Part Three

"Hello?" Sirius said, poking his head into the kitchen. "Mrs. Potter?"

"Sirius, dear!" Mrs. Potter said, juggling three pots on the stove. The wedding was to be held at Godric's Hollow, and she was busy playing caterer.

"Where's Lily?" he asked, walking inside.

"Oh..." she said, quietly. "Oh, she's upstairs...don't tell James, you know how he'll worry-"

Sirius, now very concerned, slowly ascended the stairs. He heard talking coming from down the hall and headed towards that direction. He paused in front of James' old room and knocked on the door.

"Come in," Alice Longbottom said. Sirius cracked the door and she stood up, hurriedly.

"What's wrong with-"

"Oh Sirius, she's been like this since she saw her dress," Alice said, wringing her hands. She lead Sirius over to the joining room where he could hear light crying.

"Lily, honey?" Sirius said, walking inside. He saw Lily, wearing her white slip, and holding a tissue to her red-rimmed, tear-stained cheeks. She had the puffy and red appearance of someone who had been crying for several hours, and hiccuped when she saw Sirius walk in.

"S-Sirius," Lily said, wiping her eyes hastily, but it did no difference.

"What's wrong?" Sirius said, rushing to her side and brushing her cheeks. Lily shook her head and leaned against him, sobbing, and wrapping her arms around him. He rubbed her back soothingly and lifted her head up to look at him. "Do you not want to get married?"

"No," she shook her head. "I'm just b-being silly..."

"You're hardly being silly if you're this upset," Sirius said, smiling lopsidedly. "Is this about James?"

"N-No," Lily hiccuped.

"What's wrong, then?" Sirius said. Lily just continued to sob, as if it hurt her so deeply to talk about it. Sirius turned his ear towards her; he could almost make out what she was saying.

"I-I-I w-want my M-M-Mum..." she sobbed, eyes squeezed shut in pain, her chest racking with each breath.

It all suddenly clicked into place and Sirius held her tightly to him, suddenly at a loss at what to do. If she was upset about something fixable, he would have spared no expense to make it right, but this...about this, he could do nothing.

"It's not supposed to h-happen this way," Lily said, pushing away from him, and still hiccuping. "D-Daddy was supposed to walk me down the aisle, and M-Mum was supposed to m-make my dress, and Oliver was..." she trailed off into incoherent sobs.

Sirius rocked her gently.

"P-Petty wouldn't come!" she whispered. "I wanted her to be my m-maid of h-honor, and she wouldn't t-talk to m-me!"

Sirius looked at her and brushed away her tears. Now this was something that he could fix. "You stay right here, all right? Just leave it to me. And no more tears, all right?"

In response, Lily continued to sob.

"Er...Alice!" Sirius called, brushing the wetness off of his robes. Alice came running in. He made a motion as if he didn't know what to say and then motioned to Lily and said, "Make sure she doesn't do anything..drastic, all right?"

"Oh....hello baby," Sirius said, eyeing his motorcycle lovingly. He had wheeled it out of the Potter's storage shed and gave it a light dusting. He really needed to use it more often, but he'd been so busy that he'd nearly forgotten about it. Now that he had a second look at it, his love reemerged.

"Right, now," Sirius said, sitting on top of it and turning it on. "If I were a boring bird and had an overlarge husband, where would I live...?"

He revved it a bit, listening to it purr and released the clutch, the tires making a squealing sound as they left the dirt. He rode for a few seconds on the ground before lifting off into the sky.

Mrs. Potter had given him a bit of help, saying that Lily had mentioned that Vernon Dursley had just bought his wife a new house in Little Whinging in Surrey. So Sirius headed in that direction to see what he could find. He had exactly three hours until the wedding, and damned if he was going to let his best mate's woman down. Not after all the times she fed him.

All of his determination slowly started to ebb when he looked down and saw Little Whinging. Every house looked the bloody same, with the same cars, same roof, same everything. It was so normal, it almost made him gag.

"Right, there has to be an easier way to find the house," Sirius told himself. "Think, Black, you took Muggle Studies...how to locate a Muggle..."

"I'm looking for a Mu-err...a woman by the name of Petunia Dursley," Sirius said, clearing his throat. He had remembered hearing something about "policemen," Muggle law enforcement, and he thought maybe they would help him out.

