Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter book series or movie adaptations.
Note: Another chapter that seems like it's taken ten years to get out! Sorry guys, but I just had surgery and school got in the way quite a bit. Thanks so much for you guys' continued love and support for me and my writing!
Chapter Ten: Lace
To whom it may concern,
SCORPIUS HYPERION MALFOY and ROSE PERDITA WEASLEY hereby invite you to share in the joy of their wedding day and invite you to witness the first day of their joint life together on at sunset on SUNDAY, THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF AUGUST 2025 at the HOGWARTS GROUNDS. The bride and groom ask that you RSVP with them as soon as possible.
Exactly a week before my wedding day, I hurried to write down all of the guests that had RSVP'd. It was time to begin deciding where everyone would sit at the reception (let's be honest, it was past time, but I had been busy), and not for the first time I was utterly frustrated with the size of my family. Scorpius sat next to me, writing down all of the guests on his side.
"Canopus and Hugo," my fiance mused to himself as his eyes flicked through the names on his page. "Do you reckon we should sit them together, or apart?"
"I was planning on having our families sit together anyway," I said offhandedly, "You, me, your grandmother, our parents, and our brothers, at one table. That was already the plan before the boys told us, and they're going as dates. We may as well stick to it."
Scorpius nodded and kept writing. We each remained in silence for a few more minutes, until we were done writing all of the names down. Unfortunately for us, however, that was only half of our job done, and we still had to actually divide the guests up into groups, with fourteen tables ("Thirteen is an unlucky number, dear," croned Narcissa in my mind) and eight chairs per table.
"We can't sit the Zabinis near your Uncle Bill's family," Scorpius said. "Adrina and Dominique have an old school rivalry apparently."
"Alright," I said, "Then let's sit the Zabinis near Uncle Harry's family instead."
Scorpius nodded. The following hour went by in much the same way, one of us reminding the other of the rifts in our two families, and the other offering solutions. By the end of it, the seating chart looked to me very much like a very fragile, very expensive vase balanced perfectly on a needle.
Two days before my wedding day, my mother, Astoria, Narcissa, and I were gathered on the Hogwarts grounds, setting up the venue for the wedding with Hagrid looking over us to make sure that everything was orderly, since he was still the groundskeeper.
"So Rosie," my mother began.
My wand was in the air as I helped her lower chairs down in the proper arrangements on the ground, and I answered without looking at her. "Yeah Mum?"
"Astoria and I were talking yesterday, and we were just wondering…" I looked at Mum out of the corner of my eye, and her smile seemed almost abashed as she seemed to search for the proper way to say what was on her mind. "Have you and Scorpius decided when you'll be giving us grandchildren?"
My concentration broke, and I snapped my head over to look at her at exactly the same time that the chair I had been levitating crashed to the ground. I thought for a moment that I heard wood splinter, but I didn't focus on it for a long moment as I processed what she'd just said.
"What happened?"
I looked over to see Narcissa and Astoria coming over, wands already waving to clean up the mess I'd accidentally made. I looked back and forth between the three women for a long moment before letting out a deep, calming breath. "No, Mum. We haven't decided when, or if, we'll be having a baby."
"If?" Narcissa looked ready to explode.
"If," I echoed with a nod. "This is an arranged marriage. We're going to try to make it work, but if we find that we're unhappy married then we aren't going to have a child and subject them to two parents that can't stand each other."
The three women in front of me had completely stopped setting up now and all stared at me. My mother's gaze was one of understanding, while Astoria's was abject confusion. Narcissa looked positively livid.
"You can't just not have children," Narcissa said. "Scorpius is the last Malfoy. If he doesn't provide an heir, then who knows what will happen to the estate after the both of you die?"
"Well," I said, "After we're both dead, it will be none of our concern. And neither of us want to have a baby out of obligation, so if you think for one second that you can convince either of us using archaic logic like that, you're very mistaken."
Narcissa still looked ready to argue, but Astoria spoke up instead. "We won't argue," she said, with finality, "But please, Rose, make sure you've put plenty of thought into this."
I nodded. "We have."
