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"Snape's been even worse than normal," Harry commented as he watched his wife try to comfort a pair of crying first years.
"Yes, even the Slytherins had complaints about him at the prefect meeting but Professor McGonagall wouldn't listen," Hermione said. "I'm at my wits end knowing what to do but the seventh year prefects are going to start offering group tutoring in potions now that they've finished their NEWT's."
"He's horrible to all of us, and the things he said to Elsie are almost unforgiveable. He has no reason to dislike her other than the fact she's my wife," Neville said.
"We should write the twins and ask them to prank him," Ron suggested.
"If he was single then he'd have been paired up to marry too," Hermione said.
"He might have been taking it out on your wife because she's willing to move here with you and his isn't," Harry suggested.
"He's not a student and I doubt his wife is either, so they have to have a baby in the next year, I know from my sister that trying to have a baby can be stressful even with someone you love, and that was without the ministry making threats of getting involved or dissolving the marriage and making you both marry someone else," Katie said.
"I hadn't thought about the professors having to marry," Dean said.
"I feel sorry for his poor wife," Seamus said shuddering.
"I feel sorry for her if he's being even half as vicious to her as he is to the first years," Hermione agreed.
"Who else among the professors had to get married? And how does that work, they have to live here and we haven't seen any strangers in the castle?"
"The professor's quarters must have a private floo connection," Lavender suggested.
"Professors Babbling, Sinistra, Vector, Trelawny, Hagrid if he isn't exempt for being a half giant, and maybe Sprout or Madam Pomfrey, if they weren't already married though they'll still need to have a baby, so will most of your parents if they still can," Hermione said thoughtfully.
"I wonder who they were paired with?" Parvati said curiously.
"How would we find out?" Seamus asked.
"Harry's map would tell us," Ron said.
Harry glared at his mate, only his closest friends knew about what his map could do, and he'd wanted to keep it that way.
"It's a huge invasion of their privacy. Surely if they wanted us to know they would have announced their marriages in 'The Prophet'," Hermione said.
"Come on Hermione, if this map thing can tell us you know Harry's going to look, and we all know he'd show you," Seamus said.
"Yeah we want to know who the poor sod married to Snape is. Maybe we should send her a condolence card," Dean added.
Harry sighed and went to get the map. "It's too late for casual visitors so anyone together in the professor's quarters is probably a couple," he said holding out the already activated map.
"Snape's not there," Ron said pointing to the quarters he'd had in the dungeons.
"I'm not all that surprised, I wouldn't want to live under the ground so unless he married a Slytherin they would want him to move up with the other professors," Hermione said practically.
"Okay Vector and Sinistra are together, do you think they were already married?" Harry asked.
"They might have used the rune circles," Parvati suggested eagerly.
"We used each one until it needed repairing every night. I never heard of one being miraculously fixed before we got to it," Hermione replied.
"There's Snape and I don't recognise the name Winsome Vane," Ron pointed out.
"Would she be a relative of Romilda in fourth year?" Elsie asked.
"Poor Romilda, I hope it's not her sister," Parvati said.
"I hope it's not her mum, imagine having Snape as a stepdad!" Dean said shuddering.
-o0o-
The sixth year exams began as OWLs and NEWTs finished and it was Neville and his friends' turn to be stressed and stay up late cramming. Elsie was pleased to escape their studying and spend time with the other fifth years who had a lot of free time on their hands. The fifth year Gryffindors were all nice enough though Colin Creevey was a little too excitable and could be annoying with his camera everywhere. Ron's sister Ginny puzzled her, she quite liked the girl at first but she'd had to disagree when the red head said some terrible things about Hermione who'd been nothing but nice and supportive to her. One of the other fifth year girls explained about Ginny dating Harry and them breaking up just before he married Hermione, Demelza Robbins, from one of the younger years pointed out that it was Ginny that broke up with Harry so she had no reason to blame Hermione who was dating her brother at the time. Elsie was shocked, Harry and Hermione seemed so perfect for each other and happily married but if they'd been dating other people right before the wedding maybe they were right in saying there was hope for her and Neville to be happy together too. A few of the fifth years were already sixteen or were turning sixteen over the summer and were stressed out wondering who their ministry matches would be or planning their weddings. Elsie was envious at how involved in the planning most of them seemed to be, even though they weren't home to help with the actual preparations or to attend dress fittings. Most of them were determined to have the wedding day they wanted even if they weren't happy with the choice of groom, or didn't yet know who the groom would be, and said that their families were prepared to support them to have the wedding they wanted even if they couldn't have the marriage they wanted. Several of them moaned the loss of the ritual circles saying that in spite of all the planning and the beautiful white dress and wedding they'd give it all up for the boy of their choosing if only he would ask, but none of them had been involved in the research and drawing of the original ritual circles and while there were a few older witches and wizards prepared to help draw them they did warn them that the ritual would fail unless both parties were completely committed to a permanent bond and if they had any doubts a ministry marriage with the possibility of divorce after the birth of their third child would be a better if less romantic option. Especially with the very real risk of conception whether a bond formed or not.
