Chapter Text
The ceremony was, of course, beautiful. The small church in Ottery St. Catchpole was covered in delicate white and gold drapery, and simple violet flowers bloomed in the aisles. Whereas normally something more grandiose might have been prepared, magic was strictly out of sight for the sake of the handful of unfamiliar Muggle relatives.
As Lily’s parents weren’t able to be in attendance, a cousin was set to walk her down the aisle. He was a charming, blond man, Remus noted, though he was sporting a somewhat too-large bowtie. It didn’t take long for the two of them to make it to the front of the chapel, considering that they only needed to pass by four rows of people. Dorcas was only able to play one verse of the wedding march before Lily was being handed off to James. James, the poor sod, was already tearing up, and Sirius, the ever-dutiful best man, discreetly forced a tissue into his hands.
Remus was watching from his seat in the front row, camera at the ready. He has initially resisted being named as the wedding photographer. Still, once Lily pointed out that this meant he wouldn’t have to be in the majority of the photos, he leapt at the opportunity.
As James was dabbing at his face, the Muggle preacher officiating began to speak. Remus zoned out rather quickly. His culturally Christian mother had taken him to mass once or twice as a child, but after Remus tried to transmute water into wine at the tender age of seven, Hope stopped insisting that he come with her on Christmas and Easter.
It was only when James pulled out the parchment containing his vows from his suit pocket that Remus readied the camera. James’s face was still a bit splotchy.
“Lily Jane Evans,” he began thickly, “if someone travelled back with a time-turner to when I was eleven years old, that I would be standing in front of the altar with you one day, I would have shaken your hand in full agreement because even back then, I knew you would be the only woman for me.” While there was some confusion amongst Lily’s relatives at the mention of a time-turner, it was drowned out amongst the sniffles and snorts of laughter of the others in attendance. With a flash, Remus snapped a photo. After waiting a moment for it to print, he grabbed hold of it. He couldn’t help but grin fondly at the miniature version of his partner and his best friends, who were now forever immortalised in this moment. Remus quickly shoved the picture into his robes, in case any of the Muggles in attendance decided they wanted to take a look.
“Remember when he put those flobberworms on all the girls' pillows the first week of our first year?” Marlene muttered out of the corner of her mouth. “I kept finding them in my sheets for days afterwards since they reproduced faster than we could find them.”
Remus grinned. He remembered it quite fondly, actually. They had just had a lesson on them in herbology, and James had considered himself quite the expert. He had hoped to wow Lily with his mental prowess.
“Even back then, she was the only thing on his mind.”
Grinning, they both looked up to where their friends were standing at the altar. After a moment, Remus let his smile fall.
“You know, sometimes I worry that I’ve died on a mission, and that’s why good things are happening.”
With no small amount of alarm, Marlene whipped back around to look at Remus, who was now regretting letting his inner thoughts slip out. Maybe he’d had a bit too much to drink at James’s small stag party the night before. “Merlin, Remus,” she whispered, “it’s barely quarter-past eleven!”
“Sorry, it just slipped out. Ignore me.”
“Drat, have they already done the vows?” Remus looked up to see Peter hurriedly sit down in the unoccupied seat next to him, dabbing the sweat from his brow with his tie that matched both Remus and Sirius.
“Glad you could make it, Pete. They’re only just started, you’re right on time. Handkerchief?”
“Cheers, Moony.”
The three of them tuned back in to what was being spoken up front. It was at that moment that Remus noticed something strange. Lily’s blond cousin, who up until that point had been standing dutifully behind her, was now making some odd, jerking movements. While subtle enough not to stop James in his tracks, Remus removed his wand from his pocket, half standing up.
Sirius, noticing Remus’s alarm, tore his eyes away from James, only to catch sight of the cousin, as well, right as he lunged at Lily. When he moved, the large knife he was holding glinted in his hand, reflecting the glow of the fairy lights.
“Expelliarmus!” Shouted Sirius, shoving James to the side as he did so. James, adapting immediately, shouted to Mary, who had been standing next to Dorcas, turning the sheet music.
“Mary! Get Lily’s family out of here, and contact Albus!”
“I don’t know which ones are the Muggles!” She cried, frantically looking out at the panicked crowd. For better or worse, her concern was quickly negated as about four of the people who had entered as non-magical family members drew wands, smiling wickedly as illusion charms slowly melted off of them. Remus cursed. Shortsightedly, he hadn’t thought to vet any of the muggles.
At the front, Lily was brandishing her wand at the wizard who had been posing as her blond cousin. “What have you done with Thomas?” She demanded furiously. The Death Eater only snickered, still clutching the hand which once held the knife, now red from Sirius’s spellwork. Lily let out an enraged cry, lunging forward and flinging spells in the imposter’s direction, James’s magic joining her as backup.
