Four Little Words

Chapter Six

"Something on your mind, Prongs?" Sirius asked, looking at him over his paperwork. James was playing with his wand thoughtfully.

"Why do you say that?"

"Well, one doesn't normally walk into another person's office, sit down, and have that look on one's face without something on one's mind."

"I was just thinking..." James looked to the open door and nudged it closed with his foot.

"Yes?" Sirius asked.

"I was thinking about what might happen if the safe house was attacked when nobody was there but Lily-"

"She's a smart girl, she can get herself out of trouble," Sirius sniffed.

"Yeah, but what if it's full of hurt people, and she has to stick around and protect them-"

"Why are you thinking about this?" Sirius asked.

James shrugged. "I think about things like that."

"Well, how about you think about getting back to work?" Sirius nodded towards James' office across the way. "Or, even better, how about cooking yourself some beans."

"What?" Sirius rolled his eyes and James blinked.

"Oh yeah..." He pulled out his now mildly abused black box and looked at the sparkling ring inside. "I've already fudged up twice-"

"What we need..." Sirius ignored him. "Is a fool proof plan.....A way that no matter what happens, you will end up proposing marriage to her."

"Let's face it, there's no such thing as a foolproof plan when I'm involved."

"True, but we mustn't give up hope just yet," Sirius thought.

And thought.

And thought some more.

Three hours later, all the two of them had accomplished was shifting positions several times, an overflowing waste paper basket, and several drawings on what was supposed to be very important papers. Neither being a great artist, all of the stick figures were labeled accordingly. James was finishing up a very badly drawn rendition of Lily next to an exquisitely drawn Snitch.

"How is it that you can draw that stupid ball better than your soon-to-be fiancé?" Sirius asked.

"I've held the Snitch for longer," James said, winking at him.

"Well bloody hell..." Sirius sat back and threw his quill on the table. "I don't know about you, Prongs, but I'm all thought out."

He shut his mouth and gave a very large smile to the opening door. James turned around and ducked guiltily. Lily was peering in, biting her lip and clearly looking for something. James saw the open ring on the desk and snatched it quickly, before she got a good look into the office.

"Have you boys seen Remus?" she asked, finally.

"Nope-" James squeaked. Sirius glared at him.

"No, why?" he asked, in a much more casual fashion.

"Well, I had heard a rumor that he was back at work today, and I was going to tell him off for it," she shook her head. "Maybe he's at home, I'll go check up and see..." With that, she left the doorway, headed once more to check Remus' office before heading to the Atrium.

Not three seconds later, Remus appeared where Lily had, ducking into the office painfully. He closed the door behind him and eased down into a vacant chair.

"Avoiding Lily, there, mate?" Sirius asked.

"Yes," Remus said, putting his hand to his chest. "She seems to think that I need to go see a Healer again-"

"No offence mate, but she's right..." James said, looking at him. Remus glared at him, about to retort, when Sirius cleared his throat.

"Right, well, if you're going to hide in here, you get to help with the planning!" Sirius rubbed his hands together thoughtfully.

"Planning of what?" Remus said, cautiously.

"Of how Prongs here is going to stop being a little girl and propose to Lily-" Sirius continued loudly.

"SSSH!" James hissed, looking around. "Not so loud!"

"See? What did I say, little girl."

"Sirius, it's not James' fault that he's nervous," Remus rubbed his own chest. "I do think, however, you've been going about it the wrong way."

"Oh really?" Sirius lazily turned his eyes to him. "Why? Have you secretly proposed to a girl behind our backs?"

"No, but I think that the dinner was a poor idea. Had James put the ring in there, it would have gotten crumbs in it."

"Oh really, and what is your suggestion, Moony?" Sirius asked. "How do you think James should propose to Lily?"

"I don't know, perhaps a walk on the beach, someplace where prying eyes," he threw a look to Sirius, "wouldn't be there to mess him up."

"I don't mess him up," Sirius said indignantly.

"And it might help if you researched some poetry to recite-"

"Poetry!" James and Sirius blanched at the same time.

"Yes," Remus was amused at their identical expressions. "In case you haven't noticed, she's rather a fan of Emily Dickinson."

"Didn't he write something...?"

"Emily Dickinson," Remus rolled his eyes. "American poet. She's got near six books of it at your flat, James, I'm surprised-"

"I don't read anymore, Moony," James grinned. "Not since I had to for school."

