Chapter 42

It had taken a lot of work but we pulled it off. Chairs, tables, linens, flowers, music, catering—everything was scheduled to go forward tomorrow. I was a mess.

"Something will go wrong, you just have to be prepared for it," Emily said.

"I prepared myself last time and our entire venue was taken out," I said.

"Well, Lucius and Narcissa have protected the shit out of this place. If any does show up they won't be able to find you," Parvati said.

"Plus you'd probably strangle them with your bare hands at this point," Kaitlin said.

"True," I agreed.

"Are you nervous at all?" Hermione asked.

"Only that I'm forgetting something," I said.

"Pretty sure she meant about getting married," Emily said. "Are you?"

I shrugged. "Earlier today I thought losing the venue might be a sign that this wasn't supposed to happen. Then Draco reminded me that I think signs are bullshit. He wanted to elope, right then. Grab our witnesses, haul ass to the ministry before they closed and just finally do this. . . After that, I don't think I'm nervous at all anymore. Pretty certain for once that I'm making the right choice."

"You guys are so cute," Kaitlin said.

The bedroom door opened and Kassia walked in carrying a sleeping Mira.

"Hey, so, Narcissa and Lucius are fighting," Kassia said. "Draco seems super jazzed about it, though he promises that he can handle it himself and not to intervene."

I huffed and walked over to the door.

"What did I just say?" Kassia asked.

"I know, but he's been tolerating this for a year now and I just can't handle it anymore," I said. I walked past her and headed downstairs, listening for the sounds of their voices. It wasn't long before I reached the ball room which was currently being made up to accommodate our reception.

I didn't pay attention to what they were saying. Draco was visibly irritated when he saw me.

"Hannah, I told Kassia it was fine," he said in a loud whisper.

"No, I'm sick of this," I said. Narcissa and Lucius noticed me. I held a hand up and ushered for them to stop. "I know this isn't my place to say, but I'm tired of watching Draco agonize over this. So get a divorce."

"Hannah!" Draco hissed at me.

"Excuse me?" Narcissa said.

"All you two do is fight with each other. You don't even care if you have an audience when you do it anymore. Draco has been stressed out over this for ages. It's killing him. You're his parents. And I know this is not how I would want Mira to see me and Draco behave. It's not the way we want her to see you behave. So get a divorce or separate or go to counseling or something because your son, your only child, is getting married tomorrow and he's spent all afternoon planning an entire wedding and tomorrow is supposed to be one of the happiest days of his life and your lives and I don't care if this is your house, if you cause as scene tomorrow, I will cause a bigger one by throwing you out."

There was silence. Draco took hold of my hand.

"Hannah's right. I love you both, and I'll still love you if you're apart. I don't care about our reputation. I'm throwing it all in the bin tomorrow when I marry her anyway. If you two love each other, work it out. If you don't love each other, stop torturing each other and just move on. If you love me you'll find a way to handle this properly. I don't want Mira or any other children we may have to know you like this," Draco said. "You don't have to decide what you want to do today, but tomorrow you have to pretend to at least get along. For me."

Narcissa walked over and wrapped Draco in a hug.

"I'm so sorry dear," she said. "Things haven't been easy as you know."

"I get it," Draco said. "But things are different now. You have to be different too."

Narcissa kissed Draco's forehead.

"Go to bed. You're getting married in the morning," Lucius said.

Draco nodded and pulled me out of the ballroom. We walked up the stairs and headed toward the other wing of the manor.

"I'm sorry I said that," I started, "but I-."

Draco silenced me by pulling me into a kiss. He kissed me hard and deep and held his hands firmly on my waist, pulling me close to him. I draped my arms over his shoulders and held him close to me.

When he pulled away, he was still close to my lips and I wanted to pull him back.

"I'm so proud to be marrying you," Draco said. "I'd have never had the guts to talk to my parents if you hadn't first. I'm lucky to be marrying a Gryffindor. You're braver than I'll ever be. And I'm so grateful for that. I love you, Hannah."

I kissed him again. "I'll always be the person you need me to be."

"And I'll always be here for you," he said.

I chuckled. "Look at us exchanging vows the night before our wedding."

"We're so lame," Draco said. He kissed me again. "By this time tomorrow you're going to be Missus Hannah Potter-Malfoy."

