"I cannot believe he was standing behind us and listening," said Ginny as she watched herself in the mirror. "Doesn't he know anything about privacy?"
"Well, we were gossiping about him, but I suppose it was still rude," Hermione replied thoughtfully. "Do you think I should try to do something with my hair or just leave it the way it is?"
Girls were allowed in the boys' dorms (though not vice versa) so Hermione and Ginny were visiting Harry and Ron. It was Sunday evening and they were looking in the full-length mirror, trying to decide whether they should bother to dress up for the wedding or not.
"Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil are dressing up," Ginny told her.
"Well, it can't be because they support Snape," said Harry from his bed. "They probably just want a reason to put on a pretty dress."
"And plenty of students, including me, are glad to have the first day of term off!" Ron said gleefully. "I mean, I don't want to go to that stupid wedding tomorrow, but it's better than double Potions or something like that!"
"I'm probably just going to go in my school uniform," Hermione resolved. "Ginny?"
"I will too," Ginny agreed. "I'm probably going to go to bed though. We can't be sleepy for the wedding."
"Good idea," said Hermione. They said their goodnights to Harry and Ron, and left the dorm room.
"You know, the only reason I'm really going is the food," said Ron. "Otherwise I'd probably find a way to skive off."
"We should bring some of it to Sirius, though," Harry reminded him. "If he's living on rats, cake should taste pretty good. There are probably cookies and candy too. But meat is what fills you up."
"They'll have all of that at the wedding," said Ron. "Write him to let him know you're coming, though, at least. Besides, I'm sure he'll get a laugh out of the Snape situation."
Harry nodded and got a fresh piece of parchment, then he and Ron composed a letter to Sirius:
Dear Sirius:
Good news! You won't have to be living on rats for a while now. There's a wedding at our school tomorrow at 3 pm, and they're going to have a ton of refreshments—that's the only reason Ron is going. But you'll never believe who's getting married—Snape! The bride is Professor Lucy Marsh, our new History of Magic teacher. She used to be a good teacher, but she got real boring after Snape did whatever he did to her.
We think he slipped her a Love Potion, but that's only because he's the Potions Master. Ron thinks he's got her under the Imperius Curse; do you think he would do that? Hermione said that if he really loved her, he wouldn't do that, but I don't know. Dumbledore seems to think Professor Marsh's love is real, though, since he was the one who set up their wedding. Pretty much none of the students believe this, because you don't go from being disgusted by someone one day to being obsessed with them the next—and she is OBSESSED. It's pretty scary. She even bumps into stuff when she talks about him, and she gets mad and cries a lot. Snape must be constantly feeding her Love Potions, because it doesn't seem to be wearing off—she's been in "love" with him since the start of Christmas Break. Snape is always giving points to Ravenclaw, because that's her alma mater.
I know you'd probably think it was hilarious to watch Snape louse his wedding up, which he probably will, but it's safer for you to stay hidden. We'll bring the wedding food for you after school on Tuesday.
Sincerely, Harry
After he finished writing his letter, Harry summoned Hedwig. The snowy white owl took the letter to deliver to Sirius; Harry and Ron got in bed. They weren't looking forward to watching Snape kiss Lucy at the altar, but some cake did sound quite good.