Author's Note
Happy Easter everyone!
Love,
Wishin' Girl x x x
...
P.S. TRIGGER WARNING a couple of references to Gloria's homophobic views.
...
The eleventh week after Fred had received the letter that had upended his life did not start well.
"That's new." Gloria stated in an accusatory tone as she fingered the Eiffel Tower shaped muggle keyring hanging on Fred's bag of galleons.
"Um, yeah I went to Paris the other week." Fred replied in an off hand tone as he handed the money for their drinks over to the bar tender at the White Wyvern.
"For work?" Gloria asked as they carried their drinks over to their usual Monday night table.
"Not really" Fred answered, hiding his blush well by taking a long sip of his beer.
"Who did you go with?" Gloria felt like she'd hit upon something here, she thought he had understood the importance of not hiding things from her after the hospital debacle but clearly he didn't consider foreign travel to be a big deal either, just like having magical emergency surgery.
"Oh, um just Hermione. I translated for her." Fred tried to placate his ministry appointed fiancee as he noticed the dangerous look flash in her eyes.
It did not work.
So Fred was subjected to another hour long lecture about informing her about things going on in his life, which he fully appreciated was something he really should have been doing with the women he was to marry, but it soon turned into a lecture on not spending alone time with other women when he was engaged to her. This too seemed entirely reasonable to Fred when he thought about it logically but he hadn't forgotten that Gloria Nott was highly skilled at manipulation, loved his blood status rather than him and hadn't seemed to grasp that Hermione was 'just a friend'. Soon Fred turned out of Gloria's tirade, which for the sake of peace was probably a very good thing as there were soon several digs at Hermione's blood status woven into the speech and Fred entirely missed the last forty five minutes which consisted of a hissed monologue explaining that the worst thing that Fred had done had been consorting with a known 'mudblood'.
In the end Fred, who had only listened to the first five minutes and therefore missed the bulk of the speech, placate his fiancee by agreeing that Gloria probably should start to become more of a feature in his life and so, following her prompting, Fred invited his soon to be wife to his brother Charlie's wedding that would be taking place that Saturday.
…
The days since her trip to Paris had been strange.
Hermione was used to Fred being around and a big part of her, at least weekly, life, however she hadn't seen him since he dropped her off from their portkey home. It unsettled her in a way that she couldn't really put her finger on, almost like a bad smell you notice when entering a building but whenever you try to follow it it vanishes. Work was going well though, she had shared all of the details from the trip with her supervisors and colleagues who were outraged at the older french men's comments but chuckled when they hear that Hermione had gladly spent a large portion of their gold on having a good evening out. She had turned down her head of department's offer to terminate St Mungo's hospital with them despite his insistence that they could not get away with treating her like that, on the one condition that all future work and correspondence went through Julian, the mention of whom raised a few eyebrows and dragged out a wolf whistle or two when she blushingly gave her reasons why.
Thursday morning came around bright and warm so Hermione opted to walk into work that day, enjoying a take away coffee from her favourite London based cafe as she listened to her fellow commuters exchange gossip and share their plans for the day. Every pedestrian crossing light had quickly turned green for her and she managed to make it all the way into work without being dive bombed by a city pigeon, sworn at by a middle aged man in lycra on his bicycle or cat called by high vis wearing builders. All of this meant that Hermione was in a wonderful mood when she got to her desk to find a note from one of the hospital's receptionists informing her that she had an unexpected visitor waiting for her at the main entrance and so she quickly scribbled a reply to let the visitor come down and meet her in the researchers' main meeting room.
"Miss Granger?" An elegant woman with perfectly pin straight blonde hair and an expensive looking set of well tailored robes asked as she entered and closed the fogged glass door.
"Yes, good morning." Hermione greeted kindly offering the new woman her hand. "I'm sorry, but the receptionist didn't give your name."
"I'm Gloria," the prim woman replied, sneering and turned her nose up in disgust at Hermione's proffered hand before perching on the edge of a nearby seat "Gloria Nott."
Hermione's whole body went cold as though she had plunged herself into the burrow's pond in mid winter and she was sure her skin had gone from its healthy summer gold to a pallid grey.
"How can I help you Miss Nott?" She enquired as confidently as she could manage and took a seat opposite the blond.
"Very simply. You can stay away from my husband." Gloria requested, no more like instructed, with a look in her eye that said she was not to be disobeyed.
"I don't think I know your husband Mrs Nott." Hermione was well aware of what Gloria meant but she wasn't having some snooty death eater spawn keeping her from one of her best friends without good reason.
