Until Death Do Us Part
It took Sirius weeks until he could even be considered normal again. There was no body to bury and so there was a quiet funeral for him that Sirius did not attend. The grave was empty, a gravestone marking it. Sirius went there on his own, unsure of why he did so. He was so mad at his brother for getting himself killed, but he was sad at the same time. Regulus was a bloody idiot, but he didn’t deserve that end. Whatever his end was. No one even knew. The Blacks just assumed he had been killed by one of his own “ one of the Death Eaters. Whatever the reason “ Regulus had died too young. He hadn’t even been out of school for a year before someone saw fit to take his life.
In an effort to cheer their friend up, James, Remus and Peter dragged him along when James had to get a tuxedo for his wedding. As Lily wanted a Muggle wedding, complete with a church and a priest, dress robes would be highly inappropriate. There was nothing funnier than watching James’s face fall as he realised just how many parts there were to a tuxedo. He would rather have a wedding where he could just wear dress robes, but this was what Lily wanted and so he had to do it, no matter how grudgingly. It would all be worth it in the end, anyhow. He would be married to Lily Evans and it didn’t matter if he was wearing a tuxedo or dress robes. Their efforts to cheer Sirius up proved fruitful when they triumphantly saw Sirius laugh as James tried to figure out just what to do with the cummerbund.
James also decided to drag Sirius along to pick out a wedding ring for Lily, as he had no idea what kind of jewellry girls thought was nice. Sirius didn’t quite understand why James thought that he would have a better idea of that, but he went anyway. He needed to get out of the flat, keep his mind off of his brother. He also needed to be there for his best friend, needed to be happy for him. He hadn’t been there for Regulus and that had ended in the worst way. Of course, this wasn’t a matter of life or death, but this was important to James. Sirius was his best friend and his best man; it was the least he could do for him.
In the end, James picked out a nice, simple diamond ring that he was sure Lily would love.
The days leading up to the wedding were filled with last minute preparations. There was the food for the reception, making sure Lily’s dress was finished by then, last minute checks on the seating arrangements. They could only be grateful that it was a small wedding and there weren’t many people to seat. Both Lily and James knew it was unwise to have a large wedding in times like this. They didn’t want to draw attention to themselves especially since they knew Death Eaters were after nearly everyone who would be in attendance, including the bride and groom. Fortunately, neither James nor Lily had had their hearts set on a big wedding in any case. Luckily they managed to get everything sorted out by the time of the rehearsal dinner.
“What’s he doing?” Peter asked Remus curiously as they stepped into Remus’s and Sirius’s flat after work the evening before the wedding. Sirius was walking rapidly back and forth across the living room, a piece of parchment in hand and his chin was smeared in ink.
“He’s working on his best man speech,” Remus informed Peter, shaking his head sadly as Sirius hastily crossed something on the parchment out, muttering swiftly and incomprehensibly to himself. Sirius had been agonizing over what to say in the speech for days now. No matter how many times Remus tried to convince him that James would love whatever speech he gave, Sirius just wouldn’t listen.
“Is he close to finishing?”
“No, but I believe he’s close to having a nervous breakdown.”
“I heard that, Moony,” Sirius muttered, finally tearing his eyes away from his speech and looking up at his friends. He sent a glare at Remus and innocently asked, “Could you tell me what that’s like? Seeing as you’ve had one already.”
Remus narrowed his eyes at his roommate. “That was low, Padfoot.”
“Yeah, probably, but I’ve got to finish this.”
“Actually, you’ve got to come with us,” Peter interjected.
Sirius blinked. “Why?”
“It’s the night before James’s wedding, it’s customary for the best friends of the groom to do something that involves dragging him out and throwing him a party before he’s married.”
Sirius still didn’t understand what they were going on about. Wasn’t there going to be a party the next day? “But isn’t there a party after the wedding anyway?”
“Yes… but this is something just ‘for the men’ or at least that’s what my mum said,” Remus explained thoughtfully. “So we need to go get James and go do something fun.”
