Marlene had promised to wake me up but I didn't need it. I was awake at seven thirty, lying in bed looking up the ceiling.

"Holy crap. I am marrying James Potter," I whispered, "This is happening. This is really happening. I'm going to be Lily Potter - "

"Lily?" Marlene rolled over, her dark hair messy over her face, "What time is it?"

I sat up, checking one of the bedside clocks, "About half seven, why?"

"The wedding starts at two, right?" She mumbled.

"Yeah..."

"And you said you'd wake up at eight thirty..."

"Again, yes, what is your point?"

"It's only half seven, shut up, I need my sleep," She grumbled, rolling back over again. I folded my arms, feeling a wave of Bridezilla-ness coming on. I was about to get up and shake her awake before realising that I was being unfair, I had promised her an hours longer sleep and Marlene loved sleep more than anything in the world.

Still, I was awake and determined to use my bride powers on some people. I slowly crept out of bed, throwing one of the luxurious complementary dressing gowns around myself and into the corridors. There was only one person who would be as excited as me that she would be up an hour early: Alice.

I knocked on the door, as softly as I good and it opened almost instantly to reveal Alice with a beaming smile on her face.

"Lily, I thought you'd be up later!" She said, stepping outside and closing the door behind her, "I am so excited, I couldn't sleep, I don't think I've actually slept a wink."

"You seem so awake though."

"Nope, this is overtiredness," Alice replied, her brown eyes wide and crazy.

"Alice, are you going to be okay for the wedding?" I asked, furrowing my brows in concern.

"Lily, I will be fine, I'm a bad sleeper that's all," She assured me, "Trust me, I have Frank to take care of me if it all goes wrong and I have done much more difficult things than this with a lot less sleep. You know, I actually did my Defence against the Dark Arts Exam on only two hours sleep."

"Two hours? I had like... eighteen," She raised an eyebrow at me, "I'm exaggerating, Alice, it was probably more like eight but still. Two hours is unthinkable, hell, six is unthinkable."

"We lead very different lives, Lily Evans," She said with a small smile, "Do you think they'll be serving breakfast by now?"

"I don't know, probably. A lot of people probably get up early for a nice manicure or something," I replied, "You know, I have been on a damn wedding diet for weeks now - "

"I saw you eat a whole batch of cookies I'd brought yesterday evening," Alice said, with a sceptical look.

"That was a one time thing and you were tempting me with them, don't lie," I replied as we walked down the corridor. Both of us were in our pyjamas with messy bed heads but I knew that in a few hours I would be stuffed into my gorgeous but completely uncomfortable and impractical wedding dress so I wanted to enjoy the comfort of elastic waists and flannel for as long as I could.

Luckily us for us the buffet was already up and we happily tucked in, our plates piled high with two of everything. After a sort of diet consisting of salads and low calorie yoghurts, I was ready for some hash browns and bacon. Alice seemed equally starved and there was no talking for a little while as we quickly cleared our plates.

"Do you think the others will be up soon?" Alice asked, a hash brown still stabbed on the end of her fork, "I'm so excited, you'll be in your dress soon!"

"Urgh, don't remind me," I replied, rolling my eyes, "That dress, I swear to God. It is beautiful and classy, exactly like Petunia's but it will be the death of me. I feel like it's constricting my ribs and pushing up my boobs but not in the good way, like flattening them to my chest sort of way."

Alice winced, "Lily, does the dress fit?"

"Yeah, it does," I sighed, "I'm just so used to wearing pyjamas around the house all day that anything with any vague structure feels awful."

"I get that," Alice replied, "It will be lovely though, the magic of it all, the flowers, the whole atmosphere, so romantic that anyone, even the least romantic person in the world will feel it."

"Are you talking about Frank?" I asked with a small smile.

"Yes, I am! How did you get James to propose at Hogwarts, no less? God,  I swear Frank's idea of romance is doing a word search together or something," Alice said, resting her head in her hands, "It's so not romantic... I'm sorry, this is your wedding day, I shouldn't be ranting."

"Nah, we're still at the hotel, it doesn't really feel like it's my wedding yet. When the car comes though, be warned, I am going to become one stereotypical bride," I warned.

We stayed in the dining room for a little longer before we got bored thanks to Alice's low attention span and we left to find amusement elsewhere.

"Do you think the others will be up yet?" Alice asked for the fifth time as we neared the rooms again.

"I don't know..." I replied, not wanting to disturb them but fearing Alice might, "I have an idea, the bathroom in me and Marlene's room is quite big, we could start on our makeup in there... maybe even try on our dresses."

Alice clapped her hands, "I love that plan... wait here, I'll grab my stuff."

She dissapeared into her room for a few moments before coming out with a bundle of stuff, how she managed to get it together in that short space of time evaded me. She closed the door behind her, looking expectantly at me. I quickly realised that she wanted me to unlock the door and go into our room. I quickly realised that there was a problem as I reached into my pyjama pocket for the keys. There were no keys.

"Al, I've forgotten the keys."

"Knock on the door and wake Marlene up then."

"And risk death?" I shook my head, "I don't think so. How about we just get started on you then?"

