The wedding was over the breakfast was complete and Daphne was looking forward to getting out of those damn shoes the cushioning charm had been amazing, but all magic had its limits, there was however one thing left to do.

Approaching the minister and his wife Daphne came to a graceful stop, "Kingsley, Sara, I hope you had a good day, however the is one more official thing that needs to be done, Augusta is gathering a group of people that we need to talk to before the Handfasting. "

Kingsley nodded and kissed his wife on the cheek, "Back soon love, apparently there is no end of work for the Minister of Magic. Right-o lead on then Miss Greengrass, how many people?"

"4 That know about magic and 7 that have no clue yet" She answered.

"The ones that don't know? "

"Hermione's grandparents, her aunt and uncle and Harrys cousins girlfriend and her parents, we would have excluded the girlfriend and her parents but we have… a very strong indication that they will marry in 547 days and a magical child in 820 days 13 hours and approximately 12 minutes."

Kingsley's stride hitched at the time frame, "that's a rather precise numb… Luna?"

Daphne nodded, "Luna! That girl is. Well, when you can get a straight answer out of her she's scary"

"And the ones that know? I'm assuming one is Harry's cousin. Who are the other three"

"The Prince of Wales, Prince William and Reverend Russell, they were still here talking to Augusta and Minerva, so we asked them to be present to give the others a bit of grounding."

Kingsly nodded, "Good idea!"

Entering a small anteroom Daphne approached Augusta and Luna, Augusta was talking to Carrol and her parents, and luna was standing next to Carrol there looking spaced out.

Hermione's family were with Minerva and the Princes and reverend Russell talking about the ceremony. And her Grandmother commented,

"No, I definitely heard both of them close out the vows by saying 'In the presence of My Gods I make this vow', now if it were just one I would have chalked it up to the nerves of the day but both of them?"

Reverend Russell saw the new arrivals and put his hand on her arm, "I believe you may be about to get some answer."

"Madam Longbottom I found the minister and managed to pry him away from his wife, shall we?"

Augusta nodded and spoke up. "Excuse me everyone, how if you would come a bit closer so that I don't have to raise my voice too much it would be appreciated.

"Now, all the people in this room will have received a separate invitation to the Handfasting of Lord Potter-Black. With that there needs to be a bit of an explanation but first I would like to ask each of you to sign a non-disclosure agreement"

Daphne handed out sheets of parchment to each person, Rita looked about and then looked at the parchment and began to read, Hermione's grandmother smirked, you will have to excuse Rita she is a barrister, and well they won't sign a Christmas card without reading it fully first"

"That sounds like a very sensible thing that I wish more people would do" Kingsly responded.

"Do you need Wiliam and I to sign another one minister?" Charles queried.

Rita's head snaped up. "The royal family are also bound by these?"

Charles nodded, "Yes, we are. When you get to the part about penalties for breach allow me to reassure you that mother has asked, they be 'enforced rigorously'!"

Rita nodded and went back to reading, "I say well it looks strong and well worded; generally however the official secrets act isn't enforced with a threat of life in prison!"

Charles snorted, "Mother was, put out, that she could not make the breach of this agreement treason."

Kingsley sighed, "If you would sign them, we can get to telling you what this is all about, that may answer a lot more questions"

Hermione's grandmother nodded and signed her form as the others were doing, "Perhaps then we will find out how this kind of document is associated with my Granddaughters wedding!"

With the papers signed Augusta took a deep breath, "You know Minerva I have never had to do this before." She took a deep breath, " So the short story is, there is a population of this country that have been keeping secrets since they arrived on out beaches, some of them like my ancestors came with the Danes, some from central Europe with the Celts, yet more and I believe the Potters were with the roman legions. In fact, any group that has immigrated to the isles have had some number of these people in come with them normally unknown to any but the most trusted of their allies. The thing that sets these people apart is a special ability that is rare. And one that if widely known about could cause issues. The ability I am talking about is the ability to use magic"

Carrol looked at Dudley with shock, then at the princes. "Dudley. You… you're not surprised, YOU KNEW?"

"He grew up with Harry. So yes, he knew, he also has first hand knowledge how dangerous Magic can be!" Luna said as she wrapped Carrol into a hug. "Harry Saved his life when they were about 15 years old. Got into some trouble doing it and it's the main reason your Dudley has those nightmares and was so worried about contacting harry. He may not be any more, but your man was terrified of Harry's world, you are going to be such a good mum you know!"

