AUTHOR'S NOTE: Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates! As a little gift, enjoy this first piece of bonus content. Please note - THIS IS IN JAMES'S POV. It takes place right before he arrives at the wedding. Enjoy :)

"You look like an idiot dressed like that," Peter says.

"Shut up," I mutter. "Just tell me again what you remember about the tunnel we found on the third floor."

The thing is, he's probably right. Who the hell sits around the house the better part of a Friday evening wearing a full tuxedo?

But I couldn't help it. If there's even the slightest chance Lily is going to let me go to the wedding tonight, I have to be ready. I'm not going to let a little thing like what I'm wearing get in the way.

Peter comes over to the desk I'm working at. We're alone in the study, and the map spreads across most of the tabletop. Ever since Lily cracked the Homoculus Charm for us, we've made a lot of progress finishing it up. I get a thrill watching all the little inked dots move down the carefully drawn halls. We did that. I did that.

I mean, Lily helped. A lot, actually, even if she doesn't know it. I can't decide how she'll react when she finds out she's aided the Marauders in mischief. Before Tuesday, we might have been on good enough terms that she would have just rolled her eyes and shook her head with an exasperated sigh. Now though? I might have a bat-bogey hex headed my way.

"You're drawing it in the wrong spot," Peter says. He taps further down the corridor from where I'd been hovering my quill. "It's here."

"That's right. In the statue..." With quick strokes, I sketch in the tunnel. It had been exciting to discover this particular tunnel on Christmas night. We're at the point where we're pretty sure we've found every secret passage Hogwarts has to offer, so to find one, especially one that leads all the way into Hogsmeade, is a thrill. Even if it's less useful than the Whomping Willow passage, since it lets out in the cellar of Honeydukes – much more difficult to sneak in and out of.

"Ah, look who it is..." Peter interrupts my concentration to tap the map again. The dots labeled "Sirius Black" and "Remus Lupin" approach the skeletal tunnel I've just inked.

"What do you think they're up to tonight?" We watch as their dots hover over the statue and then start moving down the new tunnel.

"Something more interesting than we are," Peter grumbles. He shoots me a look, leaning forward, both hands on the desk. "Prongs, we could be there so fast. Apparate into Hogsmeade, meet them at Honeydukes or the Shrieking Shack, have a night out..."

"Not a chance," I say. I look at the clock on the wall over the door. "The wedding still hasn't started. There's still time for her to show up."

"You are hopeless," Peter says, and sinks into an armchair on the other side of the desk.

"Yeah, well..."

We sit quietly as I finish mapping the tunnel until it reaches the edge of the parchment. Peter watches me with shrewd eyes. "Okay, but what if she hasn't come by 7:30? That's a half hour after the wedding starts. THEN can we go?"

I hesitate. It is tempting; waiting on Lily all day has left me thrumming with energy, and it would be good to run it off with the others, but... "There'd still be the reception," I say. "Maybe she just doesn't want me there for the ceremony."

Peter slumps back in his chair. "Hopeless," he mutters again.

Again, he's probably right. But that's what Lily does to me, isn't it? I can't believe I messed up dinner so bad on Tuesday. When I finally made it, and she was standing there in that dress and long wool coat, hair loose and lifting in the breeze, I...

Well, I had to make sure the dinner was a success. I just knew I could.

And it did start alright. I mean, Petunia was a cow, and Vernon was an arse, but I was expecting that. I could handle that. But then they started laying into Lily...

Still. No excuse. And now I'm worried I've wrecked any chance I had at ending this year with Lily not hating me. That's all I want: for Lily to not think I'm the worst person in the world. To maybe even be friends. For us to stand at the end of seven years of school together and have her say, "Gee, Potter, that wasn't so bad having you around, was it?"

(Maybe even say "James". I mean, a bloke can hope).

And the thing is... I think I've been doing alright. I've messed up plenty this year, but things with Lily have been... far better than I'd dared hope since fifth year, when I was young and stupid. More stupid than I am now, anyway.

But then that dinner...

Can I ever recover?

I touch the pocket in my trousers, hear the crinkle of the note I folded up inside. The boys would die if they knew I'm planning on giving Lily the map, Sirius and Peter especially. But it's the only thing I can think of. Give up a secret for her.

I would give up most anything for her.

The problem is, most of my secrets aren't mine to give.

Peter lobs a balled-up piece of parchment at me. "Oi! Prongs! Head out of the clouds! Let's -"

But he breaks off as a flare of silver light erupts in the center of the room, bathing the bookshelves and painting the walls blue.

Peter topples over backwards in his chair with a cry of alarm, but I leap to my feet, grabbing my wand off the desk, and advance on the sudden unknown light source. My steps falter and my wand lowers, though, as the light pulses and grows and takes a shape I recognize.

A patronus.

A doe.

She looks at me and the light intensifies, too bright to watch. I close my eyes, put one hand up the shield the intensity as even the dark behind my eyelids goes white. Then, with a final flare, everything explodes in a scream.

"HELP!"

Lily.

My eyes fly open. The study is back exactly how it was before the patronus burst into existence – the map lying on the desk, regular warm light from the sconces overhead, books on the shelves and in messy stacks in the corners. Only Peter, cowering on the floor, looks out of place.

I run over to him, pull him to his feet. "Let's go," I say urgently. I scoop his wand off the ground and try to thrust it into his hands.

"Go?" he asks, ignoring the wand and shakily dusting his trousers instead.

"Yes, GO!" I shout. I jab at the now-vacant center of the room. "That was Lily! She's in trouble! We have to go NOW."

"We can't..." Peter say. His hands tremble too hard for him to even hold his wand. He swallows. "What if it's an attack? What it there's too many of them?"

"Dammit Peter! That's why we need to GO!"

He shakes his head. His eyes stretch wide in his pale face.

"Fine!" I shout. "If you're too coward to come with me, at least go get Padfoot and Moony."

"Go get -?"

"YES! Apparate into Hogsmeade, use the tunnels and the map to find them, just GET TO THE WEDDING. Here." I shove the map into his hands. "Wedding address is on the invite in my room." Peter accepts the parchment, looking dazed.

"Hurry!" I snap, and then I sprint from the room. I don't have any more time to waste ensuring he'll make himself useful. I tear down the hallway and throw myself out the front door, wand clenched tightly in my fist, not even stopping to reassure my mother, on her way up the stairs, who starts. "James, what –"

But it doesn't matter.

Nothing matters except getting beyond our property line, where I can Disapparate and get to Lily, find her, help her...

The winter air bites my cheeks, pulls tears from my eyes. It's just the cold, nothing else. Just the cold, not the worry that I'm already too late, that I won't get to her in time... When I reach the gate, I don't bother with the lock. I catapult into the air, wand extended. "Ascendio!" I clear the bars in a single bound, and as soon as my feet touch the ground, I'm gone.

I'm going to find Lily.