May 19, 1978
"Alice Louise Fortesque, will you do me the absolute honor and happiness to marry me?"
o0o
"AHHHHHHhhhhh!" Alice ran into the girls dorm squealing and giggling.
"What is it, Alice?" Lily asked turning from her desk to face Alice.
Alice bounced excitedly and rushed up to Lily. She thrust her hand out in front of Lily and there, on her ring finger, was a beautiful diamond ring.
Lily opened her mouth in surprise and stared up at Alice. "He proposed…?" She whispered.
Alice squealed and nodded her head in response.
Lily shot up and wrapped her arms around her friend. "Oh Alice, congratulations!"
"I think actually, you're supposed to say best wishes to the bride, and congratulations to the groom." James said hopping off Lily's desk, where he had been sitting.
"Whatever," Lily waved her hand at him, not looking away from Alice. "When's the wedding?"
"Well we've only just gotten engaged, so we haven't had time to discuss it, but I expect soon."
"OOhh a summer wedding then?"
"Yes, and you're invited obviously, with a plus one, so I guess James is invited in that sense, it's going to be small though, I don't want a big affair for it, we haven't time for that."
"Alice, I'll be in the wedding though, like say… maid of honor?"
"Lily, please, I'm going to have a hard enough time without you lot competing for it, I might not even have a maid of honor."
"No maid of honor?" Lily stepped back in mock aghast. "Alright, I won't bother you about it."
"Thank you." Alice hugged Lily again. "Where are the rest of them?" Alice asked, pulling back.
"I think I saw Marlene and Dorcas headed for a cupboard." James offered.
"Well have you seen Mary then?" Alice asked.
"I think she's in the library studying, but don't tell her in the library or Pince'll flip when Mary starts squealing."
"Right, thanks!" Alice flounced out of the room, humming the wedding march lightly.
Lily watched her go and felt James watching her from behind.
"Well back to studying then." Lily said avoiding, James' gaze.
"What do you think about it?" He asked her, twirling some of her hair between his fingers.
"About what?" Lily asked pretending not to know, and ignoring James' hand.
"About Alice and Frank getting married?" James said gently.
"Well if she's happy, then I'm happy for her." Lily pulled her quill out of it's ink pot.
"That's not all you think about it though, is it?" James withdrew his hand and hopped onto her desk.
"I just think, perhaps they're rushing things a bit fast." Lily sighed.
"Do you?" James tried to keep his face blank.
"It's just, they're so young, and with the war, they might be thinking that they ought to get married while they can, but that's not- well if she wants to there's no stopping her is there?"
"Not with Alice Fortescue." James smirked.
"Oh stop it." Lily said, hitting him lightly.
"I'm going to congratulate Frank then." James said standing, "Unless…"
"Unless what? I'm not stopping you, that would be very nice, since you've excluded him from your little gang for the past seven years." Lily said not looking up from her papers.
"Right, well bye then…"
"Bye."
o0o
James slid down the stairs-converted-ramp in expert fashion, landing promptly on the floor of the common room.
"Sirius, you seen Frank?"
"Not recently, why?"
"I'm going to congratulate him, Alice and him are getting married."
"Nice, tell him from us too." Sirius said jerking his thumb between him and Remus.
"Yes, and we'll have a congratulations banner for him in the dorm." Remus said.
"And some congratulatory firewhiskey." Sirius winked at James.
"Right." James said and stepped out of the portrait hole.
Where would he be? James thought. He wasn't exactly sure why he was looking for Frank. He guessed the obvious reason was to congratulate him, but he could do that in the dorm with Sirius, Remus and Peter, so why was he seeking him out individually?
James found himself in the entryway.
Perhaps he's outside? James thought.
He stepped out into the warm breeze of the night and set off down towards the lake, thinking it over.
Under a willow tree around the lake from the castle sat Frank, enjoying a nice firewhiskey with a few of his pals.
"Hey mate, congratulations!" James said when he was close.
"Oi James, have some firewhiskey with us!" Franks said, getting unsteadily to his feet. "It's a party!"
"Yeah, thanks." James accepted the cup he was given and clapped Frank on the back. "Can I chat with you a minute, Frank?"
Something about James' tone must have startled Frank, because he seemed to sober up a bit.
"Yeah mate, what is it?"
"Let's just come over-"
"Is Alice alright?"
"Yeah, yeah she's fine. I just wanted to-"
"You alright mate?" Frank asked putting a hand on James' shoulder.
"Yeah, just… How did you know it was the right time?"
"What was the right time?"
"To ask Alice? I mean you knew at some point that you wanted to marry her, but then how did you know if Alice would say yes when you asked her?"
"I'm not sure, I know both of us are going to sign up- well we'll be joining the auror training program and in that climate being married- you know I don't think I knew she would say yes. If I had I would've been less nervous, and I would have less of a celebration afterwards!" Frank tipped his cup and took a sip. He shook his head and made a disgusted face, "Merlin, why do we drink this?"
"Because it makes us drunk." James said bluntly and downed his whole cup.
o0o
"Tonight we celebrate!" Lily called holding her hairbrush as a microphone and strumming on an air guitar.
