„So, are you coming to my cousin's wedding with me or not?"
"Why don't you go with one of your girlfriends? Weddings are more of a girlfriend-thing than a best friend-thing."
"I don't want them to get the wrong ideas, you know? And apart from that I'm not even having a girlfriend at the moment."
"That doesn't mean that you won't have one in two weeks! See that six-year girl over there? I think she fancies you."
"Yeah, maybe, but I'd prefer going through hell with you and not with one of these brainless bimbos."
"Alright, I'm coming!"
"I wish I could say, you won't regret it. But with my family being there, that would be a lie."
James looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows. He knew his best friend was always complaining about his family, but he never knew, how much he exaggerated about them. Anyway, he would see how much of Sirius's stories were true at the wedding.
"Hey Prongs! Ready to meet the Black family?" Sirius asked with a grin when James opened the door for him and one of his uncles on the day of the wedding.
Sirius had brought his uncle, because he and James were still too young to apparate and Sirius's uncle Alphard was meant to take them to the wedding by side-by-side-apparation.
"Wow, that's what I'd call a fancy wedding." James muttered when the three of them apparated into a huge park-like garden with marble statues of famous wizards, white peacocks, and everything.
"Yeah, well, Narcissa is marrying this pompous idiot Lucius Malfoy and apparently the Malfoys are even richer than the Blacks and of course they want to show off." Sirius said shrugging.
"Why is this wedding so late anyway?" James asked.
"Oh, that's a Black-thing. We like things dark, you know."
James frowned, but asked no more questions as they went to their seats and waited for the ceremony to begin.
After a while they had been sitting there in silence, James realised that his friend seemed to feel uncomfortable around all these relatives and he tried distract him.
"So," he said, not really knowing what to say, "Which one of your cousins is the one who's getting married again? The horrible or the nice one?"
"It's actually neither of them," Sirius replied, "The horrible is already married. She's the one over there with the crazy hair and the nasty look on her face. And the nice one is sitting over there at the end of the first row. It's their sister..."
Sirius continued explaining who the bride was but James didn't listen to him anymore. When Sirius had pointed to his nice cousin, James's mind had gone blank. This girl looked gorgeous! Though there was a little similarity between her and her horrible sister, she had a kind face and the most beautiful smile James had ever seen.
"What's her name?" he whispered, interrupting Sirius in his monologue about the different members of his family.
"What? What are you talking about?" Sirius asked him confused, "I was just telling you about my great-uncle Arcturus, who always encouraged me and my brother to go and torment muggles."
"The nice cousin. What's her name?"
Sirius gave James a funny look before he said, "Andromeda."
"You have to –" James started to say. But right then the music started to play and the wedding ceremony began.
When the ceremony was over Sirius excused himself for a moment to congratulate his cousin and walked away with the promise that it wouldn't take long.
In the meantime James walked to the far corner of the garden and breathed in the cold night air. He didn't know, what had happened to him earlier when he's seen Andromeda. After all he was deeply in love with Lily Evans. Or wasn't he...?
Still deep in thought, he suddenly heard a funny noise in the bushes ahead. But just when he wanted to investigate its origin he heard Sirius call his name.
"Oy, Pronks! What are you doing there? I want you to meet someone!"
When James turned around he saw Sirius walking into his direction followed by his cousin Andromeda. Winking at him, Sirius said: "This is my favourite cousin Andromeda! And that's my best friend James Potter."
"Nice to meet you!" Andromeda said and shook James hand.
"And you." James replied. But to his horror his voice came out all squeaky and high.
"Wanna go and grab a Butterbeer?" Sirius asked after a moment of silence. James simply nodded, not trusting his voice and followed Sirius back to the rest of the wedding party.
"You fancy her!" Sirius laughed when they both sat at a table alone. "You fancy my cousin!"
"I – I don't!" James tried to answer so quickly that he spilled some Butterbeer on his dress robes.
"But don't you think she's a bit old for you?" Sirius continued as if he hadn't heard him, "I better go and ask her if she is interested into guys who are about eight years younger."
"Don't!" James shouted and Sirius let out his typical bark-like laughter.
"This wedding is much more fun than I've thought! Really good choice to take you instead of Mary!"
"Sirius, I'm going to kill you next full moon, I swear!"
"What? With your antlers?"
But the next moment Sirius face transformed from a happy laugh into a very concerned expression and when James turned around in his seat he saw Sirius's mother coming to their table and it looked like she was quite angry with her son.
"I'll be back in a second." Sirius muttered and got up from his chair.
James finished his Butterbeer alone and decided to see if he could still find out where the sound had come from earlier. After all he lacked of anything better to do.
So he walked to the back of the garden again and bend down to investigate the bush the sound had come from. When he was on his hands and knees and looked straight into the bush James saw that there was a fox sitting in there. But no normal fox of course. Like the peacocks earlier, the fox had the colour of snow and came out to nose James's hands.
"What are you doing there?" He suddenly heard a voice from behind.
James jumped and turned around. Andromeda Black was standing right behind him and looked at him with one raised eyebrow.
"I – I nothing." James stuttered.
"You know, I came looking for you?"
"For me?" James asked and his confidence raised.
"Yes. I saw you walk away all on your own and I wanted to give you something."
"What?"
Andromeda leaned her head forward and kissed him straight on the mouth. Then she whispered: "Sirius told me..." smiled at him mysteriously and walked away. Leaving a totally bewildered James behind.