“When love is in excess it brings a man nor honour nor any worthiness” “ Euripides
“So, the Rumba,” Ron said brightly on Monday morning. “The Latin dance of love between a man and a woman, full of romance and good interplay between the dancers and-“
“Ron, can you stop with the I’m-so-knowledgeable-about-dancing act!” Hermione laughed. “That’s supposed to be my job!”
“Ah, you, my dear, are just jealous because I know more about it than you do,” Ron replied easily, with a dramatic toss of his head. Hermione laughed again.
“I doubt that somehow. Anyway, come on, let’s get on with it. I have the perfect song for us to dance to.”
“What’s it called?” Ron asked suspiciously.
“Against all odds,” Hermione told him, flicking a switch on the CD player.
“Why do we always have to dance to Muggle music?” Ron muttered mutinously, but Hermione shushed him, and they remained silent, listening to the music ringing around the room. When the song finished, Ron let out a breath.
“Uh, yeah, that’s, er, appropriate.”
“Exactly,” Hermione told him, slipping her arms round his waist. “I walked away from you once, and I’m never going to do it again.”
“Good to know,” Ron replied, sticking his tongue out. Hermione laughed and released him to go through some of the steps.
“I like this dance,” Ron declared as they spun around the dance floor.
“Comes naturally, doesn’t it?” Hermione said softly. “So, looking forward to Luna’s wedding?”
“Yeah, should be fun. I haven’t seen Luna for ages, or Colin for that matter. And you’ll be there, of course.”
“That I will,” Hermione agreed, a small smile playing around her mouth. “All alone, because nobody will come with me…”
“What?” Ron asked, bewildered. “But you… me… I thought…”
“You have to ask me to come with you,” she whispered in his ear.
“Oh! Well, er, in that case, Miss Granger, would you do me the very great pleasure of accompanying me to our dear friend Luna’s wedding tomorrow afternoon?”
“Of course, Mr Weasley,” Hermione replied, grinning. “I would be delighted.”
*
Tuesday morning dawned cloudy but calm, with the wind dying down and the sun attempting valiantly to peek through. Ron Flooed over to Harry’s house before leaving; he was going to get to the ceremony with Harry and Hermione, Ginny having already gone on ahead, as she was to be a bridesmaid. The wedding itself was taking place in a small church by the sea, and the reception afterwards was to be in an old castle nearby.
When he arrived, Harry was snickering about something that Hermione apparently didn’t find very funny. She seemed to be telling him off, but both looked round as Ron flew out of the fireplace in Harry and Ginny’s living room.
“What are you laughing about?” Ron asked Harry with a suspicious grin, as Harry helped him to his feet.
“Ginny’s expression when she put on her bridesmaid dress,” Harry chortled. “It’s very, er, Luna style material, and it rather, er, accentuates the bump.”
“It’s not funny, Harry!” Hermione scolded him. “Ginny’s going through a very serious and emotional time at the moment, and what she needs is for her husband,” she put a great deal of emphasis on the word, “to remind her how much he loves her and will think she’s the most beautiful person in the world even when she’s the size of a baby whale, and not for him to snigger at her insecurities.” Harry looked rather abashed.
“Yeah, but she knows I love her and think she’s beautiful, doesn’t she?” he reasoned slowly. Hermione sighed and shook her head in an expression that clearly gave him up as a lost cause.
“Come on, you two get your suits on; I’m going to go and put my dress on and I expect the pair of you to be back here in ten minutes exactly.”
The boys were indeed obediently in the living room ten minutes later, waiting patiently as Hermione dashed around, making sure that they had everything from their invitations to several packs of tissues. Finally she was ready, and the trio Apparated to the small area of woodland just beyond the small church where the ceremony was taking place.
“Come on, quickly, we’re late!” Hermione hissed, dragging the pair of them by the elbows into the church and scurrying up the aisle to find their seats.
“You haven’t changed, Hermione,” Harry laughed, as Hermione yanked him along. “Good luck with her, mate,” he added to Ron, who raised his eyebrows in response to his friend.
Colin Creevey was standing at the front of the church, quietly exchanging words with his best man, the ever present Dennis Creevey. Colin’s side of the church seemed fit to bursting with Muggle relatives, but Luna’s side seemed comparatively empty. There were several members of the DA, along with some adults that Ron supposed were Lovegood family friends, and finally the three of them, and Ginny, who he could just see hovering near the entrance to the church.