“I need to finish this,” Sirius told them, nodding at his unfinished speech.
Peter and Remus exchanged exasperated glances before Remus stepped forward and pulled the speech out of his friend’s hands. “There’s something ironic about this,” he commented, looking over his shoulder at Peter, who nodded vigorously.
“Yeah, isn’t Sirius usually the one telling you to go do something fun?”
“I’m astonished.”
“As am I.”
“Alright!” Sirius finally relented, snatching the parchment back from Remus, folding it into squares and pocketing it. “Merlin, are you going to start acting like James and me?”
“Well, we thought it was a good way to get you to come with us,” Remus informed him, folding his arms across his chest.
“We’ve been friends for too long.”
“And you’ve loved every minute of it.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. He and Remus had been living together for far too long. “Is Lily expecting us to drag James away?” What if Lily needed James to help her with some very, very last minute preparations and he wasn’t there? He didn’t want to face the wrath of an angry bride-to-be.
“Oh, she won’t care,” Peter told him. “She’s gone out with Alice, Mrs. Potter, Mrs. Lupin and my mum.”
“I think they actually begged us to take James out,” Remus added with a laugh. “James is about as nervous as Lily; they needed a break from him.”
“So it’s our job to make sure that he enjoys himself tonight so he’s not a wreck tomorrow morning.”
“And to do that we need to take him out tonight and remind him that marrying Lily Evans is the best thing to ever happen to him.”
“Aside from being friends with us.”
Sirius’s eyes darted from Remus to Peter in amazement. Had they been taking lessons from him and James on how to double talk like that? Shaking his head, he couldn’t help but chuckle to himself. “Alright, let’s go get Prongs.”
By the time they were through with James, there was no way he could be nervous for his wedding. As it was, they doubted he could be nervous for anything that wasn’t life-threatening, not after they dragged him to a Muggle club that involved the people there getting up in front of everyone and singing. It had been on Sirius’s suggestion to go in there, just to get a good laugh at the others who attempted it, when he ended up getting it into his head that James should get up there and try “ and James had far too much to drink to protest any further than demanding that Remus go up there with him. As Remus was the only one in their group who could actually hold a tune, he went up there; though it did take a firm shove between the shoulder blades from Sirius to get him to physically move.
Needless to say, after the train wreck that was James’s performances, he was ready for anything.
However, that confidence he had developed the night before began to dissipate as the time of the wedding drew nearer. James stood anxiously at the back of the church, tugging anxiously at his tuxedo jacket, looking towards the closed door that led to the room Lily was in. What if she had taken the chance to run? Remus sat in the seat beside him, watching his friend, making sure he didn’t fall into a dead faint. “Calm down, mate,” Remus advised him.
“I’m getting married, Remus,” James reminded him in a strained whisper.
“To a woman you’re ridiculously in love with. What’s there to be nervous about?”
“What if she has a revelation that I’m a prat and leaves me at the altar?” James had said this as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Lily could suddenly decide she would rather do anything than marry him!
Remus sighed and stood up, shaking his head. “She’s had a long time to back out and she hasn’t. I think she’s going to go through with it.”
“But there’s always the chance she won’t!”
“What’s wrong with him?” Peter had appeared, straightening his tie. He had never been a fan of ties; they always made him feel like he was being choked.
“He thinks Lily’s going to leave him at the altar,” Remus explained exasperatedly. Peter shook his head knowingly; trust James to lose it now. When James began frantically pacing back and forth, Remus yelled into the next room, “Padfoot, get out here!”
Sirius, feeling quite handsome in his tuxedo, stepped into the room with a curious expression on his face. “What’s going on, Moony?”
“James is going mental.”
