For a few seconds, it appeared as though Renata didn't know where to look, whether it was at James directly, the ring in his hand, or the invisibility cloak that had fallen to the floor. Her hand held a steady grip about the golden snitch in her hand, even though the small object was no longer attempting to escape her hold. Needless to say, she was in a state of shock, unsure of how to react to the final clue that had presented itself to her finally. After a wild scavenger hunt that took her through old memories that she shared since coming into contact with James and Harry Potter, Renata was speechless that it had all ended in a proposal.

Of course, it hadn't crossed her mind yet that as James remained in the uncomfortable kneeling position that he was still waiting for her answer. Although the longer the time went on, the smile was starting to fade from his face as he came to the conclusion that there was a fifty-fifty chance that Renata could say no. After all, they had been together for a relatively short time in comparison to a lot of couples that became engaged. However, James could say that during the short amount of time that he and Renata had been together that they had been through more than what most couples would go through in a lifetime.

The proposal was his way of saying that there was no one in the world more perfect in his eyes, no one would ever come close to ever matching what Renata meant to him. Who she was as a person for not only him but what she meant to Harry as well, what more could James ask for at the time? Before they had even become romantically interested or invested in one another, Renata's love for Harry had been prominent. And that was one of the first things James had fallen in love with first.

Her devotion to Harry, acting like his mother, being a mother to him when Harry needed her to. She always placed others before herself, which was harmful in some respects but it showed just how kind and selfless she could be. She worked hard, she was incredibly intelligent, sweet, and funny, never really afraid to be herself as a person.

James realised that rather than thinking all of this while kneeling in front of her, he should be telling Renata those things. Maybe it would help her see why he was deciding to propose at the moment.  Even if she answered with a "no" at least Renata would know how he truly felt when it came to everything about her.

"Ren?" he called out to her, bringing Renata to drag her gaze away from the ring in his hand. The ring itself was very beautiful, the square cut heirloom ruby was definitely able to capture the little bit of light inside of Putney's.

"It's beautiful," she finally spoke, " I...I..."

There was an antique like appeal to the ring as it was quite old, the fashioned gold around it, allowed the ruby to pop out more so than anything about the ring.

"I hoped you would like it," James told her, " I know not everyone is a fan of the ruby gem and I know it's not a diamond, but it was more the sentiment behind it that I wanted to give it to you. You see, this was the first ring that my father bought for my mother after they started dating and it was her favourite. She said it always brought her good luck and she gave it to me before she passed away, hoping that it would bring me good luck one day. And I ended up putting it away..."

He shifted from his knee and finally, Renata pulled him up gently by his arm so that he could stand more comfortably in front of her.

"Then I was going through my things and I came upon it and when I saw it, I automatically thought of you. I thought of how perfect it would look on your hand and how much you deserved all the good luck in the world. And then, of course, I thought about how much I love you because that's a given. From the moment we met each other, you put everyone before yourself...even when Harry and I were just strangers to you. You managed to bring all of us out of a darkness that I thought we would be stuck in forever and I don't think I will ever be able to thank you enough for everything, even if I started now and thanked you to the end of time."

Watching as Renata swallowed, he could see tears brimming in her eyes, as her watery gaze watched him, not missing a single beat as he spoke. He hoped more than anything that they were happy tears as they continued.

"And it wasn't that long ago that you came into our lives, but we've all been through so much together, such troubling times and I feel like that made us all stronger. Do you think that too?"

She nodded her head in response, still unable to speak to form an entire sentence, but the nod was good enough for him.

"I see how much you love Harry, I see how much he loves you and while it's not a competition, I definitely love you more than he does if that says anything," he chuckled, watching the smile form on her face again. "Over time, we've just become this family, the family I always wanted. My brothers are happy, I'm happy, Harry's happy, and I hope you're happy with us too."

"Of course I am, James."

"See, it's even that right there," he said with a grin, " just you saying my name, it still gives me butterflies. I remember when you would only call me Mr Potter to my face and then the first time you spoke my name, I've never felt anything like it. I think its just the fact that everything you do makes me happy. Even when we have our arguments, I can't help but love you even more afterwards. I don't know if it's because I find you sexy when you're angry or-"

Renata blushed right away, burying her face into her hands to hide the fact that she had turned quite red. It made James laugh again as he carefully held the ring in his hand and moved the other one to pull her hands away so he could see her.

