Say Yes Again
Chapter One
"Hermione, dear, how do you feel about this one?" Molly Weasley asks, holding up a long, white gown on a hanger for her future daughter-in-law to see.
Hermione looks over the gown, noting that she likes the off-the-shoulder neckline, but that she isn't exactly sold on the ball gown flare of the skirt.
"6/10," Hermione responds, shrugging her shoulders.
Hermione continues to sift through a rack of white, off-white and ivory dresses for another handful of minutes before a strikingly beautiful woman with long, blonde hair and four-inch heels approaches her and her group.
"Hi, my name is Hailey! I'm looking for Hermione?" the woman– Hailey– asks, her eyes scanning the group of majority redheads surrounding Hermione at the minute.
Hermione reaches her hand out to shake that of Hailey, introducing herself with a slightly nervous smile.
"Hermione Granger," Hermione states, her stomach erupting into butterflies when she realizes with a start that, one day– in the not-so-distant future– she will be introducing herself differently.
"It's such a pleasure to meet you, Hermione, and congratulations on your engagement," Hailey beams, casting her gaze back around to Hermione's entourage. "Who have you brought with you today?"
Grateful for the spotlight to be moving off of herself for a moment, Hermione begins to introduce her family to Hailey.
"This is my future mother-in-law, Molly, and my best friend, future sister-in-law and maid-of-honor, Ginny. My other best friend and Ginny's husband, Harry, and my future brother-in-law, George– my fiance's identical twin brother. And Ronald, my other, other best friend and another future brother-in-law."
"Oi! Everyone else is 'my best friend' and I'm 'my fiance's twin'. What's that about, Granger?"
Hermione laughs lightly, shaking her head and pushing George's shoulder playfully.
"Well, I didn't want to show favoritism, Georgie. I'm marrying your identical twin brother, so there's definite potential for bias there."
George waves Hermione off with one hand but wraps his other arm tightly around her shoulders, kissing her cheek with a wet smack. Hermione rolls her eyes, but leans into George fondly all the same.
Hailey shakes the hands of each of Hermione's guests, her smile never wavering. Hermione wonders briefly if Hailey's cheeks hurt at the end of her shifts from smiling so much.
"It's so wonderful to meet you all," Hailey gushes before turning her attention back to Hermione. "Okay, Miss Hermione. How about your guests go take a seat on the sofa over there and you can follow me to the dressing rooms?"
Hermione nods in agreement, though she gets the feeling that Hailey's question was rhetorical.
As she passes, Molly presses a motherly kiss to the side of Hermione's head while Ginny squeezes her hand, offering her a comforting smile.
Hermione follows Hailey toward the back of the bridal salon, her eyes ping-ponging back and forth between rows and rows of beautiful gowns which Hermione could not, in a million years, picture herself wearing.
Hailey leads Hermione into a small dressing room and the two women take a seat. Hermione drops her signature beaded bag from her shoulder and drapes it over her lap, fidgeting with the slightly frayed strap anxiously.
"So, Hermione!" Hailey cheers. "Tell me about your fiance, your wedding, your ideas for a dress– tell me everything!"
Hermione bites her bottom lip, still uncomfortable but deciding to start with the easiest of those three topics.
"My fiance's name is Fred," Hermione grins, feeling her cheeks heat and her heart rate tick up, just as it always does when she talks about Fred. "I've known him for what feels like forever. Harry, Ron and I have been best friends since we were eleven. We went to… boarding school together in Scotland– all of us did, actually. Fred and George were a couple of years above us and Ginny was a year below."
Hermione has to bite her tongue to keep from breaking the Statute of Secrecy, but in the end she decides that she can be honest with Hailey– mostly.
"Fred is… the funniest, kindest, strongest man I know," Hermione continues, her eyes beginning to prick with tears as she recalls her and Fred's love story. "He and his twin brother own a joke shop. They're huge pranksters– like, nobody is safe pranksters."
Hailey smiles– again– and nods, urging Hermione to continue.
"Fred was injured– badly– about five years ago. He had a severe crush injury to his left leg. He was in the hospital for almost a month," Hermione explains, gratefully accepting a tissue from Hailey's hand and dabbing at the corner of her eye with it when her tears begin to spill over. "Then he needed physical therapy for eight months. I went with him for most of his therapy appointments, but we weren't together then– he was just my best friend's brother. We were friends, of course, but I hadn't really looked twice at him up to that point."
