Summary- The thought of traipsing around shops, trying on dresses and being cooed over, sounded like the worst kind of punishment anyone should endure.
If anywhere wasn’t here, I’d probably be glad.
As it was, I felt as though I were drowning in bridal catalogues, and conversations about the upcoming ‘wedding of the year/decade’.
Splayed out in front of me, across the huge dining room table, was everything which could ever be needed to organise a wedding.
With my sister there was a huge contacts book, where upon she was going through them, writing their names into the invitations which I had chosen, only, the day before.
The invitations themselves, simplistic, but still, just what I wanted really. I didn’t want what my mother and ‘to-be Mother-in-law’ seemed to have planned for my big day. Although, ‘big’ is literally what it seemed to be turning into.
Softly, to myself, I sighed and looked back down into the wedding magazine.
I couldn’t believe it when only 3 days ago, I walked in- with Draco- and discovered the towering stacks of magazines, samples of this that and the other, and how organised everyone seemed to be.
Later that night Draco commented, seemingly on my thoughts; that we almost felt like outsiders to our own wedding. Although, that feeling had ebbed away from me over the past day, I still couldn’t help but agree a little with what he had said.
The wedding magazine in front of me, was happily regaling me with the thoughts the bride should have before the day of her future. Almost angrily I turned the page, where I was assaulted with ‘how you should do your hair to suit your dress’.
“This is just getting ridiculous.” I muttered quietly to myself.
“What was that Hermione?” My mother asked, curiously from about 5 places down the table.
“Nothing, just wondering how I should do my hair.” I smiled, full of fakery, holding up the offending magazine article.
“How wonderful.” Narcissa beamed at me, before turning back to my mother and they animatedly began their discussion once more.
“What are we meant to be doing this afternoon?” I queried, after about another 5minutes of flicking through the endless drivel within the magazine I’d randomly picked up from the table.
“We’re going to go to several dress makers and work out what is going to be the most sensible dress for you.” Astoria grinned at me from next to me as she put down a cup of tea just in front of me.
“Thank you.” I smiled warmly back at her for the liquid refreshment, but the thought of traipsing around shops, trying on dresses and being cooed over, sounded like the worst kind of punishment anyone should endure. Somehow I kept back the grimace which threatened to take over my facial features at the thought of it.
“Hermione, dear?” Narcissa asked, as both of them looked up from the catalogue in their hands. “We were wondering, what do you think of these dresses?”
Sighing, half heartedly, to myself I got up and wandered over to them to see what they had found. “They’re nice.” I commented, after looking at the pictures for a couple of minutes. “Ginny, what do you think of them?” I asked my best friend who was busy looking at other magazines.
“I think that the girls are going to need to try them on.”
“Would you like me to make some floo calls?” Astoria asked, helpfully, handing Ginny a gorgeous looking hot chocolate which made my stomach grumble with longing.
“If you wouldn’t mind.” Ginny smiled back.
“Course not, so, I need to make a floo call to- Angelina, Lavender, Luna, and Cho?”
“Yep, that’s the list of the bridesmaids.”
“I’ll be back shortly then.” Astoria grinned, and practically skipped out of the room.
“Is is just me, or do you think that she likes being able to help out?” Ginny murmured to me.
“No, it’s not just you.” I chuckled back. Even though I wasn’t looking forwards to the wedding itself, I was glad that it could make so many others happy within my friends and family group.
“Hermione, have you thought anymore of who your flower girls are going to be?” My mother asked.
“You’ll need at least 3 dear.” Narcissa inputted and I groaned, there was always something else to do.
“Ginny, can you think of anyone apart from Victoire?”
“No, sorry, I can’t say that I can.” She apologised, as she took a large sip of her hot chocolate as I gazed longingly at it.
“Mother, Narcissa?” I hoped, half imploringly that they would know of someone, anyone who had a child of that age group who I could ask.
“Oh, Hermione! I can’t believe it slipped my mind, but Hannah Abbot and Seamus Finagann, don’t you remember we were asked a couple of years ago to go to her Christening?”
“Of course, how could I be so stupid?” I asked myself, hitting my head with the rolled up magazine in my hand.
“Well, that’s excellent!” Daphne beamed, as she joined the main group, with a large picture in her hands. “What’s her name?”
“Siobhan, if I remember correctly.” I replied, looking towards Ginny for confirmation who nodded and I sighed. “What have you got?”
