This chapter took a while because I was so busy looking up dresses and tuxedos. Links are at the end of the chapter, if you'd like to see the wedding attire. I am particular to this chapter, myself. I hope you enjoy it as well.

This chapter is dedicated to SkyeVerya for such an enthusiastic review. It made me smile.

LPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLPLP

Age Twenty Three, Wedding

Lily Potter was more nervous than she had ever been before. She had thought, when the events were occurring, that getting sorted, trying out for the Quidditch team, her first date, graduation, moving away from home, surviving a fire, her first reading, her world tour, and admitting her undying love for Scott were nerve-wracking instances, but this one took the cake. She was getting married today to the man of her dreams.

The dress she had her mother had painstakingly shopped for months ago was now adorning her body. Lily was nearly afraid to move in it, for fear it would tear or get dirty. The nerves in her stomach were threatening to burst forth and ruin her dress as well. Nervousness was enveloping her and she did not know how to quell it. This was the biggest day of her life, and she was excited, but nervousness was dominating every other emotion.

The wedding was an outdoor one. She was presently waiting for her father to enter the room she occupied in the banquet hall. His job was to bring her out at the right time and escort her around the corner of the building and up the outdoor aisle to her fiancée and the pastor. Luckily, it was a warm, clear day in the English countryside—well, as clear as the weather in England could possibly be, at any rate. They were having a Muggle wedding because of all the Muggles both she and Scott had befriended over the years. Therefore, she had a traditional Muggle dress and he a traditional tuxedo. On the wedding invitations, Lily had to make sure to specify to the wizards that were to be in the audience that Muggle dress was required and wands were discouraged.

Lily ran her hands over the skirt of her dress, smoothing it unnecessarily. The last moments of complete independence were floating away before the mirror. Soon, she would be sharing the rest of her life with one man; the one man that she had loved since the age of fifteen. Yes, that love had begun as an intense teen love, then faded slightly, and finally matured into a full blown true love, but she knew that from now on, her love would only grow more passionate. She loved everything about Scott Warner. His walk, his smile, his voice, his mannerisms, the way he tousled his hair when he was flirting, his sensitive side, his protectiveness of her, his intelligence, his sense of humor…her list went on.

The string quartet was beginning the "Wedding March" and the knot in Lily's stomach grew tighter. In a few moments, her life would be tied to Scott's forever. She allowed a smile to creep onto her face. The excitement was fighting with the nervousness and was beginning to win. She wondered if Scott was as nervous as she.

The last year, during their engagement, had been a difficult one. They did not want to move in together until marriage. Thus, they could only see one another on the weekends. They both had to get their flats ready to sell. For the past two months, Lily had been living back in England, with her parents, in order to get all of the wedding plans in order. She had also been traveling the country, shopping around for houses in the area to purchase. Scott was still living in his flat in Edinburgh, and he had been looking for houses there. There had been some discrepancy as to where they would live; Scott had his job in Edinburgh, but Lily wanted to raise a family in England, closer to both of their families. They had finally decided on settling near Manchester. Lily had enough money to support a family of twelve for the rest of their lives, but Scott wanted to work and support his family. There was more opportunity to work with dangerous creatures in Sheffield than in London, so that was where they were headed. Scott was searching for a job there, though it did not matter if he found one for a few months because of all the revenue Lily's book was still bringing in.

Her second manuscript was nearly finished. She just had to compile the last few chapters and send it to her publisher. She kept telling herself that this was merely to have fun and to get the story of the masses out there, but in the back of her mind she knew that she was hoping to have another hit on her hands. The exhilaration of reading in front of a crowd and of having so many people cheering for her was something that she wanted again. She was not getting her hopes up, however. Scott was, of course, rooting for her and assuring her how successful her next book would be. That was something else Lily loved about him: how supportive he was of her. Now that support would be there for the rest of her life.

Her father entered the room, looking sharp in a tuxedo, and grinning widely. "It's time, Lily. Are you ready?"

"Of course I'm ready, dad," Lily replied. "The question is, are you ready?" She waggled her eyebrows at him.

He laughed. "I'll never be ready to give my little girl away. But I guess if I have to, I'm glad I'm giving you to Scott. I love you, Lily. I am so proud of you, and I want you to remember that."

"Thanks, daddy. And, don't worry, you still have Albus to baby."

Mr. Potter slipped his arm through his daughter's and they peeked out the window into the garden. The flower girl, Antoinette Lupin, age two, daughter of Lily's cousin Victorie, was walking towards the garden in her little white dress. She vanished around the corner of the building. It was nearly Lily's turn to take that long walk up the aisle.

