"Come on, Peter," James said impatiently, holding out his arm. "It's after six already; they're going to leave without us."
"It's only for a second," Remus said, giving Peter a sympathetic glance. "And James knows what he's doing—he's probably the best Apparator out of all of us."
"Yes, but Side-Along Apparition is harder! What if one of us gets Splinched?"
"I'm offended you think so little of my skills, Peter," James said. He waved his arm at his friend. "You'll be fine—I promise."
"If you're this scared to Apparate, you should've Flooed into London to take the train to school like all the other cowards in our class," said Sirius.
"Maybe I should have," Peter murmured. Finally he took James's hand, his own cold and wet with sweat. "Don't let go, James."
"I will if you keep whinging," James replied slyly. Peter gulped, ducking his head. "All right: on the count of three." He glanced up to wave a brief goodbye to his parents lurking in the doorway, the rest of the Marauders following suit. Remus blew a kiss to James's mother. "Remember, we're meeting outside the Hog's Head."
"We know, Prongs," said Sirius impatiently. "Get on with it."
"Shut it, Pads." James cleared his throat, his grip on Peter's hand tightening. "Okay. One…two…three!"
James shut his eyes, picturing the busy cobblestoned streets of Hogsmeade, and suddenly there was a tight pressure squeezing him from all sides, crushing in his bones and forcing the wind from his lungs. He kept his hold on Peter, pulling the other Marauder along with him, and an instant later they were falling face-first onto the cobblestones, James pulling up his arms just in time to protect him from a nasty crash.
He stumbled to his feet, with Peter making violent retching noises beside him. Remus and Sirius had landed safely a few yards away; Remus had knocked over a bemused Hufflepuff girl whose name James still didn't know. He blinked around at the gathered seventh years; more than half their class had apparently followed Marlene McKinnon's suggestion that they Apparate into Hogsmeade to walk over to the castle together for the beginning of their final year of school. Lily was standing at the front of the crowd, waving her wand in the air to get everyone's attention. "Is everyone here?" she called.
"If they aren't, they can catch up to us," said Marlene. "We'll miss the Welcoming Feast if we wait any longer."
"All right then; let's get going." James bent down to help Peter to his feet as Lily led the throng out of Hogsmeade and towards the silhouette of the massive stone castle stretching out in the distance. James couldn't believe this would be the Marauders' last year living there.
Sirius and Remus came over to help Peter, who was still swaying back and forth like he'd just downed a bottle of firewhisky, and James used the opportunity to run ahead to Lily's side. She watched him from the sides of her eyes as he approached her, and with a grandiose gesture he pulled his Head Boy badge from his pocket to match the one pinned to Lily's robes.
"Remus told me you'd gotten that," Lily said, giving James a grudging smile. "I've no idea what Dumbledore was thinking."
"Me neither," James said. "But, I mean, who else were they going to give it to? Snivellus?" He glanced quickly behind him. "Where is that greaseball, anyway?"
"Didn't want to come." Lily's tone was airy, but James could hear the strain behind her words. "None of his friends did, either. They'd prefer not to associate with the rest of us, I suppose."
"Well, I would prefer not to associate with them, so I guess it's sorted itself out for all of us." He grinned at Lily. "I expected a much stronger reaction from you about my new Head Boy status. You're not going soft on me, are you?"
"Certainly not." Lily fixed him with her gaze. "I'm not sure what to think about you being Head Boy," she admitted. "You did accept the position, after all. Does that mean you're planning on actually carrying out your duties?"
"What sort of duties?"
"Patrolling the halls with me after hours, keeping students out of trouble."
James's heart quickened at the sudden playfulness in her voice. "I would patrol the halls all night with you, Evans," he told her truthfully. "Not sure how good we'd be at keeping anyone out of trouble, though. We'd more likely be getting into it ourselves."
"What in Merlin's name is that supposed to mean?"
"Whatever you want it to mean." She knew exactly what it meant.
Lily sighed. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you, Potter. I need to go find Mary."
She whirled away from James and headed back into the crowd, searching for her friend. But James kept his eyes on her long enough to catch her turning back to glance at him, her eyes bright with the smile she'd forced from her lips.