Sirius nodded, that was all he needed to hear. He had expected this. “I’ll take care of this, guys. Why don’t you two see if there’s something anyone needs help with?” Remus and Peter instantly wandered off to go find something to do until Sirius had calmed his best friend down. Sirius stepped in James’s path and gripped his shoulders. Glaring James in the eye, Sirius laid down the law. “Okay, Prongs, let’s get a few things straight “ Lily loves you, you bloody moron. Why else would she agree to marry you “ and don’t even try saying she had a temporary lapse of sanity. You know that’s not true. So I want you to stop this pacing before you make everyone motion sick and go up there and get ready to marry her!”
James stared at Sirius with utter shock on his face, yet it was clear that his best man had gotten through to him. James swallowed with a bit of difficulty and went up to the altar, where the priest engaged him in conversation. When Sirius was sure James wasn’t going to go mental again, he pulled the parchment out of his pocket and went back to finishing his speech. He would have had it finished the night before had it not been for Remus and Peter, but Sirius couldn’t deny that it was worth it, just for getting to see James and Remus struggle through that song they were given.
Well, James struggled and he pulled Remus down with him.
It wasn’t long before the church filled up. Sirius, Remus and Peter stood at the back of the church until the ceremony was ready to start. They recognise nearly everyone who showed up “ members of the Order, Anna and Harry Lupin, Charles and Hannah Potter and Maggie Pettigrew. There were, however, two people that they did not recognise, but they knew in an instant who they must be. Judging from their uncomfortable and rather grudging looks, they could only be the Dursleys. Sirius caught James’s eye and jerked his head in their direction. When James saw who it was, he immediately went to meet them.
He wasn’t exactly sure what to call them. He had the slight suspicion that if he called them by their first names, they would consider him rude. He didn’t respect them enough to call them Mr. and Mrs. Dursley either. So he settled for not calling them anything at all. “Hullo,” he said cautiously. He wouldn’t put it past Petunia and Vernon Dursley to make a scene at his wedding just because they thought Lily and he had made one at theirs.
Vernon nodded stiffly at him and did nothing more.
“I… I appreciate you coming. It means a lot to Lily.” He said this mostly to Petunia, as he doubted Lily would care less if Vernon showed up. Her tirade at Privet Drive had been directed at Petunia, not at the particularly beefy man she had married.
“Well, Lily made it clear she wanted me to come,” Petunia huffed, putting a concentrated effort of indifference into her voice.
James recognised this, but decided to make no mention of it; pretend he hadn’t seen it at all. “Well, I’m glad you came.” And he quickly made his way back to the altar.
It wasn’t long before the ceremony was about to start. Sirius took his place beside James at the head of the church and he couldn’t help but grin at the ecstatic look on his best friend’s face as he watched Lily walk down the aisle in the white dress she had picked out for herself with the help of James’s mother. James almost wished the entire ceremony was unnecessary, as he couldn’t wait for the priest to just announce them as Mr. and Mrs. Potter. James had only the vaguest idea of what a Muggle wedding was like, though he had seen it at the rehearsal the night before. But he found that he was glad Lily had talked him into this.
He recited the wedding vows, meant every word he said. There was no one else out there for him except for Lily Evans. No matter how long it took for her to stop hating him, he knew she was the only person he could ever love. James couldn’t help but be reminded of the first time he and Lily had ever gone out together “ their trip to Hogsmeade in seventh year. It had been a fun day, marred only for a little while with the appearance of Severus Snape. Lily had declared that she could pick her own friends, that Snivelly had no say over it.
He also couldn’t help but be reminded of the first time he had kissed Lily Evans. He had been so completely unromantic about it. In fact, everything about him was unromantic and maybe that was why he thought Lily wouldn’t go through with the marriage. Now he realised what an ignorant prat he had been. Lily didn’t care about that stuff. She always knew what she wanted and, for reasons James would never quite understand, she wanted him. For James, that was all he needed.
“Until death do you part?” the priest asked Lily.
James felt the smile spread across his face as Lily uttered, “I do.”
The priest looked between Lily and James and then looked to those watching them. “I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
And for the first time, James and Lily kissed as husband and wife.