At the starting notes of the bridal march, Ron, Hermione and Harry all turned as one to watch as Luna Lovegood entered on the arm of her father, an extremely tall man wearing the same dreamy smile as Luna. She seemed to float up the aisle, and when she reached a beaming Colin, she greeted him with a vague, “Hello.” Colin merely stared happily back, and Ron and Harry exchanged a knowing grin.
*
“It was a lovely ceremony, wasn’t it?” Hermione said to Ron at the reception, for what he suspected was the twentieth time.
“Yes dear, it was fabulous and Luna looked beautiful but no, you don’t have to worry that I think she’s beautiful because I only have eyes for you,” he intoned monotonously. Hermione glared at him.
“Alright, don’t blame me if I-“
“Shall we go and dance again?” Ron suggested quickly, seizing her elbow and preparing to drag her to the dance floor, but they were accosted along the way by Luna herself, accompanied by Ginny and her baby bump.
“Hello,” Luna said happily. “Are you having a nice time?”
“Yeah, it’s great Luna, congratulations!” Ron told her, patting her shoulder genially.
“It was a lovely ceremony, Luna,” Hermione gushed, as Ron groaned. “And your dress is beautiful. Is it from Madam Malkin’s?”
“Oh, no, it was my mother’s wedding dress,” Luna told them plainly. “She used to dress me up in it when I was little, every year, on her and daddy’s wedding anniversary.”
There was a sniff from Luna’s other side and they turned in surprise to see that Ginny was now rummaging for a tissue, tears streaming uncontrollably down her cheeks.
“Cheer up, Ginny, you’re supposed to be happy, not wailing like a banshee,” Ron said bracingly.
“Ron!” Hermione scolded, pulling Ginny into a hug. “It’s an emotional time for her!” Ron shrugged and, with a sigh, gave the two women up as a lost cause. He turned instead to head back to the bar, where Harry seemed to have taken refuge from his wailing wife, but found himself face to face with Luna again.
“You really love her, don’t you?” she said serenely. Ron glanced back at Ginny, who was now flapping around for another tissue, and Hermione, who was attempting to comfort her and glare daggers at Ron at the same time.
“Which one?” he asked gingerly.
“Both of them,” Luna replied. “In different ways, obviously, but you love them a lot.”
“Yeah,” Ron shrugged. “Yeah, I guess I do.”
“Which one do you love more?” she asked, twirling the flamingo stirrer in her drink. Ron stared.
“Luna! You can’t ask me that!”
“I know. But what if you had to choose?”
“Why are you asking?” Ron asked, curiously. Now it was Luna’s turn to shrug.
“I just wondered whether someone could love their brother or sister as much as the person they want to spend the rest of their life with.”
“Well, what if I had to ask you to choose between Colin or your dad? Which would you choose?” Ron fired back at her. Luna looked vaguely thoughtful for a moment.
“Colin,” she said calmly. Ron stared at her again. “My dad’s older anyway, and I know he’d choose my happiness over his. But then again, if it was a choice between life or death, I’d let him go to be with my mum.”
“But wouldn’t Colin choose your happiness over his too?” Ron asked, getting more confused by the second. He wasn’t even sure why they were having this conversation.
“Yes. But he’s got a whole family here, and if Dad went, well, it’d just be me left here, rather than a whole family grieving for Colin.”
“So you’d be choosing Colin’s happiness, your Dad’s happiness, and all of Colin’s family’s happiness over your own?” Luna shrugged again.
“I’d just be doing what was right. And it’s not like I’d be unhappy. I’d still have Colin, wouldn’t I? Oh, here he comes, I want to dance with him. I’ll dance with you later if you like,” she added, beaming at him before floating over to where Colin was waiting with open arms. Ron watched her go, trying to take in what she’d said.
At that moment Hermione brushed past him, a frosty look still on her face, heading for Harry. Ron followed in the hope of apologising for the heinous sin he had supposedly committed.
“I want a word with you, Harry,” she was saying sternly as Ron reached them. “Alright, with you as well,” she added to Ron as she noticed him skulking at her shoulder.
