Hmm. I'm sorry I've not updated, I've just had hell these last three weeks. But the formal was AMAZING!
Enjoy! :)
Chapter Ten
Five hours of sitting in changing rooms whilst Ginny tried on the entire stock of wedding dresses was not Hermione's idea of 'fun'. Nor Mrs Weasley's by the sounds of it.
"Ginevra Molly Wealsey, this is the seventeenth dress you have tried on today, for the love of Merlin please pick one so I can get to the other girls!" Came Mrs Weasley's shrill voice from the far side of the changing room. Her frustration at her daughter's fussiness had finally tipped and she had been verging on the edge of a rant for quite some time.
"Bloody hell Mum! I've already made up my mind, I want this one," The witch said decisively as she emerged from the small changing cubicle, presenting her chosen dress to her fellow bridesmaids and mother, causing the quiet chatter amongst the women to stop.
No other word came to Hermione's mind other than stunning. The dress was so perfect for Ginny it was almost as if it had been made specifically for her. Ivory, rather than the traditional white dresses that Ginny had been trying on, it complemented her pale skin beautifully, as well as softening the fiery redness of her hair, yet in contradiction, allowing it to subtly stand out at the same time.
Sleeveless floral lace covered a strapless under dress, the scoop neck-line low enough to skim her collarbones yet covering her modesty. When she twirled slowly on the spot, the back of the dress was the complete opposite, a long V-shaped drop that ended at her lower back, with a slightly darker cream coloured sash tied around the waist. The dress was fitted gently to her hips and ran down until mid thigh, where it gently flared out to give a tear drop train.
"Oh Ginny.." Molly said softly, her voice catching in her through as her tears finally broke free. "Oh Ginny.." She said again, seemingly stuck for words as she ruffled in her pockets for a tissue before Fleur handed one to her. "Oh my dear Ginny, you look beautiful.. so so beautiful.." She managed to choke out before fully succumbing to a flood of tears, which resulted in her almost collapsing into her daughter in-law's arms as Fleur went to comfort her mother in-law.
"She eez right, Ginny. You look pozzitively mezmerising! 'Arry will not take 'is eyes off you!" Fleur admired genuinely, a beaming smile on her lips. She and Ginny had grown an awful lot closer in the past year, having bonded over Teddy Lupin. Until then, no one had realised the extent of Fleur's maternal side, and she had helped Ginny a lot with the baby. Ginny beamed back at French girl, wiping her eye as a tear spilled over.
"We could charm the ribbon so it matched Harry's eyes, if you wanted?" Luna said softly, searching for her wand in her handbag, when it was in fact sticking out from the bun she had tied at the top of her head, earning a fond smile from everyone in the room. "Oh, here it is," She exclaimed when she finally found it, muttering to herself about how forgetful she had become. "Now, let's see.." She said, closing her eyes in concentration, "Umbra permuto!" She charmed, causing the soft cream colour to change into the same shade of green that Harry's eyes held. "There! What do you think?" She asked, a dreamy look filling her eyes.
"Merlin, Luna it's perfect, now this is exactly the dress I want!" Ginny exclaimed as she caught sight of herself in the floor-length mirror. "Now we just need to find you lot the perfect dresses!" She turned around again to face everyone, an excited yet somewhat manic smile gracing her lips.
Another three hours later, and they had finally narrowed it down to three. "Hmm, I want this one but you see it isn't the exact same shade.." Hermione rolled her eyes, smiling fondly at her best friend, wishing she was at home with Fred. Her mind drifted back to the lunch date they had had the day before, his scent and laugh enveloping her senses, wishing Ginny would hurry up and make her decision.
"There we are Marcus my dear mate, that's eight Galleons, Twelve sickles and twenty four Knuts altogether please." Fred said cheerfully as he parcelled up the boy's purchases, watching him count out his money. It always made him cheerful when Marcus visited; the cheeky Irish lad saved his money for a couple of months at a time and when he came into the shop he almost cleared their available stock of several products. It wasn't the money that Fred was elated to see, it was the sheer joy and enthusiasm and awe that radiated from the boy's face every time he looked around him that spurred the twins on.
