Title: The Lucky One

Author: Sneezy Mouse

Rating: PG-13 due to implied naughtiness and slight cursing and inebriation.

Disclaimer: All recognized characters; places and references to events and the aforementioned belong to the wonderful mind of J.K. Rowling.

Author's Note: Okay, I've tried avoiding this all through the story. I've been very sparse when it comes to physical descriptions because I don't think anyone really needs a verbal telling of EXACTLY how a character looks. I've given basics to let you formulate your own opinions. However, I needed desperately to divulge in utter girlishness in this chapter, thus the descriptions of dresses later on. Forgive me, but I am a girl and therefore find these types of things fascinating every once and awhile.

Chapter Ten
The Woman Makes the Dress

"What color of dress would you like?" Hermione asked Ginny.

"What colors could I have?" Ginny asked, looking at the pictures of dresses and swatches of colors Hermione was holding.

"Well," Hermione said, ruffling through the colors, "you could have red, green, blue, purple, pink – not orange, obviously."

Ginny scowled.

"Or yellow, silver, gold, er…"

"Basically any color in the spectrum, then?" Ginny asked.

"Except orange."

Ginny snorted.

"Except orange, yes. I know. What sort of designs do we have?" was Ginny's next question. "You better not be one of those bitchy brides that condemns their maid-of-honor and bridesmaids to wear extremely ugly dresses, are you? Because if I have to show up wearing some God-awful chartreuse number with puffy sleeves, I will curse myself. Scratch that, I'll curse you, then Obliviate everyone that saw me in the dress."

"Calm down, Ginny," Hermione said, laughing. "I'm not going to do that. I want everyone to look beautiful at my wedding."

"Why don't you have them wear dress robes?" Ron, who had waltzed into the Burrow kitchen, asked.

"Because there will be more than just wizards and witches there, Ron," Hermione replied. "Remember, I am Muggle-borne and my family and friends from my Muggle days will be in attendance as well. They might find it a bit suspicious should everyone be in robes. Oh! Ginny, did we put 'Muggle formal' on the invitations to the magical people? Oh, if we didn't I'll have to send out another invitation to them all."

"Don't worry, Hermione," Ron said. "Harry and I glanced at the invites before they were sent out. We added it on. What?" Ron said, seeing Ginny and Hermione's shocked faces. "I can do some things right, you know."

"Ron, thank you!" Hermione said. "That was a wonderful thing to do."

Ron shrugged indifferently, smiled and left the room.

"He healed," Ginny mentioned quietly.

"Natural way, too," Hermione responded, just as quietly.

"Why – "

"We were all too miffed at what he did to heal him," Hermione cut her off. "Molly wanted to, but Bill took her aside and explained the situation. Ron was in the shit for a few weeks about it, too."

"Has it really been three weeks since that night?" Ginny asked. Hermione nodded. "Everyone seems to be over it."

"Indeed they are," Hermione agreed. "We all understand what happened, Ginny. And I want to apologize."

"Apologize?" Ginny asked. "Why?"

"Because I feel awful about it all," Hermione said. "After everything you said that night, I've been thinking about it. I never realized how happy you were just being you, without anyone else. I'm sorry I've been trying to force you with another guy. I just – "

"It's okay, Hermione," Ginny said kindly, smiling at her friend. "You don't need to explain. Everyone is over what happened that night, including myself. You're my best mate and I know what you do is what you think is the best for me. And I love you for it."

Hermione's eyes misted over and she said, "oh, Ginny, you're my best mate too!" and wrapped her arms around Ginny. Harry walked in at this moment and froze, thinking something bad had happened.

"Is everything all right?" he asked.

"Everything is fine," Hermione said. "Just some stupid girl stuff."

"Got it," Harry said. "Luna just owl-ed me. She wanted to know when all of you were getting together for the dress… thing."

"Oh, tomorrow at ten. I made an appointment at Felicity's Formal Wear in Diagon Alley for our choosing. It has the largest array of Muggle formal dresses. Tell her to wear something loose and able to come off easily."

Harry choked, obviously taking this statement to be a little more perverted than planned.

"Honestly, Harry," Hermione said chidingly.

"Sorry," Harry said. "So, tomorrow at ten. Should she meet at the store or at the Burrow or – "

"Meet at Felicity's," Hermione responded. "I think it would be easier that way, don't you, Ginny?"

Ginny nodded.

"Sounds good to me," she said. "When are the blokes going in for their suit fittings? Or duxetos."

