Tales of Wedding Preparation
Title: Tales of Wedding Preparation
Rating: PG-13. Thinking about it, probably more an R/15.
Warnings: It’s pretty fluffy, if you’ve a phobia of marriage or weddings then this may not be for you.
Featured Characters/Pairings: Hermione/Ron, Harry/Ginny
Chapter Word Count: ~ 8,100 (!)
Prompts: Lavender, Peacock Feather Quill, Parchment
Summary: Hermione and Ron are planning and organising their wedding, with varying degrees of success.
Author's Note: Anyone who knows me will know exactly where the inspiration for this came from. When I originally planned this fic, it was going to be a smallish oneshot with one theme but it kind of grew into this. There are direct references with what I experienced during my wedding planning, but a lot of it is completely fictional, or derived from things I learned through the whole process from other peeple. I won’t be admitting to what has come from me and what didn't. Except that the turquoise/blue colour scheme was mine… This was pretty self-indulgent but it got me writing again so that’s something :) Thank you to shocolate for the beta.
Tale 1: The troublesome Matron of Honour.
‘I have some brilliant news and some not so brilliant news.’
Hermione took a sip from her wine, which Ginny had poured her. Hermione didn’t think it odd that Ginny hadn’t poured herself a drink, she may be on a short break from playing with the Harpies because of a mysterious illness but she wanted to make her recovery as quick as possible and not drinking alcohol was a step towards that.
‘Did you get your blood test results back from the Harpies’ doctor? Are you over the worst of your illness.’
Ginny pulled her face.
‘Okay, firstly I have to apologise… I lied to you about my blood test results taking a long time to come back from Mungo’s. I actually got them back three weeks ago.’
Hermione frowned and put her wine glass down on the coffee table and turned more towards Ginny.
‘Gin, there’s nothing seriously wrong is there? You’re scaring me.’
Ginny smiled and put her hand on Hermione’s. ‘There’s no need, I promise you, I’m fine, it’s just…’
Hermione’s eyebrows raised and Ginny took a deep breath.
‘I’m pregnant.’
A sense of relief flowed over Hermione and she grinned, she knew Harry would be thrilled.
‘You’re right,’ she said as she leaned forward to hug Ginny. ‘That is brilliant news. I’m so happy for you, Gin.’ She pulled back and noticed Ginny wasn’t smiling quite as wide as she expected. ‘I take it as soon as you suspected you had to stop playing. Wait, how many weeks are you?’
‘Okay, don’t get me wrong, of course we wanted children, it’s just that we were going to wait a bit longer, so this has taken us both by surprise. Strictly I played for longer than I should have. Regulations in the Quidditch League state that we have to be tested monthly for doping and they recommend that they perform pregnancy tests at the same time, I never told them not to so I’ve been tested since I started playing.’
Hermione nodded and was quietly impressed with the precautions and testing of Quidditch players. She still thought the game unnecessarily violent but her opinion of the Quidditch League Organisation went up slightly.
‘Obviously my test came back positive this time and the Medical staff at the club gave me the news, Gwenog took me off the team instantly and shifted me to coaching. Drink some more wine.’
The abruptness of Ginny’s instruction took her off guard so much so she obeyed her without protest. She had a feeling she might know the point of this conversation, but she wasn’t going to panic yet.
‘Anyway, you remember when last month some time I had that virus that had me throwing up everywhere?’
‘Vividly.’ Hermione replied before taking another mouthful of wine. She would never get the image of Ginny projectile vomiting out of her mind, she had resigned herself to this fact.
‘Well, it only lasted a couple of days but I missed the doping test because of it. You’re allowed to miss two in a year because of exceptional circumstances so I didn’t take it again when I was well, if I had done it would have also come back positive.’
‘Thankfully nothing happened to me those few matches I played in the meantime, although sometimes I shudder at the couple of near-misses there was against the Wasps my first match back after the virus, but, what’s done is done.
Hermione had been calculating in her head, she couldn’t work out Ginny’s exact due date but she had a feeling it was a couple of weeks after the wedding. Apparently her thoughts were visible on her face because Ginny suddenly looked worried.
‘I knew I should have given you more wine before telling you this. Basically I’m due on the 17th of July, a date you should be rather familiar with.’ Hermione hiked a smile on her face, she was determined this would not become a problem.
‘Merlin, I wish I could drink!’ Ginny said as she slumped into the sofa.
Watching Ginny panic a little brought Hermione back to herself.
‘Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Gin! I mean, you’re having a baby, please be dramatic about that all you want, but, come on, how many babies do you know actually arrive on their due dates? Obviously I’ll be gutted if you don’t get to the ceremony, but it’ll be because you’re bringing a new life into the world and that’s the best reason there can be. If you’re late then you’ll be huge but we can adjust your dress to fit you, you know there’s this thing called magic that comes in handy with stuff like this, and if you’re early, then we’ll do whatever you need to have you all there and as involved as you want to be. However this ends, it will be fine. Now please, stop worrying.’
Ginny looked at Hermione and frowned.
‘You’re sure you don’t mind your Matron of Honour being pregnant?’
Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes.
‘Hardly. As much as you may have not planned this it was something I’d thought about a bit. Having bridesmaids either married or in committed relationships increases the odds of one of them being in some stage of pregnancy at a wedding. Granted you could have timed this a little better,’ she waited for Ginny to smile before continuing, ‘but I could not be happier for you and Harry. Come here.’
She stood and pulled Ginny off the sofa. She hugged her best friend and tried to put every bit of reassurance she could muster into the hug.
She did a quick count in her head but thought it easier to ask the question.
‘So how many weeks are you?’
‘Ten, oh, about that, I know it’s more of a Muggle thing the waiting until you're 12 weeks to tell people, what with the initial magical testing they can do, but Harry doesn’t want to shout about it just yet, if I’m honest, I’m happier waiting until we get all the test results back, too, so if you could keep this to yourself for the time being.’
Hermione nodded. ‘Of course, I take it you’ve told the family.’
‘Actually, no. I wanted to speak to you first, it’s been bothering me.’
Hermione smiled. ‘Well, no need to bother any more, and thank you for telling me now, I would have understood if you had waited until you've had the results back.'
'Honestly I think Mum suspects something anyway, I remember watching her look at Audrey and Fleur in a funny way and then a few weeks later they told us they were expecting. This will not be news to her. I just hope she doesn't mind me waiting this long to tell the family.'
'Well, be sure to let me know so I can bear it in mind if and when I have to do the same!'
'Please feel free to plan your pregnancy around about an occasion of mine, like my birthday, I won't mind at all!'
Hermione laughed out loud. 'I'll bear that in mind, too! Is Harry talking to Ron? I expected him back before now.'
Ginny nodded. 'Yeah, I think Harry was taking him to the pub for a drink, much like I poured you some wine before I told you!'
'Oh good. My husband-to-be is going to be drunk by 4pm. Excellent.'
'He might not be-... yeah he will, so will Harry.'
'Ah well, I may as well enjoy my wine. You staying here for a bit?'
Ginny nodded, 'I'm not facing the family without Harry, he may think he's getting away with it, but if he really does think that, he's got another think coming!'
...oooOOOooo....
Tale 2: The Post Office Mix Up
This time he would definitely not fuck it up.
'Come on Weasley, this isn't complicated! Smaller pile in turquoise envelopes go to the Muggle post office, larger pile in royal blue envelopes go to the wizarding post office.'
He closed his eyes and pictured Hermione stood in front of him saying those exact words. He was sure he had it right, but then again he had been sure he had been right last time.
He hadn't.
He hadn't even heard of 'save the dates' either, but Hermione had been adamant and the October before they were due to get married (a whole ten months before...) he had gone to both post offices and sent out the save the date cards, which he was pretty sure was an unnecessary expense added to the budget, and happily got back to the office for his afternoon's work.
Everything was fine for a couple of days, and then the owls started arriving. His first inclination that something might be amiss was when he got a message to his office - delivered by owl to the sorting office in the Ministry before being delivered by a very enthusiastic teenager called Lewis - from one of the Weasley cousins that he only saw at weddings and funerals, who thought it was simply brilliant that '...presumably, because of Hermione's background, it is a nice touch you had the Muggle postman deliver the card...'
After spending a couple of minutes wondering whether or not to be offended on his fiancée's behalf, his attention was taken by his fiancée storming into his office. She closed the door loudly and leant against it with a slump. She closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath.
'Please... please tell me you didn't send the Wizarding cards via Muggle post and the Muggle ones using owls.'
'Um... I mean, I didn't think I had until I got this message, thought it was weird...' He threw the message to the end of the desk nearest to Hermione, 'and then you arrived and asked me that question which you probably know the answer to, so...'
She finally opened her eyes and took the three steps to the end of Ron's desk and picked up the note. Her eyebrows raised at about the time Ron guessed she would be reading the part he wondered whether he should be offended or not, and then she threw it back on his desk.
'Royal blue were for the Muggles because that's the colour of your Dad's favourite football team.'
Hermione's hand stopped on the door handle and she turned around with a confused look on her face.
'Arsenal. My dad supports Arsenal.'
'Who's team colours are-'
'Red, Ron. Arsenal wear Red. I can guarantee you, red is not in our wedding colour scheme, and please do not ever turn up at my parents' home with a blue London-based football team shirt, for your own sake.'
She pulled on the door handle and opened the door. He quickly got up and caught her arm before she could leave his office fully.
'Hermione, I'm really sorry, I'll talk to the-'
'It's fine.' It clearly wasn't fine. 'I'll sort it.'
'No, it's my mess, I'll do it!'
She turned to face him and her glare stopped him in his tracks.
'I'll sort it.'
