CHAPTER 5 Before the Wedding

Hermione ran down the stairs two at a time. She looked into Ginny's room and didn't see them. Hermione started to get nervous. "If I was seventeen year old boy," thought Hermione, "and it is around sunset, where would I be?" The kitchen. Hermione ran down the rest of the stairs and rushed into the kitchen. She saw the two boys with shocked looks on their faces. They were also holding envelopes in their hands. "You got your letters?"

"Yeah," said Ron as if nothing happened.

"So when are we going to tell your mum?" asked Harry. Ron started to look nervous. He didn't want to go back to school but he also was afraid of telling his mother that he wasn't.

"Let's not get ourselves work up yet," reasonded Hermione. "They might just say that Hogwarts is closed and requests other schools."

"You're right," replied Harry. Harry turned his letter to the side with the red Hogwarts seal. He slid his finger threw the top of the envelope and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. Time seemed to go by slow as he carefully unfolded it.

Dear Mr. Potter,

We are unfortunate to inform you that Hogwarts will remain closed for the time being. After the attack, the school governors have claimed the school unsafe. Enclosed is a list of schools in Europe that will remain open.

Once again I'm truly sorry,

Minerva McGonagall

"Well, what does it say?" asked Hermione with an anxious tone.

"Hogwarts is closed," whispered Harry. Even though he knew he was not coming back, Hogwarts was always a home to him and for it to be closed hurt him dearly.

"That's one less thing we have to tell Mum," responded Ron. Hermione threw him a I-Can't-Believe-You look. Ron seemed to miss it.

"Yeah, but we still have to tell her that we are going on a mission that she and nobody else can't know about," stated Hermione. "It's not something she will take much easier."

"I know," responded Harry. "But we have to tell her and soon. But when should we tell her?"

"Well, the wedding is tomorrow, that's totally off limits. A lot of the major things are happening today. Like Fleur's family should be here today and Fred and George are going to pop by for dinner. So she'll be pretty busy entertaining the family today."

"I say the day after tomorrow is best. By that time Fleur's family is gone and Mum will still be in a good mood from the wedding," replied Ron. He had obviously given this a lot more thought than the other two.

"Yeah, I agree with Ron. We defiantly cannot do it when there is all this stuff going on," agreed Harry.

"It'll get her even more pissed off if we tell her now instead of telling her on a normal day. Plus she'll get even more stressed than she already is. But I think the more major problem is how are we going to tell her," explained Hermione with a tone of bitterness as she turned toward Ron. She was still a little upset and angry with Ron. She tried to hide it to the best of her abilities, but sometimes even the best can't.

"Yeah that is going to be a major problem," replied Ginny from the doorway. "We'll need to think of something."

"What do you mean we? Ginny, you are not coming with us on this mission. It's too dangerous. I don't even want Hermione and Ron to come with me. Plus, you don't even know what or where we are going."

"Come on, Harry. You know I can take care of myself. What can they do that I can't? I don't care what the mission is and where. I want to help you. It's my duty."

"I know that you can defend yourself and I know you know almost all the spells we do. But I'm not risking you. It's bad enough that we are going out."

"You're not risking me. I'm risking me. I am my own person that can make my own decisions. Harry, I want to be with you, no matter what. Hogwarts is closed and I'll be stuck home alone with Mum. I need to be with you. And you should know by now that going out with me is the best thing that ever happened to us. Plus, didn't Dumbledore say there has to be more love in this world. You need our love Harry to defeat Voldemort and I need you, Harry."

"I need to be with you too, Ginny. And there's no doubt love will destroy Voldemort. But, I will draw the line when it comes to your life. I love you too much to let you die because of me. I don't think I could ever live with myself if that happened."

Ginny sighed. She knew she was about to lose the battle. But she had one more point to make. "You let them come."

"Yes I do. But Hermione and Ron have stuck with through thick and thin. And they faced things with me and risked their lives with me."

"So have I. I was in the Ministry too, risking my life with you. I'll be with you no matter what. I'm here to stay."

Now it was Harry's turn to sigh. She turned this argument around and now she had a point. "What do you guys think?" Harry asked his best friends. They were listening intently through the argument and knew he was going to ask this. There was pros and cons with both sides. But which was right? Be wasn't right not always easy? If only it could be.

"I think she could come with us. I mean, she has done proven that she'll do anything for you. She has the determination and willingness. She'll do fine." said Hermione. "Plus, I don't think she'll give up until we let her come with us."

