Chapter 10: July, 2014

Melony turned away from the double doors leading into her reception room to see a lobby full of glossy-eyed muggles who were either wandering around dazed or standing and staring unseeing at the walls. Several witches and wizards were scurrying about performing cunfunding spells or guiding dazed muggles up to their rooms or to safe places where they could sit and recuperate.

Melony looked down to her left and saw the two men who had come with Malfoy sitting propped against the wall. They were awake but stunned and looked extremely beaten up. Melony guessed that some kind soul had moved them out of the way, but only after a few dozen people had trampled over them.

Melony started feeling dizzy and weak and grabbed onto the door for support. She started realizing that she hadn't really eaten all day and knew that she needed to sit down soon. Just as she realized this, Ron, Rose, and Al ran up frantically.

"Melony, what is going on?" Al asked.

"Where's Draco?" Melony asked weakly.

"Gone," Rose said. "Scorpius wasn't even here. He went home this morning."

"Why?"

Rose shrugged. "When he heard how furious his father was he got worried that he would be cut off and...chickened out."

Melony looked over at Ron who was beaming. "My girl knows how to stick to her guns," he said proudly. "Wouldn't see her backing out."

"I am so sorry, Melony," Rose continued, looking around the room. "I didn't mean for all of this to happen."

"Actually, all of this," Melony said, waving her hand around the room, "is your brother's doing."

"Hugo?"

Melony nodded.

"I'll be right back," Rose said in a sinister voice, and took off into the crowd.

A couple loud bangs and a huge crash could be heard coming from the other side of the double doors as soon as Rose left. Ron and Al moved to go inside, but Melony stopped them.

"No, don't," she said. "I think Mr. Potter and Hermione should do this on their own."

"They're in there fighting?" Ron asked.

Melony nodded and was trying to get the strength up to explain but she was interrupted by her mother who came flying out of the bathroom down the hall. In all of her life, Melony had never see her mother with a hair out of place, but at the moment she looked wild. Her hair was frizzed and falling out of her tight bun, and her meticulously pressed outfit was torn and ruffled. She was soon followed by Amy who looked frazzled, trying to get her mother back into the bathroom.

"I will not calm down, everything is a disaster!" Melony could hear her mother shout.

Amy said something quietly which Melony couldn't hear.

"I don't care!" Melony's mother said. "Where is your sister and her good-for-nothing-"

Melony's mother spun and spotted Melony who was still leaning against the door for support.

"There you are!" she said, marching over. "What a disaster! Everyone will be talking about this back home."

She made it to the little group, her face red. She was so angry she didn't even see Al until she was right in front of him

"How dare you!" she said to him. "How dare you bring your bizarre family drama into our wedding and ruin it! It's bad enough that you're-"

"Mom, please, not right now."

"Who was that man?"

"What?" Melony asked. It was getting really hard to concentrate.

"That tall pale man in the strange long robes who waltzed in here out of nowhere and-"

"You care more about that than the troll?"

"Troll?" Ron, and Al asked together.

"Are Harry and Hermione really in there fighting a troll?" Ron asked, looking longingly at the door.

"If you are referring to the man who hit you, than yes, I do care about that troll of a man." Melony's mother said. "Who hits a woman like that? Especially a bride on her wedding day!"

Melony looked at her sister confused.

"I was able to get mom out of there during the chaos that followed you getting hit," Amy explained.

"So she didn't see anything after that?"

"No, we've been in the bathroom the whole time," Amy said before leaning in to whisper, "was there really a troll?"

Melony nodded as another loud crash came from the room behind her. "Mr. Potter and Hermione are in there fighting it right now."

"Wow," Amy said looking at the closed door, her eyes bright.

"I demand to know how you are going to make up for all of this," Melony's mother said, pointing a stern finger at Al.

"Mother," Melony said, "can you help me find a chair? I am feeling very weak."

"Amy, get your sister a chair."

"I can't mom."

"Why not?"

"There aren't any chairs I can carry. You're going to have to help me lead her to one."

