Part 1 of 2
Saturday, 24 June
8:15 a.m.
"Breakfast."
Lily opened one eye and saw Charlotte standing over her, hands on her hips and a wide smile on her face. "Charlotte, it's too early for breakfast," she mumbled into her pillow.
"Actually, you're late getting up," Charlotte responded matter-of-factly. "And when is too early for breakfast?"
Lily sat up, yawning. "What time is it?"
"Quarter past eight. Emily's making muffins in your kitchen. You'd better get up to supervise before she makes something explode."
Lily rubbed her face and looked around the room confusedly. "Where's James?"
Charlotte raised her eyebrows. "At Sirius's. Remember? He spent the night. Now, come on. Muffins."
Lily paused. "Today…today is my wedding day."
Charlotte nodded slowly. "Yes. Yes, it is. That's why you need to get up and eat some muffins."
Lily glanced up at her. "Why the enthusiasm over the muffins?" She slid out of bed, pulling the covers up to meet her pillow and reaching for her dressing gown, which was hanging from the doorknob of the closet.
Charlotte shrugged. "Well, I just figured you needed some…happy. See, I read this article and it said carbs send endorphins to your brain and that makes you happy."
Lily pulled on her dressing gown and tossed Charlotte a grin over her shoulder. "Charlotte," she said, "today is my wedding day. I am not going to be short on the happy." She tied the sash and amended, "Unless someone does something to mess today up. Then I might need a muffin. You know what, maybe we should just keep a basket of muffins on hand, just in case."
"Duly noted." Charlotte followed Lily out of the bedroom and down the hall, towards the kitchen.
"Has anyone called yet?" Lily asked, motioning loosely to the fireplace as they passed it. "Everyone I know is supposed to be popping in and out, apparently."
"James's mother," Emily reported loudly from the kitchen, causing Lily and Charlotte to jump at the apparently disembodied voice. Lily had not realized she had been talking loud enough for Emily to hear her behind the closed kitchen door. She wondered, frowning a little, if she naturally talked that loud or if it was an unconscious mistake. "Just a few minutes ago. Wanted to know where her son was. Oh, and she also said to tell you that…that…" There was a pause. "Charlotte, do you remember what James's mother wanted to tell Lily?"
Lily pushed open the kitchen door to reveal Emily, dressed in a pair of red-and-white striped pajama pants and a blue satin camisole of Lily's that she had tried on the night before and evidently never taken off. "Hi!" she said brightly at the sight of her friend and her sister. "I've got key lime and coconut on the table"—she pointed with her wand at the plate of food—"and there's apple cinnamon on the counter there, and I'm making pumpkin with cranberry and walnut right now."
Lily paused and sat down at the kitchen table. "Em, is this a new thing of yours?" she asked. "Muffins? Or are you trying to make it so I won't fit into my wedding dress?"
Charlotte grabbed a key lime coconut muffin from the plate and tore off a little piece. "You can eat whatever you want today, actually," Charlotte told her, popping the bit of muffin into her mouth. "Go ahead. Indulge in the starch." She paused a little, chewing thoughtfully. "And if not, a nice Expanding Spell wouldn't hurt anyone."
"And to answer your question, Lily," Emily said, stirring her muffin batter with her wand, "this is not a new thing. This is a constant, ongoing thing."
"Oh?"
"Mm-hmm," Charlotte replied, breaking off another piece of muffin. "Emily's always had this weird thing about muffins. Used to make them by the hundreds at home."
"They're really a lot better if you don't do them the magic way," Emily said, finishing off the pumpkin with a quick baking charm, "but I figure there's going to be tons of people in this house today so I'd better make a lot, and if I make a lot, I have to do it the quick way." She Summoned a green plate and casually flicked her wand at each individual muffin, sending them flying over to the plate, where they arranged themselves in a nice little pyramid shape.
"Who all is coming by today, Lily?" Charlotte asked, still working on her muffin.