When Elsie asked Hermione about this she replied that they'd been lucky, none of her friends had conceived a child during the ritual to the successful partner or any unsuccessful attempts but that there had been a couple of pregnancies where the witch and her bonded were anxiously awaiting the birth of their child to perform paternity charms and possible blood adoptions before anyone else in the family realised, along with one which had to have been conceived from one of the earlier attempts because the successful bonding was between two witches but that they were both relieved to have conceived because it took care of the need to produce two children within the next six years to comply with the marriage law. In that case the wizards who had fathered the children had to know but they had both willingly given permission for their child's mother's wife to blood adopt the baby as long as they renounced the child's claim on their magical family so it wasn't a problem. Elsie was shocked that witches could or would even want to marry another witch but Hermione said it was quite normal in the muggle world and she believed that the only reason it was so rare in their world was the purebloods need to produce an heir to carry on family lines. Elsie had to admit that she really didn't know very many people and other than her family she didn't know any of them well enough to know things like that about them. Both the witches involved seemed quite normal to her, she couldn't tell that they didn't want to marry a wizard so she supposed other witches and wizards felt like that and it was hidden by the fact that so many pureblood marriages were arranged, and she was glad that these two had found a way to marry the person they wanted. She wondered whether she could have felt the same if she had met enough people to form an attraction to someone. One thing she was very sure though was that she was glad she wasn't expecting a baby, and given that they hadn't had sex since their wedding night it seemed Neville was quite happy about that as well.
-o0o-
Breakfast on the morning before they left for the summer was disrupted by a virtual storm of owls delivering invitations to numerous weddings occurring over the summer. Neville, Dean, Seamus and Lavender all looked at Ron and nodded smiling. Harry and Hermione received invitations from Dean and Leanne, and from Seamus and Parvati whose families had insisted on holding a reception to celebrate their wedding, and gratefully accepted both.
"You're not going to come to my wedding?" Ron asked angrily when they didn't say anything to him.
"We didn't receive an invitation, Ron," Harry replied, slightly hurt. "Maybe Eloise's mum thought it would be too awkward to have your ex-girlfriend and her husband there."
"I'll fix that, I'm not gonna get married without my best friends there," Ron said furiously.
Hermione reached out and grabbed his arm before he could storm off. "This is not Eloise's fault, I know she was intending to invite us. You don't want to go over there and yell at her about it, and risk saying something hurtful that you don't actually mean," she said urgently. "Go and ask her nicely to write to her parents and ask them to send an additional
invitation if you want us to come. I'm sure it's just a misunderstanding."
She held tightly onto Ron until she could see his initial temper starting to fade as her words sank in. Hopefully telling Eloise wouldn't set him off again and he'd be able to tell her what was wrong without yelling at her or blaming her for the missing invitations.
"You think it was an accident? That the owl got lost or someone dropped our envelope on the way to the owl office?" Harry asked quietly.
"No, but I'm sure it isn't Eloise's fault, or her parents' fault either. I think that our names weren't on the list of Ron's friends and family that they were given," Hermione replied, upset that her words would upset Harry but refusing to lie to him when the truth would only hurt him more later.
"Mr and Mrs Weasley don't want us to come?" Harry asked sadly.
