Chapter Fifteen: Wedding Planning
"Who cares about bloody Valentine's Day anyways?" Marlene was a little bit sour.
The school had been decked out in pink, white, and red ribbons. Girls giggled all over the castle. Professors broke up more than one couple snogging in broom cupboards and dark corners. Lily and Marlene were sitting in the library as Madam Pince kicked the third couple out. They had foolishly thought the library would provide them with a retreat from all the lovey dovey emotions.
"A large portion of the student body." Lily didn't bother to look up at who the librarian was kicking out this time.
Marlene scowled when she saw Alice and Frank coming towards. The blonde told them that the table was a Valentine's free zone and under no circumstance were they allowed to exhibit any public displays of affection. Frank laughed and informed Marlene that he wanted to be hers and Lily's valentine in addition to Alice's. He pulled two large Honeyduke's chocolate bars out of his bag. He had Alice tell him what their favourite kind of chocolate was and had bought them that weekend during the Hogsmeade visit.
Lily couldn't even pretend to be angry with Alice's boyfriend. She accepted the chocolate and tucked it away in her bag. Not only was it chocolate, it was dark chocolate with almonds. She thanked Frank as he sat down beside her. Marlene felt a little guilty about her previous comments when she thanked him.
"It's okay, Marlene." Frank laughed at the conflict on her face. "I won't hold your dislike for February 14th against you."
The post arrived while Lily was translating a complicated sequence of runes. Aristotle dropped a letter in her lap and nipped her hand affectionately. She smiled at her screech owl. Her mother's loopy handwriting was on the envelope. The letter provided details about the progress of Petunia's wedding planning. Enclosed was a picture of the taffeta nightmare Petunia had chosen as a wedding dress. Another picture showed the bridesmaid dress Lily was going to have to wear.
"Letter from home?" James sat down with her. Marlene and Alice had a free period that morning and were choosing to sleep in. So did James for that matter, the only class that was Muggle Studies.
Lily knew she could be a brat to him or she act like an adult. "Yeah."
"You don't look overly enthusiastic about," James observed. "Bad news?"
"My sister got engaged at Christmas and the wedding is set for Easter." Lily handed him the two photographs. "These are the dresses she has chosen for us to wear."
The girl informed him that he was allowed to laugh. "I'm going to look like a giant pink cupcake on fire."
James tried to hide his smile but did a poor job of it. He told Lily that she would be the cutest cupcake on fire the world had ever seen. The girl blushed fiercely at this. That evil voice in her mind told he she should keep flirting with James. It was kind of fun. The reasonable part of her brain told her to stop blushing now which only made her blush harder.
"Good morning!" Remus looked chipper today. "What are these?" The tall boy picked up the photographs from the table and tried to hide his terror.
"Oh give me those!" Lily's snatched them from his hand as he sat down. "I don't have much of a choice in the matter."
"The letter also says you need to bring a date," Remus pointed out as he read the letter from upside down.
Lily groaned and looked at them. She had intentionally left that out when James asked her about the letter. She glared at Remus who grinned back.
"So, who are you going to take?" Remus asked cheekily as he poured himself a cup of tea.
"You. Remus, you can be my date since you are obviously so involved in it." Lily flipped the tables on him.
The boy chuckled, "You don't want to take me. I'd be a horrible date. Can't dance to save my life."
James ruffled up his hair nervously. He caught the flicker from Lily's eyes as they darted to look at him and then back to Remus. She muttered something under her breath that the boys didn't catch. Remus asked her to talk a little louder, it was hard to understand her mumbling. Lily glared at him but didn't repeat herself.
"You know who's a good dancer though?" Remus looked pointedly at James.
"I am also a talented dancer, Moony." Sirius grinned as he sat down next to Lily. "Why are we talking about dancing?"
"Lily needs a date to her sister's wedding at Easter." Remus filled Sirius in. He stealthily stole the photographs from Lily and handed them to Sirius.
"Thank you, Remus." Lily growled as she tried to grab the photos back from Sirius. He held them out to the other side and kept looking at them.
"Merlin, Lily! Are you adopted? Your sister looks like a horse!"
