Chapter 14: But Ya Gotta Have Friends
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Whenever dawn turns to night,
And all the dreams sing their song,
In the daylight forever,
To You I Belong.
-To You I Belong by B-Witched
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After James and Lily's private celebration of their engagement, they apparated to Remus' house, but after sending owls to their friends telling them to come. They arrived at the house, and as soon as they appeared, they were bombarded with questions about what the reason for the get together was. Sirius said,
"Let me guess, you're pregnant." Everyone looked at Lily, waiting for her answer, who laughed.
"No, I'm not pregnant."
"Then what's the news?"
"We're getting married."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously."
"Oh my God, that's great!" The room filled with chatter of congratulations for the newly engaged couple.
"Damn, I was hoping I was going to be a godfather." James laughed.
"One thing at a time, Padfoot."
"Who says I want you as the godfather of my child anyways? Who put this idea in your head?"
"Uh, your other half."
"Yeah, but what if I want Remus or Peter to be the godfather?"
"I would say, "Woman please." Why would you do a silly thing like that?"
"They're more responsible wizards."
"So?" Remus spoke up and said solemnly,
"I don't think I'd be a good candidate for godfather. Because if something should happen to you, God forbid, then I think the werewolf factor would be an issue."
"So?"
"You would really want your son or daughter being raised by a werewolf if something happened to the both of you?" Lily shook her head.
"No, we'd want one of our best friends raising our son or daughter should something happen to both of us, God forbid."
"And besides, you've been taking that Wolfsbane Potion since it's been invented, so that's not an excuse."
"It's still too risky. Something could go wrong." Sirius said,
"And see, Peter is never around anymore, so I guess you're left with me."
"Well, maybe Alice and Frank could be godparents."
"You'd pick Alice and Frank over one of your best friends?"
"Alice is one of my best friends. But it doesn't matter right now, Sirius, because I'm not pregnant yet."
"Well, if you're not going to make me the godfather, you gotta name him Sirius Jr. then." Lily laughed.
"Why the hell would I curse my son with a name like that?" Everyone but Sirius laughed.
"No, Padfoot, Lily and I would name him James Jr., remember? Or Jamie for a girl?" Sirius sighed.
"I guess you should name him after the father." Lily turned to James,
"I'm not naming my son after you either."
"Why not?"
"Do you know how confusing that would be?"
"Ok, I guess I see your point."
"Oh, looks like we're back to Sirius Jr. then." Remus held his hands up to stop the argument.
"Or I know a way you all could just resolve this problem. Name him Remus Jr."
"No, no, if you all remember back to seventh year, we had a conversation about this. I said that if we ever had kids and we had a boy, I'd want to name him Harry James. And if it was a girl, I'd want to name her Faith Gabrielle."
"Yeah, but remember you also said that you wanted the last name to be Black or Lupin too, remember?" The memory came back to Lily and she grinned.
"Oh yeah, I did, didn't I? Well, I should probably carry through with that thought, shouldn't I?" Sirius grinned.
"Oh, bad luck Prongs, turned down again, looks like Remus or I get her."
"Yes, but which one, we can't both have her." Sirius thought for a moment. Then he put his fist on his palm.
"Rock paper scissors." Everyone laughed.
"Ok." Remus placed his fist on his hand.
"One, two, three." Sirius picked rock, Remus picked paper. Sirius shouted,
"You always win!" Remus shouted back,
"Because you always pick rock!"
"Yeah, but you always pick paper."
"So pick scissors." Everyone but Lily and Sirius laughed. Lily was staring off into space, looking thoughtful. James said,
"What is it, Lils?"
"I was just thinking. You know how Isabelle's funeral brought me back home to England?"
"Yeah?"
"I was just remembering what she said to me once, when she was trying to convince me to go out with you. I asked her if she would ever give up on trying to get me to `see reason' as she put it, and she said she'd be trying to set us up till the day she died. And she did. Her death brought me back. She brought us together again, like she always said she would." James wrapped an arm around his fiancé and kissed her temple. There was a small moment of silence for their fallen friend.
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Lily sat with Alice at Alice's house, looking through magazines and books, looking for dresses, flowers, and cakes. They had been at it for two hours, and were only half way through the pile Alice had.
"What do you think of this one, Lils?" Lily sighed, dropped her hands from her head where her fingers were massaging her temples.
"It's pretty." She leaned back in her chair. Alice sighed.
"You know, this is your wedding, you have figure this stuff out. It's the biggest day of your life, and I hope you're only planning on doing this once."
"Ok, simple decisions. Flowers: Roses or Lilies, either one. Cake: chocolate. There, that's done. That eliminates like twenty books and magazines." Alice sighed and gave her friend and exasperated look. Lily had a look on her face of determination, like she wasn't budging on the decision."
