The interval

Harry, Alex, Seamus and Marcus walked through the doors of the Great Hall. They heard squeals as Ginny, Vicky, Lavender and Angelina ran to greet them. Kingsley and Amelia were there, collecting the five men who had attacked the bridal shower. They had called in three additional Aurors who had been stationed in Hogsmeade. Runcorn and Umbridge, after arguing from her classroom all the way to the Great Hall, had both been placed under Silencing spells and were glaring angrily at each other.

After rejoining the group, they were asked where Hermione and Mikey were. Alex shook his head. "Don't worry about them, we'll not be seeing them until tomorrow evening, if then. Mikey won't let this opportunity pass him up!"

"I don't blame him, I'd take advantage of it, too! Between Quidditch and her Head Girl duties, they'll not have too much alone time for the rest of the year. That's not counting after she has the baby. Which, if I'm remembering right, will only be another couple of months, yeah?" Harry said.

"Yeah, Hermione is figuring late December, early January. So either they will leave this semester and come back with a baby or they will come back and HAVE a baby. Either way, they are going to be the first parents of our year." Vicky replied. "Hermione is really looking forward to having the baby. She can't wait to see who he takes after. Mikey's elf, Peach, has already told her it's a boy. She's so excited!"

Alex pulled Vicky closer and whispered into her ear. "Oi, I think we have some unfinished business in the Room of Requirement, don't we? How about we slip out in a minute? You can show me your tattoo again. I seem to have forgotten what my handiwork looks like." Vicky giggled and pushed at him, kissing his cheek. But she soon made an excuse that she'd forgotten to bring one last item to the party. It was in the Gryffindor common room. Alex insisted on accompanying her 'never know when someone might try to attack her', looking pointedly at the men Umbridge had let in. As they walked out, the other couples laughed.

"And there goes our other weekend couple. Frankly, it won't surprise me a bit if we don't see those two until Saturday night or Sunday morning." Marcus said.

Seamus and Lavender had joined Greyback and the other kids for a late meal. Fenrir checked Lavender again to make sure she was really okay. He knew she was nervous and Seamus was scared to death about her pregnancy. She had conceived during the last month's full moon week and Fen knew that meant her baby would be born already able to transform. He wondered when Alex and Mikey's children had been conceived. If either of them had been in the full moon week, their babies would be born already able to transform as well. Maybe he should ask them or let them know what to expect, at least. The babies wouldn't actually start transforming until after their third birthday but they wouldn't have to be bitten. As natural born weres, the urge to transform would already be there. All they would need was to have their parents there to coax them through the process. He made a mental note to himself to gather his expectant parents together for a special class, just on their children and what to expect from them.

Marcus sat down on the bench, pulling Angelina down with him. "So my mother wants us to get married during the Christmas holiday. Not on but either a couple days before or after. She wants us to send her a list of our friends so she'll know how many and who to invite. She was also wondering if we wanted to have any of them in the wedding ceremony with us."

Angelina bit her lip. "I'd like to have Hermione as my maid of honor and Ginny, Lavender and Victoria as my bridesmaids. I've already asked them and they agreed."

"Good," Marcus smiled at her, "then Mikey can be my best man. Harry, Seamus and Alex can be my groomsmen. I already told them to be ready. This way, if I get cold feet, they can talk me down off the ledge."

"I'd like to invite the rest of them as guests, if that's all right." Angelina hesitantly told him.

"Of course, you can. It's not mother's wedding, darling, it's ours. We get to invite whoever we want. I can't wait to introduce you to mother. She'll enjoy meeting you. I think you two will get along great." Marcus smoothed a strand of hair behind Angelina's ear, noticing as she shivered. She threw herself at him and hugged him fiercely. "I'm so glad you came back safe. I was worried the whole time you were gone." She ran her fingers into his thick black hair, tugging it gently. She watched him half close his eyes. She smiled secretively. Now she knew something to try the next time they were alone together.

Oliver and Blaise watched enviously as Marcus sweet-talked Angelina. They suddenly wished their witches were as willing to compromise as she was. They KNEW Marcus was or used to be as chauvinistic as them. Either he was hiding it until after he had Angelina bound to him or he really had been affected by the war, more than they knew.

