"when a girl is quiet, a million things are running through her mind"

*

"Holy... holy... holy..."

James couldn't even choose a word to follow up. He just stared at the ring in his hand, a dainty band of rose gold twisting around an opal shaped like a lotus flower. It was rather unconventional for a stereotypical engagement, which convinced James that it was meant for Eva. 

He wants to marry her?

"Ugh, Prongs, just go to bed already," Peter muttered, rolling over to shoot him a glare, but he drew in a sharp breath when he saw the box. "Bloody hell. You are such an idiot!"

"What?"

"You've literally been dating Lily for weeks, and you're already at this?!?"

"What? Wait, no. Hold on a-"

"She's gonna hate you forever," Peter said matter-of-factly, pulling the covers over his head to demonstrate his annoyance. "You finally got her, and guess what? POOF! She's gone! And how much money did you waste on that?"

"Nonononononono! I'm not proposing to Lily! The ring isn't mine!"

Peter poked his head out from under the covers. "Oh yeah? Then whose is it?"

"It's the dumb mutt's!" James whisper-screamed, pointing over and over to the snoozing Padfoot, whose tail wagged lazily like he was dreaming.

"Bloody hell! Get over here!"

James ran over and jumped onto Peter's bed. The boys clambered over each other to get a better look at the box while trying not to wake the other two.

"Sweet cheese, it's a ring!"

"You're just figuring this out now?"

"Shut up! We're worse than dead if one of them wakes up!" Peter hissed, taking the ring from James. "I can't believe he's gonna ask her to marry him. He said we were idiots when we brought it up!"

"Why didn't he tell us?" James asked indignantly.

Peter searched his half-awake mind for a reasonable explanation. "Um, maybe we're jumping to conclusions. Maybe the ring's for something else."

James stared at him without blinking for so long that it made Peter uncomfortable.

"How thick are you?"

"I mean, it doesn't look like an engagement ring, exactly," Peter stammered. He held the ring up to look again and it sparkled in the moonlight. "It's not a big diamond or anything."

"Right," James said, deadpan. "Right, It's definitely not an engagement ring! You know why? Because A: Sirius can definitely afford a bloody diamond, B: Eva definitely wants a bloody diamond, and C: There's some other occasion coming up that warrants a super-fancy piece of jewelry. Oh, wait."

"There's no need to be condescending," Peter shot back. "At least I'm thinking, not just freaking out."

"I'm not freaking out!"

"Your voice sounds like a girl. You are freaking out!"

"Am not!"

"You are!"

"Am not!"

"You are!"

"AM NOT!"

"What are you blokes yelling about?" Remus, who had finally drifted off while James was digging through the wrong trunk, sat up in his bed. "It's what - one in the morning - and we have exams tomorrow! If you two don't shut up and go to bed right now, I swear - oh shit."

It was then that he took in the scene: James and Peter staring back at him with guilt all over their faces, a small ring box in Peter's hand, and a sleeping dog at the foot of his bed.

"How did you find that?"

James' mouth fell open. "Holy cannoli, Moony, you knew?!?!?"

"Put it away, he'll absolutely lose it if he knows you found out!" Remus climbed onto the bed and lunges for the ring, but Peter dodged him and he ended up falling on top of James' lap.

"We're safe! He sleeps like the dead!"

A rapid knocking at the door startled all three boys. James shoved Remus off of him and ran across the room to get it before Sirius woke up. Peeping through the hole they drilled in the door, he muttered, "It's not McGonagall. Lily," before unlocking the door and letting her in. He barely had time to dodge out of the way before the redhead stormed into their dormitory wearing pajamas and a murderous expression.

"What in Merlin's name are you all yelling about? Just our luck we share a wall with you! I wouldn't be surprised if half Gryffindor House is awake!"

"Evans, your raised voice might wake up the other half-"

"Shut it, James." Lily looked apprehensively from her boyfriend to the other two. "What's going on?"

"NOTHING!"

"NOTHING AT ALL!"

"NOTHING TO SEE!"

Lily frowned. Standing in front of her was the very picture of suspicious. First, there was James, who kept ruffling his hair, then nodding vigorously, then grinning at her like a maniac. Next to him was Peter, who began to nervously whistle the school song, his hands fidgeting at his sides. To round it off there was Remus, who just stood perfectly still like a deer caught in the headlights, patiently waiting for death.