"Tuxedos, Ginny, tuxedos."

"Sorry, Harry," Ginny said. "I've been told that so many times, I know. Hell, sometimes I catch myself still saying 'fellytone.'"

Hermione and Harry laughed.

"One last time," Harry said. "I want to make sure I tell Luna correctly. Tomorrow, ten, Felicity's. Right?"

"Right." Hermione nodded.

●

Felicity's Formal Wear was practically giddy at the aspect of being the store to dress the Wedding Part of the Weasley-Granger union. With Percy making his merry way up the ladder in the Ministry of Magic, he was sure to be Minister someday. And what better publicity would there be than "Dressed the Minister's Wedding?"

"So is there anything specific you are searching for, Miss Granger?" Their personal assistance from Felicity's, Justine, asked.

"Actually," Hermione replied, "I wasn't one hundred percent sure what I was looking for. I was hoping we would the ability to just peruse your selection, try on everything and anything we wanted and make a decision based on that."

"Yes, of course!" Justine said enthusiastically. "I'll need to take all of your measurements so I can alter the dresses accordingly."

Hermione nodded. She and her bridesmaids, Luna, Fleur, Katie, and Alicia stepped up on the measuring podiums and Charmed measuring tape was wrapping around them.

"Fleur," Katie said, "how in the Hell do you look like that after having three kids?"

All eyes turned to the blonde French girl, who blushed slightly. She had indeed birthed three children, but still retained the perfect body that had so enraptured Bill Weasley.

"Luck?" she asked. The other girls laughed. Katie scrunched her face up.

"This wedding is in September, right, Hermione?" she asked.

"Yes," Hermione responded. "Why?"

"What if I go into labor during your wedding?"

"Really?" Alicia asked. "Could that actually be a possibility?"

"Well, I'm about five months along right now," Katie said, "and my due date is late August… so if your wedding date is early September and I'm late giving birth to this – " she patted her stomach " – I could not be able to go… or if I do go, I might go into labor."

"Then I'll make sure the wedding is in late September," Hermione said. "That way, you'll have a few weeks to recuperate."

"You'd change the date… for me?" Katie's eyes welled with tears.

"Dammit," Alicia cursed, "you've kicked in her hormones. You do know she'll be crying for the rest of the afternoon, correct?"

"I will not!" Katie said, tears streaking her cheeks.

"Oh, please, Katie," Alicia argued. "You cried for three hours yesterday because you put two different colored socks on."

Katie wailed loudly at this.

"What eez it?" Fleur asked.

"I'm reliving it!" Katie howled.

"Thanks, Alicia," Ginny said.

"So, Fleur," Hermione asked, "is Danielle excited to be a Flower Girl."

Fleur cast an apprehensive glance at Katie, who was still bawling and said, "Yes. She eez very excited to wear a fancy dress. Do we know what color it eez going to be?"

"I was going to decide that today, actually."

Katie honked as she blew her nose.

"Okay, let's start doing this," she said, eyes red and puffy.

Justine sped in, knowing this was her best chance, and said, "well, Miss Granger. Let us begin. Should we decide the bridal gown first, or the maid gowns?"

"Ooh!" Luna said dreamily. "Hermione, let us choose yours first."

Hermione nodded. Justine yelled a spell and racks full of designer gowns came flying into the room.

"Will you be wearing white?" Justine asked, her eyes flitting to Katie's bulging stomach. Katie saw this and narrowed her eyes.

"Yes," Hermione blushed.

"Oh, thank God!" Ginny said. Everyone looked at her, surprised. "Do you have any idea what Mum would say if she saw you in anything but white? Her perfect son marrying a woman who isn't wearing white? She'd have a bloody heart attack… Mind you, this would be after she gouged Hermione's eyes out for corrupting her son."

"If I were to not wear white, it would not be because of Percy," Hermione said reasonably.

Ginny sputtered, causing everyone else to laugh.

"You mean – you… you… and, and RON!" she screamed, then cringed. "Ew…"

"Oh, shut up," Hermione snapped. "At least I didn't lose it to a Slytherin."

All eyes shot to Ginny in shock. Ginny glared at Hermione.

"It was Blaise Zabini," Ginny said. "He was gorgeous. You all here could not honestly say that, given the chance, you wouldn't have shagged him."

Some were about to protest, then nodded in agreement. Blaise was very attractive.

"So, Miss Granger, white. What sort of design are you looking for?" Justine asked, not knowing or caring about who Blaise was.

