A/N – FLUFF ALERT – Okay, for those of you here for the NON fluff bits, you're really not going to like this chapter. But if you can stand (or if you demand) a little fluff action, here you go.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Not even Maura, it would seem.

CQ


Chapter Seventeen: Then Comes Marriage

Hermione stood, her head to the side, considering her creation.

The peonies have to be moved. They're in the way there, she thought.

"Mione!" Ron's voice called from the porch. "Come on! We're going to be late!"

"This has to look perfect, Ron!"

"It does look perfect. It's beautiful. Now get your butt in here and get ready! Mom is having kittens because you're not there yet!"

"I am ready, Ron," she said, walking past him into the dim interior of the cottage, made more so by the intense June sunshine outside. She went into the kitchen and washed her hands.

"Women always say that, then they take another..." he stopped abruptly at the narrow-eyed look she gave him. Suddenly, his voice became very cheerful, "Alrighty then, let's go."

He stepped behind her, and she swatted at his hands as his arms went around her.

"I want to do it myself!"

"And splinch yourself an hour before the wedding of the year? I think not. Ginny would draw and quarter me, and bat-bogey hex my remains. Now, behave yourself."

Before she could swat his hands away again, the room was dissolving around her, to be replaced by the laneway outside the huge front gates of Hogwarts. Two young men stood there, and when they saw Ron and Hermione, they grinned and opened the gates for them.

They made their way up to the huge front entrance, and found those doors wide open. There were a few people milling around, but most of the guests were still outside, enjoying the refreshments being served and wandering about the school grounds.

Molly rushed up to them, smiling, and shooed Ron away.

"Go! Harry needs you in the anteroom off the Hall. Go!"

"Mum..."

"I'll take care of Hermione, go on!"

When he was gone, she turned to Hermione. "You look beautiful, love."

"Thank you, Molly. How is Ginny?"

"Wonderful. Nervous. Eager," Molly laughed. "Just as the bride ought to be."

Hermione indicated the bouquet she had collected in her garden. "I brought these for her. Ididn't know if she had arranged for a bouquet...it's a tradition in the muggle world..."

"Yes, of course. She'll love them."

"The garden is ready, Molly."

"Perfect, dear. Harry and Ginny so wanted to have their photo done under that huge willow of yours. Now go to her."

"Molly?" Arthur's voice came from direction of the Great Hall. "Are we ready, love?"

"We have half an hour yet, dear," Molly called. "Hermione is just heading up there now."

She turned to Hermione. "Silly man, he's been as nervous as a cat today."

Arthur, as Minister of Magic, had the authority to perform marriages. Ginny and Harry had asked him to officiate for them. Ginny's girls were giving her away, and Ron and Hermione were standing as witnesses.

"Go to Ginny, love," Molly urged her towards the grand staircase.

Hermione nodded and headed up the stairs, towards Gryffindor Tower. Minerva had arranged for them to have the Head Girl's room there to prepare in. When she arrived at the entrance to the common room, she smiled, and spoke the password as it had been given to her that morning.

"Harry loves Ginny."

She entered and walked up the stairs to the girls dorms, and up, until she came to the final door, the private room held by the head girl. She opened it and stuck her head around, seeing Ginny and her girls giggling together on the bed.

"Gin?" Hermione smiled.

"Hermione!" Ginny jumped off the bed, looking more like one of the teenagers than their mother. She was flushed, but then suddenly went white. "Is it time?"

"Just about."

Ginny sighed. "I'm thirty four years old. You'd think I'd be more collected than this."

"It's your wedding day, Ginny. I think you can be forgiven for being nervous."

"What if..." Ginny glanced over at the girls, then lowered her voice. "What if he..."

"He loves you, Ginny. He always has. He decided at nineteen years old that if he couldn't have you, he didn't want anyone. He's been there through every single event of your adult life, even though it would have been easier to leave, to not have to watch you being happy with someone else. Please do not tell me that you doubt his love."

Ginny smiled, then sighed. "You're right."

"Ginny?" Hermione hesitated. "Have you told him... what you told me? About your marriage, and Dean?"

"Yes, most of it."

"Don't hold back, okay? He needs to know all of it."

"I know, Hermione. But not today."

"No," Hermione agreed. "Not today. Today we get you married! I brought you these..." She handed Ginny the bouquet.

"Oh, Hermione, they're lovely! Thank you!" Ginny brought the blooms to her face, and breathed deeply. They reminded her of Hermione's garden, and the many times her family had gathered there to pay tribute to the ones they'd lost.

Family really was the most important thing in the world. The one you had, and the one you made.

Then, Bill's voice called from the bottom of the stairs, and Hermione smiled. "It's time."

She plucked at her robes, sea green and styled much like Ginny's wedding robes, but with a bit of dark green ribbon around the sleeves and neckline.

"You look fine, Hermione. Beautiful." Ginny said. "Ron'll love it."

