"Ladies and gentlemen - bros and does - you've gathered together here tonight for a spectacular event - an event unlike no other... a gathering to end all gatherings... a celebration of staggering proportions. It's the end of an era... the start of an age... the age of Jily, the age of Lames, the age -- of an unsingle Prongs --"

A shout went up as all the lads gathered cheered and several hands slammed into James's back with approval.

"-- and a wedded Lilith!"

The girls in the room shrieked and clapped, and Marlene Mackinnon stamped her feet on the floor.

It was two nights after the early Christmas celebration at Fallengunder, and here was Sirius Black was standing on the coffee table in the flat in East London. He wore a top hat, shiny and stiff, perched upon the very top of his head, his hair tucked up inside in a knot. He was wearing a red coat-tailed jacket, looking every bit the part of the Ringmaster that he was pretending to be as he waved his arms about, speaking grandly to the small crowd before him.

The couches and chairs had been cleared back and James Potter sat before Sirius in a red velvet high backed arm chair that Remus had conjured up. Surrounding him was a cloud of all his favorite lads - Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Regulus Black, Jasper Odair, Frank Longbottom, Bilius Weasley, and the Prewett twins. Beside James in a matching high backed chair was Lily Evans, a crown made of paper flowers on her head, and all of her best friends - Alice Prewitt, Marlene and Annalee Mackinnon, Emmaline Vance, and Meg Johnson.

Several bottles of firewhisky and a dark red merlot were open on the coffee table around Sirius's feet and the lads all held low ball glasses full of the firewhiskey in their hands - Sirius holding his up over his head as he spoke - and the girls held wide mouthed wine glasses full of the merlot. With the exception, that is, of Marlene, who had poured the firewhisky into her wine glass with several large ice cubes ("looks graceful, but more my speed," she'd said, winking at Sirius when she'd poured it under his smirking stare).

"Alright, alright, lot listen up - this part's important, alright? It goes like this." He cleared his throat. "Before we get started with the fun and games - and we do have some fun and games planned tonight might I add - let's get some of the mushier rot out of the way, shall we?" He took a deep breath and turned to look at James.

"Eight years ago, an extremely good looking eleven year old climbed aboard the Hogwarts Express and found himself a compartment with a blubbering lass and history rewrote itself in the instant. Nothing was ever the same because that was the moment when these two idiots looked at one another for the first time." Sirius waved at James and Lily.

James laughed, smiling and looked at Lily, who blushed and shook her head.

"IT TOOK SEVEN YEARS YOU LOT -- seven years of waiting and waiting and waiting for you two to jam it in your thick skulls what the rest of us already saw and knew all along."

"Hey I knew," James said, "I knew from the start!"

"Shh, Potter, no interrupting the best man's speech."

James laughed.

"Alright now where was I? Oh, yes... So that's the first time they looked at each other, but the true love of both their lives walked into the compartment a moment later... I'm talking about myself, of course.... James Potter's first wife."

Everyone laughed and James said, "I'll drink to that!" and took a mouthful of the firewhiskey, which burned down his throat and sat warm and delicious in his belly. The other lads (and Marlene) shouted and took a sip, too, and Sirius waved his wand, setting the bottle of firewhiskey to floating about among them, refilling their glasses.

"So off we went on a seven year journey and blimey what a journey it's been - both of you have been there for me through thick and thin and up and down and all that. Life could be hell but the pair of you were always by my side, no matter what was happening or what a little prick I was being... and yes, more often than not my problems were caused by my own shenanigans. Yet you lot never gave up on me - no matter how tempted I'm sure you often were. That means a lot to me - and it means a lot to all the other people you haven't given up on, either."

"Hear, hear," Jasper called out, nodding at them both and raising his glass. Everyone in the room raised their glasses, too, and the bottle of whiskey and the bottle of merlot made their rounds once again, topping everyone off.

Sirius cleared his throat and his eyes met James's. "I couldn't have been luckier when I stepped into that compartment that day. I couldn't have made a better mate than you... and more than just a mate... You're my brother. You're my missing piece."

"Should I be jealous?" Remus joked, laughing and smirking at James.

"He's broken enough to be missing more than one piece," James joked back.

