A/N: So I got bored/went a little crazy and started posting one of my original fiction pieces on wattpad under the name hmslusitania if anyone happened to be interested. This is simply a psa because I'm that annoying writer. But yeah. That's it. that's my spiel.
Thanks for reviewing – darkhk, Belle, grace2girl16, Oddliver, Prunella7, CooperO, guest, x-writingfreak-x. You guys are awesome.
Chapter Thirty-Eight – A Wedding and a Proposal
(Teddy)
It was an accident, really.
The tour couldn't end quickly enough. Of course, the minute we Flooed back to Rian and Logan's flat in Bath, everything sort of went to shit because Tom and I realised we no longer had a place to live since we'd given up our flat in London rather than stay there or continue paying rent for the year we were away.
We spent the first night at Rian and Logan's and after a vicious game of Beater-Bludger-Bat, I got the sofa. When I woke up in the morning (Tom slapped me in the face with a waffle), Rian and Logan were in full wedding planning mode.
"I had Victoire book the cathedral ages ago," Rian explained, handing me a plate of waffles that hadn't violated my face.
"Awesome," I said, still very tired from the tour and lacking caffeine.
"And she'll be here in a few minutes," Rian continued.
I barely had time to nod and take the first drink of my coffee before there was a knock on the door and Victoire let herself in. Because it was February 28th, she was wearing a giant cloak and as she hung it up next to the door, she revealed her thick Weasley jumper. Her cheeks were flushed from the cold and her glasses started fogging the minute she stepped foot inside the flat.
"Welcome back," she said, beaming at all of us. She hugged Rian, who handed her a plate of waffles and a cup of coffee, and then hugged Logan and Tom awkwardly with her hands full of food. I was too tired to actually stand up, but I did push my chair back from the table and when she stood in front of me to hug me, I ended up pitching forward with my arms wrapped around her arse and my face pressed against her stomach.
"Erm…hi," she said, sounding amused. She set down her food on the table and ran her fingers through my hair and I would've quite happily stayed there the rest of my life, but regrettably, I had some sort of responsibility.
"Should we leave you two alone for a moment?" Logan asked.
"No, don't they'll shag on the kitchen table and it'll never be clean again," Tom replied. I let go of Victoire long enough to flip him off and then resumed sleeping.
All five of us spent the entire day engaged in wedding planning. We had to do things like pick a caterer and order a cake and find florists and order flowers and figure out the decorations for the interior of the cathedral and plan the reception and mail out invitations. That last was what Tom and I got to do with our day. We got to spend twelve hours addressing invitations and writing addresses on them from Rian's address book since both of us had better penmanship than she did. Because we had better penmanship, reading the addresses she had recorded was next to impossible. I ended up being the one to write out the invitation to Rian's grandparents in Romania and Tom was the one to flinch at the notion of inviting his own grandparents from Budapest.
"But why?" he asked, holding up the address for Logan to see.
"Because they actually cared," Logan replied. "Unlike our parents, who are not invited."
Tom sighed and scratched out the address for Istvan and Virág Mazzag.
"And here all these years we thought Gabriel and Levente were strange names," I said, nodding at the envelope.
"Our mother's name is Hajnalka," Tom replied. "We got off easy."
Victoire, Rian, and I exchanged worried looks.
"I'm sorry, your parents' names are Hamish and Hajanlka?" Rian asked.
"Hey, your mother's name is Fifika," Logan countered.
"Sorry, what?" Tom asked.
"I thought her name was Phoebe," Victoire said.
Rian shrugged. "She lies about it," she said.
"Fifika," I repeated. Rian rolled her eyes.
"And isn't your mother a twin?" Victoire asked. "What on earth is her sister's name?"
"Jofranka," Rian replied. "She goes by Jo."
"I should hope," Tom said. "How did you and Adrian get off so easily?"
"My dad is entirely English rather than my half German half gypsy mother," Rian replied. "Go back to your invitations."
We did as we were told and it was around midnight when Rian and Logan started to head for bed. I yawned and discovered that Tom was already asleep on the couch.
"Bastard," I mumbled.
"You can come stay with me," Victoire suggested, stacking the last few invitations and pulling me to my feet. I leaned against her with my arm around her shoulders and we disapparated back to her bedroom. Almost immediately, she kissed me. I kissed her back and we managed to make our way to the bed before I fell onto it mostly unconscious.
"Why don't we save it for tomorrow," she suggested, leaving me be on the bed and stepping back to take off her clothes.
"No – I'm fine – let's-" I attempted to protest even as I was falling asleep.
"Go to sleep, Teddy," she suggested.
I was too tired to argue with her and passed out as soon as she commanded it.
