Disclaimer: I own nothing except Aurora and Christine.
With This Ring
"Aurora! My dear, I am so glad to see you. Now, the florist called and there was a problem with the table arrangements, so I'll need you to call them back and sort that out. Also, Please see if you can do something with James' hair. I love that boy dearly, but his hair must be calmed down for the pictures. Oh and dear, there seems to be something on the back of your dress. You'd better go find one of the other girls so they can scrub that out before the ceremony." Mrs. Evans said with a rush as Aurora got out of the taxi. There were muggles around; otherwise she would have just apparated to the church.
"Mrs. Evans, calm down. I will sort everything out and the wedding will be just perfect. That's what a bridesmaid is here for, remember? Now, direct me towards the groom and I'll get James' hair sorted out. Although, I can't promise anything, that hair has a mind of its own." Aurora told the frantic woman calmly.
"James and the other boys are down the hall, third door on the right. And please hurry, the ceremony starts in forty-five minutes!" With that, she hurried off. Probably to pester Lily or the minister. Lily's parents had insisted on a traditional church wedding. Aurora just hoped that the wizards and witches on James' side behaved themselves.
She opened the door Lily's mum had directed her to and came face to face with Sirius, James' Best Man and her boyfriend. He let out a low whistle at seeing her in her bridesmaid dress. Aurora just rolled her eyes at him.
"Not now, I'm here on official business." She muttered as she brushed past him and headed straight for James.
"Have you seen Lily yet?" James asked her anxiously.
"No, I was sent here as soon as I arrived so that I could fix your hair. Mrs. Evans seemed pretty worried about it not playing nice with the cameras." She told him as she whipped out a comb and hairspray from her purse. She quickly went to work taming his wild hair. When she finally finished, it was still a little crazy, but not as messy.
"I'm afraid that's the best I can do. Now, I'm off to fight with a florist over table arrangements. Wish me luck!" A chorus of "good luck" followed her out the door. She found the nearest telephone and pulled an address book out of her purse. She dialed the number of the florist and waited for them to pick up.
"Hello Flora's Flowers. How can I help you?" a cheerful voice said.
"Yes, I'm calling for the Potter- Evans wedding. I was told that there was a problem with the table arrangements."
"One moment please. Ah, yes, there is a problem. Your order calls for yellow chrysanthemums, but I'm afraid that we ran out just before we started to fill your order."
"Is there something that you can use as a substitute?" Aurora asked wearily.
"Well, yes, we can use a species of mums that will look just lovely."
"Okay that's fine. Now, let's talk about the price. You failed to get the order filled as we first discussed, so I think that you should give us a discount on the price. Say fifteen percent?"
"Oh, yes, of course miss. And I'm so sorry about the inconvenience."
"Thank you." Aurora hung up and walked out into the main church to find Mrs. Evans. It was a good thing that Aurora had handled the flowers instead of her because she probably would have forgot to get a discount. Inside the church, she didn't find Lily's mum, but she did find the Maid of Honor, Christine. She was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Her face broke into a relieved smile when she saw her.
"Auri, there you are! I've been looking for you all over the place!"
"Yeah, I can see that." Aurora commented wryly. "Come on, I still haven't seen Lily and I don't know where she is."
"Auri, there's something on your dress."
"I know, Mrs. Evans told me. I need you to get that off too." Aurora told her as they walked to wherever Lily was. Chris stopped at a door and knocked before pushing it open.
"Lily? It's us." Lily was sitting at a vanity, applying mascara. Her face broke into a wide smile at seeing them.
"Hi! Oh, Auri you have to calm me down! I'm so nervous! Chris tried, but she just made me worse, so I had to send her away and Mum wasn't much better."
"Sure thing. I'll calm you down while Chris gets the stain out of the back of my dress." Aurora said good-naturedly.
"What? There's a stain on your dress? I'd better take care of tha – " Lily was cut off by Aurora clamping a hand over her mouth and pushing her back into her seat.
