A/N: Since there are no important events from April to June, I've skipped ahead to the last few days at Hogwarts.

Chapter 25: The Real World

James's POV

It had been months since we'd joined the Order of the Phoenix, we were slowly making friends with some of the other members even though they were older than us, and we were getting used to Moody's paranoia. We'd been to every meeting since joining the Order, and McGonagall removed the fake detentions from Lily and Severus's records since Remus, Peter, Sirius and I had wanted to keep the detentions on record.

We'd finished our NEWT's, which were very well named as they were difficult, but we were all sure we'd passed. None of us could believe that our last days of Hogwarts were already there. There would be no more detentions given out, and Sirius and I claimed the most detentions ever given to a student since we both had the same amount of detentions.

On our last morning at Hogwarts I was the first one awake from our dorm room, the trunks were all packed; all our items were mixed up inside and we'd checked that we hadn't forgotten anything. We agreed that we were going to live with Sirius in his house for the summer or until we had our own place to stay in.

I'd already bought a house in a small town called Godric's Hollow and was planning to ask Lily to move in with me at the end of summer. Sirius and I were going to join Auror training, Severus and Lily were going to study to become Potion masters, Peter was going to ask for a job as an Obliviator, and Remus was willing to take anything he could get since he was a registered werewolf and it would be hard for him to get a job in the Wizarding world.

I got dressed quietly, stood in the middle of the room and put a Sonorus charm on my voice.

"CONSTANT VILIGENCE!" I shouted, my amplified voice echoing around the dorm room.

Sirius jumped out of his bed waving his wand around, Peter fell out of his bed in shock, and Remus sat bolt upright in fright. Once they realized it was just me and not Moody, I got three pillows thrown at me.

Laughing, I went down to the Common Room to wait for Lily as they continued getting dressed. Lily was already in the Common Room; she was curled into a chair reading Hogwarts: A History.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack," she murmured once I'd kissed her. "I could hear you from down here and got funny looks from Alice and Frank for pulling my wand out."

"Sorry," I chuckled. "Are you all packed?"

"Yeah," she sighed, closing her book. "I can't believe today is our last day at Hogwarts, it doesn't feel real."

"I know," I agreed, wrapping my arms around her and kissing her on the top of her head. "So much has happened to us this year."

Finally, the other Marauders came down fully dressed and we made our way down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Severus was already sat down at the Gryffindor table; the other Gryffindors had long ago accepted him and when I looked around I noticed a few other students from other houses had mixed as well.

Yellow Hufflepuff banners decorated the Hall; Hufflepuff had been announced as winner for the House cup at the feast the night before. Gryffindor had no chance of winning since we'd lost so many points and Slytherin had lost a fair few too thanks to Severus. Ravenclaw had come in second and Slytherin in third. The other Gryffindors weren't too pleased with coming last, but they knew that once the Marauders were gone they'd have the chance to win the House cup again.

"Are we doing a final prank before we leave?" Peter asked as he sat down next to Severus.

"I thought the prank at last nights feast was our final prank," Severus said dryly, automatically passing Sirius the tray of bacon. "Some of the Hufflepuffs still have antennas."

"Last night was our final prank, today's just for relaxing, no pranks," I smiled happily, grabbing a slice of toast. "Plus we've already cast a lasting prank."

"Do I dare ask?" Lily muttered, taking a spoonful of cereal.

"We've charmed our room so that only the six of us can enter without being pranked," Sirius announced cheerfully. "And only we can remove it too."

"I sincerely hope, Mr Black that you are not talking about your dorm room" McGonagall said as she walked past our part of the table.

"Of course not Professor," Sirius called back innocently.

Lily snorted and stood up from the table, picking up her bag. "I've got to take a book back to the library."

"I'll go with you," I offered, standing up with her. We waved bye to our friends and started walking towards the library.

"I have to go see Professor Slughorn now," Lily said once we'd handed Hogwarts: A History back to Madame Pince; the librarian. "I want to give him a gift."

"Do we have to?" I groaned. "I thought I'd seen the last of him at the Slug Club meeting that you dragged me to."

