Chapter Seventeen

Party of the Bride

Anna might have been nervous, had she had any nerves left. It was the day before the wedding, and between the Ministry hovering about in somewhat odd arrangements of clothes (Sirius and Audi were on the task force of going around to the ones that were terribly off and finding something more workable) and excited Muggle relatives and friends offering to help out at odd times and places, Anna began to question her sanity at attempting the mixed company wedding. Her best friend since school, Megan, was sitting in the middle of the bed in just a slip, buffing her nails and watching reruns of Bewitched. She had told Megan everything, of course, although she wasn't quite sure just how much of it Megan believed. But Anna knew her sanity wouldn't last without someone to rant to.

"So, what's it really like? I mean, do people really pop in and out like that?"

"Sometimes," Anna said, not really in the mood to talk about it at the moment. There was a scratching noise at the door and Anna groaned. "It's him again. See if you can't make him go away."

"I got an idea," Megan said, rummaging around in a sack she brought in with her. She took out a large plastic hambone squeaky toy and opened the door, shoving it his mouth and closing it again. "There, that should keep him busy," she grinned evilly. "You know, maybe one of these days we should tell him… about me knowing, I mean," Megan suggested. Anna and Megan looked over at one another for a moment.

"Nah," they both said, getting ready for rehearsal. Just then there was a knock on the door.

"Oh good grief, I bet that's him trying the other route," Megan said with a sigh, zipping up her dress.

"Well if it is, throw something at him," Anna suggested. Megan peeked out the door to see Sirius' hopeful face.

"Go away! If you come back again, I swear you are going to regret it!" Megan told him, slamming the door. "I have to admit, Anna, your fiancée sure is persistent."

"I know, how do you think I got stuck with him," Anna grinned, putting on her makeup.

"Well, I'm gonna teach him how to take no for an answer," Megan decided, grabbing a pitcher off the vanity and heading to the bathroom to fill it up with water. She was just about to tie back her hair when the there was another knock at the door. "That's it," Megan said, getting up.

But Anna suddenly thought about the odd rhythm of that knock, realizing who it was that always knocked that way.

"Megan wait!" she cried out, but it was too late. Megan had popped open the door and tossed the water before Anna could stop her. She slammed the door with a petrified look on her face, locking it and putting her back to it.

"Ohmygod! Anna, that wasn't Sirius! It was tall man that looked like death warmed over, and I think he's gonna kill me!" Megan exclaimed.

"Megan, that was my brother!" Anna said, getting up.

"Um, tell him I'm sorry! Excuse me," Megan said and hastily locked herself in the bathroom. Groaning loudly, Anna opened the door to see Severus standing there, dripping wet and looking unquestionably annoyed, while Jennifer was standing behind him, covering her mouth and waiting for him to react.

"Severus! It's um… good to see you!" Anna blurted out. "Sorry about the water, Megan thought you were Sirius."

Jennifer, who had been watching Anna's face, suddenly burst out laughing, and Anna could barely stop herself from joining in, apologizing through her chuckles as she let them in the room. Severus glared at his wife as Anna handed him a towel.

"So how was the meeting? And how was your trip?" Anna asked. She was aware of Megan peeking out the door to see if she could make a run for it, and closed it again. Jennifer grinned when she saw her and walked up to Anna, knowing Severus would follow suit.

"The Constellation went quite well, and the trip was tolerable up until the point where Audi drove us in that contraption of hers this morning," Severus scowled.

"She does drive awful fast," Jennifer agreed. "I'm glad she had Alex strapped in that chair thing." Megan tiptoed out of the bathroom and out the door of the bedroom before anyone could turn around. "How come Megan was trying to clock Sirius with a pitcher of water?"

"Oh, he's been pestering us all morning long and we got tired of it," Anna said.

"Next time, maybe she'll look first," Severus muttered.

"Aunt Tony has your rooms all set up, and your clothes for the wedding should be already there if you want to go look before rehearsal. Where are Corey and Alex?" Anna asked.