"Sit. Do your make-up. And shut up. Chris can handle a little stain; she's just as qualified as you. Now, you need to calm down. Don't think about all of those people out there, or the million things that could go wrong. The only thing that you need to concentrate on is saying 'I do' at the right time. I just saw James. He looks great and is really anxious to see you. He loves you with all of his heart and you love him just as much. So just calm down, because everything will be perfect. Your two wonderful bridesmaids will nicely divert any problems that come your way. Understood?" Lily just smiled up at her in the mirror and nodded silently.
"The stain is gone." Chris announced.
"Excellent. Now I have to do my make-up." Aurora said, pulling a make-up bag out of her purse.
"What else do you have in that thing?" Chris asked curiously, eyeing the huge purse.
"Anything that you could possibly need to divert a wedding catastrophe." Aurora told her. Chris just shook her head and reached for one of the many lipsticks.
***
"With this ring, I thee wed." James slipped the golden band over Lily's finger. And then it was her turn.
"With this ring, I thee wed." Lily put the ring onto James' finger with tears shining in her eyes.
"I now pronounce you Husband and Wife. You may kiss the bride." The small church rang with applause as James kissed Lily. They turned towards their friends and relatives. "I present to you for the first time, Mr. and Mrs. James Potter." The minister announced. Christine glanced back at Aurora and they both burst into laughter. Tears of happiness were streaming down both of their faces.
***
"I hate weddings." Chris commented darkly. Aurora looked at her in surprise.
"Excuse me? You were fine ten minutes ago."
"Yeah, but that was before I remembered that I was going to have to do reception duty."
"Reception duty? What's that?" Aurora asked. She had never been a part of a wedding before.
"Well, basically, I have to go around talking to the guests and thanking them for coming and then there's the dancing." Christine made a disgusted face and Aurora laughed at her. "Well, that's what I had to do at my sister's wedding."
"I think you can probably get out of talking to everyone, but I'm afraid you're stuck with dancing. Don't worry about it, I've seen you dance before, you're not that bad." Aurora said trying to get her to cheer up.
"Gee thanks."
The reception was held in the banquet room of a hotel that was near the church. Once everyone got seated and James and Lily arrived, lunch was served. It had been a morning wedding, so it was still pretty early in the day. After those plates had been cleared, they cut the cake and it was time for the speeches. Sirius made a very humorous and embarrassing speech for James, but Christine, who didn't like speaking in front of a crowd, made a very short and sweet speech wishing them the best of luck in their marriage. Aurora thought that she saw Lily starting to cry. Then, there was the dreaded dancing. As soon as the first dances were over with, Auri dragged Chris out onto the dance floor. They joined up with Lily and the three women had a blast dancing to the muggle music. Eventually, they dragged James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter into their circle. All the older generation could do was shake their heads at the exuberant youths.
***
Three hours later, Aurora and Christine were sitting in a corner of the near-empty banquet room, complaining about their feet.
"I'm going home and soaking in the tub forever. I'm never leaving it." Aurora groaned.
"Won't the water get cold?" Chris asked jokingly.
"There are charms to keep that from happening."
"And food?"
"The Summoning Charm."
"What about Sirius?"
"He can come to me."
"Ah, but what about our shop?" Chris asked. The two ran a potion shop on Diagon Alley. Christine made all of the potions while Aurora took care of the business.
"I'm afraid that you'll just have to run it without me. We wouldn't want to get the ledger pages wet now would we?" Chris just rolled her eyes.
"Well, I had better go and find Remus. I'll meet you and Sirius at home okay?"
"Aren't we going to share a taxi?" Aurora asked.
"Well, you don't know this, but Sirius has something planned." Chris whispered conspiratorially.
"What is it?" Aurora asked eagerly.
"You know I won't tell you. Oh, here he comes. I'll see you later." Chris whisked off and noticed that Sirius was coming towards her with a mischievous glint in his eyes. Of course, he almost always looked like that, so it didn't really mean anything. He had undone his tie and the top two buttons on his shirt were undone. His hair was a little rumpled and he had discarded his jacket somewhere. Aurora couldn't help but think that he had never looked sexier.
