March came and went in a blur of cake tastings, color swatch picking, flower picking, and a measly quidditch game. The game against Turkey felt like it barely happened with everything else. We had officially qualified for the World Cup which didn't start until July. The Wasps didn't make it into the league championship so for the time being I had no quidditch to play. It was all wedding all the time. I was honored to be Alicia's Maid of Honor but it was hard to do everything to the best of my abilities. I don't know what it was, if I was just bitter that it wasn't me getting married, if I was thinking about how it could be if Jake had lived, if it was guilt thinking it wouldn't be even if he had. A big part of it was that I was finally getting used to a new normal in our adult lives, and they were changing it on me like this. I knew one thing, whatever it was I was upset about, I was being selfish. I needed to put on my big witch pants and get over it. For some reason I took off my ring from Jake, it didn't feel right to have it on any more, definitely not while helping to pick out napkins and centerpieces.
There was one day that I had been dreading the most, the dress day. This would be my greatest test of strength. I have been obsessed with, and dreaming of my own wedding dress since the day I learned what they were. This was the kicker, the salt in the wound, the sash that might as well say Katie Bell-Spinster. The shop tailored specifically to magical brides and was extremely grand. They had tiny delicate glasses of mead for all of us on silver tables.
"Angelina this dress would look fantastic on you!" Alicia said, holding out a dress while I sat sipping the mead. Angelina appeared from behind a bunch of dresses with a big smile on her face.
"You should try it on," Alicia prodded her.
"But you're the one getting married not me" Angelina said and I picked at the nail polish on my pointer finger. I need to be more present in this. I'm being an arse.
"So, we all know you and Fred are going to get married sometime soon! Might as well see if it looks good on you" Alicia shoved the dress at her.
"Well….alright" Angelina said, grabbing the dress and hopping into the changing rooms. Alicia followed behind her with two dresses in her arms.
"Does the miss wish to try on a dress with her friends? It can be good fun to be done as a group, we don't be mindings" A small house elf that worked at the shop said to me.I saw Alicia shoot me an apologetic look before she closed the curtain of her changing room.
"I'm good," I said as I ran out of nail polish on my pointer finger so started on my middle.
After a while they both came out in the dresses and looked truly beautiful. I did my best to smile up at them both. I can't believe they are getting married. This has been a hell of a year.
"Katie!?" Alicia yelled.
"What?" I asked, I must have zoned out.
"Don't you think that Angelina should get this for her wedding" It was clear that they had been trying to get my opinion for some time now by the way that Alicia asked this.
"It does look really good on you Ang" I said with a smile.
"What do you think of mine?" She then asked me.
"It's the best one so far." I said.
"But not the one" She said mainly to herself.
I got up and walked over to a rack with a bunch of dresses. I suddenly spotted a dress that was strapless with a gold horsehair trim, there were also gold appliques that went up the bodice of the dress almost like ivy. It was beautiful.
"What about this one Alicia?" I asked, holding it out. In seconds she was right next to me touching it.
"Oh Katie, it's perfect!" She said taking it from me and running into the changing room. She came back out a few minutes later with this huge grin on her face and shuffled to the mirror. It was perfect.
"Oh Alicia, that's the one" Angelina said, putting her hand over her mouth.
"My favorite so far, but that could just be because I picked it out." I laughed but I could feel my eyes welling up.
"I think this is the one" Alicia said to the seamstress.
We finished with that, got the measurement on Ang and me for the bridesmaids' dresses, and headed home.
A few days later, George and Alicia were going on a date which meant I was home alone. This meant I was alone to think too much, which was never a good thing for me.
The only good thing to come out of all my new found free time and everyone planning the wedding was that for once Oliver and I were truly getting along. We couldn't seem to find anything to fight about and it was refreshing. Almost like having my old friend back finally. He was hanging around the apartment a lot too. I was starting to get a little too used to it. Sometimes it made me feel guilty and I didn't understand fully why.
As if almost on cue the door to the flat began to open.
