This is dedicated to the only person who could make me write a full fledged Jily-centric oneshot. I really, really hope you like it. This time, I'm more nervous than Hiking ;)
Happy (belated) birthday, Anna. You're a wonderful, wonderful person and I'm so glad I reviewed that story of yours and that we talk so much now. You singlehandedly make me do what no one ever has: plan, and write. Thank you for being as beautiful as you are.
"Are you sure you've doubled checked everything, Sirius? Absolutely everything?" James' worried face peered into the two way communication mirror the Marauders had invented a couple years prior.
Sirius smiled, an indulgent, reassuring smile, "Yes, Prongs. I checked everything multiple times. You just need to do your part and pray to Merlin's underpants that she says yes."
James cringed slightly at his words, "Can you maybe..not be so crass, Pads?"
Sirius grinned and with a two finger salute, cut the connection off. James pocketed the mirror, and ran his hand through his hair with a deep sigh. He was standing outside the Common Room, pacing worriedly, waiting for Remus to bring Lily outside.
Today was the day he was going to propose. It was..early, yes. They were just students. They were 17. But, he knew that if there was any time, any correct time for him to ask, it would be now. Because, right now, the war was at their doorstep, yes, but it hadn't stepped over the threshold yet. If he waited, any longer, then the proposal and their love, it wouldn't be about them anymore. It would be about the war, and their lives. It would be about Lily's status as a muggleborn and his as a blood traitor. It would be about Sirius' conflict with his family, and Remus' with his lycanthropy.
It wouldn't be about...them. And call him selfish, but he wanted this to be about James and Lily. Just James and Lily.
This time was originally supposed to be their Easter break, but they weren't allowed to leave the castle because of the increasing frequency and magnitude of attacks outside. This meant that they were stuck in the castle for the entirety of their break.
James stopped pacing as he heard the portrait door open, and Lily and Remus walked out. Lily had an adorably confused expression on her face, and Remus was half smirking.
Taking a deep breath, James walked up to the pair, "Hey, Moony. Lily. Thanks for bringing her out. Uhm, I'll take it from here?" Remus smothered a laugh as he nodded.
He clapped James on the back, muttering a not so silent 'good luck' and walked away.
"What was that about?" Lily questioned.
"Uh-You know-I, it-it wasn't anything. You know how much of an idiot Remus is. Nothing, he meant nothing," James stammered, his face turning red when Lily gave him a clearly disbelieving look.
He cleared his throat, "Uh, look, I have something to show you. Come with me?" He gave her a huge charming smile, the one that turned all girls to mush, hoping to get her mind off what happened earlier.
Lily bit her lip to stop the smile from escaping, "Okay. But ti's curfew soon, you know that right?"
James waved a hand at her as his other went to grab Lily's, entwining their fingers together. From the corner of his eye, he saw her shake her head at his behaviour and smiled.
They walked down to the side exit of the castle, James leading her down to the path that led to the Whomping Willow. Her nose scrunched up in that way it always did when she didn't understand something, and she turned to James to ask him what they were going to do. But just as she was about to open her mouth, he shushed her. Lily huffed, but stayed quiet until they walked down to the very edge of the murderous tree.
Her eyes widened when James took a step forward, and she was about to call out for him when he lifted his wand to levitate a stick to the base of the tree. She watched in wonder as the constantly moving tree seemed to freeze completely, not a branch swaying from here to there.
She turned to James, her hands moving about aimlessly as she tried to figure out what just happened. James grinned at her, "Come on, Lils. This isn't even the most shocking part of the night." Lily blinked at his words but quietly followed him into what seemed like a….tunnel that extended behind the tree?
If she was being honest, Lily wasn't even surprised. They had been dating for around a year now, and tip toeing around each other for longer and she still did not know all of James' secrets, and shenanigans. She preferred, for the sake of her own mental sanity and to claim plausible deniability, to stay away from these things.
After a minute or so of crawling through the tight passage, the end of it opened up into a huge room. It was...beautiful. The walls were a light cream color, and the few pieces of furniture were a dark coffee brown that complemented the color code perfectly. It looked like some sort of a living room, a place for guests to sit down and mingle so they did not snoop around.
Before she could look around some more, James took her elbow and led her up a very rickety flight of stairs that were surprisingly sturdy.
He guided her to an elegant door, and stopped just before opening it. He turned to her, an uncharacteristically nervous expression on his face.
"I hope you like it," Was the only thing he said before he took a deep breath and opened the door.
"James, wha-" The words died in her mouth as she looked at the occupants of the room. Her mother, Violet and her father, Charles. They were studying a tapestry on the wall but as soon as they heard the door open, they looked up to see their daughter standing in the doorway with a hand over her mouth.
Their eyes filled with tears as they looked at the daughter they hadn't seen, or heard from, in months. Voldemort's reign of terror kept any sort of contact from them; muggleborns were too afraid to contact their parents in fear of exposing them, and muggle parents couldn't just waltz into Hogwarts demanding to see their kid at well. So it had been a tough few months for Lily, though she tried to hide it the best she could.