"I think Mr Weasley would've left the details to his wife," Hermione said hopefully. They already knew that Mrs Weasley was upset with them but they hadn't heard anything from Mr Weasley who had always left the bulk of the family correspondence to his wife. "The important thing to remember is that if Ron wants us there we will go, regardless what anyone else thinks or wants."
"I hope that our presence doesn't cause more trouble than it's worth," Harry said sighing. "Ron and Eloise don't deserve to have their wedding ruined by Mrs Weasley's temper."
"You heard Ron, Harry. He's going to be even more upset if we're not there, than about anything his mum or Ginny says about seeing us. All we can do is make sure Ron warns both of them that we're going to be there so they can lose their tempers and get over it before the wedding," Hermione said practically.
Reminding himself firmly of Hermione's advice, Ron went up and sat next to Eloise.
"Hi Ron, did your friends all say they will come to the wedding?" Eloise asked excitedly.
"Everyone except Harry and Hermione. They didn't receive an invitation," Ron replied. In spite of his best intentions his anger and hurt at the situation leaked through. "I can't believe that you wanted to hurt them like that by having everyone else get their invitations in front of them. If you were going to exclude them then the least you could have done was wait to send the invitations out tomorrow after we get home," He said remembering the expressions his friends had both tried hard to hide for his sake.
"I don't know what happened. Harry and Hermione were definitely supposed to be invited. I wrote their names on my list of friends as well to make sure. Hermione has been so nice to me. I'll write to Mum and Dad straight away and tell them that one of the invitations was lost and they need to send another," Eloise stammered horrified, pulling parchment and a quill out of her bag.
Hedwig landed on Ron's shoulder as she finished the letter, holding his leg out imperiously.
"Okay Hedwig, you can take the note since it's so important," Ron said amused.
"Is he yours?" One of Eloise's friends asked. "He's gorgeous."
"No, she's Harry's, though Hermione says that Hedwig seems to think that it's more like Harry belongs to Hedwig than the other way around. Proper owl-pecked he is. I think they're well on their way to a familiar bond, they have real conversations," Ron said.
"And Harry sent her over to take Eloise's letter?" Hannah asked.
"Harry didn't send her, he never orders her to do anything. They might have asked her to take the letter for me but it was her choice to come and help out Elle, she won't always do it. The only person she'll take a letter to the twins or my mum for is Harry," Ron replied.
"Then why'd she agree to take this letter?" Eloise asked.
"Because she knows getting the letter to Elle's mum and getting their invitations will make Harry feel better," Ron said giving Hedwig the letter Eloise gave to him.
-o0o-
Harry and Hermione exchanged a resigned look when breakfast passed the next morning with no sign of an invitation to the Midgen-Weasley wedding. Ron got up and went over to visit Eloise at the Hufflepuff table. This time it was much harder to be calm and admit that it wasn't Eloise's fault. "Harry and Hermione still haven't received their invitations," he hissed.
"Perhaps Hedwig didn't deliver my letter yet, or is still on the way," Eloise suggested.
"Hedwig has never not delivered a letter and she's already back. She came in to steal Harry's sausages, I don't know how you missed seeing her," Ron replied offended on his friend's owl's behalf.
"Then I don't know why she didn't bring back their invitation, but I'll sort it out this afternoon when we get home," Eloise tried to reassure him.
"There's no point having a fancy wedding if my best friends aren't allowed to come. We can go to the ministry marriage office one day with Harry and Hermione to witness," Ron said.
"But my parents, I cannot get married without them there! And everything is all arranged. Mum and Dad will be so embarrassed if they have to cancel it all because we eloped," Eloise exclaimed.
"And I cannot get married without Harry and Hermione there," Ron said. "Harry and Hermione have always been there for me. I remember how much it hurt to be excluded from Neville's wedding, even though I know Neville had nothing to do with who was invited, and he's not my best mate. I won't do that to my best friends."
"I promise that I'll have an invitation for Harry and Hermione tomorrow if I have to write them one myself," Eloise said determinedly.
-o0o-
Eloise was one of the first off the train that afternoon preparing to confront her mother before Harry and Hermione got off so she could drag her mother over and have her assure Ron and his friends that an invitation would be on its way as soon as they got home to send it.
"Eloise dearest. How was your journey?" Magdalena Midgen asked as she greeted her daughter on platform nine and three quarters that afternoon.
