I do not own anything you recognize; I only wish I were that cool.
It's a little AU because I needed Remus for my story to work and I couldn't bring myself to kill Tonks if he was still alive.
The World's Worst Proposal
Harry smiled and looked around the room thinking that this had to be his best summer ever. He hadn't needed to go visit the Dursleys and his friends were staying with him at Grimauld Place, which he was currently splitting with the Lupins until they finished fixing their house. Plus, for the first time since he was eleven, he didn't need to look over his shoulder for an evil mass murderer every two seconds. Life was pretty good.
Harry and his friends were all planning on finishing their last year at school together, and since none of them had a place to stay at the moment and summer was almost over, Harry had invited Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Luna to stay there with him, Tonks (now Dora, since Tonks wasn't her name anymore), Remus, and Teddy (Neville was already training for a job in Herbology since he had graduated).
"Harry, would come up here for a second?" Remus Lupin called down the stairs. Harry looked up curiously before looking at his friends, who shrugged. They, of course, followed him up the stairs.
"Do you need something, Remus?" Harry asked curiously. Remus smiled and shook his head.
"No," he answered, "I just found this and thought you might want to see it." He held up what looked like a video camera. Now Harry was really confused. "It's a tape. Sirius charmed it to work with magic. He used to drive us bonkers with this thing…" he smiled fondly, "but the reason I thought you might want to see it is because the first thing he tapped on here was James proposing to Lily."
"Oh." Harry was shocked. This was his chance to see his parents! To hear their voices when they were happy instead of panicked! He stared at the camera for a while before nodding.
Remus smiled and pulled out a small, messed up looking television. It took him a while to set it up, muttering about stupid mutts and their insane ideas, but eventually he sat back and pressed play.
The first shot of the tape was a clear view of someone's feet. Then there was what sounded like Remus' voice saying, "You have to point the lens at something Padfoot."
"Oh, alright." Said Sirius. The camera moved, but now it was pointed at the ceiling.
"The lens is the glass bit at the front." They could practically hear Remus smirking. The camera moved again, and then they could see him smirking.
"So, now what?" Sirius asked. Remus rolled his eyes.
"Now you find something you want to record." He answered. Sirius pondered for a second, and then the camera went crazy, as if he were jumping.
"Oh, I know! Prongs is proposing to his Lily-flower tonight! I can film that!" Remus shook his head again.
"You won't be there, Padfoot. If you go and record their date, Lily might suspect something."
"But I know where he's proposing!" Sirius informed him, "if I hide, Lily will never know!" Remus groaned, and then the image went black.
A second later, a new image came up. This time it was a very beautiful spot in what looked like a park, inside a lit-up gazebo. There were a few stray leaves around the image, as if the camera was in a bush.
"This is ridiculous!" Remus hissed, "why couldn't you just wait for him to tell you what happened?"
"Because," Sirius answered, also in a whisper, "this way I can show it to other people! Think about it, I can show all the little Prongslets their father proposing to their mother!" There was a groan, and then lots of shushing, then James led Lily into the Gazebo.
"I have something for you." James was telling Lily. She laughed.
"Have I forgotten something? First dinner, then flowers, and now you take me here and tell me you got me something? Is it our anniversary or something? Because I'm pretty sure it's not." James shook his head.
"I just wanted tonight to be special, is all." Now Lily's eyes narrowed.
"James Mathew Potter, what did you do?" She demanded. James' eyes widened.
"Nothing! I just wanted-" She cut him off.
"No! I don't want to hear it! I knew this was too good to be true! The last time we had a night like this you 'accidentally' broke every window in the house!"
"It's not like that!" James insisted hastily, "I only wanted tonight to be unforgettable!"
"Yeah, so I would forget whatever it is you've done now!" she finished. "I can't believe you! You'll just never grow up, will you? You, Sirius, and Remus will always be messing up and goofing off, and then you'll look at me when things go wrong and I'll have to go fix whatever it is you've ruined!" Now James looked offended.
"Is that all I am to you, an obligation? Some mess that you just can't help cleaning?" he demanded. They were both yelling by now.
"Of course not! But it seems like to you I'm just someone to correct your mistakes!" she screamed back.
"Fine then! I suppose you won't want this!" James yelled, taking out a little velvet box.
"And what's that supposed to be?" Lily asked derisively.
"Well" James told her scathingly, "it's supposed to be a ring, but you probably think it's just a bribe, huh? So you'll keep cleaning up after me!" He shoved the box at her. She took it and opened it in silence, eyes wide. A second later she snapped it shut.
"Well, can you blame me for being suspicious? You don't exactly do all of this everyday!" she told him. She was still yelling, but now her voice was shaking, as if she was just yelling to be stubborn. James snorted.
"Well, sorry! Next time I ask you to marry me, I'll warn you in advance!" He didn't really sound angry anymore. There was a long pause. "Well, say something." he told her. He had stopped yelling.
"Yes." She said. James smiled, but of course, he couldn't let it go without some teasing.
"Yes, what?" he asked lightly.
"Yes I'll marry you, you git!" but now she was laughing. Then he started laughing too, and she wrapped her arms around him, and then they started kissing. There was only a second of that though, before the camera dropped and they heard Remus and Sirius start laughing.
"Bloody...effing…hell!" Sirius gasped. "I…can't…believe…she…said…yes!"
Then they heard rustling, and a very angry Lily asking, "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing here?" Then there was more laughter and more rustling. Then the screen went black again.
Remus shut off the tape as the entire room laughed.
Finally, Hermione managed to ask, "Why on earth did she say yes to that? He never even really asked her!"
"It was close enough for her," Remus answered, "She had been waiting for him to ask, and she really did love him. She wanted to marry him, so she decided not to torture him into finding a new way to ask her. Plus, I think she felt guilty for ruining his proposal in the first place."
There was more laughter, and then Ginny asked, "How did he break all of the windows in their house?"
"Well," Remus replied, looking slightly guilty, "we were trying to make this potion that would make you invisible without a cloak for twenty-four hours, and James added something he shouldn't have…" Everyone started laughing again.
Once everyone calmed down, Dora got a look on her face that reminded everyone that she and Sirius were related.
"Rem, love," She asked slyly, "what else is on that tape?"
AN: hey, I need some help with this one. Should I A) leave it a one shot, B) put James' bachelor party, or C) put James and Lily's wedding? Let me know what you think, but I'm definitely keeping it at two chapters at most, so B&C is not an option. Sorry, but I don't want this to get to long.