"It's a fall wedding, outdoor I believe, so something that will keep me a bit warm," Hermione said, walking over to feel the gowns

Justine nodded and spelled all the strapless and sleeveless gowns away.

"I'm fairly sure I want something long sleeved, off the shoulder," Hermione said. All the short sleeved, shoulder-covering dresses disappeared.

"Well, we're down to six possible dresses," Justine said. "Is there a specific type of dress you are looking for?"

"I'm not sure if I want a traditional gown," Hermione mused aloud. "Is it possible to just try all of them on right now and – "

"Of course," Justine interrupted. "I'll go fetch the camera and I'll take a picture of you in each dress. That way, you can look back and make a decision with all of them together."

"Wonderful," Hermione said. She walked into the dressing room while Ginny and the rest sat down on the plush waiting chairs. Justine pulled the dress rack towards the room Hermione was in. The first three dresses were an automatic, unanimous "no." The first was way to large around the bottom. It looked like an old-time dress with one hundred petticoats under it. Another was too plain and drab that it made Hermione look ten years older – not something she was going for. And the last one made the group laugh as it was so tight that Hermione took three steps and promptly fell on her butt.

"Oh, hush," Hermione said, walking as best she could back into the dressing room. Justine had to help Hermione when she tried to stand up which only caused the girls to laugh even more.

The fourth dress looked nice, but Hermione said that she didn't like it. It was promptly discarded and as soon as the fifth dress was put on, everyone knew that the rest were unnecessary to try on.

It was white, like Hermione requested and long sleeved and off-the shoulder. Three quarters down the sleeves, the silken fabric changed into shimmering gossamer fabric and belled out. It had a straight edge across the bust and was intricately beaded and the amount of the silver beads lessened as it got lower onto the skirt. The skirt was very basic and flowed out perfectly, barely skimming the floor.

"Oh, sweet Jesus," Alicia said. "Percy is going to be floored when he sees you in this dress."

"I agree," Katie said. "You definetly should buy this."

"Do you have a veil?" Luna asked.

"Shoes and a bouquet as well," Fleur said.

"And hair," Ginny added. "Will it be up or down?"

"Do you have any veils?" Hermione asked Justine. "Or shoes? Will I have to buy shoes somewhere else?"

"Oh, no!" Justine said. "We have everything here. What are you looking for in shoes?"

"White," Hermione said. "Obviously. And preferably flat. Maybe like some slippers. I'm nearly as tall as Percy. It would look odd if I were taller than him, I think."

"And for the veil?"

"Just a classic headband one will work fine, with beads that match the dress if available."

"Of course," Justine said. "Give me leave for a moment and I'll see what we have."

She disappeared into the storage room but appeared almost immediately with shoes and veil for Hermione.

"Will these work?" she asked. Hermione looked at them, nodded and slipped the shoes on. Just as she asked, they were plain white slippers with a rounded toe and padded soles for extreme comfort. Then Ginny walked up and placed the gauzy veil with beaded headband atop her head. Everyone is the room cooed. Katie cried.

"You look so beautiful," she said, then paused before crying even harder.

"What eez it, Katie?" Fleur asked, concerned.

"Fred is never going to marry me!" she said. Most of the girls looked saddened, Alicia rolled her eyes.

"For Christ's sake, Katie," Alicia said. "Why the hell do you want to marry Fred? You guys are one hundred percent happy the way you are!"

"I want a wedding dress!" Katie responded.

Alicia threw her hands up in the air and turned to Hermione to say, "let's start with the bridesmaid gowns, shall we? Katie needs to feel pretty right now."

Hermione nodded and began speaking with Justine.

"I'll need a color that will go with blonde, black and brown hair. And since it is to be autumn, I'd like something a warm tone."

Justine looked pensive before retreating to the back and bringing out a dress in a deep crimson shade.

"A Gryffindor color for a Gryffindor wedding," Luna said dreamily. "Only I was a Ravenclaw."

"We won't hold that against you," Ginny laughed.

"Very, er… sensual for a wedding, don't you think?" Alicia asked.

"Scarlet dresses for scarlet women," Ginny quipped, causing everyone, sans Justine, to laugh at this small slight towards Ron.

"I look good in red," Katie sniffled.

"You look beautiful in red," Alicia said. "Fred always said you looked smashing in the Quidditch robes."

Katie nodded.

"Now," Justine said, "these are halters but you can order a wrap to go with them. Does one of you want to model it?"

Fleur stood up, but Alicia cut her off.

