Glin woke up almost purring at the warm blanket that was wrapped around
her. Snuggling down deeper into her blankets, she noticed that they seemed
to be moving, in a not altogether unpleasant manner. Thinking back on the
previous evening, she batted her eyes a few times, wincing at the bright
light that was filling the room. Almost simultaneously she remembered the
previous evening and she noticed that her face was currently nestled in
Ron's neck. Stretching as much as she could without waking Ron, she smiled
and burrowed her face deeper into his throat.
Apparently, the smiling into his throat bit had not been as covert as she'd anticipated, as Ron made an out of tune humming noise in the back of his throat and his arms began stroking her back lightly. She kissed his adam's apple in silent apology. "Sorry I woke you."
"Mmm." He responded.
"We should probably get up though. It'd look really bad if we were late for the wedding."
"Mmm. Especially if we were late together." He replied. "It might ruin your little secret."
Glin stiffened momentarily. Did Ron know? Then, she realized he couldn't, and that he was just being irritable about the whole kind of secret on again off again apparently on again relationship they'd been having. It seemed Ron was getting a little fed up with the secrecy bit. Which, considering how she was feeling about things at the moment was not entirely a bad thing.
"Well, they'll find out eventually. With this group no one has a secret for very long." She pulled one of the hands off her back and pressed a kiss to the knuckles before settling it on Ron's chest. "We can tell them when the wedding stuff is done with, if you want."
Ron took used his other hand to pull her head up so that she was looking him in the eye. "Are you serious? Because I think I've been pretty reasonable about pretty much everything and I really don't think I can be that reasonable if you jerk me around much more."
"Yeah. I don't do the whole serious thing a whole lot, Ron, so just. yeah. I have a thing we need to talk about, but I'd rather do it after the wedding is over, so. if after you still want to tell everybody, that's fine. I mean, I'll want to tell everybody to, it's just your. the ball is in your court after tonight, Ron."
"Cool. Now, I have something serious to discuss with you. I'm quite miffed with you, actually." He looked at her, brow furrowed. "I intended to wake up before you and make waffles, and I really take issue with your waking up before me."
"Ron, we have a wedding today. We don't have time to deal with the fire brigade." She smirked. "How about you go pick up pastries and coffee from the shop down the street and I'll take my shower and start getting ready for the wedding."
"We can't take a shower together?"
"Not if we want to be on time for the wedding, Ron."
"Right." He stretched and let go of her, dropping a kiss on the top of her head as he slid out of bed. He grabbed his wand off the nightstand and intoned "Accio clothes."
A pile of clothes zoomed off the floor and hit him from all directions. Plucking the pair of magenta panties off his forehead, he raised an eyebrow at Glin. "Right, next time I'd best be more specific."
Glin watched as Ron pulled on his pants and sniffed the armpits of his shirt from the night before in a manly way. Sighing, she rolled out of bed and waltzed into her closet, pulling something off of one of the first hangers and then flinging it at him. "Make mine an orange juice."
Ron frowned. "Another castoff from one of your flings?"
She rolled her eyes. "It's mine. I bought it to wear for when Carlos is doing my make-up. That way I can have something on that I don't have to pull over my head to take off. It's just a plain men's dress shirt. But feel free to whine about it if you want."
"Oh." Ron shrugged and put the shirt on and walked towards the door. "See you in a few."
Glin walked into the bathroom, almost absurdly proud of the fact that Ron hadn't noticed that the shirt was brand new and matched his eyes exactly.
Hermione woke up, rolled over, and kissed her bed partner passionately.
Unfortunately, her bed partner didn't turn out to be Harry.
Ginny sat bolt upright after knocking Hermione in the eye. "Blargh! Hermione!"
"Sorry, Gin. Thought you were Harry." Hermione rubbed her sore eye.
"Well, I'm bloody well not, you daffy bird! Merlin!"
"You know, I don't think you normally would be this freaked out," Hermione studied Ginny cautiously. "Is there something wrong?"
