Devils
"They're trying to ruin my wedding!" Marlene screamed in frustration.
"No, they're not, sweetie. They were trying to help," Beatrice Vance smoothed her hands over her daughter's hair reassuringly.
"Are you kidding me? They take my fiancé off on a stag do the night before our wedding and I bet they won't be back in time and they'll probably stop two of my bridesmaids from getting here as well and Merlin knows what else they'll ruin! They'll probably throw a bloody prank in the middle of the reception or something. And this... can't they get anything right? I asked for blue flowers! You can't have red flowers at a wedding. Why would they get red flowers?"
"They were just picking up the order. It's not their fault the shop got it wrong," Marlene's sister, Emmeline, said as she dried her hair with her wand.
"I bet it is. They like ruining lives. They're devils in disguise."
"I hope you're not insulting your maid of honour's fiancé, Lena," a soft voice called from the door. Marlene span around and ran to Lily, pulling her into a hug, then grabbing Meg who was just coming into the room behind Lily.
"Merlin, you're here," she said, relieved.
"Calm down, Lene, the wedding's not for another three hours," Lily laughed. "Did you think we weren't going to get here?"
"I thought those bloody Marauders might have kidnapped you like they've kidnapped Stevie."
Meg bit her lip to stop herself from laughing as she led Marlene back to her chair and sat her down. "They wouldn't dare. Besides it was a stag party. No girls allowed."
"Lena, are these your flowers?" Lily asked brightly, observing the bouquet with an interest that only a girl preparing her own wedding could muster.
"Don't talk to me about the flowers. Your stupid boyfriend got red. I asked for blue."
Lily raised an eyebrow, then pulled out her wand, casting a quick charm over the flowers, turning them a mix of periwinkle and ocean blues.
Marlene gasped. "Lily, I love you," she said, her eyes welling up.
"I love you too, Mar, but honestly it wasn't that difficult. You need to calm down, okay? No crying until the actual service, please."
Marlene swallowed, holding her hand to her mouth as she nodded.
Meanwhile, seven men were collapsed on the floor of Sirius' flat. The four Marauders were in a heap, hitting and kicking one another whenever someone dared to move or snore. Stevie McKinnon was spread out on the sofa, a lop-sided crown on his head, and wearing a firewhiskey-stained top that declared 'I love my future wife'. His best man, Lewis Trotter was sitting on an armchair, his head drooping to the side as he slept soundly. The final man was Andrew Goldstein, just blearily waking, groaning as he looked around the room. Finally, his eyes fell on the clock. It was only nine o'clock, so he took a relived breath and started to go back to sleep, but then he remembered why he was in Sirius' flat in the first place. Stevie was getting married today. In less than three hours.
"Nuts," he muttered, calculating times quickly. They'd all need showers and he reckoned from seven years of dorm-sharing - combined with his knowledge of Sirius Black - that this alone would take over two hours for all of them. That was fine, they could all just go back to their own houses to shower. Then they needed to be at Stevie's house by half ten because that was when his parents would be coming to check how they were doing. And because they had to be at the church early, they would be expected to be more or less ready at this time.
"Everyone, wake up!" he shouted, throwing a pillow at the Marauders and jumping up.
"I'm awake," Lewis replied.
"Where's the fire?" Stevie muttered blearily. Andrew froze, staring at him disbelievingly.
"Er... McKinnon?" Sirius said, earning a kick from James as he sat up.
"What? Why do we need to get up? It's the weekend."
James now sat up too. "I seriously hope for your sake that you're joking because Marlene's like a sister to me and I'm very protective of her."
Stevie sat up suddenly, looking terrified. "I'm getting married today!"
"Yes you are," Andrew said. "In fact you're getting married in about three hours!"
"Sirius? What's that on your head?" Remus asked.
Sirius raised a hand to his head to find something pointy sticking out the top. He moved his hand across, finding a second. He slowly got up at looked in a mirror over the mantelpiece.
"You're a sexy devil," James commented.
Sirius started to laugh. "I'm horny! Get it, Prongs? I'm horny."
"Guys, we should really go and get ready. I'm showering at my own flat. Sirius, can I borrow some Floo Powder?" Andrew interrupted.
Sirius, who was just realising that his horns were charmed on, and not easily removable, didn't answer. Everyone else, however, nodded and started to get up.
With about forty-five minutes to go, James apparated to Vance Manor and was met immediately by Lily.
"Oh thank Merlin you're here. Everyone's okay? Nobody missing or too hung-over or anything?"
"We're okay, love. Padfoot had some... well it doesn't matter. Moony got them off in the end. Stevie's nervous but otherwise he's great. A few of us have taken hangover cures and we're good. You look amazing."
"Thank-you," Lily said, looking down at her silver dress. "So do you. New dress robes?"
James nodded, pulling at them awkwardly. "How's Lena?"
"She's freaking out. Wedding stress and pregnancy hormones don't mix. The flowers you picked up were the wrong colour and she was convinced you were the devil's advocates or something until I charmed them blue."
"I am the devil's advocate," James said with a grin. "I'll always be Sirius' biggest fan."
"When I said 'you', it was actually 'you' plural. All four Marauders. For kidnapping Stevie as well apparently."
"Well Sirius is the actual devil. You should have seen him this morning! These little red horns sticking out of his head, literally, and he saw himself in the mirror and said..."
James trailed off looking at Lily who stood with her arms crossed and one eyebrow raised. He nervously ran a hand through his hair. "Um... yeah, so anyway Moony got them off and the reason I came here was to let you know that we're all completely ready so we're off to the church."
"Right. I'll see you in under an hour then," Lily said, standing on tiptoes to peck him on the cheek carefully so as not to smudge her lipstick.
Marlene was shaking as she watched Lily start the walk down the aisle. Meg followed with a grace and serenity that she'd never shown before. Emmeline went next, walking carefully in heels that she would usually try to avoid at all costs. Finally, Marlene felt her father squeeze the arm he held and they started the walk down the aisle. Automatically, she started to scan the crowd before she let her eyes drift towards the front of the church. There were faces from the Ministry, faces from Hogwarts and family faces, among others.
She quickly found the two black-haired heads sandwiched between two light brown heads, all smiling at her lovingly. She felt bad for calling them devils. Maybe it was true that a lot of the time they felt the need to play too many pranks, but they really did care about her. They, James especially, were her brothers and she couldn't stay mad at them for long, especially knowing that her hormones had made her unreasonable. She resolved to thank them for offering to take Stevie on his stag night when his brother had owled to say he wouldn't be able to make it. He was here now though, she noted as her gaze reached the ushers at the front. She saw Andrew grinning at her madly and Lewis muttering in Stevie's ear as he waited patiently for the time that he would be able to look at her.
She reached him and he turned, his soft smile brightening the whole room.
AN: This was my attempt to not make it either too fluffy or too dark, seeing as how a lot of the next chapters will probably be about the war.