"What's wrong?" Oliver said as he came in.
"Nothing" I lied, I was sitting on the couch in my now trademark depressed state.
"I know that something is wrong, so just tell me what it is," He said and sat down on the couch next to me.
"It's just… no I don't know" I said and hugged my pillow.
"Oh come on we were so close" Oliver laughed.
"You wouldn't understand," I said.
"Try me," He said.
"We went to go try dresses on yesterday..." I said after a big sigh.
"I thought trying on dresses made girls happier" Oliver laughed,
"See I told you that you wouldn't understand!" I protested and he just smirked at me.
"No, I was just joking. Please, continue" He said, still smirking and I glared at him.
"I have so many feelings about this wedding that I don't even begin to understand. And instead of having fun and cherishing the moment...I don't know. I guess I couldn't stop thinking that it could have been me picking out a dress. And I felt guilty even just trying on a dress for fun because it felt like an insult to him somehow. We always talked about wedding dress shopping as the three of us trying on hundreds of dresses together even if we weren't all engaged in that moment. Angelina got to be part of that, she even bought a dress yesterday. I guess it helps when you and your best friend are dating twins….but still ..."I said looking at my ring that was sitting on my coffee table in it's open box.
"Oh…there is a lot to that" he said and instantly his smirk disappeared.
"It's in a box" He said after we had both stared at it in silence for a bit.
"I didn't want anyone to mistake me for the future bride" I shrugged.
"Gotcha" He wrapped an arm around my shoulder and I leaned against his collarbone.
"I was never really a future bride...I don't even know if I would have said yes anymore. And if I had, would it have lasted?" my eyes were welling up a bit.
"Well you don't want to hear what I have to think about that" Oliver said with a sigh.
"Yes I do" I said and looked up at him.
"No, you don't, because I'd tell you and then you'd get all pissy and it would make things between us awkward again. We are finally in a good place again." He said. I still looked at him intently like he was about to tell me the secrets of the universe. When he looked at me he laughed.
"What if I promise not to get mad?" I prodded. Maybe he could give me an answer to help me solve the riddle of me being a bitchy maid of honour.
"You will anyway," He chuckled.
"I prrrooomise that no matter what you say I won't get mad" I said, giving him my best doe-eyes.
"No, because it has to do with my feelings for you and we both get awkward when that comes up" There is something to that because even the mention of his feelings in the present tense put a bit of tension in the room.
"I won't get mad" I said, still holding my doe-eyes strong. He took his arm back and scooted a little away from me on the couch.
"Fine. I obviously hoped you'd say no or call it off" Oliver said and looked down to the ground like he was ashamed of what he said. I wasn't mad at all. I was sad. I knew that was what he was going to say but for some reason I needed him to say it, and now I just felt like I was sitting here with his blood on my hands because of it.
"See, not mad. But that didn't really clear anything up for me thanks" I chuckled and rubbed his back.
"Yeah, it never did for me either" he laughed, the tension melted back a bit.
"Want to go get ice cream?" He said standing up.
"I mean, always" I smiled and stood up and got my jacket.
We walked downtown, got some ice creams and walked around the streets looking into store windows. We were walking along when we passed by a wedding dress shop.
"Fine. I'm just going to say it. I wish I was getting married" I sighed, looking at the dress in the window.
"Well I can help with that" Oliver said with a joking cocky look on his face, but at the same time he seemed a little bit serious.
"In your dreams, Wood" I laughed and he smirked.
"No, in my dreams we're doing other stuff" he winked at me. I laughed and punched him in the shoulder and then just looked dreamingly at the dress.
"Want to go try some on? You shouldn't feel guilty for it, I understand why you do but I think you need to put one on. Like exposure therapy" Oliver said.
"What the dresses?" I asked, stunned.
"Yep, I'll be your best gal pal for the night" He laughed.
"That's a scary thought" I snorted.
"Come on, let's at least go look at them. Then if you see one you like you're putting it on" Oliver said smiling.
