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Chapter 38: The Chapel:

Hermione could not help but feel giddy. She began to hum the wedding march, as Draco had done earlier. Then she began to sing, another Beatles song. She sang, "Who knows how long I've loved you, who knows I love you still, will I wait a lonely lifetime, if you ask me to I will."

"Hermione?"

The sound of someone opening the doors, and saying her name, stopped her singing. She turned around, and gasped. Behind her was Ron. She immediately began to panic. Was this real, or a dream? Why was he here?

"What are you doing here?" she asked in a panic. "How did you even know I was here?"

"Percy owled me, and told me you were getting married today," he said, walking toward her slowly. "I thought you might come here."

"Why would he do that?" she asked, more to herself than to him.

"I'm one of your best friends, don't you want me here?" he asked softly.

"Where's your wife? You are supposed to be on your blooming honeymoon!" Hermione said, now feeing disgusted that he was there.

"She's taking a nap. She won't even know I'm gone, but just in case, I wrote her a note telling her I was taking a walk." Ron approached her, and tried to take her hand, but she cringed away from him, taking several steps back.

"Leave, Ron! You are not welcomed at my wedding," she said.

"I invited you to mine," he said. He added, "Hermione, you can't marry Malfoy, of all people. You just can't. You are confused, that's all. I know you haven't been dating him, as you claimed. All of this has happened just since my wedding. It's too fast, Hermione! You need to think things through, and be rational. You aren't behaving like yourself. He's a bad influence on you already."

Hermione frowned and pointed toward the door, "Leave, or I will curse you, Ronald Weasley! I don't care for your opinion on this or any other matter!"

He slowly walked toward her, and she continued to step away. He had her cornered. He said, "Hermione, I know I wasn't right for you, and I'm not saying this because I have regrets."

"No, but you want me to claim to have regrets, is that right? You want to think this is a manifestation of my grief over losing you. Well, Ron, I was grieving, but I was grieving a lost relationship, not you. There is a difference. Please, everyone will be here soon, please leave!"

"Hermione, I won't leave until I've talked some sense into you. I'm shocked Harry's letting you go forth with this ludicrous plan."

"Letting me? I am an adult, with my own mind and my own heart, and I don't seek anyone's permission to do anything, Ronald Weasley! If I want to marry a donkey, I will. Harry supports me, because he loves me. You, however, only care for yourself, or you would support me, too." Hermione reached into the pocket of her gown to make sure she had her wand.

"IT'S MALFOY!" Ron yelled, his hands in the air, walking over to the other side of the pulpit.

"So that's it!" Hermione said, pointing at him. "It's not that I'm getting married, or have moved on, or have finally found happiness, that's eating at you, it's the fact that it's Malfoy!"

"Of course that's the reason! Hell, Hermione, I thought I made that plain," Ron said. He sat down on the pew in the front, and looked up at her. "He can't know how to treat you well! He can't know how to love you! He doesn't love anyone or anything. Mark my words, Hermione; he will leave you some day. He will hurt you."

"Shut up!" Hermione yelled. She felt like slapping his face.

Draco and all the guests had just arrived. Draco started in the chapel first, and he saw Ron sitting in the front pew. He heard what he said to Hermione, and he heard her tell him to shut up. He began to swing open the doors, to run in so he could kick the other man's arse, when Hermione saw him. She took her wand, knocked Draco back out the doors of the chapel with a flick of her wrist and a simple spell, and shut and locked the doors with magic. This was her fight.

"What's going on in there?" Harry asked, helping Draco to stand.

"Ron is in there with her," Ginny answered, looking in one of the front windows. Soon, all the guests were trying to look in the two little front windows. The windows along the sides of the building were stained glass, so they wouldn't be of any help. Draco was trying, in vain, to open up the doors.

"How did he know?" Bill asked.

"My fault, I'm afraid," Percy volunteered. "I felt he had a right to know, because I thought he would want to be here to support her. I thought I was doing the right thing."

"Yeah, well, your right things always turn out wrong, you pompous git," George said, hitting his brother's arm with his fist. Percy clutched his shoulder in pain.

Back inside the chapel, Hermione was still yelling at Ron.

"What I feel for Draco is real, and I don't have to justify anything to anyone, especially not to you! You claimed you loved me, and then you cheated on me! You married someone else. The moment you said 'I do' to someone else, you lost the right to tell me what to do. Even if this ends up being a mistake, it will be my mistake to make, and you don't have to worry, for I won't come to you to pick up the pieces!" She stormed down the aisle, and Ron followed.

