A/N: In my last chapter, Lily arrived at the conference room at St. Mungo's at seven fifty-five, not eight fifty-five. Sorry if I confused anyone and thanks to Aquarius21 for the heads up! Keep up the reviews!

Talks, Plans, and Parties

Lily, Alice, and Dorcas walked into Dorcas's apartment soon after their Order meeting had ended. The three friends were still reeling from the news that they had been told only over an hour ago. Their fellow Order member Benjy Fenwick had been killed last night. But the most disturbing bit was that they had only found "pieces of him" as Moody had put it. There had been yet another Death Eater attack and only a few of the Order members had been called.

Lily and Alice practically fell around the living room, they didn't even make it to any of the furniture and instead found a comfy piece of floor to lay on. Dorcas, on the other hand, made a quick stop in her kitchen to grab a bottle of wine and three glasses. Once she had returned to her friends, she wordlessly poured the wine and distributed the glasses.

No one spoke for a while, until Alice broke the silence. "Where's Elizabeth?"

But before anyone could reply, Elizabeth herself apparated into the living room. Lily was about to tell Elizabeth that she had nearly given her a heart attack, but stopped at the look on her friend's face: she seemed as though she would break down into tears as and minute.

"What happened, Liz?" asked Dorcas as she stood and guided her roommate to the couch.

"My mother is stupid," she replied as she sunk on the couch.

"You gotta be more specific, sweetheart," Lily said kindly as she and Alice moved closer to Elizabeth.

"You guys know how Remus and I went over to my parents house last night to get the whole 'meet the parents' thing outta the way," she began. "I thought everything went great, but I went back over there again tonight to see what they really thought of him. Well, only my mum was home but she said that Remus was a gentleman and that she thought he was really great. So we started talking about our relationship. Then my mother got the brilliant idea to ask how far our relationship has 'progressed' as she said. And I was stupid enough to tell her that I love him" Elizabeth smiled slightly before her anger took over.

"But then she said she was talking about our physical relationship."

"What did you do?" Alice asked, though she thought she had an idea.

"Well, after I realized she was being serious, I flew off the handle, saying it was between me and Remus and it certainly wasn't any of her business, which led to a row and then I just got sick of it, so I apparated here."

"That kinda sounds like what happened with me and my mum," said Lily. "After my lovely sister told my mother that James and I were having sex, she called me and I nearly hung up on her."

They were quite for a while before Elizabeth asked if they had found anything out. Lily, Alice, and Dorcas had confided in Elizabeth about the Order, and she regularly asked if anything was new. And while they couldn't tell her much, they could tell her about the most recent casualty. They told Alice the general outline of how Benjy Fenwick had been killed, which was all they actually knew, before they lapsed into silence once more.

Suddenly Lily gave an odd noise; it was half a sigh, half a laugh. The other three looked at her questioningly.

"And to think, this time last night I was worrying about who my boyfriend's best friend is sleeping with," Lily said with a slight smirk on her face before she finished off her glass.

"Who is Sirius sleeping with?" asked Alice, feeling slightly like a gossiping school girl as she and the others sat up a little straighter.

"Simone Lyn," said Lily as she poured herself another glass of wine.

"That's what Simone meant yesterday," Elizabeth burst out, "We'll be seeing a lot of each other! They must have had the date planned sometime before then."

"Wait - am I missing something here?" asked Alice.

"Oh yeah - I haven't told you guys yet." said Lily as she launched into the stories of her first day of training and the information James had told her this morning.

"But James said that it was just a one night stand." said Alice, sounding confused.

"I guess that's the problem." When she got odd looks from her friends, she continued, "Don't forget that James and I started out as a one night stand."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much, Lil" said Dorcas comfortingly. "The most this fling - if you can even call it that - will last is two, three weeks at the very, very most."

"You really shouldn't take it to hard," Elizabeth chimed in.

"I know, but I just really don't like her."

"But you've gotta be the bigger person, Lil," Elizabeth went on. "Just be polite, almost to the point of annoyingly polite. And all those little things she's just bound to do to get you riled up, you can just bitch to us about later." she added with a smirk

"Oh yeah, and don't ask about Sirius; knowing her, she'll give you way too many details" added Alice.

Lily smiled as she took another sip of wine before Dorcas changed the subject. "So, Lily, have you even started looking for the wedding dress yet?"

"Well, if window shopping counts, then yes,"

"We should go shopping on Saturday," said Alice. "You know, just to look around. Have you decided on wizarding robes or a Muggle dress?"

"Not yet. What do you guys think?"

"It would be cool if you went with a Muggle dress." said Elizabeth. "It would kinda show that you haven't forgotten about your Muggle background."

Lily nodded in agreement. Ever since she was a little girl (when her and her sister could actually have a civilized conversation) Lily had dreamed of having the huge white wedding gown. And just because she was a witch didn't mean she still couldn't have one.

Alice glanced at her watch. "As much as I don't want to leave, I probably should. It's nearly midnight."

"Yeah, I need to get a few hours sleep before I face Simone again.

After they bid their friends goodbye, Lily and Alice disapparated to their respective homes.

000

Lily, Alice, Dorcas, and Elizabeth met at noon in the Leaky Cauldron for lunch before they set off into Diagon Alley. They ducked into a few of the stores, just to look around. It wasn't very often that they were all together anymore, so they decided to take full advantage of today.