He let go of her arm and she stalked down the corridor.
This time he would not fuck it up.
It was invitations this time, and they would get to where they were supposed to go, in the manner they were supposed to get there.
He triple checked that the names on the royal blue envelopes and saw that a large proportion of them had the name 'Weasley' written on in Hermione's perfect letter forms, before handing them over to the getting-more-impatient-by-the-second worker behind the counter. He kept tight hold of them for two more seconds, much to the obvious annoyance of the young woman in front of him, double checking that he could see owls and wizards and witches. Satisfied he was in the right place and had handed over the correct pile of envelopes he let go and smiled apologetically. His smile was not seen though as the woman - Ron read the name Andrea on a card to the side of the window he was stood in front of - turned around at lightning speed and seemed to return to him with his receipt for him to pay her in record time. She didn't even tell him what he owed, just looked pointedly at the piece of parchment she had written on and waited for him to hand over the money.
Ron handed over some coins, more than what he owed and mumbled 'keep the change' as something of an apology for his dithering and, he realised as he left the post office, the reason why a ten deep queue had formed.
Hermione didn't ask him how his trips to both post offices had gone when they got home from work that night, a few weeks back she had got tipsy on half a bottle of champagne they had received as an engagement present and declared that she was getting far too bothered about insignificant details regarding the wedding and in turn had been nagging Ron far too much about stupid things and that from that very moment on she wasn't going to do that anymore. Hence the lack of questioning. Ron didn't mind, but he felt he should reassure his wife-to-be that the invitations to their wedding were on their way as they should be.
She was slumped on the sofa, the TV on but not holding her attention because there was a pile of parchment next to her and various receipts covering the length of the sofa.
'How do you feel about giving Lavender free reign over the decoration of the Burrow and the marquee?'
Ron frowned. 'How do you feel about Lavender having free reign over the decoration?'
'Honestly if it means I don't have to have discussion with someone about the colour of napkins and colour co-ordinating sashes and petals and whatever else needs to be turquoise and blue then I'm more than happy to let her do it. The save the dates and the invites are exactly what we wanted and this is what she does, so it seems silly not to use her talents. Oh, she needs paying for the invites, shall I write a cheque or do oh you want to do it from Gringotts?'
Ron had glazed over a little at hearing the words 'napkins', 'sashes' and 'petals', but brought himself back around when he heard the word 'paying'. He understood why Hermione kept her bank account, which her parents opened for her when she was a child, but he still couldn't get his head around cheques.
'Wait, it was Lavender who designed the invites?'
Hermione looked at him, with a 'we've been through this' look.
‘Yes, yes, we discussed that,' he quickly added, 'Lavender is designing all wedding related stationary including the table plan. In which case, as long as you’re happy with it then yes, Lavender should decorate the Burrow and the marquee so it all ties in with the turquoise and blue theme.’
He needed to breathe.
‘Also,’ he said before taking a deep breath, ‘all invites are on their way to our guests, royal blue to the Muggles and Turquoise to the Magical.’
He watched as Hermione stopped reading whatever was in her hand and raised her eyes to him. He wanted to let the joke run on for a few more seconds but didn’t want to cause her any more stress than was necessary. He held up his hands and grinned.
‘I’m joking, I promise you the correct invites went to the correct post offices. We will not be receiving scrolls from the Ministry about improper use of magical post owls.’
She giggled to herself, appreciating the joke, and cleared some room for him to sit on the sofa.
‘I wasn’t going to ask, you know. I did trust you would get it right.’
‘I know, I just wanted to reassure you that everything was fine. This wedding is stressing you out a little too much.’
Hermione nodded which surprised him a little. 'You know how we have a week off work a few weeks before the wedding?' Hermione asked. Ron frowned at the apparent tangent to the conversation.
'Yeah, we thought it would be good to do wedding things.'
'I know we said that, but considering we do wedding things every waking moment we're not at work, how about we go away somewhere?'
Ron had his reservations but he knew where Hermione was coming from, she was stressed and they had been bickering more than was normal for them. If Hermione needed a break, he would give her one. As long as she didn't make him go in an aeroplane again.
That would not help his stress levels.
'Sounds brilliant.'
...oooOOOooo....
Tale 3: The Difference Between a Preference and a Requirement.
She had practically battered him with words as soon as he had walked through the door. Normally she would have tried to wait at least three minutes before bringing him in to another small wedding related debacle, but she was about to lose it and thought this was better for everybody in the long run.
'We should have sent dictionaries out with the invitations because it seems our friends and relatives don't know the difference between a dietary requirement and a bloody PREFERENCE!'
Ron blinked slowly and waited for her to carry on. He knew she hadn't finished and knew it was pointless adding his opinion until he had all of Hermione's first.
'When we asked people to tell us if they had dietary requirements we needed to find out if any were vegetarian, vegan, or deathly allergic to nuts, basically, anything that would cause our guests emotional or physical harm if they ate something they shouldn't.'
She walked to the coffee table she had been pacing in front of and picked up the piece of paper that had upset her.
'I don't like any shellfish, and they've underlined the word 'any'. That is not a requirement, it is a preference. I repeat, a preference. Your Auntie Murial will not die if she eats shellfish!'
She had finally run out of steam so she slumped on the sofa. She didn't watch Ron but knew he was taking off his cloak and kicking off his shoes. He sat next to her and pulled her towards him. She buried her face into his chest and her remaining frustration and anger melted away.
'Do you want to add a fish course to the menu just to spite her?'
She chuckled and shook her head. 'She'd die on purpose out of protest.'
She felt Ron chuckle. 'That's true. Anyone else sent any preferences and not requirements?'
'No,' Hermione replied as she moved out of his arms. 'Only genuine dietary requirements. Seamus's Sarah can't eat Gluten.'
Ron frowned. 'I didn't know that! I don't think I could live without bread.'
Hermione laughed out loud at his exaggeration. 'What?' Ron exclaimed, 'bread is like, the best thing! There's a reason the saying is 'the best thing since sliced bread'!'
Hermione laughed harder, her frustration and anger well and truly gone. It was at times like these that she realised why she loved Ron so much, he brought her back to herself and grounded her. He was her rock, even if he did think he would die if he couldn't eat bread.
...oooOOOooo....
Tale 4: Unwanted Attention.
When Harry and Ginny got married, it was not a small affair, it was not a quiet affair, and it was not a cheap affair. Every newspaper and magazine wanted exclusivity on the official photographs and interviews with the bride and groom-to-be.
Needless to say all of them were bitterly disappointed; while the date was not a secret, the location was, and on the big day no person in the press had a clue where it was happening. By 2pm reporters had scoured the country and had started looking to foreign contacts to get any piece of information that might help them find the event, but the wedding venue was never found. Only the editor of the Quibbler, who happened to be part of the wedding party, knew anything.
Luna Lovegood got the interview everyone wanted, and the official photographer for the Harpies, who had taken a rare 'out of season' job to photograph the wedding, gave Luna the photographs to use as she chose for the article.
Hermione had never dreamed that her wedding to Ron would attract the attention of the press. Oh how wrong she had been.
The ministry had already taken out orders against some of the reporters and photographers of the magazines who seemed to be intent on getting any detail about the Granger-Weasley wedding, mainly due to the fact that Ron had found a reporter and photographer under the bushes in their back garden one evening when he was putting the bins out. After that their general house security had been readdressed and Hermione was taken back to the time in her life when she was an unwilling celebrity. At least this time it was for a less devastating reason.
Ginny had mentioned getting the Ministry involved like they had for their wedding, but Hermione refused to believe that those measures would be necessary, she still in no way believed that many people would care about her wedding. However, as she walked through Hogsmeade and was ambushed twice by different reports as she walked from one end of the village towards the Three Broomsticks for her lunch meeting with Lavender, she started to think she might have underestimated things.
As she slid into the booth Lavender had reserved for them and explained to Lavender what had happened, Lavender sprung into action. She cast spells on the windows they were sat next to and Hermione felt the air around her shimmer. She knew they would not be disturbed.
'Thanks,' she said with a sigh.
'Do you know the names of the reporters who hassled you?' Lavender asked as she opened her large workbook and pulled out her Peacock Feather Quill. Hermione smiled at the sight, seeing such a beautiful quill reminded her of the one Ron had given her the night he proposed.
She shook her head. 'I don't. I barely take note of these magazines, never mind who works for them.'
Lavender frowned and nodded. 'I'll do a little digging and see what I can find out. They need to be stopped.'
'Lavender that's not for you to sort out. I'm only paying you to help with the organisation of the venue and the design of stationary and such. This is outside of your job description.'
Lavender snorted. 'Hermione you're only paying me for those things because I'm only charging you for those things. I will do everything in my power to make sure that your wedding day is everything you want it to be, and I will not let scum of the earth reporters ruin it. Think of me as your wedding guardian angel.'
'I'll think of you as that if you let me pay you for being that!'
Hermione was not going to take no for an answer. Lavender had already given them ridiculously knocked down prices for her services. She couldn't let her do all this work with no extra payment.
'Don't worry, I will invoice you when it's all over.'
'I should believe you, but I don't,' Hermione challenged. Lavender didn't look up from her notebook.
'I'm sure to lose sleep over it,' she replied. Hermione had to smile.
Lavender had been nothing but a God-send during the preparations for the wedding. After she had told Lavender they were going away for a week to remove themselves from wedding stress Lavender had taken it upon herself to be more involved with the preparations than Hermione was comfortable with. Not because of anything Lavender was doing - she had removed nearly all their stresses and listened to everything they had said regarding the details they wanted including in the wedding - but because she had refused extra payment for everything else she was doing. Hermione kept bringing up payment but it fell on deaf ears every time she did.
