1 A/N: Legal jargon… anything that sounds familiar is cos it is… And we
must give credit where credit is due. Thank you JKR for providing us with
wonderful characters that inspire! So please, don't sue me! (
2
3 Chapter 1: A New Beginning
As Lily sat in the window looking outside, she could hardly believe that it was almost time for her to leave this place forever. Hogwarts had been her home for the past 7 years, and now her time there was to become simply a memory. She turned to look around her room, which she had shared with several other girls since her first night there. She fondly remembered late night gossip and makeover sessions, pillow fights, and Christmas mornings. How was she ever going to say goodbye to this place? It had become her only real home, since her parents had died three years earlier.
Lily looked over to her nightstand and saw the picture that Jemina, one of her roommates, had given her for Christmas that year. It wasn't an ordinary photograph though. Oh, no. It was a magical photo, in which the people moved. Lily smiled as she saw herself and her three best friends, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. They were all smiling and laughing, as James had just "perfected" a new curse. The only trouble was that Lily was too quick for him… she had anticipated his attack and shielded herself, causing the curse to ricochet and land on another friend of theirs, Peter Pettigrew.
"Urinium excretus!" James had yelled, causing Peter to lose total control of his bladder and wet himself. Needless to say, Peter had run off and everyone else had a good laugh, once Lily had finished pounding James with her fists for trying to hit her with that one.
Smiling to herself, Lily gazed fondly at the framed picture and noticed something she could have sworn wasn't there before. She got up from the windowsill and walked over to the nightstand to get a closer look. It was a small black box. "Where did you come from?" Lily wondered out loud. She reached out to it and picked it up cautiously, unsure of what she might find inside it. Something about the box though seemed very familiar to her, almost as though she had encountered it before. She ran her fingers over the outside of the box, feeling a bit of a flutter in her chest. Slowly, she opened it, and the first thing she saw was a beautiful diamond and emerald ring. Lily looked around to see if anyone else was awake yet, but they weren't. She then looked closer at the box, and noticed a small picture was fitted into the top half of it.
It was James Potter. It was James Potter kneeling down on one knee. And then she heard James Potter's voice, "Lily, I love you. I have always loved you, and I always will. I was a fool to ever let you go, and I refuse to ever make that mistake again. Lily Evans? Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
Lily gasped. Lily had dated James briefly in their forth year, but they had decided they were far too good friends to get carried away in a real romantic relationship. However, neither had particularly enjoyed seeing the other dating anyone else.
She then turned her attention back to the ring. She wasn't sure if this was for real, or simply another of James' pranks when she suddenly heard a voice come from behind her.
"Well?"
"James!" Lily felt her eyes fill with tears. "I – I – I don't know what to say. Are you serious?"
"I have never been more serious about anything in my life."
"But, why? Why now?"
"Because I didn't realize what I had until now." James looked into Lily's beautiful green eyes. They really put the emeralds to shame, he thought. "It isn't just the jealousy thing, if that's what you're thinking," he said flat out.
"No, James, I wasn't going to say that. It's just… sudden?" James gave her a look. Lily knew for a fact that it wasn't sudden. She had been dreaming of this moment for the past 3 years, even though they hadn't been together since then. Something told her though that James had felt the same way. And then she said it. "Yes," she whispered, barely loud enough for James to hear.
"Pardon?" James asked, with growing excitement.
"She said 'yes' you big git!" Jemina, Jem to her friends, shouted. "She said yes! Now go and kiss her already, would you? I want to get back to sleep."
Lily tried hard, but couldn't suppress a little giggle at this. James, however, took the opportunity to throw a pillow at Jem's four-poster bed.
"Hey! Watch it," she said.
"Well, I wasn't asking you," he replied indignantly. "I asked Lily."
"And she said 'yes,' as I merely pointed out to you. Now please, for the love of God and all things holy, LET ME SLEEP."
Lily laughed again before practically leaping over her bed and embracing James. "Yes! Yes! Of course!" she exclaimed, pausing only to give him a kiss on the lips. "Now come on, I don't want to wake anyone else up just yet."
Taking James' hand, she led him out of the 7th Years' dormitory and downstairs to the common room where Sirius, Remus and Peter were all waiting impatiently. Well, that's not entirely true. Sirius and Remus were the anxious ones. Peter however simply looked… well, nervous… almost as if he expected something bad to happen.
The moment they heard footsteps, the three jumped up. "Well?" Remus asked, just as Sirius said, "Did she say yes?" They looked at each other.
"Was there ever a doubt?" James replied, smiling. "I would like to introduce you both to my fiancé, Lily Evans, soon to be Lily Potter!" he proclaimed triumphantly.
For some reason, Sirius, Remus and Peter suddenly started laughing. "What is it?" James demanded. They were now collapsing from laughing so hard and pointing at him. James then turned around to see Lily standing holding one hand in front of her mouth to hide her giggles, and the other behind her back. "What did you do?!" James caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror on the wall. He couldn't believe it. He suddenly had giant muscles bulging from every part of his body, much like Popeye. "Lily!"
At this Lily couldn't stifle her laughs any longer. "Well, you didn't expect me to suddenly start being easy on you just because we're going to get married, did you?" James did not look amused. "Oh, calm down, James! It was only the musculaturatus gigantium curse. I just thought that your body might want to match your ego for once!" She winked at him, but he scowled. "Oh, fine. Normalarium musculataratus." He returned to normal size. "Honestly, you have no sense of humor any more!" James noticed that her eyes twinkled as she said this.
