Wedding Jitters
5th November 2003 (Ron is 23 and 36, Hermione is 24)
RON: I have to be sure. I have to do everything I can think of to do. I have to do this for Hermione. All she asks for is one day, just one, just one special day where I don't have to leave her and she doesn't have to take me to hospital or anything like that. All she wants is her one big day where she is the centre of attention. All she wants is her wedding day with a groom who actually turns up and sticks around long enough to marry her. Is that really too much to ask?
"Ron please slow down you're killing me," Harry gasped from some way behind me.
"Just two more laps Harry," I said as my feet pounded onwards.
"You said that three laps ago!"
I passed the bench where Fred and George were still recovering. I don't know what everybody's complaining about, I didn't ask any of them to come running with me. Harry seemed to have felt it was his duty to stick by me at all times in his duties as best man but really; was it necessary for all five of my brothers to come along too?
Percy hadn't even made it all the way round the first time and was just yelling at me to come back inside and get showered and changed every time I passed him at the park gates. Bill dropped out next; well he is getting on a bit now the poor old guy. He didn't appreciate me saying that to him as he pulled up on lap three with a stitch. The twins had started and stopped and re-started and stopped again over the course of my mini marathon and seemed to be trying to get their second, or maybe it was their third or fourth by this time, wind before rejoining Harry, Charlie and myself.
Charlie had managed to run every lap without stopping or slowing down and he still looked pretty strong now, he was doing better than Harry at least, but he was nowhere near as fast as me and I couldn't run any slower otherwise I'd risk getting a cramp so I just had to leave him trailing behind by about fifteen feet. Harry had speed and he had stamina from all the Auror training but he wasn't used to the daily regime of running every morning like I was so he was beginning to feel the pain now we were in mile eight and I still hadn't shown any signs of slowing down.
I saw one of my fellow regular park runners setting off and picked up my pace a little to catch him up, it was nice to have a little chat every now and then and he had fresh legs and was quite fast himself so I knew I could keep my own pace comfortably with him. I'd run with him on and off for almost a year now and we still hadn't learned each others names. That's the way it is really isn't it? Running isn't really a good way to socialise.
"Blimey you've got quite a team of pacemakers with you this morning!" he said as we passed Bill and Percy, the latter was tapping his watch and pointing up at the flat with pleading eyes.
I gave a breathless laugh and nodded over my shoulder at Harry and Charlie.
"There are two of them back there as well. I don't know why they're following me; it's not as if I owe them money!"
He laughed at this and we pounded onwards for two more minutes in silence before Harry eventually gave up and staggered over to a patch of grass and slumped down on to it.
"You've lost one!" he chuckled.
"Oh yeah," I sniggered and turned into lap number nine.
"What's with the entourage then? I've only ever seen you running with your brother before."
"They are my brothers," I panted, "except the one dying on the grass back there, he's my best man."
My running companion seemed to understand everything now.
"Ah," he said, his face breaking into a wide grin, "I get it now, trying to run your wedding jitters out of you eh?"
"Something like that," I shrugged.
"So they're all making sure you just keep running in circles and not for the hills never to be seen again?"
I laughed at this. Maybe they did think I was about to do a runner in the not quite so literal sense. Of course I wasn't thinking about that. I was doing this to keep myself around.
"I just get..." I tried to remember what I'd called it that time he had caught me fighting off a seizure last May in one of the flower beds, had I told him it was muggle epilepsy or something? Shit I couldn't remember, "...I've got a condition and I'd rather not spoil the day for everyone that's all."
"Oh right," he nodded, "so the running really works then does it? It keeps the seizures to a minimum."
Well I must have told him it was muggle epilepsy. I just nodded and hoped he didn't want to go into details. We ran on for three more minutes in silence. I wondered if I was ever going to tire. I was approaching lap ten and still didn't feel like stopping.
"Well I'm just doing the one mile today mate," my running partner said as he gestured back to the turning he was to take to jog back the way he had come, "good luck with today and don't wear yourself out too much, you've got to conserve some energy for the wedding night!"
I laughed.
"Well you've got a point there."