"How long as she been missing?" the man said, taking out a form and a pen.

"Err...she's not missing," Sirius said, scratching his head. "I need to find her."

"Are you being difficult on purpose?" said the policeman, looking quite angry.

"No, no!" Sirius said, waving his hands. "I don't think she's missing, I just need to locate her house!"

"Well then, try the bloody phone book!" the policeman said, grumbling. "And stop wasting my valuable time!"

"Erm...what's a phone book?" Sirius asked, quietly, knowing that it must have seemed a stupid question.

The policeman stopped and stared at Sirius. "Did you just ask me what a phone book was?"

"Where!" Sirius corrected, holding up his finger and looking a bit triumphant. "Where is your phone book!"

"It's right here," the policeman said, handing him a giant book, and eyeing Sirius' clothes. "What the bloody hell are you wearing?"

"....it's the new fashion.... in Paris," he nodded and winked slyly. "You know the French, always odd duckies they are..." He turned his attention to the phone book. "Vernon Dursley, Dursley..."

"Vernon Dursley, you say?" the man said, eyeing him. "What do you want to do with him?"

"Do you know them?" Sirius said, head popping up.

"Yeah, they're my neighbors-"

"Well, for Merlin's sake man, where do they live!?" Sirius asked.

"They live over on Private Drive," he said, thumbing behind him. "I can give you directions if you like."

"I would like," Sirius nodded. The policeman began to write it down on the back of one of his forms. Sirius watched as the directions got longer...and longer...and longer...

"How far away is it?!" he asked, as the policeman started squeezing things into the bottom of the paper.

"Oh shoot, I forgot something," he said, balling up the paper and throwing it away. Sirius looked at the clock and started bouncing on his feet. He only had an hour and a half now.

"Could you maybe...hurry it up a bit?" Sirius asked.

"Am I rushing you?" the policeman asked, looking at Sirius haughtily.

"No, you see, I have a wedding I need to be at, and Petunia needs to be in it, so if you could please hurry with those directions, I would be most appreciative-" Sirius said, very quickly and very pointedly.

Finally, the policeman finished the directions and slid it over to Sirius who took them into his hand and thanked him as he ran out the door.

"Turn on Picadilly Square," Sirius muttered to himself thirty minutes later, turning his bike to go down another road. All of the similar houses were making him dizzy. He stayed on his course and turned down another road, Magnolia Crescent, until he finally saw Private Drive.

"Number four, number four," Sirius said, counting down the houses. A giant grin appeared on his face. Here it was.

Leaving his bike on, Sirius hopped off of it and ran to the door, banging on the door.

"Petunia Dursley! I know you're in there!" he called. "Get out here so I can take you to your sister's wedding!"

Silence.

"OI!" he banged more. "OPEN UP!"

More silence.

Statute of Secrecy be damned, there weren't any Muggles about. He pulled out his wand and unlocked the door to find...

...an empty house.

No furniture, no appliances. Sirius walked into the empty living room with a look of supreme shock on his face. Apparently, Vernon must have just bought the house for his wife. So "just" that they haven't even moved in yet.

Sirius felt his shoulders drop. All of this, and Lily wasn't going to have her sister in her wedding like she always wanted. He felt like such a failure....

"What are you doing in our home!" Vernon Dursley called from the door. He was holding something large and bulky, as if threatening.

"You!" Petunia hissed, peering over Vernon's shoulder.

"You!" Sirius said, a giant grin appearing on his face.

"You?!" Vernon said, looking between the two of them.

"You're coming with me," Sirius said, leaving no room for argument. Petunia gasped in indignation, and Vernon with aghastness.

"Says who?" Petunia sniffed.

"Says me," Sirius said, brandishing his wand. Now Vernon knew who he was, as he bristled, but fear shone from behind his eyes.

"You will put that away and leave our house at once!" he bellowed. "My wife isn't going anywhere!"

Sirius pointed his wand at Vernon whose eyes widened. "She will come to her sister's wedding and be a part of it, or else I'll use your head for target practice."

Vernon seemed quite unsure of himself in the minutes that followed.

"Her wedding?" Petunia said, coming out from behind Vernon. "You want me to go to her wedding?"

