Chapter Nine

A Week Till The End

With a week until school, and only two months till Remus' and Sam's wedding, they four men barely saw the women at all. They were given orders for the day in the morning, then were left to themselves to follow them. At night the women began shoving things in their faces asking which they preferred. Every time this happened to one of the teenagers a sideways glance at Remus could be seen. All of them asking the same thing without speaking. 'What am I supposed to think?'

Remus actually became a great help to the three of them. They began to follow what he was doing. When Sam asked his opinion, he would determine how happy she was while he had small things coming from his mouth like 'hmm', 'ah' and everyone's favorite 'Well...'. By how happy or sad she looked when he made an appropriate or inappropriate (to her) sound, he would then pick which one she liked best. Only once among the four men were the words 'I don't know' uttered. They learned their lesson quick that day.

"Ron, what do you think about these invitations?" Hermione asked happily. "Do you like these, or these, or these?" Many more 'or these' were said, but Ron's eyes began to glaze over after three.

"I don't know, Hermione. They all look bout the same to me. You pick." Ron said. The other two teens looked at each other with an expression that said 'That's a marvelous idea, why didn't we think of that?'. However, Remus had a look of sympathy for the boy and horror for what was about to happen.

"You don't know! YOU DONT KNOW! YOU DONT CARE IS WHAT IT IS RONALD! DO YOU EVEN WANT TO MARRY ME!" Hermione screamed.

"Course I do Hermione." Ron said quickly.

"Well then, start acting like it!" Hermione said, storming out of the room.

"Girls." Ron muttered.

After that no one said 'I don't know'. They would rather be convinced to pick what the women wanted than face the wrath of one of the women angry. Remus had no trouble, seeing as how he had seen Lily and James. He told the boys what James told him. Even if you hold no interest, at least pick something. They followed this rule with reckless abandon. They were more than happy to follow James' wisdom, even if it meant walking off a cliff.

Harry found an easy way to avoid the problem of being asked to help Serena, by saying he had to figure out a plan for how the wedding area was going to look. This meant spending a lot of time in front of the telly with his face scrunched in concentration. This made Hermione and Ginny then abuse their boyfriends verbally, and Harry was sorry for that, but he could not take looking at what appeared to be the same card three hundred times and then having to pick one. This trick limited everything for him. He only saw the things Serena liked the most, and was easily pleasing by picking any one of the things.

They had gone shopping for clothes for Remus' wedding two days before they returned to school. Harry became bored quickly when they began taking hours to fit a tux for him, and he plainly refused to wear anything that had tails. Remus was laughing at Harry often, telling him how much he was like his father. Harry smiled at this, but did not stop complaining of Remus abusing his godson by having him punctured by what felt was a thousand needles.

"Why can't they just find one that fits right!" Harry asked, annoyed after the last attack.

"Because these are custom made, Harry." Remus said. "Nothing here fits anyone, Not even me. I only just finished when I came here to check up on you."

"Well, I would be done if -ow!- if I wasn't being treated as a pincushion!" Harry said, glaring at the seamstress.

"Well, if you could just stop moving for five minutes, or had a body that wasn't so skinny, then maybe I would be done and it wouldn't hurt as much." She said huffily. "You think you could do a better job?"

Harry looked thoughtful. "Why yes, and take less than a minute as well." He said.

"If you can do that, then you can have this for free!" She yelled.

"Take out the pins." Harry said. When the woman had, Harry smiled. "Dressing rooms?" She pointed. Harry walked off happily.

"Miss, you just lost the price of a tux." Remus said smiling.

"There's no way."

"Care to make a wager?" Remus asked.

"Fine, what?"

"All the tux's for my wedding free." Remus stated merrily.

"Deal."

Harry appeared a second later, tux fitting remarkably well. With a slight turn for Remus to admire it, he looked at the seamstress. "I believe I win."

The seamstress nodded dumbly.

"As do I." Remus said. "Go tell Ron and Neville to come on. I believe you can do better than these people and the tux's are free. You can do mine as well."

And as such they returned to the house. The girls were outraged at all but Harry, who seemed to be the only one willing to be tailored. Harry shook his head at the women and began snapping his fingers quickly. Soon, all for of them look as if they had paid thousands for such wonderful clothes. Harry smiled at them.

"Magic is so wonderful!" He said beaming at the four women. "Got us these for free it did."

Harry was official tailor for the women, who had also bought their clothes that day. Harry did many things to them, changing colors, changing lengths, altering things in the ways he was told until everyone was happy. Sam smiled brightly at Harry calling him the savior of her wedding. Remus laughed and could only agree that Harry was a miraculous person with a quick temper for pins.

The next day Ginny and Neville were not to be found. It was his transformation day, and everyone was eagerly awaiting the news of what he would become. They began following Harry, trying to make him walk around the house without his shirt for the day. Harry laughed and said they had planning to do, and quickly began talking with Remus about how weddings were done. He had never really seen on before.

Shortly before dinner, when Harry had learned all he could of weddings, Harry let a short scream escape his lips. Harry smiled quickly, knowing what this meant and what Neville was. It didn't seem to suit him at all, but then the animal chooses you, not the other way around. Their must have been something ferocious in the boy after all, Harry thought. Harry smiled at Serena, Ron, and Hermione.

"Go tell Stripes and Red it's time for dinner." Harry said. They rushed from the room.

"Stripes?" Remus asked.

Harry pulled his shirt off and turned around. "Stripes." He said. On the tattoo that once held five animals now had a white tiger with black stripes looking ready to pounce near the panther.

"I see." Remus said as Harry put his shirt back on. "Did it hurt?"

"More of a surprise then a great deal of pain." Harry said. "Although this does mean that we are leaving for school tomorrow. I'm gonna miss just being around here, all of as one big family."

"I agree." Remus said. "Don't worry, we'll all still be together. Just not in the same house."

"I know." Harry said.

The last dinner was an event to remember. Neville was talking about how much it hurt to be a tiger while Serena and Harry kept switching back and forth from animal to human. Weddings were discussed again, while the guys began discussing quidditch. Harry would make comments from time to time but he was mainly just enjoying the company of all these people. Never at Hogwarts would it be like this, like they were a family sitting down for a meal. He was definitely going to miss it.

The six teenagers spent their last night with their fiancé's. Harry found it an enjoyable experience to say the least, though he had a strong suspicion that he would be sleeping on the train. He knew that everyone would be acting as zombies tomorrow, but stayed quiet about his thoughts. After all their was something to do besides think at the moment.

"Definitely going to miss this." Harry said softly.