Snapshots of a Wedding

SNAPSHOTS OF A WEDDING

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

--Albert Pike
[...Saved By The Elf...]

"Ginny! Ginny could you at least wait a minute?!"

Remus tried desperately to keep up with Ginny but she was moving abnormally quickly. She had become so angry that she stormed out of the room without a word, leaving everyone else a little worried about what impulsive thing she was about to do. So, to prevent her from doing anything dangerous, they all followed her downstairs, keeping slightly distant in case she rounded on them. Ginny was an awesome witch under good and regular circumstances, but whenever angered or provoked, she was ten times better, and fifty times more dangerous.

Piling into the kitchen, Remus, Luna, Hermione, Fred and George (who had returned the exact same moment that Ginny had stormed out of the room) watched as Ginny paced back and forth, her wand held tightly in her hand and her steps sounding heavy against the wooden floor.

"I am so sorry about this," Remus repeated for what seemed like the umpteenth time. "It was an accident."

"No it wasn't!" she shouted.

Consequently, a tiny stool that was a few feet away from her exploded, leaving nothing but debris and a little ash behind. Fred and George stepped back, clearly eager to get out of the line of fire.

"None of these mishaps are just accidents," she continued, barely acknowledging the now reduced stool. "I know somehow that my mom has something to do with this." She let out an irritated sigh.

"Ginny, at least try to calm down so we can attempt to figure this out," Luna bravely suggested, stepping closer to Ginny. "We'll simply call your mom down and ask her."

"Psh! Like she'll tell the bloody truth!" Ginny snorted and plunked into a chair.

"It's Mrs. Weasley," Luna said, "when has she ever lied?"

"When has she ever tried to stop one of her children from doing something?" Ginny paused and put a finger to her chin, pretending as though she was pondering her own question. "Hm, why she did that just this morning didn't she?" she answered cynically.

"And not to mention eight years ago -"
"When she tried to stop us from establishing our joke shop," George stated, reminding everyone of those many times Mrs. Weasley had confiscated one thing or another from the two.

"Exactly!" Ginny nodded fiercely. "If she can stand in the way of her own children's dreams, who knows what else she's capable of."

"I'm terribly sorry," Remus said quietly after everyone went silent for what felt like hours.

Ginny sighed but said nothing. Remus went to move forward but his path was blocked when Neville appeared suddenly in front of him, followed immediately by Harry who had apparated next to Luna. Both of them had arrived smiling but those smiles quickly faded when they noticed the distant expressions on everyone's faces.

"Is something wrong?" Neville asked, looking at Remus who was closer to him than anyone else.

Remus hesitated a moment before saying, "I, um, misplaced Harry and Ginny's wedding rings."

"You what?!?" Harry asked, turning to face Remus.

"Harry don't," Hermione interjected, stopping Harry before he could lash out. "He feels bad enough."

Harry looked at Hermione whose expression suggested that Remus had been reprimanded badly enough. He nodded and walked over to where Ginny was sitting. He placed his hand on her shoulder and squatted so to become level with her.

"You alright baby?"

Ginny shook her head. "Everything is slowly becoming a disaster. Mom's not helping because of the whole 'you're not marrying Harry' rampage; we have no food or wedding cake; the girls' dresses are the wrong colour; and now, on top of everything, the wedding rings are missing."

Just then, Ron descended the stairs yawning widely. He stopped when he had hit the last step and noticed how full the kitchen was. He looked down at his watch that read 10:05 A.M. and yawned again, descending the last step and ending up next to where Fred and George were.

"Morning everyone," he said, clearly oblivious to the crisis at hand.

"I don't believe you're just waking up," Hermione said, rolling her eyes at him and folding her arms. "All the racket that's been going on in here and yet little Ronnie's still snuggled up in his bed, not a care in the world."

Ron gave Hermione a reproachful look, but instead of replying to her snag remark, he simply shrugged. "I didn't hear anything. What happened so?"

Ginny sighed and began by telling him about the fight between Mrs. Potter and their mother, then repeated everything she had just told Harry; the expressions and nods coming from everyone else confirmed what she was saying. Ron slowly became just as worried.

"But why wait until the day of the wedding to voice their opinion?" he asked, ignoring the irritated look Hermione gave him.

"That's what I said." Ginny stood up. "But it doesn't matter. With this huge mess of things the wedding cannot possibly happen tonight."

"Of course it can," Harry said, standing up. "We just need to get a handle on things."

"But how?" Luna and Ginny asked simultaneously.

Harry remained quiet, not knowing the answer. He examined the scene and, almost as if he was an empath, felt the tension and worry rising in the room. He felt Ginny's fear and felt everyone else's anxiety. When he had left his house, he was under the impression that everything was under control, even with both mothers on the disapproval train. But now he realized that everything was slowly falling apart. There was no food, and everything they had planned and finalized had to be redone from scratch. How were they going to manage redoing everything by tonight, even with magic?

Then, it hit Harry like a rogue bludger at a Quidditch match and he jumped up and yelled, "Dobby!"

There was a loud crack and a tiny house-elf appeared. He was wearing an overgrown t-shirt, two different coloured socks and about five tams over his pointy ears. Despite his awkward appearance, Dobby looked quite thrilled to be there.

"Harry Potter! Such an honour. Dobby has been wondering how Harry Potter has been."

