Hi all! Just a quick note before the chapter - this is slightly off canon, but I let myself roll with it. This was for a daily writing prompt challenge for a separate group where I was challenged to write a story including the last four lines of dialogue from this chapter. Enjoy this bit of fun!

Lily Evans tended to wake in inches, slowly pushing the sleep and fog from her brain as she stretched and regained her surroundings. This morning wasn't an exception, but as she moved to bury her head further into her pillow in an attempt to block out the intruding sunlight, she was met with something hard and unmoving. She tried adjusting again as her confusion fought to overtake her grogginess. Why was the sun so bloody bright? And why, for the love of Merlin, could she not turn over?

She propped herself up on her elbow and forced her eyes open.

"Oof!" came a grunt from the object next to her.

The sound, or rather, the object it came from, was enough to push the confusion fully from her brain, and suddenly a wave of memories from the previous day flooded in quickly enough to make her lay back down.

"I believe you owe me, Evans."

"I do not!"

"Ah, but you do. It says right here," he continued as he pulled out his worn notebook from the pocket of his robes, "'On November 3rd, 1973, There's no way you'll last four more years without getting yourself expelled or killed.'" He wagged the diploma teasingly in front of her.

"You've proven me wrong on several accounts," she smiled as she leaned over to leave a kiss on his cheek. "I'm proud of you." If their friendship had come as a surprise, discovering she loved him had come as a shock. It was a realization he still liked to tease her about regularly. He took her hand in his as they continued their walk around the Castle grounds.

The summer air was fresh and crisp and had made for the perfect backdrop of their graduation ceremony. Normally, Lily would feel a little lighter on this kind of day with James at her side, but there was a small nagging feeling in the back of her head. A voice that had been growing in intensity the past several weeks and months. One that reminded her that nothing in life was certain. The rumors and signs of something dark coming had been present for the better part of the last year and growing. The security she had found in her group of friends, and the second family she had found in James weren't guaranteed in a place outside of Hogwarts. She didn't have a job. She didn't have a plan. She hardly had a family waiting for her back home. For the first time in her life, she wasn't really sure what would come next.

"Knut for your thoughts?" James prodded with a gentle nudge of his elbow.

"Probably not worth that much," Lily replied with a small smile.

"I beg to differ."

"Doesn't it bother you?" she asked. "Not knowing what comes next?"

Seemingly not bothered in the slightest by her question, he confidently responded, "No."

"Not at all? I mean, for the first time in my life, I have no idea what I'm going to do tomorrow."

"I know exactly what I'm going to do," James replied as he stopped walking.

"And what is that?" Lily asked, but there was a seriousness to James' voice that he only reserved for special occasions. She had heard it first when he was talking about his friends and their importance to him during his detention with her last year. And again, when he revealed his ability to turn into an Animagus and more importantly, his reasoning behind it. It was there when he asked her to be his boyfriend. When he told her that he loved her. When he spoke about his wishes to join the Order and fight for a better world. And here it was again, and it was enough to make Lily's heart skip a beat in anticipation.

"I'm going to marry you," he replied simply.

"Is that a proposal?" Lily asked, hoping that her voice didn't sound as shaky as it felt.

"What do you mean 'is that a proposal?' Of course, it's a proposal!"

"James Potter, in the seven years we've been here, you've asked me to marry you four times!"

"Well, I hear the fifth time is the charm," he replied. "Plus, this time I'm prepared."

He pulled a small ring from his pocket and offered it to Lily. Lily was far too stunned to look away from James' eyes. If she would have, she would have seen that the gold band gave way to a simple, elegantly set emerald.

"You're not joking," was all Lily could offer.

"Of course, I'm not joking!"

"No, but you're really being serious right now."

"I can be serious, Lily."

"I know you can be, you just usually choose not to."

"Look, Lily, I've known that I wanted to marry you for the better part of four years. I don't care what I wake up and do tomorrow or a year from now or three years from now as long as you are by my side to experience it with me. I love you, Lils. I don't have to worry about the future because you're the only part of it that matters. So, Lily Evans, will you marry me?"

"You didn't do it properly." She couldn't help but take the mickey out of him just a bit.

"What do you mean?" James asked, confused. "I bought you a ring. I said the things!"

"You didn't get down on one knee."

"Ah, well there's an explanation for that!" James answered, relieved that all the roadblock needed was a simple clarification. "I'm not wearing any pants. Didn't want to expose anything."

"Wait, what do you mean you aren't wearing pants?"

James lifted the edge of his dress robe just enough to expose his bare calf. "It's bloody stifling with them on under these things!"

Lily laughed freely. One of her favorite things about being with James was how easy laughter was. "James, really!"

"Look, I can get down on one knee if you'd like," he continued, "But I can't promise that the first years over there won't get a show." He nodded toward a small group of students sitting under one of the large shade trees a small ways off.

"No! No, please let's not scar anyone else."

"Does that mean you'll say yes? Either way, I feel we've made progress from the instinctive no that has followed the previous ones."

