Prompt: [quest] An expedition or trip undertaken by one or more characters in order to achieve a particular goal.
Position: Seeker
Word Count: 2,175
The Perfect Ring
"Sirius! I need your help," James says as he hurries over to his best friend.
"What is it, James? What's wrong? You look all panicked," Sirius says, guiding James to a chair.
"I don't know what to do," James says. He starts pacing the room.
"With what? You need to give me more details. I can't help you if you don't."
"I want to marry Lily," James tells Sirius.
Sirius blinks in surprise at James's bluntness. A smile then makes its way on his face as he slings his arm around James's shoulder.
"That's great to hear! Do you have the ring? How are you going to propose? When's the wedding?" Sirius says.
"Sirius, please stop talking. You're giving me a headache."
"Alright. But you have to tell me everything you plan on doing with your girlfriend."
"That's the thing. I don't know how to do it." James said, running his hand through his hair and giving his friend a sheepish smile.
"...You're kidding me, right?"
"...No..."
Sirius looks at James like he just grew another head. He sighs as he pats James's back.
"Don't worry, mate. Moony, Wormtail and I have your back. We'll have to go get 'em so that we can complete the quest."
"Ok...wait...quest? Why call it a quest?" James asks Sirius, looking at him in confusion.
"Why not? It is a quest. A quest to make the best proposal ever!"
"...Sirius..."
"Don't worry! Lily will love it! Now then! Let's go get Moony and Wormtail! We've got a ring to find," Sirius says excitedly.
He starts dragging James behind him as he continues to talk about what they could do.
"Why do I think I'm going to regret this?" James mutters as Sirius apparates them away.
Remus is having a nice and relaxing day, when his front door is suddenly thrown open. He shouts in surprise as he almost falls off his chair.
"Moony! Where are you?! We have a quest to complete," Sirius shouts out.
"Oh, bloody hell," Remus whispers as Sirius and James come into view. "Why are you barging into my home? It better not be because you want to pull another idiotic prank on Moody. I am not going to help you out this time. Unlike you, I don't have a death wish."
"That was only one time, Moony," Sirius says cheerfully.
"More like ten times," James pipes up.
"James, you aren't helping. Anyways, James needs the Marauders' help! He wants to marry Lily. Isn't that great?!"
"Very exciting. But what does that have to do with me?" Remus asks.
"He doesn't have the ring nor the perfect place to propose. Do you have the speech written out? Because the speech is what makes them fall in love with you all over again," Sirius says.
"How the bloody hell do you know so much about proposing," Remus demands.
"You read one romantic novel, you read them all. And I must say, it was bloody boring! And because of that, I have decided to stay single! Now then, Moony, are you ready for the most epic quest?!"
Remus glances between his two friends. James looks at him with pleading eyes while Sirius smiles widely. He sighs, knowing that his friends would be lost without his help.
"Oh alright, fine."
"Great! Now we need Wormtail. Hold on," Sirius says as he grabs James and Remus's wrists.
"Oh bloody hell no! Siri-," Remus starts to say, only to be cut off when Sirius apparates them to their next destination.
"Wormtail, come hither!"
Peter screams bloody murderer when they appear in his house. He turns into his rat form and scurries away, trying to hide.
"Wormtail! Where are you?! We need your help," Sirius calls out as he walks forward.
"Sirius, we all know that Peter doesn't like it when we suddenly appear in his house," James reminds him.
"I don't think anyone likes that," Remus says.
"Come on Wormtail! Prongs needs our help getting everything he needs to propose to Lily!"
They wait for an answer from their fellow Marauder. Silence falls in the house and Sirius frowns.
"You know he could be out," Remus says, praying that Sirius is too busy planning everything for James to remember Peter's scream.
"Yeah, he's probably out. We'll fill him in on the details later," Sirius says as he turns towards Remus and James. "Now then, I know the perfect place to get an engagement ring."
Remus leans closer to James as Sirius starts talking about the place.
"Should we trust his choice of store?" Remus whispers to James.
"We'll humor him," James whispers back.
"Ok," Remus says as Sirius grabs their wrist.
Once again, he apparates them away. Once they are gone, Peter peaks out from where he is hiding. He turns back into his regular form and sighs in relief.
'Thank goodness...they're gone.'
"Here we are! The perfect place to get a ring," Sirius says cheerfully as they stand outside of the store.
The sign hanging above it says Once Upon a Time. The store's outside is a nice light tan color with rings that appear and disappear. Sirius then drags them inside as he excitedly talks about all the different rings they had. James and Remus's eyes widen in shock as they enter.
"Bloody hell, Sirius. How did you find this place?" Remus asks him.
"My uncle kept going on and on about the perfect ring shop and how my aunt was so excited when she got her ring. He bragged how she fell in love with him again," Sirius proudly tells his friends.
The inside was beautiful. Photos decorated the golden color walls. Most of them were of happy couples, in which the women were proudly showing off their ring for all to see. The remaining photos were newspaper clippings about the store.
"Welcome to Once Upon a Time! My name is Margaret. So, who's the lucky gentleman?" a voice says as they turn to see a brunette woman walking towards them.