"And your brothers are looking a bit anxious that they won't get you ready in time too, speaking of which I don't see your twin anywhere," he frowned.
I looked across to the bench where Fred and George were about to attempt to rejoin me.
"The twins are over there," I nodded in their direction.
"No your twin!"
"Oh him," I never really catch on when people call my other self my twin or my brother, no matter how often it happens I can't seem to get used to it, "he's travelling from...quite far, he won't be here until later."
He gave a nod to let me know he had understood and waved as he went off in the other direction as the path forked away to the left while I cornered to the right. I was still restless enough to want to go for another couple of laps but knew that running myself into the ground was no better than having a seizure at the church so I slowed my pace and fell back to let Charlie catch me up and slipped into a light jog with him.
"Worn yourself out at last have you?" Charlie panted heavily with a smile.
"Actually no but I've got to stop some time haven't I?"
Charlie shook his head and huffed.
"I can't believe you; you're like a bloody greyhound."
I slowed to a halt and bent over to rest my hands on my knees, Charlie did the same, and we grinned at each other through our heavy breaths. There were two loud cracks as Percy and Bill apparated to our spot just as I stood up straight and began to warm-down with Charlie. The two of us looked soaked through with sweat and Percy seemed to think the smell was quite bad as well as he was a little reluctant to come too close.
"Are you done now Ron?" Percy asked as he pushed his glasses up his nose and held out a bottle of water to me.
I downed it in about ten seconds and Charlie folded his arms across his chest and raised his eyebrows as he stared at me with a bemused smile on his face.
"Oh sorry, did you want some?" I blinked, remembering again why I don't have a regular running partner.
"Not a greyhound Ron, forget I said that, you're a camel!" Charlie said with a shake of the head.
The twins trotted up to us and watched as Bill refilled the bottle with a spell and Charlie took a couple of deep swigs before seeing me watching him and rolling his eyes and handing the bottle back to me to drain dry once again. Bill had to refill the bottle a total of five times before I felt satisfied enough to set back off to the flat for my shower. Harry plodded along the pathway behind us with heavy legs and unable to speak. Fred and George helped him along and the seven of us headed up to the flat.
HERMIONE: I asked Ginny to floo the flat to check on Ron. I can see it coming a mile away you see? He's so determined not to travel today that I can see him winding himself up into such an anxious state that he has a seizure right in the middle of saying 'I do' and leaving me at the alter with a very perplexed vicar to explain myself to.
Ginny came back, shaking her head and smirking. Nobody was there and when she had looked out the window she told me she had seen Ron running in that focused state he gets into while all the rest of the groomsmen were in various states of exhaustion all over the park.
I laughed and let Fleur finish styling my hair for me. I knew he'd go mad with the running this morning. Now the Weasley boys knew what I had to put up with every morning. I hoped that he'd done enough to calm his nerves. Mine were causing me to worry my hands in my lap every five seconds and Ginny, Fleur and Molly were attempting to distract me with talk of the rings.
"So these rings are connected magically as well as symbolically you say Hermione dear?" Molly said as she preened my veil while Ginny tried to get me to leave my hands alone long enough to give me a manicure.
"Yes, the goblin who forged them said there are all sorts of qualities a magical bonding between rings could provide us," I said with a forced smile, "the best thing is Ron won't ever lose his whenever he goes travelling."
Molly frowned at me.
"Oh dear I didn't even think of that, he's just disappear right out of it every time wouldn't he?"
"Not this one," I said with a bracing huff and Ginny slapped my hand with annoyance and set about applying nail polish, "whenever it leaves his finger it appears on mine. Quite useful really as it'll let me know whenever he goes travelling."
Fleur finished off with my hair and I thanked her and tried not to get into another panic when my mother screamed in shock at the arrival of my father through the fireplace with Arthur. They had gone to the Leaky Caldron for a drink so my dad could get a mini briefing on wizarding wedding traditions and Arthur could learn some of the muggle ones. My mum still wasn't quite comfortable about seeing her loved ones in flames before her eyes.
