Ch.29, Romance is in the Air
The day after the fair, Lily, Len, Melissa and Marlene went dress shopping. It was agreed that Lily was going to be Len's maid of honor, and the other two would be brides maids. They entered Madame Blah's Wedding Supplies.
"Oh! You're the group coming in for fittings, aren't you?" Madame Blah (MB) said. She was a plump woman and seemed very kind.
"Well we have to find gowns first." Len said.
"Wonderful! Now tell me, who's the bride?" she asked as she led them to a large portion of the store that was practically white.
Len raised a shy hand. The kind woman took her and measured her. Then, after Len said that the other girls were brides maids/ the maid of honor, she called some assistants and they got measured too.
After the measurements were done, Len was piled with catalogues. She asked the other girls to help her look through them, and they found many things. Within twenty minutes, the pile of catalogues was much shorter, and some had doggy-eared pages.
Len gasped as she found the perfect gown. She pointed it out to the others, and they saw the shear beauty of it. MB came over and asked if they had found something that they like.
"Oh I think that will suit you very nicely dear. In fact, I believe we have one here, would you like to try it on?" she asked. Len nodded vigorously. The girls followed her and saw the gown itself. After she had came out, all the women gasped at her. It came with a choice of three accessories. A white shawl, a bright yellow sash, or baby blue gloves. it was obvious which one Len chose. The yellow sash. The girls helped her pick out a tiara to hold her vail up. In the end, a silver tiara with a yellow diamond in it. It matched her dress perfectly.
She finished the fitting with ordering the other girls' dresses. Of course, they would all be yellow. Lily's would be slightly different than the other two's though, since she was the maid of honor. As they left the shop, the girls arranged to pick up the dresses at a later date. They then apparated back to Len's appartment.
When they were still talking about the dresses, Remus came into the room. They stopped talking abruptly.
"What, can't I know what the dress looks like on you Len?" he asked with puppy dog eyes.
She shook her head, grinning. "Nope, sorry Remus but it's bad luck for the groom to know what the brides looks like before the wedding." she said in a sing-song voice.
"I thought that was only for the groom to see the bride the night before the wedding!" Remus muttered loudly as he walked out, a fake hurt expression on his face.
"That too!" Lily shouted after him.
Soon, it was only a week before the wedding. And no one who wasn't blind could see that both were nervous. So, Lily, Melissa and Marlene decided to plan Len's wedding shower for the following night. It would take place in Lily's house, and she would kick the boys out. The three of them would be there, and all of Len's friends who were girls from the Order.
So, Lily got James out of the house, and now all they needed was Len. Lily was going to get her now. Then, the whole group that was there, which was about 10 people, hid behind the useful-for-surprise-parties blind spot behind the door. They heard some of the trick that was being played on Len.
"I think I left it in here, could you come in and help me look?" Lily asked. She was beginning to learn to lie like Len, but was still not nearly as good. Len came in warily at the tone of her voice. She knew from being an expert on the subject, that Lily was lying.
"Lil..." she started, but not before she had walked in so she couldn't see the people behind the blind spot.
"SURPRISE! HAPPY uh... GETTING MARRIED LEN!" everyone shouted, then halfway through realizing that this wasn't a surprise party like the last time. So, they improvised.
They even tossed confetti in the air, and it all landed on Len's stunned face. Which Lily promptly took a picture of.
"Oh my..." Len started as the girls pulled her to sit on the sofa. In front of the sofa was the coffee table, which was heaped with gifts. But then Len got out of her stunned period, and shrieked.
"Thank you you guys! Oh this was really sweet of you." Len said as she was suddenly buried under a pile of gifts. her friends started chanting. "Open Open Open!"
She tore off the card attached to one gift, and found it to be from Melissa. She opened the box, and whatever was in there made her blush and close the box. Melissa told everyone, while laughing about Len's face, that she had gotten Len some clothes that she knew Remus would like for their honeymoon. This sent every girl there into a fit of giggles, so it sounded like the house itself was giggling. After Len finished blushing, she opened the next gift, which was from Dorcas Meadowes.
After the presents, during which Len blushed more times than she would like to count, Lily Len's favourite muggle romance movie out. After they watched Mighty Joe Young, (has anyone seen that movie? It's my all-time favourite!) they realized the time.
Everyone went to go, but then Melissa decided, just to get her blushing again, to read out a list of exactly what Len had received. This set the house into another fit of giggles.
When James arrived, he had purposefully apparated to the outside, and thanked himself for it. It sounded to him as if the house was giggling. He had arrived right in the middle of girl talk. So, he apparated back to Remus', where he had spent the time so far, because boys weren't allowed at wedding showers. He figured that when Len got home, it would signal the end of the shower.
