Three o'clock in the afternoon, the following day, Harry, Ron, Fred, George and Eliza were stood outside the massive white marquee in the orchard, waiting for all the wedding guests to arrive. Eliza was wearing a short champagne and pink dress with her wavy hair falling down to just above her shoulder. Harry had been giving a large dose of Polyjuice potion so he now looked like a ginger boy from the local village. The plan was to introduce him as the Weasley's cousin called Barny. Eliza had found the name silly and too close to his actual name.
The five of them all possessed the seating plans so they help show people to their seats. "When I get married," Fred said as he tugged at the collar of his robes, "I won't be bothering with any of this nonsense. You can all wear what you like, and I'll put a full Body Bird Curse on Mum until it's all over."
"She wasn't too bad this morning, considering," said George. "Cried a bit about Percy not being here, but who wants him. Oh blimey, brace yourselves, here they come, look."
Figures in brightly coloured outfits appeared, one by one. Within moments, they had all arrived, exotic flowers on the witches' hats and precious gems glittered on the men's cravats.
"Excellent, I think I see a few veela cousins," George said as he went onto his toes to get a better look. "They'll need help understanding our English customs, I'll look after them."
"Not so fast, Your Holeyness,"Fred shouted, as he darted past a gaggle of middle-aged witches, and went straight to a pair of French girls, "Here, Permettez-moi assister vous," They both giggled and let him escort them to their seats. George was left to deal with the middle-aged witches, Ron took charge of Mr Weasley's old Ministry-colleague Perkins, Harry helped a deaf old couple and Eliza was left with a couple of handsome boys that were her age.
"This way please." She smiled politely at them causing them to grin and follow her. The entire time they spoke in French together, and Eliza chose not to let them know she could understand everything they were saying about her.
"They seemed to like you."
"By thinking I had a nice bottom then yes, they liked me." Eliza replied back to George causing them to laugh.
"Look at you, getting all the boys."
"Those ladies seemed to like you!" Eliza said as she nodded over to them.
George's eyes widened, "They kept trying to pinch my cheeks!"
"George!" An old lady slowly made her way over to them, "Why you have grown? Your ears are awfully lopsided though!" Before he could reply she turned to Eliza, "And what have you done to your hair Miss Eliza Dawlish? You've cut all that beautiful hair off! What on earth made you do that?"
Eliza opened her mouth to speak but Aunt Muriel had already walked off, "Lovely to see her again." George joked as the two turned to smile at each other.
"Your ears are lopsided Georgie." Eliza joked as the two burst into laughter, "Don't listen to her, I think you still look wonderful."
"Thank you Elz, you still look beautiful! Even if you've cut all your hair off." The two laughed again.
"What's made you two laugh so much?" Fred asked as he joined them. George pointed at his ear and then Eliza's hair, "What?"
"Aunt Muriel." George said as he slowed his breathing down, "Apparently my ears are lopsided! And that Eliza shouldn't have cut all her beautiful hair off."
Fred roared with laughter, "Stupid old cow."
The three then made their way over to the Golden Trio, and overheard the last of their conversation, "Talking about Muriel? Yeah, she's just told me my ears are lopsided. Old bat. I wish old Uncle Bilius was still with us, though; he was a right laugh at weddings."
"Wasn't he the one who saw a Grim and died twenty-four hours later?" Hermione asked them.
"Well, yeah, he went a bit odd toward the end."
"But before he went loopy he was the life and soul of the party," Fred said. "He used to down an entire bottle of firewhisky, then run onto the dance floor, hoist up his robes, and start pulling bunches of flowers out of his pants."
"Yes, he sounds a real charmer," Hermione said as Harry burst into laughter.
"Never married, for some reason."
"You amaze me," Hermione said sarcastically.
The six of them looked at each other before laughing again. They were so caught up in doing so that they didn't see a latecomer, a dark-haired young man with a large, curved nose with thick black eyebrows. It wasn't until he held out his invitation to Ron and said to Hermione, "You look vunderful."
"Viktor!" Hermione shrieked causing her to drop her small beaded bag, it landed with a loud thump and Eliza stared at it knowing what Hermione had done to it. She blushed a plum red as she knelt down to pick it up, "I didn't know you were coming. Goodness. It's lovely to see you. How are you?"
"How come you're here?" Ron asked him loudly.
Krum rose his eyebrows, "Fleur invited him.
Harry shook his hand, "I'll show you to your seat."
As soon as the two went into the marquee, Eliza turned to Ron, "Really? Did you have to be so rude?"
"It's nearly time." George said, "We should go and sit down."
"Time to sit down," Fred told Harry as they passed him down the aisle, "Or we're going to get run over by the bride."
Eliza sat beside the twins in the front row and waited for the wedding to take place. "I can't wait for all this to be over."
Mr and Mrs Weasley strolled up the aisle, smiling and waving at the relatives. A moment later Bill and Charlie stood up at the front of the marquee, they were both wearing dress robes with large white roses in their buttonholes. Fred wolf-whistled causing the veela cousins to giggle, Eliza rolled her eyes at him as he smiled at her.
The crowd fell silent as the music came on. Monsieur Delacour and Fleur started to walk up the aisle. Fleur wore a very simple white dress that seemed to emit a strong, silvery glow. Her radiance usually dimmed everyone else by comparison but today it beautified anyone that came near it. Following her was Ginny and Gabrielle, both of the wore golden dresses, they too looked prettier than usual. Bill at the top of the aisle smiled happily as his bride approached him.
