Ten months later

Harry and Ginny both sat next to each other on their sofa staring at a large stack of papers that had been placed on the coffee table in their living room. Neither of them seemed to want to make a movement towards it, though each seemed to be waiting for the other to move first.

"Do we have to do this," Ginny asked.

"I say no," Harry said, sitting forward to look back at her.

"I wish we could say no," she grumbled. "We have to get this done tonight."

"We could probably ask your mum to do it," he said encouragingly.

"That's reason enough to do it ourselves," she said, leaning towards the pile just as someone knocked on their front door.

"Come in!" they both yelled in unison, but Hermione was already entering before they had finished speaking.

"That was quick," Harry said once she had entered and handed him a small brown package.

She began taking off her cloak. "How long was I gone for?"

"Probably ten minutes," Ginny said as she watched Harry open what was in his hands.

"I promise this quill will make addressing all of the invitations far easier than if you did it free hand," Hermione said, making herself comfortable on the floor, "and it'll look lovely."

"I say we invite like ten people," Harry said, glancing from Hermione to Ginny. "We scribble it out onto some parchment right now, send it out in the post tomorrow morning, and we're done."

"If only," Ginny mumbled before finally picking up some of the papers from the top of the stack. "I mean, we've already cut the guest list my mum sent over in half."

Harry took off his glasses and started rubbing his eyes. "We can do better."

"How many people were on the list your mum sent over?" Hermione asked. Ginny passed her a roll of parchment that looked to be about two feet long. Her eyes went wide.

"I know maybe a quarter of those people," Harry added as he watched Hermione scan the list.

"I don't know much more," Ginny chipped in. "I mean, I may have met half the people on the list, but I have no idea who the majority of them are."

"We told Molly," Harry said, addressing Hermione, "That we want it to be a really small and intimate thing. Only the closest of friends and family…" He gestured towards the list in her hands. "This is what she sends us."

Ginny patted Harry on the leg before standing up. "You know how excited she gets about weddings and stuff. We just have to humor her." She started to walk towards the kitchen. "But, it's our wedding. We'll invite who we want to."

"Exactly," Hermione said, agreeing with her. Harry's growing frustrations at planning this wedding were beginning to become more and more evident as the days passed. It most certainly wasn't his sort of thing.

"I just never thought there'd be so many things to decide on," he mumbled once Ginny returned with a pot of tea. "You would not believe some of the owls I got at work the other day about flowers. Who cares that much about flowers?"

Ginny and Hermione exchanged knowing looks, but neither said anything. Instead, they started to divide the stack of parchment between them.

"Okay," Hermione began. "Tell you what, you both go through the names and we'll sort everyone into a yes, no, or maybe pile. I'll write down everyone and then, in the end, we'll sort through the maybes and finalize everything." She looked at Harry. "All you have to do is read and comment, Harry."

Harry smirked and nodded as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"Okay," Ginny said. "Well, wedding party first then." She looked at Hermione. "Obviously you," she turned towards Harry, "and Ron…"

"Right," Harry said as both he and Ginny observed Hermione as she carefully scribbled down the name Ronald Weasley without hesitation. She glanced up at them as though expecting the next name, but looked surprised to see them both still staring at her.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Well," Ginny began, "we haven't really asked you how you feel about that."

"About what?"

"About Ron being the best man," she continued. "And since you're my maid of honor, that means that the two of you—"

"Ohhh…" Hermione said slowly, glancing at Harry. "Of course I've thought about it, but I'm fine."

"Really?"

"If I wasn't," she continued, "would that change anything?"

Harry and Ginny looked at one another. The truth was that it wouldn't. They had actually discussed this at great length when they had first gotten engaged. Harry had said that there was no conceivable way that Ron would not be his best man, and Ginny, who had become almost as close to Hermione as Harry was over the last few years, felt only two people could be her maids of honor. Hermione being the obvious choice since Luna Lovegood was impossibly difficult to get a hold of these days, what with her world travels. In the end, they had both agreed that this was their wedding and that they would do things how they wanted to. Everyone else would have to deal with it.

Harry shrugged. "Not really."

"Exactly," Hermione said with a small grin. "Honestly though, I'm fine with that. In fact, it'll be nice to see Ron given the occasion."

"Really?" he asked.

Hermione put her quill down and leaned back on her hands. "Of course, Harry. You're both mine and his friend." She glanced at Ginny. "And Ginny, you're also my friend and Ron's sister. You both can't think that I didn't know from the get go that this was inevitable." She picked up her quill again. "I had two choices. I could either sit and dread it, or I could embrace it."

Ginny smiled as Harry looked pleasantly surprised at this news.

"Ron and I are in better shape that we were months ago," she continued. "I mean, granted I haven't seen him in a year, but I sent him a card on his birthday."

"You did?" Harry asked. "You didn't tell me that."

"I didn't know you really cared," she said. "Anyway, he ended up writing me back. He said he'd been thinking a lot about things and how stupid it was for the two of us to not be speaking and what not. To throw away the years of memories…" She trailed off. "And he's right. He mentioned that he hoped we could at least be friendly with each other what with your wedding coming up, because he'd hate for any awkwardness on our part to ruin your day."

Ginny laughed. "Ron said this?" She looked at Harry. "Wow, Paris has done wonders for him."

"That wasn't Paris," Hermione said in a distant sounding tone, suddenly starting off at nothing in particular. "He could always be like that when he wanted to be."