At this, Sirius couldn't help himself. "No sense of humor, indeed!" he chortled. "You're gonna have a hell of a time keeping this one in line, James."
"And I plan on enjoying every minute of it. Now come on, let's go get some breakfast. I'm starving." And with that, the 5 friends set off for the Great Hall.
When they got to the Great Hall they were surprised to find that they weren't the only ones awake. Remus even checked his watch to make sure that it was in fact 6:30 am. It seemed that nearly the entire school was there already, and everyone turned to look at them as they entered.
"What's going on?" Lily whispered to James.
"I have no idea…"
Then, in unison, everyone jumped to their feet, including the professors, Hagrid, and even the headmaster, Dumbledore! Well, everyone except the few people who had bothered to show up at the Slytherin table.
"Congratulations!" they all shouted. "It's about bloody time!" added one particularly feisty Gryffindor 5th year. "We knew you had it in you!" yelled a Ravenclaw girl to James.
"I knew this day would come," Professor Trelawney, the Devination professor, said, leaning over to Professor McGonagall.
"Oh hush!" McGonagall exclaimed. "You have been predicting Potter's death since his first day of classes."
Before another word could be spoken, Dumbledore stood up and raised his goblet. "To one of the finest couples Hogwarts has ever seen." Everyone cheered, despite the early hour. "To James & Lily!"
Startled though they were, neither James nor Lily could stop smiling. "How did they all know?" Lily asked.
"Um.. that would be me. My fault!" Jem appeared out of nowhere, with April and Virginia on either side of her. "When you two finally left this morning, I couldn't go back to sleep. So, I woke these two up and told them the news…"
"Well, we were dying to talk about it more," April continued, "but we didn't want to intrude on your moment. So, we--"
Virginia cut her off. "We grabbed our brooms and kinda flew out the window, stopping to chat in front of Hagrid's."
"He overheard us, and was so excited," Jem took over, "that he went right to Dumbledore! From there it was a matter of minutes before all of the paintings were talking…"
"And once they know a secret, the whole school does," Virginia concluded.
"Wow… did you guys take out an ad in the Daily Prophet as well, or are there still people left in the world who we can tell?" James asked.
"Who you can tell what, Potter?" snarled a voice behind him.
"Snape…" said James, suddenly perking up…
He then turned to Lily. "Please, Lily, please let me tell him," he pleaded. She smiled and nodded.
"Tell me what?"
Sirius and Remus started snickering in the background. Just then, something caught Snape's eye.
It was a slight glint of light. Snape slowly traced the light to its source: Lily's finger! A ring! "No…" he hissed.
"Oh yes," said James, gloatingly. "I asked Lily to marry me, and she said yes."
"N- No!" Snape stammered once again, unable to get any other words out. But then he suddenly found them and turned to Lily. "You told me there was nothing! Nothing between you and that, that… Potter!"
"What difference does that make to you, Severus? It's not as though I ever had any sort of arrangement with you," Lily exclaimed.
"And she never will," added James.
Just then, Lucius Malfoy stepped forward. "You keep that mudblood, Potter. She'll be your downfall. Just you wait." After glaring at James for a moment, he turned to Snape. "Come on, before you catch something…" he said, grabbing Snape's arm and pulling him to the Slytherin table where they sat down.
"If everyone would please sit down, I have two very important announcements to make," Dumbledore said. "First of all, as you all know, the end of another year is upon us, and it is time to say goodbye to one of the most outstanding 7th year classes Hogwarts has ever seen. I hope that everyone will attend tomorrow's graduation festivities, as I am sure you will all be pleasantly surprised at what we have in store. Secondly, tuck in!" No sooner were the words spoken when the food appeared on all of the tables.
"Weird… that was the first time Dumbledore ever made a speech before breakfast," commented Remus.
"I know! I wonder why today is so special…" Lily trailed off.
James looked at her in disbelief. "Um, hi? Remember me?"
"And you are…?" James' jaw dropped. "I'm only kidding. I just didn't realize that everyone would be so excited on our day."
"Your day? Do you not realize what today is? We only have another 48 hours before we're out of here! Forever! This is too cool!" Sirius appeared to be starting on another of his over-excited tangents. "Just another 48 hours until we don't have school any more! No more classes, no more grades, no more tests! NO MORE NOTES ABOUT NOT PRACTICING MAGIC DURING THE SUMMER!" Sirius suddenly realized that it wasn't only James, Lily, Remus and Peter staring at him… it seemed that the entire student body was doing it as well.
"You may step down from your soap box now, Mr. Black," Professor McGonagall said, staring him down.
"Sorry, Professor," he muttered, blushing as all of his friends started to laugh.
After breakfast, all of the students either returned to their house common rooms or else went outside to wander around the grounds. Much to Lily's surprise, this included James, who simply gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, a rushed "love ya!" and then ran off with his friends.
"What the hell?" Lily said, amazed.
"I have no idea…" answered Jem. "Come on though, let's go lie out by the lake and maybe actually get you some colour, you pale thing!" She laughed, and joined by the other girls, headed up to the dormitory to change.
The four girls spent a relaxing afternoon lying out on the shore of the lake reading magazines, talking and giggling. Everyone was simply awed by the beautiful ring and how the sun's rays caught it, just perfectly.
Out of nowhere then, a shadow crept across Lily's figure. It was a moment before she recognized her snowy owl, Scarlet. Scarlet dropped a note on Lily's lap and after nipping at her finger gently, flew off, back to the owlry.
