Friday August 1st
"You look so handsome," Mum whispered through her tears as she smoothed Fred's robes and tried to smile at him in the full-length mirror they faced. "You look… well," Mum blew her nose in a handkerchief and tried to smile, "You look so much like your father. He's so proud of you, I just know it, dear."
Fred's chin wobbled and he blinked quickly to try and hold back the tears as he reached up to cup his mum's cheek in his hand. "I love you so much, Mum. You'll always be my favorite person."
Mum let out a weak chuckle and she smoothed Fred's hair down again. "Don't be silly, that should be Harry. I know I said you two are young, but I know you'll never change your mind, will you, honey?"
Fred inspected himself in the mirror and was proud of his dry eyes, even if they were a bit red around the edges. "No," he said softly, a quiver in his voice. "I'll never change my mind about Harry."
*****
"It's bad luck to see the groom the day before the wedding," Fred grinned when Harry came in their room the night before. "Mum said we're supposed to sleep in different beds tonight." Fred laughed as he thought about his mum's well-intentioned speech. "Course, she thinks we've been sleeping in separate beds all this time."
Harry didn't crack a smile at Fred's jokes. He just stood at the foot of their bed and stared at the waning crest of the moon outside their window with his hands in his pockets.
"Harry?" Fred crawled down to the end of the bed and sat at the foot of it. He reached for Harry's wrist and ignored the pang of hurt when Harry stepped away from him.
"I have to tell you something," Harry said softly, his eyes still stubbornly looking outside and refusing to meet Fred's. "I need you to listen and I need you to not cry."
Fred could already feel his throat tightening at Harry's solemn request. "I won't cry," he said.
It had been a lie.
Because as Harry talked, Fred's tear ducts seemed to grow three times their usual size.
*****
"There he is." Bill strode in Fred's old bedroom, the room he'd chosen to get ready in. He clasped Fred on the shoulder and gave him a warm and loving smile. "You almost ready? Everyone's in position."
Fred grit his teeth and willed himself to stay strong. Surely his body was incapable of producing more tears after the night he had.
"Hey…" Bill frowned and used his thumb to swipe away a tear that snuck out against Fred's will. "Freddie, what's wrong?"
Fred looked up to his eldest brother with something akin to desperation on his face. "What would you do if you lost Fleur?" he asked, a croak of misery in his voice.
Bill smiled softly and kept his hand cupped on Fred's cheek. "I know you're scared, and I know it's got to be terrifying having Harry in the center of the war. But nobody's going to take him from you, alright? If anyone deserves a happily ever after, it's you and Harry."
Fred let his brother hug him for a long moment, 'manliness' out the window, as Fred accepted his freely given comfort.
"You ready, Fred?"
Fred gathered himself and pushed a smile on his face. "I've been ready for this for years."
*****
"When it's all said and done, when I've disabled Timmy and tore down as much of his work as possible, I've got to die."
"'Got to'?" Fred repeated. He shook his head and grabbed Harry's arm, as if reminding his brain that he was still in front of him. "Why do you think you have to?"
Harry glanced down at him and his eyes were red-rimmed, but soft, and his smile wasn't mocking, it was pitying.
"Timmy can't be killed unless I die first," Harry said quietly. "It's gotta be this way, Fred. I don't like it any more than you do."
"Then don't die," Fred cried. "Harry, please. Let's find another way! You said forever!" He wasn't accusing Harry, he was just…
Harry said forever.
He promised.
Timmy could have the whole world for all Fred cared. He could have whatever he wanted if it meant that Fred could keep Harry.
"This is our forever," Harry said with a note of finality to his voice. "There's no other way. Sev looked and I tried. I'm sorry. I didn't want to tell you, but…"
"But you want to call it off tomorrow," Fred said, guessing at why Harry waited to tell him until the night before the wedding they'd been planning for a year now.
*****
Fred walked up beside George and nodded at Theo, who waited on the other side of the golden wedding aisle runner. He turned to face the crowd and his heart soared to see so many of the chairs filled with their family and friends.
The very front rows of the silver chairs were left purposefully empty, aside from the black ribbons draped over them. The back of each chair had a name elegantly painted in sparkling black, done by Lee and Luna. On Harry's side were seats for Lily, James, Trent, Amelia, and Barty. On Fred's side were seats for Arthur, Minerva, Fabian, Gideon.
Harry had wanted to add McGongall to his side, but he conceded her to Fred when Fred explained how much the witch had always meant to him.
Minerva McGonagall had been Fred's comfort in his first year when he missed his mum so badly that he couldn't sleep. She would offer him tea and biscuits and let him use her personal owl to send his mum as many secret letters bemoaning his homesickness as he wanted.