"So, you two are good again?" Harry asked.

Hermione sat up straight. "Well, I wrote him back and told him I agreed with him. I haven't heard from him since, but I would assume we're on the right foot towards being friends again. I'll only know for sure when he moves back to England."

"That's such a relief," Ginny said. "I won't lie. The thought of the two of you having a row at the reception has given me nightmares."

"Has it really?" asked Hermione in an almost horrified tone. "Ginny, we would never. I would never…"

"It's nothing really," she added. "I've also had nightmares about the decorations being wrong, the food being spoiled, it raining…" She paused thoughtfully. "It was probably one of the more pleasant nightmares."

Harry and Hermione both laughed before Hermione picked up a random sheet of paper from her pile. "Let's see," she said. "Who's Great Uncle Filwin?"

"Who?" Ginny mumbled, taking the paper from Hermione and tossing it towards the rubbish bin. "I didn't even know I had a great uncle Filwin…"

"I'll name off all my yeses right now," Harry began, pointing at Hermione. "You, Ron, all the Weasleys—"

"Wait," she said. "I have to write their names out!"

"Mum, Dad," Ginny began as she counted off on her fingers, "Bill, Fleur, Victoire, Dominique, Louis, Charlie, Percy, Audrey, Molly." She took a mock deep breath. "And George, since we've got Ron already." She recounted quickly in her head to double check.

"George Weasley…" Hermione said out loud as she quickly scribbled the last name down. Harry couldn't help but be reminded of their school days and Hermione's ability to take down notes at a rapid pace.

"You know who'd get a kick out of this whole wedding?" asked Ginny suddenly as she looked up at Harry. "Just the fact that we actually ended up together?"

"I could think of a lot of people," he said with a sad smile, "but I'm assuming you mean Fred."

She nodded. "It's so strange to skip his name when I'm naming off everyone." She frowned. "You're right, though. There really are so many people."

"Right," he said, trying to keep the mood from turning somber. "George asked me the other day if he could bring a date."

Ginny shrugged. "It's up to you. I know we both want to keep it small, but you seem to want that in particular."

"Maybe to the reception?" he suggested. "I mean, I want people to have fun, but you know how I feel about strangers turning up. The next thing you know my wedding day is splashed all over the Daily Profit."

"The 'Boy Who Lives Weds'," Hermione joked, but Harry actually nodded.

"You're kidding, but you know that's exactly what it'll be."

"They haven't figured out you're engaged yet," she said. "Although, I was reading the gossip and speculation the other day about it."

"What did it say this time?"

"The usual," Hermione said. "Stuff like, 'Rumor has it that Harry Potter and his longtime girlfriend, Quidditch player Ginny Weasley, are talking about marriage...'"

"It's hard not to talk about when you're planning a wedding," he joked.

"But that's the thing," Hermione said. "They don't even realize you're actually engaged and it's been months!"

"They only even started talking about it when they saw my ring," Ginny said, glancing down at her hand. Her engagement ring was on the opposite hand and on the wrong finger, "But it was either wear it like this or shove it in a drawer until the wedding was over."

"They would have talked regardless," Harry said. "They've been talking since we got together."

"So," Hermione asked as she held her quill tentatively in place, "a date for George, then?"

"Can't he bring Lee as his date?" asked Ginny. "That would kill two birds with one stone. Plus, if we give George a date, then we have to allow Ron one—"

"If Ron gets a date, I get to bring one," Hermione said quickly. She seemed to almost surprise herself by saying it so bluntly.

Harry blinked at her. "I had already assumed you wanted to bring Martin?"

"I do, but" she hesitated, "if you were trying to keep the numbers down I would have understood. I mean, ultimately it's your decision, but if Ron and George get to, I would think—"

"Okay, okay," Harry interrupted. "Dates can come to the reception, but I don't want them at the ceremony. People can sell pictures of me cutting cake to the papers, but I don't want random strangers there as I'm trying to give my vows."

"You're going to get security for the reception still, right?" Hermione asked. "I think that should keep most of the undesirables out."

"Then we'll just end up with someone like Rita Skeeter in there. They'll be able to transfigure themselves into a champagne bottle or something."

"In a room full of Aurors?" Hermione asked. "Do you really think someone would be that thick?"

"I'd like to think not," Harry said, "but things are going well in the world today, so all these people have to do is follow me around and report how dully I'm living my life."

"We keep getting sidetracked," Ginny said. "Kingsley Shacklebolt. An obvious 'yes'?"

"Absolutely," Harry said. "And some of the Aurors. Rooney, Thomas, and Hillsby can all come to the reception."

"So, basically we're inviting everyone to the reception now?" Ginny asked.

"Do any of the people you just mentioned have last names?" Hermione asked as she tried to write names down. "Or first names as the case may be?"

"Don't worry, I'll know who they are," Harry said before turning towards Ginny. "And if we're letting random people in, then I have to invite people I actually do know."

She smirked. "Flipped like a switch, have you? Shall I just owl Mum and tell her that her entire list is a go, then?"

"Let's not get carried away," he said as he started picking names up and sorting through the pile. "Now let's see. This one's a no. As is this one. No, yes, no, no…no…absolutely not."

"Oh, great," Ginny said to Hermione while they watched him. "It looks like he's got his second wind."

"Looks like someone better put on more tea," Hermione said, shaking her head.

"You both wanted me to be more involved," he said with a smile. "You're just getting your wish."