It took just a split second for the redhead to break out of her shock and in the next moment, she was running across the room to engulf her parents in a bear hug, sobs escaping her mouth as the reality of what was happening sunk in. Her parents were crying as well. Seeing their daughter safe and sound and happy comforted them more than any mechanical letter the headmaster sent them.
Seeing the family reunion, James stepped back and closed the door, wanting to give the Evans their privacy so they could talk.
He felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned his head to see Sirius standing behind him, his grey eyes twinkling and his lips pulled up in that rare smile of his. His hand tightened on his shoulder as he looked past James to look at the closed door.
"You did good, Prongs," He murmured. James nodded tightly.
"You-you did a great job with the cleaning up," He told Sirius instead.
The other boy smiled at his words, "Nothing but the best for you two, James."
They leant against the wall together, waiting for the Evans to come out so they could commence the second part of the evening.
"I-I, h-how?" Lily tried to ask, but her brain and her mouth were still not coordinating properly. The shock of seeing her family there was trickling away, yes, but it was still there. She just couldn't believe how it was possible for them to come all the way here...wherever here was.
Violet smiled at her daughter, "This fine young man, Sirius, I believe? He came to our door, scared the wits out of us in that leather jacket, unruly hair and motorbike of his." She shook her head with a slight frown on her face, causing Lily to laugh at how accurately she described Sirius.
Charles continued from there, grinning fondly at his wife's reaction, "Anyway, he told us he knew you. We didn't believe him at first, since you said in that letter months ago that things were unsafe for all of you, and by extension us. So we told him to prove it to us, that he knew you. He pulled out this mirror, and took your boyfriend's name. Suddenly, there was this face in the mirror that most certainly did not belong to Sirius. Turns out, it was James and he put our worries to rest. Showed us Hogwarts and the like with the mirror. It was pretty damn convincing, if you ask me."
Lily seemed to regain some of her senses by that point, "But, but how did you get here? I didn't even know Muggles could see Wizarding dwellings, let alone enter them. And what if you had been identified? Oh, you could have been killed. I can't believe those two would do something so dangerous." Lily's voice went higher and higher as she reached the end of her rambling, the idea of her parents being in danger, especially because of her boyfriend and his best friend, was inconceivable to her.
Her inner rambling were interrupted when her mother placed a hand on hers, "Lily, dear, it was completely safe, I assure you. He took us on this thing called the Knight Bus?" She looked to her husband for confirmation, who nodded.
"He put this cloak thing over us, made us invisible. We didn't believe him until I looked over at Charlie and he had disappeared. He then took us on the thing, and oh my god Lily, how can anyone travel on that thing? It was so dangerous. I'm pretty sure we were at more risk of dying from that abomination than these people you're so worried about."
Lily choked out a laugh at her mother's words, her panic quelled by the familiar calm matter-of-fact no nonsense voice her mother used. She thought over what she said and things made more sense to her. James' Invisibility Cloak was legendary in the sense that it was completely unique. It shielded the user from most basic spells and reflected all types of detection spells. If there was anything that could have kept her parents safe, it was his cloak.
She looked at her mother with watery green eyes, "I-I'm so glad you're here. I've been going crazy not knowing anything about you."
Violet moved forward to hug her daughter, something which she gladly returned, "I know, sweetheart. You'll have to thank those two boys for that. I never thought I'd see you before you graduated but they changed that."
Lily gave her a shaky smile, before asking hesitantly, "How-How's Tuney?"
Charles closed his eyes for a moment before opening them and answering quietly, "She's fine. Seeing this boy called Vernon Dursley." He hesitated, contemplating whether to continue or not, before one look at Lily's determined face made his mind up for him.
"We asked her, if she wanted to come. But..she refused. Said she couldn't bear to see more….people like you," He spoke haltingly, as if censoring Petunia's words for the benefit of his younger daughter.
Lily visibly gathered herself before nodding thankfully at him for telling her the truth.
"You know, Lily, you never told me how handsome the boys you hang out with are. I'm disappointed in you," Her mother grinned, obviously trying to break the tension that enveloped the three of them.
It worked. Lily's porcelain skin immediately turned a violent shade of red as she groaned, "MUM!"
James had started pacing again. It was a bad habit he developed in fifth year, when the OWLs turned all of them into stressed, panicking idiots. It calmed him down, but right now, it was more habit than anything else.
"What's taking them so long? Do you think they told her what I'm planning?" His worried voice rang throughout the hallway Sirius and him were standing in. Well, sitting in Sirius' case.
"Prongs, mate, they're seeing each other after months of not having any sort of contact. It's been barely a half hour, have some patience," Sirius drawled from where he was sitting on the ground, drawing patterns on the ground with his wand.
James turned to him with a look of complete disbelief on his handsome face, "Patience? Patience? Sirius, I am about to-" He suddenly stopped as the door opened and the three occupants stepped out into the hallway.
