18 years old

James smiled when he looked at his newly appointed fiancée. She was so beautiful, with her flowing warm red hair that was placed in an intricate design, sun-kissed skin and wonderful green eyes. Of course, her new dress didn't make her look any less beautiful either. It was a beautiful purple dress that highlighted her eyes together with the emeralds which had almost exactly the same colour as her eyes that was placed over the dress. There were also a few sapphires, diamonds, amethysts and a few tourmalines, but most of the jewels were sapphires. On her hand a golden engagement ring was placed, with two simple stones on it. A brown agate with another green sapphire in the middle of the agate. The smiths had had a hard job to place them together, but the result was definitely worth the money he had paid. Of course the stones represented his brown eyes and Lily's green ones.

He himself was dressed in clothes worthy for the prince he was. Usually he preferred a little less formal and lavish clothes, just like Lily, but today they had decided to wear these clothes just to show off James' wealth and status. A little revenge, so to say. On his finger a ring glimmered too, even though it wasn't on the same finger. A golden ring was placed on his right hand with a big ruby which had his coat of arms engraved in it. The symbol of the crown prince of Gryffindor, and James' personal weapon.
Lily smiled back to him and he bowed and offered her his arm, which she took, and they left James' rooms in the royal castle of Surrey. James and Lily walked down to the courtyard where their carriage awaited them. The driver, Jonathan, bowed and opened the door and they stepped in.

As they made their way through Surrey's capital, Whinging (a ridiculous name if you asked James – and Lily and almost every Gryffindor), Lily fiddled a little with her skirt. She wasn't too used to wearing skirts, even though she was a woman, simply because she found trousers so much more comfortable. But she supposed she had to get used to it now when she would be a princess of Gryffindor and the future queen.

"Are you nervous, Lils?" James asked her with a smile as he watched her. He couldn't wait for them to reach their destination. Lily stopped fiddling and looked up at him and shrugged, careful not to do anything to damage her hairdo even a little.

"Not particularly. It's just… I haven't seen them for so long. I don't know how they'll react."

Her fiancé grinned and caressed her bare arm.

"Oh, believe me, this will be perfect."

Lily nodded and grinned back. It will be.

After around fifteen minutes of travelling they reached the estate they had been searching for. It was quite a boring house, even if it was relatively big. The house itself was made of grey stone, and could've looked cosy if everything hadn't been so perfect. The garden was perfectly taken care of, the lawn short and not a blade of grass between the stones on the path. The flowerbeds were filled with petunias and roses and other flowers and even what you could see of the small stable looked perfect. Short said, it was boring. If there was one thing James knew, it was that perfection was the most boring thing that existed. Imperfection on the other hand was interesting, and interesting often made real beauty.

The driver opened the door for them and James stepped out before offering his hand to Lily and helping her out. She gracefully lifted her skirts and stepped down outside the gates.
The guard that stood there – one of the estate's only three guards since their hosts weren't that rich – immediately let them in since they looked both rich and important. He didn't look at them, just stood in attention as they passed. He had learned his lesson a while ago that you didn't look at important people, they would get angry and you would get in trouble.

As they reached the doors James lifted his hand and knocked thrice. Knock knock knock. After a minute or two the door opened and a maid in a uniform opened. Her eyes widened as she watched the riches on them, and even more when she recognized Lily.

"Lily?" she asked surprised and Lily smiled kindly at her.

"Hello, Mary." She replied to the maid that had been one of her few friends back here and that had helped her to escape. "This is James."

She gestured to her fiancé and James took Mary's hand, did a low bow and kissed it. Her eyes widened even more and she hurried to curtsy in front of the man who so obviously was at least extremely rich, probably nobility too.

"Pleasure, miss." James told her with a charming smile and Lily elbowed him, smirking.

"Don't make my friends fall for you." She teased. "You're mine."

James felt all warm when he heard it. It had been so hard to get her to accept his love and later, his proposal, but he knew it had been worth the effort it took to win her love.

"I'm yours." He agreed. "Just like you are mine."

How wonderful it felt to be able to say it and know Lily wouldn't get mad. He turned back to the maid, Mary.

"Could you get your master and his wife, mademoiselle?" He asked her and she quickly nodded and disappeared into the house after inviting them into the foyer. The foyer was just as the outside. Perfectly boring.¨

After some minutes, of which James and Lily spent talking quietly, not wanting to ruin the surprise, footsteps were heard and soon three people stepped into the foyer. Mary, and a man, and a woman. The man looked a lot like a whale in a merchant's clothes, and the woman didn't look much better. She had a quite elegant dress (even if nothing like the quality of Lily's) that fit her good, but she had a horse-like face and her blonde hair seemed lifeless even though it was elegantly styled. Suddenly they seemed to see their visitors and first they smiled smarmy, but then they recognized the redhead.

"Lily" The woman said in shock. "What are you doing here, and dressed like that. And who's he?"

James and Lily both smiled sweetly.

"Hello, Petunia. It was a while ago, wasn't it?" Lily asked. "And Vernon. How nice to see you again. This, is my fiancé."

It was easy for James to see and hear how much Lily enjoyed this chance to get revenge toward those who treated her so horribly for years, and he enjoyed it almost just as much. After what Lily had told him about her life with Vernon and Petunia Dursley he loathed them. The Dursleys stared at them in shock, watching the expensive and highest quality clothes they had, and how everything of them screamed RICH. They maybe weren't poor, and actually were rich in comparison to many, but if you took everything the Dursleys had and placed it next to everything James' owned they would seem poorer than the poorest beggar out on the streets.

Petunia opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, apparently unable to get out a sound. After a while it was Vernon who spoke instead.

"Your fiancé?" he asked, voice full of disbelief. "Who would want to marry you?"

