A/N: I've changed my mind on the title of this chapter.
---
CHANGES
Lily lay awake on her bed. A shaft of light from the window filtered in through a gap on her bed curtains. When she held her hand up the moonlight hit the ring on her finger in such a spectacular way that she was mesmerized.
If it weren't for this ring she would have never known that like most girls she could turn into jelly at the sight of such an amazing diamond. She turned onto her stomach still inspecting the ring.
He has good taste.
She thought with a girlish giggle. Two marginally smaller ones flanked the centerpiece of a diamond and the three were set in an intricate band of white gold that twisted and twirled into a ring. She quietly giggled some more as she thought back to James' expression of awe and pure surprise when she had nodded. The kiss resurfaced next and she could feel her cheeks grow hot even in the dark and she buried herself into her pillow feeling happily squeamish inside.
With these happy thoughts she finally drifted to a contented sleep.
---
The next day Lily arrived to breakfast late having woken up to an already empty dorm. James was flicking through the paper while everyone ate around him. She glided into the seat beside him still unable to shake off the dream-like state that had arrested her from the night before.
"Morning!" She chirped happily. She received a few grunts from the Marauders with the exception of James who grinned at her widely. "What are you reading?" She asked peering over his paper
"Looking for somewhere to live after graduation." He held the brightly colored page open to her. "What do you prefer? Apartment or house?"
"Hmmm…" Lily very nearly wondered aloud why her preference mattered but the obvious quickly saved her. "Oh…"
Yes, Lily. 'Oh.'
Her sarcastic self commented. After graduation she had no home to go to and now that she had accepted James' proposal…well it would only be natural that they would live together. That brought another type of 'oh' to Lily's mind. Why on earth had something as important as that not occurred to her until now? Suddenly nervous she tugged at a bit of her hair.
Sirius was in the middle of an eye-watering yawn when he choked on air at the sight of her hand, more specifically the exposed ring on her finger.
"Dear Merlin and his beard! Prongs! What got into you?" He demanded loud enough for everyone to turn in their direction with interest. "If Lily falls into the lake with that rock she's gonna drown! Not to mention that the giant squid plus all the mermaids will be insanely jealous!" He announced referring to her ring. He reached over to hold her hand up for all to see while pretending to inspect it. Light reflected off it dangerously drawing even more attention. "Interesting finger to have it on dear Lily!" He added.
People began fluttering over with excitement and Lily snatched her hand back with something like bewilderment settling in as a crowd of thrilled girls closed in. James was giving Sirius the evil eye and his friend responded with a clear 'so what?' look.
"I take it all is well." Remus asked mildly.
"All was well." James grimaced as Sirius jumped to his feet and began flagging as many people over as he could.
"Congratulations mate!" Remus slapped James on the back hard. "Everything has finally fallen into place!" He smiled broadly at Lily and leaned over the table. "Don't worry, you've made a fine choice!" he whispered but pulled away quickly as one of the Gryffindor girls squealed at an alarming octave and dove at Lily.
James was quickly shoved aside by an army of girls. Even Peter, Sirius and Remus were shoved well out of the way and had to shuffle quite a way down the table. James would have tried fetching Lily but the wall of girls that appeared in front of him was rather scary.
"OH MY GOSH! LEMME SEE! THAT RING IS HUGE! DOES THAT MEAN THAT IT'S TRUE? DID JAMES REALLY PROPOSE?"
"HOW DID HE DO IT? WHAT DID HE SAY?"
"DID HE REALLY PROPOSE IN CLASS IN FRONT OF EVERYONE?"
Too much was happening in one go. Lily turned left then right, back and then forwards as everyone tried to talk to her and ask questions all at once. She swore that she even heard someone ask what her answer was but she was thankfully saved from answering.
"DUH! THE RING IS ON HER FINGER WHAT DO YOU THINK?"
"WHEN'S THE WEDDING?"
"CAN I BE YOUR BRIDE'S MAID?"
Lily's ears began to hurt. "Ask HIM!" She stuck her hand in the air and waved it in his direction. James wanted to cower behind the paper but luckily for him, none of the girls even gave him a second glance. They all wanted the first hand account from the young bride-to-be.
Only towards the end of breakfast time did the crowd thin out and the guys dared to return. By this time Lily was in a state of mild shock. "That was really, really, really scary."
James nodded in agreement hoping that she hadn't spotted him hide behind the paper.
She pulled off the ring. "Here! You wear it!"
James looked horrified. He proposed yesterday and now she was already returning the ring to him?
