Finally.
After all this time, after all the waiting that everyone had been put through…
Sirius Black stood nervously at the front of the aisle, trying not to stare at the pointedly, purposefully empty seats on either side of the front row, marked with photographs of James on Sirius' side and Lily on Marlene's. Both photographs were grinning widely at Sirius, and Lily kept dabbing at her eyes.
All of his favourite people were here – even old Bathilda Bagshot left Godric's Hollow for once to attend his wedding, which he found odd yet charming ("I haven't been to anything since the Potters were married, boy," she had told him. "I need an excuse to leave my house sometimes!"), and somewhere in the small crowd of people sitting in front of him was the Head of the DMLE herself, Amelia Bones, as well as the Head Auror, Rufus Scrimgeour, and more than half the Aurors in the department. He wondered to himself if Amelia had somehow declared that today was some sort of department-wide holiday for so many of them to be here.
A chuckle through the crowd brought him out of his thoughts as little Luna made her appearance, skipping down the aisle in her yellow star-studded dress with enchanted flower petals dancing out of her hands onto the ground like she was levitating them herself – which, honestly, she might have been, since her, Harry and Neville had been showing signs of precocious magic for their ages. She stopped in the middle of the aisle, almost mid-skip, and stared directly at Sirius as she loudly proclaimed, "Uncle Sirius, your flower petals taste like coconut milk."
Laughter escaped the lips of everyone in the tent, and she giggled in delight as she twirled in place, spreading more flower petals in her wake as she skipped the rest of the aisle. She headed directly for her mother, who was standing on Marlene's side in formal, deep scarlet robes, smiling brightly at her daughter.
Next came Harry, proudly but nervously clutching the pillow with the rings now magically stuck to it. He made eye contact with Sirius and bolted the rest of the aisle directly to him, creating another ripple of chuckles.
"Papa, we got the ringses back! See?"
"Yes, Harry, I know – I was there when Auntie Alice found them in the basement, remember?"
"Oh yeah." Harry said, though he probably already forgot. "Luna lost them but Auntie Alice found them."
"Did not!" Luna protested from her mother's arms.
"Did too!" Harry stomped his foot, still standing directly in front of Sirius, clutching the pillow like a lifeline.
"It doesn't matter who lost them." Alice cut in from her place beside Pandora, next to where Marlene would be standing in a few minutes. "We found them, and that's that. It's all over now, so don't argue about it anymore."
"Okay." They responded in unison, but Sirius noticed that Luna stuck her tongue out at Harry, and he chuckled to himself.
Just then, the crowd in front of them stood, indicating to Sirius that his bride was approaching.
As he saw Marlene at the back of the aisle on Mad-Eye's arm, tears immediately threatened to spill over, and he let out a large sniffling noise that sounded remarkably like a dog sneezing.
He felt Frank's hand on his shoulder, and he looked over at his best man – the most obvious choice, the closest friend he had, the man who deserved to be standing there given how much he had been there for Sirius over the last several years – with a nearly-teary smile.
Unfortunately for Sirius' own emotions, Frank was already crying.
He looked back at Marlene… Merlin, she was gorgeous.
Her magnificent white wedding robes, which were the same ones her own mother wore, fit her like a glove. Alice had refused to allow Marlene to wear a wig, stating that she deserved to feel gorgeous exactly how she was, so her hair barely reached her ears, but the headpiece and veil more than made up for the lack of hair, in Marlene's opinion. The golden tiara, adorned with small rubies and a diamond in the centre, was borrowed from the Potter family and had last been worn by Lily, but the veil was brand-new – a custom one, enchanted to sparkle in different shades of scarlet and gold along the trim.
Glowing, radiant, beaming like the sun. Her joy was not only obvious but contagious, but nobody would dare have pointed out to Mad-Eye's face that he was obviously struggling not to cry as he hobbled his way down the aisle with Marlene, dressed in far more formal robes than anyone had ever seen on him.
As Marlene got to the front of the aisle, Sirius heard another large sniffle from behind him, and he grinned to himself without turning around. Arcturus was their officiant, but his grandfather had already told him he wouldn't promise to maintain dry eyes or perfect composure.
And true to the lack of promise, Arcturus Black, in joy for his grandson and pride for his family, but in mourning of his own brother and his other grandson who would never experience this joy, was already crying, perhaps even more than Frank was.
Mad-Eye placed Marlene's hand into Sirius' waiting palm, and Sirius looked up at him from their hands.
"Don't ever let anything happen to this one, boy. I mean it."
"You have my word, sir."
"Don't call me sir."
Sirius didn't respond, instead giving Mad-Eye a cheeky grin.
Mad-Eye gave him a non-committal grunt in response, but Sirius could have sworn that he saw a smile threaten to crack his composure, and tears threatening to fall from his good eye.
Sirius looked back at Marlene, whose own eyes were wet.
He didn't stand a chance, now; Sirius' tears spilled down his face, and he smiled at Marlene as bright a smile as had ever crossed his face.
She returned the favour, her own beaming face as happy as he had ever seen her in the decade-and-a-half that they had known each other.
"Dearly beloved…" Arcturus' voice already cracked, and Sirius looked over at him with the same grin, and his grandfather cleared his throat loudly.