"Well I guess I can't say no" I laughed as Oliver was holding his arm out to direct me through the door.
As soon as we walked in I saw this dress with red on it in the corner and rushed right on over to it. I was going to do it, put it on. This shouldn't have even been a question. There is this seamstress in Hogsmeade that I would visit every time we had a weekend to go. The woman that owned the shop actually knew me by name and was kind enough to let me try on loads of the dresses. Obviously I wasn't serious about buying anything as a teenager, but she made all of the dresses and seemed to love my opinion and even took a few photos of me modeling them. She came to visit me in hospital after my accident during my seventh year. I had never made it to her shop because one of my friends made me go into the three broomsticks and I got cursed before I made it. The woman realized that it was weird for me not to have come, so she actually started to ask students where I was. I promised her that I would buy my wedding dress from her shop someday and she would always smile. I'm not even sure she is still in business, I didn't have the strength to check in when I was there in December.
I walked out to look at the dress in the larger mirror.
"Wow Kates, I haven't seen you looking this good in a dress in a long time." Oliver smiled.
"I don't need a dress to look this good" I laughed and stuck my tongue out at him.
I tried on a few more dresses until I found this one that was red and gold at the top and flowed down to be white at the bottom. It was amazing.
"Oliver, I think I just fell in love" I laughed and he just put his hand on the bridge of his nose. The woman in the shop heard this and came over to us.
"Does it seem like the one for your big day?" she said with a weird smile.
"Oh no, sorry…but just a couple of friends trying on dresses for the fun of it. I hope that's okay" I wrung my hands and looked at her apologetically.
"Her fiance died in November, I was trying to cheer her up" Oliver said a little too bluntly. But the sales woman's face flashed from possible anger to pity in seconds.
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry! Of course you try them on!" She said to me sympathetically.
"Thanks" I said and shot Oliver a "Mate, what the fuck' look.
"Are you trying them on too?" The woman asked and turned to give Oliver a weird look.
"No…I'm alright just watching" Oliver laughed.
"Ha Ollie you should try one on!" I laughed.
"I'm sure if you wanted to I could find one to fit your…figure" The woman laughed.
"I'm good, honestly," Oliver said.
"Come on Ollie, live a little! For me, it will cheer me up." I pressured him and he just smiled at me.
"….alright" He chuckled with a huge smile on his face.
The women giggled and went towards the back of the store to grab a dress for Oliver. He just looked at it and giggled obviously wondering what he was doing.
"I have the same dress in your size if you want to try it on at the same time" the woman laughed and handed me a dress. I laughed and rushed Oliver into the dressing rooms with me. I've become a pro at putting dresses on so I got mine on quickly but there was just a lot of grunting and rustling of toole coming from his stall.
"What's taking so long?" I laughed.
"I'm sorry, I don't think I've ever put one of these on before…." He laughed.
"…And I think I might be stuck" He laughed even harder.
I opened the stall door to see Oliver halfway into a wedding dress and wished so badly that I had a camera with me.
"Put your arms through the top" I said, almost unintelligible because I was laughing so hard. My eyes were watering and I couldn't breath. I was laughing so hard.
He struggled for a bit but managed to get both of his arms up through the top and I pulled the dress down over his hips.
"You're supposed to step into them" I said, in between gasps for air.
"Well sorry, I must have missed that day in muggle studies' ' He smiled. I went and cinched the back for him.
We walked out into the main room and the woman running the store just burst into laughter at the sight of Oliver. He had the stupidest look on his face. Like a little boy all dressed up for family pictures that wanted to be playing in the mud. I loved every minute of it. I felt sort of guilty but then I would look back at him and the sight was just too funny to feel badly about.
"How did I get talked into this?" He chuckled.
"I don't know, but I have to say this made my day. Possibly my year" I was laughing so hard my eyes were tearing again.
Oliver looked in the mirror, sighed, and laughed a little bit.
"Haven't you ever worn a kilt?" I asked.
"Well yes, but that is a hell of a lot more manly than a wedding dress" He laughed.
