Epilogue

Or

Of Cake and Such

"Are you ready?"

"I'm not sure. This is probably our toughest mission yet."

"Definitely our toughest mission yet. We haven't completed our training yet!"

"Good point. Guess we'll have to be on our best behavior."

"Don't you dare," Lily sighed. "If you're on your best behavior, I might end up setting the entire place on fire."

"Oh, sweetheart," James replied with as much fake sweetness as he could possibly muster. "You can't do that! It'll ruin the wedding."

Lily let out a laugh so hearty is sent a shiver through James' spine. "And we can't possibly have that.

"Although," she added in a much more reasonable tone, "she did choose not to make me a bridesmaid. It might actually be the proper response. I'm her sister."

They had already talked about that at length, of course.

"Evans," James warned.

"Ugh. I know, I know. Best behavior."

"Good," James said. "Because if you're on your best behavior, I'll look even more ridiculous, and my goal tonight is to publicly embarrass myself as much as possible."

Lily grinned. The sun shone a little brighter.

He was never going to get used to this feeling.

"Anyway," he continued, "I'm willing to bet I'd embarrass myself no matter what. I've never been to a Muggle wedding, and I don't imagine I'll know what to do with myself."

"You're not alone in that, actually," Lily said, still smiling. "This is my first time at a wedding at all, actually."

"I guess it's good we have Alice and Frank's wedding to look forward to, then," James said. "Because I can't help but feel like this wedding is going to be the death of both of us. And if Alice planned a wedding you don't enjoy, I'm going to die of shock. That said, at least this wedding has to have cake, right?"

Lily nodded, and there was a pleasant break in which she straightened his tie, and then they got distracted, and she had to straighten it again.

"At least I don't have to put any blush on," she sighed immediately after. James thought it might be a content sigh, but that might've been his ego showing, so he decided not to say anything. Instead, he offered his arm to Lily, who entwined it with hers, and together they made their way to face the music.

The wedding was large, and disgustingly extravagant, and according to Lily, paid for exclusively by Petunia's brand new in-laws, who felt some odd need to show off. Among the guests were family, friends, and many, many acquaintances, who didn't seem to be all that friendly with Petunia or Vernon. Lily had theorized that both of them were using the wedding to show off how happy they are to anyone they had ever made miserable in the past. She had also theorized, however, that Petunia was being 'mind controlled' in some fashion, because, as she put it, "Nobody could ever genuinely want to spend the rest of their life with a human whale," so James didn't put that much stock in her theories, as amusing as they happened to be to recollect.

Once the marriage part was over, the fun began. James did his absolute best to mess up any chance he had at conversation with, as he still called him in his head at times, The Whale. This had the double benefit of messing with a deeply unpleasant person and of amusing Lily highly, something that was always at the top of his priorities.

His conversation with Mrs. Evans, however (which he took care to have far, far away from both The Whale and Lily), went very properly. Which was good, because he would hate for his future mother in law to dislike him.

Afterwards, James pulled Lily aside, and they Apparated together. They spent a good few minutes sitting on the steps to Sirius' flat, quietly drinking in the summer night.

Later – soon – they would make their way up to Sirius' flat, where they would probably end up spending the night, although no concrete plans had been made just yet. There, the five of them – Lily and the Marauders – a team – would discuss the wedding, and the ridiculousness of Vernon in that suit, and Oh God, the way he looked when James asked him what a fellytone is; they would make fun of Petunia's bridesmaids, and the awful color of their dresses, which would've contrasted with Lily's hair anyway, Merlin, Lily, Sirius knows more about fashion than you; they would get so drunk that the stress of this war, and the Order, would all come out; and then they would drink even more, and feel all the worry slip out of reach, as they become reckless and stupid – or at least, more reckless and stupid than they already were, the Marauders, and Lily, and all of them in the Order…

But right now they felt the cool breeze, and held each other. And for now, that was enough.

A/N: Boy, this has been a journey. Four and a half years - almost a quarter of the entire time I've been alive, as a twenty-and-a-half-year-old - have been dedicated to this fic. And even though I think the beginning is so cringey, the writing is uneven, and even though I wish there were plotlines that I could erase or redo or actually execute instead of just hint, I'm so glad it's over. I'm so glad because, y'all, I wrote a book. This thing is over 100K words long. This is longer than the Prisoner of Azkaban by a couple thousand words. No, really. My word document says so.

I would like to thank my parents, who have never read a word of this and never will. I want to thank my friends over the years for being there for me, or not being there for me, each doing their part in inspiring me to write this. I want to thank every person who ever broke my heart, and the one boy I kissed in the summer after ninth grade, because it was awful, and I now know never to kiss anybody, ever again. I'd like to thank every reader I've ever had. I'd like to thank both psychologists I've had over the years, and my psychiatrist, for giving me the medication to power through and actually finish this. I want to thank JK Rowling, because despite the fact that she's done a whole bunch of sketchy shit, she's also been an advocate against antisemitism recently, and also, yeah, she wrote Harry Potter. I'd like to thank every terrorist organization that ever threatened to drop a bomb on my house, because you're the reason chapter 36 happened.

And finally, I want to thank Jewels5, for writing The Life and Times and then not updating for several years in a row before ending on the most disappointing note ever, not even showing James and Lily kiss. This fic would not exist if it weren't for you, and at least half of this is a blatant rip off of your work.

Thank you all so much.

Love,

JustGail