what you want to do after Hogwarts, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Um... not really." I admitted sheepishly, "Maybe something with Potions?"

"I was thinking of being an auror to help take down people like Voldemort but I don't know... It takes so long and I want to do something now." James said shrugging.

"I understand completely." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye, "I may be able to help there but for now I'll leave you to enjoy your last day." He gave us a simple nod before waking away, his long embroidered robes flowing out behind him.

"You know, I don't think I'll ever know why Dumbledore does what he does." James said, a strange almost angry look on his face.

"Are you still angry about him letting Snape, Mul - " I didn't even have to finish before James cut in with a spontaneous, angry rant.

"It's bloody ridiculous what he did. I know that he wants to keep his enemies close or whatever but they attacked me and Thomas, how where they even allowed to stay?" He said, fuming.

"Maybe you could sneakily hex him." I said, resting my head on his shoulder as we walked along.

"No, I'd be in such trouble and I'm a good boy now." James said, a familiar smirk settling on his face which was much nicer than the spontaneous rage. He had every right to be angry about it but he'd been dwelling on it a lot over the past few weeks and it couldn't be helped. Hogwarts was over now and I doubted they'd be getting sparkling references anyway.

"You're injured, you can get away with more stuff."

"Don't tempt me, Lily," He said with a grin.

I felt a slight lump in my throat as I walked through the portrait hole. It would be so hard to say goodbye to this place that I'd called home for the past seven years. I was familiar with every inch of the place, every corridor held a fond memory and it would be ridiculously hard to let go. As we walked in, a familiar sound met my ears; the playful bickering of Marlene and Sirius. It was a sound that I'd missed during Marlene and Sirius's quiet phase.

"Sirius, you wear it when you finish university!" Marlene said.

"But is there a law saying I can't wear it after I finish school? No, there is not and I look damn fine in it." Sirius replied.

"I think the biggest question is where you got it in the first place..." Remus said, his poker face slowly starting to break.

I looked over to see Sirius in an old fashioned graduation gown and mortar board which was honestly the weirdest thing I'd seen in a while. Marlene looked like she wanted to disappear into the background thanks to her boyfriend's ridiculous attire.

"Lily! Just the person to talk to about this. This is a muggle tradition right? I've seen it in films and it looked fun when everyone throws their caps into the air so I wanted to try it too. It's a thing, right?" Sirius said, giving himself a confident smile in the window reflection. I heard a small laugh from Remus although he managed to brush it off as a cough when Sirius glanced over.

"Um... I guess it is tradition but not usually for secondary school, only university..." I said, trying hard not let the laughter escape.

"See, I told you!" Marlene said, raising her hand up, satisfied that her point had been proven,

"You look a bit mad, Padfoot," James said, looking Sirius up and down to try and judge what he thought of it, "In a good way though, I've seen crazier stuff though so I say keep it!"

"No, James, don't say that!" Marlene begged but it was clear that with James's approval, Sirius would wear that for as long as he could get away with.

"You know, I kind of like it. Except for the pointy hat thing. That's just weird." Sirius said, removing the hat and looking approvingly at himself.

"Thank god, he actually looks normal now." Marlene whispered to me as Sirius discarded the hat and walked off towards Remus.

"Where did he even get it?"

"I don't know, he was in Hogsmeade by himself a few days ago and he came back with it." Marlene said, looking at him with a twinkle of amusement in her eyes, "I think Peter made them watch a bunch of cheesy American movies that had graduation scenes in them and I guess he liked the idea..."

"Well, I mean it's only for a day..." I said as the two of us watched Sirius casually sit down in his graduation robes, as if it wasn't strange at all.

"You say that now but I think it's growing on him." Marlene replied, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

"You could just hide it or something if he still wears them. I'm sure you'll find a way." I said, giving her shoulder a squeeze, "Anyway, I need to go and pack, I'll see you later."

"Be prepared, Alice is up there and she's feeling a little tearful." Marlene said with a grin as I dashed up the stairs to our dorm for possibly the last time.

