" 'Arry! Eet 'as been too long!"
Fleur's small voice filled the room, bouncing off the walls and into Harry's ears. He desperately tried to fight off the blush that was spreading across his cheeks as she reached down to kiss reddening face.
"Er, yeah. Too long." He half-heartedly agreed. Fleur smiled down at him indulgently, staring at him for a moment before turning her attention to Ron.
"Rrronald! 'Ow are you?"
"Fine, thanks Fleur."
Bill stood next to Fleur, holding her hand with a strange expression on his face. They had come to visit, making preparations for the upcoming wedding. He had stood by with an amused expression etched across his features as his fiancé greeted the Weasley family (plus a few) with a delighted flurry of hugs and kisses.
Remus stood, holding Tonks' hand and greeting the Weasleys cheerfully. Harry spotted him, and walked over genially.
"Remus! How are you?" Harry asked. The werewolf replied with a warm smile before answering.
"I'm well, Harry. Got some useful information for the order about Greyback's whereabouts recently." He said, and Tonks whacked his arm playfully.
"Is that all you think about? Honestly, I'm giving up on you," she said, and turned to Harry. "Wotcher, Harry. How've you been?"
"Not bad, thanks." He had started to say, but Mrs Weasley had noticed Tonks was standing dangerously close to some 17th century china, and called to her. Harry watched her walk towards the redheaded woman before turning to Remus.
"I've got something to tell you." Harry smiled ruefully to himself – it seemed such an inadequate begging to a sentence that would change Remus' life.
"What is it, Harry?" Remus asked, and Harry paused for a moment. How on earth was he going to phrase the fact that one of Remus' best friends was actually alive even though he'd thought her dead for 16 years.
"Well, my mum. She's… turns out, erm, she's… not dead."
"What?"
"Lily… mum… she's not dead. We found her in the Leaky Cauldron just after my birthday." There was a moment of silence.
"I don't know what kind of trick your trying to play on me, Harry, but let me tell you… it's not funny. It's not funny at all."
"Remus, don't forget. This is my mother we're talking about - my mother and one of your best friends. Why would I joke about something like this?" Remus considered it for a moment, his face angrily reddening.
"I don't know. I don't know, but it's not funny, and it's childish, Harry. So just stop it."
"But Remus-"
"Just stop it Harry!"
"Go upstairs. Come upstairs and I'll show you!" Remus paused.
"You're not joking about this?"
"No! Just come upstairs with me!"
Harry stormed off towards the direction of the staircase with Remus pursuing him reluctantly. The werewolf marched angrily up the stairs after Harry, and when Harry reached the door of his mothers bedroom, he knocked loudly.
"Mum!" Remus jumped backwards when a female voice came from the other side of the door.
"What?"
"Can you open the door, please?"
"I don't really want to see anyone right now, okay?"
"Remus is here." Harry said, dropping the bombshell. He could hear Lily pausing.
"Remus? Remus Lupin? Moony, is that you?" Lupin looked absolutely shocked. He swallowed, and Harry could see his eyes glistening.
"Lily? Lily… is that… is that really you? How can it be? Why aren't you… why are you here?" Remus said, wildly stressing the beginning of his sentences. A tear wasrunning freely down his face now. Harry stood up, clearing his throat embaressedly.
"I think I'll go back down to the party." He said loudly. Remus didn't seem to hear him.
Back down in the kitchen, Harry spotted Bill and strolled over to shake his hand. He was surprised at how well Bill's wounds had cleaned up from his encounter with the werewolf Greyback. There were still nasty looking scars across his face, but they had paled remarkably quickly, and with the added help of magic Bill's scars would obviously heal well.
"So, Bill," Harry asked. "When's the wedding actually happening?"
Bill grinned as he answered.
"Next week." Harry smiled hesitantly. A week?
"Wow. That's… next week, huh?" Harry asked, and Bill laughed.
"We wanted to have the wedding before you guys went back to Hogwarts." Bill said, and Harry found himself looking away guiltily. Neither he, Ron, Hermione nor Ginny had yet found the courage to tell the Weasley's that their youngest son and only daughter would not be returning to school.
