Being a Greengrass after all should sound pretty serene.
But being a part of "the Emeralds" should not, especially when hearts become entangled with the infamous Regulus Black.
Goodness, lawfulness, or evilness. Which path will they tread in the ti...
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July 20th, 1979
The trouble with weddings, Avery decided, was that they were somehow both meticulously planned and completely impossible to control. By ten o'clock that morning, Lily Evans's bridal suite had descended into a state that could only be described as organized catastrophe. Someone's wand had gone missing. Someone else's shoes had been transfigured into rabbits for approximately thirty seconds. The veil had vanished twice, and there were flowers everywhere.
And at the center of it all sat Lily, fully radiant.
"Stop fussing, Alice," she said, tugging her wrist away gently. "If you cinch that corset any tighter, I'll pass out before I say 'I do.'"
"You're lucky we're not in the Victorian era," Alice replied, determined, wand between her teeth as she adjusted the bodice of Lily's ivory dress. "You'd have fainted twice by now. And someone would've written a sad poem about it."
Avery sat nearby on the floor, legs folded beneath her, watching the chaos through the veil of steam rising from her mug of tea. Her own bridesmaid dress — a soft blue, enchanted to shimmer faintly like moonlight — had been wrinkled ten minutes after she put it on. Marlene had tried to charm the creases out, missed, and nearly set the hem on fire. So the room was filled with the scent of lilies, a faint undercurrent of hairspray, and something burnt.
"Shut up. I'm sweating. You're trying to suffocate me. My veil has disappeared. And I'm fairly certain Marlene charmed my bouquet to make snarky comments," Lily said frantically.
"It only whispers if it senses hypocrisy," Marlene said, perched on the windowsill with a butterbeer in hand, legs swinging. "So it'll scream when James starts his vows."
Lily sank into a chair with a groan, bouquet resting in her lap. She looked at Avery and Mary, who were still doing that awkward polite thing where they didn't quite know what to say to each other.
"You two haven't properly met, have you?" Lily said, suddenly cheerful, all her anxiety vanishing.
Both straightened.
"I'm Mary Macdonald," Mary introduced quickly, standing up slightly like it was a job interview. "You probably know me from the Quidditch team. Gryffindor."
Avery blinked, a little surprised by Mary's sudden formality, then smiled gently and nodded. Her mind briefly registered a question — if Mary was so close with the others, why hadn't she joined the Order of the Phoenix? But she swallowed it down and extended her hand, letting the moment be. "Avery Greengrass. Nice to meet you."
Mary took it firmly with a smile. "Likewise."
There was a brief pause, the kind that settles when two strangers try to find footing in a room buzzing with familiar faces and old friendships.
Lily caught the moment and grinned. "See? Not so scary. Now, let's get you both glittering instead of stiff."
Alice grabbed the bouquet from Lily and fluffed it unnecessarily. "Alright, bridesmaids — we've got five minutes. Everyone got their tissues? Wands? Emergency snacks?"