"Put it back on." A cool female voice came from behind. Lily and James swiveled to find Rosie standing there arms half crossed with a small smile. A voluntary smile from her was so rare that Lily wordlessly slid the ring back on. "It must have taken a lot to make you put it on in the first place and I know that you wouldn't like to see it come off so easily." She said.
James almost applauded her. It did take an awful lot to get her to put the ring on and he hoped that she was right and it wouldn't come off too easily. "Congratulations on your engagement." She said evenly.
Lily's jaw dropped as realization hit her like a stunner. "Bloody hell! You're absolutely right! I'm engaged now!" She had been so caught up with the proposal that any thoughts for the implications hadn't quite sunk in yet, hence the 'oh' over the house preference earlier on.
Sirius sniggered. "I see that you did a wonderful job there, Prongs! The girl didn't even know that she was engaged!" James blushed uncharacteristically and Lily realizing her faux pas jumped back in to correct it.
"That's not what I meant! I know I'm engaged but I just didn't know know. And now I do, well kinda, but I'm getting used to the idea…" She stuttered. Sirius had one eyebrow raised to her nonsensical sentence and she decided to give up on explaining her rather complicated and confused feelings. More to the matter, James looked like he might have a cardiac arrest if she continued. "Just shut up, Sirius."
Sirius gave her wide eye wonder. "Oh my! Jumping to his defense already?"
"Shut up!" James and Lily said in unison.
Sirius stared back at them mouth agape. "That's just scary." He made an elaborate show of shuddering. "The next thing will be matching robes, just you wa-"
"POTTER! BLACK!" McGonagall barked from behind.
"AYHH- " The whole row of students jumped and someone quickly stifled a surprised yelp by clearing their throat. Even Rosie stood a little straighter; she took pride in being a girl that never let her imagination run wild before her but she swore that she could see hot air escape from the Deputy Head's flared nostrils. Were it not for her pressed robes and polished exterior she would have passed very well for a deranged Hippogriff.
James and Potter swiveled to meet McGonagall's glare and wordlessly pointed at each other in a mutual 'whatever it was, it was his fault!'
Lily saw this and covered her smile with a hand; already she was sorting through possible scenarios and contemplating how best to get them away with as light of a punishment as possible. In the past she might have crossed her arms with satisfaction that the Marauders were getting their comeuppance but now it seemed that they had won her over completely.
She nudged Remus lightly. "What did they do this time?" she mouthed to him. He gave a little shrug and continued to sip his coffee for he had seen it many times.
"There's no need for pointing fingers." The Professor said briskly the two. "When things go awry it usually happens that you are all responsible."
Remus coughed into his coffee before clearing his throat carefully. It seemed that 'all' definitely included him too even if she did not bark out his name.
Sirius appeared to be put out by all sorts. 'Awry' He was expecting something more like 'catastrophic' although 'disastrous' would have been okay. Anyhow, it looked like he had to step it up if he was to leave a permanent mark on good old Hoggy Warts history and perhaps a big fat splotch on McGonagall's sanity. Maybe he should set Snape's greasy hair alight? It wouldn't be too hard and it would be rather amusing even if it did get him drop kicked out of the school. Nah that would suck, he decided. Getting kicked out of anywhere because of Snape was not worth it. His entertaining trail of imagination ground to a stop leaving him with wistful ideas.
McGonagall glared at them somewhat dismayed that their previously rapt attention was already failing. James was scratching his head absent-mindedly and she could already see Sirius' attention drifting off. With a sigh she wondered if there would ever be anything that got through to her most troublesome pair of students. It was suddenly overwhelming that these young men were no longer the boys she once had under he care no matter how she treated them. There was no doubt that they were more than ready to leave the school and embark on the rest of their lives, no doubt terrorizing the rest of the wizarding world with their mischievous ways while they were at it.
McGonagall unconsciously touched her throat as she often did when James and Sirius were the topic of a matter. It was something developed reflexively perhaps to stop herself from throttling them. At times you could say that they were the bane of existence but now she was oddly proud of them especially with the news she had for them.
"You've both applied to train as Aurors?" It wasn't a question really since she was the one who wrote their references and corrected their personal statements in the application process. She thought guiltily to her quill hovering over the parchment while she pondered what and more specifically, how much to write about them. It wasn't as if she had lied in the references; the pair were remarkably skilled wizards with plenty of wits to throw about, maybe a little too much giving them a troublesome edge at being roguish but just because she happened to omit that fine detail in the reference it didn't mean that she was lying. Sure the pair could be a handful but they were damn good wizards and she would rather lose her teaching credentials than see the Ministry lose out on recruiting talent such as theirs.
