In time, while they were still standing in front of the cake, people gathered around them. Some of them were holding something in their hands, they looked like folded pieces of paper.

Hermione leant back and whispered in Harry's ear. "You have a decent speech prepared?"

Harry shrugged and shook his head, definitely not wanting to make a long speech about his life or his past struggles. "No. Have you?"

"Actually", Hermione unfolded a tiny piece of paper, "I have."

"Oh, that's great", said Harry, trying his hardest not to let the sarcasm be so evident in his voice, though he suspected he didn't hide it very well judging from Hermione's offended expression. His eyes were still traveling across the mass of people looking at them, eagerly waiting.

"What? I've been working on this speech all day! You want me to scrap it?" said Hermione, visibly upset that he wasn't more enthusiastic about it, her voice struggling to stay in a hushed tone.

He looked at her and tried giving her a comforting smile. "No, no. I'm sure it's perfect. You go ahead Herm, I'm not good with speeches."

"You have to say something", said Hermione.

"Something?"

"Oh ha, ha – hysterical."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

Mrs Weasley made a loud clanging noise with her wand against the glass in her hand. "If everyone have their speeches ready, shall we begin? Do you want to start, Hermione?"

The corner of Hermione's lip twitched.

Harry smirked at her. "No pressure."

Hermione gave him a brief smile, then her eyes darted down to the piece of paper in her hands. She cleared her throat, nervously quivering on the spot, but she spoke with confidence in her voice.

"The Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, Harry Potter, he goes by many names. Harry and I – it feels like we've known each other forever, yet it has hardly been six years. First we met each other was on the Hogwarts Express. I was just a stuck-up little girl and he was a clueless boy, not quite knowing his importance in the world or how much he would matter to people around him."

"It took a few years until I realized how much he actually mattered to me, how much I loved him and much he loved me. That's the great thing about Harry; he's always there when you need him to be, he loves and cares about the people around him, he's brave like no other person I've met, even if he occasionally can be exhaustingly stubborn and thick-headed."

"But there's no other feeling like waking up next to him almost every morning, and for that I'm grateful. And even if he's not there when I wake up, even if he has to run off somewhere, I can always feel his presence, no matter how far away he is. To me, he is my Chosen One."

The crowd burst out into cheering and applause, and Harry joined in. Mrs and mr Granger were both teary eyed, mrs Granger sniffling into a napkin. Harry placed a kiss on Hermione's lips, making her blush.

Hagrid's trumpet sounds drowned everyone else out for a brief moment. Several more people held their speeches about the couple, although much shorter than Hermione's, including every single one of the Weasley's except Ron – he said he'd rather wait until everyone else were done – mr and mrs Granger, Luna, Neville, Fleur. Some speeches were shorter than others, but Harry respected that, he knew himself how much he despised making speeches in front of dozens of people.

After each speech people handed them gifts and flowers, which were being sent away by mrs Weasley to the Grangers home for safekeeping. Among the gifts were scented candles that were said to never burn out, wine glasses from which were impossible to spill or topple, a sparkling box made purely out of shells that made the sound of the ocean when you opened it, and a kitchen knife set that sharpened themselves every time you put them back.

Once Fleur had received her applause, Hagrid stepped forward; he was twirling his thumbs nervously.

"Well, yeh see Harry, I'm horrible with speeches—but I've known yeh since you were a little baby an' all tha', I never thought tha' I would see this day when yeh an' Hermione…", yet again he blew his nose in his giant handkerchief. "Yeh've come so far Harry, in so little time. Proud o' yeh. Very proud."

Hagrid grinned at him, tears running down his giant beard. Harry smiled back and patted him on his arm.

"An' o' course Hermione, yeh're a grown woman now, an' with tha' genius o' yours I don't doubt yeh will go very far, much further than any o' us could ever dream of", said Hagrid.

Hermione's hand sought for Harry, her face going red.

"Yeh two better make sure to have a good life, eh? Here, 's not much but…"

Hagrid handed over a pretty banged up white cardboard box. Harry felt a strange sensation of nostalgia; it resembled the box that Harry had received on his eleventh birthday.

