Words meant nothing to Sirius Black
Words carried all the weight of feathers in his world. When he was young, his mom said she loved him, that was a lie. It was rare that she would say it, but a lie nonetheless. All his life people talked and didn't follow up To Sirius, actions meant so much more than words. So when James said he was going to propose, Sirius laughed. They were too young to get married. They weren't even nineteen yet.
Then, At James's birthday party, Sirius watched as his best friend got down on one knee and asked Lily Evans to be his wife. That had been two weeks ago. Today, Sirius was supposed to meet with James, Lily and Lily's maid of honor to start planning the wedding and, of course, the Stag party, which was the only way Sirius would be referring to the party for obvious reasons.
He woke up early that morning, with a hangover. He groaned as soon as his eyes opened, the harsh glare of sunlight spilling in from the window, as he had apparently neglected to close the curtains the night before.
He almost hated to do it, but he forced himself to look back over his shoulder. Sure enough, a long expanse of bare back was all he could see, the swell of the woman's ass was covered up by the sheet. Sirius managed to not curse out loud, but it seemed she read his mind as she stretched and rolled over to look at him.
"Good morning." She purred. Not so far, he found himself thinking. She was pretty, that wasn't the problem. The problem was that he didn't remember her name, and that he was supposed to be meeting James in less than an hour, based on the numbers on the clock behind her.
"Morning." He replied, easily putting on one of his most charming smiles, calculating the best way to get her the hell out.
"Are you leaving?" She asked. The charming smile dropped and Sirius looked around the room. This wasn't his flat, it was too well decorated. He cursed in his head yet again, this time at himself. He could have gotten out without waking her up.
"I'm afraid so, Love." He nodded. "I have an early meeting today." He stood, stretching his arms up over his head.
"Surely you can be a little late." She pouted, letting the sheets slip off to reveal her naked body. Suddenly Sirius was reminded of why he'd left the bar with her. The curves the sheet had managed to cover up would make statues of Greek Goddesses jealous. However, as the night before came back to him, he remembered what a mistake that had been. Her over the top screams of ecstasy had been almost embarrassing.
"I would love to." A lie. "But this is a very important meeting." Half a lie. "But send me an owl, we'll meet up again soon." A lie. The lies flowed so easily from his tongue he didn't so much as stutter, collecting clothes, stepping into his underwear, tugging his pants up over his long legs and heading for the door, shirt and shoes in hand.
"Promise." She asked, still pouting.
"Would I lie?" He grinned before apparating away.
Sirius reappeared in his own flat, less well put together, but it did what it had to do. He had a bed, a couch, a kitchen and a bookcase with a few choice volumes. Everything about the flat Screamed Sirius Black, including the massive Gryffindor flag, not the one from his room back at his parents' home. No that was still there, thanks to the permanent sticking charm he'd learned from his mother.
Also screaming 'Sirius Black', was the medicine cabinet. Sirius opened it up to find he was completely out of hangover potions, and the clock reflected in the mirror told him he was out of time, he was supposed to be at the restaurant fifteen minutes ago.
He changed his clothes, grabbed a pair of sunglasses and apparated to the bistro where they would all be meeting. There were places in muggle London where it was safe for wizards to go, and this Bistro was one of them.
It probably would have been easier to have the meeting at James and Lily's home but when Sirius had mentioned it before, James had shrugged it off. Sirius was glad for it now though, he needed food.
"You look like shit." James greeted his friend, getting up to hug him. "And smell worse."
"Thanks mate. You look like your wife dressed you." Sirius replied, going to hug Lily.
"Not his wife yet." She reminded him. "But yes, I did buy him that outfit." She confirmed.
"I figured, there's not a bit of quidditch on the man." Sirius plopped down in one of the open seats and looked to the final seat where, presumably, the main of honor should have been sat. "Lily dear, is your maid of honor invisible or am I not as late as I thought I was?"
"Neither, you were late, and she's not invisible, she's just more late than you are." Lily replied.
"I told you to tell her a full hour early."
"Then she wouldn't have come at all."
"Who is she?" Sirius interrupted before they could turn it into a full blown argument.
"My sister." Lily answered. "My maid of honor."
"You have a sister?"
"Two of them." Lily confirmed. "That I've talked about before in front of you, cheers to your ability to pay attention, Sirius." He simply shrugged. "She will be here soon." She promised, glancing at her watch then at her fiancée.
"I hope so, I'm starving." James rubbed his stomach, they could all hear it grumble.
"There she is now." Lily stood, looking past Sirius. The man turned his head to look back over his shoulder and paused, He never, in a million years would have guessed this woman was in any way related to Lily Evans. She wore wide bell bottom jeans with a crochet crop top, round sunglasses and her hair, while Lily's was deep red, was a dark blonde and cut into a short bob.
"There's no way." He shook his head. The outfit screamed 60's but somehow she made it completely work.
"Sorry I'm late." The young woman dropped her bag in the empty seat and walked around to hug Lily. "I was on the way here and ran into someone playing guitar on the street so I stopped to listen and next thing I knew an hour had passed." She waved a dismissive hand. "Morning James." She walked around Lily to hug James, who wrapped his arms around her.
