She looked around at the faces. They were staring intently back. Some with soft smiles, some with tears, some with a mixture of both. She saw the important faces. She saw the faces not there.
Yes, this was not how she had pictured this moment all those years ago. The room was smaller, simpler than her childhood visions. Those she thought she could not live without were not there.
Yet, her life was before her. While she knew that she would live, she saw happiness before her. A different happiness from those days at Hogwarts.
He, well, he only saw one face. As a child he had not envisioned this. As a child he had seen a different future, one of independence, free from the burdens of his family. As a youth he had envisioned a future, a different one. Now, with this vision before him, he knew that he no longer needed to envision a future.
She proceeded, unescorted. He stared, uninhibited. They met. Their hands joined.
The woman both saw as mother, so different from their natural mothers, began to weep. Her eldest son wrapped his arm over her shoulders. This was a beautiful day, she thought, but not what she had always seen for these two young people. Her thoughts wandered. The family clock looked markedly unlike it did when she first welcomed the young man into her home as a child. Several hands were missing, but two new ones had appeared the night of that fateful battle. Yes, this mother who had lost children became mother to these two orphans.
Everyone learns that things do not go as expected. Most learn in the usual way when the normal bumps occur on the road of life. Those in this room learned that things turn out differently due to some of the worse tragedies. However, each chose to find strength and happiness, even if it was other than what they expected from life.
So on this day, which would have marked their best friends birthday, two heroes were wed. Since he couldn't be there in body, they chose to have him present in spirit. Since neither had living parents, they chose to stand alone knowing at the end of the day, they would never be alone again.
Yes, on the day that Harry and Hermione wed, the world was reminded that though things are unexpected, even painful, life continues. Choices are made. Happiness can be found. Though it be different, it is right.