Author's Note: This chapter is what I envisioned while listening to I Write Sins Not Tragedies, so I hope you all enjoy it! Also, I promise that Ginny will be making an appearance, she's just running a bit late at the moment. I tried writing her into this chapter and it did not go well, so I promise she'll show up in the next one!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything you recognize as Queen Rowling or P!ATD.
The next morning came with a pounding headache and an angry maid of honor. Arista was storming around the flat lecturing Blaise about their hung over states and at last relenting long enough for Theo to grab two potions from the cabinet for them and whisking Arista into the floo before she could finish. Arista was a good sort, but she could talk longer than almost anyone Theo knew which could get irritating if you were on the receiving end of one of her lectures, which he frequently was.
She led the way out of the floo and into the foyer of the church Stella had picked out for the wedding. It was stunning really with its stained glass windows and vaulted ceiling. The building was older than Theo cared to find out and the architecture was immaculately preserved. Everything was made of grey stone and dark cherry wood that looked as though it was installed yesterday. The pews were being decorated by the florist's people as they walked into the nave. Stella had wanted lilac and silver for the wedding colors with all the bouquets done up with silver ribbons and frilly doodads. Theo could not say he especially liked the way they looked festooned on the cherry pews, but if Stella liked them he would keep his notions to himself.
"If I come back and find the two of you sloshed, Merlin help you," Arista departed to help Stella get ready after delivering her warning. Neither of the two had any plans on drinking more, but if they had, her tone would have posed a serious counter argument to further festivities.
"You know, I think there's an open bar later," Blaise mused, "What do you say to making my cousin eat her words?"
"I think I'll be a bit preoccupied, how about you rope the others into it and I'll talk her down after she sees you lot?" Theo countered.
"Fair enough, let's get you ready to be married, shall we?" Blaise said as he led the way down to a side room that had been set aside for the groom and groomsmen.
The room was a bit small for the three of them, but Draco had not arrived yet and there was plenty of space in the church to roam around. No one cared if people saw the groom before the wedding, it was just the bride that had to take extra care. He was ready in no time as Stella had picked out all the dress robes ages ago. They were all light grey which Blaise said made Theo look a bit peaky, but the groom did not care as long as his bride was happy.
Nearly an hour later, Draco waltzed in acting as though he did not have a care in the world, even that he was late to one of his best mate's wedding. Blaise and Theo rolled their eyes because he probably had the perfect story to go with his lateness and bizarre attire, neither of which interested the two at this hour in the morning. The wedding was set to start at ten in the morning and Arista had woken them five hours in advanced. Why on earth did they need five hours to get ready?
"You two should not have left last night!" Draco broke into his story without an inquiry which he was prone to doing.
"Why is that?" Blaise asked, picking at an imaginary piece of lint on the arm of his robe.
"Because we saw some bint that looked shockingly like Stella in muggle London last night!" Draco continued, "Of course it could not have been her, but we followed her for a laugh and wound up at some guy's flat where they were knocking boots louder than I've ever heard."
Theo's stomach turned unexpectedly and blamed it on the drinking from the night before. Like Draco said, it could not have been Stella. His Stella had spent the night in with Arista the night before and hated going into muggle London. Besides, she was not loud in bed and had always said women that were, were hussies. He did not quite approve of the assessment, but that was enough proof for him that it had not been his bride.
"Really? We should have stayed at a strip club with you guys just to stalk some poor girl back to her apartment and watch her have sex?" Blaise questioned raising a single eyebrow, "Whose idea of fun is that?"
"Well when you put it that way it just sounds creepy, but we were rather sloshed and I had to make sure that it was not Stella, for Theo's sake," Draco explained.
Theo thought that Draco's methods were always a bit lacking, but he could never say that the guy's heart was not in the right place. He cared for very few people, but those he did, he would protect against anything the world threw at them. This had been true since they were little and then on through Hogwarts and then into their adult lives.
"Perhaps you should find a girl to keep you busy mate," Theo suggested.
"And lose my bachelor status? I don't think so," Draco laughed it off and slapped Theo on the back before swapping his mismatched muggle attire to the grey wizard robes for the ceremony.