"Hello gorgeous." He said giving her a kiss, but not sitting down.
"Are you ready to go home?" She asked.
"No, not yet. I had something else planned." He said mysteriously.
"Well, I hope it doesn't involve walking because my feet hurt too much for that. I'm never wearing high heels again." Sirius just shook his head at her. The next think she knew, she was being carried out of the hall and to the rear of the hotel. There was a small rose garden outside with stone benches. Sirius set her down on one underneath the shade of a tree and sat down next to her.
"There's something I want to give you." He pulled a small blue box out of his pocket and handed it to her. With wide eyes, she opened it and gasped.
"Sirius, it's beautiful – " He put a hand out to halt her words.
"A long time ago, I broke a promise to you. I told you after that I wouldn't make any more promises to you until I earned your trust again. I earned your trust back a long time ago, but I haven't made anymore promises. In that box is the promise to you that I love you and that I never want to be with anyone else. That you are what means most to me in the world. I want you to wear that ring. At least until I can replace it with a better one."
"This is an engagement ring?"
"No. It's not an engagement ring. With everything that's going on with Voldemort and his army of Death Eaters I don't think that it would be right for us to get married. I'm an auror and because of that, there's a big chance that when this ends, I won't be here. I don't want you to be a war bride or anything. This is a promise ring. You'll get that other ring after this is over." He looked more serious than she had ever seen him before. Aurora looked back at the object in her hands.
The ring twinkled up at her from its blue cushion. It was an eight-pointed star with a small sapphire set in the middle. It was made of white gold and sat on a thin band of the same metal. She took it out of the box, which she set aside, and looked back at Sirius.
"I hope you know that if you break this promise, I might just have to kill you." His face broke into a wide grin.
"I won't." He took the ring from her and slipped it onto her finger, then leaned in and kissed her.
"I am so glad to be back home! I hate going to weddings." Chris exclaimed as soon as she and Remus walked in their front door.
"Well I'll see to it that you never have to go to another wedding again." Remus told her comfortingly.
"Except for my own." Chris said. Remus froze at those words.
"What?"
"I said 'except for my own'. I'll have to be there if I ever plan on getting married."
"And you plan on getting married?"
"Well of course. Remus, what's wrong with you?" Christine asked. A hint of worry creeping into her voice.
"Well I'm just curious as to who your groom would be." He said a little heatedly.
"I haven't got the dress picked out if that's what you're worried about. And I was kinda hoping that you'd want the job." Chris replied, her temper wearing thin.
"Oh yeah, me get married. And what's next? Children?"
"You have a problem with that? Sure, we can live together and have sex, but the mention of marriage or kids and you run away. Well I'm sorry for ruining the prospect of your eternal bachelorhood." Christine shouted at him. She turned on her heel and walked out the door, slamming it behind her.
A little bit later, Auri and Sirius came home to find a depressed Remus sitting in the kitchen staring at nothing.
"Where's Christine?" Aurora asked him.
"I don't know, we had a row." Remus replied.
"You stay here, I'll go find Chris." She told Sirius.
She must have looked really strange to passersby as she walked down Diagon Alley. She was still wearing her flowing pale yellow dress, but had put on a comfortable pair of sneakers instead of the matching high heels. The afternoon had turned a bit chilly; so she had put a short red cloak on to keep her arms warm. And she was willing to bet that some of the flowers that she had put in her hair this morning were out of place and making her look even stranger.
Finally she came to a shop with a sign that read "Cavan & Nowell makers of potions for the betterment of your life." They had closed it down for the day, but Auri could see that the light was on in the backroom. She tried the door handle and found it unlocked. She went in and walked straight back to where Chris was. Chris was standing over a cauldron, stirring it and crying silently. Auri stood in the doorway watching her for a moment before going over and putting her arm around her friend.
"What was it about?" Aurora asked gently.
"I don't know what you're talking about. It's the bobotuber puss in this acne potion. The smell is getting to me." She lied, wiping away her tears.
"Bullshit. I've seen you make that a thousand times and you've never once cried. What was the fight about?" Auri persisted.
