I dedicate this chappie to my fantastical beta, Emily. My chappies would not be the same without you! Thanks.

To Zippy-Wings, I'm sorry for no chocolate chip cookies… it's too hot to bake them right now… 32 degrees is hot for where I live! I was all happy when I got your review right after I published it. It was really cool!

emily, glad you like the house-elf name. I couldn't let the Potter's abandon Lily and James as well!

And now, on to the chapter!


It was now May, and exams were coming frighteningly close. Lily was feeling the strain of her pregnancy, and of the coming exams. The marauders studied together, in a big group by the fire. As Head Girl, Lily found herself putting dibs on the fire area for her friends. They practised their spells and potion brewing together, and quizzed each other on theory. Lily was exempt from being the dummy for the practical section, and was thankful; some of the spells were going horribly wrong with the pressure of getting it right.

"No!" Peter whined as he'd successfully given James Sirius' ears. Sirius was currently ear less, and James' ears were on Peter's book.

"You've done it wrong again, Wormtail," James grumbled, tugging at Sirius' ear.

"Ouch!" Sirius said, rubbing the side of his head, "What's going on?" he asked.

"Wormtail transplanted your ears, where've you been?" Remus laughed at his earless friend.

"What?" Sirius said loudly.

"HE SAID, WORMTAIL TRANSPLANTED YOUR EARS!" Leala yelled. People in the common room were starting to look over. A timid looking group of first years scurried out the portrait hole.

"WHAT?"

"I don't think he can hear!" Lily and Leala collapsed into giggles.

Remus scribbled down what he'd said, his writing shaky with his laughter. He showed the deaf Sirius, and Sirius went red and got to his feet, pulling his wand out, and pointing it at the quivering Peter. "YOU!" he roared, unable to hear himself. Lily put her finger to her lips, and he saw, and dropped his voice to a deadly whisper, "you."

Lily and Leala grabbed Sirius from behind as he thought of the best hex to use on Peter. They fell backwards onto the couch. "FIX IT!" Sirius hollered, lying across Leala's lap. He'd avoided Lily as best he could, but her knee was digging into his back. Peter was already feverishly looking up something, anything that could fix it.

Remus, who was enjoying the scene, decided that it was probably time to reverse the badly done spell before Sirius killed Peter. He flicked his wand, and the ears returned to their owners in a twinkle of blue light. With the situation resolved, Sirius and James started laughing until finally the entire group was rolling around laughing, including Peter.

After the laughter died down, they went back to work, trying to make up for the lost time caused by Peter's incompetence. Finally though – after 3 more messed up spells, one in which he somehow transplanted Lily's feet onto a book, which tried to scuttle away – he managed to perform it properly. The group applauded him, and he went furiously red, ducking his head into his book.


Lily and James spent every chance they got – when they weren't studying – walking around the grounds, or simply talking in a corner of the common room. Knowing that the future was coming up fast, they spent a lot of time figuring out what they were going to do. Life outside of Hogwarts was dark and dangerous. Death Eaters were killing more and more often. People were disappearing left and right, and no one knew who to trust anymore. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff distanced themselves from the Slytherins even more than they normally did. Frightened of the many students whose parents were known Death Eaters, the school was standing divided. It was horrible, and Dumbledore knew it; teachers knew it; students knew it.
One day at the beginning of June, the sleep deprived 7th years received good news for their studying, but horrible news for the rest of the world. Classes were cancelled for them today, as Dumbledore and many of the teachers were forced to leave the school to do important – and secret – work against You–Know–Who. The school was panicking. Were things really this bad in the outside world?

The marauders spent the day on the sunny grounds discussing what had happened. They had their books spread around them, but no one could concentrate on revision.

"I think that Voldemort's been captured, and they're going to kill him!" Peter voiced one of his theories.

"Don't be a prat, Wormtail," Sirius said, "No one could capture Voldemort. And if they did, don't you think it would be all over the papers?" Lily and James exchanged a nervous glance, and Lily rubbed her stomach, which was beginning to bulge.

