That next day, since the wedding was to be at 3:00 PM, most students slept late. Hermione didn't, of course, she always got up at six on weekdays and was too used to it to stop. Harry, Ron, and Andrea all stayed in bed at least two hours more than they usually did.

Snape, however, had gotten up astonishingly early, and was standing in front of a mirror, watching his reflection copy his every move. He was talking to himself.

"Okay. You can do this. Just copy everything Dumbledore says and you'll be fine…" Dumbledore was going to be the one who would read those lines from the book, and finally (Snape's stomach lurched slightly), "you may kiss the bride." Those words would be the words that declared Meg and Snape as husband and wife. Since it was still dark out, Snape went back to bed.

Many hours passed. Finally, it was the time Snape normally woke up around 7:00 a.m. After he had gotten his robes on, he wandered aimlessly around the halls, wishing somebody would just be awake besides him. He went back to his office and made a Calming Drought.

Snape put the mixture in his coffee cup, which said "I love my job…as much as I love slamming my finger in my car door," and drained it. He felt instantly like warm sunshine was spreading over to him, to his toes, warming every part of him, making him very sleepy indeed…

"SEVERUS!"

"Argh!" Snape yelled. He realized he had been sleeping, and that he had made a mistake again. He knew, as the Hogwarts teacher of Potions, that a Calming Drought was not supposed to make its victim go to sleep. He knew he must have accidentally created a Sleeping Potion instead…They were similar…He'd have to have accidentally put sneezewort in instead of two newt's tails…He looked up. Albus Dumbledore was standing in front of him, hands on his hips, his grin annoyingly wide.

"What do you want?" said Snape, rather rudely.

"Nothing," said Dumbledore nicely. "Just that…did you realize it's 2:30? There's about twenty minutes until you have to go to the Great Hall. The House Tables have been cleared. I've set it up for your wedding, Severus…I did everything. Meg is totally happy. Come on."

"Come ON? I'm still wearing my robes…and I was SLEEPING!"

"You said you wanted to wear your robes," said Dumbledore. "Come on, Meg's waiting, she was in the Great Hall since 1:30 PM. Follow me, you know where it is…"

"Look, Albus, listen to me," said Snape, getting up from his chair and rubbing his forehead, which now had a splitting headache. "I can't go now. I just got up from sleeping, Meg expects me to wear a tuxedo, I think I have to wash my hair, I haven't made my Calming Drought…"

"No, no, no," said Dumbledore, pulling Snape's hand rather hard. "You have to go now. And, in any case, it's perfectly natural to be nervous. Come on, not enough time!"

Snape finally allowed Dumbledore to pull him out of the room, towards the Great Hall. When they arrived there, it was quite plain to see that Dumbledore had been right. The Hall was decorated with lots of stuff that you would expect to see at a wedding. Meg was waiting by the table that had the cake on it, which was plenty beautiful. Snape suspected Ron would be all over it.

The cake, albeit delicious-looking, was not the most beautiful thing to Snape: Meg was. Her blonde hair, always amazingly pretty, was now in an exquisite up-do; on top of it was a silver crown. The dress, equally fantastic, was long, white, and made her look like some kind of snow princess. The long white train was trailing behind her, held up by the house-elf named Dobby, who had tears in his large, protuberant eyes. Meg was holding a beautiful bouquet that framed her beaming face. Snape suspected that she was the only one who could ever Stun him without a wand.

Snape felt Dumbledore pull him from behind and lead him up to the altar. Meg followed, the signs of happiness increasing on her face. Snape looked at Dumbledore, who was wiping tears of joy for his granddaughter's wedding day. He was holding the little book.

"Okay," said Dumbledore. "Severus, you stand right here, Meg, you go to the end of the aisle and walk up here to meet him. Dobby, the flowers, please."

"Dobby got flowers," said Dobby, who now had tears streaming down his face; and it was not because of allergies. "Dobby has good flowers to throw down the aisle." He sniffed. "Rose petals."

"Thank you, Dobby," said Dumbledore, pulling out his wand. "Accio Rose Petals!"

The basket of rose petals flew smoothly into Dumbledore's hand. He handed it to Dobby, who was crying his very noisy tears. Dumbledore pocketed his wand and handed Dobby a tissue. Dobby blew his nose and sniffed loudly. Meg walked and stood at the end of the other end of the aisle, at the end that wasn't the altar side. Dumbledore looked around at her.

"Look, you guys," he said. "The students are coming in."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

"My God, she's pretty," said Ron, awestruck.

"She is," said Andrea. "I so want her dress. Did she buy it at Madam Malkin's? I don't think so, because whenever I've been there, all they have is robes…"

"I think Dumbledore bought that outfit for her," Harry said.

"Probably in a Muggle town," said Hermione sagely. "They have a lot of wedding stores. I just hope he didn't get anything for Snape, it would be wasted. See, he's not wearing the groom outfit. No, he's just wearing his robes, like usual…And he didn't even comb his hair."

"Git," said Ron vaguely. "He doesn't even care."

They went to sit down. There weren't many people in the Great Hall yet, so they were easily able to find four chairs. They saw Meg, with her pretty wedding dress, Snape, his expression unfathomable, and the house-elf that was crying, Dobby. Hermione looked very sympathetic upon noticing this. Her eyes had turned soft and warm, like she wanted to go over and hug Dobby.