Fred adored irritating her and she took pleasure in pushing Fred to be a better person.
There would never be another witch alive as brilliant as Minerva McGonagall and Fred wasn't ashamed to admit that he wept when he realized that the woman who supported him so strongly wouldn't be there as Fred accomplished the seemingly impossible by marrying his Hogwarts sweetheart- his soulmate and his only love.
Adding a chair right up front for her, right next to his dad's chair, was the least that Fred could do for McGonagall.
And Fred had never seen Luna cry as hard as she did when Harry and Fred both insisted that she add a seat for Xenophilius and Pandora Lovegood to Fred's side right beside his uncles' chairs. Fred even earned himself a weepy hug from her when he said that he bet that her parents would want to see the flower girl from front row seats.
Harry also insisted that they place a little stone on the empty chair labeled 'Lily' that was in front of Snape.
'It has to be closest to Sev in case anyone tries to steal it,' Harry insisted.
When Fred asked him what it was, Harry merely said it was the most dangerous and terrible stone ever created and refused to elaborate past that. Fred could have pushed and Harry probably would have told him, but Harry looked like he had been in pain even discussing it so Fred dropped it.
In the second to front row on Harry's side, Sirius and Remus were hand-in-hand and smiling. Mavis sat beside them, sniffling as he dabbed his eyes with a grey handkerchief that matched his smart green robes. Snape and Tonks sat beside him, a wide smile on Tonks' face that Snape's small smile reflected even while his dark eyes were anguished. Juliana Zabini looked stunning in her silk dress with her dark hair piled elegantly on her head. Beside her sat Hermione, looking pretty with her swelling stomach, in a simple silver dress to match the silver side of their gold and silver wedding.
Harry had quietly fretted that Hermione would feel left out, but Hermione assured Harry that the last thing she wanted to do was wear high heels and stand in the sun during the service. Instead, she offered to be in charge of levitating two expensive looking cameras around the yard to capture as many memories as possible.
Fred offered to pay her and Hermione had looked so offended that he rescinded the offer immediately.
Narcissa Malfoy was seated on Harry's side, without Lucius, who couldn't attend due to his current public view. There was Johnny Abbott beside Hermione, dressed in a slick muggle suit and a dark green ball cap. Andromeda Tonks was seated behind her daughter and seemed torn between glancing suspiciously at Snape and Tonks' entwined hands and smiling sweetly at Fred.
It was a bit disconcerting to have someone who resembled Bellatrix Lestrange so strongly smiling so sweetly.
And on Fred's side sat his mum, already crying softly on Bill's shoulder. Fleur beside Bill, holding his hand and looking radiantly beautiful and outrageously happy for them. Angelina, Alicia, and Katie were all seated together, wearing maroon muggle dresses that Fred's old Aunt Muriel was glaring daggers at. Viktor Krum was seated beside Katie, eyeing her with a bit of interest. Neville's gran was there, despite Harry's reluctance to invite her. Ginny looked gorgeous even if she didn't look entirely happy as she sat beside a smartly dressed and softly smiling Dean Thomas.
Percy's absence was expected- Fred hadn't invited him and nobody questioned his decision.
Behind both immediate families were some cousins, a few friends, like Fred's old quidditch team and fellow detention mates. Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick were there. Blue Ritters and his family were all seated together. Fleur's parents and her younger sister were all there. There were a handful of students that Fred didn't know, but he guessed were acquaintances of Harry's based on their green dress robes. There were some of Remus' pack mates there, all dressed nicely and beaming with joy.
All in all, it wasn't huge, but it was still perfect.
The weather was mild for summer, a decent breeze blew through the yard and kept the guests cool. The golden tent behind the guests, the tent that the groomsmen and single bridesmaid would be coming from soon, helped to block some of the sun without casting any shadows- a charm of Fleur's, Fred was sure.
Music started playing, soft and sweet music that made Mum sniffle louder and caused even the stoic Narcissa to dab at her eyes.
Through the entrance of the golden tent came Luna, who had grown to look more beautiful than even Fleur. Luna had on a silver dress that trailed behind her like the red and cream flower petals she wandlessly conjured and dropped in fluttering handfuls. On her arm stood Neville; Neville with his chin held high, his shoulders squared, dressed in an old-fashioned, but elegant, set of deep blue dress robes that looked nice next to Luna's silver.
Fred had offered to buy Neville a pair of solid black dress robes, to match the groomsmen, but he'd refused. He told Fred, in confidence, that he had the set of dress robes his dad had worn to Harry's parents' wedding and that, if Fred didn't mind, he'd like to wear them to Harry's wedding.
And Fred thought it was a right proper thing to do and had approved whole heartedly.
