Charlus Potter stood by the front windows of the house, staring off to the disapparation point, where James and Lily would appear. He held the curtain back with one hand and cupped a handkerchief over his mouth with the other as he coughed.

"Will you sit down?" Dora pleaded, coming into the living room from the kitchen. She put down the tea tray she was carrying on the coffee table and walked over to where he was standing and took his arm. "You don't want James thinking we're the sort of parents that watch him out of windows!"

"Wouldn't be the first time we'd have done!" Charlus said, but at the expression on Dora's face he smiled, "Besides, what I mean to say is that of course I'll get out of the window before they see me watching, obviously!" Charlus laughed.

Dora sniffed, then jumped forward toward the window, "IS THAT THEM?"

"No I reckon that was just a bit of wind, Dora my love," Charlus replied, and he leaned even closer, adjusting his glasses position on his nose. "We will most definitely know it when they've arrived!"

"Not most definitely, it seems."

Charlus spun about, Dora too, and found James standing behind them, fresh from the floo, and Lily just behind, helping Mrs. Evans dust off. Mrs. Evans looked particularly shaken and held her palm to her chest as Lily fixed her mum's stray hair.

"You've flooed!" Charlus said in surprise. He clapped his hands, "We thought you might disapparate in."

"Oh is that why you lot were spying out the front then?" James teased.

"I was just trying to get your father to come and sit down!" Dora protested, though she'd gone pink and flurried over to Lily and Mrs. Evans to cover how flustered she'd gotten.

Charlus was tucking something into his pocket as he approached and greeting Lily and Mrs. Evans, too, while James stood, appreciating how their mums got along. He watched as Charlus moved and thought he seemed to be doing quite well and was glad to see it.

Dora had made her roast and the house smelled warm and inviting, and made James quite hungry. As Dora and Charlus led Mrs. Evans to the dining room, chatting idly about what Mrs. Evans and Petunia had been up to since they last saw her, James reached out and laced fingers with Lily. She paused and looked up at him, smiling. James rubbed the base of her left ring finger with his thumb, where the ring was, turned in to hide the diamond. She'd put it on just before leaving, having to keep it on a chain around her neck at home so that Tuney or her mum wouldn't see until they'd had the chance to tell them.

"I love you so bloody much, Evans," James said quietly, their parents having stepped into the next room ahead of them, he gave her a quick peck of a kiss.

"I love you, too, Potter." Her eyes seemed even brighter green than they had done just a moment before, having lit up when he kissed her.

James looked at the dining room door, then back to Lily. "You reckon your mum will be happy?" he asked nervously.

"Ecstatic," Lily answered, nodding. "And your parents, too."

"Yeah well, prepare yourself for the full Dora Potter waterworks extravaganza. She's going to cry an ocean probably, knowing mum. She nearly flooded King's Cross when I left for Hogwarts."

"My mum was a wreck the first time, too," Lily said.

"Well my mum got like that EVERY time."

Lily laughed.

Charlus stuck his head into the living room again, "Oi, I've been sort of waiting for this roast all bleedin' day and you lot are out here dillydallying and all the things that comes with it!"

James laughed, "Dad, gods, some privacy!"

Charlus ducked back out of the room and James leaned forward, kissed Lily again, and said, "Alright let's go before he comes back."

They headed into the dining room and joined everyone at the table. Dora and Charlus had the end seats across from one another, and Mrs. Evans was on one side, across from James and Lily, who sat side by side. The roast glistened and there was steam rising from mashed potatoes and carrots and all the fixings of a meal. James loved his mum's roast.

Under the table as they ate, James's knee bounced with nerves. Lily reached over and put her hand on his leg and he put his hand on hers. Just being in contact with her made it easier for him to relax. He drew a deep breath. "Mum, you did a great job with the cooking tonight," he said, smiling at Dora, who positively glowed with pride.

"She always does!" Charlus called out happily, shoveling more of the roast onto his plate and asking, "Someone pass those carrots 'round again please..."

When they'd all finished eating, Dora was about to get up but James cleared his throat, "Actually, mum, wait. Lily and I have something to tell you."

Mrs. Evans looked up from folding her napkin onto her lap, and Dora sat down in the chair beside Charlus instead of her own, slowly. "Yes?" she asked, hesitantly.

Charlus's eyes were wide and the very corner of his mouth twitched ever so slightly.

Lily sat up straighter, under the table she was fiddling with her ring, turning it about to face upward and looking up at James with eyes on the verge of bursting out with happy tears. She bit her lips together, trying to hold the emotion back until he'd dropped the news.

"Well, mum.. dad... Mrs. Evans... Lily and I have been going out for a bit of time now, and as you know we were sort of... on the edge of it ever since we started at Hogwarts..."

Lily raised an eyebrow.

"Anyway, we've decided that... we... want to get married."

Silence. Absolute silence.

Lily pulled her hand out from under the table, "He's asked me and I've said yes." Her heart was beating deep in her chest, the energy from the announcement and the subsequent silence pumping through her veins.

James nodded, "She did, it's true. Right after Gryffindor won the Quidditch Cup."

"GRYFFINDOR WON THE QUIDDITCH CUP?" Charlus bellowed with excitement.

"Charlus!" Dora whacked his arm. "FOCUS. ON. THE. ISSUE."

"Sorry," he murmured, deflating. "I mean to say - that - what a time that must have been! Winning... and... a proposal to boot..." He glanced at Dora to see if he was reacting the way she wanted him to.

