He had never felt more nervous.
Not during any of his moments of life and death, not even when facing Voldemort himself. Nothing in his life could have ever prepared him for the moment at hand. He continued on staring at his feet, well aware of all the eyes on him at the alter, the sun high in the sky above them. Across the way, he heard a soft gasp and looked up, only to be blinded by a sight more beautiful than anything he had ever seen. Behind him, Ron gave a quiet, muffled sort of laugh and Harry tore his gaze away from the brilliance ahead of him to see that his friend was torn between a laugh and a sob, watching the same sight that he was. To his other side, Hermione looked stunning in her emerald green dress, her hair sleek and shining much like it had been so many years ago at the Yule Ball. Unlike Ron, she was open with her emotions, and tears raced down her cheeks as her lips curved in the widest of smiles.
It was strange, reaching a moment like this. He had not really given much thought to getting married and really having a life... After everything he had gone through... He had never thought to make it this far, honestly, but now that he had he was so thankful. This moment had nearly escaped him numerous times- from the day of his parent's deaths (his first time foiling death's plans) to the day she opened the chamber of secrets and the memory of Voldemort nearly stole her soul. Or the hundreds of other times they had fought and nearly lost, all the times they had come so very close to death... But here they were.
In the years since Voldemort's final downfall, so much had happened, so much had changhed. Hermione and Ron had married of course, not long before, in the same little garden of the Burrow that they currently stood themselves. Harry had restored his family home in Godric's Hollow and had made it a new home for his own. Before their marriage, Ron had lived with him, and then for a time Hermione did as well. But then Ron found a little place near his childhood home and then he and Hermione were married and before they knew it, life really was beginning to change. They were grown now, well past their days of Hogwarts and wars, left with nothing but the scars and the memories alike. Harry absently reached up to rub the lightning bolt scar on his forehead, knowing he would never quite forget how it had felt to be inside of Voldemort's head. No more though, he said to himself, never again would he have to worry if this time would be the last time. No longer would he have to worry about losing someone else close to his heart.
Thinking back to a year before, when he had been sent a package on his twenty-first birthday, small and tied neatly with brown paper. He had opened it to reveal a small box along with two little notes- your mother's- read one, the handwriting familiar. The other note was scratched in ink in a very familiy hand that had brought a smile to his face. Sirius had given me this years ago, made me promise not to give to yeh til you were twenty one, just like yer parents. Hagrid. When he had opened the the small box he had found inside a ring with a sparkling diamond that had clearly been the ring his father had given to his mother many years before. Harry had stuck the ring into a drawer and left it there, until the night of her twenty-first birthday, when before her family and those of the Order who yet remained alive, he dropped to a knee and had asked her to marry him with the ring his mother had once worn.
He turned back to face forwards and there she was, almost gliding towards him as if in a dream of somekind. She held fast to her father's arm, who looked splendid in his new robes of dark blue, while she positively glowed in the white silk gown. As she raised her face from the ground, she broke out into a huge grin, her brown eyes blazing in the sunlight. As she and her father stopped before them standing at the alter, she dipped her head to listen as he spoke soft words to her, and she nodded, kissing her father lightly on the cheek. She met his gaze right then and she looked calm and collected, as she always did, her smile more radiant than the sun above. And then, Arthur guided his daughter's hand to Harry's, who took it into his, trying to hide just how much he was shaking.
And just like that, they were married.
They paraded down the aisle, Hermione and Ron behind them, but they had nearly already forgotten the others around them. Harry drug her by the hand to the backside of the house and she was laughing, giggling madly as he slipped his hands into her hair, knocking her viel to the ground in his fingers earnest attempt to tangle up in the crimson curls. "Harry," she laughed as she took his face between her palms, giving him one long kiss to his lips. "We're married," she said suddenly, her eyes bright and her smile wide, and he pulled his hands from her hair to put at her waist instead, giving her one good swing around. "Mr. Potter," she said solemnly, standing up a little straighter, offering him her arm to tuck against his.
He took her hand with his, giving it a gentle squeeze before he tucked it into the crook of his arm. "Mrs. Potter." He replied, his voice not much more than a whisper, before he gave her one final kiss, hopefully one that was full of everything he had not yet said.