Three people sighed collectively. Sirius was not known for his tact or sensitivity. "Thank you, Sirius."
"I am a wonderful dancer though." Sirius grabbed the toast off Lily's plate.
Lily snorted and took the toast back from Sirius before he could take a bite out of it. "I find that hard to believe."
"Actually Lily, Sirius is probably the most skilled dancer at this school." James grinned at how incredulous Lily was.
Sirius informed her that he had been instructed in etiquette and decorum from the moment he could talk and walk. No son of the Noble House of Black was going to bring shame upon the family for not knowing how to waltz, foxtrot, tango. He knew a salad fork from a dinner fork. He winked at Lily and told her to close her mouth before she caught a fly. "James isn't a bad dancer himself though. No match for me, but he's decent."
Students laughed as the two suits of armour body slammed each other and the ringing of metal echoed off the stone walls. James and Sirius both had their wands out and were directing the two suits. Remus and Peter were standing pointing up with their wands, numbers glowing above them. Another resounding clash and cheers rang through the crowd. It was Friday afternoon before dinner and the boys had gotten bored.
A handful of prefects were standing off to one side in a heated discussion. Did they try to put a stop to it? Remus was a prefect. They couldn't exactly reprimand him. Neither the head boy nor head girl were anywhere in sight either. The fifth-year Ravenclaw prefect jumped as a particularly loud boom echoed.
"I should have gotten three points for that, Peter!" Sirius hollered over James's laughter.
The prefects were about to intervene when they saw a very peeved McGonagall storming down the hallway. The crowd of students fled before she could tell them all off. James caught sight of McGonagall first.
"Code M! I repeat, Code M!" James called out, his friends turned to look at McGonagall.
"Scramble!" Sirius called. At this, the four boys each took off in a different direction. James and Sirius ran directly at McGonagall, crossed paths, high fived, and then took off down the same hallway away from each other.
Professor McGonagall pinched the bridge of her nose. The group of prefects were still standing nearby. She looked at them with an eyebrow raised and they too took off at a run. She muttered something about boys and zoos and being too old for chasing them.
Lily was sitting alone at the back of the library when she heard running. It was pretty empty considering it was a Friday afternoon. Sirius Black screeched to a halt and sat down at her table. He was panting and trying to catch my breath. Lily held her hand up before he could talk.
"I don't want to know." Lily shook head at him as he tried again. "I have been enjoying not getting angry at you and I don't want us to ruin our streak. Please don't tell me."
"Are you telling me you like being my friend, Lilyflower?" Sirius grinned as she rolled her eyes.
"That's not what I said at all." Lily continued working on her essay.
"Okay, fine. I'll go with you to Horsie's wedding." Sirius rocked his chair back onto two legs and looked at her.
Lily laughed and couldn't help but smile at Sirius. She could only imagine what her sister would say if she brought him to the wedding. If what James and Remus had told her was true, Sirius would be the perfect choice as a date. He would probably make the entire boring affair much more enjoyable. She was actually considering taking him has her date. The Lily Evans from last summer was screaming at her to run while she still could. There was no way Sirius Black wouldn't cause a scene.
"Better be careful, I might just take you up on your offer." Lily laughed at the cheeky wink Sirius gave her.
James threw his shoe at Sirius. "I don't get it. You've convinced Lily to take you as her date to her sister's wedding?"
Sirius shrugged his shoulders and threw the shoe back at James. "I've been telling you for years that women just can't resist me. Not my fault you didn't believe me."
"But this is Lily. She hates you." James sat down on his bed stumped.
"No, mate." Sirius laughed. "She hates yelling at me. She said so herself."
Remus was growing tired of all the Lily talk. "I'm bored. Let's plan a prank."
Sirius gasped and held his hand above his heart. "Mr. Prefect wants to play a prank? Oh, what is this world coming to?"
Both James and Remus rolled their eyes at the dramatization. Remus kindly reminded Sirius that all the best pranks were his ideas and that despite any guilt he felt afterwards it didn't make pulling pranks any less fun for him. It was like solving a puzzle. What were the rules and where were the loop holes in said rules. It was a matter of intellect. This time James and Sirius rolled their eyes. Remus liked to pretend that he didn't get the same type of enjoyment out of playing pranks but he absolutely did.