That was how it started. We only had two and a half months before the wedding and as such, everything was manic and hectic and insane at all times and Tom and I just didn't have time to look for a new flat. Victoire and Mackavis had a spare room, however, and Tom ended up crashing there most nights while I slept with Victoire. It was halfway almost to April when Travis cornered me in the kitchen one morning and crossed his arms.
Travis Crawford wasn't the typical sort of intimidating I was used to when it came to dealing with people like bouncers at night clubs and roadies and stage hands. Travis was a fellow Ravenclaw and an awkward nerd as far as I knew, but he was taller than me (taller than I chose to be) and had a way of looking down his nose at you that made you feel like your soul was being called to question.
"Have I done something?" I asked, pouring myself a glass of orange juice and then offering it to him as some sort of bribe against bodily harm.
"You've been staying in our house for a month," he replied.
"Yes," I agreed. "Erm…is that not allowed? Would you like me to leave? Or is this about Victoire, has she said something because I know we're not technically dating or anything, but that's mostly because the idea of 'dating' as such makes her uncomfortable and-"
"Divided between five people, our rent per month is a hundred and twenty galleons per month," he said.
"Oh," I replied. "Erm, right then, I can scrounge that up. I'll let Gabriel know."
So like I said, it was strictly by accident that Tom and I ended up living with Victoire and Mackavis.
OOooOOooOOooOO
The caterers were the angry ones, we quickly discovered. Tom spent most of his time laughing at us since he was required to do exactly nothing for the wedding by the confines of social construct and instead opted to spend his time making fun of Logan and Rian for being stupid enough to get married, and making fun of me and Victoire for being willing to be the best people. As soon as he started doing this, he was conscripted to interface with the owners of the Muggle reception hall where we would be retiring after the ceremony at the cathedral.
The florists were rather pleasant and Rian made Victoire and me do that on our own. For whatever reason they seemed to think that Victoire and I were the bride and groom and we spent a good long while awkwardly explaining that no, that wasn't the case, actually we weren't technically dating, yes we might live together on an unspoken basis, but no we weren't getting married.
"We don't live together," Victoire corrected as we walked out of the florists with the delivery date arranged and paid for.
"Erm…" I mumbled, scratching the back of my head.
"What?" she asked, looking concerned.
"Travis might have strongly encouraged both me and Tom to pay rent," I admitted.
Victoire's eyes widened, but she didn't say anything. Then her head cocked sideways and she stared at some people across the street. They had large cameras and were taking pictures, but it seemed like they were taking pictures of…us.
I didn't understand why until Victoire brought a copy of Witch Weekly home from work. On the cover, underneath the flashing pink title and the headlines that read things like, "Is your wizard getting the most out of sex?" there was a picture of Victoire and me as we snogged in Diagon Alley. Before I could try to find the headline on the cover associated with us, Victoire ripped the magazine open and thrust the article at me.
Has heartthrob Teddy Lupin, frontman for Hearts on Fire, found love? The twenty-one year old former Ravenclaw was seen on Friday canoodling in Diagon Alley with a titian blonde beauty. This would certainly explain why none of the girls on Hearts on Fire's yearlong tour got to touch Teddy, although inside sources say the girl, Victoire Weasley, 18, isn't the best choice for the singer.
"She had a few problems at school," says former dormmate and best friend Bailey Noonan. Bailey Noonan, an attractive ex-Gryffindor working her way up the ladder at Cartwright Incorporated, was more than happy to talk to us about Victoire Weasley. "She tended to hop between boys, so I can't imagine Teddy Lupin being any sort of exception."
Victoire Weasley, whose name you probably recognise, is the eldest daughter of Bill and Fleur Weasley. Bill Weasley, a renowned curse-breaker for Gringotts, was awarded an Order of Merlin Second Class following the second Wizarding War, along with most of his family members – excepting, of course, Ron and Hermione Weasley, and Harry Potter – while Bill's wife, Fleur Weasley, a part Veela, is best known for her purported relationship with Hogwarts Champion Cedric Diggory during the Tri-Wizard Tournament of 1994-95. With her Veela heritage, it's almost expected that Victoire would have trouble staying with just one man. Hopefully, Teddy Lupin will have a kind support system in his band members, Rian, Logan, and Tom McEwan.
I closed the article and blinked at the magazine for a moment, and then waved my wand and lit it on fire. Pan twitched where he was sitting on the dining room table. As the old boy got older, he tended to react less to things.