Hermione chuckles lightly, shaking her head in disbelief. Sometimes she still can't believe that she had ever overlooked Fred Weasley.
"Evidently, he had planned on asking me out when he was cleared from PT, but that didn't exactly work out. We didn't officially start dating until about a year after he finished his treatment– and then we kept it a secret from his family. I've been an honorary Weasley since I was eleven– Fred's mum has a habit of taking in strays, as it were– but we weren't entirely sure how his family would feel about us together."
Hermione's tears begin to ebb when she remembers how thrilled everyone had seemed– including Ronald after he and Fred had come back inside from whatever brotherly talk which needed to occur between the pair– when she and Fred had announced their relationship.
"Apparently, we needn't have worried because his mother began planning our wedding the night we told her we were dating," Hermione chuckles, shaking her head in disbelief, then switching to nodding like a bobble-head figurine when Hailey's eyes widen in surprise. "I'm not joking. Fred told his family– our family– that we were dating, then we ate dessert and then his mum pulled out the files she had from Harry and Ginny's wedding and started asking about florals and color schemes. It was… something."
Hailey laughs lightly alongside Hermione, her delicate hand coming up to cover her mouth daintily.
"Now, did you know by then that Fred was the one or were you thinking that it was too soon to be discussing table linens– despite your long history with the family?" Hailey wonders, her bright smile tugging at her cheeks once more.
Hermione bites her bottom lip to hide her own grin.
"Oh, no. I knew," Hermione admits. "I think that I knew on our first official date, but I didn't admit it to myself for a little while after that. By that dinner, though– I knew. I knew that I was going to marry him or die trying."
Hermione and Hailey share a laugh, almost as if they are old friends. It comforts Hermione to know that someone as kind as Hailey is going to be helping her choose the dress which she will wear to marry the love of her life.
"And what about the wedding? What should I be keeping in mind when I'm pulling dresses?" Hailey asks, folding her hands in her lap and focusing her attention on Hermione.
"The wedding is going to be outside– in the backyard of Fred's childhood home. It's somewhat of a tradition for the Weasleys to marry there. Fred's older brother, Bill, and his wife, Fleur, did. Ronald and his wife, Susan, did. George and his wife, Angelina, did and so did Harry and Ginny. I'm honored to be included in the tradition."
Hailey nods, seeming to take a mental note of the location of the wedding and waiting patiently for Hermione to add any further relevant details.
"I'm not concerned with weather," Hermione states, quickly amending her statement when she remembers that Hailey, as a Muggle, doesn't know about impervious spells and warming charms. "T-there's going to be a tent– i-in case it rains."
Hermione then explains to Hailey that she has never tried on wedding dresses and that the only times that she has worn formal gowns have been for a ball in fourth year and for governmental obligations, so she hasn't a clue what sort of silhouette or material she's looking for.
"Then I'll pull one of everything until we find something that you love."
The first dress which Hermione tries on– at Hailey's behest– is a ball gown which would make a storybook princess swoon.
"Every bride should try on at least one ball gown– even if you think you won't like it. You'll never know if you don't try."
Hermione stares at herself in the floor-length mirror as Hailey laces up the corset on the back of the dress. She doesn't not like the dress, but she just can't seem to picture herself walking down the aisle to marry Fred in it.
"Alright, Hermione, you're strapped in. How do you feel?" Hailey asks, beaming brightly as she meets Hermione's eye through the mirror.
Hermione takes one last look at herself and shrugs her shoulders.
"It's a lovely gown," Hermione responds, scrunching her eyebrows together as she tries to decide if this is the dress or not.
"But it's not your dress, is it?"
Hermione shakes her head, recognizing that if Hailey, who does this for a living, can read the expression on her face and interpret it as a 'no', then it definitely isn't the dress.
"Would you like to show this one to your family or just take it off and try again?"
"I'd like to show them," Hermione answers, brushing her hands down over the skirt of her gown.
Hailey nods, directing Hermione on how to pick up her skirt and walk out of the room without tripping while she helps by carrying the back of the dress.
Hermione walks up behind where she can see her family– a sea of ginger with one splotch of black– taking up a mid-sized sectional in the center of the small bridal salon. Without looking at any of their faces, Hermione steps up onto the pedestal and waits as Hailey smoothes and fluffs her skirt.