Dora's eyes were gooey with emotion and she stared at James with her watery eyes, her lips trembling. James stared back at her with his eyebrows slightly raised, waiting for her to make the first move. Mrs. Evans, however, got up and came around the table and without so much as a word, she wrapped her arms around James's shoulders and hugged him from behind. "Welcome to the family, James." She kissed the side of his head and then turned to Lily and, crying, she said, "I'm so happy for you, my little girl is getting married -- and to such a gentleman!"

The Potter side of the table then exploded with reaction. As though they'd been waiting for the cue that it was alright or something. Well, Charlus really had been waiting for a cue - looking at Dora with expectation if he was allowed to react yet. But the moment Mrs. Evans had run 'round to hug him, James saw Dora burst into tears and give out a wailing cry and she came charging round, closely followed by Charlus, who flung themselves upon James, hugging him in a tight sandwich of joy and shouts of approval and cheer. Lily was laughing beside him, he could hear the tinkling music of it, but he couldn't see her for the flurry of excitement that was a sobbing Dora Potter as she hugged her son's head and wailed and wailed - "My son is getting married, my son!" - and James thought how right he'd been back at the flat when he'd said this is what would happen.

Charlus waited until Dora had had her turn and pulled her away so he, too, could congratulate him and he whomped James about the shoulders heartily and said, "WELL DONE, SON!" When Dora, Mrs. Evans, and Lily all looked at him with a funny expression he said, "Well you heard the boy - he won the bloody Quidditch Cup!"

Dora made a face, "CHARLUS. HE'S ENGAGED TO BE MARRIED!"

"I know that! But... but the Cup!"

"Well at least I know where he got the quidditch obsession from," laughed Lily.

"Yes, like father like son, for sure," Dora agreed, glowering at Charlus.

Charlus grinned.

They all marveled and shouted and talked a bit longer. Lily showed off the ring, and they told and retold the story of the proposal (and the game, at Charlus's insistance), several times over. Dora cried, Mrs. Evans cried, Charlus bragged that his son had been the best Captain Gryffindor ever saw. Then Dora went to the kitchen and returned a moment later with glasses and a bottle of Madam Rosmerta's best Sparkling Mead and poured out five glasses of the lovely honey-gold champagne. Charlus held up his glass and the others followed his lead, looking at him with expectation.

Charlus took a deep breath. "Tonight, we celebrate something great. Something marvelous. We celebrate love. We celebrate the coming together of two families. It is easy, as a parent, to see a child growing up as losing them. The older they get, the further away they go, until soon they're adults, living in the world and although you are always their mum and dad, they don't really need you anymore..." He paused and Dora and Mrs. Evans were even more teary looking, if that was possible. Even Charlus looked sort of choked up a moment and he closed his eyes, then opened them and continued, "But really, what we've done here is not lost our son, but we've gained a daughter." He looked at Lily with a smile, "You, my dear, are everything we could've hoped for in a daughter. The joy that you bring to our son... is incomparable. The love for you is clear in his eyes, and your love for him is clear in yours."

Lily sniffled and hugged James's free arm with her free arm.

Charlus smiled, "May you ever be blessed, James and Lily, may you be ever happy... and may your wee ones be just as good at Quidditch as my bloody Quidditch Cup Winning son!"

James laughed and Dora glared at Charlus, then Charlus raised his glass a bit higher, "To love."

"To love!" everyone chorused, and they drank their glasses dry.

James and Lily stood on the sidewalk outside of the Evans house that night. Mrs. Evans had gone inside to allow them to say goodnight in private, having hugged James and kissed his cheek and told him she was happy he was in Lily's life. Now they just stood in the glow of the street lamps, looking at one another's eyes. James swayed Lily slightly, the champagne a bit gone to their heads. James spun her about once and pulled her close, as though they were dancing to the sound of the night insects singing. James's hand was on her lower back and he kissed her softly, pulling away after a long moment and looking into her eyes as she stared up at him.

"Evans," he said, "You make me happy."

"You make me happy, too, James," Lily replied. She looped her arms around his shoulders and played with the hair at the back of his neck. "I've never been happier in my life than I am now. It's because of you."

He smiled and dipped her low. She laughed as her hair hung behind her head, her pretty dress swishing about her calves as he brought her back up and they resumed their swaying. "Shall we have pistachio green suits and a unicorn at our wedding?"

"We'll leave that up to Sirius and Remus," Lily said, crunching up her nose.

"Ah, yes, I s'pose it would look rather foolish if we had the exact same party favors as they do."

"It would."

"What shall we have, then?" James asked her. "Anything you want Evans, you name it and I will make it happen for you. Whatever it takes, my love."

Lily laughed. She wrapped her arms around him and put her cheek against his chest, listening to his heart beat within him. "All I want is you, James. Everything else is just foolish details."

"Well I promise you no matter what, Evans, that I will be there for our wedding." James smiled as she laughed even harder and his eyes sparkled just watching her, his lip hanging up on his gyrari tooth. "I love making you laugh."

"You're good at it," she replied.

James kissed her forehead, then rested his chin on her head and closed his eyes as they rocked back and forth, their feet barely moving on the pavement.

"What would you like at the wedding?" Lily asked him.

James mused for a moment, then, "Well, you, of course."

"Of course."

"But I think I'd like it to be in the forest somewhere. Just us and our friends, family."

"You know that means Tuney would be there?"

"We can put her in the back. She'll be able to see. Her neck is so long that --"

"James!" Lily squeaked, snorting she laughed so hard, "Stop it." She waited for him to wind down from the hard belly laugh he'd broken into at her indignation, and then she said, "What else do you want at our wedding?"

"Loads of pictures," he replied. "So that every day we can see them and remember how bloody lucky we are."