"Stop fidgeting Padfoot. You're making me nervous." James tapped his foot on the ground and pulled his sleeve up to check his watch.
Sirius tugged at the collar on his tuxedo. "Do I have to wear this? I hate confined clothing."
James rolled his eyes. "I though that was Remus' excuse. Sirius, you are my best man and need to look it. All right?"
"Fine, although I'm sure Moony isn't the only man in the whole world who hates confined clothing." Sirius said with a pout and started playing with his bowtie.
Remus came in and abruptly stopped Sirius and then straightened and tightened the garment for his friend himself.
"How do you how to do that?" Sirius asked, looking himself over in the floor length mirror.
"My dad taught me when I was little." Remus replied off-handedly turning to James and fixing his buttons, which James had out in the wrong holes.
"Thanks for being a groomsman Moony." James said with a faint quiver in his voice. "I can't ever remember being this nervous before."
Moony smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry about it Prongs. I'm here and the mangy mutt is here and Wormtail is somewhere. Probably bugging Lily's sister."
James raised an eyebrow. "Why would he be bugging Petunia?"
"Because I bet him three sickles he couldn't get her to go out with him." Sirius answered with a smirk. Before James could reply Dumbledore stuck his head into the room.
"We're ready for you now. James you may go up to the altar and Sirius and Remus, come with me please."
"Don't worry about it mate, that's why we had the rehearsal." Remus whispered as he left the room with Sirius who nodded and grinned. "Yeah you didn't fall then so why should you fall now?"
James took a breath, feeling his insides tighten. "Thanks Padfoot. That makes me feel so much better."
James waited at the altar in front of an enormous crowd of people trying to not sweat off his cologne. He was just about to walk back up the aisle when the music started.
The first one down the aisle was Sirius with a scowling Petunia Evans on his arm. Sirius looked so miserable that James had to fight not to crack a smile. It looked like Petunia wanted to crack Sirius' arm in half she was holding it so tight. She must have found out who put Peter up to hitting on her.
Remus was after Sirius escorting Molly Weasley up the aisle and Peter followed right behind him with Alice Longbottom. After them came Arthur Weasley with Hestia Jones and then the ring bearer, Bill Weasley, and the flower girl, Nymphadora Tonks. Seeing their lips moving James could guess they were counting off the number of steps.
By the time everyone was in position, James was literally shaking and Sirius, Remus, and Peter all gave him a grin and a small nod.
The wedding march started and Lily came down the aisle with her father escorting her. Even with her pregnant belly she looked like a red-haired goddess. She had opted for a golden colored dress and with her red hair James could have sworn he watching the spirit of Gryffindor come down the aisle toward him
The ceremony started. The couple took their vows, each confessing their undying love for each other. Beneath her veil Lily's eyes were sparkling.
Then came the hard part. Lily went first saying that she would, indeed take James as her husband. Then, unfortunately, it was James' turn.
"Do you, James Tertius Potter take this women, Lily Claire Evans, to be your lawfully wedded wife? To love and to hold in sickness and in health, 'till death do you part?"
James opened his mouth to say yes when his mind froze. It took a few moments for Sirius to realize what had happened and he looked at Remus. Remus shrugged, unsure what to do. Murmurs were starting in the seats. Remus made a go-on motion with his hand.
Sirius coughed while at the same time nudging James in the back with his elbow. James came back to with a start. "I do hereby solemnly swear to marry this women."
Sirius snickered quietly and Remus smirked. "That's the only way for a marauder to marry." Sirius whispered in his ear.
Dumbledore raised an eyebrow but raised his arms above the couple and said, " I now pronounce you man and wife." They were already kissing before he had finished his sentence.
The after party was in full swing. Sirius had collected his three sickles from a very putout Wormtail and James had spiked Moony's drink when he wasn't looking. No one had realized Remus could dance so wildly.
At the slow songs a very shy Bill danced timidly with Nymphadora Tonks who was a year younger than him. The young Weasley's face was as red as his hair and they kept looking anywhere put at each other.
Andromeda, her muggle husband Ted, and their daughter had been invited on the pretenses that Andy was the good one in the family and had always stuck up for Sirius when he was younger and couldn't defend himself from his older cousins. She was Sirius' favorite cousin and hat tutored Lily in Transfiguration in her third year.
James and Lily were dancing closely with their heads bent together near the center of the dance floor. Sirius was dancing with Caroline Brocklehurst, a Gryffindor, whom he had dated for several years during school, before breaking James and Lily apart and stealing the bride for a song.
Peter walked around the room with Remus, his small watery eyes kept darting about the room, mostly looking at the women, and he was sweating profusely.
At the stroke of midnight there was very loud cheering from the corner tables as a cake was placed in front of the newly turned two twins. In his celebration George accidentally knocked Fred's face into the cake.
Fred retaliated immediately with a handful of icing that he flung at his twin and before either parent could get a word in edge-wise there was a full blown food fight in which the marauders, as full grown adults, joined in joyously and just as energetically as the twins.
After that mess had been cleaned up it was decided that as the best man, Sirius should make a speech on behalf of James and Lily. Sirius was not quite so eager.