"We'll do something manly after this I promise" I giggled feeling guilty for briefly taking away Oliver's pride.
"Want to go to the pub?" Oliver asked.
"I thought you were done with alcohol," I said.
"No I'm just done being drunk….I don't think it's possible for me to give it up as a whole…I'm a Scot, we like alcohol so much we made our own type" He chuckled at his own stereotyping of himself.
"Alright" I went back into the dressing room and changed back into my own clothes.
"Um…Kates….I'm stuck again" I heard Oliver say from his stall and I just burst into laughter.
I went in and helped him out of his dress.
"Never thought there'd be a day where you'd be the one helping me out of a wedding dress" Oliver waggled his eyebrows at me. Once the dress was at his ankles I punched him in the shoulder and walked out of the changing room.
We returned the dresses to the woman who ran the shop and she still had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard. She insisted we come back anytime.
We walked down the road and saw a pub so we went in.
"If it isn't Oliver and Katie, gosh do you two ever go anywhere alone?" Mica said appearing from the bar.
"Of course not Mica, we're Gryffindors, we have to travel in prides" I laughed and sat down next to him.
"Prides?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah, it's what a group of lions is called," I said.
"Hmm, I don't know if I knew that," Oliver said and tried to get the attention of the bartender.
"Oliver, I didn't know you came here" Carrie said from behind us. I hated her voice…I wasn't even drunk yet and it made me feel like I was about to be sick.
"Erm, I don't normally, Kates and I were just nearby and decided to stop in and grab a pint or two" Oliver said pointing to me next to him. Carrie looked at me with an evil glare, I just smiled and waved back, and Mica laughed.
"I'm here with some friends" She pointed to a group of girls sitting in a booth on the other side of the room. "You should come over and I'll introduce you to them" She said playing with her hair and Oliver just looked uncomfortable.
"Erm, I just ordered a drink so I'll wait for it here" Oliver said.
"Well after you get it come on over" she cheered.
"I wouldn't want to just ditch Kates though" Oliver said once again pointing to me causing me to receive the same look, me to give the same smile and wave, and Mica once again to laugh.
"I'm sure she wouldn't mind letting you come over to say hi for a bit" Carrie said, shooting me a look as if to say that I better let him go say hi.
"Sure I don't mind! Come on Ollie go ahead and say hi to the girls. I'll save your beer for you" I said in a cheery voice. He shot a heated look at me and I just smiled back.
"See Oliver, she doesn't mind." Carrie said and looked at me weird for not putting up a fight.
"Alright I'll come over for a quick hello" Oliver said, looking back at me like he was trying to send me a non verbal curse.
"What just happened there?" Mica asked me with a chuckle.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Don't you dislike Carrie?" Mica said.
"Well obviously I don't like her, who could?" I laughed. Oliver's beer was delivered, I ordered a wine and took a sip of his beer.
"Then why are you letting her get her way?" Mica questioned.
"Ha because as much as I hate her in a way it's payback. Plus it's always a bonus to annoy the heck out of him" I shrugged and took another sip of the beer because it was actually pretty good.
"Payback for what?" Mica asked.
"For making me play quidditch again" I said and he just looked at me strangely.
The bartender set down my wine and so I stopped drinking Oliver's beer and looked over at Oliver who was standing at the table with a fake smile on his face but glaring at me with his eyes.
He said something to the girls and then walked back over to us.
"I hate you," he said, sitting down.
"What was it that you said at practice that one time… oh that's right... yeah apparently" I said mimicking his voice….well not really I just made my voice really low and tried as hard as possible to have a Scottish accent…it didn't work well so I just smiled and he actually chuckled at it.
"You two confuse the hell out of me" Mica laughed.
"It happens," I said and Oliver laughed.
"Are you two ready to start back up with practice again? The cups creeping up." Mica asked.
"It's going to happen soon?" I asked.
"Yeah," Mica said.
"I thought we didn't go back until after Alicia and George's wedding" I said to Oliver.