"Will I be allowed to work? Or will I be housebound?" asked Angelina, defiantly, her eyes flashing at him.

"Depends on what kind of work. I would PREFER that you not have a terribly dangerous job but you can work, if you want to. I won't forbid it." He replied, secretly amused but with no visible expression on his face.

"I've been considering an offer from the Holyhead Harpies, Alicia and Katie both play for them as well. Ginny has been also extended an offer from them as soon as she's out of Hogwarts and she's wanting to accept it." She revealed.

"I don't mind but how long will you be able to play before the baby gets here?" he wondered.

"I'll let them know I'm expecting. They'll put me on the reserve bench until after I have the baby and have a doctor's clearance to return to work. I expect I'll have to wait until the baby goes to daycare before I even think about going back to work." She sighed.

He thought very carefully before he spoke again. He knew Quidditch meant as much to her as it did to him. "Would you object to nanny elves? My mother has offered us the pair of elves who raised me as a wedding gift. I haven't gotten back to her yet. I wanted to see how you felt before I said anything. They could care for the babies while we're playing. They're even used to traveling with babies if we wanted to take them on the road with us. That way, you wouldn't have to miss too much time out of the season."

She was staring at him, open mouthed. "You seriously would do that? You wouldn't want me tied down for years, waiting for them to get old enough for daycare?"

"No. You love Quidditch as much as I do. I know how much I hate missing games when I'm injured and how much I missed it while the war was going on. It was probably much worse for you. They closed the league for a while, didn't they?" Marcus looked down and unconsciously rubbed his left arm. He looked so downcast that Angelina couldn't bring herself to scold him over taking the Dark Mark during the war. Like Malfoy, he'd probably not had too much of a choice in the matter.

"We can take the elves, if you really don't mind me working as well. I do love playing and we can raise a couple of little Quidditch players." She joked, trying to tease him back into a smile. She found, much to her surprise, that she loved it when he smiled. She watched happily as that little lopsided grin came back to his face. They shared a quiet laugh as he laid his hand on her belly.

Harry was talking to Ron, Oliver and Draco. Blaise, Gregory and Aidan were listening to them. The rest of the girls were gathered around Ginny. "Well, Hermione and Victoria are missing in action, Lavender is hanging out with her new dad, I have a feeling that Angelina will be disappearing soon. So it's up to us to get everything planned for tomorrow. We need to make a group trip into Hogsmeade. All the families are going to be there, waiting to meet new daughters and sons. We need to plan how we're going to get our missing girls included, too." Ginny's eyes were gleaming with determination. Quite a few of the families were already familiar with their future children as most of them ran in the same society but she knew the Scabiors and McKeons hadn't had a chance to meet either Hermione or Victoria as both were Muggleborn. Mikey's parents were now slightly familiar with Hermione. Alex had introduced Victoria to his parents the first night after the pairings were announced. But the rest of their families were still waiting to meet them.

"We can remind them of the rehearsal dinner tomorrow night. Didn't Hermione say her mum told her they needed to do a run through of the ceremony tomorrow morning, anyway? It's imperative that they be there. We can't have a rehearsal without the brides or the grooms, right? So they'll have to resurface tomorrow morning." Parvati was the one who, matter of factly, pointed out the way to retrieve Hermione and Victoria.

"That's right, thank you for reminding me, Parvati! All right, so that's taken care of. Are there any last minute dress changes we need to make?" Ginny started a to-do list for the next day. "We'll have to drag Hermione to the dress shop for her final fitting, I swear, that girl HATES to shop! We'll need to get Lavender's dress adjusted as well. The families are going to be divided, half at the Hogs Head and half at the Three Broomsticks. We'll need to see which families are where so we'll know how the divide our groups. I know mum and dad are the Three Broomsticks, I'm THINKING the Malfoys are the Three Broomsticks. Parvati?"

"Mum and dad are also at the Three Broomsticks. Pansy, Millie, do you know where your parents will be?" she looked at the two Slytherin girls.

"My parents will be at the Hogs Head." Millicent declared. "Aidan has already said his parents are there as well."

""My mum will be at the Three Broomsticks." Pansy told them. Her father had died in the Battle, as had her two older brothers. Now it was just her mum, and two older sisters. They hadn't been subject to the marriage law as they were both already married.

