A/N: Written for QLFC Round 6! This was a fun one :)
Prompt: James & Lily
WC: 2561
"Holy mother of- James Fleamont Potter, what the hell have you done?"
Lily puts a hand to her temple, red flooding her vision. Her head is spinning, and she's not sure if that's from the whole can of hairspray Marlene has unleashed on her curls, the sheer amount of caffeine she's consumed this morning, or the absolute circus of a scene that lies in front of her.
The man she is set to marry in just under three hours stands before her, looking down at his shoes as if maybe that might save him from Lily's wrath. It will not.
"Look, I think we should focus on the bright side of this." Sirius, to his credit, seems to be the only one who's man enough to meet Lily's gaze. "I think it looks rather dashing. Nothing like a shock of color to set the tone, right?"
"A shock of color." Lily scoffs, turning her gaze onto Remus. "I'd expect something of this caliber from the other three, but you? Really?"
"I promise, I had nothing to do with this." Remus holds up his hands in surrender, obviously trying to win Lily's favor in this nightmare of a situation. "Sirius had the bright idea to try a hair-gelling potion he bought off of a man he met on the side of the street."
"Hey, now, that's not entirely true." Sirius attempts a weak smile and waves his hands around like he's on trial, which he is, and Lily is a very unforgiving judge. "It was a woman."
"Oh, well that makes it so much better, Sirius." Lily sighs, running a hand down the side of her face and probably ruining the makeup Marlene has just spent hours on. "Because you bought it from a woman, I think I'll just forgive you for turning my soon-to-be-husband's hair an ungodly shade of green mere hours before our wedding."
She stalks over to James and takes a lock of the unkempt green hair in her fingers, examining it.
"Merlin, how is it even less tame than it was before?" Lily grabs her wand from a countertop and waves it at James's hair, muttering a few counter-curses. The green stays resolutely put.
"I've tried everything, Lily. Nothing is working." Remus looks forlornly at the hair, and Lily folds her arms, defeated.
"Well, James? Do you have anything to say for yourself?" She folds her arms across her robe, wondering how on earth she expected this wedding to go smoothly.
"It… matches your eyes?" James immediately blanches at the look on Lily's face. "I'm really sorry, Lil. But... Sirius told me it would work." Immediately, James points a finger at Sirius, who puts a hand over his heart in mock outrage.
"Me? It was Peter who suggested we try to deal with the birds' nest you call a head of hair." Sirius turns to Peter, who looks like he wants to sink into the ground.
"I'm so sorry, Lily! Really, I never expected Sirius to turn it green! Please forgive me, Lily, I'm so-"
"Oh, stop babbling, Peter, I know it wasn't your fault." Lily sinks down onto a forgotten chair, putting her face in her hands. "In any case, Marlene says I'm not supposed to be angry on my wedding day. Look, why don't you all just go finish getting ready? Merlin knows I'm not allowing you in my wedding photos if you're wearing those ripped jeans, Sirius."
"I'll have you know that these cost me a pretty penny-"
"Sirius." Remus interrupts his friend's tirade with a hand on his arm. "We'll go. James, you stay. You look lovely, Lily, by the way."
Lily waves a hand weakly in thanks as the three men stumble out of the doorway, Sirius complaining all the while. Evidently, an insult to his jeans is as good as an insult to his character.
"Well, let's see the damage." Lily beckons James closer and he sits down on a chair in front of her, leaning forward so she can finger through his green hair. "God, I normally don't mind green, but that's such an awful shade."
"I really am sorry, Lily. I know how important this day is to you. To me, too." Without his glasses, James looks younger, somehow, and it pulls at Lily's heart a little. She really is marrying this man, she realizes, in just a few hours, and the very thought of it makes her smile in spite of all this chaos, and she sighs again.
"Well, I can't say I didn't see some Marauders shenanigans coming." Lily puts the tip of her wand on top of his head and continues whispering charms under her breath. "Besides, it's just a wedding, James." At this, he looks up at her, interrupting her spell-casting. "It doesn't tell us anything we didn't already know."
"Oh?" James raises an eyebrow, and she rolls her eyes, biting back a smile.
"You know I love you, James Potter, green hair or not."