The press had pushed to make this wedding a public one, where all could attend and all manner of media personnel could take pictures. Lily and Scott, of course, fought this, insisting on their privacy. Lily was afraid that she would have to take legal action, but she had eventually gotten her way after agreeing to send each newspaper a picture of her and her new husband and a summary about the wedding. They all wished to write an article on the subject, (for what reason, Lily did not know), and she wanted to make certain that they could not print any slanderous information. No, the only people that had been invited to the wedding were friends and family and friends of the family.

Lily and her father exited Lily's dressing room and approached the wedding. The violin music grew louder as they rounded the corner. Lily clutched her bouquet tightly. The crowd sitting on their folding chairs in the vast garden stood as one for the bride. There was Antoinette, almost up the aisle, throwing blue and silver flower petals onto the ground. Lily and her father walked under the archway of lilies and blue ribbon and began their descent up the grassy aisle.

Lily kept her eyes on her maid of honor, Lucile, as she walked steadily. The butterflies in her stomach were multiplying and fluttering madly; she did not want to glance at Scott in his tuxedo and have them burst inside of her. Next to Lucile were Lily's three bridesmaids, Marcy, Grace, and Jordan.

Lily had found a friend in her personal assistant, Grace, during the marathon world tour. She hadn't expected to because of Grace's personality, but it was hard not to become good friends with someone you spent a year with. Grace was a very sweet, shy, loyal young woman and Lily was still very close with her, despite the fact that they lived an hour away from one another. Marcy had quite the opposite personality, and Lily loved her just the same. She had to be an outgoing, feisty woman to be a successful agent. Not only was she an agent, however, she was a fantastic friend. Lucile had, since her marriage, grown slightly apart from Lily, and Lily had not laid eyes on her since the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Blume last fall. Jordan had been a frequent phone friend of Lily as of late. Jordan had just had twins three months ago, Jessica and Julius, and therefore had not been able to get out of the house lately. Lily had been panicking about her impending marriage. Both of them needed moral support, and got it through long distance phone calls.

Thus, all of those lovely friends were standing up there in their gorgeous marine-colored dresses, holding their wonderful bouquets and waiting for Lily, who was slowly but surely approaching her place. She felt that her father was the only thing holding her up. That, of course, was when he let her go and went to sit in the front row of folding chairs with her mother. Lily finally had to face Scott. She came to stand next to him, trying to sweep her long train closer to her.

He was more dashing than she could have imagined. They had not seen one another in their respective wedding attire until this very moment. All she could do was keep staring at him, a stupid grin plastered on her face. His face mirrored hers. Behind him stood his best man, Garrett, and his three groomsmen, James, and two friends from work, Mason and Spencer. Although they were mighty handsome, they paled in comparison to Lily's groom.

The pastor was speaking, but Lily was finding it hard to concentrate on his words with the hammering of her heart in her ears. They had each written their own vows, and she was trying very hard to remember them. "Lily and Scott," the pastor was saying, "today you celebrate the beginning of a beautiful life together. The couple has written their own vows. Scott, would you like to recite your vows now?"

Scott reached for Lily's hands and began to speak. "I have a poem for you, Lily, which I think you'll appreciate." For a second, it appeared that he had to regain his composure, and then he began: "Today we stand before the altar of love,/With nervous shuffles we take our places,/Bridesmaids and grooms like sentries stand,/Minister speaks of duty, responsibility and commitment,/"Will you take this woman . . . for as long as you both shall live?"

"Stop! This is madness!/When the Champagne is finished and the celebrations end,/When rain has washed away the last piece of confetti,/What then?

"You look at me and smile,/A smile full of warmth and understanding,/My worries melt away,/I know tomorrow is ours to behold,/And just like yesterday and today,/We will fill it with our love.

"Lily, I love you. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I promise to love and cherish and honour you for the rest of our life together. When this ceremony is over tomorrow, I know that I will have you by my side. You have been there for me through every trial imaginable, and now we can go through every trial side-by-side. I cannot imagine my life without you in it, and I'm glad that I don't have to."

Lily felt the tears leaping to her eyes. She squeezed the hands that were in hers. "Lily?" the pastor prompted.

"Scott…I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say to you today, and I do not think that I came up with any of the right words to describe to you the amount of love I feel for you. I have loved you since age fifteen, and I waited for eight years to know that you returned that love—this love—that has grown so strong. I feel terribly unoriginal now, but I have a poem as well because I cannot find the words to express to you the intensity of my love and devotion to you.

