"I still don't understand why you insist on cleaning the place up so much." Lily complained, pointing her wand at the dust bunnies under the couch.
Marlene, Lily's flat mate, replied from behind the Christmas tree, "Because, Lily, my parents are coming for Christmas in two days. Two days. I don't think you understand how anal they are about things being clean."
"Yes, well it's almost 5:30, don't you have a date to get ready for?" Lily said, sitting back on the couch and rubbing her knees, hoping to derail Marlene's train of thought.
"5:30 already? How did that happen?" Marlene appeared from behind the tree levitating a sparkling round orb onto a branch near the top.
"Well, you see, time is always elapsing—"
"Oh, hush up, sassy pants." Marlene cut Lily off, throwing an oversized red bow at her head. "You have a date tonight too. And don't even tell me that is what you're going to wear."
Lily looked down at her blue fuzzy pajamas with snowmen on them. They were definitely her coziest pair of pajamas, however, sadly, not acceptable for a romantic night in with the boyfriend.
"Well I'll start on dinner and then change." Lily reasoned, "That way when I inevitably get sauce on me during cooking, it won't have ruined my outfit."
"Genius" Marlene commented distractedly over her shoulder, tying up the last bow in the sitting room, which was now covered in evergreen branches, paper snowflakes, and red bows.
Lily stood up next to her flat mate at the end of the room, taking everything in. "You were right about those long lasting levitation charms for the snowflakes, they look fantastic Marley."
She took a little bow and excused herself to get ready in her bathroom.
Lily headed into the kitchen, lighting some candles on the counter with a flick of her wand. She was excited about her dinner date with James tonight. With the chaos of the brewing war and the increasing danger of Order missions, Lily was looking forward to some down time with James where they could enjoy each other one on one.
What was strange to even Lily herself was how often she missed James when he wasn't there. They saw each other almost every day if only for a few minutes, but there always seemed to be people around pulling their attention from one another. She felt a little absurd to miss someone so much when they were around every day but she couldn't deny it, she just felt fuller when James was around. It was like he exaggerated the features of her personality whenever he was around she was funnier, kinder, and many times angrier than she was around anyone else.
"I'm ready! Tell me I'm beautiful!" Marlene announced, waltzing into the kitchen.
"You look beautiful!" Lily said truthfully, miming taking pictures with her fingers.
"And you my dear friend are in luck."
"Oh really?"
"Yes, for three reasons. One, I am your best and dearest friend. Two, there was a sale at Madame Malkins yesterday which means, three, you're getting your Christmas present early so you can wear it tonight!"
"I do love presents." Lily admitted, doing a small happy dance. "Let me just get this in the oven."
Five minutes later Lily was standing in front of the mirror in Marlene's room. She couldn't stop sliding the fabric of the dress she was wearing through her fingers. How can it be both silky and soft?
"Lily, you look gorgeous in that! You have to wear it tonight! It's prefect!"
Lily looked at her reflection. She did look quite pretty. The dress that Marlene got her looked beautiful; the sleeveless straps came to a V showing a little cleavage, the body fit closely to her sides and flared out at the waist and stopping right above her knees. She took her long hair out of the pony tail and pulled the front half up so that her hair fell down her back in waves.
She turned to face Marlene full on. Marlene had a huge grin on her face.
"James doesn't know how good he has it Lil. He's probably going to propose as soon as he sees you."
"Marley!" Lily chided her friend, blushing profusely at the thought.
"I'm just saying, any sane man would." Marley shot back, picking up her bag and keys from the nightstand. "Anyway Lil, I'm late as always. And I'm definitely staying at Steve's tonight so don't wait up."
Marlene left the room, leaving Lily to contemplate in front of the mirror. There was no way Marlene was right, James was focused on other things. There wouldn't have been time for him to really even think about it with all the Order missions he had been going on lately. Maybe he was just a bit too distracted to take care of the situation.
But Marlene had planted a seed and the idea slowly materialized in her head. She would propose to James tonight. Lily was definitely not the kind of girl to have to have a man propose to her. She could bloody well do it herself.
Now she would just have to put her plan into action.
Thankful for Marlene's need to clean and decorate like a crazy person before her parents came, Lily did not have to worry about making the flat fit the holiday mood.
"Lily, I'm here!" Lily heard a muffled call come out from the hallway in the front of the flat. Schooling her face and nerves as best she could she went to greet James.
His face lit up as she came into view. He took in her appearance and let out a low whistle, "Merlin, I missed you." He reached his hands out and Lily happily met him in an embrace.