After Luna and Neville reached the front, they separated and stood at the end of the rows where the others would stand between them and the best men.
Exactly on cue, Ron and Draco stepped out next in their matching black robes with Ron's tie the golden twin to Draco's silver. They were a bit of a funny pair as Ron had a few inches on Draco, but what Draco lacked in height, he made up for in confidence. They made it to the front and Ron winked cheerfully at Fred before they split off to stand beside Neville and Luna on their assigned sides.
Next came Lee and Blaise. They had on the same attire as the two wizards before them, but they wore theirs with cocky and arrogant smirks that made their measured steps look more like lazy struts. Lee had been a little nervous about walking with Blaise, as they'd never interacted before, but now his dreadlocked head was bent toward Blaise's head of short black curls and he whispered something quietly to Blaise that had Blaise's eyes sparkling with silent laughter.
They stopped at the front and Lee moved to his spot, but Blaise mouthed something to Fred before going to stand beside Draco.
Fred was pretty sure it was 'if you hurt him, I'll kill you', but he wasn't entirely sure and didn't really care.
There wasn't a reality in any dimension or any world where Fred would hurt Harry.
Someone made a cooing noise when Charlie and Susan stepped out next, Fred was pretty sure it was Fleur. He was also fairly positive that it was Johnny's sigh that could almost be heard as everyone watched the two of them make their way to the front.
Susan looked beautiful; stunning, really. Her silver dress was strapless and showed off the curves of her lean and supple body without being too revealing. Her auburn hair was done in the same elegant updo as Luna's with a few pieces laying across her face. Susan's shimmering golden arm was tucked in Charlie's thicker one and Charlie seemed to be having a hard time deciding between watching where he was walking or gazing at Susan adoringly.
Poor sap, Susan had clearly ruined him for other women.
Charlie briefly put his hand on Fred's shoulder and graced him with a wide smile before he went to stand between George and Lee.
Susan bent toward Fred, using a swift kiss to his cheek to mask her whisper. "They will never find your body if you hurt our soulmate."
Fred winked at her when she pulled back and went to stand between Blaise and Theo.
They bickered a lot, but they also had a pretty clear understanding: Susan was Harry's platonic soulmate, the second half to his brain. Fred was Harry's romantic soulmate, the second half to his heart.
Susan's whisper was her stamp of approval, really.
The music swelled, the guests all got to their feet, and Fred's heart hammered so loudly that it was all he could hear. His mouth went dry while he stared at the tent entrance and willed Harry to step through it.
*****
"What?" Harry looked surprised by Fred's guess. "I… that wasn't why," he said. "I wanted you to know so you had a chance to call it off. You…" Harry swallowed and pure torment flashed across his face. "You shouldn't be a widow at nineteen."
Fred pulled Harry in his arms. He held him tightly around the waist as he buried his face in Harry's chest. He clutched Harry as tightly as he could, desperately wishing he could hold him for forever.
"I'm not calling it off," he said, his voice muffled by Harry's shirt and the tears clogging his throat. "If you still want to have the wedding, I want to be yours until the end."
Fred might be a widow at nineteen or twenty, but it wouldn't be forever.
Fred wouldn't kill himself when Harry died, he would never put his mum through the pain of burying one of her children after everything else she'd been through. But as soon as his mum died, Fred would be ready to join Harry.
His Harry.
"I do," Harry said. He brought his hand up to Fred's hair and stroked it so lovingly while Fred's tears began soaking through his shirt. "We're not calling it off then."
*****
There were a few quiet noises made in the crowd- but Fred couldn't tell you who made what noise because all he saw was Harry.
Harry stepped out and Fred had a brief memory of the first time he truly saw the real Harry Potter.
Harry had only been twelve, and a tiny twelve year old at that. He stood on the opposite end of a dueling stage from Fred and George and smirked as Professor Snape whispered in his ear.
Fred knew that Harry Potter was cute, everyone knew that. He knew he was smart, and he knew that he was a scrappy fighter and a powerful wizard. He knew that the scar on his face spoke of a fight that left him battered but alive.
It wasn't until Harry began dueling them that day that Fred wondered for the first time if the person who left the scar down Harry's face was still alive or not- because he kind of doubted it.
It was a crush. A fleeting whim. Fred knew that, despite the smirk that spoke of experience and the look in his eyes that spoke of maturity, Harry was too young to be interested in him.
That didn't stop Fred from thinking about green eyes and a mean smile though. It didn't stop Fred from daydreaming about this day- even back then.
It was something his dad said once. The day after Harry met the Weasley's as Fred's boyfriend and Fred got back from staying over at Harry's. He'd pulled Fred off to the side, reminded him about safe sex, and told Fred he fully expected Harry to be his son-in-law one day.
