"Nights in white satin," Sirius murmured as he followed Lily into Le Belle Wedding Boutique.

A huge crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, sending sparkling light across a sea of white taffeta, punctuated by gold vases filled with pale pink roses. There were huge guilted mirrors bespeckling about the room.

"I've never seen so much bleedin' white in all my life."

Lily, too, was blinking around, a bit blinded by it all.

A plump, stout woman with large teeth and sculpted hair came into the room, bustling with excitement. "Oh hello!" she called as she entered, fingers twitching as she held out her hand to collect their coats. "Welcome, welcome!" She sized the three of them up. "Oh how novel! We pretty much never see the grooms visit with their brides, how exciting."

"I'm not the -"

"And you must be the bride?" The woman turned to Petunia, who was staring around the room, breathless with excitement.

Petunia was too enthralled with the room to hear the assumptions being made, and she said, "Yes, I am! Oh it's so lovely in here!"

There was a flicker in Sirius's eyes, a moment of being torn between his pride and his desire to have a good laugh. Lily saw it - and she saw the moment of decision, a flash of evil laughter that lit Sirius up like a torch light.

"It certainly is lovely, my darling snufflecakes," Sirius slid closer to Petunia, grinning wildly at the boutique woman with starry eyes. "Now, now only the best for my snazzlefuss here - she deserves only your best gowns!"

Lily wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry for despite the proximity of Sirius and the atrocious nicknames he was calling her, Petunia was too wrapped up in exclaiming over everything in the shop to realize what was happening. This only made Sirius's eyes glow all the more wickedly.

Petunia was walking along racks of gowns and running her fingers over delightfully intricate patterns of lace and pearls, and Sirius, eager to keep up his game of it, followed along behind her, grinning. "Think this one would be rather spiffing on you," Sirius said, plucking one of the more gaudy, taffeta-skirted gowns, complete with gigantic round shoulders and ribbons. He twisted it so the skirt billowed and made loud crunching swoofs.

Petunia frowned, "Don't know... perhaps..." She was still too preoccupied with the beauty of the shop to notice that she was actually getting along with one of Lily's friends, which was especially incredible given the unkempt state of Sirius Black at that particular moment.

Lily was smirking in spite of herself as she watched Sirius quietly tease Petunia in his little game, completely without Petunia's knowing it, and although it could be construed as rather mean of him to be taking advantage of Petunia's distraction, it was also rather unfair that Petunia had to be distracted to treat Sirius as though he were a human being. Thus, Lily told herself, it was a neat little package and one quite deserved the treatment of the other at this moment.

She wandered between two racks a few aisles away from Petunia and Sirius, though she could still hear him recommending gowns and Petunia asking questions such as, "Don't you believe it has too many ruffles, though?" as they made their way along. Lily perused, now and then pausing to peer at one or untuck it from amongst the others to take a closer inspection.

"Champagne?" The shop owner came sidling up beside Lily and held out a small tray with flutes of bubbly gold champagne upon it.

"Thank you," Lily replied, and she took a sip.

"Are you the maid of honor?"

"Oh, um. No, I don't reckon she'll ask me to be that," Lily mused. "She's my sister."

"Sister of the bride, how lovely!" the woman smiled, "You must be very excited."

Lily nodded, and lifted the glass to her mouth a second time. This time, the shop owner spotted Lily's very large, very shiny engagement ring. Her eyes widened just looking at it. Lily felt her face flush - she'd gotten this reaction a few times now, when people spotted the ring. James had clearly spent a good deal of gold on it, for the rock attracted attention incomparable to any other bit of jewelry Lily had ever owned.

"WOW!" The shop owner said, grabbing hold on Lily's hand. "Just - wow! I thought it was your sister getting married?"

"Oh we both are," Lily replied.

"Wow. Landed you a rich'un did you?" the woman winked.

"Oh, I - I suppose," Lily stammered, blushing even harder. "He's a gentleman and that's what matters."

"Have you got a picture?"

Lily reached into her bag and pulled out the polaroid photograph of James and herself that he had asked for for his birthday years ago, which had hung up on her dormitory wall and she now carried everywhere. She hoped that the photograph version of herself and James would behave and stay still as she passed it to the woman to have a look.

The woman's eyes widened as she looked at James and she let out a long, low whistle. "My God, child, you've won the lotto with that one, haven't you?" she chuckled and shook her head, "What a lucky girl, lucky lucky girl..."

Lily watched the woman walk away, and tucked her photograph back into her bag. She smiled proudly to herself and turned back to the dresses, a warm feeling building up inside of her. She was indeed a lucky girl, she thought, and she suddenly couldn't keep the smile from her face.

Finally Petunia had found some dresses she liked and she set about trying them on, leaving Sirius to turn his attentions to Lily. He grinned as he sidled up beside her. "So have you found your frock yet, Lilith?"

"No," Lily answered, beginning to suspect she wouldn't find one at La Belle.

"Did you see the bit of cloth your sister's just brought in the dressing room?" he asked, "Ghastly. Nearly as ghastly as my mother's. I expect she'll look like a fucking merengue when she emerges."

Lily laughed, "You're positively awful."

Sirius grinned.

"Has she figured out that you're her groom yet?" Lily asked.

Sirius's wickedness flared. "Not a clue, but I'm thinking of giving a go at hugging her, just to see her mind explode."

Lily laughed so hard that she snorted.

"Is she treating you alright?" Sirius asked. "That's why I've really come about, you know, wanted to be sure you were getting on with her and she wasn't being a dreadful beast."