Sirius plowed on, "You're my best friend... and I could never, ever, ever dream of repaying you for the life that you've given to me and you've many a time seen to it that I didn't lose or toss away. And you, Lilith -- you, too, are one of my very best friends, and I owe you my whole world.... which is precisely what I'm giving you." He waved his palm at James. "Take good care of him."

"I will," Lily nodded, then added, "But you've got to promise to take care of him on Tuesdays and Bank Holidays for me, too."

Sirius laughed and held up his firewhiskey. "Behold, the exact reason why I love you, Lily Evans. You're everything a bloke could want." He smiled and bowed to her, then stood up right and took a deep breath, "Alright you lot. Got that out of the way --" he wiped his eyes with the back of his palm and turned away a second.

Sirius turned back. "Alright. Enough of that rubbish...."

"Hang on!" Ali said and she stood up, stepped onto the table, with Sirius's helping hand-up, and she turned to look at Lily. "Lily Evans, I love you so much. You're my best friend and you've been there for me, too, just like Sirius has just said. You've been there for all of us. And I'm so glad that you found someone like James, who has been there for you just the same way - all these years, even when you were blind to it, he's been there for you... and I'm so glad to know that you'll be not only loved fiercely, but taken care of and treated right, and it just - just makes my heart so happy to know it. Because you've always been so full of love and kindness and goodness to everyone that needs it, and I'm grateful that I got to come along for the ride." Ali smiled, blushing, as Frank clapped 'round his glass, and she quickly jumped down off the table and scurried back to her place on Lily's side of the room.

The girls all raised their wine glasses and took a large mouthful of the merlot (and Marlene her firewhiskey).

Sirius grinned. "Well put, Alice. Now -- for real and for true, that concludes our mushy time... and it's on to the fun and games." His grey eyes glinted with amusement and the party-goers all exchanged chuckles and nervous glances, wondering what Sirius was up to. He cleared his throat and held up his glass high - "When your glass is completely empty... it becomes a port key. Bottoms up!" He threw back the entire glass of firewhiskey and CRACK! He was gone. Just like that.

"Well isn't that just the damnedest magic!" cried out Gideon.

"How the hell'd he do that one?" Fabian demanded, inspecting his glass.

Marlene Mackinnon was the second to disappear.

One by one, the drinks were gone - Lily and James clinked their mismatched glasses together and Frank had to take his in two swallows. The Prewetts linked arms and drank each others glasses, and soon only Peter was left. He didn't really like the taste of firewhiskey and was trying to drink it but it made his mouth taste funny so he got up and ran to the kitchen, overturned it into the sink and finally caught up to the others.

It was the field below the old campsite behind the Dumbledore house that they came out to. Sirius and Remus had done it up real nice though and there were lanterns that hung about in the air illuminating the party space, a big white tent with billowing curtains about three of the sides. Bluebells and pine and spruce sprigs hung around the tent poles thick and smelling fragrant and wonderful. There was a large firepit in the center, an already burning flame on a hearth of logs, magic of course so it wouldn't burn down the tent and could be safely inside without smoking them out. Comfortable bean bag-style chairs and pillows sat about all over and long roasting sticks in an umbrella stand stood by at the ready.

A huge trunk stood open by the opening of the tent and inside was loads and loads of fashion accessories of a wild assortment. Long gaudy feather boas and thick faux-pearl necklaces. Top hats and hats with feathers and nets and flowers and all kinds of baubles and there were big glasses and fake mustaches and gloves and shawls, and all sorts of things. "Dress to the nines before you come inside!" boasted a sign that hung beside the trunk.

There was a load of commotion and laughter, things being tossed about and tried on, thrown from one person to another. Sirius already had the gaudy ringmaster's costume on, so he simply took a long cane and trotted into the tent with a flourish of gentlemanly swaggering. Marlene Mackinnon flung a neon green boa about her neck and coiled a long string of the pearls about so that they hung about her neck loose in several revolutions and they clicked when she walked, carrying a long cigarette holder that reminded her of Audrey Hepburn. She donned a pair of heart shaped sunglasses and used magic to make her lips dark pink. "Darling, this was a magestic touch," she said to Sirius as she took a seat on a bean bag, her legs high in the air.

