⚯͛ Unfortunate - Remus Lupin ⚯͛

90.

"Having a baby is brilliant but fucking hell I'm tired," Lily said before holding up another wedding dress. "This one?"

"Ew gross, no," Maeve said, making Marlene snort.

"What about this?" Marlene asked.

Maeve looked at it, considered it, but then shook her head. Her friends sighed, she was being unexpectedly very picky when it came to her dress. They had picked the bridesmaids dresses in about 20 minutes, but this had taken over an hour.

Dorcas held out a puffy white dress, "What about this one?"

"Or this one?" Alice said, pulling one out from the rack.

It was strapless and simple, all white, nice detailing on the waist...it wasn't bad. Maybe-

"No no, don't do that one, what about this," Marlene held up another dress.

This was the one.

It had a lacy white bodice that was cinched into the waist and then flowed out into the skirt, which was made up of multiple layers of white fabric with splashed of the same lace.

"Let me try it on."

She took the dress from Marlene who grinned triumphantly at Lily, Dorcas and Alice.

Maeve went to the changing room and tried on the dress. Her breath seemed to stop for a short moment as she caught her appearance in the mirror. Reality settled in: she was actually getting married. And this would be the dress she would be married in.

"What do you think?" She asked as she came
out.

A chorus of praise and approval came from the girls.

"It's beautiful, Maeve," Dorcas said.

"Is that the one?" Lily asked.

Maeve caught Marlene's hopeful look and nodded, "this is it."

After they had paid for the dresses (the wedding dress and the bridesmaids dresses) they split up to to look round Diagon Alley to look for anything else they could get for the wedding. Lily and Alice were on food duty, and were going to a catering business who could hopefully do the cake and reception food for the wedding. Marlene and Dorcas were looking for other wedding decorations like cute signs and cheap centrepieces for the reception.

Maeve had the nice job of seeing the florist to organise what flowers they would have at the wedding. It was a pretty easy job really, just pick the flowers that you think are pretty...shouldn't be hard at all.

She parted from the girls and walked through the streets to get to the florists. But she was met with a familiar face who was coming from the opposite direction. They locked eyes. The face smiled unsurely.

Cissa.

They both slowed to a stop in front of each other, and just looked, scanned each other. It had been a while...over a year. The last time they had seen each other was the battle between the Order and the death-eaters where Maeve had nearly died. Both women remembered it painfully well.

Maeve noticed Cissa was pushing a pram.

"Hi," Cissa said quietly.

"How are you?" Asked Maeve, struggling to meet her gaze.

"Fine, fine. I heard about Regulus."

"Yeah," Maeve looked up at her sad eyes, but didn't know what else to say so looked away to the baby. "I-"

The baby in the pram opened his eyes. They were blue, icy. They were Lucius' eyes.

"He's beautiful," she said, looking at the baby who was looking back up at her curiously. "How old?"

"Just over a month," Cissa said softly.

"I didn't know...I wish you had told me you had a baby..."

"I wish you had told me you got engaged."

"Ah, yes," Maeve said awkwardly, looking at her obvious engagement ring. "That happened."

"Congratulations," Cissa smiled at her.

It was a genuine smile, the smile Cissa would give her years ago, when things were different. Maeve looked at her kind expression. Nothing had changed. Cissa was still her Cissa.

"Would you like to come?" Maeve asked suddenly.

"To the wedding?" Cissa asked.

"Well...yes."

"You-I...really?" Cissa asked.

"It's top secret, you can't tell anyone, not even Lucius. I just...everyone I care about will be there, it would make me happy if you were there too."

Cissa swallowed before nodding slowly, "okay."

"Really?" Maeve asked, surprised.

"Of course. I wouldn't miss it. What's the address?"

Maeve grinned, "I'll mail it to you."

Cissa smiled once more but dropped it and whispered, "this conversation never happened, okay?"

"Of course. See you soon. It's on August 12th."

Cissa smiled, winked, before walking off.

Maeve exhaled, nervous energy still coursing through her. Where to next? Ah yes, flowers.

≿ ————————　❈　———————— ≾

"Everything done, ladies?" Maeve asked the girls as they met in front of the bridal shop once more.

"Mostly, the lady at the catering place was a right bitch," Lily said, making them all laugh.

"It's true, she was," Alice admitted, giggling as if remembering something.

"But don't worry, Mae, everything will be sorted. Leave it to me," Lily said.

"Thank you."

"Everything went good for us too," Marlene nodded.

"Brilliant," Maeve smiled brightly. "Thank you girls. I'm lucky to have you all in my bridal party, Merlin knows I couldn't have done any of this alone. But I trust you."

"And God help you," Marlene joked. "Right, are we going back to yours now, Lils?"

"Yeah," she sighed. "The boys are doing another barbecue."

"God they're obsessed," Maeve laughed.

"I think it's a man thing, I don't know what it is," Alice said. "Even Frank wanted to do a barbecue at ours, and he's the least manly person I know."

"Am I manlier?" Marlene joked.

"Way manlier," Alice snorted.

"Right, off we go," Lily said with a clap of her hands.

They all disapparated, but just as Maeve was about to follow a sign caught her eye. It was a small sign in a shop window, but the words 'for sale' were blatantly obvious, painted a deep red colour.

She went towards it.

The shop was small, two floors, it looked like it used to be a diner or a cafe or something. The 'For Sale' sign glared at her. The door was unlocked.

She went in.