Lily looked at the scene in front of her. James was in the middle of taking a step towards Sirius. In fact, his left foot was half in the air. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes were blinking rapidly at their sudden appearance. Sirius was casually leaning against the wall, looking effortlessly handsome as he always did. His hair was up in a messy bun, with a few strand framing his face and he had a highly amused smirk on his lips. His grey eyes were glittering with humor.
"Um, what-is going on?" She asked.
It was as if a switch had been turned on. James' mouth closed and the blinking stopped. He finally took that step he had been meaning to take and spoke in a rushed voice, "I-It was nothing, really. Sirius was being annoying." He sent a dark glare towards the general direction of where Sirius was sitting when said man snorted.
"Well, I-nevermind that. Mum said you had something to..show me?" She cocked her head to the side when James paled. He was awfully nervous today. He usually oozed with a sort of confidence most people could only dream of having.
She heard more than saw Sirius getting up, and his deep voice travelled across the small area, "Mate. It's time. Go for it."
He then turned to her parents, shooting a dazzling smile at them, "Mrs. Evans, Mr. Evans? There's a beautiful dining room here filled with lovely food that is just calling your name. If you could accompany me?" He held out his arm to her mother, who blushed slightly before taking it.
Lily's eyebrows rose as she watched the interaction. She could feel the laughter bubbling up in her when her father shot a gruff look at the boy who had his wife's hand and attention, before silently following them out downstairs.
Now, she was alone in the quiet hallway with James, who was still alarmingly pale. She was about to move towards him to ask if he was okay when he placed one arm around her shoulders to lead her back to the room she came out of. This time around, she was able to look at it more closely. And she found that this one was even more beautiful than the first, if that was possible.
The room was huge. It had a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, not too big but just enough to be tasteful and elegant. The walls were covered in white paint, with patterns emerging from the bottom. They followed a specific route, but they were in different colors and it added a little something to the room that the previous one was missing. There was a beautiful wooden writing desk on one side, and a piano on the other, which surprised her because she didn't think wizards had instruments.
She stopped her inspections to look back, not seeing or hearing James anywhere. She heard the sound of a throat being cleared coming from somewhere below her eye level. Her green eyes widened when she saw her boyfriend kneeling down on the carpeted floor. She gasped when she saw the beautiful, beautiful ring in his hands.
Her hands came up to cover her mouth as he spoke, "Lily Evans. Never thought a night where I sneaked you out of the castle five minutes before curfew would end like this eh?" She could see that his grin and his humor was a clear attempt to cover up the nerves underneath. She could detect the faint trembling of his fingers and bit her lip to stop from smiling too big.
"I know we haven't been going out for too long. I know you've disliked me for longer than you've liked me. But, I want to spend the rest of my life with you knowing that you love me just as much as I love you. I want to grow old with you, not out of obligation or fear or necessity, but out of love. And there is no better time, or day, or place that I could ask you this, because you know as well as I do that shit is about to hit the ceiling soon."
The laughter bubbled out of her without her permission, and the tears flowed down her cheeks for the second time that night as she looked at the boy she loved kneeling on the floor, his black hair messy in just the way she disliked, his glasses crooked and an adorable smile on his face.
"So, Lily Evans, would you do me the honor of making me the luckiest man in the world by marrying me?" His hazel eyes glittered with love, and hope, and a slight bit of fear.
Lily didn't need to think about it. She leaned down and pressed a hard kiss to his lips, one which he returned just as passionately after the initial moment of shock.
His arm around to wrap around her waist as she kneeled on the floor in front of him and they stayed that way for a few blissful moments. When they broke apart, still on the floor, he shot her a huge smile before taking her hand and gently sliding the ring on her finger.
She held her finger up to admire the ring. It wasn't too ostentatious, it was subtle and understated and perfect. It had an emerald in the center, surrounded by tiny diamonds in the shape of a flower.
She looked up at James, "This is beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous."
He ran a hand through his hair, "I'm glad you like it. I didn't want to get you anything big, or loud like Sirius was urging me to. I knew you'd say no the moment you saw the ring. I wanted every advantage I could get."
Lily shook her head at him, "You silly, silly boy. I would have said yes regardless. Although, you might have had to buy me a new ring if it's anything like this one isn't."
Her now fiance stood up, holding a hand out for her, "Good thing I didn't listen to him then, eh? Now, let's go and show everyone the ring? Your mom has been dying to know your reaction."
Lily placed her hand in his, "Yes. Let's go."
The two walked hand in hand to the dining room, where they spent the night with joking and laughing around, no mention of the War raging outside. No fear, no anxiety, no nervousness.
It was the best night any one of they had had in a while.
Information about the Shrieking Shack taken from Harry Potter wiki, if anything about it seems unrealistic, let's put it down to artistic license please?
And I took some liberties with James and Lily's relationship. I don't really think about those two a lot, so forgive me for any inconsistencies.
WC: 3185 (Yes, I got a little carried away)