Remus quickly cased the room. The chapel was small, only about sixty square metres, but the chaos of all of the bodies inside the limited space made their offence that much more difficult. He could see Mary disapparating with one or two muggles at a time, only to reappear to collect a few more. Poppy Pomfrey had disappeared with Mary’s first apparation, likely to watch over and obliviate those who followed. Marlene and Minerva McGonagall were duelling three of the four combined Death Eaters who had been previously disguised, and Peter had run outside with Dorcas to check for other potential threats.
“Moony!” Sirius cried out urgently.
Remus sensed it before he saw it, side-stepping a bolt of dark red light that had been aimed at him. He might not have even needed to avoid it, as it fizzled out before it got past the pew he had previously been standing near. He spun around, eyes instantly training on the fourth Death Eater, who flinched. The young man – a boy, really, seeing as he couldn’t be older than seventeen – readied his wand again and stammered out his next attempt at the spell weakly. “Cr…Cruci–!”
“Impedimemta!” Remus interruped him with a quick horizontal slash of his wand. The young Death Eater was now moving in near-slow motion, though his eyes were still wide and fearful as Remus closed the distance between them in just a few short steps. He snatched the boy’s wand away before snapping it in half, discarding the resulting pieces on the floor. He leaned down so as to place his mouth directly next to the intruder’s ear.
“You’ve tipped your hand.”
Though the boy couldn’t respond, still moving as though trapped in molasses, his wide and twitching eyes were indicative of his fear.
“Though you’ll never know why, I think you’ll find that the threat of pain doesn’t quite do it for me. Now,” Remus looked around the room, confirming that the other Death Eaters had been taken out by his friends, “I’m going to hand you off to someone much scarier than I am and you’ll tell her everything you know, or else I’ll give you a firsthand account of how it’s possible for a person to be impervious to the torture curse.” He stood up straighter, allowing his height to do the rest of the talking for him.
“Marlene!”
“Yeah?” She snapped up from where she was digging through one of the downed Death Eaters’ robes, swiping away blood from the corner of her mouth.
“Take this one to Moody; see what he knows about where Lily’s family members are.”
She nodded and grabbed a fistful of the boy’s robes. “On it.” With a pop, she and the young Death Eater were gone.
. . .
“Hey, Moony?”
“What?”
“So, I’ve been thinking about some things–”
“Oh dear, someone should probably call a healer, then.”
“Shut it, I’m being serious. No, quiet, that’s quite enough out of you, your wit is too sharp for my delicate pre-planned speech. Right, so again, I’ve been thinking, and… James and Lily.”
“James and Lily...?”
“They’re a couple.”
“Yes.”
“A proper couple.”
“Correct. Are you quite well, Pads?”
“As fit as ever, thanks. Now, you and Martin Davies are not like James and Lily.”
“Er, no.”
“Okay. And, you don’t want to be?”
“Nope.”
“Grand. Also, James does not act the same way around us as he does Lily.”
“Merlin, I should bloody hope not.”
“Because he’s our mate.”
“Well, that and a few other reasons…”
“But you are also my best mate. And you don’t want to be a proper couple with Martin Davies.”
“As we have already established.”
“Well, I do!”
“I don’t follow.”
“I want to be a proper couple.”
“...With Martin Davies?”
“Don’t be daft on purpose, it’s unbecoming of you. No! With you, I think.”
“You think?”
“No! No, I know! I want to be a proper couple with you.”
“I’m going to need you to catch me up with what’s going on inside your head, Sirius. If this is a joke, it’s shit.”
“But it isn’t! Look, how people feel about their best mates is different from how James and Lily are, or how you and Martin Davies are.”
“Spit it out, please.”
“Look, I don’t feel the same way about you as I feel about James, or even Peter. You’re the same but different. I want to have James – and Pete – in my life for the rest of my life, but I want you to be in my life for the rest of my life. Does that make sense?”
“I… suppose so.”
“Right, but do you understand?”
“...Yeah, I do.”
“Okay, good.”
“Good. Okay.”
“Right.”
. . .
Not even a moment after Marlene had left, Remus was accosted yet again, though this time by a much more welcome party.
“Did he get you anywhere?” Sirius demanded, frantically looking him over, patting down his sides and spinning him every which way.
“No, he only got off a single shot that ended up missing.”
Unconvinced, Sirius continued with his search, removing Remus’s suitcoat and checking for nonexistent singes in his clothing. “You might not have felt one hit you, with your freaky pain tolerance.”
“Really, Pads, I’m fine. If I’d been hit by something, we would both be seeing the effects by now.”
Taking a few more moments just to be thorough, Sirius eventually sighed heavily and wrapped his arms around Remus, burrowing his face into his neck. No words were said.
Another pair of arms eventually wound their way around both of them, and Remus turned his head to see James, brows furrowed and eyes still puffy and red from the tears shed during his vows.
