The Engagement Party
The clinking of the glass breaks James from his trance. He looks over to find George Evans standing with a flute of champagne clutched in his hand.
George looks at everyone with a big smile, “It seems like just yesterday that my baby girl was born… my sweet Lily. Now look at her! Getting engaged to this young man right here. James, I want you to know that I could not have asked for a better man for my daughter. Welcome to the family, son.” George smiled at James, raising his glass, “To James and Lily!”
A chorus round sounded “To James and Lily!” along with cheers from their friends. Monty stood up just as everyone had quieted down. He looked over to George, addressing him. “Evans, it was just 2 years ago that we met when you contracted Potter and Associates for your new hotel. It was then that James and Lily met each other to work together on this project. I am so happy that we turned that partnership into friendship. Who would’ve imagined that one day we’d be turning into a family? Aap sab ka humari family mei, bohot bohot swagat hai.”
Rose Evans stood up when it was time to bring out the dessert. “Since everyone is so big on speeches today, I'll skip it but I would like to dedicate a song to my lovely daughter.” She went around the table to grab a mic from the bar, and a soft melody started sounding just as Rose began crooning the chorus of Wind Beneath My Wings, holding out a hand for Lily to take.
James willed himself not to smile too much and looked towards Lily to see her eyes glistening with tears, awkwardly he averted his eyes only for them to land on grey eyes twinkling with amusement. Sirius grinned at him from where he was seated on the table, undoubtedly having the same train of thought as him. Just as everyone was applauding for Rose, he stood up swiftly. Clearing his throat to catch everyone's attention, Sirius flashed his charming smile, “Hello everyone, I’m Sirius. James and I are childhood friends–” “The Marauders!” Effie exclaimed gleefully – “That’s right. Effie named us after maybe the hundredth prank we pulled on our teachers. Unfortunately, two of our marauders, Peter and Remus are not with us today,” Sirius said solemnly, looking as everyone’s faces fell and they glanced at each other awkwardly.
Looking back at James, he barked a laugh. “Now, don’t worry. They’re not dead. They both moved out of the country after uni. Sweet ol’ Petey is in Spain now.” He huffed another laugh just as everyone else did.
“Anyways, Lily,” He continued, “James is probably the best guy I have ever met, he is the sweetest and most caring person in my life. So if you ever crash his Mustang, don’t worry about it.” He winked. “But no seriously–” Another wink– “he’s also very smart and so very generous. So don’t ever hesitate to demand some diamonds.” Everyone roared and James made fingers at Sirius, motioning to shoot him. Sirius dramatically put a hand on his chest and crumbled forward, acting as though James had shot him. “Basically Lily, James is an amazing guy and will always be there for you. So all I ask is that you take care of my best friend and support him every step of the way.”
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“I should warn you, Marlene is planning this big shot bachelor’s party for James,” Mary said while fiddling with her dress. Alice looks up, confusion clear on her face.
“Why would Marlene be planning it? Isn’t that the boys’ job to do that shit?” She looked between the two of them. Lily and Mary both smile at each other before answering her.
“They’re childhood best friends, didn’t you know? They used to be neighbours when they were five, they’ve been best friends ever since. If you wanna talk about the boys’ job, then you should know that Marlene is one of them already,” Lily answered before focusing back on her dress, which just wouldn’t stay up. It was a strapless red dress and no matter how hard she tried to fix it, it kept slipping. “On the other hand, buying this dress was a fucking mistake. I’m never wearing a strapless dress anymore.”
“And anyways, Marlene's parties are always so insane,” Mary added. “And your dress is driving you insane because you ordered the wrong size online even though I tried to tell you to buy a size smaller.”
Alice looked up at the ceiling seemingly lost in thoughts, “You know, come to think of it, Marlene’s parties are insane. She planned Frank’s bachelor's and I still don’t know what happened that night. He always gets so… weird, whenever I bring it up.”
