The walk back down the isle isn't nearly as bad as the walk up, I am no longer worried about tripping and falling, or of running away. A few of the people in the crowd raised their wands and let off small red sparks into the slightly darkened sky. The sun had just began it's journey to the other side of the world when the ceremony started. There where pictures being taken as we walked and when we reached the edge of the grass Molly and my mother, both in tears, insisted on more.
So we took pictures, some just the two of us, some with the entire party, some with the family. I could see a few of them looking up to the sky, over and over again worried that something would descend upon our happy day much like it did with Bill and Fleur's wedding a year ago. But the only thing the air above them offered was lanterns softly coming to life and floating amongst the crowd.
"Oh, It was a beautiful ceremony" my mother told me while she threw her arms around my neck, nearly knocking me over in the process. My father swooped up and put his arm around my back to keep me steady and pulling her off of me as nicely as he could while telling her that "if you start crying again, you'll ruin her dress."
George extended his hand, one of the first things he learned about business was a good handshake, something I am very happy about. My father always said you could tell a man's character by his handshake, and once I got out in the real world and started working, I understood him. They shook hands, gave a small nod to one another and let go.
It took a bit, but after everyone moved to the tables, we where able to start the late dinner, and in turn, everyone's speeches.
"Vi has been my best friend since we met on the train when we where eleven and I had ripped my jumper" Nicki started her's way back, further then I may have liked, but I couldn't police the matter. "She fixed it, just like she fixed my broken telescope in sixth year and helped fix my heart after it was broken. I never would have pictured my hard working Gryffindor friend with one of the Weasley twins, nor would I have pictured them getting married. But I do know that there where parts in each of their lives that they needed to help fix each other. I cannot imagine a better man for her, nor can I imagine a different women for him."
I saw her look slyly over to where Angelina sat, not really my first choice of people to invite to my wedding, given the history there is between the two of us, but I didn't want to leave anyone out who was apart of the D.A., they where, after all, a small part of how George and I got together.
I smiled down at the flowers I had just been handed, Casablanca Lily's, and then gave the smile to the man standing in front of me. I hugged him, trying hard not to hurt the flowers, but wanting nothing more then wrap my arms around him and cry like a child. Happy tears, mind you, it has never saddened me to receive flowers but every time I get the chance to see him, I want to let the tears flow as if I where six again.
But instead I let him go and sat down at the table in the Three Broomsticks, putting the flowers gently onto the table and the few bags I had collected waiting for the meeting time to arrive at my feet. "You look wonderful, you're growing up into a beautiful young women." The comment made me flush with pride and sit up a little straighter, as his his complements usually do.
We had been sitting for an hour, catching up over Butterbeer's and sharing our favorite stories from back home. I don't get to see him much, even when I am in America, so I take any opportunity I can to do so. Hell, I'd risk another detention with Umbridge to see him. We avoid the subject of his work, focus on my future (Have I been studying for my NEWT's on a regular basis? Had I thought about/applied to any jobs? Which Continent where these jobs on?). Then the question to top all the question's come, and they come with a price.
"So, this boy you've been mentioning." he starts, his voice steady but still stern, "he's some kind of prankster?" I made the mistake of mentioning a few of the things that the Weasley twins had gotten into in a few letters over the years. The aging potion mishap last year being a crowd favorite, of course. Yet before I could mention that he was a very nice young man with a lot of potential and even more dreams , he walked through the door.
And he walked through the door with Angelina on his arm, and by on his arm, I mean nearly attached to him. They sat down a few tables away and when he caught my eye, he kissed her. Hard and rough, making a point in the kiss. The very obvious point of I don't need you.
I steered the conversation very far away from George Weasley at that point. For reasons that my father may or may not have picked up on.
A few very long days later, I was sitting in the common room, working on my Defense homework (Fifteen ways we can avoid interactions with lesser creatures such as half-breeds), just reading the material let alone trying to sound as if I believed or even backed it. George was still parading Angelina around everywhere that I would run into him, and Fred continued to give me this smug smile every time he caught my eye.
I tried very hard not to show him that I cared at all.
"I hear your homework assignments are about as gross as ours." The voice came from a very disheveled looking Ron Weasley. "I'm coping. How's your father?" It only became news to the students of our great school that there was an incident involving their father before Christmas about a week ago. They had mentioned it in a D.A. meeting, and it flew around from there.
"He's doing a lot better. George on the other hand has been unbearable lately." This was a last ditch effort, I am assuming, after Hogsmeade it became known, thanks given mostly to Nicki, that I had been having lunch with my father, who because of reasons even I am unaware of, was in the Country and decided to see his daughter on an afternoon of leave. While George is still trying to pretend that his being with Angelina has nothing to do with me rejecting his Valentine's offer, yet it was pretty well known that he only allowed her near him when they would be around me, or Nicki.
The other members of the D.A. (save three) had all been trying to, not very discreetly mind you, convince each party involved to let it go. Personally, I believe they where doing this because while my wee bit of jealousy fueled my spells to be slightly more hard hitting, his where lacking. His patronus now coming out as a swirl of smoke rather then the usual almost animal shape that is used to come out as.
"He's sorry you know. He doesn't even like her, all he talked about when we where home where your letters." I smiled, even if he was sorry, even if he is upset by the misunderstanding, even if he could admit that it was just that, a misunderstanding.
"He hasn't told me that."
AN: Seven chapters in and we're not even to them leaving school yet. I'm thinking two more chapters until Fred and George high-tale it out of there, and then we can embark on the journey of their lives after Hogwarts.
Does she leave and go back to America? Or stay and take a job in England.
Find out eventually on DWATR!
