The four friends went down to breakfast next day in high spirits. A huge cheer exploded from the Gryffindors that were there when James entered. He raised a hand and grinned in response, sat down and helped himself to a ham roll. On his left, Sirius was tearing apart a rasher of bacon with a determined viciousness; across from him, Remus and Peter were having a competition to see who could eat the most pieces of toast in five minutes, while James tied them on his watch. Peter won with twenty-four, just three ahead of Remus, who was now looking longingly at the peanut butter sandwiches, which he couldn't eat until his digestive system did its work. The post owls soared into the Great Hall several minutes later, when Remus eventually had enough room to grab a peanut butter sandwich. James received a letter from his parents, asking how they were, aswell as a small box of sweets with the words, 'Our Darling Little Head Boy' scrawled across the top in decorative writing. After breakfast, Professor McGonagall descended from the staff table to distribute the Gryffindor's timetables for this year.

"Today's not bad!" Remus said, running his finger down the Monday column. "A free period now, then Potions, double Charms, Herbology, Transfiguration, then another free period, excellent!"

They tramped up to the common room and settled in the best armchairs next to the fire. Over on the other side of the room, Lily and some of her friends were practising Locomotion Charms, making their pencils do back flips along a table.

"So, our last year, eh?" Sirius said. "Gonna be great fun, isn't it?"

"Yep," said James. "Although it'll be our last year of…"

He indicated Remus and then pointed out of the window at the Whomping Willow.

"Yeah, I suppose," said Sirius. "But, put it this way, we can do our Apparition tests this year! And you can…"

He indicated Lily and then puckered up his lips and kissed thin air, looking very like a goldfish, which the other three found very amusing.

--

"Welcome back, everyone!" boomed Slughorn, standing behind his desk and beaming at his class. "Your last year is on you. This year, the potions we will study will be extremely complex. There will be risks involved, but I will try and get you all through it. Now, the potion we will be making today…" He drew a bottle out of his cloak pocket, inside was a thick, bubbling purple liquid. "…is in this here bottle. Can anyone tell me what it is – but, of course, Lily can! What's this potion, my dear?"

"It's a Solidifying Solution!" Lily replied. "It can instantly harden anything it comes into contact with!"

"That's right," said Slughorn. "Ten points to Gryffindor. Yes, this is a powerful potion, of course the bottle is solid enough, but if it touches the skin you will be immobilised and it will take a while to unfreeze you. Because of its properties, it can turn water into ice, or solidify lava, useful if there's a volcanic eruption, provided you have enough potion. Right, cauldrons out, please, fill it up to about halfway with water, then you may begin! You have the whole lesson to make them, then we will leave them to settle here and assess them next day. The instructions are on the blackboard, ingredients are in the store cupboard, please ask for help if you do not understand any of the instructions, horrible things can happen if it goes wrong…and keep an eye on it, otherwise your friends may find themselves rock solid…literally! Right, off you go then!"

There was a lot of noise as everyone stood up, set up their cauldrons and then trooped over to the store to find what they needed. The four Marauders were together at the same table and usually nominated one of them to get four sets of ingredients. It was Remus's turn today, as it usually was, because he was the most intelligent and was therefore guaranteed to bring back the right ingredients. He did just that, returning a couple of minutes later, levitating a load of ingredients, which he gave out.

"Cheers, Moony," said Sirius. "Right, let's get this party started!"

He tipped some pomegranate juice into his bubbling potion, followed by a couple of Bowtrunkle legs and a Bicorn horn. At once, the potion turned a bright aquamarine and started to fizz, he began stirring it and it calmed down. He looked at his friends' cauldrons. Remus was just adding the next ingredient, Salamander blood – his potion was the same colour as Sirius's, which boosted Sirius's confidence, if his was the same as Remus's, there was no way he could go wrong. Across the table, James's was a much darker blue; he was stirring his potion energetically, trying to make it go brighter.