Ginny pulled her blankets up around her shoulders like a shield. "There is nothing wrong but the fact that I was unexpectedly awoken by some maniac snogging me like mad! Plus, you haven't brushed."
"Your mouth isn't exactly a minty fresh treat either, Gin," Hermione pointed out.
McGonagall waltzed into the room and hopped up on the bed next to Ginny, examining her closely for a moment. "She was having a dream."
"Shut up, Minnie."
"Really?" Hermione asked. "I'm sorry, was it a nice one?"
"Oh yeah." McGonagall answered for her.
"What about?"
"One more word Minnie and I swear I'm switching to the bargain kibble."
Hermione's eyes opened wider. "Oh! One of those dreams." She smiled widely. "So how is Draco Darling?"
"Shut up or I'll give you a black eye for real, Hermione. It'll look really nice with that white dress you've got to throw on in a few hours."
"Oh, Merlin." Hermione flopped back down on the bed next to Ginny. "I'm getting married."
"You think you'd have realized that sometime during the past few months, you nutter." Ginny smiled as she stood up and stretched, while humming the wedding march. "You'd better have a shower otherwise we're going to be late, and Carlos will have a fit."
"Carlos has a fit on a regular basis. He's like Ron only gay."
"I'm sure they would both adore that comparison. What do you want for breakfast?"
"Cup of tea and dry toast." McGonagall and Ginny looked at her with almost identical smirks on their faces, which was pretty remarkable considering they weren't even the same species. "I do not have jitters or cold feet. I just think it's best not to tempt fate. Stop staring like that, it's creepy."
As it turned out, Carlos was having a fit. But not of the kind any of them had anticipated.
"I swear to Merlin you've got to get up and get out right now!"
There was an unintelligible mumble from under the covers of Carlos' bed.
"I've got to be there in half an hour. Get up, get up!"
Finally, a mussed head emerged from beneath the maroon silk coverlet. "'los, I'm tired. I'll just sleep here."
"Someone's going to see you and then Lavender is going to be here pounding on my door at all hours of the night, screaming for you."
"That's a shitty thing to do a man's libido, mentioning his wife." The man pouted, his hand coming out of the bed to snake around Carlos' waist.
"Yes, well, I could care less about it right now. I've got a wedding party to make presentable, and you've got a wife to coddle. Run along now."
A kiss was pressed to Carlos' shoulder.
"Out, out, out! Or I tell Lavender something she'll definitely want to hear about."
Carlos arrived at the bride's dressing room with plenty of time to spare. He set his cases down on a table and began opening all the little compartments, checking to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. It was, of course, because if Carlos treated his tools and supplies like they were worth twice their weight in gold, which many of them quite possibly were. Carlos spent more money each year on the latest and best in cosmetic supplies than most people spent on luxury sports cars, but then again, Carlos also made enough from his clientele to afford the very best.
Angelina and Alicia walked in a few minutes later, and Carlos began his work in earnest. He whipped hair into sleek French twists with a few tendrils curling around their faces. The look went well with the simple and traditional design Hermione and Padma had decided upon for the gowns. They were traditional witches robes, modified a bit to be a bit more feminine. The robes were fitted very close to their bodies, taking kind of a dressy version of a peasant's dress from the renaissance. Hermione's was cream with gold and crimson accents, while the bridesmaids' were iridescent shimmering between crimson and gold.
Carlos had the look of a man insanely devoted to what he was doing. His intense gaze caused many of the women he was making up to become nervous to the point where he was worried about them sweating until he performed a temporary anti-perspiration charm on all of them, except for Glin, who was used to Carlos barking "Accio Wine-y Witch Lip Dye!"
After around an hour and a half of silence that was frequently interrupted by "Galleons in Your Eyes!" and "Witching Hour!" Carlos' masterpieces were complete. The women looked wonderful, each looking their best while looking as if they belonged in a group together, except of course for McGonagall. "Tabby matches nothing," Carlos had sulked before declaring the cat a lost cause and tying a trio of ribbons in cream, crimson and gold around her neck jauntily.
