Bells and Whistles.

Three days after Harry's birthday saw, him and Ron in the ministry receiving their apparition licences, and five days after Harry's birthday the living room at the Burrow saw, Fred George, Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione standing around a tattered book with no cover and half of the pages missing, wearing their best. Hermione seemed almost angry at the book, as though the state it was in was a personal insult to her.

"Three," said Fred.

"Two," continued George.

"Three," finished Fred, and with that Harry was picked up by his stomach and sent flying off to France.

Mr and Mrs Weasley were already there of course, making last minute preparations, so they had left a portkey at the Burrow for the others to follow them.

They arrived on a well tended lawn, with flower beds flanking them, forming an aisle.

Early guests were chatting to each other but most of the people already there were family who were rushing around levitating bunches of flowers or extra chairs.

WHACK!

A lady let out a shriek. "Henry, you 'ave killed one of ze bridesmaids," Harry heard the woman cry. He realised then that Ginny was not lying on her front because she had not been ready for the violent mode of travel but rather had been struck by the end of a pew that this man, Henry, had apparently been moving.

"Oh mon Dieu! Qu'ai-je fait?"

Henry quickly moved to pew aside and bent down to inspect Ginny along with the lady who had shrieked, who roughly shoved Harry aside. Hermione knelt down and turned Ginny on her side, cradling her head.

"Harry," she said, "go and find Mrs Weasley, I don't know any spells to stop bleeding this bad." She lifted her hands and Harry saw blood all over them. He hadn't noticed before because of the colour of Ginny's hair but she seemed to have a large split in the back of her head.

Harry couldn't see Mrs Weasley around. They were standing on an aisle with flower beds on both sides and rows of seats lined up beyond them. At the end of the aisle was an arch of roses and then a slightly raised grassy platform. The glade they were in was oval shaped and the aisle dissected it across the centre so that the trees were near by at either end of the aisle and far away on either side. There was a single track leading into the glade and near to the entrance of the track was a huge Tent. "She must be in there," said George pointing to a Marquee. "Yeah, I can't see her any where out here." Said Fred.

The three of them started running. Harry burst through the open canvas doors and crashed straight into Charlie Weasley. The plates he had been carrying smashed into millions of pieces and the two men tumbled to the ground in a knot of limbs where Fred and George tripped over them and went ended up sprawled on the floor.

"Harry what-?"

"Where's your mum? Ginny's been hurt."

"Oi. Mum." He yelled as they all got to their feet.

But Mrs Weasley had already arrived, looking furiously at all of the smashed crockery. "What on earth did you think you were doing boys? Tearing in here at that speed, look what you've done, you could have-."

"Ginny's been hurt." Harry cut in.

"Mrs Weasley's face paled. "What happened?"

"Come on." Said Fred, "We'll tell you as we go."

The 5 of them hurried out. "Some guy called Henry-." Started George.

"Henry? He's a menace of a man, he really is. I told Fleur we could handle it but no, she had to get that, that, cousin of hers to help. Help she calls it, help. He's done twice as much to set this wedding back than put it forward."

They came in sight and saw that a crowd had gathered.

"Let me through, let me through," shouted Mrs Weasley over the noise and gawking.

They didn't seem particularly bothered by Mrs Wealey's attempts to shove through and Harry found himself annoyed with them, Ginny could be bleeding to death just 6 feet away and they couldn't get to her for babbling French people who thought a bleeding bridesmaid, entertainment. He couldn't see any way in so drew his wand and let out a bang like a firework. The crowd were cowed and some went quite. "Back away and let us through." He commanded.

Fred, George and Charlie didn't wait for them to comply and barged through, leaving an opening in their wake that Mrs Weasley and Harry were able to dodge in through.

She hurried to Ginny's side and started muttering spells under her breath. Harry went and knelt next to Hermione on the other side of Ginny's head to Mrs Weasley. And the brothers went and joined Ron who was sitting on the pew that had struck Ginny. They took out there wands and glared menacingly at the gathered people until they backed away.

The wound was slowly dammed up and then it knitted together and finally Mrs Weasley re-grew her hair over the flat piece of skin where there was once a gaping gash.

"Roll her on her back Harry," she said. He took her shoulders and rolled her towards him so that she was lying on her back.

Now that Hermione's lap was unoccupied, Harry could see just how much blood Ginny had lost. Most of it was now on Hermione's legs and dress robes. But she didn't seem to care.

"Ennervate," said Mrs Weasley, and Ginny's eyes fluttered open slowly.

"Harry?" she said softly, squinting up at him, "'sall fuzzy. Why'my on 'efloor."

"It's ok, you're fine." He told her. "She's lost a lot of blood Mrs Weasley, have you got a replenishing potion?"

"No dear, but there's one at home, above the sink in the bathroom, it might be an idea to bring back an anti befuddlement draught as well, would you be a dear?"

"Of course." He stood up and with a horrible sensation he was pulled and pushed into the bathroom at the Burrow. He quickly found what he was looking for and prepared to disapperate when he heard a shrill whistling. After a couple of seconds he heard a knock at the door.

He withdrew his wand and tried to creep down the stairs but they creaked so much it was a pointless effort. He walked to the door, stood to the side, flung it open and thrust his wand out ahead of him. He came face to face with a very wide eyed Percy Weasley.

"Er… Percy."

Harry suddenly remembered a rather abusive letter Percy had once written that described Harry as dangerous and unstable. He wasn't really helping his case. Harry lowered his wand.

