Author's Note : Super, special thanks to Thalia, without whom, this entire work would not be possible. I owe her a lot, and I just want to make it known that though the pairing mentioned in this story might still have existed, it would be nothing interesting without her. All thanks go to her, and a special nod should be given to her characterizations of Cassius Warrington and Kirsten Bundy as well as her help and input in using the character of Seamus Finnigan.
Disclaimer : I am poor and own nothing. All characters, situations, places, etc. therein belong to J. K. Rowling unless otherwise noted. No copyright is being infringed and no money is being made. Etc. Etc. Etc.
I knock on the door, and Kirsten Bundy opens it immediately. Her smile is somewhat tight... I don't think she'll ever quite accustom herself to tolerating snarky Slytherins... but Emma stands up, and her face is beaming with a bright smile.
It's curious, really. She's a mere few years younger than me, a former housemate and student... and yet, due to fate, our relationship became more than that. A friendship of sorts... and even as she gave me warnings about approaching destruction, I taught her how to survive.
She's not at all the sullen, quiet, scared little Slytherin girl I'd met, my fifth year at Hogwarts, when she started. She's also not the moody, tenacious and yet uncertain almost-woman, that year that I started teaching. That year that so many people, including both of us, almost died, preserving both what we believed in... and preserving those deep, dangerous secrets.
Today she's smiling, confident, and looking like a young goddess in her wedding attire, ready for the rest of her life to begin.
"You look quite well, Emma Dobbs. Seamus Finnigan is quite the lucky bloke, but I think he knows that."
She knows when I sincerely mean what I say and a pale blush rises to her cheeks. I smile slightly, though it's not for lack of trying not to. But there's something about her...about everything she's become, that makes it so a bloke can't be in the same room as her and NOT be happy. It's almost a disgrace to Slytherin tradition, if I do say so myself.
Though, Emma's done a lot of things against tradition in her lifetime - anyone who knows her well can attest to that.
"Come on, they're waiting." I'm giving her away, because after THAT year, she doesn't exactly have close kin. Not that she ever did, really...
But, though I have come to care about her, perhaps like a sister or such... I'm not very worried, as she takes my arm with her free hand and we walk out of the room.
From both their faces, they will be happy. And it is a happiness that they've earned, a happiness that they'd fought for, tooth and nail. She will be fine now.
And I hope to bloody Merlin that that... bizarre American cousin of hers, the one who insists on being called a city in Italy for some indiscernible reason, does NOT encounter any nifflers... Hagrid is rumoured to have a few... she's got enough metal hanging from her face (at a wedding no less!) to chain a troll!