'Weasley men only fall in love once,' he'd said as his eyes shone with love and acceptance. 'Harry'll make an excellent Weasley one day, eh?'
Fred blushed and stammered then. He hadn't loved Harry. It was a crush- a puppy love sort of thing.
They were kids then, but they weren't kids now.
And Harry stepped toward him now, a man in age, experience, and maturity.
Harry walked alone, refusing to give even Snape the ability to 'give him away'. He said that he was his own man and he made his own decisions.
He said Fred was his best decision and he got to take full credit for choosing him.
Fred thought of their first fight, after the Quidditch World Cup when Harry thought Fred blamed him for his minor injury.
He thought of their first kiss, a drunken one that tasted like weed and whiskey and set Fred's skin on fire with the way it seemed like they had fit together perfectly.
The first time Fred told Harry he loved him, the same night that Harry showed Fred he trusted him by sharing some of his past and his secrets with him.
The first time Harry said he loved Fred, the day he'd been drowning in grief from the loss of his dad and Harry seemed the be the only one who could help him break to the surface.
Their terrible break-up after one of the worst nights of Fred's life. If there was a silver lining to the breakup though, it had been the growth that Fred felt he did with Remus' help. He wouldn't be standing in front of all of their friends and family now, entirely confident in his decision, if it hadn't been for that temporary breakup.
The day Harry gave Fred a promise ring. The fierce look of happiness in his eyes when he saw Fred wear the ring he picked for him.
And Fred thought of the day that he asked Harry to marry him. All that same joy, all that same overwhelming happiness and love, were still present at their wedding.
But so was a sorrow as deep as the ocean—
Today they'd swear forever and know there was a timer ticking above their heads, putting a definite number to when their forever was meant to end.
Harry took his place beside Fred and nodded at Theo as he clasped his shoulder briefly. He tilted his head for a quick moment as he surveyed the guests, then he turned to Fred and his smile was as radiant as the true joy in his eyes were.
"You look handsome," Harry told him quietly with a cheeky wink. "Imagine all the witches in the chairs who will cry themselves to sleep tonight."
Fred laughed softly. "Should have invited Verity then, eh?"
"I did," Harry said, puffing his chest out and glancing toward the chairs on Fred's side.
Fred followed his eyes and saw Verity sitting in a group of Fred's friends from Hogwarts and he laughed again. "Darlin, do you see the witch beside her?" he whispered.
Harry nodded, "The cute one in pink?"
"Her wife."
Ted Tonks, Tonks' dad, chose that moment to step forward beneath the archway and held his arms out wide to the guests as he stood behind Fred and a now wide-eyed and cutely blushing Harry.
"Friends, family, and spirits of our loved ones who could not be earth-side with us today, welcome!" he said, his cheerful voice booming through the yard while everyone sat back down. "I am honored to stand before you as we witness Frederick Fabian Weasley and Harry James Potter's union."
Fred stared in Harry's eyes and felt his legs wobble with the staggering weight of how much he loved him.
*****
"I don't know how I'm going to get through it," Fred whispered to Harry after they climbed in bed and clung desperately to one another. "I'm going to cry the whole time, I just know it."
"You'll ruin the pictures," Harry joked weakly. "If you think you're going to start snotty crying, just squeeze my hand or something. It helps me to squeeze something when I feel overwhelmed."
*****
Fred squeezed both of Harry's hands and willed the strength and confidence that Harry radiated to fill him as well.
"I've only met Fred and Harry a couple of times, but I asked their friends and family about them to get an idea of what to say about their marriage today. Everyone I spoke with told me about Fred's optimism, Harry's cynicism. Fred's extroversion and Harry's introversion. Fred's easy and constant smile and Harry's more hard won smiles. I heard about a classic Gryffindor and a true Slytherin. I heard about opposites. Then I heard about two young men who fought by each other's sides. Young men who fought for each other and defended each other. Young men who supported the other in every decision they made.
"And then I thought of the ancient Chinese philosophy of yin and yang. I thought of how you see the dark yin next to the light yang and your immediate reaction is: opposites. If you don't know the philosophy, then you think it is a symbol of opposites fitting together, and it is in one aspect. The other aspect is about how the two sides become interconnected and interdependent to the outside world. The two sides become one and they lift each other up.
"And, today, Fred and Harry, two seemingly opposites according to those who know and love them the best, are becoming interconnected in one of the most meaningful ways possible."
Ted beamed at the two of them, but Fred had eyes for only Harry.
The world around him could have exploded and Fred never would have noticed.
"Fred and Harry have told me that they prepared their own vows for today."
