Best Man Speech
(AKA The Day Ginny Decided To Murder Ron)
Ding, ding, ding! Someone was banging their knife against a glass. When they all turned, there was Ron Weasley smirking at them all standing next to Harry.
"We are here today because my best mate decided to go against all the rules and marry my baby sister." There were a few chuckles that followed this statement. "Now in most Best Man speeches the best man relays some of the most embarrassing moments in the grooms life. This of course is quite hard for me to do for two reasons; number one, I am in most of these embarrassing situations and number two, my sister has threatened severe consequences if I embarrass Harry. If you have ever been on the receiving end of her bat-bogey hex you will understand my trepidation."
Many of the men in the crown visibly shuddered at his words.
"So, I'm not allowed to embarrass him." A groan passed through the crowd at this. "But she said nothing about not embarrassing her!"
Ginny looked up at her brother when he said this hand twitching towards her wand.
"Well Gin-Gin, we are going to start at your very first valentine to Harry. Not because I think that's where I should start but because I love this story. Everyone that was there or has ever heard please join in if you feel so inclined?"
He cleared his throat and began to sing;
"His eyes as green as fresh pickled toad"
All the guests who students in Hogwarts with them then joined in, George and Seamus being the loudest.
"His hair as dark as a blackboard."
The Hogwarts Professors joining in now.
"I wish he was mine, he's really divine."
Now even Hermione and Percy joined in.
"The hero who conquered the Dark Lord!"
By the end of the song Harry was trying very hard and failing miserably not to laugh out loud and Ginny had her head on the table and for all intents and purposes had no intentions of ever raising it again. It's quite shocking really that the table didn't in fact catch on fire as Ginny's face (what you could see of it anyway) was a brighter red than her hair.
"Wasn't that just a truly well thought out little number for your one true love?" Ron asked the room.
"I was eleven!" Shouted Ginny, still refusing to raise her head.
"Yes, indeed you were, Ginny, indeed you were." Ron seemed to be enjoying himself. "Now let's go back further in time to when you were four, shall we?"
"No!" Moaned the Ginny shaped table topper, trying to burrow herself into the table.
"I remember I was five years old and one of our cousins had just got married, Ginny was the flower girl." Ron smiled at the memory.
"Like me Unco Ron!" Called a little girl from her mothers arms.
"Yes Victoire." Ron answered. "Just like you. Ginny loved the wedding. She walked down the aisle throwing petals everywhere, instead of in neat little piles like she had been shown. She even wore a dress, but that was only because mum told her that if she didn't wear it she couldn't go."
Harry smiled at his new bride, she really didn't like to wear dresses. She wasn't a girly girl and that was one of the many things he loved about her. Although he did love seeing her in dresses his favourite was a little white summer dress she wore the night he proposed. But that had all changed when he saw her come into view at the end of the aisle, his world had stopped for a moment and he had, had to remember how to breathe, she looked stunning in her wedding dress.
"I remember it vividly because Fred and George had dared her take some of the cake before it was cut and if she did they'd get her some ice cream."
A laugh followed this revelation. George stood and bowed, not looking in the least bit remorseful.
"She succeeded!" Ron continued. "She was very quickly found out though, as she had covered her dress in frosting when she wiped her hands on it. At this point she was in trouble but was getting ice cream, she didn't care. Not until Mum told her she couldn't have any Harry Potter bedtime stories for a month as punishment. This was hell in Ginny's eyes, it was wonderful for the rest of us who had to listen to the story of the-boy-who-lived every single night!"
Ron turned and scowled at Harry who stuck his tongue out at him in reply, Ginny still hadn't raised her head.
"So in true Ginny fashion she started crying, ran to Dad and told on Fred and George." George was now shaking his head at his only sister. "She got out of trouble, they got in trouble, she got ice cream from Dad, they didn't get dessert for a month and we all had to listen to the-boy-who-lived that night."
"Anyway, the next day Ginny announced at breakfast that she was going to marry Harry Potter." Harry was running his fingers through his wife's hair at this point, murmuring in her ear all the while. "She had a huge teddy that Bill and Charlie had brought her for her birthday the year before and he was called...?"
"Harry Bear!" Charlie shouted from where he sat just down the table.
"Harry Bear!" Confirmed Ron. "She brought him downstairs and made Mum sew a red lightning bolt scar on his head. She then decked the front room out for her wedding, got us all to come in and watch as she walked down her aisle to marry Harry the giant bear. Dad had to walk her down the aisle of course and Bill played minister."
"Gin?" Ron asked in a sickly sweet voice. "Do you still have Harry the giant bear?"
Ginny was shaking her head from its position on the table.
"Are you lying to us Ginny?" He asked, she shook her head once again.
"Accio Harry Bear." Ron said and waved his wand.
Suddenly there was a giant brown bear with a red lightning bolt on his forehead in front of the real Harry. Ron walked over and picked it up, examining it.
"Ginny." He said shocked. "You changed his eyes from blue to green."
Harry looked over to it and it did indeed have emerald green eyes the exact shape and colour as his.