“We told you Lily wasn’t going to leave you at the altar,” Sirius laughed later on before the reception. He pulled his best friend into a hug and clapped him cheerfully on the back. “Congratulations, mate.”
“Thanks, Padfoot.” James couldn’t keep the silly, thrilled grin off of his face and he didn’t very much care. He was married to Lily Evans, he was the happiest he had ever been. The only thing that could possibly ruin this day was a Death Eater attack and, for once, James was sure that wasn’t going to happen.
The congratulations and hopes of a wonderful life together were exchanged and the reception soon began. Lily pulled herself away from James for a moment when she saw her sister and brother-in-law standing off in the background, looking unsure of whether or not they should actually be there. Lily had seen them when she walked in and she was surprised at how happy she was to see her sister. Petunia had, for just one day, gotten over her dislike of her younger sister and could just be there for her.
That was all Lily had asked.
“Thank you for coming,” she sincerely told them both. She was even glad to see Vernon there, no matter how much the man disgusted her.
“Well,” Petunia sniffed in her attempt to stay indifferent. “Mum and Dad would have wanted me to.”
“And Mum and Dad would have wanted me at your wedding,” Lily carefully reminded her.
Petunia said nothing in reference to that, not wanting to open up that can of worms. Then, with what looked like great effort, she said to Lily, “I’m happy for you.”
A genuine smile crossed Lily’s lips, especially since Petunia sounded as though she meant what she said. “Thank you. And you never gave me the chance to tell you that I’m happy for you too.” No matter how much she despised Vernon, he made her sister happy. Despite all their differences over the years, she really just wanted Petunia to be happy. If it was Vernon Dursley that did that, Lily would just have to accept it. “Well, I need to go make the rounds with James.” That was what Mrs. Potter and Mrs. Lupin had told her they had to do. She and James would have to go thank everyone there for coming. “Don’t be so uncomfortable, these are wonderful people here.”
If Petunia and Vernon chose to leave early, Lily wouldn’t hold that against them. They had sat through the wedding, stayed long enough so she could talk to them. That was all she could ask for. They didn’t have to mingle with any of the guests if they didn’t want to. They had done the only thing Lily had asked of them “ they had come.
Sirius, Remus and Peter all sat down at their table and Sirius pulled out the parchment that contained his speech. “You still haven’t finished it?” Remus asked in amazement. Sirius had been up long after Remus gone to bed the night before and he assumed his roommate would have finished it by now.
Obviously he hadn’t.
“No, and I’m going to have to give this speech soon,” Sirius replied, staring at the speech with dislike. Maybe if he starred at it long enough, the speech would magically finish itself. Sirius would do anything for James, but he just wasn’t good at making speeches. If he had to wing it, Merlin knew what would come out of his mouth.
Remus blew some air out of his mouth, his fringe fluttering up from it. Trust Sirius to leave this to the last minute. He looked at Peter, who shook his head dismally, clearly thinking along the same lines. Remus shifted his gaze to the newlyweds, who were currently talking to Dorcas Meadows and Elphias Doge. “They look happy.”
Peter’s gaze followed Remus’s and rested on James and Lily as well. “Yeah, I bet they are.”
“And isn’t that what matters?” Remus asked Sirius pointedly.
“Of course,” Sirius replied with a raised eyebrow, unsure of what Remus was trying to say.
“Shouldn’t that be the point of your speech? It doesn’t have to be something well-written. You just have to let your best friend know how happy you are for him.”
“I am happy for him,” Sirius insisted.
“Then use that.” Remus excused himself, getting up to go talk to his parents, who were sitting at the next table over.
“He’s right, isn’t he?” Sirius asked Peter.
Peter nodded. “As usual.”
“I am happy for James and Lily. They deserve this.” James and Lily deserved this more than anyone he knew. They really did love each other and it showed just in the way they would look at each other. Remus was right; he would have to use that to finish this speech.
