Chapter 125: Will You Marry Me?
Jeez. Will James ask or will he not? Lily was pacing around the room, her face was still red from the earlier embarrassment. Not that I'm dying to get married or what. Just that we're only eighteen and there's a long way ahead for us. Sighing, she sat down on the right side of her bed in frustration. Heck! Just take one step at a time. Finally deciding to stop feeling all tensed up, she climbed into bed and hoping that by tomorrow morning everything will be over. She had been thinking about it for about at least fifteen minutes before deciding to let nature take its course. Ya tomorrow will be better. She mumbled repetitively, closed her eyes and tried to sleep.
X
What should I do? James looked at the bouquet of lilies and ring in front of him. He was all alone in the hall, immersed in his own thoughts. Do I want to marry Lily? Am I ready? This is a scary question! He stood up, but sat down again, since he could not decide what to do. Never mind, think about it tomorrow. He got up again and started heading towards his room. As he walked past Lily's bedroom, he slowed down his pace, staring at the closed door. Never mind, I'll ask tomorrow. He heaved a sigh of relief at his decision and made his way to the room.
"So how was it?" Sirius asked the moment James' entered the room.
"Did I enter the wrong room?" James looked around. "Hey, this is my room. What are you two doing on my bed?"
"Aren't you spending your time in Lily's room?" Sirius asked cheekily grinning away.
"Don't tell us that you never even ask her!" Remus sat up and glared at James.
"I-I ask her tomorrow." James put down the bouquet and ring on the table and walked straight into the room.
"Not so fast." Sirius and Remus exchanged a wink. Then they jumped off the bed instantly and grabbed onto each of James' arms.
"What are you two trying to do?" James was being dragged out of his room, and along the way they shoved the flowers and box onto his hands once again.
"To tie a knot." Remus answered with a smile. James was too flustered to catch the meaning behind the phrase. Then with a swing they sent him backwards towards Lily's door. Luckily he managed to stabilize himself without crashing into Lily's room.
"Do you want us to knock for you or you do it yourself?" Sirius bent forward and asked in a very soft voice. Lily would be able to hear them clearly if they were making a din in the hallway.
"No, it's ok." He held out his hands in a surrendering gesture. "I'll do it myself." James mumbled inaudibly and feeling rather defeated. He dragged himself closer to Lily's door and stood there, in a loss of words.
Just then, a loud banging sound could be heard on Lily's door. James turned around and saw Sirius' and Remus' heads sticking out from a small gap in his bed room.
"What are you two trying to do?" James turned around and hissed at his two smirking friends.
X
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Woah! What's going on?" Lily bolted upright on her bed. She was nearly asleep when the loud banging sound came about.
BANG! BANG!
"Coming!" Lily shouted. "Jeez, who is knocking the door so loudly at night?" She opened the door and heard the door opposite hers shut with a slam. James was standing at the doorway with a bouquet of flowers. "What's going on?" She scratched her head in puzzlement.
"Can we talk inside?" James blushed as he said those words. "Erm, sorry about the knocking. It was Sirius."
"Haha, I think only he is capable of doing that kind of deafening bangs." Lily was still hugging onto her pillow as she sat down on the edge of her bed. "So what's up?" She was too sleepy to notice that James had performed a silencing charm in the room, non-alohomora locking charm, anti-apparation protection charm, and privacy charm with his hands. Last but not least, he cast alert charms by the door and windows to prevent any possibility of being eavesdrop, which his friends were famous for.
"Erm." James paused, thinking what he should do next. He walked closer and handed Lily the bouquet of flowers, and showing her the ring. "Will you marry me?"
"What!" Lily thought she was hearing things and woke up in a shock.
"I asked, will you marry me?" James repeated, sounding a little gentler.
"Why so sudden?" Lily questioned. It was unlike James to do something like that.
"I don't know. I supposed I want to." James admitted. "You don't know what happened to me after you left just now." He sat down on the bed beside her.