"Their wedding is Saturday," Oliver said.
"Shit. Really?!" I basically shouted.
"Yeah…" he said.
"I need another wine then" I laughed and singled for the bartender.
"Whelp, that's good" Oliver laughed.
I had at least two more glasses.
"You should stop before you get drunk, Kates," Oliver said at one point.
"But this was my plan," I laughed.
"Well then I should stop before I get drunk too" He laughed and winked at me.
Owww what the heck sun what did I ever do to you? Ugh…alcohol sucks….my head hurts….I want coffee. I got up and wobbled into the kitchen to get some coffee.
"Well, don't you just look like death" Oliver laughed at me.
"Oh well thanks, it's nice to see you too" I grumbled and started the coffee machine.
"I told you to stop drinking like five times and you never listened," Oliver said.
"Yes well….shut up" I said and dug around for the ingredients for a hangover cure potion.
"Oh Katie, you look horrible are you okay?" Alicia said coming into the kitchen area.
"I'm hungover people get over it! Ow…" I screamed…and it hurt. Oliver laughed at me.
"Well I hope you'll be better by tomorrow" Alicia said.
"Why what's tomorrow?" I asked, rubbing my neck.
"My rehearsal dinner!" Alicia yelled and I winced.
I got my cup of coffee and grunted.
"I'm just going to assume your lack of enthusiasm is because you're hungover" Alicia said and left the apartment.
"If only she knew that your hangover was from getting drunk at the mere thought of her wedding" Oliver laughed.
"It was not at the thought of her wedding!" I protested, and dug the cauldron out from under our sink.
"Yes it was" He argued.
"What makes you think that?" I asked, I started to concoct the hangover remedy.
"At the mention of her wedding you decided to get drunk…seems logical to say that you wanted to get drunk because of her wedding" He stated.
"It's not because of her wedding," I said.
"Oh then why is it?" he raised his eyebrows.
"I think it's because it's not my wedding" I mumbled.
"You still are thinking that?" He asked.
"Yes I mean I still have all the thoughts I had yesterday. Plus, I don't know there is this weird nagging voice like I needed to have gotten married and started a family by now" I shrugged.
"Well however mental that is because you are still so young, I still can help you with that problem" Oliver said sitting down next to me.
"Oh and how do you suppose you could help me?" I asked.
"I told you yesterday, I could marry you." He said and I just shook my head.
I finished drinking my coffee and then went back to bed to wait for the potion to cure.
"Katie! Wake up we have to be at the church in 2 hours!" Alicia yelled into my room….did I sleep through the whole day?!
"Oh good you're not dead…I was contemplating how I was going to explain to Henry how you died. And Alicia would be mad because her bridesmaids would be even more uneven from the groomsmen and she'd have no maid of honour…plus it would be depressing to know that you died in jealousy of her wedding..." A Scottish voice was rambling in my room.
"How the hell did I sleep through the whole day?" I asked sitting up in my bed.
"I really don't know, but if you ever figure it out tell me. It seems like something I would want to do someday" He laughed.
"I mean alcohol induced coma, I think you did do that once" I spit. He threw a pair of socks at me and left my room.
So today was the wedding rehearsal, I've got this. It will all be good. We got to the church; it was beautiful, more a cathedral then a church. Alicia could barely talk all day. The whole Weasley family was there with their spouses or boyfriend in Ginny's case. Bill and Fleur's daughter Victorie was going to be the flower girl. I was a bridesmaid along with Angelina and Ginny. Fred was the best man of course and Ron, Charlie, Bill, and Oliver (the only one without red hair) were groomsmen. Alicia's family were here for the wedding too, I think after this her mother was going to not have any tears left.
The dinner afterwards was fun because I got to sit next to Oliver and we basically just commentated on everything going on around us as if it was a sporting event.
"So you seem to be cooler about this now" He said at one point.
"Well yeah, I'm not anti-wedding, I just had to come to terms on many different levels that I wasn't the one getting married. But I'm over it now" I smiled.
