Here it is, part 2 of the wedding in France!
A lot happens in this chapter, please tell me what you think!
Enjoy xx

wildest dreams
VOLUME II

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

"So, the wedding's at three but the reception starts at one, so you have to be there before that, let's say around noon. You have everything you need?"

We nodded, and Myron, Kirley, Heathcote and Herman walked into the hotel, leaving us outside.

"Guess what?" George said, as we sat down on a bench facing the water.

"What?"

It was dark, but it wasn't cold – the breeze was warm, and made our hair dance. I settled my head on his shoulder, playing with his fingers.

"Heathcote told me, if we wanted someone to play at the opening of the shop, they could do it."

I gasped, looking up at him.

"That's brilliant!"

"I know, right?" grinned George. "I can't believe it. It's going to be huge."

I stole him a quick kiss, feeling ecstatic for him. I couldn't wait myself for the opening of the shop – there was still a long way to go, but the journey was just as great as the destination. We stayed on the bench for a while, and we started getting really sleepy, decided to go upstairs.

We entered the lobby, which was very quiet, and as we were about to go up the stairs, saw a small family get inside one of those machines – the elevators. I grinned, glancing at George.

"Want to try it?" I asked him.

"You read my mind, gorgeous."

We placed ourselves in front of the golden doors. There was only one button – so George pressed it, and we waited, giggling like children. After a minute or so, the doors finally opened. We entered the small cubicle, looking around in fascination.

"They've got them at the Ministry. You'll have to get used to them," said George.

I glanced at the panel – there were several numbers from 00 to 16, which I could guess were floor numbers. I pressed the '8' button and the doors closed shortly after.

The cubicle shifted – I squeezed George's hand harder, holding back a scream. He started laughing when he saw my face.

"They are not very sa – ah!"

The machine had stopped, and I felt as if my heart was burst out my chest.

"Bloody Merlin, let's get out of here," I muttered.

We stepped out of the elevator, whose doors closed behind us. George was still laughing at me.

"Stop laughing!"

But now that I was out of the elevator, I felt much better and started smiling myself – we got into our room and took off our shoes. Then we stared at each other in silence.

"What do we do now?" I said awkwardly.

"I guess we go to bed. We have to rest for tomorrow."

"Right, of course."

I ignored his smile and went to grab my pajamas from my bag. I then headed for the bathroom – his voice stopped me.

"Where are you going?"

"The bathroom," I said, frowning.

"Why?" he asked, sitting on the bed.

"To play Quidditch," I replied sarcastically.

"Why don't you get changed here?"

I felt the blood drain out of my face.

"Why would I do that?"

"C'mon. You're not a prude, are you?"

"George!"

He only smiled. I bit my lip, considering the situation. But I couldn't help a small smile to spread on my face.

"Fine. But you better not say anything funny, or the show's over. And I expect you to get changed as well –"

I hadn't even finished my sentence that he quickly took off his shirt and trousers – and sat back on the bed, only wearing his underwear.

"I – I – all right," I blabbered.

I was nervous I was almost shaking – I knew I had no real reason to be nervous – I knew George better than anyone else, and I knew he wouldn't do anything mean. But he had never seen me in my underwear – bloody hell, nobody had ever seen me in my underwear – except the girls in my dorm, but that was nothing, nothing like this.

I unzipped the side of my dress, letting it slide on the floor. I instantly covered myself, but George was already up and walking towards me. He took my hands, untangling my arms, and looked at me straight in the eyes.

"You're beautiful."

And so I kissed him, because there was nothing else in the world that mattered more than me and him at that moment.

"Morning."

I smiled sleepily, looking at his face, half-buried in the sheets. The light of the sun pierced through the curtains, shedding its light on the room to create a golden hue. I felt his foot brush mine, and I wrapped my leg around his. I could have stayed like that forever, half asleep, the softness of the sheets against my skin, sharing smiles and quiet words with him, but soon we heard a few knocks on the door.

"Have we overslept?" I asked.

"I don't think so."

He turned to glance at his watch.

"It's only half past ten."

"Who could it be, then?"

"I'll go."

I watched him get up, grab a t-shirt and walk to the door. I closed my eyes as I heard him open the door and exchange a few words with whoever it was – and soon the door closed again.

"Adds, look at that."

I straightened up, rubbing my eyes, and looked at what he was pointing. It was some kind of small trolley, covered by a white tablecloth – and on it, food. Lots of food.

"Bloody hell" I muttered, my voice rusty from sleep. "Where did that come from?"

"No idea. He just said that he was there to deliver breakfast."

I looked at the trolley from the bed, in awe of all the delicious food. I gasped.

"Are those pancakes?"

