SHE'S ALL THAT ➭ SIRIUS BLACK ❨2❩ ✔︎

ACT FIVE, SCENE SEVENTEEN

FONTAINE MANOR

Planning a wedding in under two months should have been impossible. It really, truly should have been. But with Maia Dumont-Lupin, Anna-Lee Michaels, and Rowan Silvers in charge of preparation and organizing everything, from floral arrangements to invitations, they had finished with three weeks to spare.

Sage had nerves of steel, but even she was anxious to get married.

It was to be a small wedding, of course, with the groom being wanted for murder, even if he was innocent. A large wedding with quite a few guests would send Sirius back to Azkaban in mere seconds.

She'd never thought much about what her wedding would be like; even at eleven, when her dorm-mates gossiped about their future weddings, Sage never joined in. She couldn't imagine herself getting married, finding someone she loved enough and that loved her enough to be with forever.

Their wedding party was so small that there was no one to officiate—Rowan, Maia, and Anna-Lee had had an awful time trying to find the proper person to marry their friends, and they also realized, a week into planning, that there was no one to walk Sage down the aisle. For several days, the wedding planners were scrambling, until Noah volunteered to walk Sage to her future husband, and Remus had offered to officate the wedding, even though he'd be standing up as Sirius's best man.

On the day of the wedding, Sage stood in her bedroom with Anna-Lee, Maia, and Rowan, the latter three fussing over her and making sure she was ready.

"D'you think she needs another coat of lipstick?" Rowan asked between sips of champagne. "I think she needs more lipstick. And maybe more blush."

Maia shook her head fervently. "No, no. she's good on blush. Maybe more lipstick, though."

Sage grabbed her best friends' hands. "I've got enough lipstick on. Just—can we sit here for a moment? Let me live out the last few minutes I have as an unmarried woman?" She pleaded.

"Don't tell me you've got cold feet, Sagey Baby." Rowan said teasingly, wrapping her arms around the bride as she used a nickname that hadn't been heard in years. "If you want to flee, we've got about five minutes to sneak you out the front door. Or if we're quick enough, we can toss you into the floo downstairs and hope you land somewhere pleasant."

Sage, with a roll of her eyes and a dismissive wave of her hand, shook her head. "Not cold feet. You couldn't talk me out of this if you tried. I just want to remember the girl I used to be for a little while longer." She answered, honestly and vulnerably.

Rowan softened, releasing her best friend. "Remembering Charlotte?"

"Always. Not like I could forget her enough to have to try to remember."

Anna-Lee made an excuse to leave the room and allowed the three remaining Dungeon Girls to have their moment of mourning for their late friend.

Maia put down the mirror she'd been holding to smile sadly at her friends. "She would've loved to see us this happy, Sagey. I mean, me and Remus, married, with a daughter. You and Sirius raising Harry and about to be married." She paused, glancing at Rowan. "And Ro, with her bottle of champagne for a lover."

"Oi, just because every man I've tried to love has left me doesn't mean I've got a problem!" Rowan burst, feigning anger, but the grin on her face showed her true feelings.

Sighing, Sage just shook her head. "You know I love you ladies, right? Even though I don't say it often enough."

"Trust me," Maia began, leaning in close enough to kiss Sage's cheek. "We know. We really do know. And we love you just as much."