"And you're going to be Mister Hannah Potter-Malfoy," I teased. He chuckled and kissed me again.

"Oi, you guys were cutoff a while ago," Blaise said. "Let's go Draco. You can see your beautiful bride tomorrow." We looked down the hall to where he standing in Draco's bedroom doorway. Draco kissed me one last time.

"Until tomorrow," I said.

He nodded and walked off to him room

Everything was going to be different tomorrow.

888

"I don't understand how you're not freaking out," Hermione said. "You're the most neurotic person I know and you're totally calm today."

We were less than an hour out from the wedding. Hermione had finished my hair and makeup, I was standing in front of a mirror admiring myself over in my dress.

"I mean after the dark wizard, the teen pregnancy, and Andy, everything else we've had to put up with, a wedding is easy," I said.

"I was cool as cucumber when I got married too. I mean, if they really love you what do you have to worry about?" Emily asked.

"What if they change their mind?" Hermione asked.

"At the eleventh hour?" I asked.

"It's happened," she said.

"I think you're panicking about your own wedding dear," Parvati said.

"In which case you're also being crazy," Kaitlin said.

"I don't remember you being this anxious when I was getting married," Emily said.

"Because you weren't marrying Draco Malfoy," Hermione said. "Hannah could be on her death bed and I'd still hold her hand and ask if Draco treated her well."

"Jeez, Hermione. You're already maid of honor. You don't have to suck up to her anymore," Parvati said.

"It's not sucking up to want your best friend to be happy," Hermione said squeezing me tightly.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in," we all chimed.

The door pushed open and Harry walked in. He paused and looked me over.

"I don't know what to say, Hannah," he said. "You look beautiful." He cleared his throat to keep his voice from cracking.

"Geez, you're gonna make me cry, Harry," I said.

"Sorry," he said. "It's already a sob fest out there."

"My mum?" Ginny asked.

"Dad, actually," Harry said. "Hagrid is barely keeping it together. And Sirius is fine now but-."

"I know," I said. "Who needs a mother of the bride when I've got him?"

"Truth," Harry said.

"How is Draco?" I asked.

"A bit nervous, actually. It's kind of funny, then again you've always had that effect on him," Harry replied. "Anyway, I've got a bit of a surprise for you."

"Oh, really?" I asked. Harry nodded. He opened the door and motioned for someone to come in. It was Aunt Petunia. "Oh, Aunt Petunia. Hi. I'm glad you came. Probably a bit of a nightmare traveling by magic on such short notice."

"No, we weren't fully prepared," she said. She held a small gift bag in her hands. "But we managed."

"Well, thank you," I said.

"I didn't attend your mother's wedding. We weren't speaking at the time," she said.

"I'm sure that she would love that you're here," I said.

Petunia nodded and held the bag out to me. "Before she went into hiding she sent me some things to hold onto. I threw most of it out. I kept this though. I thought you might want to have it. Harry mentioned you didn't have anything old."

I took the gift bag. I opened it and saw simple, silver comb encrusted with a scattering of different sized pearls. I lifted it out and attached was a simple, white veil. My heart jumped into my throat.

"This was my mum's?" I asked. Petunia nodded. "From her own wedding?"

Tears sprang up to my eyes and I knew I was going to have to redo my makeup in a moment.

"This is. . . I don't even. . . Thank you," I said. "Thank you so much for this." I walked over and hugged her, taking her by surprise, but she gave me a gentle pat on the back.

"Yes, well, it wasn't doing any good sitting around my house. You should have it for your own daughter," Petunia said.

I released her and nodded. "Have you met Mira?"

"There's kind of a resemblance," Harry said. I nodded in agreement.

"I can't wait to meet her," Petunia said. "Excuse me." She left the room and I wiped tears from my eyes.

"That was sweet," Emily said.

"Yeah. But I still can't forgive her for traumatizing Harry," Ginny said.

"And that's why I love you," Harry replied.

"All the same," I said, holding the veil out to him. He took it and walked around behind me. I watched as he place it in my hair.

"You ready?" he asked. I nodded.

"As soon as Hermione fixes my makeup," I said.

888

Everyone was outside of the doors to the garden, preparing to walk down the aisle. I stood on the other side of the doors, hidden from view. Sirius and Remus came to join me.