"What's that?" Virginia asked.
"It's from James," Lily said dreamily. She then read out loud:
"My dearest fiancée, Meet me tonight outside of the main entrance at 10pm. It has been long enough since we had any time alone, and I can't stand to wait any longer. I'll see you then. Love, with all my heart, James."
"You are sooooo lucky, Lil!" exclaimed April.
"I wish Sirius was more like him," piped in Jem.
Lily giggled before saying "No you don't." And she winked at her.
"Well, we need to find you the perfect outfit to wear! Something sexy, but not scandalous... sleek..." Virginia trailed off.
"I have just the thing!" yelled Jem. And with that, the girls were off, rushing inside to get Lily ready for her big date.
The girls were too excited and anxious to even go downstairs for dinner, which while the boys did think it was rather odd, they didn't approach them about it. "Don't worry about us, Lily, we'll just get something from the house elves later," April assured her.
"Well, if you insist…" Lily agreed.
Lily felt as though she was getting ready for the 7th years' ball again. First came the facial scrub, then the mask. Once that was over and done with, April waxed Lily's eyebrows while Virginia set to work on her hair. For once, the pain of the waxing was ignored though, as Lily was too distracted by thoughts of James.
"He is the man I'm going to marry," she whispered to herself, "he is the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with…"
By 9:45 Lily was ready to go. She borrowed a muggle outfit from Jem, since she herself didn't have anything appropriate. It was a sleek black mid- thigh skirt with a small slit on either side. With this she wore an emerald green, off the shoulder, shirt. Completing the outfit was her pair of slightly platform black Mary Janes.
"You look perfect!" squealed Jem.
"Time to go! Wish me luck," Lily said, as she left the room.
"Good luck!" they yelled after her.
Lily made it out there to meet James with 5 minutes to spare. Her heart was pounding in her chest, she was so nervous and excited. This was going to be their first time really alone. They had spent time together before, but there was always someone else lurking around, or else it was in Hosgmeade, surrounded by other students and teachers. Just then a noise came from behind her.
"You made it," James said, calmly. He then took a good look at her in the moonlight, and could hardly believe what he saw. "You look incredible!"
"What, this old thing?" she said, flashing him her prize winning smile. She then noticed that James had not arrived empty handed. "What's all that?" she asked.
"Just a picnic blanket and some dinner, since you didn't make it down to eat earlier."
"You are too sweet…"
"Shall we?" James said, beaming with pride as he extended his arm to Lily.
"Thank you, kind sir," she said, accepting his arm. They then walked off, towards a secluded area just inside the Forbidden Forrest.
When they reached an area that seemed private enough, James spread out the blanket and started to set the food out. He even brought out candles for the extra romantic touch. Lily was beside herself with joy.
Well, maybe joy wasn't exactly the right word. Excitement. That's it, thought Lily to herself. She gazed at James lovingly in the moonlight. Before she realized what was happening, James had leaned across the picnic spread and started to kiss her. She had been kissed by James quite a few times before, but never with this fervor. She quickly dismissed any inhibitions and allowed herself to fall into the kiss.
It wasn't until James' hands started to roam from her back to her shoulders and then to her chest that Lily pulled back. "What are you doing?" she breathed.
"Just got into the moment, I guess. I suppose we could stop and go back, if you really want to," James said, rather meanly.
"No, it's not that… it's just… well, it's been a long time, and it seems kind of fast."
"Lily, we're engaged. It's ok," he insisted. And to that, she conceded, if somewhat reluctantly. With that, James kissed her again and picked up where he left off, not noticing that Lily was not completely comfortable with the situation.
Jem, April and Virginia were all sitting in the Gryffindor common room whispering and giggling about Lily and James. "What do you think they're doing now?" an anxious April asked.
"I don't know, but it's gotta be better than this," said Jem, looking around. Virginia responded by throwing a cushion at her. They all laughed.
"Could you believe how quickly he got that snitch?" Sirius exclaimed, his voice coming from the stairs to the boys' dormitory.
"I know! If only we could fly like that!" said Remus.
The boys came into view just then.
"Well, I don't know about you two, but I could definitely do it," said James proudly.
All three girls immediately looked up and screamed.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" they shouted in unison at James, who looked very surprised.
"Um… I live here? This is the house common room. Since when can't I be here?"
"But- what about Li-?" April started just as James asked "Where's Lily?"
"She's with you! Or she's supposed to be!" cried Jem.
"What are you talking about," James said, confused by the situation.
"She got your owl this afternoon saying to meet her out front, that you wanted some time alone!" April stated.
"What did you think we were getting her all ready for? A relaxing night of chess by the fire!?" declared Virginia.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" said Sirius. "Lily got an owl from James, which he has no recollection of ever sending, to meet him outside?" The girls nodded.
"I have to find her! She could be in real trouble!" James shouted, bolting out of the common room and through the portrait hole.
"You're running awfully late! She left over an hour ago!" the Fat Lady in the portrait yelled after him.
James raced out of the castle and started to look for Lily immediately. Unfortunately he couldn't find her, and it seemed as though he was yelling for her in vain. He was just about to head back inside to look for her when he heard a yell coming from the forbidden forest.
"Stop it!" It was Lily's voice! James rushed toward the forest as quickly as his legs would carry him, when he heard another voice yell, but this was from behind him.