When Hermione finally turns to face her family, she is not at all surprised by the reactions she sees.
"You look just so beautiful, dear," Molly gushes, her eyes already filling with tears. Hailey quickly reaches to a side table and offers a box of tissues to the Weasley matriarch, which the latter accepts with a gracious, if watery, smile.
Next to Molly, Ginny is eyeing Hermione in a way in which the older witch can clearly read as disapproval, though Ginny is probably trying to hide her dislike for Hermione's sake.
Harry is smiling somewhat wistfully and beside him, Ron has his nose scrunched up in distaste. George appears impassive, but for someone as typically boisterous as he, Hermione can figure that he doesn't like the dress either.
"What do you all think?" Hermione asks, though she doesn't exactly feel the need when their feelings are all so clearly displayed on their faces.
For a moment, no one answers.
"It looks like you're being swallowed up. It's too big," Ron finally states, his hands gesticulating wildly as if to drive his point home.
Molly cuts her eyes to her youngest son, but soon, Hermione's laughter seems to calm her ire.
"I agree. I can hardly move," Hermione chuckles. "And now I know that, at least, Ronald will be honest with me. None of you liked it, but only he said it."
After another four dresses– all of which were unequivocally a no– Hermione begins to feel discouraged. Her entourage have all seemed to warm up, now feeling as though they can voice their actual opinions after Ron had broken the ice with a splash– the only exception of which being Molly, who hasn't stopped crying and telling Hermione how beautiful she looks in every dress.
After Hailey gets Hermione out of her most recent 'no', Hermione slips back into the silk robe which the store provided for her and sits down on the chair which she had occupied for her earlier conversation with Hailey.
"Do you need a break?" Hailey asks, taking a seat beside her. "Is there someone you would like to talk to that I can grab for you?"
Against her better judgment, Hermione feels that tell-tale pressure in her sinuses as her eyes threaten to spill over with tears– tears of frustration, tears of confusion, tears of insecurity.
"Can you get Harry for me? I– I want to talk to him."
Hailey nods, reaching forward and squeezing Hermione's hand in comfort before disappearing through the door to the dressing room. She returns only moments later with the closest person Hermione has to a brother and closes the door behind him, giving the two some privacy.
"What's going on, 'Mi? Why are you crying?" Harry asks, quickly filling Hailey's vacated seat and slinging his arm over Hermione's shoulders to tug her close.
Hermione lays her head against Harry's chest, taking a few moments to herself to breathe before responding to her pseudo brother.
"We haven't liked any of these dresses. What if I don't find one? W-what if Fred doesn't like the one I pick? Gin and Susan and Angelina and Fleur all looked so beautiful on their wedding days and here I am– can't even find one dress I like."
Harry twists in his chair, placing both hands on Hermione's shoulders and leans down so that he is eye-level with her.
"Hermione, you will find a dress and you will look absolutely breathtaking because you are just as beautiful as Gin and Susan and Angelina and Fleur every day. Where is this coming from?"
Hermione sniffles and rubs under her eye with her fingertips to dry her tears.
"I just feel like that girl at the Yule Ball again– that girl that everyone was so surprised could look pretty because they never thought I was before then."
Harry tucks his thumb under Hermione's chin, tilting her face up so that she can see the sincerity in his eyes.
"Hermione, you have always been a beautiful witch and anyone who can't or refuses to see that is undeserving of you anyway– and the only people who will be at your wedding will be people who love you for everything that you are, outside of only your appearance. Those thoughts shouldn't even be a blip on your radar right now."
Harry reaches behind himself and plucks a pair of tissues from the box Hailey had in the dressing room and dabs at Hermione's under-eyes carefully.
"Thanks, Harry," Hermione's voice still wavers, but she, admittedly, does feel a bit better after talking with Harry. "Will you send George in? I need to talk to him, too."
Hermione sniffs again and wipes her nose, tucking her legs up against her chest on the chair and wrapping her arms around her knees.
"Of course, 'Mi," Harry agrees, standing and leaning down to press a gentle kiss to the top of Hermione's head.
Harry leaves the room and closes the door, but it only stays that way for a minute until George Weasley enters the room. The redheaded man shuts the door behind himself and crouches down in front of Hermione.
"Hey, there, beautiful," George says, his voice soft as he tugs Hermione's legs down and places his hands on her knees.
