The field was full of people, full of laughter and with smiles on their faces (excluding the three blonde girls who were currently weeping into their handkerchiefs.), It was a perfect day for wedding.
Or at-least, that's what James thought.
He was decked out in his best things, smiling broadly, Wormtail not far behind him.
"Oh boy," Wormtail said with his brainless grin. "Lily's gonna get the surprise of her life. huh, James?"
"Yep, This IS her lucky day." James said.
James signaled for quiet in the wedding crowd.
"Thank you all for coming to my wedding. First, i better go in there and-" James winked. "Propose to the girl."
Everyone laughed at his joke, including himself. (The three crying girls weeped even harder.)
"You, Wormtail." said James, dropping his charms. "When me and Lily come out that door-"
"Oh i know! I know!" Wormtail said enthusiastically. "I strike up the band!"
Wormtail started to wave his conductor's baton wildly, making the band start an off-beat wedding march.
"Not now!" James snapped at Wormtail, slapping him on the head.
Wormtail stopped abruptly, stars in his beady eyes. "Sorry."
Lily was currently re-reading a favorite story of hers (one full of magic spells and secret Princes) at the table near the fireplace. There was a knock at the door.
"Lily!" Her mother's voice rang from the kitchen. "Will you get the door please?"
Lily put down her book and walked towards the door, checking through the eye-hole. Sure enough, the wide grin of James Potter came into view.
"Not him." Lily moaned to herself.
James opened the door, without invitation, and walked in.
"James. what a nice surprise." Lily said.
"Ins't though?" James said, never mis-placing his grin. "I'm just full of surprises."
James walked over to Lily, her backing up all the while.
James stopped near a dresser and put his hand on it. "You know, there isn't a girl in down who wouldn't LOVE to be in your shoes."
"This is the day-" James stopped to check his teeth for food in the dresser's mirror and continued afterwards. "This is the day all your dreams come true."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "What do you know abut my dreams, James?"
"Plenty!" James said, Lily doubted it.
"Picture this," James said, sitting at the table, putting his feet up on her book. "A rustic hunting lodge, my latest kill roasting on the fire," James pushed his boots off his feet, letting them fall to the floor."My little wife, massaging my feet," James wiggled his toes at Lily."While the little ones play on the floor with the dogs."
James put his face close to Lily's "We'll have six or seven."
"Dogs?" Lily said with an awkward grin.
"No, Lily! Strapping boys, like me." James said proudly.
"Imagine that." Lily said, walking away from James.
"You know who that little wife will be?" James asked.
"Let me think…" Lily said, hardly wanting to think of the possibilities of what James was implying.
"You, Lily!" James announced, as if it was the best news of the century.
Lily rushed around James. "Please James, i'm speechless, really, i am."
Lily pushed herself against the front door. "I don't know what to say…."
James put his hands on the door, just above Lily's shoulders, staring down at her. "Say you'll marry me then."
"I'm very sorry, James, but-but-" Lily reached for the doorknob, James closed in for a kiss.
Lily grabbed the doorknob and turned it. "But i just don't deserve you!"
She threw the door open, ducking out from under James while he fell out of the house into a large mud puddle.
Wormtail saw James topple out of the house, starting the wild wedding march once again, not noticing that James' rear end was currently sticking out of a bubbling mud pool.
Lily only opened the door again to throw James' boots back at him.
James popped out the pool, seething. Wormtail walked over to James, pushing his mud- covered black fringe out of his face.
"So," Wormtail giggled. "How'd it go?"
James pulled Wormtail by the collar, so they were only inches from each-other. "I'll have Lily for my wife, " said James, his face in a snarl. "Make no mistake about that!"
James threw Wormtail into the mud puddle and stalked off, fuming.
Wormtail tutted, "Touchy!"
"Lily, what was that?" Violet said, sticking her head out of the kitchen.
"Oh nothing, Mum," Lily said. "James still isn't out there, is he?"
Violet looked out the window. "I don't think he is."
Lily sighed in relief. "Good."
She grabbed the chicken feed and walked out of the door into the backyard.
"I can't believe him!" Lily spat at the chickens, throwing food on the ground for them. "Asking me to marry him! Me! The wife of that arrogant, vile…"
'Madam Potter.' Can't you just see it?
"Madam Potter, his little wife.'
'No sir, not me, i guarantee it. I want more than this provincial life-'
Lily ran out into the very back of the hill where their home stood, which looked over the hills and the glistening river.
'I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than i can tell, and for once it might be grand, to have someone understand, i want so much more than they've got planned-'
Lily sighed against her hand, watching the wind blow dandelions, making them sway.
"LILY! MOTHER! ANYBODY!"
Lily jumped up to see Petunia running at top speed out of the forest, her lip cut, her hair and clothes a mess, and without their father, though their horse came staggered back, Frederick's invention still connected to it.
Violet ran out of the house. "Petunia! What happened? Where's your father?"
Petunia gave a shuttering breath and ran into her mother's arms. "They-they-they took him!"
"Who took him?" Violet's green eyes widened.
"These awful people, up at the old castle, they were threatening us with magic!" Petunia gave a swift look over at Lily. "I only barely got away! But i couldn't get father, he was much too weak after they tortured him-"
Violet gasped. Lily gave Petunia a questioning look. "Do they still have him there?"
Petunia looked at her sister. "If they haven't killed him already, then i think so."
Lily nodded. "Then i'm going to save him."
Violet spun to look at her other daughter. "Lily, you can't, it's too dangerous-"
"Mum, if they're wizards like me, i think i can handle them. "She stared at her mother. "Trust me."
Violet looked conflicted, biting her bottom lip. Petunia looked wildly ecstatic. "Mother, i dare say, we shouldn't keep Lily from saving father, now can we? She's always wanted to save the day, why not do it now?"
Violet looked from Petunia to Lily, her brow furrowed. "Well…i guess she could…."
"Oh thank god," Petunia said dramatically. "Lily! You must hurry! The sooner you can see to father's safety, the better!"
Lily smiled at her sister. "You really believe in me, don't you?"
"Well, you are my little sister after all." Petunia said with a forced smile.
So they agreed, Lily would go and rescue their father while Petunia recovered from the ordeal. Violet took Petunia inside the house, Lily grabbed her traveling cloak and took their horse, detaching Frederick's invention form it's load, heading into the forest.
Violet looked out the window as she saw her youngest daughter's hair whip out of view.
"I do hope she'll be alright…." Violet said, her voice worried.
Petunia looked out the window from the armchair, covered in a thick blanket. "I don't." She whispered to herself.
