Lily woke up to April shaking her awake the next morning. She still felt her body humming from the night before. As she remembered she smiled and she opened her eyes.
"What are you grinning about?" April asked with a smile. She sat down over Lily's legs and looked at Lily curiously.
"Nothing." Lily said. Lily Potter, it has a nice ring to it. Lily thought as she got up and made sure her ring was still on her finger.
"I have a question for you." April said.
"Is it homework because I really don't want to do any work now." Lily said. April looked at Lily shocked,
"You don't want to do homework?" April asked pretending to be shocked. Lily hit her playfully and tried to tug her legs from under April but it didn't work. "Ok, the question I want to ask you is. Why the fuck is there a ring on your wedding finger?" Lily looked at her hand and grinned. She twisted the ring fondly and smiled.
"I'm never going to be single again." Lily said. April's grin broadened.
"Elaborate on that please." April said.
"James and I are getting married!" Lily screamed happily. April gave an excited scream and hugged Lily, knocking her back.
"What are you all screaming about?" complained their roommate, Jessica Lowe. "It's really early." She emerged from her bed.
"Let me see the ring properly." April said. Lily held up her hand and April took it and inspected the ring. "Oh shit, I saw a ring like this in Diagon Alley. It was like the same price as my house." Jessica pulled back Lily's hangings.
"What are you two-" Jessica saw the ring on Lily's finger, "Who gave that to you?" she asked, her eyes wide.
"James." Lily said with a smile. Lily and April had never really gotten along with their other two room mates and Jessica had been colder to Lily since she had started seeing James. Jessica frowned.
"Is it on the right finger?" she asked.
"Of course it is. Now if you excuse me, I want to go and see my fiancé." Lily said. April got up and followed Lily as they both changed and went to the common room. Leaving Jessica staring amazed.
"That sounds so right coming from you" April said. "Lily Potter it has a ring to it doesn't it?" Lily grinned and put her arm through April's
"That's what I was thinking earlier." Lily said. April took Lily's hand again and stared at the ring.
"You are the luckiest girl on earth. Jenny would be proud." April said. Lily grinned.
"I know. I think I have a guardian angel up there somewhere." Lily said staring at the ceiling.
"What's a guardian angel?" April asked.
"It's a muggle thing. Someone who's dead who watches over you ad helps take care of you." Lily said. April nodded.
"Muggles have really weird ideas don't they?" April said. Lily shook her head nonchalantly and looked around the common room for James. She saw Remus and Peter sitting at a table doing their homework. Lily and April walked over to them and April sat on the table.
"Hey Remus." April said flirtily. Remus looked up slightly bemused.
"Hi April." He said. Lily smiled at the ridiculousness.
"So, you still single?" April asked. She felt a bit weird and Sirius wouldn't care if she flirted with Remus.
"I'm afraid so my dearest April." Remus said.
"Now why would anyone not want to date a strong man like you." April said pouting slightly. Remus laughed slightly.
"When I find out I'll tell you." Remus said.
"Do you know where our beloved Sirius and darling James are?" April asked touching Remus' hand.
"They've got quidditch practice." Remus said. "Congratulations Lily." Lily, who had only half been listening to their conversation smiled.
"Thanks." Lily said. She felt slightly disappointed that James wasn't here.
"James told me to tell you that he'll be back as soon as he can and he wanted me to kiss you for him but I'm not sure you'd be happy with that." Remus said smirking, "Though I have to admit I wouldn't mind kissing you." Lily looked at Remus pretending to be shocked.
"My my, Remus. Trying to get your best friends fiancé to cheat on him already?" Lily asked. Remus smiled and went back to his work.
"What's the best way of banishing trolls?" Peter asked as he flicked through his Magical beasts and where to find them text book.
"Run as fast as you humanly can?" April said.
"No," Lily said "You just have to-" Lily's sentence faded away as the Gryffindor Quidditch team came in looking quite depressed, except James, as usual. James spotted Lily and made a beeline for her.
"I wondered when you were going to wake up." James said giving Lily a kiss. Lily grinned and touched his face.
"I love it when you smile." James said.
"I just love you." Lily said. Remus and April both rolled their eyes as Lily and James kissed again.
* * * *
Lily waited outside the Potions dungeon with April. Other students who took potions were all crowded around the door. Lily played with her ring anxiously as April went on about something that Sirius had said. Lily had noticed that several people were giving her some really evil looks. It was mostly girls, Lily felt that the news that she was engaged had travelled a bit too fast and now several girls were pining over never being able to get with James again.
"Girlies" came Sirius' voice from down the corridor. April shut up and turned to look. Lily turned as well and saw the Marauders walking towards them. James had his hand in a bandage and was swinging his injured hand around him. Lily frowned slightly. James grinned when he saw Lily and when he got to her he gave her a kiss.
"What happened to your hand?" Lily asked.
"Oh, it got chomped by a Chimera" James said. Lily frowned even more. "Don't worry, it'll be better by dinner." Lily gave James a sceptical look. He was about to kiss her again when Professor Grout walked down the corridor.
"Could we please leave the intimacy to the common room please." He said as he walked into the Potions classroom. Lily and James broke apart and a few Slytherins sniggered. Everyone went into the classroom and sat down.
"I'm afraid that I will be covering your lessons while the head master tries to find a replacement." Grout said. "Of course, I will be making you work a lot harder then the late Professor Hamish but I assure you that I will not be too strict as this isn't my class."
"That's a relief." Sirius said, "but can he keep his word?"
"Five points from Gryffindor" Grout said. Lily and April turned to look at Sirius, who merely shrugged. "I have looked through the notes and class plans that Professor Hamish left and I will be following them closely. Today we will be revising Healing Draughts and for homework I will ask you to write an essay on the magical properties of the more unusual healing herbs." Grout said. "Please write full essay like answers to the questions on the board" Grout flicked his wand at the board and a list of questions appeared. "Please work in silence."
* * * *
Grout accompanied the class to the Great hall so that the students could have their lunch. Lily and James, as head students had to ensure that all the students ate something and didn't go sneaking off but, as April pointed out, James and Lily were the ones most likely to sneak off. Lily had hexed April for that comment and April had spent an hour in the hospital wing.
"When do you want the wedding?" James asked as he gave Lily a cup of pumpkin juice at dinner.
"I don't know," Lily said. "But it's bad luck to have a wedding within three months of getting engaged."
"There's no problem of that happening." April said. "There's about three months of school left."
"Can I be your maid of honour Lily?" Sirius said putting his hands together as if praying. April nearly choked on her drink and spat it back out into her cup. Lily did almost choke on the steak and kidney pie she was eating and James and Remus looked at him amused.
"Excuse me?" Lily asked. She was slightly red in the face and looked at Sirius incredulously.
"May I please be your maid of honour?" Sirius asked.
"Sorry, that position has already been taken." Lily said turning to April with a smile. April gave Sirius a smug smile.
"You are going to get some punishment later." Sirius said pointing at April. April flicked her eyebrows up and ate the food on the end of her fork.
"Looking forwards to it." April said. Sirius gave her a cheeky grin and slapped the table making Lily jump.
"Nothing scares this girl." Sirius said. April grinned and leaned across the table to kiss Sirius. When she came away Sirius seemed almost hypnotised. April kicked him under the table and he snapped out of it. James smiled and put an arm around Lily's shoulders. Lily looked at him happily and returned to eating.
"Well, there are a few things that scare me." April said.
"And what's that, Miss. Marsden?" Sirius asked her.
"That's for me to know." April said. "And you to find out." April teased. Lily laughed silently at that and April grinned.
"Lily?" came a soft voice behind them. Lily turned to see Lee Chang standing behind her.
"Lee." Lily said. She stood up and gave the girl a hug. "How are you doing?"
"Not as good as you." Lee said with a smile. "I heard about you and James. Congratulations." Lily smiled.
"Thanks." She said. "How did you find out so quickly?"
"Oh, everyone knows." Lee said. "half the Ravenclaw girls are actually really annoyed."
"So is every other girl in this school" April said getting up as well. She gave Lee a tight sisterly hug. "Ready for your OWLs?" April asked.
"They're two months away." Lee said.
"So?" April said. "I'm ready for the NEWTs"
"No you're not." Lily said.
"Ok, Lily's ready for the NEWTs. No doubt you're all ready. You are in Ravenclaw after all" April said. Lee smiled, pleased by the fact that April had so much faith in her.
"No, not really. The teachers are trying to get us to work harder but I'm not really working." Lee said modestly.
"It's not that difficult" Lily said. "Just concentrate on remembering everything."
"Great advice Lily." April said clapping. Lily rolled her eyes and gave Lee a smile.
"Thanks for coming over." Lily said. "Could you tell your parents? I think they'd like to know but I haven't got an owl."
"Oh, no problem." Lee said. "Congratulations again." Lee added before turning to go back to the Ravenclaw table.
"She's doing well I think" April said.
"Yeah." Lily replied. "Oh crap, two months till NEWTs" They were only a short distance away and it hit her suddenly.