While everybody fussed all around me I sat and stared at my reflection in the mirror and tried to remember that this day would be over soon. I wouldn't have to look perfect and have sleek styled hair. There was no need for me keep grinning to reassure everybody that I was doing fine and soon enough there would be a time when all of these people would go away and it would be just me and Ron, just me and my husband alone together. Just the way I like it.
RON: While the twins fought over which one of them was to take the next shower after Harry came out I drank a whole carton of apple juice and then opened the fridge to look for something else before Bill grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me against the kitchen counter.
"Ron calm down!" he ordered while Percy smiled and shook his head from the doorway.
"I am calm," I lied.
"You're drinking like a maniac!" Bill laughed as he shook the empty juice carton in front of me.
"No Bill," I corrected with a smart-arse smile, "if I was drinking like a maniac that would be a bottle of apple Schnapps and not a carton of apple juice."
Charlie smacked me around the back of the head.
"Never going to be funny Ron," he said with a disapproving look.
I rolled my eyes and wished they would all just bugger off and leave me alone. I think they were doing more to aggravate my nerves than I was. I was still dripping from my cold shower. Harry had been thankful that I took it cold as he now had the luxury of hot water, something Fred and George kept yelling through the bathroom door at him they would like to share, and I had headed straight for the kitchen on my quest for more to drink with nothing but a towel around my waist.
"Are you planning on getting married like that or is the suit you've got hanging in your bedroom actually for wearing?" Bill said as he began to shove me out through the kitchen door while Percy opened the door to the bedroom for me to be bundled through.
"Well I kind of wanted to sort myself out some breakfast first," I protested at my bossy older brothers.
"I'll sort you out an omelette or something," Percy said with an impatient huff as he pulled the bedroom door closed behind him.
I took a step forward and reopened the door to lean out and call after Percy as he retreated to my kitchen.
"Cheese omelette?"
"Yes!" Percy said with annoyance while Charlie shoved me back into my bedroom and closed the door.
I opened it again.
"With onions?"
"Okay!" Percy yelled from the stove while Bill tried not to laugh and shoved me back into the bedroom again and told me he was going to lean against the door until I was dressed.
I grinned at the closed door ahead of me and disapparated into the living room right in front of Bill's face to call over my shoulder to Percy in the kitchen.
"Heavy on the pepper please."
Bill looked as if he was about to explode while Charlie stomped across the living room to pick me up bodily and carry me into the bedroom while I cackled to myself. This was one way to alleviate my stress levels, driving them all nuts.
"I hope Hermione knows what she's getting herself into with you," Charlie huffed as he dumped me down in front of my suit where it hung in the wardrobe door and began to fumble through my underwear drawer to toss me my socks and underpants.
"Y'know Charlie I have been able to dress myself for a good twenty or so years now," I said as I watched him pulling my shirt off the hanger.
"Well you wouldn't bloody know it from the way you've been carrying on this morning would you?" he bellowed into my face with such ferocity that my hair blew back a little.
I knew that laughing was the absolute worst thing I could do right now but I couldn't help it.
"It's nice to know he's so bloody relaxed now," Bill said with a wave of the hand in my direction, "I'm a nervous wreck!"
George was looking at our little scene and chuckling to himself, at least the twins didn't object to my newfound levity, before looking back to the bathroom door and cursing under his breath. Harry appeared beside him rubbing his wet hair with a towel and smiling.
"I think Fred beat you to the shower George."
I was about to start laughing like a total loon again when Charlie turned on me with a flushed face that reminded me of one of mum's rages and pointed at my suit with a finger that trembled with frustration and then back at me again.
"I want you dressed within five minutes or, twenty three years old or not, I will dress you myself."
"Omelette's ready Ron," Percy called from the kitchen.
"Oh brilliant," I said as I pushed past Charlie and headed to the kitchen for breakfast.
HERMIONE: My dad is asking me what I'm so tearful about. He says it's not like me. Well it is, I do get a little emotional when I'm happy or relieved about something, but he hadn't expected me to be one of those brides who cries on her way to the church.
