WHO: James Potter & Lily Evans
WHAT: Engagements!
WHEN: Spring '78
WHERE: Their broomcloset

It was well known around the castle that the broom closet on the fifth floor three doors down from the arithmancy classroom was James and Lily's broom closet. Honest, no one in their right mind dared to use it for their own personal needs, because either one of the two would catch them (it was like a sixth sense, knowing someone was in their closet) or the closet itself would chuck them out and serve the canoodling couple a detention, 'courtesy of your Head Boy and Girl.'

Brilliant prank put to wonderfully good prefectly use.

James and Lily when together, really could not be beat.

Which was why James found himself in said closet, wand already lit and sitting on a shelf, waiting for Lily to come out of class. He had a free period before, and after quickly finishing up his transfiguration essay (he actually was getting back into a good routine, thankfully) he hurried down to the fifth floor and stationed himself behind the barely opened door of the broom closet. Checking his watch, James counted down the seconds to the end of class and thankfully the professor wasn't going overboard with one of his lectures because the students spilled out and James spotted Lily immediately (how couldn't he?). He waited for the precise moment before snatching her hand and tugging her into the closet, snapping it shut quickly, and grinned down at her.

"Hullo."

Lily yelped quietly at being grabbed and pulled so sharply, despite the fact that when she had seen that door to that cupboard sitting open, she had known that this would happen. After all, no one in the school was stupid enough to make it so obvious they were using James and Lily's broom cupboard, so it could have been none other than James himself in there. Her lips drew up into a grin as her eyes adjusted to the much dimmer atmosphere, and she casually snaked her arms around her boyfriend's midsection.

Resting her chin on his chest, which had her looking up at him at quite an angle, she forced her smile to change to a playful pout. "Someone's aiming to make me miss Potions," she accused lightly. "I'm going to have to lay the blame on someone when Slughorn asks where his beloved star student's been, Mister Potter."

Potter, haha. She'd said it a million times since last night, but it was still giving her goosebumps. Just--to think and--true, she still didn't know if he meant it or if it had been the alcohol talking, or if he even remembered at all what he'd said, but Merlin's coathangers--did it matter? No, apparently, because the thought of all that the name Lily Potter meant still made her dizzy, whether it was him thinking it or her.

"You can blame me, I haven't finished the last homework and need him to go on a fifteen minute long rant about tardiness to finish up the last question," James said quickly, tilting his head with a happy smile quirking up on his lips. They were such good influences on each other, you see.

He kissed her quickly before looking up and thoughtful again, "Or, you could burst in saying there's been some large explosion in the kitchens and the Potions Master must get down there, and when Slughorn huffs his way back up to the room and demands what happened, after I finish my homework, of course, you could always explain 'Oh, I'm sorry, I confused Potions Master with Master Chef!' and then he'll forget that you were late and I can hand in a completed assignment."

James took a breath; it was clear that he was still in a very good mood from the night before, and tugged her close, "So what do you say, Miss...." his voice trailed off and he flushed a bit, wondering if Lily remembered anything that'd had been said last night (said again, and again, and again).

"Oh, the possibilities," she mused in good humor, rocking back and forth on her feet. But the rocking was nothing more than a nervous gesture, because his last words had left off leading somewhere and oh, he remembered but he wasn't saying it and what did that mean? He was flushing and stopping and did that mean he regretted what he'd said and oh goodness--

"Or maybe we'll both just miss the class altogether, and then we can come in the next class on time and with completed homework assignments and he'll completely forget anything we've done wrong because he's so fond of us?" It was obvious that she was trying to ignore it and stay off the subject, but it was all really futile because even in the dim light it was obvious that she was going between twenty different shades of red just thinking about this topic she was supposed to be getting off of and failing miserably at getting off of and aaaaaaah--

Deep mental breath. "So I take it you weren't too smashed to remember last night's conversation."

"I'll remember if it's okay with you to remember it," he said quickly, grinning sheepishly but not loosening his grip around her waist. She wasn't running away and that was always a good sign with James, and maybe her blush was encouraging him to be a bit more brave about the subject. So she wasn't mad at him for it, that was good, she was at least embarrassed, which was much better than being mad, James could handle being embarrassed, he did it daily.

After their St. Patrick's Day romp he'd thought---well, no, he'd passed out for a bit, but when he'd woken up later on during the night, he'd turned over and looked at Lily and---bugger, anyone in Hogwarts could tell you that James Potter had always wanted to wake up next to Lily Evans, but now the question of whether or not he wanted to wake up beside her for the rest of his life had arisen, and it was stupidly (but amazingly) terrifying (but brilliant) that he'd immediately thought 'yes.'

"It...can...put us in a variety of situations, if you allow me to remember it."

"I shouldn't be able to allow you to remember anything, but it would be a lie to say that I wish you wouldn't," she said, almost thankful that it didn't seem possible to blush any deeper than she already was. Her hands clenched his shirt tightly and she was amazed that she didn't have to force herself not to bury her face in his chest out of embarrassment--she wanted to look at him, because looking into his eyes when he admitted that the idea of marriage didn't completely freak him out was soaring to the top of her 'most amazing feelings in the world' list.