"Er, yeah." Harry said, clearing his throat. The two wizards looked around uncertainly, searching for a new conversation starter. Harry was suddenly struck with curiosity. "So, what's a wizard wedding like?" he asked.
"Not that different to Muggle weddings, actually. Guests, a ministry official, flowers, bride, groom, exploding Imps, that sort of thing." Bill told him. Harry, who had been in the middle of taking a large gulp of his butterbeer, choked.
"What? Exploding… Imps…" he spluttered, and took a moment to recover before looking up at Bill again. "You can't be serious."
"It's a time-honoured tradition. The groom conjures up some magical Imps, and the guests all explode them. It's like a gift to the couple – triumph over adversity, you know the drill." Bill said, deadpan.
"And, erm… does everyone have to explode one?" Harry asked. Bill grinned.
"Feeling a bit squeamish, Harry?" he asked, grinning. Harry saw a lull in the conversation and took it as an opportunity to move away from Bill politely and into the (moderate) quiet and safety of the entrance hall. As he walked up the stairs, he passed a grinning Remus, who nodded at Harry as he walked by, and Harry grinned back at him.
As Harry turned a corner into his bedroom, he heard a strange noise coming from the opposite room – Lily's room. It wasn't offensive at all, in fact he could barely hear it, but it was definitely there, a distant gasping sound. He crossed the threshold and swung open the door to his mother's room – and found her, sitting on her bed, her head in her delicate hands.
"Mum?" He said. Lily gave a start and looked up, embarrassedly wiping away the tears that made patterns across her cheeks.
"Hey, Harry," She said dejectedly. "Having fun?" Harry's eyes filled with concern.
"What's the matter?"
"Nothing's the matter, sweetheart. Go back downstairs."
"Mum, I saw you crying. Obviously, something is the matter." Harry paused for a moment, wondering if he was pushing too hard. "Tell me." It wasn't a question. Lily sighed before answering.
"Remus reminded me so much of James. They are… were… so alike. It was Remus' idea for James to propose the way he did… has anyone eve tell you how James asked me to marry him?" She said, laughing through her obviously melancholy mood. Harry shook his head, amused. "We had just left Hogwarts – we were on the train – and he pulled me aside and told me something ridiculous. I guessed straight away that he was distracting me from something, you could always tell with James. No matter how good he was a getting away with something, no matter how intelligent he was, he was an absolutely shocking liar." Harry laughed.
"So, he distracted you?"
"Mm-hmm. He did. Sirius came into the compartment and winked at him, and James got up and steered me into the next compartment along. He had bewitched his Exploding Snap sets to fly to the ceiling and go off at regular intervals. The effect looked a lot like fireworks."
"And he proposed?" Lily nodded at her son.
"And I told him to ask me again later! I said: 'No, you can't propose now! Ask me when my feet are on solid ground.'" Lily's laugh was a tinkering one; it was gentle, but it also filled the room like a shout would. Harry hesitated for a moment.
"You really loved him, didn't you?"
"More than anything. Until you were born, James was the only thing that made my life worth living. I had Remus and Sirius and Peter, of course, but James was different."
"He was the one you'd die for." Lily nodded, and then smiled.
"Sounds like you know a bit about it." She said, and Harry's face reddened slightly.
"So, I'm not ready to go downstairs and be happy for the couple yet. They just… they bring back memories. For Muggles, marrying someone is different. You can divorce your husband, or wife, if you want. It doesn't matter. But for us, for witches and wizards, marriage is about a truly eternal bond with someone. Sixteen years, and I'm not ready to give that up yet."
Unsure of what to respond to that with, Harry just smiled.
---
The following week was, needless to say, a hectic one. Various people from the Order were coming and going non-stop: Moody even popped in once or twice to congratulate Bill and Fleur. Ginny was constantly being dragged off by Fleur to some wedding shop or another (Oh, no, ze coleur eez not quite right!), which she constantly complained about, but Ginny had, at least, stopped referring to Fleur as 'Phlegm' in front of Mrs Weasley.
Harry's concern about how he was going to explode an imp come the wedding day increased over the course of the week, and mentioned his worry to Fred and George. His qualm, however, was met with identical evil grins.