"Isn't it, babe?" Sirius replied, grinning. "Why if I wasn't so gay I'd tell you how magnificent you look."

"And if you weren't dressed in that ridiculous outfit I might say the same, but dear that suit is atrocious," she said, lowering the sunglasses slightly.

"Isn't it just?" Sirius asked, and he looked down at it with pride.

Frank Longbottom joined them with giant glasses and a mustache taped to his upperlip, and closely followed by the Prewetts who had donned matching steampunk top hats and vests in hideously vibrant patterns - one purple with gigantic orange flowers and the other orange with gigantic purple flowers. "How'd you do the port-key thing?" Fabian asked the moment they'd arrived to the fire pit.

"Yeah how'd you make that work?"

"And what would've happened if I'd drained the cup early?" Frank asked.

"As I nearly did twice," Marlene cooed.

Sirius grinned, "A lady never tells her secrets, sirs... and lady," he nodded to Marlene.

Alice pirouetted over, wearing a large hat stuck through with peacock feathers and a cape to match, which fluttered with feathers that trailed to the ground like a true peacock. More of the faux-pearls hung from her neck like Marlene's. "This is beautiful, Sirius!" she cried, waving at the tent. "I must say I was really nervous letting you and Rey plan the stag party by yourselves, but you've done grand!"

"I am personally offended by your lack of confidence!" Sirius announced.

"But completely understand given my husbands outlandish tastes," Remus interjected, coming over and sitting next to Sirius. He had found a long fur coat made up of what looked like a hot pink shag carpet and thick-rimmed orange glasses. He had taken off his button-up shirt - a very rare thing indeed, and his scarred chest showed beneath the pair of the same suspenders that he'd worn for their own wedding.

Sirius's eyes widened and he stared at Remus hungrily.

Emmaline got similar attention from Marlene when she came over in a strapless flapper style dress, covered with tiny black beads that shimmered in the reflection of the firelight, a large black feather stuck through her hair.

Bilius wore a beefeater's hat and another fur coat - orange this one was, which clashed with his hair, and he'd paired it with a kilt and Regulus came, wearing a hat that Frank joked he reckoned his mum would wear on a normal day. There was Meg in a sleek pistachio green suit and top hat and Jasper Odair wearing tap shoes, white satin gloves and a bright red cape. Peter in a red leather jacket and a fake mustache with a pair of mouse ears atop his head. And finally, they were joined by Lily and James themselves.

Lily had gathered several tulle skirts and put them all on at once so she looked like a huge puff pastry from the waist down, and she'd paired this with a fur shawl that looked like a pink bird had exploded and a pair of go-go boots she teetered upon and made her as tall as Remus. Following her was James, who had put on a plastic gold crown, waited for everyone to be finished at the trunk, and sprouted his own antlers to hold it on. He'd topped off his look with a red boa and a huge, thick gold medallion that hung about his neck.

"Nice one, James!" Sirius shouted, winking at the antlers.

"Oh those are insanely cool!" said Jasper, gaping, "I didn't see those in the trunk."

Sirius let out a barking laugh,

"Buried at the bottom," James grinned.

"So now you've got us all looking like fools, what's next?" asked Frank.

"Why, photographs of course!" Sirius announced, "I need enough blackmail on the lot of you to last me a lifetime of favors!"

They laughed and there was even more commotion as they got up and all took turns taking photos of one another in crazy positions with the old polyroid - "Wait a minute - Sirius Black, is this my camera you stole from me?" Marlene asked.

"Whatever are you talking about darling?"

"We still have the photographic evidence it was you who stole it," Emma said, imitating the face that Sirius had made into the camera's flash the first time it had ever gone off on him in their dormitory room, before he and James had thrown themselves out the window and escaped over the Hogwarts roof.

Sirius guffawed and Remus said, "You stole her camera?"

"Hush my husband, don't incriminate me unless you plan to put me in handcuffs and punish me wearing that very outfit you've got on now," Sirius made a growling cat noise, and Remus flushed.

The photographs were many and the laughter and smiles even more, and by the time they were done there was a box of polaroids that they divvied up for keeps. There was more firewhiskey, and even the ladies were drinking now, and faces became flush with the alcohol, though none so drunk as to make the fun artificial. They were drunker on the atmosphere than on the whiskey.

