Unfogging the Future - Chapter 10
By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: You recognize it? It's J.K. Rowling's. Eleanor Weasley is my creation.
Warning: Slash ahead. If the idea of boys snogging and/or talking about romance with boys offends you, turn back now, before it's too late. And more than just mentions of same-sex marriage in this one, 'cause it's same-sex wedding time!
=============
PARALLEL TIME
The Snape/Weasley wedding party had stayed awake until very early into the morning, and Harry and Ron finally returned to the seventh year Gryffindor boys' dorm with only a few hours to sleep.
They had fallen into their beds head-first and had only awakened after Seamus and Dean had allowed Ginny up to annoy them awake.
"Harry . . ." She tickled his ear gently. "Wake up."
She sighed and poked him with her wand. "It's time to get up, Harry." She said in a firmer tone.
Harry was perilously close to the edge of his bed and she pushed him even closer. That did it. Harry's preternatural sense of danger woke him with a start.
"Wha --!" He exclaimed as he sat bolt upright.
"It's time to get dressed for the wedding." She said pointedly as she moved to Ron's bed and repeated her tactics with him. Only this time they didn't work, and Ron fell to the floor with a thud.
"Is he all right?" Harry asked.
Ginny kneeled on the floor at her brother's side and put her ear to his chest. "He's alive."
Suddenly, Harry grinned wickedly. "I've got an idea." He grabbed Ron's right arm and leg, and indicated for Ginny to take his left arm and leg. Together they carried him, still dressed in his nightshirt, into the bathroom, where they placed him in a sitting position against the wall of one of the shower stalls and turned the water on.
"Argh!" Ron yelled, as he began spluttering angrily, water running down his face.
Ginny giggled, and Harry, trying to suppress a smile, directed her out of the bathroom, preparing to take the brunt of his friend's temper himself.
"Harry!" Ron exclaimed, fury in his tone.
"We have to leave for the wedding soon. We tried everything we could to wake you, but it just wasn't working."
Ron collected himself. "Well, at least I've got the shower over with. Now we just have to find out where our dress robes are stashed, and *I'm* ready to go."
With that, Harry bustled off to the bedroom to get his shower supplies.
REGULAR TIME
"Harry Potter. For the last time, *stop* staring at the Slytherin table." Hermione said in her most McGonagall-esque voice.
Harry sighed and turned his attention back to the plain dry white toast in front of him. His appetite was even worse than usual and he hadn't even been able to stomach that. "I feel like my right arm's been amputated." He said morosely. "There's so much I want to do, but I just *can't*."
Hermione sighed. "Looks like I'm going to have to give you those lessons after all."
"In, what was it again?"
"Playing hard-to-get." She said with a wink. "If you pretend that he doesn't matter, it'll drive him batty."
PARALLEL TIME
"Harry!" Ron yelled from the doorway of the boys' dorm as Harry hurriedly scribbled a message on a piece of parchment.
"Just a minute. I'm almost done." Harry responded testily, trying his best not to dribble ink on the dress robe he was wearing. He didn't think that a large black blotch would do anything for the appearance of the jade-green robe he was wearing.
Ron sighed testily.
"Just finishing . . . now." Harry signed his name and after casting a quick drying charm on the note, stuck the piece of parchment under the pillow. I don't know when we'll switch back, but whenever we do, that note'll be waiting for the other Harry.
He stood and together, he and Ron walked down to meet Ginny and Hermione in the Gryffindor common room.
REGULAR TIME
Harry, Ron and Hermione walked to Hogsmeade in companionable silence. Ron was thinking about visiting the Hogsmeade branch of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and seeing how his brothers' latest projects were turning out. Hermione was wondering if she'd be able to find all of the supplies she needed for her term project in Charms. Harry was trying *not* to think of Draco Malfoy.
It's a beautiful autumn day. He burbled inconsequentially into the silence in his mind. The birds are singing, the leaves are falling from the trees, the sun is shining like Draco's eyes when we kiss . . .