"What happened?" Lily was now very awake to hear the joke which she was part of the victim. James started telling her the details, until the part he was being threatened in his own bedroom. At the end of it, Lily was laughing so hard that her face was turning quite red. "That's so funny! I can totally imagine what happened." Lily was still laughing as she spoke. "Poor fella. Being forced to do things he don't want to."
"Well, I-" James started.
"It's okay. I'll try not to embarrass you tomorrow morning." Lily interrupted. "Sorry but that was really funny to hear." She ruffled his hair for awhile. "It's time you get back to sleep."
"I've been kicked out from my own room and I know Sirius and Remus will not allow me in if I don't ask." James spoke as if he had forgotten the real mission of entering Lily's room.
"Okay, you've asked. Feel free to sleep on the couch or you can just conjure a mattress on the floor." Lily climbed into the bed again.
"Actually if I ask, will you agree?" James leaned forward moving closer to Lily who was now lying down.
"Huh?" Lily was a little surprised at the sudden change of tone. "Hmm.. I don't know. We're still so young and everything. Not ready, I supposed."
"Actually this ring belongs to Remus. He wanted to ask Stef to marry him ever since we graduated, but he always felt that the time is not right or they were not ready. And now.." James stopped; Lily could guess the following part of the story. "It's quite sad to hear about that. Remus never told us about this."
"I'm sure if he had asked, Stefanie would have agreed immediately." Lily thought of her best friend, and tried to imagine her reaction.
"How about you?" James reverted the question back to her.
"I don't know. I don't think I'm ready. And I know you're not ready for commitments and things like that as well." Lily said rationally. It was true that this was a little sudden for both of them.
"But I'll try my best and be the best husband I can." James spoke with such honesty that Lily found it a little irresistibly touching.
"I don't think I-" Lily started.
"I'll help you. But do you really want to marry me?" James persisted.
"I-" Lily paused and thought really hard about it while avoiding James' gaze.
"Well, it's okay. I won't force you to do things you don't want to do." James sat upright again, looking crestfallen, after a full minute of silence from Lily. Her expression was unreadable, and it looked like she was having an internal debate.
"I actually don't mind." Lily said, gazing straight into his hazel eyes.
"You mean..?" James looked hopeful. He had no idea why he suddenly wanted Lily to say yes. Maybe it was to his male's ego, or perhaps that was his true desire.
"Yeah, why not give it a try?" Lily beamed at him.
"Really?" James took out the ring and held out Lily's left hand. "No regrets?" Lily shook her head, and he inserted the ring into Lily's fourth finger. "I don't know why, but I'm really glad you said yes." He hugged her very tightly.
"Well, you sure you won't regret? That's a whole lot of responsibility and commitment, ya know?" Lily was hugging him back while looking at the new ring on her left ring finger.
"No, I won't. If I don't marry you, no one else will." He joked.
"Hey! I'm very desirable, okay."
X
"Can you hear anything?" Remus whispered. The three of them were now cramming outside Lily's room door trying to hear the conversation going on inside.
"I bet James' must have did some charm on this door." Sirius stood up. "Shall we go by the window?"
"Why don't we try apparating in?" Remus asked a very rational question. "At least it's safer than trying to climb in by the windows."
"That's a bloody brilliant idea." Sirius agreed totally. "Why didn't I think of it sooner?"
"That's because you're a no-brainer." Arabella whispered. "Do you want them to find us snooping around outside here?"
"Oops. I forgot." Sirius mumbled.
"Proves that the conclusion is right." Remus and Arabella exchanged a high five in front of Sirius.
"Hey, I can't seem to apparate inside." Sirius muttered.
"Neither can I." Remus seconded the comment.
"I bet James must have thought that you guys will do something like this." Arabella laughed. "Let's give them some privacy." She started shoving the guys back to Sirius' bedroom.
"Hey, we're not done with them yet." Sirius argued. At least Remus was now on Arabella's side by dragging a struggling Sirius back.
"Belle is right." Remus chuckled. "Let's give them some privacy. We can force Prongs to spill the details tomorrow."
"And I'll get the juicy news from Lily." Arabella laughed. With Remus keeping an eye on Sirius, Arabella turned back to her bedroom smiling away.