"I thought since I missed yer seventeenth birthday an' all—", said Hagrid, fretfully scratching his head. "But yer probl'y a bit too old fer cakes, so I got yeh summat else, tha' both of yeh can use."

Hermione looked curiously at the box. "Open it", she eagerly told him.

Harry had to hardly do much of opening anything when he flipped up the flimsy cardboard lid, and inside he found a pretty bulky bronze key next to an ugly, white and uneven vase.

Not quite sure what to make of it, Harry picked up the key. He twisted and looked at it. Aside from being slightly bigger than most keys, it was a very normal key.

Harry tilted his head up to Hagrid, feeling like he was eleven years old again and having no clue what was being presented to him.

"What is this, Hagrid?"

Hagrid chuckled. "Well, yeh see, me old dad left me his home. It's a nice place, lots o' space an' if yeh two ever wan' ter get out o' town, yeh can have it. Don't worry now, I've made it nice an' clean. An' the vase of course, hope yeh like it."

Hermione craned her neck, shaking her head in disbelief.

"You've given us a house?" she said. "I… don't want to sound ungrateful but are you sure Hagrid? I don't know how much use we'll get out of it."

"O' course. No one is goin' ter live there anyhow", said Hagrid.

It was pretty useless to them, as just the night before they had discussed how they'd rather live similarly to how Hermione's parents lived, in a their own house – simple – for Wizarding World standards at least.

But he wouldn't be opposed to have a summer retreat.

"I mean, I don't mind. We could probably use it during holidays or something. Thank you, Hagrid."

"Ah don' mention it!"

Harry looked to Hermione, expecting her to be agreeing with him. She was staring exasperatingly at him, expressing her distaste.

"Let's just hold off for a while and make these kinds of plans together, shall we Harry?" said Hermione. She took the package from his hands. "But sincerely, thank you Hagrid."

Harry slowly nodded.

After mrs Weasley had whisked away Hagrid's present, Ron shuffled his way out of the crowd of people, Lavender Brown clinging to his shoulder, dreamily eyeing Ron.

Harry could tell that she was ticking Hermione off by Lavender's mere presence from her face alone.

To be honest, the only reason Harry usually put up with Lavender was because of Ron. Hermione gave Lavender a forced smile; Harry wondered what she was really thinking, probably wishing disaster and death upon Lavender.

Ron grinned uneasily at Harry and Hermione, holding in one hand a slightly wrinkled piece of paper and in the other a present in white wrapping paper with a little golden bow on top.

Harry wondered where people could simply buy presents and wrapping in such times – did people just have stuff lying around in case someone decided to haphazardly throw a wedding or birthday party?

The present in his hand, Ron twisted and turned on the spot, looking slightly ill, despite being their best man. Harry suspected he was feeling the pressure.

"Harry, Hermione", Ron crowed. His eyes met Harry's, an odd grimace spread across half his face.

Ron cleared his throat, awkwardly looking away from Harry and Hermione. This caused to Lavender snigger.

With her eyes on Hermione, she spoke in a very grating baby-like voice, fluttering her eyelashes. "Won-Won talks a lot about you two all the time. He says how sweet and snug you are together – humbly of course. But that's why I love my little Won-Won, he's so modest, nifty and cute. Come on Won-Won, you've got this—"

Hermione snapped her fingers; she clearly had enough of her; Lavender jumped. You could almost see the fumes rising out of Hermione's ears, her face wrathful.

"I mean no offense, Lavender, but when you attend someone else's wedding, people tend to show some respect. So can you please be quiet unless you have a speech prepared?" said Hermione, beaming at Lavender with a big smile on her lips. "Thank you."

A sudden pain shot through Harry's hand. Looking down at their entwined hands, she was squeezing it very hard.

It came a bit sudden, but Harry fully understood her frustration.

Being talked to like that caused Lavender to make herself scarce very fast; she didn't even so much as glance at Ron as she walked away.

