Author's Note: Okay, I lied. College applications are done and life is not any easier. I'm switching my statement to after AP tests. Please review! It makes my life so much happier!
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Will You, Miss Evans?
3: In which a letter is delivered too late
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James arrived in front of Lily breathless. He had Apparated as quickly as he could and he was still slightly nauseated from the sensation.
"Hi, James."
"I'm sorry for just barging in like this, I just had to ask you an important question," James explained as he felt himself grow bright red. He averted his eyes from Lily's.
"Alright."
James winced, but kept his eyes facing the ground. He figured it was easier for him to pretend to have not heard Lily's response while he waited for his owl to arrive.
"James?" Lily asked hesitantly.
At that moment James felt it safe to raise his eyes to the window. He had sent his owl off with the letter just moments before he Apparated to Lily's flat. He wanted to make sure that he was there when his owl arrived and that he saw the look on Lily's face before he had to ask her the biggest question of his life.
Through the clouds James saw his trustworthy owl flying with the piece of parchment attached to his leg. The butterflies that had already rested in James' stomach went into overdrive.
"James, you don't look so well," Lily said as she took a step forward and placed a hand on James' arm.
James closed his eyes to prepare for the tapping that was sure to come on the window. Instead, James felt Lily's fingernails dig deep into his arm as a loud thump sounded throughout the room.
He cracked open one of his eyes in just enough time to see his brown owl against the window, before seemingly floating down to the ground.
"Bloody hell!" James shouted after the initial shock had passed and he realized just what had happened.
His owl had been carrying the letter that was supposed to jump start James' proposal speech. Lily was looking at James with an odd expression, but James had to get down to get the letter from his owl before Lily saw it.
"James, you're turning white," Lily spoke finally.
James didn't respond. He just dashed out of Lily's flat and began to run down the stairs to his owl. James reached the owl and with a swift motion, tore the letter away from him and shoved it down his pocket.
"James, what is your owl doing here?" Lily asked curiously.
It was in this moment that James could have simply pulled out the letter from his pocket and handed it to Lily. She would have opened it and read through it. James could have then proceeded to get down on one knee and pull out the ring that he had in his pocket.
However, James was not thinking clearly as he wasn't quite sure how to explain why his owl had been coming to deliver a letter to Lily. He also was slightly swayed by the fact that his owl had been stupid enough to fly into Lily's window.
"I can't believe he flew into the window." James winced. It wasn't the suave way he had planned on handling the situation. Everyone had made it a point of telling him that he needed to let go of his need for everything to go exactly as planned, otherwise he would never ask. He clearly hadn't wasted any time in messing up again.
"That's my fault." Lily had a pained expression on her face. James didn't have the energy or the willpower to be angry that Lily had almost killed his owl.
"It's not your fault that he can't see the reflection." James laughed trying to make light of the situation, but his owl seemed to be very injured.
Lily shot James a very worried look, but she kept her mouth closed.
"Oh please, Merlin, don't be hurt," James whispered as he hovered over his owl.
"James," Lily began.
"Lily, do you know any reviving charms?" James asked as he prodded the owl once more.
Lily waved her wand and muttered something that James didn't register. A feeble hoot sounded and James' face filled with a smile. "Thank you!"
"James, I charmed the windows so that they wouldn't have reflections appear," Lily explained. "I don't know why, I didn't think that owls would be trying to get in, but it just seemed like an interesting charm…" Lily trailed off as if she had simply run out of excuses.
"It's alright," James sighed. He tried desperately to keep the sorrow out of his voice but some of it managed to weave through his words.
He knew that Lily had made the connection when she simply stood up and turned to leave. "I'll talk to you later."
"Lily flower," James spoke. He had been deep in his thoughts of what could have happened. He could have just asked her. He didn't need to be so worried about the fact that his owl hadn't arrived on time. They could have been laughing about his owl flying into the window by now.
"They're never going to believe me," James growled as he stood up and gingerly set his owl into the air telling him to go home.
XXX
"You know what you're supposed to do then, Sirius." James rubbed his palms on his pants.
"It was my idea, of course I bloody know what to do," Sirius responded.
James went over the plan once more in his mind. He was taking Lily into Muggle London for lunch. He had found the coziest pub where they could celebrate over fish and chips after.