"Chocolate cake, hmm? What do you want it to look like?"
"Three layers, with white frosting and little pink flowers on it, and the cute little married couple on top."
"That sounds so plain and basic."
"Exactly."
"It's boring."
"Ok, I'll be daring. Marble cake." Alice mock gasped, and said sarcastically,
"Oh my God, you're such a rebel." Matching her friend's sarcasm, Lily said,
"Oh I know."
"Ok, are you going to wear dress robes or a muggle wedding dress?"
"Dress robes."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously." Alice sighed. Lily sighed too, and said,
"Alice I don't want an expensive wedding."
"Why not? You can afford it."
"Our money can be spent on more important things than a five-thousand galleon cake, and ten thousand galleon flowers," Lily pointed at the pictures of a wedding cake and the pictures of a flower arrangement.
"Fine, then. You want to do this yourself, and do it cheap, then fine. If you don't want my help, then I'll leave."
"It's not that, Alice, it's just I don't see why I have to spend so much money on stuff. And I really think that James should have some say in a lot of this stuff. It's his wedding too."
"But guys…" She stopped when Lily gave her a look that said stop it. She sighed again and said,
"I guess you're right. But we get to pick out the dress robes."
"Of course." They started going through dress magazines, looking for that perfect dress.
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"Can I ask you two something?" Lily asked Sirius and Remus one evening.
"Anything Lils."
"Since my parents are…dead…and it's tradition for someone to give me away…would you two do it? I know you're going to be up there at the front with James, but…" She trailed off.
"You want us both to give you away?" Lily nodded. Without a moment to think, Remus said,
"We'd be happy to, Lils." Lily smiled and Sirius nodded in agreement with Remus.
"Thank you so much." Remus said to Sirius,
"Hey, since Lils' dad can't be there, and we're giving her away, do we get to warn Prongs that if he hurts Lily that we'll hunt him down and kick his ass?" An evil looking grin materialized on Sirius' face.
"I think that does. If you'll excuse us, Miss Evans, we have a fiancé of yours to find." They got up to leave and Lily said warningly,
"Don't do anything stupid."
"Us? Do something stupid? Never." Lily rolled her eyes.
"Come on Lils, you can trust us." Lily laughed.
"Yeah right." Sirius nodded.
"Yeah, you're right. But anyways, I promise you this, there will be a groom for you tomorrow. We'll leave him in one piece." He and Remus disapparated with a `pop'.
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"Prongs!"
"Prongs, where are you at?" James came out of the kitchen.
"What are you two doing here?"
"We have to talk to you."
"What about?"
"Lily."
"What about her? What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong. Come on." Sirius motioned for them to go into the living room. Both Remus and Sirius pointed at a chair for James to sit down. Both wizards had looks of carefully held seriousness on their faces, like they were fighting the uncontrollable urge to laugh.
"What's going on?" After a few seconds, Remus said,
"Ok. Tomorrow, we're the ones giving Lily away, since her parents are…gone. So right now, we aren't your two best friends from school."
"That's right. We're the ones that, if you hurt Lily in any way, will hunt you down…"
"…and kick your ass." James looked at them as though they had lost their minds.
"And we will do it too."
"You can't hide from us…"
"…so don't hurt Lily."
"We've taken this responsibility very seriously. Should anything happen to Lily that you did that hurts her in any way…"
"…we'll make sure you pay for it." James was fighting not to laugh.
"You done?"
"Yes." James snorted and burst out laughing, though his friends didn't join in.
"We're being honest, James. This isn't a laughing matter."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because Lily's father can't do it, so we've the responsibility of it."
"Well, don't worry, because I'd rather die than hurt Lily."
"Good, because we're serious…shut up." Remus said, pointing at Sirius. Sirius said,
"So watch your back."
"Ok, I'll beware of you two then." James said, still thinking the whole situation was funny.
"You better."
"Now, we speak of this to no one." Sirius said, pointing at James. Then he said,
"So, you ready for your bachelor party tonight?" Remus and Sirius changed moods so suddenly that James was taken aback.
"What?"
"Your bachelor party, Prongs, it's your last night of freedom." James, still trying to figure out what happened, said,
"Um, yeah, I am. So are you two back to being my friends, and not the fatherly type guys saying they'll kick my ass if I hurt my future wife?"
"What are you talking about?"
"We have no idea what you're talking about, Prongs, but I bet whoever you were talking about wouldn't want you to speak to us about it." James just slowly nodded, thinking his friends were insane.
"Right."
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A/n: Hey hey! Here's the third to the last chapter for you all. Hope you enjoyed it, -sniffle- I'm gonna miss writing this story; this is most reviewed story I've written here. But anyways, love ya all, and please review!!!
Husker-fan-2006
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