"My dad is at the Three Broomsticks and Gregory's parents are at the Hogs Head. We're going to stop by for my dad, then go on to the Hogs Head." Luna told them. Ginny jotted that down in her notes.

"Lavender's parents won't be present but Fenrir is here and he's considering going to get Mary, for her. Seamus said his mum will be here at the Three Broomsticks." Ginny was quiet for a moment, thinking of how much Lavender had cried the first couple of nights back, missing her parents.

"I think that's it for now. If any of you think of anything, let me know and we'll get it on the list." Ginny rolled up the list and tucked it away. They turned their attention back to the Minister and the group of Aurors. After the additional Aurors got there, they finished securing the men and prepared to go back to the Ministry.

"Oh, wait!" Ginny exclaimed. "I just remembered!"

She jumped up and ran over. "Minister Shacklebolt!"

Kingsley turned to face her, as did Amelia. Ginny stopped in front of him. "I just wanted to remind you that you and Amelia are invited to Hermione and Victoria's wedding Sunday. You'll be there, yeah?"

Kingsley smiled. "We'll be there. I wouldn't miss the marriage of my favorite two Aurors for nothing in the world." He hugged Ginny, then he got to the business of leading his group outside to the gates. He kept Amelia firmly by his side.

The rest of the evening was spent just relaxing and enjoying each other's company. Ginny looked around and chuckled. She nudged Harry and asked him who was missing. She'd called it right. Marcus and Angelina had waited until nobody was paying attention and had, indeed, slipped out.

Ginny spoke to Lavender and was pleased to learn that Fenrir was going, the next morning, to retrieve Mary. They would meet Seamus and his mum in place of Lavender's parents. Of course, Mrs. Finnegan already knew Lavender but she didn't know Fenrir or Mary.

The students who were most dreading the parental meeting the next day, by far, was Ron and Draco. In particular, they were remembering the last time their fathers had met face to face. If that happened again, in front of the Patils, that might spell the end of their marriages before they even happened. To everyone's surprise, Ron and Draco had been seriously making efforts to get along better. They had managed to keep themselves confined to civilized conversation and hadn't fought or antagonized each other since before the school year started. Their last insults had actually been the exchange on the Hogwarts Express. Being as they were getting along so well, they resolved to try and keep their fathers civil, if nothing else.

Harry had no family but Hermione's mother and father had already begun to claim him and would be meeting the Weasleys in place of Harry's family. They were sad about marrying their daughter off but excited about having not only Harry but also Mikey in the family. They had told Hermione in a letter that they weren't losing a daughter, they were just gaining another son. They were also excited about having another daughter soon when Harry and Ginny got married.

Alicia and Katie's parents were both at the Three Broomsticks, as well as Oliver's parents. Blaise's mother was at the Hogs Head. They would drop Oliver and Alicia off at the Three Broomsticks, pick up Katie's parents and go on to meet his mother.

As the evening wound down, everyone began trickling out of the Great Hall and back to their individual common rooms. The presents were collected, divided and sent to either Hermione or Victoria's room. Ginny was already writing the notes that would bring their errant couples back into line tomorrow morning. She couldn't keep the wicked grin off her face at the thought of how angry the separation would make them.

The next morning, there was a pecking at the door of the classroom. The young man and woman, laying on the table covered by his cloak, both groaned. They weren't ready to rejoin their group yet. "Can't we just ignore them?" Mikey pleaded. He raised up and hopped down. Turning to look at her, he leaned over and kissed her as he waved his hand and dressed himself. Walking over to the door, he opened it and received the note. He brought it back to Hermione who had dressed herself by that time. She opened it and read the brief message. Gasping, she grabbed his hand and practically ran to the Great Hall.

"Thank you, Ginny! I had totally forgotten about the rehearsal dinner and everything!" Hermione exclaimed. Just then, the doors burst open again, revealing Vicky and Alex this time. Ginny giggled at them, both boys were clearly pouting at having to give up alone time with their witches.

"Mikey, you and Alex go get ready and meet me and Vicky in the Entrance Hall. Come on, Vicky! We have two hours before we need to be at the Three Broomsticks to meet your parents and mum and dad." Vicky and Hermione ran out to go get ready for the rehearsal. Both boys rolled their eyes and reluctantly left the Great Hall. As soon as they were out of sight, the remaining eighth years burst out laughing.