I wouldn't ordinarily be one of those brides who cries at all. The thing is most brides don't see their unborn daughter and future husband waving at them from the side of the road as the car passes by. Ron looks to be about forty and the little girl looks about Cam's age, four or five years old, and I just felt my eyes flooding as I waved back at my future. I was marrying into the most bizarre life anybody could ever imagine...and I wouldn't change it for the world.
RON: I don't know how this could have happened. I was fine in the car. I was fine when I was talking to the guests waiting in the church. I was fine with Harry and my brothers as we came into the side room to wait for Hermione to arrive. I was even fine when dad came in and teared-up in front of all of us. He gave this big speech about how proud he was of all his sons, he included Harry in that which set him off to a certain degree, and then gave me a hug and walked out to sit with Mum, Fleur and Cam.
That was when it happened.
"I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go I know it Harry," I was jabbering while Fred kept insisting I try to breathe a bit slower, "I can't stop it and it'll happen in front of everyone and half the church is full of muggles!"
"Ron...calm...down," Harry ordered as he gripped my shoulders and fixed my eyes with his own determined ones.
"That's like fifty people who are going to need memory charms!" I said, speaking faster than I thought was possible, "How do you explain to fifty people why they don't remember a whole wedding Harry? How do I explain to Hermione's mum and dad that her entire family will have no recollection of the happy day if it ever actually happens because I could be gone for bloody weeks?"
"Slap him," Charlie suggested, fearfully.
While Fred and George approached, rolling up their sleeves, Bill extended his arm to hold them back with an annoyed look at Charlie.
"Nobody's slapping him," Bill said firmly.
"Well what do you suggest?" Charlie huffed while Harry tried to get me to breathe in and out in time with him.
Bill thought for a moment before his eyes flickered and he bent over to get my attention.
"Ron did you invite Ben to the wedding?" he asked me as if he was talking to somebody who was hard of hearing.
I nodded and kept trying to calm myself down with Harry's help. Bill was about to turn to send one of the twins out into the church to get my healer's advice when they both closed the door behind them, already two steps ahead of his thinking.
"Right it'll be okay Ron, Ben's coming and he'll be able to sort you out alright?" Harry said with a smile.
I tried to nod but moving my head made me feel dizzy and feeling dizzy made me feel sick and feeling sick and dizzy were the first signs of a seizure and that made me panic because I thought I was in the middle of one so I would begin to freak out and then my eyes would blur and I really would be in a seizure and I really would be dizzy and sick and then there was no escaping it other than to let it take me and hope I came back within seconds or minutes.
"I said alright Ron?" Harry repeated on seeing my new wave of panic setting in and hoping to distract me from it.
I opened my mouth to speak but closed it again as I gagged and fought not to be sick.
"No!" Charlie pointed into my face, "No being sick and no travelling today right?"
I shook my head and swallowed the retch back down again.
"No travelling," I gasped as I tried to shake off the dizziness that was creeping into my head.
"You did all that running Ron remember?" Charlie was saying now as his attitude softened slightly.
I nodded and closed my eyes.
"Just picture the park okay? Your route around the park ahead of you and zone the seizure out like you zone everything else out when you go running," Charlie said and I tried to do as he said as the door clicked open and I heard Ben's voice.
"Are you sure it's not just nerves?" he seemed to be asking Fred or George.
"No," Harry was saying now, "we almost lost him a minute ago, the nausea hit and he wasn't focused on any of us for a second but Charlie's trying something with him and it seems to be working."
I built myself up to open my eyes again, taking several deep breaths and blowing them out before nodding and forcing myself to look around the room and hoping that I'd be able to see straight.
HERMIONE: Ginny smiled at me and told me that I was beautiful. I told her she should thank me forever for not inflicting a vengeful bridesmaid dress upon her and she tried to look innocent and shrug before breaking into giggles. She was wearing a sleek midnight blue dress and a lacy shawl. I hadn't wanted to wear white but my mother had insisted. I sometimes feel as if wedding days have nothing to do with the wishes of the bride and groom at all.
Just as Ginny and I finished hugging each other and my dad took my arm as the music swelled Arthur ran down the aisle towards us and I knew what he was going to say before he said it.
