The next week passed in a blur, when the girls were around they talked of nothing but the wedding, and always had that same half-crazed look in their eyes, Harry asked Ron about it once and Fred and George over heard and explained in a superior tone that girls were obsessed with the idea of marriage, unfortunately Hermione had heard them and threw an especially heavy book at them, leaving George with a black eye. Harry and Ron spent their days playing chess; Harry actually managed to beat the lanky red head once. When the girls finally returned home late in the evening after their fifth day of shopping, they all had dresses and Harry and Ron tried to get Hermione to let her see her dress thinking that it would help them understand what they fuss had been about, but she refused.
Three nights before the wedding Hagrid came to dinner; Mrs. Weasley served a fantastic feast for the blushing half-giant, before he left he pulled Harry aside and asked him to be his best man, which Harry agreed to immediately; trying not to think of how much he would miss his friend. He was greatly relieved, as well to discover that the bachelor party was strictly a muggle tradition, as he could not imagine himself throwing one with all that he had heard about them.
The ceremony was to be held in front of the lake at Hogwarts, so early on the Friday morning before the wedding the group left Grimmauld Place to stay at the castle. They were to stay in Gryffindor tower, from which the Fat Lady's portrait had been temporarily removed in order to make access to their rooms easier. Friday was spent talking with the couple and helping Hagrid to finish packing. The trio also used this time to say their good-byes to Hagrid, as they would be leaving on their honeymoon immediately after the reception and not returning to Hogwarts.
The wedding was to be held at sunset, luckily Saturday turned out to be beautiful, the sun was shining and it was pleasantly warm without being hot. The morning passed well; Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and the twins went for a walk on the grounds, but returned for lunch. The girls ate quickly and then hurried up to the tower to get ready and the guys decided to play Quidditch to pass the time. They agreed to meet at the reception, since then Harry needed to meet in Hagrid's hut to prepare for the ceremony.
As the sun began to sink toward the lake, the guests began to stream toward the chairs set-up at the side of the lake. Dumbledore stood under an archway, its framework was made of deep red cherry wood and a glistening pattern had been woven by one of Aragog's daughters specifically for the occasion. The pattern consisted of hundreds of tiny interlocking hearts; and the sun caught the strands and created a halo of tiny rainbows. Two groups of chairs were set on either side of an abnormally large aisle, which was strewn with white rose petals. Hagrid and Harry took their places at the archway. Then a magically enchanted quartet of cellos began to play a wedding march, and Fleur Delacour, her former headmistress' maid of honor started down the aisle wearing a pale blue and silver gown which seemed to make her white hair glow, Harry saw in a brief glimpse the way Bill looked at her, if Fate would allow it theirs could very well be the next wedding that Harry attended. As one, the guest rose and Olympe started down the aisle to them, her white dress beautifully complimented her olive skin and her normally neat bun had been taken down and her hair tumbled down around her shoulders, she carried a bouquet of deep red roses. Harry glanced at Hagrid and saw that the older man had tears of joy in his eyes. Then as he looked back at Olympe, a hint of lavender caught his eye; he looked over in shock and saw Ginny, in the gown she had been in his dream, and realized that there would never be any one for him but Ginny. He was jarred out of his shock by the sound of the headmaster's voice. He turned his attention back to the wedding and watched his heart nearly bursting with happiness as his friend began the newest phase of his life.
After Dumbledore pronounced the couple man and wife, they turned and lead the way up to the castle where the reception was being held in the Great Hall, which was decorated with millions of white roses. Along with the elegant meal provided by the house elves, which Hermione started to turn up her nose at, there was a roast and several casserole made by the groom himself, Hermione was inspired to eat the elfish fair when she saw a tail sticking out of one of the casseroles despite this everyone felt the should eat some of the dishes that Hagrid had made to spare his feelings. They were all spared this most distressing fate when Fang jumped up on the buffet table and ate all of the dishes Hagrid had prepared. Hagrid was able to pull the dog off of the table before he got a hold of the food that the house elves had prepared. After everyone had finished eating, Dumbledore cleared the tables away and the enchanted cellos began to play again, they were soon joined by and entire orchestra of enchanted instruments.
Hagrid led his new wife onto the dance floor, and Harry was surprised at how agile they were. As the dance continued they were joined by other couples, until Harry, Hermione and the youngest two Weasleys were left. Ron turned bright red and asked Hermione, through much stammering, to dance. As they began to dance, Harry stared resolutely at them, the looked good together, the moved around the floor with ease Hermione's dark rose gown reminding him of Ron's Christmas sweaters as it swirled around her, he could not meet Ginny's eyes if he did he would have to ask her to dance.
"Harry," Ginny said uncertainly, "will you dance with me?"
Harry looked up at her and she looked so scared, he felt so bad that he could not let his own nervousness make her feel worse, so he looked her in the eyes, smiled and said, "Absolutely, I would be honored to." He took her hand and they walked to the dance floor. As they started to dance, there were a few moments of awkward silence and then as they began to follow the music Harry realized that she was the same person that he had been his friend for a year. Still unsure of what to say he began to rack his brain for something to talk about, and then it hit him she had said on the train ride home from school that she was with Dean Thomas. Ouch, that stung a little, okay maybe a lot, but he felt like they had to talk about something, so he pulled together his courage and asked, "How are things going with Dean?"
"O, pretty well, I guess…um… we write each other, he asks me how summer is but, I can't tell him where we're staying so it's a little hard to talk to him." Ginny turned scarlet as she said this and would not look Harry in the eye. "So have you been keeping up with Quidditch this summer?" she asked clearly anxious to change the subject. They finished the dance and spent the rest of the evening talking about Quidditch, until Harry felt a tap on his back, he looked down to see Dobby in a tee-shirt with a bowtie and vest printed on it, the bottom of the shirt hung at the elf's ankles, and a top hat which kept slipping it his eyes. "Please, Harry Potter, sir, may Dobby dance with the beautiful Ms. Wheezy?" Harry looked up at Ginny unsure how to answer the question, he was saved the trouble of having to answer as Ginny reached down for the elf's hand and said "I would love to dance with you." As the walked off Harry noticed that the elf looked positively giddy, and he began to scan the room for Ron and Hermione, he gave up and choose a chair as they were no were to be seen.
Harry wandered back up to Gryffindor Tower later, and found Ron and Hermione talking in front of the fire; they jumped up and said awkward good-nights. Then they all trouped up to their dormitories, as Harry and Ron pack their stuff up, and got ready to sleep, Harry asked "So where were you all night? I didn't see you and Hermione anywhere?"
"Yeah, we went for a walk." Ron told him clearly uneasy about the discussion.
He realized quickly that he needn't have worried as Harry responded distractedly, "That's great." Ron gave Harry a quizzical look reasonably sure his friend was not really listening to him but let it drop because he was not sure what to make of the evenings events anyway. Each wrapped up in their own thoughts they climbed into bead and drifted off to sleep.