"Ladies and gentlemen," The wizard conducting the ceremony said, "We are gathered here today to celebrate the union of two faithful souls. . ."
"Yes, my tiara set off the whole thing nicely," Auntie Muriel whispered rather too loudly. "But I must say, Ginevra's dress is far too low cut."
Eliza and Fred both glanced at each other, a bemused expression etched onto both their faces.
"Do you, William Arthur, take Fleur Isabelle?"
"I do."
"And do you, Fleur Isabelle, take William Arthur?"
"I do."
"Then I declare you bonded for life." The wizard waved his hand over the heads of the couple causing a shower of silver stars to fall upon them. Fred and George quickly stood up and applauded loudly, everyone else following pursuit. The golden balloons above them burst and birds and golden bells flew and floated out of them, adding their own songs and chimes to the noise.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" The wizard yelled, "If you would please stand up!"
They all did and he waved his wand again - the chairs they had previously been sitting on disappeared and instead they were stood beneath a canopy supported by golden poles with a magnificent view of the orchard and surrounding countryside. In the middle there was a pool of molten gold and around it there was dance floor with tables dotted next to it.
The twins and Eliza made their way over to one of the tables and sat down, only for the two french veelas to come over and stare lovingly at Fred. "How does he do it?" George whispered to Eliza, "We look exactly the same yet he always gets the girls."
"Different personalities?"
"Are you saying I have a bad personality?" George asked her, looking slightly offended.
She responded quickly, not wanting him to be in a mood with her, "No, no, it's just, Fred is a little bit more confident than you - and only a little bit."
George laughed, "Is it because he always talks first?"
Music began to play and Fred suddenly stood up, "Come and dance with me." Glancing over she noticed that he wasn't looking at the two veelas but instead at her, "Come on Za."
Nodding her head, she took his hand and allowed him to lead her onto the dancefloor, "Can neither of the veelas dance?"
"I want to give George a chance with them. See! They're talking to him." Fred twirled her so that she caught a glimpse of George laughing with the two girls. "And they don't care that he has an ear missing!"
"He is funny!" Eliza replied, "Girls always like humour."
"Helps that he's very good looking too."
Eliza laughed, "I'm not going to say anything as then that'll mean I'm either complimenting or insulting you!"
"You would never insult me."
"Believe it or not, I have before."
"Didn't mean it though."
Looking over his shoulder she saw Hermione and Ron dancing, "Well one of them has finally brought up the courage to ask the other to dance!"
Fred looked over and grinned, "How long have the two liked each other?"
"Years." Eliza replied, "They've never been brave enough to tell the other."
"Reminds me of two other Gryffindors."
"It is a shame Harry and Ginny broke up, he only did it so she wouldn't be targeted." Eliza said, "The two really do like each other but other things have got in the way of them."
Fred nodded, "I wasn't talking about them but yeah, I do agree them."
As soon as the song changed to a more upbeat one, Lee joined them, "Lee?" Eliza yelled, "I didn't know you were coming! Good to see you again." The two hugged before Eliza looked over to see Ginny alone, "Ginny! Get over here! Come dance with us."
"This is a great wedding!" Fred yelled at them.
It was then for Fleur and Bill to cut the cake, Eliza stood with the twins and Ginny, two model phoenixes flew out as they pulled the first slice out.
"I fancy a drink, do you want one?" She asked Ginny as a bottle of champagne floated past them, "Here we go, one glass of champagne."
"Cheers El." Ginny said as they drank their drinks, "It's lovely, isn't it."
"Delicious."
It was another half an hour when Ginny nudged Eliza's arm, "Where are those four going?"
She followed Ginny's line of sight and noticed the twins were walking off with the two veelas, she let out a laugh, "Those two are terrible. Leading those poor girls astray."
"Should we go and stop them?"
Thinking for a moment, she shook her head, "They'll live."
"Let's dance El!" Ginny grabbed her wrist and the two began to do their weirdest dance moves, "I think we're the best here."
"Of course!"
Suddenly, a large and silver lynx landed in the middle of the dancefloor. Eliza pulled Ginny behind her, as everyone turned to see what it was and why it was there. The Patronus's mouth opened and it spoke in Kingsley Shacklebolt's loud, deep and slow voice.
"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."
Immediately, she pulled her wand out and grabbed Ginny's wrist, pulling her out of the tent and into the darkness, "Fred! George! We have to leave."
There was a commotion inside the tent as Eliza and Ginny ran further from it, "What's gone on Eliza?" Ginny asked her, fear evident in her tone.
The twins appeared with the veelas behind them, "Courir!" She told the girls, "Revenir à votre famille." The two left quickly.
"Eliza? What's going on?"
"Scrimgeour's dead. They're coming." Just as she said that death-eaters arrived at the tent, "They haven't seen us yet, we have to leave."
She grabbed their hands and disapparated from the scene immediately. "Where are we?" Fred asked her as they looked around.
"This is where I used to spend my summer as a child." Eliza told them as she looked at the small cottage, "It hasn't been used since Evelyn died."
"Won't they find us here?" George asked her concernedly.
She shook her head, "Only Evelyn knew where it was."
"What are we going to do?" Ginny asked her, "We can't go back."
"Then we'll have to stay here." Eliza replied, "We'll stay here for as long as we need to."