"Let's recap," Tony said, massaging his temples as he perused the guest list. "All members of the Order. McGonagall and Hagrid from Hogwarts, the Weasleys, Harry and Hermione."

"Right. And, um…I was wondering. Do you think we could invite some of the Ancients without inviting them all?" Evey asked, chewing on her lip. "I mean, after that 'we're a family' speech, I'm afraid it would be rude, and potentially dangerous."

Tony smirked. "It's just Jeanne you don't want to invite, right?"

Evey flushed. "Well, she clearly doesn't like me, which makes it hard for me to like her." There was also the fact that Jeanne seemed to have a crush on her husband-to-be, though Evey didn't say that aloud. It wasn't that she was jealous, but it certainly made her uncomfortable. "But she's welcome, if you want her to be there," she forced herself to say. "I mean, she's your maker. It would be like…not inviting your mother to our wedding."

"I don't want Jeanne to be there," Tony replied curtly. "Don't worry about it. Your wedding, your guests."

Evey felt a wave of relief. "Alright, then. Also…inviting the Bloodmother seems a bit weird, doesn't it? I can't decide how I feel about her… Fascinated, terrified, intimidated?" The Mother Of All Vampires may look human, but she was anything but, in Evey's opinion. She was very nearly a divine being. Or a demonic one. Or both. It was honestly difficult to say.

"I know the feeling. But I think it'd be best to invite her, just to be on the safe side… I doubt she'll come, anyway. She doesn't really mingle."

Evey nodded, glancing at Walden. He was sprawled on the couch, reading a history book on Ancient Greece, while Nana slept by the fire. Her fiancé didn't seem particularly interested to know who would attend their wedding. "Tony…do you have any way of contacting Ted and Silver?" Maybe this would pique Walden's interest.

Tony frowned. "The…Wolves?"

"Yes, Blackbeard and Musashi."

Walden did look up at that. "Why would you want to invite Wolves to our wedding? I mean, you barely know them."

"I spent five hours in a car with them," Evey countered. "I know them better than the Ancients."

Walden sat up on the couch, the book forgotten in his hand. "They drove you from Greyback's place all the way to Stonehenge?" He glared at Tony, then at Evey. "You never mentioned that. Neither of you bothered to mention that."

Really? It had never come up? Well, it hadn't been an intentional omission. There'd been a lot to catch up on, and this felt like an insignificant detail compared to things like Sirius's death or Evey's transformation. "Hey," Evey said with a placating gesture, "so what? They're alright, Wal. They're nothing like Greyback." She sat down beside her fiancé. "They rescued me. They should be there. And they're fun, you'll see." She didn't include Cortés on the guest list. Not that she didn't like him, but he was…not a people person, to say the least. He'd likely refuse the invitation, in any case.

Walden hesitated a moment. "Fine. As you wish. It's all the same to me." He'd been saying that often in the past few days.

"I have a phone number," Tony said uncertainly. "It belongs to one of the Wolves, but I don't know which one. We exchanged a couple of texts while we were planning your rescue."

"Give me the phone," Evey said. "I'll call them."

Tony patted his pockets, realised the phone wasn't there and went upstairs to look for it. He was back a moment later. He glanced at Walden, as though waiting for permission, but Wal had returned his attention to his book, or at least he affected to.

"I have no idea how to find the number," Tony admitted.

Evey smiled, extending her hand. "I do." She looked up the contact list, but found only Jeanne's name and number. Going back to the text messages, she found the one she was looking for and called the number.

"You're calling them now?" Tony asked, one hand reflexively going through his hair.

"Well, yes. The wedding's in three weeks, and I don't even know if they're still in the UK." They should be – they rented a flat together in London, Evey knew – but there was no sense in delaying.

It rang only twice before someone picked up the call. "Aye," the voice said cheerfully.

The best thing about Blackbeard was that he loved to humour every single pirate cliché. During the car drive, he'd sung the entire theme song from the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disneyland, then had produced a bottle of rum from the boot and drunk half of it. According to him, Wolves couldn't get intoxicated, thanks to their extraordinary metabolism. "Hi Ted, it's Evey." Walden frowned at her. That must have sounded very familiar, she realised. Oh well. After his insane jealousy crisis of the previous week, she certainly wasn't about to cut him any slack.

"Fancy coming to my wedding on the 21st?" she went on without preamble. "The two of you, I mean."

"A wedding! I love weddings. Wait, the 21st…of December? This year?"

Evey chuckled lightly. "Yes."

