The house was full of excited voices when Harry and Ron had made their way downstairs the next morning. The girls were preparing to leave for the Burrow, where the wedding was to be held, before Bill could get a glimpse of the bride. The groom and his party would follow a few hours later.
Harry had wondered aloud why none of the Weasleys were staying at the Burrow long term, and Ron had informed him that Grimmauld Place was the safest location for everyone, considering all of its enchantment.
In the kitchen, Mrs. Weasley was flustered, her cheeks reddened, as she was hurrying the girls around, shoving a piece of toast at each of them.
“Oh, I couldn’t eat!” Fleur shrieked at her, tossing the toast over her shoulder. It hit Ginny, who glared at Fleur. Harry and Ron both laughed at this.
“Save yourselves!” Mr. Weasley called to them as he was toasting bread with his wand. “It’s too late for me!”
Happy not to be involved, Harry and Ron each snagged a few slices of toast and hurried from the kitchen.
Once back in the room that they shared, Harry watched Ron pace nervously, nibbling his toast.
“I’ve never been in a wedding before,” he was saying.
“Aren’t you just going to be standing there?” Harry asked him.
“Well… yes. But it’s very important, isn’t it?”
Harry shrugged.
Ron appeared sick, much as he had done before the Quidditch Cup match the previous year.
“You’re worried about pleasing Fleur, aren’t you?”
Ron looked at him out of the corner of his eye.
Harry laughed. “I promise you, mate, she’s not even going to notice you.”
“Gee, thanks,” grumbled Ron.
“You know what I mean.”
Ron put a hand to his stomach.
“Fancy a game of chess?” Harry asked, hoping this might distract Ron.
Ron nodded gratefully, and they enjoyed a lively game, with Ron easily beating Harry, as was expected.
Mr. Weasley knocked on the door a short while later, signaling that they would be leaving soon for the Burrow. He also delivered two freshly pressed sets of dress robes “ one for Ron, along with a pale gold tie, and one that Mrs. Weasley had obviously picked up for Harry.
Ron gave Harry a look that said that the game of chess had only been a temporary diversion.
Once at the Burrow, Harry realized that he was much better off if he was out of the way, safely watching the goings-on. Fleur was locked in Ginny’s room, along with Ginny and Gabrielle, until the ceremony began. All of the Weasley boys were upstairs, dressing and taking care of last minute details.
The back garden was elaborately decorated in gold. Harry had seated himself beside Hermione, in one of the many chairs that had been set up. Mrs. Weasley was still rushing around anxiously, directing people who, in turn, paid her no mind.
At one point, she had stopped in her tracks on her way past where Harry was sitting. She had smoothed her hands over Harry’s head, muttering, “This hair of yours,” in exasperated tones. Harry was relieved when she had finally given up and went back to welcoming the arrivals.
Guests were entering the garden intermittently and seating themselves all around Harry and Hermione. Most of them, Harry didn’t recognize, and he assumed that they were people who worked with Mr. Weasley at the Ministry.
Harry noticed a tall, thin couple talking with Bill near the back door of the house. They were both blonde and surprisingly striking.
“Must be Fleur’s parents,” suggested Hermione, who had also noticed the couple.
Charlie Weasley, who Harry had only met twice before, in his fourth year, had also appeared. He came over to say hello to Harry and Hermione.
“All right, Harry? Good to see you again,” Charlie said enthusiastically, pumping Harry’s hand.
Harry grinned. “You too.”
“And Hermione, I imagine you’ve been keeping Harry and Ron in line?”
Hermione blushed, but nodded in response.
“Well, see you lot after,” said Charlie, who was abruptly being pulled away by a frenzied Mrs. Weasley.
To Harry’s great surprise, he saw Percy Weasley seating himself, inconspicuously, in the back row of chairs. He nudged Hermione, who turned to look and gasped in delight.
“Bill will be so pleased!” she whispered.
Soon, the rows were filled and the hour was nearing. Bill, still looking anxious, situated himself underneath the awning, next to the Ministry representative who was to officiate. When he seemed settled, a plump witch with graying hair began softly playing a harp.
At this point, Mrs. Weasley hurried down the aisle, looking frazzled, and plopped down beside her husband in the front row of chairs.
Almost immediately, Charlie appeared from inside the house, escorting Gabrielle on his arm. Fleur’s younger sister was as awe-inspiring as Fleur herself. The tall, thin woman watched proudly from her seat in the front row.
Ron, looking tense, followed shortly, ushering Ginny. Harry smiled at her. She, too, was very pretty in the dress that Fleur had chosen and his heart fluttered. She grinned back at Harry as she and Ron passed.
Fred and George surfaced from the house and traipsed towards the awning together. Harry saw that they were wearing gold dragon skin jackets. He chuckled to himself.