Lily smiled and pulled James closer so she was just inches away. "That's a yes," she said as she kissed him. "I just have one condition…"

"That was my ribs," James grunted as he rubbed his side.

His voice was deeper and slightly rougher in the mornings, Lily noticed. His jet-black hair honestly didn't look much different than normal, in fact, it was possible that sleep had actually tamed it a little. She turned back to her side as he blindly groped on the bedside table for his glasses.

"Hi," he grinned with the glasses in place and Lily coming into focus.

"Hi," she smiled back and let herself burrow into the spot between his outstretched arm and bare chest.

He kissed her forehead as he lifted her left hand off his chest and held it in his own. "Did we really just?"

"Yep," Lily answered before he could finish his sentence. "We did."

He absentmindedly toyed with the ring on Lily's finger. "And then we -"

"That too."

"Everything?"

"All of it."

"I'm not dreaming?"

"I don't think so," she laughed.

"Are you wearing my House Cup shirt?"

"Maybe," Lily replied, not quite sure which shirt she had grabbed in the early hours of the morning when they had both finally gone to bed.

"And you're sure I'm not still dreaming?"

"You're right," Lily admitted. "Waking up in bed to James Potter does feel rather dreamlike."

James pulled her into a kiss that didn't have to end. It was better than flying. Better than that moment when all the ingredients came together to make the perfect potion. Better than anything Lily had ever experienced or felt before.

"Wait," Lily said as she pulled away slightly, "Are you still not wearing pants?"

"What is it with your sudden fascination about whether or not I am wearing pants?"

"It's kind of considered decent."

"Ah, well, you've spent the last seven years telling me I'm indecent," he shrugged and continued working his way down her neck.

"You're doing a fine job making up for it."

"I promise I will pay you back for every inconsiderate, toerag thing I ever did while at Hogwarts."

Lily let her fingers run along his scalp as they combed through his hair. "Is that why you were such a troublemaker in school, James Potter?"

"We may never know."

Just then the door to their room flew up, and startled Lily enough to send her flying from the bed and onto the floor. "Oi!" was all James could manage as he was lost in the aftermath of sheets and blankets and ended up rolling off the bed with Lily.

"See, I told you I heard noises coming from his room," Peter explained as he stepped inside with Sirius and Remus.

"Locking charm?" Lily directed at James as she stood up. "Or I don't know, have you lot ever heard of knocking?"

"Sorry," James mumbled as he reached for the sheet and wrapped it around his waist. "I was distracted with other things."

"I think we all know what that was," Sirius quipped.

"Now, Padfoot, that's no way to talk about my wife."

Lily smiled and pulled James closer so she was just inches away. "That's a yes," she said as she kissed him. "I just have one condition…"

"What's that?"

"That we elope. We get married today."

"Bloody brilliant," James responded. "Less time for you to change your mind."

"I'm not changing my mind, James," Lily reassured him as she cupped his face in her hands. "Right now, the one sure thing that I know about my future is that I want...I need you in it. If we're going to fight in a war, I'm going to do it with my husband by my side. I refuse to look back one day and wish we had more time together."

"Is that a yes?" she asked when he pulled away.

"Yes. Let's go get married."

Peter, Sirius, and Remus stood fixed in the doorway looking from a very naked James, save the conveniently placed sheet to a nearly naked Lily who was suddenly very grateful for the size difference between her and James as it meant his t-shirt hit around her knees.

"You didn't tell them?" Lily asked James as she watched the shock register on their faces.

"No, I didn't tell them! What did you expect me to do, send an owl in the middle of our vows? Did you tell your lot?"

"Well, no, but I was a little busy with -"

"Isn't that kind of the point of an elopement?" James cut her off. "No one knows about it?"

"I think people can know about it! I just didn't know you had the ability to keep something from those three."

They continued to talk over and around each other until Remus finally broke the silence of his party. "Did he confund you?" he asked Lily. "The only way possible, right?"

"I don't think so," Lily admitted. "It was a pretty mutual agreement."

"James Potter married Lily Evans! Someone call the Daily Prophet!" Sirius whooped as he crossed the room to shake James' hand.

"Champagne all around!" Remus agreed.

"Do we need champagne?" James asked Lily, feeling jovial at the excitement of his friends and forgetting their very compromised position and state of near undress.

"I think we do," Lily smiled as James pulled her into his arms. "But first, we both need to put pants back on."

"But life is so freeing without them," James pouted.

"Pants. On. Now."

James let his forehead rest against hers for a moment, and for just a brief moment, they forgot the noise and commotion of the Marauders in the background as he kissed her gently. "Whatever you say, Potter."

Okay, so I lied. This was clearly not a Ginny/Harry chapter. Those are still sitting in my Google Drive and are next on my list. I'm slowly remembering how much of writing is staring at a blinking cursor, but I'm trying to flex my writing muscles and force myself to at least look at the blank page daily. I'm getting there again hopefully. As always, thank you for reading and double thank you to those who have followed, favorited, or reviewed. Feel free to suggest pairings or prompts and you just might see those Harry/Ginny chapters pushed off again.