The Wedding of the Boy Hero
Disclaimer: For my lack of imagination and ability to form words, it is just a boring old disclaimer of a poor fan trying to work out her frustration by writing about her favorite incomplete series.
In dedication to the astronauts who died with the Columbia space shuttle.
On a happier note, happy Chinese New Year. (that was repetitive.)
~*~*~
Chapter Five: Some Answers, But Not Enough
"It just says Dernier Cri . . ." Hermione looked at Ginny, who only shrugged as well.
"Are you kidding? First of all, these dresses cost a fortune. Second of all, all the designers had won various awards in both muggle and wizadry society . . .hence the high cost. My, I must say the bride is a very lucky girl," Lavender finished her rant with a dreamy sigh. "Now I wish my husband would do that for me."
"Right, that is if you are not switching favorites every day!" Parvati teased. Ginny didn't participate in the repartee. The word "bride" had gotten her attention again. Damn! I really need to get a grip on myself!
"Who is the bride?" Ginny blurted out since the bridesmaids were happily talking about her. Upon hearing the question all three stopped their conversation immediately.
"Uh . . ."
"Well?" Ginny encouraged. "Don't tell me you accepted the offer without knowing who the bride is." The redhead rolled her eyes. Usually, she would stop at this point, but the nagging mystery was driving her insane.
"Or are you not going to tell me as well?" Ginny asked with a mix of cynicism and impatience. The other girls looked at each other uncomfortably. No one knew what to say. It was obvious at this point that Ginny still had an emotional attachment to Harry, no matter what the redhead would say. For the longest time, Harry had always been by Ginny. The desire of being Ginny Weasley, not Ron's little sister was fulfilled. Only the relationship was just friends, it seemed impossible for friends stage to girlfriend-boyfriend stage. Now that Ginny is planning a wedding for Harry and his anonymous bride, that had struck a tight chord.
For one: as a friend, Ginny has the right to know who the bride is. After all, isn't that what peer approval is? Harry is marrying someone that Ginny, who can be his best friend, doesn't even know. What hurts even more is that Ginny didn't even know he was dating or even considering a long term involvement with someone until the letter to ask for Ginny's assistance.
Another point, the more obvious one is the emotional pain of knowing someone you have felt deeply be with another person. It isn't even jealousy anymore; there is not really a person to be jealous of. There are guesses but who is to judge the female in question is indeed the bride?
"I am sorry Gin," Parvati said in a small voice. It was obvious to everyone Ginny was hurting and Harry probably can sense it too. If he doesn't, then he has spent too much time with Malfoy. Being an insensible git can be contagious.
"No, it is fine," croaked Ginny. She cleared her voice and straightened herself out mentally and physically, an action not missed by her friends. Hermione, being the moderator her job and her friendship with Harry and Ron demanded of her, knew the perfect change of subject.
"Not to sound superficial or anything but . . ." Hermione paused dramatically while trying to speak with her hands. The motions were circles presenting her abdomen.
"Oh congratulations on your pregnancy!" Lavender said with a bright smile that was shared by Ginny and Parvati. Other murmurs of best wishes were voiced, but that wasn't the effect Hermione wanted. You'd think speaking with girls they would know the problem right under their noses, but no. Two fashion experts and a wedding planner cannot decipher Hermione's dilemma with her very subtle hints.
"Hello? Girls? I am pregnant. Wedding happens to be in my third trimester. Not a good thing!" With a huff, Hermione collapsed on her chair.
"Herm, you are sounding superficial," Ginny pointed out bluntly. The absence of tack was needed. "You shouldn't care what you look like. I am sure the bride would be happy just knowing you are there to support her. Besides, don't add more stress to yourself. The ministry gave you a long sick leave just so this pregnancy will be successful." Mentioning the bride made Ginny flinch, but Hermione needed to be stress free. In Herm's previous pregnancy, she had a miscarriage due to stress from work. The repercussions from the Dark Lord were still affecting society and the new ministry members had to work overtime to gain stability.
"Don't worry Herm," the other girls chimed in. Ron and Hermione had been devastated after the first pregnancy and now they were able to overcome the emotion barriers to try again.
"Besides, it is no use being so worried. If appearance is important, the aura during the pregnancy tends to bring loads of compliments!" Lavender added. All the comforting statements directed to Hermione had succeeded in convincing the future mother to forget about the balloon she would have during the wedding.
"Now the next question is deciding which dress," Hermione announced when the previous topic was over. "We need one that is flattering for a pregnant woman in her last trimester too!" The latter comment earned Hermione three slaps on the arm. "Hey! Be nice."
"Yeah, when Ron hears we have been abusing my sister-in-law, he is going to strangle us," Ginny added. "But Hermmy is right. We need to decide on the dress."
The three girls had a lovely time flipping through the catalogues. Upon hearing the bride will be wearing a white dress with light touches of purple, blue, and green, it was decided that the bridesmaid dresses should be blue and the maid of honor dress will be green. A compromise had to be made, but everyone acquiesced after a few nudges (more like bribes).
