Chapter 2- Planning
"You have got to be kidding?" Harry exclaimed in disbelief.
"Do I look like I am kidding?" Hermione asked, obviously resolute with her plans. She looked up from where she was sitting, looking in a bridal magazine.
"As if marrying you is not enough, I have to propose to you in public as well? Not only in public but I have to propose at one of the biggest restaurants in Britain?" Harry asked, pacing her bedroom that was a few rooms from his. She had called him to further discuss plans.
"Precisely."
"I can't believe what I have gotten myself into," Harry sighed, resigned to the fact she would win and it was futile to argue.
Pretending not to hear that last remark Hermione diverted the conversation. "By the way, have you picked a best man yet? I need to know so I can start talking to him about the wedding."
"The wedding? I thought we were going to have some official guy say all the crap about how serious this choice is and marry us." Harry obviously was confused and assumed too much.
"Of course not. It will make it more believable if we have a small outdoor wedding by the lake."
"Clearly you have been thinking about this for some time."
"And you should be too. Who knows? This might be your only wedding. God knows the staff is not known for having significant others," Hermione told him airily while flipping the page of the magazine.
"Oh and like Aurors are any better? My word, looks like I am just digging myself deeper and deeper in this hole that has become my life."
"How poetic honey," Hermione teased him as she looked up from her magazine to smile at him. "You might be working on those poetic skills of yours, because I want to be swept off my feet by your proposal to me."
"You better be pleased and grateful for whatever damn proposal I give you," Harry stated, fed up with the woman sitting in front of him.
Hermione had to admit that Harry was pretty cute when he was all fired up like he was. His robes were billowing out from behind him as he paced the room. His hair was sticking up at all ends since he had ran his hands through his hair in frustration numerous times in his conversation with Hermione. Hermione snapped out of it noticing she had been staring and quickly replied, "Well, aren't you just the most romantic guy that has walked on earth. I swear, I don't know what I would do without you. My life would be pointless and my heart would be empty without your love to fill it."
Harry just rolled his eyes at her, knowing that more retorts would just fuel her teasing and she would win in the end. Being smart, he just kept silent as he paced the room more. His mind was spinning from all the information he had received in such a little time. First thing was first, where was he going to take her for the proposal? Second, he had to plan the proposal and get her ring of some sort. Although she had not said anything about a ring he thought she would want one and just didn't want to ask. Then, he had to pick a best man. Well, at least that would be easy. "Sirius," he said out loud.
Hermione looked up from the gown she had been gazing at. "What about Sirius?"
"He will be my best man."
"I thought you would choose Ron," Hermione wondered out loud.
"But, I haven't talked to him in years and the wedding will probably the first time I have seen him. Obviously he can't be my best man if I haven't been his friend all these years."
"Oh Harry, we may have stopped talking, but we never stopped being your friends," Hermione sighed. "I do agree that Sirius would be a wonderful choice for your best man."
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Harry waltzed into a small, yellow, cookie cutter house with vines creeping around the outside walls. The insides were simply furnished with personal touches in every corner. Many photos adorned the walls reminding the occupant that although he has gone through much pain, the goodness outweighed it all. Sirius Black had always regretted not being Lily and James secret keeper, but through all the troubles and toils he came out innocent and happy with an honorary son of his own.
"Sirius? Where are you?" Harry called out announcing he was here.
"I am in the kitchen," was the only response Harry got.
"What are you doing?" Harry asked as he stepped into the cozy kitchen. It was painted in a deep green with intricate white designs and weaving patterns painted onto it. The 26 year old took off his cloak revealing his casual khakis and gray t-shirt.
Looking at his Godfather, he took in the changes that have occurred over the years. Sirius was now a healthy weight without having a hollow face and he now had color on his cheeks. His hair, although black, had some very light gray streaks in it. It was still long but combed and clean and no longer a mess of tangles. Wearing casual jeans and a black t-shirt, he clattered around the kitchen.
"Well, I am making some home made tea for the chat you wanted to have with me," Sirius answered.
"Sounds good." Harry walked over to the breakfast table over by a window that revealed the nice autumn weather that they were enjoying.
Sirius sat down a silver tea kettle that was steaming out of the spout and placed a black mug in front of Harry and then in front of himself as he sat down on the opposite side of the table as his Godson. "So, I would start out with small talk, but I know that would get us neither here or there and you hate chatter about nothing, makes you nervous. So lets do what's best for us all and cut to the chase. What is on your mind Harry?"
Harry laughed at the conversations start and paused to think of how he was going to start out. Taking a deep breath he just started, "Hermione contacted me."
