"I was rather starting to think you might have stood me up."

James threw himself into the seat opposite Lily at the little pub she'd asked him to meet her at. She looked up from a stack of large, rather mangy-looking books that were spread out before her on the table top. Her hair fell over her shoulder in a long, fiery cascade, and James smiled because the lighting in the room fell on her skin so that her cheek bones were accentuated and her freckles stood out against her nose.

"Never," he replied.

The pub was nice, though distinctly muggle-run. Sirius would like the music, James thought, as he looked around. The rafters were drafty (there would have been all sorts of owls in them if this were a wizard pub, he thought), but the booths and tables were quite cozy - close enough to feel homey, but far enough apart to keep a conversation private. There were posters of holiday destinations on the walls, and loads of pretty pictures of exotic locales - volcanoes and palm trees, ancient Greek ruins and pillars, blue skies and even bluer waters... The crowd there was a friendly mixture of ages and sorts, families with children kneeling beside their parents on bench seats and young people about their own age in leather jackets and ripped up jeans that Sirius would have been good mates with.

Nodding to the books Lily was looking over, James asked, "What's all that?"

"Some extra curricular studies I'm working on," Lily answered.

James raised an eyebrow, "Those books look as if they've been mucking about in a hippogriff pen for the past three decades. What's it on?"

"Magique Amore," Lily said with a lilting accent. Then, when James looked confused, she laughed and translated, "Love Magic."

James looked interested and reached for one of the books, turning it to look at the pages himself as he ruffled through carefully, respecting the old parchment it contained. "It's written entirely in runes?"

"Ancient runes," Lily answered, nodding. "It's rather difficult to translate... I'll need to polish up on the intricacies of rune-reading. It's been ages since I've even looked at those old textbooks... perhaps Remus will recall better..."

James nodded, "Most likely. The Remcyclopedia remembers everything."

Lily laughed. Then, turning serious, "There's a lot more to love magic than I expected. Professor Laurie said that it's actualyl rather dispised by much of the wizarding community."

"Dispised? What for?"

"Professor Laurie said that all of the most powerful magic requires a sacrifice of sorts. He said that the Dark Arts requires the sacrifice of something other - another person, a creature, or something of that sort - but that Magique Amore requires a sacrifice of self." She mused over the runes on the page for a moment, running her finger along the rich, dark-red ink on the page. "Apparently most witches and wizards find very little worth sacrificing themselves for and therefore this strain of magic is often underutilized or misunderstood."

"Nobody wants to sacrifice themselves so I very much doubt that there are many lining up 'round the block to do it," James said, shaking his head. "Most seem to think that magic is about getting something for themselves."

Lily nodded, "Most of humanity is like that, Potter."

"Yeah, well," James murmured. He flicked through the book aimlessly. There were no pictures anywhere, though, and he became bored and closed the cover, pushing the book back to Lily. She stacked them neatly and put them aside. "So is this a duck or a date, Evans?" he asked with a smirk.

"A duck, I'm afraid," she answered. "I've got an evening class tonight, so I only have a small bit of time, but I wanted to see you, I know you're working tonight, and I thought we could spend a couple moments together in between... without all the ruckus that goes on at home."

"By that you mean the dogs, of course," James said.

"Yes," Lily laughed.

"So why is this a duck?"

"Because I thought we might go over our invitations for the wedding while we were eating."

"You know who I want to invite already," James said, "It's probably all of the same people that you do. The lads of course, and Minnie. Dumbledore."

"Marlene and Em, of course," Lily said, and she got out a muggle pen and a bit of paper and began scribbling down the names. "Your mum."

James nodded, "She'd invite herself even if she wasn't invited."

"What about Regulus?"

"Yes," James said without hesitation. "Sirius will just have to behave himself."

Lily nodded.

"What about -" James hesitated, "Your sister?"

"She wouldn't come." Lily's voice was chilled. "I don't reckon I would even truly want her to. I think we're rather finished, don't you? After what happened at mum's - at the funeral?"

James could tell it was a struggle to keep her voice even. "I don't suppose what she said might have been out of hurt."

"Even if it was, I'm finished with putting up with her saying whatever she likes and just getting on with it."