"All right, I can't live in suspense anymore," Sirius said. "Just put me out of my misery and tell me it's Remus so I can move on with my life."

Remus sighed. "Bit dim isn't he?"

"Just a bit," I said.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"She obviously wants us both to do it," Remus said.

"I thought it was so obvious," I said. "How could I ever choose between you? My dad died and he left me the best stand-ins in the world. I wouldn't walk down that aisle without both of you giving Draco a threatening look one last time."

Sirius's eyes were filled with tears.

"It feels like just yesterday you helped me avoid losing my soul to dementors. And now you're all grown up and getting married with a house and a baby. Lily and James would be so proud of you," Sirius said.

"They'd be proud of you too," I said. "For making sure I got here."

Sirius was full blown sobbing now. He buried his face in Remus' shoulder.

"Look what you've done," Remus said. "He's going to look like this in all of your photographs."

"Good. This is how I want to remember him," I said.

I heard the music begin to play. It was show time.

"Okay, I'm good," Sirius said wiping his face.

"Ready to go, dads?" I asked. I offered each of them an arm and Sirius started sobbing again. "You have to cry like this if Lydia ever gets married."

"She won't. She says marriage is a medieval construct invented so that women could be traded like property," Sirius said.

"Ah, so I get the full brunt of this," I said.

"Lucky you," Remus said.

Sirius kissed the top of my head, followed by Remus.

My music started playing. The doors opened. Light streamed in. There was a sea of faces in the seats, but I looked down the aisle, and there he was, smiling at me. Draco Malfoy. The boy who had turned my life upside down so many times, who'd angered me and frustrated me and made me cry. There he was.

As I stepped closer I could see his eyes reddening even as he smiled. He wiped his eyes. He was crying. And I felt a tear roll down my cheek.

When I reached him, Sirius and Remus kissed my cheek. Sirius gestured that he was watching Draco and they sat down. I took Draco's hand and we stood in front of our priest.

I barely registered the words or the ceremony because I was too busy staring at Draco. It was only when he told us to exchange out vows did my brain come back. Draco went first. He'd sensibly written his on note cards.

He cleared his throat before he spoke.

"Forgive me if I'm a bit choked up," he said. The crowd chuckled. "Hannah." I looked into his eyes. "The first time I saw you I knew I was going to marry you. That seems unbelievable because I spent the better part of the first five years that I knew you doing everything I could to make sure that didn't happen, but that day I saw you walk into Madame Malkin's I just knew it was you and only you. I immediately stuck my foot in my mouth and kept it there for the better part of five years, so I know I won't always get it right, but I promise to always do my best to try. And I promise to always own up to it when I get it wrong. I'll always have your back and trust and believe you before anyone else. I promise to always support you and believe in you and encourage you to do your best. And I promise to always love you, even when it's hard, even when we're both behaving as if we don't deserve it. I will always love you."

There was a loud sob from the seats and I looked over to Tonks elbowing Sirius in the ribs as he sobbed into a handkerchief.

And then it was my turn.

Hermione held out a roll of parchment to me and the crowd giggled.

"I'm sure you cut it down as much as you could," Draco said.

"I'll show you the first draft later," I said. He smiled. "Draco, when I first met you I did not like you. You were spoiled and rude and entitled and quite frankly a bit ignorant. But I always appreciated that you saw me as a just another person when so many people gawked and stared and wanted to shake my hand for something I couldn't even remember. Your teasing was kind of refreshing in a way. You saw me so much as my own person that in the midst of us throwing insults at each other, you found a way to become my friend when I felt like I had none. And every day since then you've always been my friend. And you grew from being spoiled to humble, from entitled, to giving, and from being rude to kind. And a day doesn't go by that I'm not proud of the man you've grown up to be. And I'm so proud to be able to call you my friend. You are my best friend. You are the one person I tell literally everything, even things you don't want to know. When someone tell me a secret, it is a given that you will know it also because I keep nothing from you. Even through our ridiculous on again, off again history, through it all the one thing that remained was that you always wanted my happiness and you always wanted my friendship. So, Draco, I promise that I will always be your friend and to always want your happiness and I will do everything in my power to give you those two things. Because with those two things we can do anything."

Draco wiped a tear from his face and I smiled at him, and I knew in that moment as he stared back at me, that this was the best decision I was ever going to make.