Ron shook his head. "I'm sorry, she's always like that—"

"It's okay", assured Harry, nodding.

Ron smiled sheepishly and nodded back.

"It's not okay", hissed Hermione close to his ear. "This was almost perfect until she came along!"

"Do I hear jealousy in your voice, Hermione?" said Harry, smirking, hushed enough for only her to hear it.

Hermione pushed him lightly in his side, her eyes focused on the people surrounding them. He had a feeling if they were somewhere else, somewhere less crowded, he would've received a firm slap to the side of his head instead.

"Go on, Ron. You've got this", said Harry.

Boosted by the confidence given by Harry, Ron grasped the edges of the paper in this hand and looked down on the written words.

"Harry, Hermione… you two should know that both of you are completely mental… the best mates I could ask for, but mental. Together, we have experienced more than we asked for but I wouldn't change a… a bloody thing, not one. It was a great few years of insane adventures, weren't they?"

Ron sniffled. Hermione observed him with a sad look and glossy eyes, her lips forcing themselves to remain in a smile.

"When you two got together I was scared, more scared than I had been on those adventures, I didn't want to lose either of you in that way. But you, Hermione, saw how miserable I was and came up to me to ask how things were… and eventually I let it slip… and you said that it wouldn't change anything, that we still would remain friends. I think that's what scared me the most; change."

Ron lowered the note in his shaking hand, crumpled it, his eyes beaming with an intense respect at Harry and Hermione.

Harry was surprised to see tears in Ron's eyes; was he seeing things, or was Ron really crying?

Ron went on to talk with a muddy voice, he sounded as though he struggled with his words. "But after everything you deserve to be happy, and you bloody promise me that you make the best of it. To me you're family and you should know you're welcome—you're welcome to visit whenever you feel like it."

A burst of applause broke out, and not only was mrs Weasley crying, Hermione was too; she rushed forward to embrace Ron, who jumped from her unexpected reaction.

Confused for just a moment about what had happened, Harry stood back at the same spot holding a napkin for Hermione in his hand but he too rushed forward, embracing his friends.

It took them a bit before they gathered themselves again.

Hermione sniffled. Ron's face was scrunched together, tears shining in his eyes. Slightly stiff and awkwardly did they back away from each other, fully aware that they had caused people around them to tear up even more.

Harry tried as nonchalantly as possible to hand Hermione the crumpled napkin in his hand, she accepted it and took Harry's hand again, smiling through the tears still in her eyes.

"Hear, hear!" roared Fred and George in unison.

Something wasn't quite right though.

Noticing how deeply Hermione was gulping the air, almost hyperventilating, Harry was about to rush away for a glass of water for her, but Ginny was faster, shaking her head at him not to move a muscle and rushed away.

She came quickly back with a glass of water, handing it to Hermione. Hermione drank it slowly, her hand trembling.

Harry patted her on the back, fully relating to how she felt right now.

"Sorry, I'm just overwhelmed", Hermione put her head on Harry's shoulder, leaning her body against his. He noticed how she was shaking, her legs barely keeping her standing.

"You need to sit down?" asked Harry.

"That would be nice", she responded, half closing her eyes as if she was about to drift off to sleep.

Mrs Weasley came hurrying out of the crowd, a chair hovering along with her. The chair softly landed on the floor next to Harry, letting Hermione sit down for a while to gather herself.

Hermione let go of a deep breath, her smile returning to her face. "Don't mind me. Keep going."

Ron handed Harry the present. "Quite a handful, that one", Ron grinned.

"Soon enough she will torment you on your wedding with a speech", Harry grinned back.

The ends of Rons ears went red. "Don't say that, Harry."

Harry chortled.

"By the way, mum said not to open that until, well, until you get back home", cautioned Ron.

Harry's brown furrowed. "What is it?"

"You'll see", said Ron with a faint smirk in the corner of his mouth before he backed away into the crowd.

When Hermione had collected herself, she once again stood up. "Okay. I've waited long enough. You'd better come up with an amazing speech, Harry."