So, a few hours later, Len apparated home to find that James was playing wizard chess with Remus.
"Hey James. Lily says you can come back now." Len said as she yawned.
"Finally! I was wondering how long a wedding shower could possibly take!" he said, as he flung up his arms in defeat as Remus once again said, "checkmate."
After James left, Remus turned to Len. "Having jitters yet?" he asked, referring to the wedding.
"Just a little. You?" she answered, as they got ready for bed. (AN: not what you think, just doing their teeth, and changing, that sort of thing)
"I don't know what to think. 'night sunshine." Remus had finally decided on a pet name she didn't mind, and this one was because of yellow being her favourite colour.
Those last few days passed, and soon the girls were at Len's parents' house, where she had stayed the night before. It was bad luck for the groom to see the bride the night before the wedding. Len, Lily, Melissa, Marlene, and Len's mother, were running about, getting ready and listening to Len's mother complain about how her baby was all grown up. Then, Marlene comes up with a piece of parchment and a quill. They were in Len's old room, so the incoming slew of relatives wouldn't bother them.
Len had already gotten changed, and was doing her makeup. Then Marlene came over and explained what the parchment was.
"It's a checklist. Every bride is supposed to have for her wedding: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Why, I have absolutely no clue. But you only have something new; you're dress."
"We can fix that! Here Len, this was you're great-grandmother's necklace. It fills the rest of the categories. You can borrow it, so it's something borrowed, it has a blue gem stone, and it's very old." her mother said, clasping a chain around her neck.
"Thanks mummy." Len said as she looked at her reflection in the full-length mirror that Marlene had conjured up.
"You look gorgeous sweety." her mother said.
Just then there was a knock at the door, and a shout of "I want to see my grand-niece!" Then, when Lily opened her door at Len's warning, every single member of Len's family tried and failed to squeeze into her small room, which was already full from the girls.
So they all insisted that she use some form of magic or another. Meanwhile, Dorcas Meadowes, who the girls found to be an excellent decorator, was putting the finishing touches on the area of the Hogwarts grounds. Dumbledore had been very generous in allowing all of Len's family to be at Hogwarts, but only during the wedding. They had planned the reception for a rented out hall.
Meanwhile, Remus was pacing around the appartment, in his dress robes, while James and Sirius were doing very bad jobs of trying to cheer him up.
"Come on Moony! Think about it! You'll be spending the rest of you're life with the woman you love, what could be better than that?" Sirius said.
"Yeah! And who knows, in a couple of years, there might be little Lens and little Remus's around here!" James, who had been elected Best Man said cheerfully.
Of course, this did absolutely nothing to calm Remus. By now, Len and her family would be taking a port key to Hogwarts. Then, Benji apparated in, and said he was supposed to come now.
As Remus waited, he also greeted everyone from his family that had not disowned him. Of course, there were also friends. But the number of people on his side were nothing compared to the people on her side. All of Len's relatives were had sat down with semi-dazed expressions, as they had never traveled by port key before. They were all seated in two groups, and in the middle was the long isle that Len would come down soon. On each row of seats, either a yellow rose (Len's favourite flower) or a baby's breath (Remus chose it because it complemented the roses so perfectly) was tied in place with a white ribbon. While Len's side was full, Remus' side had only ten people. His grandparents, and one of his cousins, and some friends.
But then, as Remus stood at the front, the music started, announcing the brides coming.
-------------------------------------------Before the Music Starts------------------------------------------------
There was a small tent-like thingy set up at the back of the isle. Of course, it was magically enlarged inside. Len was sitting down, getting the finishing touches on her hair and makeup. Of course, she was very nervous.
The couple had elected for one of Len's younger cousins to be the flower girl. In fact, she was very cute right now, in a little white dress and holding a basket of flower petals. Her cousin's mother was ranting on about how cute she was, and taking tons of muggle pictures.
Then, the music started. The bridal march started with the Flower girl, and many 'aww's were heard as she scattered flower petals down the isle.
Then, Marlene went down, and after her, Melissa. They were both is silky yellow dresses that had no sleeves.
Then, right before Len herself, Lily went down the isle, in a dress the same silky yellow material, the only difference was that she had triangle sleeves.
Len picked up her bouquet and and pulled her vail over her face. She took her father's arm and he walked her down the isle.
To Remus, she was one word: beautiful. Her dress was the brightest white, with the yellow sash. It had triangle sleeves made out of that semi-see through material. The bodice was lace-covered, and clung to her. The skirt was not ball type, but it just gently flowed down to the ground. With each step she took, a pair of white sandals showed. She had elbow length gloves, and her bouquet was made of yellow roses that were charmed to literally sparkle. Her tiara hled up a short vail, it just fell to her stomach. Her hair was in half a bun, but half of it was loose. Her bangs framed her face.