"Have you got good news?" Lily asked anxiously although James and Sirius continued to look as untroubled as ever.
McGonagall allowed a small smile. "Indeed. Both Mr. Potter and Mr. Black have passed the initial sorting and will soon have to prepare for interviews." She also gave Rosie a small nod to tell her that she too had passed although no one save Rosie saw it.
James and Sirius exchanged one look before giving each other a celebratory palm slap. "Excellent!" They chimed.
"However-"
"Ah, here we go. There's the 'however, if you wanna join us you've gotta strip naked and do a monkey dance or something'." Sirius sighed dramatically. "The things we do to get into the ministry…"
"However," McGonagall continued more forcefully. "Hogwarts will shortly be receiving a guest who will be examining candidates."
"As part of the selection process? I don't think that they've ever done that before." Lily noted surprising McGonagall somewhat. If there was anything that she relied on, it was James and Sirius' extremely laid back attitude to almost everything. She hadn't been expecting questions on the arrangement and given the circumstances she thought it was best that the students thought it was part of the standard Auror selecting protocol.
"Nevertheless, I want you two to treat our guest with utmost respect as you may find out soon enough that he has very little patience for games and tricks." She warned.
Sirius snorted. "Sounds like a boring old fart."
"Dare you say that to his face then I'm quite sure you will be given an appropriate response." She said coolly. Sirius grinned, now that sounded a lot like a challenge to him, he made a mental note: call guest an old fart and see what happens.
"Professor, do you know who the examiner is?" Lily asked.
"Yes, as a matter of fact I do. His name is Alastor Moody. An old friend of Headmaster Dumbledore's might I add."
If possible Sirius grinned wider, if she was hoping to deter him by putting Dumbledore in his face she was quite wrong.
"Mad Eye Moody?" James said thoughtfully. "My parents talk about him all the time, best Auror the Ministry has ever known."
"Hmmm…" Lily was suddenly worried for James and Sirius. From what she'd read about the Auror Moody, he was not someone to play coy with and the twosome were all about playing coy just to see if they could get away with it. Still, she never knew that Aurors actually turned up at schools to examine candidates; it must be a new thing. "What do the candidates have to do?"
"The Headmaster has decided that this year the candidates will take over one lesson each; teaching a class of younger years any topic they may choose within the subject boundaries. The examiner will simply observe."
"Sounds straight forward enough. Will the Professors watch too?" James asked. If anything it seemed too simple. He was prepared for a hardcore interview that was both physically and mentally taxing in every way, it was no small rumor about how insanely hard it was to become an Auror. Little did he know that all of that fun was yet to come.
McGonagall shook her head. "No, it will just be the examiner. But I'm warning you two now, if anything goes wrong I will have you in detention for the rest of your natural lives."
Lily's heart sank with dismay. So many things could go wrong in so many different ways especially with those two involved.
James rubbed the back of his head. Threats were nothing new to him. "Have they allocated our subjects yet?"
"Yes, James you have to teach a lesson in Defense Against the Dark Arts and Sirius you have Transfiguration. Rose, you shall teach Charms."
Sirius chocked on air. "She's applied to be an Auror too?" he asked incredulously. Rosie sent him an acid stare and McGonagall ignored his question altogether.
"I would like to remind you Sirius, that you still owe me a presentation report." She said firmly but Sirius was already looking elsewhere. "BLACK!" She barked and he turned to look at her as if surprised that she was still standing there.
"I'm sorry, Professor." He began tragically, "It's just that I can't seem to concentrate, you know with James' engagement and all! I'm going to be Best Man you see!"
"Hey, I thought we all were!" Peter suddenly said and Sirius only winked at him. It appeared that all he wanted to do was distract McGonagall from the whole homework issue and to his surprise it seemed to work remarkably well.
Lily saw her press her thin mouth into a line while her sharp eyes slid to the exposed ring on her finger. "Congratulations." She said at last, her expression unreadable until it melted to a suppressed smile. "It brings joy to me in ways I cannot express." Her words were truly heartfelt and coming from McGonagall Lily felt that it was even more precious.
"Thank you." James said and she echoed.
McGonagall nodded and swept away leaving them to stare after her.
"She's not as cold as she makes herself out to be." James observed. Lily couldn't agree more. "But first things first, how the hell am I supposed to teach?"
"You'll be fine." Lily automatically reassured.
