Chapter 28

Andromeda walked up behind Hermione and gently rested her hands on the younger witch's shoulders as they both regarded her reflection in the mirror.

"Cissy, could you give us a moment?"Andromeda asked the blonde witch who was busying herself straightening Hermione's gown to perfection.

"Of course!" She gave the train one final tug and then with an affectionate squeeze of Hermione's upper arm and a smile, she retreated from the room.

As soon as the door clicked closed Andromeda reached around and took Hermione's hands from where they had been hovering around her abdomen and brought them to her sides. "Nobody is going to be able to tell just by looking at you Hermione, but if you keep doing that everyone will know. Narcissa would surely have figured it out by now if she wasn't so preoccupied making sure everything is perfect."

Hermione took a deep breath. "Are you sure? Draco swears there's a bump."

"Draco is besotted with the idea of this pregnancy, not to mention that he has superhuman senses, but in this case I think he is seeing what he wants to see- proof of his child growing inside of you. But to the rest of us you look no different."

Hermione nodded as she tried to convince herself of the truth of Andromeda's words.

"Now, how are you feeling? I'm sorry your mother isn't here, it should be her with you in this moment, but it is my honor to be the one who is."

Hermione shook her head. "I'm happy you're here, Andromeda. I don't know what I would do without you."

She leaned down and gave Hermione a kiss on the cheek and then smiled at their reflection in the mirror.

"Your mum wasn't at your wedding either," Hermione said softly.

Andromeda chuckled, it was only slightly tinged with bitterness. "That was more of a blessing than anything else."

"It still must have hurt," Hermione whispered.

"It did," she acknowledged with a slight inclination of her head. "It pales in comparison to how much it would have hurt when I was just a girl, and it means almost nothing to me now. But I don't think we ever truly outgrow wanting our parents approval. However, in the end, it was for the best that neither of my parents were present. My choices were beyond their understanding."

Hermione took a deep breath and centered herself. She wouldn't get upset and ruin this day- or worse- make herself all splotchy. "This might make me a terrible person but I feel the same way. I mean, I'd love to have my parents at my wedding but not like this. I'd just be worried about them the whole time. I do hope they come around eventually, maybe with the baby," she shrugged, "but that's just as likely to make things worse. They already think I'm too young to get married."

"I'm sure they had very different plans for your life. And from their perspective the magical world has not been kind to you."

"It's my choice to stay here," she said stubbornly, "I can't just stop being a witch." It was an argument she'd gone around with her parents a million times, it had never budged them. They could not ignore or forget the way she had spelled them during the war without their permission; especially in the face of her decision to marry a man whom she'd continually written to them as being a bully and a bigot. Any discussion of his heritage as a veela was a non starter.

"Of course it is, but it's a choice they apparently need time to get used to," Andromeda said, managing to sound both soothing and forthright.

"Thank you." She reached up to squeeze Andromeda's hands which were once again resting on her shoulders.

Effie popped in and bowed lowly. "My Lady, Mr. Harry Potter is outside with Little Master Teddy, may I show them in?"

Hermione glanced at Andromeda in surprise. It wasn't too much of a shock that Harry had decided to come today, he was scrambling to get back into Ginny's good graces. While she hadn't broken up with him, she had moved into her own flat, and plans for their wedding were on hold. Accompanying her to their wedding would demonstrate that he was at least attempting to address her grievances. But she hadn't expected him to seek her out.

Andromeda just gave a slight shrug. "I don't know what he's doing here, and you certainly shouldn't feel like you have to see him. You don't owe him anything. But if he has Teddy with him he's at least seen Draco and you know that if he didn't think Harry was going to behave himself, he'd have had him thrown out, not allowed him to accompany Teddy to see you."

That was a good point. Hermione huffed out a breath and resisted the urge to tell Effie she didn't have to be so formal. It was a struggle to get her to call her simply "Mistress" on a regular day, and this was not a regular day. It was only Draco's patient explantation of how much it would injure Effie should she object- because serving the Lady Black on her wedding day was apparently considered to be the highest honor of her line- that stopped her from objecting.

"Of course, Effie," she responded simply.