*****
"I wrote my own vows," Harry said as they laid in their bed with their arms wrapped around each other. "I know we didn't talk about it, but Sirius read me the standard one and I didn't like it. I'm yours even after death does us apart."
It meant something to Fred that Harry said he was his as opposed to Fred being Harry's.
Harry was giving Fred everything with just that one simply spoken statement.
It was nothing less than a Herculean effort that enabled Fred to speak through the grief that choked him. "I'm yours until the heavens shatter," he swore. "There's never going to be anyone else for me."
*****
Ted looked toward Fred, and Fred knew it was his cue.
He thought of the words he had memorized just that morning- short vows, but genuine and heartfelt- and he accepted the handkerchief from George so he could blow his nose and tell Harry what Harry needed to know.
Fred didn't care if his brothers were snickering behind his back. He didn't care if his emotional breakdown was being caught on camera. He didn't care if anyone aside from Harry understood his vows. He only cared about Harry, his Harry.
His Harry who was going to leave him to save millions of lives.
"Harry, I, Frederick Fabian Weasley, vow to love you in the good times and the bad. I vow to stand beside you and comfort you when you're drowning. I vow to stand beside you and help you when you're flying. I vow to make your problems my problems. And—" Fred almost couldn't say it, it hurt so bad, "—and I vow to love you until death tears us apart one day."
One day soon.
*****
"You might get remarried one day," Harry mused quietly as his calloused fingers traced Fred's body in an absent and comfortable way. "I shouldn't already be jealous about that, because I want you to be happy when I'm gone."
"I'll never get remarried," Fred swore, knowing clear to his soul that it was the truth. "I'll never love anyone like I love you and I'll never settle for anything less than this."
*****
Fred looked Harry steadily in the eyes, staring straight into his remarkable soul, as he added his last vow, his last promise. "And even when death tears up apart, I vow to love you in the afterlife and beyond."
*****
"Do you believe in the afterlife?" Fred asked Harry after they'd both been silent for a while.
Fred always imagined his dad in the afterlife- young and happy and free. It made it easier to bear it when Fred thought of all the things he missed.
"Do I believe it exists? Yeah. Do I believe I'll go there? No."
Fred turned to look up at Harry and didn't like the look of solemnity on his perfect face. "Why wouldn't you go there?"
Harry's responding grin was joyless and cold, but his finger he used to trace Fred's face, lingering on the skin beneath his eyes, was warm and steady. "Be real, Fred," he said gently. "After all I've done? All I'm going to do? The only thing waiting for me after I die is hell."
*****
Fred's vision was so obscured by tears, the physical proof of his overwhelming joy, his crushing sadness, that he had to wipe his face off with the clean edge of the handkerchief to see Harry.
Harry looked as pained as Fred, though his eyes were dry and his voice was strong.
"Fred, I, Harry James Potter, vow to stand beside you until my last breath. Your triumphs will be our triumphs, your disappointments will be our disappointments. I vow to protect you from anyone who wants to hurt you and I vow to make them regret ever even thinking about it."
A few people chuckled, and Fred heard his mum let out a sob.
"I vow to love you for the rest of my life, and when I go one day, I vow on my magic to think of that freckle beneath your eye with my last thought."
*****
If Fred Weasley was destined for Heaven, then Harry Potter would be there.
Fred tried to smile, he tried to force a truthful jest to his lips. "If you go to hell, then I'll meet you there, Darlin."
The only afterlife he would settle for is one where his Harry was.
*****
Ted cleared his throat and smiled at Fred and Harry. "Frederick Weasley, do you take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
Fred's voice was steady and loud enough to reach the heavens. "I do."
"And do you, Harry Potter, take this man to be your lawfully wedded husband?"
Harry's smile could power every patronus for the rest of Fred's life. "I do."
Ted smiled out to the guests. "Harry and Fred both told me that, as they apparently already spent an exorbitant amount of gold on the rings they wear now, and swore to never take off, that they would not be exchanging rings."
Fred and Harry shared a smile at that.
There was no need to exchange rings again, not even as a gesture for the ceremony. It was more meaningful to them both that they each refused to take their rings off for even the brief time that the ceremony lasted.
"If there are no objections…"
Harry turned his head to glared so viciously across the yard that if anyone had any objections they probably changed their mind on the spot.
"Then by the power invested in me, I now pronounce these two husband and husband. The groom may kiss the groom."
Fred didn't know who moved first, he didn't know whose tears he tasted on his lips, he didn't know if they were tears of joy or tears of pain, but he knew that he had Harry in his arms and Harry's lips on his and that if there was a timer above their marriage, a timer above their story that should have lasted another hundred years, then every second counted.
Somewhere in the background, Ted introduced them as Harry and Frederick Potter and their guests all clapped and whistled and cheered.