"Uh, actually. I don't have anything planned. I don't know what to say." Sirius hurriedly whispered to James as Remus forced him up onto a chair so that the entire room could see him.
"Say whatever you want so long as you don't mention anything particularly illegal. I had to get married today so don't you dare tell me you're nervous about making a speech."
Sirius swallowed nervously but kept his mouth shut for his own benefit. James pulled Remus back and held him up as the werewolf swayed a bit on his feet.
"Um, well hello." Sirius smiled as the crowd around him laughed. "I guess I had better say something then. Uh…James and Lily have known each other for a very long ten years. They didn't actually get on speaking terms until about four years ago." There was some chuckling and Sirius continued with newfound momentum.
"They love each other very much and would do just about anything for the people they love. They accepted me into their home and I can tell you it's a lot better than my previous dwelling."
There was some general booing for the Ancient and Most Noble House of Black, most noticeably from Andy and Ted Tonks.
"These two can't wait for their child to come into this world and I know I can't. This kid had better have some of Lily's gorgeous looks or that is going to be one hell of an ugly baby."
A lot of laughing, it was an open bar so maybe people were a little giddier than usual.
James poked Sirius in the back with his wand. "That wasn't very nice." The bespectacled young man pointed out. Sirius shrugged and continued, pretending not to notice James' fuming.
"This group of ours is so close we feel like our own miniature family that I'm sure that he or she will be raised with as much love as any person could ever be." There was a lot of clapping at this point.
Lily swallowed and tried very hard not to cry, it might have just been the hormones.
Suddenly James jumped up onto the chair and put an arm around a surprised Sirius.
"Can you believe this git actually said he had nothing prepared and then he goes and says all those very nice things about me and Lily." Laughter. Sirius smiled and blushed a little.
"I didn't have anything prepared you prat. All improvisation, take that speech lessons."
More laughter especially from the pureblooded people present who had to go through the same horrendous speech lessons as children.
"Ok, ok Padfoot, but me and Lily have something to announce and I think you're going to like it." Sirius raised an eyebrow looking suspicious. "You say that a lot James Potter and I don't always find that true."
James smiled and said in a loud voice to gather attention back to himself. "Lily and I have agreed, if he accepts to the responsibility, for Sirius to be our child's godfather."
Sirius fell off the back of the chair in a dead faint.
"It was the word responsibility that knocked him shaky, let me tell you." Sirius struggled awake to Moody's gruff voice. "Ain't never had any responsibility 'afore and that was a little too much for him to handle at one time."
Sirius opened his eyes and was met with a bucket of water being dumped on him.
"Merlin that's cold!" Sirius sat up spluttering and shaking water from his hair, in the process splattering a laughing James and Remus, a bewildered Moody, and a guilty-looking Lily who was standing over him with a bucket in her hand.
"My bad Sirius. I was trying to wake you up. I didn't know you were already awake."
Sirius smiled roguishly and Moony pulled him up. "Yeah well, I shouldn't have passed out. I was just asking for trouble." Everyone laughed and the events of before suddenly triggered in the back of Sirius' mind.
Slowly he turned to James. "Did you just ask me what I think you asked me?" James suddenly looked very serious. "Yes, let's go talk outside."
The two marauders sat outside in the alleyway throwing a muggle bouncy ball back and forth between them. Why Sirius had such a thing in his tuxedo pocket, we'll never know.
If Lily had been there she would have told them not to mess up their new clothes by sitting on the filthy pavement, but Lily wasn't there.
Finally Sirius sighed and caught the bouncy ball. Rolling it around in his palm he looked up. "Why'd you pick me? Moody's right you know. I'm not Mister Responsible. Moony would have been a much better choice as back-up parent."
James picked himself up and dusted off his pants. "First off I've seen you when someone you care about is in trouble. You may slack off and be a lazy bum the rest of the time but when it comes down to the line you are a perfectionist. You were the first one done with your animagus transformation and you got it perfect. Besides you're an auror-in-training and you're one of the fastest wands in the whole department, you should see the senior aurors look at you. They're envious of your ability and that ability is going to keep my child safe."
Sirius flicked his head back and smiled that annoying little half grin that made him look five years younger and made the girls swoon.
"Very flattering Prongs, but what about Moony? He's brilliant when it comes to DADA, I still don't understand, why me?"
"Because Moony, in case you forgot, is a werewolf and not safe around people once a month."
"Oh. Yeah."
James laughed. "I can't believe you forgot about that!"
"Sorry, I'm a forgetful person. What about Peter?" James wrinkled his nose. "Well Peter is a great friend but he doesn't exactly scream parent in my mind, you know?"
Sirius nodded understandingly. "Yeah. So since you presented your case so Slytherinishly I accept your offer." The two friends embraced for a brief moment and walked back inside.
As Sirius opened the door James stopped. "Slytherinishly, did you just make that up?
Sirius raised an eyebrow. "And what if I did?"
Author's Note:
There you go, the Potter wedding where Harry first sees a picture of his parents and Sirius.
Next Chapter: A Savior is Born!
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