"You look good enough to eat." He whispered in her ear. Lily felt a blush creep up her neck.
"Speaking of eating," she started, pulling away from him while keeping one arm tucked around his side, "dinner is ready."
At dinner Lily could hardly think of anything besides how she was going to go about asking James to marry her. He was sitting across from her, plate almost empty, in the middle of laughing at his own story about him and Sirius on some motor bike. But that was about all she could process. He looked so happy there, so at ease and alive she was overcome with the urge to say something.
"James" she blurted out before thinking.
"Yes, love?" He said, stopping his story to look at her questioningly.
"I love you."
"I love you too, Lily." He replied somewhat questioningly.
When she did not continue he went on with his story of the motorbike. This was going to be harder than she thought. Though she was sure he would agree when presented with the idea that they should get married, she wasn't really sure if he had ever thought about it before. And the last thing she wanted was for him to say he wanted to think about it. She would need to ease him into the idea.
"Lily"
Hearing her name pulled her out of her inner monologue.
"Yes?" She smiled at him sheepishly, realizing she had not been at all paying attention the end of the motorbike story.
"I have a sneaking suspicion that you were not paying much attention to my story." James joked, a smile playing at his lips.
"Sorry, I got lost in thought. What happened with the motorbike?"
Later in the evening Lily was determined to try again. She was happily snuggled up to James on the couch in the sitting room, both had hot coco in hand. James sipped his and ended up with a froth and marshmallow mustache. Lily giggled at him and wiped it away with her thumb.
"Listen, James. There's something I want to ask you." She said, sitting up and facing him.
He looked at her suspiciously, "What is it Lily? You seem so distracted tonight."
"James, I love you." She said, starting off slow.
James looked at her and let out a little chuckle, "Didn't we just go over that at dinner, love?"
"Yes, but I didn't really get to explain."
James' chuckle turned into a hardy laugh. "You don't have to explain anything, I love you too."
And he leaned in and kissed her. She could taste the coco on his lips and the way he cradled her head with one hand and pulled her into his lap with the other distracted her from her train of thought.
As they pulled apart for air Lily tried again, "James, I'm trying to tell you something."
"Shhh." He whispered as he pulled her in for another mesmerizing kiss.
A few minutes later, thoroughly snogged, they pulled apart again.
"James," Lily was determined, "I need to ask you something."
"Lily," James whined, "I'm trying to have a moment with you and you keep talking."
"That's because I have something important to tell you, you dolt!"
"You can tell me in a moment, love. I want to give you your present first." James said, standing and walking over to his coat.
Lily rolled her eyes, "Fine, but then I get to talk."
"Close your eyes please, I didn't have time to wrap it."
"Really, James?" She asked, already closing her eyes and putting her hands out in front of her.
Lily could hear him fumbling about, it sounded like he dropped something on the floor. She was tempted to peek but she knew he was watching her face. "Ready yet?" she asked him, growing slightly impatient.
"Open your eyes, love." He whispered, his voice was closer to her face than she had thought.
Lily opened her eyes. For a second she was confused. James was on his knees in front of her, holding out a small box. Then it hit her. A small box. Her mouth dropped open as he opened the box and began to speak.
"Lily, I've been thinking a lot recently about the really important things in life. Some of the Order missions I've been on have been dangerous, but I overcome the fear by thinking of all the things I have to live for. And you, you love, are the most important thing I have to live for. So—"
"Yes!" Lily blurted out excitedly. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"
She tackled him in a hug, kissing every part of his skin she could find. Meanwhile James was laughing triumphantly and squeezing her tightly. After their celebration had died down a little James turned to her and spoke.
"You didn't even let me ask you!" He pouted.
"Okay, okay, let's hear it." She said, trying to keep a straight face.
"Lily, darling, my one and only love, will you marry me?" James asked her grinning happily.
"Of course I will." She happily responded, pulling him into a hug.
"I love you, Lily." James said, "And there was no way I was going to let you propose to me first."
Lily sat up quickly from their embrace. "You knew?"
"Lily, you could not have been more obvious. Why do you think I kept cutting you off?" James smirked at her from behind his glasses.
"I thought you were just being obnoxious." She admitted, staring down at the ring on her finger.
"I wanted to be the one to ask, it's my duty as a man."
Lily roller her eyes. "You could have let me do it, you know."
"Nope it was a race, and I won!" James smiled at her.
"Well I'm going to have to tell Sirius that you called me your one and only love."
"No, no. There's no need for that." James said hurriedly, "We can call it a tie?"
"Fine," she smiled, "a tie."