'So, have you managed to sway Ron away from naming your tables after Chudley Cannons players?'
Hermione nodded. 'Finally. It took a fair bit of beer and um...' Hermione blushed at the memory.
'You asked him during sex, didn't you?' Lavender asked with a grin.
'I couldn't possibly say!' Hermione said with a cheeky smile.
'You've said everything you need to, Miss Granger. Oh, speaking of Granger, are you changing your name?'
Hermione frowned. 'Of course I am, did you think I wouldn't?'
Lavender shrugged. 'I thought there was a possibility of you being Granger-Weasley, only because of your position at the Ministry. Oh, by the way, don't read this week's Witch Weekly.'
Hermione sighed. 'Why, what are they reporting about now?'
'They decided to have an in depth discussion about whether you should change your name or not. You know how they only just about manage to disguise their prejudice against anything but Pure Blood status?'
Hermione sighed again and nodded her agreement. The similarity in reporting to a Muggle newspaper had caused her to nickname the paper 'The Weekly Fail'. It sometimes felt as if they hadn't gone to war at all.
'Well, they were debating whether you taking on the Weasley name would help or hinder your career.'
Hermione's jaw dropped and she started thinking about all the possible things they could have come up with arguments for either side before Lavender held up her quill.
'Stop it. Don't think about it, don't give it another thought.'
Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She really didn't know what she would do without Lavender sometimes. She was sure planning a wedding should not be this ridiculous.
'Look, I've been thinking,' Lavender said as she set down her quill and closed her notebook. She looked more serious than Hermione could remember seeing her.
'I know you keep refusing to believe how big a deal your wedding to Ron is to the wizarding world, but you really need to face up to it all. Today should have been a wake up call and it's only going to get worse, I can promise you that.'
'But why do people care?' Hermione whined. 'I understand the interest in Harry and Ginny's wedding, hero of the wizarding world marries the best Chaser in the Quidditch League, I get that-'
'Yet you refuse to get the pull of the marriage between two war heroes, one of which was heavily involved in rebuilding the justice system for our society and the other who dedicates a lot of her life to ensuring that system does its job! Hermione, you're a smart witch, please understand the potential gravity this situation has.'
Hermione went to argue again, but Lavender's words hit home. As much as she hated to admit it, she might have to accept that her wedding to Ron had a little more interest than she would like.
'So what do we do?'
Lavender smirked. 'Hermione, do you trust me?'
Hermione tilted her head to one side. Her friendship with Lavender came as something of a surprise to both of them, and they both freely admitted it. But their mutual respect for each other, born out of war and recovery and personal growth, was the solid base of their friendship and that would never change.
'I trust you with my life, Lavender, and more importantly, I trust you entirely with our wedding.'
Lavender grinned. 'Excellent.'
...oooOOOooo....
Tale 5: The Time She Momentarily Questioned Her Friendship with Lavender Brown
She was absolutely positive she had said 'no hen do' to all of her friends. All of them. Every last one of them. Especially Ginny and especially Lavender. But as she stood in the back room of the Sticks, surrounded by her girlfriends and wearing a fake veil, she realised that her protesting as hard as she did against any kind of festivities celebrating her last weeks as a single lady may have, in fact, produced this spectacle.
So far there had been drinking games, which Ginny had looked over with a slightly smug look, an educational part where Lavender had taught Hermione about the mechanics of sex, so she was prepared for her wedding night, (the 'lesson' had gone down a storm, the volume of the laughter had almost been deafening) and she had learned more about her soon-to-be sister-in-law than she would have liked when it came to seeing who could deep throat a beer bottle the furthest. That was a mental image she really could live without, along with Hannah's comment of 'Harry is a lucky boy!'.
She shuddered again remembering it all, but she was sure that would be the only memory of the night that would do that to her. She had to admit her hen do had been a blast, there had been fun and laughter and no one (as yet) had forced her to drink anything she didn't want to. She was happily tipsy and wanted to carry on dancing until her feet were sore.
'Ladies, may I have your attention?'
The music was turned down and every head in the room turned towards Lavender.
'Oh, Merlin, what now?' Hermione said to herself, but a smile crept its way onto her face.
'Hermione, I hope you don't mind but I borrowed your fiancé last week and took a few photos of him.'
Hermione gave a confused smile. 'O-kay...'
'However, I also took some photographs of some other men I know-'
'Is that where Neville disappeared to last week?' Hannah shouted from the back of the room.
'I couldn't possibly confirm or deny the whereabouts of your husband, Hannah...' Her grin told them all they needed to know.
'So,' Lavender continued, 'I have seven sets of five pictures, each set is a series of body parts, for example, hands, ankles and other areas, and Hermione has to correctly identify which one belong to Ron. I would just like to point out that should any of you girls recognise body parts from your partners, please note that, a) none of them protested at any point, b) I was a complete professional throughout the entire thing, and c) don't let on your recognition, as for every one Hermione gets wrong she has to take a shot of Firewhisky.'
'Oh, excellent!' Hermione replied. Ginny 'wooooooed' from across the room and Hermione shot her a glare. Ginny stuck her tongue out at her. Hermione had to laugh.
'Right then!' Lavender said as she pulled out a hovering notice board with 35 pictures stuck to it. They were blank at the minute but after a wave of her wand the top five pictures revealed themselves. 'First up, hands. Or rather specifically, Hermione identify Ron's left hand.'
Hermione walked up to the board and started looking at the pictures. She ruled out the first one right away. 'Those are Harry's slightly hairy knuckles.' She heard Ginny snort behind her. 'I'm pretty sure the soil under those nails means that hand is Neville's, and unless I'm mistaken, the scar that's wrapping itself around that index finger belongs to Seamus when he tried to convince himself he could twist off a non-twisting beer cap with his bare hands.'
'Hermione, you seem to know a lot about other men's hands,' Lavender said, the girls laughed at her comment.
'Come on, Lavender, you know I'm a swat, I can't just tell you which one is Ron's!' She turned to look at Lavender, she shrugged and nodded in reply.
'It's the fifth one, Ron's ring finger is more bent than normal after he broke it on a mission and didn't have time to set it properly, he's quite paranoid about everyone wanting to look at his ring once we're married. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have told you that.'
Lavender grinned at her. 'Tap which picture you think is correct and we'll see if you're right.'
Hermione reached up and touched the picture on the far right, a bright green tick materialised in front of the picture and she got a cheer and a round of applause from the girls.
'Next we have their right ankles.'
The pictures revealed themselves and Hermione looked at each one in turn. 'Um, blimey this is harder. I don't think it's the one on the right... bloody hell, who knows what their partner's ankles look like? Um... oh! That one might be Neville's because he wears shorts most of the year and that is one magnificent sock line!'
She turned to look at Hannah.
'I couldn't possibly confirm or deny that fact!' Hannah said before taking a drink of her wine.
Hermione turned back to the board and was still no closer to working out which was Ron's ankle. Two of them were almost identical. 'Which other Weasley did you get involved in this?' she asked Lavender.
'Not telling!' Lavender replied.
'Fine! This is a complete guess, but the way.' She touched the second picture from the left. A bright red cross appeared and faster than she could blink a glass was thrust in front of her face by Lavender.
'At least I got you the Dark Cherry Firewhisky, I could have made you drink the orange one you hate!'
'Uh huh!' Hermione said before tipping the liquid down her throat. It burned a little but she blinked vigorously through it and tried her best to ignore it.
She guessed the next three correctly, knees, the back of the neck and, in a complete fluke, right elbow.
'Next, we have shoulder blades!' Lavender said, Hermione thought she looked a little more excited than she should be. 'What?' she asked in response to Hermione's questioning look, 'Backs are sexy!'
Hermione nodded and turned to look at the newly revealed pictures.
'Well, that answers my earlier question, Charlie is the other Weasley you got. When did you see him to do these?'
'He owed me a favour and had an afternoon off last week.'
'Wait,' Ginny exclaimed, 'how did he owe you a-... you know what? Don't tell me,' she took a gulp of her non-alcoholic cider and looked like she wished it was alcoholic.
Hermione turned back to the images. 'Like I was saying, this impressive scar belongs to Charlie, you did well to take a photograph of him where his tattoos aren't moving around his skin.'
'That was the third attempt, I threatened physical harm if it happened again.'
'Neville's tan lines to the rescue again, it's not that one.' She pointed at the second image.
She looked across the others and knew instantly which one was Ron, it didn't have any distinctive features - he hardly had any freckles on his back - but she had taken a lot of pleasure in looking at Ron's back over the years and knew every inch of it.
'That one,' she said without any further deliberation. She touched the picture and her fifth green tick appeared.
'Dammit, I knew I should have got more men involved!' Lavender huffed, her frustration at the lack of alcohol Hermione was ingesting was obvious. 'Last, but by no means least, and Hermione, I beg you take your time looking over these pictures, we have, bums!'
There was an audible gasp and a mix of cheers and whoops of appreciation from the party and Hermione took a few steps back to allow everyone to see the board.
'For the record, I'm completely removing the fact that two of these belong to my brothers from my brain, they're just pictures of arses, that's all,' Ginny said.
'Fine by me!' Lavender replied.
'Wow,' Angelina said through a sigh.
'For the record,' Lavender started, Hermione thought she looked a little nervous, 'I positioned them in the right place for the camera when they had their pants on, left the room and told them the spell to activate the camera on their own. Oh, and I know Charlie's tattoo gives the game away a little, but it's a Muggle one so doesn't move and it was too late in the day to change either person or area of the body.'
'We're very glad you didn't change the part of the body,' Angelina said, still staring intently. 'And we applaud your professional integrity. I doubt the rest of us would have been as professional.'