Or perhaps the earth exploded and the yard was consumed with flames.
Fred didn't know and he didn't care because he had his only true love for forever now.
A love to last them clear to their deaths.
*****
"I just want it to be perfect for you," Harry said softly. "I want you to keep the memory when it's all you have left."
*****
If there was a more perfect wedding in the history of the world, Fred didn't know it.
***
"I, more than anyone, was shocked when Fred asked me to be his best man. I even said 'Are you sure?' and he looked at me like I was the idiot." George grinned at Fred and winked at Harry. "Jokes on you, Freddie, best men get to make speeches."
George stood on the little stage in the tent with a microphone in hand and Theo by his side with a smirk and his own microphone.
"This is going to be horrible," Fred murmured to Harry.
Harry smirked, clearly expecting Fred to be the only victim of George's jokes.
Fred had no idea why Harry thought that George and Theo weren't about to roast him, clearly he didn't have as much experience with brothers as Fred did.
"While I could talk about Fred all day, I personally don't think Fred got very interesting until he met Harry."
Fred suddenly regret very much asking George to be best man.
There were just some things that their mum didn't need to know.
"You know the first time that I realized Fred had a crush on Harry?" George's smile was absolutely devilish and Fred wanted to hide. "It was while we were dueling Harry—"
"While they were getting their arses kicked," Theo cut in smugly.
"Exactly," George nodded in agreement. "There we were- getting beat up by a second year and I look over at Fred while we're levitating upside down and our wands are gone and this kid with messy hair and mean eyes is talking shit to us and what's Fred doing? Smiling."
"I was actually thinking about how to tell my boyfriend at the time that we were over," Fred whispered to Harry.
Harry crinkled his nose. "You used to have a boyfriend before me?"
Fred laughed and wrapped his arm over Harry's shoulders while his brother made fun of him on stage.
"Next thing I know, Fred's driving all of us barmy talking about Harry bloody Potter," George sighed Harry's name, driving laughs from their friends that Fred truly did drive barmy.
"For the record, we," Theo gestured to where Harry's friends all sat around two tables, "didn't hear a thing about Fred Weasley until Fred asked Harry out in front of us all at breakfast."
Harry's laugh was short as Theo smirked and added on to that. "Harry didn't even realize Fred wanted to go on a date with him, he just thought Fred wanted to be friends and Harry 'had enough friends already, thanks'."
Harry scowled until Fred kissed him.
"Thank God I'm persistent, eh?" Fred grinned.
Harry smirked and caressed Fred's cheek with a sweep of his thumb. "My favorite fan," he joked.
"Really though," George was solemn as he looked through the crowd for someone—
George looking solemn just meant more pain for Fred, he was sure of it.
"This beautiful wedding was almost ruined before it even started," George said, his blue eyes trained toward the back of the tent. Fred turned to look over his shoulder but couldn't begin to guess at which of the guests George was looking at.
"Picture this… there's Fred and Harry, on their first Valentine's Day together…"
Bloody Hell.
"And they're dancing at a party after partaking in some not-quite-legal substances. Harry's dancing like he'd never danced before…"
"I hadn't," Harry admitted quietly with a sheepish smile just for Fred. "I think I was just manic and bouncing in place."
"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear you say our first date was while you were manic," Fred murmured with a wink and an internal wince.
Looking back, yeah, Harry probably had been manic and flying that day.
But, as they'd been together through Harry's stability as well, Fred didn't feel like berating himself too harshly for the mistakes of an over-eager fifteen year old with his first real crush.
"And I lose track of them for a bit, rather wound up in my own date," George winked through the tent to Angelina. "So guess who shows up to ruin these two lovebirds' first date? The person who tried so hard to keep this lovely wedding from happening?"
Please don't… Fred begged with his eyes.
Harry looked mildly curious, as if he didn't remember that night very clearly.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, Remus Lupin."
Fred kept his eyes straight ahead, refusing to catch either of the stares burning the back of his head that were undoubtedly from his mum and Snape as they recalled how Fred and Harry had been found that night.
"You have your knife?" Fred whispered to Harry, only half joking.
Harry looked up at him incredulously, nearly insulted really. "This suit is fuckin Italian, Fred," Harry hissed, an obvious result of living with Draco and Blaise too long. "Where would I put my knife? In my ar—"
"And when good old Professor Lupin opened the classroom door and kicked on the lights, I, like the good brother I am, immediately looked for my twin. And where was my twin found, not just by me, but by Professor Lupin as well?" George smiled brightly at them and Fred glared at him and promised painful retribution with his eyes.
"In front of a sweet little sofa, on his knees. And where was Harry? Sitting on the sofa, with his trousers around his ankles, in the middle of passing out from how hard Fred sucked his—"
"GEORGE GIDEON WEASLEY!"