"Can I go murder Bailey Noonan?" I asked, standing up and heading for the door anyways. Victoire grabbed my arms and pulled me away from the entrance, apparently just in time, because a contingent of Bill and Fleur and Hermione Weasley spun into the fireplace at that exact moment, Dom trailing behind them. Dom grabbed Victoire and squeezed her tightly, which was when I noticed Victoire was shaking.
"I'm going to have them sued for libel," Hermione declared.
"You don't have to," Victoire mumbled.
"Yes you do," Fleur and I agreed, both crossing our arms and glaring at the smouldering ashes of the magazine.
"Yes, I do because I couldn't when they did that to me when I was fifteen," Hermione replied.
"They did that to you?" Victoire asked.
"Granny Weasley stopped talking to me," Hermione said. "Supposedly, I had a triangle operation going with Harry and Viktor Krum."
"Like…the Seeker?" Dom asked, raising her eyebrow.
"Yes," Hermione admitted. "I was actually dating him, however, but Rita Skeeter decided I was seeing Harry as well and wrote a whole article about it. Eurgh, she was a wretched woman. But who is this Bailey Noonan girl?"
"This awful girl Victoire shared a dormitory with back at Hogwarts," I explained. "Wizard supremacist type."
Bill cringed and hugged both his daughters in one.
"Do you live here now, Teddy?" Fleur asked me.
"Erm, sort of," I admitted.
Eventually, we talked the adults out of anything drastic, and Hermione left to go scold Witch Weekly, intending to use her position as the head lawyer at the Ministry to her advantage. Bill and Fleur left a while later, hugging Victoire tightly, nodding curtly at me, and dragging Dom with them.
"Are you okay?" I asked once they were gone, holding Victoire as close as she would let me.
"Not really," she said. "But I'll be fine eventually."
"Can I do anything?" I asked.
She shook her head and kept her forehead pressed against my chest instead of looking at me. "A few months ago, Harmony called you my boyfriend, and I didn't correct her."
I didn't know who Harmony was, but I didn't particularly care at that moment.
"Really?" I asked.
"Really," she agreed.
"Huh," I said. "Does that mean-"
"We should go help Rian and Logan work on the seating arrangements," Victoire interrupted, disapparating and leaving me alone in the dining room. Pan stared at me with his milky old fox eyes and I shrugged before disapparating as well.
OOooOOooOOooOO
We had the stag night two days before the wedding. It consisted of Logan, Tom, Adrian, and me at a Muggle club getting very, very drunk. Rian had forbid strippers. It had been a very funny conversation, though, because she said "No strippers," and Logan replied that hers was the only naked body he'd seen and in what universe was that fair? Rian told him he was more than welcome to look at porn as much as he liked, but putting strippers and Tom in the same room was a recipe for disaster. Once the rest of us had agreed, we ended up at a club.
"I'm going to go find a girl," Tom announced, sliding off his barstool and heading for the dance floor. The three of us watched him weave through girls on the dance floor until he found a suitable blonde and started dancing very inappropriately with her.
"That's just…nauseating," Logan said, taking a drink of his whiskey.
"Yes," I agreed, drinking my own.
"I don't even have the courage to talk to girls," Adrian mumbled.
"You talked to Victoire," I pointed out, trying to beat back the jealous creature that sprouted in my stomach at the comment.
"She talked to me," he corrected. "I didn't argue because otherwise I was going to die a virgin."
Logan and I swapped depressed looks on Adrian's behalf. Adrian didn't notice and just kept drinking.
"Alright, so you've got your own business making Muggle electronics work in the Wizarding world," Logan said, clapping him on the shoulder. This made Adrian's arm shake and some of his beer spilled over the side of the glass.
"Erm…I do?" Adrian replied. He made it sound like a question, which was problematic, because he definitely did.
"You do, and you know it and stop freaking out," I recommended.
"I'm sorry, it's just Rian's only a year older than me and she's getting married in two days," Adrian said. "So what if my parents expect me to get married in a year? I've only had one girlfriend and I was in fourth year!"
Logan and I considered the problem for a while.
"What if you got out of the country for a bit?" I suggested. "American girls definitely like English blokes. To a kind of…creepy…extent. Shit, go to any bookstore in America and find one of the girls in the fantasy section, tell them you've seen the BBC filming Doctor Who next to your house, tell them David Tennant's your favourite Doctor, and I can guarantee you within a margin error of 5 that you'll get laid."
"I don't think that's how margin errors work," Logan muttered. I shushed him.
"Really?" Adrian asked. "You think so?"
"It's fact, actually," I said. Adrian nodded and took a deep drink of his beer.
"But what do I do tonight?" he asked.
"Tonight…" Logan said, trailing off and looking around the bar. There was a pretty, yet shy looking, brunette sitting by herself drinking some fruity drink through a straw. "Tonight, you go talk to that girl."
