I swear I didn't disappear! *Hides behind computer to avoid objects being thrown at her.* I am so sorry for such a long wait, but I hope to return to the normal one chapter every few days rate for the remaining chapters. I keep thinking it's going to end, but the part that comes next really doesn't seem to want to cooperate. Anyway, here's the end of the wedding, as promised. The wedding night *cough, cough* will be next chapter, and then there will be an epilogue. Thank you so much for sticking with me and for your lovely reviews. They make my day!

Chapter 25 – The Wedding, Part III

After a few songs, Harry tapped Severus on the shoulder, "can I steal a dance with the bride? I have a favor to ask her."

Severus stepped aside much less begrudgingly than Hermione expected, graciously muttering something about teaching Minerva a thing or two about how to dance properly. However, as he and the stately head of Gryffindor house slowly and gracefully circled the dance floor, he couldn't help but notice Hermione's eyes getting wider and wider as she listened to whatever Harry was saying. When he finished, she gave a little jump (he assumed to be one of joy) and almost ruined his moniker as the Boy Who Lived by squishing him in a tight embrace.

Before Severus could decide what to think of the situation, the song ended and Albus' magically magnified voice could be heard throughout the great hall.

"It is now time for the time-honored tradition of the bouquet toss. If someone could kindly locate the bride's bouquet?" As the maid of honor, Ginny grabbed Hermione's bouquet from the head table and hurried over to the corner of the room where Hermione and Harry were still standing. She handed them to Hermione and asked if she should begin corralling the other unattached females, but Hermione spoke to the room at large.

"In light of some special circumstances, we're going to do things a little differently this time." She preceded to hand her bouquet back to Ginny with a huge smile plastered across her face. Ginny's confusion was only heightened as the crowd gasped suddenly. She looked at Hermione questioningly, trying to ascertain what was happening, but Hermione's eyes had left her redheaded friend and were now looking down at something behind her. Ginny turned around, almost tripping over the kneeling form of Harry Potter, ring in hand, grinning madly and blushing to his ears. It was Ginny's turn to gasp as she fought back tears and Harry began to speak.

"In the last year we have all fought with everything we have to secure our right to the future we want. You are the only future I want. Ginevra Molly Weasley, will you marry me?"

Ginny nodded wordlessly, having lost the battle to tears after Harry's first sentence. The crowd applauded loudly as Harry slipped the ring onto her finger. Hermione, having snuck off after Ginny turned around to see Harry, snuggled into Severus' side. Everything was exactly how it was supposed to be. She couldn't have imagined a future this right even a month ago, but feeling the squeeze of her Severus' arms around her, she couldn't help but think that all the suffering they had all gone through had been absolutely worth it.

Having thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the merriment of all their friends, Hermione and Severus found themselves being pulled toward the door. However, it seemed as the world was conspiring against an expeditious exit. First Hagrid pulled Hermione aside, dragging her through the most uncoordinated attempt at a dance. While Hermione was carefully attempting to dodge Hagrid's thundering feet, she saw Sirius quietly approach Severus. Still worried about the tenuous relationship between the two former schoolmates, she tried to keep track of their conversation while dancing, but self preservation (or at least preservation of her toes) prevailed and she trusted her husband enough to keep things civil with Sirius…at least in front of this many witnesses.

Severus had been thoroughly enjoying his quiet corner, watching with a smile as his giggling bride was dragged across the dance floor by a less-than-coordinated half giant. However, his smile faded as he saw the imminently approaching Padfoot. Steeling himself for at best an awkward conversation and at worst a very unwelcome confrontation, he faced the incoming marauder with a blank face.

"Uh, Severus?" Sirius spoke nervously, as if he was dreading the conversation even though he was the one starting it. Severus didn't answer with words, but inclined his head to listen as his childhood tormenter spoke to somewhere in the vicinity of his chest.

"I wanted to officially apologize for," he took a breath while seeminly searching for the right way to phrase something, but gave an exhale of defeat and just said, "everything." Even Severus' extensive training as a spy couldn't completely mask his surprise as Sirius continued.

"Harry has filled me in over the last week on all the, um, events since I died. He told me everything you did to get us back, and, well, everything you had been doing all along…" Sirius seemed to be battling the urge to address his words in the general direction of Severus' shoes now, but he took a deep breath to steel his Gryffindor courage and looked him directly in the eye.

"I misjudged you. And I'm sorry." For a brief second the Slytherin in Severus was tempted to leave him hanging in his remorse, just for a few moments to watch him twist in the wind, but when he saw a flash of white in the corner of his eye, the sight of his wonderful, pure, second chance in life going dancing past was enough to keep the desire in check. Instead, Severus looked Sirius dead in the eye and extended his hand.

"It is all in the past now." Sirius followed the line of Severus' gaze as the two shook hands.

"You really love her, don't you?" Severus would not have expected it, but he could tell the honest sincerity in the marauder's question. He answered in kind.

"She is everything." Hearing this answer and Severus' tone of reverence as he watched Hermione, Sirius shifted awkwardly from foot to foot. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope and handed it to Severus, mumbling something about a wedding present. Severus opened the envelope and looked up at Sirius' face, now sporting an embarrassed half smile.

Sirius explained, "I didn't figure that you would want to spend your wedding night in the castle, and I know Hermione is muggle born so she should appreciate it."

"This is, to my knowledge, quite an expensive choice…" Severus' words straddled the boundary between statement and question.

"There is far too much gold in the Black family vault. You two are worth it." When Sirius heard the last sentence come out of his mouth, he quickly reddened and added a mumbled addendum. "Plus, I enjoy the summersaults Bellatrix must be doing in her grave knowing her family fortune is being used to fund the wedding night accommodations of Harry Potter's muggle-born best friend and the blood traitor, double agent that enabled the downfall of her precious Dark Lord."

At this, Severus' last wall of hesitation began to crack, and he allowed himself to smile and chuckle at the decidedly wonderful mental image at the rage this would provoke were Bellatrix to be alive to hear it.

"I'll drink to that." He saw the relieved smile on Sirius face and wondered just how much more history could be rewritten. Here he stood, exchanging jokes with his childhood nemesis, openly accepted by the members of the Order that surrounded him, married to a Gryffindor, and actually looking forward to his future for the first time in his adult life. How much better could things get? However, just as this thought hit him he saw Hermione walking toward him with an all-too-familiar smile on her face that reminded him what lay in store for them once they escaped the wedding to make use of the hotel key he held in his hand. Perhaps it can get even better than this.