Chocolate Enchantment

Chapter 29: Wedding Day Disaster

Chapter 29: Wedding Day Disaster

After lunch, the trio went to the Burrow to help with last-minute preparations for the wedding, which would take place the following day. Hermione was helping to whip together food for the event, and Fleur had the boys hauling things around the yard, clipping the grass, fixing everything just so for the outdoor ceremony.

It was a horrendously exhausting afternoon and evening, which ended with a quick planning session for Harry's birthday—which was less than a week away. Though they had been invited to stay at the Burrow when they left the Dursley home, the three of them had decided to go to Headquarters instead for several reasons. One was the fact that they'd have more autonomy at Headquarters without Molly coddling them. But the most important reason was Harry's fear that anywhere else could be the focus of attacks. Headquarters was simply safer for everyone.

Harry planned to take his Apparition test on his birthday, which would be followed immediately by a surprise party in his honor. Of course, Hermione and Ginny had been whispering over it at dinner time at the Burrow. The Dursleys were happy to have him gone as much as possible and glad he spent most of his days in the tent in the back yard or away from the house.

Hermione worried Ron might get a little jealous at the attention on Harry, but the two of them seemed to be mostly over the jealousy hurdle since Ron became Prefect two years earlier. When she left the Burrow, she was feeling relaxed and loose, exhausted from her previous night of little sleep, and anxious to pull her diary from the pocket and write to Severus.

The morning of the wedding dawned beautiful and bright. Hermione arrived early to help with last-minute preparations. It was a lovely Saturday and she just knew the binding would be perfect. Seeing everyone arrive to share the couple's joy, Hermione felt a bit wistful, wishing she'd been able to invite others to her own wedding. Wishing that if she had invited others, they could have felt joy at her union. Even with Albus Dumbledore's death aside, Hermione knew joy was the last thing Harry or Ron would have wished her and Severus. She wondered if the other Order members would have been much better.

When Fleur's grandparents arrived, Hermione ran her thumb over her ring, a gesture that was beginning to become habit. The ring was the silent reminder of her own marriage, the constant support that she wasn't alone and everything that had happened between herself and Severus wasn't a dream. Not being able to acknowledge her marriage to anyone, and barely mentioning her relationship at all, had proven difficult.

Remus and Tonks arrived, Kingsley Shacklebolt brought his wife, and dozens of others Hermione recognized from the Order showed up as well. Hermione was exchanging pleasantries with Tonks and Remus while waiting for the bride to show, when she felt a twinge of warning in her chest. The same twinge Severus had set off a couple nights before when he'd breached the Grangers' wards.

She grasped Tonks' hand. "My parents' house. Someone's trying to get in right now. Three people have crossed the boundaries into the house—no wait, make that five." Since the wards only responded to magical signatures, there was no question that it might simply be a few friends over for a Saturday afternoon barbeque. Everyone magical she knew and trusted was at the wedding.

Tonks whistled and Kingsley and two others hurried over.

Hermione gave the three of them the directions, and all four of them hurried to the Burrow's Apparition boundaries. "You can't come, Hermione," Tonks said when she realized the teen was right behind her. "It's too dangerous."

"I'm coming; they're my parents." Hermione reached the boundaries only a moment after Tonks, but before she could begin the Apparition, she found herself frozen and lying on the grass under a sycamore tree.