Yep. Nothing suspicious at all.

"If I fail my Transfiguration exam because I didn't get any sleep, I-"

"LILY! DID THEY KILL YOU? IF THEY DID, I'LL AVENGE YOU!"

Marlene burst into the room next, a robe thrown haphazardly over her pajamas, wand in hand.

"McKinnon, what are you doing here?" James asked, completely distracted.

"Lily said if she didn't come back in three minutes, you lot did something stupid like kidnapping her and she'd need backup. You have another three before Kriss shows up, and another three before Eva swoops in to rescue all of us. Imagine that! Damsels rescuing damsels. Cute, huh?" Marlene winked, smiling so that her dimples were exposed, and tucked her wand behind her ear. "So what's popping?"

James squinted at her. "What's Kriss doing with you?"

"She snuck in around ten," Marlene said pointedly, shooting Remus a glare that he actually stepped back from in fear. "She said she had a really bad day, so she bunked with us. We do it all the time."

"Did you say three minutes? And then another three minutes? So, like six minutes total?" Peter paused his whistling to ask in a weak voice. He knew the same thing the other boys did: they were toast if Eva found out. "Okay, time for you guys to go!"

James and Remus acted in tandem and started to shove the adamant girls towards the door while Peter remained behind to guard the box.

"Don't you push me, Potter!"

"Oh, it's Potter now, is it? We'll talk about that later. For now, OUT!"

"You know, it's just like boys to leave the girls out of the loop."

"Marlene, chill out! This isn't about feminism!"

With a defiant expression, Lily wrapped her arms around James' bedpost, her red hair shining in the moonlight. "I'm not leaving until I figure out what's going on! You can't make me!"

"We have N.E.W.T.s tomorrow, Lilyflower! We need sleep, remember?"

"Don't you Lilyflower me! And now you care about exams?"

"Well, no, but you do!"

Marlene rolled her eyes. "Dating for weeks and they're already an old married couple."

Peter let out a high-pitched trill of a laugh at married couple, and Remus face-palmed. How could Sirius sleep through this?

"Listen, girls aren't supposed to be in our dormitories after eleven," Remus said, trying to appeal to Lily's belief in the rules. "If McGonagall finds out-"

"Then I'll tell her you were causing a disturbance and I was checking on you delinquents," Lily said stubbornly. James tried to pry her off of the bedpost, but she held on tight and didn't budge.

"You're freakishly strong, Evans."

Kriss poked her head through the open door, confused at the bizarre happenings of the night. Embarrassed because of Remus' presence, she pulled her robe tightly around herself before saying, "There's a group of third years downstairs threatening to get McGonagall if you all don't keep it down. Should I even ask why Lily's attached to a bedpost?"

Peter squeaked, "n-n-no."

Marlene's eyes zeroed in on a sparkling object no longer hidden from view because Peter had just crossed his arms.

"Accio box!"

"NO!"

The little box flew into her open palm. When she saw its contents, it was hard to tell whether her eyes or mouth opened wider.

"What... is... this?!?"

"Aha, yeah, about that," Remus chuckled awkwardly, shoving his hands into his pockets. "That is a very interesting story-"

"Whose is it?" Kriss asked, peeking at it over Marlene's shoulder. Lily unlatched herself from the bedpost to get a closer look.

"Bit crowded in here, isn't it?" Peter asked.

The boys all nervously laughed. James cringed at the only possible idea in his mind that he could save this situation.

Countdown to disaster...

"It's mine!"

Everyone turned to look at him, and he could have sworn that they all blinked in unison. He felt red creeping up his cheeks and snatched the box from Marlene's outstretched hand.

"It's mine," he repeated, desperately hoping that someone would jump in and rescue him.

Apparently not.

"Yeah, you mentioned that," Marlene said. "What for?"

Slowly, he turned to look at Lily, whose thin eyebrows arched so high that they could have poked stars out of the night sky.

Goodbye, girlfriend...

To try and sell it wholeheartedly, he started to kneel down, but Lily kicked him between the legs, and she kicked him hard.

"Bloody hell!" He screamed, bent over in pain. Remus covered his face with his hands. "What was that for?"

"No."

"Lily-"

"Absolutely not!"

"Lily-"

"I thought you grew up! I thought we were done with stupid stuff we didn't mean!"

"And the real show begins," Marlene mumbled. "Pete, do you have any popcorn? Or any snacks at all?"