George chuckled, and brought the trolley over so that we could eat in bed. We slowly ate breakfast, exchanging thoughts about the wedding and thinking about the others, still at Hogwarts, wondering what they were doing.

"I am going to be awfully behind homework," I muttered.

"Don't think about that" said George, shaking his head.

"I can't help it. I've got two rolls of parchment to do for –"

"Adds."

He had put his hand on my thigh, raising his eyebrows at me.

"Stop."

I sighed, putting my hand on his.

"You're right. Sorry."

I slid my fingers between his, and bent down to settle my head on his chest. I smiled softly to myself as his other hand went into my hair.

"I could get used to his, y'know."

"What?" he said, and I felt his breath on my neck.

"This. You, me, this place… nothing to worry about, no… homework, no evil pink woman."

"It'll be like that one day."

"You think?"

"I know it'll be. I mean, it won't be this place exactly. But we'll have somewhere. Somewhere that belongs to us."

I didn't dare look up at him, my eyes fixed on our intertwined hands. Did he really mean it? That one day, life would be like this? That we would have our own little place?

"I've been thinking about that more and more" he said quietly.

"What?"

"Life. After Hogwarts."

This time, I looked up at him – but he was deadly serious, like he only very rarely was.

"You have?" I asked him faintly.

"Yeah. I mean, it's coming fast."

"I guess it is."

It was, and I knew it even though I rarely thought about it – it just seemed to me like Hogwarts would last forever. But George was right – the end was coming fast. Perhaps I needed to think more about it. It reminded me of what Fred had told Ron at the beginning of the term – about how they had thought of not going back to Hogwarts.

I wanted to ask him about it, instead of avoiding it like I had done the past weeks, and what he had been thinking about exactly, what he had decided, maybe – but then the alarm clock on the nightstand table started to ring. We had set it for 11:30, to give us enough time to get ready before noon. I groaned, slightly unhappy at the idea of having to get out of bed, but I was too excited for the reception and ceremony to be too grumpy, so I jumped out of bed and started getting ready.

George was ready in 15 minutes, but I was still in the hair and makeup process. He sat on the bed, watching my every move.

"I dunno about this," I sighed as I looked in the mirror after finishing my hair. "D'you reckon I should wear it up? Or maybe straighten it?"

"Are you seriously asking me?"

"Yes!"

"I think it looks great."

"What looks great?"

"This – the hair you already have."

I squinted my eyes at him.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I am. You look great, Adds, you always do."

I sighed, looking once again into the mirror and at my curly, dark blonde hair. This will have to do. I turned to George – he was opening the drawers of the nightstand.

"I just have to put on the dress and I'll be ready."

"All right."

I grabbed the dress from my bag and ran into the bathroom as George grabbed a book from inside the drawer and started reading it. Closing the door behind me, I laid down the dress on the counter – Angelina had cast a Unwrinkling spell on it. Taking off my pajamas, I slid on the dress – it was a pale pink knee-length dress, with lace on the collar. It was very simple but I liked it that way – it wasn't my wedding, after all. After smoothing it and fixing the last bits and bobs, I got out of the bathroom. George was still ready that book, looking a little confused.

"You ready?" I asked, putting on my shoes.

"Yeah, in a minute."

I approached the bed, amused at his state.

"What're you reading?"

He looked up at me – his expression immediately changed.

"Rubbish, really," he said, throwing the book behind his shoulder and standing up. "Wow, Adds, you look incredible."

I smiled, blushing slightly – I really couldn't get used to him complimenting me. He did in a way that always made me feel special, like the only thing in the world that really mattered – how could one get used to that?

He slid his hands around my waist, kissing me softly, lovingly.

"It would be even better if that dress was white," he whispered in my ear.

I glared at him.

"George."

"I'm only joking."

He kissed me again.

"Or am I?"

I gave him a nudge, and we both started chuckling, even thought my heart was beating a little fast.

"Let's go. We don't want to be late," I said.

I grabbed his hand, and we made our way down to the reception, laughing, our hearts beating as one.

When I woke up the next morning – or should I say, afternoon –, I felt as if I had been trampled by a hippogriff – or maybe twelve. Groaning, I reached for the alarm clock to see what time it was – it was a quarter past noon. Pushing my dishelved hair away from my face, I took look at George who was lying down next to me – he was still deep asleep, his mouth slightly opened, and his left cheek was all black, like something had exploded in front of his face. Frowning, I reached it to see what it was, but as soon as my finger touched his face George woke up in a jolt.

"Huh? What?"

"Sorry" I said with a raspy voice. "You've got dirt on your face."

He looked at me as if I had gone mad – but then he rubbed his cheek, and looked at his finger – his lips stretched into a smile, and he started chuckling.

"Fireworks," he simply said when he saw my confused expression.

