Conflict by grangergurl
Chapter Notes: This is a light-hearted chapter for those readers who need a breath of fresh air. I do believe that I had the most fun with this chapter.
Two weeks after the funeral, the Weasleys had much to do. The wedding was in a couple of weeks, for goodness sakes!! First, there was the dresses and robes and all the clothing.
Luna wasn’t very picky about her dress. “The new article in the Quibbler featuring ways to have a great wedding says that dresses aren’t what is important.” Neville shook his head proudly.
“Luna, I want you to get the best dress you find, whether the Quibbler says to or not.” With that, he leaned down and kissed her. She laughed and grabbed the pot of Floo powder, and in an instant, she, Hermione, Ginny, and Molly had all left.
As they walked down the bright street of Diagon Alley, Luna suddenly stopped and stared at a dress in the window of a large store called ‘Witches Bridal - We want to make your wedding magical’. The dress in the display window was a modest, short-sleeve gown with a vine pattern teasing the bottom and crawling up the stomach. A white shawl wrapped around the mannequin gracefully. Luna gaped at the dress. “That one it is, my dear,” Molly laughed. Luna, in a daze, nodded slowly.
“Luna, we have plenty of money!! You are going to get a separate reception dress,” Ginny egged her on. Luna walked up to the front desk. “Excuse me, where’s your plainest dress?” Hermione sighed and shook her head. The cashier, however, looked pensive. “First shelf on the far left."
Luna walked over and admired the plain beauty of the gown. It was truly simple, the only design was a mock tear with stitches on the side of the dress. That and two small bows. With a diamond bracelet and a small tiara, Luna would look marvelous. So, with the wedding and reception dress bought, only the bridesmaid dresses remained.
Luna, Hermione, and Ginny met up with Gabrielle Delacour and Lavender Thomas, previously Brown, while Molly went to get some more food for the wedding. After introductions and greetings were exchanged, they set off for Madame Leonora’s Dresses for Formal Settings, a store founded by the same witch who created Witches Bridal. “I really don’t have a color planned out…in fact, I want you all to separate. Pick out a dress of your liking, and meet me in the dressing room. You aren’t allowed to see each other until the dresses are bought,” Luna pushed them into the store. With that, they said a goodbye and disbanded.
Hermione ran straight to the maroon dresses. She looked and looked until she finally found a dress with little design, only tons of lovely dark-red satin. Satisfied, she set off for the dressing room. Luna gaped at how lovely she looked.
Meanwhile, Ginny started looking for something that was unbearably simple. She knew that the bridesmaid wasn’t supposed to look as beautiful as the bride, and that wouldn’t be exactly be easy for her to even compare to Luna, but she wanted to be sure. She finally settled on a lavender, silken dress with a shiny top-half and an empire bottom. She walked out of the dressing room, and Luna clapped her hands in delight.
Gabrielle, being as high-maintenance as her sister, was looking for the most expensive dress in the whole store. She decided on a peach gown with a sweeping empire bottom. Luna worriedly looked at the price tag. Molly came in and said to buy it.
Lavender was not much better than Gabrielle. She didn’t care about prices, she wanted the most beautiful dress in the store. She found a simple sky-blue dress that had a full skirt, and though it was simple, it spoke for itself. Luna just nodded when she saw the beautiful dress.
With the dresses bought and sent home, the Weasleys continued on their journey down Diagon Alley. Molly couldn’t decide on what food Luna wanted for the reception, so she waited until the dresses were done, which they were now.
Molly’s Shopping list was as follows:
1. Appetizer - Nuts and Fruit
2. First course - Soup (Chowder)
3. Second course - Entrée (Main Dish) (Salmon and Shrimp)
4. Second course alternate - Relevés (Vegetables)
5. Third course - Salad (Garden Salad)
6. Fourth course - Cheese selection (Followed by the appropriate amount of wine)
7. Fifth course - Entremet (Dessert) (Cake, biscuits, sweets for the children)
Luna thought the menu was a bit elaborate, and very expensive, but they had hired a few house elves, and now all they needed were the ingredients. First, the appetizer.