"Percy looked thoroughly shocked, "er, I, um, I got a letter, saying that there would be a portkey here that could take me to Bill's wedding if I would like to come. I'm judging, by the fact that you have your wand drawn, that you weren't expecting me."

"I was under the impression that you weren't on speaking terms with the rest of your family."

"I, well, I think that Bill saw this as a way to rebuild some bridges. I still cannot say I agree with what my family are doing, but on an occasion like this I suppose I can look past the issues between us."

Harry couldn't believe his ears, Percy had gone against everything his family had believed in and sided with the Ministry of Magic, against Harry, when he had tried to tell people that Voldemort was back. Percy had been completely out of line, and completely wrong.

"You don't agree with-, you, how. Your family has done more to hold back Voldemort than the whole of the Ministry put together, how can you not agree with tha-?"

"And yet they are doing all they are doing behind the Ministry's back, if they would only tell us what they were doing and help us rather than hinder us, this could all be sorted much quicker and easier. I believe you have been given that chance twice and yet you still do not see that it is the Ministry that will be the end of this present situation. Not you or your Order."

"Oh I see alright, I see that the Ministry was wrong last year, and they're wrong now. Wilfully ignoring the truth then, and doing the wrong thing about it now that they know the truth. Locking up innocent people, having Dumbledore followed rather than death eaters, trying to make me a symbol of your own brilliance. How can you agree with that? Now do you want to go to this wedding or not?"

Glaring at Harry he said. "Of course I do. Where is the port key?"

"Went a few minutes ago, hold my arm." Percy took hold and Harry apparated back to the wedding. He had appeared behind the Marquee. "I've got to get to Ginny; I'll let you find a friendly face yourself. Good luck." He apparated again to the centre of the aisle but Ginny was sitting off on a chair in one of the rows, seemingly asleep against Fred or Georges shoulder. He couldn't tell which. He strode over and sat next to her. He noticed that she had been cleaned up and her dress was just as amazing as it had been before.

"Ginny." He said shaking her. "Ginny," he said a little louder. He glanced up at George, when he got no response, who rolled his eyes. "OI, WAKE UP."

Ginny jumped a little waking up, her eyes still looking dazed and confused. She turned and saw him there, "Harry," she said smiling, and then rested her head on his shoulder instead of her brother's.

"No, Ginny. You need to drink these."

"Ok Harry," she said, before going back to sleep. George laughed.

"Here," he said reaching for the bottle. "Tilt her head. I've had lots of practice at this, Fred and I end up like this quite often, when our products go wrong while we're testing."

"Speaking of your products," said Harry while he was tilting Ginny's head, "Percy's shown up."

"Really now?" He replied with a wicked grin. "I'm sure we can find something suitably embarrassing for him." He emptied the bottles and put Ginny's head back on Harry's shoulder. "Let her sleep a while for the potion to take effect. I've got to go and find Fred. Bye."

Harry sat for a long while, watching the chaos all around him. He realised that this was really not the position he wanted to be in with the public around. He was supposed to be as far away from Ginny as he could get. But at the same time he was perfectly content to have her asleep on his shoulder. As though it was right. It made him smile.

He noticed that people had stopped running round as much. And people had begun to take seats. He shook Ginny and this time she woke quickly. She looked around blearily, until her eyes met Harry's.

"Harry? What…" and then her eyes widened. "Oh," she said, "oh dear." She looked around again and saw all the guests and growled as she scrambled to her feet. "Why didn't you wake me up? I'm supposed to be with Fleur." Her hands shot to her hair as she tried to feel if his shoulder had messed up her curls. "Oh no." she whimpered, and set off at a run for the Marquee.

Harry was left sitting amongst people that he had never seen before and realised that they were glancing and whispering about his scar. So he set off to find Ron and Hermione.

They sat waiting for what seemed like an age. Harry, Ron and Hermione, who had been cleaned up by some very fine wand work, sat right near the front with an excellent view of the arch of roses. Fred and George sat not far away, close enough at least, for Harry to hear them constantly muttering to each other, no doubt about Percy, who had been taken under Mrs Weasley's wing as soon as she had seen him there, and she had kept him by her side ever since. Mr Weasley had been conspicuously silent around him.

Harry heard very quiet music, barely noticeable over the noise of the gathered guests, and couldn't understand where it was coming from. While he was looking round for the source he noticed that Bill and Charlie were standing under the rose arch, and there was a man in long flowing robes up on the slightly raised turf.

The music flared to life and the crowd turned as one to see Fleur, who was standing at the end of the aisle on the arm of a straight back man with steel grey hair. She was the personification of beauty, as she started forward with her father she seemed to float rather than walk. They moved slowly, in time with the music and as they moved forward they revealed the girl Harry was really looking for. Her flaming red hair tumbled in curls down onto her golden dress, the gold shimmered in the sunlight and her hair swayed as she walked making it look like she was on fire. A claw tugged at his heart and whimpered, but he swallowed it down.

The procession reached the front and Fleur took Bill's hand in her own.

Mrs Weasley sniffled as the man on the dais began to speak and by the time Bill and Fleur had said vows that they had made themselves, "Oh how sweet," Hermione had said, and then said their "I do"s she was sitting in a flood of tears. Much like a silver haired lady in a front pew across the aisle.

The newly weds turned and kissed each other and the guests applauded, not entirely sure why this was something that warranted clapping, as he had never been to a wedding before, Harry politely joined in none the less.

Mr and Mrs Weasley turned and walked down the aisle hand in hand, where a carriage with two huge winged palominos hitched to the front. They jumped in the back and waved, as the horses rocketed the carriage into the sky and out of sight.