He grinned at this. "Never wore one!" He said kind of nervously.
Lily smiled. "It's okay, you know how to do a tie don't you?" She yanked at his red and gold Gryffindor tie slacking the already lose knot. "So you'll be fine." She leaned into him still holding onto the tie and kissed him, he responded passionately pulling her closer to his chest. They're close embrace was only broken by Sirius throwing a scrunched up piece of parchment at their joined faces. They broke apart and looked around.
"Cheers Padfoot." James laughed picking it up and loping it back at him.
"No problem Prongsie." He winked and then proceeded to fall back to sleep on his textbooks. They both laughed at this and Lily pressed another quick kiss to James's lips then cuddled up to him and dozed off.
The exams started that following week, the castle was filled with stressed teenagers, even James who was always so carefree was pulling his hair out in a panic over every exam.
"NEWTS are just so important!" He muttered, wondering truthfully what he was going to do with his life. He'd always had ambitions to be a Quidditch Player or a Dark Wizard Catcher for the ministry and now that he was slowly becoming involved in the politics which were arising due to Voldemort's influence spreading, he really wanted to be involved. He wanted to fight the 'baddies', what was wrong with that?!
Everyone, even little Pete had plans for the future and James was feeling overwhelmed by the idea of growing up, of moving on from Hogwarts; all he really knew right now was that his life was destined to be entwined with Lily's.
The exams passed in the following weeks, a blur of stress, lack of sleep, meetings, last minute revision and a lot of coffee. When the Marauders and Lily finished their final exams, Defence against the Dark arts for James and Sirius, Herebology for Lily, Remus and Peter; they met outside under their tree by the lake. James grabbed Lily excitedly around the waist and beamed. "Finally free!" He murmured kissing her deeply. For a moment, it was just the two of them, lost in a moment of youthful bliss and love, but then Sirius coughed loudly and said "Excuse me." The couple broke apart and the group sat together under the trees and talked of the summer, the last Quidditch match of the season- that James and Sirius were determined to win, they had to win the cup again in their last year; they talked about their futures, Death Eaters and You Know Who and how one day the five of them would take on the world and defeat him. It was a blissful afternoon, that held hopes and promises of five teenagers, who despite everything their world was going through in that moment, refused in that moment to see anything but the bright side of life.
Standing in the door way of his dormitory, looking at the place that had been his home for seven years, James felt his throat catch, the room looked bare without the streaks of Marauder craziness about it. The collection of Quidditch and band posters had been taken down and divvied up between them, the Gryffindor banner they'd charmed to roar no longer hung over the window frame, the beds were stripped, duvets folded up left to be laundered, the cupboard doors beside each bed where open and had been stripped of their contents that had cluttered them all these years: a collection of belongings of four boys adolescent years since they were eleven. James felt his eyes sting and hastily rubbed them and told himself to "Calm down," it was only a room after all, nothing could change the friendship between the four of them, nothing, they were practically brothers.
James tried not to be upset, he'd told himself he wouldn't get emotion in his last week, but he had. When the snitch had been caught, closing their victory for the Quidditch Cup, he'd felt Sirius grab him as he landed gripping him so tightly screaming victory, and when he was presented the cup and was hoisted up in the air by the team, the cup held high he didn't even try to stop the tears from flowing. At the leaving ceremony he and Lily had made their Heads speech and when he'd sat back down, he took Lily's hand and looked at her with watery eyes, she was crying, this was an end of an era, from now on everything would be different.
Packing his stuff to leave, he'd got emotional and on their last night the Marauders sat round in their room playing cards, having duels, drinking and reminiscing; James and Sirius had cried together, blaming it on the booze the next morning, but really it was just the weight of their whole childhood, their teenage years coming to an end.
James slung his rucksack over one shoulder, and tucked his wand into his robes; he took one last lingering glance at the room, and then knocked the light switch off. Sighing deeply, he deliberately and carefully closed the door, with one hand on the handle he glanced at the top of the door frame where 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs' was craved into the wood in interact handwriting that could only belong to Remus, who since their first year had been group scribe. That had been marked there in, James strained to remember, fourth year and somehow he knew it would never be removed. As he looked at it with a lingering smile, he wondered if one day his son- he and Lily's of course- would be standing here, aged eleven, gazing at his father's legacy.
