"Okay, everyone remembers the prank?" Peter said excitedly, "When James comes in we pretend that he's not even been gone, like nothing has changed!"

"If you say so, Peter..." I said with a slight laugh. The whole atmosphere of the common room was amazing, there wasn't a single person in there who wasn't happy about his return. I'd been to see him a few times since the first time and he seemed to be getting restless to return - even if it meant facing N.E.W.Ts which started in less than a week's time. I should have been studying as much as I could before he arrived but I eventually gave up, nothing was going in anyway. For Peter's prank, I'd been told to stay seated as if I was revising but it was hard, especially as I had the urge to check the door every ten seconds to see if James had arrived yet.

After what seemed like too long, the door swung open to reveal the figures of James and Sirius.

"He's back, Witches!" Sirius said and was met with silence, "I said he's back, Witches!"

Every bone in my body was willing me to turn around and acknowledge him but Peter was so proud of the prank he'd come up with on his own and I didn't want to be the one to break the silence... turns out Peter did that for us.

Within a few seconds, Peter suddenly whipped around.

"WOO! JAMES! James is back, he's here! I know it was my idea but I just can't ignore him for any longer!" He said punching his fist in the air.

"Great to see you too." James said, giving him a strange look but smiling nonetheless.

"Great prank, Wormy." Remus said with a smile, standing up and walking over to hug James, "It's been so quiet without you, Prongs, I've actually managed to get work down."

"Damn, Moony, I thought you'd be so stressed about me that you wouldn't be able to work." James replied with a grin.

"I channelled my stress into revision. If I get all Outstandings on my N.E.W.Ts, it's thanks to you... and my brain." Remus said with a chuckle. James laughed too and it was like music to my ears. It was such a familiar sound that I'd taken it for granted before but it was really was the best damn laugh I'd ever heard.

I hadn't wanted to interrupt his and Remus's moment but now that it had come to a natural end (or possibly just a slight pause, I didn't care), I dashed forward throwing my arms around his neck.

"I have missed you so much..." I suddenly noticed that as I hugged him, he winced slightly, "What's wrong? James, did I hurt you?"

"What? I'm fine." He said, quickly hiding the grimace and smiling broadly, "I've missed you too."

I didn't care who was watching but I had to kiss him there and then, it had been too damn long for my liking. After about ten seconds, Sirius got a little bored of it.

"Damn, Lily, stop hogging him, we all want our turn."

"What? At snogging him?" I teased, my arms still looped around James's neck. Sirius looked down at his feet and for a second I thought he was offended for some reason but the thought vanished when he looked up dramatically.

"Damn it, Lily... you weren't meant to find out like this!" He said dramatically. I decided to play along, turning to James with exaggerated horror.

"Is this true? All this time, I thought it was so platonic... but I guess I was wrong." I looked up at James who was grinning, clearly enjoying the impromptu improvisation.

"Don't worry, there's plenty of Prongs to go round."  James said with a grin, not truly getting the overdramatic vibe of our acting but I could forgive him. Me and Sirius exchanged a look of disappointment at James's acting.

"No, Prongs! I don't share!" Sirius said, dramatically placing his hand on his head, "I guess I'll just have to claim Marlene and Remus for my own..."

"Hell yeah." Marlene said with a nod of her head, grinning over at us.

"What?" Remus said, his eyes widening for a second.

"Play along, Moony, I have to have two people, that's one more than Prongs." Sirius hissed in a stage whisper.

"Oh right, yeah..." Remus said, with a sheepish grin.

"Okay as much as I'm loving this random soap opera that's broken out in the common room, I want to say welcome back to James too." Mary said walking up and giving him a hug, "Good to have you back, James, Divination isn't the same without you."

"Nice to see you two, Fortuna." James said, saying Fortuna in a silly voice which made Mary laugh. I felt bad for forgetting that my friends actually knew James from things other than me which almost started a mini existential crisis about people existing without me. I managed to brush it off though, now was not the time to think about the bigger questions.

After everyone had said their hellos, which naturally took a while, Sirius stood on a chair suddenly to call everyone's attention.

"Okay everyone! So I know O.W.Ls and N.E.W.Ts are coming up and nobody is more stressed than me - "

"Not likely!" Someone called out from the crowd of Gryffindors but Sirius was undettered.

" - but I've been given special permission from McGonagall that maybe a small celebration would be permitted provided everything is spotless in the morning and it stays in the common room!" Sirius said which was met with a loud cheer.

"I was going to revise but I think I'm going to live a little and party... until half nine then I'm going to bed." Mary said from next to me.

"Damn, Mary, really letting loose." Marlene said with a grin, "What about you two?" She said leaning round me and Mary to face us.

"Let's just say, I'll be partying a lot later than half nine." Alice said with a small smile.

"Nine forty five?" Mary said and there was an awkward pause as we tried to figure out if she was serious or not, "What?"

"Yes, Mary, nine forty five." Marlene said, concealing a smile on her.

The rest of the day went quite quickly, my mind was set on the party. Potions was definetly a lot more fun with the sound of James and Frank bickering away like an old married couple over the ingredients. I felt like I was riding on a cloud, high above the world so nothing could bring me down (except for the fact that clouds are actually droplets of water and I would fall straight down but it was a nice metaphor).

It had been too long since we'd had a proper Gryffindor party, the last one had been great and I was ridiculously excited. It was odd to think of how much had changed since the last party. Marlene and Sirius had just been getting together, Mary and Remus had barely said a word to each other, Me and James hadn't even kissed yet and Alice and Frank... were basically exactly the same. My outfit was vaguely reminiscent of the dress I wore to the last one. I had wanted to wear the same one but Marlene had personally banned me from doing that no matter how many good memories I had attached to it.

