Chapter 6: July, 2014

It took three whole hours of Melony pacing up and down her tiny livingroom before Al texted her, "Everything okay, heading home, see you tomorrow."

Melony had an extremely stressful night of tossing and turning. Not only was she stressed about everything getting done for the wedding, but now she was worried that some huge wizarding fight was going to break out and her family would be caught in the middle of it.

What made matters worse was that Mrs. Potter had insisted on taking over all of the last minute wedding details so Melony had the entire next morning to fret with nothing to distract her. Thankfully, her parents and sister were arriving in the afternoon which gave her something to focus on, but after only spending half-an-hour with them, she was more stressed than ever.

"I hope his family is on board with all of our wedding plans," her mother said for the hundredth time. "I hope they haven't changed too much."

"We are still getting married at the church," Melony said, knowing full well what her mom was really after. "But I do have to warn you, his family is a bit...eccentric."

"Eccentric? You mean they're odd."

"Well, sort of. Their customs are just different."

"How different?"

"Don't worry, mom, everything will go as planned."

"I hope so. We have family coming from a long way for this."

"I know, mom."

Melony's mother turned back toward the hotel closet where she continued to hang up her clothes as Melony sunk onto the bed. She glanced over at her dad who was still hidden behind his newspaper. She wasn't worried about him making a fuss-he hardly ever said anything-but he was very observant. It would be harder to convince him that Al's family was simply odd and not...anything else.

"Mel," her sister, Amy, said sitting on the bed next to her, "Everything will be fine. I'll keep an eye on mom."

"Thank you," Melony said, sighing. "It won't be easy, though. I don't think she's going to like Al's family."

"She doesn't like most people," Amy said chuckling. "Al's family must be pretty out there for you to be more worried than usual."

"Yeah, well, they're just...not like us."

"I'll handle it. Anything you need. I feel bad that I haven't been around to help, especially since I'm your maid of honor."

"That's okay, it hasn't been too bad. Al's mom has been handling most of it. Actually, if you could talk to her tonight and find out how everything is going, that would be great."

"You got it."

Melony gave her sister a big hug, then stood a stretched. "I'm going to let you guys rest up before the rehearsal," she said. "I'll be back to pick you up."

"Okay, dear," her mother said, kissing her on the cheek. "Don't be late."

"I won't. Bye, pops,"

Melony's dad grunted from behind his newspaper.

"Bye, Mel," Amy said. "You should get some rest too."

Melony gave a quick nod before hurrying out of the hotel and over to the church to get some last minute prayers in.

Two hours later Melony and her family walked back into the church which was located two blocks from the hotel. The rehearsal wasn't until five thirty, but Melony knew that her mother would hate it if they were not the first ones there, so they ended up waiting for twenty minutes in silence before Al and his family burst in. Within seconds, the church went from seeming massive and empty to small and crowded.

"Hi, honey," Al said, kissing Melony.

"Hi, how is everything?"

Al glanced back at his parents, Lily, James, Fred and Hugo who were pointing at the large pipes lining the walls and discussing loudly how they worked.

"Everything is okay for now," Al said turning back. "Very tense, but okay."

"What happened after I left?"

"Hugo, Fred and I were able to break up most of the fighting with some stunning spells while Aunt Hermione dragged Uncle Ron away. Once he was gone, it was easy to convince Rose and Scorpius to also leave. After that it was mainly damage control."

"Was the room really messed up?"

"Yeah, it was bad. But the good thing about being Potters is that we can pretty much get away with anything. My dad spoke to the owner and smoothed everything over. I think it cost a lot, but at least they aren't angry with us. We spent most of today dealing with the Daily Prophet. Lily was a huge help, but the story is still out."
"Do you think the press is going to disrupt the wedding?"

"I don't know. It is classified as a muggle event so they might stay away, but it's a pretty big story. Just in case, don't talk to anyone you don't know about the wedding, okay?"

Melony nodded and took a deep, settling breath. She couldn't afford to be worried about a horde of wizards bombarding the wedding with cameras, so she shoved it to the back of her mind. Hopefully, nothing would happen.

"Hey, your family knows that my family doesn't know about you guys, right?"

"Yeah, we discussed it. Are you sure you don't want to tell them?"

Melony nodded. "For right now, yes. My mom wouldn't understand and it would make everything that much more complicated."

