A/N- Sorry for the delay... I will finish this story eventually.... please excuse any OOC stuff, in my defence women do tend to go a bit nuts when they are planning a wedding.
Accidentally Married - chapter 3
Usually Hermione woke to either the sound of the birds chirping as the sun rose or the stirring of her husband in the bed next to her, that is over the last week it had been one of those two things that had woken her. This morning was different, this morning she was pulled from her peaceful slumber by the piercing wail of her mobile phone. She'd only purchased the phone since finishing at Hogwarts and so at first she didn't realised what it was, at first she'd confused it with her alarm and spent a few seconds uselessly shaking her wand to try and get it to shut up. By the time she realised that it wasn't working she was awake enough to find the true source of the noise. Annoyed, she picked up the phone and answered the call. She'd only gotten the phone to keep in touch with her parents so she knew straight away it would be one of them calling (even if the early hour hadn't given it away).
`Hello', she grumbled, her head still firmly on her pillow.
`Hello darling, it's me, mum.' As if Hermione hadn't already guessed.
`Hi Mum,' she replied dutifully.
`What are you doing today sweetie? I thought if you weren't busy we could go dress shopping?'
`I guess we could do that, I didn't have anything else planned.'
`Excellent, how would you like to come for breakfast first and then we can go from there, there is so much to organise we really should get started. Have you and Harry thought about a date yet?'
`Yeah, I think so, but ... look I'm still half asleep, can we talk about this when I get there?'
`Of course dear, what time do you think you'll be here?'
`What time is it now?'
`It's nearly 8 o'clock.'
Hermione cracked one eye open and cast a spell on the wall to tell the time, seven thirty appeared in big cursive
letters there.
`It's only seven thirty!' she was horrified, surely it was universally accepted as bad manners to call anyone
at this hour of the morning.
`My clock says it's quarter to eight.'
`Whatever,' she was in no mood to argue, `I'll be there by nine thirty.' And she disconnected the call, unconcerned about hanging up on a mother who had been rude enough to call at this ungodly hour.
`Who was that?' Harry mumbled from where his face was buried in the crook of her neck.
`It was my mum.'
He groaned in response, `What did she want?'
`She wants to go dress shopping.'
His arm tightened around her stomach in protest at the idea of loosing her warmth, `Now?'
`No, I said I'd meet her at nine thirty.'
`Good, we can sleep for a bit longer then.'
Hermione rolled to face him, now fully awake, `I have to start getting ready in an hour Harry, are you sure you want to spend that last hour with me sleeping?'
He grinned, though his eyes remained closed, and then in the blink of an eye he had her pinned on her back his eyes open and boring down into hers.
`Actually, I think there is something I'd rather do with you.'
Hermione giggled and reached her arms up around his neck, pressing her body full length against his.
`Really Mr Potter and what might that be?'
His response was to kiss her thoroughly and when she'd forgotten her own name he pulled back briefly and said in his rough morning voice, `Why don't I just show you, Mrs Potter.'
*****
An hour later Hermione was in the shower and Harry was perched on the edge of the bath talking to her while she got ready.
`So have you got enough money to buy the dress or will you have to stop at Gringotts first?'
He'd gotten her the key to his vault just a few days before and wasn't sure if she'd used it yet or not.
`Oh, well I will need some money but I don't think I'll have time to stop at Gringotts...'
`I can go and get some money for you, how much do you think you'll need?'
`I'm not sure, do we have a budget for how much we want to spend on this all together?'
She was out of the shower now and drying herself off, Harry thought he'd never seen anything so beautiful and was happy to let her spend every Knut in his vault if she wanted to, he must have said as much out aloud because Hermione responded.
`Don't be silly Harry; we are still planning on renovating Godric's Hallow aren't we? You don't want to live in this Grimm old Place forever, do you?'
`No, I still want to renovate, but we can do most of that ourselves with Magic can't we? `
`I guess, I still wouldn't want to use all of your savings though. Did you find out how much you have?'