Damn. Sigh. I'm on my way to Hogsmeade with my two best friends. Sort of. Close enough, anyway. And we're going to drink butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, and . . .
Harry's thoughts continued on in this vein for quite some time, until a very unfamiliar familiar voice broke into his thoughts.
"Hey, Potty."
"Heh. Potty. Good one, Malfoy."
"Shut. Up. Goyle."
"Oh. Sorry Malfoy."
As they'd discussed earlier, the three friends continued walking, pretending that they didn't hear a word of Draco and Goyle's exchange.
"What's the matter, Weasel? Cat got your tongue?"
Silence.
"How about you, Granger? Certainly a know-it-all mudblood like you's got something to say."
Harry held his breath, hoping that Ron wouldn't rise to the bait. Then he let his breath out slowly as he realized that Ron was counting to one hundred under his breath, as they'd agreed, to keep his temper in check.
Draco moved into Harry's line of vision, then, and he saw the blond Slytherin nod at his two goons, who sped up and stuck a leg between Hermione's and Ron's legs, attempting to trip them. The two Gryffindors neatly adjusted their gait to compensate and kept walking. Harry silently blessed Hermione's impulse that caused her to suggest that they cast stabilis charms on themselves against just this sort of thing.
Draco sighed petulantly. "This is no fun. Let's get moving, then."
Draco, Crabbe and Goyle sped up, then, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione far behind.
PARALLEL TIME
After the four Gryffindors walked down to the ground floor, they met up with most of the rest of the Weasleys -- Bill, Charlie and Eleanor had spent the night in rooms above the Three Broomsticks -- and Draco. Soon they were joined by Snape and Dumbledore, who carried their dress robes in leather garment bags, and the party climbed into Hagrid's horseless carriages and set off for Hogsmeade.
Once they'd arrived at the Hogsmeade village church, Snape and Dumbledore retired into a room to put on their dress robes. When they emerged, Harry was stunned by the Potions Master's appearance. He was wearing a pseudo-Chinese styled robe in a soft white color with a Mandarin collar and wide bell-shaped sleeves. He gave Harry and Draco a warm smile as he walked up to them. "Since you're my best man," he said to Draco, "it's your job to hang onto this for me." He held out a gold ring that glinted in the light coming in through the windows.
Draco took it proudly, then as Snape went to speak with Dumbledore about something, his expression changed to one of slight confusion as he weighed the ring in his hand.
"Put it on your little finger?" Harry suggested dubiously.
Draco slipped the ring onto his pinkie, and looked down at it. Then he nodded. "Seems good enough. Just as long as I don't have to do anything too . . . athletic until after the exchange of rings." He winked at Harry, and made Harry blush.
As they stood in the entryway to the sanctuary, students, faculty, and assorted others whose red hair marked them as Weasleys, filed between them into the sanctuary, where the students and faculty sat on Snape's side, and the Weasleys sat on Bill's.
Eventually, Bill and Charlie arrived, Charlie wearing a robe that matched Draco's - a more ornate robe from the same jade green cloth as the rest of the attendants', and Bill wore a robe identical in every way to Snape's.
Makes sense, Harry thought, with no 'bride' and 'groom,' they probably *should* wear the same thing.
Then, as the clock in the church tower tolled eleven, the processional began.
REGULAR TIME
Hermione, Ron and Harry had already visited Zonko's and Honeyduke's and as the clock in the church tower tolled eleven, they approached the bridge that spanned the river that wound through town. They leaned on the low wall that lined the bridge and looked out into the water, digging through their candy bags.
Harry reached into his bag of licorice all-the-other-sorts, pulled out a chunk of licorice brittle, and bit into it.
"My father," Harry heard the drawling voice of Draco behind him, projecting just a little louder than usual, "sacked his butler this week."