"Hermione I'm so sorry but I'm afraid we just lost Ron."
My head dropped and Ginny's hand rested upon my back while my father started to say reassuring things to me. I knew this was possible, we all did, but no matter how much I tried to prepare myself for this eventuality it didn't stop it from hurting.
"Pst!" I heard just as Arthur was about to try to say some words of comfort.
The four of us all looked up and searched around us for the source of the sound.
"Pst!"
There it was again. Ginny and her father looked around the churchyard and me and my dad looked behind us but we could see nothing.
"Dad in here!" an urgent whisper that sounded so familiar I dare not hope hissed from just within the doors of the church.
Arthur leaned back into the church and jumped before leaning in further and whispering frantically and nodding before turning back to us and beaming.
"We've got a replacement Ron, not to worry!" he said with delight, "just give me a couple of minutes to smuggle him into the vestry and put him in Ron's suit and we can get this show on the road."
I laughed out loud while my dad looked incredibly confused and Ginny sighed with relief and took up her position behind me once again. I was getting married to Ron today after all.
Only my Ron still wouldn't be married to me when he came back.
HERMIONE: Everything had gone smoothly. My aunties and uncles wanted to know why Ron had suddenly seemed to age almost fifteen years while re-growing his hair since he had greeted them at the church but Arthur had discreetly done the rounds with his wand and surreptitiously modified their memories so nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary at all.
I was dancing with my new husband and joking with him about his mother's insistence that he cut his hair for the wedding making no difference at all to the scruffy looking Ron she would have to look at in all the wedding photographs forevermore.
"I never forgive her for that y'know?" he mumbled into my hair, "Getting my hair cut for nothing."
I giggled at this little grumble of his and kissed him.
"Well I got a little bit of a kick out of your new look didn't I?"
His face lit up as he remembered how I had jumped him as soon as he walked through the door with his shorter hair. It really suited him and it made it much easier to differentiate between my Ron and past and future Ron's when they visited. I knew that he was going to grow it out as soon as he could though. He kept complaining that short hair was too high maintenance for him to handle. That had made me laugh for a very long time while he struggled to explain that he meant that short hair needed more work first thing in the morning and not that he spent forever preening himself in front of the mirror.
"I get out of bed and it's sticking up at all angles, I'm like a red headed Harry!"
Neville tapped Ron on the shoulder and smiled.
"Do you mind if I cut in while you freshen-up Ron?" he said.
I blinked and looked at Ron who seemed to read something else in what Neville had said and looked over his shoulder to the gent's where Charlie was grinning and giving him the thumbs up. Ron looked back at me and kissed me on the lips.
"I'm just going to change alright babe?" he winked at me and stepped aside for Neville to take me whirling around the dance floor.
RON: I had vanished from the church in the afternoon and reappeared there in the evening in the blink of an eye. I don't even know where I had travelled to as I had barely been there long enough to regain my focus before it dragged me back again. Cavendish had been the poor mug who had stayed in the vestry waiting for me to come back so he could get me to the reception and smuggle me into the gent's toilets to summon my older self to come and swap clothes with me so I could go back out there.
He walked in and grinned at me.
"Well dad's going to go mental when everybody notices your hair's short again and he has to go around amending all those memories he just finished modifying."
I heard Charlie turning somebody away from outside the door, telling them something about faulty plumbing, while my other self got undressed and passed the clothes to me to put on.
"So what will you do once I go back outside?" I asked him.
"Well Charlie keeps people out for another ten minutes before looking in on me and I'm gone so unless I get the urge to climb out the window and scare old ladies with my tackle I assume I wait here until I disappear again."
I laughed as I pulled on my trousers and my other self pulled the blanket I had been wrapped in for my journey from the church to the reception with Cavendish around him.
"Well thanks for, y'know?" I shrugged to the older version of me who had just married my fiancée.
"No problem," he grinned, "you can do it they way you wanted tomorrow now."
As I pulled on my jacket and prepared to go out and face the world I nodded and broke into a wide grin before giving my other self a wave and stepping out to find Hermione.
