--The Bachelor's Curse--

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Chapter III

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July 29th : Later that afternoon: The Ministry

Bill Weasley virtually had to shove couples out of his way to the reach the stairwell that lead up to Katie's office at the Ministry. Young and old alike, crowded the corridors and formed long lines waiting for newly deputised judges to officiate the shortest wedding ceremonies ever recorded in Great Britain. Finally, after bounding up five flights of stairs full of nervous energy, he reached the Department of International Magical Cooperation. Ironically, this was the office where they had met five years ago when Bill had chanced to drop off some paperwork from Gringott's Egyptian office. Of course, it had been another year before he'd broken up with Fleur and was reintroduced to Katie at a Christmas party.

Since Voldemort had been defeated, Bill had left his desk job at the London Gringott's office and was once again in the field (or more literately, the Egyptian desert). Thus, his courtship with Katie had been difficult; writing a gazillion letters and apparating back and forth for holidays when it could be arranged. However, even through the difficult times and the lonely winters, Bill knew one thing to be certain; this was the girl he was going to marry. Of course, he didn't realize it would this soon.

Oh well, se la vi! He thought to himself as he fingered a small gold ring in his pocket.

"Bill!" A young woman with chestnut brown hair and an athletic form exclaimed as she came around the front desk and threw her arms around her boyfriend. "It's been a mad house today! It's so wonderful to see a smiling face."

"I couldn't agree more," Bill answered and returned her friendly hug. "Katie, darling," he said lowly, "I have something to ask you."

Then bending down on one knee in front of all her co-workers (who were goggling the couple with anticipation), he took a small unornamented gold ring from his pocket.

"I was waiting to do this until I could afford to buy you a diamond, but I'm afraid today, all I have is this and my heart," he smiled gently and held up the band. "Kathryn Bell, will you marry me?"

Tears were streaming down her cheeks before she finally nodded and cried out, "Yes! Oh yes!!"

Their embrace was cheered by the entire office staff, who yelped with joyous shouts of, "Long live love!"

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Hogwart's School: The Dungeon

"Severus, I need a moment of your time." The headmaster said and entered the Potion's classroom.

Severus's black eyes and hooked nose peered up over a load of papers as a cauldron bubbled near by. "Can this wait Headmaster? I'm in the middle of some important work."

"I'm afraid it can't Severus." Dumbledore responded and dropped the Prophet on his desk. "Minerva and Poppy are matching up our bachelor professors as we speak, and I thought it might be a good idea if we spoke before they arrived."

Dumbledore sat down and a chair appeared beneath him.

A knot formed in Snape's throat as he read the paper's headline. Taking out his wand, he cleared his desk and removed the bubbling concoction. "As you know, I am already married."

"That's what you told me twenty years ago when you showed up on my doorstep."

Severus flushed and looked away. He didn't like talking about that time.

"Have you spoken to your wife in those twenty years?" Albus gently prodded, concerned for the man's welfare. For some reason, when it came to Severus, he had a soft spot in his heart. Perhaps because he knew him as boy or perhaps because he thought he had failed him as a young man.

"No," Severus answered lowly, "But divorce is not an option in her religion."

"But annulment is." Albus stated frankly.

"Yes," Severus said contemplating old memories, "but she would have thought an annulment false because-" Severus stopped abruptly.

Dumbledore nodded for him to continue.

He sighed heavily, guilt thick, "Because when I left; when she found out who I really was, what I was, she was with child."

Although a master at Occumancy, Snape's black eyes glared with pain and humiliation. Dumbledore nodded quietly to his raw confession revealing no emotion.

But this was not the end, "I received a letter a month later telling me she lost the child and had decided to join the Sisters of Mercy. She instructed me never to return, never to seek her out."

"Severus, you know what you must do."

Snape rubbed his temples, as if he couldn't quiet comprehend his next step.

"You must go to your wife and see if your marriage contract is still valid. If she has become a holy woman, it might not be so anymore and you can not marry again unless you are released from all your earlier bonds."

"Yes, you are right," he unwillingly admitted.

"Can you apparate to her tonight?" Albus pressured.

He nodded. Tonight he'd visit Western Ireland, visit his old lie, visit his painful past...

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St. Mungo's

"Don't do this Luna. He's had a good life, let him go."

Luna's jaw dropped to her chest as she wrenched her arm out of Healer Strout's hand. "How can you say that? He's starting to recover Miriam. He's starting to remember."

"And once he remembers what he did he'll go to Azkaban for it. Gods Luna! August first might be a blessing to the tortures he'll face in that prison."

Luna whipped around, her long blonde hair stinging against Strout's twisted face. "I have already sent for the hospital's priest. You can not stop me from marrying him, from saving him!" Luna yelled over her shoulder and disappeared into room 137 B.

Pushing her anger aside, she tried to smle as she saw Gilderoy buttoning his vest. "You told me to put on my day clothes, but I have no idea what to do with this thing." Lockheart held up a light blue silk scarf.

"That's called a cravat. Men wear them around their necks." Luna answered casually.

"Oh," Lockheart answered and continue to run the smooth material between his hands. "Luna, what are we doing again?"

Luna knelt before him and tied his shoe laces. "We're signing a contract to be friends."

"Ah, yes," he smiled happily. "That sounds very pleasant."

Luna stood and buttoned up the rest of his vest. "And then, we'll have cake."

His smile broadened, "Even better."

A very old man in dark purple robes entered the room. He looked at his clipboard and then, peered over his thick glasses at Luna and Gilderoy, "Where's the deceased?"