"Wooo!" Her friends called.
"To Alice!" Lily called, picking up her drink and raising it.
"To Alice!" Her friends raised their glasses too.
They all sipped
"To Frank!" Lily called, wiggling her eyebrows at Alice.
"To Frank!" They called back.
"And to their future." Lily tipped her glass as she looked at Alice.
"Thank you, Lily." Alice said and gave her a hug.
"I'm happy for you, Alice. You love him, and he'll make you happy."
"I hope so." Alice said. "Wooo!" She started, and Marlene, Dorcas and Mary joined in.
o0o
"Tell us your favourite Frank story." Mary asked. They were sitting around in a circle and it was nearing morning.
"Wow, gosh my favourite? I guess that would be last summer when he laughed so hard at his own stupid joke that the tea he was drinking came out his nose and then he was laughing and crying at that and that made me laugh so hard I choked on my biscuit and we were just a disgusting laughing mess together." Alice smiled vaguely at the memory.
"That's cute." Mary smiled.
"That's disgusting." Dorcas laughed.
"That's love." Marlene said, and grabbed Dorcas' hand.
"Ok you two, get a room." Mary said.
"Absolutely." Dorcas said and began to leave, still holding Marlene's hand.
"You don't mind, Alice?" Marlene said tripping a little as she walked backward with Dorcas.
"Go." Alice said, smiling.
"Well, I guess I'll turn in then." Mary yawned.
"Night." Lily said.
"Hey Lils, you alright?" Alice asked.
"Yeah, I'm okay." Lily looked down at her glass, and noticed her hand. She glanced over at Alice's hand. Her ring shimmered in the moonlight.
"Are you sure?" Alice caught her eye.
"Alice, this is a bit weird, but… well can I try on your ring?"
"It's not weird Lily." Alice smiled and gave Lily the ring.
Lily's heart beat loudly as she slipped the ring onto her finger, and held it up so it caught the light.
"Wow…" Lily breathed.
"So you want one?" Alice smirked.
"Uh no… I'm not- I mean- here." Lily handed back the ring.
"Sure." Alice smirked and slipped her ring back on. "Lily, listen to yourself, you know what you want."
"What does that mean?" Lily whispered.
"I see you trying to keep down how you feel. You think you disapprove of my getting married now, but I don't think the reasons are what you think they are. I was told that when people marry young it's a shot gun wedding, but it doesn't have to be. Lily, we are both lucky enough to find the right person early in our life. Frank and James are catches, don't put him back in the water, Lily."
"What?" Lily whispered, she felt her cheeks getting wet.
"James wants to marry you, Lily, but you keep your arms in front of you. He's James, so he'll never leave you, but he'll get hurt the longer you keep away. Why are you so afraid?"
"Afraid of what? I'm not afraid, Alice." Lily stood up.
"Sit down, yes you are." Lily flopped down. "You're afraid of what'll happen. Guess what, Lily? So is everyone. Take a leap, what's the worst that could happen?"
"Alice, he's a wizard, a pure-blood and-"
"Not a problem, next."
"Yes it is, Alice! His whole family, generations have been pureblood, if he marries me-"
"Lily, if purebloods only married each other it'd be like the habsburgs in europe and we'd be marrying our cousins, that's not a good enough reason. We'd breed out of existence, better a muggle-born than a muggle, who would be so shocked all that-"
"But that's what my family is! If I marry James, they can't know he's a wizard. My parents never told anyone I was a witch either!"
"So it's not a problem, next!"
"Fine, what about all the times I turned him down, people were there, and if I marry him-"
"You'll look like a push-over, who cares? The important people know that he cleaned himself up and then you fell for him. We don't think you're a push-over. Besides, you know James would never allow anyone to say anything bad about you."
"That's not what I want!"
Alice crinkled her eyebrows. "What isn't?"
"I don't want him hexing anyone who says anything against me, that's why I hated him all those years!"
"So just tell him not to, and he won't. I don't see a problem."
"Fine, fine, but we're still too young."
"You love him?"
"Completely."
"Then your age doesn't matter. Like I said Lily, we're lucky enough to have found the perfect person so young, why should we wait?"
"Because…." Lily couldn't think of a reason. Well she could, but she wasn't about to tell Alice about that, it was private.
"Exactly."
"But…"
"Lily, there isn't a reason, let him know that you're open to it, and he'll propose on the spot."
"But…"
"What else is there?"
"When you get married, usually soon after you have…"
"Kids? You don't have to."
"That and…"
"Lily, you don't have to do anything you don't want to, and if James makes you, divorce his sorry ass and take all his money."
"Alice!"
"What? That's not going to happen, because James worships the ground you walk on. He'd never do anything to hurt you."
"I guess…"
"Just think about Lils. And we're still kids, I can tell Frank to tell James that you're ready if you don't want to tell him face to face."
"Right…"
Alice stood and ruffled Lily's hair before crawling into her bed. "Dream about shiny rocks, Lils."
Lily couldn't understand her hesitation, but it was there. Omnipresent and oppressing.
A/N: Hi! (that's it just hi!)
P.S. No it's not! I love Alice and Frank, and here you go love them too!