"Mollusca deceleratus!" it said. Unfortunately, James knew what was coming with those words… his pace immediately slowed down to that of a snail! He was now furious. Barely able to move, he kept hearing Lily's voice screaming out for help. His eyes kept darting around searching for the source of the jinx, while he kept trying to inch his way closer to the edge of the forest to save Lily.
It was all Lily could do to keep the boy she thought was James in line. He kept trying to make more and more moves on her, sneaking his hands under her top, or kissing her with even more passion than before. He refused to stop, no matter what she said.
"James!" Lily said, gasping for air. "What are you doing? GET OFF!" Unfortunately, he was much stronger than her.
"You know you like it," he retorted, covering her mouth with his own to muffle her screams.
The real James was growing desperate. How was he ever going to make it to Lily?
James knew that he didn't have time to reach for his wand. By the time he would have it in his hand, whoever had jinxed him would be able to get there and grab it from him. What he needed was help. Luckily, at that moment, that's what he got.
"Look! He's over there!" shouted Sirius, running out of the castle with Remus. Even Peter was there, lagging behind as usual. "What happened?"
James couldn't explain. He heard himself talking a mile a minute, in his head, but because of the curse, he couldn't manage to move his lips nearly half that fast. Remus caught on immediately though. "We need the counter- curse! What is it?" Sirius and Remus pulled out their wands and tried everything they could think of. Nothing seemed to be helping. They then turned to Peter, who wasn't doing anything at all, other than looking around nervously.
"Peter, what is wrong with you? Come on, you've spent the last 5 months in the library, you have to have seen something like this!" Remus pleaded.
Just then they heard Lily's piercing shriek. "HELP!!!"
"We don't have any time to waste. Remus, you stay here and try to figure this out. I'll try to find Lily." Sirius immediately changed into Padfoot, a big black dog that he had illegally been becoming for the past 6 years, and ran toward the forest. James looked after him with rage in his eyes.
Just then Peter muttered something, barely audible. "Injudicious saunteranew."
"What?" asked Remus.
Peter then reluctantly pulled out his wand and aimed it at James. "Injudicious saunteranew," he said, louder.
Remus looked at him in disbelief as James immediately fell flat on his face. Regaining control of himself, James yelled "Come on, we have no time to lose!" He then changed into his animagi, a beautiful white stag, Prongs, and rushed to the forest.
What happened next, nobody expected. James found Sirius in the forest, and they each changed back to human form. "I think her screams are coming from over there, let's go!" James whispered. And they set off, wands in hand. As they got closer to Lily and the imposter James, the volume of Lily's screams and pleas got louder and clearer. Remus and Peter made it over to them, just in time to hear:
"James, get away! Stop, please stop!" Lily pleaded, tears now streaming down her face. She longed for her wand, but it was upstairs in her bedroom. "James, please… I don't understand why you're doing th- OH MY GOD!" Lily suddenly interrupted herself, as she realized what was going on. "SEVERUS!"
The body that just seconds before had looked exactly like James had suddenly started to transform back into its original form. Severus Snape now stood before Lily, holding her tightly in his grasp, preventing her from running away.
Seemingly from out of nowhere, there came three red flashes of light. James, Sirius and Remus had all performed the full body bind on Snape. Unfortunately, Snape was still holding on to Lily with clenched fists, so when he fell, he pulled her down with him.
James rushed to her aid, prying Snape's hands from Lily's arms. She just couldn't stop sobbing. "Oh, James, I'm so sorry… I didn't mean it to be like this… I should have known…"
Lifting her up into his arms, James tried his best to comfort Lily, assuring her that it was over and that she was safe now. "I'm never going to let anyone hurt you, Lily, I swear it on my life." James turned his head to Sirius, Remus and Peter, gesturing toward Snape's motionless body.
Sirius nodded. "We'll take care of him. You just get Lily back inside."
With Lily safe in his arms, James rushed her back towards the castle. She was steadily crying into the small of his neck, unsure of what was going on. James finally got them through the dimly lit corridors and to Gryffindor tower.
"Oh, you poor, poor dear!" the Fat Lady said. "I do hope that everything is alright."
Just then James said "pensata provocazione" and the portrait swung open, granting him access to the common room.
Lily's roommates were awaiting anxiously for their return, but once they saw her fragile state, and the warning look that James gave them, they decided not to ask any questions just yet. James whisked her past them and up the stairs to the boys' dormitory, where he gently set Lily down on his bed. "Are you alright?" he asked gently, sitting beside her. Lily simply nodded through her tears.
Her shirt was torn. James hadn't noticed that before. "I'll kill him… for this, he deserves no less…"
"No… you can't do that James," Lily said weakly.
"What? Why not? Lily, he pretended to be me, and then tried… tried to…" he sighed deeply. "I don't even want to think about what would have happened if we hadn't gotten there in time."
"You did though. Please, let's not think about it… we don't have to any more."
"You have to tell Dumbledore what happened though. If you don't I will. Snape has to pay for what he did."
Lily looked up at James, looking him right in the eyes. "We will… but please, not tonight. James, this was our last night here… tomorrow we graduate… why put everything at risk right now?" She pulled his arms around her. She felt safe here. She knew she always would. "Can I tell you something though?" she whispered. James nodded, and she took a deep breath. "I knew something was wrong when I first met you- I mean him out there. Something just didn't feel right. I mean, beyond the way he was acting. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew it wasn't you… does that make any sense?"
"I know exactly what you mean." He kissed her forehead and pulled his quilt up over her. "Try and get some rest. Tomorrow is a big day… bigger than I would have ever thought."