“I have a few ideas for flowers, if you’d like to have a look?”
“I’d love to.” I responded with some enthusiasm. Daphne smiled, and handed me the collage board of the pictures of flowers. “They look really good.” I grinned back at her as her ideas for each of the different bouquets worked beautifully together.
“Have you already spoken to the florists?” Our mother asked her, and almost instantly she and her were in a deep discussion about which florists could supply the flowers and at what price. “That’s excellent.” She finished, just as Astoria walked back into the room.
“Good news is that everyone is able to make it this afternoon.” She smiled, and handed me a list of the shops we’d be going to. Very easily I’d already counted a dozen shops, scattered around the country. Sometimes, it was just so good to be able to transport yourself instantaneously. “They’ve all said that they’re going to meet us here, so that way we don’t get confused as to where we’re going, and so that we can travel as a group. I’ve also had a car hired for the muggle shops in London.”
“Great work Astoria.” Ginny complimented her and turned her attention back to the floral bouquets from Daphne.
“Thanks Ginny.” She replied, blushing. “Anything I can do to help.”
“What time are the others arriving?”
“They’ve agreed on 2 o’clock Mrs Malfoy.”
“Astoria, how many times have I told you, to can call me Narcissa?”
“Sorry, Narcissa.” Astoria blushed more. “Hermione, is there anything else I can do?”
“I don’t suppose you could make me a hot chocolate like Ginny’s?” I murmured to her, so that our mother wouldn’t hear us as I know she’d ban me from it.
“Of course.” She grinned wickedly understanding my dilemma.
“Thank you.” I grinned back, and pulling her into a hug.
~*~
“Urrrgh. How many more shops do we have to go round?” I asked Ginny as we flopped down onto a sofa outside the changing rooms. The other bridesmaids were in the changing rooms, having found at least another dozen dresses in this shop in comparison to the seemingly hundreds of others of the other shops.
“Good news, this is the last one.” Ginny smiled triumphantly, and rubbed her protruding bump which was now far too obvious to ignore.
“How have you been doing?”
“Oh, I’m fine, I’ve just been preoccupied with this to be too daunted by the fact in only, however many weeks, I’m going to be a mother.”
“Ginny, it shouldn’t really be like that. You’re meant to be revelling in being pregnant, and just enjoying a pain in the ass with your hormones.” I joked with her and she laughed heartily.
“Oh dear, you’re sounding like my mother!”
“Well, is that a bad thing?”
“Nope, it’s not.” She sighed, contentedly, to herself. “Tell you what, I think this wedding’s saved me and Harry at times. It takes my mind off of the morning sickness, and I have to say I’m really enjoying myself.”
“Well, then, I’m glad.” I grinned back at her.
“What do you think?” Daphne announced as her, and the rest of the bridesmaids walked out.
“I think we’ve found the dress.” I decided, my mouth threatening to drop open. The girls had taken it upon themselves to find the same dress, with the sashes of different colours.
“Wow, I think sums it up.” Ginny finished for me. Somehow, the shopping trip hadn’t felt so un-worthwhile anymore.
“I think I am going to go and place our order in then.” My mother decided, as the shop assistant hovered next to us.
Hello my lovely readers, I really hope you've enjoyed this chapter. I will admit, I had a lot of fun writing this one after school, which is a reason why it's taken a little bit of time to update.
Yet, I would like to remind you, if you ever have any questions then I am more than happy to talk to you through my Meet the Author page on the forums, there is a link on my author page.
I promise, that either in the next chapter or the 'wedding' chapters you will be able to see the bridesmaids dresses, as well as other outfits of the wedding day.
This is also one of those times, to say a huge, huge, huge thank you to each and everyone of you. Your reviews really do mean so much, I never in a million years believed I would get over a 1,000 reviews for this story, so thank you for making that come true for me. Also, just thank you to each one of you for reading this. It does really mean so much to me.
I hope that you're going to continue to enjoy this story, and I promise that I am going to update far more often than I have been this year. However, I do hope that you will forgive me for not updating either on the as it is my birthday this month, and also from the 23rd to the 30th as I am away on holiday- but I shall continue to write during this time when I have the time! Also, I will also remind you that, for those of you who are not authors, that there is a summer validation queue closure from the 3rd until the 10th so I cannot update during this time.
Again, a huge thank you to you all,
Ruth
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