A/N: This story was written as part of #HHBingo22. It fulfilled the square G3: "Desigining a BINGO card to go along with my maid of honor speech." - TFR Writing Prompts from Pinterest.
I'd like to xxDustNight88 for prereading this piece in the mess that it was before I got it to Grammarly.
I do hope you enjoy!
Love always,
~starr
Hermione took one last look around the banquet hall with a smile on her face, letting out a sigh of relief. By the grace of Merlin, this larger-than-life wedding was going to happen, and everything was going to be perfect, at least if Hermione had anything to say about it. Everything was ready for the caterer and florist to put the finishing touches on in the morning.
"I hope this is everything Pansy's dreaming of," Hermione mumbled quietly. The sheer amount of hours thrown into planning this wedding, down to the last second of the evening as Pansy and Tony enjoy one last dance without the crowd of guests staring at them awkwardly.
"I'm sure Pansy will love what you've done with this place."
The additional voice echoing around the room startled Hermione, catching her off guard. She spun toward the voice with her hand clutched to her chest and eyes wide. Seeing Bruce standing in the doorframe brought a rush of relief over her body, and she let out an exasperated sigh; Hermione shook her head as a smirk pulled at the corners of her lips.
"You scared the hell out of me," she hissed, making her way across the room toward him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. "What are you doing down here?"
"Looking for you," Bruce replied, pressing a kiss to the top of her head as his arm dropped from the door to wrap around her waist. "You told me you had two things to do down here, and it would take twenty minutes, tops."
Hermione lifted her head from his chest and leaned back to look at him, nodding her head. "Yeah, and?"
"That was three hours ago," he laughed, leaning down to kiss her before she could say anything more. As he pulled away, the smile on his face dimmed when he noticed the frown on her face. "What's wrong?"
"What time is it?" Hermione asked, pulling away from her and looking around the room for a clock.
Bruce turned his arm, taking note of what time his watch said as he kept a cautious eye on Hermione, who was walking toward the far side of the room. He pushed off the door and quickly walked the distance between them to catch up with her. "It's eleven o'clock, and what's wrong?"
Hermione stopped at the table on the far side of the room where her purse and a few other items were stashed and grabbed her bag before walking up to the closest table and pulling out a chair. She sat down and began rummaging through her purse, pulling random objects out and setting them around her on the table. She mumbled to herself when Bruce sat beside her, but he couldn't tell what she was saying.
He watched her for a few moments before reaching out to place one hand on her shoulder and the other on the top of the bag, trapping her hands inside. Hermione turned her head slowly, glaring at him in the process.
"Why are you trapping my hands in my purse?" she sighed, trying to pull her hands out of the bag only to be stopped by Bruce adding a little pressure.
"What are you looking for?" Bruce replied calmly, lifting his hand from her shoulder to cup her cheek. "I might be able to help you if I know what I'm looking for."
Hermione sighed as she turned her face into his hand and pressed a kiss to his palm. "It's eleven o'clock, and I still haven't written my maid of honor speech that I have to give in a few hours in front of a large group of people."
"Gather your stuff," Bruce said, pulling his hand away from her bag and pushing up from the chair. He watched as Hermione gathered her things, shoving them back into her purse before slowly standing up from the chair. The look of concern on her face made him laugh. He knew she trusted him, but at that moment, she wasn't sure what kind of thoughts were running through his head.
"Now what?" Hermione asked, raising an eyebrow as she noticed the smirk on Bruce's lips.
Bruce extended his hand to her, watching as Hermione took it, cautiously interlacing her fingers with his. He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of her hand. "Now we are going to go up to our room, order some room service, and put on a mindless movie while you write your speech from the comfort of our bed. That way, when you inevitably fall asleep writing your speech, I can just tuck you in for the night."
"Or you could just wake me up when I drift off to make sure my speech is finished," Hermione replied, offering him a smile. "I think that sounds like a wonderful idea. Thank you."
Bruce leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. "You're welcome. Tomorrow will be perfect; Pansy picked the perfect maid of honor for the job. No one else would have spent most of their evening after the rehearsal making sure every last detail was in place."
"I hope everything is in place," Hermione sighed, resting her head on his shoulder. "I just want everything to be perfect for Pansy and Tony. This wedding will be the death of me if it isn't perfect."
Bruce chuckled softly as he let go of Hermione's hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, leading her toward the banquet hall door. He paused for a moment to flip the kickstand on the door and allow the door to shut behind them before continuing towards their room. Hermione was rattling off the list of things she wanted to include in her speech as they walked.
Within moments of Bruce opening the door to their room for her, Hermione was seated on the bed, scribbling away on a notepad. Every other word or so, she would lift the pen to her lips and bite down on the cap with her brow furrowed and her nose scrunched up. With each face she made, Bruce would laugh and shake his head as he scrolled through the channels on the TV.
An hour or so later, Hermione leaned back to rest her head on the pillow. Her eyes fluttered closed, and after a few short moments, the room was filled with the soft sounds of Hermione's gentle snores.
"Right on cue," Bruce laughed, removing his glasses from his face and setting them on the nightstand, followed quickly by the remote after shutting off the TV. He took her notepad and pen off her lap, piling them up on the nightstand on Hermione's side of the bed. Bruce leaned down and kissed her cheek before turning the light off. With the alarm set for early, Bruce settled into the bed and draped an arm around Hermione's waist as he drifted off to sleep.