"You actually believed him?" Harry had heard the disbelieving question through the wall of laughing and snorting, and resolved never to trust anything anyone from the Weasley family ever said to him again. Barring, perhaps, Ginny.
The night before the wedding found Harry fast asleep as 7 o'clock – he was completely exhausted, and didn't wake up until 11 o'clock the following morning, when he was dumped rather unceremoniously from the comfort of his bed and onto the floor by a harassed looking Ron.
"Oh, mate. Good, you're up. Have you seen my dress robes? I swear to Merlin I left them hanging on my door last night."
"Good morning to you too, Ron."
"Oh, shut up. Just hurry and get dressed, mum's having a fit downstairs and Dad's set the eggs on fire again, we need you to come and help with the damage control. And where are my robes?" Ron stopped for a moment, and took a second to give Harry a lopsided grin.
"What're you doing on the floor?" The redheaded boy asked, and Harry rolled his eyes.
"I'm getting up. Your robes are in the cupboard."
"Great, thanks," Ron said, and ran to the cupboard door, wrenching it open and yanking out the frilly robes that hung within. "I don't even know why I bother." He muttered faintly, and disappeared out of the room. Harry sighed, and shifted his body weight so that he was resting on his elbows before hoisting himself up to his knees and standing.
He dressed quickly, and ran down the stairs into the kitchen. Luckily Mr Weasley had managed to put the fire out, but the eggs were looking rather worse for wear.
"Here, Mr Weasley, why don't you let me -?" Harry began, but he was interrupted by a flurry of movement in front of him. A shock of violently red hair rushed into his line of sight.
"Oh, Harry. Good, you're up. Could you take these to Lily?" Mrs Weasley had suddenly appeared in front of Harry's face, dropping a pile of robes into his hands. "Fleur needs me over at her flat, I'll probably be there for a while." She told her husband with a darkening face, before forcefully clearing her expression into a smile and Disapparated with a 'pop'.
Harry smiled obligingly at Mr Weasley, and shrugged as he ascended the staircase that led to his mother's room. He waited at the door for a moment, then knocked. A shout of affirmation sounded from inside the room, and Harry let himself in. Lily was standing in the middle, looking at her reflection in the mirror.
"Oh, Harry. Good, you're up. Listen, I don't think I'm gonna go today."
"What? You can't not go! Bill and Fleur, they-"
"Haven't even met me," Lily said, finishing Harry's sentence. "I don't think they'd be too crushed."
"But I want you there!" Harry said. He was honestly dumbfounded – Where the hell was this coming from?
"I'm sorry, Harry, but I'm not ready to. I'm just not. I'm afraid of what I might do when I'm there – wouldn't it be horrible if they were in the middle of exploding their Imps and-"
"You mean that actually happens? Bloody Fred and George!" Then, off her look, Harry continued, "Sorry, sorry. Go on."
"Wouldn't it be horrible if I just broke down in the middle. I don't want to be immortalised as the person that wrecked their wedding."
"Don't be ridiculous! Of course you won't."
"Look, Harry, I've made up my mind. I'm staying here. But you go! Have fun. Just..." Lily paused. "Promise me you'll dance with Ginny, won't you?" Harry rolled his eyes.
Harry made his way from Lily's room to go and deliver the bad news to Mr Weasley. On his way to the kitchen, he passed Ginny.
"Oh, Harry. Good, you're-"
"Don't tell me you're glad I'm up, for the love of Merlin. What, is this a bloody conspiracy or something? Did everyone get together and say 'ooh, wouldn't it be funny if we all said exactly the same thing to Harry tomorrow?"
"Huh?"
"I know I've been sleeping for a while, but-"
"For pity's sake, Harry. There's no conspiracy. Leave that to the people that are actually out to get you!" Hmm. She had a point.
"Right, right. Sorry. You were saying?"
"Mum's back from Phlegm's and says we need to go, right now. We'll summon our clothes when we get there." And with that, Ginny sped off down the stairs, leaving Harry standing alone and very confused. With a shrug, he followed her downstairs and out of the front door, where Mrs Weasley was counting off her children.
"Lily? Where's she gone?" Mrs Weasley's eyes bulged when Harry told her why his mother was hiding out in a bedroom. 'Oh, for Merlin's sake… ah, well… the cat's among the pixies now anyway, there's nothing much more that we can do."