"Ren-"

"Sì."

Suddenly, he was confused as he started to glance around the restaurant. "See what?"

Almost immediately following his question, Renata burst into laughter before reaching her hands out and grabbing the sides of his face gently. She brought him back to look at her, one of the tears falling from her eyes and sliding down her cheek. But it was definitely a happy tear as she gave a shake of her head.

"No, James, Sì as in yes in Italian. That was the answer to the last clue, right? How do you say "yes" in Italian? Did you look up the answer to your own clue question before you set it?"

James could have kicked himself in the arse because he honestly didn't, he just thought he was being extra suave and creative with his proposal idea. But now that it was brought up, he was fairly certain that Harry spoke way more of the Italian language than he did. And that was just shameful.

"I might have," he answered, " but I might have forgotten too. Sì...right...so wait, does that mean you're saying yes to marrying me or are you just telling me how to say yes in Italian?"

The plan had worked out so much better in his head, but he hadn't thought everything through, realising the flaws of his plans as Renata stood before him. He suddenly felt quite embarrassed, his turn to take on the flushed appearance of red cheeks as Renata still held the sides of his face not allowing him to hide away.

But rather than saying anything, she pulled him into a kiss that made James forget about ever being embarrassed in the first place. There were so many better things to focus on all of a sudden, such as the way her lips felt against his and the fact that she was holding onto him, gave him a sense of security. He pulled her into him, his hands getting caught up in the material of the jumper she wore.

Part of him had been hoping that when she found the clue and he told her to dress warmly that she would take to wearing the jumper because she always looked adorable in it. However, as much as he wanted the kiss to continue and lead to other things, James still wasn't sure if he had an answer to his previous question.

Call it Potter Obliviousness but he needed the answer to be a bit more direct before he came to any finalities.

Breaking away from the kiss, James peered down at her, his hands had moved from the fabrics of the jumper to becoming tangled in her hair, leaving Renta to remain in place.

"Just to clarify, you are saying yes, right?"

"Sì."

"Okay, see now I can't tell if you're being a smart arse or if you're actually being serious."

"I'm not Sirius, he's back home watching Harry like you instructed him to."

Renata couldn't resist teasing James just a little while longer, simply because if he thought she was sexy when she was angry, she liked the facial expressions he made when he was frustrated. Plus, it was just so easy to mess with him, perhaps Renata had been spending too much of her time in the presence of the pranksters and it was all starting to rub off on her as well.

"Alright, I definitely should have seen that one coming," he admitted, " but Ren, please, I'm about to go mental here. Will you marry me?"

"I'd thought you'd never ask," she replied cheekily, " yes, of course, I will marry you, James."

In the midst of growing frustrated with Renata teasing him, James had missed out on her actually saying yes and agreeing until it finally registered in his head. Then his eyes widened and he looked her directly in the eye, waiting for her to start laughing again, but instead, she looked as though she was waiting on his response.

"I think this is the part where you put the ring on my finger, Mr Potter," she said jokingly, holding out her hand to him.

The "Mr Potter" brought him out of his trance as he gave her a look but he couldn't even hold his smile back any longer.

"Yes, you said yes! You actually said yes?!"

"I can say it in other languages if you would like?" she offered so that he could have the confirmation he needed. " Yes. Sì. Oui. Ja.Nai. Tak-"

He didn't really need any other form of yes, he was just thankful that she was actually saying it. His heart had been racing earlier while waiting for her answer, but now that he had it, it was racing even faster but it was a much more pleasant feeling. To bring her to stop saying yes in every language that she knew, James silenced her with a kiss and when he pulled away, he proceeded to place the ring on her left ring finger.

It slid on perfectly as he imagined it would, that was worked into the gold as it actually adjusted itself to fit any finger perfectly that it was placed on. His father had made sure of it considering Euphemia was prone to losing jewellery quite often. Once it was fully on her finger, the two glanced down to admire it, neither one of them fighting back their smiles any further.