It really isn't the most romantic plan.
James tried to push the thought out of his mind. Sirius had convinced him that Lily would love this plan and that keeping it casual afterward would be something she would love. Arabella had even agreed. The fact that she was Lily's best mate gave James some slight comfort.
Sirius had somehow rigged the tube so that as they approached Victoria's station, which is where he and Lily would be getting off, an announcement would come over the intercom. The message would of course carry James' proposal.
The only catch was that he had to make sure that he caught the right train. James was standing in a long line to buy tickets with Lily at a Muggle machine.
"Can't it go any faster?" James whined.
Lily only sent James a glare in response. James was sent back into his thoughts; Sirius had insisted there was a popular pub near Victoria's station that James and Lily would love. He couldn't put a finger on it but he didn't quite trust Sirius' judgment on where he would be taking Lily.
"James, where are we going?" Lily asked as she began to insert strange coins into the machine.
"I don't know," James began. He quickly had to finish his sentence as Lily turned to shoot him a glare. "There's this pub that Sirius suggested we go to."
"Sirius is sending us to a Muggle pub in this heat?" Lily growled as she pushed some of her hair away from her face.
James was inclined to agree. It was really humid, especially in the Underground station. He let out a sigh; it had been a while since he had been inside King's Cross and walking past platform nine had brought back memories of his days at Hogwarts.
Maybe our children will someday be going to platform 9 ¾ for their first time. They'll look up at the large clock to make sure they're not late, and then they'll wave goodbye to us as their train goes off.
James was brought out of his memory by Lily's voice. "James, do you by any chance have a pound on you?"
James looked at Lily as if she were insane, before realizing that a pound was Muggle money. "No, don't you have enough?"
When James realized just what Lily had asked him, he suddenly became very nervous. If Lily couldn't find her money soon, they would miss their specific train. They couldn't miss their train. They just couldn't. James craned his neck to try and read Lily's watch.
Four minutes, they had four minutes. Four minutes was more than enough time for Lily to find a spare pound on the bottom of her purse and for them to navigate their way through the station and get on their train.
Lily was still shifting through her purse and James could sense the people behind them growing impatient.
Three minutes…
"Bloody hell!" Lily exclaimed as she finally pulled out one last coin. "We are so lucky, James."
James smiled nervously. They had one and a half minutes remaining until their train departed. Sirius had assured James that the trains were always running late and that they could afford to be a minute or so late, but James was becoming increasingly nervous when they got up to the turnstile.
There was an old lady who appeared to have the strap of her bag stuck on one of the metal poles. James winced as she feebly tried to pull her strap off of the pole.
He couldn't help but tap his foot impatiently.
"James!" Lily hissed as she kicked his foot.
James didn't even have the courtesy at the moment to appear embarrassed. "Lily, we're going to miss our train!"
"Don't worry, they're always running late, James. And if we miss it we'll just catch the next one. They only take every ten minutes or so."
"Lily, we have," James grabbed Lily's watch. "Negative forty-nine seconds."
Lily rolled her eyes as the line began moving. As James and Lily stepped out onto the platform, James caught their train moving away from the tracks.
James winced but tried to keep what was going on away from Lily. He prayed that Sirius would have enough time to stop the announcement. Sirius could get in trouble for performing a charm like that, and if it weren't even necessary, James would never be able to live it down.
"James, don't look so worried. We can catch the next train and get to the pub just fine." Lily rubbed James' arm lightly.
It wasn't until James was sitting in the pub with a big batch of fish and chips in front of him that he believed that maybe Lily was right about not worrying. After all, they did still get to the pub and Lily was enjoying herself.
But you didn't propose…
James tried to push the nagging voice out of his mind, but only successfully managed in pushing it to the back of his mind.
XXX
Remus hesitantly walked up to James, who was hunched over a parchment in the kitchen of the flat that he shared with Sirius. Remus had heard that the last two plans Sirius and James had concocted had failed. He let out a chuckle to see that James was once again hard at work. It wouldn't hurt James to listen to Remus just once, but he supposed things would always be the way that they were. James would still take Sirius' advice over his own until he possibly couldn't hold onto it anymore.
"What's the newest plan?" Remus asked.