I had a strong sense of Deja vu as the four of us walked down the stairs into the common room just as we had done before except this time, James was there first, surrounded by a group of people. Judging from the slight dazed smile on his face, he was enjoying the attention, basking in the glory. It brought a smile to my face even though the crowd of people around him meant that my interactions with him would probably be less than I'd hoped for. Still, I would get to see him a lot in the past few weeks (I'd make sure of it) so I decided to try and enjoy the party and let him enjoy his hero's welcome - he'd more than earned it.

"Hey Lily." Remus said from behind as I helped myself to another ice mouse even though each one managed to freeze me to my core.

"Hey Remus, enjoying the party?"

"It's okay." He said with a shrug, "I'd rather be studying right now to be honest. Big parties aren't my thing, I'd rather celebrate James's return at a table in the Three Broomsticks with just a few of us where we could actually talk rather than dance drunkenly on tables."

"Nobody's dancing drunkenly on tables... yet." I said with a grin.

"You looked so like James for a second," Remus studied my face carefully, "That was literally his grin right there."

"I guess it rubbed off of me. That tends to happen, he's become a lot more studious too since we since we started dating..."

"He has?" Remus raised a sceptical eyebrow at me.

"He did some revision with me, it was Defence against the Dark Arts and I was very proud." I said slightly defensively even though Remus hadn't insulted James or anything.

"True, I'd better get back to the party," Remus said, "Peter's drunken too much of this very weak cider and is convinced that he's drunk so I'd better stop him before he falls off a table or something."

I felt a little sad as I watched him go, I missed our deep talks on prefect duty. Although I did enjoy patrolling with James a lot, it had come at the cost at my friendship with Remus in a way as we had no lessons together so I didn't see him as much as I'd like. When he wasn't in class he was either studying, with his Marauders doing God knows what or with Mary although this was slipping much to Mary's annoyance.

"Hey..." A voice whispered suddenly from behind me. I turned around, expecting to see James or someone but instead there was nothing. I was about to turn back around and find Marlene when I heard the voice again, "Lily... I'm down here."

The voice appeared to be coming from behind the table and upon closer examination, I realised James was kneeling behind the bowl of Ice Mice.

"James, what are you doing?" I asked sinking to his level. He ran his hands through his hair, a silly grin on his face.

"I'm a bit bored of this party - "

"You? Bored of a party?" I replied smirking in disbelief.

"Yeah, shall we go somewhere? Somewhere quiet? I can't be too gone too long as people will notice but I just want a brief escape."

"I think I know the perfect place," A great idea had popped into my head, "James do you have the invisibility cloak handy?"

James was usually the one who decided the dates, not because he was forceful or anything but because he seemed to enjoy suggesting places whereas I always found romantic gestures slightly harder. This time, though, I was determined to choose the location... even if technically James had been the first one to choose.

"Lily, where are we going?" He whispered as I led him through the corridors, concealed from view under the cloak, "I can't be gone too long."

"Sure you can, it's your party, you can do what you want." I replied, "Besides, it's not too far now, I know you'll like it."

I pulled the cloak off of us as we walked into Room 34: our stargazing room.

"If I'd known we were coming here, I would have stolen some ice mice from the party." James said with a grin, "Because we might be here a while."

I walked over to the window, yanking it open and stepping out onto the roof. James followed behind me although I noticed he was slightly slower than usual, grimacing slightly as he lifted his leg up.

"Do you need me to help you?" I asked, crawling towards him but he brushed me away.

"Nah, I'm fine, just a few little aches and pains." He said, quickly wiping the grimace of his face, "It's nothing really."

"Okay..." I wasn't convinced but judging from his face, he wasn't in the mood to discuss it so I decided to let it go. He crawled onto the roof after me, sitting himself down next to me.

"It's quite cold..."

"Oh, I can give you my jacket..." He said with a grin, "Although then I'll be cold so I think the best option is for you to snuggle up next to me."

"I was just thinking that." I said, instantly moving closer to him.

"Great minds think alike."

"... but fools rarely differ." I finished for him.

"Is that really the end?" He asked, looking a little surprised before shrugging, "If that's the case, we're either geniuses or fools but at least if we're fools, we're fools together. Although, I personally think we're in the Genius category."

"I don't know... do you remember that time at mine in half term when you tried to scramble eggs and I left the room for a second and when I returned, the entire wall was covered in egg yolks..." I teased.

"For the last time, I thought you had to whip the eggs! They're scrambled and I thought that meant that you had to mix them up a bit."

"With a whisk?" I laughed, and James put his head in his hands out of sheer embarrassment.

"Okay, maybe I'm a bit of a fool although not all the time." He said, "Maybe I was a fool to confront Snape, Avery and Mucliber... don't get me wrong, I don't regret it in the slightest but maybe a smarter man would have gone for help and returned with backup."

"... and by that time maybe Thomas would have been seriously injured and you would be beating yourself up over it. Sometimes there is no right answer, there's always going to be casualties but the main thing is you're here."

"But I'm injured and Thomas still got hurt too." He said weakly, "The Healers managed to fix most of it but it still hurts."

"You're alive and here with me too and you were brave, James. You saved Thomas, he could be dead without you, we don't know that." I said planting a kiss on his cheek.

 He gave a small laugh, "When did you get so wise, Lily?"

"I've always been wise." I replied although that wasn't entirely true. If I was wise I probably would have realised that I liked him sooner and wouldn't have wasted so much time. But the past didn't matter, he was here with me now and alive and that was all that mattered.