You have been primly selected to attend the
lovely engagement party
of Mister Severus Snape and Miss Lily Evans.
You are cordially invited to attend the
gorgeous luncheon at noon.
On
a sunny Sunday in April, April 21st. Tea will be served promptly
afterwards,
And
from there you will receive the wedding invitation.
Both
events are being held in Napa, California, USA, at
Nicholas's
Vineyard,
A
particularly charming spot.
R.S.V.P
by February 14th and we hope to see you there!
"I heard the entire
student body was invited! The wedding is supposed to be in summer!" Rowena
squealed as she rushed to her class. James spun around to pick up one of the
many pieces of lacy-patterned embossed papers that were flying around the
school. After he speeded through the invitation, he clutched it to his heart
and ran back to the Common Room.
"So, what are you
doing over Easter holiday?" Lily asked Jackie casually as they walked to lunch.
Jackie looked at
her like she was from Venus. "Where else, silly? I'm not going to leave you
alone with him. It would be unfair. You know the only people who are
going to show up is your stepmother's society friends, Death-Eaters-in-training
or Hufflepuffs. I'm going to stay loyal to you."
The last comment
she had directed icily at Peter, who was afraid to go, losing his best friend.
He quivered next to them.
"Anyway, what do we
wear?" Jackie asked nicely, but her tone was soon turning to teasing. "Death
Eater masks and opera gloves?"
Sirius ran into the
Great Hall ahead of them and screamed his announcement.
"ANYBODY SEEN
JAMES? HE HASN'T BEEN SEEN SINCE TRANSFIGURATION!!!!!!!" Sirius demanded as
loudly as possible. A timid little first year Ravenclaw pointed out that he had
been close to the portrait of the fat blonde lady in pink.
"Ravenclaws!"
Sirius huffed as he headed to the Common Room. "Can't name the portraits but
can name just about anything else... 'I'm from Ravenclaw and you have
appendicitis and your common room entrance is.. Um, the fat blonde lady in
pink?' Idiots."
"What's with him?"
Lily asked Peter. Peter, mind you, is a horrible liar.
"Uh, um.. Er..
Yousee,
hismumwroteabitofalettertohimtellinghimhiseldest,andonlybrothergotmarriedsohe'salittleupset."
"Huh?" Jackie asked.
"Slower, please."
"You see,
his mum wrote
a bit of a letter
to him telling him his
eldest, and only
brother got married
so he's a
little upset." Peter said, very,
very slowly.
"What's the
problem with that?" Jackie asked, puzzled.
"Jackie, your
future in-laws include one brother-in-law, the eldest of ten children, and
EIGHT sisters-in-law. Now, Sirius had one refuge at home. His brother. Now he's
stuck with, 'Sirius, could you go get me a pack of Midol?'" Remus commented as
they sat down at the Gryffindor table. Remus served everyone a bit of
spaghetti.
"Whatever. My
in-laws are just major executives in the potions business..." Lily commented,
and then she slurped her noodles.
"How lady-like."
Remus muttered sarcastically.
"Thank you." Lily
said, taking a bit of a bow.
"Girls." Peter
muttered. "Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em."
"Boys." Jackie
muttered in turn. "Complain about PMS when they have something similar."
Remus and Lily laughed
at their grumpy friends.
The Gryffindor
locker room off the left side of the Quidditch field was a tense place at the
moment. Rafe was muttering wildly to himself about all sorts of different
things, consulting The Quidditch Captain's Handbook every five minutes.
Ronan was pacing around the back of the room, saying all sorts of weird things,
Munguldus and James were exchanging different strategies on broom-buying (how
to get the best ones at the best price), Arabella and Sirius were playing a bit
of one-on-one (which was quite dangerous, Sirius being a Beater), Jackie was
discussing the finer points of the latest Quidditch games with Remus, and Lily
was sitting alone in the corner, breezing through a magazine. James looked up a
bit, excused himself from his conversation (Munguldus went to go talk with
Jackie and Remus) and sat down behind Lily.
"Picking out a
china pattern?" He teased with an aching heart. Lily shook her head.
"I'm reading the
article, 'How to Knock Off Your Husband After He Wills Everything to You'. It's
one of Claire's magazines. Care to read it?"
James chuckled,
then pushed Lily downwards.
"What in bloody
hell was that for?" She shrieked, but she soon found out. The space that would
have been Lily and James's heads was being used as target practice for a
Bludger. Lily crawled to a safer spot, James close behind her.
"Isn't that a BIT
dangerous?" Lily yelled at Sirius. He shook his head with a wide grin. "Figures
that the big baboon would do this some day. Want to go outside, anyone?"
The last word came
as a bit of an after note, but several stood up. Munguldus, Jackie and Remus
for example. Rafe could be engrossed in his book and still catch a Bludger
without the least bit of pain, so he stayed. James followed Lily so he wouldn't
be killed by Sirius's stray Bludgers (Sirius had a mighty fine collection
started.)
"You really going
to go through with it?" He asked her as she finished off her homework in the
stands. (The one-on-one game turned into a two-on-two with Remus brushing up on
his commentating.)
"With what? Getting
away from Claire? Getting away from here? I don't know what you're talking
about, but it's between those two topics for me." She said, still scribbling on
her Charms homework.
"Can't you see you
have it better here?" He protested. She looked up, and appraised him.
"Better for whom?"
She said in a dangerously low voice. "I certainly am not having a great time
being told off by, what should I call you, an ex-fling?"
"You're popular
(grunt), pretty, (another grunt) smart, sophisticated, you've got a great
position, a promising future, and you've got the eye of every untaken (and a
few that are) guy here. Why throw it away for a guy you don't even like?" His
eyes blazed with compassion and she found herself dieing to look away. Her body
failed her.
Looking straight
into his eyes, she said in a small voice, "Excuse me, Mister Potter, I am
feeling quite ill."
As she got up to
leave, James just groaned and left in the other direction.
Lily determinedly
licked her lips as she wrote hard into a page on her diary, "James Potter still
loves me, even after all that I've put him through....."