"Hermione and Victoria are going to have their hands full with those two!" Padma laughed. The doors opened once again as Marcus and Angelina strolled in casually. "What's going on with Mikey and Alex? They didn't look too thrilled just now."

"I don't think they were too happy about not having the girls to themselves today. They have to go rehearse for the ceremony tomorrow." Parvati explained. "Speaking of which, if any of us are in the wedding, that means we need to be getting ready as well! Come on, let's get this show on the road, my dears!"

Marcus grabbed a handful of sausages, divided them into two piles, wrapped them in napkins and handed one to Angelina as he kissed her before hustling out after the rest of the boys. The girls all rushed to the dormitories to collect their outfits and prepare for the trip into Hogsmeade.

Vicky and Hermione hurried down the stairs at the head of the large group heading into the wizarding village. All the boys were already waiting in the Main Entrance. As they paired off, Filch took his usual spot checking off all the students going into town. He surprised them all by hugging Hermione and thanking the boys for ridding the school of Umbridge for the second time. "Don't forget, Mr. Filch. Our wedding is nine am tomorrow morning. You and Mrs. Norris are invited. I wouldn't feel right getting married without the two of you there." Hermione told the old man. He smiled and nodded.

"So, what is this rehearsal? I thought we just stood up tomorrow and said our vows." Mikey was confused.

"That's a wizarding ceremony, sweetie. We'll be doing one of those afterwards. The first ceremony tomorrow is the Muggle ceremony and that one gets rehearsed. Basically, we just get moved around and told where to stand like a bunch of chess pieces. Also our outfits are fitted today to make sure nothing needs any adjustments made." Hermione rolled her eyes. She knew she was having her final fitting today and she wasn't looking forward to it. She had a feeling the dress wasn't going to fit. She'd had trouble fastening the buttons on her skirt. She had resorted to sliding it sideways, buttoning it, then turning it back to the front.

Mikey kept flexing his hands and biting his knuckles. Hermione finally took his hand into hers and hugged his arm. Clearly, he was nervous. Whether it was introducing her to his family or him meeting her parents, she wasn't sure but she thought it was so cute how nervous he was.

"Will they like me?" he suddenly asked. She rubbed his shoulder soothingly.

"Yes, they're looking forward to meeting you, Alex and Victoria. They've heard me yakking about the three of you all summer. Dad will probably take you aside for the 'hurt her and I'll kill you' talk. Mum will burst out crying and want to hug you to bits." Hermione reassured him. She didn't tell him that her parents had mixed feelings about him, due to Ron bad mouthing him every chance he got before they'd returned to school. She just hoped they really took the time to get to know him themselves, instead of relying on her word against Ron's.

They came into sight of the Three Broomsticks. Her parents were outside, watching for her. As they saw her, they waved and watched the young man beside her cautiously. After debating with Alex and the other boys as to what he should wear, he'd finally shrugged and put his Snatcher clothes back on. He'd left off the duster, bandanna, holster belt and her pink scarf. His hair was braided on top but left loose in the back, all of it pulled back off his face except for the red streak. That was braided and hanging down from his temple. He had his wand tucked into his glove for easy access. He seemed to be as wary of them as they were of him. Hermione crossed her fingers and hoped for the best.

"Mum, Dad, this is Scabior, Michael Scabior the third. Mikey, this is my parents, Jean and Todd Granger." She held her breath.

Mikey shook hands with her dad and was surprised as her mum hugged him. He smiled as she patted his shoulders and exclaimed over how skinny he was. "Goodness, Hermione, doesn't that school feed you children, ever? He looks like a stiff wind would blow him over and so do you!" Mikey chuckled at that. "I knew my mum was onto something, she said the same thing. My dad told her she's nuts."

"Mikey! My baby, how's Nana's boy? Oh, look at you! So skinny, you're skin and bones! I'll be having a few words with Mrs. Minerva about that!" Hermione watched as a tall beautiful older witch ran out and threw her arms around Mikey.