Harry groaned and hid his face in Fred's shoulder while the tent filled with laughter at both George's delightful little story and Mum's furious look as she glared at George with her hands on her hips.
"Anyway, I'll hand it over to Harry's brother now," George said hastily. "I just wanted to say that Harry, I'm so sorry you fell in love with Fred. And Freddie, I'm so happy I'll never have to hear about Harry Potter's Merlin damned 'beautiful green eyes' again. Congrats you guys, I love you both."
Fred flipped him off, but Harry picked his head back up at the end of George's 'speech' and nodded at him with the ghost of a smile on his face.
"We're still killing him, right?" Fred joked when George got a bloody standing ovation.
"Nah," Harry's eyes were sharp as they watched Theo now. "He's your family. Maybe another time."
*****
"You're going to be so sad and there's nothing I can do to prevent it," Harry said thoughtfully while Fred tried to memorize every inch of Harry's body with his hands and Harry hummed appreciatively every few minutes. "I would if I could, you know."
"You could chop Timmy in pieces and say bullocks to this whole suicide plot," Fred said, not kidding at all.
"No." Harry kissed his forehead so sweetly it triggered tears once more. "I can't. I'll try and make sure you're happy until then though, after that it's up to your family."
"You're my family."
*****
Theo looked uncomfortable as George left him on the little stage by himself. "I don't know any really embarrassing stories about Harry and Fred to share," he said, filling Fred with relief. Then he added, "Because they always use silencing charms at home."
Who knew little stoic and solemn bookworm Theo had dreams of stand-up comedy?
It was like Theo and George wanted to make Fred's mum or Snape kill him today.
"It was a lot of pressure, being ganged up on by Fred's brothers and forced to make a speech. They said 'you're Harry's brother and you have to give a speech', and I planned on simply hexing them and moving on, but Harry seems rather fond of all of them and I'd hate to be prematurely murdered."
Harry's lips quirked up in a grin and Theo seemed to visibly relax on stage.
"I, personally, would rather not have had Harry marry Fred," Theo said, apparently comfortable enough to insult Fred at his own wedding. "Fred annoyed me from the very first time he started following Harry around Hogwarts. But Harry deserves the best and… I suppose Fred will do." Theo smiled warmly at Harry while the guests laughed before his smile cooled a little bit when he looked at Fred. "Don't forget, Freddie, you have your brothers, Harry has his… and we were trained by the best. Congratulations, you two, I love you."
Fred didn't clap, but Harry did.
"Arses, the whole lot of them," Fred whispered to Harry.
Harry shrugged. "It was a bit funny. Not those parts about our sex life, Jesus fuckin Christ, but the rest was funny." He furrowed his brows together. "Did you really tell your brother I have pretty eyes?"
"Beautiful eyes," Fred corrected him, his heart constricting in his chest and butterflies exploding in his stomach as those eyes looked up at him. "I'll tell it to the world too, darlin."
Harry smiled and then frowned as soft pops on the stage indicated the band arriving.
"Do we have to dance?" he hissed at Fred.
Fred laughed. Only his adorably oblivious husband would think there wouldn't be dancing at a wedding.
Fred stood up and offered Harry his hand, "Just like the Yule Ball."
Harry perked up considerably as he gracefully accepted Fred's hand and the tables were magically moved to the sides to create a dance floor.
"You mean we're drinking booze with Sue and Johnny then hitting your brother?"
Fred pulled Harry to his chest and wrapped his arms around him- Harry had always fit in his arms like they were made for each other -and ignored the flashbulbs of someone photographing their first dance.
"Anything you want, love."
They danced together for a few songs before Harry was snatched away by Fred's mum and Fred was spun off into a dance with Susan. Then they swapped and Fred danced with his mum while Harry and Snape had what was possibly the most awkward dance ever.
They cut cake to cheers.
They were approached by everyone and congratulated.
They tried to eat and sneak off together at every opportunity and were generally thwarted as if a conspiracy was being held against them.
Fred danced with more people during those couple of hours than he ever had before. And Fred hoped that someone got photos of Harry asking Verity to dance when she approached them, as if worried that if he didn't ask her that she would ask Fred.
Verity's look of terror and Harry's smug smile as they danced together was a memory Fred never wanted to forget.
Actually, Fred hoped that someone got photos of every single moment because he planned on looking at them every day between Harry's death and his own.
"Are you happy?" Fred asked Harry when they found their way back together on the dance floor.
Harry hummed. "Yes. Are you?"
"Is happy-sad an emotion?" Fred whispered while he clutched Harry to himself.
