One Week 'Til Bells Ring

THURSDAY: Last Minute Preparations

Lily woke up and stretched, rolling her neck to get the kinks out. She wandered into the kitchen in her pajamas. She was not much of a morning person. She found Remus already there and making breakfast.

"Wow, between you and Alice, I'm spoiled rotten. What'll happen after tomorrow when I'm forced to make my own breakfast?"

"Don't worry. You could always have James fix you breakfast in bed," he said cheerily. Remus was a morning person. In the morning, there was no moon to hide from (not that it mattered at the moment, the full moon being 2 weeks away). Lily and James had paid close attention to the lunar activity when they set the date for the wedding.

"Yes, I'm sure."

They both laughed. Remus had often told Lily stories of various methods he and the others had used to wake James up back at Hogwarts. Lily herself knew that James had arrived late to his very first class at Hogwarts for that same reason.

He put a plate of eggs and toast in front of her. "Eat up, Lily-flower." He gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze.

"Thanks, Remus." She yawned and smiled.

Alice Apperated in. "Not up to anything are you?"

"Us, Alice? Never. You must be thinking of James and Sirius. What have we got left to tackle today?"

"Menus."

"That sounds easy enough. What else?"

"I can't remember." She helped herself to a bit of toast. "Your hair. We've got to decide just how we're going to do it, and how we're going to arrange everything at Godric's Hollow."

"Right."

"I can't believe you and James are going to spend your honeymoon at home. Most couples go somewhere. Somewhere warm." She was thinking of when she and Frank had gone down to Bermuda for their honeymoon.

"Since when have Lily and James ever been most couples?" asked Remus.

"Too true. Sirius is going to stay with you for a few weeks, right?" asked Alice.

"Yes. He figured James and Lily should have some...private time after the wedding. But he'll move back in after a few weeks."

Lily said, "He said he's just staying until he can find a place."

"My guess is that he'll be there until you and James have a baby. Then he'll leave for fear that you'll ask him to baby-sit," Remus said.

Alice laughed, "I'm not sure about that. I figure by the time Lily is pregnant Sirius'll be ready run. I don't think he'd survive that."

"What, so I'll have to put up with him nine months earlier than expected?" Remus asked in mock dismay.

Lily blushed. "You both know very well that James and I have never...you know. Besides, we both decided we probably didn't want children right away. We'll have enough of a job just looking after Sirius."

Everyone had a good laugh at that one. Sirius was certainly childish sometimes. They started with the menus and decided on grilled chicken on a bed of wild rice as one choice, with beef and broccoli as the other. They didn't include a vegetarian choice, because none of the people they invited on their oh so very long guest list were vegetarians. They added Lily's favorite soup as a starter and James's favorite sweets to go with the cake.

Remus sat with Lily and Alice after lunch while Alice did Lily's hair repeatedly. "This one is it, Lily, this is how you'll wear it for the ceremony."

Lily looked in the mirror. "I don't like it." The outer layer of her hair was curled and piled on top of her head with the rest of her hair hanging down limply.

"No, me neither really," Remus said.

"You're right. I just wanted to try something different." She worked on the next design for quite some time. "My masterpiece," she said, sighing happily.

Lily looked in the mirror. "This is it!" she said excitedly.

The top layers of her hair were a mass of little braids wit a tiny silvery glass bead appearing every so often. The tiny braids met in the back of her head while the rest of her hair hung down and was curled at the ends.

"I love it, Alice! Thank you, thank you!" she threw her arms around her friend's neck.

"You're welcome. I hope you think it was worth it. My fingers are now very sore."

"It looks great, Alice," Remus told her.

"Thanks." She smiled at him gratefully.

Lily laughed with relief that she was finally free to move her head again without Alice telling her to stop fidgeting. "You don't know how sore my neck is, Al."

"Want me to get the kinks out, Lily-flower?"

"Sure, Remus." Back at Hogwarts Remus had been known to be able to remove stress from the shoulders of many students that suffered before and during final exams.