"With Carol and Mercy downstairs," Jennifer said. Anna stared at her.

"You brought Mercy?" Anna asked flatly.

"Well, she wanted to come. I hope you don't mind. She'll stay in our rooms and out of trouble. She's very dependable," Jennifer reassured her.

"Oh all right, just don't let anyone else catch your glasses filling up on their own or anything," Anna sighed. "I'm having a party tonight if you want to go, Jennifer, just us girls, and Sirius is having one for the guys. Grandmother already said she'd baby-sit if Carol wants to go too."

"Sounds like fun," Jennifer said, but Severus didn't look as enthusiastic about the idea. It wasn't long before Sirius knocked on the door again. Severus opened it, and it was fairly obvious that Megan had finally caught up with him, for he was dripping wet.

"I heard you guys got in," Sirius said, ignoring the sneer on Severus' face. "Come on, I'll show you up to your rooms."

It wasn't long after they left that Megan reappeared with Audi at her side.

"I just stepped over to the mail room, and it's getting full again," Audi said cheerfully.

"Alright, let's head over there since we still have a few minutes," Anna decided, slipping on her shoes.

"Was your brother really mad?" Megan wanted to know, looking nervous.

"Not so much after he found out who it was intended for," Anna reassured her. Audi cackled at that as they walked out.

"Don't worry, someday you'll all look back and laugh at the whole thing. I just doubt it'll be today is all," Audi grinned.

The 'mail room' was actually a small room next to the kitchen with a joint fireplace where they could sort the magic gifts from the non-magic gifts so that none of the more surprising ones would startle the Muggle guests at the reception. Tables were set up filled with which ones could be opened at the reception and which ones had to be opened later, and there was a master list of who sent what. Audi had already warned Anna that things had piled up since last night. Packages were sitting by the floo and at the window, and even more were sitting just inside the door.

"I hope they don't expect me to go through all of these by tomorrow," Anna sighed. "I mean, none of my magic guests will be offended if I wait on theirs, but I can't say the same about the non-magic ones," she said, picking up a stack of envelopes from the regular mail. The swinging door opened and Vallid stepped in, smiling at them.

"Hello everyone! Just dropping mine off. Which table is which?" she asked, holding up two packages.

"Magic, not magic," Audi pointed out, and Vallid put one on each.

"I hope I remembered which wrapping paper was which," Vallid said, double-checking. "Ah yes, it moved. This is definitely the magic one," she said, putting it back down.

"You didn't have to get two," Anna told her.

"I know," Vallid smiled. "Going through cards?"

"Just looking through them," Anna nodded, reading the return addresses. As she got halfway through, she noticed an envelope without a return address, but it had a local postmark with typed letters. Frowning thoughtfully at the oddity, Anna decided to open it, putting down the rest. As she broke the seal, a shimmering light began to pour out of the envelope and Vallid and Audi whipped out their wands, Vallid shouting something to Audi over the whining noise that had erupted. Suddenly, everything was back to normal. Anna looked up slightly dazed with the point of Audi's wand still pointed at the envelope.

"Give me that," Vallid snapped, grabbing it out of her hand. "Anna, you know better than to open strange envelopes, especially after what happened last year!"

"It was in the regular mail! I thought it was probably just a local friend," Anna said.

"Audi, go through all the packages regardless whose address is on it and check for curses," Vallid said, and Audi nodded grimly.

"Are you alright? What was that?" Megan asked.

"I'm fine," Anna said. "And I want to know what that was too."

"I can't read this," Vallid mused, looking over the note that was in the envelope. "It's made from a treated paper which, if I am correct, only you can read. That means whoever made this must have been close enough to get something from you, hair or blood or something, to create the treatment."

"There aren't any curses on the note that I can tell, Counselor," Audi told Vallid, who nodded. "Here, Anna, read it, and we'll cover you in case something odd happens." Anna slowly took it with a nod, only too aware of the wands pointing in her direction as she gazed at the paper.

Only death and destruction await you in the magic world. Return to your Muggle life and give up your powers before those close to you pay the price of your existence.