"Hi, Georgie," Hermione sniffles, knowing that she needn't preface her question for George with an explanation of any kind– he can always seem to read her quite well even without words, which Hermione supposes is a side-effect of dating a twin who spends an inordinate amount of time with his brother. "What if he doesn't like the dress I pick?"
George's eyebrows raise minutely before he squeezes Hermione's knees gently.
"Freddie?" George clarifies, although Hermione knows that he probably doesn't need to. Hermione nods. "Love, you could wear a bin bag down the aisle and he would love it. He loves you, Granger– so much that it's nauseating sometimes. He's marrying you, not a dress."
Hermione huffs, twiddling with the tissue she's still holding in her hand.
"I know that he loves me, but I want him to think that the dress is special, too. I want him to think that I look pretty, too."
George reaches up and brushes a curl which has escaped from the confines of Hermione's bun behind her ear.
"Hermione, I say this with all the love in the world as possibly the singular person on the planet who knows your future husband as well as you do and who spends a likely equal amount of time with him: you're mad if you think that he will be able to keep his hands and/or eyes off of you, regardless of the dress you choose."
Hermione opens her mouth to protest, but a rare look of seriousness from the man in front of her silences her immediately.
"In case you've forgotten, Freddie and I still live together. Angelina moved into the flat after we got married, and now we're remodeling so that you can do the same. I have seen and heard that man pine over you for years, even after you two got together. I don't think you quite understand how besotted he is with you."
Hermione smiles a half-smile– as much of one as she can manage with tears still streaming down her cheeks.
"I understand it perfectly because that's how I feel about him."
George smirks as if he has just come up with a particularly diabolical prank, though the expression doesn't give Hermione the same sense of impending doom that it might've done once upon a time.
"Then let me ask you this: will whatever he decides to wear on that day make a shred of difference in how you feel about him or your decision to marry him? Will you still spend the entire evening thinking about what he looks like out of it?"
Hermione can feel the blush rising on her cheeks, but she shakes her head regardless.
"George!" Hermione scolds, although there isn't much force behind it due to the small laugh which bubbles up out of her chest between syllables.
George eyes Hermione pointedly.
"Love, my room and Fred's room share a wall. A muffliato only does so much."
Hermione drops her head into her hands, covering her face in embarrassment until, in the next moment, George peels her hands away from her face and holds them hostage so that she cannot replace them.
"I'll take that as a 'no'. So, please, for the love of Merlin and the four founders, try on the next dress and stop worrying about what anyone else will think. If you love it, so will everyone who loves you– which is all of us, in case you've forgotten."
Hi, friends. :P I told you I wasn't done with Fremione yet. This fic, in case you're wondering, is part of the same universe as my last Fremione (Secrets, Secrets, They're No Fun) but it takes place after that fic chronologically.
This fic is a two-shot, so there's one more chapter after this. I almost left it here at just the one chapter, but I really wanted to write some actual Fremione instead of just the observations of everyone around them, so that's in chapter two.
This fic was inspired by the fact that I spent most of last week and the beginning of this week watching entirely too much Say Yes to the Dress, and well, here we are. Say Yes to the Dress is one of my favorite shows to watch when I'm having a bad day or something because everyone (mostly) is so happy and it's just so contagious to me, so that's how the idea for this fic came about.
Fun fact about this chapter- Hermione's conversation with Harry was inspired, in part, by an interview with Daniel Radcliffe where he said that he didn't understand why everyone was acting like Emma Watson was suddenly beautiful in the fourth movie during the Yule Ball scenes because he had always thought that she was beautiful. Daniel Radcliffe is a national treasure and should be protected at all costs. Anyway.
I'm not sure when I'm going to upload the second chapter of this fic. It's totally finished, but I haven't figured out how I want to upload it. I might upload both chapters today, I might upload the second chapter tomorrow or sometime next week. I'm not sure.
Also, I'm still not finished with this pairing. Don't worry, I do have more Dramione coming, and of course, loads more chapters of Snippets, but I do have more Fremione ideas too and even more in this universe, too. So, stick around if that sounds good to you.
As always, thank you so much for spending a bit of your time here with me this week. Your support is not unnoticed- it means more to me than you could ever imagine. Please, if you feel so inclined, leave a review. I love reading y'all's thoughts! (:
See you all again soon for the second/last part of this fic! (: