"The exchanging of rings, symbolizes the sacred bonds that exist between you," said Dumbledore, and I realised that this was my cue. I dug my hand into my pocket for the box. I brought it out and opened it, ready to pass the rings to James and Lily – my heart did a double-take when I saw that there was only one ring in the box.
"As the circle of these rings knows no end, so may the love declared here today…"
Remembering suddenly that I'd taken a ring out in the kitchen, I sighed with relief and put my hand back into my pocket.
"Never end and forever be renewed."
There was nothing there.
Crap.
Loving You – Chapter 4
"Rings, Sirius!" Remus hissed.
Crap, crap, crap!!!
Frantically I dug in my other pocket. Nothing.
CRAP!!!
Wait… something… a sweetie wrapper? I vaguely remembered munching a sugar mouse while the robes had been fitted. Doing a weird little pirouette, I tugged out the wrapper and flicked my wand gently at it. Presto, golden ring. Please don't let either of them look too closely at it.
Aware that the entire congregation was hiding sniggers and grins behind their hands, I handed the box, with two rings in it, to James. He raised his eyebrows at me for a brief second but was too caught up in the moment to wonder too seriously about what my wand was suddenly doing in my hand.
"Repeat after me," Dumbledore continued. And he spoke and James repeated the words.
"With this ring, I thee wed,
In love and truth
And with all my worldly goods
I thee indow."
James placed the fake ring on Lily's finger. Don't stare at it, don't look at it… don't de-transfigure it… that spell's going to wear off in about three hours…
Now it was Lily's turn, and she repeated the words loud and clear.
"With this ring, I thee wed,
In love and truth
And with all my worldly goods
I thee indow."
She put a ring on his finger. Dumbledore kept talking… almost a steady drone by now, and my heart was beating like a rubber drum.
"A blessing upon you from the British nation, and from the Wizarding world of all countries. Now you will feel no rain, for each will be shelter for the other. Now you will feel no cold for each will give warmth to the other. There is no more loneliness, for each will be companion to the other. You are two persons, but before you lies but one life. Go now to your dwelling place and enter into the days of your life together. In as much as James and Lily have this day consented together in holy wedlock and have given and pledged their troth each to the other, in the presence of this company, by virtue of the authority vested in me under the laws of the Ministry of Magic, I now pronounce you husband and wife."
The congregation let out a great sigh. James' shoulders slumped considerably.
"You may now kiss."
James lifted Lily's veil from her face. I was struck at once by how lucky he was. Now I'm not going to go into too much detail about the next part, because there might be children present, but it was a nice moment. For everyone except me, possibly. The haughty looking woman in the front row looked quite indifferent, and I was betting that wherever Snape was, he wasn't crying. But I'm pretty sure no one else in the room was feeling cold, icy terror.
This wasn't like me. If this had happened a couple of years ago, I would've shrugged it off and laughed about it later. But I knew Lily. If she found out the ring on her finger was in fact a glorified sugar mouse wrapper, I'd be out on my ear. Literally.
They applauded. James led Lily down the aisle.
"Well, that's over," Remus breathed as we followed them. For him, maybe."What was with the little twirl?"
Peter sniggered. I didn't think it was particularly funny.
When they reached the bottom of the aisle, James kissed Lily again. Quite a few of our old year mates stood up and whooped. Peter laughed and clapped, jumping up into the air and managing to hit his tall pointy hat on a candelabra. "FIRE!! Put it out, put it out!!"
Remus extinguished the fire with water from his wand, leaving Peter with half a hat.
The reception in the foyer was a pretty affair. Several small tables were being set up in the large hall at the back of the venue, and a long buffet table stretched all the way along one side. I knew this because I had to supervise the whole thing until Sarah told me to go away or she'd hex my clumsy hands off. Which was cheeky, but I was grateful for it.
After pouring myself a glass of wine, I mingled among the guests, trying to stay as far away from the happy couple as possible, just in case. A couple of old school mates engaged me in conversation and Lily's father took every available opportunity to ask me about James. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Peter scurrying around the snacks table trying to eat everything at once without attracting too much attention. Remus had drawn Sarah to one side once she'd emerged from the hall and they were talking with their heads together. Remus looked passionate – so no doubt they were talking about some book or another. Dumbledore was talking to a group of official looking wizards – no doubt people James had already met at the academy, or possibly old friends of the family.
While I was mingling, a woman came up beside me. She was the very attractive woman who'd been sitting in the front pew. "Hello," she said.
"Hi."
"You were best man, weren't you?"
"Sure," I said, flashing her my best smile, while trying to look over her shoulder for signs of Lily, or alternatively anyone who was very good at solving my sort of problems.
"You did very well."
"Thanks," I said, wondering what she meant. I'd twirled.
"So – how long have you known James?"