Harry stepped out into the cathedral that Hermione's parents had been married in and stood at the front, nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot as he waited for the whole thing to be over with. It wasn't that he had doubts or anything like that. He'd known he'd wanted to be with Hermione for years, quite possibly since her brief and ill-fated relationship with Viktor Krum, although, he hadn't admitted it to himself since long after the event. No, Harry's worries were not about Hermione, they were about the fact that there were an inordinate amount of people crowded into the cathedral, and unfortunately, the small, intimate wedding he'd pictured had become a giant, standing room only sort of affair, which seemed ridiculously lax security wise, considering the majority of the people there were wizards trying to hide that very fact from Hermione's extended family, who were all muggles.
Harry briefly wondered how they could possibly imagined they'd get out of the whole affair without obliviating a couple people.
Then, Ron nudged him in the side, and he turned, and all of a sudden he didn't have to worry about any of those things, because the precise moment he saw Hermione all higher brain functions ceased entirely, and all of his energies were devoted to attempting to begin breathing again.
She looked.lovely. Radiant. Not that she didn't normally look wonderful, but this was significantly different. Even better than the Bond girl costume that he'd been infinitely fond of. As if that wasn't enough, through some miracle of fate, she kept walking towards him. Then, she grabbed his hand, and she squeezed it, and Harry knew that if the Mirror of Erised were right in front of him right now, the mirror would depict this exact scene: the moment all of his dreams came true. Harry had spent his entire life wishing for a family, and now here she was, standing in front of him, her eyes reflecting back all the joy in his heart.
Then, in some absurd trick of time, the whole world sped up insanely fast, as if it was on fast forward and he was terribly afraid that Hermione would belt him because he'd inevitably mess it up. Then, Dumbledore was telling him to kiss his bride, and he was, and she was- his wife. Not his girlfriend or lover or friend, but all of those things rolled up into one with a simple, convenient and official title. Wife.
The dinner after was nice. Candles on long tables covered with linen tablecloths. A string quartet playing. A nice little dance floor where people could dance if they were so inclined, and an open bar. The open bar contributed significantly to Ron being comfortable enough to give his best man's toast, and would have contributed even more had Glin not cut him off.
"I've known Harry and Herm for years, since we were school chums. I've seen them both grow up and I've seen them both grow together and I have to say that if you can find any pair in the world more suited to each other than I'll be amazed. I'm not much good at giving speeches, which is why I was actually surprised they picked me at all, knowing that how I am about this sort of thing, what with the rambling I tend to do when I'm." Ron stared out over the sea of faces staring at him and blush. "Right, well, I'm doing it again. Anyway, I love you both, and I wish that every day of your lives together you'll remember how you felt today, and how we all came together to celebrate how very much the two of you love each other. Right, I'm done now. Cheers!"
The crowd smiled, and cheered, and everyone took a sip from their glass and looked at Glin expectantly.
"Right, well, there are probably a million or so stories about Harry and Hermione as a couple, many of which are not appropriate for those assembled here for. various reasons. However, none of those stories couple accurately capture the way they look at each other like and smile like they know a secret that none of the rest of us are privy to, and I think that secret is what exactly it feels like to be in love with your best friend in the world. Harry, Hermione, I wish you all the luck in all the world and more, although I'm certain you won't need it at all. Cheers."
The crowd once again raised their glass and murmured "cheers" but before Glin could take a sip, the room was plunged into darkness.
Unlike in a horror film, there were no shrieks or swooning women. There was a brief moment of silence followed by a wash of confused chatter enveloping the room. Harry stood in the darkness and spoke calmly but loudly. "Stay calm everybody. Probably just a draft." But he knew it wasn't. There was magic afoot, and most of the people in the room knew it. A draft didn't wipe out fifty candles in a room, regardless of how many windows were open. Not simultaneously. Something was very wrong. "Can whoever is closest to the door see if they can find a light switch?"
One of Hermione's cousins or uncles or something found a light switch near the banquet hall doors, behind a crimson velvet curtain. It took an inordinate amount of time, and the tension in the room was palpable.