A few hours later saw Theo pacing outside the nave in one of the side corridors. He knew that Stella was not the woman that Draco had spoken of, but something nagged at his gut that he did not like. He heard a sudden burst of voices from the next hall over and hoped it was her. Theo knew that if he just had a chance to see his bride, these doubts would clear from his mind and nothing would get in the way of their nuptials. He moved forward toward the people talking and as he got closer, their words became more distinguishable.
"Yes, it is quite lovely isn't it?" came a female voice that Theo could almost recognize, but it hovered on the edge of his conscious and he could not quite put his wand on it.
"Oh yes, it's a pity really," came a male voice that Theo did not know.
"Well yes, but that should not get in the way of anything," the woman answered.
"Considering the bride has a piece on the side, I feel that it should get in the way," the male answered before bidding the woman adieu and walking farther down the corridor.
Theo's mind went blank for a second before the denial set it. He knew that it could not be true. Whoever was speaking was just making trouble, everyone always said there was that one person at a wedding who felt they had to ruin other's happiness because they were so unhappy. He just wished he knew who she was so that he could give her a piece of his mind. This being so, he moved forward quickly, hoping to catch her before anyone else appeared. His stride lengthened and he rounded the corner just as Riley, Stella's cousin and bride's maid reached it.
Her face turned pale, but she tried to cover her treason with small talk, "How are you Theodore? I hope you aren't getting any pre-wedding jitters."
"Riley, I need you to answer me truthfully," Theo opened, remaining icily calm even though his insides were a maelstrom.
"Yes," she answered pretending to be calm and not pulling it off as well as Theo.
"Why would you make up such atrocious lies about your cousin? Why would you spread rumors like that around on the morning of her wedding where anyone could hear you?" Theo asked in mild tone.
"Theo, I don't know what you're talking about and I don't like what you're insinuating. You know I hate games like that," Riley had one thing right, Theo knew her and he knew that she did not play mind games. That being said, did that make her words true or did that just mean that he had misjudged her? Either way, it spelled problems for him.
"Riley, did you just say that Stella had someone on the side to the man that was in the hall with you?" Theo decided a direct approach was all that was left.
"Theo, you worry too much, why would Stella want anyone else?" Riley tried to soothe him, but Theo could smell a redirect a mile away after living with his mother for seventeen years.
"Riley, it was a yes or no question," Theo was in no way messing around and Riley knew it from the look on his face.
"Yes, I did, but if you tell Stella I will deny it until my last breath," Riley stood up straight and looked him in the eye.
"Is it true?" Theo did not even blink while asking, though he could already feel his heart being torn apart as her face changed from hostile to pitying.
"I don't play mind games Theo, you know that," she said before walking away.
Theo stood there for a few minutes, frozen by the hurt that seemed to radiate out of his chest and into his limbs. He could not wrap his mind around it, but then salvation seemed to come around the corner in the form of Arista. She was with Stella last night and she was her best friend. Arista would tell him that it was all a lie and that Riley was just messing with him for her own amusement. He could deal with that within moments and move forward with his happy day.
"Theo, are you okay?" Arista asked in concern. He had the strangest look on his face.
"What did you and Stella do last night?" Theo rushed toward her and grabbed her shoulders with both hands.
"What do you mean?" Arista was confused and could not think of a reason for Theo to be acting so strangely.
"Yesterday night the two of you had a girl's night, were you together all night?" Theo asked again hurriedly. The confusion on Arista's face was doing nothing to soothe his heart, but the glimmer of hope still urged him on.
"Theo, yesterday Stella told me she was going to sneak over to Blaise's flat and steal you away from the stag party. She said she could not go through with spending the night before the wedding without you," Arista was baffled at Theo's questions and starting to wonder what was going on with him.
"She never came," Theo's hope extinguished and with it, his whole world seemed to crumble.
"What do you imagine she could have done? Draco told me about how he dragged you lot to a strip club, in all likelihood, she found the flat empty and decided to go home and get some rest before the wedding," Arista could not imagine anything else being the case, but decided to get to the bottom of things before Theo collapsed, which he looked close to doing. The poor man was looking a bit strung out and if he was in less than pristine condition, Stella would get herself into a tizzy.