The paper disintegrated in her hand, but when Anna looked up and saw Audi and Vallid's faces studying her, she knew that they had seen from her expression what it said. They turned at and looked at each other, not saying a word, although Anna had little doubt they were talking.

"I don't believe this." Anna said after a moment, feeling her anger starting to rise.

"What is it, what did it say?" Megan demanded.

"I mean, I don't need this now. I just don't believe this. I didn't want this life!" Anna said to no one in particular as she paced the room. "I wanted anything but this life. And what do they do? They wait until I can't go back to start threatening me with this stuff. Leave the magic world? How in the hell am I supposed to do that? I'm just now starting to control my magic. I'm just now figuring out how to cast spells the normal way. And they want me to go back to a Muggle life? After I've gotten myself tangled with someone I'm not willing to give up? Why couldn't they have threatened me with this sooner, and why does it have to happen now!"

"Someone wants you to leave the magic world?" Megan echoed.

"Well, it's not like I can. It's not like magic's something you can turn on and off like a light switch. I mean, nobody can stop being magic, what do they expect me to do?" Anna ranted. But there was something in the way that Audi and Vallid were looking at each other that made Anna stop cold. "There is a way to make someone stop being magic, isn't there?" Vallid sighed and nodded.

"Yes, but it is very rarely done. Sometimes to criminals, or people that too often misuse their magic, especially in front of Muggles," Vallid admitted. "But the technique doesn't work well unless the person wants it done, so it's nothing to fear."

"Nothing to fear? Why wasn't I told about this before?" Anna said.

"Well, none of us wanted you to do anything drastic, dear," Audi said. "We knew that it would take you some time to get used to your magic, and then perhaps once you learned to control it…"

"I see," Anna said expressionlessly. So, they waited until she basically couldn't do without out it before telling her. "Come on, Megan, we'd better get to rehearsal. Threat or no threat, I've got a wedding to go through with," she said, walking out the door with Megan close behind.

"You don't think anyone is going to stop it, do you?" Megan asked her.

"They had better not try," Anna said.

Vallid and Audi watched them leave thoughtfully.

"So, are we gonna tell anybody about this?" Audi asked, looking over at Vallid with her arms folded. Vallid glanced down at her, then back to the door.

"There's no reason to get everyone worked up about this just yet," Vallid said. "But perhaps we should tell Severus. After all, he is her brother, and he was a way of keeping things subtle enough that if anything does happen, perhaps it isn't going to alarm the guests."

"So much for an easy security job," Audi grunted, turning back to the gifts table to start going through each one.

Jennifer slipped out of the packed parlor and tried to clear the ringing from her ears from the loud music. She had just begun up the stairs when she noticed Severus, briskly heading down them and peering at her quizzically.

"I thought you were at the party," he inquired.

"Believe me, it wasn't my kind of party," Jennifer said. "Carol, Rolanda, and Minerva seemed to be enjoying it though," she said with a soft chuckle. "What about you?"

"You know how I hate parties," Severus scowled. "I was about to take a walk, if you want to go."

"Is there something wrong?" Jennifer asked, turning around and walking down the stairs with him. "You're stressed about something."

"Oh, I told Audi I would help her with security. She's worried someone might try to cause trouble," Severus said quietly as they went outside. "I doubt there's cause for any real alarm."

"Actually, I'm half tempted to stop the wedding myself considering the dress they want to put me in," Jennifer blanched.

"Well, if they expect to get me in that thing they put out for me, they have a surprise coming. I am not wearing anything that has more parts than a Sleeping Potion," Severus vowed. Jennifer chuckled softly at that, having a feeling that Dumbledore would probably be the one to talk him into wearing it.

"Oh well, it's only this once," Jennifer reminded him. "After all, how many times do sisters get married anyhow?"

"Please, only once," Severus muttered.

"See, I always knew you wanted them to succeed," Jennifer smiled at him.

"No, it's just that considering her first pick, I would hate to find out who her second choice would be," Severus said, trying not to think too hard about it.