Harry nodded, `Yeah, didn't I mention it after I went and got your key?' Hermione shook her head so he continued, `Well the Goblins told me that, converted to pounds, I've got about 100 thousand in the Potter vault and about 10 thousand in my trust vault. That's the one I had access to when I was at Hogwarts. Then I've also got about 250 thousand that was in the Black vault. I combined them all into the main Potter vault now so it's roughly got about 360 thousand pounds in it at the moment.'
Hermione was agape, she knew he'd never been hard up for money, and that he'd had a good inheritance, but she'd never had any idea that it was that much.
`So how much did you want to spend on the wedding?' Harry was asking now, `I was thinking that if we tried to keep it under 100 thousand then we should still have enough left for renovations and a bit left to invest. What do you think?'
Hermione closed her eyes and took a deep breath, `I'm fairly confident I can work within 100 thousand pounds as a budget.'
Harry grinned at her, `Cool! I don't want you to miss out though so if you think you need more just say so.'
Hermione nodded feeling a little dizzy.
`Hey, if you give me your account details I can get it changed to pounds and then deposit it into your account if you like.'
Hermione nodded again still not trusting herself to speak.
Harry looked at her confused, he could sense that something wasn't quite right and yet she didn't seem unhappy with his proposals.
`You would tell me if that wasn't enough, wouldn't you?'
Hermione just nodded again.
`Okay, if you're sure.'
Hermione, not wanting to dwell on the financial aspect of things, changed the subject, `So aside from going to the bank, what are you going to do with your day?'
`I thought I'd go and see Ron, maybe look at some suits or something.'
***
It was nine thirty on the dot when she rang the doorbell to her parent's house but her mum must have been sitting by the door waiting for her because no sooner had the noise sounded in the house than the door was pulled open.
`Hi sweet-heart, where's Harry?' Her mother asked pulling her into a hug.
`He's gone to the bank, I didn't think he should come, we are going dress shopping aren't we?'
`Yes of course, I just thought he might spend the day with your father.'
`Oh, you didn't say, I'm sure he would have liked to... I could go and find him if you like and ask him.'
`No it's fine,' Mrs Granger responded her curls bouncing around energetically as she shook her head, `they can do that next time, we should hit the shops.'
Hermione's mind boggled as she thought of how many days of dress shopping might be ahead of her. She wasn't a very girly girl and shopping for clothes, let alone dresses, had never been high on her list of favourite things to do.
`Have you set a date yet, do you know how long we've got to plan?'
`Well we were hoping to get it all organised as soon as possible, since we're actually already married we didn't want a long engagement.'
Her mother looked slightly disappointed at this curtailment of her enjoyment, `Well, I suppose I can understand that. Perhaps we should stop by the church first and see when we can book it in first?'
`Oh, I wouldn't want to book a date without Harry there Mum. He's decided he wants to take up Quidditch professionally, he's signed up with the Wimbourne Wasps, and I wouldn't want it to conflict with his schedule.'
They were in the car by this time and driving towards town, but Mrs Granger still had the freedom to send her daughter an annoyed glance. `I think your wedding should be more important to him than some game sweetie.'
Now Hermione was annoyed, `I'm sure it is Mum, but I don't want to put him in a position where he has to choose if I can avoid it so I'd prefer to have him there when selecting the date for our wedding. It is our wedding, not just mine.'
Mrs Granger smiled now to placate her daughter, `Of course. Well, if Harry isn't busy tomorrow perhaps we could go and see the priest then?'
Hermione smiled, equally eager to keep the peace, `Sure Mum, I don't think we have anything planned for tomorrow.'
`Excellent, now have you had any thoughts about flowers?'