Lily reached in her gown pocket for her wand and Summoned an apple-cinnamon muffin and a butter knife. "Well," she replied thoughtfully, cutting the muffin in half vertically then horizontally, "I know my mother will be by around ten. Remus will be by in a bit to report my movements to James."
"Chocolate chip or blueberry next?" Emily cut in, flipping through a cookbook that she must have brought from home.
"Chocolate chip," Charlotte requested.
"Done."
"That horrid wedding planner of mine is supposed to come around noon to help me into my dress because God knows I can't dress myself. A few people from the—" Lily cut herself off, realizing that she had almost said 'the Order'—"from work," she corrected smoothly. "Basically, people just splitting their time between here and Sirius's."
"What about James's mother?" Emily asked from the counter, where she was sifting flour.
Lily glanced up at her. "What about her?"
"What time will she be arriving?"
"I wasn't aware she was," Lily replied.
Emily looked away from her bowl, grinning sheepishly. "That's what I was supposed to tell you. She said that she'd be coming by before she went over to Sirius's."
Lily smiled. "Then her, too."
"Should we be scared of her?" Charlotte inquired.
Lily shook her head. "She's a little intimidating at first, but she's really a nice lady," she assured her.
"She's not one of those mothers who calls girls harlots and tarts and things like that?"
"No."
"You're sure?"
"Charlotte," Lily said calmly. "I've met James's mother countless times and she has never once called me a harlot." She paused. "To my face, at least."
9:47 a.m.
"Who wants coffee?" Sirius called from the kitchen, where he was brewing some.
James, Peter, and Remus were all sitting around Sirius's coffee table, still in their sleep clothes, reading the Daily Prophet. "Depends," Remus replied. "Is this coffee…Irish?"
Sirius grinned. "If you want it to be."
James resignedly folded up the sports section and tossed it on the table. "I can't concentrate," he announced, frustrated. "My mind keeps wandering."
"And this is different from every day how?" Peter asked, turning his page.
James shrugged. "I'm nervous," he said. "I shouldn't be…but I am."
"Why shouldn't you be?" Sirius asked, blowing on his steaming coffee as he made his way back to the chair he had been occupying before deciding he wanted something to drink. "It's your wedding day, Prongs. You're going to be nervous. You may even wet yourself at the altar, which would be incredibly funny."
James paled a little. "Don't say that," he said, almost whining.
"You won't wet yourself," Remus assured him from behind the business section. He paused. "Probably."
"Easy for you to say," James snapped back. "You're not the one getting married."
Sirius saw his opportunity and jumped on it. "Speaking of Mr. Moony's love life," he sang.
Remus frowned behind his paper and concentrated on the picture of Phillip Roman, a famous apothecarian…was that the word? Anyway, he owned a chain of apothecaries and was in the paper because his business was named one of the twenty most profitable of the year on the annual Galleon magazinelist.
"Is your mystery girl going to be at the wedding?" Sirius was asking. "Moreover, will we get to meet her?"
Hestia was indeed going to be at the wedding; Sirius had begged for James to put her on the guest list. "It'll be easy," Sirius had said excitedly. "Girls get completely weepy at weddings, right? They hear the biological clock ticking, they drown their sorrows in champagne, I'm there to comfort her, she swoons into my arms—bam! We're honeymooning in Majorca within the year."
So it was going to be interesting to see how this was going to play out. If your definition of 'interesting' involved painful awkwardness and eviscerations with butter knives.
"No," Remus said evenly. "No, she will not be there."
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Peter eyeing him carefully as he chewed on a Peppermint Toad he had found under Sirius's couch. Peter still did not know who Remus's girlfriend actually was, or why all the secretiveness where she was concerned was necessary, but that didn't stop Remus from feeling incredibly guilty whenever Peter looked at him like that. Not that he really needed any help in that department, after Sirius's Girls-at-Weddings speech.
Remus had sorta been thinking that maybe Sirius was getting over Hestia. He hadn't mentioned her in a while, and had even been asked out last month. Of course, he hadn't said yes, but still. But after the Girls-at-Weddings speech, it became pretty clear that that had been wishful thinking.
Which left Remus exactly where he started.