Remus took Alice's place on the sofa and Alice scooted over, applying lotion to her hands (her fingers had cramped from doing so many tiny braids). Remus started to work on Lily's neck.

Just at that moment, there was a chime as Sirius Apperated into the room. "Well, well, well, aren't you all enjoying yourselves? You ought to be ashamed. What would your husbands say? And, Remus, I'm very disappointed in you. This is James's girl."

Lily looked up at Sirius with a slight smile on her lips. "I'm not married yet."

Remus grinned, "Besides, everyone knows I'm Lily's favorite man."

"Well! James shall be most disappointed. In fact, I'm disappointed too. You like him better than Hot-Lips Black? I thought you said I was the only one for you."

"Why settle for one when she can have three?" teased Alice.

"Yeah. Good point. But I'm the best!" Sirius protested.

"Why are you here, mutt?" asked Remus.

Sirius plopped down on the sofa and started massaging Lily's neck. He didn't notice her wince; Remus was definitely better. "Well, Jamesie-poo and I thought that the Fantabulous Four might get together tonight. I went to get Peter, but he was busy tonight. Wouldn't say what it was. I went to your house and your parents said you hadn't been home since yesterday and they figured you were with James. I knew you weren't with James, because I was with James. So I pondered the situation and realized that you'd spent the night here with your best friend's wife-to-be! Explain yourself." He tried to look stern, but, being Sirius, he failed miserably.

"Well, last night we got drunk and--"

"You didn't!" Sirius gasped.

Lily snickered. "Of course we didn't. And we didn't get drunk either. You know that. Besides, I don't drink anyway. Remus just didn't see any point in going home when he was going to come back this morning to look at menus with us."

"Yeah," Alice said, "We did the seating chart yesterday. You don't mind sitting between Snape and Hagrid do you?"

Sirius looked like he was about to vomit. "Lilykins, please tell me she's lying. Otherwise one of your wedding guests is probably going to die tomorrow." He didn't mind sitting next to Hagrid, but being wedged in between him and Snivellus...

Lily laughed. "Of course we didn't invite Snape. You're sitting between..." She frowned, trying to remember. "Reem, where's the seating chart I made?"

"I'll get it." He went and got the notebooks off the kitchen table. "Siir, you're between James and Dora. You're bringing her tomorrow to be the ring bearer, aren't you?"

"Yes, yes. I already got permission from Andromeda and Ted. I'm picking her up early tomorrow morning."

"Good. She's so adorable."

"Yeah," Sirius said fondly. "Best niece in the world. Maybe there's some hope for the Black family after all. The girl's already showing talent. I swear I think she's a metamagus."

"Really?" Lily asked with interest.

"Yeah. But I don't think Andromeda realizes it yet. So, Remus, are you coming back with me to the Hollow?"

"Am I still needed here?"

"Yes," Lily said. "Sirius put a whole new set of pains into my neck." She scowled affectionately at her friend.

"I'm hurt, Lilykins. I was always told I had magic fingers."

Lily snorted.

"I'll stop by after dinner," promised Remus.

"Where's James?" asked Lily.

"At home. We took the afternoon off. He would have come but I reminded him that it's bad luck for him to see the beautiful bride 24 hours before the wedding." He was obviously trying to get back into Lily's good graces.

"I'll come over after dinner and help you with your best man speech, Siir," Remus told him.

Sirius pouted angrily, "For your information, I've already written it."

"Oh." Remus blinked.

"Temper, temper, Sirius," Alice warned, lazily from the far side of the couch.

"Watch it, Longbottom," he said, in a playful growl. He and Frank had gotten into a spat earlier.

"Siir, when you go back, tell James I love him and I'll see him tomorrow," Lily said.

"Okay, right. I go home and tell James you hate him and the wedding's off. Got it. Goodb--"

"Sirius!" He was still sitting behind her so she conked him on the knee very hard with the hairbrush.