James felt a spark of anger when he heard how they spoke to the love of his life, but he smiled even sweeter and took a step forward.

"I would. It took a while for me to get her to agree to marry me, but now it's settled. I'd like to present myself, Vernon."

Dursley looked like he wanted to protest against James using his first name, but before he could open his mouth James stretched out his right hand and showed them his signet ring.

"My name is Prince James Charlus Fleamont of the Gryffindor Dynasty. I'm the count of Hogsmeade, marquis of Gryffindale and Whinging, duke of Godric's Hollow and heir to King Fleamont I and the throne of Gryffindor. With that, I'm also His Majesty King Quentin of Surrey's overlord, and of course also yours."

James had never enjoyed telling someone his titles that much. Usually he didn't tell people his titles except Prince of Gryffindor if he told them at all, but wow, this felt good. The looks on the Dursleys' faces was something he would've payed half of his future kingdom to see. They looked like they had swallowed a whole tree of unripe lemons.

They seemed to swallow another tree of lemons before they bowed down in a deep bow and curtsy. Mary curtsied too, but Lily placed her hand on her shoulder so she would rise. After a good while James told them to stand.

"Well, this has been a nice visit." He said. "Lils and I just wanted to invite you to our wedding and her coronation to a princess of Gryffindor."

Lily put a hand in her handbag and dragged up an envelope with the symbol of Gryffindor's royal house on it and gave it to Petunia who took it numbly.

"We expect you to be there." She told them. "After all, you can't miss your sister or sister-in-law's wedding, right?"

"We'll be there." Petunia promised, still sounding shocked or like she didn't know how to react. James' eyes widened and he turned to Dursley again.

"Oh, and we'll be taking Lily's other horse, Wildfire, with us." He told them and now he got a reaction.

"You can't do that! It belongs to me!" Dursley protested angrily. Lily's eyes glimmered angrily.

"Wildfire is a she, not an it!" she told him. James put his hand on her and his eyes told her calm down and wait. You'll get your revenge. Lily nodded shortly and waited for James to explain why they should take the horse, which he quickly did.

"Oh, I can. Gryffindor is supreme over Surrey, you know." He smirked. "The law states that I have the right as a member of Gryffindor's royal family to confiscate whatever I wish. Don't worry, Lily insisted that I would give you money for it, but remember that it's charity. I could've taken your house without giving you a penny."

He handed over a leather bag filled with some coins.

"This has been nice. We must leave, we have some diplomatic business to attend to." He offered his arm to Lily. "Shall we leave, love?"

Lily smiled and took the arm.

"We shall. It was nice to see you again, Petunia, Vernon. See you at the wedding!" She looked over at Mary.

"Mary, would you like to come with us? If you wanted you could work at the castle, maybe as my chambermaid? James says I'm going to need one, and that I want someone I trust."

Mary's eyes widened and she hurried to nod.

"I'd love to!"

Lily smiled happily.

"Great! Pack your things, and we'll send someone to fetch you tonight. See you then!"

When they left the house they sent the stable boy who had newly arrived at the address by James' order to catch Wildfire before stepping into the carriage again. As soon as the door was closed and they had dragged the curtains in front of the window they both burst out laughing, loudly. Tears of mirth fell out of their eyes and it took a good five minutes before they could talk again.

"Did you see their faces?" James asked happily. "Was it as good as you thought?"

Lily grinned and shook her head.

"Better. Much, much better. That was fantastic!"

James couldn't do other than agree. The whole way back to the castle they joked and laughed, mostly about the Dursleys but also other things. Just in the end of the journey they became a little more serious and discussed the wedding, but as soon as they reached Surrey's castle and walked to Lily's rooms, they began to laugh again.

After supper with the king and queen of Surrey and their children, James left Lily outside her chambers. After making sure no one was there, and could watch, he kissed her softly, and she responded happily. When they parted James just watched her for a moment before leaning forward and whispering in her ear:
"Want to know a secret?"

When she nodded he smiled and whispered, even lower:

"I love you."

Lily laughed softly and ruffled his hair.

"I love you too, you bracket-faced thatch-gallow*."

James looked offended and pouted.

"I'll have you know I'm extremely handsome and obviously I do not have bad character or you wouldn't have agreed to marry me."

Lily shrugged.

"Maybe I did it for the money and power?" James' pout grew bigger and she giggled before kissing him. She caressed his cheek and he smiled.

"No, of course not." She agreed to his unspoken answer. "I love you too, my handsome fiancé with very good character."

"Better." James nodded before kissing her cheek. "See you tomorrow, love."

"See you tomorrow."

They smiled toward each other before James' held up the door for her and she left into her chambers and he left to go to his which weren't more than a hallway from here. The last thing he saw before he fell asleep that night was Lily's laughing face when she finally had gotten revenge on her 'family'.

*Bracket-faced = Insult from the 18th century that means ugly, hard-featured.
*Thatch-gallow[s] = also from the 18th century and means a rouge, a man of bad character.

Woah. This actually got finished, although very carelessly. I am sorry about that, but I couldn't do it properly. It never would've been done.

So... thank you for reading, for reviewing, and for your interest in it. I am very grateful.
If you are interested in reading more by me (I'm a much better author now than I was when I wrote this), then you can find me at Tumblr as Odderancyart or ArchieveOfOurOwn as Odderancy. I don't want to fill this account with non-Harry Potter-stories.

On those accounts I mainly write Undertale, but I have an AO3 collection I'm trying to start with Original Stories (A World of Perspectives). Although that one's going quite slowly. I also newly started a new story which is Undertale, but you might enjoy anyway because it's not exactly connected to the game except for the characters. It's a royalty/pirate AU as well, called .

Again, I am very grateful for staying with me, and I'm sorry it took more than a year for it to get finished.