[CHAPTER 32] 

THE WEDDING

[ Now I'm the one left screaming through the night ]

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THE NEXT HOUR WAS SPENT ferrying guests to and from seats, and by the time she had finished and the all the arriving guests had been shown to their seats, Emily had a bead of sweat rolling down her forehead. She spotted Harry across the Marquee, leading an elderly couple to their seats. He looked dapper in a suit and Emily couldn't stop herself from smiling as she admired him.

"Darling," came a voice from behind her, and Emily turned to face her father.

He had lost weight since she had last seen him, and his usual sparkling eyes were duller and lined with deep purple bags.

"Dad!" Emily exclaimed, crushing him into a hug.

"Can't. . .breathe. . ." he pretended to gasp, and Emily rolled her eyes playfully when she released him, "You look gorgeous, plumpy,"

"Dad. . ." she grumbled, blushing crimson at the old nickname, "How have you been, how's Mum?"

The word felt strange in her mouth, as she had only called her by her first name these last few months of summer.

Her father's eyes darkened further and his shoulder seemed to sag.

"Better, knows who she is, who I am," he said, before eyeing her, "You haven't really been up to see her, you know. . .Something the matter?"

Emily felt her stomach twist into an uncomfortable knot. "I've been busy Dad, with the Order, and with Harry,"

The lie tasted sour on her tongue. The truth was that Emily hadn't been to see her mother because she didn't want to. Even remembering the vacant look in her eyes after the battle when she had looked at Emily was an image she couldn't get out of her head, and it haunted her dreams. It was easier for her father, at least Margaret remembered him. . .

"I hope you haven't been overextending yourself," he said, semi-seriously, and she sighed.

"Lots to set up, we're moving most of my stuff to Hogsmeade after the wedding,"

Her father nodded thoughtfully. "Right. And what about your arm? Healed nicely?"

Emily nodded with a smile, "Molly patched me up,"

"I'm sure she did," he said with a chuckle.

Her father's eyes focused on something behind her, and he smiled, "Ginny!" he said with a genuine smile, and Emily turned around to see the redhead stalking towards them.

"Mr. Poole," Ginny said politely, smiling slightly, "How are you?"

"Alright, alright," he said, "You look radiant dear,"

"Er. . .Thanks. Do you mind if I grab Em for a sec?" she asked, and he nodded.

"No, go right ahead! I should congratulate your parents anyway," he said with a gracious smile, before stepping past them towards where Molly and Arthur were greeting guests.

"What's up?" Emily said, and Ginny sighed.

"Hiding from Muriel," she grumbled, and Emily laughed.

"Yeah, I heard she was giving people trouble,"

"She's been trying to shove her shawl onto me for the past fifteen minutes because she thinks my dress is far too low-cut," she said, and Emily gave a bark of laughter.

"You look great by the way, Em," Ginny said with a smile, and Emily's chest exploded with warmth.

"Right back at you," she said, and Ginny smiled brilliantly.

There was a sound like the tinkling of a bell, and suddenly Ginny paled.

"Shit, that's my cue," she said, "Gotta run or Fleur will strangle me,"

"Go knock some socks off," Emily called after her playfully, and Ginny disappeared with a wink and a flurry of red hair.

Emily went to take her assigned seat, finding Harry already sat down next to her.

The ceremony ran smoothly, and Fleur was wearing a very simple white dress and seemed to be emitting a strong, silvery glow, seemingly making everything around her more radiant. In the front row, Mrs. Weasley and Madame Delacour were sobbing quietly into scraps of lace and trumpetlike sounds from the back of the marquee told everyone that Hagrid had taken out one of his own tablecloth-sized handkerchiefs.

When it was over, and Bill had kissed Fleur to seal their union, the tent exploded in applause in cheers as they stood up and the newlyweds walked down the aisle. The seats on which they had been sitting rose into the air as the canvas walls of the marquee vanished, so that they stood beneath a canopy supported by golden poles. A pool of molten gold spread from the center of the tent to form a gleaming dance floor; the hovering chairs grouped themselves around small, white-clothed tables.

"Impressive," Emily hummed to Harry, and he nodded appreciatively.

"You want something to drink?" he asked her, and she nodded, eyes narrowing as one of the waiters zoomed past them.

"Fire whiskey?" the waiter asked, and while Harry took some, Emily's stomach turned with unease.

The last time she had drunk fire whiskey, it had not ended well.

"Er, I'll have some wine," she told the waiter with a watery smile, and he nodded.

"Over there by the table," and with a nod he was gone.

The band had begun to play. Bill and Fleur took to the dance floor first, to great applause; after a while, Mr. Weasley led Madame Delacour onto the floor, followed by Mrs. Weasley and Fleur's father.

Harry and Emily made their way to a table on the left of the marquee, where Ron, Hermione, Kate, Violetta and Fred were sitting.

"Howdy lovebirds," Fred said with a wink, and Emily raised her eyebrows as they sat down.

"Hark who's talking," she said, eyeing how close he was sitting to Violetta. Both of them blushed and moved away from each other slightly.

"Beautiful ceremony, don't you think?" Hermione said with a little sigh, looking at Fleur and Bill waltzing on the golden dancefloor.

"T'was, yes," Kate in a mock posh voice, and Emily laughed.

"Well, I don't need any of this when I get married, just give me a minister and someone to marry and I'll happily do it in the kitchen," Fred mumbled, and Violetta snorted.

"Oh, that's classy," she said

"I like this song," said Kate, swaying in time to a waltzlike tune, and a few seconds later she stood up. "Who's dancing with?"

