Part Ten:

The night before the wedding, Ron was hanging out at Fred's home. His brothers, Harry, Dean Thompson, Seamus Finnigan, and Neville Longbottom were there, too. Meanwhile, Hermione was hanging out with her friends.

Ron had been very calm about the wedding that whole month, comforting Hermione when she was nervous. But now, he couldn't hide his feelings anymore as he and his friends knocked back shots of fire whiskey. "I'm just scared that I'll mess up," he confided in them. "I mean, vows and everything..."

"See?" Fred said triumphantly. "This is exactly why Angelina and I decided not to have a wedding. Too much pressure, you know."

"You're really helping, Fred," Bill said sarcasticly. To his brother: "Look, you'll do fine. You've been practicing your vows, right?"

Ron snorted. "Yeah, but only because Hermione would freak out if I didn't."

"Hermione? Freak out? No way!" It was Harry's turn to be sarcastic. Everyone laughed: most of them had felt Hermione's wrath before. In fact, the only one not laughing was George. He actually looked anxious: he kept checking his watch. Finally, Ron noticed.

"Um, George, what're you waiting for?"

"She's late."

Everyone stared at him, and Fred spoke. In a stern tone, he asked, "Who's late?"

"The stripper."

The rest of them gaped at him. "Um...stripper?"

"Yes. This is a bachelor party, isn't it?"

Everyone looked at each other. Finally, Ron grinned. "Yeah, it is. Thanks, George."

"RON!" Percy gasped. "You're getting married tomorrow!"

"That's exactly the point, ol' Perce," George said cheerfully. "He's getting married TOMORROW. He's not married right now, is he?"

"Come on, Percy," Charlie said gentely, "It's just a stripper. It's not like George hired a prostitute." He gave George a look. "Um...you didn't, did you?"

"No."

"Oh, okay." Charlie looked relieved.

"Hey, where did you order the stripper from?" Dean suddenly asked. Everyone shot him a strange look. "Um...well, is it a Muggle, or-"

"No, a witch."

Neville looked skeptical. "They HAVE witch stirppers?"

"Apparently so," George said with a shrug. He checked his watch again. "But she's fifteen minutes late. If she's not here by 9:30, her tip is-"

BZZZZZZZZZZ.

"That's the doorbell," George said triumphantly. He turned to Ron. "Go get it."

"Um..." Ron looked at Harry. "Come with me."

"Yeah, hold his hand, Harry," Seamus said, and they all laughed. But Harry followed his best friend to the front hall.

"Ready?" Ron asked nervously.

"Ron, it's no big deal." With that, Harry reached over Ron and opened the front door. And gasped.

Standing at the door, wearing a cloak over skimpy clothes, was Pansy Parkinson.

"Pansy?"

"Hi," she said, pushing past them. "Bachelor party?"

"Urm, yeah," Ron said nervously. "Me."

"Congrats," she said. She didn't sound sincere...she didn't even look at them. "Well, where to?"

"Um...just up those stairs," Ron said, pointing. Pansy shot up the stairs, leaving a stunned Ron and Harry in the front all. "She's-"

"Last I heard, she was married to Malfoy," Harry said, sounding just as shocked as Ron. "Didn't they marry just after school got out?"

"That's what I thought," Ron said. "Maybe they got divorsed?"

Finally, they made their way up the stairs after Pansy. When they saw Seamus, Dean, and Neville, they looked just as surprised as they were at the sight of Pansy. But none of Ron's brothers seemed to notice.

They found out from Neville, whose grandmother had been a big gossip, that Pansy and Malfoy had, indeed, divorsed. "It happened just before my grandmother died," Neville said. "I think she was even talking about it on her death bed." He rolled his eyes: they all knew that Neville hadn't been fond of his formidable, snobby grandmother.

It seemed that Ron's brothers got the most out of the stripper. And Percy, who'd objected to her most heavily, was having the most fun: full of whiskey, he was dancing with the mostly-naked Pansy on top of the coffee table. Ron was too shocked at the sight of an old classmate to enjoy it too much, even when Pansy gave him a personal lapdance. And Harry found that, through it all, he was STILL thinking about Ginny.

