Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter Twelve

Sirius and Remus stared at James, pitying. He had been progressively tearing up a piece of important parchment that he needed to be filling out, rolling up the individual pieces and throwing them in his wastebasket.

"Mate, I mean...you couldn't have known you get seasick," Remus broke the silence.

"What are the odds?" James asked, his voice hollow.

"Actually, a great deal of people get seasick," Sirius said, truthfully, but James just sighed.

"Is this punishment for me being rude to Snivellus all those years?" James looked to the heavens. "Is this punishment for all the times I hexed people for no reason, when I pulled all of those pranks, when I hurt all of those people. Is this my punishment?"

"James, you can't spend your life thinking that you're being punished for every bad thing that goes wrong," Remus said, intelligently. "Sometimes things just...happen. And then you have to cut your losses and move on."

"So you're saying I should break up with her?" James asked.

"No, I'm saying that you suffered a misstep, you didn't plan for something, it happened, so you need to get over it and move on, figure out a different plan," Remus said.

"How many different plans can I come up with?"

"I think," Sirius said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "That it is time that James let the professionals do the work for him."

"How so?" Remus questioned. "And what professionals...?"

"And wouldn't I need to be the one to ask Lily to marry me?"

"If you two blighters would shut up for a minute, I could tell you what my effing plan is!" Sirius growled.

"Fine, O Wise One, explain your grand master plan," James chuckled.

"My plan is really quite simple. Well, the theory is simple, but the practice will be much more difficult," he smiled secretively. "Remus and I are going to be the puppet-masters in a little game I like to call 'Project James-proof.'"

"Catchy title," Remus remarked.

"Stuff it, Moony."

"We are going to be in control of everything; food, wine, conversation, music, setting, everything will be under our control, so you know that it won't be botched up."

"Another dinner?" James rolled his eyes. "We tried that once before, remember?"

"Yes, but this time you won't be alone in there to mess up," Sirius patted him on the shoulder. "The only thing you have to do, is say four, small, little words. And that's it."

"That's it?" James said.

"That is it," Sirius nodded. "The rest shall be taken care of by myself and Mr. Moony."

"I am so lucky to have friends like you guys," James said, grinning. "I know I can do this. I was almost there at the boat; I was about to say it-"

"Instead you sprayed it," Sirius sniggered.

"But when are we going to do it," Remus asked. "And where and how and with what food and neither of us know anything about cooking-"

"Moony, Moony, Moony," Sirius stood up and gave him a little pat on the back. "Stop worrying so much. We have the perfect date," he strolled over to the calendar with the naked woman and tapped a circled date.

"Valentine's day?" James blinked. "That's in three days though..."

"You don't need to worry about that," Sirius came behind Remus and grinned devilishly. "Moony and I shall take care of everything."

"Actually," Remus scooted away from Sirius a bit, feeling a tad uncomfortable. "As I stated before, neither of us know a thing about cooking, so it would be in our best interests to send Pete an owl."

"Of course!" Sirius said, rather quickly. "I was just...about to suggest that!"

"I haven't seen Pete in a while," James admitted, guiltily. "Do you reckon he's still our mate?"

"Goblin business hasn't been going too smoothly," Remus remarked. "A lot of bad rumors have been coming out of Gringotts lately, and from what I hear, Pete's right in the middle of it. It seems as though the goblins are considering switching sides."

At the befuddled look on Sirius and James' faces, Remus continued, "I take it you two haven't been reading the Prophet lately."

"Erm...no, not really..." Sirius admitted and James shook his head.

"In any case, I don't think Pete will hate us too much for not paying him much attention these past few weeks," Remus finished.

"Good!" Sirius exclaimed, cheerily. "Then James, return to your office as if nothing is amiss, and practice saying those four little words that you've been meaning to say for so long!"

"Right!" James jumped up and trotted back down to his office.

"Erm...I said not to look as if anything is amiss..." Sirius peered out his door.

Lily wished that he would just propose to her and get it over with.

She wasn't stupid. She knew that he had been trying for the past month to ask her to marry him. She had, at first, found it cute, the different ways he tried to do it, but now...

Now it was just pathetic.

As if she didn't notice the way Remus and Sirius gave him furtive looks and nods when they thought she wasn't looking. As if she didn't hear them counting down until project "James- Proof" (which, she thought, was a clever name considering he was being so hopeless about the whole thing), but she gave them the satisfaction of being surprised when James asked her to go out to dinner with him.

She fought back the eye roll when James gave Sirius a very knowing nod and wink.

It was almost insulting to her intelligence the way they were carrying on. But she figured if she wanted James to propose, she might as well let him do it his way and just go along with it. So she dabbed perfume behind her ears and got dressed in her black dress (she also got into some sexy knickers so that when things escalated, James would have a nice reward for his "hard work"), and smiled graciously at the dinner that was prepared for them.

"I thought it would be more romantic, just the two of us," James told her, as Sirius (in a very spiffy looking dress robe) poured them glasses of wine.

Lily nodded and thanked Sirius, who flashed her a cheesy smile. "Yes, just the two of us..."

"Don't worry, I am invisible, blind, and deaf," Sirius said, bowing very low.

"Too bad you aren't mute either!" James grumbled. Sirius hissed at him and sauntered back to the kitchen.

"So, what's this all about?" Lily asked, trying her best to be coy.

"Happy Valentine's day, darling," James said, raising his glass to hers.

"Happy Valentine's day, James," Lily said, thinking to herself, And if I don't get a marriage proposal, I'll ask you to marry me myself!

"You look beautiful," James said, smiling.

"Thank-" They heard a loud crash coming from inside the kitchen and James groaned.