"I don't blame you a bit," James replied. He didn't say it but he was rather relieved she no longer intended to invite Petunia and Vernon. He didn't find their presence necessary after Mrs. Evans's funeral. He rather thought Petunia's petulance didn't deserve the opportunity to muck up such an important day as their wedding day, and he was glad to have one less thing that could go wrong. He'd wanted to have an open mind, though, and if Lily had found it in her heart to forgive Petunia then he supposed that he, James, ought to have done as well.

James was so busy in his own unspoken thoughts of this relief that he didn't notice Lily was in her own unspoken thoughts until she cleared her throat nervously, and said, "Would you be terrible grieved if I invited Severus?"

"Beg pardon?"

"Severus," Lily's voice trembled slightly.

James stared at her for several long seconds, not quite daring to speak, afraid of what sort of cursing might tumble out from his mouth. "I - er, I mean - well. Why?" He couldn't help be at least a wee bit pointed with the question, whatever he told himself about watching his attitude.

Lily stared down at the notebook, aimlessly doodling on the pad, her eyes carefully avoiding James's. "I just feel badly for him, the way you do about Regulus. I think their situations are rather similar, really... I think he would rather cherish a night away from all that rubbish..."

James thought Severus would rather feel quite at home in a pile of rubbish, actually, but he did not say so, of course.

"I dunno. I mean, we'll have our hands rather full keeping Padfoot off Regulus for the night, you want to keep him distracted from Sni -- Severus, too?" James tried to keep his voice casual.

"Remus will be in a suit, I think Sirius's mind will be quite preoccupied by that, don't you?"

James bit his lip.

"I mean he might not even come," Lily said hurriedly, "In fact he probably won't. But wouldn't it be a good gesture if we at least invited him? So he doesn't think nobody on the right side believes he can be good anymore?" She was pleading. "He isn't all bad, he's just confused, and --"

"You can invite him if you want to invite him," James said quickly, interrupting her. He wasn't interested in hearing the litany of apologetics for Severus Snape. He would simply hope against hope that the old slimeball didn't accept the invitation out of spite, or, worse, an attempt to hand them all over to You Know Who.

"Well, I won't if it makes you uncomfortable, of course," Lily said. She was flush.

James shook his head, "It doesn't." He wanted to add - I won, so what do I care if that loser is there? - but he bit his tongue.

Lily quietly wrote down Severus's name on the list of invitees. She stared at it for a moment, then looked up. "Obviously Minnie will bring Elphinstone."

"Right," James nodded.

"We ought to ask Flitwick, Madam Pomfrey, Professor Sprout, and Professor Kettleburn as well."

"And Madam Hooch."

"And Professor Slughorn, of course," Lily added.

James nodded slowly. "Mr. Underhill."

"Professor Laurie."

"Jasper Odair."

"Odair he is," Lily smiled, writing the name.

James smiled.

The awkwardness of the Snape conversation still hung a bit between them, but it was fading quickly as they named off friends that would want to be witnesses of their wedding. James realized as he watched Lily's mouth move as she spoke and the way she pushed her hair behind her ear that he just didn't care who was there around them when they finally got to that altar. He had a mighty strong feeling that he wouldn't notice a single thing besides Lily Evans anyway at that point.

They ate and when they were finished, they walked outside to the street. It had rained while they'd been in and the lamps had come on over the pavement, making everything seem glazed and shiny. They stood on the sidewalk, holding hands and facing one another, their fingers laced together. Somewhere far off there was a rumbling of either thunder or a passing double-decker, and the faraway sound of carhorns making a symphony on the London streets. People walked past them, but barely any gave them a second glance. Those who did notice them, smiled at their affection for one another. James gently spun Lily about and leaned in to kiss her as the pirouette ended and she wrapped her arms around his neck, standing on her toes to reach him properly.

"I rather think we have a certain love magic of our own, don't you think?" he asked her, staring into the deepest bits of her bottle-green eyes.

Lily nodded, staring right back into his dark brown ones.

"Thanks for choosing me, Evans," James whispered. "Of all the gents who had their eyes on you... thanks for choosing me."

Lily chuckled as he bent forward and pressed his face into the crook of her neck, She drew peace from the feeling of his body rising and falling with every breath.

"No, James Potter. Thank you for choosing me."