"Under the bed," he whispered, his attention still on the problem unfolding.

"I can't believe you! We've only been a couple for three weeks! Three weeks, James! You're just as stupid and arrogant as you used to be!"

James winced, as did his friends, who could do nothing to soften the blows of her insults. "Lily-"

"I just- AAAAAA!" She screamed in frustration and jumped onto Remus' mattress. The momentum dislodged Padfoot, who fell off of the bottom of the bed and landed on the floor with a surprised yelp. The big black dog took one look around, saw the box in James' hand, and froze.

"Pads..." Remus said in a calm, even voice, hoping it would keep his impulsiveness at bay. "Easy."

Sirius transformed back into himself and stared at the group before him as he tried to fit the pieces together in his mind. He brushed his messier-than-usual hair out of his face. What the girls were even doing in their dormitory, he had no idea. Marlene sat on Remus' bed, munching on chocolate-covered pretzels as she watched everything with an engrossed expression. James was literally on the floor, groaning. Lily stood above him, glaring daggers. None of it really made any sense to him until he saw the ring in James' hand.

That was Eva's ring.

James rolled over so he could look at Sirius. "I told you women would be the reason for my early demise."

"You'll live," Lily retorted bitterly. "In what shape or condition, I don't know. And frankly, I don't care."

Sirius' eyes widened. "Why did you kick him?"

"Because he tried to propose to me!"

"You WHAT?"

Remus leaned over and whispered in his ear. "This is a bit of a mess, if you haven't noticed."

"You don't say?"

"Why would you kick me so hard?" James yelled through gritted teeth. "Why?"

"You deserved it! I can't believe I kissed you!"

"This is very uncomfortable," Peter mumbled, his cheeks bright red from secondhand embarrassment.

"Lily, take it down a notch," Kriss said softly. While she thought James was completely out of line, he also looked to be in considerable pain, almost like a wounded animal.

Just when Sirius thought it couldn't get any worse, Eva walked in. Despite all the chaos, he found himself staring at her, at her slept-in braid and oversized Beatles shirt and scrunched-up nose. She gasped when she saw James on the floor and immediately bent down next to him.

"Are you okay?" She asked worriedly. "Did you hit your head or something? You're all red."

"No," he moaned, swatting her away. "But I think Evans just took away my ability to have offspring."

Lily scoffed and sat down next to Marlene. "Suppose I saved McGonagall from having to eventually teach your children, you drama queen."

"You love me."

"Not enough to marry you, clearly," Marlene commented through a mouth full of pretzels.

Eva's head whipped to her. "Marry? Who's marrying who now?"

"James just attempted to propose," Kriss said from her spot on the windowsill. She pulled her knees to her chest. "And we just witnessed a beloved ship burn to the ground."

"R.I.P. Jily," Marlene said solemnly. "A moment of silence, please."

A moment of silence wasn't about to happen, though. Not with James still groaning on the ground. Not with Remus and Peter arguing in whispers about whose fault this was. Not with Lily spitting insults at James. Not with Marlene laughing at some of the good ones. Not with Kriss rebuking Marlene for making fun of them.

Sirius didn't see how this night could get any worse.

"Excuse me!"

And just like that, this night got worse.

Professor McGonagall strode into the dormitory, wearing a dark red dressing robe. None of the students had ever seen her hair down, but it flowed past her shoulders. They barely noticed any of this, though, because the terrifying expression on her face drew their attention more than her appearance. 

"Explain yourselves!" She yelled, gesturing to the group of students. "It's past one in the morning! I've had several complaints about the noise coming from your room! There are examinations tomorrow! All of the ladies are out of bounds with the established curfew!"

Lily's hand shot up before she realized she wasn't in class and didn't need to do so. Her hand fell back down at her side.

"Professor, I-"

"No excuses. I expected more from you, Miss Evans. And you, Miss Klarkson. I don't know why you aren't in Ravenclaw Tower, but this seems very out of character for a young woman like yourself."

Kriss tugged on the hem of her shirt nervously but didn't say anything to defend herself.

"Now, who would like to speak first?" Professor McGonagall peered over her glasses at the students, waiting for answers. For a moment, no one spoke.

Marlene held out a snack bag. "Want any pretzels?"

"No, thank you," McGonagall said crisply. "How about this? I will ask questions and you will answer them. Let's start with the obvious one, shall we? What happened to Mr. Potter?"

