Part One

The May morning dawned bright and beautiful, and the first rays of the sun entered the flat bedroom and landed on the face of the soon-to-be Mrs. Lily Evans Potter. She closed her eyes again and cuddled closer into the arms of her soon-to-be husband.

He reached over and turned her head so that he could kiss her, wet and sensually. She gave a slight moan and sunk deeper into the pillows, her mouth lax, allowing him to kiss her the way she liked it.

However, when her nightgown started slipping up her waist, she rolled her eyes and smacked him atop the head.

"Lily!" James growled, glaring at her. "I'm about to explode!"

"You are not, you little drama queen," Lily said, shoving him off of her. "You did not spontaneous combust seventh year, or when you were an idiot," as she termed the point when they had broken up, "and you won't combust now. Two days more will not kill you."

James watched her, sadly, as she got out of bed and set to getting ready for the day. She went into the bathroom and he got out of bed to follow her in there. He stood behind her and held her by her hips, pressing her body to him.

"You're cranky," he said, quietly.

"I am not cranky-"

"You're sexually frustrated, aren't you," he nibbled on her ear. "You know you want me."

"Potter, you're really pushing it this mor-" He kissed her again, and inwardly, he felt victory when she moaned. It didn't last long because she turned around in his arms and stared at him.

"Baby-"

"James, do you know why I don't want to do this now?" Lily said.

"Because you want it to be special," he recited. "But we can make it special even if we do have a quickie right here-"

"Baby, do you remember how good it felt when we made up?" she asked cupping his face. "And in seventh year?"

"Yes," James said, nodding.

"I want it to feel like that on our honeymoon," she said, blankly. "And I'm cranky because somebody took his sweet time in proposing to me, and we have to rush the wedding before anything else happens. If somebody had proposed when he meant to, we would have been married, and there would be no abstinence."

James grinned and pressed his forehead to hers. "You still love me though?"

"I stil love you," she said, closing her eyes and kissing him lightly. "Though it's very hard to like you sometimes."

The two of them got ready without much more incident, but James gave Lily a longing stare when she was dressing. He kissed her as he headed off to work, and she off to go do more wedding plans with James' mother.

Moody was charitable enough as to give Lily the week before the wedding to do "woman things," as he termed it, as well as the two weeks off for their honeymoon. But only, he said, because Voldemort and his cronies were being quiet as of late.

Mrs. Potter, happy with her son at last, had been planning the wedding while Lily remained at work. She had bombarded Lily with owls with fabric swatches and things of that nature. Lily, who had been planning the wedding ever since James first tried to propose, and put it on hiatus when he had his "stupid time," had a lot of ideas.

As it turns out, compromise was a wondrous thing. The bridesmaid dresses were a lovely pale blue, and the groomsmen's robes were trimmed in silver. James was so happy, he nearly cried.

But there were still a few things left to get ready. The wedding and reception were going to be at the Potter's house in Godric's Hollow, and it was just going to be a small affair. In fact, there was only going to be a best man and a maid of honor, Sirius and Emmeline, respectively, and Lily had asked Remus, as the closest thing she had to a brother, to walk her down the aisle. He was touched.

So there was only a few things left to figure out, which was fortunate because the wedding was in two days.

Lily sat waiting in a small café. She was going to meet Mrs. Potter and James for lunch to smooth out a few more details, and they were due to arrive any minute.

Suddenly, she felt someone behind her and lips press against her cheek. They weren't familiar lips though.

"How's my favorite girl?" Sirius said, sliding around to sit in the chair opposite of her.

"What are you doing here?" Lily asked, her eyebrow quirked. "Where's your mate?"

"Your future husband decided that he needed to skiv off lunch to finish up all of his paperwork, and your future mother-in-law could not make it to lunch today."

"Oh really?" Lily asked, knowing full well why. "And why did you ask them to cancel our meeting?"

"Because," Sirius said, grinning and slamming a giant black book that was overflowing with ribons and lace onto the table. "You and I need to discuss the bachelor party."

"Excuse me?!" Lily blinked.

"Well, love," Sirius said, opening up the book and handing her a pamphlet of a stripper. "As you and James are two of my very favorite people, I want to make sure that you approve of everything that goes on."

Lily nodded and put the pamphlet face-down, clearing her throat. "Well, I thank you for your concern, but I don't really want to know-"

"I'm not going to tell you what's going to happen," Sirius rolled his eyes. "I just need to know how far you want me to push him?"

"Push him?" Lily asked.

"Well, I don't want him to show up on your wedding night having slept with a girl the night before..."

"No, nuh-uh," Lily held up her hands and shook her head. "There will be no sleeping with other women."

"I thought you'd say that," Sirius snickered. "What about other forms of sex? Would you be averse to a stripper slobbing his nob?"

Lily stared, "Sirius, this is not the conversation I want to be having right now. I don't want to know what goes on!"

"But I don't want you to be mad at me!" Sirius said, half-whining. "I need to know what your boundaries are! You know me!! I don't know the meaning of boundaries!"

"All right," Lily sighed. "I guess..." she seemed to be having difficulties putting into words what she wanted. "I guess he can be...." she flushed, "‘pleasured' by whoever you get. Just not...too much..."

"Great!" Sirius grinned, writing that down on a list. "And by ‘pleasured', you mean-"

"Let's not get into details, all right?"

"Taken," he said, looking down his list. "Now, about the stripper....would you be terribly freaked out if I got a red-head?"

"Sirius," Lily said, closing her eyes and trying not to picture a woman with red hair and green eyes but much, much different than Lily dancing on top of James' lap. "Please, can we discuss something else?"

"Right, right....about how drunk do you want him?"

"When are you planning on doing this little party?" Lily asked.

"Night before the wedding. He's not supposed to see you, so I figure the only way he can keep his mind off of being separated from you is to get him drunk. Which is why I was asking about the redhead, because if he gets completely gone, he won't know the difference..."

Finally, Lily had heard enough. She reached across the table and took Sirius' hand in hers.

"Sirius, darling," she said, smiling.

"Yes, love?" Sirius replied, looking at her sweetly.

"I trust you to not screw him up too badly," she said, squeezing his hand. "So can we please stop talking about it?"

"All right, all right," Sirius relented. "So, everything all set?"

"Yes," Lily said, biting her lip.

"What's wrong?" he asked, noting her expression.

"Nothing," she said, quietly. "Just me being silly."

"Lily....love...." Sirius said, laughing a bit. "Don't tell me...after all of this...you've cold feet?"

"No, no," Lily chuckled a bit subdued. "I am getting married to James the day after tomorrow unless the world ends."

"Oh, that's good to know."

"I just..." she sighed and cleared her throat. "Never mind me, I'm just being silly."

"If you're sure..."

"Positive," Lily smiled. "Now, run along and book your strippers and spare me the details."

Sirius, still concerned about Lily, stood up and kissed her on the forehead, packing his overflowing black book into his arms and walking away.

When he was gone, Lily pulled out her wallet to pay for her meal and her eyes fell on the small family picture that was nestled in-between two twenty pound notes. She swallowed and quickly pulled out the note, trying her best to ignore the happy, smiling faces that stared up at her.