Ah, I thought. Yet another concerned Lily-relative.
"Ages," I told her. "Since we both started school together. He's great – Lily's really lucky. So is James, of course," I added, as though I'd only just thought it.
She laughed. "You're sweet," she said. It had been so long since someone had told me that that I started to feel that nothing normal was going to happen today. I was right. Besides, the last person who'd told me I was sweet had been my older cousin Andromeda. Most girls tended to think of me as a little more than swee –
"…isn't it?"
I jumped. "What? Sorry?"
"I said, it's Sirius Black, isn't it?"
"Oh," I said. "Yes – very pleased to meet you, Miss…?"
She laughed again. "Mrs," she corrected me. "Mrs Kate Evans."
"Sirius?"
I whipped round. Lily was standing there, looking furious in a calm, cold kind of way. "Oh, Hi, Mum."
"Lily, dear!" the woman exclaimed, embracing Lily in a firm hug and kissing her all over. "I can't believe it – my daughter, married!"
"Your other daughter is married too," Lily pointed out.
"Oh, I know – but Petunia is so… well, normal…" seeing that the conversation wasn't going quite as she might have liked, the woman backed off. Lily turned her wrath upon the nearest person to her. Guess who?
"Sirius Black! Were you flirting with my mother?"
I couldn't really answer that one due to the huge build up of flem that had collected in my throat while the woman I had in fact been flirting with kissed Lily all over her face. "Um..." I coughed very loudly. "No."
"You did know who she was, didn't you?" Lily asked. "We had dinner together, three weeks ago, remember?"
I didn't have the heart nor the gut to tell her that I'd been drunk for most of that exchange, and the only thing I could remember about it was that the carpet had been an interesting shade of fuchsia. "Yes," I said. "Of course."
Lily sighed, then smiled and threw her arms around me. "The food looks excellent," she said. "Thank you so much for this, Sirius."
I hugged her back, genuinely, but feeling a little embarrassed. "I really didn't do all that much," I reminded her. "House Elves usually know what they're doing."
"Not just the food," Lily sighed. "Being best man and everything… it means a lot to James."
"I wouldn't have seen anyone else do it," I told her, pushing a lock of red hair behind her now slightly rumpled veil.
"Oi!" said a voice from behind us. "Sirius, stop flirting with my wife!"
In exasperation I threw my hands up in the air. "I give up!" I exclaimed. "Why is it that I can't talk to a woman without someone thinking I'm flirting with them?"
"Oh, I don't know," said James, talking Lily's hand. "It possibly has to do with your decidedly disreputable reputation."
"Maybe you just shouldn't talk to women," said Flora Jenkins – a former girlfriend with a mouth like a bullfrog and ears like a fox. Metaphorically speaking, of course. She eavesdropped, she talked. Can't really remember the reason I ever went out with her…
"Thanks, Flora," I said dejectedly.
Lily laughed. "Oh cheer up, silly, and come sit down!" she called to me as James whisked her away to the head table. As she twirled, I saw a flash of gold on her finger and swallowed hard as the cold panic came flooding back. Cheer up, silly.
29th July 1996
"That's better," Harry interrupted. "I was starting to get used to the idea of my mum being some kind of evil tyrant."
"Only when Sirius was involved," Remus corrected him. "But you haven't heard the worst of it yet."
"Right – sorry!" Harry said quickly. "Keep talking!"
"It's past midnight," Sirius complained. "Are you sure you don't want to continue this story tomorrow?"
"Not a bloody chance," said Harry. "C'mon."
"Oh all right…"
1st December 1978
Eventually everyone got seated in the big hall. The food looked really good, if I do say so myself. And it tasted even better. "It's a shame you couldn't have our caterers, Lily dear," said Lily's mum. "But this is truly excellent."
"Thanks to Sirius and Sarah," said James with a wink in my direction.
"With a little help from Dwinkle and his crew," I grinned before realising - Dwinkle!! "Who… I should probably go check on!" I improvised, practically leaping out of my chair. Three seconds later, Dwinkle the house-elf found himself being thoroughly interrogated.
"A ring," I yelled at him. "A golden ring – somewhere in the kitchen! Do you understand what I am SAYING to you??"
"Yes sir! … No sir! … Please put Dwinkle down, sir!"
I gulped. "Right, sorry."
The house-elf straightened his tea-towel. "Dwinkle has seen nothing," he stated quite firmly. "No rings! Mr. Black should go and eat."
"Yeah…" I mumbled, letting him shove me through the door.
I was getting closer though.
James was slapping Peter on the back when I re-entered. He was choking on what appeared to be roast beef. I glanced around at the other tables and almost choked myself.
Petunia Dursley was chatting animatedly to one Snivellus Snape, who was pushing mashed potatoes around his plate with distaste while making no attempt to pretend he was listening. He wore a black silk shirt and Muggle trousers. The sight was so unusual that I very nearly tripped over my own feet, but somehow continued walking and sat back in my seat.
