Late 1978

Somebody resumed the heavy knocking on his door. Remus had the vague impression they had been calling for a while now, but at some point the sound had got mixed with his own dreams. Making an almighty effort, he stood up and stumbled through the tiny apartment to his front door.

Remus had been meaning to finish unpacking and tidy up since he had arrived to the place, many days ago, but there always seemed to be something more important or urgent to do. He now he hoped his visitor, whoever it was, would not mind.

Had he not been that tired, the fact that he indeed had a visitor would have surprised him a great deal. His moving to a place of his own had been very recent and he had not yet told anybody about it. Remus would have reasonably said he had not had time to do so, between training sessions and haste meeting with one member of the Order or another. However, if he was to be honest, the truth was, he did not think much about the few square meters he now called his place. It was tiny, on the topmost floor of an ancient building, and the only reason he had taken it was that it would permit him to be in the city where he had recently found a job on a Muggle store. He needed to be independent after all, and continuing living with his parents, although comfortable, was starting to get odd.

James and Lily were standing matter-of-factly on his threshold and the first thing he saw were their bright smiles, clear sign that, of course, they did not mind, not only his lack of tidiness but also the miserable looks of the apartment itself.

"Hey, stranger," Lily said, giving him a quick hug.

"All right, mate?"

"Yeah, hi," Remus' brain was slowly catching up with the fact that they had found him… and suddenly it became increasingly important his not having cleaning the place. How would he have known anyway? "What are you guys doing here?"

"I'll try to pretend you've just invite you in, shall I?" James said, with a wide grin. "You're looking terrible, Moony."

"What a charmer," Lily said, following him inside, and Remus did not know if she was talking about James or him.

There was a rickety old sofa, covered with several books and old papers Remus had been sorting out right before falling asleep. Unceremoniously, James levitated the lot haphazardly on top of one unopened carton box and took a sit, gently pulling Lily to his side.

"Can I… er… offer you something?" Remus said hesitantly. He could not remember he had anything at all in that small cabinet that was supposed to be a kitchen, except for a couple of empty boxes that used to contain Chinese food not long ago.

"No need," Lily smiled, taking a small brown bag out of her pocket and placing it on the floor right in front of her. With a tap of her wand, the bag grew bigger and Remus could distinguish the contours of several bottles inside. "We've brought a little something."

"Are you gonna sit or what?" James asked, arching an eyebrow.

Remus had to shake his head.

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's just-"

"You didn't expect us here," James filled in. "We know. Your Mum warned us about you, probably losing your polite manners the moment you'd move out of her place. She said you'd become a filthy scoundrel without her cleaning after you."

"She didn't," Remus frowned slightly.

"Of course she didn't," Lily was opening bottles of Butterbeer and passing them. "She was very kind, and just gave us your address."

For a moment nobody said a thing. While taking a sip from his bottle, Remus could imagine the silent reproaches from them. Why haven't you told us you were moving? Since when do you live here? Does anybody else know?

"We're getting married!" James announced, without as much as a preamble.

For a moment, Remus thought he had misheard him.

He looked at them, waiting for the laughter that usually accompanied James' pranks, or for some reproachful look on Lily's eyes. He found no such things, but some contained wild happiness that seemed to radiate from their pores.

"Are you…?"

"Yes!" Lily cried, triumphantly showing a ring on her finger. Remus asked himself distractedly why haven't he noticed it before.

"That is… wow… I mean… congratulations!" Aren't you just too young to get married? Aren't we supposed to be fighting against the darkest of wizards? Why on Earth would you want to start a family precisely now?

Ignoring all his questions and the pressing sensation that he had hit his head hard, he stood up. Lily and James had jumped to their feet; a hug seemed in order.

"Congratulations, you two!" he repeated, loud enough for his mental questions to be drowned. "When?"

"Four weeks from now," James said.

"It's going to be simple, we wanted to do is as soon as possible."

"Four weeks…?" Remus felt he was still getting used to see them all without a uniform, let alone married and forming a family. Has James got any funny spells on the head at Auror training?

"Yeah, we know it might sound rush…" he was explaining.

"But we were so sure about it… actually, James was, when he proposed… and then I realised I was as sure as he was!" Lily's enthusiasm was contagious. It almost made it all sound reasonable.

Remus tried very hard through all the remaining conversation to make his expression look cheery enough. He feared he was failing at it. He remembered he had been really happy when Lily had finally agreed to date James, back in their seventh year. He was happy for the two of us, of course.

But such a haste marriage, deciding so suddenly to change their lives in this sort of solemn way…

And suddenly it hit him, as James chatted away about his training and Lily, for once, didn't try to make him shut up. Of course they loved each other; there was no question of that. But there was also the pressing matter of the war. For despite what everybody in the Order wanted to believe and to make the others believe, they were at war, and their lives were being threatened every day.

So what was so wrong about trying to live it as much a possible?

Remus could not come up with any reasonable answer.

"Oi, Sirius, stop it!"

"What?"

"You need to stop pacing the room!" Remus said, wearily. "You're making me nervous."

Sirius stopped for a moment, looked at him, and then resumed his pacing the Potter's living room.

"Can't help it, mate. What if…? What if something goes wrong? What if… I don't know, what if they forget each other's names right in the crucial time? What if James trips on his way to the aisle? What if I trip?"