I stared at him for a few seconds, until it all came back to me – yes, George had tried to set up fireworks the night before, but had stumbled on something and it exploded in his face. I snorted, pushing my head into the pillow. What a night it had been. I honestly couldn't remember all of it – but I remembered enough.

We stayed in bed for a while, reminiscing the previous night. Neither of us wanted to get up – firstly because it would mean going back to Hogwarts, but mostly because we felt exhausted, sick and generally awful. But at some point we had to get dressed and pack, because Flich was expecting us at the gates at exactly 2pm.

I lazily put on a pair of jeans and a Weird Sisters t-shirt and we went downstairs to grab a bite before leaving, walking hand in hand. I quietly observed George as we ate – he was still the same George as before. The same tall, ginger, crazy, hilarious George – but it was like he was a whole new person. I had never known him as well as I did at that moment, and he never knew me as well – we were so in sync, so completely together. It was an incredible feeling – a feeling I didn't want to go away. I hoped it wouldn't.

A hour later I hugged my uncle goodbye – I suspected he was still half-asleep, as he was wearing his largest sunglasses – and soon we were walking through the park. It was a beautiful day – sunny, warm – so almost everyone was outside, enjoying the weather.

We were near the Pitch when we saw Angelina, Fred, Alicia, Ron and Harry coming out of the changing room – it looked like practice had just finished. We hurried up to catch up with them, smiling, our hands intertwined, still in that sort of hazy, dream-like state, where nothing could possibly reach us.

It was a harsh return to reality.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR BLOODY STUPID BUSINESS, FRED, IF IT'S MORE IMPORTANT THAN QUIDDITCH THAN –"

"THAN WHAT? THAN, WHAT, ANGELINA? YOU'RE GOING TO THROW ME OUT?"

"I MIGHT VERY WELL DO THAT IF YOU KEEP BEHAVING LIKE THIS!"

"WELL, FINE!"

"FINE!"

We stared at Angelina as she stormed away, stomping her feet – Alicia quickly followed her. Fred stood there, fists clenched. I exchanged a look with George, and we approached him. I didn't really know what to say – and nudged George in the ribs, so that he would. He cleared his throat.

"You all right, mate?"

Fred turned to us in surprise – his angered features instantly softened, and his lips broke into a smile.

"You're back!"

"What the bloody hell was that, Fred?"

He only shrugged. I saw Ron and Harry walk away quietly.

"How was the wedding?"

"It was great, but Fred – seriously, what was that? What happened?"

His shoulders lowered – me and George sat down at the table to join him.

"We were at practice, and – y'know, Katie couldn't be there because she had something with Flitwick, and you weren't there either" he said, gesturing to George, "so I told Angelina that it was no use having practice, with two players missing. She made a fuss, says I don't care about the team anymore because of the business."

"What?" exclaimed George.

I stayed silent – I didn't want to take sides.

"I know! She's been on my back all weekend. Anyway, you guys have to tell me everything. How was France? How was the food?"

I knew there was no use trying to change the subject – when Fred didn't want to talk about something, he just didn't. So we told him everything about our weekend as we walked back to the Common Room – well, almost everything.

I was eager to talk to Angelina and Alicia, so when we got to the Common Room, I quickly hugged Lee and asked him where they were – in our dormitory. I ran upstairs to find them sitting on Angelina's bed – she was crying, surrounded by used tissues, and Alicia was stroking her back.

"Addy!" exclaimed Alicia.

"Hey, Addy," said Angelina with a small smile.

I dropped my bag and hurried to her, hugging her tightly.

"Oh, Angie! I'm so sorry! Do you want me to go and kick Fred's arse right now?"

"How do you know this is about him?"

"I saw what happened – we had just arrived, and we wanted to say hello, and…"

"Oh, bugger," she cried out. "Everyone must have heard that, I feel like such an idiot!"

"We've been over this, Angie," said Alicia. "You're not an idiot."

"Absolutely not."

"I don't know why I keep overreacting like this! Usually, I can keep a cool head with that kind of thing – but when it's him, I just – I just – I can't help it!"

She broke into tears – I held her close, as Alicia kept stroking her back. I kept my reflexion to myself – it was clear to me that Angelina kept reacting like that to everything Fred did because she still liked him – of course she did. She probably never stopped liking him. I sighed – this had to stop. I would make it my mission.

We stayed in the dormitory until dinner, trying to lift Angelina's spirits – I told her about the wedding, and about the fireworks that had exploded in George's face – she laughed at that, but I could see that she was still sad. She was very quiet when we entered the Great Hall and sat down at our usual places. My eyes fell on the pink spot at the staff table – I groaned.

"I'd nearly forgotten about her. Nearly."

Lee chuckled.

