Ceremony

When Aries was younger, he had always thought that it was either his lot in life to be killed by Voldemort, and if he was not killed, he would marry in his late twenties or early thirties. So it was still a shocked Aries that was attempting to brush down his formal robes, getting ready for his wedding to Daphne Greengrass. It was one of the things Lord Greengrass had been adamant about whilst they were negotiating the contract, they had to marry before they returned to Hogwarts. Aries had been hesitant, considering they barely knew each other, however he gained way too much from the alliance to simply change his mind. Plus it would have made an enemy of Lord Greengrass who, whilst not a direct threat, could certainly make his plans difficult.

He had at first been rather sad that none of his friends would be here to celebrate the day with him. Captain Talis was his best man, something that seemed to amuse most of the other Imperials to no end. The Captain, for his part, assisted in making Aries look rather smart for the day. Forgoing wizarding robes, he wore a muggle black suit with a gray waistcoat, and had managed to somewhat tame his hair using sleekeazy potion. The Captain wore the same, something that amused Aries. He had half expected Talis to wear his regular uniform. Not that he would have been bothered by that, it wasn't exactly anybody's dream wedding after all.

The ceremony was taking place on the Greengrass estate, as it was generally agreed that even without it having become a military installation, Grimmauld Place was not an appropriate venue for a wedding. It was to be a small and private affair, with only Daphne's immediate family attending on her side, and Captain Talis as Aries' best man. The two had struck up quite the friendship, with the Captain often tutoring Aries in naval tactics and the basics of captaining a starship, and Aries teaching the Captain about the wizarding world, something he found fascinating.

Returning his thoughts to the present, he stood at the altar inside a large gazebo in the estate's vast garden, Captain Talis standing at his side, waiting for his bride. An elderly wizard stood at the front, the man that would marry the pair, smiling every now and then nervously. Clearly he hadn't expected to be the minister at the Boy-Who-Lived's wedding. Aries turned to Captain Talis, smiling nervously. The Captain for his part simply smirked.

"You will be fine my Lord, just be yourself. She is quite the beauty, is she not?"

Aries was about to reply when he spotted her at the entrance to the gazebo. He hadn't heard her coming, and he struggled to keep his jaw from dropping. Daphne wore a slim fit white wedding dress which only made her enticing body even more obvious for Aries to see. Her usually straight blonde hair now cascaded down her back in lovely curls, and her usually stoic face now held a small smile at the sight of the gobsmacked Aries, her cheeks turning slightly red.

"Quite the beauty indeed, Captain…" Aries finally said in a breathless voice. He watched as Daphne was walked down the aisle by her father, Lord Greengrass, who wore a beaming smile on his features. Aries felt like he couldn't breath until all of a sudden, she was standing in front of him with her smile having grown into a large grin. "Cat caught your tongue, my Lord Black?" She whispered in a soft yet seductive voice. He groaned internally, but spoke exactly what he thought. "I just think that you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, Daphne Greengrass. I know we don't know each other as well as we would prefer, but I consider myself extremely lucky today." His words had the desired effect, causing her to blush and Lord Greengrass to grin broadly. Captain Talis, who was behind Aries at this point, stifled a snort. He was about to continue when the Minister began to speak.

"We are gathered here today, to witness and celebrate the union of Heiress Daphne Greengrass and Lord Aries Arcturus Black…-"

Aries zoned out of the speech and continued to look directly into Daphne's eyes which to his surprise, were lit up in happiness. Whilst he knew they got on quite well and he was quite taken with her, he was always under the impression that it was not quite what she wanted. Was he wrong? He didn't have much time to think on it however, as before he could even process what he was thinking, the Minister was asking that one million galleon question.

"Do you, Lord Aries Arcturus Black, take Heiress Daphne Isabelle Greengrass as your lawfully wedded wife, to love and protect, to be bonded with, magic and soul?"

His throat felt very dry. "I do." He croaked, managing a smile. Daphne's eyes lit up even more, if that was even possible.

"And do you, Daphne Isabelle Greengrass, take Lord Aries Arcturus Black as your lawfully wedded husband, to love and protect, to be bonded with, magic and soul?"

Daphne smiled broadly. "I do." Aries gulped. That smile did things to him he didn't even think possible, even in the realms of magic and the force.

He took her hands in his, anticipating what came next.

The minister smiled down at them both and raised his wand above their hands. "With these words, you have both accepted to be bonded for life in magic and in soul. As magic as my witness, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride."

