Ch 29 A New Year's Day Wedding
"Who do we have for breakfast this morning?" Harry asked Ginny as they dressed in their bedroom at Grimmauld Place January first, twenty-twenty-three.
"Just the immediate family," Ginny replied. "James and Erica, Albus and Cleo, Lily, Minerva, and Ivana."
"What did Ivana do New Year's Eve?" Harry wondered.
"She went over to the Lionheart home with James and Lily," Ginny replied. "She's between boyfriends. She's almost always had a date for dances, but I'm not sure she has ever had a serious boyfriend."
"Albus and Cleo?" Harry asked. "I saw them go up to Albus's bedroom when they came back to Grimmauld Place, but haven't seen them since."
"Slept," Ginny smiled a wistful smile. "They were exhausted. It does remind me how busy and tired you were after The Battle of Hogwarts."
"Your brother and his family next door?" Harry wondered.
"Ron, Hermione and Hugo went over to Malfoy Manor for breakfast," Ginny remarked. "I don't think Hugo has ever been to Malfoy Manor. Narcissa is going to come over with Rose and Scorpius to mother's after."
"I don't envy any of them having to eat breakfast with that crew," Harry thought. "Well, Narcissa and Druella are nice people, and I can tolerate Draco. Astoria is another matter."
"I was ready to hex her at the wedding," Ginny growled. "I don't think she said the wedding spells, and she doesn't even pretend to hide her hatred of Rose."
"Are they going to live in Malfoy Manor after they graduate from Hogwarts?" Harry wondered.
"I don't know," Ginny replied. "I know they are anxious to go back to Hogwarts."
"Welcome to our house," Rose greeted her parents and brother as they came through the Floo into the formal living room of Malfoy Manor. She turned around, surveying the living room. "We haven't done much to most of the house yet. We have added some magical lighting, and replaced some of the candles with LED lighting as well."
"I like the Muggle LED lighting much better than the candles," Narcissa beamed, coming into the room, along with Scorpius and Druella. "Rose and I are planning on updating the house. She has done some drawings of rooms, showing how she would lighten the colors and make other changes. She has been showing them to Druella and me, and asking our advice. It has been fun."
Druella smiled her approval.
Draco and Astoria came into the living room, somewhat cautiously, together more or less but not holding hands. Draco frowned, and you could see agitation in Astoria's whole bearing.
"Mr. Malfoy's not happy about the cost of adding shielded electrical wires in the manor, but Narcissa and I want to do it, and I'm happy to say he has agreed," Rose added, nodding towards her father-in-law. "Thank you, Mr. Malfoy, for agreeing to the changes."
Hermione noticed that Astoria had apparently been left out of the discussions, and that Rose was still calling Draco 'Mr. Malfoy'. Hermione was reminded of the old saying, 'The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife.'
Rose waved the group into the formal dining room. "We don't have an informal eating area yet," Rose explained.
"It's NOT your house!" Astoria scowled.
"I think, as we have said before," Rose answered back, hands on hips, glaring at her mother-in-law, "that as long as Lucius is alive Narcissa is the lady of the house."
The group uncomfortably sat down around the elegant table.
Draco sat at one end of the dining table, with Astoria next to him. Narcissa sat on the other end of the table. Scorpius sat next to his mother, with Rose next to him, and Druella between Rose and Narcissa. Ron, Hermione and Hugo sat across from them. Rapier, Druella's Elf, stood or sat next to Druella to act as her arms.
"Are you going to live here after you graduate?" Hermione wondered.
"There is another house on the property," Rose explained. "It is a nice enough house, but it only has three bedrooms. If all of our children have their own bedroom we are going to need four or five bedrooms." Rose looked at Astoria, who was scowling even more than she usually scowled. Rose grinned. "At least, depending on how many little ones I want running around the house."
One of the Elves said something to Narcissa, and breakfast was served. Hermione looked at how the Elves were interacting with the people at the table. It was clear just from the non-verbal interactions that they were treating Narcissa as the head of the household, or at least the mistress of the household. You could also tell that the Elves liked Scorpius and Rose, and that Scorpius and Rose were friends with the Elves.
After breakfast Rose showed her parents and brother around the house, from the attic to the floor under the main floor with the kitchen and other rooms. Rose wanted the manor to look elegant, but also comfortable, and much of Malfoy Manor was very old fashion and fussy.
"We need to update the grounds too," Rose told her family. "It is really too cold to go outside now, though. Scorpius has told me he never had a playground outside, and we want a place that our children and their friends can play in when the weather is warmer."
