One Week 'Til Bells Ring

WEDNESDAY: Decorations, Flowers, and Linens 'n' Things

Lily got up and dressed and was ready when Alice came for her. She didn't bother with the car, but merely Apperated into Lily's living room.

"Did you eat yet?" Lily asked. "There's still some breakfast left."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"How did your test go yesterday?"

"Pretty good. I at least passed. Did you talk to Remus yesterday?"

"Yes."

"Well, he what did he say? Never mind, he had to have said yes. What did he say?"

"He said yes before the words even really out of my mouth."

"I told you, you had nothing to worry about. He's your best friend, besides me. Did you changing the invitation so that it said Godric's Hollow?"

"Yes, yes, I did that this morning." She sighed. "What are we tackling today?"

"Flowers and decorations."

"Oh joy."

"I think the centerpiece should be lilies."

"I don't really like lilies that much. It's not my fault it's my name."

"You can't be named Lily and not have lilies in there somewhere."

"Why not?"

"You just can't!"

"Why do I need any bloody flowers anyway?"

"Language, Lils."

"I don't even like flowers."

Alice started muttering quickly under her breath, then she grabbed Lily's wrist and dragged her into the living room. "We are going to stay in here until you and I can agree on what you want for you wedding!"

Lily gasped. The room was full of flowers. Three feet deep there were flowers. They rained from the ceiling until they were 4 feet deep.

Lily and Alice sat on the couch and Alice kept picking up flowers and showing her different arrangements. Some of the flowers were natural, others weren't.

They went through different arrangements. "What about yellow and white daisies intertwined in a circlet on your head?"

"I don't want flowers in my hair!"

Alice ignored the comment. "Well, daisies aren't very elegant. How about a blue rose, to match the bridesmaid dresses, in a vase in the center of each table?"

Lily made a gagging noise.

Alice kept up with her suggestions as she pulled flowers out of the monstrous pile and grouped them together.

"Er, I think I'm going to go to the bathroom."

Alice ignored her, still picking up flowers.

Lily tiptoed into the kitchen and picked up her phone. "Hello, Remus?"

"Yes. Why are you whispering, Lily-flower?"

"Don't say the F-word!" she whispered.

"Flower?"

"I told you not to say it!"

"Why are you whispering?"

"Alice is here. Remus, I swear James and I should just elope."

"You don't mean that," he said sympathetically.

"Yes, I do! I swear I do! Come save me, please?"

"Swearing's not nice. I'll be over in a few seconds."

The phone went dead and Lily went back to the living room.

True to his word, Remus Apperated there directly. "My goodness, what's going on?"

"What are you doing here?" asked Alice, glancing up from her work.

"Lil--er, like I can't come see my friend when she's in the middle of very important decisions and try to help her?"

Lily was repeatedly muttering, "Eloping is looking better and better every minute."

Between Remus (who had an unexpected artistic flair) and Alice, they managed to sort out all the flower arrangements for the wedding. Lily had left them after about twenty minutes, saying that she had business to take care of and trusted their judgment. "I've got to see a man about a wedding," she said and threw a pinch of powder into the fireplace. She proclaimed her destination and vanished.

She reappeared in the office of the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Ah, Miss Evans. You look as beautiful as ever. Looking forward to your wedding this Friday, I trust?"

"Yes, I am." She hugged Dumbledore. He was not only her old Headmaster, but also close friend and mentor. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about."

"The wedding?"

"Yes. You see, James and I need someone to marry us and we'd be honored if it were you."

"I'd be delighted, and the honor is all mine. After all, I watched you and James grow, bicker, and mature over the seven years you spent here. I suppose, if I can't be the maid of honor, marrying you is the next best thing." His eyes twinkled.

"Thanks, Headmaster." They were on a first name basis now but sometimes, especially in this office, she called him Headmaster or Professor. After all, old habits die hard.

"Sit. I trust all your arrangements are going will?

"This has been an exhausting week. I swear it'd be so much easier if James and I just eloped."

"But you'd spoil everyone's fun. After all, I'm sure Sirius's best man speech will be...amusing. Besides, I heard you already have a dress picked out. Wouldn't it be a shame for all your preparations to go to waste?"

"You must have spoken to James's mother then. I suppose you're right." She smiled fondly at him. "I really should be going."

"Goodbye, Lily."

"Goodbye, I'll see you on Friday. If I survive the rest of the wedding preparations. Remus and Alice are picking out flowers."

The Headmaster chuckled softly as Lily disappeared through the fire place. She was one of those special students, the kind you never forget. James had been that way too. The number of times he had that boy in his office! Remus and Sirius as well. The Headmaster lost himself in reminiscing.