"Okay," Alica said, looking a little downhearted, "Okay... " She stopped dead suddenly, "Lily, I've done something stupid."

"What?"

"I may have left the keys on the dresser in my room," She turned around, giving me an awkward smile, "Ha, snap... we're both idiots."

"Knock for Mary."

Alice scoffed, "Are you mad? She's Mary! A train could hit her and she would sleep through it."

"If a train hit her, she would be dead," I replied dryly.

"No, she'd be sleeping," Alice corrected, "She sleeps through anything, she wouldn't die."

"Al, that's not how it works," I said with a small laugh, realising it was a vague attempt to diffuse the tension.

"I think we should knock for Marlene - " Alice walked towards the door but I stepped in front, cutting her off.

"No. She will kill me, there must be a better way..." I said, pacing along the corridor, "Alice, do you have your wand?"

"Yes... oh wait, no," She said, "Can we please just knock, my arms are hurting with all this stuff."

"No, I can't call myself James Potter's fiancee if I can't figure a way to do this without stooping to the easy level," I suddenly stopped, "I've got it. Our room has a balcony and Dorcas's is right next to it... you see where I'm going with this?"

Alice looked a little worried, "I think so but I'm really hoping it's wrong. Please tell me that we're just going into Dorcas's room to get ready in her bathroom instead."

I shook my head, "No... Alice, get ready to climb over the balconies."

"Oh God," Alice scowled as she followed me to Dorcas's room. It took Dorcas a few moments to respond to the knocks before she came to the door, looking a little annoyed at being disturbed.

"What?" She asked, looking between us with confusion.

"It doesn't matter," I replied with a grin, "Dorcas, you could probably sleep if you wanted to, I just need your balcony..."

I walked towards the glass doors, overhearing Dorcas whisper, "What the hell is going on?".

"She's gone a bit mad," Alice replied and I whipped around.

"Have not," I replied, "I'm just being... creative with my solutions. Marlene will be pissed if I awake her and if I'm dead I can't get married."

Dorcas stared at me, a confused expression on her face before nodding, "Yep, mad."

"I am not mad," I replied, pulling on the door which was refusing to budge, "Now, come help me with this door."

The pair of them watched me struggle for a bit before Dorcas decided to say, "Lily, it's locked."

"Why did you wait five minutes to tell me?" I scowled.

Dorcas shrugged, "It was kind of funny - "

"Dorcas, you are not being helpful!" I replied, sharply, "Now help me unlock this door so I can climb onto the balcony."

Alice gave Dorcas a look as if to say 'don't do it' but Dorcas shrugged, grabbing the keys from one of the drawers, "Here you go, climb away my friend."

I snatched the keys off of her, wondering why she was watching me with vague amusement; I was deadly serious. Eventually, I opened the door, jumping out onto the balcony and quickly realising the problem. The balconies were at least a meter apart and the drop was quite large. Dorcas followed me onto the balcony, clearly hiding a smile.

"It won't be a climb, so much as a jump - "

"Yes, I can see that, Dorcas!"

"Lily, please just knock," Dorcas said with a small smile, "Please don't do anything dumb like jump to the balcony, why is it so important that you go in this way?"

I shrugged, "I'm in a sort of energetic mood, like I have all this excitement bubbling through me and it won't go away. A meter isn't that much of a jump... right?"

Dorcas gritted her teeth, "It's quite a jump... Lily, I have a better plan."

"What is it?" I asked, slowly walking away from the jump which was getting less appealing by the second.

"Come on, this way," She said beckoning me back inside. Alice was sat on the bed, her makeup sprawled across the covers, "Alice, you come too, I'm fixing the problem."

We followed her into the corridor and I quickly realised what her 'solution' was as she walked towards the door to my room. She gave a few sharp knocks on the door, Marlene answering a few moments later with a scowl on her face.

"See, problem solved," Dorcas said wearily, "I'm sure Marlene would rather you wake her up than fall to your death from a balcony."

Marlene gave me a look which suggested she would rather be asleep before sighing, "Yeah, I would. What are you doing now, Lily?"

"I didn't want to wake you but I forgot my keys and needed to get ready..."

Marlene rolled her eyes, sighing loudly, "Lily, this wedding has made you slightly crazy and it's half eight yet... but I'm awake now, we might as well start getting ready."

The four of us walked inside, the excitement building as we began to get ready, the wedding was starting to feel real now. Mary eventually came and joined us and the five of us were soon crammed into the bathroom, the main attention ending up on my hair and makeup which I was rather enjoying. There was a loud thump at the window and Dorcas jumped up to investigate (although the real reason was probably to escape the bathroom).

"It's only been an hour and a bit and already I've gone mad," I said with a small laugh.

"Hopefully you've got the madness out of your system though," Mary replied.

Marlene scoffed, "Mary, it's a wedding, the madness has probably just began."

I gave a small laugh, "Let's hope so - "

"Guys," Dorcas interrupted, her face pale. She gave a weak laugh as she held a note up, "Um... Lily, there's a slight issue..."

"What?" I turned around.

"Well, you know how at weddings there's usually a bride and a groom..."

"Yes..."

"Well, I got a letter and there may be... two brides at this one."

Marlene was right. The madness was far from done.