(A/N: I'm back, and this time on a weekend! I'm so happy to see that people are continuing to enjoy this story and my take on the characters. I hope that this chapter lives up to expectations and that you will enjoy it. Anyway, on with the show!)
A Cold Sleep
Part 25
"Harry, do you have a moment to talk?" Severus said gently with a knock on the doorjamb. Harry looked up from his desk, glad for the excuse to set aside the paper he was writing for Defense Against the Dark Arts. He saw all three of his Uncles standing outside of his room and sensed a rather intense conversation coming. For a moment he actually debated telling them that he was doing his homework and could talk another time, but the moment passed and he waved them into the room.
Standing from the desk he casually made his way over to the arm chair that occupied the seating area of his bedroom while his Uncles took up positions on the couch that sat facing it. All three of them looked just as nervous as he felt, so perhaps it wouldn't be as bad as he was dreading.
"So what's up?" Harry asked, trying to be casual and thinking that he hit the mark. Perhaps the mental exercises that he had been doing were paying off, his emotions were his to control for the moment and for that he was thankful.
"You're getting married, Harry, that's what's up," Sirius said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"So it's not that I'm two weeks away from facing down Dumbledore?" Harry questioned and laughed with relief. He could talk about Tom, weirdly enough, Tom was easy.
"We've done that to death. No, we trust you on that, we'll be here to advise you, but between you and Tom, I think it's handled," Remus said and raked a hand back through his hair, it was less grey than Harry remembered it.
"Well I'm glad to have your confidence in that matter at least. So this marriage thing, what is it that you have questions about?" Harry asked softly, twisting the ring on his finger absently, sometimes he forgot it was there because it fit so naturally.
"Not questions Harry. We trust you to know what you want, and if that's Tom then we're happy for you. We came to help you start planning. Two weeks is not a lot of time to put together a wedding ceremony, or a reception. You and Tom have your hands full, so we thought that we could handle the brunt of it," Severus said and Harry's carefully controlled emotions cracked and tears sprang to his eyes. He hastily wiped them away and smiled.
"You guys. You really want to help? You would do that for me?" Harry breathed softly, his chest aching in that moment. All three of them nodded in response.
"We want to take up planning for your part. Lucius and Narcissa are talking to Tom now, they want to take up planning his part," Severus said gently.
"I thought they were busy planning for Hermione and Draco?" Harry questioned, hoping to gain himself a moment to harness his emotions.
"Draco and Hermione won't be getting married until after they are done with school. So that's easy enough to put on the back burner. You two only have two weeks," Sirius assured and crossed his legs, laying a hand on Severus's and Remus's legs.
"Alright. So if you're going to take over planning and coordinating. What do you need from me besides my permission to do so?" Harry asked, not quite calm but far closer to it than he had been just minutes before.
"We still need your input. Like what colors you want, what flavor the cake should be, the guest list, basically everything that goes into the wedding will have your input. Planning means we're in charge of contacting the people who will be providing that stuff," Remus explained and Harry nodded his understanding.
"Oh, I see. Well I think we should probably start with the colors then, because I think that's sort of the base of the whole operation. At least from what I've heard from Petunia's wedding shows that she watches on the telly," Harry said, relieved for once that his Aunt had watched television so loudly that it hurt his head when he'd been in his cupboard as a child. He could still remember the presenters talking about color concepts and how they dictated what flower arrangements should be made and the like.
"Color is a good place to start, yes. It will likely translate into your cake and your robes as well as flowers and table spreads," Sirius said and Harry had to laugh for a minute. It was all too surreal. A few months ago he had wandered into the cold dark, almost certain that he was going to die, and now he was sitting around planning his wedding. Not only that, but he was sitting with two dead men and one missing one. On top of that he was going to be marrying one of the most terrifying Dark Lords that the world had seen in recent memory. No, it was too much to take and he had to laugh.
If his Uncles had anything to say about his bout of hysterics, they kept it to themselves.
"Sorry, sorry, it's just a little overwhelming is all," Harry admitted and used his training to get his mind settled and bring his emotions back under more careful control.
"I think you're allowed to be overwhelmed right now. There has been a lot going on. Tom wasn't even going to ask you until your birthday. But Dumbledore kind of ruined that, like he ruins everything," Severus said and produced a small notebook and pen from his pocket. Sometimes Harry forgot that his Uncles were not confined to the house, that they could in fact go out to muggle areas and enjoy a day of shopping if they so wished. Sure they probably did so while wearing glamour spells and masking their magical signature just to be safe, but they, at least, had more freedom to move around the country than he had had.
"So you guys knew that he was going to be proposing eventually?" Harry questioned, knowing that he was getting side-tracked but unable to stop himself from chasing down the line of questioning.
"Of course we did. He asked us for permission, well he asked me since I'm your God father, but it was sort of unspoken that he was looking for all three of us to agree to it," Sirius explained and Harry's face flamed red.
"Is it some sort of tradition to ask? I don't want to think that he believed you owned me or something," Harry said, suddenly very concerned with whether or not it had been propriety at work. There was still so much he had to learn about pureblood culture and etiquette.
"Yes. Tradition still dictates that the asker speak to the parental figures before popping the question. I believe that since no part of your relationship has been traditional thus far, Tom wanted the wedding to be at least," Severus explained and Harry heaved a sigh of relief.
"As long as that's all it is, I can live with it. Now about those colors," Harry began, at last his mind was on the task that they had set before him.
(A/N: Well that's it for now. I hope that you liked it and will leave me a comment or a review to let me know what you thought of it. Heck even just saying hi to me is a big deal. Anyway, thanks for reading!)