"He doesn't want to get married." Chris admitted.
"And you do?"
"Well, not right now, but eventually. I guess I just assumed that he felt the same way."
"Actually, Remus does seem like the type who would want to settle down. Did you ask him why he didn't?"
"No. He got really angry when I even mentioned it, then I got mad; I stormed out before we could talk about it."
"Well, if it's any consolation, he looked pretty upset when I saw him." Aurora offered.
"I guess it does a bit. But he acted like I should have known that he wouldn't want marriage."
"Well – Oh!"
"What?"
"This is just a thought, but I think it may be his monthly problem that is holding him back. Especially if he thinks that you want kids." Aurora told her. Chris snorted.
"Well, honestly. You don't see me not wanting to be married because I get PMS once a month. That's ridiculous."
"Right, so we're agreed; it's the werewolf thing." Aurora said with a grin. Christine sighed.
"Unfortunately, I think you're right. Why do I have to be in love with such a complete idiot?"
"You think you've got it bad? I'm the one who's in love with Sirius." Both girls started laughing at that.
***
"So what did you do?" Sirius asked as soon as Aurora left.
"Why do you assume it's my fault?" Remus asked, peeved.
"Because, it's always our fault. What happened Moony?"
"I told her that I didn't want to get married."
"And why don't you want to get married?"
"Oh, no particular reason. It's just that I grow extra fur and fangs once a month." Remus said sarcastically.
"Remus, you have got to stop letting that hold you back! You already sleep with the woman; what difference is marriage?" Sirius asked, mad at his friend's insecurities.
"The difference is children. If we get married, she'll want kids. What happens when they find out their father turns into a monster once a month?"
"Then I guess they'll be more open-minded than most people now won't they? Besides, how do you even know that Chris wants kids?"
"I hear her talk about how much she loves having her niece around. She says it makes her feel maternal."
"Look, there's nothing that you can do except talk to her about it. But don't let you relationship end because of this. I know you love her. And I know that you want everything she wants, you're just scared. All I can say to that is 'get over it'." Sirius told him. As if on cue, the two girls walked in. Aurora wasted no time in dragging him away from the action.
"So why are you so against marriage?" Chris asked him right away.
"I'm a werewolf."
"I'm aware of that. Now answer my question."
"I wouldn't want to put our children in danger. I wouldn't want them to find out what I become."
"So really, what you're saying is that you have a problem with children, but not marriage."
"I know that you want kids Chris."
"Yes, I do; eventually. But that's not what I'm asking. Do you have a problem with us eventually getting married if we didn't have children?"
"No." Remus admitted.
"Would you want children if it weren't for being a werewolf?"
"Yes."
"Okay, now let's say that we did have kids and from the beginning, we didn't hide it from them. They would grow up with the idea that you're not a monster, you just get a little hairier than normal once a month. What's wrong with that?" Chris rationalized.
"Nothing. I give in." Remus said with a small smile.
"Good. I knew you'd come to your senses eventually." Chris replied with a smile of her own. "Now, I'm hungry. Can you go tell Auri to come help with dinner?"
"Sure." He got up and planted a kiss on her lips. "I love you." He said before leaving to do as he was told.
"So has he proposed yet?" Aurora asked jokingly when she entered the kitchen.
"No, we're not ready for that. But now that we're on the topic, let me get a look at that ring." Aurora rolled her eyes and held out her hand.
"It's not an engagement ring, it's a promise ring. He said he doesn't want me to become a 'war bride', so we're waiting."
"Oh, Auri, it's beautiful! Is that silver?" Christine asked suspiciously.
"No, of course not! I would never wear silver. I would never be that rude to Remus. It's white gold." Auri replied. Werewolves couldn't touch silver. It was one of the few things that kill them.
"Well, start scrubbing those potatoes. I'm hungry." Christine said, artfully changing the subject. It had been a long day. Two of her good friends had been married, she had fought and made up with Remus, and now two more of her friends were heading down the path towards marriage. She was definitely sleeping in tomorrow.
A/N: Please review!