"Oh, hello Elderworth." Luna smoothed back her hair into a ponytail, "This isn't death rites; it's a marriage ceremony."

For a moment, he looked at her like she had just sprouted a second head, then shrugged his shoulders, and sighed, "Sure, why not."

Luna took Lockheart in hand and guided him to the priest, "This is Gilderoy Lockheart and I am Luna Lovegood and we want to be married."

Lockheart turned to Luna, "Married? I thought you said we were going to be special friends today."

Luna smiled gently, "Yes, Gil. That's what special friends do, they marry." She knew explaining the Unum Solitas would be way out of his range of understanding right now.

"But when a man and a woman get married they have a house and babies. We don't have those things Luna." His concern was very real.

She rubbed his arm in a calming way, "No we don't Gil, but we have each other and we'll have a contract and that will be enough for now."

He thought about what she said for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, you're right. And we have cake." He added.

Luna laughed, "We definitely have cake."

Elderworth took out a small book and began reading the holy rites, "Lord and Lady, You have made the bond of marriage a holy mystery,

a symbol of Your love for us. We gather today for the spiritual uniting of Luna Lovegood and Gilderoy Lockheart in your holy and mysterious ways..."

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The Ministry: Open Marriage Courts

"Wow! I guess we'll have to stand in line for a while." Tonks responded on eyeing the long lines marked with signs, 'Speedy Marriage Line I', 'Expedient Marriage Line II' and 'Hasty Marriage Line III'.

"I brought something to help us pass the time," Lupin reached in his robe and pulled out a bar of chocolate.

"Wotcher, Remus! I knew there was a reason to marry you besides the curse." She took a bite from the bar, "A lifetime supply of chocolate!"

Lupin laughed and enjoyed how Nymphadora Tonks was the only one these days that could really make him do so. Queuing up in 'Expedient Marriage Line II', behind sixty other wizarding folk, Remus said, "I guess we'll have to do this again when we get the contract annulled."

Tonks nearly choked on a chocolate chunk, "That's an awful thing to say on our wedding day, Remus!"

Lupin raised a curious brow, cautiously wondering if she might have other plans in mind, "Did you want to stay married to me?"

Tonks answered with a question, "Do I make that unfit of a wife?"

Without thought, he quickly answered from his heart, "Nymphadora, you will make some man a wonderful wife- you're beautiful, you're funny, you're smart. You are everything a man wants."

"So you like me?" Tonks asked softly, leaning closer.

Remus looked at her like she was a strangely, bubbling cauldron. "Of course, I like you. I mean, you're the one who's always saying we're best mates and all." How was he supposed to answer that question? He was in love with her and had been for years, but he couldn't just shout that out on the floor of the Ministry, for St. George's sake!

"Oh," Nymphadora looked a bit downcast, "So you like me like you like Bill."

"I like you much better than I like Bill. For one, you don't belch when you're drinking and two, you're extremely pleasing to look at."

"So you like the way I look?"

Remus was starting to grow tired of this game. "Nymphadora, you're beautiful. Way too beautiful to be married to me."

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes you-" he stopped mid sentence refusing to lower their conversation to childish banter. Grasping her arm tightly, and drawing her petit, curvaceous body along side of his, he whispered, "What are you getting at?"

Tonks bit her lip before everything came spilling out, "Remus, I've always known that someday we'd be together." Her dark eyes pierced his soul, "Not like mates and not like a one night stand, but like this." She pointed specifically to the word 'Marriage' on the que sign.

Lupin nearly fainted, staggering back slightly.

"Oh Remus, are you okay? I didn't mean to frighten you," she replied grabbing onto his lapels to steady him. "It's just that...It's just that I really like," she exclaimed and rolled her eyes, "And I've really like you for a really long time." Now here pale face was blushing profusely pink.

Lupin's brow knotted, confusion rampant, "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Tonks looked down at her shoes, feeling very girlish, "You're not the type of guy that one just blurts out these things too." Then looking up, "But now that you have to marry me; well, you can't run away or anything, can you."

Lupin grasped her arm again, passion filling him, "I wouldn't have run away before, Nymphadora for the simple, bloody fact that I can't bear being away from you! Do you understand what I'm saying?!"

Tonk's eyes widened, "You do like me?"

Echoing her earlier words, "I like you a lot! I liked you a lot the first time you tripped into Grimmald Place."

Sheer disbelief, "Really??"

He couldn't believe he was bearing his heart to her here, on the floor of the Ministry, in ear shot of a few hundred wizards, "Really."

"So, you want to give this marriage thing a shot? I mean, we don't have to rush all the parts of it." She replied, hoping he would understand that she didn't want to rush him physically.

Remus smiled at her innocence and at her beautiful spirit, "Are you asking me to marry you again?"

"I believe I am, Remus Lupin," she smiled, pink cheeks matching her pink hair. "How 'bout it, will you marry me?"

"If you're willing to give an old man a go, I think I could do the same for a cute, young, seductive thing," he mused and Tonks openly laughed. The he seriously added, "With all my being, Nymphador Tonks, I want to give this marriage 'thing' a shot."

Without thought, she kissed him. Both giggled as their noses bumped with the awkwardness of a first kisses.

"Let's try that again," Tonks murmured against his smooth lips.

Without verbal response, Lupin tilted his head and kissed her and it was good! Very, very good!

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Okay, more Harry and Severus coming up next...Also, you'll find out why Dumbledore signed a marriage contract even though he's well over 50. Don't think about it too much, because it's fairly simple. :) Lyra