"Uh…where will it be? 'cause we can't travel to the end of the world with a snap of our fingers, lass."

"Scotland, in the Highlands."

"Oh, good. I thought you were going to send us to Peru or something. I'm not allowed in Peru." She heard him talk to someone in the background. "Silver consents to come as well," Ted informed her.

"Perfect. Hey, can you bring some music, maybe?" If they were stuck with what they had at their disposal, it would have to be either Celestina Warbeck's entire collection, or whatever Walden had at the manor, which was exclusively classical music, according to Tony. Not that Evey minded a bit of classical music, but…well, it was a wedding. There would be a party afterward. People might want to dance.

"Sure thing, doll. Silver will DJ for you," Ted replied with a hearty laugh.

"Thanks, that's great. I'll text you the details when...um, when we have them. Ta-ta!" Evey ended the call and returned Tony's phone. Walden and he were both staring at her now, but she ignored them. "That's two confirmed guests already, and you can count them in for the buffet. What about the Ancients? Do you know how to contact them?"

Tony cleared his throat. "I do. I'll take care of that. Don't worry about anything else, now. I've got this," he told her with a confident smile.

"Can I choose my dress, though? Or will you try it on for me?" she asked him wryly.

"I will allow that," he said magnanimously. "I'm sure Molly would love to go shopping with you. Or Tonks. Or both," he added with a shrug.

"As long as Fleur doesn't tag along, I'm good."

Tony tisked. "Aw, come on, she's not that bad."

Of course he'd say that; he had a massive crush on Fleur. "I never said she was," Evey said defensively. "But I would keep comparing myself to her, it would be a disaster."

Both men rolled their eyes at the same time. "Merlin help me," Walden muttered. "How many times do I have to tell you–"

"I know, I know. Just kidding." Well, not really, in truth. The French woman was annoyingly beautiful, and it was difficult not to feel like a potato when she was in the same room. It certainly did nothing for Evey's self-confidence. Fleur wasn't staying at the Burrow at the moment, but she was here every other day all the same. Evey couldn't wait to move to the manor house.

The men wouldn't understand, however, so she thought it best to change the subject. "Who will perform the ceremony? It doesn't have to be a Ministry official, I hope?" They couldn't be certain of anyone outside of the Order. They'd already planned to cast a new Fidelius Charm on the house as soon as the wedding was over, so that no one – except the Ancients and Wolves; there was no avoiding that – would be able to find it. Evey would be the Secret Keeper.

"Dumbledore said he would. He's official enough, I guess," Tony replied casually.

Evey stared at him in surprise. "Dumbledore? You talked to him?"

Tony nodded. "He came by two days ago, while you two lovebirds were sleeping. I caught him alone for a moment. He sounded delighted."

"Did he give any news? Or did you overhear anything interesting?" Evey asked. "About Voldemort, I mean."

"He cast a spell against eavesdropping," Tony grumbled. "And Molly wouldn't say anything."

"As usual." Evey's outburst during the party the week before had done nothing to allay suspicion on the former Death Eaters, apparently. Mentioning that they were keeping secrets from the Order might not have been the best idea, but she'd been too angry to care about what she was saying, at the time.

They would have to deal with this inconvenience after the wedding.

Tony coughed lightly. He always tried to make some noise, as he was aware that few people could hear him approach. Molly turned to glance at him, but soon directed her attention back to the pile of laundry that she was folding.

"Need help with that?" he asked her, knowing that she would refuse. He always offered to help with the chores, but she never let him, as if she was afraid he would contaminate the dishes or clothes.

As expected, she shook her head. "I'm almost done." The pile was almost as tall as she was, but he didn't bother to remark on it.

"Molly, if you…well, that is, when you have a moment, could you take a look at this?" He laid an envelope on the table next to the pile of neatly folded clothes.

She frowned at it. "What is it?" When Tony didn't answer, she dropped the shirt she was holding and picked up the envelope with unfeigned curiosity. He had written her name on it. It had been years since he'd held a quill in his hands and written anything, and his first letters had had an unsteady look. He'd filled an entire page, repeating his name over and over, before he was satisfied with what he saw. She took out the paper inside – he'd settled for gold.

Molly's eyes wandered over the words for barely a second before she looked up at him. "They're getting married!"

Tony nodded, smiling.

"But there must be a mistake. You wrote December 1996."

"That's right."

"But that's two weeks from now! How are they going to–"

"It's already well underway," he interrupted her smoothly. "I just wanted your opinion before sending out the invitations. Everything else is taken care of – the Hogwarts house elves will adapt the buffet as we receive confirmations. There are just a few things I was hoping you might help me with," he went on sheepishly, although he knew she would do it for Evey, if not for him.