He stood up and dragged Adrian with him. I could barely hear them over the music, but I saw the girl look surprised when Adrian and Logan appeared next to her. She blushed and Logan pushed Adrian into the barstool next to her. Logan returned moments later and finished off his whiskey.
"Her name is Jess," Logan said. "And she's here for her friend's hen night and she hates clubs."
"And you just…passed Adrian off to her?" I asked.
"Yep," he agreed, flagging the bartender over to refill his glass. I tipped back the rest of mine and had him fill it as well.
"You are an excellent wingman," I replied.
"Not that I have any need to be since you've got Victoire and Tom's…"
"Tom," I agreed. "Yeah."
We looked around the dance floor and saw him now snogging the blonde girl he'd been dancing with. I rolled my eyes.
"He's going to get a disease, or get pregnant or something," I said.
"Tom's going to get pregnant," Logan replied, raising his eyebrow at me and finishing off his whiskey. Not to be outdone, I finished mine as well.
"Yes," I agreed. "Gabriel Thomas McEwan is going to get hisself pregnant."
"Wow, and here all this time I thought I had a twin brother not a twin sister," Logan replied. "Fuck."
We drank our third doubles.
By the time we got to the fifth, Logan started laughing uncontrollably.
"What's wrong with you?" I asked.
"I just realised," he said, gasping for breath as he laughed so hard tears were running down his bright red face.
"What?" I asked, doing a quick glance for Tom – who was long gone with the blonde girl – and Adrian, who was still talking to Jess on the other side of the bar.
"I'm getting married in-" he broke off to check his watch. "Thirty four hours."
"And what?" I asked, watching him continue to laugh. "You're having second thoughts, cold feet?"
Logan shook his head, still laughing. "No," he said, gasping for breath. "There's something I forgot to do."
"What?" I asked.
He ignored me and stood up, running across the bar to Adrian. I followed.
"Adrian, give the pretty girl your mobile number, we've got an errand to run," Logan instructed.
"Erm…I don't have a mobile," the pretty girl, Jess, said.
"Really? Why not?" I asked.
"Erm…my school frowned on…technology," she replied. "And I've only just finished last yea—hang on, you're Teddy Lupin."
"Erm, yeah, why?" I asked.
"And you're Logan McEwan," she added, pointing at Logan. "Oh. Wait, which of you is getting married?"
"I am," Logan said. "Adrian here's about to be my brother in law, but there's something we've got to do before the wedding, so…"
"You know their band?" Adrian asked, looking very much like he didn't want to leave the bar or Jess.
"Well yeah," Jess said. "Olive told me all about meeting you guys back at school."
"Olive…" Adrian said slowly.
"O'Sullivan," Jess replied. "We were dormmates at Hogwarts."
"Oh," Logan and I said in perfect understanding unison. Jess nodded.
"I can't give you my mobile number, but I can give you my Floo address," she said, addressing Adrian now. Adrian looked delighted and accepted the piece of paper she handed him. We started to walk away, but Logan stopped him.
"Wait just a second," he said. He turned Adrian around and pointed him back at Jess. "Go kiss her."
"What?" Adrian asked, looking panicked.
"Go," I instructed, shoving him a bit and scanning for Tom.
Adrian took a deep breath, crossed the room to Jess, and kissed her passionately. Logan and I high fived and then Tom's tousled blond hair appeared in the hallway. I grabbed him and dragged him towards the door.
"What, why?" he asked.
"Apparently, we have an errand," I said. Tom nodded and we waited for Adrian, and then Logan dragged us back out onto the street and towards Diagon Alley.
"Where are we going?" I asked as Logan tapped on the brick to the Alley. I realised that he and I were significantly drunker than either Tom or Adrian, but nothing could be done about that.
As soon as the bricks slid away, Logan was sprinting down the Alley towards a dark shop. I couldn't quite see what it was, but before we could stop him, he was throwing pebbles at the window of the upstairs flat.
"Stop what are you doing?" I asked, grabbing his arm before he could keep enchanting pebbles to attack the poor person's windowpanes. Logan ignored me and kept on. Eventually, the light flicked on and a figure appeared in the window. The man frowned and then the light of the shop turned on. The door unlocked, and we found ourselves confronted by a wand.
"Who are you?" the old man asked. "What do you want?"
"Please, I need your help," Logan said, trying to keep himself upright. He used Tom for leverage. "See, there's this girl-"
The man sighed. "Does this have to be done now?"
"Yes," Logan said. "It's a surprise, y'see."
The old man sighed and shook his head before he stepped back and let us in. I realised as we walked into the shop that it was a jewellery store.