The room burst into laughter and the girls started discussing the images between themselves.
Hermione grinned at Lavender and raised her hand to the middle image. 'That one.'
She pressed her finger to the image and her final green tick appeared.
She got a round of applause for her efforts and Hermione applauded Lavender for her efforts in putting the game together.
'Please just have one more shot of Firewhisky, for me!' Lavender pleaded.
Hermione laughed and took the drink off her friend. 'Only if you join me.'
'Okay!' Lavender all but shouted. She poured the drinks and they clinked their drinks together.
'To you, Lavender, for organising the perfect hen do, even though I was mildly terrified, it's been brilliant.'
Lavender blushed and they drank their drinks in one.
'Just the stripper to come!' Lavender said before turning on her heel and walking away from Hermione.
Hermione forced a laugh, 'She's joking, isn't she?' she asked Hannah who happened to be standing nearby. Hannah shrugged and grinned.
'Lavender!'
...oooOOOooo...
Tale 6: An Unexpected Conversation
Of all the things he thought they would discuss leading up to the wedding, this was something he would never have thought of.
'I just think we should make the decision now, so there's no apprehension or anything leading up to it.'
'Hermione, I haven't been apprehensive about sex with you for a good few years now, why would I be apprehensive about doing it on our wedding night?'
'Because it's exactly that, our wedding night!'
Ron still didn't know what Hermione was getting at. 'Am I supposed to do it differently on our wedding night, because we're married? Is it back to missionary only, because I've got a ring on my finger and no longer have to try? Or is it the opposite, do I have to up my game and try ten new positions every time we do it?'
Hermione huffed. 'If you're not going to take this conversation seriously, then forget it!'
'Hermione, you're doing that thing when you presume I know what you're getting at and I really have no idea. Please, tell me what the hell needs deciding!'
'FINE! I've been reading a lot of articles,' Ron suppressed the urge in him to roll his eyes, that would definitely not help the situation, 'about what to expect on your wedding day, to pick up any pointers and anything that might help and apparently about half of couples nowadays don't have sex on their wedding night. It's not the big deal it used to be because most couples 'live in sin',' she added the air quotes for effect, 'and as much as your mother pretends we don't sleep in the same bed, there's no need for us to go at it after a lot of food, drink and a very long day!'
As with all wedding conversations they'd had leading up to the wedding, he swallowed any sudden urges to respond with whatever formed in his brain instantly. He'd trained himself to think about what Hermione had said and respond after a minute's thought.
'Are you saying we shouldn't have sex on our wedding night?'
Hermione turned to face him on the sofa. 'I'm not saying we shouldn't, I'm saying that there's no pressure to, if we decide we've had too much to drink or just want to fall into bed and go to sleep. I have a feeling we'll be pretty tired by the end of it all.
Ron nodded. He remembered a drunken conversation with Harry about his wedding night and how he'd had every intention of having sex with Ginny (there was a reason Ron had been drunk while having this conversation) and they had apparently started things off, but then Harry had passed out.
On top of Ginny.
It had not gone down well.
'I see your point, and from... stories I've heard about wedding nights...'
'Harry told you what happened with theirs, then?' Hermione asked while trying to mask a smile.
'He may have mentioned it, yes.'
'Then you see why I brought it up. I just think if we say no now, then we don't have to think about it and all pressure and expectation is removed.'
Ron nodded. 'Hermione, I'm pretty sure from the second I see you walking towards me I'm going to want to shag you senseless, all wedding day long, so I won't promise that once we're on our own and married that I won't want to have sex all night.' Hermione smiled. 'However, I do see what you're saying, and you can be sure that if I think there's any possibility of me passing out mid thrust, then I will refrain from trying. Does that seem reasonable?'
Hermione chuckled and nodded. 'Very much so, that's all I wanted.'
'Oh, just so you know,' Ron added, 'regardless of whether we have sex on the wedding night, the next morning we will be having a lot of sex.'
Hermione laughed, 'I'm in no way surprised. Just remember my favourite way to be woken up.'
...oooOOOooo...
And he had remembered. Oh, how he had remembered.
She lay in his arms and played with the set of two rings now on her finger. She grinned at how she felt, content, grateful, a little overwhelmed, but incredibly happy.
The day had gone without a glitch, Lavender's organisation had been exceptional, and even though Hermione had thought her idea to move the wedding forward a week to throw off the unwanted interest of the press had been extravagant and would cause far too much hassle, Lavender had sorted it all. Every guest understood and every guest made noise about the wedding being on the 17th when in fact it took place on the 10th. The Quibbler would get their exclusive interview and pictures and the edition of the paper would be available to buy while everyone else was still trying to find out where the wedding would take place.
It had also given them a week before Ginny's due date and although she looked like she was about to pop at any time, she had witnessed every second of the wedding and not missed a thing. Harry had taken one last opportunity to get well and truly drunk before impending fatherhood and had teared up when he finally said goodbye to Ron and Hermione before Ginny dragged him off home.
The charms set up to mildly modify the memories of any Muggle guests who weren't in the knowledge about the Wizarding world had worked a treat. The microphone for the speeches that was charmed to change any Wizarding term to a Muggle one (courtesy of George) had worked flawlessly, and everything was just perfect.
She was a wife.
She was Ron's wife.
Ron was her husband.
She was Mrs Hermione Weasley.
She shook her head, it felt a little odd thinking all of those things, but she was sure that she would get used to them soon enough.
Mrs. Hermione Weasley.
'Morning, wife.' Ron said. They had spoken since he had woken her up in her favourite way, but this was their first proper hello.
'Good morning, husband!'
'Told you we'd have sex this morning!'
'I think your specific words were regardless of whether we have sex on the wedding night, the next morning we will be having a lot of sex.'
Ron's chest rumbled beneath her ear as he laughed.
'Give me a minute!'
'Take a few,' she said before shifting onto her elbow. 'I must pee.'
She untangled herself from the sheet and wondered how she had got that tangled in the first place and grabbed her bathrobe that had been dumped on the floor the night before. She noted the time as she passed the dresser; it was ten to nine, which surprised her, she thought it might be later. She grinned; they had plenty of time before people would expect them to emerge.
She finished in the bathroom and came out expecting Ron to be in the same position she left him in, but, strangely, he was hanging off the end of the bed and rummaging through Hermione's bag that Lavender had brought to the hotel for the morning after.
'It's vibrating. Does that mean your Muggle mobile is ringing?'
'Um, yeah, I don't own anything else that vibrates.' Ron looked up at her and smirked. She huffed. 'I'm pretty sure Lavender didn't pack my hen do present in there! Can you find it?'
Ron screwed his face up and twisted his arm into an odd position before pulling the 'phone out of the bag. He handed it to Hermione. She had missed the call.
'Who would phone you this morning? Everyone we know was at the wedding!'
'It was Harry's phone. I'll ring him back.'
Before she could do anything it started ringing again.
'Hello?'
'Hermione, it's Lavender, were you asleep?'
'No, not at all. What's wrong?'
'Nothing's wrong, it's just Ginny thinks she started with contractions.'
'Bloody hell!' She waved at Ron to get his attention. 'It's started,' she hissed at him.
'What has?' he whispered back at her.
Hermione ignored his comment and listened to Lavender.
'Harry's still dead to the world, Ginny didn't want to ring you, but she really would like you here and honestly I think Ron's the best person to deal with Harry until he's in a fit state to help.'
'Absolutely, thanks for phoning, tell her not to panic and we'll be at their house in half an hour.'
She hung up and smiled at Ron. 'I'm afraid the copious amounts of sex will have to wait. Ginny's in labour.'
Ron went a little pale, Hermione could see him concern overtaking him and his 'protective older brother' instinct kicking in.
'She couldn't have waited a couple of hours until I'd had breakfast?' he said with a smile, his joke not really covering the concern in his eyes. Hermione knelt in front of him on the bed.
'She'll be fine, I promise you, but we need to get over there and you need to help get Harry in a fit state to be of help.'
Ron winced at the memory of how drunk Harry was the night before. 'Yeah, probably best I do that.'
'I said we'd be there in half an hour. We've got time to shower and change and I'll ask Lavender if she can get some bacon butties in for all of us, Harry included. You go and have a shower.'
Ron nodded and Hermione started to shuffle backwards off the bed, but Ron caught her arm.
'Hang on, before we get caught up in the madness of birth and... stuff... I just want to say...' he took a deep breath and found her eyes. 'Yesterday was the best day in the world. You looked absolutely stunning, and I am so proud to be your husband. All the work you put in to the day was above and beyond.' Hermione went to butt in but Ron pressed a finger to her lips before she could. She chuckled. 'I love you, Hermione Weasley, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.'
Hermione wanted to reply but found she could only nod. She kissed him deeply and had to pull back before she thought too much about what they had planned to be doing.
'Bloody hell, my baby sister's having a baby. Harry's gonna be a Dad!'
'I know, it's exciting, isn't it?'
'How many hours after it's born do you reckon Mum'll be asking us when we're going to have kids?'
'I was hoping baby Potter would distract her for about a month but I'm probably being foolishly optimistic.'
Ron nodded. 'Yep, probably.'
Ron went into the bathroom and Hermione heard the shower start. Ten seconds later she heard the door open and Ron's head appeared, water dripping from his fringe.
'Um, I'm just thinking, there's plenty of room for us to shower together...' She grinned at him. 'I mean, it'll save time, too, and you don't have to wait for me to finish. We could finish each other!'
Her bathrobe was already on the floor.
'It does make perfect sense,' she replied as she walked towards the door. She watched his eyes travel up and down her body, 'we would be saving time, doing it together.'
'Perfect sense. Perfect, just like you.'