"Well you know my offer still stands" He said.
"And so does my answer," I said.
"You didn't answer…you just laughed and walked away," He said.
"Exactly, well I answered the first time you suggested it" I laughed.
Afterwards back at home was a blast. We had a little party of Alicia, George, Fred, Angelina, Oliver, and I. It was sad because it was like we were losing this now that George and Alicia are getting married and Fred and Angelina will be getting married shortly afterwards and we all know that they will instantly become two sets of boring old married couples. But we had a solid send off to the group as it is without any bonds of marriage. There really is nothing quite like just dancing around like an idiot with your friends. I was head banging at one point to a song and fell backwards into a table and then on to the couch. Oliver just burst out into laughter.
For the first time in a very long time I was completely happy, I wasn't sad about the wedding, or lonely, or depressed. I was just genuinely happy. My cheeks started to hurt from smiling so much and my stomach was killing me from laughing so hard.
At around three in the morning, George and Fred went to spend what remained of the night at Angelina's because George wasn't allowed to see Alicia the day of their wedding. Oliver fell asleep on the couch not too long ago and was refusing to go home. Alicia ended up crawling into bed with me and talked about how happy she was going to be as until we both fell asleep.
I woke up probably five hours later to Alicia jumping up and down on my bed singing "here comes the bride". I just laughed and got up to jump with her. We started squealing eventually like a bunch of school girls.
I jumped off my bed and out into the kitchen…Oliver was gone surprisingly. I turned on the radio and Alicia and I started dancing in the living room. I grabbed the ingredients for mimosas and we headed to the hairdressers. Angelina and Ginny got there shortly after us and we all sat down to get our hair done. The woman that was doing mine kept yelling at me, because when a good song came on I couldn't not dance and bob my head along. The girls would always laugh and Alicia would yell that if my hair got messed up I wasn't allowed in the wedding anymore.
After hair we went to Alicia's mum's house to get into our dresses and take some photos. Before long there was a carriage out front to take us up to the church. We all piled in and headed out.
"YOU'RE GETTING MARRIED!" I had been spontaneously shouting that at her all morning. This time it seemed to be actually sinking in. She was more beautiful than anything I had ever seen and I couldn't stop smiling whenever I looked at her.
"Guys, I'm getting married!" She screeched.
"That's what I keep trying to tell you! Plus we know we're in the wedding" I laughed.
"But I'm getting married! To George! I'm going to be Mrs. Weasley!" Alicia laughed.
"Alicia Weasley…I like it, it sounds nice" I said to her and she chuckled.
As we pulled up to the church Alicia started to hyperventilate with this huge smile on her face. Ginny, Angelina, and I just burst into laughter at the sight.
We all stumbled out of the carriage and into the cathedral. Alicia still had the biggest smile on her face. Ron, Bill, Oliver, and Alicia's dad were waiting in the backroom for us. Fred, Charlie, and George were already at the altar…we figured this was the best way to walk in with uneven numbers of men and women in the wedding.
"Well you look nice" I said to Oliver.
"Thanks, you too" He said, shuffling his legs around and looking at his trousers.
"Pixies your pants?" I laughed.
"No…I'm just not used to wearing any at a wedding" He laughed.
"What?" I raised my eyebrow.
"The only other wedding I've been in was my cousin's and I wore a kilt" he winked.
"Oh jeez" I said putting my hand to my face.
"Are you all ready?" A person said poking their head into the room.
Alicia squealed and they took that as a yes.
Ron and Ginny walked down the aisle first,then Angelina and Bill, then Oliver and I and we all stood to the sides while Alicia and her father came. She looked so beautiful it just plastered her same stupid smile onto my face.
By the time she got up to George she was crying and he just laughed with the same goofy smile on his face. They looked so unbelievably happy.
The ceremony was over pretty fast and we went to this restaurant for the reception. The cake was huge…like almost touching the ceiling. I found myself just staring at it almost drooling.
"Hey, that looks like something out of one of your greatest dreams" Oliver laughed knowing well that I was a sucker for cake.