X
"Did you hear something?" Lily sat upright in the bed.
"I take that as our friends are trying to eavesdrop on our conversation." James rested his head on both his hands against Lily's pillow.
"I think I better go and make sure they're not there anymore." Lily flipped the covers up when James took her wrist.
"I cast all sort of charms when I entered earlier. There's no way they could have heard our conversation or see what we're doing. There will be an alarm going off if they attempt to enter this room." James commented breezily. "At least I know I learnt something from muggle studies."
"Haha, very funny." Lily laughed. "Wizards have alarming charms too. I didn't graduate from Hogwarts learning nothing." She climbed back beneath the covers and settled herself close to James.
"Really?" James pretended to look surprise. "I never knew that."
"Haha, very funny." Lily settled herself comfortably and slipped her left hand under her pillow.
"Comfy?" James asked softly. They were now facing each other, and he was resting his left hand against Lily's waist.
"Quite." Lily could feel her eyelid's drooping and was suddenly feeling quite sleepy.
"Let's sleep then." James whispered. "Good night." He moved closer to Lily and hugged her close to him.
"Good night, James." Lily mumbled and placed her right hand over James' waist and snuggled closer to his chest.
"Good night, Lily." James kissed the top of her head just before he fell asleep with her.
X
"It's eight in the morning and they're still inside!" Sirius exclaimed while pacing in the dinning hall, waiting for breakfast to be served. "Do you think they had such great sex last night and tire themselves off?"
"From what I know about Lily, I don't think she will have sex with James yet." Arabella looked up sleepily. Sirius had been more excited than anyone about James proposing to Lily as though he was the one getting married. He had been hyperactive and coaxed Remus to play every possible game he could think of during the night before, and then cruelly woke Arabella and dragged her out of bed at six in the morning.
"Why are you so excited anyway?" Remus asked. "You're not the one being proposed anyway." He was resting his head against the dinning table, his eyes closed and hoping to catch some lost sleep.
"I'm going to be the best man of course." Sirius called out. "And I've never been anyone's best man before." Remus and Arabella had ignored him totally and were dozing off in the dining hall. "You two, wake up!" Both of them refused to even open their eyes. "Hey James, how was sex last night?" Sirius shouted randomly. At that instant, Remus and Arabella sat upright and looking wide awake and tried to look for James and Lily in the room. "Gotcha!"
"Sirius, that's not funny." Arabella muttered angrily. "Remus, you should have cursed him to sleep last night."
"I tried, but he confiscated my wand first thing we entered the room, leaving me powerless the whole night!" Remus confessed. After Remus had shoved Sirius back to the room and locked it, Sirius grabbed hold of Remus' wand and kept it with him safely. Being best friends for so many years, they knew what the other party would do in different situations. And in that circumstances, Remus would not hesitate charming him to sleep against his will.
"Jerk. It's unfair he has so much energy." Arabella said to no one in particular and continued dozing off at the dining table.
"Hey Lily, you look gorgeous today!" Sirius called out again. This time, neither Remus nor Arabella stirred.
"You can't use the same trick twice. That doesn't works on Marauders." Remus reminded despite the fact he looked quite sound asleep.
X
Lily was trying to turn around when she felt there was something keeping her from moving too much. She opened her eyes and saw James' sleeping face while his hands were wrapped tightly against her waist. She smiled and touched his face lovingly when he woke up.
"Oops, did I wake you up?" Lily asked. James finally released his grab and turned to face the ceiling.
"No, but your breath stinks, you know." James said bluntly.
"Hey! Yours too, alright?" Lily sat upright and went straight into the bathroom to brush her teeth first.
"Nah." James mumbled and continued sleeping.
"Hooaah!" Lily went back into bed after brushing her teeth twice and rinsing it with mouthwash. She blew a large mouthful of air against James' nose. Her breath definitely smelt better, with the fresh smell of mints. "Haha, you smelly mouth." James opened his eyes a little as it was rather bright for him. Without any warning, he grabbed Lily's head, pulled her mouth to his and blew a strong puff of air into her mouth. "Aaaah!" Lily struggled but James was too strong for her. He blew a few more mouthfuls of smelly breath into Lily's mouth whenever she opened her mouth.