Ginny finally lifted her head at this point, flicked her wand and the bear zoomed out of Ron's hands and into her arms.
"My Harry bear!" She said menacingly to her brothers.
"As you can see, Ginny is quite protective of her first husband." It was all Ron managed to say because he suddenly found himself hanging upside down with an unknown force holding him up.
"Ginevra Weasley!" Shouted Molly. "I don't care that this is your wedding, you let your brother down this minute!"
"Potter!" Came Ginny's furious reply, but she let Ron down anyway.
Minerva McGonagall had been watching the whole scene with a smile on her face thinking of the last Potter wedding she went to, when the bride had used that exact same spell on the best man. She looked over at Harry and wondered how his face hadn't split in half with the sheer force of the smile that widened across it when Ginny had said Potter.
Ron dusted himself off and started again, not seeming to care about what his sister had just done to him.
"Let's move onto eight shall we?" He asked his sister who was still pointing her wand at him. "Fred and George had just left to go to Hogwarts and it left only me and Ginny all alone."
"Awww." Came the mocking voice of Bill. But Ron merely nodded.
"That was when Mum decided to remember that Harry would be going to Hogwarts the same year as me and forbade me to ever ask him questions about his past." Harry looked over at Molly and smiled. "She had also decided that Harry would obviously be in Gryffindor and so would I and I was not allowed to curse or hex him in any way, shape or form."
He looked down at his best friend and winked.
"Then came the day I went to Hogwarts, Ginny was distraught!" He looked at Ginny who had finally lowered her wand. "I didn't want to leave her on her own, she had never been on her own before. We tried to make an age potion so she would be a year older and come with me but Mum caught us and grounded us both for a week. That was probably a good thing as my potion ability is just awful!"
Ginny giggled.
"We got to Kings Cross and when we were there this scrawny little git with baggy clothes, messy hair and the most beautiful owl in the world was watching us." Ginny snorted at the frightfully accurate description of her husband at eleven years old. "He had no idea how to get on the platform so Mum told him how, Fred and George helped him on the train and he told them he was Harry Potter. Once Ginny heard that she had been within touching distance of her hero she wanted to get on the train."
"Mum wouldn't let her, obviously, she had seen him, nothing else mattered. While at Hogwarts that year I became friends with Harry Potter, well actually we cemented our friendship on the train. We became friends with a muggle-born bookworm, we broke a few rules."
McGonagall snorted at this.
"Okay we broke a lot of rules." He amended and smiled at his old Transfiguration Professor. "And I wrote to Ginny once a week, I borrowed Hedwig every time. she wrote back and every letter had more questions about Harry. I remember the first question she actually asked me about him was 'What colour are his eyes?' I guess that was when you changed Harry Bears eyes?"
Ginny nodded shyly her eyes back on the table, refusing to look at her new husband.
"When I got home that summer Ginny didn't shut up!" All the brothers laughed and nodded at this. "That summer; Fred, George and I jail-broke Harry from his house. What not many people know and our parents and Harry especially are about to find out is, Ginny was the mastermind behind the jail-break."
Harry gasped and looked at his wife for confirmation, she nodded looking at him through her lashes. He placed a finger under her chin and lifted her head so he could look at her, when she met his eyes he leaned in and kissed her until she forgot what she was feeling so embarrassed about. Most of the women in the room had become little piles of goo at this show of overly romantic sappiness.
"So we did as our little sister had so cunningly planned, and rescued Harry! Only problem was we did it a bit earlier than Ginny had planned and when she came down for breakfast that morning Harry was at the table." Harry chuckled at the memory of that morning, of Ginny's face. "Ginny was horrified! She had it all planned out and now there she was standing before her hero in her pyjamas!"
"We spent the rest of the summer with Harry. The whole time Ginny would do insane things every time Harry walked into the room. I happen to know that Harry's personal favourite one was when she put her elbow in the butter dish."
Ginny buried her head in Harry's neck and groaned.
"That year at Hogwarts wasn't great for Ginny and we all felt like we failed at being big brothers. But on the upside Harry Potter stopped being hero worshipped by Ginny Weasley and actually became her Hero. Also we got to hear a great song, If everyone would join in please...;
His eyes are green as fresh pickled toad,
his hair as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.
By this point Ginny looked just about ready to murder Ron. Harry had actually had to take her wand away from her.
"Third year came and went in a blur and Ginny spoke to Harry, I think, about twice." Percy chuckled at his sisters mortification. "Fourth year came and we went to the world cup, that was when Ginny decided that she wanted to play professional Quidditch. But still she couldn't speak to Harry. During this time Harry and I continued to uphold the school by in Albus Dumbledore's own words 'breaking just about every school rule'." He said it so proudly it was incredibly difficult not to smile at him.
"Fifth year." Said Ron, his voice turning sombre. "Voldemort was back, the Ministry didn't believe it. Most people didn't believe it. School was awful for Harry that year. But guess what? Ginny had started to actually speak to Harry!"
