Four Years after Rubida Luna

 
A WEDDING

Severa buzzed through the streets of Rome swerving around citizens, tourists, and other assorted motorists. She stopped, parked, and hopped off the absurdly small and slow vehicle in front of an old, majestic, chapel. Upon entering she asked the minister, in choppy Italian, where she could find the preparation room. Following the old man's instructions (well, actually just walking in the general direction which he pointed) she then knocked on the appropriately labeled door. A "come in" sounded from within.

Severa opened the door to find Iphigenia sitting in front of a vanity. The brown haired woman, catching Severa's entrance in the reflection, shot off of the little stool and embraced her friend tightly. Pulling back, Iphi sneered. "I see that my Maid of Honour saw no occasion to fancy herself up a bit!"

Severa looked down at her ensemble. In her opinion the jeans, black T-shirt, and suit jacket was dressy. She looked back up at Iphi and said indignantly, "You didn't expect me to wear that silly thing while riding a Mo-ped now were you?" Severa laughed. "Not to worry, I got it in my pack here." She shrugged off the little black pack that was on her back and removed the dress that was shoved within, and now looked quite wrinkled. "Nothing a little ironing charm couldn't handle!"

Severa doing so now held a pristine coloured Bride's Maid gown in her hand.

Iphi sighed, "You're impossible," and turned back to the vanity.

Severa carefully draped her dress over a chair, then plopped herself down on a small sofa. "So, how you feeling?"

"Fine."

"I don't believe you. It's your wedding day, you're nervous as hell."

"What do I have to be nervous about?" Iphi asked, applying rouge, "I am confident in our love for each other."

Severa nodded. "Sure, we'll just forget that fling with one Professor Healthy."

Iphi scowled. "You of all people shouldn't be judging me on that."

Severa leaned forward in her seat as she gave her next point. "Yeah, two problems with that. One: I never had an affair with one of our professor's. Two: I never had a boyfriend to be cheating on."

"Just let it go, okay? Besides, I believe you'll have more to worry about than I do."

"Oh, and why's that?"

Iphi turned to face her and smiled. "Who do you think is one of Lee's Best Men?"

Severa groaned. "Oh, lord. Is that even allowed to have two of them?"

"Do you really expect Lee to choose one over the other to be his Best Man? Besides, being one of his best friends, I think Fred Weasley would be unavoidable today."

Severa's countenance turned sickly. "You don't think he still fancies me? I mean, some one can't hold a crush for this long."

"Sev?"

"What?"

"Snape."

"That's different."

"How?"

"I don't have a crush on him, I'm in love with him. There's a difference."

Iphi shrugged. "If you say so."

Severa looked at Iphi in her wedding dress forlornly. "I'm so happy for you," she said sincerely.

"Then why the long face, Ace?"

Severa got up and stood behind Iphi at the mirror, so that they were both reflected. She smiled weakly. "I just don't imagine I'll ever experience this day for myself. The only man I'll ever love will never love me, and you know I could never settle for second best."

"Severa, you need to face reality. You cannot marry Snape and live happily ever after. All your dreaming will not suddenly make it reality."

Severa clenched her fist. "If I cannot have that, then I shall have nothing. I rather die a spinster than marry where I do not love. If Elizabeth Bennet was able to melt Darcy's heart, given time I could do the same to Snape."

Iphi shook her head giving up. There was just no arguing this with the blonde. "Well, not long before show time. Need help getting that dress on?"

"Sure."

"Cheer up, dear. It's my wedding day! Everyone's going to be happy, damn it!"

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Severa shifted in her stupid, bright dress at the front of the chapel. The matching shoes were pinching her feet, and damn what was this material? She was itching in places she didn't think could itch. She smiled through the pains for the sake of Iphi. Her friend truly looked on her soon-to-be husband with a great fondness that Iphi never displayed for anyone else. A motion behind the couple's shoulders caught her attention. Aw damn, Fred was waving at her…with the scarred hand. Actually, with the war going on and Fred placing himself in the front lines, he gained many more scars than just the one she gave him back in their seventh year at Hogwarts.

Severa ignored Fred, she looked out at the congregation. There were Iphi's parents, and Lee's and a smatter of other family members and friends. 'This is nice,' Severa thought, 'just nice and small, though I could go without the grandiose chapel thing going on. I'm sure Snape Manor would do fine, after all, Sinistra was going to have hers…oh stop it, Severa Rimmer. Stop whinging.'

Ack, why did Iphi insist on such strong smelling flowers for the bouquets? Severa felt she was going to pass out or throw up from the fumes. But luckily for her, the words "I now pronounce you husband and wife" came from the minister's lips. 

Lee and Iphi kissed and started off back down the aisle among the applauding friends. Severa followed and found herself flanked by the twins. "Beautiful, in'it? I always cry at weddings," sniffled George.

"You know Sevvie," Fred said, grabbing her hand, "That could be us some day. Though I must admit I cannot imagine you in white." He laughed as she tore herself away from him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The reception was going well, until that is the time came for the Best Men to give their moving and embarrassing speech about the groom.