"Well, maybe they HAVE, but the ministry doesn't want to make fools of themselves before he's REALLY gone," Remus said thoughtfully.

"It's a possibility," Leala said, agreeing with Remus. She had her head in his lap, and he was leaning against a big oak.

"So," Lily said, picking up a book. She was bored of the subject. "Who knows the 12 uses of dragon blood?" she asked. It was a basic question, and everyone started listing them off. Peter looked worried though, and listened to what others were saying, and nervously repeated them.

Lily laughed at the almost indistinguishable response. "I believe that's them all…oh, you missed one. It can also be used to enhance memory." She said. She was, of course, joking, but Peter didn't quite get it. He started counting off uses on his fingers while the rest of the group roared with laughter.


The NEWT's were just around the corner. So was the Quidditch Final. It was Gryffindor against Slytherin. The teams were currently tied point for point. It promised to be an exciting match. James had the team training hard, and Lily spent many nights in the common room with just Remus and Peter; the rest of the group were training.

"Nice catch, Leala!" James called across the pitch, as Leala had just gone into a spectacular dive to catch the little Golden Snitch.

"Thanks!" she called back, slightly breathless from her dive.

"Great, she's caught it, can we go in now?" Sirius grumbled as he whacked a Bludger at James.

He ducked, and threw the Quaffle at fellow Chaser, Molly Prewett. She caught it and sped towards the goalpost, not quite getting it past May McKinnon, who was playing Keeper.

"I reckon we're good for the match tomorrow, hey James?" she called, flying towards him with the Quaffle.

"Yes, I suppose," James said wistfully. He clearly wanted to continue practice. Reluctantly, he led the team back to the ground. Sirius and Ryan Bones – the other Beater – wrestled the Bludgers back into the case. Leala bound the Snitch, and May dropped the Quaffle in. They talked excitedly about the match tomorrow. They were all flying well.

After showering, they went back into the common room, where they attempted to revise, although they didn't get very far. Tension was running high as everyone in the common room discussed Quidditch. When James called for the team to go to bed, Lily went too, exhausted from another day's hard work, made worse by a sore back and feet.


James woke up early on the morning of the Quidditch match. He'd had a rough sleep the night before. Nightmare's about Lily; about the baby, and about the match. Deciding to do something he often did when he woke early, he got up, go dressed, and headed out to the Quidditch pitch.

Several laps gave him an idea of the flying conditions. The sun was going to be bright; it was going to be hot. No wind – as of yet – was good for passing and scoring. The bright sunlight could be bad for Leala as the Seeker, and could impair the vision of all the players.

He landed, feeling sufficiently woken up, and headed into a hot shower. He joined the rest of his team, slightly late, at the breakfast table. Nervous as anything, no one ate. Well, Remus and Lily ate. Wormtail was too nervous for the rest of the team that he couldn't eat either. Not that it was bad for him, as Sirius pointed out. "He's not exactly in top shape!"

John Shaker, the other Chaser, finally noticed Dumbledore get up and leave the staff table. He pointed it out to James, and the entire team stood up with him. The Gryffindor table applauded the team as they filed out of the hall. The Slytherins followed them, their own house hooting and banging their feet.

"Better watch out," Slytherin captain, Lyle Flint, hollered to the Gryffindor team. His attempts at intimidation were not working on the veteran team. They were all used to the taunts, having been part of the team for at least two years now.

"Alright," James said as he and the rest of the team checked over their brooms. Sirius was noisily clipping a few stray tail twigs. James cleared his throat and he stopped. "This is it. This is for many of us, the last chance to win this cup. We won it last year, and I know we can do it again." He looked around at his fellow 7th years; Molly, Leala and Sirius. They smiled weakly at him, very nervous.

"Now," he said, standing up. "Let's go kick some serious Slytherin butt!" The team applauded James, and they all wished each other good luck. Shouldering their brooms, they marched out onto the pitch. Ravenclaw Christina Munson was commentating.