The words make James blush a deep red and he leans forward to kiss her without another word, sliding his arms around her waist as she tangles her fingers in that damned green hair.
Lily doesn't want to break the kiss, doesn't want to end this moment, but she does, smiling against his lips.
"Admit it," James whispers, "I look damn good in green."
"Oh, you wish." Lily winks at him and he shakes his head in mock sadness. "But Merlin, this stuff really isn't budging."
"Leave it to Sirius to find the strongest illegal hair curse known to man." James tugs at a strand of it, curling it around his finger.
"I suppose we could re-dye it, but I think that would take too much time." Lily frowns, racking her brain for an answer to this mess.
"I could wear a hat?"
"Absolutely not." Lily sighs, resigning herself to her fate. "Looks like we're sticking with the green, then. You're lucky I love you, Potter, or I'd be absolutely livid right now."
"Hey, I was just the unlucky fellow deceived by Sirius-"
"James Fleamont Potter, what the hell have you done?" The stunned declaration is followed by a loud slamming as the door to the room opens and shuts, letting one Marlene McKinnon inside in a flurry of strawberry blonde hair and Gryffindor red fabric.
"That's what I said," Lily says, more amused by now than anything, and Marlene just stares open-mouthed at James, a fire in her gaze that the black-haired boy knows all too well.
"I gave you one task, James. One. Do you remember what that was?" Marlene leans down intimidatingly, inches from James's face, and Lily doesn't miss how he shrinks back slightly.
"Er… Don't forget the rings?" He shoots and misses.
"Wrong." Marlene steps backward, throwing her hands up in the air. "It was to not let your little friends mess up this wedding. Do you know how long I spent planning this? There's a bloody war going on, but did that stop me from making this the best damn day my dearest love Lily has ever had?"
"No…?" James ventures, and Marlene scoffs.
"Of course not. Now, get up. We're going on a trip, you and I." Marlene grabs James's sleeve and heaves him to his feet, laughing as he gives Lily a pleading look. "Oh, stop with that. I'm not going to murder you in cold blood, Lily would kill me. We're just going to go see a friend of mine."
"Marlene. I hate to interrupt my chief wedding planner, but in case we've all forgotten here, we're getting married in-" Lily makes a show of checking her nonexistent watch- "Two hours."
"I'll be fast, Lily, I promise. In the meantime…" Marlene suddenly swears loudly, pointing an indignant finger at Lily's hair. "For Merlin's sake, not your hair too! I did not spend hours of blood, sweat, and hairspray just to have you mess it up in a moment of weakness!"
"What?" Lily immediately turns to the mirror, examining her reflection. Sure enough, Marlene's carefully styled twist has come undone, curls escaping from the bun onto her shoulders. "Well, that certainly defies the laws of physics."
"I think it looks fine," James says in an attempt to be helpful, and Marlene gives him a cold look.
"Shut it, Potter." Marlene sets her jaw as if they're about to march off to battle, and Lily and James frown simultaneously. "Well, I'm afraid we've only got one choice. As much as it pains me to do this, Lily, I think it might be our only option."
"What is?" Lily asks, praying it doesn't involve a Marauder.
Her prayers go unanswered.
Somehow, Lily finds herself locked in a room with none other than Sirius Black, who stands behind her chair in front of the armoire, armed with hairspray, a wand, and a curling iron.
I hate that it has to come to this, but he's the most hair-obsessed member of this wedding party there is, Marlene had said. Obsessed with his own hair, that is.
She'd made him promise to not use a single illegally-purchased potion on Lily's hair before promptly storming out with Lily's groom in tow, promising to be back in an hour tops. Lily seriously doubted that was going to be the case.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Lily raises a tentative eyebrow at her reflection, and Sirius rolls his eyes, wrapping a strand of hair around the hot iron.
"Of course I do." Sirius meets her eyes for a brief second before returning to his focused hair-curling, biting his bottom lip in concentration. "I could do this with magic, I suppose, but it never looks as good if it's not done by hand."
"Is that so?" Lily laughs, picturing the man curling his own hair in the wee hours of the morning before class back in their school days. "I suppose you'd know best."
"I certainly would."