2
3 Chapter 1: A New Beginning
As Lily sat in the window looking outside, she could hardly believe that it was almost time for her to leave this place forever. Hogwarts had been her home for the past 7 years, and now her time there was to become simply a memory. She turned to look around her room, which she had shared with several other girls since her first night there. She fondly remembered late night gossip and makeover sessions, pillow fights, and Christmas mornings. How was she ever going to say goodbye to this place? It had become her only real home, since her parents had died three years earlier.
Lily looked over to her nightstand and saw the picture that Jemina, one of her roommates, had given her for Christmas that year. It wasn't an ordinary photograph though. Oh, no. It was a magical photo, in which the people moved. Lily smiled as she saw herself and her three best friends, James Potter, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. They were all smiling and laughing, as James had just "perfected" a new curse. The only trouble was that Lily was too quick for him… she had anticipated his attack and shielded herself, causing the curse to ricochet and land on another friend of theirs, Peter Pettigrew.
"Urinium excretus!" James had yelled, causing Peter to lose total control of his bladder and wet himself. Needless to say, Peter had run off and everyone else had a good laugh, once Lily had finished pounding James with her fists for trying to hit her with that one.
Smiling to herself, Lily gazed fondly at the framed picture and noticed something she could have sworn wasn't there before. She got up from the windowsill and walked over to the nightstand to get a closer look. It was a small black box. "Where did you come from?" Lily wondered out loud. She reached out to it and picked it up cautiously, unsure of what she might find inside it. Something about the box though seemed very familiar to her, almost as though she had encountered it before. She ran her fingers over the outside of the box, feeling a bit of a flutter in her chest. Slowly, she opened it, and the first thing she saw was a beautiful diamond and emerald ring. Lily looked around to see if anyone else was awake yet, but they weren't. She then looked closer at the box, and noticed a small picture was fitted into the top half of it.
It was James Potter. It was James Potter kneeling down on one knee. And then she heard James Potter's voice, "Lily, I love you. I have always loved you, and I always will. I was a fool to ever let you go, and I refuse to ever make that mistake again. Lily Evans? Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"
Lily gasped. Lily had dated James briefly in their forth year, but they had decided they were far too good friends to get carried away in a real romantic relationship. However, neither had particularly enjoyed seeing the other dating anyone else.
She then turned her attention back to the ring. She wasn't sure if this was for real, or simply another of James' pranks when she suddenly heard a voice come from behind her.
"Well?"
"James!" Lily felt her eyes fill with tears. "I – I – I don't know what to say. Are you serious?"
"I have never been more serious about anything in my life."
"But, why? Why now?"
"Because I didn't realize what I had until now." James looked into Lily's beautiful green eyes. They really put the emeralds to shame, he thought. "It isn't just the jealousy thing, if that's what you're thinking," he said flat out.
"No, James, I wasn't going to say that. It's just… sudden?" James gave her a look. Lily knew for a fact that it wasn't sudden. She had been dreaming of this moment for the past 3 years, even though they hadn't been together since then. Something told her though that James had felt the same way. And then she said it. "Yes," she whispered, barely loud enough for James to hear.
"Pardon?" James asked, with growing excitement.
"She said 'yes' you big git!" Jemina, Jem to her friends, shouted. "She said yes! Now go and kiss her already, would you? I want to get back to sleep."
Lily tried hard, but couldn't suppress a little giggle at this. James, however, took the opportunity to throw a pillow at Jem's four-poster bed.
"Hey! Watch it," she said.
"Well, I wasn't asking you," he replied indignantly. "I asked Lily."
"And she said 'yes,' as I merely pointed out to you. Now please, for the love of God and all things holy, LET ME SLEEP."
Lily laughed again before practically leaping over her bed and embracing James. "Yes! Yes! Of course!" she exclaimed, pausing only to give him a kiss on the lips. "Now come on, I don't want to wake anyone else up just yet."
Taking James' hand, she led him out of the 7th Years' dormitory and downstairs to the common room where Sirius, Remus and Peter were all waiting impatiently. Well, that's not entirely true. Sirius and Remus were the anxious ones. Peter however simply looked… well, nervous… almost as if he expected something bad to happen.
The moment they heard footsteps, the three jumped up. "Well?" Remus asked, just as Sirius said, "Did she say yes?" They looked at each other.
"Was there ever a doubt?" James replied, smiling. "I would like to introduce you both to my fiancé, Lily Evans, soon to be Lily Potter!" he proclaimed triumphantly.
For some reason, Sirius, Remus and Peter suddenly started laughing. "What is it?" James demanded. They were now collapsing from laughing so hard and pointing at him. James then turned around to see Lily standing holding one hand in front of her mouth to hide her giggles, and the other behind her back. "What did you do?!" James caught a glimpse of himself in a mirror on the wall. He couldn't believe it. He suddenly had giant muscles bulging from every part of his body, much like Popeye. "Lily!"
At this Lily couldn't stifle her laughs any longer. "Well, you didn't expect me to suddenly start being easy on you just because we're going to get married, did you?" James did not look amused. "Oh, calm down, James! It was only the musculaturatus gigantium curse. I just thought that your body might want to match your ego for once!" She winked at him, but he scowled. "Oh, fine. Normalarium musculataratus." He returned to normal size. "Honestly, you have no sense of humor any more!" James noticed that her eyes twinkled as she said this.