Aries, now wearing a silly smile on his face, took one step forward and lowered his head down to a smiling Daphne, and pressed his lips to hers gently. It was like nothing Aries had ever experienced, a golden light encompassed them both as they stood there, their kiss going on for longer than was truly appropriate in present company, but they did not care. Being near her now felt… different. The only way Aries could describe it was that she felt like home. Clapping could be heard from her parents and the Captain, but they only had eyes for each other.

"Will you both be going on your honeymoon right away, Lord Black?" The voice of Lord Greengrass woke him from what he felt like was a dream.

"We will indeed, Lord Greengrass. I have something special planned." He said, not wanting to give away the surprise.

"Please, I think as your father in law, you can call me Cyrus."

Aries gave the man a warm smile. "Only if you call me Aries."

Cyrus nodded in approval, before gesturing to the outside of the gazebo. "Do you both need to use the flu network?"

Aries shook his head, smirking slightly and winking at Daphne. "That won't be necessary Cyrus, the flu can't take us where we are going." At this, he nodded to Captain Talis, who withdrew a small communicator from his pocket and whispered into it.

Daphne frowned. She didn't usually like surprises, but couldn't hold the frown for long. The feeling of being next to Aries felt intoxicating now, whereas before it was simply exciting. She still hadn't told him about how long she had a crush on him. Maybe she would tell him on their honeymoon, where things would hopefully be a bit more private. She was still upset that her sister could not be there for her wedding day, but even that could not drag her mood down. Just as she began to wonder how they would be traveling, engine noises could be heard outside, gradually getting louder and louder until she heard metallic clanking, the engine noises calming down ever so slightly.

Aries smirked once more at her and bowed with a hand extended towards her. "Your carriage awaits, my Lady."

Daphne returned the smirk and took the hand. She barely even registered her parents waving goodbye to her, her eyes locked on to Aries. That was until he led her outside, and she spotted what she assumed to be one of the space ships she had been told about. So far, she had only seen Aries' personal guards and his Stormtroopers, so seeing one of his ships up close made her jaw drop. Aries simply chuckled and scooped down to pick her up bridal style, and walked towards the now extended ramp.

"Like I said, the flu won't get us to where we are going." He grinned at her. Neither of them registered the Captain following behind them, boarding and entering the cockpit.

The journey was rather short, with Aries and Daphne sitting close to each other, talking about this new feeling the bond had created between them. Aries had initially worried that the feeling was artificial due to the bonding ceremony, however his doubts had quickly been put to rest when Daphne explained that for that specific bonding ceremony to work, there had to be something more than an attraction between the two. This had caused them both to blush, basically having both been outed as liking the other before this day.

Daphne was about to crack and finally ask where she was being taken, before she spotted something massive outside of the viewport, causing her eyes to widen and for what felt like the hundredth time since she had met Aries, her jaw dropped. She barely registered Aries' words.

"That my lady is my flagship. Welcome to the Intimidator." He grinned broadly at the look on her face, remembering only too well that he too wore the same look the first time he had seen the Star Destroyer.

'This is going to be fun.' He thought to himself as the hangar bay of the Star Destroyer came into view.

- - - - - - - - - -
Scene Break

Two days later, Daphne lay in bed by herself, naked yet covered by the duvet. Aries had gone up to the bridge to deal with some business that Moff Jeltran had brought to his attention. She had not been pleased with his apparent need to abandon her on their honeymoon, but he had promised that he would not be longer than an hour and had also promised to make it up to her. The way Aries had looked at her when he said that made her shudder with anticipation. Since they had arrived, they had barely left his lavish quarters. Their first time making love was awkward for both of them, yet following their first time it only improved and became addictive for them both. She couldn't help but think back to their arrival aboard the ship.

Almost the entire crew had been standing at attention as they had both descended the ramp of the shuttle, hand in hand. The sound of thousands of clicking heels the moment their feet touched the deck had startled her, causing Aries to chuckle under his breath. She went to elbow him lightly in the side, but thought better of it when she saw the sheer amount of weapons in the room being held by all of the Stormtroopers and crew. Best to behave herself as the new Lady Black, she thought.