"Nana!" Mikey threw his arms around his great grandmother and held tight. Visits with her were few and far between. It was why she always had his favorite dessert on hand. She never knew how long it'd be till the next visit with her beloved little Mikey. She turned her head. "You must be Hermione. I'm Emma, his great grandmother. Pleased to meet you, at last." she turned her attention to Hermione's parents. "You must be her parents?"

"I'm Jean and this is Todd. Pleased to meet you, Mrs-?" Jean paused.

"Oh, darling, Alistair and I were never able to marry. But, for all intents and purposes, I'm Mrs. Scabior. I've been with him for most of my adult life." Emma casually answered her. Michael strolled out, followed by his father. "Alistair, come and meet your future great granddaughter." Alistair obediently walked over to her. He shook hands with Hermione and her parents. All the while, Emma fussed over her boy. Another older woman walked out, arm in arm with a man closely resembling Michael.

She immediately hustled over to Alex and Victoria. Victoria's parents came out next. Alex began introductions all around. Dora walked out and joined Michael, waiting for her turn to meet Hermione. "Well, what do you think? Is she a good match for him?" Michael turned to her. "A very good match, our boy will be happy with her." Dora smiled. "Good. I can stop worrying about his future now."

All of the families were now mingling to learn as much as they could about their children and their in-law's. Those in the immediate wedding party slowly walked in the direction of the small church Jean had found.

As predicted, Mikey found himself walking beside his future father in-law. "I've been hearing good things about you,,, and some not so good things about you. Lucky for you, I trust my daughter more than the other source of information. I will say this once, only today, because I can clearly see how much she loves you and how much you appear to love her. Hurt my daughter in any way, make her cry or even the least bit unhappy,,, magical or not, there will be no hole deep enough to hide you,, I will find you and kill you if you ever hurt her or her children,, are we clear, young man?"

"Perfectly clear, sir, I'll do my best to always make her happy. I can't swear we won't argue from time to time. But I'll never intentionally hurt her or our children." Mikey swore. Todd nodded. He liked this young man. He didn't try to hide his faults. Anyone else might have tried to talk their way around the issues but he didn't. "I have a problem with anger management, sir, she's helping me work through it. I tend to bottle my anger up inside. She's teaching me how to talk my anger out." Todd smiled. "Just like her mother did with me," he laughed at the boy's look of surprise. "Yes, I used to have anger management issues myself. Jean almost wouldn't have anything to do with me because of it. It was only after I sat down with her and talked about things that made me angry that she even agreed to go out with me." He patted Mikey's shoulder. "Welcome to the family."

After that talk, Mikey felt like a heavy load had been taken off his shoulders. He was glad he'd somehow managed to say the right things to her dad. He'd secretly been dreading this meeting, only because he was sure they would hate him on sight.

The rehearsal went off without too many problems, the main one being Mikey being struck speechless at the sight of Hermione walking down the aisle. After she was in front of him, he had to be prodded to remember that they were surrounded by family and friends. Else he had been tempted to pick her up, sling her over his shoulder and run away with her. Alex, seeing the glazed look in his eyes, had actually latched onto Mikey's arm to hold him back.

After the dinner was over, the families began sending them back to the school. After their weddings, Mikey would move into the Head Girl's room with Hermione. Alex and Vicky would be the second official couple to take advantage of the married housing, set up at the first of the year. Seamus and Lavender had been set up in the new corridor the day they came back from full moon week. Soon they would be joined by Harry and Ginny, slated to be the next marriage. After them would be Marcus and Angelina. The last wedding of the year was going to be Ron and Parvati and Draco and Padma, another double wedding. None of the rest of them had, as yet, let anyone know when they were getting married.

Author's note: time jumps will occur in the next chapter. I'm not good at describing events, therefore the weddings have already happened and we're going on with their school lives. I'm thinking the next chapter will be the last one but we'll see what my muse has to say about it. I'll be trying to write about some of the other couples but those stories will not be part of this one. Those will be posted to 'till we're not strangers anymore: companion pieces.' After I finish this one, I'll be moving on to finish my next story 'Chasing the Girl.' I'll also be assessing some of my one shots to see if I'm inspired to add to them. All in all, fun times! Thank you to everyone who followed/favorited this twisted little tale, full acknowledgements will follow the next chapter. Love ya, my peeps!