Sirius nodded enthusiastically. "Yea, trust me, teaching will be a doddle!"
"What are you gonna do?"
Sirius shrugged. "Oh this and that. This is a button, point my wand and now this is a beetle, and as soon as they get bored I'll start transfiguring the students. That will keep them on their toes. If you get it wrong then I'll turn you into a chair etc etc."
James chuckled. "McGonagall is gonna kill you."
"Just as well that she won't be there!"
"So that's why she shouts at us like that." James said thoughtfully. "It's like she's pre-shouting at us."
"What a waste of breath, she's only gonna do it all again afterwards!"
"She's just used to shouting at you lot." Lily said. "Heaven knows I should be shouting at you all the time too!"
---
McGonagall hurried away to the Headmaster's tower. Lily was right; it was unheard of that the Ministry would ever send a representative to examine students at the school for entry into Auror training for the simple fact that it has never happened. The test itself was real enough but the reason behind it was not.
The Headmaster has long thought that a few of his best students would be an invaluable asset to the Order. However, other members had reservations against recruiting members so young but the Order where in dire need of manpower. McGonagall herself had rather mixed opinions on the matter. She could see the necessity and was a witness herself to how resourceful the few students that the Headmaster had in mind were but the danger was great.
"A very good morning to you, Minerva." Dumbledore greeted her warmly.
"And to you, Albus."
As always the Headmaster was calm and collected and for once McGonagall felt unsettled by his air of tranquility. "I don't think it's too good of an idea anymore, Albus. The Order can look elsewhere for members." She said, as always she was straightforward and to the point.
Dumbledore raised a bushy white eyebrow in polite question.
McGonagall grimaced. "I know that you had great hopes in James and Lily…" She trailed off uncomfortably.
"Not just James and Lily, but Sirius, Remus and Rose too." He said helping her along.
"Sometimes I wonder if we are doing the right thing. They are so young."
"Age can mean very little."
"James and Lily, they're getting married." She said abruptly. "If anything were to happen, I…"
"I see." The Headmaster said quietly and a full minute passed before he spoke again. "But perhaps we may think of it another way. It may give them strength."
"How can it?"
"Getting married doesn't make hardship go away. I think that they will see that too. If anything it will give them something to protect, their happiness. We all already know the importance that it holds in each of our hearts."
"Once more if Moody agrees after meeting them then it is entirely in their own hands to choose whether to join the Order. Loyalty is only ever true if it is voluntary."
"And you have no doubt that Moody will agree, that I can see."
Dumbledore admitted as such. "Moody is precautious but he will eventually see the reasoning by which I stand by. We need the help of these young people."
McGonagall sighed with heavy resignation. Once the invitation was extended by the Order she knew that none of them would decline it. The students were a good bunch and would do what they believed was right. She knew that their loyalty to Dumbledore was as sure as her own and they would not hesitate to make a stand against Voldemort. "What happens after that? The students will undoubtedly agree to join the order. How then will you approach Lily and Remus? They have not applied to train as Aurors and that is the only excuse we have come up so far for Moody to come within contact with them without appearing too suspicious."
"I was rather hoping that once James, Sirius and Rosie join it would open a way for them. Once Moody ascertains their abilities the Order will hopefully be more open. It is all that we can do at the moment to introduce the students."
"I understand."
Dumbledore gave a little sigh too. "Minerva I agree completely with your worries. Could I have my way I would bear it all myself but I am but one wizard and there are times that we must admit that we are all in need of a helping hand."
"I know. I know, Albus." McGonagall said sadly. She only knew too well.
---
Sometime later James and Lily sat together idly chatting in front of the roaring fireplace in the Common Room. For a while both secretly thought that their small little world was perfect. Life went on as usual but it seemed like such an alien thing, something that they knew existed but was momentarily unimportant for once.
Comfortable was the word that best described them at this point. James for his part was stretched out lazily across the wide sofa with his legs propped up on the rectangular tea table. One languid arm draped loosely across Lily who was half curled against him.
This, he decided, was definitely a perfect night in. Okay, so there were screaming first years all over the room and a massive Marauder style Exploding Snap mini tournament in the corner but given his state it didn't take much to ignore them.
Lily shifted slightly and her hair brushed against his nose, tickling him enough to encourage an almighty sneeze.
"Sorry!" He said and they both shifted back into position again.
"Bless you." She said automatically.
"Why?"
"Never mind." She replied not too bothered in explaining. Instead she continued with her sketching.