"Yes I know, truly shocking information!" Ron really did love being centre of attention. "It turns out Hermione. My Hermione." He added pointing to her in case people didn't know that the girl sitting next to him was his girlfriend. "Had told her to 'loosen up' she said that Ginny had to actually speak and Harry might just notice that she existed."
"I'm not quite sure how any of you would have taken that information but Ginny took it as, 'gotta find myself a boyfriend'. Really sorry Michael, but you really were just a pawn to get Harry to see her." He winked at a young man in the crown that was holding a a very pretty young woman's hand. "She joined Dumbledore's Army and Harry really did start to notice her, of course he was also noticing someone else." He smiled over to the girl who was holding Michaels hand. "Cho again sorry. But lets face it, it was never going to work out between you two."
"Harry and Cho were very short lived and Michael and Ginny didn't work out either. When I found out that Ginny and Michael had broken up I thought Harry was going to ask Ginny out but no! I've been called thick many times but even I could see that my best mate had started to look at my sister differently, only he didn't notice."
"So we come to sixth year and Harry and Ginny finally come together." Ginny grinned up at her brother. "She had convinced herself she didn't have any feelings for him and he had been beating himself up all year for liking his best friends sister."
"He did something stupid, that may have broken a few school rules." He laughed. "And landed himself in detention on the last Quidditch match of the season. Ginny had to play seeker, she won! We were all so happyand were celebrating when Harry finally made an appearance. He came in, Ginny ran over to him, to give him the cup and instead of taking it from her, kissed her in front of everyone."
Quite a few people laughed at this.
"When they finally detached their lips from each other and remembered there were other people in the room, I think it was fairly certain that they were officially a couple. Then Harry, noble prat that he is, goes and dumps her!" Charlie growled down the table. It was truly astonishing how much like a dragon he actually was sometimes. "It hurt her, a lot. But did she let it show? Oh no, of course not. Instead she invites Harry into her room on his birthday and proceeded to snog his face off. How do I know this? Well it's simple really, I walked in on them accidental."
At both Harry and Ginny's looks of incredulity he smiled and said. "I walked in on them, on purpose."
"But it didn't matter. It didn't matter that Harry loved her nothing mattered, we had to leave, we had run." The room had gone deathly silent at this, no matter how many times people had asked why they had run and what they did while on the run, they hadn't told. "While we were on the run we had to keep look out, on Harry's lookouts I watched him sometimes, he didn't know. When it was him, he pulled out a map. I won't tell you about this map all I'll say is it once belonged to Harry's father and on it Harry could watch Ginny. Every time I watched him while he was on lookout he was watching her. When Hermione was on lookout I used to lay in bed. Something about Harry you probably didn't know unless you shared a dorm with him for six years, he talks in his sleep. It would amaze you how many times I heard my sisters name while Harry was asleep."
"That's when I realised it wasn't a game to him, he really truly loved my sister." Ron was looking at them both with a warm smile on his face. "Then it was all over, the war was over. We were free! But they didn't get back together. I didn't understand why, I do now. Harry was ill, very ill, for a while we didn't know if he was going to come out the other side."
The room had gone silent again. This was news to most of them there, when was Harry ill? Ron didn't elaborate and Harry would be eternally grateful for this.
"But then they were together again. And if you saw the both of them you would say you had never seen a couple more in love than them both." He sighed then smiled.
"Last week, my brothers and I got a small group of friends together and took Harry out for his stag do. Have you ever seen Harry Potter drunk? It's quite hilarious as long as you're not Ginny's brothers that is. Harry sang a long and drawn out song on all the reasons that he loved her. I'm not going to sing that as I really don't ever want to hear it again."
"What I can tell you Ginny is, this man loves you with all his heart. That's saying something because Harry Potters heart is so much bigger than most. He is my best friend and you are my sister and if I ever had to choose a man for you I would have chosen him. You are perfect for each other in every way and I will do anything to help you both."
He raised his glass and said; "To Harry and Ginny, she loved him from the moment she heard his name and he loved her from the moment he first looked into her eyes. Like I wasn't going to tell anyone that." He smirked at Harry.
"Harry and Ginny!" Everyone in the room chorused.
"Okay one more time from the top!" Shouted George in his best DJ voice.
His eyes are green as fresh pickled toad,
his hair as dark as a blackboard.
I wish he was mine, he's really divine,
The hero who conquered the Dark Lord.
.
"From the first moment you looked into my eyes?" Ginny whispered later that night as she danced in Harry's arms.
"Sorry it took so long to notice what it was." He murmured in reply.
"You noticed in the end."She smiled up at him. "That's plenty enough for me."
He leaned down and kissed her and for a while the whole world disappeared, it was just them in an embrace on an empty dance floor.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sorry I'm a huge Harry Ginny shipper in case you haven't noticed yet? ;)
I am planning one with Harry's speech at Ron's wedding if anyone would like to read that one let me know?
Also please review? I don't seem to be getting many for this fic, none at all for the last chapter and I'm starting to feel like no one actually reads it.
