Harry Potter and the Children of the Clan

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

James stood in the warm noon sunshine, valiantly resisting the urge to tug at his shirt collar, again. He had already been warned by his mother to leave it alone. For a boy who had spent the previous months roaming both the grounds of Meadow Crest and the trails of the Dark Forest in comfortable outdoor clothes, a dress shirt with a tight collar and a formal dress robe in black was making for a difficult time. At the moment he was trying to get a better view of a small procession that was slowly making its way down the aisle between the two sets of folding chairs. It was the beginning of the wedding of his 'aunt' and 'uncle', Susan Bones and Anthony Goldstein respectively.

He must have more aunts and uncles, real and acquired, than any other boy in the British isles. Well, he supposed the same could be said for his brother and sister, and with further thought, maybe his cousins as well. But anyway, there sure were a lot of them. Normally he didn't mind so much. It made parties and family 'gatherings' a lot of fun, especially Christmas. But at times like these it tended to get tedious.

By craning his neck a little and peeking through a break in some of the taller adults grouped around him he was able to get a look at another 'aunt', this one being Lavender, who moved at a very sedate pace with only a bit of a limp in evidence. He knew from overhearing, in the normal way, that it had taken a lot of convincing to get Aunt Lavender to agree to do this. He understood that it finally took some serious talking from Gran Molly to finally get her to agree to this rare public appearance.

About this point his mind began to drift and he started to go over the list of things that he needed to remember for his next trip into the forest, which was supposed to be in another two weeks. Ronin was going to be testing him on his recently acquired knowledge of the plants that he might see along the trails as well as any birds. Last week he had been grilled unmercifully about all of the two and four legged creatures that one might expect to find in the gloom under the trees. He did pretty well but he was sure he could do better.

He was startled when an elbow in the ribs from his brother was followed by,

"Here comes Dad, pay attention."

A moment later he got a good look at his father, dressed in a brand new robe, also black with some extra touches here and there. He was escorting the bride, Aunt Susan, who had her arm tightly hooked in his and James could see his father whisper something to her out of the side of his mouth. He had no idea what his Da had said but it looked like the bride was trying hard not to smile, maybe even laugh.

Indeed, what the boy had missed was his father suggesting to the bride that this was her last chance for a clean get away and he could have his Firebolt out here in a moment. It was the last comment in an ongoing discussion that had begun when they were getting ready for the wedding to begin and Susan had confided to Harry that she was incredibly nervous and how did people ever find the nerve to go through things like this.

Susan's concerns about the wedding had gone back almost to the day that Anthony had proposed to her. The fact that she had so little family left after so many had been lost to Voldemort, had made her very self-conscious and she suggested to Anthony that maybe they should just sneak away somewhere and do it on the quiet. She was surprised when her usually even tempered and very accommodating fiance' expressed the very firmly held belief that she deserved a wedding with all the trimmings and he would agree to nothing less. When the Weasley family, bolstered by the Potters, weighed in she couldn't help but concede and the planning went ahead at full steam. In a number of corners of her mind she was thrilled at what was going to occur but that didn't stop the nerves from building and she was incredibly grateful that she had Harry to hang onto as she walked with him down the aisle.