Although Marlene had warned me about Alice being sad, 'a little tearful' was an understatement. Her mascara was streaming down her face, her eyes seemed to have enlarged twofold and a fresh bout of tears appeared the moment I entered the door.

"LILY!" She charged over, wrapping her arms around my neck, "I'm not going to see you every day, I can't handle this!"

"Al, we're your friends, we'll still see you." Mary said, slightly unsympathetically. There was a wet patch on her jumper where I guesses Alice had been crying on for the last few minutes.

"Yes but not everyday! Anyway, you say that now but we'll all start going our separate ways soon enough. Me and Frank are going to be so busy with Auror training that we'll barely have enough time to see each other let alone other people, you and James are engaged and Mary... Mary will probably get a lot of cats." Alice said.

"And a boyfriend that I'm going to try and see over the holidays!" Mary said although she looked a little annoyed at Alice's slightly random assumption that she'd end up as a cat woman.

"That too." Alice said quietly before surveying the room which led to another wave of tears forming in her eyes, "This room has had so many memories in it. I can't believe it's not going to be ours anymore. There's so many memories, like do you guys remember in first year when we'd pay those fifth year Hufflepuffs to sneak food to us for a Midnight feast."

"And then McGonagall caught us and we had detentions for a month." Mary said, standing besides us and looking wistfully around our soon to be former dorm room, "Except for Lily and Marlene who argued back so hard about human rights and stuff that in the McGonagall let her off."

"I have no regrets about that." I said with a grin, "That was a good speech. It's kind of sad that my impromptu speech skills have worsened over the years, I peaked when I was 11."

"So much has changed. When we first came here, Lily was a poncy, little nerd who hated James with a passion and now you're less poncy but still a little nerd who's going to marry him. And Mary, you were so uptight and you had that resting bitch face that made me think you hated me but now you're so sarcastic and smart, I just love you so much. Marlene was so, so rude and now she's sassy as hell and I wouldn't change her for the world. Dorcas was this crazy wild child who was almost too much and now I'd give anything to see her again as much as we used to." Alice said with a slightly weak laugh despite the tears rolling down her cheeks, "And I was an emotional wreck who cried when they didn't have her favourite breakfast cereal - "

"Alice, you still do that." I pointed out.

"Only at certain times of the month." Alice said, "Okay, fine, all the time but I don't cry about cereal anymore, you have to hand me that."

"No, you now cry about real issues and sad things which are probably going to make me cry too..." Mary said, hastily wiping her eyes with the back of her sleeve, "Guys, I'm actually going to miss this so much."

"No, Mary, don't you start crying," I said backing away from them and holding my hand out in self defence as if that could stop the tears from spreading to me, "If you guys start crying then I will too and I've done enough crying this year..."

"Embrace the tears, Lil." Mary said as she and Alice held out their arms to me and I decided to take their advice (something I probably should have done a lot more often) and embraced them. After a few minutes of crying and hugging, I detached myself from them as I remembered that I actually needed to pack.

"I actually need to pack now, guys." I said, heading over to my suitcase and pulling out my wand so I didn't have to pack 'the muggle way'.

"Or maybe if you don't pack, we can stay here forever, frozen in time." Alice said.

"As much as that sounds nice, I'm kind of looking forward to seeing what the real world has to offer." I replied which was true in a weird way. It was the end of an era but I was kind of looking forward to the new era starting.

"True." Mary said. Unlike me, there was no indication that she'd been an emotional wreck a few minutes ago, something that I was very jealous of, "There are some things I won't miss... like Lily's snoring."

"I don't snore!" I exclaimed, "Right, Alice?"

"Well..."

"Damn it, Alice, you weren't meant to agree with her!"

I'm getting all teary guys, they've left Hogwarts! 'Tis the end of an era! This was initially the last chapter too but there is a SEVERE shortage of post-Hogwarts Jily which was a key aspect of their lives so Part III and Part IV were created. Also on a shameless self-promo note (Is it still self promo if it's my own work - screw it), I've started a new book called 'Positively Unique' about Scorose (I love writing about Redheads for some reason) so go check it out if you Scorose is your thing! - E x