Chapter 29: Mr and Mrs
A deathly silence fell over the remaining fighters as everyone looked up at the spot where Voldemort had Disapparated. James looked around. Only a dozen of the Order was left standing. The others lay scattered amongst the Death Eaters.
Sirius spoke first. “Did we win?” he asked, looking directly at Dumbledore.
“This is not a case of win or lose just yet, Sirius. We held him off, we captured his Death Eaters, and we forced him back. I am very proud of you all.” He looked around as James had. “How many survived?”
Lily, who had immediately gone to check on the state of the fallen, replied, somewhat somberly, as she returned to the huddle. “Five Death Eaters are dead, eleven unconscious.”
“And of us?” Kingsley asked, counting heads. “There are only about half of us left standing.”
“Artus is dead. So is Philomena.” She paused.
“Go on,” Dumbledore said.
“Smith is badly injured but conscious. Nigella and Alice have been Stupified. The rest, well, I can’t tell…”
“Thank you, Lily,” Dumbledore said, turning to Augusta. “If you could…”
“Of course,” she said, hurrying to the side of the first injured Order member and checking his pulse.
“And Alastor?"
“I’m on it,” Moody replied, levitating the unconscious Death Eaters and binding them together in a line. “These are going straight to Azkaban.”
“The rest of you,” Dumbledore continued, “thank you for your courage and help. We have much to talk about, but later will suffice.” He nodded as a sign that they were free to leave.
James, who had been watching Moody with the Death Eaters, now turned back to those who were not assigned anything. “Remus?” he said, spotting his friend. “When did you…?”
Remus stuffed his wand back into his robes. “Just after you, I think. I saw you three running down the road before me. You didn’t think I wouldn’t come, did you?”
James smiled. “I’m glad we’re all alright.”
“Except for Alice,” Lily said.
“She’ll be conscious again any moment now,” Sirius interjected. “Augusta’s just dealing with Smith, he’s pretty badly injured.”
“I can’t believe Artus is dead,” Lily said, sniffing and shivering slightly. James put his arm around her shoulder. “And Philomena. She was supposed to be getting married in December. What are we going to tell Brian?”
“He knew what sort of organisation she was involved in. She died fighting, and that at least is how she would have wanted to go.”
“Doesn’t make it any easier though…” Lily added, grabbing hold of James for extra warmth and comfort.
“Makes you realise just how little time we could have left,” Remus said, looking towards where Frank was embracing Alice, who had recently regained consciousness. “Those two will be eager to push the wedding forward, after what’s happened."
"They're not planning on getting married for at least another year!" Sirius said.
"I know," Remus shrugged. "All I'm saying is, things change in times like these. I reckon they’ll be married before the month’s up.”
And he wasn’t wrong. Frank and Alice had a simple ceremony not two weeks later. The only people present were close friends and family. Frank’s mother was there, as well as his Uncle Algie and Aunt Enid, and Alice’s grandfather. Alice had tears in her eyes the whole way through the ceremony, and when the priest talked of “holding on to one another in these dark and dangerous times,” she broke down into shuddering sobs, so that the priest had to pause whilst Frank comforted her.
James was sitting with Lily and the Marauders during the service. In the pew behind them sat Ellie and two of Alice’s trustworthy friends from Hogwarts. On the other side of the aisle, behind the relatives of Alice and Frank, were Albus Dumbledore and Augusta Clark, the only members of the Order apart from Lily and the Marauders that were invited to the wedding. Frank didn’t want to take too many chances of being hunted down by Death Eaters on his wedding day, and so these dozen or so guests were the only people present to witness their marriage.
James sat nervously throughout the ceremony. He couldn’t quite dispel the feeling that something was going to go wrong with his plans. He was fidgeting absently-mindedly with a church pamphlet, twisting it and screwing it into balls, when Lily put her hand on his and leant in to whisper in his ear. “It’s almost finished. No one’s coming, you can relax.”
“It’s not that,” James replied. “The security’s too tight, besides, we have Dumbledore.”
“Then what’s the matter?”
But the priest was now blessing the newly married couple, and James shook his head and gestured towards the alter, where Frank and Alice were now smiling to a round of applause from the guests. “It’s finished,” he said, more to himself than to Lily. He stuffed the crumpled paper into his pocket and joined in with the others as they stood to watch the new Mr and Mrs Longbottom process happily out of the church.
“Congratulations!” James said some twenty minutes later, clapping Frank heartily on the arm. “All went smoothly, you had nothing to worry about, after all.”
“Yeah, thank goodness,” Frank replied.
“So, where’s the grub?” Sirius asked, appearing behind James. “I’m starving. Oh, and congratulations and all that … “
“Through the door,” Frank replied, laughing, his hand protectively around Alice’s waist. He looked, James thought, as if no amount of Death Eaters could dispel his happiness today. James envied him that much, and he led Lily by the hand through into the reception room, where most of the guests were already gathered, laughing jovially and eating food off the platters that were being propelled round the room by House Elves.
“Food!” Sirius proclaimed happily, running after one of the platters eagerly. James and Lily took a step towards where Remus and Peter were standing, but were intercepted immediately by Dumbledore. He was smiling.
“Good afternoon James, Lily,” he beamed at them. “What a wonderful day in the midst of all this depression! Did you enjoy the service?”
“Oh yes,” gushed Lily. “It was beautiful. Small but intimate. Exactly how I would have done it.”
“Indeed,” replied Dumbledore. “Oh look, they have cream buns! How delightful! I wonder, Lily, whether I could steal Mr Potter for a few moments, perhaps while you sample the buns for me … “
He was not at all convincing, James thought, and he raised his eyebrows in an affectionate way at Lily, who was looking perplexed.