"Try adding some more pomegranate juice, Prongs," Remus said.

James did just that and his potion brightened. He was having a better time than Peter though, his was a deep purple and he had no idea how it had come about.

"You did add the Bicorn horn, didn't you?" Remus asked.

Peter nodded.

"After the pomegranate juice?"

"Ah," said Peter. "Urm, so what should I do? I can't just pick it out! I…"

"Oh, let me," said Remus. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The pomegranate juice rose out of the potion and formed a sphere in mid-air. Remus tapped Peter's cauldron and the juice fell back into the solution, which immediately turned blue.

"There you go, Wormtail," Remus said. "But please try and read the instructions next time."

--

Their next lesson, after a half hour break, was double Charms. They were learning a new charm today, an Atmospheric Charm. This was a complicated spell to muster, but once learned, the caster could use it to modify certain weather conditions, for instance on a rainy day, this charm could be used to clear the rain and bring the sun out.

"The incantation," squeaked tiny little Professor Flitwick. "Is quite a mouthful, but you need to know it to cast this spell, after me please, Meteolojinx Recanto."

"Meteolojinx Recanto," the class chorused.

"Well done!" said Flitwick. "We shall practise it in here, in groups of four. Then, we shall go outside and those who are feeling confident can try and change the weather for themselves! How does that sound?"

"Brilliant, sir!" Sirius replied, loudly.

"Thank you, Sirius!" said Flitwick chuckling. "As you seem so enthusiastic, you can be one of the four! You and the other three, perhaps?"

The 'other three' were of course Remus, James and Peter. The four of them got up and walked to the empty space between Flitwick and the rest of the class.

"That's right, line up along there, spread out, face your classmates!" said Flitwick. "Right, who would like to try first? Remus?"

"Yeah, I'll do it," said Remus.

"OK, whenever you're ready," said Flitwick.

Remus closed his eyes, bracing himself, raising his wand. He concentrated hard on an image of the sun and said, "Meteolojinx Recanto!"

It happened instantaneously, a beam of sunlight shone from nowhere, bathing Remus in a dazzling haze of luminosity. The class broke into applause.

"Well done, Remus! Well done!" cried Flitwick. "Thirty points to Gryffindor!"

"Nice one, Moony!" said Sirius, grinning.

"Right, Sirius!" said Flitwick.

Sirius took three attempts to master the spell. On the first, he focused too hard on the snow he was meant to be creating and instead of creating falling snowflakes, buried himself in a snowdrift. The second attempt he created hail instead of snow, but when the third try came he was determined to get it right. He focused, shouted the incantation aloud and snow started falling from the ceiling.

"Take twenty points for that!" Flitwick said. "Well done indeed! Right, James! Thirty points if you can get it on the first go, twenty otherwise!"

Out of the corner of his eye, James caught sight of Lily watching him intently. His determination level rocketed sky-high; he focused on the drip-drip of raindrops and cried, "Meteolojinx Recanto!"

James never believed it would work, but there was no mistaking the light raindrops that were splashing onto his head. He looked above him; right there was a miniature cumulonimbus cloud, throwing sheets of rain down upon his person. The class erupted into cheers and claps as James lifted the charm and dried himself.

"Well done, well done!" squealed Flitwick. "Thirty well earned points for that!"

Lily was cheering and clapping hard. James gave her a huge smile and could've sworn he'd received one in return.

Then it was Peter's turn and he mastered the charm…sort of. Having thought of the wrong type of storm, he ended up being struck by a lightning bolt instead of creating a gale, so he only earned ten points, he seemed happy enough though.

--

As James was leaving the classroom, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Lily.

"No, you go on," said James to his friends. "I'll catch you up."

Lily indicated him to come with her, so he followed her up a corridor and into an unused classroom. She shut the door and then turned to him.

"Lily," he said. "I'm…"

But he didn't get a chance to continue, Lily strode forwards, wrapped her arms around him and kissed him.