"No hug for me?" Sirius asked as she headed back to her seat.
"Lily said hugging you was dangerous, and I listen to my big sister at least once a year. Today is her lucky day."
"But not mine." Sirius looked to Lily, who shrugged.
"Poppy Evans." The girl introduced herself.
"Sirius-"
"Sirius Black, yes, Lily's mentioned you several times over the years. I expected a much larger head." Sirius quirked an eyebrow and looked at James, who simply smiled.
"Are you going to let her talk to me like that? Best friend?"
"I encourage it." James confirmed.
"Of course." Sirius shook his head. "So Did you go to Hogwarts?" Sirius asked Poppy. The other three of them stared at him a moment. "What?" He finally asked.
"I'm not a witch." She answered. "A fact that continues to piss me off to this day." Poppy added.
"I'm the only witch in my family, Sirius." Lily reminded him.
"Oh." Sirius glanced up, dropping the subject as the waitress brought them all glasses of water and menus.
"Have you guys started doing anything for the wedding?" Poppy asked, taking her sunglasses off and dropping them on the table before picking up her menu and flipping through it. "Also why are you hungover? Don't you lot have something for that?" It took Sirius a moment to realize she was talking about him.
"Ran out." Sirius replied. "And I thought I was doing a good job of hiding the hangover."
"You weren't." James confirmed.
"We haven't started really talking about the wedding yet." Lily put down her menu, knowing what she wanted.
"Really? Because I've already started planning the Stag party." Sirius informed her.
"Wow, we're less prepared than Sirius, that's embarrassing." James grinned.
"Yes, but he's planning a party, so it's hardly surprising." Lily argued.
"That's fair." James nodded.
"How many strippers are you hiring for the Stag party? I want to make sure I get double that for Lily's bachelorette."
"Five." Sirius answered Poppy.
"Zero." James and Lily replied in unison. Sirius rolled his eyes and held up five fingers. Poppy nodded and from the big bag she had brought with her, withdrew a small notepad and a pen, writing out the number ten on the first page she flipped to.
"Poppy, no strippers." Lily repeated.
"Of course not, Lils, I would never." Poppy looked up at her sister and smiled sweetly, flipping the notebook to a new, random, blank page.
The waitress showed up again, saving them all to get their food orders. Sirius ordered something greasy to help ease his hangover.
"How many bridesmaids do you intend on having, Lily?" Sirius asked.
"Four." Lily answered. "You will have to dig up an extra friend, James. I plan on having Marlene, Alice, Poppy and Petunia."
"Petunia?" Sirius asked.
"My other sister… why are you making that face?" Lily asked, her attention shifting to Poppy.
"I don't think it's a good idea to ask Petunia to be your bridesmaid." She shrugged. "I don't think she'd… accept."
"Why wouldn't she accept? It's her sister's wedding." James pointed out.
"Tunia's started dating this… Awful lump of a man. Vernon. He's worse than she is when it comes to 'everything has to be perfect'. He hates me, and I'm… what's the word you lot use?"
"Muggle." Sirius supplied.
"Yes, that. I don't know that she's even told him that you exist, I haven't heard them mention you." Poppy admitted. Sirius felt rage boiling in his gut. Lily was a good friend, and the idea that her sister would go as far as to pretend she didn't exist just because of magic? He gripped the cloth napkin off the table in his fist.
"She's my sister, Poppy, at the very least, I have to ask her." Lily finally replied. Poppy shrugged and picked up her glass of water as soon as the waitress brought them around, taking a long drink from the icy glass.
"If you say so." She shrugged.
The rest of the breakfast meeting was fairly uneventful. They began discussing things for the wedding, slowly but surely, the headache started to go away. By the time they'd all eaten and the plates were cleared away, the four of them had a solid plan for everything that needed to be done and picked out. It wasn't going to be a long engagement, quite the opposite, they were going to be rushing quite a bit but, as Lily pointed out, with the addition of Magic, they didn't necessarily need to wait that long.
None of them felt up to adding that they didn't know how long they had. As Lily, James and Sirius were in The Order and anytime they went out on assignment there was a risk they wouldn't come back, something Sirius was sure Lily hadn't told her family about.
"Alright, next weekend, Poppy, I'll come over to Mum and Dad's and we can start on the bridesmaid invitations."
"Why can't she just come to your place? Wouldn't that be easier than moving everything?" Sirius asked. Poppy gave him a look that told him, in no uncertain terms, she thought he was an idiot.
"Because the trip would take me hours."
"Muggle." James reminded Sirius.
"Oh… Ooooh." Sirius rolled his eyes. "How annoying." Poppy quirked an eyebrow.
"I'd apologize for inconveniencing you, but I'm not sorry." She shrugged and stood up, grabbing her notebook off the table. "Alright, I have places to be, but I will see you this weekend."
"Next weekend." Lily corrected.
"That too." Poppy leaned in to hug her sister, then flipped James the bird with a grin before turning and walking away.
"So that's your sister?" Sirius asked.
"She is." Lily nodded.
"Her arse is nicer than yours."