As they drove they discussed various aspects of the wedding and, to Hermione's consternation, found more points on which to disagree than they found to agree upon. While Hermione had thought of only having two bridesmaids (Luna & Ginny) she found that her mother expected her to have her three cousins, none of whom she'd even seen for years. They couldn't have all five because, Hermione reasoned, Harry probably wouldn't have anyone he'd want to partner that many girls. She also wasn't sure she really wanted her cousins in the bridal party, even to please her mother, she barely knew those girls after all. They also found that the church, a point on which they had thought they agreed, was a point of contention. Hermione always assumed that her parents had been married in the beautiful blue-stone church near her grand-parents house but it turned out they'd actually been married in the modern red-brick construction in the centre of town. Apparently it's dated 70's facade had been thought beautiful at the time, now Hermione shuddered at the thought of it appearing in her own wedding photo's. The flowers were also a source of debate; Hermione wanted something timeless, like white roses and her mother thought she should go for something less common like orchids, especially when she found out the budget that Harry had tentatively set.
When Hermione mentioned the sum they'd settled upon her mothers eyes lit up and she started talking about holding the event in Hawaii and flying everyone there for the occasion. Hermione had been very quick to put her foot down on that front stating that under no circumstances was that even a remote possibility. By the time they reached London, the two ladies were both fuming, neither was satisfied with the compromises they'd reached and each was thinking of enlisting the help of their respective husbands to get what they wanted.
The dresses they looked at all told a similar story in the disparity of their ideas. Hermione found that she favoured the simple dresses, she had no time for the hideous meringues that her mother consistently squealed over and her mother was horribly disappointed that her daughter was not more inclined to be a princess for a day. By the time they parted ways for the day the only thing that they agreed upon was that the wedding was going to be a disaster and, for all their disagreements, they each ended the day the same way, by complaining to their husbands.
`It was just awful Harry!' Hermione stormed her temper finally allowed free reign to express itself, `I always thought that my parents understood me. I knew that we were different and logically I should have realised that I've spent the vast majority of the last seven years away from them but even so.'
She shook her head exasperated, `it's like she has no idea who I am! Do you know what she said when I told her our budget?' Hermione demanded, rounding on him in fury.
Harry just shook his head mutely, desperate to avoid having any of that rage directed at him.
`She said we should forget about having the wedding in England at all and have it in Hawaii instead! Hawaii! Of all places, it's like she doesn't even know me at all!'
`I'm sure it'll work itself out, when she realises that this is your day...' but Hermione cut him off.
`That's right this is MY day, I mean OUR day. Not hers, why on earth would I want to get married in that hideous red brick thing, just because it's where she got married?'
Harry tried to be sympathetic but he really didn't understand, `Why not just have it there though, if that's what she wants, aren't we doing this for them anyway?'
But it was the wrong thing to say and he soon knew it. Hermione glared at him and without another word stormed out of the room. Harry shook his head and cursed himself for his own stupidity, but decided that in this case discretion was the better part of valour and allowed her to calm down before approaching the closed door of their bedroom, half an hour later, with a cup of tea to calm her further still.
He placed the cup of tea on the night stand by where she lay on the bed and then sat down next to her.
`I'm sorry,' he whispered quietly, stroking her hair back away from her face, `I didn't mean for you to think I wasn't on your side. I was only trying to help.'
`I know Harry and, in a way, you're right. We are doing this to make them happy, but since we are doing it I want it to be what I want too.'
`I know and you should have what you want.'
`I just thought this would be fun, you know, I thought my mum and I would have a blast arranging this together but so far it's been nothing but one big hassle.'
Harry didn't speak; he just continued to stroke her hair as she vented her frustration.
`I wish you'd been able to see the dresses she was picking out for me to try on Harry, they were just awful. I never realised she had such bad taste.'
`It'll all work out Hermione, you'll see. I bet once she's had a chance to cool down a bit and think about this it'll be better.'
She turned her tear stained face up to him in the dim light of their bedroom and asked in a whisper, `and if it's not?'
`If it's not, then I'll get all husbandly and refuse to have the wedding at all if it's going to make you miserable.'
Hermione smiled in spite of herself, `We can't do that. I'm just going to have to sort through this with my mum and come to an arrangement we can both be happy with.'
Harry smiled back at her, `Now that sounds more like the Hermione I know and love.'
She grinned then and asked innocently, `How would you feel about having five groomsmen?'
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