Everyone turned toward Ron. "I'm fine with it. Just make sure you take care of yourself. But, it's not up to us. It's up to Mum. It'll be bad with one of us telling her that Harry is going on a secret mission, let alone her two youngest children and one of her other surrogate childe. Remember what happened when Fred and George dropped out of school? She was furious with not just them, but with everybody else for not stopping them." Ron turned toward his little sister. For once he seemed to be looking at her with respect. "You'll be great Ginny. I know you will."

"Thanks, Ron." Ginny was proud for once in her life, that Ron was her older brother. "So, can I go with you guys?"

Harry gave one last small sigh but he couldn't help but smile. "Yes, you can come." said Harry. Ginny was excited. Her face glowed and she jumped up and wrapped her arms around Harry.

"Thank you, Harry! Thank you so much! You won't regret it."

"Calm down, Ginny. You should really be thanking Ron and Hermione. If it wasn't for their approval, I probably wouldn't have let you come." She took her arms off him and turned toward her best friend and her brother in the corner.

"Thank you Hermione! Thank you Ron! "

"You're welcome," replied Hermione.

"No problem. But if you don't behave yourself, we'll take you straight home," mimicked Ron to sound just like his mother. They laughed. He actually made a good impression of his mother.

Just then there was a knock on the door. "Coming! Coming!" called Mrs. Weasley as she ran from the back door. She turned toward the kids. "It must be Fleur and Bill with her family. Make sure to be on your best behavior. Oh yeah, Bill will be sleeping with you boys in your room, Ron. And Fleur and her sister, Gabrielle will be sleeping with you girls." They knocked again. "I'm coming!" she yelled with a little frustration and annoyance in her voice. She never liked to be rushed.

Just as the door opened, a whiff of something odd was in the air. It was one of the best feelings Harry and Ron had every felt. But they had felt it before. It was the feeling you got when veelas were around. They needed to do something to impress the Delacours. But what?

But then, Ginny gave Harry a very dirty look and he came out of his trance. Then he turned toward his best friend, who had the goofiest look on his face. Hermione had noticed but tried to ignore it. "Ron," said Harry as he shook his best friend. It took a few seconds, but he finally came out of his trance just as the Delacours entered the room.

"Thanks mate," whispered Ron with a major look of gratitude on his face.

"Hello 'Arry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. These are my parents Mr. and Mrs. Delacour. And as you already know this is my sister Gabrielle," said Fleur as she pointed to each member of her family.

They could see where Fleur got her good looks from. She was her mother's spinning image from thirty years ago. Except for her eyes, she had her father's eyes.

"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Delacour. And hello again Gabrielle," replied the four teens. She translated to her parents their names and they shook hands.

"Hello again 'Arry. You look a lot better than the last time we met," said Gabrielle in a seducing voice. She moved toward him and brushed her arm against his. This made Ginny furious. She put her arm around Harry and smiled fearcly at Gabrielle. Ginny gave her future sister in-law the look that said if you even think about it I will kill you.

"Yes he has gotten a lot cuter hasn't he? Too bad he's off the market," snapped Ginny with a false sweetness in her voice. Ginny's f face was bright red and matched the color of her hair. This shut Gabrielle up quickly and she moved next to her parents as she began to blush. She couldn't believe someone like him chose someone like her. But Gabrielle would get him, someway somehow.

Harry tried to smile at Ginny, but she seemed to ignore him. She was very upset and angry that someone had hit on her boyfriend, even if he was famous and one of the cutest teenagers in Britain. No one was to flirt with the love of her. Part veela or not, nobody would separate the couple. Ginny would make sure of this. They already broke up once for a stupid reason, she wasn't about to give him up again for a snot-nose priss like her.

Everyone sat down in the living room and got acquainted as Mrs. Weasley made dinner. Mr. Weasley had come home early to help his son impress his future in-laws. It was very frustrating since they couldn't speak a word in English. Just then two pops appeared in living room. It was everybody's favorite family members, Fred and George.

While the Weasley clan was a bit startled, the Delacors were quite surprised and looked like they were going to have a heart attack. Gabrielle had jumped up in fright and now part of her nicely-shaped legs that were covered by her short miniskirt, were showing. She had not attempted to fix this, hoping that it might catch the attention of a certain boy.

The nineteen year old boys faced the French family that were sitting to the right to where they had appeared. They faced them with huge grins; they were hoping by looks of their Fleur's family that her cousins would look just as hot.

"Hello I'm Fred."

"And I'm George."

They stuck out their identical hands for the family to shake but the Delacours just started at them with fright; Fleur was so shaken that she couldn't even translate. The boys quickly withdrew their hands.

Mrs. Weasley had rushed into the room and saw her twin boys standing there with happy grins. Her face was a bright red and looked like she'd blow a top. She was trying to keep calm in front of her guests but she was failing miserably.