Which completely and totally sucked.
Peter shivered. "Ooh," he said, wrinkling his nose. "I'll never get used to the hopping." He tossed the rest of the Toad onto the coffee table, rubbing his stomach and squinting in discomfort.
"On the plus side," Sirius smirked, "you now know exactly what Prongs is going through."
"And that's a plus?" Peter returned.
"Well, okay, maybe not," Sirius reasoned.
James shot him a glare.
Sirius pretended not to notice. "But you have minty fresh breath," he pointed out cheerfully.
Peter paused and held his hand up to his mouth and breathed, then sniffed. James and Remus watched this display with mixed expressions of amusement and disgust. "Yes, I do," Peter reported, removing his hand from his mouth and grinning at his friends.
"Ew," James mumbled listlessly.
Remus lowered his paper and glanced at the clock on the wall opposite them. "It's almost ten," he said. "We should get dressed."
"Okay," Sirius and Peter chorused. Neither of them made any sort of movement to get up. Peter picked up the abandoned Toad and broke it in half, popping a segment in his mouth and wincing as he swallowed. Sirius drank his coffee and pulled the sports section of the paper to himself.
"Damn," he said calmly, taking a small sip. "Arrows lost to the Bats, Prongs."
"I know," James replied. "I read that before you, remember? 650-200, wasn't it?"
"Yeah," Sirius told him. "Shame." He turned the page.
"I think it's a bad omen," James declared dramatically. "The Arrows lose to a pushover like the Bats, and by a lot…that's gotta signify something, right?"
Remus glanced at him, an eyebrow raised. "Hey, Prongs, they're closing the Hogsmeade chapter of Madam Malkin's, reckon that's an omen of some sort? Bad fashion choices for the rest of your life and so on?"
James rolled his eyes. "You can sneer at it, Moony," he snapped as Peter snickered, "but I happen to be a firm believer in omens."
"Okay," Remus responded, trying not to smile. "Seriously, though, Prongs, you'll be absolutely fine." He stood up, tossing his paper onto the coffee table and stretching a little. "I am going to go get dressed and then I'm going to go see Lily, okay?"
As Remus passed him, he clapped James on the shoulder. "You'll be fine," he said again. "Really."
"Think happy thoughts," Sirius added.
Remus nodded and headed down the hallway.
"Don't forget your cufflinks!" Sirius called obnoxiously, rousing snickers from the other two.
Remus could not help but wince.
10:04 a.m.
Lily's mother had been at the house for no less than five minutes and was already sobbing unrestrainedly into a cloth napkin.
"Mum," Lily wheedled, kneeling in front of her mother's chair. "Mum, it's all right!"
Mrs. Evans emitted a short, high-pitched wail.
"Have a muffin," Emily suggested.
"Do you really think baked goods are the answer, Em?" Charlotte replied with slight exasperation from the wall she was leaning against.
Emily tossed her hair. "Baked goods are always the answer, Char."
Charlotte wrinkled her nose. "Don't call me 'Char'."
"Why not?"
"Because it's lame."
Mrs. Evans wailed again.
Lily squinted her eyes shut. The whole situation was giving her a headache. "Okay," she said, rising from the floor. "Okay, let's everyone just…calm down, okay? Mum, would you like a Sedative Spell?"
Mrs. Evans shook her head slowly.
"You're all right?"
Lily's mother sucked in a large breath, held it, and exhaled, daubing at her eyes with the napkin. "I'll be all right, yes," she said finally.
"Good," Lily said. "Happy. Okay, Emily? Lay off the muffins, all right? I'm extremely glad—I'm thrilled, in point of fact—that you took it upon yourself to provide us all with sustenance, and they're great, but not everyone needs a muffin. Charlotte?"
Charlotte looked up from the floor, her face twisted in an expression of mild indignance. "I haven't done anything!"
Lily paused and realized that she was mostly right. "Well…don't antagonize your sister?"
Charlotte snorted. "Wow, you really need to have children. Immediately."
Lily blushed, but managed to retort, "I have one. His name is James and he's twenty-one."