We sat down at the long table meant for all of the wedding party. George and Alicia were introduced and everyone got up to dance. I was suspicious at how normally the reception was going. I mean for a Weasley twin event this was going all too normally. I could tell Alicia was thinking the same thing, but I guess this was the exact reason she did all the planning herself. It would almost be disappointing though if NOTHING happened.
We all gathered to watch as they cut the cake and I was wondering why we didn't start a custom of throwing cake instead of the bouquet.
"Wait, hold on…where's my wand?" George said at the cake and reached into his back pocket. He pulled out his wand and performed a silent spell on Alicia.
"What did you just do?" Alicia said in a motherly tone…she is already becoming .
"You'll thank me in a moment," George said with one of his famous Weasley grins and Alicia looked unconvinced.
As soon as they put the knife into the cake it popped, throwing cake all over the room. Alicia actually found it funny and shoved a handful of it from the ground into George's face. George responded with the same and of course a cake war broke out. Even Alicia's grandparents started to throw cake. It was fantastic.
The spell George did was a protecting spell on her dress so that it wouldn't get ruined by cake. My dress of course was covered and my hair was dangling in my face caked in... well cake. Apparently cake kills hairspray.
Oliver got a huge handful of it and smashed it into my face. I responded by getting a bunch and rubbing it in his face and then jumped on top of him getting all of the cake off of my dress and onto his tux. The whole room was cracking up and eventually there wasn't a single spot, guest or room, not covered in cake. People actually just ignored it and began to dance.
"Can I have this dance?" Oliver asked…his hair stuck to the front of his face.
"Sure" I laughed and we went to dance.
During one dance George slipped on some cake and fell, taking Alicia down with him. Then not too much after they fell, Ginny and Harry fell and slid across the entire dance floor….this was more a Weasley Wedding. I never stopped laughing.
Thinking that this wedding couldn't have anymore surprises we started calming down and Alicia threw her bouquet. Angelina caught it with no contest. Before she even realized what was happening Fred was on his knee right next to her holding open a little black box.
"It could be sooner than you think" He laughed and she squealed.
"Finally!" Angelina screeched and leapt up into his arms. Everyone in the room cheered and laughed.
"I guess we're going to be back here in a few months," Oliver laughed.
"Yep, silly twins, do they have to do everything together" I laughed.
"You're not mad?" Oliver asked.
"No…I told you I'm over it now" I smiled.
"Well my offer will always stand" He smiled making his right cheek crack from the dried icing.
I laughed at him and walked over to squeal with Angelina about her ring.
"I think it's bigger than mine!" Alicia said, holding her hand next to Angelina's.
"I could get you a bigger one" George said, coming up behind us.
"No…this one's perfect" She said and gave him a kiss while Angelina and I giggled.
"Hey gorgeous" Fred said coming up behind Angelina. She smiled and kissed him and suddenly I was standing alone in a circle with two couples who were either snogging or gazing into each other's eyes. I started looking for some place else to go.
"Oh well now I feel awkward coming over here" Oliver said suddenly behind me.
"Don't even think about Oliver Nolan" I said knowing exactly what he was thinking.
"How did you ever figure out my middle name?" He asked.
"I saw it on a paper once when I was helping McGonagall tidy up her office." I shrugged.
"Yeah….quidditch practice just wasn't the same after you learned" He laughed and looked past me like he was reflecting on old times.
"No it was twice as fun" George laughed, breaking from his snog session.
"Especially because you got so bothered by her calling you by your full name" Fred chuckled.
He would be showing off to a group of girls walking by the pitch or something stupid like that and I would just yell from where ever I was "Oliver Nolan Wood" and he would jump up and grab onto his broom like he just heard a blood curling scream near by.
"Well only my mother ever called me that when I was in serious trouble…it brought back bad memories" He chuckled.
"Don't I know what you mean?" George laughed.
"When our mother pulls out the full name then you did something dreadful and should run and hide" Fred laughed.