"I heard Riley talking to someone and she said that Stella had someone on the side. Plus Draco followed someone last night that he said looked exactly like Stella and she went into muggle London and had uproariously loud sex with a man in a flat there. I was at Blaise's because we escaped the stag night early," Theo explained all that he had heard in the past few hours and Arista was even more puzzled. There had to be another explanation, but she could not think of one plausible enough for the situation.
"Have you spoken to Stella?" she was the only one that could possibly clear this mess up and Arista thought that Riley needed a stern talking to.
"I was looking for her when I heard Riley," Theo explained.
"Come on then, let's go find your blushing bride," Arista said as she tugged Theo along behind her. The room where the girls were getting ready was just around the corner and Arista wanted this done before anything else could happen to ruin the wedding.
"Arista, I thought you said you were-" Stella stopped when she saw Theo enter the room as well, "Theo! What are you doing here? I thought we decided not to see each other before the wedding?"
"Where were you last night?" Theo asked, staring into her eyes. Stella never could lie to him, perhaps he had just been asking the wrong questions all along. He had always prided himself on knowing when people were being truthful, but it seemed that his special skill had failed him.
"I was with the girls yesterday and then I went for a walk to clear my head," Stella answered, "What is this all about?"
Theo was disappointed in her, "You bit the side of your cheek Stella," he said.
"So what?" she questioned, though she knew exactly what he meant.
"You always do that when you lie," he said, "Were you in muggle London yesterday night?"
"Were you following me?" Stella accused him, her eyes flashing.
"Were you cheating on me?" Theo asked calmly. There would be time to fall into a bottle of scotch later, but for now, he would remain collected and present the best possible front.
"Why would you even ask that?" Stella's voice was starting to raise and Theo knew his answer.
"Perhaps you should ask your confidante Riley," Theo answered. Stella shot her cousin a glare that could cut glass, but Riley just put up an affronted face and denied any involvement.
"Can you just tell me the truth?" Theo asked. He needed to hear her say it.
"I was with someone else last night," she bit out angrily.
"Was it a one night stand or do you know him?" he asked.
"We've been seeing each other for a few months," she elaborated, twirling her hands in the skirt of her white dress.
"I hope you two will be very happy together," Theo dismissed her and turned toward the door.
Before he could leave, he heard a loud smack as Arista slapped Stella across the face and came after him. The pair walked out of the room and went to gather Blaise and Draco. The wedding was slated to start in minutes and the nave was filled with family and friends of both sides, so Arista took a detour and went up to the front of the room.
"Hello everyone," she started and wondered how best to phrase this, "Thank you all for coming on this auspicious day. I am afraid that you all put on your fancy wear for no reason as the wedding has been cancelled. The groom thought it best to not share his bride with another man and has called it off. If any of you would like to argue this, I'm kindly asking you to bugger off."
The crowd was in a baffled uproar and Arista made a quick get away with Theo before any parents could swoop in. They stopped by the groomsmen room and filled them in before they all apparated to Blaise's flat once again.
"I'm so sorry mate, I never thought it was actually her, we just thought it was a good laugh," Draco apologized again for the stalking of the night before and was waived off by Theo.
"I think I just need a drink," he said and poured himself a tall one.
"Did you really tell everyone that they could bugger off?" Blaise questioned his usually straight laced cousin.
"Well, yes I suppose I did," Arista responded.
"I would have paid to see that," Draco told her quite seriously.
"Don't we know it," Arista joked.
The four sat quietly for a few hours before Draco asked a question only he could think of at a time like this, "Theo, do you want to go to a bar?"
"Of course he doesn't want to go to a bar! Look at the poor guy!" Arista smacked Draco across the back of the head.
"Actually, yes, let's go to a bar," Theo stood up and grabbed his jacket.
"Are we really doing this?" Arista looked at Blaise baffled.
"Would you just want to sit around and mope in your friend's flat after something like that?" Blaise questioned her.
"Well no, I suppose not," she responded before they walked down the street to the bar at the corner.