"What?" Remus whispered.
"Will you marry me?" Beth Repeated.
"Beth, you're only 16." Lily interjected.
"And he's only 17." Beth added.
Peter mumbled something incoherently.
"You're both so young." Sirius commented.
"Marriage is a big step." James put-in.
"A Huge Step." Lily amended.
Remus and Beth ignored them all.
"Yes."
"Yes?"
"Yes."
Beth crawled over the picnic and kissed Remus so forcefully that he fell over backwards. She pulled off him and whispered, "I love you," In his ear.
"Are you two sure?" Lily asked
"Well, yeah." Remus said with a large grin on his face.
"Geez, Lily, I didn't ask him to marry me tomorrow. I just asked him to promise to marry me. We can take our time getting to the actual wedding part." Beth couldn't stop smiling as well, "Besides I'll be 17 in 7 days, so I'm only but so young."
Suddenly, Sam started laughing. "Beth and Remus are getting married." She whispered between laughs James started laughing, then Sirius, then Peter, then the couple themselves, then Lily.
"Why is this so funny?" Lily gasped as she tried to stop laughing.
"I don't know, but it's getting late." Beth giggled try to get a hold of herself. "We should head back to the house." Together, the gathered all of the stuff and headed down the path, the seven of them still laughing.
""""
Lily glanced around the living room. Remus and Beth had disappeared into the other room to snog each other senseless as a welcome to their new engagement, and Sirius and Sam were looking at each other as if they would get engaged just for the right to do so as well. Lily rolled her eyes and interrupted Peter and Margaret's conversation about who was more prejudiced against, vampires or werewolves, to prevent more engagements.
"Margie, did you know Peter is fascinated by Magical flowers? He loves Herbology, this kid, isn't that right, Peter?"
"Yeah, but why…"
"Margie, why don't you show him all those gorgeous flowers you and your mother grow? I loved seeing them last year. In fact, I think I'll come to see them again if you don't mind."
"Sure…okay." Margaret looked confused, until Lily elbowed James in the stomach.
"Margie was just going to show Peter and me the wonderful flowers she grows with her mother. You like Herbology, would you like to come as well?" She said elbowing him again.
"Ow! I mean, um, sure, lets go." James commented, confused.
As they walked out the back door, Lily turned to look at Sam, who mouthed, 'thank you!' before moving onto the couch Sirius was sitting on.
Once they were deep in the craziness that was any wizarding garden, James turned to Lily with that tell-tale smirk that Lily had come to dislike so much, because whatever came out of his mouth with that smirk on never bode well for her.
"I've been thinking, Lily darling."
"My, that is a shock," Lily retorted, though with a hint of a smile that would've never been there in years past.
"Now, Lily dearest, I've noticed that whenever you have the excuse to be separated from a couple of our friends, you separate yourself with me. "
"I don't know what you mean, Potter." Lily said, perfectly aware of his implications.
"Well, at my party, you danced with me on the pretense of getting Beth and Remus together, and now you have escaped into a garden with me on the pretense of letting Sirius and Sam be alone."
"Margie and Peter are with us, so I wouldn't consider this escaping into a garden with you."
"Yes, but you let them get well ahead of us, why, my dear Lily?" Lily bent over to smell one of the few muggle flowers in the garden, a beautiful red rose, to hide the fact she had no reason why she had let them get so far ahead. James shook his head, "Poor Lilikins, so smitten with me, and unable to admit her deep burning love."
Lily turned to snap at him but saw that his smirk had disappeared and he was simply smiling, a sign that he was only teasing, not making a true suggestion. ""Ha ha, you're a riot Potter."
"Yes, I know, but seriously Lily, if you did like me, or anyone for that matter, would you sneak away into a garden with him?"
"Maybe, but Maybe I would just lure him into thinking I would, and leave him hanging in an …uncomfortable… way."
"Really, Lily? I wouldn't think it of you?"
"Well, then you should know, I can be down right horrible to a boy."
"Oh, well, I believe that. Look how mean you are to me all the time."
"I mean to a boy I like, who likes me. I mean a different kind of horrible."
"Now, that I can't believe. What ever would you do to them?"
"Well, first I would get us isolated, just the two of us, then I'd take his hand…" She trailed off as she slipped her hand into his, bringing it up in front of her mouth and blowing softly, on each of his fingertips, then kissing each one. James looked in shock at his hand as she kissed it. He wasn't entirely sure if this was actually happening. Lily smirked slightly, then kissed the heel of his palm, before bringing his hand around her and stepping forward, placing his hand on the small of her back. She blew a soft stream of air from his collar bone up to behind his ear, and then followed the same path with small, soft kisses, while pressing her stomach against his. She stood up on her tip toes and whispered into his ear, "And after I've done all this I'd…" She kissed his ear softly, and brought her arms around to his back and waited a moment, breathing softly into his ear. A few seconds later, she heard a sharp intake of air from James, and felt on her stomach what she had wanted to achieve, desperately trying to ignore the butterflies jumping inside her stomach.
Stepping quickly out of the circle of his arm, she turned and smiled the very same smirk James had started this conversation with. "And finally, I leave them to contemplate what I did. Sorry to be so cruel, but you asked." She whispered, and hurried to catch up with Margie and Peter, denying the small voices in her head telling her to go back and finish the job.
""""
"She did what?" Sirius asked later that night, when the boys and girls finally separated to head to bed.
"Kissed me."
"Like, kiss-kiss, or kiss-kiss."
"She kissed my fingers, my hand, and my neck. She made it happen, then left."
"She is cruel!" Sirius whispered.
"and you two sound like gossiping first-year girls." Remus interjected walking out of the bathroom.
"Like, Remus, Why don't you like tell me what it was like to be like with Beth? She is like a total like...Dreamboat." James said in a mock falsetto.
"And did you hear that James has a crush on that Lily Evans, can you believe it?" Sirius mimicked James voice.
"I soooooooo do not! Okay, so I do, but you've like got to keep it a total secret."
"Don't work, Hun, the lips are totally sealed."
"Oh, make them stop!" Peter groaned, sticking his head under the a pillow on the roll away cot he was on.
"Girls, I know you have so much more to talk about, but you'll have to wait until morning. Good night." Remus said sternly.
"Oh ho, listen to him." James laughed, returning to his natural voice, "Engaged for mere hours before he begins to train for the little Lupins of the world."
"Oh shut it, go to sleep." Remus said, turning over in his bed to face the wall.
"Yes, Daddy," The other three said together.
""
"Oh, Lily, that was horrible." Beth groaned with her head in her hands, "The poor boy likes you so much; that was just mean."
"He asked me how could I be mean, I was simply proving a point."
"And none of it was to release your own frustration for our poor James here." Sam asked a joke in her voice.
"No! Goodness, Sam! I get you some alone time with Sirius and this is how you repay me?"
"Seriously, Beth, don't feel bad for James, Lily was the victim here." Sam said, ignoring Lily.
"How so?"
"Lily was so intent on making the poor boy see how she was mean, she couldn't follow through in all the actions she has been secretly dreaming of her entire Hogwarts career." Sam smirked.
"I was not…I have not been…I…Honestly! Go to bed, it's late!" Lily turned over and pulled the blanket to her chin. Sam turned to Beth and whispered, "She's the victim." Before both girls giggled and crawled into their own beds.
""
Sorry this is so short, I just wanted to get the answer out to you… :) please don't hate me for how long I made you wait…. : ) remember, Reviews are magic…