"It's actually been mostly pleasant, rather," Lily answered, deciding to ignore the few tense moments during the tea and average it out as good. It was easily the best interaction she and Tuney had shared since they were children.

"Well splendid!" Sirius said. Then, "Look at us, having mostly pleasant interactions with our siblings. If all else fails, try at breaking her foot - seemed to work alright with Reggie and I."

"I rather doubt Tuney will react the same way as Regulus to a broken foot. Honestly."

"No? Well. I suppose that is the difference between boys and girls, then, at the core of it. That and this awful penchant for dreadful pearly bits sewn to ugly frocks. Just look at this one." Sirius held up a gown that had so many pearls sewn into flowery arrangements over the satin fabric that it weighted down the hanger and Sirius felt he could scarcely lift it. "No chance of the bride wearing this would run off, that's for blasted sure. She'll need to be put on roller skates and pushed down the aisle."

Lily snorted again at the mental image.

"Or there's this one here, which looks as though a thousand swans moulted at oncr and someone decided to sewn it all to a bodice."

Lily was near to tears.

"I will literally buy this for you if you only use it to trick Prongs into believing you seriously plan to wear it and tell me what he says."

"No," Lily laughed, "Poor James. He would be so tongue tied. He'd never tell me he hated it if he thought I truly loved it."

"Precisely why it would be fun as hell to convince him you do!"

"You wicked thing!"

There was a shriek from the direction of the fitting room and both Sirius and Lily hurried to see what the matter was. It was apparent the moment Lily came 'round the end of the aisle. Petunia had waddled out of the curtained off corner, a huge ruffled dress with the bodice hanging somewhat loose about her. Lily ran over as Sirius hung back by the door, watching, leaning against the door frame.

"What's the matter, Tuney?" Lily asked.

"I - I think the zipper might have - might have broken." Tuney was crying. "It's the perfect gown and I've ruined it! Oh they'll m - m - make me pay for it!"

Lily ducked 'round behind Petunia and found that sure enough the zipper had torn open. Lily whispered, "I can fix it."

"Do!" Petunia begged. "Oh I am so embarrassed."

"It's alright, Tuney..."

"I'm just so - so - so f - f - fat and I c - c - can't figure out why! I've barely eaten since Vernon and I got back from F - F - France and I still g - g - gain weight."

Lily hesitated, and thoughtfully worked out how to ask what she had to ask as she drew her wand and carefully aimed it at the zipper. "Reparo," she whispered, and the zipper repaired itself with a quick serpentine motion. Seeing it fixed, Lily could tell precisely why the zipper had broken. The gap between the two sides of it was much wider than it ought to have been for it to zip comfortably. "Do you want me to let out the fabric a wee bit?"

Petunia's eyes were full of tears again. "It's too small isn't it?"

"Just a bit. Nothing magic can't fix."

Petunia stiffened.

The shop owner was just coming 'round the doorway, "I think I found just the dress for you, here it's --"

"Do you have any tuxedos???" Sirius suddenly asked, leaping between the shop owner and the sisters, "Lime green ones, perhaps?" The shop owner looked confused, but Sirius whisked her away before she could see Lily with her wand out.

"Thank gods for Sirius Black," muttered Lily. "Here, Tuney, look." Lily used her wand and prodded the fabric at Petunia's back a bit, loosening the fibers and extending the gown. It took a bit more than she would tell Petunia to do, but she stowed her wand when she finished and easily zipped the dress up her sister's back.

Petunia looked at the mirror and, aside from her tear stained eyes, saw the vision that looked precisely how she wanted to on her wedding day. She could hardly breathe.

The shop owner returned then, followed by Sirius's thumping boots. She was carrying a gown and shaking her head at Sirius. "I'm just saying that lime green - or even a nice shade of pistachio - would be dead popular if you were to stock them!"

The woman paused on the landing going to the suite where Lily and Petunia stood admiring Petunia's dress. "Oh you look divine!" she said, beaming, "Very beautiful. And it fits you perfectly - look at you!"

Petunia beamed.

Sirius was working very hard to keep his mouth straight - this gown was near to identical with the one he'd offered to buy Lily as a prank.

Lily flushed and waved at him to look away.

The shop owner turned to Lily and unfurled the dress she was holding. "The moment you told me you were to be married, too, I thought of this one I had tucked away out back for someone with just the right figure for it."

Lily's jaw dropped.

In the end, both girls had their gowns and they stepped into the evening air outside the shop clutching bags stuffed with their dresses. Sirius lit up a cigarette the moment he was outside and scratched his head vigorously like a dog would do to its hind quarters.

"Sirius, I'm going to take Tuney home. Just tell James I'll be a bit late when you get to the flat, will you?" Lily asked. She loved Sirius but she desperately needed to talk to Petunia without him hanging about.

Sirius hesitated. "Do you want me to go with you? Keep you lot safe?"

"No, we're fine."

Sirius looked hesitant.

"Go," Lily said.

Sirius sighed and nodded, then hugged Lily before turning to Petunia. "It was marvelous being able to stand spending time with you, and such a lark being your groom for the day." And before she could stop him, Sirius had pulled Petunia into a hug and given her a big, sloppy wet kiss on the cheek before stepping away and disapparating instantly.

Petunia looked thoroughly disturbed, wiping the slobbery kiss from her cheek. "What did he say? What? Being my groom? What's he on about??"

Lily laughed, "Nothing to worry your head about, Tuney, he's just being Sirius."