"Ah here we go Fred," He said, pushing the small pile towards the older red-head, "Really liking the improvements on the Bat-wing Bites by the way, they taste so much better than last time!" He added, pointing to the small dish beside him as the remnants of the bat-wings he sprouted ten minutes ago disappeared. "Did you add more liquorice, or did I detect a trace of Muggle cough syrup?" He asked keenly, almost bouncing in his eagerness.
"A touch of both, I believe. George tweaked the final touches last week actually, I hope you put them to good use!" Fred said as reached below the counter and brought a purple and black box with a red-headed bat motif on it up, placing on top of the already teaming stack of goods in the boy's arms. "Until next time, my dear customer!" He bid the boy farewell, bowing deeply.
"Cheers Fred! I'll see you before school, get stocked up before going back to Hogwarts.." His voice was drowned out by George, who had come sprinting up from the store room below the shop floor and was shouting for Fred.
"Freddie! Fred! Come here, quickly!" He exclaimed, panting as he turned on his heels and raced back down the stairs, his twin following.
They had magically expanded their storeroom below the shop so that it stretched for quite some distance, allowing them to stock up for months ahead. Fred ran after his twin who was sprinting towards the back of the room, catching snippets of his shouted conversation. Something about the toilet.
"George..What.. In Merl.. Merlin's name.. is wrong?" He panted when he finally caught up. Or rather, when his twin finally stopped running. They had reached the very end of the storeroom, and were both leaning against the brick wall trying to catch a breath.
A sloshing sound could be heard coming from the toilet that was a few meters down from them, a puddle quickly building around the door. "George?" Fred asked again once he regained his breath.
"There's a Niffler in there. Two maybe. Must have dug their way up. I told you having a bloody gold toilet would cause problems." He replied, staring cautiously at the toilet door.
"Bloody hell." Fred paled, taking a step back. "I'll get Hermione."
"Right everyone, the rota is now sorted for this month. We have another new appointment to attend to, not that we needed it, but I've managed to fit it in so that a different person attends every week. Right, so if Melanie, you are supposed to be in Muggle London this morning with the rest of the team, but unfortunately the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad have had to be called out and so I've had to switch you and Phineas, since he's training with them also, so I'm afraid you have to go to Azkaban this morning. Don't worry though, you will be partnered with Peter, I'm sure he will make sure no prisoners attempt to jump out at you this time. Rest assured you haven't been timetabled to go there again until next month at least.." Hermione explained apologetically, taking a breath for the first time since she began her speech.
"So then Angus, you'll be with.."
"Miss Granger? Miss Granger, you have been requested immediatley to aid with a removal!" Timmy half shouted as he burst into the staff correspondence room, "Quickly Miss Granger!" He spoke again as she looked at him in shock.
Timmy was never like this. He was calm and controlled at all times, which was partly why Hermione had decided to hire him in the first place. "Hermione! Fred sounded extremely panicked on the Floo!" He shouted again, hoping the mention of her fiancee would spur her on.
And so it did, for she was out the door and through the Floo in a matter of seconds, only stopping to ask Timmy where Fred was.
"Oi Hermione! Thank Merlin you're here!" The twins shouted in unison as they saw her emerge from the floo, as they hid behind an over turned table, as though protecting themselves from an attack.
"What's the matter? Who's in there?" She asked quickly, hearing the chaos from behind the door to her right. "Do I need to call Harry and Ron?" She asked before they could answer her first question, extracting her wand from her robe pocket.
"Nifflers. Two of them. Possibly." George muttered as he gripped the table, blood racing from his face as he heard them scratch around the door.
Soon though, the scratching was blocked out and the blood raced to the twins ears as they heard Hermione dissolve into a fit of giggles, clutching at her sides as she tried to stop.