Before he could continue with the story Sirius made a funny sound as he tried his hardest not to spit out his tea and instead swallow it which only burned his whole mouth. When the swearing subsided he spoke, "What? When? Why? How?"
"I will answer those if you let me continue." Harry paused to let Sirius nod in understanding, and he continued with his description of what had happened, "She showed up after my last class of the day in which they practiced their skills on a Boggart. Which, by the way, I have a total side story about that, but I will tell you that later. Anyways, she came in, we bickered and to make a long story short, she asked me to marry her. Hermione wanted me to marry her to help her against some clan she had pissed off. I said yes because there really was no way around it, and it was a good plan. I don't want to go into all of the details. She told me today that she would be expecting a proposal at a public restaurant and a small wedding here at Hogwarts. In the big scheme of things, I came here to ask if you would be my best man?"
Sirius did not know what to do after all that information was fed to him. Finally, he laughed and thought what a pickle Harry had gotten himself into. It was not like Harry to lie about something like this, and he knew that this was a goldmine of jokes and material to tease Harry with. He made a mental note to later contact Lupin about this and start discussing tactics on how to milk this for all that it was worth. "Of course I will be your best man. Especially since this will probably be my only chance to be one for you."
Harry rolled his eyes. "Why is that a common thought among people today?"
"Because Hogwarts teachers don't marry. Only God knows why, but teachers just don't get married. Where are you going to take her for the proposal?"
"Well, I don't really know, but I want it to be nice. I am also going to pick out a ring for her. She never said anything about an engagement ring, but it will make the whole thing look more real and I bet she would really like one."
"Aren't you just an old softy," Sirius joked.
"Do you know of any good ring shops?" Harry asked ignoring the comment.
"Actually you may not have to go shopping for a ring," Sirius stated without explaining himself as his face lit up in a certain realization. He sprang up from his seat and darted upstairs towards his bedroom, seeming to shed 20 years. He reentered the room after 10 minutes of rummaging around in his bedroom throwing everything everywhere. Sirius sat back down placing a small plain brown chest on the table between them. He looked at the chest, then Harry and nodded as if finally deciding something. "I think it is time for me to show you something. After Hagrid came and got you I recovered this box of mementos from the remains of your parents house. One of the things in here is the engagement ring that your father gave your mother and I remember it was quite dazzling. If you wish, you can give it to Hermione and keep the rest of the items in this box. I also recovered your mother's diary and put that in there as well. You don't have to open it now, but you can wait until you are alone, I understand."
Harry looked at his godfather and saw the tears in his eyes at the memory of Lily and James. It made Harry realize how truly lucky he was to have Sirius and that without him, he wouldn't have any connection to his parents. He thanked Sirius for the box of treasures and agreed that he would like to look through the chest alone.
Both sat in silence, lost in there thoughts and memories. Sirius snapped out of it first. "What is the side story you were talking about with the Boggart."
"Oh that. Well, we went through the class, each student having a shot against the Boggart. When all the students had all fought the Boggart it was my turn to finish it off. As I approached it I expected it to take the form of Voldemort since that had been my worst fear since I had killed him once and for all. But instead of Voldemort, the Boggart took the form of Hermione and she was telling me that her and Ron were going to finally tie the knot. I just don`t get it." Harry told the story calmly, not able to hide the confusion from his voice.
Sirius chuckled to himself. "Isn't it obvious? You are in love with Hermione."
Harry had been expecting a more logical explanation from the man in front of him, but that answer was definitely not logical. "Are you mad? How could I be in love with her if I haven't seen her in over five years. Not to mention, I admit I had feelings for Hermione ages ago, but they went away after I left her and Ron."
"Or they just changed to something deeper that you don't recognize and haven't faced before."
"I have experienced love," Harry defended.
"Yes, of course, but not this type of love. You love your close friends immensely, but have you ever truly loved a women? Did you ever love Cho or that one gal. What was her name? Ah yes, Abby. Did you ever love either of them?"
"No, but I think I would know if I was in love. There would be some feelings that I couldn't explain or I would think about her all the time or something like that."
"Maybe," Sirius said skeptically.
"Probably it's that I miss Ron and Hermione and I was afraid that they moved on without me and they didn't need me."
"I guess that could be it."
"Yeah that must be why that happened." Harry told himself, trying to stomp out the doubt that was creeping into his thoughts.
A/N. So, I loved the reviews, and got cracking on the next chapter. If anybody was wondering this was written like over two years ago…I mean it was started two years ago…I just finished it a couple of weeks ago. Anyways. If you want to, you can read it at fanfiction.net http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1415646/1/ but I apologize for all typos. Like I said I am going through and fixing those now…chapter by chapter as I post it here.
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