Rating: PG-13. Thinking about it, probably more an R/15.
Warnings: It’s pretty fluffy, if you’ve a phobia of marriage or weddings then this may not be for you.
Featured Characters/Pairings: Hermione/Ron, Harry/Ginny
Chapter Word Count: ~ 8,100 (!)
Prompts: Lavender, Peacock Feather Quill, Parchment
Summary: Hermione and Ron are planning and organising their wedding, with varying degrees of success.
Author's Note: Anyone who knows me will know exactly where the inspiration for this came from. When I originally planned this fic, it was going to be a smallish oneshot with one theme but it kind of grew into this. There are direct references with what I experienced during my wedding planning, but a lot of it is completely fictional, or derived from things I learned through the whole process from other peeple. I won’t be admitting to what has come from me and what didn't. Except that the turquoise/blue colour scheme was mine… This was pretty self-indulgent but it got me writing again so that’s something :) Thank you to shocolate for the beta.
Tale 1: The troublesome Matron of Honour.
‘I have some brilliant news and some not so brilliant news.’
Hermione took a sip from her wine, which Ginny had poured her. Hermione didn’t think it odd that Ginny hadn’t poured herself a drink, she may be on a short break from playing with the Harpies because of a mysterious illness but she wanted to make her recovery as quick as possible and not drinking alcohol was a step towards that.
‘Did you get your blood test results back from the Harpies’ doctor? Are you over the worst of your illness.’
Ginny pulled her face.
‘Okay, firstly I have to apologise… I lied to you about my blood test results taking a long time to come back from Mungo’s. I actually got them back three weeks ago.’
Hermione frowned and put her wine glass down on the coffee table and turned more towards Ginny.
‘Gin, there’s nothing seriously wrong is there? You’re scaring me.’
Ginny smiled and put her hand on Hermione’s. ‘There’s no need, I promise you, I’m fine, it’s just…’
Hermione’s eyebrows raised and Ginny took a deep breath.
‘I’m pregnant.’
A sense of relief flowed over Hermione and she grinned, she knew Harry would be thrilled.
‘You’re right,’ she said as she leaned forward to hug Ginny. ‘That is brilliant news. I’m so happy for you, Gin.’ She pulled back and noticed Ginny wasn’t smiling quite as wide as she expected. ‘I take it as soon as you suspected you had to stop playing. Wait, how many weeks are you?’
‘Okay, don’t get me wrong, of course we wanted children, it’s just that we were going to wait a bit longer, so this has taken us both by surprise. Strictly I played for longer than I should have. Regulations in the Quidditch League state that we have to be tested monthly for doping and they recommend that they perform pregnancy tests at the same time, I never told them not to so I’ve been tested since I started playing.’
Hermione nodded and was quietly impressed with the precautions and testing of Quidditch players. She still thought the game unnecessarily violent but her opinion of the Quidditch League Organisation went up slightly.
‘Obviously my test came back positive this time and the Medical staff at the club gave me the news, Gwenog took me off the team instantly and shifted me to coaching. Drink some more wine.’
The abruptness of Ginny’s instruction took her off guard so much so she obeyed her without protest. She had a feeling she might know the point of this conversation, but she wasn’t going to panic yet.
‘Anyway, you remember when last month some time I had that virus that had me throwing up everywhere?’
‘Vividly.’ Hermione replied before taking another mouthful of wine. She would never get the image of Ginny projectile vomiting out of her mind, she had resigned herself to this fact.
‘Well, it only lasted a couple of days but I missed the doping test because of it. You’re allowed to miss two in a year because of exceptional circumstances so I didn’t take it again when I was well, if I had done it would have also come back positive.’
‘Thankfully nothing happened to me those few matches I played in the meantime, although sometimes I shudder at the couple of near-misses there was against the Wasps my first match back after the virus, but, what’s done is done.
Hermione had been calculating in her head, she couldn’t work out Ginny’s exact due date but she had a feeling it was a couple of weeks after the wedding. Apparently her thoughts were visible on her face because Ginny suddenly looked worried.
‘I knew I should have given you more wine before telling you this. Basically I’m due on the 17th of July, a date you should be rather familiar with.’ Hermione hiked a smile on her face, she was determined this would not become a problem.
‘Merlin, I wish I could drink!’ Ginny said as she slumped into the sofa.
Watching Ginny panic a little brought Hermione back to herself.
‘Oh, don’t be so dramatic, Gin! I mean, you’re having a baby, please be dramatic about that all you want, but, come on, how many babies do you know actually arrive on their due dates? Obviously I’ll be gutted if you don’t get to the ceremony, but it’ll be because you’re bringing a new life into the world and that’s the best reason there can be. If you’re late then you’ll be huge but we can adjust your dress to fit you, you know there’s this thing called magic that comes in handy with stuff like this, and if you’re early, then we’ll do whatever you need to have you all there and as involved as you want to be. However this ends, it will be fine. Now please, stop worrying.’
Ginny looked at Hermione and frowned.
‘You’re sure you don’t mind your Matron of Honour being pregnant?’
Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes.
‘Hardly. As much as you may have not planned this it was something I’d thought about a bit. Having bridesmaids either married or in committed relationships increases the odds of one of them being in some stage of pregnancy at a wedding. Granted you could have timed this a little better,’ she waited for Ginny to smile before continuing, ‘but I could not be happier for you and Harry. Come here.’
She stood and pulled Ginny off the sofa. She hugged her best friend and tried to put every bit of reassurance she could muster into the hug.
She did a quick count in her head but thought it easier to ask the question.
‘So how many weeks are you?’
‘Ten, oh, about that, I know it’s more of a Muggle thing the waiting until you're 12 weeks to tell people, what with the initial magical testing they can do, but Harry doesn’t want to shout about it just yet, if I’m honest, I’m happier waiting until we get all the test results back, too, so if you could keep this to yourself for the time being.’
Hermione nodded. ‘Of course, I take it you’ve told the family.’
‘Actually, no. I wanted to speak to you first, it’s been bothering me.’
Hermione smiled. ‘Well, no need to bother any more, and thank you for telling me now, I would have understood if you had waited until you've had the results back.'
'Honestly I think Mum suspects something anyway, I remember watching her look at Audrey and Fleur in a funny way and then a few weeks later they told us they were expecting. This will not be news to her. I just hope she doesn't mind me waiting this long to tell the family.'
'Well, be sure to let me know so I can bear it in mind if and when I have to do the same!'
'Please feel free to plan your pregnancy around about an occasion of mine, like my birthday, I won't mind at all!'
Hermione laughed out loud. 'I'll bear that in mind, too! Is Harry talking to Ron? I expected him back before now.'
Ginny nodded. 'Yeah, I think Harry was taking him to the pub for a drink, much like I poured you some wine before I told you!'
'Oh good. My husband-to-be is going to be drunk by 4pm. Excellent.'
'He might not be-... yeah he will, so will Harry.'
'Ah well, I may as well enjoy my wine. You staying here for a bit?'
Ginny nodded, 'I'm not facing the family without Harry, he may think he's getting away with it, but if he really does think that, he's got another think coming!'
...oooOOOooo....
Tale 2: The Post Office Mix Up
This time he would definitely not fuck it up.
'Come on Weasley, this isn't complicated! Smaller pile in turquoise envelopes go to the Muggle post office, larger pile in royal blue envelopes go to the wizarding post office.'
He closed his eyes and pictured Hermione stood in front of him saying those exact words. He was sure he had it right, but then again he had been sure he had been right last time.
He hadn't.
He hadn't even heard of 'save the dates' either, but Hermione had been adamant and the October before they were due to get married (a whole ten months before...) he had gone to both post offices and sent out the save the date cards, which he was pretty sure was an unnecessary expense added to the budget, and happily got back to the office for his afternoon's work.
Everything was fine for a couple of days, and then the owls started arriving. His first inclination that something might be amiss was when he got a message to his office - delivered by owl to the sorting office in the Ministry before being delivered by a very enthusiastic teenager called Lewis - from one of the Weasley cousins that he only saw at weddings and funerals, who thought it was simply brilliant that '...presumably, because of Hermione's background, it is a nice touch you had the Muggle postman deliver the card...'
After spending a couple of minutes wondering whether or not to be offended on his fiancée's behalf, his attention was taken by his fiancée storming into his office. She closed the door loudly and leant against it with a slump. She closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath.
'Please... please tell me you didn't send the Wizarding cards via Muggle post and the Muggle ones using owls.'
'Um... I mean, I didn't think I had until I got this message, thought it was weird...' He threw the message to the end of the desk nearest to Hermione, 'and then you arrived and asked me that question which you probably know the answer to, so...'
She finally opened her eyes and took the three steps to the end of Ron's desk and picked up the note. Her eyebrows raised at about the time Ron guessed she would be reading the part he wondered whether he should be offended or not, and then she threw it back on his desk.
'Royal blue were for the Muggles because that's the colour of your Dad's favourite football team.'
Hermione's hand stopped on the door handle and she turned around with a confused look on her face.
'Arsenal. My dad supports Arsenal.'
'Who's team colours are-'
'Red, Ron. Arsenal wear Red. I can guarantee you, red is not in our wedding colour scheme, and please do not ever turn up at my parents' home with a blue London-based football team shirt, for your own sake.'
She pulled on the door handle and opened the door. He quickly got up and caught her arm before she could leave his office fully.
'Hermione, I'm really sorry, I'll talk to the-'
'It's fine.' It clearly wasn't fine. 'I'll sort it.'
'No, it's my mess, I'll do it!'
She turned to face him and her glare stopped him in his tracks.
'I'll sort it.'
He let go of her arm and she stalked down the corridor.