Big fluorescent lights in the ceiling flickered on.
Hermione stood next to Harry and smiled at the audience. "Well, it does spoil the ambience a bit, but as long as everyone's all right."
"They're not," Ron said dully, his face white and pale. "She's gone."
Apparently, the smiling into his throat bit had not been as covert as she'd anticipated, as Ron made an out of tune humming noise in the back of his throat and his arms began stroking her back lightly. She kissed his adam's apple in silent apology. "Sorry I woke you."
"Mmm." He responded.
"We should probably get up though. It'd look really bad if we were late for the wedding."
"Mmm. Especially if we were late together." He replied. "It might ruin your little secret."
Glin stiffened momentarily. Did Ron know? Then, she realized he couldn't, and that he was just being irritable about the whole kind of secret on again off again apparently on again relationship they'd been having. It seemed Ron was getting a little fed up with the secrecy bit. Which, considering how she was feeling about things at the moment was not entirely a bad thing.
"Well, they'll find out eventually. With this group no one has a secret for very long." She pulled one of the hands off her back and pressed a kiss to the knuckles before settling it on Ron's chest. "We can tell them when the wedding stuff is done with, if you want."
Ron took used his other hand to pull her head up so that she was looking him in the eye. "Are you serious? Because I think I've been pretty reasonable about pretty much everything and I really don't think I can be that reasonable if you jerk me around much more."
"Yeah. I don't do the whole serious thing a whole lot, Ron, so just. yeah. I have a thing we need to talk about, but I'd rather do it after the wedding is over, so. if after you still want to tell everybody, that's fine. I mean, I'll want to tell everybody to, it's just your. the ball is in your court after tonight, Ron."
"Cool. Now, I have something serious to discuss with you. I'm quite miffed with you, actually." He looked at her, brow furrowed. "I intended to wake up before you and make waffles, and I really take issue with your waking up before me."
"Ron, we have a wedding today. We don't have time to deal with the fire brigade." She smirked. "How about you go pick up pastries and coffee from the shop down the street and I'll take my shower and start getting ready for the wedding."
"We can't take a shower together?"
"Not if we want to be on time for the wedding, Ron."
"Right." He stretched and let go of her, dropping a kiss on the top of her head as he slid out of bed. He grabbed his wand off the nightstand and intoned "Accio clothes."
A pile of clothes zoomed off the floor and hit him from all directions. Plucking the pair of magenta panties off his forehead, he raised an eyebrow at Glin. "Right, next time I'd best be more specific."
Glin watched as Ron pulled on his pants and sniffed the armpits of his shirt from the night before in a manly way. Sighing, she rolled out of bed and waltzed into her closet, pulling something off of one of the first hangers and then flinging it at him. "Make mine an orange juice."
Ron frowned. "Another castoff from one of your flings?"
She rolled her eyes. "It's mine. I bought it to wear for when Carlos is doing my make-up. That way I can have something on that I don't have to pull over my head to take off. It's just a plain men's dress shirt. But feel free to whine about it if you want."
"Oh." Ron shrugged and put the shirt on and walked towards the door. "See you in a few."
Glin walked into the bathroom, almost absurdly proud of the fact that Ron hadn't noticed that the shirt was brand new and matched his eyes exactly.
Hermione woke up, rolled over, and kissed her bed partner passionately.
Unfortunately, her bed partner didn't turn out to be Harry.
Ginny sat bolt upright after knocking Hermione in the eye. "Blargh! Hermione!"
"Sorry, Gin. Thought you were Harry." Hermione rubbed her sore eye.
"Well, I'm bloody well not, you daffy bird! Merlin!"
"You know, I don't think you normally would be this freaked out," Hermione studied Ginny cautiously. "Is there something wrong?"
Ginny pulled her blankets up around her shoulders like a shield. "There is nothing wrong but the fact that I was unexpectedly awoken by some maniac snogging me like mad! Plus, you haven't brushed."
"Your mouth isn't exactly a minty fresh treat either, Gin," Hermione pointed out.
