Chapter Twenty-Four
August the Ninth, Nineteen Hundred Seventy-Nine
"Where are the girls?" James said, hands resting on his knees tiredly. He had just apparated into the receiving room of the Maddux home, that had become a secondary headquarters, it would appear, for the younger members of the Order at Dumbledore's direction, insisting they were safer if they remained together as much as possible. Remus, Peter, Sirius, and Frank Longbottom had arrived at about the same time having just left a confrontation with the Death Eaters, this time in a Muggle shopping centre. They had all committed to apparating out once they reached open space, but it appeared that some had lagged behind.
"Girls? I thought they were right behind us --"
"Don't suppose you mean me," Alice said, appearing in the center of the room with a slight stumble. "Davie ran back in to look for any injured Muggles and Lily ran in after her --"
With a loud crack, Lily and Davie appeared about a foot away from Alice, with Davie clutching her face, her teeth bared in pain.
"Episkey!" Lily said quickly, pointing her wand at Davie's face, which was covered in blood on one side -- wiping the blood with her sleeve, everyone on the room caught sight of a wound running alongside her right eye stitching itself up.
"We were supposed to be running!" Lily said breathlessly, staring at Davie as though she were a ghost. "Why did you go back?"
"I thought I heard someone," Davie said, looking slightly dazed from the ordeal, still wiping at her face, clearing the blood that had obscured her vision. "They were burning down the shop and I heard someone inside and I couldn't--"
"It's because they know what your weakness is," Sirius spoke up, not approaching Davie for the sake of not getting too angry with her for what she'd done. "They killed your parents, they knew you would come running back--"
"I'm not stupid!" Davie snapped heatedly, getting up and storming off towards the kitchen, leaving everyone looking slightly exasperated at the pair. Lily shot Sirius and aggrieved glance for not being able to hold his tongue until Davie's nerves had settled; then, she hurried off after her best friend, shutting the door behind them.
"You really ought to have left when we gave the signal," Lily said in a chiding, almost motherly voice, walking over and touching Davie's arm from behind; Davie was standing over the wash basin, looking out the window in the dark and moonlit kitchen.
"I know -- Sirius was right," Davie admitted quietly. "But -- Lily, I can't believe what you did. I never knew you could fight like that," Davie added with deep admiration for her best friend. "What's gotten into you?"
Lily paused, taking a slow step so that she stood against the wash basin with her best friend, and she gave a quiet laugh. She gave her tousled red hair a slight push out of her face. "Do you remember how after you lost parents, all you could think about was becoming an Auror?" she asked in a distant voice. Davie nodded in silent assent. "It's that, and more. I need to do this more than ever -- for my family --"
"I doubt Petunia would appreciate the effort --"
"No," Lily said hesitantly, and Davie glanced at her questioningly. "I mean -- the family I'm going to have one day."
"One day?" Davie asked incredulously. "Lily, you're not pregnant, are you?"
"No, silly," Lily laughed, shaking her head and turning to face Davie completely, looking at her friend seriously and grabbing her hands. "But you're not too far off the mark."
"Merlin's bollocks, Lils--"
"James asked me to marry him."
At this, Davie's jaw dropped - briefly, she was wide-eyed and absolutely silent. When it finally set in, however, Davie forgot all about the injuries she had sustained that night, or the fact that she and Sirius had come close to another row. She let out a loud squeal, throwing her arms around her friend and jumping excitedly -- everyone else burst into the room to try and see the commotion after Davie, in her enthusiasm, knocked over a metal bowl that was sitting on the table.
"You're getting married!" Davie yelled excitedly, still holding Lily by the hand as she rushed over to James, engulfing him in a tight, one-armed hug as well. Lily looked up bashfully as James, who looked quite taken aback by Davie's excitement. Frank and Alive, who had recently eloped themselves, smiled knowingly at one another.
It seemed that this was the first time any of them were learning of this recent development, and they immediately coalesced curiously around Lily and James, asking how long they had been keeping their engagement a secret.
Now that the cat was out of the bag, however, the wedding became the subject of nearly all talk amongst the lot of them. Frankly, any time that was not spent fighting Death Eaters was spent putting together plans for the wedding -- it could not, they knew, be anything over-the-top, even though Lily dreamed of a beautiful, elegant wedding as much as the next girl. It was simply not an option at the moment, with how much danger they had been in the middle of as of late. It would attract too much attention. Davie, however, had been the first to volunteer her home as the site of the ceremony and reception -- the Maddux home was large and scenic enough to provide a cozy atmosphere for the wedding, even if it was no mansion.
After a few weeks of preparation, however, the festivities seemed to be drawing closer and closer, and everyone seemed to be growing more and more excited. This night in particular, the boys had gone out for their bachelor's party - though, since they were not supposed to be conspicuous about their activities, they were limited to pub-crawling in Hogsmeade. This left the young ladies - Lily Evans, Davie, Alice Longbottom, and Marlene McKinnon - at the Maddux home alone with a few bottles of Sherrywort's Sparklers Champagne, which signaled the drinker that they had consumed too much by causing them to float into the air.
"You're getting married -- isn't it insane?" Davie laughed giddily as the girls clinked their glasses together. As Davie took a sip, however, Alice nudged her shoulder humorously.