"It won't take too long," she giggled, taking my hand and leading me to the Potions classroom.

"Pince and Slughorn in one morning," I moaned. "You're trying to kill me."

"Stop being such a baby," Lily laughed, knocking on the Potions classroom door and entering without waiting for an answer. "Professor Slughorn?"

"Lily, James, do come in," Slughorn looked up from his desk. "What can I do for you?"

"I just wanted to give you this, Sir," Lily placed a bowl of water onto his desk. A lily petal was floating on top of the water. Lily waved her wand over the top of the bowl. "Pisces lilium."

The lily petal began to sink in the bowl, but just before it reached the bottom it transformed into a fish. The fish swam around the bowl peacefully and Lily beamed in success.

"Beautiful magic, simply wonderful," Slughorn praised, leaning over the bowl to get a closer look at the fish. "I shall name him Francis I think."

Lily chatted with Slughorn for awhile longer before we managed to make our escape. I dragged her down the corridor, running as if something was chasing us. When we finally found the other Marauders we were still laughing.

"There you are!" Remus exclaimed. "We have to get on the train, it's time to go."

"It's strange to think this will be the last time we sit in the compartment," Peter commented as we sat down in our normal places.

"We could always booby-trap this compartment like we did our dorm," Sirius suggested, taking his wand out of his pocket. "That way this compartment will be for future pranksters only."

"I still can't believe we don't have the Marauders Map," I grumbled. "But at least any prankster worthy of it will steal it back from Filch."

Ignoring Peter's apologies, we began booby-trapping the compartment like we had our dorm room. The train ride seemed to go quickly, we arrived on Platform 9 ¾ too soon.

Taking one last look at the platform and train, we apparated to the steps outside of Sirius's house. We'd gotten our apparating licences before leaving Hogwarts, and an Anti-Apparation ward was one of the protection spells we'd placed on Sirius's house. No one could apparate in, but we could apparate out in case of trouble.

The first thing we did was sort through our trunks so that we all had our own belongings and then put our trunks to our rooms. The guys were going to go to the muggle bar down the street to celebrate graduating, but I told them I wanted to have some alone time with Lily so we could go on a real date.

We apparated to a beach and spent some time paddling in the sea and just walking on the sand. It was different to the other dates we'd had, I felt older and I think Lily did too.

"I bought a house," I blurted out while we were walking. "And I want you to move in with me."

Lily came to a stop next to me and my breath caught in my throat, thinking I'd gone too quickly for her, but her words stopped me before I could apologize.

"I'd love to move in with you, James," she leaned forward and kissed me. "But if I don't like the house you've bought we're going to have to choose somewhere else."

"Deal!" I shouted happily, picking her up and spinning her around. "I'll take you there now."

I apparated to Godric's Hollow and showed her the house I'd bought. Nervously, I unlocked the door and lead her in, it wasn't a mansion by any standards, but it wasn't a cottage either.

"If you don't like it I can buy something else," I said when she hadn't said anything. "If it's too small or big it doesn't matter."

"Oh James," Lily turned to look at me and I noticed there was tears in her eyes. "It's perfect!"

"So we're not moving too fast?" I asked nervously, fiddling with the house keys.

"We're in the middle of a war," Lily stated. "Move too slow and it might never happen."

I kissed her again and then we locked the house and went back to Sirius's house. The guys were already back, and they looked agitated.

"What's wrong?" I asked sharply, the happiness I'd felt earlier dissolving.

Silently, Sirius handed Lily and I an envelope each, I looked around before opening my letter and saw that the others had a letter each too. Carefully, I opened the letter and I felt my blood go cold when I saw what was written, I looked up at Lily and noticed that she'd gone pale.

Mr Potter,

The Dark Lord recognizes greatness when he sees it and he has taken an interest in you and your friends. Pure-blood wizards will always be welcome within our circle. Come to the Little Hangleton graveyard next Tuesday at 11pm.

Instead of a signature, there was a moving picture of a skull with a snake twisting through its mouth.

A/N: I don't really like this chapter, but it's done now. Please review! :)