"I don't know, I-I'm not that great with speeches—"

Hermione laughed and teasingly hit him in his chest. "Shut up! If Ron can, surely you're able to!"

Throwing out his arms to his side, he realized he was beaten; it was hard to argue against that.

"Fine… fine!"

"Great!" smiled Hermione. "Let's hear it." She crossed her arms with an excited expression on her face.

Harry nervously stared out over the anticipating crowd. He saw every little motion they made, every little breath they took, hyperaware of everyone, they were waiting.

Mr Weasley loudly cleared his throat; Ginny brushed something off her dress; Luna distantly stared off at the lights hanging from the ceiling of the tent, her father whispering and pointing at the same lights; Peter gave him an encouraging smile and two thumbs up; Fred and George were whispering, glancing at him and exchanging a few bronze knuts; Fleur signaled to him to hurry up, pointing at an invisible watch on her wrist; Hagrid politely waited, humming quietly to himself.

He just had to make up something on the spot – how hard could it be? What if he just winged it? Spidey did it all the time; why wasn't Harry Potter such a smooth talker?

Harry took a deep breath, his eyes not ever staying on one spot, constantly moving across the multiple faces looking at him.

"Hermione Granger… I don't know, where do I start? She's an amazing and beautiful person, sometimes she can be a bit of a pain because she will lecture you anywhere and at any time, and when she really gets into it, she can be as blunt as a teaspoon. And when she gets angry, and I mean really angry, she's the most frightening thing in the room and at that point I'd rather not be in there. But she's also brave when it counts."

"When—when she's with me I often forget about all the awful things we've experienced, if I'm worried or afraid, it goes away for a moment because she's there; she comforts me. In the end, I love her for taking such a massive leap of faith with me, fully well knowing that she would be endangering her life every day in some way."

"What I want to say is: even when things get… dark, I remind myself to keep going, I remind myself that Hermione Granger is worth fighting for."

As yet another applause broke out, Hermione left a peck on the corner of Harry's lips, eyeing him something madly, her arms twisting around his neck.

Something very un-Hermione had been triggered in her; just as Lavender had done earlier, Hermione clung to him, her nails dug deep into his shoulders.

He could almost feel her tender stare impale him, telling him she wanted something out of him, and he had a strong feeling none of it was very appropriate at this hour.

A hunger gleamed in her eyes as her hand went across his cheek, her brown eyes begged.

"Hermione!" he whispered, but she kept flapping her eyebrows at him with a naughty smile on her lips.

His heart fluttered in his chest, his face was burning, and he couldn't tell if it was the sun or his emotions that caused his robes to choke him.

He couldn't deny that he too wanted that, to relive the moments of last night. But now was hardly the place or the time.

The clapping of hands died off, just as a sudden stream of clinking metal hit the floor, pulling both of them out of their trance.

"Sorry", George bent down to pick up the pile of knuts he had dropped.

Mrs Weasley were on them at once. "Fred! George! I thought I told you—"

Fred appeared flustered, his hands on his hips. "Dearest mother, we sort of are adults, gambling is entirely within our right, could you kindly stop nagging us?"

"We are sorry for any kind of disturbance. Thank you – Fred and George", ended George.

She eyed her sons angrily for a while but soon let it go.

Hermione straightened her dress, throwing Harry a playful look.

Together with Ron, Ginny and Luna, walked mr Weasley out of the crowd; all of them holding their glasses filled with a clear, bubbling liquid.

Ron placed himself to Harry's left, the two bridemaids on each side of Hermione, and mr Weasley faced them.

Raising his glass, mr Weasley spoke. "And now, let's raise our glasses to the wed couple's health. After this is over, let them live a peaceful and fullfilled life together!"

Glasses were raised to the sky and people cheered the wed couples names, Harry raised his glass, clinking it into Hermione's.

He made sure to only take a tiny sip; he'd rather not be drunk at his own wedding if he could help it, and as such, Hermione followed his example.

Next up was the cake cutting.

