Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or its related works. They belong to JKR. Anything you recognize from there is not mine.
I also do not own Everleigh Wood. She belongs to pottermommy1118 and has been borrowed with permission.
For those of you that read pottermommy's next gen stories and recognize Ever: THIS IS NOT A SOAR STORYLINE. I suppose you could say I took (some of) the characters and stuck them in a different universe, because if you know Soar you'll notice a decided lack of siblings on Everleigh's part (among other things).
Author's Note: As the summary says this is loosely based on Thomas Rhett's "Marry Me". I suggest you listen to it, but I obviously can't make you. Still, I adore that song, it's beautiful. As always, I'd love it if you left a review. Enjoy!
she wants to get married
"Let's get married Albsie."
He stares at a spot next to Lily's ear, while she goes on and on about Everleigh's wedding dress. His sister is beyond excited to be maid of honour and cannot stop talking about dresses and colour schemes and place cards and whatever else. Meanwhile, he forces a smile and pretends to listen. He's gotten rather good at nodding in all the right places and humming affirmatives when needed and Lily doesn't need him to talk. She doesn't even really need him to listen. She just needs him to sit there while she rattles on and on. And he… he pretends that it doesn't hurt.
"It has to be perfect."
He watches Everleigh flit to and fro, holding out colour swatches and script samples and more differing kinds of parchments than he knew existed.
"These place cards or those, Lil?" she asks and his sister hops down from her place on the countertop to examine the options Everleigh is holding out to her. She steps over to the window and examines them closely before holding up one card even though he cannot discern the differences between the two.
"This one," Lily declares and for a moment Everleigh frowns. Not her favourite then. The bride-to-be takes the samples from her maid of honour's hands and to his surprise turns to him.
"What do you think?"
I think you shouldn't marry him. I think this isn't the wedding you wanted when we were young. I think… but before any of those traitorous thoughts can come across his lips, his brother enters. He raises one amused eyebrow at the girls and asks, "Couldn't Scorpius show up at any moment and see all this?" He motions to the sketches of wedding dresses. "You know, your groom."
Lily and Everleigh begin to pack up in a flurry of movement and the question is forgotten.
"Orchids. There must be orchids. I can't have a wedding without my favourite flowers."
Sitting with his best friend (and favourite cousin) should be a brief respite from all the wedding talk even though Fred himself is getting married in half a year and it is. That is, it is, until Gwen, recently released from her bridesmaid duties, shows up and lets herself fall into the armchair with the deepest sigh he ever heard. And Fred, who is so hopelessly in love with his fiancée that it's bordering on ridiculous, asks, "What's wrong?"
"They're still arguing about the flowers," she groans in reply. "Two weeks until the wedding and they still haven't…" She shakes her head. "Ev wants purple orchids and he refuses and then she concedes and wants any colour orchids and my dear sweet cousin, stubborn mule that he is, still refuses."
Somehow, the reminder that Gwen is related to Scorpius surprises him every time. And as he looks at his cousin, he's sure that she won't have the same problem as he friend. Fred will give her everything she asks for on her wedding day. It seems incredibly unfair to him that Everleigh won't get that. She deserves it. She deserves a man who will put her every wish before his own.
"We'll get married in the garden. Out by the treehouse."
He can still remember how she'd married his brother in their garden. The rings had been made of twisted grass and daisies, and the pot of orchids they'd borrowed from Aunt Fleur's window sill had been too heavy for Lily's little arms, so he'd held it while bride and groom exchanged rings. He'd thought it funny then, how well she knew what she wanted in her wedding, but now… now it just makes him sad, because the only thought on his mind as he looks around the humongous ballroom decked out splendidly in white and blue is: This isn't it. This is not what she wanted. And if it is, he clearly doesn't know her anymore. He's not sure which of those options is worse. He's also not sure which thought makes him reach for the flask in his pocket, but there's no question that the burn of firewhiskey at the back of his throat makes for a welcome distraction.
"We're not telling the reporters, though. They ask boring questions."
He stares at the crowd clustering around the groom, whose social obligations seem to come before nerves or excitement or anything a groom is supposed to feel on his wedding day, because he's the picture of calm composure. It bothers him to see all these people he's sure Everleigh doesn't care about interspersed with reporters more often than her family and friends. Especially because she has always insisted that her wedding should be small, a simple family affair, not the society event it will be now. But Scorpius Malfoy and his crowd of important purebloods don't seem to care about that.
He stared into her face, looked into those laughing green eyes, and wanted nothing more than to kiss her.