“Yeah, they do.”
“Well, don’t sound so happy for them, Pete.” He couldn’t help but notice the slightly bored tone in his friend’s voice and wondered why that was so. Sirius was absolutely giddy for the newlyweds and Peter may not have to feel just that, but at least crack a smile for them. One that was genuine.
“I am happy for them,” Peter snapped, getting up and crossing the room, in the direction of the loo. Sirius shook his head. Whatever problem Peter had, he had to solve it on his own. Sirius had his own situation to tackle at the moment. With that in mind, he bent over the parchment and began scrawling away.
“So how does it feel to be Mrs. Potter?” James asked Lily, slinging his arm around her waist and pulling her closer to him as they made their way to the table where James’s parents were sitting.
“I’ve been Mrs. Potter for about an hour,” Lily reminded him playfully, resting her head on his shoulder.
James chuckled, twirling a strand of her red hair around his finger. “That’s long enough to make up your mind.”
Lily glanced up at him, the radiant smile on her face matching the one on his. “It feels wonderful, James.”
It wasn’t long before they were intercepted by Hannah and Charles. They clearly saw the way the new Mr. and Mrs. Potter were headed and beat them to it. “My little boy’s grown up,” Hannah said tearfully, a watery smile on her face. She had practically bawled throughout the entire ceremony. “Soon there will be grandchildren running about.”
James instantly started sputtering. Grandchildren? “M-Mum… we’ve only been married for a little while!”
Lily laughed lightly to herself. Of course she wanted children, but she was thinking along the same lines as James. They had only been married for little over an hour. There was plenty of time to concern themselves with that. One day Hannah would get her wish of little Potters running about, but it wasn’t going to be soon.
“I think James wants to wait on that one,” Charles surmised, looking at the flabbergasted expression on his son’s face.
Soon everyone sat down to eat and it came time for Sirius to deliver his speech. Sirius quietly cleared his throat and pulled out the battered piece of parchment he had been nervously clinging to for the past two days. He stared down at it, studying it for a moment before crumpling it up and stuffing it back in his pocket. Remus was right “ he just needed to use his happiness for Lily and James. And he was happy for them, completely thrilled for them. He didn’t need written words to prove that.
“I hope everyone’s having a good time?” he began, grinning at the appreciative applause he heard. “So, as most of you know, I’m Sirius Black and for some reason beyond my realm of understanding, James picked me to be his best man.” There was a round of laughter, most noticeably from James. “Now I’ve spent days agonizing over this speech, as my roommate can attest to.” He gestured to Remus, who rolled his eyes, but nodded. “I’ve known James and Lily since I was eleven, when James picked his nose and Lily thought boys were icky” There was another bout of laughter. “Not that I know either of them did or felt those things… Anyway, that was back when all the Gryffindor first years and some seventh years worked together to take down the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor.”
There was another round of laughter from all involved in that. They still considered it one of their greatest moments at Hogwarts “ Professor Crane announcing his resignation because of them.
“The funny thing is, because of that, Lily decided she hated James, thought he was a bigheaded, egotistical prat, which she’s completely right about,” Sirius added cheekily. “It took him years before he could finally even get her to consider him. Lily,” Sirius turned his attention to the bride. “You should have seen him panicking before your first date, worried that he was going to make a complete fool of himself. He actually did when he nearly fell off the bench at the Gryffindor table. Obviously it all worked out in the end, didn’t it?” There was another round of laughter. Sirius lifted his glass and nodded for everyone to do the same. His joking was over.
“In times like these, to see something so normal, so wonderful like two people falling in love and getting married, it reminds us that we can all get through this. This proves life can still be as normal as we can make it. Two people can still fall in love and be happy together and I know I’m not alone in this when I want to wish James and Lily Potter the best life together they can possibly have.” Sirius raised his glass, smiling at the newlyweds. “We’re all happy for you and we all want you to have the best life together you can possibly have because no one deserves it more than you two do.