At this, Sirius couldn't help himself. "No sense of humor, indeed!" he chortled. "You're gonna have a hell of a time keeping this one in line, James."
"And I plan on enjoying every minute of it. Now come on, let's go get some breakfast. I'm starving." And with that, the 5 friends set off for the Great Hall.
When they got to the Great Hall they were surprised to find that they weren't the only ones awake. Remus even checked his watch to make sure that it was in fact 6:30 am. It seemed that nearly the entire school was there already, and everyone turned to look at them as they entered.
"What's going on?" Lily whispered to James.
"I have no idea…"
Then, in unison, everyone jumped to their feet, including the professors, Hagrid, and even the headmaster, Dumbledore! Well, everyone except the few people who had bothered to show up at the Slytherin table.
"Congratulations!" they all shouted. "It's about bloody time!" added one particularly feisty Gryffindor 5th year. "We knew you had it in you!" yelled a Ravenclaw girl to James.
"I knew this day would come," Professor Trelawney, the Devination professor, said, leaning over to Professor McGonagall.
"Oh hush!" McGonagall exclaimed. "You have been predicting Potter's death since his first day of classes."
Before another word could be spoken, Dumbledore stood up and raised his goblet. "To one of the finest couples Hogwarts has ever seen." Everyone cheered, despite the early hour. "To James & Lily!"
Startled though they were, neither James nor Lily could stop smiling. "How did they all know?" Lily asked.
"Um.. that would be me. My fault!" Jem appeared out of nowhere, with April and Virginia on either side of her. "When you two finally left this morning, I couldn't go back to sleep. So, I woke these two up and told them the news…"
"Well, we were dying to talk about it more," April continued, "but we didn't want to intrude on your moment. So, we--"
Virginia cut her off. "We grabbed our brooms and kinda flew out the window, stopping to chat in front of Hagrid's."
"He overheard us, and was so excited," Jem took over, "that he went right to Dumbledore! From there it was a matter of minutes before all of the paintings were talking…"
"And once they know a secret, the whole school does," Virginia concluded.
"Wow… did you guys take out an ad in the Daily Prophet as well, or are there still people left in the world who we can tell?" James asked.
"Who you can tell what, Potter?" snarled a voice behind him.
"Snape…" said James, suddenly perking up…
He then turned to Lily. "Please, Lily, please let me tell him," he pleaded. She smiled and nodded.
"Tell me what?"
Sirius and Remus started snickering in the background. Just then, something caught Snape's eye.
It was a slight glint of light. Snape slowly traced the light to its source: Lily's finger! A ring! "No…" he hissed.
"Oh yes," said James, gloatingly. "I asked Lily to marry me, and she said yes."
"N- No!" Snape stammered once again, unable to get any other words out. But then he suddenly found them and turned to Lily. "You told me there was nothing! Nothing between you and that, that… Potter!"
"What difference does that make to you, Severus? It's not as though I ever had any sort of arrangement with you," Lily exclaimed.
"And she never will," added James.
Just then, Lucius Malfoy stepped forward. "You keep that mudblood, Potter. She'll be your downfall. Just you wait." After glaring at James for a moment, he turned to Snape. "Come on, before you catch something…" he said, grabbing Snape's arm and pulling him to the Slytherin table where they sat down.
"If everyone would please sit down, I have two very important announcements to make," Dumbledore said. "First of all, as you all know, the end of another year is upon us, and it is time to say goodbye to one of the most outstanding 7th year classes Hogwarts has ever seen. I hope that everyone will attend tomorrow's graduation festivities, as I am sure you will all be pleasantly surprised at what we have in store. Secondly, tuck in!" No sooner were the words spoken when the food appeared on all of the tables.
"Weird… that was the first time Dumbledore ever made a speech before breakfast," commented Remus.
"I know! I wonder why today is so special…" Lily trailed off.
James looked at her in disbelief. "Um, hi? Remember me?"
"And you are…?" James' jaw dropped. "I'm only kidding. I just didn't realize that everyone would be so excited on our day."
"Your day? Do you not realize what today is? We only have another 48 hours before we're out of here! Forever! This is too cool!" Sirius appeared to be starting on another of his over-excited tangents. "Just another 48 hours until we don't have school any more! No more classes, no more grades, no more tests! NO MORE NOTES ABOUT NOT PRACTICING MAGIC DURING THE SUMMER!" Sirius suddenly realized that it wasn't only James, Lily, Remus and Peter staring at him… it seemed that the entire student body was doing it as well.
"You may step down from your soap box now, Mr. Black," Professor McGonagall said, staring him down.
"Sorry, Professor," he muttered, blushing as all of his friends started to laugh.
After breakfast, all of the students either returned to their house common rooms or else went outside to wander around the grounds. Much to Lily's surprise, this included James, who simply gave her a quick kiss on the cheek, a rushed "love ya!" and then ran off with his friends.
"What the hell?" Lily said, amazed.
"I have no idea…" answered Jem. "Come on though, let's go lie out by the lake and maybe actually get you some colour, you pale thing!" She laughed, and joined by the other girls, headed up to the dormitory to change.
The four girls spent a relaxing afternoon lying out on the shore of the lake reading magazines, talking and giggling. Everyone was simply awed by the beautiful ring and how the sun's rays caught it, just perfectly.
Out of nowhere then, a shadow crept across Lily's figure. It was a moment before she recognized her snowy owl, Scarlet. Scarlet dropped a note on Lily's lap and after nipping at her finger gently, flew off, back to the owlry.
