The story of James and Lily

N.E.W.Ts

lily's Pov

Life was going pretty well for once and with our time at Hogwarts coming to an end, our little group came to a unanimous decision to make the best of every day. For Frank and Alice that meant planning their wedding in their spare time, Marlene spent her time making sure she had as regular a teenage life as possible before we left, for Peter it was enjoying the company of his friends, the ones who took him under their wing when he feared he'd be alone. Remus focused on very much the same, he concerned that he may not get the life he expected the rest of us would he wanted to make the most of the time we have together now. Sirius, of course, continued doing what he had been the few years of his life, living life to the extreme and while his motives for doing this may have changed and his interest in the female company around him sparked a new objective to his daily routine he hardly changed anything. And lastly me and James, similar to Sirius we both wanted to ensure that in years to come we had stores to tell and re-tell, to make sure that we had the best possible time we could at Hogwarts while we still could. As Remus was we also wanted to spend time with and continue to make as many possible memories as possible with our friends, Peter reminded us, through his admiration for the boys how special they were and we had a strong balance between growing up and keeping our youth alive between Marlene and the soon to be married, Frank and Alice. 

As we spent the last few weeks leading up to the end of term aiming for each of these goals when the last fortnight arrived the realization that we really were leaving set in so suddenly it took us all by surprise. Of course, some of us were more affected than others and Marlene swore she couldn't wait to be a fully functioning adult out in our incredible world. Frank and Alice were looking forward to Married life....but the rest of us couldn't hide the fact that were are scared. perhaps the readiest to leave is James, he unlike the rest of us knows exactly where his life is headed and has done for some time. Sirius though not admitting it is quite clearly going to miss Hogwarts greatly. Before James's family took him in it was a much needed get away from a home he knew he just did not belong in and leaving a place that brought him such comfort as a child when he felt so vulnerable and alone would not be easy. Remus  had the same fear that he has always had, that when we leave here the rest of us will move on and leave him, he has given up on speaking this worry out loud after the heated lecture we all gave him about why this was so ridiculous but deep down its obvious to see that a part of him is still expecting it. Peter who doesn't always express his feelings as much as the others I sometimes find hard to read and it's only on occasion, such as the other day outside when we were talking about the ball that I get a deeper insight into his thoughts. James tells me that he's worried about the war and what's to come in our future, this being something we can all relate to. 

And that leaves me. While being asked by James to move in with him nothing in my life seems for certain after I leave here, for the last year Hogwarts has been my complete home and I can hardly imagine just not coming here anymore. I know that it would take a huge development in my life to prepare me and i just don't think that that is going to be happening soon enough. 

However, it's not often that any of us really get to sit back and think about all of this as we are currently in the midst of exam season. Our first one is in less than 10 minutes. "you ready?" I ask raising my eyebrows and smiling at James. He scowls at me knowing how confident I am about this one, muggle studies is my specialty. "what?" I laugh. "you'll be fine, after all, I did tutor you" he grins as the memory of our not so productive tuition lessons. "and we got loads of work done then didn't we" he smirks making the blood rush to my cheeks in what I can only assume is a deep red blush. "WILL ALL STUDENTS PLEASE ENTER THE GREAT HALL FOR YOU N.E.W.T EXAM" a loud booming voice announces catching the attention of everyone around us. I reach up and kiss him quickly "good luck" I whisper before turning and walking off to my seat. 

The exam is over fairly quickly and unsurprisingly was pretty easy for me, of course, I do have a bit of an advantage. I emerge through the crowd to see James stood just a couple feet away. "Hey, how did it go?" I ask walking over and hugging him. "yeah it was alright" He shrugs "i.." before he can continue Sirius swans over with a proud grin on his face. "that was just way too easy" he says stretching his arms out in front of him. "oh really?" Remus smirks joining the group. "uh yeah........." he trails off smiling to himself confidently until his face drops to a confused expression all of a sudden as we start to head back to our dorm. "waaiit............hangman is a torture device used by muggles if someone doesn't win games in school right" he asks. i shake my head slowly trying to stop from laughing at him "No sirius....not its really not" i sigh.