When the wedding party had gathered at the front, all of the guests stood to welcome Fleur, who emerged, bright-eyed and glorious, on her father’s arm. Harry swiftly felt very lightheaded. He looked up at Ron, who had turned bright red and closed his eyes, also looking woozy.
Bill was beaming and finally looked relaxed. Fleur floated down the aisle towards him, the sound of the harp accompanying her flawlessly. He took her hands when she met him under the canopy, and Fleur’s father stepped to the side to stand next to her mother.
“Please be seated,” the Ministry official said to the guests. With a rush of noise, they obeyed.
“We are gathered here on this lovely day to witness the union of Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour,” the official continued.
Harry saw Fred and George making revolted faces. He smiled. Hermione, who had also noticed, looked appalled at their behavior. She huffed quietly and shifted in her seat.
What followed, Harry could not recall. He tried desperately to concentrate, but his thoughts were scattered, and he found himself pondering the Horcruxes, once again. He realized that wedding procedures were terribly dull, and slightly nauseating, if he was honest about it. He knew that there had been vows and rings exchanged. Then, after what felt like an eternity, Bill and Fleur were kissing passionately and everyone was standing and applauding.
The crowd began to disperse and people were gravitating towards the refreshments.
“I’m going to go check on Ron,” Hermione told Harry, who responded, “Don’t be too hard on him about drooling over Fleur.” She narrowed her eyes and then walked away without another word.
He noticed Mrs. Weasley fawning happily over Percy, thanking him for coming. Her son wore an expression of annoyance and patted her indifferently upon the back. Harry shook his head in anger.
A few moments later, Harry saw Malfoy’s little mate, Luci, who must have arrived for the reception, joyfully embracing Fleur. The girl was seemingly offering her congratulations, and they exchanged a few giddy words.
The harpist had continued playing and people were dancing in the garden. Fleur broke away from the blonde girl and went to dance with Bill, who opened his arms lovingly in welcome. A tall mousy-haired man was taking photographs, and Harry thought to himself that the newlyweds were absolutely glowing.
Luci wasn’t left alone for very long, as Charlie had asked her to dance, and the pair of them were laughing together as they moved around with everyone else. Harry found himself wishing that Charlie would trip and fall flat on his face…
To his bafflement, he then noticed that Ron and Hermione were also dancing together inside of the crowd. A strange feeling came over him, like he was suddenly very alone. He watched them silently, the awful sensation swelling more so, the longer that he looked.
“Wanna dance?” came a lovely voice.
Harry turned to see Ginny grinning up at him. She handed him a glass of punch.
Still struggling with the odd feelings that were gathered together in his gut, Harry swallowed.
“Maybe later,” he mumbled, forcing a smile, and then he left her standing there.
Harry found a path into the house and stood out of the way in the back of the room, sipping his punch, the punch for which he’d forgotten to thank Ginny. He watched the people around him for a long while, glad to be in the background for once. He decided that he wasn’t very fond of weddings.
Eventually, Luci the Auror came through the back door, saying cheerfully, “Oh, hello, Harry,” as she was passing.
He smiled awkwardly and began to murmur a greeting, but noticed Fred and George approaching her.
“Luci,” Fred called to her.
She turned to acknowledge the twins.
“Listen, we have a feeling that our brother is going to ask you out,” Harry heard George tell her.
“Which one?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“A reasonable question,” said George.
“That’d be Percy,” Fred answered her, pointing towards his brother.
“And what makes you think he’ll be asking me out?” questioned the girl.
Fred grinned. “We heard him telling someone from the Ministry that he fancied you.”
“Ah,” she replied in understanding. “Obviously, he’s blind, yes?”
Harry was floored, but George just grinned and said, “We thought it’d be fun if you told him that you were dating us.”
“Both of you?” She looked interested.
The twins nodded.
Smiling, the blonde girl said, “That seems a little mean-spirited, doesn’t it?”
“He’s an awful prat,” said George.
Fred nodded. “He deserves it; believe us.”
She hesitated, and then, sounding amused, replied, “Well, why not? If he asks.”
“Perfect!” the twins said in unison. They clapped her encouragingly on the back and walked away, Fred calling after himself, “We’ll be listening from afar!”
The Auror drew nearer to Harry. He felt a swooping sensation in his stomach as he realized that they were alone.
“They’re fun, eh?” she said to him.
“Yeah, a riot,” Harry answered, grinning despite himself.
“Was it a nice ceremony?” she asked.
Shrugging his shoulders, he replied, “I guess so.”
“Wow, they weren’t kidding,” she whispered abruptly. “Here he comes.”
Percy approached, extending his hand to Luci. She took it as he said, “Percy Weasley, Assistant to the Minister of Magic.”
“Luci Keegan,” she offered in return.
Percy glanced at Harry as if he were the only thing standing in the way of true love. Harry took this as his cue to leave and went over to join the twins, who were looking mischievous.
“Here,” Fred said, handing him a long flesh-colored string.