“What have I done now?” Harry sighed.
“It’s what you’re not doing,” she told him, hands on her hips. “You should be giving Ginny support, not sitting here at the bar all night, nursing a Butterbeer and deliberately avoiding her!”
“Hermione, this is as much a new experience for me as it is for her; how am I supposed to know what to do?” Harry argued back angrily. “Anything and everything I do is wrong! I try and be nice, she yells at me for patronising her! I try being blunt and she yells at me for being nasty! I even went to Hogwarts last weekend just so I could get exactly the right kind of treacle tart for her, and when I got back she’d changed her mind! And when I tried to get her to eat it anyway, she just screamed at tried to hex me! What exactly am I supposed to do, Hermione?!”
“Just love her! Give her hugs, reassure her! Show her you love her!”
“She knows I love her!”
“Yes, I know that, but-“
At that moment, they heard a scream echoing from somewhere on the opposite side of the room. Everyone fell silent, shocked, for a moment, then someone cried, “There’s a madman! He’s grabbed a girl, I think it was one of the bridesmaids!”
Ron glanced from Harry, whose face had gone stark white, to Hermione, whose hands had flown to her mouth. The room was still deathly silent, then another scream was heard, and this time it screamed a word, a name…
“HARRY!”
Harry leapt to his feet, sending his bar stool flying, and shot across the room, Ron fast behind him with Hermione bringing up the rear. Ron bounded up the winding staircase behind Harry, taking the steps three at a time. They emerged at the top onto the battlements of the old castle, and across from them, standing perilously on the wall, which on the other side fell away into a 40 feet drop, was Ginny. Her arm was twisted behind her, and was being gripped by a tall man, who was holding a silver knife in his other hand, pressing it to Ginny’s throat.
Harry charged forwards but Ron held him back; he had just recognised the man. And, judging by the sharp intake if breath behind him, Hermione had too.
It was Alex.
He had a manic look in his eyes as he stared from the terrified Ginny to the shocked crowd.
“Your sister, Weasley?” he yelled at Ron. “I thought so. You’ve taken something from me, now I’m going to take something from you. Eye for an eye, and all that.”
“That’s my wife!” Harry roared, trying to break free from Ron’s grip.
“I don’t care, it’s his fault. I wouldn’t have had to do this if he hadn’t taken my Hermione! Blame him!”
Harry’s head snapped round to Ron, who was stunned and horrified to see a spark of accusation in his eyes.
“We can come to a deal, Weasley,” Alex called. “Just come over here and we’ll arrange something.”
“I don’t want to hear anything you’ve got to say!” Ron yelled. But Alex grinned a bit more and moved the knife to Ginny’s stomach, where her baby bump seemed plainer than ever.
“No?”
Harry broke free and charged forward before Ron could stop him. Hermione screamed, “Harry, no!” but Alex seemed too stunned to have registered what to do. While Alex’s eyes were fixed on Harry, coming at him like a raging bull, Ginny grabbed Alex’s wrist and twisted the knife away, but in doing so, she lost her balance. Harry leapt forward to catch her before she fell over the edge, allowing Alex just enough time to slip past him. Alex ran; he shoved Ron aside, but paused for a second at Hermione.
He gave her a slight nod, and stroked her pale cheek, then pushed his way through the crowd, who all seemed too shocked to do anything, and disappeared from sight. Ron scrambled to his feet and hurried over to Ginny, who was pale and shaking, still in Harry’s arms.
“This is all your fault!” Harry said angrily to Ron. “Why did you have to go messing with that maniac?”
Ron had no answer; he just stared wordlessly at Harry, who pushed roughly past him, practically dragging Ginny with him. The crowd seemed to have dissipated back downstairs, leaving Ron and Hermione standing alone at the top of the battlements.
He could see in her eyes what she was going to do.
“No,” he whispered. “Please. No. No.” But she shook her head.
“I’m sorry, Ron,” she said softly. “But I have to. You know I have to, for everyone’s sakes.”
Ron knew she was right, but it didn’t stop his heart from breaking. He knew, as well as she did, that if she didn’t go back to Alex, this same thing, or worse, would happen over and over again. More people would get hurt. He nodded.
“Goodbye, Ron.”
And Hermione walked away from Ron, leaving him all alone once more.