"Fleur, there is no way I'm going to watch you put in that dress because the minute you do, we'll look like fat cows in comparison."

Fleur smirked.

"Are you volunteering then, Alicia?" Hermione asked.

"No," she responded. "How about Miss Luna?"

Luna stuck her chin high in the air and skipped into the dressing room without argument. Justine said some spells to alter the dress to fit Luna and the door swung open with Luna twirling out into the open.

"Stop moving, Luna!" Ginny said. "We can't see what the dress looks like. Stand normally!" she snapped next, as Luna froze stiff, like she was in a Body-Bind Curse. Luna desisted.

Alicia let out a low wolf-whistle.

"Wow, Luna," she said. "You look hot."

"As you can see," Justine said, explaining the make of the dress, "the dress has a tulip skirt that falls a few inches tastefully below the knee. The halter neckline goes all the way to the neck and wraps with a silk belt around the collar, exposing no cleavage but enhancing the bust line." Alicia stole a look at her non-existent chest and smiled. "The back is a straight edge line that hits just below the pit line. That will be covered if you wish to purchase a wrap."

"What colors of do you have for the wrap?" Hermione asked, still staring at Luna, who began twirling again in her bare feet.

"The come in almost all the colors we have," Justine said. "But are in a sheer fabric not unlike the sleeves on the dress you are wearing."

Hermione looked down, not realizing she was still wearing the wedding dress, veil and all. She blushed slightly, but shrugged and twirled once in the dress before answering.

"A red shade like the dress would look fine. We can always place heating charms on them, should the need arise."

Justine nodded and fetched a swatch of the fabric Hermione requested and draped it over Luna's shoulders.

"With brown heels," Hermione said, "that would look amazing."

Justine nodded again, asked Luna her shoe size and had a pair of mocha-colored shoes on Luna's feet.

"Oh, definetly that," Katie said. "That's beautiful. It will be a nice contrast with your white dress."

"What's Ginny going to be wearing?" Fleur asked. Ginny shrugged.

"A paper sack, maybe, since there is no way I could look sexier than any of you in those dresses," she said.

"I saw a gold strapless in the corner that I'd like to see for Ginny, please," Hermione said.

When she saw Justine walk over with the dress, Ginny said. "It looks perfect!"

"Try it on!" the girls said. Ginny snatched the dress and walked into the changing room. She slammed it open and began walking out with extreme flourish, banging her hips from left to right in an exaggerated swivel. No one said anything except, "wow" for a moment before Hermione said,

"I need to call Oliver."

Ginny stopped her hip bouncing and said, "Why?"

"Because I need to make sure the suit I ordered for the Best Man looks good with the Maid of Honor dress. I know for a fact the charcoal suits for the groomsmen will look fine with the red dress. Can I use your fireplace?" Hermione asked, Justine nodded.

Hermione walked out of the room and Ginny began fingering the dress she was wearing. It was so shiny and smooth and beautiful. Oliver was going to flip when he saw her in this… wait. Why did she care whether or not Oliver thought she looked good?

"He's Apparating in a mom – AH!"

Oliver had appeared right next to Hermione, who had just walked back into the room.

"Oh, sorry about that," Oliver said sheepishly.

"I may be a witch but I will never be used to people just appearing right next to me," Hermione said, then shook herself back to a calmer state. "But anyways, did you bring your suit?"

Oliver held up the suit bag.

"And I wore the shoes," he said proudly, waving his right foot in the air.

"Good, good," Hermione said, ushering him towards the changing room. He paused for a moment and looked at Hermione who was still clad in her wedding gown. "What?" Hermione asked, sending a self-conscious look at her dress.

"Nothing," Oliver said, eyes wide. "It's just… suddenly I'm feeling very guilty about the thoughts I'm having about my best friends soon-to-be wife."

Hermione blushed and gave a little smile, then realized what Oliver was implying.

"NO!" she screeched. "No! You can't think that kind of stuff about me. Look at Luna! She looks better than me!"

Oliver's eyes immediately flew to Luna who was in her red dress. Luna squeaked and buried her face in her hands.

"Whoa," Oliver said, mouth open.

"Careful there, Wood. You look like you're going to catch some flies."

Oliver's eyes flew to the Ginny's voice and saw her. His eyes bugged out. Her strapless gold dress hugged her body in a way that was not entirely slutty, but was still sexy. Her straight red hair contrasted in an oddly nice way as it fell down just past her shoulders. The dress was the length of her entire body and barely brushed her toes. It looked like she was dipped in gold and Oliver could feel certain things happening in his body that he most definetly did not want to happen… at least, not in front of a bunch of girls.