McGonagall waltzed into the room and hopped up on the bed next to Ginny, examining her closely for a moment. "She was having a dream."
"Shut up, Minnie."
"Really?" Hermione asked. "I'm sorry, was it a nice one?"
"Oh yeah." McGonagall answered for her.
"What about?"
"One more word Minnie and I swear I'm switching to the bargain kibble."
Hermione's eyes opened wider. "Oh! One of those dreams." She smiled widely. "So how is Draco Darling?"
"Shut up or I'll give you a black eye for real, Hermione. It'll look really nice with that white dress you've got to throw on in a few hours."
"Oh, Merlin." Hermione flopped back down on the bed next to Ginny. "I'm getting married."
"You think you'd have realized that sometime during the past few months, you nutter." Ginny smiled as she stood up and stretched, while humming the wedding march. "You'd better have a shower otherwise we're going to be late, and Carlos will have a fit."
"Carlos has a fit on a regular basis. He's like Ron only gay."
"I'm sure they would both adore that comparison. What do you want for breakfast?"
"Cup of tea and dry toast." McGonagall and Ginny looked at her with almost identical smirks on their faces, which was pretty remarkable considering they weren't even the same species. "I do not have jitters or cold feet. I just think it's best not to tempt fate. Stop staring like that, it's creepy."
As it turned out, Carlos was having a fit. But not of the kind any of them had anticipated.
"I swear to Merlin you've got to get up and get out right now!"
There was an unintelligible mumble from under the covers of Carlos' bed.
"I've got to be there in half an hour. Get up, get up!"
Finally, a mussed head emerged from beneath the maroon silk coverlet. "'los, I'm tired. I'll just sleep here."
"Someone's going to see you and then Lavender is going to be here pounding on my door at all hours of the night, screaming for you."
"That's a shitty thing to do a man's libido, mentioning his wife." The man pouted, his hand coming out of the bed to snake around Carlos' waist.
"Yes, well, I could care less about it right now. I've got a wedding party to make presentable, and you've got a wife to coddle. Run along now."
A kiss was pressed to Carlos' shoulder.
"Out, out, out! Or I tell Lavender something she'll definitely want to hear about."
Carlos arrived at the bride's dressing room with plenty of time to spare. He set his cases down on a table and began opening all the little compartments, checking to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be. It was, of course, because if Carlos treated his tools and supplies like they were worth twice their weight in gold, which many of them quite possibly were. Carlos spent more money each year on the latest and best in cosmetic supplies than most people spent on luxury sports cars, but then again, Carlos also made enough from his clientele to afford the very best.
Angelina and Alicia walked in a few minutes later, and Carlos began his work in earnest. He whipped hair into sleek French twists with a few tendrils curling around their faces. The look went well with the simple and traditional design Hermione and Padma had decided upon for the gowns. They were traditional witches robes, modified a bit to be a bit more feminine. The robes were fitted very close to their bodies, taking kind of a dressy version of a peasant's dress from the renaissance. Hermione's was cream with gold and crimson accents, while the bridesmaids' were iridescent shimmering between crimson and gold.
Carlos had the look of a man insanely devoted to what he was doing. His intense gaze caused many of the women he was making up to become nervous to the point where he was worried about them sweating until he performed a temporary anti-perspiration charm on all of them, except for Glin, who was used to Carlos barking "Accio Wine-y Witch Lip Dye!"
After around an hour and a half of silence that was frequently interrupted by "Galleons in Your Eyes!" and "Witching Hour!" Carlos' masterpieces were complete. The women looked wonderful, each looking their best while looking as if they belonged in a group together, except of course for McGonagall. "Tabby matches nothing," Carlos had sulked before declaring the cat a lost cause and tying a trio of ribbons in cream, crimson and gold around her neck jauntily.