HERMIONE: I saw his weaving his way through the crowd on the dance floor and Neville must have seen the look on my face as he gave a slight chuckle and stopped dancing with me immediately.
"Well I'll leave you to it Mrs Weasley," he said with a little bow and I gave him a peck on the cheek for being so sweet.
Neville held out my hand and Ron took it with a grateful nod to Neville before sliding his arm around my waist and planting a soft kiss on my lips. I saw that Ron's entire family, well everybody who knew about his condition to be honest, were all looking at us and beaming. We had all hoped that our Ron would be able to get back for some part of his own wedding day at the very least. I noticed Molly wiping her eyes and Fleur chuckling and giving her a hug while Arthur rushed out to deal with my bewildered Uncle David who was pointing out to my Auntie Joan that Ron's hair was suddenly different.
"I'm really sorry Hermione," Ron began to say to me but I stopped him before he could go into one of his little shame speeches with a lingering kiss.
He smiled and nodded to let me know that he understood I didn't need any explanations or apologies from him.
"Harry told me how hard you tried to stay for me. It's okay Ron, you came to me anyway didn't you?"
He frowned slightly before smiling and nodding as he pulled me closer to dance with him cheek to cheek. I breathed in his scent and closed my eyes as the female singer up on stage with the band began to sing a beautiful song that I had never heard before, claiming it had been requested by 'the groom's stand-in'.
"Can we stay right here 'till the end of time, 'till the earth stops turning?" she was singing but I didn't hear any more of the song as Ron was whispering into my hair while breathing that hot breath on my neck in the way that drives me to distraction.
"I want to marry you Hermione."
I turned my head into the side of his neck and kissed him before looking up at his serious expression.
"You did."
He smiled and shook his head.
"I haven't yet babe."
I understood what he was saying. He didn't want to wait all those years before he could say his wedding vows and call me his wife.
"We'll go to the town hall tomorrow morning and do it again," I said before standing on tip toes and meeting him as he lowered his head to share a deep kiss that ended when we both smiled and began to laugh into each other's faces.
"That was what I wanted to do from the very beginning," Ron chortled.
"Well you always did like to avoid too much fuss," I said as I rested my head on his chest and felt a little better about my quiet little official ceremony the following day.
"Let's not tell anybody about it okay?" Ron mumbled and I nodded, "Let's just have the two of us and a couple of muggle's we pull off the street for witnesses."
"That sounds wonderful Ron," I sighed, "Can we get homeless people to do it and then buy them lunch or something as a thank you?"
He leaned back to look down at me with an expression of awe-struck amusement.
"You are amazing!"
"I have to keep up with you don't I?" I shrugged as the beautiful song was coming to an end.
"I love you future wife," Ron said with a smile.
"I love you present husband," I replied as the two of us laughed and Ron spun me around on the dance floor while my mother and Molly broke into floods of tears and hugged each other.
"All I've known, all I've done, all I've felt has been leading to this..."
6th November 2003 (Ron is 23, Hermione is 24)
RON: I spent the morning scowling at my hair as it wouldn't do anything other than look like bed-head and Hermione laughed at me and ruffled it into a scruffy mess and told me that muggle guys spend a fortune on getting their hair styled to look that way. I declared that muggle men are morons and she laughed and told me that she didn't mind if she married me with a scruffy head.
"Start as you mean to go on after all eh?"
It was chilly outside and she had decided to wear a pair of black figure hugging trousers and a grey cashmere sweater over a lilac top. She didn't do anything with her hair other than brush it and she wasn't wearing any make-up at all. I thought she looked prettier today then she had the day before to be quite honest.
While she put a chunky scarf around her neck and walked over to the cloak stand to grab her winter coat I pulled on my most comfortable pair of boots, and by comfortable I mean clumpy and scuffed, before wandering over to her side to put on my own coat and scarf. She smiled up at me and let out a tiny laugh.
"What?" I said, wondering if I had something in my teeth.
"Nothing," she said with a shake of the head before taking my hand and pulling me out the front door.
HERMIONE: I couldn't stop chuckling to myself. This was so perfect. Ron had been right all along; this was how weddings should be done all the time.
