I am so very sorry it has taken me so long to upload this next chapter!!! I've been horribly busy - I'll try to be better, I promise!! This chapter is dedicated to those who have still stuck by me (especially Lisa! You're amazing!) even though I've been super slow over the years to upload my chapters! But I promise, this one isn't over until I say it is :) xxxx
We burst through the portrait and into the common room, to see...
*****************
...no one?
“Well, darn,” Peter muttered. “Guess we came back too early.”
We spent the rest of the day and the entire evening waiting. Sirius took to pacing the dormitory, Peter stared listlessly into space, I tried so hard to occupy myself: books, magic, nothing worked! Even dinner couldn’t distract us?!
It got later and later but no one was keen to leave the dormitory or even get into bed. We were just starting to talk about getting into our pyjamas when the door opened and -
”GUYS! SHE SAID YES!” James hooted, sprinting across the common room and barrelling into us, knocking us all to the floor in a heap.
It took a moment to process what he’d said, then -
“Congratulations!!!” Sirius whooped loudly.
“Brilliant!” Peter shouted.
“Oh I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!” I heard myself repeating, a little breathlessly, as I tried to shove Sirius and Peter off me so I could hug James.
I heard Lily giggling from the doorway. I leapt to my feet, ran over to her and threw my arms around her in a massive hug. “Congratulations!” I grinned.
She grinned back at me, her eyes shining. Sirius and Peter both hurtled over and knocked us to the floor then. Not wanting to be left out, James leapt on top of us. “I’m marrying Lily Evans!” he sang, loudly and - in typical James style - completely out of tune to anything I’d ever encountered.
We disentangled ourselves and got up from the floor. “So,” Sirius asked a little mischievously, “How did he do it?”
Lily’s eyes flickered to James. He gave her such a loving smile in return that I was surprised Sirius didn’t pretend to gag. “Well...”
“James?” Lily asked quizzically. “Are you ok?”
James tried to smile at her but was sure it was just a grimace. He felt like his stomach was full of snakes and his legs were going to jelly. “Just take hold of me. You know how to side-Apparate still. Just t-trust me.”
She nodded, a little nervously. “Where are you taking me?” “Shh, sweetheart. Just let me concentrate.”
He concentrated as hard as he could and then - it felt like they were being squeezed so tightly together they would never separate, he felt like his eyes were going to implode, he couldn’t breathe - and suddenly, the universe expanded out again and he felt the air sucking back into his lungs. The strong wind whipped Lily’s hair into his face and she gazed around in wonder. “James, it’s beautiful here - where are we?!”
He looked around, staring across the flowers, towards the edge of the cliff face and down into the churning, blue water below, then beamed - he’d done it! Then he remembered why they were there and felt as if he was going to be sick. “Th-this is where my parents and I used to come when I was young,” he stammered. “I spent so much of my childhood here.”
He swallowed nervously. “It feels like home to me, being here...a-and that’s why I wanted to bring you here. Because y-you...you feel like home to me too.”
He took a deep breath. “I really don’t know what I would do without you, Lily Evans. So...so I wanted to ask...”
He suddenly felt courageous and so, very in love with the beautiful woman in his arms. He knelt down on one knee and Lily gasped quietly as she realised what was happening. “Lily Evans...I am so, incredibly in love with you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you - a-and even longer, if that’s possible. Would you do me the greatest honour...of being my wife?”
“And you said?” Peter asked impatiently.
“She said yes!” James exclaimed, scooping Lily up in his arms and kissing her.
Sirius laughed fondly. “We always told you she would, Prongsie. Right from the first day.”
Printer Friendly Version