James muttered in a barely audible voice, "Lily kicked me. Hard."

"Oh? And why did she do that?

"Because he tried to propose to me," Lily snapped, crossing her arms angrily.

"And you thought kicking him was the correct way to handle his poorly thought-out proposal?"

Lily shrugged. "It was a knee-jerk reaction."

"Literally," James groaned.

"For the record, you two were cute while you lasted," Marlene commented. She crossed her legs and snuggled up against the pillows on the bed, unbothered by the situation. She actually found it rather hilarious.

"Not helpful, Miss McKinnon." Professor McGonagall's attention shifted to Sirius, the only one who hadn't moved since she entered the room. "Is that you over there, Sirius?"

He leaned against the wall. "Yep. Why?"

"I didn't recognize you because you're being uncharacteristically quiet."

He laughed, but nerves were coursing through his veins like never before.

"I'll start talking if you want," he said, winking.

"That will be unnecessary. Now, if someone could please provide me with a reasonable explanation for the events of tonight, we can all go to bed and move on with our lives."

Silence.

More silence.

Even more silence.

"Do you want to get married?"

"No, Mr. Black, I do not want to get married."

He blushed. "No, not you."

Eva's eyes found Sirius' across the room, and they widened when she saw on his face that he wasn't kidding.

"What?"

"Do you want to get married?"

He ignored everyone as he crossed the room to take her hands in his. This wasn't what he wanted and it wasn't what he planned. He still didn't understand how his friends found the ring or how everything went down before he woke up. Somehow, though, this felt right.

"You know I've been in love with you since we were kids. I bought the ring in March and - Prongs, give me the ring, I feel dumb without it." James handed it to him. "Right. Let's pretend I was holding it the entire time. I don't know how most of tonight happened. I was planning on waiting until graduation to ask you, but James just got kneed where the sun don't shine to try and cover for me, so I'd shudder to think of what might happen to him next if I don't do something."

Eva covered her mouth with her hand as tears brimmed in her bright green eyes.

"We've been together for over a year, and I swear I've never been happier. It doesn't matter that we're eighteen and reckless and getting ready to fight in a war. When I think of you, all of the things I should be worried about disappear for a while. You are the most amazing person I've ever met and I don't think it's worth waiting when time's passing too quickly as it is. So, Eva Tayor, will you marry me?"

She started nodding before he had even finished and a few tears slid down her cheeks as he knelt down and held up the ring. "Yes!"

His entire face lit up. "Are you serious?"

"No, I'm Eva." Grinning cheekily, she tackled him and wrapped him in a tight hug. "Yes!" She thought she heard the cheering of her friends, but then Sirius pressed his lips to hers and nothing else registered. McGonagall left the room without another word to leave the friends alone, a small smile on her face.

"I'm going to marry you," Eva murmured in Sirius' ear when they both paused for a breath. "I'm going to marry you!"

With a smile that stretched from ear to ear, Lily suddenly remembered that her actually-innocent boyfriend still laid on the floor, so she helped him up.

"I am so sorry," she whispered, mortified. "I feel so bad now."

"Not your fault," he whispered back. "It was the first idea that popped into my head, and it was a bit stupid."

"Wish I had that red buzzer with me. I wouldn't have had to kick you."

"Well, if we do make it in the long run and the Potter-Evans line ends with us, we now know why."

Eva and Sirius finally broke apart, grinning as their noses brushed. They sat up, still wrapped in each others' arms, and everyone began to embrace and congratulate them.

The eight students chatted excitedly for another hour until Lily pointed out that exams were in a few hours through a yawn. Regretfully, the girls said goodbye, Eva lingering a few seconds after.

"You four are my absolute favorite idiots!" Kissing Sirius a final time, she practically hopped out the door, leaving the boys alone.

Sirius grinned widely and actually spun around. Everyone left cracked up, then cringed at a loud crash from outside.

"I'm okay!" A strained voice from the stairs called. "Just so you know, we're buying a one-story house!"

Tossing himself onto his bed, Sirius' smile grew even wider. This was all he ever wanted.

"That's the girl I'm going to marry."

this is one of my favorite chapters i've ever written!!!

hope this lived up to the last chapter's cliffhanger!!

tell me what you're thinking? i'd love to hear your thoughts!

it's late, so i'm going to bed :)