Allegedly Undisputable

There was no such thing as secrets in Hogwarts, perhaps it was the magic, or maybe it was just a consequence of having a large group of teenagers live together for nine months a year, but regardless of the cause the effect remained the same, secrets were simply non-existent.

This was neither a good thing nor a bad thing, it was just a fact of life if you lived within the walls of the ancient school, but some people could manipulate it to their advantage, people like seventeen year old James Potter.

Due to the fact that it was such a common occurrence people did not generally question where the gossipers got their latest piece of juicy, supposedly secret, news, and so the rumor that James Potter was going to propose to Lily Evans was regarded without suspicion.

It was Emmeline Vance who broke the news to Lily, who had been lying on her bed in the Head girl's dorm, reading a book at the time. After restraining herself from falling onto the floor in giggles Lily smiled conspiratorially at her, for you see, before Lily fell in love with James Potter, she despised him, and had become very adept at figuring out James' plots, and she'd bet her wand that this was one of his. So she told Emmeline (in confidence of course) that if the hypothetical question were to be asked, she would probably say yes, hypothetically. Within half an hour the news had spread all over the school.

Lily didn't actually see James until three hours later, when he pulled into an alcove off on of the main hallways; he gave her a quick kiss in greeting and grinned wildly at her,

"So we're engaged then." He said.

"If the rumors are to be believed."

"Well I, for one believe them, it is Hogwarts after all."

"Yes," Lily agreed, "Hogwarts rumors are scarily accurate."

"Of course they are, it's Hogwarts, home of the world's most proficient rumor mill."

"Isn't it Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry?"

"Well yes, there's that too." They then lapsed into comfortable silence before James spoke up again,

"So, who are we inviting?" Lily blinked bemusedly at him,

"You do realize we're not actually getting married right?"

"Not yet anyway."

"Confident are you?"

James shrugged, "You'll marry me eventually, the Hogwarts grapevine predicted it, and the grapevine is never wrong."

"Whatever you want to believe James, but the grapevine is not all knowing."

"True, it occasionally misses little details."

"It does," Lily agreed, "like we still don't know the identity of the Hufflepuff Sirius was supposedly doing unspeakable things to in the fourth floor broom closet."

"It's kind of immoral what he does to those girls."

Lily raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend, "You do the same thing-"

"Now I wouldn't say the same."

"Maybe not, but remarkably similar."

"Maybe," James said, "but we're going to be married."

~~;*;~~

Diane Freeman happened to be walking by the alcove James and Lily were talking in just as they were wrapping up their conversation. After "accidently" overhearing the discussion, she switched directions and went back to the Gryffindor common room, where she found Hestia Jones, the biggest gossip in the school.

"I've got news," she announced, and then continued before anyone could reply, "You remember that thing with Sirius Black and that one girl, who we never identified?" After receiving nods from everyone present she kept talking, "Well James Potter and Lily Evans are doing the same thing."

"Are they really?" Diane nodded, and turned to go tell someone else, but she stopped and added as an afterthought, "And they're getting married." Hestia dismissed this piece of information with a wave of her hand,

"That's old news dear."

~~;*;~~

Just a little plot bunny I had, reviews would be appreciated.