Hermione leaned towards Harry and asked in a completely normal tone, "Can I have a bite of your licorice brittle?"
"Sure." Harry handed the piece of brittle to her and watched as she bit some off.
"After all," Draco was nearly yelling by now, "Dobby was a better butler than that *squib* he'd hired."
"That was good." Hermione said nonchalantly. "I should have picked some of that up while I was there."
"We could always go back and get some." Ron offered.
Harry could almost hear Draco fuming silently behind them. Then, with an audible sniff, the Slytherin turned and left, the heavy footsteps of his two bodyguards following him off the bridge.
The trio silently grinned at each other.
PARALLEL TIME
The processional had ended, and the Weasleys and the faculty of Hogwarts gave their blessing to the union of William Weasley and Severus Snape. Bill and Severus had joined hands, and were gazing lovingly at each other when suddenly Harry realized how he could convince his timelines' Draco to believe his story that Lucius was lying to him about his position in the Death Eaters.
He nudged Draco. "I've got it. A pensieve." He whispered.
Draco looked down at him.
"You can't lie in a pensieve. Draco'll have to believe me."
Draco's eyes lit up and he nodded. "That just might work." He mouthed silently as the world around Harry suddenly faded to black.
=============
A/N: I say that Snape's and Bill's wedding robes were "pseudo"-Chinese, because white is a traditional funeral color in China. The traditional wedding color is red, but I just couldn't see putting Bill and Snape in red. Particularly not with Bill's coloring. ;-)
Also, the matching white robes thing was in part inspired by my high school home ec teacher, who once lamented that women traditionally wear white (to symbolize virginity) while men traditionally wear black (the color of mourning) in the U.S. Now, I'm not saying that either Snape or Bill are virgins, necessarily, but since not many brides who marry in white are nowadays either . . .
And I don't know if you can lie in a pensieve, but it makes sense to me that if you use it to examine your own memories, you wouldn't want to be able to lie in it, so they'd be made so that you can't.
By: PepperjackCandy
Rating: PG13
Disclaimer: You recognize it? It's J.K. Rowling's. Eleanor Weasley is my creation.
Warning: Slash ahead. If the idea of boys snogging and/or talking about romance with boys offends you, turn back now, before it's too late. And more than just mentions of same-sex marriage in this one, 'cause it's same-sex wedding time!
=============
PARALLEL TIME
The Snape/Weasley wedding party had stayed awake until very early into the morning, and Harry and Ron finally returned to the seventh year Gryffindor boys' dorm with only a few hours to sleep.
They had fallen into their beds head-first and had only awakened after Seamus and Dean had allowed Ginny up to annoy them awake.
"Harry . . ." She tickled his ear gently. "Wake up."
She sighed and poked him with her wand. "It's time to get up, Harry." She said in a firmer tone.
Harry was perilously close to the edge of his bed and she pushed him even closer. That did it. Harry's preternatural sense of danger woke him with a start.
"Wha --!" He exclaimed as he sat bolt upright.
"It's time to get dressed for the wedding." She said pointedly as she moved to Ron's bed and repeated her tactics with him. Only this time they didn't work, and Ron fell to the floor with a thud.
"Is he all right?" Harry asked.
Ginny kneeled on the floor at her brother's side and put her ear to his chest. "He's alive."
Suddenly, Harry grinned wickedly. "I've got an idea." He grabbed Ron's right arm and leg, and indicated for Ginny to take his left arm and leg. Together they carried him, still dressed in his nightshirt, into the bathroom, where they placed him in a sitting position against the wall of one of the shower stalls and turned the water on.
"Argh!" Ron yelled, as he began spluttering angrily, water running down his face.
Ginny giggled, and Harry, trying to suppress a smile, directed her out of the bathroom, preparing to take the brunt of his friend's temper himself.
"Harry!" Ron exclaimed, fury in his tone.
"We have to leave for the wedding soon. We tried everything we could to wake you, but it just wasn't working."