"Oh, very well!" her mother said exasperated. "But I will be back and we will discuss this," she said to Al.

Melony took hold of her mother and her sister. "Thanks," she whispered behind her mother's back to Amy.

"Of course," she whispered back.

"Where are we going?" Melony's mother demanded miffed, realizing that Melony was leading her toward the front of the lobby.

"Don't worry, mom. Soon everything will be better." Melony replied

Melony, her mother, and sister reached Fred just as he was finishing a cunfunding spell on a very irate aunt who was insisting she be let out of the building. As soon as her face went blank, Fred handed her off to a wizard waiting nearby who led her toward the elevators. Fred turned to face Melony and looked from her to her mother to her sister and then back to Melony raising his eyebrows.

"She's next," Melony said, gently guiding her mother closer to Fred.

Fred nodded solemnly, raised his wand to her mother's forehead and mumbled something under his breath. Immediately, her mother's shocked face went blank. She turned toward Melony and took in her ragged appearance.

"Melony, dear, you look horrible."

Melony sighed and took hold of her mother's arm. "Come on, mom. I'll take you upstairs."

"It's okay, Mel, I'll take her." Amy said.

Fred turned to look at Amy, and began to raise his wand.

"You better not be raising that thing to use on me," Amy said eyeing the wand in Fred's hand.

Fred hesitated and looked at Melony for confirmation.

"She's fine," Melony said.

Fred bowed toward Amy in apology. "Tell, me," he said after straightening up, "would you have believed that that was a sasquatch in there?"

"Didn't believe it last night at dinner and don't beleive it now," Amy said. "Once I put mom down I'll come back to help you," she continued, turning to Melony.

"Thanks," Melony said, relaxing slightly.

Amy gave Fred one last warning look before turning and leading her mother over to the elevators.

"So," Melony said turning back to Fred, "are you going to tell me how a troll got into my reception?"

Fred sighed. "You have no idea how bad we feel, Melony. We did not mean for this to happen at all. We didn't have time to take it back to the mountains where we got it and we couldn't leave it in Central Park so we decided that the best place to keep it was the ballroom."

"Why?"

"We figured that if someone came across it, they would assume it was a costume or prop. We sedated it with a heavy sleeping spell and put a lot of costumes and props around it. It was also pretty dark back behind the stage. I swear, we were planning on taking him back as soon as the party wound down, but the spell must have worn off and we got distracted with Malfoy showing up."

Melony looked around the room and took a deep breath. Fred winced, bracing himself, but Melony simply nodded.

"Okay," she said.

"That's it?" Fred asked after a long pause. "You're just...okay?"

"Yeah," said Melony tiredly. "It is what it is, can't do anything about it now. It's not like you guys did it on purpose."

"We didn't, Melony, I swear."

"Just make sure everyone gets home. Send the wizard guests out the back, away from the press, but only a few at a time. I don't expect the story to not get out, but maybe we can hold it off until tomorrow."

"Don't worry, we will take care of everything."

Melony nodded. "Okay, then I'm going to go sit down."

"Hey, Melony," Fred said as soon as Melony had turned to leave.

"Yeah?" Melony asked distracted.

"Is your sister as cool as you are?"

Melony spun to see Fred looking off to where Amy had disappeared.

"Don't you dare," Melony said, sticking her finger in Fred's face.

"Hey. I was just asking," Fred said smirking.

Melony gave Fred a knowing look, but decided she was too exhausted to do anything else about it. She needed to find somewhere to sit. Not only was she tired but by now the shock had worn off and she could feel all of the cuts and bruises she had sustained throughout the night. She plunged into the crowd, looking for a place to rest. She quickly found and unoccupied couch and sunk into the cushions, kicking her heels off her throbbing feet.

For the next forty-five minutes, Melony watched as the lobby slowly dwindled until the only people left were the Potters, the Weasleys, and her sister who had come down fifteen minutes earlier to sit with her. Melony's father had snuck upstairs unnoticed and uncunfunded, but Melony didn't care. It allowed Amy to come down and be with her. The noises from the ballroom had long since stopped and Mr. Potter and Hermione had emerged looking haggard but triumphant. They were now in the bar with the rest of the family who were reminiscing and laughing loudly. They had all at one point or another invited Melony to join them, but each time she had politely declined. She was enjoying sitting with her own sister, reminiscing. They had a lot to catch up on.

