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James put the Firewhiskey bottle to his lips and took a gulp, consciously not looking at the clock in the corner. He knew Lily would kill him if she knew what he was doing right now. He could even see the expression on her face, that mix between bemusement and mock anger, and he could practically hear the words almost as clearly as if she were standing in front of him.
“James Potter, are you really drinking at four in the morning on the eve of our wedding? You do realize if you have even one stray hair out of place in the morning, you will be sleeping outside for the rest of your life.”
James passed the bottle to the right, into the hands of his best mate.
“If Lily asks you,” he said. “We were in bed and asleep at eleven.”
Sirius snorted before taking a sip of the liquid and passing it off to Remus, who was lounging at their feet, leaning back against the couch.
“Like she’ll believe that,” Sirius said. “I don’t think you’ve been in bed at eleven since you were four. If then.”
Remus chuckled at Sirius’ words, took a sip of the Firewhiskey and handed the bottle off to Peter, who was sitting on his left, also on the floor.
James frowned. “That’s not true.”
“Close enough to true,” Sirius said. “Besides, when did you start doing what you were told?”
“The day she said yes,” Remus cut in before James could answer. “James is a changed man now.”
James took the bottle Peter was holding up to him. “I am not,” he muttered.
“Good thing we like Lily,” Remus said.
“Yes,” Sirius said, reaching for the bottle before James could even take his sip. “Better than we like him even!”
•••
“Why are you guys doing this?” Remus looked at each of them in turn, his eyes narrowing as he took in their wands and the obvious signs of spells gone wrong — holes in robes, plants knocked over, something smoking in the corner.
“We told you,” James said matter-of-factly, “we go where you go.”
“No.” Remus shook his head. “You could be expelled for this. Or worse! It’s illegal to try and become an Animagus, and if …”
James cut him off. “Do you think we really care about getting in trouble?” he asked with a smirk.
“You should care,” Remus said sulkily. “And you should stay away from me. I’m nothing but trouble.”
“Oh, please,” Sirius said. “You’re just whiny. James is the one who is nothing but trouble.”
“Hey!” James protested.
“And we’re doing this because we want to,” Sirius added.
“Yeah,” Peter piped up.
“You can’t stop us,” James said.
“What if I tried?” Remus asked.
“Then you would fail,” James said, and he grinned. “Where you go, we go. Together forever. It was in the contract.”
“We didn’t sign a contract.”
“Well,” James said, “we might as well have.”
•••
“Okay, I think Lily knows.” Sirius shut the door behind him and turned to James with a look of mock empathy.
James stopped fiddling with his tie and glared at his best man.
“You told her, didn’t you? I told you to tell her we were done drinking by midnight at the latest.”
“Hey!” Sirius said, holding his hands up, palms facing forward, a gesture of peace. “Now while I don’t condone lying to your future wife” — He smirked at this — “I am innocent here, mate. I didn’t even see her.”
“Then how?”
Sirius shrugged. “Her bridesmaids keep shooting me dirty looks. Even the cute one who was smiling at me yesterday.”
James rolled his eyes and went back to working on his tie. “Oh, that,” he said. “I assume Lily just warned them about you.”
“Warned them about me? What did I ever do?”
James looked up. “You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?”
“Hmpff.” Sirius gave an undignified snort. “Someone should have warned her about you.”
“I think you already did.”
“Oh.” Sirius grinned. “Right. We did. But only twice.”
James shook his head. “You want to stop trying to figure out where you went wrong with that, and lend me a hand with this stupid tie?”
“Not really,” Sirius said. “But I will.”
He stepped over to James, pointing his wand at James’ neck and muttering an incantation under his breath. A few seconds later, James looked down at his perfectly tied neckpiece. He glanced back up at his friend.
“I’m going to really miss you,” James said.
Sirius frowned. “Where am I going?”
“No, I just meant …”
“Oh, no,” Sirius said. “Don’t you dare say this marriage is going to change things.”
“Sirius …”
“You think you can just get rid of me like that? You can’t.”
“Sirius …”
“I’m going to be over for dinner every night. Tell Lily. Probably breakfast on Sundays too.”
James couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m not sure Lily will like that.”
“Well, she should have read the contract then,” Sirius said. “She gets one of us, she gets all of us. That’s how it works.”
•••
“Lily agreed to go out with me.”
The catcalls that followed this announcement were almost as loud as the entire Gryffindor House on a Quidditch game day. James was pretty sure they heard them down in the dungeons (of course, he sort of hoped they had).
He smirked at his friends and dropped on to the bed, proceeding to give them a detailed account of just how exactly it had all gone down.
“I knew she would come around!” Sirius said when he was done.
“Good on you,” Peter said.
“So I guess this is where it ends,” Remus said, and they all turned to look at him.
“What?” James said.
“What?” Sirius and Peter said.
Remus shrugged. “Doesn’t it always end when the guy gets the pretty girl? James’ll be with Lily. We’ll all drift off …”
“Why would we drift off?” James interrupted.
“Why would he pick Lily over us?” Sirius asked.
Remus frowned at them. “That is what happens,” he said. “I’m just stating the facts.”
“Your facts are messed up,” Sirius said.
“They are,” James said. “You’ll never get rid of me. No matter how hard you try.”
“Are you sure of that?” Remus asked. He didn’t sound convinced. But James was. He grinned.
“Very,” he said.
•••
“They aren’t going to be waiting for us at the inn, are they?”
Lily looked sideways at her new husband and smiled. James felt his heart almost leap out of his chest at the way her face lit up when she looked at him. He squeezed her hand in his.
“Who? What?” he said, too busy staring at her — this woman, who was finally really and truly his — to register her words.
“Remus. Sirius. Peter,” Lily said. “You didn’t invite them on the honeymoon, did you?”
This time James heard her, and he laughed.
“Of course not!” he said. “Don’t be silly.”
“So that means you’re going to Apparate away for a couple hours then when I’m sleeping? Or in the shower?”
“Errrrrr … no?”
Lily laughed. “Why don’t I believe you?”
“You should always believe me!”
“Like the way I should believe you all stopped drinking at midnight last night?”
“Errrrr …”
“I thought so.”
James watched her face twist, that half-bemused, half-annoyed expression he loved so much finally taking over. He leaned in and snogged her.
“You’re my priority now,” he said. “My friends are …”
“Our family,” Lily replied. “Like it or not.”
“Our family?” James repeated.
“Of course,” she said. “We are an our now.”
“I know, but …”
“Besides,” Lily said, and she grinned, “someday I expect them all to help change diapers. That is what family does.”
James snorted, the image of Remus and Sirius trying to wrangle a dirty diaper — and probably losing — crossing his mind.
“Yeah,” he said. “That is what family does.”
He leaned in to snog her again. He could see it now. A not-so-far off future. Him and Lily and a little baby boy. Remus, Sirius and Peter arriving with presents. It was all he had ever wanted. And he couldn’t wait.