"Yeah, well, keeping them in the dark may be harder than you think."

Al looked beyond Melony to her family looking slightly worried which made Melony spin around to see her mother staring down the Potters with a mix of disgust and confusion while her sister and father were closely studying them, as if trying to solve a puzzle.

"I better introduce them before they try to introduce themselves," Melony said.

"Good idea."

Al and Melony headed over to her family. Al shook her father's hand, hugged her sister and politely nodded toward her mother.

"Hello, Mrs. Clark," Al said. "How are you this evening?"

"I'm alright, thank you, Albus. How are you?"

"I'm good, thank you. How was your flight?"

"Fine. Are those your parents?"

"Yes," said Al before turning his head and calling over his shoulder. "Mum!"

"What?" Mrs. Potter called back before seeing that Al was standing with Melony and her family. "Oh! Melony's parents!"

She scurried over to the group with the rest of the Potter's trailing behind her. "Hello, how are you?" she asked as she hugged each one of the stunned Clarks. "It is so great to finally meet you! I am Ginny, and this is Al's father, Harry, and these are our other two children, Lily and James, and Al's cousins, Fred and Hugo."

Mr. Potter shook Melony's father's hand while the rest of the Potters gave slight waves of acknowledgement.

"Good to meet you," Melony's mother said, smoothing out her dress. "How was your flight here?"

"Our flight?" Mrs. Potter asked looking at Al who gave her a wide-eyed look. "Ah, yes, the flight in the big metal bird, yes, we just love flying in those...things."

Melony's mother gave Mrs. Potter a close once over. Even though the Potters were dressed in passable Muggle garb-a feat, Melony was sure, was accomplished by Al-they were looking a bit shabby for being in a church and Melony knew that her mother was not thrilled about it. She could also tell that the Potters were picking up on this since Mrs. Potter was squirming, Lily was shrinking and James was looking angrier and more annoyed than usual.

Melony grabbed Al's hand and squeezed, signaling for him to distract his family.

"Oh, look," he said, "Neville and Luna are here. Mum, dad, why don't we go show them around?"

"Good idea!" said Mrs. Potter brightening. "It was so good to meet you," she said to Melony's parents.

Melony's parents nodded and the Potters took off to great Neville and Luna.

"Look at what they are wearing!" Melony's mother said a little too loudly as the Potters walked away. "They can not possibly think that what they are wearing is appropriate. I hope they will be properly dressed tomorrow. And look at what those two are wearing!"

Melony glanced over at Neville and Luna who were receiving a nasty stare from her mother. Neville-who obviously had had no help in getting dressed-was wearing bermuda shorts, stockings, flip-flops, and an "I Heart New York" tee-shirt that was three times too small. Luna was in her usual flower-print dress and red rainboots, her bangles jingling as she waved her arms about.

"I'm sure they will be better tomorrow," Melony said. "I'll talk to Al about it."

"Well, make sure you do, I don't want…"

Thankfully, Melony would not find out what her mother didn't want because right at that moment, the priest walked in with the rest of the wedding party, and they were able to get the rehearsal underway.

The rest of the rehearsal went fairly smoothly. Al's family had minimal roles since they had been added so late, so there wasn't much confusion on their part. The only tricky spot was when several people noticed that Neville was rooting around in the back pews. When asked what he was doing, he popped up and declared that he had lost his wand. Thankfully, he looked so crazy that everyone simply stared at him with confusion and pity.

The rehearsal dinner didn't go off quite as smoothly. After everyone was finally able to make it to the restaurant and get seated, they ran into a little bit of trouble when Al's family tried to order things that were not only not on the menu but items no one had ever heard of. It took an hour and multiple translations before an extremely frustrated waitress left with everyone's order. Most of the confusion was able to be brushed off as a cultural difference (at one point, someone overheard Luna state that she didn't have any sickles on her and Fred and Hugo were able to convince the person that that was what the English called shingles), but Melony could tell that that excuse was wearing thin. Her sister especially kept shooting her questioning looks, which were getting harder and harder to avoid.

So," Amy said, turning to Fred and Hugo after everyone had ordered. "What have you guys been up to for the past couple of days? Have you been able to go around New York much?"

"A little," said Hugo. "We went to Central Park today."

"Pulled a great prank on the Muggles," said Fred.

"The who?"