"My soon to be husband then, Fred Weasley." Gloria snapped "I know you're after him but you may as well give up now. He would never sink so low as to be with a filthy mudblood like you, he is a pure blood in case you didn't notice and he deserves someone who didn't steal her magic. You've had your fun but now this pursuit of yours is just becoming embarrassing for all of us, cut your ties with my fiance or suffer the consequences. You may be able to hide the message on your arm warning pure bloods to keep their distance from your filth but when I'm through with you you'll never be able to hide the well deserved scars."
The sentiments and derogatory words she had heard many times before but the venom in Gloria's voice was far more deadly than she had heard from anyone but Bellatrix Lestrange and sudden flashbacks from Malfoy Manor prevented Hermione from voicing a rebuttal before Gloria Nott had swept from the room in a swirl of expensive silk.
…
2 days later and Hermione was point blank refusing to let her little confrontation with Gloria phase her as she, Ginny, Audrey and Fleur got ready for the wedding together. Ginny was the focus of their little group as Audrey helped her into her bridesmaid's, or 'best woman's dress, Hermione sculpted her fiery hair with the practiced ease of a best friend and Fleur applied her subtle make up as though she were a professional.
Charlie and Oliver had opted not to have a best man each but instead to have a collection of best men and best women. Charlie had enlisted all of his siblings and his best friend from the dragon reserve, Stefan, as his seven while Oliver claimed the rest of his captained house quidditch team in the form of Harry (who had also been asked by Charlie as an honorary Weasley brother but had kindly declined in favour of Oliver who had a much smaller family by jokingly claiming he suited Oliver's colour choice much better than Charlie's to many protests of 'the man who lived can pull off any colour he chooses'), Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell, Alicia Spinnet, Oliver's older brother Kyle and two of his best friends and team mates from Puddlemere United, Jason and Tyler.
Ginny's dress was made of electric blue silk that hung from two spaghetti straps, wrapped around her waist with a bow and floated down to her knees with a breezy slit where the wrapped fabric met. Charlie and his brothers all wore traditional wizarding summer wedding robes in an identical electric blue that were sculpted to show off their bodies' best features. Oliver and his entourage wore exact replicas but in a complementary midnight blue for the summer evening wedding.
The burrow's garden was set up with a small circular stage topped with an archway covered in ivy and blue cornflowers, concentric circles of oak chairs surrounded the platform split by two aisles on opposite side of the archway each lined with a path of ivy and edged with cornflowers and lit candles in every shade of blue imaginable.
When eight o'clock arrived and all of the guests were seated in anticipation, a cellist began to play as Kyle and Bill each made their way down opposite aisles to meet at the centre stage. Stefan and Jason followed next and then came Percy and Tyler, Fred and Alicia, George and Angelina, Ron and Katie, and Ginny and Harry. When all fourteen had taken their seats in the front row the cellist changed the melody to play a string version of Gabriel's Oboe and all the guests rose to their feet as the two grooms appeared. Gasps of delight and tears of joy sprang from those gathered in celebration as the loved up pair looked eyes at either end of the double aisle and slowly made their way to join each other at the flowered archway. The smiles on both of their faces looked like they could never fade as they embraced and shared a chaste kiss before the officiant begun the formal ceremony.
By the time the adorable couple shared their first passionate kiss as a married couple there was only one dry eye left in the congregation, Gloria Nott's. She really didn't understand or approve of this wedding as to her the only point of getting married was to secure the blood lines of any future pure blood, or near pure blood, offspring. However her ticket to such a marriage was one of the groom's brothers so, with a well disguised sneer, she held her tongue.
As the evening wedding's lighting turned from summer sun to starry night more levitating candles appeared around the outdoor dining tables and dance floor. Gloria had had enough by this point though, all of the other guests were actually celebrating this marriage rather than condemning it and after several glasses of, in her opinion 'tacky', prosecco she was struggling to hold her tongue any longer. She stuck her nose up at all of Fred's friends and family, especially Molly when she made an effort to make the blonde feel welcome.
"When we're married you won't have to bother with any of these wannabes anymore." She told Fred as they danced "All of these pathetic people just like you for your money and we'll have enough of that and enough house elves that we won't need to be associated with them any longer. Roll on September!"
Her comments throughout the evening had been chipping away at Fred, grating on his patience and he couldn't keep quiet any longer.
"Look you don't have to have anything to do with them but I will." He snapped, pushing her away and leaving the dance floor with her hot on his heels. "I love then, they are my friends and my family - "
"But I will be your wife and that's far more important!" She snapped before demanding "You will leave them for me."
"I… I just need some space…"