"In any case," Sirius interrupted them. "Why would James need to read this Charles Dickinson-"

"Emily Dickinson."

"Emily Dickinson chick's poems to Lily?" Sirius finished.

"In the first place, it will sweep Lily off her feet because you've taken an active interest in what she likes," Remus explained. "And in the second place, if I'm not mistaken, there are a few poems about eternal love and all that jazz, so I'm sure you could start with one of them, and then propose-"

"Whoa...you mean I have to memorize the poems?" James asked.

Remus shrugged nonchalantly, and then put his hand to his chest. "Just a suggestion."

Just then, the door opened and Lily came striding through.

"There you are Remus!" She grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and pulled him out of the office, loudly berating him about coming to work when he should be at home healing.

"And then the stupid blighter tells me that he's healed, but what do I find? A bruise the size of Mongolia sitting right there!" Lily fumed, peeling potatoes like a madwoman.

James knew better than to interrupt during her tirades, so he chose to sit idly in the main room. His eyes fell upon the bookcase. Remus had said that she had nearly six volumes of Emily Dickinson in there. But if he were to take the poetry route, he would have to memorize the poem he was going to use, and that would be too much work.

With a slight lean of his chair, he peered into the kitchen and stared at Lily's bum, clad in tight Muggle jeans. She bent over and he leaned over a little further, his eyes roaming over the curve of her rear. She bent over even further and James squinted, leaning over so he was nearly horizontal.

The chair scraped against the floor and he nearly fell over, but he caught himself. Lily turned to look at him and smiled, then turned around. She dropped the towel she was holding and bent over all the way to pick it up.

Deciding that arse was worth a little work, he leaned forward and walked to the bookshelf, running his finger along all of the spines. All of the books that he needed to get were all grouped together on one shelf, so he grabbed the entire armload. Not chancing going back to the table and having Lily see him with the books, he plopped down on the couch.

"Right...let's see what she has to say..." James muttered to himself, opening up the first one.

He stopped at one likely-looking poem and read silently to himself:

"That Love is all there is,
Is all we know of Love;
It is enough, the freight should be
Proportioned to the groove."

James was silent for a moment.

"What the bloody hell does that mean?!" James blinked at it. "Groove and trains and...I don't think this one is about love...even though it says it..."

He shook his head, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. Perhaps, if he flipped to another one, he could find one of these little paragraphs that he could understand.

"Given in marriage unto thee,
Oh, thou celestial host!
Bride of the Father and the Son,
Bride of the Holy Ghost!

Other betrothal shall dissolve
Wedlock of will decay;
Only the keeper of this seal
Conquers mortality.

James made a whining sound. This Emily Dickinson bird was bloody confusing! He heard Lily finishing up in the kitchen so he began to close the book. As he did, one of them fell to the ground and was open on a page that read:

"That I did always love,
I bring thee proof:
That till I loved
I did not love enough.

That I shall love thee alway
I offer thee
That love is life,
And life hath immortality

This, dost thou doubt, sweet
Then have I
Nothing to show
but Calvary."

He looked at the doorway that lead into the kitchen and hastily dog-eared the page, stuffing the book under the couch. That would do...now he just had to remember it.

"And this, dobbit thee doused, sweet-aw shit..." James frowned, opening his eyes and looking at the page of blurry words. He'd tried just about everything; copying it down several times on parchment, saying it over and over again, looking at it for an hour straight. He could not remember the bloody poem.

"If you say that poem one more time," Sirius growled from the doorway. "I'm going to murder Moony, I swear..."

"Nuh-uh," James replied, cheekily. "Moony isn't allowed to have visitors until he's better; Lily's put him under house arrest."

"And here I thought you'd be jealous that Moony and Lily are all alone in a flat together," Sirius replied, just as cheekily.

"I'm ignoring that at the moment," James said, thinly.

"This poem can't be that hard to memorize," Sirius looked at the fruits of James' labor. "I mean, we had potions more difficult than this."

"Yeah, but potions weren't written in an odd language. ‘Thee' and ‘dost' and all that. It throws me off!"

"Why don't you pick a new one?" Sirius asked, grabbing the book and looking through it.

"Because I...well...I tried, but I don't really understand any of them..." he admits, blushingly.

"Ask Moony, he's the genius who knows all about Lily."

"Stop being so bitter," James rolled his eyes. "You're still going to be best man."

"Yes, but I wanted to help you figure out how you're going to propose to her!" Sirius stomped his foot childishly.