Rita looked about and studied the princes for a moment. "Not to be rude but I don't suppose we can have some proof of all this"

Kingsley nodded, that can be arranged, Minerva if you would.

"Me, why me?" she asked.

"You have a particular way of providing proof is almost imposable to ignore or explain," then he smirked, "and your adorable! Besides looking the size of the room Daphne wouldn't fit"

"Adorable!" then she looked over at Daphne, "Wont fit?" she asked raising an eyebrow

Daphne looked about the room. "I might but I couldn't guarantee I wouldn't cause some damage to the room or its occupants"

Minerva huffed, "Right then, we can talk about you not fitting later, that is something I definitely need to see"

Minerva looked about the room, "what I'm about to show you is something that not all of us can do, it takes intense study a lot can go wrong and when it goes wrong it goes very wrong" she then shifted into her Animagus form and jumped onto a near by table and sat down to watch people.

Rita sat back colliding with her husband, "Oh I say, well that just happened then. Then she looked over at Daphne, "Won't fit? So, your not all cats then? May I ask what you turn into?"

Daphne blushed looked about at all the magical in the room before sighing, "No we are not all the same animal, some of our forms are not as useful as a tabby cat. I am about 7,600lbs of African Elephant"

The whole room looked at her.

Augusta looked a touch shaken, "That, makes sense!" she shook herself and continued, "So then now that is out of the way, the reason we had to tell you is that you are family of the bride and groom and will be exposed to the magical version of a wedding, it will be conducted by the Druidic order. Much like the church of England is the state religion of the United kingdom, our major rites are druidic in nature, Harry is arranging for transport to the site for you all "

Hermione's grandmother watched as Minerva jumped off the table and shifter back to normal as she landed then turned to Daphne, "can Hermione do this too?"

"Yes and no, she has an alternate from but due to a potion mishap at school her form was impacted, it's not something she likes to talk about"

People gather at the circle

Augusta Longbottom gathers all the non magicals up to give an introduction to the ceremony

Augusta looked around the group she had gathered and smiled nodding at the queen "Lillibet, its so wonderful to see you after all these years, I have watched your rein with admiration, I remember you came to my handfasting all those years ago so you at least have some idea of the event," the Queen smiled "Augie dear that was for want of a better term a truly magical night," she looked about the shocked group, "from what I remember being told at Augie's ceremony as soon as we crossed into this circle all mundane ranks and titles are set aside, in this place we are people magical and non who are hear to support and whitness a very special day for three wonderful young people, within this circle please if you are comfortable refer to me as Lillibet as my father did when I was a girl or if you cant manage that mam is fine. Now I understand that the Greengrass family is more traditional that the longbottoms so please enlighten us as to what we can expect."

Augusta noded, "Right so much like the wedding last week this ritual holds the exact same meaning to magicals, we have 2 forms of marriage one is a true marriage and it is a rare and wonderful thing, it is rare because it is blessed by magic and there is no divorce, the second is a contract marriage which is functionaly the same as a muggle marage. Now only about 20% of people attempt the first type for the fear of what it mans if it fails many contracts are long and happy and even there our divorce rate is only about a fifth but of the people who attempt a handfasting I would say about a third of thos do not see a blessing, a problem we wont have today"

Reverand Russell spoke up, "whjy do you not thinsk we will not see a blessing today?"

Augusta replied, "who at the wedding ceremony noticed a golden glow around harry and Hermione." Most of the gathered raised their hand

Carrol asked "wasn't that a trick of the light ?"

Augusta smiled, "no young lady it was not, the fact that those without magic saw it at all is a testament to its strength, and those of us with magic felt the build up and watched the tendrils reach out to Daphne. Magic is often said to have a feel to it and that felt old, powerful and content he common thought of those that were in attendance and would have a frame of reference is that the Muggle ceremony was accepted by magic as a bond however as the ceremony was centered around Harry and Hermione and intent is a key ingreidant it did not reach out and complete between Harry and Daphne or Hermion and Daphne.

"are you saying this ceremony will complete a bond between all three of them essentially not only marrying Harry to Daphne abut also Hermione to Daphne? " asked the Queen

Augusta nodded, "That is very likely we have never really had a taboo for same sex or multiple partnerships, while multiples are rare these days and require some unique situations which might I add harry handily fulfils they do happen, honestly it is my opinion that if we se anything weird today it would be a failure between either Harry and Daphne or Hermione and Daphne but I don't really expect either. The love and devotion between all three is quite evident"