Ron collected himself. "Well, at least I've got the shower over with. Now we just have to find out where our dress robes are stashed, and *I'm* ready to go."
With that, Harry bustled off to the bedroom to get his shower supplies.
REGULAR TIME
"Harry Potter. For the last time, *stop* staring at the Slytherin table." Hermione said in her most McGonagall-esque voice.
Harry sighed and turned his attention back to the plain dry white toast in front of him. His appetite was even worse than usual and he hadn't even been able to stomach that. "I feel like my right arm's been amputated." He said morosely. "There's so much I want to do, but I just *can't*."
Hermione sighed. "Looks like I'm going to have to give you those lessons after all."
"In, what was it again?"
"Playing hard-to-get." She said with a wink. "If you pretend that he doesn't matter, it'll drive him batty."
PARALLEL TIME
"Harry!" Ron yelled from the doorway of the boys' dorm as Harry hurriedly scribbled a message on a piece of parchment.
"Just a minute. I'm almost done." Harry responded testily, trying his best not to dribble ink on the dress robe he was wearing. He didn't think that a large black blotch would do anything for the appearance of the jade-green robe he was wearing.
Ron sighed testily.
"Just finishing . . . now." Harry signed his name and after casting a quick drying charm on the note, stuck the piece of parchment under the pillow. I don't know when we'll switch back, but whenever we do, that note'll be waiting for the other Harry.
He stood and together, he and Ron walked down to meet Ginny and Hermione in the Gryffindor common room.
REGULAR TIME
Harry, Ron and Hermione walked to Hogsmeade in companionable silence. Ron was thinking about visiting the Hogsmeade branch of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and seeing how his brothers' latest projects were turning out. Hermione was wondering if she'd be able to find all of the supplies she needed for her term project in Charms. Harry was trying *not* to think of Draco Malfoy.
It's a beautiful autumn day. He burbled inconsequentially into the silence in his mind. The birds are singing, the leaves are falling from the trees, the sun is shining like Draco's eyes when we kiss . . .
Damn. Sigh. I'm on my way to Hogsmeade with my two best friends. Sort of. Close enough, anyway. And we're going to drink butterbeer in the Three Broomsticks, and . . .
Harry's thoughts continued on in this vein for quite some time, until a very unfamiliar familiar voice broke into his thoughts.
"Hey, Potty."
"Heh. Potty. Good one, Malfoy."
"Shut. Up. Goyle."
"Oh. Sorry Malfoy."
As they'd discussed earlier, the three friends continued walking, pretending that they didn't hear a word of Draco and Goyle's exchange.
"What's the matter, Weasel? Cat got your tongue?"
Silence.
"How about you, Granger? Certainly a know-it-all mudblood like you's got something to say."
Harry held his breath, hoping that Ron wouldn't rise to the bait. Then he let his breath out slowly as he realized that Ron was counting to one hundred under his breath, as they'd agreed, to keep his temper in check.
Draco moved into Harry's line of vision, then, and he saw the blond Slytherin nod at his two goons, who sped up and stuck a leg between Hermione's and Ron's legs, attempting to trip them. The two Gryffindors neatly adjusted their gait to compensate and kept walking. Harry silently blessed Hermione's impulse that caused her to suggest that they cast stabilis charms on themselves against just this sort of thing.
Draco sighed petulantly. "This is no fun. Let's get moving, then."
Draco, Crabbe and Goyle sped up, then, leaving Harry, Ron and Hermione far behind.
PARALLEL TIME
After the four Gryffindors walked down to the ground floor, they met up with most of the rest of the Weasleys -- Bill, Charlie and Eleanor had spent the night in rooms above the Three Broomsticks -- and Draco. Soon they were joined by Snape and Dumbledore, who carried their dress robes in leather garment bags, and the party climbed into Hagrid's horseless carriages and set off for Hogsmeade.