Molly walked into a food store with a sign hanging over the door. ‘Fresh Fruit - Imported directly from Salem!’, it read. In a few moments time, Molly had Apparated back home with pecans, almonds, pistachios, oranges, apples, bananas, and an assortment of other fruits and nuts.
Ginny was assigned to get the soup, which she chose Chowder. After getting scallops, butter, potatoes, onions, milk, and pepper, she, too, Apparated home.
Molly re-appeared with a pop and came out of a shop with salmon and shrimp, ready for the elves. Luna chose a garden salad for the third course, and decided to experiment with the dressing. After giving sour cream, shredded carrot, plain yogurt, chopped green onions, diced radishes, finely chopped fresh parsley, crumbled blue cheese, and ground pepper to the elves, she Apparated back to Diagon Alley.
It was truly chaos for the men, women popping in and out, throwing food at the elves as they went. Harry and Neville finally decided to go prepare the backyard. But that is a different story, which I shall tell when we are done with the question of the food.
Anyways, after Molly had selected the cheese and wine, (cottage and champagne) , it was time for the easiest, and perhaps most fun part. The dessert.
Luna went with Molly to get the cake, while Ginny and Lavender went to find sweets for the children. Gabrielle was off to find tiaras for them all. They were to meet back at the Twins’ joke shop in two hours.
Molly pulled Luna into ‘Magical Wedding Surprises’, where they looked high and low for the perfect cake. Luna and Molly’s jaws dropped at the sight of a cake that they passed. It was a four-layer white cake, with pearls sprinkled about and a cascading white strip of silk that met every cluster of peachy-pink roses that were placed here and there. It was perfect, indeed.
Ginny and Lavender, in the meanwhile, were stocking up on Sugar Quills, Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum, Pumpkin Pasties, Licorice Wands, Bertie Bott’s Every Flavored Beans, Kaymar Keskle’s Oddly-Flavored Biscuits, Pumpkin juice, and every wizarding candy imaginable, just for the few children that would attend. The flower girl was to be Penelope Clearwater’s and Percy Weasley’s daughter. The ring boy was supposed to be Joshua, but the replacement of Parvati Patil’s and Seamus Finnigan’s son was immediately put to use. Other than them, there were only six children attending.
Gabrielle was successful as she entered Witches Bridal. She was only to get three tiaras, for Hermione and Ginny refused to wear one. Luna’s tiara wasn’t a tiara at all, but a lovely white head-band that was encrusted with pearls. Lavender’s was a diamond crown-type tiara gems scattered everywhere. And Gabrielle had, of course, chosen the best for herself. Three strings of expensive pearls lost themselves in her lustrous locks of wavy blonde hair. She smiled and said, “Perfect,” to the cashier, who gave her the total.
The women met back at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes, and after complimenting each other on their great finds, they apparated home to examine the back yard.
And what a backyard it was. It had been magically expanded to fit more guests, and the lawn was lush and green. Flowers and roses were everywhere , planted at every turn. Rose petals were sprinkled over the lawn, and a Koi pond with water lilies and flowering bushes around the edges sat near the edge of the lawn.
An elegant white carpet stretched down the lawn, where it ended under an archway that had vines of ivy and little flowers crawling around the white poles. Lilies grew up along the edges of the carpet, and at the sight of the many flowers, Luna nearly fainted. “It’s perfect,” she whispered.
Harry, however, did not hear her. He was too busy sitting in a grove of trees near the edge of the lawn, wondering where his son was, and what he was doing. Bouncing on Dumbledore’s knee somewhere, he supposed, but it never hurt to wonder.
*
Two weeks later, the wedding was to be in a day. Luna was sleeping mostly, gaining her rest. Fleur and Molly were in charge, shouting orders and cooking like mad. Neville was in a different little house in the front yard, for seeing the bride before the wedding was considered terrible luck.
“Come, come, now, ‘Arry! Zere is too much to do to be in your own vittle vorld!!”
Harry snapped out of his reverie and continued his grueling task of setting the large tables.
An hour later, Hermione crept in to Luna’s room and gently shook her awake. “Luna,” she briskly whispered, “your wedding is in two hours.”