Book 1: Nepenthe
Book 2: Halcyon
For those that survived the war and carried on, happiness was waiting for them just around the corner, they simply had to find it. For James Potter, it took a wrong turn to end him in the right place where he met Ren...
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Since the announcement of the engagement, everyone had been rather curious about two things: when the wedding was going to be held and what sort of dress would Renata find herself wearing? However, after much thought, Renata had yet to come to any conclusion as to where she wanted to start with any sort of dress. She sorted through the latest fashion magazines, observing all the different styles, but none of them had really called out to her as of yet. A ball gown seemed too much, a mermaid gown seemed too fitting and when it came to others, she didn't think she could pull off bolder looks.
Above all people, including Molly, it was Sirius that seemed invested the most in the search to find Renata the perfect dress. Some afternoons, he would join her and look over several gowns, always stating that she could wear a sock and pull it off. But Renata didn't exactly agree with that, although she was sure that James wouldn't complain if she just showed up in socks. Other wedding guests would probably be opposed to the idea though.
"Come on, didn't you dream of wedding gowns when you were younger?" Sirius asked one afternoon. "I remember my cousins always gushing about the wedding dresses they wanted to wear. They had them planned out to the last stitch."
While James and Harry were out for the day enjoying a father and son day of bonding, Renata gave a shrug of her shoulders. It appeared as though Sirius had made plans along with James to get the ball rolling to find a gown for Renata if that's what she wanted to wear. Sirius told James to take Harry for the day and leave the rest to him, after all, he was the resident fashionista and no one could take that away from him. He had arrived in the early afternoon, bringing over a new stack of magazines for Renata to go through.
Already, he could see the hesitation and the insecurities rise to her expression. Of course, it didn't matter how many people told her she was beautiful enough to pull off any look, if she didn't believe it, it wasn't going to happen.
"I didn't dream about my wedding very often," she admitted, " because I wasn't really looking forward to it when I was younger. More or less, my parents always made it seem that it was up to them, it was their decision to make. If they didn't approve of our partners then it wasn't going to happen regardless of what we wanted. I never really thought about it after that, I just put my dreams to the side because my mother always told me that they weren't practical."
"Yeah, I can relate to that," Sirius replied, " my family was similar. Didn't matter so much when it came to the chemistry of the couple, just as long as they were purebloods that didn't like Muggle-borns. But as the pool grew smaller and the selections became slimmer, didn't really put a stop to them. My parents were cousins, second cousins, but cousins nonetheless. They married to keep the Black lineage pure. I never really looked forward to the idea of marriage when I was younger either, simply because I thought I was going to be married off to one of my own cousins."
It grew quiet in the living room until Renata reached over and started petting the top of Sirius' head, a routine that began whenever he was feeling down and return, he would do the same for her.