"Alright, Moony. If you're so good at coming up with pranks, what are we going to do?" Sirius watching the cogs turn in Remus's brain. It was always a delight to see his mind work in twisted ways.
"I know just what we're going to do!" Remus murmured after a few minutes. He crossed to Sirius's trunk and threw it open. He pulled out Sirius's entire stock of fireworks and smirked. "I think it's time we reminded everyone of how chaotic the Marauders can truly be."
Everyone was just tucking in for dinner on Sunday night. The tables were laden with trays and tureens of mashed potatoes and roast, gravy and peas. The Great Hall was filled with the buzz of students discussing classes, Quidditch, the House Cup standings. About fifteen minutes into dinner and a handful of Gryffindors noticed the absence of four boys. McGonagall was still annoyed with them for the suits of armour the afternoon before. She had been doing her best to keep her eye on them all day. At about twenty minutes into dinner, McGonagall realized that the boys who kept adding gray hairs to her head weren't present. She thought about it a moment longer and came to the realization that she hadn't seen hide nor hair of them all day long. She was about to comment their absence to Dumbledore when a bang sounded from the entrance hall.
Students all around their hall stopped talking as the bangs grew louder and more numerous. The doors to the Great Hall were thrown open and McGonagall saw her mischief makers throw themselves to the floor. Rubber balls the size of fists were flying in every which direction and bouncing off surfaces. There were fireworks going too. McGonagall's face paled as it dawned on her that the fireworks had been stuck into the balls making their flight erratic and chaotic.
"Albus! Do something!" McGonagall cried as she ducked out of the way of bouncing ball.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he looked around at the beautiful chaos in the hall. A huge smile stretched across his face and he was clapping his hands. McGonagall scowled at him. He patted her shoulder and waved his wand. All movement in the hall stopped and students who had ducked under the tables peered out carefully.
"Misters Potter, Lupin, Black, and Pettigrew, if you'd please." Professor McGonagall had a difficult time keeping her voice even. The four boys walked up to the front of the hall clapping each other on the back and grinning. McGonagall and Dumbledore escorted them into an ante-chamber off to the side. "Explain."
"We wanted to see what would happen if you put a firework inside a rubber ball." Sirius told her grinning.
"It was an experiment for Muggle Studies." James added without batting an eyelash. "They bounce off of things you see. We were curious to see if fireworks would affect the angles that they would bounce at."
McGonagall opened her mouth to chastise them when Remus cut her off. "Professor, we looked at the rules in Mr. Filch's office earlier today. There are no rules about using fireworks to better understand Muggle artifacts."
The professor was tight-lipped. She wracked her brain for a rule that she could throw out at them but couldn't.
"He's right, Minerva. There are no rules on this." Dumbledore winked at James. He shooed them back out to their dinner. "Imagine what this school would be like without their exuberance and curiousity."
"Peaceful. Quiet. Calm?" McGonagall muttered as she watched the retreating backs of her boys.
"Minerva, we need laughter to fill these halls." Dumbledore sighed. "Especially at times like now. Let them remain boys a little longer."
Lily rolled her eyes as they boys walked in to the Common Room. Sirius winked at her and gave a grin. She huffed and shook her head. They must all have been dropped on their heads as babies. It was the only logical reason for the madness within. But she wasn't in the mood to deal with them. Nearly having her head blown off but a bouncing firework at dinner after having her heart torn out again that morning at breakfast had given her a maddening headache and she knew that yelling at the Marauders was just going to make it worse.
Or you think that the prank at dinner was actually rather clever, that voice was back again. Lily told herself that she was going mad. Spending the amount of time with those boys was making her mad. They didn't even get in trouble for it.
Lily growled and grabbed her book off the couch. She stormed off to her bed where she didn't have to hear the laughter. All the while she was yelling at the voice her head to cut it out. She scowled at the letter that was left on her bed from that morning. She just couldn't find respite from the world around her. The only good thing that had come from the note saying her father was beginning chemotherapy again was that Petunia's wedding would be delayed until the end of the summer.