James was nervous. Of course, he was never nervous, but arriving at King's Cross Station on September 1, 1977 had hit him hard. For the past six years at Hogwarts, he had goofed around, gotten good grades, and gotten into trouble. He had fallen in love many times with various older buxom girls from all the Houses, and he had made very good friends (as well as some enemies). This year was different. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was gaining more and more followers, including some of the Slytherin students in James' year, and his family and their friends were in increasing danger. People had already died, but James was forced to remain in school another year, as Quidditch Captain and Head Boy. He would rather abandon Hogwarts to join Dumbledore's Order, but his parents wouldn't allow it. After kissing them goodbye on the platform, he pushed his way on to the train, trunk in hand, to find an empty compartment. He hadn't seen Padfoot, Moony, nor Wormtail at the station, but they would probably be along shortly. Finding an unoccupied compartment towards the end of the train, James heaved his trunk up onto the luggage rack and flopped down onto the nearest red-cushioned window seat. The blinds were drawn on the compartment doors, and for a few minutes he had a private moment to collect his thoughts and to suppress his unusually active nerves. If his parents were going to prevent him from fighting for another year, James would simply have to make sure that Hogwarts was as safe as possible. After a few moments of these thoughts, he stood up, stretched (he would be painfully sore after the first Quidditch practice of the season), and reached out to raise the blinds. In spite of everything he was going through mentally, it really was a beautiful September 1st.
BANG! The door burst open and in piled his three best friends. Sirius Black, bearing a toothy, handsome smile, Peter Pettigrew, laughing loudly at James as he stumbled backwards into the seat cushions, and Remus Lupin, who was quietly shaking his head at Sirius' antics. James felt the butterflies in his stomach settle almost immediately as he engulfed his best mates in bone-crushing hugs, and the boys relaxed into their automatic routines of humiliating each other and making terrible puns about each other's' Animagi transformations, along with reflecting on their summers and pestering James about whether or not he had landed a real date with Lily Evans yet. Finally, for the first time all morning, he began to imagine what a good year he was truly going to have, even if saving the world was the first step.
Remus was having the best Hogwarts Express ride that he could remember in his school career. While he usually spent these long train rides buried in a new textbook or practicing wand technique while the other boys jostled about the compartment, this was different. James had practically accosted the trolley witch as she came down the train corridor, and the mischievous quartet was now in possession of almost half of the Licorice Wands, Chocolate Frogs, and Cockroach Clusters that she was offering. Even with the threat of war in the backs of all their minds, the four young men threw candy wrappers on the scuffed floor of the compartment, joking and complaining about how much coursework they would have to start getting Hufflepuffs to do for them. Remus was struck (as he was almost weekly) by the fact that he had three true, best friends. He had spent the summer holed up in his bedroom, avoiding the turmoil outside while trying to hide his transformations. Getting high marks in his classes had made him a teacher's favorite, and had given him a few well-rounded friends, including Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon, while his condition itself and his quiet sense of humor had drawn him to Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs. He was surprised to find himself laughing with the others, as they took the mickey out of James for his promotion from Quidditch-playing-trouble-maker to Head Boy.
"Hey, Moony! Have your eye on any of the birds this year? It's about time you got yourself some tail!" Sirius suddenly punched Remus in the arm, making him flush and retaliate with a punch to the former's gut.
"Not yet, we haven't even arrived yet! What about you, still trying to find a girl who will put up with your fleas- I mean puns?" In the corner, Peter was rolling his eyes- it had become the tradition between Remus and Sirius to make horrible canine puns at each other, mainly to relieve Remus of the pressures of his condition and to remind Sirius that transforming into a dog wasn't quite enough to get the girls to like him. The excessive tail-wagging could be a bit much sometimes. He could see James staring out the window at the rolling Scottish countryside, and wondered what could possibly have taken the life out of his best friend, who only moments before had been imitating the trolley witch when he had asked her if she wanted to take a jaunt around Hogsmeade with him.
Sirius, to say the least, was confused. Having a grand time as he always did with his friends, but still confused- Remus was actually laughing, James was quiet and unresponsive to prompting about Lily, and Peter wasn't really taking part in his wordplay with their friend's "furry little problem". Of course, they were most likely contemplating the war that was surrounding them, something that Sirius knew about all too well. After all, his brother Regulus had followed the damn pattern of Black family behavior, and had joined up with the Death Eaters over the summer. At least someone was making his parents proud. By now, only an hour into the journey, almost all of the candy was already gone (thanks to four teenage boys and their metabolisms), and they were looking for something else to do. Just as Peter was trying to open the window so they could light a fag, a serendipitous distraction arrived in the form of three girls- Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnon, and Emmeline Vance. Lily's eyes were red and puffy, so Sirius immediately jumped up to hug her.
