If I May Be So Bold (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

8.

September 2034

JAMES

James had never been inside a bridal boutique before. He felt very out of place sitting on the pink, Victorian-style loveseat. Piper had said Elise could come if she wanted to, but she had said it would be better if just James and Raigan were there, that too many opinions could be overwhelming.

Piper wore her hair back in a loose low bun that looked very classy and elegant and that also made her look far too grown up already, and she hadn't even put a dress on yet. She and her mum were browsing the aisles, tagging dresses Piper thought she might want to try, but James had excused himself from this portion of the day. He didn't have a clue what they were looking for. They all looked the same to him on the rack: white and long.

Being in there kept making him think back to his own wedding though. It'd been over fourteen years since they'd been married and it still felt like yesterday. Ella had been just seven months old. It had been a small wedding — just their closest friends and family and a few coworkers, a week before Christmas on the beach outside their house. They'd cast all sorts of enchantments to block the cold temporarily, so when it snowed a little, it was completely magical.

Elise had worn this dress that was definitely a wedding dress, but it wasn't all white. It had bits of blue stuff sewn in. Beads or something. James wasn't sure. But it had been so Elise. She had looked perfect. Absolutely, completely perfect. But then she always did. She'd probably looked perfect in every dress she'd tried on.

Ella, she'd told him, had made the final call. Her mum and sister had gone to the appointment with her, and they'd brought baby Ella along. When they got down to two dresses and Elise couldn't decide, she'd asked Ella which one and Ella had lunged for the one with the blue. As the story went, Elise had put it back on, cried, and known for sure that was the one.

"I don't think I'm a sparkle person," Piper was saying now. "You don't think I'm a sparkle person, right, James?"

"Not if you don't," he said.

"Spoken like a true diplomat," said the consultant, coming back over. "Are we ready to start trying things on or do you need help finding anything in particular?"

"We'd better start," said Piper. "Before my mum tags the whole store."

James grinned and Raigan rolled her eyes. "I didn't pick out that many. I just think you'd look pretty in all of them."

The consultant waved her wand and the dresses they had selected — there really were a lot of them, James thought — started to drift their way into the fitting room and onto the hooks on the wall. Raigan came and sat by James.

He was impressed she was as calm as she was today. He'd expected her to be a little aggravated, a little uneasy, what with the whole not liking Piper's fiance thing she had going on. But she wasn't. She just seemed extraordinarily sentimental.

They sat and listened to the consultant help Piper pick out the first dress to try and when the fitting room door started to open a few minutes later, Raigan grabbed James' hand like something had scared her.

Piper stepped out and James' heart shot into his throat. It was the strangest thing he had ever seen, this little girl in a wedding dress. Except she wasn't little. She wasn't seven years old anymore, tall and gangly, climbing into his lap to listen to whatever books she and Raigan had picked up at the library that week.

She'd grown up.

"Mum, it's the first one," said Piper, looking exasperated. James looked at Raigan to see she had tears in her eyes.

"I know," she said, letting go of James' hand. She reached for the box of tissues she had brought with her. "I know, you're just so beautiful."

She dabbed under her eyes. "Go stand up there in front of the mirror. Don't worry about me."

So Piper stepped up and the consultant fluffed out the dress around her. It had a very grand skirt, like something people wore to walk down a large, red-carpeted staircase, but James never saw these sorts of dresses anywhere except on large red-carpeted staircases and couldn't imagine how she would actually manage to walk around in it without lots and lots of help all night.

Piper considered her reflection for a while. "It's very pretty. I like the top," she said. "But I don't think I'd be comfortable in this all night. I think I want something a little more lowkey."

So back into the fitting room she went and after that it was dress after dress after dress. James lost count of how many it had been. They were all blurring together in his mind and when Raigan asked him questions like whether he preferred the one with the really unique back or the one with lace, James couldn't separate the images enough to know which ones she was talking about. All he knew was he was starting to get hungry and they were supposed to go to lunch whenever this was done.

Piper emerged yet again and Raigan straightened up a little. Somehow James just knew this one was different. He could see it in Piper's posture and in how quiet she was standing in front of the mirror.

It was all off-white satin, no lace or beading or anything, and it fell down closer to her body instead of puffing out like a big cupcake. It was very simple and very clean and Piper was looking at herself in the mirror like she'd never seen herself properly before.

Raigan seemed afraid to even breathe.

"I love it," Piper said finally.

And then Raigan's eyes started to fill with tears again.

"You're right," she said, sniffing. "You're not a sparkle girl. This is so you. It's perfect."

Piper turned to James who had refrained from giving much feedback all along.

"I think that's it," said James.

And Piper smiled for the first time since she'd come out in that dress.

Raigan jumped up to hug her and then made her get back on the little platform so she could take pictures. James just stood there, his hands in his pockets, and tried to swallow back the lump in his throat. He hadn't expected to feel like crying, but damn it, seeing her grow up hurt.

He was so proud of her, so completely awed by everything she'd accomplished and everything she'd become. But if he could go back and do it all again, have her little again, he'd have taken the chance in a heartbeat.

He wished he'd paid more attention, soaked it in more. He'd thought he had at the time, but looking back, there were so many moments he'd wasted and now she was twenty eight and getting married and it just seemed impossible that he'd ever toted her around, sitting on his hip or stood in front of the back door pointing out the birds and chipmunks to calm her down when she cried. It seemed impossible that she had sat at a desk in his classroom learning her first defensive spell. It seemed impossible that things just hadn't stayed the same.

It made him want to rush back to the castle and hug both his girls and just take in every second of them he possibly could.

Piper turned back around to him and her face faltered. "You're crying?" she asked.

He hadn't realized it, but now she mentioned it, his eyes were a little wet.

"You're just all grown up," he said. "It just hit me. You don't need me anymore."

"I think you're overestimating me," said Piper quietly, and she stepped down and gave James a big hug that felt at once so familiar and so strange, because her chin was up by his shoulder and not down against his stomach where it should have been. "I'll always need you."

He kissed her temple and gave her a squeeze.

"Love you sweetheart," he said.

"Love you too," Piper said. She hung on for a few more seconds before she let go.