Excerpt: Beyond the Veil

Lily had said that it was an entirely awful idea. While she had no direct control over him or Sirius, she, in her own words, had not said yes so that she could marry both of them, but just him, thank you so much. And while she could not stop him from allowing Sirius and Remus and Peter to take him out on his last night as a bachelor, she, again in her own words, highly discouraged it and James Potter, you could be a bachelor again just as soon as you could not be one so woe be unto you and Sirius Black.

Sirius, on the other hand, had said that James worried too much about what Lily said and Listen mate. You’ll have to listen to her nagging your entire life—still dunno why you’re going through with this, oy are you sure you don’t want to, I dunno, forget this madness and just go to the pub?—so what’s one last night out with the boys? To which Lily had given James’s best mate, who was treading a fine line to begin with, a withering glare and Sirius had promptly coughed and become increasingly interested with his shoelaces. Or, rather, the fact that he should have had shoelaces and, somehow, he didn’t. Strange.

Now James Potter had a choice. He could heed the warning of his fiancée, the love of his life, and his bride-in-approximately-a-little-over-24-hours. Or he could listen to his best mate, his best man, and his brother for life. One had startling green eyes that made him go weak at the knees every time. The other had an endless supply of Firewhiskey.

Remus lightly remarked that he wasn’t sure why Lily had bothered to begin with.