"Gryffindor has a good side this year; the same side as last year that won them the Quidditch Cup. We've seen Slytherin fly well this year, and this promises to be an exciting match." She began naming the players on each team, pointing them out with their positions and giving a little bit of background.

"Captains, shake hands," said Madam Deyal, their referee. James and Lyle shook hands, sneering at each other. "Mount your brooms!" she said. Fourteen people swung their legs over their brooms. The shrill whistle blew –

"AND THEY'RE OFF!" Christina cried into the magical microphone. "It's Gryffindor in possession. Prewett with the Quaffle – oh great pass to Potter!"

James caught the Quaffle, and ducked under Sirius, who was speeding towards a Bludger. He swerved around the Slytherin Keeper, and threw the Quaffle to John. He caught it, and –

"GRYFFINDOR SCORES!" yelled Christina. A great roar went up around the stadium.

"Go Gryffindor!" Lily and Remus applauded the team. Peter was sitting with his eyes covered.

"You can look now," Remus prodded Peter. He peeked through his fingers.

"Who scored?"

"Gryffindor did!" Lily said exasperatedly.

The match went on like this, Peter not watching, and Lily and Remus cheering wildly. Gryffindor was winning. They were winning by 100 points. Slytherin had only scored two goals in the entire time they'd been playing.

In their frustration, one of their Beaters whacked a Bludger towards James when he was hovering on the spot, cheering May, who'd just made a terrific save. It collided with his head with a sickening crunch.

Lily gasped, and stood carefully from her seat. She went as fast as she could down to the pitch with Remus, where James had fallen off his broom. Dumbledore was already tending to him, and Madam Deyal was hollering at the Slytherin Beater. James was unconscious.

"Professor!" Lily called, hurrying over, "Is he ok?"

"He'll be fine," Dumbledore frowned, "I just have to get him to wake up. Enervate!"

James sat up; clutching his head and Lily gave a sigh of relief.

"What happened?" he moaned.

"That –" Lily began a steady stream of foul words for the Slytherin Beater –"knocked you off your broom with a Bludger to your head!" she was furious.

"Oh man," James grabbed his head again, where a large lump was forming. Dumbledore flicked his wand, and the lump receded. "Thanks!" James said, hopping to his feet. His headache was gone, and he felt fine again.

"Off you go," Dumbledore shooed Remus and Lily away. They hurried back into the stands, and arrived just in time to see James score his penalty shot. The entire stadium cheered, and it was enough to drown out the boos of the Slytherins.

Just as James put the Quaffle past the keeper, Leala went into a spectacular dive. Lyle Flint saw, and streaked after her. "I reckon Benan has seen the Snitch!" she called. Leala easily beat Flint to the Snitch, and pulled out of her dive.

The stadium erupted. The Gryffindor team landed, hugging each other. The girls were crying with happiness, and Sirius and James were yelling at the top of their lungs, "WE WON, WE WON, WE WON!" with, "WE BEAT THE FILTHY SLYTHERINS AGAIN!" tossed in there every once and awhile. Gryffindors poured out onto the pitch, and hoisted their Quidditch heroes high into the air. Lily beamed up at her friends, and Remus joined in with the cheering.

That night, the Gryffindors partied until two in the morning. Even Lily stayed up with them, exhausted as she was. McGonagall had come in at midnight to tell them to go to bed. They ignored her, and didn't stop partying loudly until Dumbledore came in to tell them that they had classes the next morning, and that anyone caught sleeping in would have to serve detention. The Gryffindors scattered into their respective common rooms.
With the Quidditch Cup won, the reality of exams coming the following Monday loomed dark and smelly over the heads of the 5th and 7th years. This weighing heavy on Lily's mind, she tossed and turned, trying to get to sleep.

This really was the last chapter before I go on holidays. I promise I'll post chapter 11 on the night of the 25th, right after I get home. Hope you liked! Maybelline