"Nobody will care if you do," Remus said dryly. Sirius ignored it.

"What if I can't find the rings?"

"Do you have the rings?"

Wide eyed, Sirius searched in his vest's pockets, then in the ones of the jacket. Finally he found the small box on the inside.

"You see?" Remus said, "nothing to worry about."

"Easy for you to say," Sirius said.

"Oh really?" Remus arched an eyebrow, "oh yeah, I forgot, since I'm not the best man, I'm not that important, am I?"

He was teasing Sirius, of course, and his disdainful glance made it perfectly plain that he knew Remus did not mean that. They had always known that, even if the four of them had been very close friends, the bond between James and Sirius was something much stronger.

"Don't be stupid," Sirius added, for good measure.

Remus smiled.

"Where's Peter, by the way?"

"Late, as usual," Sirius muttered, and then with a completely different voice, he asked, "do you think this is a good idea?"

The question, popping out of the blue like that, made Remus wonder for a moment or two what was Sirius really talking about.

"You mean… the wedding?"

"The wedding, yeah, the wedding," Sirius resumed his pacing of the room. "Do you think it's a good idea?"

Remus had to think for a moment, half relieved that he had not been the only one questioning the whole thing, but weary about Sirius' real motivations nonetheless.

"They love each other…" he started.

"Of course they do, we've never seen James behave like that with any other girl before."

"They are happy," Remus said.

"Very happy," Sirius agreed.

"Then…?"

Sirius sighed and pressed the heels of his hand on his eyes for a moment.

"I don't know, Moony. They've been together for little more than a year, right? Don't you think this is a bit… rushed? What if the wake up one day, five years from now, and realise they have make a mistake? I mean, I've loved girls, they are great, but wanting to get tied up to one for the rest of my life… never!"

Remus chuckled involuntarily. It was just Sirius' blunt style of saying things, and yet, he had a point.

"But what they have," Remus spoke slowly, "that's something different from what you've had with other girls… or what I've had, even if that thing whit Mary was some sort of joke. My point is we've never been in that situation, or even remotely. I think we're not supposed to understand it. Just… I don't know, accept it. And hope for the best, right?"

Sirius grimaced.

"Yeah…"

Putting his hands in his pockets, and, it was obvious to Remus, trying to look casual, he spoke again,

"D'you think this has something to do with the war?"

It seemed odd to have to talk about this precisely with Sirius, but apparently he had been thinking exactly along the same lines as he had.

"It might have something to do with it, yeah," Remus tried to put some doubts into his words even though they were none.

"That's what's bothering me the most," Sirius snapped. "I'm sure they wouldn't be rushing like this if those good for nothing Death Eaters wouldn't be threatening our pants off every day."

"Well, that's the point, right?" suddenly, he realised he had his answer. "We are at war. And we want to think we're invincible, right? That we'll come out of this, unscratched, victorious, and that all of us will live cheery, happy and long lives. But we don't know it."

"We'll be all right," Sirius started.

"We don't know."

"Come on, Moony, don't get all morose on me!"

"I'm not, really! I'm just trying to be realistic. We're fine, but what if later on we won't. I mean, yeah, you're right, maybe they'll wake up some years after today and they'll realise they don't stand each other. Well, then they'll split and it will be very sad, but at least they'll be alive and they would have had their shot to… well… to be alive and do things. And there is also the chance they'll be happy and we'll remember all this in their 25th anniversary."

Sirius sighed deeply.

"I hate it when you're right."

Remus smiled.

"You should've got used to it by now."

"Git."

Sirius turned around and looked out the window. Remus thought the conversations was over. After all, in close than no time James would call him and the ceremony will begin.

"It's just…" Sirius' hoarse voice surprised him. "I always pictured us, you know? James, and you, and Peter and me, doing stuff after graduation. Maybe moving in and, I don't know… travelling or something. I always knew we were to get married and have a family, eventually, but not just jet. We still have stuff to do!"

Remus sighed deeply. He made an effort to ignore the fact that he would not have a family; they were talking about something else entirely and his attention had to focus on it.

"You're not gonna lose him," he finally said. "He still be there, he's your friend!"

Sirius didn't say a thing. He was looking out of the window.

Maybe he had to say something else, Remus felt, but he could not find the words. A moment later, the door opened, and James entered.

"Hey, the man of the day!" Sirius announced, beaming.

Later Remus would have never got the chance to ask Sirius if, during that small ceremony, he had changed his mind and forgot his doubts. He certainly had.

There were decorations everywhere in the garden, many cheering guests, friends of the Potters, friends from school, and even a couple of Muggles, Lily's parents, looking it all with surprised eyes. But that had had nothing to do with Remus' sudden realisation that this was the better decision James had made in his life.

Lilly walked down the aisle, smiling at people she recognised, looking as beautiful as a bride should look. And then, she found James' eyes and Remus could swear the entire atmosphere transformed. Nobody seemed to have noticed it; every little event of the ceremony went as planned and yet something deep and intense had happened and Remus could feel as if he could be knocked out of his feet with the intensity of it all.

AN: Thanks a lot to all readers and especially to such great reviewers: NeverBeenDarkMarked, Snarky64, login password, ttcrews, QueenCobraWing, ludmilla, SunshineRoses and strukkfirst!