Hermione took out her wand, placed Harry's hand on hers and together they somehow ended up cutting a fairly decent-looking piece, although it ended up a bit too big so they split half of what they had managed to cut with Ron whose eyes lit up from excitement.

Harry thought it a bit weird how much his friend ate. Sure, it was Ron, he did love food but even for Ron, this seemed to be excessive.

While Harry and Hermione took delight in feeding each other their piece and placing kisses on each others lips, more and more of the cake vanished from the table onto the platterns of the guests, but nowhere near enough to even clear the glass platter the cake stood on.

Feeling like his stomach was about to burst from all of the food they had just ate, Harry started feeling a tiny bit nauseous after the fifth or so spoonful of cake that Hermione fed him, and once that piece was finished, he was thankful there would be no more food forced down their throats.

Having apparently enough of food herself and antsy to move, Hermione took Harry's hand and nodded towards the dance floor.

Not everyone had finished eating, it was probably okay no matter what, it was their wedding after all, their rules. Right?

"Come on", she smiled.

Harry let himself being pulled along to the dance floor by Hermione, and once they were there, the instruments leaning against the lonely chair floated up from the floor and begun playing a sort of very peaceful but at the same time energetic song, it was strange.

"May I?" Harry jokingly bowed and offered to take her hand, she chuckled and took it, bringing him closer to her.

"You're such a dolt", said Hermione, shaking her head.

Harry grinned. He put his hands on her hips, she resting her arms around his neck.

"Oh already?" said mrs Weasley somewhere in the back, there was a clang of metal against porcelain as she made a dash for the pair of them.

Just about when they were going to make the first move with their feet, Mr Weasley's immediately made her displeasure with their technique very loud and clear, making both of them jump a few inches.

"No faffing about! This isn't some jig on the dance floor, this is your wedding! Your first dance needs be in ship-shape."

With a bright smile on her face, mrs Weasley grasped their hands, forcing their bodies closer together and locked their fingers; she pulled back Harry, straightening his back.

He wanted to tell mrs Weasley that she had no business in how acted on the dance floor, and if it was a bit dodgy, did anybody really care that much?

Of course he didn't say anything, especially considering her wrath could be frightening, to say the least.

Harry caught the look in Hermione's face, her eyes narrowing, he could tell she was annoyed. He was right there with her, just as annoyed that mrs Weasley wanted to dictate something as simple as their dance.

"Now you're absolutely adorable", said mrs Weasley, clapping her hands.

Harry held back a grunt, sounding more like a snort. What did she wantthem to do next? Shoot glitter out of their butts and turn into flying mermaids?

"Don't mind me", said mrs Weasley and hurriedly left the floor to make room for the first dance.

Harry shook his head.

"She's messing with us, right?" he whispered to Hermione.

Hermione simply grimaced.

Harry shrugged, thinking nothing more of it, and with his hands tightly holding Hermione's, he begun to move his feet, away they went dancing across the floor in rhytm to the energetic tune.

Twirling and spinning before everyone's eyes, it was impossible not to laugh from the stimulating exhilaration racing through Harry's chest.

It was akin to being on their first date, where neither of them had known what they were doing but this same feeling had raced through him.

Hermione smiled brightly back at him, she too laughing.

Over time more and more people filled up the dance floor with their respective partners; Harry spotted Ginny with Luna, dancing a very flowing dance involving a lot of hand movements.

It looked absolutely ridiculous but they both seemed to have a good time, who was he to knock them?

In due course, the music settled down and Harry drew Hermione closer to him, slowing down from the vigorous dance to a much slower, wagging dance.

Their foreheads and bridges of their noses touched, their hands clutched tightly against their abdomens.

He kissed her, feeling like everything at this moment had alligned just right.

It reached evening before anyone left the floor to sit down and rest, well for the exception of Ron who had fallen asleep in one of the chairs, his mouth agape and robes unbuttoned, sloppily gracing the ground.

Harry had seen him swing around with Lavender earlier, though she appeared to have moved on to dance with Dean.

