Wolf and Wings - Remus and Narcissa

Chapter 19

A/N: This is it! Wedding day ending. 

In the room where Narcissa Black's final wedding preparations had turned into a werewolf attack, a scene of baroque-like disorder was frozen in a tableau. Druella and Cygnus Black stood in the now doorless entrance with their wands drawn. At the sight of them, Narcissa had leapt out of Remus Lupin's arms and onto her feet. She stood pale and speechless in a dusty heirloom wedding dress, fussing with shredded lace and silk of her sleeves, as if trying to keep Druella from seeing them.

On the floor next to her sat her disoriented cousin Sirius, grunting and struggling, pinned beneath the massive body of an unconscious, untransformed but notoriously vicious werewolf. And bent over the werewolf, gasping and shouting, was Remus Lupin.

"What have you done to him?" he was demanding of the strangers at the door. "Anyone could see he was standing down. He clearly wasn't dangerous anymore, and you leveled him anyway. Stars - is he even breathing, Sirius?"

"Oh yeah, right in my face. Stinks like death, but he's alive," Sirius said, hefting the body off himself. "He's only stunned, Remus. And you should know - "

"You should know who you're hexing before storming into a room, wands blazing," Remus said, rounding on the stiffly formal couple coldly sneering at him as if they didn't understand they'd done anything wrong.

"I know exactly who that is," the man said. "That's Fenrir Greyback."

Remus scoffed. "And that fact alone is enough to warrant his being blindsided by double stunning hexes?"

The man huffed. "I've learned in these matters it's better to be safe than sorry. Hex first, ask questions later."

Remus was drawing breath to lecture them some more but Sirius and Narcissa had each taken one of his arms, and were pulling him backward, talking urgently over one another. He couldn't hear exactly what they were saying, but he could tell they were trying to call him off the older guests.

Through the chaos, the couple maintained their dignity, as if waiting for something to sort itself. Remus glared across the room at them as he calmed down enough to concentrate on Sirius and Narcissa's words, staring hard enough to finally notice the sharp lines of the woman's rather lovely face. And as he looked at the man, he saw that his hair was not grey with age but white - platinum.

Realization hit him and he hung his head, swearing quietly to himself.

"Yes, darling, that's right," Narcissa said, linking her arm through his. "Now please allow me to introduce Cygnus and Druella Black, my parents. Mother, Father, this is Remus Lupin, my bonded partner and in a few moments more, my husband for the rest of my life. There is nothing at all you can do to stop it."

They accepted the introduction and her defiance with cool nods.

"Right, how much did you see just now?" Sirius asked them.

Cygnus cleared his throat. "Plenty. But nothing Andromeda hadn't warned us to expect."

"Warned?" Narcissa said. "There is nothing to be warned about here. Informed of, yes. Congratulated on, certainly. But warned?"

"Enough," Cygnus said. "Don't be cross, Narcissa. I can beg the werewolf's pardon when he comes around if it will make everyone feel better."

"Make your first apology now," Narcissa said, her eyes wide. "To this werewolf - to my werewolf."

"Do we have to keep using that word?" Cygnus said, shaking his head as if to clear it out of his ears.

"Yes!" Narcissa said. "Now apologize for storming in here, intruding on a very private moment, and stunning Lupin's - kinsman."