"Who all is in there?" Lily asked, thoughtfully. "All three?"

"Erm....Peter was kinda busy and a bit miffed that we hadn't spoken to him in about three and a half weeks...so he couldn't make it."

CRASH-BOOM!

"Oh...dear..." Lily winced. Even though it was Sirius' apartment, she didn't want to imagine the mess the two of them were making in the kitchen.

"Erm..." James cleared his throat. "Well...sounds like things are going-" CRASH BOOM! "- rather...erm...."

"Yes..." Lily winced when Remus told Sirius to "PUT IT OUT!!!" and a faint smell of smoke wafted into the living room.

A few minutes of silence later, Sirius came out, looking a bit frazzled, holding a tray of two bowls of soup. Before he was three steps out of the kitchen, he tripped over the rug and one of the bowls went splotching to the ground. He stood up and waved his wand, so that the soup came back into the bowl. Then he straightened up his best robes and approached the table.

"Having difficulties?" James said, trying to keep a straight face.

Sirius took one look at him and then switched bowls. "I was going to give her the one that fell on the floor, but you can have it, Mr. Smarty-pants."

"Gee thanks..." James grumbled, looking down at the bowl in front of them. "Is this chicken noodle soup?!"

"Erm..." Sirius looked around, trying to avoid the question. "The stew didn't quite turn out the way that we...erm...wanted it to... so...we found this in my cupboard."

"I see...." Lily nodded. "Well, thank you..."

"Yeah..." Sirius was quick to disappear into the kitchen.

James sent an apologetic look Lily's way and dipped his spoon into the rather dark looking soup. "Cheers," he smiled, bringing the spoon to his mouth.

As they both found out at the same time, not only was the soup extremely cold, but someone had apparently forgotten to read the directions on the condensed soup can. They both spit the soup back into the bowl at the same time and took quick sips of their wine.

"Hopeless," Lily coughed.

"Completely."

They heard a loud sizzling from the kitchen and then they heard Remus yelping in pain. Lily put her napkin on the table, nervously. "I'm going to go check on them..."

"No!" James said, reaching over to take her hand. "Just...stay here..."

"Dinner shall be..around in a few minutes..." Sirius said, coming out of the kitchen. He had flour smeared on the side of his face and was trying his best to look dignified, but ended up looking completely ridiculous.

"Do you need any help?" Lily asked, biting her lip.

"No! You just stay there!" Sirius shook his head. "Besides, you'd kill me if you saw the mess in there!"

With that, he disappeared again.

Lily shook her head, amazed. "How is it that you boys are so hopelessly inept at doing anything?!"

"Because we have you to take care of us," James smiled, rubbing the top of her hand. "And you do such a good job of it too."

"Oh hush," she blushed.

"I mean it, once this war calms down a bit," he kissed her hand. "You're going to be the best healer St. Mungo's ever had."

"Healer Lily P-Evans..." Lily blushed, hoping James hadn't seen her slip up. As a matter of fact, he smiled even wider, as if he knew what to do next by instinct.

"Sirius!" he called.

Sirius stuck his head out, and a cloud of white smoke followed him. "What the hell do you want?!"

"Put dinner on hold for a bit, we're going for a walk.."

"Such wonderful friends you have, James," Lily smiled up at him as they strolled through the park hand in hand. She was wearing his large blue coat and was looking quite content next to him. "Imagine, giving up their Valentine's day for you..."

"Well, tonight is very important," James nudged her gently and squeezed her hand lovingly.

"Is it now?" Lily said, coyly. Sort of like every other night this past month.

James saw the first of several landmarks that Remus had pointed out to him for him to say certain things, but such a complete calm had come over him that he felt as if he could really speak from his heart and not botch it up.

"This is the most important night of my life, you know," James pulled her closer and put his arm around her.

"It doesn't feel any more important than any other night..."

"It is."

"Even more important than the Quidditch final of seventh year?"

"Much more important."

"More important than any tests at school?"

"Mm-hm..."

"I see..." Lily put her head on his shoulder. "So what makes tonight so important?"

He kissed her forehead. "Things."

"Things, such as...?" Lily asked.

"Shall we sit down?" James offered a small white bench that they had just happened upon. Lily sat down primly and James joined her, pulling her back into his embrace.

"Things such as...?" Lily started him again.

"Are you cold?" James asked.

"No...Things, such as..." she pushed again, getting impatient. James let go of her and took her hand in his.

"Lily Shea Evans, you are the love of my life."

Lily smiled at him, trying to keep the cynic thought of 'Bout bloody time...' off of her face.

"The light in my world."

James could feel the words bubbling out of him. He was going to do it tonight.

"Without you, I am nothing."

Well, Lily thought, feeling a warmth spread all over her body, I suppose if he's going to be this sweet, it was worth the wait.

"I never thought that I could love someone as much as I love you," James shook his head, feeling the words in his heart. "I never thought that I could need someone as much as I need you."

Lily felt a prickling in her eyes; she was such a sucker when he went all out like this.

"From the first moment I heard you screaming at me, I knew..." James chuckled and Lily let out a watery giggle.

"You always know how to make me angry," she said, thickly, trying to brush his hair down.

"So, Lily, my sweet angel, my beautiful flower, my life, my love, my everything..."

"Yes..." Lily said, holding her breath. He slipped off the bench and went on one knee. She could see it all in front of her, her wedding dress, their honeymoon, their first child, and then their tenth, and all of them, playing in the backyard on broomsticks, their kids going to Hogwarts, prefects and troublemakers, and then growing old together, loving, sweet, and-

"We need a break."