"Lily-pad! Are you excited for Hogwarts? I'm excited for Hogwarts. It's so much FUN!" She laughed a little, and he was glad; his excited-first-year act had never failed to make a pretty girl smile when she was sad. Picking her up, he twirled her around and set her in the seat between himself and Prongs, starting to poke her sides and pull her hair to make her smile. During all of this, Sirius' watchful hormone radar was not deterred- he noticed all of the little smiles and bashful glances between Remus and Marlene, and the way that Peter lit up when he saw Emmeline's rich brown hair bouncing over her shoulders as she sat across from him. He saw James' entire body relax when Lily sat next to him, and he knew that this year at Hogwarts, he would have to deal with some snogging around the place. The Gryffindor Common Room was not going to be a welcome place after hours, if this was how the train ride was working out. Luckily, Mary McDonald had been owling him over the summer, and he had a hopeful feeling that those letters would blossom into something more this year.
Peter was a bit on edge. Usually content, bemused, and amiable, he had had a rough summer and being around his old friends wasn't helping a bit. Not only was his parents' marriage becoming rocky, but Mulciber and Avery had come round a few times, trying to convince him to join some sort of group that they were in. As a Gryffindor, Peter had never had much contact with these boys before, other than the occasional double Potions or Care of Magical Creatures class, so their sudden interest in his actions was disconcerting. And they were in league with Snivellus Snape, which was a serious issue when it came to Peter's views on loyalty. It was a basic definition of the Marauder's that they hated Snape, basically just because he existed. Peter cared deeply about his friends, and he tried his best to show them through his loyalty. Because of them, he had become quite an accomplished wizard by this time in his education, he and his wand working as one. He had been one of the first to figure out how to transform into his Animagus, even if it had taken him the longest amount of time to make the transformation without any mishaps (these included one time when he thought he had succeeded but was actually a rat running around with miniaturized human hands and feet instead of paws, but luckily none of the other boys had seen him- otherwise, he would have had a nickname much worse than Wormtail). Maybe he would become an Auror after leaving Hogwarts at the end of this year. Regardless, Peter was sure that his last year at Hogwarts was going to be amazing. If this train ride was any indication, nothing would ever split him apart from James, Sirius, and Remus. They were friends, and they would stay friends. Right now, Lily was helping James force open the window with a few well-placed Alohomoras, but apparently the school management found it unwelcome to have their students smoking on the train. They probably found it welcome to have them sweltering, however. With seven people in what felt like the smallest compartment on the train, they had all stripped down to the bare necessities of their uniforms, and Lily and Remus had been flipping through their copies of The Standard Book of Spells: Grade Seven to find a proper cooling charm. On the bright side, Emmeline Vance had let her hair grow out over the summer, and as long as he slipped Avery and Mulciber into the back of his mind, everything was going great. Other than the war, of course. But he knew he needed to focus on himself, instead of what everyone else wanted him to do.
Thank God for the Marauders, Lily thought to herself as she settled back into the seat between Sirius and James. As she was saying goodbye to her parents at the platform, Petunia (Lily was forbidden to call her "Tuney" anymore) had arrived with Vernon in tow, ready to shoo away good old Mum 'n Dad for more wedding planning. When Lily had tried to bid farewell to her sister, asking her to send her letters and to keep in touch, Petunia had simply scowled, turned her back, and flounced away, her hair already pulled tight into a housewife's bun instead of the loose style of the decade that Lily tried to exemplify. Vernon looked back at Lily, his moustache already growing back from that morning's shave, and flashed her a look that read "how dare you upset my fiancée like this", and then turned away. Lily waved to their backs, and then ran onto the train to prevent anyone from seeing her quivering lips and already-puffy eyes. Of course, she couldn't keep everyone away from her for the entire train ride, and also of course, Marlene and Emmeline had found her right away. Honestly, there was no way to keep those two from finding her when she was in a bad mood, but they were her chums, and she never really wanted them to go away once they arrived. They talked for a few minutes, the other two girls thoroughly berating Petunia for being such a rotten sister and Vernon for being an absolutely rubbish person in general. Soon, before Lily even realized it, Marlene and Emmeline had exchanged a few conspiratorial words and glances and she was on her feet being marched down the train aisle. When she finally realized what was happening, she was already being accosted by Sirius Black and plopped down in a seat next to James. However enthusiastic Black was, Lily wasn't laughing at his antics- she just couldn't help smiling when he tried so hard to help her feel better!
After some time on the train, Lily was sweating profusely. Having tried to open the window unsuccessfully with James' help, she and Remus managed to find the proper Atmospheric Charm to cool down the compartment. The rest of the train ride was less boisterous, but altogether incredibly pleasant. It was a nice change to be away from Petunia and that monstrous Vernon. It was as if they hadn't heard her crying at night, or panicking when reading the Daily Prophet articles about He-Who-Must-Be-Named. It was as if they hadn't heard her screaming at Severus to leave her alone, that she would never join his creepy cult of Death Eaters. She hadn't told them that Dumbledore had offered her membership in the Order of the Phoenix after she graduated from Hogwarts. She hadn't told them that she would be fighting to save their lives, but she figured that they wouldn't care. As long as she didn't disrupt the wedding. Anyway, it was much more comforting to know that she was on the way back to Hogwarts, chatting to Peter about Paul McCartney and Wings (he had a Muggle uncle who didn't quite understand the concept of magic, but he had introduced Peter to the Beatles at an early age). She had needed the normalcy of her friends again. Besides, what could have been better than forcing Remus and Marlene to sit together? She knew they fancied each other, and Lily found nothing more completely relaxing than organizing a match between her friends. This would be a good year.