I wouldn't be glamorous and perfect during our marriage. Ron wasn't going to be neat and tidy, he wasn't going to be publicly romantic and he certainly wasn't going to wear a suit for anything other than work, and that was how I liked it.
Yesterday was all about one day of putting our love for each other on display to the world. The thing is we don't love each other for just that one day. Ron doesn't love me because I have perfect hair and the perfect dress and there is romantic music swelling in the background. Ron loves me when I have a runny nose and my hair is all over the place and I've got no time to worry about being feminine and just want to be practical and comfortable. I don't love Ron because he got his hair cut just so he would look presentable for one day of our married life. I don't love him because he learns all the dos and don'ts of muggle etiquette so he can meet every single one of my relatives and not seem crazy to them. I love him because he just held the door open for me without giving it a second thought and he's wearing odd socks but tells me it doesn't matter because nobody normal looks at a man's feet anyway!
We stroll to the town hall in the blustery wind and he pulls me towards him to walk with his arm around me to make sure that I'm warm enough. The air smells of ashes, it was Guy Fawkes Night last night after all, and an elderly couple pass us as the go in the other direction with a smile and a nod and I giggle again.
"What now?" Ron asks me with an amused kind of annoyance.
"I was just thinking that will be us someday," I nodded over my shoulder to the old couple.
Ron turned and sniggered.
"Which one d'you want to be the man or the woman?"
I tried not to laugh but he had the wickedest grin on his face that I couldn't fight against and we chuckled all the rest of the way down the street.
We spoke to a couple of the homeless people who live down one of the side streets in Camden, a young girl with lank brown hair but a kind face and a man in his fifties who was wearing about nine layers of clothing that gave him the shape of an egg when he got to his feet, and the four of us went into the town hall to have our civil ceremony.
Len and Kelly, our two witnesses, applauded as we were declared husband and wife and shared a brief kiss before signing the papers and being issued with our certificate of marriage. We thanked them both and took them for lunch at a small restaurant that Ron had explained the situation to beforehand. That's another reason I love him so much. He didn't want the moment ruined by the place refusing to let our two homeless witnesses dine with us. We were seated and spent the next two hours chatting and laughing and making sure that Kelly and Len got more than enough to eat before going our separate ways.
I had wanted to do a little more for them both than simply feed them for one day but Ron had explained to me that us rewarding them for doing us a favour was one thing but a blatant handout was another. Ron would never accept charity when he was struggling for money before he got his job at the ministry and I took his word for it. Just because you have no money doesn't mean you have no pride after all.
I did get a warm feeling inside me when I overheard Len asking Kelly where she was sleeping over the winter and telling her that she should come to a squat in Goodge Street with him and the others from their little cardboard village when the expected freeze began. He had seemed to want to look after his new friend and that was something at least.
RON: We got back home at about twenty past three in the afternoon and sat in front of the fire enjoying the fact that we were properly married now.
"Ron?" Hermione asked me as she stared into the flames while I rested my head on her shoulder with my eyes closed so as not to get set off by the flickering.
"Yeah?"
"What day are we going to celebrate as our wedding anniversary?"
I opened my eyes and looked up at her with a frown.
"That's a good point actually."
She shifted around onto her side so we were almost nose to nose and wove her fingers between mine thoughtfully.
"Everyone else is going to call the fifth our anniversary so I suppose that's the most logical choice."
I smiled and kissed her softly.
"Whatever you want babe."
She licked her lips and raised her hand to rest upon the side of my face.
"I want it to be today though," she whispered as her brown eyes stared right into me in that way that can make me slightly light-headed sometimes, "this is the day I married you for real. This is the day we began our life together. This is the day we got married for us and not to put on a big lavish show for everybody else."
I moved my head forward and kissed her deeply for almost a full minute before breaking away and tucking her bushy hair behind her ear.
"Today it is then."
She smiled at me and got up from the sofa, pulling me with her by the hand and leading me to the bedroom.
"Let's get an early start on that wedding night Mr Weasley."
"Whatever you say Mrs Weasley."