"What's that?" Virginia asked.
"It's from James," Lily said dreamily. She then read out loud:
"My dearest fiancée, Meet me tonight outside of the main entrance at 10pm. It has been long enough since we had any time alone, and I can't stand to wait any longer. I'll see you then. Love, with all my heart, James."
"You are sooooo lucky, Lil!" exclaimed April.
"I wish Sirius was more like him," piped in Jem.
Lily giggled before saying "No you don't." And she winked at her.
"Well, we need to find you the perfect outfit to wear! Something sexy, but not scandalous... sleek..." Virginia trailed off.
"I have just the thing!" yelled Jem. And with that, the girls were off, rushing inside to get Lily ready for her big date.
The girls were too excited and anxious to even go downstairs for dinner, which while the boys did think it was rather odd, they didn't approach them about it. "Don't worry about us, Lily, we'll just get something from the house elves later," April assured her.
"Well, if you insist…" Lily agreed.
Lily felt as though she was getting ready for the 7th years' ball again. First came the facial scrub, then the mask. Once that was over and done with, April waxed Lily's eyebrows while Virginia set to work on her hair. For once, the pain of the waxing was ignored though, as Lily was too distracted by thoughts of James.
"He is the man I'm going to marry," she whispered to herself, "he is the man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with…"
By 9:45 Lily was ready to go. She borrowed a muggle outfit from Jem, since she herself didn't have anything appropriate. It was a sleek black mid- thigh skirt with a small slit on either side. With this she wore an emerald green, off the shoulder, shirt. Completing the outfit was her pair of slightly platform black Mary Janes.
"You look perfect!" squealed Jem.
"Time to go! Wish me luck," Lily said, as she left the room.
"Good luck!" they yelled after her.
Lily made it out there to meet James with 5 minutes to spare. Her heart was pounding in her chest, she was so nervous and excited. This was going to be their first time really alone. They had spent time together before, but there was always someone else lurking around, or else it was in Hosgmeade, surrounded by other students and teachers. Just then a noise came from behind her.
"You made it," James said, calmly. He then took a good look at her in the moonlight, and could hardly believe what he saw. "You look incredible!"
"What, this old thing?" she said, flashing him her prize winning smile. She then noticed that James had not arrived empty handed. "What's all that?" she asked.
"Just a picnic blanket and some dinner, since you didn't make it down to eat earlier."
"You are too sweet…"
"Shall we?" James said, beaming with pride as he extended his arm to Lily.
"Thank you, kind sir," she said, accepting his arm. They then walked off, towards a secluded area just inside the Forbidden Forrest.
When they reached an area that seemed private enough, James spread out the blanket and started to set the food out. He even brought out candles for the extra romantic touch. Lily was beside herself with joy.
Well, maybe joy wasn't exactly the right word. Excitement. That's it, thought Lily to herself. She gazed at James lovingly in the moonlight. Before she realized what was happening, James had leaned across the picnic spread and started to kiss her. She had been kissed by James quite a few times before, but never with this fervor. She quickly dismissed any inhibitions and allowed herself to fall into the kiss.
It wasn't until James' hands started to roam from her back to her shoulders and then to her chest that Lily pulled back. "What are you doing?" she breathed.
"Just got into the moment, I guess. I suppose we could stop and go back, if you really want to," James said, rather meanly.
"No, it's not that… it's just… well, it's been a long time, and it seems kind of fast."
"Lily, we're engaged. It's ok," he insisted. And to that, she conceded, if somewhat reluctantly. With that, James kissed her again and picked up where he left off, not noticing that Lily was not completely comfortable with the situation.
Jem, April and Virginia were all sitting in the Gryffindor common room whispering and giggling about Lily and James. "What do you think they're doing now?" an anxious April asked.
"I don't know, but it's gotta be better than this," said Jem, looking around. Virginia responded by throwing a cushion at her. They all laughed.
"Could you believe how quickly he got that snitch?" Sirius exclaimed, his voice coming from the stairs to the boys' dormitory.
"I know! If only we could fly like that!" said Remus.
The boys came into view just then.
"Well, I don't know about you two, but I could definitely do it," said James proudly.
All three girls immediately looked up and screamed.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" they shouted in unison at James, who looked very surprised.
"Um… I live here? This is the house common room. Since when can't I be here?"
"But- what about Li-?" April started just as James asked "Where's Lily?"
"She's with you! Or she's supposed to be!" cried Jem.
"What are you talking about," James said, confused by the situation.
"She got your owl this afternoon saying to meet her out front, that you wanted some time alone!" April stated.
"What did you think we were getting her all ready for? A relaxing night of chess by the fire!?" declared Virginia.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" said Sirius. "Lily got an owl from James, which he has no recollection of ever sending, to meet him outside?" The girls nodded.
"I have to find her! She could be in real trouble!" James shouted, bolting out of the common room and through the portrait hole.
"You're running awfully late! She left over an hour ago!" the Fat Lady in the portrait yelled after him.
James raced out of the castle and started to look for Lily immediately. Unfortunately he couldn't find her, and it seemed as though he was yelling for her in vain. He was just about to head back inside to look for her when he heard a yell coming from the forbidden forest.
"Stop it!" It was Lily's voice! James rushed toward the forest as quickly as his legs would carry him, when he heard another voice yell, but this was from behind him.