"Oh grow up," James snorted, throwing him the book. "And help me out, here."

"That I always did love, I bring the pouf?" Sirius blinked. "What the hell?"

"No, I bring thee proof."

"Of what?"

"I dunno."

"Oh, there's a typo in here," Sirius points out. "There should be an ‘s' at the end of ‘alway.'"

"Oh yeah," James added an ‘s' at the end of it.

"What does that mean ‘Then I have/Nothing to show/but Calvary?'" Sirius asked. "What the hell is Calvary?"

"I told you, she's bloody confusing!" James groaned. "At least I understand a good portion of this one...so I don't make a complete arse out of myself."

"No offense Prongs, but you're going to make an arse out of yourself any way you slice it."

"Really?"

Sirius nodded.

"Well, I suppose I have to, if I want her to marry me and all."

"You're going to wuss out, I know you are," Sirius said, shaking his head and throwing the book back on the desk. "If you can't put a ring in a cupcake, you won't be able to propose-"

"Watch me," James glared at him.

"Ooh, big man, aren't you..." Sirius ruffled his hair. "You know of course, I'm pulling the Head Boy effect."

"What's that?"

"Telling you that you can't do something and so you'll do it better than even I expected."

"Oh...yeah...." James grinned. "Well, I'm going to do it."

"When?" Sirius asked.

"Tonight," James answered, determined.

"James, are you sure that you're ok?" Lily asked, as they walked along the chilly beachside. "You've been muttering to yourself all evening."

James hadn't taken into account when Remus said ‘walk on the beach' that it was still January. So he had given up his jacket to Lily, and now, besides being cold, he was slowly forgetting the words to the poem he had barely memorized.

"Fine," he nodded.

"Should we go back?" Lily asked, putting a hand to his cheek. "You're freezing!"

"No, no, if you aren't cold, I'm not cold."

She took one more look at him and they continued walking in silence. James could barely remember the first part of the poem; the cold seemed to be numbing his brain.

"So..." Lily looked up at him. "Why are we here again?"

"Because, I thought it would be nice," James grinned and tried to keep his teeth chattering to a minimum.

Lily looked up. The overcast sky was not letting any light through. Every so often, they would see headlights and hear a car go zooming by on the road that ran the length of the beach. Both of their legs were starting to hurt from walking over the sand for so long.

"Oh...ok..." Lily nodded. "No other reason?"

On the other side of the road, Remus had been watching James and Lily through Omnoculars. He could only hear strings of conversation, but could tell that James had not been doing what he had been instructed to do. He had been doing a sort of side-stepping movement, and not really watching where he was going, which was how he tripped over something warm and furry and landed face down in the rough, cold sand. A soft growling sound told him that he was not the only one eavesdropping on James.

"Prying eyes, hm?" Sirius said softly, after transforming in the dark.

"There is a very big difference," Remus said, rolling onto his back and looking up at Sirius.

"Oh, and what is that?"

"James knew you were listening in your flat. He doesn't know we're over here-"

"And, um...love has mortality-"

"Oh Merlin..." Sirius groaned, turning his attention back to the couple. Remus pulled up his Omnoculars, but Sirius snatched them away to get a good look. Unfortunately, Remus was still attached around the neck to them, so he went flying with them.

"Oh, he's really fouling it up..." Sirius sighed, not noticing Remus turning slightly blue below him.

"Thou doubt thou dost thou sweet, and um...all I have to show is Calvin..."

"James...?" Lily asked, on the brink of laughter.

"It was Emily Dickinson," James said, frowning. Lily began laughing, but it was a loving laughter and she played with his hair, smiling.

"What made you think of that?" she asked.

"Um...well...."

"Do it, Prongs," Sirius whispered, smacking Remus back when he smacked him. "C'mon buddy!"

"I just....I felt like saying it," James admitted, looking down. "I guess we should get back-"

They both turned their heads to see Sirius letting loose a string of filthy curse words. He was holding something gold that was attached around the neck to Remus, who was flinging his arms wildly in an attempt to get Sirius to notice that he could not breathe. In his ire, he threw the gold thing at the ground, Remus following the direction of the gold thing. Sirius jumped up and down, angrily, while Remus rubbed his sore and bruised neck, wheezing.

"REMUS LUPIN! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE OUT HERE!" Lily screamed, marching over there.

James looked to the heavens and shook his head.