CRASH!

All at once several spells were cast into the room.

"Expelliarmus!" Wands flew from the hands and pockets of their cloaked captors.

"Silencio."

"Incarcerous." The dark figures toppled to their knees as ropes wound around their wrists and ankles...though the ropes seemed to find the taller one's ankles halfway up its calves and its feet appeared as narrow hoof-like appendages.

Tony turned around to see three people rush through an opening that had been broken at the window. One looked very much like Lily: her mother. Another was a young man with navy blue hair, and the third was Lily's father.

The blue-haired man went to Umar, released his bindings and brought him to consciousness.

Mrs. Potter ran first to Lily, lowered her gently to her feet and removed the cheering charm. She held her daughter in an embrace while understanding of the situation seeped back into Lily's countenance.

Lily reached out a hand to Tony. He stepped out of the diamond and clasped it.

Mr. Potter was standing over the two hooded figures. "You two are under arrest for kidnapping. I could charge you with attempted murder, even though that was obviously not your intention. Kidnapping is serious enough, though; you're facing at least a year in Azkaban no matter what excuse you give the judges, and yes, I know who you are."

Lily asked shakily, "You know who they are, Dad?"

Mrs. Potter held up two of the wands they had claimed, saying "you know them too, Lily." Lily must have recognized the wands; her face changed from confusion to furor. She rushed to the closest prisoner and kicked it, shouting, "That wasn't funny at all!" then tore off its hood and veil.

It was her brother, James, looking only mildly sorry.

The blue haired man made a surprised little choking sound, then asked, "Harry, should I?" At a nod from Mr. Potter he unhooded the tall thin one, Albus.

Albus moved his mouth like he wanted to speak, but Mr. Potter shook his head. "You can plead innocent in court. You put your sister and her friends under extreme stress and we are not going to smooth it over."

Court? Even just as a witness, Tony didn't like the thought of standing in front of a mass of officials, or being in the news.

"Mr. Potter," said Tony, "I wouldn't have to participate in that, would I?"

"Well...you were the only witness that was fully conscious." Then his expression softened. "You've been through enough, Tony—"

Why would Harry Potter call him by his first name?

"—and the offense was against you. If you would rather not press charges, then we won't."

"I would rather not."

The brothers beamed at him. Tony turned away to hide his annoyance. He didn't want to go to court; that didn't mean he had appreciated being interrogated in their pseudo-nightmare. They were being a bit dull if they thought they were on good terms with anyone in the shack at that moment.

Mrs. Potter said, "They owe you, Tony, and may I add that what you said before we came in was quite impressive?"

"Agreed," said the blue-haired man with admiration, "you were ready to die, Dolohov, that can't be easy!"

"It's not," said Mr. Potter, "but he probably doesn't want to talk about it just yet, Teddy."

Teddy replied, "I don't see why James and Al put this on, though, what were they trying to do?"

"Explain that, boys." said Mrs. Potter, wordlessly pointing her wand at them to dispel their gags.

James spoke in a voice with just a bit of a rasp, as if he had a sore throat, "We were looking out for Lily. She and Dolohov were obviously getting close; we had to make sure he was good."

Mr. Potter said, "well, at least you succeeded at that!"

"Of course we succeeded," smiled Albus, "We had luck on our side."

Their parents rolled their eyes. "I take it you found daisy plants, then? I hope you didn't break rules to get them, Sir Prefect."

"I didn't find plants exactly," said Albus, "but I talked to Uncle George; the main ingredient in rasp-berry sherry is daisy root. It has a shrinking effect—constricts the vocal chords."

"So you mixed them?" Mrs. Potter asked incredulously, "and you just assumed that would work?"

"I analyzed and tested it first, Mum!" said Albus defensively. "Ferret got into the kitchens and back with two cans of sardines in three minutes. I don't even know why they had sardines, they're never in meals."

"That explains why you two are acting so pleased with yourselves, and the astounding coincidence that Teddy was patrolling here at just that moment..." commented Mr. Potter.

"So now I can go down in history as the wizard who discovered that felix felicis can be flavored with raspberry!"

"Back to the point, is there a reason you decided you needed to make this so dramatic?" Asked Mrs. Potter.

"We had to make it seem real, right? It seemed like the thing to do." said James.

"We specifically said Tony didn't have to die; sorry Tony, we didn't expect you to take it that far, though you were pretty inspiring..." said Albus.

"I wish someone would pretend to capture me so I could be so heroic!" added James.

"And I'm sorry I stunned you, Umar, hope you're not hurt."

"I'm fine." said Umar

"So, Mum and Dad, can we have these ropes off?" Asked James.

With a flick of Mr. Potter's wand the ropes dissolved.

Albus shifted and removed a pair of flexible stilts that were strapped to his feet. James pulled up his pant leg to look at a bruise forming where Lily had kicked him.