"Yow!" Sirius jumped up and started some rather colorful swearing while he hugged his knee. "I can't believe you did that to me, Lilykins!"

"Serves you right. Don't scare me like that."

"Me? I've never scared anybody!"

Everybody laughed at him. "Fine. If you feel that way, I'm leaving!" He Disapperated.

"Do you really think it's bad luck for me to go over there before the wedding?" Lily asked.

"I don't know. How superstitious are you?"

"Not very."

"How much do you care about tradition?"

"Enough not to go over there," she sighed. "But then who's going to have the tables set up and the wards in case it starts to snow and who knows where the food goes and--"

"Alice and I will take care of that."

"But then I'm stuck here all alone."

"We could always call Sirius back if you like," offered Remus.

"I don't think so," Lily said.

"I'll make sure everything at the Hollow goes all right and Alice can stay here with you," Remus suggested.

"I guess, but I've still go this crick in my neck. Sirius hurts."

Remus laughed and once more settled Lily's neck and shoulders.

"Thanks. You should give up being a research assistant and open a massage parlor somewhere," she told him.

Alice laughed, "Yeah, Remus, you'd make a fortune off Lily alone. She stresses about everything."

Remus chuckled. "I don't know about that. I like research."

Lily got up and sat on the couch so that Remus was between her and Alice. "I can't believe Sirius didn't say anything about my hair. Are you two sure it looks alright?"

"It looks fine, Lily."

They ordered pizza in and drank cola. They laughed and talked about old times. Finally, Remus got up and said, "I'd best be going. I've got to make sure Sirius doesn't get James drunk or something. You wouldn't want either of them to show up at the wedding with a hangover."

"Yeah. Right."

Remus was just about to Disapperate when he turned back to Lily with a grin and said, "Make sure you go to bed early tonight. Something tells me you and James won't be getting much sleep tomorrow."

Lily threw a pillow at him (they'd been eating in the living room) but by then, he was gone.

Alice was trying very hard not to laugh. "Actually," giggle, "I think I remember Remus once telling me," giggle, "that James snores." She broke out in a fit of laughing.

"You know what he meant and it wasn't funny!" glared Lily. "That sounded like something Sirius would say."

"True, but he probably has a point."

"Don't you start too, Alice Longbottom!" she laughed, half-serious.

"Okay, I won't. But you're moving into the house after the wedding, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"So we'd better start to get you packed."

"Yeah." They moved around the apartment, putting things in boxes. Packing by magic would be faster, but they had nothing else to do and Lily was awfully sentimental. She looked at every photograph, every book, everything. They came to the "box of James" at the bottom of Lily's closet. There were Valentines, Christmas cards, ticket stubs from Muggle movies they'd seen, wrapping paper from presents, the box the engagement ring came in, a teddy bear he'd won for her at a fair, et cetra. So many memories. She looked through all of it. Smiling.

She found old papers from school in another box and pictures of her family. A quilt her grandma had made her. So many things. Each of them dear.

Around midnight, they'd finished. It wasn't a large apartment. They reheated the pizza and took out the soft drinks again. Alice took Lily's hair down from its 'do. Alice spent the night, deciding it wasn't fair for Lily to be alone when James had two of his best friends. She knew Frank would understand.

Alice and Lily stayed up for hours. They took out sleeping bags and face masks and things and had a good old-fashion slumber party.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

JAMES AND SIRIUS

"This is it, Siir, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I think so. Who'd have thought it? You, the first of the Marauders to get married. I always thought it'd be Remus."

"Don't you remember what he told us? About the gene?"

"Yeah. A 50/50 chance of passing it on. I guess you're right. James, if I had to live with what he lives with, I'd more than just not marry. I'd probably kill myself."

"Remus survives with it."

"I don't know if I could be as strong as him, mate. Really I don't."

"Same here."

Sirius and James raised their glasses with utmost respect and sincerity, "To the strongest of the Marauders!" They sipped, thinking quietly of Remus Lupin.