"Of course." She was smiling now. "What is it?"

"Evey needs a dress. I figured you would be more help than me in that regard…"

"Indeed. Oh, but I wish you'd let me know sooner! How are we going to find a proper dress in two weeks?"

"Walden said we shouldn't worry about expenses, so if Madam Malkin requires a little incentive to speed her along with the alterations…"

"I see. Do you have the rings? I assume you'll be the best man." It wasn't really a question. Well, who else could it be?

Tony nodded briefly. "Everything else is in order. I just need one more thing, but that's actually from Arthur."

"Arthur?" Molly repeated with a frown.

"Evey will need someone to walk her down the aisle," he said softly. "And I'll be waiting with Walden, so it can't be me. We were hoping that…"

"He will be thrilled, I'm sure." She seemed about to cry, for some reason. She turned her back to him for a minute, taking her handkerchief out of her sleeve. He heard her sniffle. Why were women always so emotional? And if she was already crying now, what would it be like during the ceremony?

Molly tucked the cloth back inside her sleeve and gave herself a shake before facing him again. "What about the wedding cake?"

"Oh, I'm not worried about that," he said dismissively. Dumbledore had offered to have the elves at Hogwarts handle the buffet and the cake, and Tony knew from experience that it would be a masterpiece. He'd requested a pièce montée from them once, on his 16th birthday. They had been quite happy to oblige – he'd been sneaking into the kitchens of Hogwarts since his very first month at the school and knew them all by name. They were friendlier than most of the other students. Walden had been outraged, but he'd eaten quite a bit of the cake all the same.

"Hmm. Anything else?" Molly asked. He pointed to the invitation. "Oh, yes." She studied it attentively, and Tony prayed that he hadn't made any spelling error. That would be incredibly embarrassing. "It's good. Quite good indeed. Nice colour scheme."

"Thank you."

"I see that they intend to do it at Walden's place," Molly said with a hint of reproach. Tony hoped that she would understand: they all knew that she was perfectly capable of hosting a wedding. They simply wanted to be home.

"Yes. And they will move in – we will move in – after the wedding." She opened her mouth to protest, but Tony continued. "I've already talked to Dumbledore. He gave his consent." He'd expected that Dumbledore would have told Molly by now, but from the way her lips tightened, Tony guessed that he hadn't.

"Who will be there?"

Ah. Now this was going to be tricky. Would Molly allow her children to come, knowing that some Ancients and Wolves would be there? "There won't be that many guests – the Order, some people from Hogwarts, you and the kids, of course," Tony said. "They'll be back by then, right?"

Molly turned to the calendar. "It's a Saturday – they'll be on the train all day," she said with a frown.

"Well, the wedding will take place in the evening, after dark."

She chuckled. "Of course, silly me. I'd almost forgotten. It's better if the groom is not asleep for the ceremony."

"Evey also wanted to invite some of the Ancients, two Wolves," he went on rapidly, hoping she would let it slide, "and the barkeeper from the Hog's Head who helped her last year after Greyback attacked her. I don't even know his name, though," he admitted. Walden and he had often visited the Hog's Head when they were students, but the owner wasn't exactly the expansive sort, unlike Madam Rosmerta.

"He's Albus's brother, Aberforth Dumbledore."

Tony's eyes widened in surprise. "Really?" He hadn't seen that coming. "Merlin, I had no idea. I didn't even know he had a brother." Come to think of it...he didn't know much about Albus Dumbledore at all, save for his most notable exploits, which everyone in the wizarding world knew about.

Molly wasn't fooled by his weak attempt at distraction, however. "But the Ancients? And Wolves?" She said the word as one might say Dementors, which was decidedly not a compliment.

"They all helped rescue Evey," Tony pointed out. "And it seems that she befriended two of the Wolves who brought her back." Molly didn't look convinced. "They've already been invited," he went on with a fatalistic shrug. "I didn't have their address, only a phone number, and Evey called them."

"Owls don't need addresses," Molly said.

"They're not wizards," he explained patiently. "They're not familiar with our means of communication. I've encountered the same problem with the Ancients."

Molly sighed. "Well, it's their wedding. I suppose they can invite whomever they want." That was exactly what Evey had said. "I hope the weather will be pleasant, at least."

If the weather refused to cooperate, Tony would enclose the garden in a rain- and snowproof ward. Everything would be perfect. Evey and Walden deserved the very best.