"Lily, didn't you say your sister was married?"
"Yes, why?"
"She and Snape seem pretty friendly. Or at least, she's friendly with him."
Lily's face scrunched up as my friends burst into laughter. "Oh, that's disgusting," she said. "My two least favourite people…"
"Wouldn't you say they deserved each other?" Remus managed to say through his snorts.
"True," said Lily, giggling. Finally giving up, I laughed as well. It felt nice that Lily didn't include me in her list of least favourite people. I picked up my fork again and continued to eat.
The conversation went on for about two hours as everyone filled and refilled their plates. By that time I'd almost forgotten about the ring. Peter had put aside his burnt hat and had managed to get gravy in his hair without any help from me, which was a first. James and Lily couldn't keep their eyes off each other. Sarah and another of Lily's school pals got thoroughly giggly on wine.
Remus and I talked about work, of all things – he was having a hell of a time trying to rise in the ranks of the Magical Research department due to his rather unique situation – his condition, for safety reasons, had to be on all of his public records, even his wizarding passport and Ministry ID. I listened sympathetically while trying not to talk too excitedly about my own career. I suggested that maybe he should try becoming a teacher, to which he replied, "And where would I teach, Mr. Know-It-All?"
"At a foreign wizarding school," I said immediately. "In France or America."
He made a face. "Why not?" I asked, spearing a potato. "Foreign girls adore British guys." I might not have sounded quite sincere with an entire potato in my mouth, but I at least saw my point. He shook his head.
"I can't wait till you get posted in Romania," he said. This was a particularly mean thing to say because he knows I'm draconigenaphobic and Romania is the dragon capital of the world.
"Funny," I told him.
"What was that?" James asked, finally getting around to tearing his eyes away from Lily's.
"LOOK!" Sarah suddenly exclaimed, and we all turned around. The monstrosity of a wedding cake was being wheeled through the kitchen doors. Lily gasped and covered her mouth with her hands, like girls do.
"Oh," she said. "Oh."
"Is that a good 'oh'?" I asked James.
He grinned at me. "Definitely a good 'oh'."
"Good."
The cake was wheeled in front of our table by ten House Elves while the entire assembly applauded, and one of them handed James a knife. He and Lily together used it to make a large slice in the bottom layer. The applause turned to rowdy yelling. To make a long story short, cake was passed around, cake was eaten.
Lily got that first slice. She avoided eating it for about half an hour until the table started cheering for her to at least take a bite. Smiling, she poked her fork at it – it fell in half, and lying in the middle… a golden ring, covered in crumbs.
Oh. Crap.
She picked it up, staring at it fixatedly. Then she looked at me. James was looking at me too. So was everyone else.
"Um… surprise?" I said, preparing for death.
29th July 1996
Harry was sitting on the edge of his seat. "What did she do?" he breathed.
Sirius laughed. "You'll never guess!"
Harry narrowed his eyes. "Tell me. Now."
1st December 1978
Lily's eyes shifted from me to James. But she wasn't glaring. There were tears in her eyes. Oh god. She's not angry, she's really, really upset. WORSE.
"James?" she whispered. "Did you do this?"
Before my speechless friend could answer, she continued, "Oh, James… this is so sweet…"
My mouth dropped open. She was PLEASED? With JAMES??? Unbelievable. They started kissing, but not before James shot me a suspicious look.
I slid down in the seat, relieved and also annoyed. Hours of panic and she didn't even yell at me.
I will never understand women.
29th July 1996
Harry's eyes lit up. "Wow," he said, putting his feet back on the carpet. Remus rolled his eyes from behind his book, which he hadn't been reading for about two hours.
"Tell me about it," said Sirius, grinning, even as Harry yawned.
"Bed, young man," Remus ordered. Harry made a face.
"Remus, I'm sixteen. Normal sixteen year old boys would yell at their guardians if they ordered them around."
"He's right," said Sirius. "I'm tired. Coming, Moony?"
"In a second," said Remus, watching Sirius and Harry exit the room, Harry still asking hurried questions about his parents.
Remus closed his book. Getting up slowly he went over to the window, where the drawn curtains were letting a strip of moonlight into the room. He pushed them open a little more, opened the window and leaned his elbows on the sill. Taking a deep breath of fresh night air, he though about the story they had told Harry. You'd be proud of him, he told the moon silently. If only you could see him now.
Remus closed his eyes, and with them he closed his mind to the past. He pulled the window shut and drew the curtains once more. As he started up the stairs he threw out one final thought.
Goodbye.
---------------
Don't bother looking for that particular phobia in the dictionary. It doesn't exist.
THE END!!!! Wish me luck, all.
Love
Laterose