"You and I/Have so much love,/That it burns like a fire,/In which we bake a lump of clay/Moulded into a figure of you/and a figure of me./Then we take both of them./And break them into pieces/ And mix the pieces with water,/And mould again a figure of you and a figure of me/I am in your clay./You are in my clay./In life we share a single quilt,/In death we will share one coffin. You are the man of my dreams, Scott, and I will be with you forever."

The pastor requested the rings, and they were exchanged, with two utterances of "I do" from the bride and the groom. "I now pronounce you husband and wife," the pastor said. Lily's nerves were subsiding and happiness was instead welling up inside of her. She now had a new ring on her finger. The urge to look down at it was overwhelming, but the pastor was now instructing them to kiss, and that was a distraction. She and Scott leaned forward and their lips met in pure happiness and love and a newly married couple.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said the pastor. "I now present to you, for the first time, Mister and Misses Scott Warner."

The audience erupted in applause. Lily glanced over at her mother and father in the front row. Her mother had erupted in tears and her father was beaming with pride, his large hands clapping soundly. Beside Scott, James and Garrett were clapping loudly. James was whistling. He smiled at his sister, who kissed her new husband again. Hand-in-hand, they walked back up the aisle, around the building, and into the limousine waiting for them. Lily could not stop smiling and staring at her husband as they sat across from one another.

Husband. Husband husband husband. She wondered how long it would take for that to sound normal.

"Hello, Mrs. Warner," Scott said, smiling back at her from the other seat of the limo. Lily could not stand how dashing he looked in his tuxedo.

"Hello, Mr. Warner," she replied. She was his wife. He was her husband. They were married.

"You look so beautiful," he said. He moved to sit right next to her and put his arm around her waist. She leaned into him, not caring any longer about wrinkling her dress.

"Thanks," she murmured. "Scott, I can't believe we're married."

"I know, darling," he said, kissing the top of her head. "I didn't think it was possible to be so happy."

"I'm so in love with you that I feel like I could burst," Lily told him. "Can we just skip the reception and go straight to the hotel? Personally, I'd like to sit and stare at you for a few hours before I do anything remotely productive."

Lily felt the deep rumble of Scott's chuckle in his chest. "We're have time for that later. Now, we party, my love." He kissed her head again.

When they arrived at their reception, all of their guests were already there, and were prepared to applaud when the couple entered. Scott was starving, and wanted to hit the buffet table immediately. Lily felt no hunger, only excitement and happiness, so instead of getting food, she watched Scott. All around her, people were congratulating her, but she could not rip her eyes from her husband to talk to them. She could not believe that he had found her soul mate, her true love, someone who loved her through every flaw and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

Suddenly, Lucile was by her side. "Oh Lily, you forgot to take off your train! I don't want it to get dirty, you silly goose," she said, bustling around her friend to remove the long train attached to Lily's dress. "Look, I know you don't want to drag your eyes away from Scottie boy, but you're going to have to eventually. Now would be a good time, so that I can hug you."

Reluctantly, Lily ripped her gaze from her handsome husband and met eyes with her best mate. Lucile squealed girlishly and threw her arms around Lily. "We're married!" she cried. "I can't believe it! Excitement is not even the word to describe how I feel right now! That wedding was so beautiful; you're so beautiful Lily! Scott is entirely too lucky to have you."

The morning after Scott and Lily had gotten engaged, Lily had woken up to the ringing of her mobile. Samuel was on the other end, begging her to reconsider and move in with him. It had made her feel guilty to tell him she was now engaged. After that news left her lips, he hung up on her. She had heard from him six months later, in a letter, but that was all the contact they had had. When Scott had woken up later that morning and she told him of the offer Sam had made her the previous day, all he had done was hold her tightly, enveloping her in his body. "I can't believe I came so close to losing you. I'm such a wanker. I should have told you before you left last year." And that had been that.

Now, Scott would never lose her. She was his forever.

LWLWLWLWLWLWLWLWLW

Poems: Wedding Day Nerves by Stuart McFarlane, Married Love by anonymous

Here are the links:

GINNY'S DRESS: (in truffle) http// davidsbridal. Com /mother of bridedetail.jsp? stid2984 &prodgroup 59

SCOTT'S TUXEDO: (it's the third tuxedo style from the left, with the forth vest from the left, in silver) http:// ww w. afterhours. Com /createatux.html

LILY'S DRESS: (with marine accent) http/ww w. stid2839&prodgroup 10

LILY AND BRIDESMAID SHOES: (in marine)

http:// accessorydetail.jsp? stid2585&prodgroup174

BRIDESMAID DRESSES: (in marine) http:// ww w.davidsbridal. com/bridesmaids detail.jsp?stid2982&prodgroup110

You'll have to take the spaces out of the links.