"Er…," Fred and Hugo said in unison, looking at each other.

"Tourists," Melony jumped in. "That's what they call tourists."

"Really," Amy said to Melony in a tone that conveyed that she did not buy it.

"Yeah," said Fred, "because they're always mugging everything up."

"Anyway," Hugo said quickly, "we convinced some tourists that we were there to release a bigfoot into the woods."

"It was great," Fred said. "Got pictures and everything."

"You photoshopped some pictures and showed them to people and they bought it?" Amy asked.

"No, we showed them the big foot and took a video picture of their reactions," Fred said, handing over a phone to Amy.

"Wow," said Amy as she watched a couple of tourists gently poke at what was clearly a very hairy troll. "That's really good. How did you get this guy to look like that?"

"A prankster never reveals his secrets," said Fred proudly as he took the phone back.

"Is that Al's phone?" Melony said before Amy could ask any more questions.

"Yeah, he showed us how to take video pictures on it," Hugo said.

"So much better than regular pictures," Fred piped in.

Before Any could respond to this, one of Al's groomsmen turned to Melony. "What is a Hungarian Horntail?" he asked.

"A what?" Melony said.

"A Hungarian Horntail," the groomsman said. "That lady was discussing it with that gentleman."

Melony, Amy, Fred, and Hugo all looked down the table to where the groomsman was pointing and saw Neville and Luna with their heads bend together in intense conversation.

"Um…," Melony said, at a loss.

"It's a slang term for an Hungarian fellow, mate," Hugo said.

"Yeah, means a big brute of an Hungarian," Fred said.

"Hey!" Hugo shouted down at Neville and Luna. "You two discussing Hungarian Horntails?"

"Yeah," Neville said excitedly. "We were talking about the time Harry took one out."

"Took one out," the groomsman-who happened to be Al's old partner on the force-said. "He killed one?"

"Well, no, didn't kill one...just defeated it," Neville said, stumbling under the glare of the police officer. "Stole its egg."

"He stole an egg from a Hungarian Horntail? Why?"

"For a contest. Hey, Harry!" Neville shouted to the opposite end of the table where Harry was. "Tell us about taking down that Hungarian Horntail our fourth year."

"Let me get this straight," the groomsman said before Harry had a chance to answer, "you stole an egg off of a Hungarian Horntail when you were in the fourth grade for a bet?"

"No, when they say fourth year they mean fourth year of middle school," Melony said. He was fourteen."

"You took on a big Hungarian Horntail as a fourteen year old?"

"Sure did," Harry said a little proudly. "You know about Hungarian Horntails?"

"Yeah, they just told me," the groomsman said pointing to Hugo and Fred who were enjoying themselves immensely.

"Oh," said Harry, taken aback, "well, then, in that case...yeah, this one was huge. A real nasty one."

"That pretty impressive," the groomsman said. "What did you get for it?"

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"They said you did it for some type of contest. What was the contest for?"

"Oh, it was just a tournament set up by our school and a couple others. It was supposed to unite us with the other schools."

"Your school put you up to it? Wow, things are really different over there."

"Oh, don't worry, they've since gotten rid of it," Harry said.

"Tell him how you did it, Uncle Harry," Hugo said.

Melony shot him an angry look, but Hugo was much too delighted to be affected by it.

"It was pretty simple, actually," Harry said. "I outmaneuvered her with my broomstick."

"Her?" the groomsman asked.

"A broomstick?" someone else piped in.

"Wait, this guy beat someone with a broom for a school contest?" A third person broke in.

"What's a Hungarian Horntail?" one of Melony's bridesmaids asked.

"It's a slang term for a big Hungarian fellow," the groomsman said. "Or, in this case, a big Hungarian lady."

"What?" Harry asked confused as Hugo and Fred doubled up in laughter.

"Oh, look! The food is here!" Melony shouted loudly.

With all of the confusion that followed in straightening out who got what, the Hungarian Horntail discussion was dropped and forgotten. Melony sighed and put her head in her hands. If this was an indication of what tomorrow was going to be like, she didn't know if she could handle it.

"That was close," she heard Al say softly beside her. "Cunfunding is sounding a whole lot better, isn't it?"

"No," Melony said, lifting her head out of her hands and glaring at Fred and Hugo, "but I think we are going to need to find better cover-up men."