There had been a night, when he had been 16 and she 15, when he had come incredibly close to kissing her. He can't remember now what stopped him (sometimes he wonders if he ever knew the answer to that question), but he can remember the way she'd looked up at him. He remembers it with greater certainty than he remembers most anything else, or so he tells himself at least. She wanted him to kiss her then, and even though the fact that she had started dating Scorpius Malfoy shortly after that moment should convince him that the feeling must have been short-lived, he has always wondered if that was truly the case. He has always wondered if she might not feel the same way. Because he can't forget her, can't forget how he feels about her, even if he didn't realize what he felt for her was love until it was already too late.
You are cordially invited to the wedding of Everleigh Hope Wood and Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy.
Stupid and stubborn as it is, as he is, he hadn't believed she would truly marry Malfoy of all people until he was holding the invitation in his hands. And here and now in the enormous ballroom the wedding is to be held in he thinks he was wrong, and it hadn't hit him even then because it hits him now, so much harder than it did in the face of the invitation. His eyes sting with tears that he refuses to let anyone see and as he turns away from the groom, he catches sight of his coach instead. Of course, he isn't here as that. He's here as father of the bride. He thinks he can see on the man's face that he isn't entirely happy with this, with giving his daughter away (or, he catches himself thinking, with giving her away to this man). Whether it is one sentiment or the other, the elder man is certainly not alone in it. A part of him wants to toast him with the silver flask in his pocket, but as his fingers brush the metal a bitter laugh forces out of his mouth and he flees the room instead.
True love is putting the other person's happiness above your own.
He finds himself standing in front of the door that separates Everleigh and her bridesmaids from the rest of the world without quite meaning to. The sight stops him short. She's behind that door. She's behind that door and he could tell her. He could tell her everything he's been too scared to say since he was 16. But she's also behind that door, wearing her wedding dress and probably beyond excited to be getting married today. And he can't do that. He can't ruin her big day, not when it's supposed to be the happiest day of her life. He raises his hand and knocks.
It takes a while, but then the door is pulled open just a little and his sister peers out at him through the crack. She looks surprised. Maybe she'd realized he hadn't been listening to her ramble on about this wedding.
"Who is it, Lily?" someone calls from inside the room. Dominique.
"My brother," she calls back.
"Again?" Dominique laughs. "He literally just left a minute ago."
"No, the other one," his sister replies.
"What does he want?" Dominique asks, confused but still laughing and he's reminded why they don't always get along despite the fact that she is closest to him in age out of all his cousins.
Lily looks at him questioningly. "Well?"
"I'd just like to see Ev," he says softly. "I have a feeling it'll be next to impossible to see her later." Or ever, if he's quite honest. Scorpius Malfoy has always despised him. Still, he quirks a grin to keep Lily from catching on and she steps aside to let him in.
Lily and Dominique are dressed in matching pale blue dresses, as is Gwen who stands by the mirror, holding Everleigh's hands. And Everleigh… Everleigh is beautiful, all in white with her hair done up elegantly and string of pearls around her neck. When she smiles at him, he is reminded of that night in the Gryffindor common room, when she'd grinned up at him covered in mud and he can't help but think that she was even more beautiful then.
"Hey," she releases Gwen's hands and he takes a step towards her.
"Hello," he replies, catching her hands in his own.
"I didn't expect you here," she tells him, and he smiles. It's the first smile of the day that he doesn't have to force.
"I wanted to make sure I got to wish you well," he tells her quietly, taking another step closer and brushing his lips against her forehead lightly. "You're a beautiful bride, Ev."
She lets go of his hands and he feels her wrap her arms around his waist. He hugs her back lightly, afraid to ruin the hairdo that must be the work of several hours at least. But then she whispers, "Thank you, Jamie," into his chest and he can't help himself. His arms tighten around her and he hides his face in her hair and for a moment, just for a moment, he allows himself to pretend that it'll all be fine.
But then Dominique is fussing at him for messing up Everleigh's hair and Lily is fussing over the hair and Gwen is gently pushing him toward the door and the moment is over. It's gone and it won't return. He glances at Everleigh over his shoulder and finds her smiling at him. He smiles back for a moment before Gwen closes the door in his face with an apologetic little smile and he's standing in the hallway by himself.
He lets his smile fall away then, as he sags against the wall and closes his eyes against the sting of tears. She's getting married. Everleigh is getting married. But she isn't going to marry him. Maybe one day the thought won't hurt, but for now he'll suffer through because she's getting married and she wants him there and he'll be damned if he isn't as long as that's the case.
He pushes off the wall and tries to look happy. But there is one thought in his head that nothing can get rid of and that keeps the smile from reaching his eyes. She isn't going to marry me.
(Author's End Note: If you're a sucker for happy endings (like me) you should watch the Marry Me music video and pretend it ends like that.)