Suddenly, there was a tugging on the leg of Arcturus' robes, and he looked down to see Luna standing there with a lacy white handkerchief in her hands.
"Grampa Arc, don't cry!"
The first time Marlene kissed Sirius after he tracked her down, it was a very emotional experience.
He had been very patient with her, gentle and sweet and caring, allowing her to set the pace of anything she was comfortable with, and for that she had been grateful. It was incomparably stressful to try to accept that he still wanted her.
Of course, if it had been up to him solely, he would have led her directly from the front door into his bedroom when they returned to Grimmauld Place that same day they found her and not left for a week, worshipping her body in every way he could, but he knew she needed time, physically and emotionally, before she would be ready for that.
But how could he not still want her? Sure, he had snogged a handful of others during their time at Hogwarts before they got together (so had she, to be fair), but if he was honest with himself, he was only ever thinking about her. He hadn't stopped thinking about her since the day they met in their first year at Hogwarts, on the Hogwarts Express, in a compartment with James and Remus, having just met Lily and Severus. Sirius saw the beautiful hazel eyes, the gorgeous curls framing her rosy cheeks, and the way her hazel eyes sparkled when she said that she was looking for other future Gryffindor hopefuls to make friends with, and from that moment he had been a goner for nearly fifteen years.
He had kissed her for the very first time a year and a half later, on Christmas morning in their second year, under some mistletoe that one of the sixth-years had put up in the common room. It was sloppy and awkward; they were twelve, and neither of them had kissed anyone before, and they agreed that it felt kind of icky, and they didn't want to do it again.
But he hadn't stopped thinking about it since, regardless. And three years later, when he had hesitantly asked if she would be his Valentine's date to Hogsmeade in their fifth year, he had long since changed his mind, and very much wanted to kiss her again.
He found out that weekend in a corner booth at the Hogs' Head that she had changed her mind, too, and the kiss they shared that day was nowhere near as sloppy or awkward, not icky or undesired at all.
It was that day that he decided he would never want another person as much as he had wanted Marlene McKinnon for five years, and that he would never be able to even think about someone else for the rest of his life.
Those feelings never died. They had changed, they had matured, much as the two of them had done as individuals, and as a couple. The years they spent apart, when Sirius thought he had lost her, he had not slept through a full night the entire time. It was a stressful time period without James and Lily, having to raise Harry, all of the twists and turns that life had thrown at him along the way – the fact that Albus Dumbledore's big trial was in three weeks was unspoken on everyone's mind – but once he had the love of his life again, it was far more bearable to grieve for everything else he had lost.
It made him feel guilty sometimes, to feel so happy with her when James and Lily were gone, when Harry would never know his parents, when so much had been shattered in the world and in their lives, but everyone else had assured him that it wasn't an insult to their memory to carry on in life. In fact, Pandora reminded him often, it was better for him and for Harry if the world was to carry on having good moments. If all that Harry ever saw was pain, grief, loss, and suffering, then how would he know how to experience anything else?
So that's why, when Marlene asked him nearly a year ago if he still wanted to marry her, Sirius had burst out crying. It was anxiety-inducing, but still a no-brainer for him, but he hadn't realized it was bothering her so much that he hadn't brought it up first.
She was terrified, too, of course. She had been cautious in approaching anything relationship-related since her return – she appreciated his patience, because it was difficult for her to remind herself she was worthy of still being desired, of still being loved, but it was hard to initiate anything if she still had those doubts.
A month after she had come back, she finally kissed him again, and she had tried to pour all of these emotions into the kiss, telling him with actions instead of words how much he still meant to her.
Fortunately, he got the message. Unfortunately, he tried to give her all the same emotions in return, and she broke down into tears herself.
It had taken three more months for her to allow him to see her fully unclothed, and another two after that for him to be able to show her how much he still wanted her, kissing every scar and reminding her how many years he had spent loving her, and how many more he intended to continue doing so.
It was not long after Harry started calling Marlene 'Mama' that she had hesitantly asked him if he still wanted to marry her, even though she likely could never give him children, and therefore there wouldn't ever be any little Black heirs running around.
Sirius, tearfully, reminded her that Harry was a little Black heir himself, and he didn't need to have children with her to want to be her husband, and show everyone that they belong together as much as they did when they were younger. His feelings had never changed.
So, today, June 11th, 1985, in front of their favourite people, in front of portraits of James and Lily and Marlene's parents, they were doing just that.
And the kiss that they shared, when Arcturus declared them man-and-wife, to show the whole world that their love was unbroken, unwavering, held up through war and torment and loss and separation, as eternal as anything?
It left every other kiss they had ever shared behind.
A/N: Apologies for the hiatus! I have been really struggling with reclaiming this story as my own, after some real bad brain-fuzzies took over for a while.
However... here it is. I can't guarantee I will upload regularly yet, but I also have a few changes I want to make to the story. Nothing major, just some little mistakes to fix and minor things like that. So that may also happen soon.
Also, I know I said there was going to be a character appearance at the end of this chapter, but this was too good of a line to close with. Props if you understand the reference!
Stay safe y'all! Glad to be back!