When nobody said anything, Emily stood up and took her hand in a dramatic fashion, and said in a posh voice: "I would be honoured, my lady,"

Kate laughed and doing her best posh walk, they stepped onto the dancefloor.

"Do you even know how to waltz?" Emily asked her in a hushed tone as they linked hands, and Kate shrugged.

"Improvise?" she offered, before grabbing Emily by the waist and starting to turn on the spot.

Emily laughed as Kate led them around the dancefloor, wildly dodging other couples as they went, fully aware they looked like complete idiots.

And so the night went on, with dancing and drinking and laughter. As evening drew in, and moths began to swoop under the canopy, now lit with floating golden lanterns, the revelry became more and more uncontained. Fred and George had long since disappeared into the darkness with a pair of Fleur's cousins (much to Violetta's disdain); Charlie, Hagrid, and a squat wizard in a purple porkpie hat were singing "Odo the Hero" in a corner.

Emily had seen Harry only fleetingly, seemingly always losing him in the crowd before being pulled into another conversation or dance. She was now sitting at the table, nursing her sore, bare feet as her shoes lay beside her. Kate had gone to get some water, but that had been 20 minutes ago, and Emily had a strong suspicion she was currently in some dark corner kissing one of Ron's more handsome cousins.

"You want to dance?" came Harry's voice, and Emily looked up to see him standing in front of her. She smiled at him, noticing he looked slightly uneasy and spotting an expression in his eyes she couldn't quite identify.

"Sure," she said, "But it's going to have to be barefoot, because if I have to wear these torture devices a minute longer I'm afraid I'll cause irreparable damage,"

He chuckled lightly as she stood and they walked towards the dance floor.

The band was playing a slow tune, and the two teenagers swayed in comfortable silence for a moment.

"Ems, listen. . ."

The tone of Harry's voice gave Emily some indication of what he was about to say, but the next words out of his mouth still felt like somebody had thrown a bucket of ice-cold water over her head.

"I can't be with you anymore,"

The shock on Emily's features and the hurt in her eyes made Harry's heart ache, but the voice in his head encouraged him.

"I–. . .What?"

Her voice trembled, and Harry could see her bottom lip tremble the way it always did when she cried, which she very rarely did.

"I can't keep putting you in danger, I can't do what I have to if I'm constantly worried about you,"

Emily shook her head, her eyes hardening with determination. "No, we discussed this last year, I am not giving up on yo–"

"You don't have a choice," he told her, his voice firm, "I don't want to be with you anymore, and you can't change that,"

There was a moment when they stared at each other, and he could see the anger brewing under her eyes as she abruptly stopped swaying.

"You don't want to be with me?" she repeated, and her tone of voice threatened an explosion of emotion, a tide of anger rising within her she couldn't stem, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I have to do my own thing, Em," he argued.

"I'm not stopping you!" she exclaimed, "I haven't stood in your way, I haven't been angry or–"

"That's exactly the problem!" he said, and his voice was raised, catching the attention of some wedding-goers, "You don't realize what's going to happen, do you? I'm probably going to die, Emily."

"Don't say that," she said with a frown, and he scoffed.

"Why? Am I scaring you? Because you should be scared! Your name is on a goddamn hit list and you don't seem to care one bit, and god knows I don't have the time to be worried for you anymore,"

"That's not fair!" she was shouting now, standing opposite him, looking at him with hurt and anger and tears in her eyes, "I never asked for you to worry about me!"

"I can't help it!" he told her, "I can't help it because I love you!"

The words were out of his mouth before Harry could even stop them. It felt like they had been sitting at the back of his throat for a long time, waiting impatiently for the moment they could tumble out. Harry could feel his heart thumping threefold in his chest, could hear the blood roaring in his ears and the anticipation running through his veins.

Emily opened her mouth to respond, but her voice was drowned out by a large whooshing sound. At that moment, something large and silver came falling through the canopy over the dance floor. Graceful and gleaming, the lynx landed lightly in the middle of the astonished dancers. Heads turned, as those nearest it froze absurdly in mid-dance. Then the Patronus's mouth opened wide and it spoke in the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."

Emily and Harry looked at each other. Silence spread outward in cold ripples from the place where the Patronus had landed. Then somebody screamed.

The next moment was mayhem. The crowd erupted into screaming, desperate calling, sobbing, wailing. People ran, dissaparated in panicked clusters. Guests were sprinting in all directions and there was loud rumbling as the protective enchantments around the Burrow broke.

Emily's eyes searched for Violetta and Kate, and she spotted the latter bursting into the tent, hair dishevelled and a large gash on her arm.

"Kate!" Emily howled, and their eyes met.

Kate sprinted towards her at full pelt and Emily screamed for Violetta, whom she could not see amongst the panicking mass.

Emily felt more panic well up inside her as she saw cloaked and masked figures appearing in the crowd; then she saw Lupin and Tonks, their wands raised, and heard both of them shout, "Protego!", a cry that was echoed on all sides —

"Where is he?" someone screeched amidst the chaos, and the familiar voice sent a shiver down Emily's spine. She turned to Harry, who's eyes were scanning the crowd for Ron and Hermione.

"Harry," she said urgently, and their eyes met, and the rush of emotion she felt was all too real, "You have to go,"

"Emily, I'm sorry. . ." he sounded pained, and she grabbed his head, pressing his forehead to hers.

"I know," she said breathlessly, "Me too,"

And then Hermione and Ron appeared from the crowd, and Hermione grasped Harry's hand, and Emily pushed him away from herself and watched as the trio turned on the spot and disappeared with a crack, her lips mouthing the three words she hadn't had the time to say out loud.