Almost on cue their mother came over and gave them a huge hug, smiled at them and walked away.
"Ha apparently we didn't do anything wrong today" George laughed.
"Yeah, you'd think she'd be mad about the cake" Fred said.
"Actually, I think the cake was a hit for most people," Alicia giggled.
"Interesting word to use" I laughed.
"Yeah I know that the cake hit most people…whether they liked it is another story" Oliver laughed.
Professor Flitwick came over to talk to Fred and George and Alicia and Angelina went off to talk about wedding things.
I waddled over to the table to sit down for a while. I was beat. I laid my head down on the table and started to drift asleep.
"Oh no I thought we were rid of this Katie" Oliver laughed sitting down next to me pulling me further from sleep.
"I'm just tired. I've been up doing something all day today and I didn't get a good night's sleep last night either" I smiled at him.
"Yeah…today was a fun day" Oliver said.
"Yeah it was…we're all growing up" I smiled and he smiled back.
"I know! It makes me feel a little pathetic that Fred and George Weasley are growing up before I am…that has to mean something" Oliver laughed and you could see the gears turning as he thought for a moment.
"Haha, yeah well, we all knew even back in Hogwarts that you'd be the last to get married. Because the girl who marries you has to be insane…. or a quaffle" I said sticking out my tongue and laughed at him.
"Yeah, I guess so" He chuckled.
"Man Wood, you've gotten boring in your old age" I said.
"How so?" he asked.
"If I was to have said that back in Hogwarts you would have put up a big fight about it and made me run laps…even though Quidditch takes no leg effort at all" I shrugged.
"Well that's because push ups aren't as fun to make people do for long amounts of time….and I don't know I change with the times" He said.
"Well don't I want back the old Oliver…the quidditch drill sergeant of an Oliver" I said.
"Ha. I never thought I would hear any of you say that" He laughed.
"Well just because we complained about it doesn't mean that we hated it" I said.
"No I'm pretty sure on numerous occasions one of you would complain about hating quidditch practices because of me. Plus you all made a point to remind me how much you hated me back then for them in January at St. Mungo's" He said.
"Only the ones that were at 4 in the morning and any normal person would complain about that" I said.
"I personally like the morning," he shrugged.
"My point proven" I laughed.
"Well at least I don't sleep on the locker room floors…maybe I should start getting you up at dawn again" He smiled.
"Or not…plus I was more asleep in Gryffindor practices" I argued.
"It didn't seem like it to me," he smirked.
"Oh?" I raised my eyebrow.
"Yeah when you're asleep you can't throw quaffles at the back of my head when I'm talking to Harry" he said, instinctively rubbing the back of his head.
"Ha! You finally figured out that was me" I laughed.
"Yeah I figured it out a year later, when I realized that Angelina and Alicia just followed what you did" he shrugged.
"Well Fred or George could have done it" I argued.
"Yeah except theirs' would have been a bludger" He laughed.
"Yeah…" I yawned.
"Ready to go home?" He asked.
"Yeah but I'm not going to leave in the middle of the party" I stretched.
"No come on let's go" he said standing up.
"No see this is what I mean… the old Oliver would have made me stay and made me jump up and down to stay awake because if I went to bed too early I'd get too much sleep and would be too tired for practice tomorrow" I explained.
"Fine…you want the old Oliver?" He said reaching over and picking me up out of the seat.
"Then let's dance" He continued, carrying me over to the dance floor.
"This is more like it," I laughed.
"Alright then" he laughed and we danced for awhile. Slowly the people started to leave the party and the six of us were sitting at the table just talking and laughing at each person that came to congratulate George and Alicia, then make there way to congratulate Fred and Angelina, then they would get to me and Oliver and always just look, smile, nod, and walk away. Every time we would all burst out laughing. I'm so glad that we are all getting back to normal again… and yet changing so much at the same time.
I actually fell asleep at one point with my head on the table, so logically Fred and George drew on my face. I woke up when Oliver was carrying me home.
Today was a good day.