"Oi! It's not funny!" Fred shouted as he caught side of the tears of mirth trailing down her face. "They're blood menaces!"
"They're Nifflers!" She finally managed to chocked out once she managed to control her giggles, "You are actually scared of Nifflers? Merlin I'd never thought I'd see the day, two war heroes cowering away from Nifflers!" She exclaimed in delight as she walked over to the bathroom, conjuring a large cage on her way and a roll of Muggle tin-foil. She knelt on the floor, still laughing to herself as she tore up strips of the shiny foil, layering them inside the cage before placing it beside the door. "Brace yourselves boys, they might attack you!" She teased mirthfully, trying extremely hard not to laugh.
She opened the door and caught sight of the small, black creatures. They turned their heads to see the new source of distraction and almost immediatley they raced for the cage, causing the twins to duck down behind their make-shift shield. Attracted by the shiny material within the cage, they managed to fall for Hermione's trap and a few seconds later they were enclosed and sent off, carried by two owls to Hagrid who would take care of them.
Dusting off her hands, Hermione turned around and faced the men behind her. As if she could call them men, catching sight of them clinging to each other with their eyes squeezed shut. "Alright boys, I caught them and sent them to Hagrid, they should be looked aft.. Why do you have a gold toilet?! Are you really that pretentious that you can only do your business on a golden loo?!" She exclaimed in amazement.
"We thought we would treat ourselves." George huffed, somewhat put out with Hermione for laughing at them. They didn't laugh at her fear of heights. Though her fear could actually be classed as rational.
"So, Nifflers then? That's what has the infallible Weasley twins shivering behind a table?" She asked as she sat down beside them, taking Fred's hand in her own, the latter somewhat reluctant as he too was huffing.
"We'll have you know Granger, that we were in a life or death situation with a pair of Nifflers when we were younger and not as wise as we are now." George snapped, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Really?" She asked, sounding genuinely interested as she squeezed Fred's hand, showing her sincerity.
"Yes, as a matter of fact we were, isn't that right Fred?" He asked, nudging his brother in the ribs, daring him to disagree.
"Oh yes, George. I'll never forget it. I'm even scared for life, and all you can do is laugh Granger." Fred said, pouting at the woman beside him.
"There we were, just two innocent eight year olds," George started, earning a derisive snort from Hermione upon her hearing the word 'innocent', in turn earning her a glare. "As I said, two eight year olds having had discovered Auntie Muriel's gold collection. So I dared Freddie here to put on a ton of necklaces and bracelets and pretend to be Auntie Muriel, and he dared me back, only I had to pretend to be Celestina Warbeck. So then, right in the middle of Beat Back Those Bludgers, as we donned our finery, up popped two Nifflers and we were attacked. Freddie got a nasty scratch on the neck, bled for hours it did."
"Mum went mental, started shouting about how stupid we were, and how dare we impersonate Celestina Warbeck, of all people!" Fred mock gasped, causing Hermione to giggle as she scanned his neck for this scar. "George though, he had it way worse. Auntie Muriel had a gold belt, though the old bat's backside is so big it kept slipping down and covering George's arse. So then when the Niffler caught sight of it, the belt that is, it bite Georgie on the arse, left him with a scar too.." He said, a solemn look covering his face.
"Yeah, wanna see Granger?" George asked teasingly, standing up and pretending to undo his jeans button.
"NO!" Fred and Hermione yelled at the same time, Fred's hand lifting to cover her eyes. "Don't ruin my fiancee George! Not until we're actually married! Just because Angelina is happy to look at your arse doesn't mean Hermione is! Or me for that matter.." He trailed off as the laughter bubbled up his throat.
As Fred and George playfully teased each other, Hermione looked at her watch. She had ought to get back to work, before Grant realised she was missing. But she caught sight of her fiancee looking at her with those adoring eyes, his aftershave luring her close to him.
She guessed it was time for her lunch-break.
Hope you like, please review! :)