Harry stepped out into the cathedral that Hermione's parents had been married in and stood at the front, nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot as he waited for the whole thing to be over with. It wasn't that he had doubts or anything like that. He'd known he'd wanted to be with Hermione for years, quite possibly since her brief and ill-fated relationship with Viktor Krum, although, he hadn't admitted it to himself since long after the event. No, Harry's worries were not about Hermione, they were about the fact that there were an inordinate amount of people crowded into the cathedral, and unfortunately, the small, intimate wedding he'd pictured had become a giant, standing room only sort of affair, which seemed ridiculously lax security wise, considering the majority of the people there were wizards trying to hide that very fact from Hermione's extended family, who were all muggles.
Harry briefly wondered how they could possibly imagined they'd get out of the whole affair without obliviating a couple people.
Then, Ron nudged him in the side, and he turned, and all of a sudden he didn't have to worry about any of those things, because the precise moment he saw Hermione all higher brain functions ceased entirely, and all of his energies were devoted to attempting to begin breathing again.
She looked.lovely. Radiant. Not that she didn't normally look wonderful, but this was significantly different. Even better than the Bond girl costume that he'd been infinitely fond of. As if that wasn't enough, through some miracle of fate, she kept walking towards him. Then, she grabbed his hand, and she squeezed it, and Harry knew that if the Mirror of Erised were right in front of him right now, the mirror would depict this exact scene: the moment all of his dreams came true. Harry had spent his entire life wishing for a family, and now here she was, standing in front of him, her eyes reflecting back all the joy in his heart.
Then, in some absurd trick of time, the whole world sped up insanely fast, as if it was on fast forward and he was terribly afraid that Hermione would belt him because he'd inevitably mess it up. Then, Dumbledore was telling him to kiss his bride, and he was, and she was- his wife. Not his girlfriend or lover or friend, but all of those things rolled up into one with a simple, convenient and official title. Wife.
The dinner after was nice. Candles on long tables covered with linen tablecloths. A string quartet playing. A nice little dance floor where people could dance if they were so inclined, and an open bar. The open bar contributed significantly to Ron being comfortable enough to give his best man's toast, and would have contributed even more had Glin not cut him off.
"I've known Harry and Herm for years, since we were school chums. I've seen them both grow up and I've seen them both grow together and I have to say that if you can find any pair in the world more suited to each other than I'll be amazed. I'm not much good at giving speeches, which is why I was actually surprised they picked me at all, knowing that how I am about this sort of thing, what with the rambling I tend to do when I'm." Ron stared out over the sea of faces staring at him and blush. "Right, well, I'm doing it again. Anyway, I love you both, and I wish that every day of your lives together you'll remember how you felt today, and how we all came together to celebrate how very much the two of you love each other. Right, I'm done now. Cheers!"
The crowd smiled, and cheered, and everyone took a sip from their glass and looked at Glin expectantly.
"Right, well, there are probably a million or so stories about Harry and Hermione as a couple, many of which are not appropriate for those assembled here for. various reasons. However, none of those stories couple accurately capture the way they look at each other like and smile like they know a secret that none of the rest of us are privy to, and I think that secret is what exactly it feels like to be in love with your best friend in the world. Harry, Hermione, I wish you all the luck in all the world and more, although I'm certain you won't need it at all. Cheers."
The crowd once again raised their glass and murmured "cheers" but before Glin could take a sip, the room was plunged into darkness.
Unlike in a horror film, there were no shrieks or swooning women. There was a brief moment of silence followed by a wash of confused chatter enveloping the room. Harry stood in the darkness and spoke calmly but loudly. "Stay calm everybody. Probably just a draft." But he knew it wasn't. There was magic afoot, and most of the people in the room knew it. A draft didn't wipe out fifty candles in a room, regardless of how many windows were open. Not simultaneously. Something was very wrong. "Can whoever is closest to the door see if they can find a light switch?"
One of Hermione's cousins or uncles or something found a light switch near the banquet hall doors, behind a crimson velvet curtain. It took an inordinate amount of time, and the tension in the room was palpable.
Big fluorescent lights in the ceiling flickered on.
Hermione stood next to Harry and smiled at the audience. "Well, it does spoil the ambience a bit, but as long as everyone's all right."
"They're not," Ron said dully, his face white and pale. "She's gone."