James turned around quickly, dropping his quill in the process. "Moony, don't scare me like that! I thought you were Lily!"
"Do I sound like a woman or does Lily sound like a man?" Remus sat down across from James and pulled the parchment so that he could read it easier.
"Are you seriously planning this?" Remus asked.
James simply nodded his head.
"You can't do this. It'll never work."
"It's going to work and when Lily's bragging to everyone about how romantic my proposal was, you aren't going to get any of the credit," James said.
"You're confident, Prongs." Remus shook his head; there was no way that he would want credit for what James was just about to attempt. "It's a complicated charm."
"I've been practicing," James responded smugly.
"Who taught you?" Remus asked curiously.
"Sirius."
Remus closed his eyes and tried not to laugh. Sirius was the least talented at Charms. James' strength was in Transfiguration and Remus' was in Defense Against the Dark Arts.
"Lily's the one who would know how to do this charm correctly," Remus pointed out.
"I can't very well ask Lily." James looked up just long enough to give Remus an exasperated look.
"No, you can't, but someone else could pretend that they want to propose and ask Lily," Remus suggested.
"Who? Sirius can't pretend to ask Arabella because she's Lily's best friend and she'd remember something like that. They can't just pretend to get engaged so that I can ask Lily. I can't ask them to put a façade on like that. You're insistent that you're not shagging that girl and Peter doesn't have a girlfriend."
"If you're so sure that the charm will work, why don't you just have Sirius ask Lily? Once you've used the charm to ask her to marry you, she'll know it wasn't for Sirius and Arabella," Remus explained.
James appeared to have finally understood what Remus was telling him. "That's brilliant!"
Remus just nodded slightly as James looked up with a glint in his eyes that caused Remus to feel nervous. Sirius chose that moment to walk into the kitchen and begin to shuffle through the cabinets.
"Padfoot!" James exclaimed happily. "I have an idea."
Sirius smirked and sat down across from James. "What's the newest plan?"
"You need to ask Lily how to perform this charm, but say that it's for Arabella."
Remus noticed that there was no mention of his name in this plan. He found that oddly comforting in the fact that if the plan backfired Sirius would have no intention of harming him.
"I can't do that! What if Arabella finds out that I'm planning on proposing and then she finds out I'm not!" Sirius exclaimed.
"No, once you get the charm from Lily, I'm going to use it to propose and then she'll realize that the charm was for me, not for you," James explained.
Sirius hesitated before nodding in agreement. "As long as this one doesn't get messed up."
"Don't worry, I wasn't quite sure how it'd work until Remus explained what he meant," James added.
Remus hid his head in his hands. This was never going to work out and he was going to be killed, perhaps mauled to death by a big black dog.
Sirius shot Remus a warning glance. "I guess it'll be okay. Just don't mess up."
"Assuming you teach me the charm correctly, it'll all work fine." James smirked.
Remus sighed. There was no way that anyone was going to come out of this still happy with each other. Sirius and James already had someone to blame and unfortunately he was left with no one.
XXX
"Lils!" Sirius exclaimed as he bounced into Lily and Arabella's flat.
Lily was sitting at the table with parchment surrounding her. Her hair was pulled up out of her face messily and Sirius looked around at the mess that covered the kitchen.
"What are you doing in here?"
"Working," Lily snapped.
Sirius winced. This was going to be a lot harder than he thought.
"Arabella's not here right now, she went to lunch with her cousin." Lily didn't even bother to look up from the parchment on which she was furiously scribbling.
"I didn't come to see Bella," Sirius replied as he sat down in the chair across from Lily, gently pushing some parchment away from where he was sitting.
"What do you want?" Lily asked in exasperation.
"I need you to teach me a charm," Sirius whispered even though he was sure that Arabella was not in the room and that even if she were, he could explain that he was doing this for James.
"Why?" Lily asked. She still hadn't fully acknowledged his presence, as she kept frowning at all the parchment in front of her.
"Lily, this is important!" Sirius exclaimed finally. He slammed his fist down to prove his point.
Lily finally looked up and glared at Sirius. "What is it then?"
"I'm going to propose to Arabella," Sirius whispered. The words sounded foreign in his head and he was glad that he had gotten it out right. He hadn't spilt that it was James who was trying to propose.