Effie scurried over to the door, opened it and Harry strode in carrying Teddy. The little boy's raven locks were sticking out in all different directions and no matter how many times she'd seen him imitate Harry's unruly head of hair, it never failed to make her laugh. When he caught sight of her Teddy's eyes went wide and one of his little hands went to his mouth in a dramatic fashion.

"NiNi, you look like a fairy!"

She choked back tears. Perhaps the pregnancy hormones were starting to affect her. Or maybe it was just her godson's innocent praise. He said what he thought and she knew for a fact that he didn't think there was anything as beautiful or fascinating as a fairy.

But this little outburst was exactly why they'd decided to let him see her before the ceremony. They hoped it would keep him from wanting to call out to her or even attempt to run to her and disrupt the binding.

She gave Harry a tight smile and held her arms out towards the little boy. "Hello Teddy Bear, would you like to come see me? I have something for you."

Andromeda handed her a miniature boutonniere and Harry put Teddy down. He approached her carefully, with something that looked like awe on his face, his mouth open, eyes wide and excited. She squatted and held one arm out and brought him into a hug, he stroked her arm and then carefully touched her hair which she was wearing down, a wreath of flowers woven into it. Frankly, his gentle behavior was more than she had expected, he usually didn't hesitate to be rather rough and tumble with her. Maybe he really did understand that this occasion was special. She pulled back, smiling at him affectionately, and took out her wand to affix the boutonniere to his robes.

"Now this tells everybody that you're special," she explained.

Teddy nodded in agreement, like that was a foregone conclusion.

Hermione smiled to herself, glancing briefly at Harry and Andromeda who appeared to be equally amused. "I need you to stay with Harry and be a good boy. Draco and I have something to do and it's important that you're quiet, okay?"

He nodded again.

"And after that, you and I are going to dance and eat cake. How does that sound?"

"That sounds fun. I can do that. I'm a big boy." He nodded his head forcefully as he spoke.

"I know you are." She kissed his forehead and carefully stood up and turned her attention to Harry.

"Hello," she said quietly.

He smiled at her but his eyes were sad. "You look really beautiful "Mione."

"Thank you. I have to say, I'm a little surprised to see you here."

He hesitated. "I thought about not coming. But then I realized I was actually thinking of skipping my best friend's wedding." He shook his head and wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Well I'm happy you're here."

"Ron's coming too."

She nodded. "I know, Ginny told me that she threatened him within an inch of his life to assure he'd behave. She also said that she thinks the real reason he's coming is because Lavender would kill him if he made her miss an opportunity to see Malfoy Manor."

Harry nodded, swallowing thickly. "I'm sure that's part of it. But he feels the same way I do, we both miss you."

She looked at him doubtfully and he ran his hand through his hair in a sure sign of discomfort.

"It's been so weird since you quit the Ministry," he continued, "I'm used to seeing you everyday. I'm used to you being there when I need something. But that made me realize that maybe I haven't been a good friend to you."

She just tilted her head, urging him to explain further.

"My workload feels like it's doubled since you've been gone and now I realize I was leaning on you to help me with the tedious stuff even though it wasn't your job. We didn't even work in the same department. I don't know, I just expected you to always be there and when you weren't it occurred to me that I'd been taking you for granted."

She wondered how much of this he had actually concluded on his own and how much he was parroting back things others had told him. Either way, it was still a major change in attitude since the last time they'd talked.

She sighed. "Harry, I'm not sure this is the time."

"No you're right. I just wanted you to know, before the ceremony, that even though you don't need my permission, or even my approval to be with Malfoy that I'm sorry I didn't respect your wishes. And I'm going to be better."

"This doesn't fix everything. You hurt me deeply and frankly I don't trust you right now."

He nodded. "I know."

Something suddenly occurred to her. "Did Draco put you up to this?"

His eyes flew to her's "You think Malfoy is capable of making me do something I don't want to do?"

"No, but I think he's plenty manipulative enough to guilt you into coming and saying this to me now. Because I know you must have at least seen him, Teddy was spending the morning with him."