Finally, they made it into Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. There were a few younger children with their parents, who, Lily assumed, were doing some early shopping for Hogwarts' supplies. As soon as Madam Malkin had seen them, she asked, "Are you here to pick up your robes?" she asked Alice, Dorcas, and Elizabeth. They glanced at each other before they nodded: this hadn't been why they had come, but they might as well get their bride's maid's robes while they were here.

Lily wondered over to the wedding robes while Madam Malkin went to the back to get her friends' robes. As Alice, Dorcas and Elizabeth tried on their hunter green robes, Lily looked at nearly every one of the wedding robes and could barely tell one from the other, they were so similar. Nothing, not one of these struck her as being The One.

"So, Lil, what do you think?" called Dorcas from around the shop.

She turned around to see her friends dressed in identical, deep green robes with a square necks, long, bell sleeves and hems that swept the floor. Lily smiled. "You guys look great!"

After admiring each other from nearly every angle, Lily paid for the dresses and they all apparated back to Lily's apartment. After she put the robes into her spare bedroom, which held everything else that dealt with the wedding, Lily returned to her living room where her friends were waiting for her.

"So now where do we go?" asked Alice Lily.

"Well, there is a Muggle bridal store just down the road. Should we start there?" Alice, Dorcas, and Elizabeth nodded before they all made their way into Muggle London.

They had no problem finding Rosalyn's Bridal. As soon as they entered the store, a blonde, highly enthusiastic woman named Marie showed Lily and her friends to the section of the store that seemed to be filled with what seemed like over a hundred types of wedding gowns.

"Did you have any particular type of style in mind?" Marie asked Lily.

"Not really,"

"Well, about you and your friends just start looking around and if you see one that you want to try on, just let me know and I'll set you up in a dressing room."

Lily nodded her thanks before she started searching in the sea of white. After about twenty minutes, Lily had picked out five dresses. Marie, Lily, and the five dresses had disappeared to a back portion of the store while Alice, Dorcas and Elizabeth waited in front of a three way mirror.

The first dress was a form-fitting and strapless. While it looked great on the hanger, Lily felt more like a slut than a bride. Lily and her friends took one look at each other before Lily shook her head and hurried back to the dressing room as her friends quickly stifled their laughter. After Marie would help get Lily into each dress, Lily gave them a quick modeling show. The second was long sleeved and extremely poofy. While the girls, including Marie, thought she looked great, Lily thought looked like a big snowball - that was two down. The third had thin spaghetti straps, but way to many ruffles and frills - too over the top. The fourth was a very plain, haltered top, too plan in fact. She was starting to think she was too picky for her own damn good.

But as soon as she tried on the final one she had picked out, she knew this one was the one. The top would have looked like a sleeveless top, but their was a piece on each side that fell just off her shoulders. Its neckline was low, but not too low, showing a slight glimpse of cleavage. Intricate beading covered most of the top, traveled down the torso of the dress, and tapered off as the lower half grew wider. It had a few layers of material under the lower half of the dress, which gave Lily the impression of a bell.

Lily walked into the section of the store where Alice, Dorcas and Elizabeth were all waiting. As soon as they saw Lily, they all smiled broadly.

"Oh, Lily," cooed Dorcas, "You look amazing!"

"You think so?" she asked as she slowly turned around in front of the mirror, viewing the corset- like back.

"Absolutely" said Alice and Elizabeth together.

After a little more discussion, Lily decided that this was the perfect dress. And because it fit perfectly, Lily was able to put a down payment on it and take it back to her apartment.

000

The next few months passed in a haze for Lily. What with a wedding to plan, working alongside Simone nearly every day, having to listen to her mother about how happy Petunia and Vernon were, and slowly moving all of James's stuff into her apartment, she was too stressed to do much of anything else. By the end of October, everything dealing with the wedding was set: robes (and a wedding gown) were bought, seating charts were made, and invitations were sent. And being the good person that she was, she even sent an invitation to her sister...well, her mother had all but made her, and she knew that Petunia would never come, but none the less, she sent one. And just as she thought, Petunia had written her a very short and formal note saying that her and Vernon would be out of town on that day and would be unable to attend. Lily had even invited Simone, but only because she knew that if she didn't, she would probably go as Sirius's date anyway.

And that was another thing; Simone and Sirius. They were still together. No one, not even James, would have ever thought this relationship would last longer than a few weeks. And as much as Lily hated to admit it, Sirius did seem happier. He had fallen into a slight depression when he realized that James was no longer going to be his room mate. Lily was hoping that Sirius was just trying to cheer himself up by being with Simone. James was betting on Sirius getting bored and moving on within the next few weeks, and Lily believed him. After all, James probably knew Sirius better than Sirius knew himself.

The Saturday night before the wedding, Alice, Dorcas, and Elizabeth (along with Sirius, Remus and Peter) had planned bachelorette and bachelor parties, respectively. They had decided to have them a week before the wedding because they had figured it would take them about a week to recover from their hangovers they were bound to have. Their was only one rule to these parties – don't ask, don't tell.

The girls all headed over to Dorcas and Elizabeth's apartment were they spent the rest of the night drinking in excess talking about their favorite subject to talk about when guys are not around: sex. Everything was out in the open from positions, to foreplay, to techniques, to any and every thing else. The girls had even gone together and gotten Lily a few presents; two pairs of fuzzy handcuffs and some lacy lingerie.

And nearly the same thing happened with the guys, except for twomajor differences. There were no funny gifts, but there was a blonde stripper named Candy.