All the Potter children and their spouses arrived at the large breakfast room in Grimmauld Place about the same time, with James and Erica coming through the Floo just as the others were coming downstairs from their Grimmauld Place bedrooms.
"I'm glad you could join us for breakfast, James, Erica," Ginny told her eldest and his wife.
"We've left the Fagans' on their own today," Erica told the gathering.
Cleo pondered. "Did it seem to bother them?"
"I think they are relieved, actually," Erica proposed. "Annabella and Richard were working together on breakfast as we left. I think the two of them feel they need a relaxing day."
"How is your recruiting of players for the Cannon's going?" Albus wondered.
"Managing a professional Quidditch team is way way more complicated that I thought," James admitted. "I'd like to just recruit any player I could talk into joining the team, but dad and Uncle Bill have given us a budget, and if we offer one player too much then there may be other players the team cannot afford. We've tried to offer bonuses if the team wins and is profitable, but some players hear Chudley Cannons and don't believe we will ever win anything.
"I have been looking at a couple of excellent players, but neither of them will play if the other one is on the same team."
"James has tried to talk Uncle Ron into giving him a bigger budget," Harry grinned. "Uncle Ron doesn't own enough of the Wheezes to agree to that, and growing up poor he is more cautious with his own money than James had anticipated.
"Uncle Bill and I have also set a budget, and I'm not going to argue with Bill when it comes to financial matters."
"Being a grownup is going to be a whole lot more complicated than I thought it would be," James ruefully admitted. "I thought I would spend most of the Christmas holidays talking to players, but I've spent more time talking to Jake, our business manager, about who to talk to than actually talking to people."
"Welcome to the real world," Harry told his oldest.
"Seating is the same as on Christmas," Molly told Victoire as she pointed at the three tables in the large combined kitchen and dining area in the New Burrow, "more or less. There is one more at our table, Narcissa Malfoy."
"I like Narcissa," Victoire nodded. "Not Druella?"
"Too much confusion for Druella," Molly explained. "What worries me is that Narcissa may be here to talk to Arthur Baker as much as to support Scorpius and Rose. I like them both, but they are both married. Not that either marriage is much of a marriage. Narcissa shared what her last visits to Lucius have been like, and I'm sure she doesn't want him out of prison and back in her life. I cannot say I blame her.
"It just sounds like Arthur Baker's marriage is not any more of a marriage. If it was not for a shared daughter I am guessing he could have the marriage annulled, but I'm not sure of that. Muggles can divorce, but it is harder for Magi. Usually that is a good thing, but not always.
"Well, it is their lives, not mine. I'm seating Narcissa next to Scorpius and Rose, not at the table with Arthur Baker, though."
"I've invited Cindy and Henry Hudson for the day, since their youngest Robert is marrying Lucy today. It is getting a little crowded."
"Too crowded for the wedding and reception to be held inside," Victoire noted. "I am glad the big double U shaped areas between the New Burrow and Potter's New Burrow are covered so we have that big area to use."
"You and Josefina have been a big help in setting up everything, plus the Elves, of course," Molly observed. "Thank you."
"I need to get back upstairs to help get the little ones ready," Victoire told her grandmother. "Teddy is helping, but it is quite a little crowd of babies and toddlers to get ready."
After the noon dinner a few people started to arrive for the wedding. There were only four guests from Switzerland, people Bob knew from his writing and reporting classes. There were also eight of their Hogwarts classmates, for a dozen extra guests. Richard and Molly Hudson, the brother of the groom and sister of the bride, were best man and matron of honor.
The area between the houses had been arranged for the wedding, with a raised platform at the New Burrow end of the open space. There were plantings against the houses on the inside, but all the middle was open. With magic you could transform what was usually a grassy area into one with a hard surface, the grass hidden underneath, and that was done so there could be seating for the guests.
Lucy was wearing a pretty white floor length dress with pastel trimming, a dress that could be worn for parties, although not inappropriate for a wedding dress. Bob was wearing a dark Muggle suit. Molly and Richard Hudson were also wearing Muggle style dress clothes.
At four the crowd assembled for the wedding. Molly Hudson was sitting on the platform nursing Scarlet. Scarlet was a year and a half, but she was still getting some of her food from mother, something that neither Scarlet nor Molly seemed eager to stop, so everyone waited until Molly and Scarlet were finished.
The little children were playing in a play area on the other side of the atrium, and no one seemed too eager to corral them and have them stand around for the wedding. About fifteen after three Molly was finally finished. Lucy's immediate family, plus the Hudson family gathered around for the wedding, others finding places to witness the wedding.