"Fred and George, can't you use the door like normal people?" asked a furious Mrs. Weasley. Mr. Weasley while a bit angry, was impressed that the boys defeated the apparating wards.

"Now, what fun would that be?" asked Fred.

"We had to make a big entrance for the family. It would only be most polite," responded George.

"What I want to know is how you defeated the wards?" asked Mr. Weasley as he saw his wife getting redder by the second.

"We didn't," replied George.

"It's our newest product, Portable-Portkeys. They are just like the real Portkeys except you don't have to register to get one," stated Fred.

"But you can only go places like friends' and families' homes. You have to be able to picture the place very clearly and have been there before."

"It's complicated, but brilliant if you want to sneak away from Filch and end up in another part of the castle."

"If only we invented these sooner." Mrs. Weasley, while furious, decided that she would try to talk to her boys calmly after dinner. But she needed this meal perfect. So she went back into the kitchen and returned to do doing the thing she did best.

Mr. Weasley tried to talk everyday talk with Mr. and Mrs. Delacour, with the help of Fleur. Bill was entertaining Ron, Hermione, and Ginny with the final plans of his and Fleur's new home. But Harry wasn't interested.

"How's the joke shop doing?" asked Harry.

"Very well, except for one thing," replied Fred.

"A new joke shop opened up on the other end of Diagon Alley that seems to be taken some of our most prized customers," responded George.

"As well as some of our most brilliant products."

"They stole your products?"

"Yes. They have Bird Puffs."

"Lake in a Can."

"Whole day daydreams with teacher detectors."

"You name it, they stole it."

"What's this place called?" asked Harry.

"Jones's Joyful Jokes," whispered the two twins at the same time with horror. It was very rare when they did say the same thing at the same time, but this was very serious business.

"The worst part of this is that we can't even get into their shop," said George.

"They've put some sort of magic to reject us when we enter."

"It just throws us across the street when we touch the doorknob."

"Quite brilliant, but we want to meet these so called pranksters."

"And take back the customers that are rightfully ours."

"DINNR!" yelled Mrs. Weasley.

The large family walked into the dining room, looking at the large feast the world's greatest cook prepared. There was roast chicken, mashed potatoes, yams, string beans, steak and kidney pie, cranberry sauce, and steamed broccoli. Everyone who had eaten Mrs. Weasley's cooking before, sat down and started eating right away. Fleur's family, on the other hand, seemed not to be eating anything. It was a lot heavier than the food they were used to eating and they didn't like the change. But otherwise, everybody seemed to enjoy the dinner.

After the table was cleared and everybody was full, Mrs. Weasley sent the kids to bed so the adults could discuss a few things. Harry kissed Ginny good night and bided it to Hermione; he followed Ron up the stairs to his bedroom. Bill's bed had already been set up and the room seemed a lot smaller than before. The boys undressed and went to sleep.

When they awoke up, Bill was already up and downstairs doing last minute wedding plans. In fact, almost everybody was doing last minute wedding plans. Harry and Ron could hear him from the upstairs. "You figure they'd have done everything already," said Ron as he got up and reached for his socks. "They've been working for weeks.

"Yeah I know. How much could be left?" Ron shrugged. Both boys got dressed and started walking down the stairs when Ginny stopped them when they reached the floor her bedroom was on.

"I wouldn't go down there, if I were you. Everybody is so busy with the wedding that even a small distraction annoys the hell out of them. Trust me. I tried to grab something to eat and they started yelling at me for being in the way while they were outside. Crazy, I'm telling you."

"Thanks for the tip," said Harry gratefully. Harry and Ron went back upstairs and played wizard chess until Bill came up and told them to get ready for the wedding. They were starting to get aggravated. They were starving, they hadn't eaten all day. But they decided the sooner the wedding was, the sooner the reception was.

About a half and hour till the wedding started, Ron and Harry went down the stairs and went into the backyard. It was full of people, speaking French and English. There was blondes and red heads. Ron and Harry took a seat in one of the white chairs next to the twins and waited for the wedding to start. Fleur's family had already been seated and waited patiently.

Bill's side wasn't as prepared. All of them were talking and their young children were crying. Harry never knew that the Weasleys were that big of a family. The only was who seemed to be ready was Bill and his best man, Charlie. They both were already standing at the alter, anxiously waiting for the bride. But they weren't the only ones waiting for a lovely lady.

About five minutes till the wedding, Bill's side was finally calm and seated, waiting patiently for the wedding to start. "Where's Hermione?" asked Ron. "The wedding is about to start." Just then, everyone turned around. Ron's question had been answered.

This is a newly edited chapter. Thank you for your reviews.