"She was furious when she learned about you going away for the weekend."

"She was?" said George.

"Oh, yeah. Pam heard her throwing a fit in McGo's office. Apparently, you had 'no right to leave the castle without the High Inquisitator's authorization'."

I snickered at Lee's impression of Umbridge.

"But Dumbledore gave us authorization," George said, shaking his head.

"That's what McGo told her" said Alicia. "But she was mad, I tell you. I'd remain quiet for the next few days if I was you. She's going to be watching you like a hawk."

"Merlin" I muttered.

I turned to the staff table – and froze when I realized that Umbridge was looking right at me. I quickly looked away, shoving George who was laughing. Alicia was smirking, but her expression suddenly changed – I frowned, and wanted to ask her what was going on, but I soon had my answer.

"Hey, Alicia."

I glanced behind my shoulder to see Ethan there, smiling widely. Smirking, I turned to Alicia who seemed a little uncomfortable.

"Hey, Ethan," she mumbled.

He slightly blushed, and quickly walked away. Fred and George burst out laughing. I shook my head.

"Oh, stop it," I told them.

"What is up with him?" groaned Alicia. "He doesn't talk to me for seven years, and now he hasn't stopped saying hello every time we see each other."

I shrugged, remembering my promise to Ethan.

"Maybe he's changed. He's not a bad bloke, y'know."

"You sure he's not a cold-blooded killer who wants to lurk her in the woods?" snickered Fred.

I ignored him.

"He probably just wants to be nice. Maybe he fancies you."

Alicia made a face, as Angelina suddenly stood up and walked away from the table. All our laughter died down, as we looked at her go.

"Ugh," I groaned. "This has got to stop! Fred, you have to talk to her!"

"What? Why me?!"

"Because you're the one that's been causing all of this!"

"It's not my fault she's so –"

"Shut it! I'm asking you to start snogging her again, just talk to her! At least so you two are on agreeable terms, so that you at least be in the same room. This has gotten out of hand."

"She's right, mate," nodded Lee.

There was a short silence as Fred all looked at us. After a while, he sighed loudly, stood up and walked away as well. This time, we stayed silent. George glanced at me, squeezing my hand, in a way that seemed to tell me 'I will talk to him'.

I tried to finish my plate, but I just didn't feel hungry anymore – so I told the others I was heading to bed, tired from the journey home. I squeezed George's hand before heading out of the Great Hall, wanting nothing else than going into bed.

But of course it couldn't be that easy – and just as I was passing through the Entrance Hall I met Graham Montague.

"Oh, hello, Harlowe. Back from your little holiday?"

I just wanted to ignore him, but then noticed something about the Quidditch uniform he was wearing – I felt my heart skip a beat. He snickered at my expression.

"Are you – have you –"

"That's right, Harlowe. I'm the new Slytherin captain."

"How is that even possible?"

"Flint wanted me to have the spot."

I couldn't hold back a chuckle. Marcus Flint – not the cleverest wizard in Hogwarts.

"Ah. That explains it" I sneered.

He didn't seem to like that – his arrogant smile faded and he took a step towards me, trying to look threatening – trying.

"Laugh all you want, Mudblood. We'll see who laughs when Slytherin crushes your pathetic team in November."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" I smiled. "I can't wait to see you try."

I knew that it was a waste of time to stay – so I simply turned on my heels and disappeared in the Grand Staircase. I couldn't wait to be in bed.

When I woke up the next morning Angelina and Alicia were talking quietly on the latter's bed. I joined them, rubbing my eyes.

"Morning."

"Morning, Adds" said Alicia with a smile.

"How are you feeling?" I asked Angelina.

"I was just telling Ali that me and Fred had a talk last night."

My eyes widened.

"You did?! What happened?"

She smiled.

"I couldn't sleep, and so I went down to the Common Room to get some air, y'know – and he was sitting there by the fire. I was going to go back to bed, I didn't want to talk to him – but then, he asked me to stay. That he wanted to tell me a few things."

"Did he tell you why he broke up with you?"

"He did. But it's between him and me, y'know. He asked me not to talk about it."

"That's all right, Angie."

"He said that he was sorry about the way he acted, that he was an idiot. He said that he never wanted to hurt me, not really."

Angelina's eyes were glistening with tears – I squeezed her hand.

"So?" asked Alicia.

"So that's it. We talked for a long time. But we agreed that we didn't want things to be awkward, for either of us or for any of you, and that we would try to be friends again."

"And is that what you want?" I asked her gently.

She shrugged.

"I don't know. But it's still better than fighting all the time. I think – I think it's for the best, y'know? For you, for him, and for me."

I smiled.

"As long as you're happy, Angie."

The three of us hugged, as the early rays of sunshine started to fill the room.