She had been introduced to all of the senior officers under Aries' command, or she now knew it to be called, simply Black Command. She thought that most purebloods were stiffs, but the Imperials put them to shame with how stuffy they seemed to be. Nonetheless, they had seemed to genuinely like her and had been nothing but polite. After that, Aries had led her straight to his quarters, which she had been pleasantly surprised to see was richly decorated with crimson bedding and cushions, displays of what were no doubt priceless artifacts which she later learned were collected by Aries' Grandfather, Lord Kallig.

Other than their continuous love making, Aries had also been trying to teach her some basic force techniques, such as meditation and a simple force push. He had spoken at length on what he had learned about the force, especially the dark side, which Daphne had found to sound awfully familiar to what she knew as the Dark Arts. Considering Aries' past, she couldn't help but still feel surprised at his willingness to learn such things. Something had changed in the Boy-Who-Lived during the summer, she had no doubt. But if she was honest with herself, the changes were for the better in her mind. He was no longer the Gryffindor Golden Boy, or Dumbledore's lapdog. If anything, he resembled more of a Slytherin than half of her year mates.

She had yet to successfully use the force as of yet, despite Aries' best efforts to guide her. But as he had explained, the force was still a relatively new thing to him as well. He had demonstrated force lightning, which had impressed her greatly even when he described it as weak compared to what it could be. She thought about getting dressed when she was startled by what could only be described as a banshee's wail that seemed to sound out everywhere, causing her to cover her ears with a groan.

Before she could get up and even register what was going on, the door to the quarters slid open to reveal Aries, fully dressed in his black uniform.

"Daphne, you need to get dressed. I'm needed back on the bridge and I think it's best you join me for this." His voice was calm, yet commanding, causing her to frown in concern.

"What's going on Aries, what's that merlin-awful sound?" She had barely asked the question when the ship suddenly shuddered violently, causing her to scream.

Aries, who had held on to the door frame to keep himself steady, sighed. "It would appear that we have been discovered."

She had never seen him look so grim, so quickly extracted herself from the bed and grabbed her clothes.

Minutes later they both stood on the bridge, looking out of the viewport at an unfamiliar Starship in the distance that appeared to Daphne to be lobbing massive crimson spells at their own ship. The Intimidator was returning fire with its own Avada kedavra coloured spells. 'Turbolasers' She reminded herself in her mind, having heard the crew and officers repeat the name of the lasers as they worked together. Aries stood beside her discussing the situation with Captain Talis.

"Captain, I want that ship destroyed before it can escape and warn anyone that we are here. Order the Star Destroyer 'Ravager' to make its approach on the flank, disable its engines." He commanded, his voice firm and calmer than she would have expected in such a situation.

"Right away my Lord." Came the prompt reply.

"Aries… just what is that?" She asked, pointing at the ship in the distance.

Aries flicked his eyes to her and shot her a grim smile. "That my dear, is a Rebel Ship. A Liberty-Class Star Cruiser, from what I have been told. I haven't had the chance to study all of the rebel ship designs as of yet."

Daphne nodded, her nervousness no doubt showing on her face. Despite the dangerous situation, she couldn't help but be in awe of the sheer firepower on display. It made a Wizarding duel seem like a fist fight in comparison. Turning back to look at Aries, she was shocked to see something on his face that she had yet to see; His smile looked positively menacing.

"Not to worry Daphne, every soul on that ship shall soon be extinguished, and we shall be safe."

Daphne shivered, and it had nothing to do with the cold room.

Authors Note:

There it is folks, the contract has been fulfilled and they are both happier for it.

Now, as many of you can no doubt tell, I am not the best at writing romance, weddings and the like. I put my best effort in however to give you guys the best I can- I would like to think it's different from the usual contract weddings we see in fanfiction, or maybe I am wrong, I don't know.

I enjoyed moving on to Daphne witnessing the Imperials in all their glory, and to see the firepower that Aries has at his command. As you can probably tell, she isn't quite the Ice Queen you usually see. I'm actually quite enjoying writing her this way, truth be told.

Anyway- I'd like to thank you all for your continued support and reviews, they have really pushed me to continue the story with the passion I started with.

As of right this second, this story has reached 115 Favorites, 179 follows and has been viewed just under 11,000 times- Which has astounded me! I did not expect the story to get this much attention, and I am over the moon!

On a serious note, updates may be slower in coming now due to looking after my kids, and financial issues. I am considering setting up a for the stories I write just to help, considering my situation. Do you guys think I should, and would you support it? Lemme know!

Right, enough of all that. Next update should be up by Monday the latest, as I am attending a WW2 Reenactment this weekend. Hope you guys like this chapter!