"I'm fine Dobby," Harry said, smiling at the grateful house-elf. "I'm getting married today."

"Dobby knows. Dobby has been hearing that Harry Potter is engaged to the beautiful Weasley girl." Dobby gestured towards Ginny and smiled, giving a slight twinkle to his rotund eyes.

Harry smiled and looked at Ginny who had given a light chuckle. "Yes. But we have some problems -"

"A lot of problems!" Ginny interrupted.

"Right." Harry nodded in agreement. "A lot of problems. Is there anything you could do?"

"Of course. Anything for Harry Potter."

"Great. What I need for you to do is -"

"You are going to pay Dobby," Hermione said, moving to stand next to Harry, "aren't you Harry?"

"Dobby would be more than happy to help Harry Potter without pay."

"But Dobby -"

"Lay off it Hermione," Ron said. "He says he has no probl-"

"I didn't ask you!" Hermione snapped, glaring at Ron with a mean stare that everyone took notice of before looking back at Dobby.

This time, Ron didn't ignore Hermione's disdain. He made to move towards her, ready to argue but Harry took hold of his shoulder and stopped him.

"Dobby can come to the wedding," Harry said, preventing the argument that was about to erupt. "I was supposed to invite him anyway."

"Dobby would be delighted sir," Dobby said, bowing.

"Great! So here's what I need for you to do."

Ginny felt relieved as Harry explained everything to Dobby. Before long, they had everything planned. Dobby had absolutely no objections to getting the food together and made mention of a few more elves he knew that would be more than happy to help. After finalizing everything, he disapparated and the atmosphere in the kitchen immediately lightened.

"So that's settled," Harry announced, looking around at everyone.

Ginny jumped up and wrapped her arms around Harry, pulling him into a tight and grateful hug. "Thank you so much!" She pulled away and looked at him. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

Harry smiled and kissed her. "It's my wedding too and I want everything to be perfect, just the way we both imagined."

"So now that that's settled, I'll try and locate the rings Ginny." Remus made his way towards the door.

Ginny, so elated that something had been resolved, hugged Remus before he left. "I'm really sorry I snapped at you. I know it's not your fault."

Remus nodded and looked at Fred and George. "I think you two can help me cover more ground."

Fred and George left willingly, leaving Harry, Ginny, Hermione, Ron, Luna and Neville in the kitchen.

"We should get to work on the dresses and the decorations." Hermione made to move but stopped when she felt her stomach drop.

Harry looked at her properly for the first time since he arrived and noticed how pale she looked and how disheveled her hair was. "You look bloody awful," he said.

"That's not nice, Harry," Luna scolded just as Ginny hit him in his stomach.

"She's sick," Ginny added. "We think it's some kind of bug."

"Oh that shouldn't be too big of a problem to fix," Neville finally spoke. "Just boil a bit of surasee and it should ease it. I think I saw some growing in the garden." Neville walked towards the door. "I'll go look and fix you up a cup."

"Um, Luna you know a bit about plants too. Why don't you go help him?" Harry suggested, nodding intently at her.

Luna happily agreed and the two exited the kitchen, Luna engaging Neville in a conversation about Nargles and their evolution into Crackles.

"Hermione, do you have enough strength to grab that box of decorations and meet me outside?" Ginny nodded towards a box on the ground before picking up another one close to her feet. "I think dad and Charlie set up the tent last night so we should start on decorating it for lunch." Then, with the box held firmly in her hand, she followed Neville and Luna out of the kitchen.

Hermione nodded and looked around for the box, spotting it in the corner of the kitchen near the stove. She went to lift it but Ron stopped her by picking it up for her.

"What're you doing?" she asked, arching her eyebrow at him.

"Helping you. You shouldn't be lifting anything," Ron said, turning towards the door. Apparently, he had forgotten about the disdain Hermione had been showing him.

"I can take care of myself, Ronald!" Hermione whipped out her wand and pointed it at the box. "Locomotor Box!" The box floated out of Ron's hand and started maneuvering its way towards the door, guided by Hermione's wand.

"But Hermione you're -"

"I'm perfectly capable of carrying the box myself!"

Ron watched as Hermione guided the floating box out of the doorway and disappeared out into the yard, yelling to let Ginny know she was coming.

"What was that all about?" Harry asked, feeling a slight tension between his two friends.

"Nothing," Ron said with a rather cross look on his face. "Just Hermione being her usual argumentative self."

Harry watched as Ron grabbed a biscuit off the table and walked back upstairs, mumbling inaudible words under his breath. It was true, Hermione was terribly argumentative when she was ready but it was usually only when she was provoked. All Ron had done was offered to carry the box outside for her because she was sick. It wasn't like he had shouted or insulted her or anything for her to snap at him like that. And all the snide comments she made after he came into the kitchen seemed misplaced as well. Whatever was wrong with her went far beyond a disregard for common chivalry.

Determined not to concern himself with any other problems at the moment, Harry simply walked out into the garden but still made a mental note to talk to both Hermione and Ron sometime this afternoon. He hoped that whatever animosity existed between them was resolved before midnight, seeing as how they had to walk down the aisle together as maid of honour and best man. If not, a few messed up wedding plans would be the least of their worry.

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Coming up... [...One Word, Cho...]