"I'll forgive that, Lily," he said pleasantly, "if you promise to marry that kid, because he is awesome."

"You'll forgive me, if I—" Lily bristled, turning red.

"James!" Mrs. Weasley scolded. "She is far too young to make that decision and you have no say in it at all."

Tony sighed. He was tired.

"I'll walk back to the castle with you three." Suggested Mrs. Potter. "Shall I meet you back at home, Harry? Oh, and Teddy, Victoire wants a formal proposal, something planned and nice."

As Tony, Lily, Umar and Mrs. Potter climbed down into the tunnel, Mr. Potter turned to his sons.

"Do you understand why that kind of intimidation is unethical?"

"We were making sure Lily—"

"No Al, the ends don't justify the means..."

They were out of hearing. Now that they each had their own wand the tunnel was much brighter. Lily took Tony's hand as they walked, until her mother cleared her throat.

"You are young, you know." She said, "You may want to wait before you make any commitments. Not that we don't approve of you, Tony, we have heard good things about you."

"You have?"

"From Hagrid, Neville...mostly from Lily, yes we have, not to mention the courage we saw just now."

Tony wasn't sure if the adults had heard him declare that he loved Lily, but at any rate her brothers had, so there was no hiding it.

"You care about each other, but that doesn't necessarily mean you're right for each other." Mrs. Potter carried on, in spite of Lily making faces, "You have a lot of learning and growing still to do. I won't insist on anything, but I will suggest that you make a lot of different friends before pairing off, and don't be surprised if the first person you like is not the right match for you."

Tony couldn't imagine loving anyone but Lily, but he nodded.

oOo

It was a garden. Close to the burrow, it had been one of Lily's favorite places since she was small, and now it was washed with mid-morning sunlight and arrayed with summer lilies.

Tony looked around at the people. For each face he could remember the moments that had grown into relationships. James and Al gave him a mock salute; they had taken to doing that ever since the rather terrifying trick they played to decide if he was good enough for their sister.

Behind them were Rose and Lucy Weasley, who had helped Tony study to pass his Transfiguration OWL and had explained to him once, when he found a certain scrap of parchment, that a girl doodles her first name with a boy's last name not when she is trying desperately to make a bad last name look better, but when she already likes it.

Next to Lucy was Alberta Peasegood, who, like many at Hogwarts, had been so impressed by the story the Potters spread about the shrieking shack incident, she kept wanting to talk to Tony and make him part of her group of friends. Tony had struggled to adjust at first—people wanted to talk to him and he just didn't have anything to say—but after a year or two he found himself comfortable with his social status. He never did fit snugly into one posse of friends though; he preferred the freedom to be around different people, be alone if he wished, sit with whichever first year seemed lonely, and of course, stick with Umar. Tony had taken Mrs. Potter's advice and not dated Lily until he had spent time around other girls; Alberta in particular had wanted to date Tony during their fifth year, but she was now happily holding hands with Umar. Umar gave Tony a nod.

Then there were the rest of Lily's aunts, uncles and cousins. Tony remembered being invited to a Weasley family reunion the summer after their sixth year. He had been nervous, but once he got there had felt great and made a spectacular impression on the family (he found out later Al and James had spiked his lemonade with Felix).

His own mother was quietly wiping away a tear, smiling at Tony proudly. It thrilled Tony to see her so happy. Beside her was Mrs. Potter, and Tony remembered two nights ago, when they had stayed up late preparing decorations and Mrs. Potter had finally gotten Nadia Dolohov to talk about her past and her feelings. Now they stood together as friends. Mrs. Potter wasn't teary but Grandma Weasley was, and Tony remembered crying together with her over the graves of her brothers, Gideon and Fabian Prewett.

In the front there was Harry Potter. Tony was still a little in awe of him and probably always would be, but Tony knew he could trust Mr. Potter. He remembered the time he had been called to the Head Auror's office when he thought his life was over. He had been one of the first applicants cut from auror training, but Mr. Potter had assured him that just because Lily thought being an auror was the only worthwhile career, didn't mean there weren't other places where Tony's talents would make more of a difference. Mr. Potter had given him contact information for Madame Susan Bones at St. Mungo's and Tony was now on his way to becoming a successful healer.

At last, there was Lily. Her red hair flowed gracefully over the sleeves of her long white dress. Her face was all happiness. Petals of apple blossom floated down from somewhere in the sky, though it was the season for fruit. Lily had practiced walking gracefully up the aisle, but now she picked up her skirt and ran on barefoot up to claim Tony's hand. Tony certainly had many memories of her, but now he thought of the future. There was a whole life ahead for Tony and Lily Dolohov.

oOo

Notes:

Thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun writing this. Are there any of Tony's recollections from this wedding scene that you would like to see written out as stories?

If you liked it check out a couple stories that go with it: A New Perspective, and Wands