"You're so gorgeous..."

...

24 December 1978

December chugged on and with it brought the arrival of the holidays. Euphemia and Fleamont had decided to invite an influx of people to their manor. James's friends had all made the cut, but only Mary, Lily, and Sirius had chosen to spend Christmas Eve there. Mary brought with her Annie and Julia as the two friends had been bouncing between houses the entire break.

Euphemia had been thrilled when they all arrived as the manor had felt lonely recently. Of course, she had Fleamont, but since the house had been filled with more than two people for a long time, the empty rooms felt like massive gaps.

"So, James and I have finally decided on the date!" Lily spoke excitedly.

Mary, Lily, and Euphemia had been occupying the kitchen most of the night with conversations over tea. Julia and Annie were long gone, choosing to speak amongst themselves rather than engage in conversation. Sirius and James had gone only Merlin knows where.

"Ooh, when is it?" Mia asked.

She really couldn't be happier when James had told her that Lily had accepted the proposal. All the times that Mia had reprimanded him in the past about treating her better seemed to have finally paid off.

"We decided to have it on March 20th!"

"That's between Remus and James's birthdays!" Mary pointed out.

With around three months until the wedding, there were still many preparations to be made. The highest priority was the bridesmaid dresses though. There were few ideas surrounding this for the time being, but Lily wasn't worried about it. As far as she was concerned, nothing could go wrong on her wedding day because she was going to marry the man that she had loved.

...

Sirius had always been connected to the stars. For one, he was quite literally named after the Sirius constellation. Secondly, he had been stargazing for since he could remember.

They hadn't wanted to intrude upon the girls' conversation, and Fleamont had busy with Ministry work that he had been gifted. So, they naturally drifted to the Potter Manor roof in the freezing cold to stargaze.

This didn't last long, however, because James and Sirius found themselves shivering quite violently after just ten minutes. Wanting some tea, they walked into the kitchen but stopped when they saw Lily staring at them with a shocked expression.

"Were you two just outside?" Lily asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yes..." Sirius answered uncertainly. It seemed that James had lost the ability to speak.

"What the hell James Potter? You could have gotten hypothermia! Merlin! Sirius, I expected better!" Lily almost yelled while throwing the nearest blankets at them.

Mary laughed at the scene while Euphemia nodded in agreement with Lily.

"She's going to make a brilliant Mrs. Potter," Mia spoke under her breath.

"Sit down so I can make you some tea!" Lily spoke louder now.

...

Lily's room seemed extra cold that night. She couldn't tell if it was the absence of laughter or of sunshine, but nighttime always seemed sadder to her for some reason. Maybe it's because the outside world was always so quiet. Everybody around you was asleep, which left you alone with only your thoughts.

The moon screamed loneliness as she traipsed out of bed and down the hallway. Before she could step a foot further, she stumbled into a smirking Sirius Black.

"Lily..." He greeted in a condescending way. She glared in response for the time being.

"Stop smirking at me!" Lily broke. This just made him smirk wider.

"Sorry, but three years ago I would've never thought I would see Lily Evans sneaking into James Potter's bedroom."

"Oh, bugger off!"

They went their separate ways at ease, knowing full well that they both have never been happier.

...

25 December 1978

All you could hear was the slight scraping of forks against plates and the rare content sigh. Euphemia entered to see the many kids she had recently taken in, and Fleamont washing several pans while making tea. It reminded her why she married him in the first place.

When Fleamont and Euphemia met, he was only a mere twenty-one years old while she was forty-five. Initially, she told him that she was too old, but he charmed his way to an accepted proposal.

They always wanted to fill a house with children and if this was how that was okay with Euphemia.

"Lily, the dress you're wearing is freshly pressed and hanging up in your room. I looked at the church address you gave me, it looks like you should apparate over at around noon."

"Thanks, Euphemia," Lily said appreciatively.

"You're on nice terms with your in-laws," Marlene whispered so only the girls could hear her.

Mary snorted and Lily blushed after kicking Marlene under the table, earning looks from everyone else in the room. Euphemia looked questioningly at the boys since they are usually the culprits of the situation.

"Don't look at me, I didn't do anything!" James claimed.

"We didn't do anything for once," Sirius continued.

Lily looked from chair to chair to see almost all of the same faces as she had last summer and she smiled contently. She was more than happy with her choices, and when Euphemia called them all into the living room to open gifts, she silently thanked Merlin that it hadn't turned out any different.

...

31 December 1978

The Potter Manor was soon filled with people of all ages as the annual Potter Ball kicked off.

