"… and now Kings is with the boys waiting to perform an actual marriage ceremony," Hermione said, finishing the retelling of the last two hours. She obviously left out the reconciliation with Charlie.
"I sink zat is 'orrible. My own Ministry trying to take over for no reason, comportement dégoûtant," Fleur announced banishing the tea set with a flick of her wand. In the next second, she had conjured a standing stool, so they'd be able to measure Hermione for her dress.
"Up you go dear, here let me take that dressing gown. There we go. You know I wasn't expecting to be doing this for at least a week, I've not even got any reference material," Molly said.
"Look at that, me, Ginny Weasley, more organised than you, Mum. Never thought I'd see the day," Ginny laughed as she handed Molly a large dusky purple leather-bound scrapbook that had bits and pieces sticking out everywhere. "Mind you, Hermione only has a small section, it's bloody difficult to get her to comment on anything that isn't a book or an elf, but I managed enough to help I think."
Molly flicked through to find the section pointed out to her in the back and called Fleur over while Ginny ushered her into the bathroom. After the door shut behind her Hermione took a moment to take in her bathroom. It looked a lot like Adrian's but with a royal purple and white colour scheme and, if possible, slightly more elegant. The shower activated when she stepped in, instead of the tingly mint from Adrian's she was covered head to toe in bergamot and lime. There were several potions on the shelf in the fridge. Judging by the fancy labels and sparkling crystal bottles she figured Lucius was behind them. Sitting just behind the fancy hair products was a smaller bottle. It was a dark green and the stopper in the top was glass in the shape of a snake. Severus. Turning the bottle around she found instructions in his familiar scrawl.
'Hair removal crème: lather small amount on areas of unwanted hair and leave for 5 minutes no longer. Rinse thoroughly. Suitable for all areas of the face and body. In the event of an error, there is a reversal serum in your cabinet Hermione.'
She chuckled quietly as she put it back and reached for the shampoo. Bizarrely it didn't have a scent. Wait, it did, but it smelt like… fresh air. It smelt clean. She loved it instantly. The shampoo was rich, and the conditioner was luxurious, she could practically feel the galleons that went into it. Curious about Severus' potion she lathered it on her legs. It bubbled for the full five minutes and she spent the entire time fighting off giggles. As she washed it away she was amazed at how soft it had left her skin. Five minutes, no missed patches, no razor burn and built-in moisturiser. Thank god for being a witch. Still marvelling at the feel of her legs Hermione went ahead and used it on her arms and her mound, leaving a small amount of the cropped hair in place. The giggling was much harder to stamp down this time around. Just as she had stepped out of the shower and reached for her towel Ginny burst in. completely ignoring Hermione's nakedness she started her tirade.
"We're arguing over the dress and we all like different parts of different dresses but none of them seem to work well together. You know how mum and Fleur get when they're both in charge," the last part was mumbled into her palms as they were dragged down her face.
"Ok, I'm coming. Geeze you'd think a woman would get pampered on her wedding morning, not ordered around," Hermione joked as she exited with Ginny.
"Oh wonderful, Hermione Love. All your designs have been just left of traditional. I don't have much experience with Muggle dresses I'm afraid. Fleur has had more but we just can't seem to agree," Molly exclaimed.
Fleur just rolled her eyes and huffed silently as she continued to transfigure parts of the dress to try and come up with something that worked. The latest creation was a mullet skirt with long medieval sleeves that made Hermione cringe.
"Good thing I'm here then. I had a few ideas that wouldn't have been in the book because they aren't really wedding dresses. Fleur, how good are you at Legilimency?" she asked quietly. While not common practice to use the spell to share design idea Hermione was confident that she wouldn't have been able to vocalise her ideas for the dress effectively.
"I am quite proficient, but I will only do zis because I know you are capable at Occlumency," Fleur replied. "When you are ready I will begin."
Closing her eye and bringing up her mental shields she brought the image of a dress she had seen in the window of a store to the front of her mind and sat it just outside the wall. Opening her eyes but not saying anything Hermione gave a small not.
"Legilimens," she spoke the incantation clearly and smiled as the image popped into her mind. Pulling back from Hermione's mind Fleur grinned, "Hermione, c'est manifique. Perfectly you. Give me just one moment."
Hermione sat on the bed while Fleur walked around the mannequin studying it. she grabbed her wand from the bedside table and pointed it at her toes to change the colour to a soft creamy gold. Her fingernails went the same way but with a matte black accent nail. She transfigured the towel into a thinner nighty type ensemble.
"No time to lounge around missy, quickly over here you've only got 15 minutes before you need to be in the sunroom," Ginny announced dragging Hermione over to a little area where they had conjured a parlour type set up. There was a plush salon chair, a matching swivel stool for Ginny and a small table covered in potions and makeup. Hermione was sat down and noticed the distinct lack of a mirror.
