James hurried out of his quidditch uniform and into what were just his comfortable clothes for lying around after that days practice. The team he'd put together this year wasn't the best, but they certainly had potential and james was convinced they'd improved after that one practice alone. but now the time for quidditch was over and next up was taking a five minute break to eat dinner down in the great hall before going to pay a visit to lily. She was supposed to get out of the hospital wing in just under a week. James wanted to strangle bellatrix, but the main reason he hadn't was honestly just that he hadn't been able to find time. He got up early for classes, then after classes he had quidditch practice that he had to run, as he was the captain, then he had to run down for dinner in the great hall before going to see lily, and after that were his rounds and responsibilities as head boy. It was as if the universe was trying to have him make up for all the missed responsibility in his life in just one year.

James threw his broom in his cupboard in the changing room and jogged up to the castle. He rushed into the dining hall where most of the students were already sitting down eating. He ran over to the marauders and sat down next to peter suddenly. Both peter and sirius jumped, remus had his head so buried in his potions book to notice.

"Merlin's beard, prongs!" exclaimed peter, settling back down in his seat

"Trying to kill me, are you?" sirius asked as dramatically as ever

"Please," james waved him off and grabbed a dinner roll from the center of the table. "If i wanted to kill you i could have done it a long time ago." sirius snorted

"You wish."

"I know." james joked throwing a wad of his dinner roll at him. Sirius caught it in his mouth

"Ha! See, you can't fool me-" he went on before accidentally knocking over his goblet.

"Ah, fuck it!" he franticly tried to vanish the mess with his wand but wasn't doing a great job "this is no example of how easy it is to kill me! Tell him peter!" james looked at peter

"This is exactly an example of how easy it would be to kill him." peter and james nodded at each other while sirius cursed them in french. James didn't speak french he just knew that when sirius spoke it he usually wasn't saying things suited for polite conversation with somebody's grandmother.

James grabbed a plate and loaded it up with whatever he could reach, stuffing it into his mouth as quick as he could.

"Slow down there, mate." sirius observed having finally cleaned up the spilled pumpkin juice "you're gonna choke and die."

James couldn't answer because he was busy stuffing more food into his mouth but if he could have answered he probably wouldn't have said anything of substance anyway. He finished his plate and washed it down with peter's goblet of pumpkin juice, wincing a little at the taste. He had never been crazy about the stuff.

"Hey!" peter exclaimed but james just winked at him before turning and starting his walk to the hospital wing.

Truth be told james liked staying busy. He liked it a lot. It just felt right to him. He didn't know why he had done the bare minimum for so long. Probably just because he was preoccupied with trying to be an animagi, remus being a werewolf, and who could forget pranking. The marauders hadn't been very active this year it that area because of the war, mainly. James was suddenly very serious about school. He wanted to be an auror so bad, he felt so strongly about it and he knew to make that happen he had to do the best he possibly could in his last year at hogwarts. Remus had always felt this way about school and sirius and peter had always been pretty average students. It's not that they weren't smart enough to be at the top of their year, it's just that they didn't care enough about school. They both prefered non-structured learning tactics. James had shared this until he realized non structured learning tactics weren't going to help him become an auror and take down voldemort. He was especially driven because of the recent attack on lily. It wasn't the first time but it wasn't even the second day of school yet when he heard that his girlfriend was in the hospital because she'd been attacked.

He was still fuming just a little bit when he walked through the door to the hospital wing. Lily had one of the beds closest to the door because of how early she had managed to arrive. He walked over and sat next to her bed, still feeling a small pang in his heart at the sight of her. Her entire torso was bandaged thickly and he could see her wince just a little bit whenever she laughed or drew in a large breath. One of these days he was going to use bellatrix's own wand to pry out her eyes.

"Hey there." lily smiled at him and james immediately felt a little more at ease. Dammit, how did she do that to him?

"Hey, there." james greeted back

"How was the team's first practice?" she asked him and james was eternally grateful to have a girlfriend that actually enjoyed quidditch. He did not agree with the fact that she thought knowing team members and following the current season was a waste of time and it had been the subject of several tiffs between them but she did know all the rules and tended to have more team spirit than most, so james supposed he could forgive her.

"The team is already starting to shape up."

"Well that's good!"

"Charles's arse doesn't stand a chance against us." he winked at lily and she smiled deviously.

"Give me some more information. On a scale of one to ten how good is the team?" james thought for a minute

"Six and a half." he finally concluded "but we'll get better. We only just started practice after all."

"That's pretty good." lily agreed.

"Yeah, but you know what's better?" james asked he

"What?"

He leaned forward and kissed her. That was another thing he'd always be grateful for. When they had first started going out james had just been surrounded by the constant disbelief that it had finally happened but now it just felt so natural. Being with her seemed more right than anything else ever would. Right now, as he kissed her, he knew that this is where he belonged. With her. Until death did them part.