Hermione gave a brief talk about the wedding spells, and the double joining of the two families, brothers being married to sisters, and proceeded to lead the couple through their vows. She then said the wedding spells. Parents and others performed wedding spells over the couple, and Hermione had them publically sign the wedding contract.
After the wedding Molly Weasley announced, "There is food in the kitchen, served buffet style. We would appreciate you eating in the kitchen, dining area, or outside. You can also gather anyplace on the main floor of the New Burrow, or in the atrium between the houses. We are planning on cutting the wedding cake about six."
Albus and Cleo were sitting next to Rose and Scorpius, and Cleo asked, "No music, no dancing?"
"There really was not much time to arrange for a big wedding, and no budget for it either," Rose replied. "Aunt Hermione handled the legal part, from what I understand, and Grandmum and Victoire handled the rest."
"Most of us are family," Cleo observed. "Albus and I could have done something."
"You were on the island, not here, and super busy from what we understand," Rose countered.
Narcissa Malfoy and Arthur Baker had been sitting together for the wedding, and they approached the four.
"Could you make us soap and shampoo?" Narcissa asked. "Maybe some perfume for me as well?"
"We will each pay for our own," Arthur hastened to add.
Cleo had examined more students and young people than adults for the scents, but she had examined a fair number of older people. She started with Mrs. Malfoy. Her original wand was very good at telling the marital status of people, and the emotional state of their marriage or relationship. She really didn't have any experience with a couple whose relationship had died, who had been married but, it wasn't just drifting apart. The wedding spells made just drifting apart difficult, although not impossible. There was more going on, a violation of everything that marriage was supposed to be about, some deep evil in Narcissa's partner, that Cleo sensed.
There was also an attraction to Arthur Baker that Cleo really didn't know how to handle.
She then examined Arthur Baker. He was obviously a father, but the knowledge of him as a husband was almost totally missing. It wasn't the feeling that she had felt when she had examined some of the wizards who just wanted to possess a witch, who she felt would or would be abusers. She had felt way too much of that on the island, wizards who felt no love for anybody, and who raped every time they had intercourse.
No, what she felt from Arthur was almost the opposite, of someone who had been trying for years to love, had done his part, but the love was never reciprocated. It felt like Arthur was a father and a loving father to his daughter, but who had been prevented from being a husband to his wife.
If she didn't quite know how to make sense of Mrs. Malfoy, and to decide what scents and spells to use, she knew even less what to make of and make scents for Mr. Baker.
She examined both of them again, strain showing on her face and in her bearing. Finally, she turned to Albus and, mind to mind, she told him, help.
Albus sat down, closed his eyes, and tried to see the world through Cleo's eyes and mind, something not easy to do in the best of circumstances. Violent raw emotions were running through Narcissa's head. Albus looked around, before saying, "This is not the proper place to go into these matters.
"Mrs. Malfoy, Mr. Baker, do you want to come with us to Potter's New Burrow?"
They older couple nodded 'yes.'
Albus subtly indicated to Rose and Scorpius that they should not come along.
The four Magi went to the living room of Potter's New Burrow. When they had seated themselves on a couple of facing love seats Albus said, "I can feel that some very bad things happened that caused you to lose all love for Mr. Malfoy."
"The worse," she sobbed, "was after I was raped at Malfoy Manor, and one of the other Death Eaters said to my husband, 'Remember when you killed that Muggle bitch while raping her? That was fun.' I remember looking at Lucius and he had a hard time not smiling at that memory, even though he was furious that I was raped. The idea that he … it was so evil and he still enjoyed it. I don't want him to ever get out of prison."
"You want to be friends with Mr. Baker?" Albus asked.
"If that is all we can ever be that is better than not having a good male friend to go places with," Narcissa responded.
The couple then turned to Arthur Baker. "I cannot feel that you have ever been married, not really, although you are the father of Mrs. Audrey Weasley," Cleo told the older man. "I am having a very hard time making sense of it."
Arthur tried to explain, "I was just about ready to ask for an annulment, because we had not consummated our marriage, or had just sort of, well. I guess I did just enough one time, not pleasantly, to her not really with her, and … And then she was pregnant, and I thought that with enough love and patience but she never wanted me to even kiss or hold her after that.
"Then we had a daughter, and I tried to help raise her. I didn't think I could leave until she was grown. And then I just didn't leave, and lived a rather lonely life."
Cleo examined them one more time, and told them, "I will make both of you scents."
The two couples went back to the reception, and mingled. At six the wedding cake was cut, and served. By eight all the non-family and most of the family guests were gone.
Harry and Ginny took their family back to Grimmauld Place, except of course for James and Erica who stayed at Potter's New Burrow.
2022