"You don't get to see until you're completely dressed and ready to go," Ginny answered Hermione's silent question without looking up from the table as she was trying to figure out where to start. "Close your eyes and enjoy it, weren't you the one talking about expecting to be pampered. I don't have long but I have the ability to aggressively pamper you, Herms."
Taking Ginny's advice. Hermione decided to relax and take a ten-minute nap, lulled by the smooth motions of the soft brushes on her face and one in her hair as well as the soothing sounds of magic it didn't take more than five seconds for her to fall asleep.
"Hermione, wake up love. We have to get you into your dress. Here's a pepper up potion, it's been a long night," Molly cooed gently putting the flask in Hermione's hand as she sat up. Groggily regretting the nap and down the potion, Hermione winces at the taste. The potion did what it needed to do, and Hermione bounced up out of the chair and spun towards where the dress would be waiting. The sight before her made her gasp softly and a tear come to her eye.
"I could never… I'm astounded. This is amazing. Just like I imagined but so much more," she prattled. Before her eyes was an elegant gown the colour of whipped butter. It had a shallow sweetheart neckline without any embellishments. The bodice was tight but look unimaginably soft and comfortable. The skirt was scalloped and slightly raised at the front, just enough to be able to see her shoes. It almost looked like it was made of extremely fine parchment. "Fleur, Molly, Ginny. You're all incredible I wouldn't have been able to do this without you. I don't know how I'll ever be able to thank you."
She gathered Ginny in a hug before also pulling Molly and Fleur into the embrace.
"no more tears, you have to be bright and fresh and ready. You're going to knock zee wands off your 'usbands," Fleur winked as she undid the charm on Hermione's transfigured nightgown and magically replacing it with black underwear. Looking down she could see that the bra was black and strapless with a small crystal between the breasts. Fabric straps with lace decoration connecting the bra to the panties. Those were black lace boy cut with a thick band of satin cream fabric around the top. The front had a matching hanging crystal. Magically stuck in place so the underwear wouldn't fall down she was ready to get into her dress.
Obviously, it fits perfectly. The perks of magic. The women helped her put on her peep toe shoes that were black and had tiny crystals on the heels. She felt like some sort of princess from the fairy tales that she had read as a child.
"Close your eyes, Herms, I'm getting a mirror for you," Ginny said turning her to face a blank wall. Closing her eyes like she was told Hermione waited. And waited. Then waited some more.
"Ginny, where are you getting this mirror from? Diagon Alley?" Hermione laughed but on the inside, was getting a little worried. She was dangerously close to being late for her own wedding.
"Keep your hair on, I just needed to finish something," was the response she got. "Ok, now turn around."
Hermione nearly fainted. She didn't look anything like herself. Her skin was perfect porcelain, slightly peachy cheeks to make it not look sickly. Soft gold eyeshadow that matched her nails sparkled, the small amount of eyeliner made her eyes look twice as large and their whiskey colour stand out enough to nearly be glowing. The dress looked like it was straight off a couture runway. She needed to find a way to make their alterations permanent because a badly cast Finite and she was going to be standing there in whatever the beginning outfit had been, plus she loved this dress.
As she was about to speak a bouquet was thrust into her hand. It was a lovely mix of gold, cream and black flowers. The cream took the majority with black and gold acting as accents to make it look elegant. There were enchanted iris', tulips and gazania with ivy for the greenery that flowed down over her hands to nearly the ground with magically blooming and closing cream rose buds.
"My thank you before honestly wasn't enough. I really wouldn't be able to function in this type of thing without you guys," a tear nearly fell but was scared back by a stern look from Ginny.
"You're beyond welcome Love, but really we are the ones who should be thankful for everything you've done. It's the very least we could do," Molly replied squeezing Hermione's shoulder. Hermione looked at the three most important women in her life and felt as though she was the luckiest woman in the world. As she was gazing at them she noticed that they'd all changed. Molly had a lovely set of soft rose-coloured robes on and a matching pillbox hat. Fleur was in a stunning high-necked dress in a peach colour and her hair was up in an elegant French twist. Ginny looked immaculate in a black dress sheath that was accented with silver shimmers around the boat neck and cuffs of the long tight sleeves.
"I hope you don't mind but I invited everyone. Well Ron and his partners, Arthur and Bill along with Victorie," Molly said.
"There's no problem at all Molly, I hope it wasn't too much trouble to get everyone here. I consider you all family and while Ron and I aren't as close as we once were, and I've been caught up in all this nonsense, but I genuinely care for him. It'll be lovely to meet his partners, I don't even know who he got. And you know that you are Artur are always welcome. You're my mother in law now after all," she joked giving the woman a kiss on the cheek. "I hope the boys invited their parents or important people. I'd love to meet them all. I was planning to do that during the next three weeks. Right, too late for that now. Let's go ladies."
Hermione and Ginny linked arms and Molly and Fleur did the same and Hermione led the way to the sunroom.