There was a 'pop' sound, and all four women turned to see where it was coming from. Remus Lupin cautiously pushed the door to the kitchen open and smiled at them. "Hi," he said.
"Hello," Lily said pleasantly, hurrying to cross the room and give him a hug. "Remus, you remember Emily and Charlotte Castner." She motioned to Emily, sitting on the kitchen counter eating a banana nut muffin, and then to Charlotte, still leaning against the wall. Remus nodded and smiled a them. "And my mother?"
"Hello, Mrs. Evans," he said as politely as he possibly could.
"Mum, you remember Remus?" Lily asked. "He's one of James's best friends."
Mrs. Evans flashed him a watery smile. "Right," she recalled. "The smart one?"
That drew a laugh from Remus. "Hardly," he said dryly.
"Don't be modest, Remus," Lily smiled. "How's James?" she slipped in, trying to sound casual but only coming across anxious.
"He hasn't fled the country, if that's what you mean," Remus responded, hesitantly taking a seat at the kitchen table across from Mrs. Evans. He glanced around the room and paused. "What's with all the muffins?"
"I made them," Emily told him proudly.
Remus paused. "Are you preparing for mass genocide or something?" he asked curiously.
Emily tossed her hair, seemingly put-out by his lack of enthusiasm toward her efforts. "I don't see where muffins would come in handy with mass genocide," she replied tartly.
Remus shrugged. "Famine, then."
"There is no famine to speak of."
"Glad to hear it." He turned to Lily. "How are you doing?" he asked. "You all right? Do you need anything?"
Lily smiled slightly. "I'm fine."
"Are you sure?"
She nodded. "I'm fine," she repeated. "I feel like my stomach is going to come out my mouth, but other than that, I'm completely fine."
Remus grinned. "Same as James, then."
That drew a full-on smile. "Yes, well. I think some of the ladies from the—"—she really was very bad about the whole 'keeping-the-Order-a-secret' thing—"from work," she said the word 'work' extremely pointedly and she knew that Remus understood, "are coming by pretty soon. And James's mother, I think. Maybe. And…the wedding planner."
"Ladies from work, hmm?" Remus asked, looking and sounding sorta strained. "Like…who?"
Lily considered. "Well, I invited Emmeline Vance, but you know how busy she is…Alice Longbottom; I think she's bringing Frank, so you could talk to him…" She thought a bit more. "Oh! Your friend, the girl Sirius likes, Hestia? She said she might stop by."
A very strange expression crossed Remus's face. "Oh," he said. "That's—lovely."
11:39 a.m.
"Breathe into the bag, James, there's a good lad," Sirius coaxed, patting his friend on the back as he inhaled and exhaled exaggeratedly into a small paper bag. "All right, you going to be okay?"
James nodded slowly, the paper bag making a loud, crackling sort of noise as he breathed.
"All right." Sirius clapped James on the shoulder again and left him to his own devices. "Hour and a half 'till go time," he told Peter cheerfully.
"Reckon he'll lose it by then?" Peter asked conversationally, munching on a ginger biscuit from the tin James's mother had brought by an hour or so before. "These are really good, by the way," he added, holding up the container.
"I know, his mum is a great cook," Sirius replied, taking a biscuit from the proffered tin. "Anyway—"
He was cut off by James's small voice saying, "Sirius, I threw up in the bag."
"Blimey," Sirius muttered, abandoning the biscuit on back of the chair Peter was sitting in and heading back down the hallway to his bedroom, where he had left his best friend. "And that is going to be somebody's husband. I'm coming, Prongs."
As soon as Sirius's back was turned, Peter snatched the biscuit off the chair and popped it in his mouth.
"This is why I suggested the Sedative Spell," Sirius said to James, waving his wand and Vanishing the bag. "Sedative Spells prevent problems like this." He Summoned a cloth from his bedroom and handed it to his best friend, adding, "You've got sick just there", rubbing at the side of his mouth to show James where it was.
"I know," James grimaced. "I can taste it." He swiped at the corner of his mouth with the cloth.
