Gunpowder & Cinnamon {Fred Weasley}

Chapter Forty Three

"How about this one?!" Fleur said pulling Eleanor over to an extravagant ballgown dress. "It's beautiful, no? You would look like a princess!"

Eleanor eyed the dress. "It is beautiful, Fleur. But..."

"But what?"

"How would one even move in this thing?" Eleanor said tilting her head to the side.

"It's not for moving, it's for...eh...viewing!" Fleur smiled happily.

"Yeah, well, I like moving."

"This dress looks like someone threw fabric over a birdcage." Sirius whispered to Nixie.

"I didn't realize that you were so into fashion." Nixie replied.

"I'm not. But I know bad clothing when I see it."

Eleanor laughed as she turned to them. "Everyone's pointed out a dress they like, what about you two?" she asked.

"Uh..." the two adults looked around.

"How about this one?" Sirius just grabbed the closest item to him.

"Sirius, that's a veil." Nixie laughed.

Sirius looked at what he had in hand. "Oh...well you could wear something under it and wrap it around you."

"Fashion advice with Sirius." Nixie said. "Wear an undershirt, wrap a veil around you and you're all set for your wedding day."

"Well I didn't see you suggest anything!" Sirius countered.

Eleanor sat beside Ginny who looked completely bored out of her mind. She nudged the younger woman until Ginny smiled.

"If it makes you feel any better, I'm not having that much fun either." Eleanor told her.

"You're supposed to be, it's your wedding."

"Well, I'm not the biggest fan of wearing dresses, and there is just a lot going on in this shop."

"You know what I think would be fun besides the pajama idea?" Ginny said.

"What's that?"

"If you showed up in a tux, and Fred showed up in a dress. My life would be complete."

"Great the mental image will forever be burned into my mind." Eleanor said shaking her head.

"Still, I think it would be pretty snazzy if you showed up in a tuxedo."

"I can't even picture how I would even look in a tuxedo." Eleanor giggled.

Suddenly, the two women fell quiet and looked at each other.

Molly had a dress in hand that she thought would be perfect for Eleanor, it was nothing incredibly fancy, but the lacy detail of the dress reminded her of knitting patterns that she thought Eleanor would enjoy.

She found Nixie and Sirius sitting on one of the sofas in the bridal shop, both of them nearly dozing off.

"Ellie? Ginny?" she called out.

"Hey Mum!" She heard Ginny's voice call over to her.

Molly turned around and froze.

"What are you two doing wearing tuxedos?!" Molly asked in horror as Ginny and Eleanor wore matching white ones.

"Lookin' snazzy." Eleanor laughed.

"Get out of those and quit fooling around. Ellie, you have dresses to try on!"

"So a winter wedding, that sounds nice." Judith said in attempts to make conversation in the shop that had fallen silent after the customers had long left for the day.

Fred looked up from where he sat on the counter with a wide grin on his face. "It does."

"Are you actually going to show up to your wedding wearing pajamas?"

"That's the plan."

"Then why is Ellie going dress shopping with your mother?" Judith asked.

"To make my mother happy."

"You know she's not going to be happy if they spend all day shopping, only to realize that you two are showing up in your jammies."

"I already tried to tell her." Fred said. "But she wouldn't listen."

"So is the entire wedding party going to wear pajamas?"

"Everyone can wear what they like, if they want to wear a ballgown, they can. If they want to wear footie pajamas, they can as well."

"This is going to be the craziest wedding I've ever been to." Judith sighed.

"You won't know crazy until you go to Anora and Charlie's wedding in June." George said walking over and sitting beside his brother.

"Why is their wedding going to be crazy? I figured it would something sweet, involving their daughters.." Judith said to them.

"Oh it'll be sweet..." Fred said.

"With dragons." the twins said together.

"They're getting married at the sanctuary?" Judith's eyes were widened.

"That's what Charlie said in his latest letter."

"Wow, okay well that might be the craziest wedding."

"You think they make dresses big enough for dragons?" Verity asked in amusement from where she had been standing behind the counter, listening to the conversations.

"With magic, it's possible. Imagine the poor muggle dress maker that had to make a dress that big." Fred said laughing to himself as he held the mental image of a dragon in a bridesmaid dress.

Suddenly, the shop door opened and Eleanor walked in with Sirius and Nixie in tow.

"There she is!" Fred said sliding off the counter and walking over to Eleanor. He held up his arms for a hug but Eleanor just walked into him and buried her face into his chest. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say that dress shopping did not go well."

Eleanor grumbled something into his chest.

"There were so many dresses between what your mother and Fleur pulled for Eleanor to try on." Sirius said. "At one point, I was contemplating putting several on so we could get out of there sooner."

"Ginny and I were this close getting him into one too." Nixie smiled. "But I'm afraid Molly and Fleur went a little overboard...Eleanor is probably exhausted."

Fred wrapped his arms around Eleanor and held onto her as she rested into him.

"There, there, Ellie, it'll all be alright." Fred said rubbing her back. "Like I said, we don't have to get all dressed up for this-"

"Well, you might want to find a tux, Fred." Nixie said. "Because she did find one."

Fred became still in surprise, before looking down at Eleanor. Eleanor peered up at him with a small tired smile.

"You did?"

"I did."