He tried to hold her arm, but she turned around fast and pointed her wand at him. She stupefied him. He fell over backwards, not moving. She gasped and ran to the doors. She opened the doors and everyone, Draco included, started asking her what happened. She said, "Quiet everyone! I need Harry for a moment." Harry slipped in the doors. Hermione looked at Draco, and said, "I love you." She shut and locked the doors once more. Draco banged on the doors in frustration.

Harry walked up to the unconscious Ron, lying on the floor. "What did you do?" Harry asked, kneeling beside his friend.

"Well, you told me once if I was going to stupefy someone, to do it when you weren't looking, and you weren't around, so I did. He deserved it, Harry," she offered, as she too kneeled beside him. "Is he going to be okay?"

Harry actually laughed and said, "I don't know, you're pretty powerful when you're angry. Let me disapparate with him back to the Burrow."

"Harry, you will come back, won't you? I can't get married without you here," Hermione said.

"I'll be back," Harry promised.

"Oh, and Harry, maybe you should restrain him or something, just in case he tries to escape," Hermione reasoned.

Harry looked at her incredulously, and said, "He's not a prisoner." However, in his mind, he thought that was an excellent idea. He said, "Don't start the wedding without me." He took Ron's arm, and they left.

Hermione paced up and down the aisle. She would not let this ruin her one and only wedding! Draco began to bang on the doors again. She walked up to the doors, opened them, and saw a sea of concerned faces. "Slight hitch, sorry, but the wedding is still on, we just need to wait for Harry." She shut the doors again.

"Hermione! Let me in," Draco yelled.

She yelled back, "It's bad luck to see me before the wedding!"

"I've seen you all day!"

"It's bad luck to see me in my gown!" she yelled again.

"But, I've just left you. You had your gown on when I saw you a few moments ago!" He continued to bang on the doors. She finally opened them.

"Fine, but only Draco for a minute, okay everyone. Sorry, just make yourselves comfortable," she said, pulling on his arm, and dragging him inside the chapel.

"What happened?" Draco asked, putting both his hands on her face.

"I hexed him. Ron, I hexed him," she said, almost with a laugh. Then, shocking them both, she really started laughing, and she could not stop. She said, "He was being a bastard, I yelled at him, I pointed my wand," she continued laughing, "then 'poof' he was knocked over on his arse, and he was out cold!" She bent over at the waist, holding her side, laughing harder than Draco had ever seen her laugh. Her laughter was contagious, and he began to laugh, too.

"I wish you had let me see him," Draco said, between laughs.

"You would have enjoyed it, damn, that could have been my wedding present to you," she said. She walked up to him, and took his hand. "Now, I will have to buy you something, I suppose."

"I nice piece of real estate always makes me happy," Draco said, smiling. "I was on my way in here to hit him when I heard him say that I would leave you, and hurt you. You know he's a fool, don't you. I would never hurt you, and I certainly will never leave you."

"I know, and the reason I barred the doors, and wouldn't let you enter, was because it was between him and me. It was something I had to take care of myself," she said.

"No, you didn't bar the doors from me, you had me physically removed from the premises with magic, like I was an offensive rodent you were removing from the room, but I understand. Percy told him, apparently," Draco said.

"I know. Percy's a git," Hermione said, with a small chuckle.

"That's what his mother said, too," Draco lied.

"Mrs. Weasley called Percy a git?" she asked.

"It was her or George, I'm not sure which, but one of them said it, and then punched him in the arm," Draco said. He sat down, pulling her on his lap. "You are my knight in shining armor, Granger, saving the day like that," Draco said, kissing her neck. She moaned slightly. It felt glorious.

"Hey, where are we going on our honeymoon?" she asked.

"I have to work tomorrow," he suddenly realized.

"So do I," she stated back.

"Back to the real world, so soon, I suppose," he said. He drew his fingers up and down her arm, as she held him tightly. "I could call in sick."

"I'm a healer, so I could heal you. I think we should do just that," she kissed his ear.

"Wet ear kisses, how romantic," he said. She stuck her tongue in his ear, and he shivered. "Seriously!" he retorted, bringing his hand up to his ear. He ticked her ribs. "So, when is this marriage starting?"

Before she could answer, the chapel doors opened once again. Draco and Hermione both turned to look at the doors. Harry was walking in, by himself. He shut the doors behind him. The bride and groom stood up, and watched as he walked up the aisle.

Harry said, "I brought a couple of other guests, whom I met at the Burrow. I hope that's okay with you two."

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