Sirius's face contorted into a mixed expression of disgust and pity. "That's it," he muttered, raising his wand, "Sedative Spell for you."
"No!" James wailed. "Sedative Spells rob me of my personality!"
"Would you prefer to vomit on your girlfriend in front of every single person you've ever met?"
James considered this. "Fine," he said after a few moments.
After Sirius performed the spell, he said, "I can't believe you had to think about that."
James shrugged. "Every decision deserves some sort of consideration," he said.
"That's beautiful," Sirius said. "Did you make that up just now?"
James grinned proudly. "I did."
"It's beautiful."
"I thought so."
Sirius smiled back and sat down on his bed next to James. "Still nervous?"
James shrugged again. "A little. Spell's helped, though."
"Think you'll cry?"
James shook his head solemnly. "No. I am much too manly to show emotion."
They both chuckled a little at that and James asked, "What about you? You going to cry?"
"Nah." He glanced over. "I never liked you much, anyway."
"Ah, that's true."
Another pause. "Moony, on the other hand," Sirius said, "is going to be a mess."
James smiled and stared at his shoes. "Right."
"Yeah."
"Moony, of course."
Sirius stretched and looked around the room, as if he was looking for something. "Speaking of Moony," he said, still looking around like he expected Remus to pop out of the closet and yell 'boo!' at any second, "he's been gone for about an hour and a half now. That's an awfully long time to be surrounded by that much hairspray."
"Huh," James said idly. "I wonder where he is?"
11:42 a.m.
The answer to that question was in James and Lily's hall closet, up against a wall (again), snogging his girlfriend.
It was not a very conspicuous place to be participating in this activity, the closet, but it was the best one he had been able to think of when Hestia had cornered him in the empty hallway and started playing with his belt buckle while she spoke in a low, even voice about…well, tulle, but it was the way she had been talking about it.
And, after all, the closet was a much better place to snog his…secret girlfriend than the hallway.
"Mm—what—mm—what time is it?" Remus asked, pulling away for a moment.
"Unless you've got a clock hidden in your mouth somewhere, how am I supposed to know?" Hestia returned.
"We've been in here a long time."
"I know, it's lovely."
"Your idea of romance is snogging in my best friend's coat closet?"
She shrugged. "Could be worse." Even though it was dark, he could sense her smiling, and she hooked her finger under the belt loop of his pants and pulled him to her again, covering his mouth with hers and tangling her other hand in his hair.
They stayed like that for another minute or so before there was a gust of air and a strangled sort of shriek.
Remus removed his mouth from Hestia's and turned to see Lily, standing in front of them with one hand on the doorknob and the other clapped firmly over her mouth, shock written all over her face.
Hestia and Remus stared at Lily, Hestia's hands still at his pants and in his hair.
Lily stared back, eyes wide and hand frozen on her mouth.
"Er," Remus finally said, "I'm sure I can explain."
Lily continued to stare, but slowly lowered her hand from her mouth. "I—I don't need an explanation," Lily said, her voice trembling with surprise and sarcasm. "It's clear what happened. You, er, were playing hide and seek and she was hiding in the closet, and you went in to tag her and tripped over her shoelace and simply—er—fell on her mouth. Could've happened to anyone, really."
Hestia bit her lip and looked down at her shoes—which were noticeably devoid of laces.
"No," Remus said. "Hestia was just helping me with my, er…"
"Zipper?" Lily supplied swiftly.
This would be very, very funny if it was anyone else…
"Maybe I should go," Hestia whispered, meeting Remus's eyes.
He was extremely jealous of her ability to make a quick exit. "Yeah, okay," Remus muttered.
Hestia avoided Lily's eyes as she exited the closet and hastily Disapparated.
"Let's talk about this," Lily said softly.
Remus glanced around. "In the closet?"
"No, not in the closet," she responded sardonically. "There's no one in James's study, we can talk in there." She headed down the hallway and he followed, feeling very much like a little boy caught with a hand in the cookie jar, about to be lectured by his mother. Lily pushed the study door open and held it there for him. He muttered a thanks as he passed her, and she closed the door behind him. She turned to face him, her eyebrows raised curiously.