Lily stopped sneaking surreptitious glances at her parchment. "You are?"
"Yes, I am. Why is that so hard to believe?" Sirius responded, trying his hardest to put on his hurt puppy face.
Lily just shook her head. "What charm do you want me to teach you?"
"Well, I was thinking, that I could charm the words to appear written in the sky. And since you're so talented with charms I figured you would be the one to ask." Sirius smiled charmingly.
"I can teach you that charm," Lily sighed as she stood up from the table.
"What do you think?" Sirius asked, wanting to make sure that he wasn't ruining James' proposal plans.
"I think Arabella will love it." Lily smiled thoughtfully for a second before turning to Sirius with her wand out to begin instruction.
"What do you think personally?" Sirius asked.
"I don't think it matters what I think personally," Lily said hesitantly.
"Right." Sirius thought quickly. "I'm just so nervous."
Lily gave Sirius a small smile and began to instruct him on the charm.
XXX
"You have to make sure that you pronounce every word very clearly. Lily made a point of telling me that twenty times. The slightest chance that it could be a different letter can ruin the whole sentence. You don't want to be proposing to Mily or Hily." Sirius laughed as he patted James on the back.
James just smiled nervously. "Thanks for helping, Padfoot."
"If you mess this up then you're going to be dead. Lily thinks that I'm proposing to Arabella and she's bloody thrilled." Sirius emphasized his annoyance by rolling his eyes.
Remus and Lily walked into the room at that moment causing the conversation to stop. James smiled at Lily nervously. He failed to notice that Remus was standing off to the side looking very nervous about the whole event as well.
"Would you like to go for a walk, Lily?" James asked, his voice a notch higher than usual.
Lily nodded.
"I need to talk to Remus." Sirius winked.
"For the last time, Padfoot, I was not shagging her!" Remus exclaimed as he threw up his hands and walked out of the room.
Lily eyed the boys before pulling James out of the house with her. The two walked in silence. Lily was humming a soft tune under her breath that James couldn't recognize. He smiled knowing that it was probably because she was humming notes out of tune as she always managed to do.
"It's a beautiful day," James spoke.
Lily turned to look at him. "It's nice."
To tell the truth, the day wasn't perfect. There were a few scattered clouds that covered half of the sun, but there was a clear patch of blue sky that would make James' plan work perfectly.
James slowed down his pace for just a second and tried to mumble the spell under his breath. Lily didn't seem to notice that he was no longer by her side.
"Lily, will you marry me?" James whispered hurriedly.
He glanced at Lily quickly and then looked up in the sky to see his accomplishments.
Lily let out the loudest snort of laughter that he had ever heard. He winced as he too saw just what was written in the sky.
"Bily, will you carry me?" James mouthed incredulously.
"It's funny, because that's the same charm I just taught Sirius. I'd imagine he's going to want to learn a new one after hearing that someone just used it." Lily laughed, her green eyes shining.
"Why do you think that was a proposal?" James asked without meeting Lily's eyes.
"It has to be, 'c' and 'm' are very commonly misplaced letters."
James noted how matter-of-factly Lily spoke, as if she were at work and explaining the spell to a beginner.
Lily laughed again. "A girl somewhere must be really frustrated to be proposing."
"What's wrong with a girl proposing?" James asked nervously.
He realized just after he asked the question how ironic it was that he and Lily were having this conversation since Lily was holding the decidedly male point of view.
"Nothing's wrong," Lily mumbled. "It's not the most romantic way to propose though, is it?"
James' heart was caught between deep embarrassment and overwhelming relief. It wasn't exactly his idea, but he had planned on carrying it out, and the fact that Lily had no idea that he had been planning it caused him to be thankful that he had muttered the spell.
"I suppose not," James agreed as the two walked back to the flat.
XXX
"James, where are we going?" Lily asked.
"To the park," James responded smoothly.
This had been his idea. Lily's comment on how unromantic the last idea had been prompted him to bring her to a place where they had a history.
First off, he had shouted about how frustrated he was because he kept getting interrupted while he was trying to kiss Lily. Then, he accidentally blurted out that he was in love with her.
He hadn't meant for it to come out, not that he was unhappy with the result, but it had been a mistake. They were swinging and then all of a sudden he had just told her.