Hermione flushed, "I want to look nice for you and Harry, not that git of a brother of yours."

"Sure, Hermione," Ginny shoved her out the door and down the stairs, the girls following them. "Now, go. And tell Bill we're right behind you, but no one is allowed to see me until I stand at the top of that staircase!"

Hermione met Bill at the bottom of the stairs.

"She's coming, but she doesn't want anyone to see her until she comes to the top of the stairs down there."

"Fair enough," Bill said. He leaned in to give her a brotherly kiss on the cheek. "I'm glad you found your way back to us, Hermione. We missed you."

"Thank you," she said, tears in her eyes. How could she have forgotten this family?

"She's coming?"

"Right behind us."

"Then let's get this show on the road."

He escorted her to the corridor at the top of the grand staircase, then winked at her. "See you down there."

"Right behind you."

She waited until he disappeared and then turned to see Ginny and the girls enter the hallway behind her. Bill reaching the bottom of the staircase was the cue for the music, and the third note was her cue to reveal herself at the top of the staircase. She turned, and looked over her shoulder to see Ginny and the girls coming. Catching Ginny's eye, she winked, then gave her a thumbs up sign, and a brilliant smile, and then rounded the corner and stepped onto the first step, revealing herself to the crowd below.


Ginny was nervous. Her girls urged her forward, but she hesitated.

It couldn't be possible. This was a dream, or a delusion. Harry Potter couldn't possibly want her as his wife. Who on earth did she think she was to deserve him?

She glanced forward again, seeing Hermione standing at the end of the corridor. She hadn't stepped out to the top of the staircase yet, she was looking back over her shoulder at Ginny.

With a cocky grin and a wink, she gave Ginny the thumbs up, then she turned on that brilliant smile that only Hermione was capable of, and turned, stepping out onto the staircase.

How does she do it? Ginny wondered. Three months ago she learned that it was her wand that killed a wizard more precious to the magical world than any other, with perhaps the exception of Harry.

Yet today, she stepped out in front of hundreds of people, knowing they knew that horrible thing about her, and overcame her own self-doubt enough to smile like that and face them. Where did strength like that come from?

There always was more to Hermione than most people suspected. Harry had seen it, even as a child. Ginny had recognized it through their school years. Sometimes, even Ron got glimpses of it.

And if my idiot of a brother doesn't get it together, it's going to be lost to him again, Ginny thought.

Today, she would become Mrs Harry Potter. She would stand in front of the magical world at his side, and declare her intention to spend eternity with him. If Hermione had the courage to face that crowd, she certainly did!

With determination, she stepped forward, into sight of the crowd below.


Harry stood in front of the doors into the Great Hall. They were closed now, and Arthur stood in front of them. They had decided to marry in the huge entrance hall because this was the place that had welcomed them back so often during their years here.

Harry looked around at the people there. The Daily Prophet was calling theirs the wedding of the year. Harry knew it was the wedding of his life, the only one he would ever have, and he thanked the fates that had led he and Ginny back to each other.

At the shuffling and muttering of the guests, he turned and looked as his future brother-in-law, Bill, came quickly down the steps, a smile on his face. As he reached the bottom, he gave a nod, the signal for the music to begin.

Harry looked up as the first notes echoed in the hall. They had chosen a classical piece that they both enjoyed, and Harry knew that Hermione was to appear at the head of the stairs on the third note.

She was only one note late, and Harry smiled when he saw her. Dressed in green, with her hair pulled back into cinnamon brown curls which tumbled down her back, she looked like a medieval princess. Ginny had insisted that if Harry got to have her brother stand beside him, she would have Harry's honorary sister stand next to her. Hermione had objected at first, knowing that people would talk, but Harry had been thrilled with the thought of having both Ron and Hermione stand witness to his marriage vows.

He heard Ron, from where he was standing next to him, catch his breath.

"Dear Merlin," Ron whispered.

"She's beautiful," Harry commented quietly, as Hermione, glowing, came down the staircase.

"Unbelievable," Ron said in an undertone.

As Hermione gained the last step, Harry's eyes were drawn upwards. Standing at the head of the grand staircase was his family. Ginny and her girls, looking like angels.

Harry didn't know what the color was called that she wore. It wasn't white, but it wasn't... not. It was warm, and made her hair, which was down around her shoulders as he loved it, glow.

Or maybe she would have glowed wearing anything. Harry couldn't tear his eyes from her as she and the girls proceeded down the stairs. There were gasps around the huge hall as people saw her. She was beautiful.

"Dear God..." he said. "I am the luckiest man alive."

"And don't you forget it, Harry. She loves you with all her heart." Ron said, watching his sister as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

The next twenty minutes were a blur, and later, all Harry could really recall was gazing into Ginny-brown eyes, and feeling joy.

When Arthur Weasley, with a catch in his voice, pronounced the union complete, Harry drew her into his arms and just looked at her for a moment, before whispering, "You have made me the happiest man in the world, Ginny Potter."