"Are you forgetting? Marlene and I have tied the knot as well," Alice grinned knowingly, hooking her finger around the neck of Davie's glass and momentarily preventing her from taking a sip. "It's the curse of the Order, Davie, it means you're next! Don't you think so, Lily?"
"Definitely!" Lily laughed, already a bit pink in the face and evidently the worst at holding her alcohol as she took another sip. "You remember, don't you? I told you that Sirius loved you, the summer before seventh year --"
"Hold on a moment," Davie laughed, shaking her head and waving her hand. "Sirius Black? Married?" Davie laughed and turned dramatically to the nearby window, placing her hand exaggeratedly on her forehead. "Is that a pig flying? Oh, look --"
"Come on, don't be thick," Alice said, laughing and shaking her head as Davie took another big sip of her drink.
"We're not there yet, I don't think," Davie said, dabbing the side of her mouth with her sleeve and looking rather squeamish at the mention of being married to Sirius Black. "I mean, look at him with that hair and that motorbike of his --"
"I don't know -- don't tell Frank, but I think Sirius looks a bit dashing this way. You can't deny it," Alice smirked, "Sirius Black has never looked better --"
"This isn't my night, why can't we pick on Lily?" Davie laughed. "It's her night, after all."
"Because," Lily explained with a broad grin. "Since it's my night, I'd like to pick on you just a bit more--"
"Wonderful. Wonderful best friend, you are," Davie laughed. "Alright, I admit it -- Sirius looks even better now. Except for that earring. I swear, sometimes, I think I'm going to rip it right out while he's sleeping --"
"You're sleeping together?!" Marlene McKinnon squealed excitedly, nearly falling into Lily in a fit of giggle and getting a small splatter of her drink on her trousers.
"No!" Davie said, placing her glass down onto the table with a loud clink, shaking her hand defensively and looking around at the other girls. "I mean, we're sleeping in the same house -- I sleep upstairs, though!"
"You mean you've never --"
"No!" Davie yelped, eyes wide as she cut off Alice's question before she even managed to ask it. While Lily was privy to this information, it was clear by the way that Alice and Marlene were looking at one another that they definitely were not.
"Bloody hell," Alice said, her jaw dropping. "That man must love you, you're probably the only girl he ever dated that he didn't boink within a month --"
"It's not as if he's never laid a hand on her," Lily said quickly, coming to her friend's defense with a laugh. "I think they've practiced snogging more extensively than any couple I know, they've gotten it down to an art. You know, one night, James and I came into this room and we sat down on the couch -- that couch right there --"
Lily gestured at the couch that Alice had propped her feet up on, but Davie swatted Lily's hand away. "The two sat right on me! And you know what they were coming in here to do --"
"Excuse me, I'm getting married, so don't start with me!" Lily laughed, taking another sip from her drink. "And mark my words, Davie. You'll be next --"
"Well, obviously, I'll be the next in this room to get married," Davie laughed, taking another drink as well and reclining into her armchair. "Considering the fact that come next week, you'll all be married already."
***
"Still can't believe you didn't tell me, mate," Sirius chortled with a slight slur to his voice - the boys were at their third pub for the night, which, considering the fact that they were all stumbling a bit, might be their last before retiring for the evening. "Getting married!"
"One Marauder down, and three to go!" James said, waving his index finger as though it were a wand and pointing at all of his friends in turn.
"Not anytime soon for me, I'm sure, unfortunately," Remus chuckled, taking another swig of firewhiskey. "Wha'bout you, Padfoot?"
"D'you think?" Sirius asked, face wrinkling questioningly. This reaction caught the other young men by surprise. They'd expected denial, indignation, a speech about liking his freedom far too much, a finding Davie's attitude far too cumbersome -- this was clearly not that.
"Well," Frank Longbottom piped in with a roguish smile. "With everyone else tying the knot left and right, what's it hurt?"
"How 'bout it, then, mate?" James beamed, red in the face. "Our little secret, just between us men. Tomorrow, I'll be the groom, you'll be the best man. Maybe a month or two from now, we'll swap," he pointed out with a wink.
Sirius laughed and rolled his eyes to keep appearances - but the idea seemed rather pleasant. Rather pleasant, indeed.
***
A/N's
Short, fluffy chapter! It was going to be longer, but I had quite a few people asking for an update, so I spliced a longer chapter to oblige - has Harry Potter weekend on ABC Family motivated this sudden rise in readers? Because if so, I'm not complaining. We can have Harry Potter weekend every weekend if it means more readers!
Not much happening in this chapter that we didn't see coming - we all knew Lily and James would need to tie the knot eventually. But since things are starting to get a little messy, I wanted to throw in a little bit of screen time for them to just be kids, since that's what they are pretty much.
Thank you RoxyBabyX, to d112hpfan, to LaLa-036, to KaelaCullen, and again, to dancingqueensillystring for your subscription and feedback. Seeing all of this feedback has really made my weekend! I'm going to be on spring break soon, so hopefully I can get a lot more writing down! I'm still in the process of transcribing the next few chapters from the notebook they're written in, but I'll definitely hurry at it!
The next couple chapters are chapters I really like, and once I get done fine-tuning them, I hope you will too! Thanks for all your feedback and support! Cheers!