"Hello Mum. It was very uncomfortable actually. We sat with Ron's best friends, Harry and Hermione. I felt like I should keep apologizing to them for their invitations to the wedding going missing so oddly. They tried to be nice about it but a blind muggle could see how upset they both were not to receive an invitation to their best friend's wedding, and how upset Ron was that they were hurting like that," Eloise replied pointedly. Her family were the only people she wasn't shy around and she wasn't slow to voice her feelings.
Magdalena sighed. "I have their invitations here but I have to ask, are you sure dear that you want them at your wedding?"
"Why wouldn't I? Harry and Hermione have been nothing but nice to me since Ron introduced us, Mum. In fact, I don't think that Ron or I would be as accepting of this marriage without their help, they help smooth things over between us more often than not. They're his best friends and he wants them at his wedding. Ginny has been dating someone else and they share a common room so it isn't like she's not used to seeing them together. It shouldn't upset her to see them at the wedding and anyway it isn't her wedding. It's mine! And I don't want my new husband sulking the whole night because his best friends aren't there! Harry would be his best man if he didn't think his mother would throw too much of a fit. So give me the invitations so I can give them to them before they leave the platform," Eloise said decisively.
"It wasn't about Ginny, you do know that Ron tried to marry Hermione?" Magdalena asked.
"Yes, Ron told me that it caused some awkwardness when the ritual wouldn't marry them and Hermione married Harry instead but their friendship was strong enough to get over all that. Ron's happy that Hermione's happily married to Harry, they're not star crossed lovers," Eloise said.
Magdalena handed over the two envelopes labelled 'Mr Harry Potter' and 'Miss Hermione Granger'.
"You do realise that they're married to each other?" Eloise asked looking at the envelopes incredulously.
"Has Hermione changed her name? I've heard that wives in the muggle world don't do that anymore," Magdalena asked.
"Yes she changed her name. I just hope Hermione Potter believes that you're just ignorant about muggle things and doesn't realise that this is another attempt by Mrs Weasley to hurt her and Harry to punish them for not marrying her children," Eloise said crossly. "I swear one more attempt to use my wedding to punish Harry or Hermione, and we'll be getting married at the ministry so she can't ruin it any further."
"You don't mean that?"
"Ron does," Eloise retorted. "It was a huge insult to send all their other friends their invitations so they arrived at breakfast in front of Harry and Hermione yesterday. And then not to send their invitations this morning either. If the ministry weren't forcing us to marry, he probably would've called the whole thing off he was so angry, and it was Harry and Hermione I have to thank for calming him down and reminding him that it wasn't my fault. I've got to get these invitations to Harry and Hermione."
She rushed over to the couple who were becoming as much her friends as Ron's.
"Sorry about the separate invitations. Mum's got some weird ideas about muggle marriage and women keeping their maiden names and wanting to be seen as individuals or some such rot," Eloise said.
"That's okay, some women do, but mostly just professionally," Hermione said smiling as she opened the invitation. "We'd love to come," she said hugging her new friend.
"Thanks for the invitation Eloise, I'm sorry to be causing problems for you with Mrs Weasley," Harry added.
"Thank you, Hermione, I'm sorry about all this. I really want you to be there not just for Ron's sake. Harry too. The two of you have been really great about helping me fit in with Ron's friends and smoothing over differences we've had," Eloise said.
"Well Harry is definitely an expert at that, he's been smoothing over arguments between Ron and I, and translating Ron's opinions into language I can understand since we became friends in first year. I'm glad our bonding didn't work, we'd have ended up killing each other without Harry to play go between. You and Ron are much better suited," Hermione said.
"I'm glad you think so," Eloise murmured uncertainly.
"Ron thinks so too. I know it's hard but it will get easier, you'll see," Hermione said encouragingly.
"That's easy for you to say. You and Harry have been best friends forever and you're perfect for each other. Look at Neville and Elsie, it doesn't seem to be getting easier for them," Eloise said.
"Ron and I have been friends forever too and it never would have worked out. We're too different. You and Ron are good together, and from what Neville has told us, he and Elsie were excessively chaperoned right up until the wedding and even since then her mother hovers around them except when they're in their room at night. They might be married but they have spent much less time together than you and Ron have, I believe it will get better between them as they get to know each other," Hermione reminded her new friend.
