In Which Plotting Begins
"Ginny! That's brilliant! 'Severus Snape, Wedding Coordinator'. You know, we ought to buy him a billboard!" exclaimed Harry.
"A what-board?" asked Ron.
"Never mind. It's a muggle sign-thing to advertise," explained Hermione.
"Well, I suppose we should go and see Remus now," Harry's face was torn between excitement and worry. "I just hope he says he'll do it. It would be so embarrassing if he said no."
"I'm sure he'll do it. He's almost like your father," Ginny said.
"Well," said Hermione, "Here goes nothing. Apparate on the count of three. One…Two…Three!" At this point, all four apparated to just outside Remus Lupin's house.
Harry and co. walked up to the door and knocked. Soon, a tired Remus Lupin answered.
"Oh, hello Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny. You're so early this morning."
"Umm…Remus, its eleven o'clock."
"Is it? Oh. I was up late last night doing some work for my new job."
This was news to the "dream team" and Ginny. Last they heard, Remus had been living off his savings because no one would hire him. "Wow! Where are you working Remus," asked Ginny.
"Oh, hadn't you heard? Well, I'm…" he suddenly noticed he was in his pajamas and they were all standing outside. "Oh, come in and I'll tell you about it."
A few minutes later after Remus had dressed and made some coffee, they all sat down in his living room to hear his news. "Well, as you know with my condition…being a werewolf and all…no one in the magical community will hire me. So, I got a muggle teaching certificate equivalent to mine through some…questionable sources…and am now teaching at a grammar school in London."
Everyone was impressed. "But Remus," Harry asked the man who had become like his father, "What do you do about the…full moons?"
"Oh, that. Well, I've been saying that I have a non life threatening, non contagious disease that sadly gives me attacks almost every month. They actually pay my sick leave. It's quite nice. But I'm sure you didn't come here to talk about my job. How can I help you?"
Everyone looked at Ron, who was responsible for them being there. Ron began nervously, but soon relaxed. "Well, Remus, we had a party last night and we noticed that Tonks was feeling really depressed. We think it's all the stress of her job, you know. So what we were thinking was to play a really good joke on her to cheer her up."
"All right, you've caught my attention. What do you want to do?"
Ron continued much more confidently than before. "Well, Harry here saw this TV program where these girls played a joke on their friend by holding a joke wedding for her with best mate," here he paused to make his point to his knowledgeable listeners. "So, because you and Tonks are such good mates, it would be nice if you'd be the groom. Will you do it for a pal?"
Remus looked shocked for a moment, then began to chuckle. "That is one of the best pranks I've heard of. How could I refuse? Of course I'll help."
The famous four exchanged happy smiles, but then Hermione thought of something Tonks had said. "But Remus, won't you girlfriend be angry?"
Remus now looked genuinely confused. "What girlfriend?"
"But…Tonks said that you had a girlfriend form London that she'd met once or something and that she was living with you."
Shock now played across the teacher's face. "Hermione! Did you really believe I had so few morals as to live with my girlfriend? Honestly, I'm surprised at you. And that's not my girlfriend, its my sister-in-law."
Now it was the teens' turn to be shocked. "You have a brother?" asked Harry.
"Yes, didn't you know? His name is Markus and he's ten years younger than me. His wife's name is Elaine. They had a bit of a row and she came to visit for a while to cool off."
"Oh."
To bridge the silence, Ron suddenly announced the other prank they were planning. "Remus, this isn't final yet, but well, when we were thinking this up someone mentioned Snape and Gin had the brilliant idea to make Dumbledore make Snape the wedding co-ordinator because everyone knows Snape hates you and doesn't much like Tonks. Wouldn't that be funny?"
Everyone laughed but Hermione who felt the need to point out that Ron had just used a run-on sentence.
Some time later, after a light lunch, the foursome left Remus' house to Apparate back to Ron's. "Well, phase one of this plan is over, phase two to go," announced Harry. "Ron, that's the best plan ever. You should have been a twin. Now we've got to convince Tonks, Dumbledore, and Snape. Then we've got to organize a wedding. Well, we certainly won't be bored."
"Actually, if we convince Dumbledore to convince Snape, he'll be organizing the wedding, not us," interrupted Ginny.
"Well," said Ron, raising his glass of lemonade, "Here's to Severus Snape, Wedding Planner!"
A/N: Thank you to my reviewers!!!! Love you all. And about Remus. I sort of see him as a very conservative, moral character and so do my characters, so they would find it shocking to think of him living with his girlfriend. As you can see, he thinks so too.
Cheers, Eolande