With that, he leaned down and kissed her reverently, holding her as though she were a bit of spun glass that might shatter at a firm touch. He only surfaced when he became aware of the applause.

With flushed smiles, the new Mr and Mrs Potter turned to greet those who had come to witness the marriage, at long last, of Harry Potter and the girl who owned his heart.


Later that night, Harry held his new wife to his bare chest as they stood in one of the guest suites at the school. He couldn't believe he was finally standing here, Ginny Weasley in his arms, and it would be this way from this point forward. Forever.

"Ginny, dear God, I love you." He said as he kissed her.

"Harry?" Ginny's voice was hesitant. "I need to..."

"What is it?" He pulled back, concerned.

"I need to ask you something..."

"What?" He smiled as he brushed a lock of her hair away from her face.

"I... I know I'm bringing three children to this marriage..."

"I love your girls as if they were my own, Gin. They are my own, now."

"I know," she smiled softly. "I know that three children are... well, a lot to raise these days, and I know that you would never deny the girls anything."

"Ginny, it's my job to provide for them, and for you, and I'm thrilled to be allowed to do it." Harry stepped back. "What is it that you're trying to say?"

"Harry, there are a lot of children in my family, and I know how hard it was, financially, for my parents to raise us all, and provide..."

"Ginny," he smiled, "I don't want you to ever, ever be concerned about money again. We're very comfortable, and it's never going to be a concern. Ever. Do you understand?"

"Yes..." Ginny hesitated. "Harry, would it be too much to ask for more?"

"More what, Gin'?" he was confused.

"More babies," she whispered. "I know, three children is a lot, but... I really want to have a baby, Harry. With you."

Harry was silent so long that Ginny panicked.

"I'm sorry, I know..."

"Ginny?" Harry's voice sounded strange. "Do you really mean that?"

"I... yes..."

"I didn't think that it would be fair, to ask you..." His voice caught. "I want you to know that I'd be happy with just us and the girls, that they're as much my own as they would be if... I don't want you to feel that you have to..."

"Harry?"

"Ginny, I would love to have more children. With you. As many as we can possibly manage."

"Really?"

"Absolutely."

"It might take a while," Ginny said. "I'm not as young as I was when I had the girls."

"I think I'm up to it," Harry laughed down at his new wife. "But just in case, maybe we'd better get started. You know, practice makes perfect."


To my reviewers:

I think the overwhelming response to last chapter is, I'd better plan on continuing this story for a while!

James Milamber: Tell your friend that a crazy Canuck will be after him if he doesn't let you borrow his computer until yours is fixed. I need my reviews, and I need my chapter updates from HPMM! Once again, your review makes me want to write. Too bad my kids' math lesson needs to be done right now. You know, I considered the fact that Harry was too strong for Malfoy's curse, but then I thought, he's a bit distracted with the whole Voldemort thing, and he's probably got more Death Eaters heading for him than any other wizard there, so I figured he'd be distracted enough for it to at least be a threat. Besides, it was Hermione's destiny. As for my little phrases, you're more than welcome to use any of them. That particular one is a "Canadianism" I guess, and used pretty often here.

Shotgunn: You were one of two. You and James Milamber both said things that were specific enough that it made me think you'd figured it out. Ah, well, the cat is out of the bag now! The "conversation" with Dumbledore kind of just happened. Who am I kidding, the entire chapter "kind of just happened"! But I like the way it came together. I understand that it's the last week of summer, and college beckons, but I'm really enjoying your story, and can't wait until the next chapter comes out. If I remember my uni days accurately (and there is some doubt that I do, living as I did on Jolt cola, coffee and Mars bars...), the opportunity for sleep was fleeting, so I'll try to be patient!

Larna Mandrea: Once again, your review had me smiling and feeling good. Which at eight o'clock on a Monday morning is really something. I thank you. Rest assured, no stopping in the foreseeable future. From here on out, I'm winging it, because I only PLANNED up until the big reveal.

Azntgr01: Thanks, Dumbledore's answers were incredibly easy to write. He's not hard, because he's so predictable in canon.

Merlindamage: Yes, I've considered it. But if I think too hard on it it'll either go away never to return, or it will take over the motivation for writing THIS story, and this one would fizzle, and then I think Larna Mandrea might hunt me down... I'll think about it more when I've completed this one.

Saerry Snape: Fluff is good – you're going to LOVE this chapter... hehehe!

GiGiFanfic: I love my reviews, and my reviewers, and any observations you have are welcome, because they help me see how the story is being perceived, and it helps me write better. I'm glad you've passed on the story to others, as well. It tells me that people really ARE enjoying it! Thanks!

UnRealityCheck: HEY! How did you get inside my head? That was a GREAT review, and very, very rewarding for me to know that my clues were being picked up on, but not so obvious as to give away the story entirely. Makes me think I'm not being completely delusional when I think I'm being clever!

CQ