Work Text:
May 14, 1979
“You would NOT believe the night I’ve had.”
Remus stared impassively over the rim of his teacup at James, who was dusting off the remnants of Floo from his muggle clothing. His hair was considerably wilder than usual, flatter on the right than left, and were those pillow lines still on his face?
“Oh, morning, Moony!” in spite of his dishevelled appearance, James still managed a carefree smile.
Remus grunted (it was far too early to be that cheery), returning his gaze to the muggle newspaper he had been reading before being rudely interrupted.
“That still your first cuppa?”
Silence aside from aggressive sipping.
“Haven’t witnessed our dear morning-Moony-before-two-cuppas in a long time!” James continued to grin widely as though he was the funniest person in the flat. “Where’s Padfoot? I need a hug.”
There was a small crash and some minor swearing from the kitchen.
“Never mind! I found him.” James pranced off to the kitchen. “Morning, Pads!”
“Not now, Prongs, can’t you see I’m performing a delicate procedure?”
“Erm, watching eggs burn in a fry-pan?”
Remus’s eye twitched.
“No! I’m cooking these eggs to absolute, Moony-approved perfection.”
“I think my current duress is more important than Moony’s eggs. Gimme a hug.”
“What? No, Prongs—”
Remus took the last sip of his tea as there was a chaotic clamour followed by a series of small crashes. He slowly made his way into the kitchen, still sore from the effects of the full moon a few nights ago.
James and Sirius had somehow managed to find themselves in a tangled mess covered in burnt eggs and cold tea on the floor.
“Hmm… I expected to walk in on something much worse.” Remus stated, stepping over the pair to fetch some more tea.
Needless to say, they did not have eggs for breakfast.
James did quite enjoy the sugary cereal Sirius always insisted on buying, though.
“What made you grace us with your presence this early in the morning?” Remus dared to ask. “Did Lily find that photo of—”
“No!” James said quickly, earning a rather curious look from Sirius. “Nothing like that.”
“There’s a photo I don’t know about?”
“I’ll tell you about it later, Pads.” Remus assured his boyfriend.
“No, it’s Lily.” James took off his glasses and rubbed at his face. “Originally, we weren’t going to have a wedding, what with all the shite going on in London now, but her parents won’t stop going on about it, and then Mum made a comment or two—”
Sirius grimaced. “Ah, Mum’s about a subtle as you are. I’m surprised Evans hasn’t hexed you yet.”
“It was a close call.” James readjusted his glasses and sighed loudly. “So now she’s got this big idea to have a wedding this summer, and there are colour swatches all over the flat, seating charts, guest lists, and more wedding magazines than I care to count. She asked me which colour I thought would be better for the bridesmaids and I said ‘the salmon one’.”
“Was that the right answer?” Remus asked because Sirius was too busy making a face at the mention of the colour.
“No!” James stood up and flopped dramatically into Sirius’s armchair.
“Well, I for one am impressed you even knew that salmon was a colour.”
“Right?!” James groaned loudly as Sirius and Remus joined him in the living room. “You’d think Lily would’ve been impressed too, but nooooooo. Instead I get chewed out for not knowing the difference between salmon and coral, and how I was going to absolutely ruin the wedding. She made me sleep on the couch last night. The couch! ME! She asked me about the flower arrangements this morning, and I tried my best to redeem myself by suggesting lilies.”
“… I’m guessing that also wasn't the right thing to say.”
“It most certainly was NOT.”
“I must say, I’m impressed with what you can accomplish before nine a.m.”
“Finish your tea, Moony.” James continued to sulk, until he realized something very important. “Padfoot, you’re being rather quiet. I don’t want you to get any ideas, Lily’s under enough stress right now and—”
“Let’s help her out then.”
“… What?” James did indeed hear him perfectly fine, but was rather hoping that by some miracle he’d heard wrong.
“No, think about it, we have loads of planning experience, what with all those pranks back at school. We’re organized, coordinated—” Remus snorted. “—resourceful, creative, and just what Evans needs.” Sirius got up and started pacing a bit around the room, twirling his wand. “Yeah, this could work out brilliantly.”
James sat frozen on the armchair.
“Wait, wait wait, you’re not serious.”
Sirius grinned his patented shit-eating grin. “I’m always Sirius.” He stabbed the wand through the messy bun atop his head. “Come along Moony! We’ve got some things to discuss with Evans before work.”
“Don’t forget to grab Wormtail, he’s the best note-taker.” Remus chimed in before Sirius disappeared into the fireplace.
“Aren’t you going to stop him?” James gestured wildly to the fireplace as the green flames died out. “Why didn’t you stop him?”
Remus shrugged.
“To be perfectly honest, I’m surprised something catastrophic didn’t happen sooner. I’ve had enough time to rest and relax, time to let Sirius have his chaos. Plus, my tea is cold, and Lily does have that nice imported brand I like.”
By the time Remus and James reached the flat, Peter had already set up his notebook and was that a muggle clicky pen? Yes, it was, as he demonstrated that it also worked perfectly well by clicking it nervously. He’d also given himself an excellent duck and cover spot near the sofa.
Sirius was finishing up a convincing speech to a rather frazzled Lily, who had puffy red eyes and James’s old quidditch jersey on.
James moved as though to rush over and envelop his fiancée in a bone crushing hug, but Remus held him back for now.
“We don’t want to spook them, look! They’re getting along and everything. Lily even has her wand tucked behind her ear.” The werewolf whispered. He rather wanted to bypass them and go to the kitchen for tea, but that would involve passing the two, and he didn’t want to interrupt anything.
“Look Evans, I know you’re a little stressed right now, but hear me out. We are literally the best people for the job. I would give you our resume, but you’ve experienced and/or witnessed about half of it, a quarter of it are things we ‘allegedly did but were never caught for’, and the final quarter is of the questionable illegality sort, so… I hereby solemnly swear to make sure we do everything in our power to make this the most spectacular Marauder wedding ever. Only to be surpassed when Remus and I get married, of course.”
Remus blushed and rolled his eyes.
The room was silent aside from the occasional click of Peter’s pen.
“No lilies.” The redhead said quietly after a moment.
“Wormtail!”
The clicking stopped and was replaced with furious scribbling.
“NO LILIES NOTED!”
“Or petunias.” Lily said with a sad smile.
“Wormy!”
“NO PETUNIAS NOTED!”
“And as for your bridesmaids, I really can’t picture them in coral,” Sirius stated bluntly. Remus tensed up, ready to dive for cover the second Lily’s hand twitched for her wand. “I was thinking something along the lines of a nice green or a daring shade of yellow. What do you think of forget-me-nots? How were you thinking of doing your hair?”
Lily’s sad smile grew wider and happier.
“You know what, Black? I think we might actually be able to make this work.”
“Oh thank MERLIN!” James threw his arms around Sirius and Lily. Quite frankly, he was just happy no one was hexed in the process. And that he wouldn’t have to spend another night on the sofa.
“Not now, Prongs. I love you, but your future wife and I have things to plan, people to see, dresses to choose, and so on and so forth.”
“Oh good, now move, I need tea.”