"You just have to have the right coin, cousin-of-mine," replied Harry. "Gold's gold; but, a prank potion recipe with the rights to brew it is priceless to them."
Though they'd had a late night the night before, the residents of The Black House, both permanent and temporary, were up early for a filling breakfast. Headache and hangover potions did the rounds before the group needed to get ready.
When one of the twins moaned from where he was resting his forehead on the tabletop and verbally wondered what time the ladies would be up, Remus smiled and said, "They'd have been up for hours, by now."
"Think about the Yule Ball," Cedric added, from where he was making distasteful faces at a bowl of freshly cooked scrambled eggs before grabbing some dry toast. "That took them, on average, about three hours to get ready. A wedding takes them a lot longer than that."
"What time's the wedding again?" whined Neville from where he was trying to keep down the porridge he was trying to eat.
"Eleven," said Harry. As he had only drunk butterbeers the night before, he was in much better shape.
"And the time now?" asked Blaise.
"Just after eight," said Draco. "And just why did we have to be up so early?" asked the other twin.
"We need to leave by ten fifteen at the latest," said Remus. "And you needed to be up early enough to eat breakfast and take potions to improve your seedy dispositions before you need to get dressed. You don't want to arrive at the wedding still feeding ill."
After Harry had finished his breakfast and potions, he went back to his room and quickly headed for the shower. He stayed under the stream for a little while as the potions quickly did their work.
When he finally emerged he quickly dried and dressed before heading back down to the kitchen. There was no one waiting for him. Just after he settled at the table, Chuckles or whatever the house elf's name really was popped in. "Is there something I can get for you, Master Harry?"
"No thank you, Chuckles," sighed Harry. "And, breakfast was delicious this morning. Thank you."
"You're welcome, Master Harry," replied the little elf as it gave a slight bow, before popping away again.
As he sat there, Harry meditated a fair bit. He hadn't cleaned up his memories for a while. So, he spent time doing that. He also chose to use some of that sorting time to set aside memories that filled his heart with joy and love. Those memories would be perfect for powering powerful patronuses. It wasn't until someone called his name that he realised others were in the room.
When he opened his eyes he saw the expressions on the faces of those in the kitchen with him. Remus had a knowing expression and was the one who called him. Sirius also had a similar expression, as did Blaise. But the twins just looked at him curiously. The others weren't in the room.
"Sorry," he smiled. "Meditating to memories for my Occlumency."
That was when the twins understood.
sort
"The cars are here," said Sirius. "Is everyone ready to go?"
With a chorus of yes'es in his ears, Harry just smiled and firmly said, "Definitely." From the Black House, Sirius had organised a pair of 'stretch' Rolls Royces in burgundy to take the Groom's party to the
Over at Greengrass Farm, the girls rose early, just as Remus said they would.
Deece had arranged for specialist wizarding make-up and hair stylists for straight after an early but light breakfast. They had arrived as the group of ladies: Deece, Cele, Daphne, Hermione, Narcissa, Tracey, Luna and Astoria sat around the informal table just off the kitchen.
The only two males in the house, Matthias and Ant, made sure to stay out of the way. They had their own morning meal while the ladies were in the ladies' sitting room, which had been converted to a beautician's and dressing room combined. Through the morning, the two father's sat and talked, took a walk together and talked, and then sat and talked some more.
Just as they were about to head up to get dressed, a Greengrass house elf popped in with orders from the ladies to do exactly that.
"Us mere males are clearly not capable of working it out for ourselves," Ant dryly said to Matthias.
"Were we ever?" the question was asked back.
Once the menfolk had showered and changed, they met up outside the door to the ladies' sitting room. They gave each other a 'once over' before Matthias raised his hand to knock. Astoria opened the door and stuck her head out.
"Oh, you're ready," she said, before she pulled back and pulled the door open as she did.
With a chuckle to one another, both fathers stepped into the womenfolk's sanctuary.
Tracey and Luna were daintily sitting together on a large lounge in an almost mirror reflection of one another. Astoria went to join them.
Daphne was sitting at one of those stage makeup mirror dressing table arrangements with Deece hovering as the hairstylist was making a few minor corrections. And it was the same with Hermione and Cele at the other of the two. However, she had the make-up witch working on her. Glancing to the "Almost ready."
doorway,
Deece
said,
After the beautician and the hairstylist did one last switch between brides, they were declared 'ready'.
From the ladies' room they went down to the welcoming parlour. Matthias then pulled three portkeys off the mantelpiece and said, "Ant and I will go first. Once we're there, I'll prepare to cast cushioning charms and the like in case someone arrives unsteady on their feet.
"Then have it Deece, our two bridesmaids and attendant. And, finally, Celeste and our two lovely brides. The portkeys will have you arriving in the middle of the Granger's sitting room. Now, all set?" When the ladies nodded back, Mathias activated their portkey by tapping on it with his wand.
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