"Yes, as you're her only family left," Sirius said, lowering his wand.

"That's not my fault," Petunia sniffed, looking as if she'd rather not discuss the subject. Sirius let out a dangerously low growl and marched up to Petunia, grabbing her by the arm.

"If you ever say anything like that again..." he said, glaring at her with an intensity that made her tremble.

"UNHAND MY WIFE!" Vernon roared. Sirius pointed his wand once more and dark purple sparks came out of it.

"I'll bring her back when the wedding is over," he said, and with one grunt, he threw Petunia over his shoulder and walked out the door.

Lily looked at the clock and hung her head in shame. It was twenty minutes until she was set to walk down the aisle, and she could not stop bawling her eyes out. It just made her want to cry more, which was the original problem.

So there she sat, in a vicious cycle, in front of her mirror, looking at her white dress still on the hanger. The tears welled up in her eyes again. She was thankful for Mrs. Potter finding the dress and paying for it, but it would have been so much nicer if her Mum had made it, like she made Petunia's...

Speaking of Petunia, Lily blinked. She thought she must have been crying so hard she was hallucinating, because she thought she saw Petunia in the doorway.

"Well, aren't you just a sight," the hallucination sniffed. Lily turned around slowly and stared, not wanting to believe her eyes.

"P-Petty?" she hiccuped.

Petunia was carrying a large bag under her arm, which she promptly hung up over Lily's wedding dress. She walked over to Lily and picked up a tissue, wetting it with her tongue, and wiping the tear stains off of Lily's cheeks, ignoring the stunned look on her sister's face.

"W-What are you doing here?"

"I'm your matron of honor, idiot," she said, simply. "Now, do your...magic..thing..and get rid of your red eyes."

"Y-You are?" Lily said, feeling the tears well up in the back of her eyes again.

"Yes, oh, stop-" Petunia rolled her eyes as Lily flung herself onto her and started sobbing again. "Stop crying, for goodness sakes!"

Lily stood up and for the first time, a watery smile appeared on her face. Petunia offered a small one in return, although it was strained.

"Now, you need to get into my old dress. I don't think it will fit you, but you can do your...ab- magic ..thing...to make it fit."

"You brought your wedding dress?" Lily asked, following her over.

"Well as Mum...." she sniffed. "As Mum isn't around to make you a new one, this is the best I can do."

A smile adorned Sirius' face as he listened to the sisterly sounds from within. Feeling quite proud of himself, and having ten minutes to spare until the Moaning Bitches had to be ready to meet Lily at the church, he Apparated back to Remus' flat.

Where he found James and Remus already dressed, and looking fresh as daisies.

"W-What did you do?!" Sirius asked, blinking at them. Emmeline, who was fussing with Remus' light blue tie, smirked.

"I happen to know a few hangover remedies, Mr. Black-Hold still, Remus!" she slapped his hand away when he tried to fix it himself.

Remus sighed and let her fiddle with his tie. It looked fine to Sirius, and Emmeline seemed to be messing it up on purpose just to fix it.

"Where've you been?" James asked, jumping a bit. "Your robes are dirty-"

"Let's just say, when you see who's on my arm, you're going to get a bit of a surprise," Sirius winked at Emmeline who finished with Remus' tie.

"I suppose I'd best go give up my dress then-"

"That you should," Sirius grinned. She disappeared and both Remus and James looked over to Sirius, confused.

"What's going on?" James asked.

"Don't worry about it," Sirius said, walking over to James and fixing his lop-sided tie. Apparently, Emmeline had been more focused on Remus' tie (Sirius noted this in his memory). "Just think about the hot sex you're going to be having in a few hours."

SGR's Note: All right, time to answer some questions.

Yes, AWS is complete. No, I won't write a wedding. I don't write weddings well, and as nearly every aspect of James and Lily's life is being showcased, I wanted to give them a bit of privacy.

So, why did I do a mad posting session? Well, the answer is simple: This has already been posted on FF.N for a few weeks, and I just wanted to post it on portkey. So why so quickly?

I will be posting the first chapter of the LAST BOOK on January 21, 2005 simultaneously.

Well, that's the plan at least. We'll see how Astronomy Tower behaves.

So, I'll see you in two weeks!