Lily appeared back home and Alice and Remus looked very satisfied. There were collections of arranged flowers on the coffee table.

"Dumbledore said he'd do it."

"Of course he did, Lily. Did you ever doubt it?"

She didn't respond. "So what torture have you devised for me?"

"I made Alice pull out all the dresses so we could see what worked best. Do you have any bridesmaids?"

"I was going to but I can't think of anybody. I'm just going to have Alice as my maid of honor."

"Okay. Well, Alice, show her what you'll have."

"I'm going to wear a little crown of snapdragons in my hair, with little sprinkles of baby's breath mixed in for color." She picked up the little crown and put it in her hair.

"That looks really pretty. And it matches your dress."

"Exactly. And we talked to Sirius."

"You did? When? He's been at school."

"Actually, I talked to him yesterday after the test. I told him we needed a flower girl and he said Dora would be delighted."

"So for the flower girl we have the daisy crown and she's going to sprinkle flower petals as she walks."

"What type of flower petals?" Lily asked sarcastically.

"More daisies. We thought it was appropriate for a little girl. The crown is just going to be yellow and white, but the petals she drops are going to be white, yellow, and pink."

"Sounds precious." Actually, it did sound adorable.

"For the men in the ceremony, we're giving them white carnation boutonnières."

"Good," Lily said. "What about me?"

"Don't be mad at us, Lils," Alice started.

"Then don't say anything to make me mad," she warned. "Dumbledore already said he'd be more happy to be the maid of honor."

Remus snickered. That was the Albus Dumbledore they knew and loved.

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind walking me down the aisle in place of you, Remus." She glared at her friend.

"Point taken, Lily. But all the same, you probably won't like this."

"Your bouquet is going to be made of wildflowers, daisies, snapdragons, marigolds, and other assorted flowers."

"That doesn't sound too bad. At least it's not just a giant bouquet of lilies."

"That's what we really think would look better."

"NO." Lily glared at them.

"Okay, moving on. You haven't discussed how you want your hair for the wedding."

Lily smiled. "Down. James thinks it looks really pretty that way."

Remus smiled, "That's because it does look really pretty that way."

"Aw, thanks."

"So we were thinking and I have an idea about your hair. It can be mostly down, with some curls and a few pieces up, but anyway, you're missing the point. I think you should have a lily, just one, tucked behind your ear."

To everyone's surprise, Lily agreed to it with no fuss, knowing she wouldn't get a better offer from her friends than that.

"What about the centerpieces?" she asked resignedly.

Remus pulled out the centerpiece for her to see. "This piece was our best work."

Lily admitted it was beautiful. The centerpiece was made mostly of white daisies twined together into kind of like a disc, with periwinkle sprinkled throughout and 3 baby rosebuds in the center. "It's gorgeous."

"We're putting one of these at each table." They'd put regeneration spells on all the flowers to keep them looking as fresh as the day they were cut. While Alice and Remus put together the other four matching centerpieces (there would be five tables), Lily drew up the seating chart.

Table 1:

Lily

James

Alice
Sirius

Remus

Dumbledore

Table 2:

Frank

Dora

Flitwick

McGonagall

Peter

Table 3:

Hagrid

Gideon

Fabian
Philip

Moody

Table 4:

Arabella

Kingsley

Stoge

Mr. Potter

Mrs. Potter

Table 5:

Petunia

Vernon

Abner Lovegood (2x)

Victor Boot (2x)

Lily frowned at the notebook. "This isn't going to work."

"You're right," Alice said, glancing at the list. "You can't split up couples like that."

"And you can't put James's parents so far away."

"And it's not fair for you to put Peter all the way over with Fabian and Gideon. You know what they're like."

"And Dora, you can't separate her from Sirius. She might cry."

"Well, you figure it out if you're so smart! James has to have his best man at the table with him. Sirius is the best man and he has to have Dora with him. That brings it up to four. We also need the maid of honor. That's you, Alice, and like you said, I can't split couples up, so that means Frank too. That already brings the table up to 6. Dumbledore has to be at that table too and I want you there, Remus. It's not really fair to separate Peter from you 3 but he's not in the ceremony and there's just not room. Not to mention the fact that James's parents will probably want to be at the same table as their son. Another 2 if my sister and her husband come. That's 13 at a table for 5."

Remus said, "Let's look at this logically. 27 people, we can have 3 tables of nine." "You weren't listening! I need a table of 13."

"Why don't you just have 2 long tables, one of 14 and one 13?"

"Alice, you're brilliant. Let's go over the seating list."

"You do that, we've got centerpieces to make," Remus reminded.