She was wearing a simple pale magenta sundress. Margaret smiles brightly as her eyes fall on James.
"Ah yes. I understand. Follow me Mr. Potter, you'll have the perfect ring in no time!"
Remus and James look at her shocked. James's mouth opens and closes a couple of times. Margaret laughs at their reaction, her brown eyes seem to sparkle.
"How did you know," James blurts out.
"Your eyes," Margaret simply states as she motions for them to follow her. "Come, the rings are this way."
They follow her to the back of the store.
"Wow, this is bigger than it looks on the outside," Remus says as they stop in front of a white door with a silver dove painted on it.
"Expansion Charms do come in handy," Margaret tells them as she opens the door.
They then enter the room. There are different boxes scattered around. A wooden table and chairs are situated in a circle in the center.
"Please, take a seat. I'll grab my best ring collection for you to look at."
"Thank you Margaret," James says as she smiles.
"No problem."
Margaret then heads over to one of the boxes. Opening it up, she starts looking through it. Remus, James and Sirius take a seat on the soft red sofa.
"Found it!"
Margaret holds the wooden box as she walks over to them. She sits in the chair across from them and places it on the table.
"Now then, this will probably take a couple of hours. It's not as easy as it seems. There are different types of engagement rings. There's the Three-Stone Style, the Oval Halo Style, the Cathedral Style, the Solitaire Style, and many more. Plus, the stone could be different. Most people go for diamonds, but you can also use amethysts, sapphires, emeralds and other ones. And don't get me started on the metal," Margaret explains as the men groan in annoyance.
"Why is this more difficult than it has to be?" Remus mutters.
"Each woman is different. They each have a different taste in style, what gem they want, and the metal. You can't expect them to want the same exact ring. It wouldn't make them feel special," Margaret tells them.
"Alright, let's get this started," James says as Margaret smiles.
"Perfect! So, we have thirty30 styles in total, twenty on21 different stones and 4 different metals. We'll start by picking out the style, seeing as that's the hardest one. I suggest picking three to four different styles that you like and that you believe your girlfriend would like. Some of the stones don't go well with a certain style. The metal is the easiest, because they can go with any style."
"Ok. Can we see the styles?"
"Absolutely!"
They spend the next three and a half hours trying to pick out the styles. Margaret makes comments about the different styles and the pros and cons about them.
"Personally, I wouldn't choose a style that has the possibility of the gem falling," Margaret tells them as James looks at the Tension Setting Style. "I once had this couple who lost the gem seven different times. I don't usually use sticking charms, but for their gem I did. With the war going on, it would be best to make sure that the gem won't fall out while you're in a life-or-death battle."
"Alright. I'll keep that in mind," James says as they go back to looking at the different styles.
Soon enough, they settle with five different styles. Margaret places the rest of the styles back into the box as she grabs a bag that holds the different stones. She places the stones onto the table so that they are easier to look at.
"Alright, these are the stones that we use for the rings. Do any of them catch your eye?"
James looks at the stones carefully. The five different styles are laid out in front of him. He glances between the stones and the styles.
"With the cathedral, would you be able to change the stones on the side?"
"Of course. You'll just have to bring it back and tell us what you want to change. It would take us an hour or two to make the changes."
"Ok. I think I know what stones and style I want to do."
"That's great! Now then, what metal do you want? We have silver and three different types of gold. We got yellow, white and rose gold," Margaret says as she brings the metals out.
"The white gold," James says as Margaret smiles.
"Perfect! So, what style and gems would you like to use?"
"The Cathedral Style. I was hoping that the main gem would be diamond and to have two of the little gems be our birthstone. The rest will be diamonds and maybe we can switch them out when we have children so that their birthstone is on the ring as well."
"Sounds wonderful. It'll take me a day or two to get the ring done," Margaret explains as she writes down what James wants on a piece of paper. "I'll contact you once it's done and you can pay then. Sounds good?"
"Yes. Thank you for everything," James says as they stand up.
"No problem! I'm glad that I could help. I'll show you to the door," Margaret says.
She waves goodbye to them as they apparate away. Margaret then turns and heads back inside.
James, Sirius and Remus appear in Remus's house. Sirius smiles as he looks at his friends.
"So, that was a huge success! Now to plan the speech and to find the perfect place to propose!"
"I'll pass," Remus says as he sits on his sofa. "We just spent four hours picking out a ring. I just want to rest."
"I agree with Remus. I'm not planning on proposing to Lily the day I get the ring. It'll probably be a week or two after I get it," James tells them. "We can plan that later. Anyways, I should go now. I don't want Lily to worry about me."
"Fine! I'll start planning by myself," Sirius says.
"Thanks for everything. I couldn't have found that place without you. And it really helped that you guys put your input about the ring as well," James sincerely tells his friends.
"No problem! Glad to be of some assistance," Sirius joyfully says as he wraps his arm around James.
"I'm glad to have helped as well. Stay safe," Remus tells them.
"Will do!"
With that said, James and Sirius apparates away. Remus sighs as he relaxes. Finally, peace and quiet.