At some point, Sirius had turned on his record player and music was blaring and the photograph taking turned into raucous dancing and shouting out lyrics as they jumped and spun. Jasper's tap shoes clacked loudly on a wood floor Sirius magicked out when the dancing broke out, and Bilius Weasley leaped up onto a table and did an Irish jig in his kilt that was so violently wild that his knickers were showing, and they clapped the beat of the jig he was doing as Sirius flicked his wand to play music to go along and Bilius crowed and tried to keep up but slipped and ended up tumbling clean off the table, the blow of the fall protected by the thick fur coat he wore.

Then James was on the table next and he magicked the record to switch and suddenly the tent was filled with the old vintage rumbling of the Ronettes' Be My Baby. He clicked his fingers in time of the beat and grinned foolishly at Lily as the lyrics started - singing along, loud and offkey, changing the lyrics -

"The day we met - I knew I -needed you so... and if you'd give me the chance I - I'd never let go... So won't you sayyy you love me? I'll make you SO proud of me! We'll make them turn their heads... every place we go so won't you please --beeee my, be my Lily! My one and only Lily, be my - be my Lily noooow. OH OH OH OH OHHHHH...."

Lily was red in the face as he leaped off the table and danced to her, gyrating his hips so that Sirius shouted in approval, and James was right up to her, staring in her eyes, his hair hanging over his forehead and lip caught on his tooth, even as he sang, "I'll make you happy Lily - just wait and see... for every kiss you gimme... I'll give you three -" he held up three fingers, "Ohhh since the day I first saw you... I have been waiting for you... you know I will adore you... til eternity... so won't you please be my... be my Lily... my one and only Lily... be my... be my Lily nooooow... oh ohh oh ohhhhh." The music pounded like a heartbeat and Lily's heart felt fit to burst even as she touched his arms and the magique amor filled in any doubts she had from looking him in the eyes. "Say you'll be mine darlin'... be my Lily now - oh ohh oh ohh ohhh!"

She leaned forward (for her boots equaled out their height) and kissed him deeply, wrapping her feathery arms around him. If the crown hadn't been held on by his antlers it would have been knocked off by the intensity of the kiss, and everyone in the tent let out shouts of "OHHHHHHHHH!!!" in appreciation.

"YES!!! Get'im girl!" screamed Marlene, who was the closest to drunk among them, and Meg shouted, "Oh gods Evans!" to which Sirius choked on a mouthful of firewhiskey, spray-spitting it everywhere.

They ate and drank and danced and eventually, as the fire burned out and the hours grew small, they fell asleep one by one by the fire. Nobody noticed by then when Sirius dragged Remus out the tent door by the lapels of his hot pink fur coat, nor when Jasper Odair and Meg Johnson were deep in conversation in the far corner of the tent, sharing heart break stories of recent breakups from the people they'd been engaged to... but by the end, James and Lily were the last two standing, still on the dance floor, their arms around one another.

My Old Man by Joni Mitchell played, and Lily's palm lay against James's chest as she stared up at him. He smiled at her. His antlers were gone now, and he wore only the crown, tilted on his head to one side as he gently spun her about. "We don't need no paper from the city hall to keep us tied and true," Lily sang along quietly, almost musing, "My old man, keeping away my blues... he's my sunshine in the morning and my fireworks at the end of the day... he's the warmest chord I ever heard... play..."

James bent forward and kissed her gently.

And as they kissed, the song changed, and it must've been fate...

The greeting cards have all been sent, the Christmas rush is through... but I still have one wish to make... a special one for you... Merry Christmas, darling...

Lily's eyes filled with tears and she looked up at James. He smiled, knowing they were remembering the same thing. He adjusted his hands to recreate the dance from that night, and she cried the entire time as he moved her gently, bowing her into that same dip he'd made years ago, and he murmured, "Evans?"

"Potter?"

"I love you. I love you with my whole soul, not just my heart."

She could feel it. It radiated white hot from every pore of his body.

"I love you, too, James."

He smiled that stupid gyrari tooth smile, and Lily drew her wand. His eyes twinkled knowingly.

"Mistletoe," she whispered.

James bent forward - as he should've done the first time, they both thought - and kissed her.