"So are you and Lily going to move in here?" Sirius gestured to the room around him. The room he and James had shared since he'd run away to here. There were more than enough rooms for them to each have their own, but Sirius didn't want to be alone that summer. Locked alone with his own thoughts. The worst sort of prison. So he'd stayed in James's room. Now, he stayed because it was home. Sure in seventh year one of his uncles had given him enough gold to get a place of his own, but he preferred it here. Here he was part of a family that welcomed him. He didn't want to be alone.

"Are you crazy, mate? This is our room, well, yours after tomorrow. Lily and I already picked out the room down at the end of the hallway. It'd just be too awkward to take my parents room. It'd just be weird."

"Yeah. That's true. Did Lily come in and decorate yet?"

"The room? Yeah. She picked out a new bedspread and lamps and that sort of stuff. I told her to do what she wanted to it as long as nothing was pink."

"Yeah."

Remus came up the stairs. "Hey," he said from the doorway.

"How's Lily doing?" asked James. He wondered if she was as nervous as he was.

"Oh, she's fine," Sirius said. "Remus was giving her a massage."

"Moony?" James asked.

"Only because Sirius put so many knots in her neck."

"I can't leave either of you alone with my wife-to-be for 5 minutes?" James asked.

"Remus was there all night."

"Moony?" asked James.

"You know that Lily has no more interest in me than she does in Peter or Sirius."

"That's not entirely fair. Lily happens to think I'm a stud muffin," Sirius said arrogantly.

"Shut up, mutt," they said. It was their favorite insult to use on good old Padfoot.

"That's not nice. James, James, James, the first of us to settle down. Who gets to be the godfather?" asked Sirius, jumping on the bed as though they were first years again.

"It doesn't matter. We aren't planning on kids right away. Maybe after the war. Or maybe not, Dumbledore did say we're all supposed to live," he mused. James however, had already made up his mind about a godfather. It would be Sirius. It would have to be Sirius. Peter wasn't good with children at all; he was a brat sometimes even, like a brother to all of them but not good with children. Remus would be a good, responsible choice but what if James and Lily happen to pass when their child was still quite young, what would happen to the child during Remus's time of the month if Remus couldn't find anyone to leave him with for a couple of nights? No, it had to be Sirius. James had seen the way Sirius behaved with his cousin's daughter, Dora. Sirius would certainly make a good father himself someday, though a touch of responsibility wouldn't hurt. But a fun god-dad would be nice. James did feel bad that it wouldn't be Remus, but there was nothing to be done for that.

"Aw, why not, Prongsie-poo?"

"You're annoying, Sirius."

"Then why am I best man?"

"Because you're my bestest friend," James said, throwing a pillow at him.

Sirius fell back onto the bed on his derriere. "Oh, yeah?"

A massive pillow fight between the three soon ensued.

It ended when they were all breathing hard, spread out on the floor or bed. Sirius was coughing up feathers. "Sure...brings...back...memories...doesn't...it?" he gasped.

"Yeah. If the others were here, it'd be just like that fight we had in our first week of Hogwarts."

"Definitely. Can you believe after all these years, we're still acting like we're eleven?" asked Remus. "I think it's time we grew up."

James and Sirius looked at each other, rolled their eyes, and both hit Remus at the same time with their pillows and the last of their strength.

"Ha," said Sirius. None of them really had the strength to move.

"James, have you written your vows yet? Lily told me you were writing your own."

"Yeah. I'm done with them."

"What did you say?"

"Just spoke from my heart, buddy." James weakly thumped his fist at his chest.

"Wise move," Remus commented, sprawled across the entry to the room.

"What about your best man speech, Padfoot?" asked James, to Sirius.

Sirius glanced down at him from where he'd ended the fight on top of the bed. "I did the same thing."

Remus said sarcastically, "Wow. Sirius speaking from the heart? Now I'm worried."

James laughed.