This time he would not fuck it up.
It was invitations this time, and they would get to where they were supposed to go, in the manner they were supposed to get there.
He triple checked that the names on the royal blue envelopes and saw that a large proportion of them had the name 'Weasley' written on in Hermione's perfect letter forms, before handing them over to the getting-more-impatient-by-the-second worker behind the counter. He kept tight hold of them for two more seconds, much to the obvious annoyance of the young woman in front of him, double checking that he could see owls and wizards and witches. Satisfied he was in the right place and had handed over the correct pile of envelopes he let go and smiled apologetically. His smile was not seen though as the woman - Ron read the name Andrea on a card to the side of the window he was stood in front of - turned around at lightning speed and seemed to return to him with his receipt for him to pay her in record time. She didn't even tell him what he owed, just looked pointedly at the piece of parchment she had written on and waited for him to hand over the money.
Ron handed over some coins, more than what he owed and mumbled 'keep the change' as something of an apology for his dithering and, he realised as he left the post office, the reason why a ten deep queue had formed.
Hermione didn't ask him how his trips to both post offices had gone when they got home from work that night, a few weeks back she had got tipsy on half a bottle of champagne they had received as an engagement present and declared that she was getting far too bothered about insignificant details regarding the wedding and in turn had been nagging Ron far too much about stupid things and that from that very moment on she wasn't going to do that anymore. Hence the lack of questioning. Ron didn't mind, but he felt he should reassure his wife-to-be that the invitations to their wedding were on their way as they should be.
She was slumped on the sofa, the TV on but not holding her attention because there was a pile of parchment next to her and various receipts covering the length of the sofa.
'How do you feel about giving Lavender free reign over the decoration of the Burrow and the marquee?'
Ron frowned. 'How do you feel about Lavender having free reign over the decoration?'
'Honestly if it means I don't have to have discussion with someone about the colour of napkins and colour co-ordinating sashes and petals and whatever else needs to be turquoise and blue then I'm more than happy to let her do it. The save the dates and the invites are exactly what we wanted and this is what she does, so it seems silly not to use her talents. Oh, she needs paying for the invites, shall I write a cheque or do oh you want to do it from Gringotts?'
Ron had glazed over a little at hearing the words 'napkins', 'sashes' and 'petals', but brought himself back around when he heard the word 'paying'. He understood why Hermione kept her bank account, which her parents opened for her when she was a child, but he still couldn't get his head around cheques.
'Wait, it was Lavender who designed the invites?'
Hermione looked at him, with a 'we've been through this' look.
‘Yes, yes, we discussed that,' he quickly added, 'Lavender is designing all wedding related stationary including the table plan. In which case, as long as you’re happy with it then yes, Lavender should decorate the Burrow and the marquee so it all ties in with the turquoise and blue theme.’
He needed to breathe.
‘Also,’ he said before taking a deep breath, ‘all invites are on their way to our guests, royal blue to the Muggles and Turquoise to the Magical.’
He watched as Hermione stopped reading whatever was in her hand and raised her eyes to him. He wanted to let the joke run on for a few more seconds but didn’t want to cause her any more stress than was necessary. He held up his hands and grinned.
‘I’m joking, I promise you the correct invites went to the correct post offices. We will not be receiving scrolls from the Ministry about improper use of magical post owls.’
She giggled to herself, appreciating the joke, and cleared some room for him to sit on the sofa.
‘I wasn’t going to ask, you know. I did trust you would get it right.’
‘I know, I just wanted to reassure you that everything was fine. This wedding is stressing you out a little too much.’
Hermione nodded which surprised him a little. 'You know how we have a week off work a few weeks before the wedding?' Hermione asked. Ron frowned at the apparent tangent to the conversation.
'Yeah, we thought it would be good to do wedding things.'
'I know we said that, but considering we do wedding things every waking moment we're not at work, how about we go away somewhere?'
Ron had his reservations but he knew where Hermione was coming from, she was stressed and they had been bickering more than was normal for them. If Hermione needed a break, he would give her one. As long as she didn't make him go in an aeroplane again.
That would not help his stress levels.
'Sounds brilliant.'
...oooOOOooo....
Tale 3: The Difference Between a Preference and a Requirement.
She had practically battered him with words as soon as he had walked through the door. Normally she would have tried to wait at least three minutes before bringing him in to another small wedding related debacle, but she was about to lose it and thought this was better for everybody in the long run.
'We should have sent dictionaries out with the invitations because it seems our friends and relatives don't know the difference between a dietary requirement and a bloody PREFERENCE!'
Ron blinked slowly and waited for her to carry on. He knew she hadn't finished and knew it was pointless adding his opinion until he had all of Hermione's first.
'When we asked people to tell us if they had dietary requirements we needed to find out if any were vegetarian, vegan, or deathly allergic to nuts, basically, anything that would cause our guests emotional or physical harm if they ate something they shouldn't.'
She walked to the coffee table she had been pacing in front of and picked up the piece of paper that had upset her.
'I don't like any shellfish, and they've underlined the word 'any'. That is not a requirement, it is a preference. I repeat, a preference. Your Auntie Murial will not die if she eats shellfish!'
She had finally run out of steam so she slumped on the sofa. She didn't watch Ron but knew he was taking off his cloak and kicking off his shoes. He sat next to her and pulled her towards him. She buried her face into his chest and her remaining frustration and anger melted away.
'Do you want to add a fish course to the menu just to spite her?'
She chuckled and shook her head. 'She'd die on purpose out of protest.'
She felt Ron chuckle. 'That's true. Anyone else sent any preferences and not requirements?'
'No,' Hermione replied as she moved out of his arms. 'Only genuine dietary requirements. Seamus's Sarah can't eat Gluten.'
Ron frowned. 'I didn't know that! I don't think I could live without bread.'
Hermione laughed out loud at his exaggeration. 'What?' Ron exclaimed, 'bread is like, the best thing! There's a reason the saying is 'the best thing since sliced bread'!'
Hermione laughed harder, her frustration and anger well and truly gone. It was at times like these that she realised why she loved Ron so much, he brought her back to herself and grounded her. He was her rock, even if he did think he would die if he couldn't eat bread.
...oooOOOooo....
Tale 4: Unwanted Attention.
When Harry and Ginny got married, it was not a small affair, it was not a quiet affair, and it was not a cheap affair. Every newspaper and magazine wanted exclusivity on the official photographs and interviews with the bride and groom-to-be.
Needless to say all of them were bitterly disappointed; while the date was not a secret, the location was, and on the big day no person in the press had a clue where it was happening. By 2pm reporters had scoured the country and had started looking to foreign contacts to get any piece of information that might help them find the event, but the wedding venue was never found. Only the editor of the Quibbler, who happened to be part of the wedding party, knew anything.
Luna Lovegood got the interview everyone wanted, and the official photographer for the Harpies, who had taken a rare 'out of season' job to photograph the wedding, gave Luna the photographs to use as she chose for the article.
Hermione had never dreamed that her wedding to Ron would attract the attention of the press. Oh how wrong she had been.
The ministry had already taken out orders against some of the reporters and photographers of the magazines who seemed to be intent on getting any detail about the Granger-Weasley wedding, mainly due to the fact that Ron had found a reporter and photographer under the bushes in their back garden one evening when he was putting the bins out. After that their general house security had been readdressed and Hermione was taken back to the time in her life when she was an unwilling celebrity. At least this time it was for a less devastating reason.
Ginny had mentioned getting the Ministry involved like they had for their wedding, but Hermione refused to believe that those measures would be necessary, she still in no way believed that many people would care about her wedding. However, as she walked through Hogsmeade and was ambushed twice by different reports as she walked from one end of the village towards the Three Broomsticks for her lunch meeting with Lavender, she started to think she might have underestimated things.
As she slid into the booth Lavender had reserved for them and explained to Lavender what had happened, Lavender sprung into action. She cast spells on the windows they were sat next to and Hermione felt the air around her shimmer. She knew they would not be disturbed.
'Thanks,' she said with a sigh.
'Do you know the names of the reporters who hassled you?' Lavender asked as she opened her large workbook and pulled out her Peacock Feather Quill. Hermione smiled at the sight, seeing such a beautiful quill reminded her of the one Ron had given her the night he proposed.
She shook her head. 'I don't. I barely take note of these magazines, never mind who works for them.'
Lavender frowned and nodded. 'I'll do a little digging and see what I can find out. They need to be stopped.'
'Lavender that's not for you to sort out. I'm only paying you to help with the organisation of the venue and the design of stationary and such. This is outside of your job description.'
Lavender snorted. 'Hermione you're only paying me for those things because I'm only charging you for those things. I will do everything in my power to make sure that your wedding day is everything you want it to be, and I will not let scum of the earth reporters ruin it. Think of me as your wedding guardian angel.'
'I'll think of you as that if you let me pay you for being that!'
Hermione was not going to take no for an answer. Lavender had already given them ridiculously knocked down prices for her services. She couldn't let her do all this work with no extra payment.
'Don't worry, I will invoice you when it's all over.'
'I should believe you, but I don't,' Hermione challenged. Lavender didn't look up from her notebook.
'I'm sure to lose sleep over it,' she replied. Hermione had to smile.
Lavender had been nothing but a God-send during the preparations for the wedding. After she had told Lavender they were going away for a week to remove themselves from wedding stress Lavender had taken it upon herself to be more involved with the preparations than Hermione was comfortable with. Not because of anything Lavender was doing - she had removed nearly all their stresses and listened to everything they had said regarding the details they wanted including in the wedding - but because she had refused extra payment for everything else she was doing. Hermione kept bringing up payment but it fell on deaf ears every time she did.