"Oy! Oy!" Fred shouted as George clanged the wine glass with his spoon. The room quieted and Fred looked evilly at Lee.  "Lee has been mine and my brother's best friend since our first year at Hogwarts. We were all Gryffindors and damned proud of it!" A couple cheers came from the assembly. "We dedicated our lives to pulling a prank or two to lighten the mood of the gloomy castle. Lee, our ever diligent commentator for Quidditch matches some how also made it sound like we looked good out there on the pitch."

"Then the impossible happened," George said, picking up, "Lee fell for the enemy, a Slytherin. All the more surprising was that a Slyth fancied him in return!" At those words, Iphi blushed a little. "Now, we never told Lee, but Fred and me took bets on how long it would last...neither of us put money down for this far." Everyone laughed.

Then Fred held up his glass. "To Iphigenia and Lee Jordan, proof that even during such troubling times, Love can prevail."

Everyone stood, held up their glasses and repeated, "To Iphigenia and Lee."

~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why did there have to be dancing?

Severa sat at the edge of dance floor and watched Iphi and Lee twirl around. Under the long skirt of her dress, Severa had taken her shoes off to let her throbbing toes get a breather. "Care to dance?" asked a familiar voice from above her. She was to reject the hand fiercely when she noticed that it had no scar. She looked up at George. "What?"

"Just wondering if you'd like to take a spin 'round the dance floor. You looked lonely and all..."

"Loneliness is a chosen lifestyle, not something to be pitied." She stood, ready to walk away.

"Aw, come on, Rimmer. Be a good sport for once."

She narrowed his eyes at him. "Let me see your hand again..." he held it up, and Severa inspected it well enough to make sure it truly was George. "Oh, okay, but just one."

Out on the floor, George struck up a conversation again. "You know, you really ought to give him a chance."

Severa scowled. "If this is in reference to your brother I would prefer to cease this line of conversation."

"He's a nice guy, good sense of humour. You're still not hung-up on the Gryffindor thing are you?"

"Of course not! What kind of juvenile reasoning would that be if I still bore ill feelings just because of what house he was in at school. No, it's because I find him annoying, tedious, and I cannot abide someone who really thinks they're funny when they are not."

"So, in other words, you can't stand me either."

"You are a less nuisance."

"Because I don't fancy you?" he asked.

Severa smirked. "Exactly."

The dance ended. Before the next one could begin Severa pulled away from George. "My feet hurt, I'll just go sit back down."

"Oh, okay," George said. "Would like me to get you something to drink?"

She shrugged. "If you want." She sat and again merely observed the merry makers. Suddenly a glass of punch was thrust under her nose, bit not by George. "Go away, Fred."

"I just want to talk," Fred said, sitting down next to her.

"You said that to me on our last day of Hogwarts. Then you proceeded to ask me out."

Fred fidgeted in his seat. "Well, at least you remembered, that's got to mean something. Look, sorry about the way I was acting during the ceremony. I was very immature." Still, she said nothing. "Have you been staying in touch with your beloved professor?"

Severa took the glass from him. "It has been away since I have had any contact with him," she said, taking a drink.

"Well, I suppose that's understandable."

"What's that suppose to mean?" Severa snapped.

"What? Well, it's not like I pretend to know too much about other operations in place, but everyone assumes Snape is in pretty deep, and well he wouldn't want certain people to get in trouble, people he cares about. If that's any consolation to you, if you get my meaning."

Severa cast her eyes down. "Yeah, I guess I do." She took another drink while Fred looked at her. "What?"

"Do you know I think you need, Severa Rimmer?"

"Professional psychiatric help?"

"Well, besides that. I think you just need a good kiss. Have you ever even been kissed before, I mean other than by family members."

"Go away Fred."

Fred persisted. "You're how old now, twenty-two?"

"Go. Away. Fred."

"Okay, how about this. You allow me to kiss you just this once here and now, and I'll stop making advances towards you for the rest of my life. If not, you'll never be rid of mushy love letters…" Fred grinned.

Severa looked at him. It was a strange deal, not one where she really gets to win either way. She considered, and considered. Fred wasn't a bad looking boy. And just a couple brief seconds of contact would end his open display of his affections forever. She could do worse for her first kiss… Severa sighed in resignation. "Fine."

Smiling, Fred held her arms, pulled her close, and kissed her firmly on the lips. Nope, not music swell, not even a tingle passed over Severa in reaction. Fred pulled away and looked at her. "Well?" he asked.

Severa shrugged. "It was nice."

"Nice?!" Fred asked in disbelief. Then he sighed. "You know what, Sevvie, for your sake I really hope you get that Fairy-tale ending you've dreamed off. I wouldn't want the only kiss you've received only to be 'nice'. Prince Charming, or Greasy in your case, better be pretty damned good." And he walked away.

"SEVVIE!" Severa heard her name called as Iphi ran up to her. "Did something happen that I just think happened? I mean would have thought Lee had too much champagne if I didn't see it for myself…you were kissing Fred!"

"And so ends the romance," Severa said sarcastically.

"Well anyway, I'm getting reading to throw my bouquet. You better in the ranks!"

Severa caught it.