“Any news, Jamie?”
“Here and there, but nothing concrete yet. I’m here to collect both of you, actually. Moody’s done with his questioning, and Lily’s gone off to collect the girls. We’ve met with the preacher – he’s married to a witch, if you didn’t know – and we’re going to complete the ceremony in one of the side rooms. I’d like to actually be married, on my wedding day.”
In the end, the attack had been all of three minutes long. Moody had arrived alongside a few other Aurors to investigate how the Death Eaters had made it past the wards or where Lily’s still-missing cousin Thomas was. (Her four other family members would eventually be located, stripped of their wedding clothes and some clumps of hair, but were blessedly alive.)
Together, in a side room, was gathered their small group of friends to be witnesses to the nuptials. Sirius had been the one to round up Pete, who had come back alongside Mary. Before they could continue in the now, even smaller ceremony, Lily pulled out a piece of crumpled parchment of her own. Even with her hair mussed and scorch marks on her gown, she still looked lovely.
“I worked hard on these bloody vows, and you lot are going to hear them, attempt on all our lives or not.” Clearing her throat, she began. “The first time I truly laid eyes on James Fleamont Potter was in our third year. I had just left divination class and saw him directing a first-year student to class. It was the first of many times that I would become a witness to his proclivity to kindness.
“The second time I truly laid eyes on James was in our fourth year, when I learned that he had refused to play in the Quidditch House Cup, despite knowing how much it meant to him, because Jordan Wilkes had been permitted to play in the final, despite having been found guilty of cursing a younger Muggle-born student to the point of hospitalisation. His commitment to doing the right thing was a testament to me that his heart was in the right place, even if his head wasn’t.” Remus let out a chuckle, as did a few of the others. Grinning softly, Lily continued.
“James Potter, I have been blessed to have seen the real you many more times since then, and it is my privilege and honour to stand before you today, knowing that I will continue to be a witness to your good heart and spirit for the rest of my life, as your wife.”
Tearfully, she tucked the paper away, and Remus and his friends let out a loud, celebratory cheer as the priest invited the happy couple to seal their vows with a kiss.
. . .
“Did you at least get any good photos?”
“Shit, I completely forgot. I think I’ve only just got one good one.”
After just about everyone had returned to their own homes to rest from the intensity of the day, Remus and Sirius lingered behind, taking the time to unwind with a short walk about the venue. James and Lily had left shortly after the cleanup, and Sirius completed his best man duties by making sure the final details of the event were sorted out before they, too, could leave.
Sirius snickered and wrapped his arm around Remus’s waist, starting a small, quiet moment of reprieve.
After a moment, something that had been bugging Remus all day snuck to the surface.
“You asked about my old slacks earlier, in the changing room. Did they ever work on you in school?”
“Are you joking? Merlin, those jeans were half the reason I realised that I was even attracted to men at all.”
“Ah, good. Just wanted to check.”
They continued their walk, largely in silence.
A harsh sniffle interrupted their otherwise peaceful stride. Peering to his left, Remus could see that Sirius’s face was now screwed up, though in anger or sadness, he couldn’t tell.
“What’s wrong?”
Stiffening his lip, Sirius sharply exhaled, though his brow was relaxed, leading Remus to believe that he wasn’t angry.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said earlier, and I don’t agree.”
Somewhat confused as to where this was going, Remus slowed his steps, matching Sirius’s shorter stride.
“Don’t agree with what?”
Despite Remus’s efforts, Sirius broke out of their matching paces and moved to stand in front of Remus, effectively stopping him in his tracks.
“This won’t be our only wedding.”
“Sirius, you know I was only joking, I obviously know that there will be more weddings after the war—“
Sirius pressed a hand to his mouth, silencing him (which was somewhat unpleasant, as Remus quickly deduced that this was the hand Sirius had dabbed some cologne on earlier that morning, and the scent was quite strong) while also staring into his eyes so intensely that all other thoughts left the werewolf’s brain.
“Remus John Lupin, we’re going to have our own wedding.”
A jolt lanced through his heart.
After a brief pause, Remus removed Sirius’s hands from his mouth. He fought to steel his expression.
“Sirius, you know that I can’t be…”
Remus faltered at the intense look on his partner’s face.
Sirius shook his head. “I know. I know all that, and I know what the law says, and I know what the muggles all say, but I just don’t care. When it’s safe, after all of this bloody war nonsense, I am going to break my legs at the speed at which I will get down on one knee for you. I am going to scream my voice bloody hoarse, shouting my vows to you from the rooftops. Remus John Lupin, I am going to marry you someday, and it will be us underneath that altar–” Sirius yanked on Remus’s tie, bringing Remus low enough to press a kiss to his temple. “–you mark my words.”