“Four-pronged Extendable Ears,” George explained, at Harry’s questioning look. “New product this year. Group eavesdropping, you know.”
“Nice one,” Harry commented. He noticed that Percy was chatting haughtily to the girl, who nodded cordially, but Harry could tell that she was bored.
“Turn around, you idiot!” Fred commanded him. “He’ll be suspicious.”
Harry hastily turned his back to Percy and inserted the Extendable Ear.
“I have a lot of responsibilities and the Minister trusts me implicitly,” Percy was saying. “I accompany him wherever he goes and keep records of all of his important matters. I’ll have his job one day.”
Harry found this rant to be entirely uninteresting. Then he heard Percy say, “I understand that you’re an Auror?”
“Yes,” Luci started to answer, but Percy hadn’t stopped talking.
“As personnel of the Ministry, we have a lot in common. Therefore, I wondered when you might like to discuss these commonalities over dinner with me?”
This seemed to be the first time that Percy had paused to let her speak.
“I’m sorry, but I’m seeing someone,” she replied.
“Oh?” Percy sounded astonished that anyone had gotten to her before he did.
“Two someones, actually,” she continued.
“Two?” croaked Percy.
“And seeing as how Fred and George are just over there, it would be quite impolite for me to accept.”
“F-Fred and… George?” Percy stammered.
“Mmm hmm.”
Percy didn’t say anything, but Harry imagined him gaping at her and grinned to himself.
“Don’t worry,” Luci said then. “I won’t tell them that you hit on me.”
Harry heard Percy take a sharp breath. Then he stormed past the three listeners a moment later, casting a repugnant look at Fred and George, who sniggered.
“That was brilliant!” Fred exclaimed to Luci as the three of them joined her.
She shrugged. “All in a day’s work!”
The twins heartily shook Luci’s hand and departed, appearing extremely pleased with themselves.
“I’m going to go say goodbye to Bill and Fleur,” Luci then said to Harry, and he watched her walk away, thinking that she might not be so bad after all.
After Bill and Fleur had gone, and the guests had made their exits, the others stayed to clean up. Harry was helping Ron fold up chairs, while Hermione was demanding “Scourgify,” at the lawn, where cake, punch, and confetti had been strewn. Ginny, who was still underage, was gathering the litter by hand.
“Glad that’s over,” Ron muttered to Harry as he waved his wand over the folded chairs, causing them to disappear before their eyes.
“Yeah, I thought you might pass out before it was over,” Harry teased him.
“Thanks,” replied Ron sarcastically. “You can’t say you didn’t come near passing out too.”
Harry inclined his head in agreement.
“Wasn’t Fleur just beautiful?” Hermione was saying to Ginny. Ginny was pretending that she had found Fleur to be absolutely repulsive.
“Hermione’s being so girly over all of this,” grumbled Ron.
“So?” replied Harry.
“So,” Ron said. Then his cheeks reddened. “So it’s annoying, that’s all.”
Harry glanced at him inquisitively. “OK?”
At that moment, Mr. Weasley came into the garden.
“Looks like we’re just about all done here?” he asked the four of them.
They all nodded, as they had just been finishing up.
“Back to the house, then,” said Mr. Weasley, disappearing again through the back door.
The four of them filed into the Burrow and came to find that Mrs. Weasley had been crying. Luci was patting her comfortingly on the back.
“Percy left without saying good-bye,” whispered Fred.
Disgusted, Ron asked, “How thick can he be?”
“Pretty damn thick,” replied Ginny, angrily.
George patted Ron on the back. “Take care of her for us, little bro.”
Then, with a loud CRACK, the twins Disapparated.
“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Mrs. Weasley was saying to Luci, who was offering her a glass of water. “I just need a nap. Stressful day, you know.”
As they were all leaving, Harry noticed Charlie catch Luci’s arm.
“It was really nice to meet you,” he said to her.
Luci smiled brightly at him. “Likewise.”
Harry watched them skeptically. Perhaps he should warn Charlie...
“Harry!” Mrs. Weasley was insisting.
“Huh?”
“If you’ll take my arm, please,” she replied, her voice still choked up from crying.
Harry noticed that she had been holding her elbow out to him. Everyone else, aside from Charlie and Luci, had already gone. Reluctantly, he took Mrs. Weasley’s arm and found himself back at Grimmauld Place just a few moments later.
Luci didn’t return for some time after that, and Harry had a disturbing feeling that she’d run off and married Charlie. When she did come back, it was just in time for supper, and she wore a suspiciously pleased expression as she sat down with Malfoy at the table.
Beside Harry, Ron and Hermione were speculating on who might teach Defense Against the Dark Arts this year.
“Perhaps McGonagall will give the job to Trelawny so she’ll stop whining about having to share her subject,” Ron suggested.
Ginny laughed.
Harry was half-listening to all of this. The new Hogwarts professors were the least of his worries.