"It really is beautiful, James," she said, " I know the traditional ring is diamonds, but I find the ruby rather fitting. I know it means so much to you because it belonged to your mother and the history behind it is more than sweet. I'm honoured to wear it. And it's almost like it's a full circle, you know ruby is Harry's birthstone."

"It is? I mean, it is!"

She gave him a look but still, the entire thought process behind the ring was more than she could ever ask for and she was happy to wear it. Not to mention, she was thrilled because she was engaged. It took a moment for all of it to wash over her that she was engaged to James Potter.

This was the man that believed she didn't even stand a chance with when she had first developed feelings for him.

Wrapped in a hug, it all felt surreal to be in his arms, thinking about the time where she didn't even feel comfortable calling him James. He had just been her employer and she wanted to keep the boundaries between them professional.

So much for that.

However, she wasn't complaining in the slightest because what she had found that day venturing to the park with Enzo was something she would never regret. She had found happiness beyond anything had ever expected. Not only had she gained a son, she was gaining a husband, and in return, she was gaining more of a family alongside Adelmo. They might have been deprived of many joyful things as children and young adults, but there was nothing stopping them now from making up for lost time.

"Here, come sit down, I have dinner ready for you," James said, pulling her along over to the booth where they had shared their first date.

"Did you rent out this entire place for this occasion?" Renata asked as she sat down.

"Didn't really have to rent it out, everyone was more than willing to help actually," he told her, " you wouldn't believe how willing everyone was. When I went to the markets, two of the vendors cried and Sirius has been emotional about the whole thing, I'm surprised he didn't spoil the surprise before you showed up here. But to give him credit, he did help plant some of the clues, along with Harry just to make it easier. That gave me time to come here and prepare a really nice dinner for you...well, us, I'm kinda hungry myself."

Renata chuckled as he retrieved the plates to put down in front of them. "So was I still going to get the dinner even if I said no?" she questioned playfully.

"Well, yes, but I would have purposely made it so that it was cold."

"So, what did you make?"

"I went all out and made skillet Tarragon chicken with cauliflower rice," he stated proudly, " and to be perfectly honest, I think it came out amazing."

Picking up her fork, she looked down at her dish. "I will be the judge of that."

Of course, it was all wildly delicious so James wasn't wrong when he claimed that it came out amazing. The two sat beside each other in the booth, cuddling up into one another as they ate, overjoyed with how everything had played out. Renata confessed that she was expecting it to be an extravagent date night but she had been in complete shock over the proposal. While James filled her in on the story of how he had coordinated everything to fall into place.

"Speaking of which," she interrupted, " did you know I was going to walk into the lamp post in order to find the mermaid sticker?"

James was in midway through his bite of chicken when he looked over at her. "You walked in a lamp post? No, I thought the sticker was large enough to be seen! I didn't-"

"You said find a mermaid," she laughed, " not a mermaid sticker! I was looking at the water trying to find one and walked right into it."

Suddenly, she watched as James pressed his lips together, trying to surpress his laughter as he so desperately wanted to laugh but didn't want to offend her. She knocked him in the side with a roll of her eyes but told him it was okay to laugh. Looking back on it, it was actually a little funny.

And when they had finished up dinner, Renata watched as James cleared dthe dishes away with his wand and with another flick, music started playing. He offered his hand out to her, asking her for a dance, which she gladly took.

For you, there'll be no more crying.

For you, the sun will be shining.

And I feel that when I'm with you,

It's alright, I know it's right.

"And my favourite song," she said with a grin as she was pulled close to him, " you really did go all out for this, didn't you? Or was it because you didn't want to show off your plastered deer moves again?"

"You'll have plenty of years to witness that, just like how I'll get a load of times to witness you showing off your flaming hippogriff grace on the dance floor."

James tried to remind himself that something such as perfection didn't exist, while Renata reminded him that perfection did, it was just different for everyone. The two danced together, their fingers happily intertwined, while the music played. At one point though, James peered down to where Renata's head was resting between his neck and shoulder as they swayed.

"Hey," he called to her, bringing her to glance up, " thank you."

Ah yes, in order to complete the moment, the running joke of Renata's nerves getting the best of her had to come into play. However, she liked that it was their little running joke between them.

"Thank you too."