broken bottles & wedding bells || fred weasley

Chapter Six: Girl's Day

"I'm so glad you talked Fred into doing an actual wedding!" Hermione exclaimed as she, Hermione, and I walked into the dress store.

"I didn't talk him into it. He said he and George talked about it this morning," I revealed. "It was quite the miracle to hear about. All of us know how stubborn Fred is."

"You can say that again," Ginny joked. "So do you have a theme? A color scheme? What are we buying off of?"

"Uhhh," I lightly chuckled. "I don't even know. Fred and I haven't done any talking about it. At all. Other than the fact that we wanted to do a wedding like Bill and Fleur's."

"Okay. We can work with that. What's your favorite color?" Hermione asked.

"Grey," I answered, making the girl's eyes widen a bit. "Sorry. It just reminds me of... Draco..."

"No, no, we can make it work. I think it would be beautiful to include him in the wedding as much as possible. Because all of us know that he'd be right here with you the whole time," Hermione gave my shoulder a reassuring rub.

"That was beautiful, Hermione," I smiled softly. "I needed that. Thank you."

"Of course. I'm not even entirely sure where all of it came from. But I'm glad I could give you some support," Hermione half laughed.

"We could do orange and grey," Ginny piped up, running her hand along the rows of dresses. "Grey and orange and white. I think those colors would be beautiful together. All pastel of course for a lighter theme."

"I agree completely. And obviously Fred would too. He did say that I could pick all of the decorations and details that 'girls like to handle'."

All three of us laughed.

"Sounds like my brother."

I began actually looking at some of the dresses but none of them were catching my eye. A soft sigh left my lips.

"So... I heard you went and saw your mother. How is she?" Hermione asked cautiously.

"Oh she's... holding up. Has a cat now. She's told me she doesn't necessarily like cats but I assume it's her way of coping with... Lucius' situation."

"I wonder what their relationship is like," Ginny asked. "I wonder if there are any feelings there at all. Or if it was a forced marriage to preserve the bloodline?"

"Rubbish. There had to have been feelings at some point. They had Draco and Rain," Hermione reasoned.

"Good point," Ginny responded. "Well. What are you thinking? Any of these you like?"

"No," I sighed. "None at all. It's kinda irritating."

"Finding a dress is hard. It's alright," Hermione rubbed my back. "We'll look at a few. We're not in any rush."

We looked at a few dresses and even tried on a few more just to entertain ourselves. The girls each decided on matching light orange dresses and that's when we decided that the men would wear grey tuxes.

"This is pointless," I plopped down on the small couch in the dressing room. "It really is. None of these dresses look good to me."

"Do they not look good to you or do you think they don't look good on you?" Ginny asked from behind the door. "Because Rain, you look great."

"I still have baby weight from Henry," I admitted shyly as I examined myself in the mirror. I'm standing in front of it wearing only a bra and underwear. My fingers traced along the stretch marks on my skin. "None of these dresses are making me feel very confident."

"Oh, look! It's Molly!" Hermione perked up. "And Fred and Henry!"

"Hello, dears! I've come to the rescue. Where is our bride to be?"

Then I heard Fred's voice and it floated through my ears and into my heart. I felt myself relax.

"Love, you in there?"

"Yes," I sighed a little and opened the dressing room door once I'd dressed myself. "I can't find anything that makes me feel pretty."

"Anything you wear will look pretty on you," Fred encouraged and hugged me. "Honestly. You don't have too hard of a decision. Everything you wear will be beautiful."

"I appreciate you saying that but I don't really believe you," I told him, pulling away from the hug. "You here to shop with us?"

"Oh, uh, no. I was making sure mum got here okay. The guys and I are going to the Three Broomsticks for drinks and to talk."

"Really?" I gave him a grin. "That's nice."

"What? What's that look for?"

"Nothing. I just... fell in love with you all over again," I blushed.

"Aww," Fred lifted my chin and kissed me gently. "I love you too, darling. You think you could watch Henry? They won't let him into the bar. Obviously."

"Yeah, we can watch him," I smiled at Hermione and Henry giggling about god knows what.

But my attention turned to Molly coming towards me with at least four dresses in her arms.

"Oh god..."

"Good luck!" Fred kissed my cheek and kissed Henry's, then left.

"I picked out some dresses I think would look beautiful on you, dear. Let's try these!"

But eventually... I was very grateful for Molly being here.

"Oh my... that's it. That's the one..." Hermione gasped whilst Ginny grinned.

"It's perfect! Oh, what do you think? Tell me you love it!" Molly clasped her hands together over her chest.

"Yeah," I laughed tearfully, turning to the mirror. "I really like this one... I think this ones it."

"Oh, it's going to make Fred weak at the knees," Molly urged me back into the changing room. "Quick, change out of it so we can purchase it and get back home. We have hair to go over."