And really, why shouldn't she be honest with him? She'd already made the mistake of holding back once, when she had refused to admit to herself that she was in love with him, and look what had happened. James had been torn from her life for what could have been forever, and she almost never had the chance to say it. She had promised herself she wouldn't be that stupid ever again, not with him, not when she knew in her gut that this was completely right. Shut up, pragmatic mind, because Lily didn't need that kind of thinking to know that James was the one for her.

The one. It. All she needed for the rest of her life.

"Tell me where we're going, James, I'm all yours." Lily could hardly believe how much she meant that.

They weren't going anywhere because she'd just killed him and he was going to die and float up to heaven in this broom closet.

James' breath literally caught in his throat and he miraculously managed not to making any sort of choking sound that might put the wrong ideas in her head. I'm all yours, and---oh, Merlin's---she had to know that he was hers, she'd known that since he'd tripped her on the way back to the Gryffindor common room that first day in Hogwarts and it was the one thing James would admit to anyone without hesitation and he'd told his mother that he was in love with Lily before they'd even said it to each other, and---it---oh, holy crap, he loved her and knew he wouldn't be able to function correctly if she wasn't there for the rest of his life, if she wasn't his wife and

He let go of his hold on her and dropped to the floor, not because he'd fainted (but he was about ready to), but because he'd gone to a knee and before James could even realize that he was kneeling in something wet, his hand was taking her right, the one with the claddagh ring and he was slipping that off and he was staring at it, for a second thinking that he'd thought of this when he'd bought it, and then he took Lily's left hand and looked up at her. James hadn't taken a breath but he did now and, he never felt like he'd done anything more appropriate in his life, and that was something coming from a prankster that always had valid reasoning behind each and every last thing he did.

"I want you to marry me, Evans."

She'd known he was going to say it from the second he dropped to his knee, but there was no way for Lily to have actually prepared herself for James to say those seven words and oh God, she was going to absolutely faint on the spot and how could it be possible that anyone could make her feel this way and--she was crying, oh oh ohhh it was official, this was so completely perfect and wonderful and how could she possibly live with herself if she didn't say yes?

But of course the word 'no' didn't even cross her mind, because not even she could bring herself to think about how crazy this was, and there was no other answer, none--it was yes, yes, yes, and it had been since--aaaaaah she needed to say it, though, she couldn't just stand there and blubber like an idiot, she needed to tell him that yes, she'd marry him, any day aaaah

"You're i--insane if you think I--that'd I'd say--I mean, I--I love you so mu--I--put that damn ring on my finger, Potter!" Lily gave up and finally exclaimed, with a teary laugh; a laugh that portrayed so much more joy than she had ever, ever felt before in her life.

James laughed loudly his own eyes---oh, fuck it, he was crying a bit too because Lily Evans wanted to marry him. LILY EVANS HAD JUST ACCEPTED A MARRIAGE PROPOSAL FROM HIM, JAMES POTTER! LILY EVANS WAS GOING TO BE LILY POTTER BECAUSE SHE'D SAID YES TO MARRYING HIM, JAMES POTTER!

Now that that was settled, James put the ring on the ring finger of her left hand and stared at it for a good five second before jumping to his feet and just staring Lily before letting out a WHOOP of a laugh and grabbed her around the waist and picked her up and spun her around as much as he could and---the broom closet door was open and they were in the middle of the hallway now and he was just spinning her around and hollering happily.

This had to be the best moment of his life. And having sex with Lily was pretty fucking hard to beat, but this managed to do it quite nicely.

Lily's mind was a dizzying jumble of thoughts, that was the only thing that came close to describing it because this was REAL and it was really James spinning her around and that ring was really on her LEFT finger and James---ahahahaha James, that was the name her her fucking her--future HUSBAND AAAH!

They were so stupid, laughing and crying and spinning and clinging to each other in the middle of the hallway and there were people stopping and staring and a class of first years was peeking out through the doorframe with McGonagall in front of them, looking on in wonder and confusion. But none of that mattered because she didn't see any of it because she was busy being a girl and crying and laughing and getting engaged aaaaaaah was she ever going to get over the fact that she was ENGAGED?

No no no, NOT LIKELY BECAUSE--BECAUSE--"I love you, you prat aaaaah!" she squealed tearfully into his shoulder.

James had managed to back up in a wall and they kissed and laughed and he was far too dizzy to keep kissing her for that second and he looked over his shoulder at Professor McGonagall. She had a smirk on his face that James knew quite well; she knew exactly what he was up to, and James grinned brightly. For a second the transfiguration professor kept the same scolding glare on her face, but it melted away and she clamped her hands to her mouth, and what James thought was a little jump of excitement.

See, everyone approved.

"Come on, come---we've...you," he put Lily down just to grab her face and kiss her hard and, "You! Merlin's---We've got to go," he said in McGonagall's direction and James tugged on Lily's hand, her left hand so he could feel the ring on her left hand, toward Gryffindor Tower. They! Were! Getting! Married!