Once they'd arrived at the Hogsmeade village church, Snape and Dumbledore retired into a room to put on their dress robes. When they emerged, Harry was stunned by the Potions Master's appearance. He was wearing a pseudo-Chinese styled robe in a soft white color with a Mandarin collar and wide bell-shaped sleeves. He gave Harry and Draco a warm smile as he walked up to them. "Since you're my best man," he said to Draco, "it's your job to hang onto this for me." He held out a gold ring that glinted in the light coming in through the windows.
Draco took it proudly, then as Snape went to speak with Dumbledore about something, his expression changed to one of slight confusion as he weighed the ring in his hand.
"Put it on your little finger?" Harry suggested dubiously.
Draco slipped the ring onto his pinkie, and looked down at it. Then he nodded. "Seems good enough. Just as long as I don't have to do anything too . . . athletic until after the exchange of rings." He winked at Harry, and made Harry blush.
As they stood in the entryway to the sanctuary, students, faculty, and assorted others whose red hair marked them as Weasleys, filed between them into the sanctuary, where the students and faculty sat on Snape's side, and the Weasleys sat on Bill's.
Eventually, Bill and Charlie arrived, Charlie wearing a robe that matched Draco's - a more ornate robe from the same jade green cloth as the rest of the attendants', and Bill wore a robe identical in every way to Snape's.
Makes sense, Harry thought, with no 'bride' and 'groom,' they probably *should* wear the same thing.
Then, as the clock in the church tower tolled eleven, the processional began.
REGULAR TIME
Hermione, Ron and Harry had already visited Zonko's and Honeyduke's and as the clock in the church tower tolled eleven, they approached the bridge that spanned the river that wound through town. They leaned on the low wall that lined the bridge and looked out into the water, digging through their candy bags.
Harry reached into his bag of licorice all-the-other-sorts, pulled out a chunk of licorice brittle, and bit into it.
"My father," Harry heard the drawling voice of Draco behind him, projecting just a little louder than usual, "sacked his butler this week."
Hermione leaned towards Harry and asked in a completely normal tone, "Can I have a bite of your licorice brittle?"
"Sure." Harry handed the piece of brittle to her and watched as she bit some off.
"After all," Draco was nearly yelling by now, "Dobby was a better butler than that *squib* he'd hired."
"That was good." Hermione said nonchalantly. "I should have picked some of that up while I was there."
"We could always go back and get some." Ron offered.
Harry could almost hear Draco fuming silently behind them. Then, with an audible sniff, the Slytherin turned and left, the heavy footsteps of his two bodyguards following him off the bridge.
The trio silently grinned at each other.
PARALLEL TIME
The processional had ended, and the Weasleys and the faculty of Hogwarts gave their blessing to the union of William Weasley and Severus Snape. Bill and Severus had joined hands, and were gazing lovingly at each other when suddenly Harry realized how he could convince his timelines' Draco to believe his story that Lucius was lying to him about his position in the Death Eaters.
He nudged Draco. "I've got it. A pensieve." He whispered.
Draco looked down at him.
"You can't lie in a pensieve. Draco'll have to believe me."
Draco's eyes lit up and he nodded. "That just might work." He mouthed silently as the world around Harry suddenly faded to black.
=============
A/N: I say that Snape's and Bill's wedding robes were "pseudo"-Chinese, because white is a traditional funeral color in China. The traditional wedding color is red, but I just couldn't see putting Bill and Snape in red. Particularly not with Bill's coloring. ;-)
Also, the matching white robes thing was in part inspired by my high school home ec teacher, who once lamented that women traditionally wear white (to symbolize virginity) while men traditionally wear black (the color of mourning) in the U.S. Now, I'm not saying that either Snape or Bill are virgins, necessarily, but since not many brides who marry in white are nowadays either . . .
And I don't know if you can lie in a pensieve, but it makes sense to me that if you use it to examine your own memories, you wouldn't want to be able to lie in it, so they'd be made so that you can't.