They entered the Three Broomsticks, and sat at the nearest empty table. Madam Rosmerta gasped when she saw the foursome, and clasped her hands eagerly.
"Why, if it isn't the infamous James Potter and Sirius Black!" She smiled. "And who are you lovely young ladies?"
"You remember Lily Evans and Arabella Figg, don't you, Madam Rosmerta?" James gave a casual wave to the girls. "They're our fiancées."
"Fiancées?" Madam Rosmerta raised an eyebrow. "You've actually settled down with girls? I don't believe it! I think that you are fooling me here, boys, and that these poor girls are mere flings."
Arabella laughed. "Oh, no, Madam Rosmerta, we're their girlfriends, unfortunately, of course. But we, Lily and I, fell for their charm like every other girl at Hogwarts eventually, though they did have a tough time getting to us." She winked at Sirius.
"Stop it, Bella." Sirius nodded in assent to his girlfriend's statement.
"Why, if that doesn't beat it all—James Potter and Sirius Black coming back to my shop with girls and a steady relationship. Things sure have changed."
"Surely we weren't that bad, my dear Rosmerta," said James smoothly. "After all, Sirius has been with Arabella since first year, miraculously. Of course, they've had their good and bad moments—"
"A complete understatement," interrupted Lily, rolling her eyes.
"—but they still make a good couple anyway," he finished, raising an eyebrow at his fiancée questioningly. Lily stuck out her tongue in response.
"How did you manage to pull off a proposal without ruining it?" Madam Rosmerta looked truly amazed at the changes James and Sirius had gone through.
"Oh, it took some time, at least for James, but we pulled it off eventually," replied Sirius.
"You two have changed so much since I last saw you here."
"Well, with us being adults and Voldemort on the rise, we needed to grow up, I suppose."
The pub had gone completely silent after Sirius' remark. Whispers were exchanged among the magic folk, and they looked fearfully at Sirius, and then around the pub, as if waiting for Voldemort to appear all of a sudden into the shop. Madam Rosmerta had dropped the large glass of butterbeer that she was about to hand over to a tottering old woman, and the liquid spilled over her lavish magenta robes.
"You said You-Know-Who's name!" exclaimed one young wizard, not much older than them, in barely a whisper.
"Yeah, Voldemort," said Sirius casually, shrugging. The wizard gave another shudder. "So what? It's just a name."
"Yes, but he might hear you and come any second."
"Don't give me that crap, Mr.—what's your name?"
"Jason Wood...hey! I know you from somewhere."
"Wood?" Sirius looked at James, and then back at the wizard in surprise. "Jason Wood, ex-captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team?"
"Yes, that's me, and you're—by golly! Cassia, look." He nudged the petite, pretty little woman next to him. "It's Potter and Black, our old teammates."
The small brunette looked startled, and then began to smile, her creamy face lighting up with delight.
"James Potter and Sirius Black. Well, well, we haven't seen you for quite a while yet. And what's this? Finally snagged Lily Evans, now, have you, Potter?"
James nodded and brought Lily closer to him. "You bet, Wood. You and Cassia married?"
"Nah. I've yet to propose to her, eh? No, we're still boyfriend and girlfriend, though."
"It's great," said Cassia in a bit of a strained voice. "We don't need to be married...staying like this is good enough for me."
Lily nodded politely. "We're engaged. So are Sirius and Arabella."
Wood set down his butterbeer with a clink. "Well, how about that? I would have never expected Potter and Black to be almost-married men. Congratulations."
James, Sirius, and Wood then started to discuss Quidditch, while the three girls discussed their wedding plans.
"You must come to mine, Cassia," said Lily eagerly. "I'll have you as one of my bridesmaids."
"I couldn't," said Cassia, shaking her head, laughing. "I'm not worthy of such a thing, Lily. Please, don't invite me. I'll only burst into a pathetic flood of tears anyway when the actual wedding takes place."
"What does that matter? Bella will probably cry, too."
"I second to that," intoned Arabella emphatically.
"Lily, don't you understand? I can't!"
"Why not?"
"I think"—she cast a furtive glance at the men—"that we should discuss this in the bathroom. Guys, we have to—er—fix our make-up in the bathroom. We'll be back in a jiffy, all right?"
"Yeah, sure." Wood waved an impatient arm around, too absorbed in James' rich-detailed account of the last Quidditch game between England and Czechoslovakia.
Cassia dragged the other two younger women to the bathroom, shut the door, and burst into tears. Lily and Arabella exchanged looks of perplexity, but did not say anything at first.
"Oh, Lily, Bella! I can't stand this any longer. I want to marry Jason, but he just won't propose. He's too in love with Quidditch to care about marriage with me, and says that he's perfectly content with just having a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship instead of an intimate marriage. I really want us to get married and have children, and raise them to be respectable and clever. But how can I?"
"How do you know that Jason doesn't want marriage?" asked Lily.
"Isn't it obvious? He says it all the time."
"Perhaps he says it all the time, but it may not be true, Cass. Men are unpredictable and whimsical like that; they say things they don't mean. I know it's really stupid, but that's how they've always been, and you should know that by now. Maybe Jason thinks that you don't want marriage either, so he's just saying that he doesn't want it to please you and make you happy."
"That's ridiculous. How can he think that? He knows I love him, and couples in love always go to the next level by getting married."
"Yeah, but your Quidditch-obsessed boyfriend is different, like James and Sirius. They care too much about us that they're hurting us instead of benefiting us."
"How do you know all this?" Cassia looked at Lily in awe. "You haven't been in a relationship nearly as long as I, and you know more about this than I do."
Lily shrugged. "It's probably because I've known James practically all my life, and I've sort of studied and understood him, like a book. It's not that hard once you get used to it. After all, James is the perfect example of an unconventional man, and I understand how his brain works. That's why I know what I'm talking about, because Jason is out of the ordinary as well."
Cassia looked thoughtful for a moment, and then crushed Lily in a tight hug. "Thanks, Lily. You're the greatest. But what should I do now?"
"Talk to him, of course," put in Arabella sensibly. "That's the only way you'll get things out of men...you got to be the first one to bring up the subject. Don't think they'll be the first ones to bring it, because they definitely won't be. They're slow that way."
"And I'm guessing you know this because of Sirius."
"'Course. With Sirius as a fiancé, well, life gets a little more interesting than usual, huh?"
Cassia laughed, and dried her remaining tears. "Thanks, the both of you. You two have really helped. I'll talk to Jay tonight."
"You'd better, and tell us what he says about it."
"Definitely."
When the three girls came out, the guys were already waiting for them by the entrance, still discussing Quidditch.
"You guys still at that stupid game?" Cassia rolled her eyes.
"You were the Beater at Hogwarts with me, and now you don't care about Quidditch?" Sirius asked in mock-horror. "Dear Merlin, what's happened?"
"Maybe it's the whole being an adult thing that's changed me." She shrugged. "Ready, Jay? Oh, and when we get back to our flat, I have to talk to you about something."
"Sure." Wood shrugged and they both Disapparated.
"You girls ready?" James looked questioningly at them.
"Yeah. Just give us a second."
Arabella turned to her best friend and smiled. "Think we have enough experience about life, Lils?"
"Perhaps not all of it, but we sure got enough to brighten hearts around us. Merlin knows we need more happy souls around here these days. There are barely any of them at all."
And what Lily said was absolutely true, especially since their world would soon turn colder.