One by one the family started to leave. Teddy was first. He gave Melony a big hug, promised to send her pictures soon and thanked her for the most exciting wedding ever.

"Always happy to oblige," Melony said chuckling.

"I can't wait to see how the pictures turn out. I think they will be very...fun."

"For our eyes only, right?"

"Well, your eyes and maybe a close friend's eyes," Teddy said, a twinkle in his eye.

Melony laughed and gave him another hug, making him promise to come out and visit soon.

After Teddy was Rose. She gave Melony a long, affectionate hug before looking over her wedding dress with concern.

"Oh, Melony, I can fix that for you if you'd like."

Melony looked over her tattered, blood-stained dress and smiled. "No, it's okay," she said. "I kind of like it. Makes it unique."

"Well, that's certainly true," Rose said laughing. "I'm really glad Al found you, Melony. He needed you."

Melony looked deeply at Rose. "You know, Rose," she said, "New York is a great place to start over. It worked for Al."

Rose nodded, looking around. "Yeah," she said slowly. "I'll have to think about that. Tell Al I'll be out to visit soon."

"He's not in there with you guys?"

"No, I think he was driving people home."

Melony nodded and gave Rose one last hug before she turned and disappeared.

After Rose had vanished, Fred and Hugo came strolling out of the bar toward Melony. They each gave Melony a hug and Hugo shook Amy's hand, but Fred gave her a hug too, winking at Melony behind Amy's back. They moved off into the ballroom to retrieve their troll and never came back out.

Lily, Hermione, Ron, Mrs. Potter, and Mr. Potter mosied in a few minutes later, also heading for the ballroom. Melony offered to join them because she knew that they were going to go in and clean up, but they refused her help. She didn't press the issue because she knew that they would be using magic anyway which meant she wouldn't be much help.

Melony and Amy were now the only ones left in the quiet lobby. Melony sighed deeply and leaned back into the couch, closing her eyes. She was on the verge of drifting off when a soft kiss on her forehead roused her. She opened her eyes to see Al smiling down at her.

"Hello, Mrs. Potter."

"Hello, Mr. Potter."

Amy stood and stretched. "Al, you take my place," she said. "I'm going to go upstairs and see how mom is doing."

"Thanks, Amy," Al said, hugging her. "For everything."

"Of course. You will take care of her."

"Always."

Amy smiled and patted him on the back before heading to the elevators and disappearing upstairs.

Al sighed heavily as he slumped into the seat next to Melony. It occurred to Melony that Al had not had a chance to sit all day.

"Rose told me you were taking people home," Melony said, resting her head on his shoulder. "Everyone get home okay?"

"Yeah, it was just my cop buddies. I'm sorry we had to end up cunfunding everyone. I really hated doing that to them. The drive was...weird. I think you are corrupting me against magic."

"Only certain kinds," Melony said, chuckling.

The two sat in silence, staring at the wall and absorbing the quiet calm that can only come after a storm. Melony sat and thought about everything that had happened the past couple of months. Her world had drastically changed since then. She tried to remember what her life had been like before the Potters had shot through her fireplace and into her life, but she couldn't. She couldn't even imagine not knowing.

And now she was married. Married to this family; married to Al.

Melony's smile grew wider, and she began chuckling. Soon, she was doubled up in laughter, tears welling up in her eyes.

Al leaned back in shock, looking at her. "What's wrong?" he asked concerned. "Why are you laughing?"

Melony shook her head, unable to speak. Al remained silent, waiting for her to catch her breath. Melony closed her eyes, took a deep breath and leaned back shaking her head.

"It's over," she said. "It's all over."

Al looked down at her for a long time before he too, started to smile as his whole body relaxed. "You're right," he said. "It's over."

He grabbed her hand, pulling her up.

"Let's go home."

The End