"Okay," Oliver said, regaining a fraction of his composure. "I think we should get this over with."

All the girls giggled and Luna squeaked again.

"All right," Hermione said. "Now change."

Oliver nodded and headed to the dressing room Hermione pointed him too. A minute later he came out dressed in a very dapper single breast, greyish-navy suit – it would look very nice surrounded by Percy in a black suit and the groomsmen in charcoal grey that Hermione had mentioned. He had matte black shoes on and a white button down shirt underneath the suit coat.

"Tuck in the button-down," Hermione instructed.

"But tucking it in makes me look like my father," Oliver whined. "Besides, I look cool with it un-tucked."

Hermione sighed.

"Fine," she said. "Ginny, come over here."

Ginny nodded and Oliver noticed how the dress flowed with her perfectly.

"You're drooling, Wood," Alicia said quietly into his ear. Oliver shot her a glare and Ginny walked up and sidled up next to him, linking her arm with his.

"Good day, Mr. Wood," she said, smiling at him.

"Hello," Oliver responded. Damn, he wished that had come out not a few octaves higher than normal. Damn his sexually-suggestive last name!

"Hmm…" Hermione said, surveying the couple. "He needs a tie."

"Of course," Justine said, pulling out a hanger of ties of every color, pattern and size.

Hermione plucked a gold one out of the mix and tied it around Oliver's neck. It matched almost perfectly with Ginny's dress and this was obviously pleasing to Hermione because she bounced up and down, causing her dress to rustle.

"You two look amazing together!" she cried. "Justine? I'd like all of these dresses. I'll need four red dresses in Katie, Alicia, Luna and Fleur's sizes and I think Ginny can just take the gold one home now, unless she doesn't think it fits."

"No," Ginny said at the same time Oliver said loudly, "it's perfect!"

Everyone stared at him and he shuffled his feet in embarrassment.

"What?" he asked. "She looks good."

The girls "aw"-ed and Ginny blushed.

"And Ginny, could you hold my gown at your place?" Hermione asked. "I don't want to take the chance of Percy seeing it."

"No problem," Ginny said.

"Should I get the bill ready now, or mail it to you?" Justine asked. She was practically dancing, she was so happy with the gigantic sale she was making off of Hermione.

"Mailing it to me would probably be best," Hermione said. "I might see the ending price and have to change my mind!" she added, laughing. Justine nodded and took Hermione's order forms to the filing cabinet.

"Hey, Handsome," Ginny said. "Yes, Oliver, that's you."

Oliver shuffled his feet some more. Damn, why was he acting so nervous?

"We have to get together sometime and pick out a gift for the bride and groom," she continued. "Our joint gift, you know."

"Right," Oliver said.

"So," Ginny continued when all Oliver did in response was fiddle with his cuffs. "When do you want to get together and do it?"

"Er…" Oliver answered. How was he supposed to be around her with this stupid feeling in his stomach not going away? It was just a goddamn dress. It wasn't even that indecent. It wasn't as if she was naked… oh, that brought a whole new slew of thoughts to Oliver's mind. He needed to get home, fast. First he needed an excuse.

"I don't know. Practices are starting to get pretty heavy, so I'm going to be busy for awhile."

"Well," Ginny said, shrugging. "We still have, I think, four months. No rush. Just owl or ring me when you get the chance."

"Okay," Oliver said, starting to leave. He turned around and looked at Ginny again. The light from the store windows were hitting her perfectly, causing the sheen of the dress to cause a soft golden glow to surround Ginny. She might not be named after one like Persephone, but Oliver thought, at that moment, Ginny looked like a goddess.

"Ginny," he said. Ginny turned to him.

"Yeah?"

"You really do look amazing in that dress," Oliver managed to say without stuttering or in a higher-than-normal octave.

"Thank you," Ginny said, smiling genuinely at him.

"Seriously," Oliver persisted. "Absolutely spiffing. Well… bye."

Ginny waved good-bye to him, a warm, happy feeling coursing through her body. God, Oliver was extremely sweet, Ginny thought. He'd make a wonderful boyfriend, if Ginny was wanting a boyfriend right now. But she wasn't.

So how come she kept feeling a lot of warm-fuzzies when Oliver was around her?

Author's Note: So there is two chapters. I hope you enjoyed them and I will try and become more regular with my updates. Thank you all for understanding so much.