“Uh, sure,” she said, casting James a questioning look, but James merely shrugged and followed Dumbledore towards the far corner of the reception room.
“I’m sorry about that, James,” he said, laughing at himself. “Spur of the moment, you know.”
James smiled. “So?” he asked.
“I have it,” Dumbledore replied, extracting a very small box from within his robes and handing it to James, who merely looked at it in wonder without opening it. “It was a little harder than I imagined to procure, but, with a little persuasion … it is, after all, rightfully yours by birth.”
“Thank you,” James said, looking up and shaking Dumbledore’s hand vigorously. “I can’t thank you enough for this, it’s-“
Dumbledore waved away his thanks casually. “It was nothing, really. A few charms here and there.”
James let go of Dumbledore’s hand and looked again at the tiny box he was holding. It was suddenly very real, what he must do.
“Well,” said Dumbledore, “I think it’s about time to taste those delicious cream buns I saw, before Sirius consumes them all.” He smiled and left James to his thoughts.
He wasn’t alone with them for very long. “Guess who?” said a very familiar voice as a pair of hands covered his eyes. The breath was warm and sweet and tickled the hairs on the back of James’s neck. He didn’t need two guesses, but pulled Lily round to face him and enfolded her in his arms.
“I love you,” he whispered gently into her ear.
“Thank you!” she replied, pulling back to look at him. “Same goes to you, baby. What’s up?” There was a questioning in her eyes.
“Nothing,” James replied hastily. “Am I not allowed to tell you I love you?”
“Course you are. All the better for me, as I love to hear it.” She smiled widely and her eyes glistened. “You seem a bit on edge, that’s all. Like you were in the church.”
“Nah, I’m fine. Come on, let’s introduce ourselves properly to Frank’s mother, she’s all by herself.” And he led her over to where Mrs Longbottom was standing, absent-mindedly nibbling at a sausage roll.
***
Lily couldn’t quite place what was wrong with James. He had been acting weirdly all morning, but she had assumed it was worry over the danger the wedding posed on all of them. However, he was still looking shifty and fidgeting overly much. She knew that times were dangerous at the moment, but most of the Order had learnt to deal with the grief and depression brought about by Voldemort and his Death Eaters. They were fighters, every single one of them. Either James had succumbed to the pressure, or something else was bugging him.
Mrs Longbottom finally left to speak to the priest who had married Frank and Alice. Lily sighed out her relief: the woman was a little overbearing.
“James? Can we get something to eat now? I’m starving.”
“Sure,” he replied.
“James?”
“Mmm?”
“Are you sure you’ll alright? You seem a little … on edge.”
“Hmm? No, no I’m fine.” He smiled weakly and kissed her on the forehead. “As long as you’re alright, I’m alright.”
Lily decided to leave it for the time being. James had never been one to keep things bottled up: when his parents had died he had openly cried in Lily’s arms until the initial shock had passed. If something were wrong, he would tell her. Eventually.
“In fact,” James said suddenly, grabbing Lily’s arm. “Would you come with me a moment?” He seemed to have decided something. His eyes had a hard glint to them.
Lily hesitated. Her stomach was rumbling. But she softened and smiled. “Sure.”
James’s grip on her arm relaxed and his fingers slid down her arm to gently take hold of her own. The touch was comforting. He led the way through to the entrance, where they had greeted Frank and Alice, before turning the corner into a small and more private room. He took a look around the hall to check it was empty, before closing the door.
Lily had no idea what was going on. “James? What’s the matter?”
“Nothing,” he said for possibly the sixth time that day. “Look, Lily … “ he took her hand again and kissed it gingerly. “I just have some things I want to talk to you about.”
“OK,” Lily said, still puzzled as to what was going through his mind. “Shoot."
“Well, we’re in the middle of this … well, war, really, and no matter how hard we fight, we don’t ever get any closer to winning. It sometimes feels like everything’s falling apart around us. I mean, not even two weeks ago, some of our friends were killed, and then last week Nigella went missing and we still haven’t found any trace of where she might be.”
“So what are you saying? Do you want to leave the Order? Do what Yves did and run away to South Africa?”
James frowned. “No. No, you misunderstand me, Lily.” He felt around in his pocket and pulled out a small, velvet box. Opening it, he said, “I “ I want you to marry me.”
He said it simply, as if he were asking if she wanted a cup of tea. Lily’s head buzzed. She wasn’t sure if she had heard correctly. She simply stared, until James finally said, “Lily? Lily, did you hear me?”
She nodded slowly.
“Oh. Well, uh, if you don’t want to, that’s “ that’s fine. We're not even twenty, and ... ” Embarrassment was strewn all across his face. He shut the box with a snap, waking Lily from her shock.
James wanted to marry her. He wasn’t about to tell her he was fleeing to South Africa, he wasn’t leaving her at all. He was asking to marry her. Age didn't matter.
It sank in. Finally, gloriously, it sank in.
Lily halted James’s hand on its way to put the box back. “Say it again,” she asked.
James faltered. Lily resisted the strong urge she suddenly felt to kiss him. She couldn’t quite resist a smile, however, which James seemed to pick up. He returned it.
“Lily,” he said, opening the box again and revealing the most beautiful ring Lily had ever seen. “Will you do me the greatest honour in the world,” he began, stopping to take a deep breath, “and marry me?”
She didn’t need to answer. It was written all over her face.
Love Conquers by dumbly_dorr
Chapter Notes: Sorry for the ridiculously long wait everyone ... i've had some stuff that's needed doing recently but it's done now, so back to the story! This chapter picks up from the end of the last one, where the Order fought Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Enjoy!