"Now, your breath smells like mine." James laughed in an amused manner.
"Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!" Lily jumped out of bed again. "Disgusting!" She stuck out her tongue and went straight to rinse her mouth. And this time, she brushed her teeth three more times and rinsed it twice with the mint-flavored mouthwash. "That was so disgusting!" Lily went back to bed and kept a safe distance from James before he tried to do the same thing again.
"That's my breath. What's so disgusting about it?" James chuckled. "It's not like you never kiss me before."
"That's not a kiss. You're being very unhygienic." Lily argued back, returning to the lying down position again.
"You gotta get use to that 'coz I'll be waking up next to you for the rest of your life." James said as a matter-of-fact.
"I don't feel very excited about brushing my teeth five times every morning actually." Lily laughed. "You smelly mouth, go brush your teeth first."
"My stuffs are in my room and now I'm in your room." James reminded her. Lily was not a very morning person and she seemed to take some time before registering the fact.
"Oh, that's right. So what shall we do now? Go out of this room together?" Lily asked. "Honestly, I feel like staying in for the whole day."
"I don't mind too. But we definitely need food and drinks and my toothbrush." James turned to face Lily who was lying at an arm's length away from him.
"How're you going to fetch the stuffs over? The summoning charm?" Lily teased. "And they will start to follow the flying food, I assure you. And all the doors and windows are closed, curtains drawn."
"I suddenly thought of something but I'm not sure if that works anymore." James stood up and went to the window. Making sure none of his friends were hovering outside the window in their broomsticks, he summoned for his wand." Once his wand landed on his palm, he closed the windows, re-cast the charms again to seal up the room. "When I was younger, my dad did something to my wand. Not sure what exactly it was, but I was able to get anything and everything without stepping out of my room."
"That sounds cool." Lily was looking rather excited at something new. "What exactly is it?"
"See this." James waved his wand and then a big three-dimensional screen appeared in front of his wand.
"This is your room." Lily commented. James' room was currently empty; at least he was thankful that Sirius and Remus had not been waiting for him in his bedroom. The scene moved along as though they had been walking into his bedroom. "Woah!" James transferred the wand to his left hand while using his right hand, he grabbed some t-shirts and bermudas and boxers from the wardrobe. Then the scene moved along in his bathroom when he took his toothbrush and shower foam along. After taking everything, he waved again then the screen disappeared back into the wand tip. "How did you do that?"
"I don't know either." James replied honestly. "My dad did this to my wand the first time I was grounded by my mum to stay in my bedroom for one week. The only thing he missed out was that I can't walk into the actual scene myself, I can only take the things from inside."
"Then what happens to the actual things that were there? And can anyone see you doing this?" Lily asked.
"The things just disappear from their location mysteriously. I don't know if anyone can see us or what, never been caught doing it before." James shrugged. "I don't use this very often, only when I'm staying in my room for prolong period of time. In fact, I don't think anyone else know about this. Sirius doesn't know for sure and I don't think my dad told my mum about this."
"Cool. I can go and learn about this charm. It can come in useful." Lily said excitedly. "Now how about breakfast?"
James waved his wand again and now the screen popped out showing the entrance into the kitchens. The house-elves did not notice anything out of ordinary as the scene moved inner to the kitchens. They saw the plates of food being arranged on a table magically which would then appear onto their dinning table.
"Yummy." Lily could hear her own stomach growl as she took out two plates of bacon and eggs. Then she helped herself with another plate of buttered toast and sausages. "Is there anything you want?"
"Tea?" James browsed through the selection for breakfast. "Nuggets?" Lily took out the jar of tea and two cups, along with the bottle of sugar and creamer.
"I supposed that's enough for just the two of us." She commented, looking at the filled coffee table beside her.
"That would do for now." James laughed at Lily's enthusiasm in taking breakfast the sneaky way.