"I am going to look like a Christmas tree with my red hair and the green dress!" Ginny declared.
"You won't be getting forest green. That will deter the attention from the bride. She is wearing light colors so you will get a pale green or something. See, color 0956." Then it was the bridesmaids' turn to complain – or more like argue.
"I like this shade of blue," Lavender pointed at a baby blue – ish color.
"No, it is too milky and pastel-y. My complexion is tanned and this will make me even darker," Parvati complained. This was one moment she didn't like her sun-kissed skin color.
"How about this one?" Hermione was looking at a pattern that was light blue with the color getting darker as the dress drapes down.
"No, this is too different from Ginny's. The coordination will be funny," Lavender said still eyeing her favorite color. Knowing the tug-a-war of colors was not going to end soon, Ginny had to take charge.
"I'll change my dress to that pattern. Besides, this one matches The Bride's dress better. Their waterfall type of color change will be a nice theme. I think Harry is subconsciously making the theme of the wedding tropical. We have lilies as centerpieces and other odd exotic flowers that I need to put have anti-allergy charms cast on them. He did mention something about The Bride being allergic to African violets, but that is off the bouquet list."
"Gin, stop it!" Parvati exclaimed. Ginny turned to look at the older girl in confusion. Stop what? "You need to stop calling the bride 'The Bride'. I can hear the capital letters you are putting on 'the' and 'bride'. This is a girl Harry is marrying. You can at least use some pronouns!"
"You never know, The Bride could be male, or an it," Lavender pointed out. She had too much tea snacks and the sugar was making her brain do odd things. Hermione rolled the nearest catalogue, rolled it up, and hit the hyper girl in the head.
"This is Harry, my best friend of too many years, we are talking about. I think I would know his sexual preferences." Lavender shrugged.
"You never know . . ." as the sugared girl said the sentence, she gathered all the catalogues together to make sure there was nothing to hit her head with.
"As interesting as this conversation might be, this is Harry. It might be funny with Malfoy, but the groom isn't the ferret."
"You have to admit Gin, the ferret does look handsome," Lavender commented while giving Ginny the catalogues. Ginny took the stack and proceeded to hit Lavender in the head with it.
"Hey!"
"Hey what? You asked for it."
"How did I ask for it? I don't believe I said 'Ginny will you please hit me'. But you still have to admit Malfoy does look good. Otherwise poor Aurora would not have been attacked by rabid possible Malfoy fiancées." Ginny shook her head.
"Anyway, you handed me the stack of catalogues right after you made that comment about Malfoy. Any normal person would have hit you for saying that." Before Lavender could defend herself, Ginny gathered everything and bid everyone fairwell. She needed to take care of the new decisions and schedule another meeting with Harry.
That was the end of the girl talk. No answers on the bride were gotten, only speculations on Harry's preferences, which only posed more questions. But the meeting was productive. Decisions were made and Ginny's friends had succeeded in getting her mind off of the mysterious identity of the bride. Though thinking about how her friends had succeeded in doing that doesn't really get her mind off of the identity of Harry's fiancée.
~*~*~
On Ginny's footstep, a patient Aurora was waiting on the stairs. She could use her wand to enter Ginny's house, but that would scare Ginny to death since she wasn't supposed to back until July. But it seems the people she and Malfoy were looking for found them first. Now the funny thing is why Draco needed to speak with Harry "desperately" too. Since Aurora's home wasn't really in London, she thought going to Ginny's house would be a good idea. After all, she still hasn't got a reply. Maybe she got another wedding to plan. Now I wonder why she didn't tell me.
"Aurora?!" The dark haired girl looked up.
"Ginny! It is so good to be back!"
"Wow, aren't you supposed to be back until July?" Ginny asked happily. Aurora brushed off the questions with a shrug.
"Long story. One that I will explain after I get used to the wintery climate and the time zone." The auror looked at the think folder Ginny was holding. "I see you have got another wedding to plan."
"Yep. Good ol' Harry's." Ginny nodded vigorously mixed with a comical expression of wagging eyebrows and pursed lips.
"Well, I guess I will have to congratulate him when I see him tomorrow. So who is the bride?"
~*~ finis for now ~*~
Omni's notes:
Hello! I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well. I think there might be a little problem of hitting my deadline of Valentines Day, but we'll see. School hasn't been very nice on me and I have stopped working on my other longer stories to finish this one.
Besides, nearly failing a chemistry test isn't too encouraging for me to get a chapter out this week. It was only when I noticed I had nearly 20 reviews did I realized I needed to get a chapter out. My conscience would be nagging me if I didn't. Not to mention I had stopped at that awful cliffhanger. Though that really wasn't a cliffhanger . . . everyone should have guessed that the identity would be postponed until the end. But no worries, perhaps more tiny revelations will be made in the later chapters.
I think I will have about two chapters left, and an epilogue whenever I have time to do that. Two competitive clubs and the possibility of doing a sport is somewhat crazy. That doesn't mix well with two AP classes. It would be like a combustion reaction in Chemistry. You add oxygen to it and boom! Anyhoo . . . I should move on to thank you notes.