On the morning of my wedding, I woke up two hours late. I'd spent a majority of the night before owling back and forth with my soon-to-be-husband and going over all of the planning three different times before deeming it ready. By the time I fell asleep, the sun was creeping over the horizon.
I woke up to the sound of my mother knocking hurriedly at my door. "Rose," she called, "All of the ladies will be here in less than ten minutes to head over to the grounds together. What's taking you so long?"
I gasped and jumped out of bed. "I'll be right there!" I all but yelled.
I quickly put on a pair of tights and a long, comfortable tank top, along with some trainers, and then put my hair up in a messy ponytail. My outfit for the morning didn't matter; nobody would care what I was wearing until sunset. I grabbed the suitcase that had all of the women's outfits (via undetectable extension charm) and raced downstairs right as the floo roared to life.
Within the next five minutes, Deirdre, Alice, Victoire and Daniella, Narcissa, Astoria, my mother, and I were headed to the Hogwarts grounds via portkey. The boys would be heading over separately, as everyone involved had agreed that this wedding would be unsteady enough without the added bad luck of Scorpius seeing me.
Once there, we were greeted by Uncle Neville, who gave me a kiss on my cheek and congratulated me before pointing us toward the Gryffindor common room. Narcissa and Astoria both looked uncomfortable but nonetheless didn't complain as we headed up the stairs.
It was nearly noon when we finished setting up the common room as our bridal parlor. We'd moved all of the furniture to make room for a hanging station for all of our dresses, my dress set apart from the others, and a changing screen which I had been told was nearly useless for me since I'd be getting quite a lot of help into my dress.
It felt like the day went quickly after that. The sun wasn't going to set until eight o' clock, so we took our time making sure that each of us looked as good as we could. We decided to leave Daniella and I until last, since she was too young to know not to mess up her hair and mine would take the longest.
The general color theme for the wedding was to be white and silver and gold, to honor both Scorpius' and my house, and Scorpius had insisted that whatever flowers were to be had should be roses, "for poetic justice". For this reason, Astoria and Narcissa both wore silken silver dresses (dark enough so as not to be confused with white), and my mother wore a silken gold dress. All of them had tied their hair back in sensible buns, though my mother's was quite a bit more unruly than that of the other two.
Deirdre and Alice were both to be dressed in gold as well, but instead of silk, their dresses were both tulle and lace. The hems fell just barely to their knees, which Narcissa had fought me on, but I had put my foot down. They each had long, lace sleeves, and each one had a square neckline. They'd each chosen to wear golden high heels, though I'd told them that they could wear flats. Deirdre's hair was in a long ponytail, while Alice's fell down her back in a half-up, half-down fashion.
Daniella was the only other person in the party wearing white, her dress being almost a carbon copy of mine, just without a train. We'd put her in white tennis shoes underneath her dress, since nobody would see them and we didn't want to risk her falling. We'd pinned her hair back but let it fall down her back in loose curls.
When finally everyone else was ready, it was my turn. I hated the lack of privacy while I got dressed, but the fact was that I would need help with my dress if I wasn't to tear it. I did, however, insist that they allow me to get my knickers and shift on behind the screen, a request which was met with much snickering and a delicate blush from Narcissa, the latter of which surprising me the most. I didn't think that anything could embarrass her.
I'd picked out my undergarments carefully. Scorpius and I hadn't spoken much about sex, and we had agreed that he wouldn't try to convince me to have sex with him that night, but a secret part of me wanted to. It was our wedding day, and I was beginning to trust my soon-to-be-husband. Plus, I couldn't deny that our attraction had always been electric. I hadn't yet decided if I would initiate sex, but if I decided to, I wanted to be ready.
In the end, I'd decided to wear white lace lingerie with stockings held up by garters on either leg. I was to have a silken shift between that layer and my dress, a fact that I was grateful for. The last thing that I wanted was for the older women there to see me in my lingerie.
It must have taken at least an hour to get my hair and makeup done and my dress on, but by the time that I saw myself in the mirror I knew that it was worth it. My dress was the perfect balance between sexy and classy, and my hair had been put up in an elegant and intricate bun, a small silver comb placed there for decoration. My makeup wasn't noticeable unless you knew it was there, but it brought out all of my best features and made my eyes look deep and large.