"Look, Sirius, in all seriousness, I was a bit harsh earlier. I know you were probably just trying to be helpful." Lily sighs, putting a hand under her chin, and Sirius shoots her a look that clearly says stay still! "I just- with everything that's going on right now with the war, I wanted… I don't know, I just wanted it to be normal."
"Don't be ridiculous, Lily. It was completely my fault." Sirius shakes his head. "As much as I hate admitting I'm in the wrong, your anger was regrettably justified."
"Ha." Lily chuckles softly, drumming her fingertips against the table. The two of them are silent for a while, just the muted tap-tap-tap of Lily's fingernails and the hiss of the curling iron, and Lily suddenly realizes just how many thoughts are swimming around in her head. She's getting married, of all things.
She's getting married.
"Sirius."
"Hm?"
"Do you think it's right?"
"What's right?"
"That we're getting married in the midst of all this chaos?" Lily watches as Sirius lowers the iron, meeting her gaze in the mirror. "And I don't just meet his whole green hair fiasco. It's this war, you know? All this killing and plotting and darkness and Merlin, I don't know, I'm just not sure this is the right time to be-"
"Lily." Sirius sets the iron down on the table and stares at her, a hint of a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "There's never been a better time."
"Really?"
"Listen to me, Evans." Sirius kneels down until he's side by side with Lily, his gaze unwavering as it holds hers in the reflected glass. "I've never seen two people more suited for each other than you and James. You… Well, you've changed him for the better, that's for certain. Definitely knocked him down a few pegs." Lily laughs, and something like tears prick at the corners of her eyes. "And the Order, all of us, we need this. We need something good after all the awfulness we've been through. That's what the two of you are, Lil, what you've always been. You're good."
"Sirius…" His words tug at her heart, and Lily wraps her arms around the man, hugging him tightly. "Thank you."
"Careful, now. Don't want tears on my prized jeans," Sirius says, but he hugs her back. "Look at me, getting all insightful."
"You're good at it." Lily grins at him, and then all of a sudden she realizes her hair is done, and she gently lifts her hands to hover over the twisting ginger creation, letting her fingertips dance over the little star-shaped pins Sirius has slipped in between the twists. "Sirius… you're good at this, too. Merlin, I... Thank you."
"Anytime, Evans, but I do hope this stays between us. Don't need anyone finding out that I'm secretly a damn good hairstylist." Sirius winks at her and she smiles back, shaking her head.
"It'll be our secret," she says mockingly. "Now go put on your suit. What did I tell you about those damned jeans?"
"If I recall correctly, you said I looked absolutely amazing in them," Sirius calls as he saunters out of the room, leaving Lily staring at her reflection, at the robe-clad ginger staring back at her.
That's what the two of you are, Lil. You're good.
Lily and James, James and Lily. It has always been them, hasn't it? Years of bickering and fighting and apologizing and stealing kisses and sunsets and stars and green hair, of all things, have led them here, to this moment. She's ready, Lily realizes. There's never been a better time than now, than this very day at this very time.
She's getting married, and she can't wait.
The wedding is small and intimate, only about forty guests invited, and yet, it rings with a warmth and light that returns a long-forgotten lifeblood to the Order of the Phoenix.
Smiling faces fill the seats in front of the altar, but none of their joy compares to that of Lily Evans and a thankfully black-haired James Potter, who seem to glowas they stand at the front of the church, hand in hand as they say "I do."
Marlene, the maid of honor, cries unabashedly as she sits in the front row, feeling absolute joy for the two in front of her and patting herself on the back yet again for having questionable friends who are able to reverse illegal hair curses.
Sirius, the best man, pretends he's not crying from his spot on the edge of the aisle, and wonders how it's possible that James Potter of all people managed to find love before he did. Wonders how two people can be so absolutely perfect for each other.
James, the groom, stares at his red-haired bride like she's the only person left on Earth, unable to keep the tears from slipping down his cheeks. She's everything. She's always been everything, and it makes his heart nearly burst.
And Lily, the bride, is completely full to the brim with love, love for her friends, for the Order, for her husband- oh, Merlin, he's her husband now -and for once in her life, everything has fallen into place. She'll love him for as long as she lives, she decides, until she has no more love left to give.
She'll love James Potter forever, green hair or not.