Lily walked away from the mirror towards the couch, “Well anyways, you can tell Marls to chill out. Sirius told me they made this... pact or something in school. Remus, Peter, James, and Sirius have planned everything since they were in high school about what they will do at this bachelor party. If you ask for my opinion, their idea is much more insane than anything Marlene could plan for him.”
“What is it?” Mary leaned forward.
“They’re gonna go on a road trip.”
“That doesn’t sound much insane.”
“In Spain.”
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Marlene leaned back on the bar top looking between James and Sirius, “the fuck you mean I’m not invited to his bachelor’s party.” Sirius takes a step back, knowing how she gets when she’s annoyed at them, which she is right now. She’s glaring at him like she wants to smash a bottle of wine on his head. Maybe two. Taking a nervous breath, he calmly says, “Look Marls, I know you were excited about this, but this is something the four of us have been planning since we were sixteen.”
“I don’t care how long you’ve planned for this, Black! I have known that guy since he was five and jumping into the mud. You are insane if you think –” Sirius cuts her ranting off, saying “Well, then I guess the black family madness has caught up to me because you are not invited to his bachelor’s party.”
Marlene groans and drowns a shot before shooting him with another glare. Frank coughs awkwardly from he’s sitting beside her on the bar stool, catching the attention of all three of them. “If you two are quite done… What exactly are you planning on doing in Spain?” He asked James.
“Oh, well. I actually can’t tell you that,” He replied.
At Frank’s confusion, Sirius adds, “Basically, he can’t tell you in front of me. Whatever one of us has planned, the other three aren’t allowed to know until we’re already at our destination.”
“Enough about my bachelor’s though, Frank,” James says, steering the topic away from Spain before it steers close to Seville. “I’ve heard something, you know. About your bachelor’s.” He smirks at Frank watching as his eyes widen slightly.
“Does Alice know?” Is the first thing out of his mouth followed closely by, “God, Please don’t tell her.” Without even giving them a chance to say anything, he continues, “Really, it’s all fucking Marlene’s fault —” “Hey!” — “It wasn’t even supposed to happen. Alice said, explicitly, no girls aside from Marlene. So, of course, this heathen here got this amazing idea that they’ll get male strippers! I didn’t even know about it until they were already there! Male strippers, James, male. I didn’t even know, fuck. Please don’t tell Lily or Alice, I didn’t mean to just fucking kiss him. He was so pretty, James. I didn’t even know I liked guys before, Alice is my first girlfriend, and it's not like we ever broke up and I got to explore. So, that night I had just gotten this big revelation and I just, it didn’t mean anything, it didn’t even escalate. It was just an innocent kiss.” Marlene snorts at ‘innocent’. “Okay fine maybe it was more than just an innocent kiss but that's it! really!” He rushes out before anyone gets a word in.
Sirius suddenly straightens, his face falling. “Alice. Hi.” He looks to somewhere behind Frank. Frank’s face fills with horror as he turns around already babbling an explanation. As he turned to find Alice nowhere in sight, James and Sirius roared with laughter. He turns back towards them with a frown, “It was not funny, Sirius. I thought I was gonna get murdered in my sleep today.” He turns towards Marlene now, complaining about the two of them as if Marlene isn’t shitting her pants laughing with them.
James and Sirius, still caught in laughter, turn back to join their other friends. “That trick has never failed me,” James says as he drowns his champagne. Sirius turns to look at him, raising an eyebrow, he asks, “What do you mean, Trick?Didn’t you already know about that thing with the stripper?”
“No, he just told me. You see, that’s the thing.” James points his finger at him, “You tell someone that you’ve heard something about them, don’t even specify what about. Before you even know it, they’re spilling all their secrets out.”
Sirius shakes his head at him again, “God, I thought now that you are getting married, you’ll finally stop these shenanigans. I am so glad that you didn’t! Oh, we’re gonna have so much fun on this road trip, just wait.”