Table 1:

Row 1 (left to right): Frank, Alice, Lily, James, Sirius, Dora

Row 2 (left to right): Hagrid, Remus, Mrs. Potter, Dumbledore, Mr. Potter, McGonagall, Flitwick

Table 2:

Row 1(left to right): Victor, Victor's fiancé, Abner Lovegood, Abner's fiancé, Petunia, Vernon, Moody

Row 2 (left to right): Arabella, Peter, Gideon, Fabian, Philip, Elphias Stoge, Kingsley Shacklebolt

"Remus?"

"Yes?"

"Do you mind sitting between Hagrid and James's mum?"

"No, but you might want to just let him have the whole end of a table."

"Okay, it's set then. I split up James's parents with Dumbledore in the middle, but my alternative would have been to have McGonagall where I put James's mum."

"Here, let us see, we're just about done with the centerpieces."

They read over Lily's list. "It looks good." She'd drawn out a diagram with the two tables.

They broke then for lunch. Lily insisted they go out. They walked down to the sandwich shop at the corner and had sandwiches.

When they went back up to Lily's apartment, she wrote out the seating cards (she used red and gold to match the invitations) while she let Remus and Alice pick out what colors the linens would be. By the end of the afternoon the seating cards were done and the linens were chosen: white tablecloths and red napkins with white and light blue beaded napkin rings.

Things looked as though they were falling into place pretty well.

Alice conjured up some dinner, while Lily tried on her dress. Remus had wanted to see what she looked like and Alice had insisted she try it on.

She came out, very aware that much of her back was cold and her shoulders were bare.

"Alice, I--" she was about to say that she was going dress shopping tomorrow to find something more decent, but she was interrupted.

"Lily, you look beautiful! James will be so weak in the knees that won't be able to stand up when he sees you," Remus said.

"Really?" she asked, distracted from her idea of buying another dress.

"Yes, you look beautiful. I mean, you always look beautiful but that dress is really flattering on you." Remus blushed slightly.

Alice said, "Spin around, Lils."

"Do I have to?"

"Yes."

Lily sighed and spun around in circles, the skirt of her dress flared out around her and her hair did the same behind her. She didn't realize how truly stunning she looked.

"Can I stop now?" she asked, still spinning.

"Yes. Dinner's ready."

Lily gratefully went to go change. She came back out, "Glad that's over."

"You're not comfortable in that dress?"

"Not at all."

"Then as soon as you're done eating, you have to put it on."

"Why?"

"Because, if you're not comfortable in it in your own apartment, in front of your two best friends, how are you going to manage on Friday?"

"I guess you're right."

"Do you have music lined up?"

"Actually, that we did take care of. There's a band of Hogwarts students who said they'd come play for us. They are two seventh years and a sixth year. They call themselves 'The Weird Sisters'. I've heard they're pretty good."

"At least you've done something," Alice teased. "After we clean up dinner, you can change back into your dress and I'll work on your hair."

When they'd finished eating, Alice cleaned up the kitchen, Lily got changed, and Remus vanished all the flowers that they didn't need for the wedding. The ones they needed, he put aside and put preservation spells on them.

Lily came back out in her dress. Uncomfortable at first, but she got used to it. Lily sat on the floor, while Alice sat on the sofa and did her hair. It was as if they were schoolgirls again. Remus sat on the ground next to Lily and watched her working with a notebook and pen.

"What are you writing?"

"Wedding vows. James and I agreed to write our own. I've written these out a thousand times. I can do intricate poetry that James would never understand. I could make it as simple as to say, 'I promise to love you forever'. I'm leaning toward simple. I've got fifty drafts in this notebook alone."

"Can I read some of them?" asked Remus.

"Sure, Remus." She passed him the notebook. "Al, what are you doing to my hair?"

"Trust me, Lil. You'll look gorgeous."

"That doesn't answer my question," she laughed.

"Well, you'll have to live with a little mystery."

The three of them stayed up way into the night, Alice trying different experiments with Lily's hair, Lily writing her vows, and Remus reading what Lily'd already written.

"Why are you still writing? Any of these would be wonderful."

"Wonderful isn't good enough. I want perfection."

"If you want perfection, then why'd you pick James?" Remus teased.

Lily grabbed a pillow off the sofa and threw it at him.

They finally deemed their work for the night done. Lily told her friends that they could both stay. Alice declined, saying that she had to go see Frank; she felt as though she'd really been deserting him this week. Remus said he'd stay. After all, he'd be with both of them tomorrow helping pick out menus and anything else that needed doing.

They said their goodnights, Alice whispering "Be good, kids" and winking. They laughed at her and practically shoved her into the fireplace.

Lily gave Remus a hug. "I'll see you in the morning." She went to her room and he went to the room that Alice had had when she'd lived there with Lily (since Alice had left, it had become a guestroom).