When she reached the front, her dad left and she handed her bouquet to Lily. Then, she and Remus got married, hand in hand, and he kissed her after. Neither had ever been so happy.
Then, the couple apparated to the hall that had been rented. Soon, those who could not apparate took a port key there and joined the happy couple.
They were heaped with congratulations, and everyone broke out laughing and looked to Len when her favourite uncle came over with a chair stuck to his behind.
"What makes you think I did it? There are plenty of other wizards and witches here now!" she shouted. But then, she quickly performed the counter charm. Everyone was red from holding in laughter.
Then came dinner. And, unfortunately for the boys, so did the time for all of the bride and groom's friends to tell embarrassing stories about them and how they met them.
Lily and Melissa went up at the same time, and conjured (to the amazement of Len's family) a large TV screen. This made the boys go pale and Len laugh. They inserted the tape of when they were at the fair, so it would be embarrassing for Remus too. It showed him and the other boys getting beaten to a pulp on bumper cars, screaming like girls on the roller coaster, and asking why they would want to toss a ring over a bottle. By the end of it, everyone was laughing, even Remus.
But then one of Melissa's stories made Len blush, and the hall laugh. "When Len first found out that Remus had a crush on her back at school, that was the first time I've ever seen her care about how she looked to others. Every morning she would do her hair carefully, and put on some makeup. Before they got a crush on each other, Len had never done her makeup for a normal day of classes. When I brought this up, we all laughed and the look on Len's face was priceless!"
Then Marlene came up and enlarged all the pictures of when the group had an embarrassing moment. The Floo incident, the Twister fall, everything. People were gasping for breath because it was so funny. And the carnival music that Benji was playing in the background during a sort of slideshow of the pictures.
So, finally, it was the time that all the single people were looking for, (and by single I mean not married) the tossing of the bouquet. Lily, Melissa and Marlene were in the group too, but had been forbidden to use summoning spells.
Len closed her eyes, and threw it over her head. She heard shrieks, and knew that one of her friends had it. She turned around, ready to tease, and saw the blushing look on Lily's face. She teased along with the others.
"Remember you're aura stone colours Lily!" Melissa reminded teasingly.
"So whens the wedding Lil?" Marlene asked.
But James himself was being teased, because he was her long-time boyfriend.
"So Prongs, when are you going to propose?" Sirius asked.
"Wheres the ring James?" Remus added.
James blushed and mumbled "Lay off."
Hours passed, and Remus realized why Len had warned him to get a lot of sleep the night before. Her relatives were still talking, and it was 1am! The same stories were being told over and over again, and he realized that talking skill must be genetic. Len was talking just as much as the others.
But then, when practically all of Len's younger cousins had fallen asleep, her relatives decided that 3am was a good time to head back to their hotel.
A week passed, and Len and Remus returned from their honeymoon. Just in time for Lily's birthday.
They planned a party similar to the last one, except with more of Lily's Order friends. Several embarrassing pictures were taken, and that included the stuff-you're-face-in-the-most cake contest by Sirius and Benji for Lily's benefit. Of course, they didn't do it in the birthday cake, just multiplied several cream pies, and actually raced to see who could stuff their heads in the most pie in the time of one minute. Sirius won, with 55. Melissa cleaned him off with a cleaning charm.
The party was wonderful, and went very late. After everyone had left, James walked over to where Lily was sitting on the sofa.
"Did you have a good time?" he asked.
She snuggled into his side. "Of course I did. It was really sweet of you guys." she said.
"You are so pretty." he said, looking down at her.
"Thank you. And you are so cute when you're nervous." Lily said, smiling.
"How could you tell I was nervous?" James asked with mock affrontation.
"Because you always start with something off topic, you blink a lot, you ruffle you're hair, you scratch you're neck-"
"I get it, I get it." James responded, laughing. He also lowered the hand that had subconsciously been ruffling his hair. He sat with her for a few moments, gathering his nerves.
"Why are you nervous?" she asked.
James decided to answer honestly. "'Cause I'm about to do something I've never done before."
She laughed.
James reached into his pocket and took out a box. "What's that?" Lily asked curiously.
"You're birthday present, if you want it to be." James said. Now, Lily was officially confused.
He opened the box, and out shone a gorgeous gold ring, with a diamond in the center.
Lily gasped. "Lily, I have loved you since I first set my eyes on you. And I always will. If you left me, I would be nothing. I know that you love me back. Lily Evans, will you do me the honor of being my wife?"
Ooooh, what will Lily say? Will she think it's to soon for them to be married, a mere few years out of school, or will she say yes? Will I leave a cliffhanger and be cruel, or will I keep on typing? I think that I'll be cruel, and stop the chapter here. MWAHAHAHAAAA!