"What are you drawing?" He asked pushing his chin down to look at the pad of cartridge paper that she had precariously balanced on his stomach. It was a very lazy way of drawing if he must say so himself and he was proud. Lily never did any thing lazy, that is, unless she was with him. He kinda liked being a table for Lily although he couldn't figure how she managed it. With her face leaning against his right shoulder she only held out her hand to sketch and he had to hold the pad steady over stomach so it didn't slide everywhere.
"Athistle." She murmured.
He nodded thoughtfully. "Bookle warp."
"What?"
"Precisely."
She gave a small laugh. "It's a plant used in Healing." She explained.
"Cool, just as long as it isn't a Porptule."
She smiled and continued to pencil in the graceful lines of the leaves. They fell into a comfortable quiet until James spoke again.
"Can I ask you something?"
"Mmm hmm."
"Why did you say yes? Not that I'm trying to make you change your mind in any way of course!" He added hastily.
"To what?"
James had to resist rolling his eyes. It can't have been that much of a life changing question if the girl could keep forgetting about it! "That." He said pointing to her ring.
"Oh! That!" Lily felt rather than saw James smile.
"Yes, that."
"Hmmm…that's easy."
"It is?" For the life of him he couldn't recall which part of it being easy.
"I figured that if I said no then lots of girls would suffer, but if I said yes than I would be the one who suffered." She answered playfully.
"I'm very impressed." He said going along with what he hoped was a joke. "Very noble of yourself to sacrifice like that for the greater good."
"Of course."
"So how come lots of girls would suffer if you said no then?"
She shifted so that she could look up at him. "Couldn't resist could you?" she teased.
"'Course not! So go on, explain."
She sighed. "Well, with your tally-"
"Hey, there weren't that many-" One look from Lily stopped him. "There weren't." He insisted regardless.
"Really? I seem to remember quite a few." She started to count names, ticking them off on her fingers as she went. "And I think these were only the ones that I noticed when I bothered to check that you were still alive. Not that it was hard when you're an irritating little toe rag day in day out."
James thought and did a mental tally of himself. She was right, there were quite a few that she'd left out but some things are best left unsaid. He decided to allow her jibe; after all it didn't take an idiot to know that the fastest way to get rid of a girl was to start talking about exes. Now that he knew what he mustn't do it was down to whether Lily would let it drop. Who was he kidding, of course she wouldn't!
"So?"
"So what?" He feigned dumb. The best thing he for him to do was pretend complete ignorance to the topic.
"How come there were so many?" She persisted.
Oh shit. There were many answers to such a question but most of them were probably the wrong ones. He was about to reply with 'because you didn't want to go out with me' but somehow he knew that it wasn't the right one.
"Uh…" he started, stalling for time. "Because…"
"Because?" She prompted.
Shit.
"Uh…" He considered keeling over like he did the last time he was caught in a dead end but he had a feeling that Lily wouldn't fall for it a second time.
"Yes?"
"I…I guess I wanted to know that you were the one for me." He started awkwardly. "From the first day of school when I saw you it was like BAM! This is your life James Potter; this is the girl for you! It was just so completely sudden that even I had doubts, especially after that massive slap. Maybe at some point I'd hit my head or you'd hit me extra hard and I got it into my head that you were for me? True, I went out with other people but I realized that there was always something off. There wasn't that feeling…Yea, that feeling. How can I explain it? It's like this extra special thing that wouldn't go away even when you almost slapped my face off…" He trailed off and Lily could see him thinking hard for the right explanation.
He didn't go on to remind her how the first slap had happened but Lily remembered it well enough. As usual he had been a bit of a prat and Lily was feeling a tad sensitive that day and it ended up with a rather violent response that she admitted might have been a small overreaction. "Well, you was a bit of an arrogant piece of snot that day." She commented drawing James out of his thoughts.
"That's a lovely compliment to give to your husband." It seemed that his future wife wasn't in the least abashed about kicking the ego of her husband into the ground. In fact he suspected that she rather enjoyed it.
Lily looked quite taken aback. "Husband?" She gulped.
Having observed her reaction he let out an exaggerated sigh. "When is it ever gonna sink in?"
"Oh, quit acting like a tragic victim!" she scolded with a laugh.
He took her about the shoulders. "You, Lily Evans, are going to be the wife of James Potter and he's gonna be your husband." He stated gravely.
"With the amount of times I keep saying this I'm gonna start sounding like Sirius but bloody hell!"
---
A/N: Hope you enjoyed! It's click the review button time! The next chapter is WAND ASTRAY.