Thankee:
Silver10fire: Sorry, no telling. You will have to read to find out. ^^
Kirina: Thank you for the compliment. I don't think it is a great story seeing as I can definitely elaborate more . . . but hey, a compliment is a compliment is a compliment right? Did that even make sense? But as for you guess on the bride, I would say it is an either you know or do not even have a clue situation.
Kanzers clone: Is it that "kewl"? But glad you like it!
Nia 88: THANK YOU, I really did think my chapters are going down hill. The time I can spend on them is Friday night. It gets a bit nuts to write all of it in one night, then proofread (sort of) the morning before I post it. Hmm, tell me how you feel about this pointless chapter. I probably should have this as a continuation instead of a new chapter.
Female Fred: Being a runner can give you lots of strength. I know all my weight training did increase my strength albeit I had gotten lots of injuries while doing it. (Curse the human body's inability to endure overuse!) But I am still not telling who the bride is. Ginny seems somewhat out of the question though, isn't it? I mean, she is the maid of honor after all . . . and another note. Please don't hurt me or turn me into anything unnatural (lovely quote from Sam in LoTR) or do that to anyone else including you. I don't want to be responsible for damages. ^^
Sara Lee: This is getting confusing. But I promise to sort things out. The ending should make sense. At least it does to me, although I do have a wacked up sense of logic. And men are confusing too. I agree, sometimes I think they are the more superficial ones. Humph, and they call females that! Nevertheless, you do have this figured out quite quickly. Not yet 13 and knows enough human psychology to save lots of trouble . . .
Cosmos: You know, I could be those picky English teachers that ask you which "she" you were talking about, but hey, I am nice though I still won't let out the classified info. But I am glad you like this. Hopefully this chapter is good enough!
Isis: I am sorry? I didn't mean for it to be a cliffhanger. I kind of ran out of time . . . but I am certainly over the moon to know I have your interests in this story! And no need to spend money for hunting me down. I'll finish this soon, very soon. Give it a few weeks.
Marajade3081: Finally? Did you want me to update more often?! Quite frankly, the only time I have been good about updating is during the summer, when I have all the time in the world to write, edit, write more, edit, then post. This must be the one story I have that has regular updates. ^^ Now about keeping up the good work . . . what do you think of this chapter? Good, bad, horrible? Like I said, I think my writing is going steadily south. My English teacher, I could say, has taught me nothing so far this year.
Wytil: Now are you certain? She is the maid of honor you know . . . and the plot bunnies have been attacking mercilessly. They tickle my brain, but I don't have time to write. It is 30 minutes past midnight and I probably should do to sleep. Maybe this is why my notes are getting odd.
Kitty: Is this soon enough? I think you will have a big hint on the identity of the bride and the twisted plot will be reveal more probably next week, though I have three tests then, bah! DANG SCHOOL! But I love it anyway.
Avalon: Thank you for the vote of confidence, though I still bombed my chemistry test. I think I did well on my Spanish tests though . . . now lets hope the math test on Monday and the Comparative Politics test on Thurday and Friday will have better luck than my chemistry test. And I will try my very best to get a better chapter out next week. Believe it or not, the ending hasn't changed.
The Dragon Guardian of the Sea: No problem about the e-mail. I just need to remember to send you a reminder every time I update. I think I e-mailed you again about you review . . . which leaves me somewhat wordless. But shrinks probably are called shrinks because they make your problem shrink. And what about Malfoy?
Beth e: You are? That's good. The identity should be ambiguous. That's sort of what I was going for. Acky. I am getting tired now. Sorry for the short note.
Rhiain: Eh, sorry? That is all I can say really . . . but hopefully you have nothing against me for doing that. I really didn't mean to.
Arkaynn: Yep, very tricky. Now the plot should be more obvious. Though the keyword is should . . . and the cliffhanger ruins all. I think this chapter can be called a cliffhanger as well. Now we get to wait and see what the next meeting with Harry is going to be like. And the test are pretty much hanging. No matter what, I have to take them. At least the chemistry test I didn't do well was because I actually didn't understand the material. Though the good thing is I get to have a retake. In fact, the entire class gets one. Ooh yah, more studying. Imaginary hammer? Good idea!
Starborn: This is cool? Hmm, I guess having fun hurting people's heads is cool. You never know, but thanks for the ego boost. ^^
Ginny Drama: Thank you for the advice. I think I will put it to use more in the next chapter when Ginny has the confrontation with Harry. The Weasley temper should flare then. ^^ And hopefully this chapter meets your expectations (oh acky, I am starting to sound The Great Expectations, though I am sure Charles Dickens writes a thousand times better.)
Wow, 18 reviews! The most I have ever gotten for a chapter! Sniff, hugs for everyone that had reviewed. They made me feel better, even after that horrid test. ^^
Thank you all,
Omni
Next: Ginny meets with Harry, has some arguments. I think I will have it take place at the ministry. ^^ And maybe meeting more of Aurora and Malfoy in person (not really, but you understand, right?)