Ron wasn't the most lucky person in romance, but Harry hoped for his sake that Lavender hadn't literally moved on.

"Ow. I need to sit down", said Hermione as the sun was about to set. "My feet are killing me."

She stepped painfully on the spot.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, sure. I'll get something to drink. You go rest, love."

Hermione smiled tiredly and placed a kiss on his lips. "Thank you." She eased out of her shoes, her feet glowing of a slight red and went away to one of the tables.

Harry grabbed their drinks and was about the bring them back to her when his spider-sense went on full blast, sounding like the horn on a ship in his head.

There was a fire in the tent, a lilac explosion in the sky and blue bolts of lightning emerging, striking the ground repeatedly. The sky was tearing itself apart, the tent and tables were burning, people panicking…

Harry dropped the wineglasses in his hands, anxiously pushing himself between the guests. His heart fell to the bottom of his stomach, his eyes searching for Hermione's face in vain.

"Hermione!" he yelled.

He heard a faint response, but he couldn't hear where it came from over the mayhem.

Terrified and frustrated, he pushed people to the sides, not caring if they fell or tripped; he had to get to her.

"Everybody calm down!" roared mr Weasley's voice somewhere amongst the wave of people.

Fleur, Bill and Hagrid were desperately trying to put out the fires but it was though the flames had lives of their own.

An elbow knocked him clean in the face, the pain exploding from his nose. Blood trickled into his mouth and down his cheek, staining his robes.

Someone bumped into his back, he turned around immediately, arms wrapped around him; Hermione threw herself at him, her hair covering half his range of vision.

He spotted Ron and Peter behind her, both of their faces displaying the very fear that was gripping his own heart, Ron was holding his wand.

"What is going on?" yelled Ron and jolted at the sound of another whipcrack in the form of a lightning bolt shattering across the sky, leaving a ghostly trail of forked electricity behind.

Hermione turned to Ron, frustrated. "What do you think?"

The sun was burning something fiercly, the very surface of it cracking with the same lilac and otherwordly color that now filled the atmosphere.

"We're going to die? Yeah, I think I got that part!" yelled Ron angrily at her. "I thought you knew a bit more than that!"

"Oh you want me to write a detailed essay on why all of reality is collapsing in on itself?" cried Hermione.

Harry's inside froze as a familiar mad cackling reached his ears, the sound of jets rumbling like a plane somewhere above.

While Hermione and Ron had a screaming contest, Harry's eyes searched wildly in the sky, afraid something was going to get any of them off guard.

"Ooh, Spider-Boy! Come out and play!" giggled a woman's sing-song voice somewhere amid the screaming crowd.

This was insanity, thought Harry.

Hermione turned back to Harry, her eyes widened.

She handed him his wand and grasped his hand as if it was the last thing holding her down from being sucked out of existence.

"Let's move", said Harry, and as the four of them made a path past everyone else, orange tennisball-shaped bombs rained down from the sky accompanied by a laughter.

Guests had pulled out their wands, or at least the ones that were able to, as fights broke out between them and the attackers.

"We need to leave!" shrieked Hermione, one of the bombs missing her by a few meters, and if it hadn't been for Harry's quick reflexes, she would've been caught in the blast.

"Where?" said Ron, his voice trembling.

A multitude of locations flew through Harry's mind, but none of them would be safe.

A groveling voice roared, stopping them in their tracks. "Nowhere to run now, James!"

"Uh, guys?" Peter said alarmingly, knocking Harry rapidly on his shoulder.

Harry turned around and blinked, the next second a bolt of electricity struck his chest, spreading painfully through his body, his hand slipped out of Hermione's and he was flung backwards.

A.N: So many speeches had to be cut and shortened, because I didn't want to stretch it out too much, and I've been anticipating this moment for ages. I might also want to go back to most chapters to edit some stuff up at a later point, I know there are a few repetitive parts, perhaps flesh out some things.

But hey! Things aren't looking so good for old Potter now, so that's exciting, electrifying even!