"Ron and I have a lot in common but I'm afraid we want different things from life," Eloise said. "I want to get a mastery in charms, and become a spell creator. Ron wants a wife who will stay at home like his mother did."
Hermione couldn't deny the truth of that. It had been one of the reasons that she'd been glad in hindsight that the bond hadn't taken between her and Ron. "I'll support you and I know Harry will too, he's a big believer in equal rights for everyone. Between the three of us I'm sure we can persuade Ron to let you study for a mastery in charms, once you have that you could create spells from home if that's what you wanted to do," she said hopefully.
-o0o-
That night, Arthur followed his youngest son out to the field they used as a Quidditch pitch and found him sitting angrily pulling up clumps of grass.
"I wish that the ministry had let you all graduate from Hogwarts and choose your own husbands and wives," Arthur said somewhat sympathetically. "But it isn't your mother's fault that you have to get married this summer. Please don't take your anger out on Molly, she's just trying to make the best of the situation, and she's a bit more emotional at the moment so we all need to be a little more gentle with her."
Ron sighed. "I know it's the ministry's fault and I like Lou, she's a great friend and an alright girlfriend but I just don't want to get married. Everything is changing and I feel like I'm not ready."
"Yes," Arthur agreed. "Growing up is like that but it has hit you earlier than the others. You would have found that things changed next summer when you finished Hogwarts and went into the workforce and started building a career for yourselves, and then again when you became engaged. It's just hit you the other way around."
Ron shrugged. "This marriage law sucks."
"I'm not in favour of it either, but it is what it is and we cannot change it at the moment," Arthur replied.
"I know it's difficult to choose between your brothers but they'd all understand that you can't have all of them because your bride wanted a small wedding party," Arthur said encouragingly.
"Don't you get it Dad, not having best man or groomsmen was already a bloody compromise. I wanted Harry to be my best man," Ron said angrily. "I didn't get to be his because he didn't have a wedding and Harry says he understands that I can't ask him because of Mum and Ginny but I'm not gonna choose someone else to stand in his bloody place just to make Mum happy. Lou doesn't have anyone she really wants as bridesmaid so she's fine with me not having a best man. Did you know Mum told Mr and Mrs Midgen not to invite Harry and Hermione to the wedding?"
"No Ron, I wouldn't have let her exclude them from your wedding. We knew from your letters that the three of you had made your peace with what happened and we're friends again," Arthur replied. "Did you manage to get the Midgen's to invite them?"
"Yes, two days after everyone else. Lou fought for it, her mum wasn't going to, she said that Mum had a point that it would be awkward for Eloise to have to see my ex-girlfriend at her wedding and Harry wouldn't want to come without his wife, but Lou convinced her mother she wanted Harry and Hermione to come. Hermione offered to stay home and let Harry come on his own if it would make Lou more comfortable, but she and Hermione are friends. Lou wanted her to come," Ron said.
"That's good. I'm glad you got it sorted. You don't have to choose a best man. I'll talk to Molly," Arthur said clasping his son on the shoulder.
"It's still not the same as if they'd been invited in the first place. You should have seen their faces when they realised everyone else in our year in Gryffindor and their partners had been invited to my wedding and they hadn't been. Mrs Midgen sent the invitations so they arrived at breakfast in front f them," Ron said.
"I'm very sorry it happened that way," Arthur said intending to write an apology to Harry and Hermione.
"Me too, but sorry didn't fix it," Ron said. "Harry and Hermione are my best friends, I want them there and Ginny's not half so heartbroken as she's making out to be. She's just being a spoiled brat, she was doing it at school too, acting like her heart was breaking when Harry or Hermione was around and laughing and flirting with all the boys when they weren't and I don't know why Mum's falling for it."
"Your mother is a bit preoccupied at the moment and I think she's latching onto supporting Ginny in part because she feels guilty that she's being replaced as the youngest Weasley, we'd both like to know you're all happy and settled before we start again with a new baby or three," Arthur said.
A/N: Thank you to all those who reviewed followed or favourited this story for your support.
Stay safe everyone.