At seven thirty, approximately a half hour before sunset, a knock came on the door and Mum went to check it. A moment later, my father walked in, Mum clutching his hand, and beelined toward me. There were tears in his eyes, a rare sight for me.
"Rosie," he said, his voice thick, "You look beautiful."
I smiled, and I felt tears welling in my eyes as well. "Thank you, Daddy."
Dad reached forward and pulled me into his chest. I heard Narcissa make a squeak of protest, worried about my dress, but Astoria stopped her quickly. Neither Dad nor I said anything more until he pulled away; no words were necessary.
When he stepped back, he addressed the group as a whole. "The blokes are in place," he said. "It's time to start going downstairs."
My wedding started with me standing on the other side of the doors into Hogwarts, and for a moment I thought it poetic justice. Graduation had been months earlier, but in reality this was the moment that I was truly done being a child. This would be the last time that I stepped out of these doors.
Daniella was the first out the door, looking adorable. I could hear the coos over the sound of the wedding march.
Next was my mother, followed by Astoria and Narcissa. When they reached the end of the aisle, they sat in the front row on their respective sides.
Deirdre and Alice walked side-by-side, a choice that I made and Narcissa had disliked for its lack of traditionalism. Nonetheless, I thought that they made a gorgeous pair.
After what felt like a millennium, it was finally my turn.
Dad held out his arm for me, and I grabbed it tightly. For a moment, I was almost worried that I would hurt him. His smile reassured me otherwise as we walked through the doors together.
On the other side of the doors, Scorpius stood at the edge of the aisle, looking stoic, as he almost always did. His expression softened just a little when we made eye contact, and for a moment it felt like I was in a trance.
The walk down the aisle felt like it took a year, and I could feel all of the eyes there stuck to me. Normally, I would have been embarrassed. Today, however, I found that I just didn't care.
When I finally made it to Scorpius, I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding. I looked over at Dad for a moment as he kissed me cheek and nodded to Scorpius before walking over to his seat beside Mum, and as soon as he was seated my gaze landed back on Scorpius. From this proximity, I could tell that my soon-to-be-husband's eyes were damp, though the rest of his face was all but emotionless.
I only tore my eyes from Scorpius' when the officiant began speaking.
"Welcome, family, friends and loved ones. We gather here today to celebrate the wedding of Scorpius Malfoy and Rose Weasley. You have come here to share in this formal commitment they make to one another, to offer your love and support to this union, and to allow Scorpius and Rose to start their married life together surrounded by the people dearest and most important to them.
"Marriage is perhaps the greatest and most challenging adventure of human relationships. No ceremony can create your marriage; only you can do that through love and patience; through dedication and perseverance; through talking and listening, helping and supporting and believing in each other; through tenderness and laughter; through learning to forgive, learning to appreciate your differences, and by learning to make the important things matter, and to let go of the rest. What this ceremony can do is to witness and affirm the choice you make to stand together as lifemates and partners."
The officiant looked at me directly. "Rose Perdita Weasley," he said, "Do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
I looked at Scorpius and bit my lip. "I do."
The officiant nodded and turned to Scorpius. "Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy," he said, "Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?"
Scorpius smiled and replied without hesitation. "I do."
The officiant smiled. "May I have the rings, please?" Alexander, who had been standing to Scorpius' side, brought the rings forward and handed them to each of us before the officiant continued. "Repeat after me, Rose: 'I, Rose Perdita Weasley, give you, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, this ring as a daily reminder of the ties that bind us.'"
"I, Rose Perdita Weasley, give you, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, this ring as a daily reminder of the ties that bind us."
"Repeat after me, Scorpius: 'I, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, give you, Rose Perdita Weasley, this ring as a daily reminder of the ties that bind us.'"
"I, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, give you, Rose Perdita Weasley, this ring as a daily reminder of the ties that bind us."
The officiant grinned. "By the power of your love and commitment, and the power vested in me, I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss the bride."
Scorpius leaned down and kissed me gently, swiftly, and with that, it was over. I was married.
Oh Merlin, help us.