The morning sun was just starting to filter into the room when Hermione jolted awake, sitting up in bed and looking around the room in a panic. She caught sight of the clock out of the corner of her eye and let out a sigh of relief. Thankfully she hadn't overslept - Pansy would have killed her if she had.
She grabbed her notepad and skimmed over the speech she had written with a smile on her face. Just as Hermione was about to set the notepad aside and get a few more minutes of sleep, an idea struck her. She tossed the blanket aside and crawled out of bed quietly so as not to wake Bruce. She smiled, looking down at him from the side of the bed, watching him sleep for a few moments. He was always so peaceful when he slept.
Hermione took her notepad over to the small table and turned on the lamp. She grabbed a stack of paper out of her bag and began drawing a large square in the middle of the page, going almost to the edges of each page and then dividing the large square into twenty-five smaller squares. She repeated the process on each piece of paper until the stack ran out. Across the top of each box, she wrote the letters S-T-A-R-K about each column of boxes and then began writing something in each of the squares.
Unbeknownst to Hermione, Bruce had heard her moving about this morning and giggling as she filled out her papers. He had been watching her for a while, though he wasn't sure what she was doing. Bruce propped himself up on his elbow and coughed, catching Hermione's attention. She turned to face him with a broad smile on her face.
"Good morning," she chirped, blowing him a kiss from across the room.
"Good morning," Bruce replied, wiping away the sleep from his eyes. "What are you doing?"
"I'm designing bingo cards to go along with my maid of honor speech," Hermione said, glancing up at him as her smile turned into a grin. "At least for the bridal party to enjoy."
Bruce shook his head with a laugh as he tossed back the covers and rolled out of bed. He made his way over to where Hermione was seated and glanced over her shoulder at the papers scattered in front of her. A cheesy story about how the bride met the groom. A lousy pun about superheroes. The mention of a love spell. Tony calls someone by the loving nickname he gave them. Pansy rolls her eyes.
"These are great," Bruce chuckled, flipping the first bingo card over to skim over the others in the pile. "So you said the whole bridal party gets to play? What happens when someone wins?"
"Pansy and Tony have to kiss," Hermione replied, setting her pen aside as she leaned back to rest her head against Bruce's stomach.
"And you've got Pansy's okay on this?" Bruce asked, looking down at her.
Hermione started to nod her head but stopped and shrugged her shoulders. "Kind of. She mentioned something to me once about how she hated the whole kiss when someone clinked their glass. She wanted something original, and I thought this would fit the bill."
"This is definitely unique," Bruce said, nodding his head slowly. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her lips. "How many more cards do you need to do?"
"Technically, none," Hermione replied, raising a brow as she looked up at him. "Did you need me for something? I do need to get ready to go up to Pansy's room soon."
Bruce nodded slowly, reaching down to encourage Hermione to get up from her chair. She obliged after a few moments and turned to face him, the chair still between them. Bruce kicked the chair out of the way and took Hermione's hand, leading her to the en suite and turning on the shower. Hermione giggled as she followed behind him, leaving a trail of clothes in her wake as the room filled with steam.
Forty-five minutes later, Hermione and Bruce emerged from the en suite, still wrapped up in one another but donning their pre-wedding attire, when they heard a loud knock at the door. Bruce rushed to the door, looked through the peephole, and slowly pulled the door open. He turned to Hermione and mouthed an apology.
"Hermione Jean Granger, why the bloody hell are you not answering your phone?" Pansy screamed, storming into the room and making her way straight to where Hermione was standing. She glanced at Bruce out of the corner of her eye. "And you. Tony's been trying to get a hold of you too. What have you been up to?"
Hermione's eyes widened as she looked back at Bruce, who just shrugged. She certainly couldn't tell Pansy she wasn't answering her calls because she was having a quickie in the shower. She thought for a moment and caught sight of the bingo cards from the corner of her eye.
"We were putting the finishing touches on the bingo game I came up with to replace the glass clinks," Hermione stated, taking a significant step back from Pansy and grabbing one of the cards off the table, offering it to her. "See. Instead of glass clinking, people can play bingo - or Stark. When someone gets five in a row, they'll shout Stark. Then you and Tony will kiss."
Pansy took the piece of paper from her with an eyebrow raised. She skimmed through the first card and started laughing. "Oh, this is going to be great. How many cards do you have?"
"Ten," Hermione replied, picking up the other cards. "Just enough for the bridal party. But we could make more."
"You're damn right we can," Pansy said, turning on her heel to face Bruce. "Tony needs you in his suite. Take a few samples and a stack of paper. Every groomsman needs to make at least five cards, and Tony can make some too. Once they are done, bring them back to Hermione. Understood?"
Bruce nodded his head and took the papers he was being offered. "Yes, ma'am."
He turned on his heel and started towards the door, pausing when he heard Pansy calling after him.
"And Bruce, there is no time for any pre-wedding games between you and Hermione in any closets. Your extra long shower is all you get until after the wedding," Pansy said, grabbing Hermione by the arm and pulling her toward the door. She winked at Bruce as she pushed past him. "And yes, I could hear you both outside the door."
Bruce and Hermione made eye contact, Hermione's cheeks flushing with color as she was pulled out the door. She blew him a kiss before Pansy rounded the corner with her.
"I can't believe you heard us," Hermione said, shaking her head as she hurried after Pansy.
"It sounded like you were enjoying yourself," Pansy laughed, shrugging her shoulders. "C'mon, we've got work to do. These games aren't going to finish themselves."