James smiled to himself as he swung his arm happily. "Would you like to visit the swings or the sandbox first, Flower?"
Lily glared at James as she grasped his hand in hers. "Can't we skip them?"
James just shrugged as they kept walking. He pushed back part of Lily's bright hair away from her eyes, stumbling a little over the sidewalk from his sideways walking.
"You should pay attention to where you're going." Lily giggled softly as the two continued to walk in silence.
James found the silence between them surprisingly comfortable and had almost prepped himself to just get down on one knee and propose once he found the most beautiful spot in the park, however, he failed to notice how overcast the day had become. The sky looked rather dreary as it was covered with dark clouds.
"It's raining," Lily spoke finally.
Indeed, the droplets of water were coming down from the sky at a very fast rate. James cursed under his breath at his luck. The rain was coming down at a very fast rate and James could barely see Lily through his wet eyelashes.
He did manage to catch the brilliant smile that Lily sent his way and her laughter as the two ran through the park, trying to get away from the Muggles so that they wouldn't be seen Apparating away.
XXX
James attempted to quietly sneak into the kitchen where the table was set nicely. He was at Lily and Arabella's flat where he, Sirius, Remus, and Peter would be joining Lily and Arabella for dinner.
He knew which chair was Lily's and he quickly whipped out a piece of parchment from his robes and taped it to her glass. James took a step back to admire his handiwork.
The piece of parchment very simply read: 'Lily, will you marry me?' It was simple and James had a feeling that it was different and Lily didn't appear to want a grand announcement made in the sky for the world to see, but maybe she would like a short announcement around her friends.
James quickly padded out of the kitchen and joined the rest of the group where no one seemed to notice that he had disappeared for a few minutes.
"Moony, you didn't bring your friend," Sirius teased.
James rolled his eyes as he joined everyone. Sirius was not about to stop quest of finding out who Remus was spending so much time with.
James laughed at Remus' embarrassed face and sat down next to Lily, who smiled up at him slightly.
"James, who do you think Moony is shagging? Could it be someone from Hogwarts?" Sirius asked with a glint in his eyes that James distinctly remembered.
James just shrugged his shoulders and looked back at Lily who seemed to have remembered the mysterious glint. "I don't think it really matters, Padfoot."
James looked scandalized and Remus appeared relieved.
"You can't try and drag us into this, Sirius, James and I remember having this same conversation with you about us." Lily smirked as she leaned back into the sofa.
"It's a completely different situation. I knew that you two wanted to snog each other and I was trying to help you get on your way," Sirius explained.
"It's not that different," Lily retorted.
"I just want to know!" Sirius exclaimed.
"James, can I talk to you?" Arabella asked.
James was confused for a split second until he realized that Arabella was standing in the kitchen. A spasm of fear went through his body as he looked over at Lily, who appeared to be wondering why Arabella needed to talk to James.
Arabella blinked as James realized that she clearly wasn't planning on giving him an explanation to give anyone when he went back. He grudgingly got up from his spot on the sofa and walked to the kitchen.
"What's the matter?" James asked, fully knowing why Arabella needed to talk to him.
He hadn't expected the rolled up piece of parchment to come flying at his face.
"What are you doing?" James exclaimed.
"You can't bloody ask Lily like that! What are you bloody thinking?" Arabella growled.
"Well, I can't seem to get anything right, and that seemed to be a basic foolproof idea." James shuffled his feet.
"You have to listen to me. Sirius is getting you into too much trouble. A few hours ago I just learned that Lily now thinks that Sirius is proposing. You need to stop listening to him, if he keeps giving you these idiotic ideas you're never going to get anywhere with this."
"Sirius asking for the spell was Remus' idea," James stated quickly.
Arabella just glared in return. "I'm more concerned about the fact that you're actually trying to propose this way. Why can't you just ignore Sirius and listen to someone else?"
"What's wrong with his proposal ideas?" James asked through narrowed eyes.
"What are you two talking about in here?" Sirius asked as he gave James a fake shocked look and grabbed Arabella around the waist.
"We were debating on if we should poison your food or not," Arabella responded sarcastically. Lily gave the two a funny look, but then just sat down at the table in front of her blank glass.
XXX