He turned away, unable to bear staying there any longer; he went down to the common room and found Sirius lounging in his usual armchair staring at an empty grate. James went and sat opposite him without saying a word. Sirius looked up at him and met his best friends gaze "I'm gonna miss this place."
James nodded and looked down. "Same man, it's going to be rough leaving this place. Where are the lads?"
"Remus went to return a final library book," He shrugged.
James smiled. "Remus," He sighed. "Typical Remus,"
Sirius laughed and nodded. "And merlin knows where Pete clears off to."
"Lily?" James asked.
"She was here looing for you about ten minutes ago, while you were still packing." He shrugged. "She said she was off to say a last goodbye to a few of the teachers."
James smiled. "That's so Lily," just thinking about her made him smile.
"Are you really going travelling then?" Sirius asked, noticing his friends smile.
"Yeah, we're leaving on the 1st of September, for Australia first."
"Wow, I'm really going to miss you James."
"Same Padfoot, but you'll be living at mine won't you?"
Sirius shrugged "Me and Remus were talking about getting a flat together."
"Oh," James said feeling as though he was being replaced, jealously cut through him. "That's nice," He forced himself to say.
"Oh, don't look at me like that." Sirius said teasingly, poking him with his foot. "You're still my bestest mate. You know that. But you've got Lily and I want you two to be happy."
James nodded. "Yeah so do I."
Sirius nodded. "As long as you bring me presents from every country you visit we're fine."
"Deal," James said shaking his hand smiling, and as he looked at him he saw the cocky eleven year old boy he'd met on the train who'd said if James was going into Gryffindor then he might break his family tradition and follow him and he had and look at them now, James thought, the best of friends.
Sitting in one of the last carriages on the train the Marauder's drank from Sirius's hip flask, for what felt like the last time. James could feel himself welling up again; these three lads, scruffy and skinny, beaten looking Remus, Sirius: tall, handsome, elegant, a charmer with dark locks of hair and Peter: small, squat, pig like in features but with a cheeky smile, had been a second family to him since day one at Hogwarts, and now they were being torn apart, and as darker times approaches James didn't like the idea of being separated from his friends.
Sirius was looking at him, as though he may never see him again. He looked between them "I don't want to be cheesy, but I'm bloody gonna miss you guys."
James laughed, "Aw soppy Padfoot, we're still going to be living together till I leave in September!"
"I know," He huffed "But all of you," He looked round the carriage at the other two boys, his eyes lingering on Remus. "Like man- how, how is it that we're not going to be together every full moon?"
Remus, who as usual had a book propped open on his lap, shrugged "I know, but I'm sure I'll manage Padfoot."
"I know Moony," Sirius pouted, "But it's not the point."
"Padfoot," James said placing a hand on his friends arm, "Chill, we'll see loads of each other. Especially if we're all going to be involved in that Order of the Phoenix thing that Dumbledore was talking about?"
"Oh yeah!" Sirius grinned suddenly animated. "I'd forgotten about that Prongs! I'm definitely up for some Death Eater fighting!" He grinned wickedly and drew his wand directing it at Pete. "Wormtail. Hands in the air you dirty little rat!" He teased.
Peter squeaked and his hands shot into the air. James laughed. "Bad move, Wormy, you so should have drawn your wand," He said dramatically pulling out his own, jumping to his feet to stand in-between Peter and Sirius's wand. "I'll save you Pete," He shouted heroically.
Remus as always was watching the situation with a bemused expression, Peter squeaked again and changed into Wormtail and scuttled across the floor, Sirius lunged and caught the little rat by the tail.
Sirius stood and straighten his robes, victoriously holding Peter aloft by the tail until the rodent turned back into man and he was tangling from his foot, his head inches from the ground. Sirius released him and Peter fell in a heap on the floor, laughing. Sirius flopped back onto his seat, laughing too and soon the sounds of the two boy's laughter caught James and Remus and they too were laughing. So the train sped off into the countryside, with four boys who were fast becoming men sharing their last train ride together, they were headed for Kings Cross Station, and surely their futures.