"How…?" she asked listlessly.
"I don't know," Remus responded truthfully.
Lily leaned against the door, her hand on the doorknob. "I don't suppose it would surprise you to hear that Sirius will explode?"
"It wouldn't surprise me," Remus agreed. He paused and asked tentatively, "You're not going to tell him, are you?"
She shrugged. "It's not my place to tell." She regarded him almost sadly and said quietly, "I'm happy that you found someone, Remus, but…you couldn't've picked someone else?"
Remus quirked an eyebrow. "No offense or anything, Lily, but you of all people should know that you can't pick who you fall for."
She allowed a reluctant sort of smile. "Yeah, I guess you're right. However—"
"That doesn't excuse it," he recited. "Yes, I know. Trust me, I've been so…" He trailed off, noticing how she was watching him with increased interest and blushing.
"Why didn't you just…tell him?" Lily suggested cautiously.
"Who, Sirius?" Remus said rhetorically. "Lily, I saw how he blew up at you for what you said at Christmas. Can you imagine how he'd take me telling him I was sleeping with her?"
"No matter how much he likes to pretend otherwise," she said quietly, "Sirius is fiercely loyal to the people he loves. He'll be angry at first but he'll come to terms with it. He'll stand by you."
"Yeah, like I did for him?" Lily opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off. "Listen, he cannot find out. I don't want to—to lose him, I guess, and if he found out, I would."
"I'm not going to tell him," Lily said shortly. "But if you don't want to face whatever consequences could come of this, why did you do it?"
Remus smiled mirthlessly. "Hestia's convincing," he said simply. "And I really wanted it. You know what that's like."
"Do I?"
"Mm-hmm. Didn't you tell me that you put off dating James for so long because he—"
"Was a prat," Lily filled in, nodding succinctly.
"Not only that, but because you were sure that nothing good could come of it?"
Lily paused, considering. "Yes, I suppose I did."
"But you did get together with him because you wanted it that much."
"And because he was never going to leave me alone until I did."
"Lily, be serious."
She fought off the smile that was threatening to spread over her face and said, "Yeah, okay. I got together with him because he's roguishly attractive and a very good kisser."
"And?" he prompted.
"And I wanted him. Oh, that makes me sound like a bit of a trollop, doesn't it?" she grinned.
"No," Remus replied dryly. "That makes you sound like a teenager, which you were."
"Remus, I practically still am a teenager," Lily pointed out. "And you're younger than I am. Don't act so tortured."
Just as he was about to respond, a girlish sort of voice rang throughout the house: "Miss Evans!"
"Oh, dear God," Lily winced. "That's the wedding planner. Escape while you can, or else she'll think I'm having some sort of sordid affair with you." She turned her head, as if yelling back directly to the door would make her easier heard. "I'm coming!"
Remus smiled and said, "Are you sure? We could mess with her. Stage an argument about how I won't let you marry James, not when you're my heart's breath, my reason for living—"
"No!" Lily said in abject horror. "She would believe you!"
He laughed.
"I'm serious! Go! Peter and Sirius and James are probably wondering where you are anyway." Dramatically placing a hand over her heart, she added, "Save yourself, Remus."
Still laughing, he Disapparated.
"Miss Evans, where are you hiding?" giggled Adeline, sounding closer.
Lily rubbed at her eyes and steeled herself. "I'm coming," she repeated.
A/N: ::hates this chapter:: It took so long and wasn't even that good, for which I apologize. The next chapter (which, if I have my way, is the last chapter) will be better and will include: the actual wedding, confrontations, speeches, and cake (clearly the most important part of all weddings). Votes as for what kind of cake are welcome. ;)
Also, check out the Deflating spin-off, Stalking Lily Evans. And review. Because both of those things would make me happy.
Apologies again for the lateness and suckiness of this chapter. Hopefully the next one will make up for it.
…I'm not making any promises, though. ;)