'So, have you managed to sway Ron away from naming your tables after Chudley Cannons players?'
Hermione nodded. 'Finally. It took a fair bit of beer and um...' Hermione blushed at the memory.
'You asked him during sex, didn't you?' Lavender asked with a grin.
'I couldn't possibly say!' Hermione said with a cheeky smile.
'You've said everything you need to, Miss Granger. Oh, speaking of Granger, are you changing your name?'
Hermione frowned. 'Of course I am, did you think I wouldn't?'
Lavender shrugged. 'I thought there was a possibility of you being Granger-Weasley, only because of your position at the Ministry. Oh, by the way, don't read this week's Witch Weekly.'
Hermione sighed. 'Why, what are they reporting about now?'
'They decided to have an in depth discussion about whether you should change your name or not. You know how they only just about manage to disguise their prejudice against anything but Pure Blood status?'
Hermione sighed again and nodded her agreement. The similarity in reporting to a Muggle newspaper had caused her to nickname the paper 'The Weekly Fail'. It sometimes felt as if they hadn't gone to war at all.
'Well, they were debating whether you taking on the Weasley name would help or hinder your career.'
Hermione's jaw dropped and she started thinking about all the possible things they could have come up with arguments for either side before Lavender held up her quill.
'Stop it. Don't think about it, don't give it another thought.'
Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She really didn't know what she would do without Lavender sometimes. She was sure planning a wedding should not be this ridiculous.
'Look, I've been thinking,' Lavender said as she set down her quill and closed her notebook. She looked more serious than Hermione could remember seeing her.
'I know you keep refusing to believe how big a deal your wedding to Ron is to the wizarding world, but you really need to face up to it all. Today should have been a wake up call and it's only going to get worse, I can promise you that.'
'But why do people care?' Hermione whined. 'I understand the interest in Harry and Ginny's wedding, hero of the wizarding world marries the best Chaser in the Quidditch League, I get that-'
'Yet you refuse to get the pull of the marriage between two war heroes, one of which was heavily involved in rebuilding the justice system for our society and the other who dedicates a lot of her life to ensuring that system does its job! Hermione, you're a smart witch, please understand the potential gravity this situation has.'
Hermione went to argue again, but Lavender's words hit home. As much as she hated to admit it, she might have to accept that her wedding to Ron had a little more interest than she would like.
'So what do we do?'
Lavender smirked. 'Hermione, do you trust me?'
Hermione tilted her head to one side. Her friendship with Lavender came as something of a surprise to both of them, and they both freely admitted it. But their mutual respect for each other, born out of war and recovery and personal growth, was the solid base of their friendship and that would never change.
'I trust you with my life, Lavender, and more importantly, I trust you entirely with our wedding.'
Lavender grinned. 'Excellent.'
...oooOOOooo....
Tale 5: The Time She Momentarily Questioned Her Friendship with Lavender Brown
She was absolutely positive she had said 'no hen do' to all of her friends. All of them. Every last one of them. Especially Ginny and especially Lavender. But as she stood in the back room of the Sticks, surrounded by her girlfriends and wearing a fake veil, she realised that her protesting as hard as she did against any kind of festivities celebrating her last weeks as a single lady may have, in fact, produced this spectacle.
So far there had been drinking games, which Ginny had looked over with a slightly smug look, an educational part where Lavender had taught Hermione about the mechanics of sex, so she was prepared for her wedding night, (the 'lesson' had gone down a storm, the volume of the laughter had almost been deafening) and she had learned more about her soon-to-be sister-in-law than she would have liked when it came to seeing who could deep throat a beer bottle the furthest. That was a mental image she really could live without, along with Hannah's comment of 'Harry is a lucky boy!'.
She shuddered again remembering it all, but she was sure that would be the only memory of the night that would do that to her. She had to admit her hen do had been a blast, there had been fun and laughter and no one (as yet) had forced her to drink anything she didn't want to. She was happily tipsy and wanted to carry on dancing until her feet were sore.
'Ladies, may I have your attention?'
The music was turned down and every head in the room turned towards Lavender.
'Oh, Merlin, what now?' Hermione said to herself, but a smile crept its way onto her face.
'Hermione, I hope you don't mind but I borrowed your fiancé last week and took a few photos of him.'
Hermione gave a confused smile. 'O-kay...'
'However, I also took some photographs of some other men I know-'
'Is that where Neville disappeared to last week?' Hannah shouted from the back of the room.
'I couldn't possibly confirm or deny the whereabouts of your husband, Hannah...' Her grin told them all they needed to know.
'So,' Lavender continued, 'I have seven sets of five pictures, each set is a series of body parts, for example, hands, ankles and other areas, and Hermione has to correctly identify which one belong to Ron. I would just like to point out that should any of you girls recognise body parts from your partners, please note that, a) none of them protested at any point, b) I was a complete professional throughout the entire thing, and c) don't let on your recognition, as for every one Hermione gets wrong she has to take a shot of Firewhisky.'
'Oh, excellent!' Hermione replied. Ginny 'wooooooed' from across the room and Hermione shot her a glare. Ginny stuck her tongue out at her. Hermione had to laugh.
'Right then!' Lavender said as she pulled out a hovering notice board with 35 pictures stuck to it. They were blank at the minute but after a wave of her wand the top five pictures revealed themselves. 'First up, hands. Or rather specifically, Hermione identify Ron's left hand.'
Hermione walked up to the board and started looking at the pictures. She ruled out the first one right away. 'Those are Harry's slightly hairy knuckles.' She heard Ginny snort behind her. 'I'm pretty sure the soil under those nails means that hand is Neville's, and unless I'm mistaken, the scar that's wrapping itself around that index finger belongs to Seamus when he tried to convince himself he could twist off a non-twisting beer cap with his bare hands.'
'Hermione, you seem to know a lot about other men's hands,' Lavender said, the girls laughed at her comment.
'Come on, Lavender, you know I'm a swat, I can't just tell you which one is Ron's!' She turned to look at Lavender, she shrugged and nodded in reply.
'It's the fifth one, Ron's ring finger is more bent than normal after he broke it on a mission and didn't have time to set it properly, he's quite paranoid about everyone wanting to look at his ring once we're married. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have told you that.'
Lavender grinned at her. 'Tap which picture you think is correct and we'll see if you're right.'
Hermione reached up and touched the picture on the far right, a bright green tick materialised in front of the picture and she got a cheer and a round of applause from the girls.
'Next we have their right ankles.'
The pictures revealed themselves and Hermione looked at each one in turn. 'Um, blimey this is harder. I don't think it's the one on the right... bloody hell, who knows what their partner's ankles look like? Um... oh! That one might be Neville's because he wears shorts most of the year and that is one magnificent sock line!'
She turned to look at Hannah.
'I couldn't possibly confirm or deny that fact!' Hannah said before taking a drink of her wine.
Hermione turned back to the board and was still no closer to working out which was Ron's ankle. Two of them were almost identical. 'Which other Weasley did you get involved in this?' she asked Lavender.
'Not telling!' Lavender replied.
'Fine! This is a complete guess, but the way.' She touched the second picture from the left. A bright red cross appeared and faster than she could blink a glass was thrust in front of her face by Lavender.
'At least I got you the Dark Cherry Firewhisky, I could have made you drink the orange one you hate!'
'Uh huh!' Hermione said before tipping the liquid down her throat. It burned a little but she blinked vigorously through it and tried her best to ignore it.
She guessed the next three correctly, knees, the back of the neck and, in a complete fluke, right elbow.
'Next, we have shoulder blades!' Lavender said, Hermione thought she looked a little more excited than she should be. 'What?' she asked in response to Hermione's questioning look, 'Backs are sexy!'
Hermione nodded and turned to look at the newly revealed pictures.
'Well, that answers my earlier question, Charlie is the other Weasley you got. When did you see him to do these?'
'He owed me a favour and had an afternoon off last week.'
'Wait,' Ginny exclaimed, 'how did he owe you a-... you know what? Don't tell me,' she took a gulp of her non-alcoholic cider and looked like she wished it was alcoholic.
Hermione turned back to the images. 'Like I was saying, this impressive scar belongs to Charlie, you did well to take a photograph of him where his tattoos aren't moving around his skin.'
'That was the third attempt, I threatened physical harm if it happened again.'
'Neville's tan lines to the rescue again, it's not that one.' She pointed at the second image.
She looked across the others and knew instantly which one was Ron, it didn't have any distinctive features - he hardly had any freckles on his back - but she had taken a lot of pleasure in looking at Ron's back over the years and knew every inch of it.
'That one,' she said without any further deliberation. She touched the picture and her fifth green tick appeared.
'Dammit, I knew I should have got more men involved!' Lavender huffed, her frustration at the lack of alcohol Hermione was ingesting was obvious. 'Last, but by no means least, and Hermione, I beg you take your time looking over these pictures, we have, bums!'
There was an audible gasp and a mix of cheers and whoops of appreciation from the party and Hermione took a few steps back to allow everyone to see the board.
'For the record, I'm completely removing the fact that two of these belong to my brothers from my brain, they're just pictures of arses, that's all,' Ginny said.
'Fine by me!' Lavender replied.
'Wow,' Angelina said through a sigh.
'For the record,' Lavender started, Hermione thought she looked a little nervous, 'I positioned them in the right place for the camera when they had their pants on, left the room and told them the spell to activate the camera on their own. Oh, and I know Charlie's tattoo gives the game away a little, but it's a Muggle one so doesn't move and it was too late in the day to change either person or area of the body.'
'We're very glad you didn't change the part of the body,' Angelina said, still staring intently. 'And we applaud your professional integrity. I doubt the rest of us would have been as professional.'