"Mollusca deceleratus!" it said. Unfortunately, James knew what was coming with those words… his pace immediately slowed down to that of a snail! He was now furious. Barely able to move, he kept hearing Lily's voice screaming out for help. His eyes kept darting around searching for the source of the jinx, while he kept trying to inch his way closer to the edge of the forest to save Lily.
It was all Lily could do to keep the boy she thought was James in line. He kept trying to make more and more moves on her, sneaking his hands under her top, or kissing her with even more passion than before. He refused to stop, no matter what she said.
"James!" Lily said, gasping for air. "What are you doing? GET OFF!" Unfortunately, he was much stronger than her.
"You know you like it," he retorted, covering her mouth with his own to muffle her screams.
The real James was growing desperate. How was he ever going to make it to Lily?
James knew that he didn't have time to reach for his wand. By the time he would have it in his hand, whoever had jinxed him would be able to get there and grab it from him. What he needed was help. Luckily, at that moment, that's what he got.
"Look! He's over there!" shouted Sirius, running out of the castle with Remus. Even Peter was there, lagging behind as usual. "What happened?"
James couldn't explain. He heard himself talking a mile a minute, in his head, but because of the curse, he couldn't manage to move his lips nearly half that fast. Remus caught on immediately though. "We need the counter- curse! What is it?" Sirius and Remus pulled out their wands and tried everything they could think of. Nothing seemed to be helping. They then turned to Peter, who wasn't doing anything at all, other than looking around nervously.
"Peter, what is wrong with you? Come on, you've spent the last 5 months in the library, you have to have seen something like this!" Remus pleaded.
Just then they heard Lily's piercing shriek. "HELP!!!"
"We don't have any time to waste. Remus, you stay here and try to figure this out. I'll try to find Lily." Sirius immediately changed into Padfoot, a big black dog that he had illegally been becoming for the past 6 years, and ran toward the forest. James looked after him with rage in his eyes.
Just then Peter muttered something, barely audible. "Injudicious saunteranew."
"What?" asked Remus.
Peter then reluctantly pulled out his wand and aimed it at James. "Injudicious saunteranew," he said, louder.
Remus looked at him in disbelief as James immediately fell flat on his face. Regaining control of himself, James yelled "Come on, we have no time to lose!" He then changed into his animagi, a beautiful white stag, Prongs, and rushed to the forest.
What happened next, nobody expected. James found Sirius in the forest, and they each changed back to human form. "I think her screams are coming from over there, let's go!" James whispered. And they set off, wands in hand. As they got closer to Lily and the imposter James, the volume of Lily's screams and pleas got louder and clearer. Remus and Peter made it over to them, just in time to hear:
"James, get away! Stop, please stop!" Lily pleaded, tears now streaming down her face. She longed for her wand, but it was upstairs in her bedroom. "James, please… I don't understand why you're doing th- OH MY GOD!" Lily suddenly interrupted herself, as she realized what was going on. "SEVERUS!"
The body that just seconds before had looked exactly like James had suddenly started to transform back into its original form. Severus Snape now stood before Lily, holding her tightly in his grasp, preventing her from running away.
Seemingly from out of nowhere, there came three red flashes of light. James, Sirius and Remus had all performed the full body bind on Snape. Unfortunately, Snape was still holding on to Lily with clenched fists, so when he fell, he pulled her down with him.
James rushed to her aid, prying Snape's hands from Lily's arms. She just couldn't stop sobbing. "Oh, James, I'm so sorry… I didn't mean it to be like this… I should have known…"
Lifting her up into his arms, James tried his best to comfort Lily, assuring her that it was over and that she was safe now. "I'm never going to let anyone hurt you, Lily, I swear it on my life." James turned his head to Sirius, Remus and Peter, gesturing toward Snape's motionless body.
Sirius nodded. "We'll take care of him. You just get Lily back inside."
With Lily safe in his arms, James rushed her back towards the castle. She was steadily crying into the small of his neck, unsure of what was going on. James finally got them through the dimly lit corridors and to Gryffindor tower.
"Oh, you poor, poor dear!" the Fat Lady said. "I do hope that everything is alright."
Just then James said "pensata provocazione" and the portrait swung open, granting him access to the common room.
Lily's roommates were awaiting anxiously for their return, but once they saw her fragile state, and the warning look that James gave them, they decided not to ask any questions just yet. James whisked her past them and up the stairs to the boys' dormitory, where he gently set Lily down on his bed. "Are you alright?" he asked gently, sitting beside her. Lily simply nodded through her tears.
Her shirt was torn. James hadn't noticed that before. "I'll kill him… for this, he deserves no less…"
"No… you can't do that James," Lily said weakly.
"What? Why not? Lily, he pretended to be me, and then tried… tried to…" he sighed deeply. "I don't even want to think about what would have happened if we hadn't gotten there in time."
"You did though. Please, let's not think about it… we don't have to any more."
"You have to tell Dumbledore what happened though. If you don't I will. Snape has to pay for what he did."
Lily looked up at James, looking him right in the eyes. "We will… but please, not tonight. James, this was our last night here… tomorrow we graduate… why put everything at risk right now?" She pulled his arms around her. She felt safe here. She knew she always would. "Can I tell you something though?" she whispered. James nodded, and she took a deep breath. "I knew something was wrong when I first met you- I mean him out there. Something just didn't feel right. I mean, beyond the way he was acting. I couldn't put my finger on it, but I knew it wasn't you… does that make any sense?"
"I know exactly what you mean." He kissed her forehead and pulled his quilt up over her. "Try and get some rest. Tomorrow is a big day… bigger than I would have ever thought."