Harry scratched at the back of his neck and looked at her sheepishly. "He's very protective of you."

Hermione let that sink in. "And you're used to being my protector," she realized.

"I- yeah. I've been a real idiot."

"It's almost time," Andromeda called from across the room where she'd retreated with Teddy so that they could speak in relative privacy.

"I should go then, did I tell you that you look beautiful?" He asked with a little grin.

"Yes, you mentioned it, but I don't mind hearing it again."

He took a tentative step forward and she opened her arms. It was slightly awkward but it was also a relief and she could feel genuine affection in the way he gently cradled her against him. After a few moments he carefully stepped away to avoid trampling her gown, gave her a shy smile, went to collect Teddy and left the room.

"Are you ready?" Andromeda asked as soon as the door clicked shut.

Hermione just shrugged. "I'm already married anyway."

But if Hermione began to doubt her reasons for having such a public bonding as she walked down the aisle and felt hundreds of pairs of eyes scrutinizing her, they evaporated the moment she joined Draco in the ritual circle and took in the expression on his face.

She loved the way he looked at her on a daily basis. Like she was incredible and he couldn't quite believe she was there with him. She hoped he never stopped. But this was even more. The open adoration on his face- in front of hundreds of spectators- was enough to almost bowl her over.

Kingsley began the ceremony but she paid him little attention. She just held Draco's gaze and stayed in the moment with him; going through the motions for everybody else. When it was over Draco kissed her like he hadn't seen her in years. It had been less than twelve hours. She explained that it was another muggle tradition that the groom couldn't see the bride on the day of the wedding and she'd originally planned that they would spend the night apart, but he'd put his foot down. So she'd spent the night in their bed and then got up early this morning and snuck over to the Manor, leaving him with a kiss on the cheek while he gamely pretended to still be sleeping.

He pulled her through the crowd, not stopping to speak to or even acknowledge any of their guests. The ceremony had taken place in the gardens, the reception was inside but once they were in the Manor he went in the opposite direction of the ballroom where it was to be held and only stopped once they were inside the solarium, a room where she often took tea with Narcissa and that she was very fond of. He pulled out his wand and hastily erected some privacy wards and then pulled her into another kiss.

"You look like some kind of goddess, love," he murmured between kisses. "A fertility goddess, perhaps." He moved one hand from her waist to place it on her abdomen, she could actually feel him smirking. Once he'd gotten over the shock of her pregnancy he'd become almost unbearably smug about it. And he was so protective of her that she knew he was going to be a nervous wreck all night until they were tucked safely back home.

When she was thoroughly snogged- and looked it, she was sure- he finally pulled away and smiled down at her. "I have the most delicious wife, but why do you smell like my mother?"

She barked out a surprised laugh. "I didn't realize that I did. I spent a significant amount of time with her today."

He was already shaking his head before she finished talking. "That's never made any difference before."

She considered that. "She ordered me some beauty products from France to pamper me with today. Maybe they're similar to what she uses?"

"Probably, she's very particular. But you're giving those right back. This is just weird."

He dove back down to her jawline and began to nip and suck at the skin there. She moaned. And then he licked down her neck. She squealed and automatically started trying to push him away.

"What are you doing!"

"If you're not going to smell like you then you should at least smell like me."

"Stop it you weirdo!" She squirmed against him but he just held her tight and chuckled against her skin. After a moment he relented and started kissing her softly again. She relaxed against him.

"What did you say to Harry?"

"Do you really want to talk about Potter right now?" He asked her between kisses.

"I'm just curious. He's usually so hard headed. I thought it would take him ages to budge even a little."

He pulled back to look at her smirking and shrugged in a falsely casual manner. "I may have had a secret weapon."

She blinked at him but his face was giving nothing away. He cocked one brow challengingly and it hit her.

"You and Ginny ambushed and browbeat him into submission didn't you?"

His face broke into a wicked grin. "A wedding present for my lovely bride."

Author's note: Beta love to Weestarmeggie, thank you lady! Inspiration for the wedding decor is on Pinterest, in case you're curious what I imagined. This is the penultimate chapter. I hope to have the final one out very soon. Thanks for reading!