Alice stunned everyone in a red gown that reached the floor. It was the color of bright red flames, she dressed with the intent to sweep people off their feet. Yet, the only person's reaction that truly mattered was Frank's because just about blushed the same color as her dress.

Marlene chose to wear an old, silk black dress that she had borrowed from her mother. She had gotten it tailored so that it fit her perfectly right down to the last seam. Sirius matched her in black trousers and a black button down with the sleeves pushed to his forearms. They dressed to kill.

Mary and Remus coordinated his tie with the color of her dress. She wore a royal blue dress with sheer long sleeves. It hugged her waist before flowing down to the floor.

Lily wore an emerald green gown that Euphemia had gifted to her as an "early wedding gift." It screamed elegance with every piece of fabric. James nearly dropped dead at the sight of her, at least that's what he thought almost happened because he had never seen someone look that gorgeous before.

Of course, when he told her this, she grinned and said "am I always not pretty?" This made him stumble over his words for a good thirty seconds before she pulled him onto the dance floor.

...

The soft song lulled everyone into a quiet trance as they slow danced. Music seemed to have that affect over everyone. It tricked people into forgetting what was really going on outside the safe walls. Each note was like their safety net.

Was feeling safe really worth it if it all comes crashing down in the end? Why trick yourself into thinking everything was just fine when people were actively dying?

Well, Lily thought she would rather have the small happy moments, even if that meant she couldn't have her happy ending. To her, seeing James's grin was worth more than anything in the world. If he was truly happy, then nothing else really mattered. How could it?

In that moment, there he went again staring at her with his golden, hazel eyes in a way that made her feel like she was walking on clouds. He was hers and she was his, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

"I love you more than my hopes and dreams," Lily said.

The weight of the three words had never felt like much before, but saying them while staring into his eyes felt different. Confessing that she would give up everything for him seemed like a bit much—maybe she should save that for the wedding vows? Yet, the words she actually spoke seemed to do the job.

...

3 January 1979

Daily outings quickly became an important part of their lives as the war got bloodier around them. That morning a muggle newspaper—since none of the notable wizard ones had been reporting anything worthy of their attention, Remus had made trips to the grocery store to grab the muggle one—had reported that fifteen muggles had died in a freak accident.

They all knew that it was no freak accident. Mary and Lily had been quieter than usual—this was understandable, but Marlene didn't want their minds straying to the fact that their own family members were killed by Death Eaters.

So, she took them out of the flat to get coffee at a nearby cafe with Alice. Alice had agreed readily as she too had read the news article, and she happened to be off from auror training.

"We could've just made coffee in our flat," Mary points out as she sips her overly priced coffee.

"Stop with the reasonable nonsense, Macdonald," Marlene near scolds.

They sat in silence taking occasional sips of coffee, watching the nearby muggles walk on the sidewalks. Lily was an absolute pro at people watching—she had recently taken up the sport when she found she needed to distract herself from her thoughts. She could make a life story for the people around her in the blink of an eye at this point.

"Lils?" Alice summoned her from her game.

"Yes?"

"What colors were you thinking for the bridesmaid dresses?" She asked when gathering the girl's attention.

"Well, James wants emerald green to be one of the wedding colors because it matches my eyes," Lily spoke casually.

Marlene and Mary simultaneously fake swooned at the comment while Alice "awwed."

Sometimes, Lily forgot that the romantic things that James would say or do wasn't something every guy did for their significant other. It stunned her that it wasn't the norm because it sure seemed normal to her.

"I was thinking we could do really pale pink dresses to compliment my bouquet," Lily reasoned.

"That will also scream spring!" Mary added.

Buying the dresses took no less than two hours—mostly because Lily and Marlene had gotten extremely distracted by the sheer annoyingness of the employees—but at least that was one more box checked off the wedding list.

...

Author's Note:

The lyrics from the start of the chapter are from Gorgeous by Taylor Swift! I know I only put three words there, but it seemed kinda fitting.

In honor of Craigulus being everyone's second OTP, I've made a playlist and aesthetic for them. (I was lowkey more excited to show this than I was to write this chapter...)

P L A Y L I S T
| young and beautiful lana del ray | i wanna be yours arctic monkeys | coming down halsey | flawless the neighbourhood | i found amber run |

lil disclaimer: some of the songs on the playlist have some weird lyrics, but i think for the most part they fit the craigulus pretty well.

Also, I realized while writing this chapter that Lily doesn't have anyone to walk her down the aisle. She doesn't need anyone obviously, but who are some people that you all could see walking her down the aisle?

Lmao anyways thanks for reading
-teddy🔭