Since their fight and makeup in the kitchen at the Burrow, Harry had been distracted. And he came to the realization that he liked Ginny. Not just because they'd had sex, either (he didn't remember it), but...he was so sure WHY he liked her. He knew that she used to fancy him in school, but now...he hoped that she still did.

And as the bachelor party began to break up around midnight, Harry decided to go see her.

***********************

At nine o'clock, Hermione stood in front of the full-length mirror in her room at the Burrow. She was wearing her wedding dress again, and she just couldn't get enough. I'm getting married tomorrow, she thought. Tomorrow...

Suddenly, she heard the door to her room open. "Um...whose there?" In the doorway stood her future sister-in-law Ginny, who rolled her eyes at catching Hermione in her wedding dress AGAIN.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Hermione," Ginny said, "can't you put that away until tomorrow?"

"I can't help it," Hermione gushed. She looked at her reflection again. "I'm just so excited!"

"Well, can you take that thing off and change into some normal clothes?" Ginny asked impatiently. "We want to take you out!"

Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Whose "we"?"

"Me, Angelina, Ella, Lavender, Parvati, and Luna." Hermione noticed that Ginny's voice was a little harder when she said "Luna". She must still be pissed off at her, Hermione concluded. But why?

"Where are we going?"

Ginny crossed her arms. "It's a surprised."

Hermione sighed. "Fine, fine. Tell them I'll be ready in a minute."

Hermione changed into her Muggle clothes and went downstairs to find the crowd of women waiting for her. "It's the bride-to-be!" Ella, who was a lot older then the rest of the party, gushed.

"Come on," Angelina said, taking her hand. "We're taking you out."

Hermione knew better then to ask where as Angelina pulled her out of the Burrow. The rest of the party followed. Angelina stuck out her wand and with a BANG, the Knight Bus appeared. "All aboard!" Angelina called.

As they sat on the bus (headed for London), Hermione stared out of the window at the changing scenes. Though she was on her way to some mysterious destination, she still had tomorrow on her mind. That is, until they pulled up to the stop in London. The small building had flashing neon lights, and CHIP AND DALES DANCERS was written in pink. "Wait a second-"

"Come on!" Angelina pulled Hermione off the bus in the same fashion that she'd pulled her on.

"This is a Muggle stripeclub!"

Parvati (who was married), giggled. Lavender grinned. "Come on, honey, we all know that Muggle strippers are better then wizard ones."

"Yeah, too many explosions and bullshit," Ginny agreed. Hermione was shocked: how did Ginny know that?

"Let's go-"

"WAIT!" Hermione pulled away from Angelina's grasp and looked at them all. "How can we do this, you guys?"

"Um..." Ella gave her future sister-in-law a strange look. "Well, we can just go in through the entrance-"

"No, that's not what I mean!" Hermione sighed. "Look, I'm getting married tomorrow. Ella, you're married already! And so are Angelina and Parvati."

"Oh, okay," Lavender said. She turned to Ginny and Luna. "Come on, girls, lets have all the fun."

"Lighten up, Hermione," Angelina said. "I mean, what do you think Ron's doing right now?"

"Having drinks with the guys, I guess..." The rest of the girls exchanged knowing glances, and Hermione knew the truth: a bachelor party.

"Come on, honey," Parvati said gentely. "This can be your bachelorette party!"

Hermione sighed. She wouldn't win this battle. Besides, she figures, it's just dancers, how bad could dancers be?

She soon found out as the "dancers" revealed more then Hermione wanted to see. She gaped at the stage as Angelina climbed up and joined in. Well, at least she's happy, Hermione told herself as she went to get another drink (it helped take her mind off what was going on). She still felt bad for Angelina after she'd lost her baby. And if dancing around with male strippers made her feel better, then Hermione was all for it.

After she'd had about ten drinks (more then she'd drank in her life), Hermione was ready to go home. So was Ginny, who'd drank just as much. So all the women left the club and went back to the Burrow. "We'll have to sneak in, Mum'll be pissed if she sees us," Ginny said. For some reason, Hermione found this very funny: she laughed very loudly, and a laughing Angelina tried to shush her.

Hermione feel into bed that night, falling asleep right away. The next morning, the day of her wedding, she was hung over.

But Ginny had bigger problems.