"Holy shit did you forget to get a ring?" I asked. But then I remembered I was in charge of keeping hold of the rings until the day of the wedding at which point I was supposed to give them over to Rian's younger cousin, Dylan.
"Erm, sort of," Logan said.
The shopkeeper knew what we were looking for apparently, because he pulled out a tray from under the glass counter and set it on the top.
"Do you know her ring size?" the keeper asked.
Logan rattled off the number and the shopkeeper pointed out the rings in that size. They were all antique style and large and sparkly and—
"Mate, these are all engagement rings," I said, picking up one amethyst and diamond ring that sparkled in the candlelight. I had the intense and pressing drunken desire to buy it, but couldn't really justify it to myself.
"Yes," Logan agreed. He picked up a gold ring inlaid with a selection of sparkly diamonds and handed his money sack to the shopkeeper. "Just keep it. I'm sorry for waking you up. Thank you for your time."
The shopkeeper nodded and looked in the money bag. His eyes widened.
"I can't accept this," he said.
"Sure you can," Logan replied.
He shook his head and tried to pass the money back to Logan. When Logan staunchly refused, he grabbed a ring box and the amethyst ring I'd been pawing at and then handed them to me.
"Erm – no, I-" I started.
"Please, he gave me far too much money," the shopkeeper said. "Enough to pay for both rings and I just can't take that much money."
"I-" I tried. The shopkeeper pressed the ring box on me and then kicked us out of the store.
"So, Levente," Tom said, resting his elbow on Logan's shoulder.
"I realised," Logan said as we wandered towards the Leaky Cauldron, hopefully for the Floo.
"Realised what?" Adrian asked.
"I'm getting married…tomorrow?" Logan guessed, looking at his watch to check that it was actually the day before his wedding. "I never actually proposed."
Tom burst out laughing and Logan grinned sheepishly.
"What?" I asked. "You just…what? Spontaneously started planning the wedding?"
"Yes," Logan agreed, pushing me into the fireplace. I spun off for Rian and Logan's flat and spilled out into the den.
"Hi Teddy," Rian said, blinking in shock from where she was sitting on the sofa. Her hair was in curlers and Victoire was painting her nails while Tia, her other bridesmaid, read excerpts from a novel.
"Erm, hi, sorry to interrupt your girls' night," I said, standing up and swaying on the spot.
"Are you drunk?" Victoire asked, sounding amused.
"Very so much yes," I replied, falling onto the couch next to her, tipping over sideways and letting my head fall in her lap. She petted my hair and I wrapped my arms around her thighs. Her fingers were so soft brushing against my temples and every time her fingernails lightly scraped across my scalp it sent tingles across my whole body.
Tom stumbled out of the fireplace next, and said a cordial hello to the floor. We all just left him there and then Logan appeared, spinning in the green flames. He held his head for a moment and then sank onto one knee in front of Rian.
"I know I'm a little late in asking this, but, erm, will you marry me?" Logan asked.
Tia, Victoire, and Rian burst out laughing. I realised that Tom was sound asleep.
"I'm going to need a minute to think about that," Rian replied.
"No, but I've got a ring and everything," Logan said, pulling it out of his pocket.
"You know you didn't have to do that," Rian said, picking up the ring he was offering.
"Yes I did," he said. "And plus it matches the wedding ring, so it'll look pretty together – erm, no pretty's wrong – it'll be perfect just like you."
"Yep, I'm gonna be sick," Tom declared from the floor.
"Yes, Logan, I'll marry you," Rian said, putting the ring on and kissing him deeply. "Wait, what've you lot done with Adrian?"
Logan and I swapped worried looks and I pulled out my mobile, finding his number and letting it ring. The ringing was making my head spin, so I handed it to Victoire.
I heard Adrian answer in a loud whisper. "Teddy, I can't talk right now I went back to Jess's flat and I think we're going to have sex."
"Be safe," I recommended from my seat.
Victoire nodded and hung up the phone.
"You guys got Adrian laid," she said.
"Someone had to," Tom mumbled from the floor, still face down.
"Alright guys," Rian said. "You're going to have to leave so I can have sex with my official fiancé."
Victoire had to steer me into the fireplace and then support me back to bed.
"You're a ridiculous human being," she informed me, crawling under the covers and leaving me to fend for myself.
"I'm not a human being," I replied, falling onto the bed mostly on top of her and wrapping around her like an octopus. "I'm a metamorphmagus."
She shook her head and kissed me on the nose before she clicked off the light.
Review!
(I bet you all thought the proposal was going to be Teddy and Victoire, didn't you.)