Lily Evans and the Marauder's Secrets

Bonus 1: Patronus

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...