When everyone else had been accounted for, Mr Weasley gestured frantically towards one of the cars parked on the opposite side of the road and Harry suddenly found himself a participant in a race to get to the magical vehicle.
Everyone settled himself or herself inside the car reasonably comfortably, to Harry's great surprise. Even with magic, it had seemed a little improbable that they were going to fit Mr Weasley, Mrs Weasley, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, George, Fred, Percy, Bill, Charlie, Tonks, Remus, three owls (Hedwig, Hermes and Pig) and Crookshanks into the one car.
The car sped off down the road, dodging on-coming traffic and swerving around slower cars on the road. As it approached the church, the car slowed down and jerked to a halt, stopping right outside the main doors. The Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, Tonks, Remus and the animals forced their way out of the car, stumbling over each others legs and causing the owls to screech and for Crookshanks to claw his way rather painfully up Fred's leg.
Having appeased and properly calmed all animals, the group turned and walked to the church, chattering nervously in small, frantic bursts of conversation. Once inside, Mrs Weasley, Hermione, Ginny and Tonks sped off to the right while the men in the group turned to the left and into dark, dank change rooms.
"Just summon your clothes here, we don't have much time!" Mr Weasley called from the other side of Harry's changing room door. Thinking hard, he reached for his wand and pictured the bottle green robes clearly.
"Accio dress robes." He said, with a tone of ambiguity. But, sure enough, the robes came flying over the top of the small room's door and he scrambled to put them on over his jeans and t-shirt.
He sighed. It was proving to be a very long day.
---
"Do you vow to uphold the values and traditions that are attached to the eternal bond you are about to be imparted with?"
"We do." Harry let out a suppressed grin as Fleur and Bill had their first kiss as a married couple. The ceremony, as it had turned out, did not include exploding any kind of animal, nor was it at all tedious. It did turn out to be a lot like a Muggle wedding, however, and Harry noted curiously that Ginny's eyes filled with tears when the couple had read their vows.
Harry was much reminded of the Yule Ball of his fourth year when he stepped into the room of the reception. Flocks of women travelled together, casting their eyes around the room in the hope that they might attract the attention of a single man. Several couples swayed together on the dance floor, stepping rhythmically to the music. Harry swallowed nervously. Dancing wasn't exactly one of his talents.
He was sitting at a table, by himself, when he was approached by a familiar looking redhead.
"Hey, you. Why are you not dancing?" Ginny asked, poking Harry playfully in the chest.
"I'm not big into dancing."
"Yeah?" She let out a sigh of indifference. "Me neither. It's been a great wedding, though, hasn't it? I'll be sorry when it's all over."
"What? Why?"
"Because it means I'll have to say goodbye to Bill. He's a good brother – doesn't talk too much, but he listens. He'll be good with kids, too, I'd wager. That is, if Phlegm lets him near them at all." Harry laughed good-naturedly with Ginny.
"Our letters'll be coming soon. Are you… are you gonna tell your mum? About not going back, I mean?" Harry asked. He noticed straight away that the air between them had suddenly changed.
"I know that I've got to tell her soon. I can't let her buy all my books and things, and then have me off to Merlin-knows-where. I'm worried about her, though. Bill leaving, Charlie off in Romania, Percy gone, Ron going and then me too?"
"You wanted to come, Gin. You've got to tell her soon."
"I know," she said. Harry looked at her downfallen expression, wishing that he could help her. Suddenly, she smiled sheepishly. "She'll kill me if I don't dance, you know."
"Got to do something about that, then."
"Mm. Definitely." Ginny replied, and looked up to Harry as he gently took her hand and led her to the dance floor. He had barely got a proper grip on Ginny's waist before Remus came flying down room and started yelling his name.
"Remus, what's going on, what's the matter?"
"Harry," The werewolf swallowed nervously before lowering his voice to a whispering. "It's Lily. She's missing."
A/N: Ah-HA! Due to my lack of update, I felt the need for an extremely long chapter with many an interesting bit in it. As well as a tremedously evil cliffie... please update, tell me what you think! Oh, and thanks to Flick and Jerr for their inspiring proposal story. Again, sorry for the long wait!