"Welcome," said Dumbledore, "to the wedding of Meg Smith to Severus Snape."

Harry and his friends did not bother to clap at all. They liked Meg; when, or so they thought, she wasn't under the influence of a Love Potion, she was a kind, funny, and interesting person. Snape was a different story, though; none of them had ever really liked him much. Most of the Slytherins clapped rather hard, and a lot of people just sort of halfheartedly threw their hands together.

"Dobby, please proceed down the aisle," said Dumbledore to the sobbing house-elf, who obliged, throwing rose petals out of the basket as he walked towards Snape. After that, Dumbledore gestured to the seats that filled the Great Hall, where Dobby ran into Hermione, who picked him up and hugged him, softly telling him that everything would be all right. Dumbledore addressed Meg.

"Join Severus, please," said Dumbledore, and, as Professor Binns played the wedding march, the bride walked up to the altar, to Snape. Dumbledore joined them with his book.

He read from it, wiping his own tears, slowly streaming down his face, "Severus Snape, do you take this woman, Meg Smith, to be your lawfully wedded wife, forever?"

"I do," said Snape quietly.

"And, Meg Smith," Dumbledore continued, continuing on rather bravely, "do you also take this man, Severus Snape, to be your lawfully wedded husband, also forever?"

"I do," Meg said, her eyes shining with tears not of sadness, but of joy.

"All right, then." Dumbledore pulled out his wand, conjured a tissue, blew his nose on it, and then banished it. He pocketed his wand and smiled weakly. "You may kiss the bride."

This was it…Their lips moved ever closer…They were married, legally married…

"NOOO!" came a shout from the end of the hall. Countless heads turned around at once, and the kiss of marriage was stopped. Harry saw a man standing there with hair the same color as Ron's. His robes were very, very, tattered, and the eyes were rather sickly. He was pocketing his wand and staring at the end of the hall, where Snape and Meg had almost kissed. Meg stared.

Harry had never seen such a look in her brown eyes before. It was like something had been chained in her eyes for so long, and it was now being set free. She blinked, twice, and stared at herself. She seemed not to know why she was wearing a wedding dress anymore; she had forgotten.

She looked up at the man at the doors of the Great Hall.

"It's him," she whispered.

Suddenly the man was running, running toward Meg and catching her in his arms. Harry was now thinking that the tattered robes looked familiar, like he'd seen this man before somewhere…His brain seemed to be caught in the claw of a crab as he struggled to think where…

He looked over at Ron and received such a shock that he almost jumped in his chair. Ron's hair was no longer vividly red; it was now black. He looked at Harry. "What?"

"Ron…y-your hair…" Harry said.

"What about it?" said Ron. The man's hair, Harry noticed, was rather long, and very dirty, like he hadn't washed it in days. Ron felt his own; the texture was the same. "Nothing!"

Harry shrugged, said "Oh," and turned to look at the scene that was occurring at the altar. The man was now holding Meg in his arms. She was smiling, like she knew him.

Finally, the man spoke. His croaky voice was also familiar to Harry.

"My name is…umm…Alphonso…umm…Chang," said the red-haired man, smiling. "And I've come here today, for, well, somebody tipped me off about Snape here." Strangely, the man's eyes came to rest on Harry. Those eyes, those gray eyes…He had seen them before, he knew…

The rather mad grin on the man's face grew wider. "I love Meg Smith."

He bent down and kissed her, right on the lips. Meg stood up, laughing. "Yes, Alphonso, I do love you, too…How's my baby been doing? Oh, you look rather sick, you know…"

"Never mind that now," said the man, turning to Snape. "Why are you marrying my girl?"

"You," Snape hissed savagely. "You, it was you she loved all along." His eyes glinted maliciously as he pulled out his wand and uttered a spell. "Naturala!" The audience gasped.

Harry knew where he'd seen this man before. Now Ron's hair was red again, the man's black and dirty, like it had first appeared. Snape grinned rather evilly and stared at him.

"Why don't I call the Ministry of Magic?" Snape said. "This, my friends, is Sirius Black."

Dumbledore, who hadn't talked all this time, probably out of amazement, now did speak. "Stop it, right now, you all, and listen to me. Sirius Black is, indeed, innocent."

"No!" shouted a random person. "Dumbledore's been Imperiused, don't you see?"

"I have not been Imperiused, for I can resist the curse just as well, and perhaps better, than you could, if you'll let me be frank," said Dumbledore. "All I ask from you all is that you listen to reason. Why, as you are surely asking yourselves, does Meg here love Sirius Black if he is a notorious criminal? You know she's an Auror, and a rather famous one, too. In fact, I have recently found evidence that Sirius really is innocent, and, soon, I will be handing it over to the Ministry of Magic. Sirius Black's innocence, very soon, will be announced in the Daily Prophet, and you will see my evidence."

"Harry," Sirius called. "Hey!"

Of course, Harry knew what he was doing. Harry waved back, and said, "Hi, Sirius! Isn't it dumb of them to think you're a criminal? I can't believe it? How are you doing?"

"Hmmm, fine," Sirius told him, so the whole crowd could hear it. "Being good."

"Alright!" Dumbledore shouted. "Meg, please take Sirius to your office. I will deal with you two sometime later today. Audience, please leave and proceed with your daily activities. Severus, I want to see you in my office immediately after you come out of this Great Hall."