The room burst into laughter and the girls started discussing the images between themselves.
Hermione grinned at Lavender and raised her hand to the middle image. 'That one.'
She pressed her finger to the image and her final green tick appeared.
She got a round of applause for her efforts and Hermione applauded Lavender for her efforts in putting the game together.
'Please just have one more shot of Firewhisky, for me!' Lavender pleaded.
Hermione laughed and took the drink off her friend. 'Only if you join me.'
'Okay!' Lavender all but shouted. She poured the drinks and they clinked their drinks together.
'To you, Lavender, for organising the perfect hen do, even though I was mildly terrified, it's been brilliant.'
Lavender blushed and they drank their drinks in one.
'Just the stripper to come!' Lavender said before turning on her heel and walking away from Hermione.
Hermione forced a laugh, 'She's joking, isn't she?' she asked Hannah who happened to be standing nearby. Hannah shrugged and grinned.
'Lavender!'
...oooOOOooo...
Tale 6: An Unexpected Conversation
Of all the things he thought they would discuss leading up to the wedding, this was something he would never have thought of.
'I just think we should make the decision now, so there's no apprehension or anything leading up to it.'
'Hermione, I haven't been apprehensive about sex with you for a good few years now, why would I be apprehensive about doing it on our wedding night?'
'Because it's exactly that, our wedding night!'
Ron still didn't know what Hermione was getting at. 'Am I supposed to do it differently on our wedding night, because we're married? Is it back to missionary only, because I've got a ring on my finger and no longer have to try? Or is it the opposite, do I have to up my game and try ten new positions every time we do it?'
Hermione huffed. 'If you're not going to take this conversation seriously, then forget it!'
'Hermione, you're doing that thing when you presume I know what you're getting at and I really have no idea. Please, tell me what the hell needs deciding!'
'FINE! I've been reading a lot of articles,' Ron suppressed the urge in him to roll his eyes, that would definitely not help the situation, 'about what to expect on your wedding day, to pick up any pointers and anything that might help and apparently about half of couples nowadays don't have sex on their wedding night. It's not the big deal it used to be because most couples 'live in sin',' she added the air quotes for effect, 'and as much as your mother pretends we don't sleep in the same bed, there's no need for us to go at it after a lot of food, drink and a very long day!'
As with all wedding conversations they'd had leading up to the wedding, he swallowed any sudden urges to respond with whatever formed in his brain instantly. He'd trained himself to think about what Hermione had said and respond after a minute's thought.
'Are you saying we shouldn't have sex on our wedding night?'
Hermione turned to face him on the sofa. 'I'm not saying we shouldn't, I'm saying that there's no pressure to, if we decide we've had too much to drink or just want to fall into bed and go to sleep. I have a feeling we'll be pretty tired by the end of it all.
Ron nodded. He remembered a drunken conversation with Harry about his wedding night and how he'd had every intention of having sex with Ginny (there was a reason Ron had been drunk while having this conversation) and they had apparently started things off, but then Harry had passed out.
On top of Ginny.
It had not gone down well.
'I see your point, and from... stories I've heard about wedding nights...'
'Harry told you what happened with theirs, then?' Hermione asked while trying to mask a smile.
'He may have mentioned it, yes.'
'Then you see why I brought it up. I just think if we say no now, then we don't have to think about it and all pressure and expectation is removed.'
Ron nodded. 'Hermione, I'm pretty sure from the second I see you walking towards me I'm going to want to shag you senseless, all wedding day long, so I won't promise that once we're on our own and married that I won't want to have sex all night.' Hermione smiled. 'However, I do see what you're saying, and you can be sure that if I think there's any possibility of me passing out mid thrust, then I will refrain from trying. Does that seem reasonable?'
Hermione chuckled and nodded. 'Very much so, that's all I wanted.'
'Oh, just so you know,' Ron added, 'regardless of whether we have sex on the wedding night, the next morning we will be having a lot of sex.'
Hermione laughed, 'I'm in no way surprised. Just remember my favourite way to be woken up.'
...oooOOOooo...
And he had remembered. Oh, how he had remembered.
She lay in his arms and played with the set of two rings now on her finger. She grinned at how she felt, content, grateful, a little overwhelmed, but incredibly happy.
The day had gone without a glitch, Lavender's organisation had been exceptional, and even though Hermione had thought her idea to move the wedding forward a week to throw off the unwanted interest of the press had been extravagant and would cause far too much hassle, Lavender had sorted it all. Every guest understood and every guest made noise about the wedding being on the 17th when in fact it took place on the 10th. The Quibbler would get their exclusive interview and pictures and the edition of the paper would be available to buy while everyone else was still trying to find out where the wedding would take place.
It had also given them a week before Ginny's due date and although she looked like she was about to pop at any time, she had witnessed every second of the wedding and not missed a thing. Harry had taken one last opportunity to get well and truly drunk before impending fatherhood and had teared up when he finally said goodbye to Ron and Hermione before Ginny dragged him off home.
The charms set up to mildly modify the memories of any Muggle guests who weren't in the knowledge about the Wizarding world had worked a treat. The microphone for the speeches that was charmed to change any Wizarding term to a Muggle one (courtesy of George) had worked flawlessly, and everything was just perfect.
She was a wife.
She was Ron's wife.
Ron was her husband.
She was Mrs Hermione Weasley.
She shook her head, it felt a little odd thinking all of those things, but she was sure that she would get used to them soon enough.
Mrs. Hermione Weasley.
'Morning, wife.' Ron said. They had spoken since he had woken her up in her favourite way, but this was their first proper hello.
'Good morning, husband!'
'Told you we'd have sex this morning!'
'I think your specific words were regardless of whether we have sex on the wedding night, the next morning we will be having a lot of sex.'
Ron's chest rumbled beneath her ear as he laughed.
'Give me a minute!'
'Take a few,' she said before shifting onto her elbow. 'I must pee.'
She untangled herself from the sheet and wondered how she had got that tangled in the first place and grabbed her bathrobe that had been dumped on the floor the night before. She noted the time as she passed the dresser; it was ten to nine, which surprised her, she thought it might be later. She grinned; they had plenty of time before people would expect them to emerge.
She finished in the bathroom and came out expecting Ron to be in the same position she left him in, but, strangely, he was hanging off the end of the bed and rummaging through Hermione's bag that Lavender had brought to the hotel for the morning after.
'It's vibrating. Does that mean your Muggle mobile is ringing?'
'Um, yeah, I don't own anything else that vibrates.' Ron looked up at her and smirked. She huffed. 'I'm pretty sure Lavender didn't pack my hen do present in there! Can you find it?'
Ron screwed his face up and twisted his arm into an odd position before pulling the 'phone out of the bag. He handed it to Hermione. She had missed the call.
'Who would phone you this morning? Everyone we know was at the wedding!'
'It was Harry's phone. I'll ring him back.'
Before she could do anything it started ringing again.
'Hello?'
'Hermione, it's Lavender, were you asleep?'
'No, not at all. What's wrong?'
'Nothing's wrong, it's just Ginny thinks she started with contractions.'
'Bloody hell!' She waved at Ron to get his attention. 'It's started,' she hissed at him.
'What has?' he whispered back at her.
Hermione ignored his comment and listened to Lavender.
'Harry's still dead to the world, Ginny didn't want to ring you, but she really would like you here and honestly I think Ron's the best person to deal with Harry until he's in a fit state to help.'
'Absolutely, thanks for phoning, tell her not to panic and we'll be at their house in half an hour.'
She hung up and smiled at Ron. 'I'm afraid the copious amounts of sex will have to wait. Ginny's in labour.'
Ron went a little pale, Hermione could see him concern overtaking him and his 'protective older brother' instinct kicking in.
'She couldn't have waited a couple of hours until I'd had breakfast?' he said with a smile, his joke not really covering the concern in his eyes. Hermione knelt in front of him on the bed.
'She'll be fine, I promise you, but we need to get over there and you need to help get Harry in a fit state to be of help.'
Ron winced at the memory of how drunk Harry was the night before. 'Yeah, probably best I do that.'
'I said we'd be there in half an hour. We've got time to shower and change and I'll ask Lavender if she can get some bacon butties in for all of us, Harry included. You go and have a shower.'
Ron nodded and Hermione started to shuffle backwards off the bed, but Ron caught her arm.
'Hang on, before we get caught up in the madness of birth and... stuff... I just want to say...' he took a deep breath and found her eyes. 'Yesterday was the best day in the world. You looked absolutely stunning, and I am so proud to be your husband. All the work you put in to the day was above and beyond.' Hermione went to butt in but Ron pressed a finger to her lips before she could. She chuckled. 'I love you, Hermione Weasley, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you.'
Hermione wanted to reply but found she could only nod. She kissed him deeply and had to pull back before she thought too much about what they had planned to be doing.
'Bloody hell, my baby sister's having a baby. Harry's gonna be a Dad!'
'I know, it's exciting, isn't it?'
'How many hours after it's born do you reckon Mum'll be asking us when we're going to have kids?'
'I was hoping baby Potter would distract her for about a month but I'm probably being foolishly optimistic.'
Ron nodded. 'Yep, probably.'
Ron went into the bathroom and Hermione heard the shower start. Ten seconds later she heard the door open and Ron's head appeared, water dripping from his fringe.
'Um, I'm just thinking, there's plenty of room for us to shower together...' She grinned at him. 'I mean, it'll save time, too, and you don't have to wait for me to finish. We could finish each other!'
Her bathrobe was already on the floor.
'It does make perfect sense,' she replied as she walked towards the door. She watched his eyes travel up and down her body, 'we would be saving time, doing it together.'
'Perfect sense. Perfect, just like you.'