Harry didn't laugh, but he huffed. "Yeah, it's how I feel all the time now."
Fred didn't have a response for that.
He didn't need one.
At that moment, something large and silver came falling through the canopy over the dance floor. Graceful and gleaming, the lynx landed lightly in the middle of the astonished dancers. Heads turned, as those nearest it froze absurdly in mid-dance. Then the Patronus's mouth opened wide and it spoke in the loud, deep, slow voice of Kingsley.
"Thicknesse is dead. The Ministry has fallen to him. They are coming to your location."
The lynx didn't even disappear before Harry wrenched himself from Fred's arms and jumped up on the nearest table, sending goblets and silverware flying.
"FLEUR! REMUS! CISSA!" Harry yelled, drawing all eyes to him. "GET EVERYONE OUT WHO CAN'T FIGHT! MIONE, GO HOME, NOW! IF YOU CAN FIGHT, AIM TO KILL!"
Harry no more said it than the first pops of people apparating in happened.
Everything happened quickly then.
*****
"I'm going to kill as many death eaters as I can," Harry whispered to Fred in the safety of their bed. "I'm going to leave Timmy exactly how he tried to leave me- absolutely alone."
"I'm going to help you," Fred told him, silently swearing to take down as many of these people as he could, protect his Harry as long as possible.
Harry's arms tightened around him. "I know you will."
*****
The first red spell nearly hit Harry and was blocked quickly by no less than four corporeal purple shields.
DADA Club members, Fred was sure.
Harry leapt off the table and began slewing spells of various colors, mostly green though, from his fingertips at the unmasked witches and wizards in a mixture of black and red robes that were apparating through their heavy wards and attacking.
"You'll kill someone," Bill yelled at Harry over the sounds of endless apparation—
In or out, Fred wasn't sure.
He was a bit occupied with playing the defense to Harry's offense alongside Theo.
"Kind of the point, yeah?" Harry asked. His next spell hit a witch in dark red robes in the chest, knocking her out cold. The one after that ricocheted off a shield and caught a wall of the tent on fire. "Point taken," Harry grimaced.
"DO NOT AIM TO KILL, YOU IDIOT CHILD!" Snape yelled from where he was carrying a sobbing little girl in pink robes to one of Remus' packmates. "YOU WILL HIT THE WRONG PERSON! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?"
Harry didn't get a chance to reply, as distracted as he was with his fight. Fred couldn't understand the dance that Harry was leading, but Theo did.
"He's pushing them out of the tent," Theo murmured to Fred as shields and bubbles poured from their wands to keep Harry and Bill covered while they attacked.
People were screaming. Spells were being fired. Smoke was filling the tent.
Fred didn't know how he heard it- but he did.
"My mum," he gasped.
He didn't know where they came from, but suddenly Draco elbowed him away and he and Luna took his spot. "Ron's with her," Draco said as shields were being shot silently from his wand.
Fred wouldn't have left Harry, but he had three people to protect him and it sounded like his mum only had one.
Fred coughed as he spun around, looking through the smoke for his mum.
There.
Back to back with Ron, cursing whoever the hell these people were.
One of them yelled at Ron, "Give us Potter!" Then tried to curse Ron with a sickly yellow colored spell.
Fred jumped to their sides and joined the fight. "Afraid you'll have to be more specific- there are two of us now."
Fred came to defend his mum, he didn't realize what a fighter she was. Molly Weasley wasn't just the widowed mother of seven who was an excellent cook and a soft shoulder to cry on.
Molly Weasley was fierce and Fred never loved her more than when she sent a spell, a large net made of golden fire, right at the group of impending attackers and sent them scrambling.
"You should be with Harry," she tsk'd, sounding as if this were another lecture in the kitchen while she aimed with uncanny precision at a man trying to apparate away. "It's him that they're here for."
Charlie and Susan came up beside their mum, and Susan hit a wizard in the chest while she ran, knocking him into the punch bowl in yet another memory Fred wished was photographed.
"Get Harry to leave," Charlie barked at Fred while he tried putting out the fire. "Go!"
Fred didn't even have time for a half-arsed salute.
He ran past his twin, conjuring and throwing bludgers with the girls from their quidditch team. He ran past Sirius, who was cutting down attackers with Snape and Tonks. He darted around Narcissa and Fleur, both of whom were treating Remus' burnt looking face.
And… there.
Laughing and dancing and looking just as unearthly beautiful as he taunted these attackers as he did the day he taunted Fred.
As painful as it was, it wasn't truly surprising that Harry was fated for a young death.
Harry was made of chaos and fire and an incomprehensible beauty that shined in his every movement and expression.
Things so beautiful and perfect were never made for the world. Not for long.
"Darlin, Charlie said you should leave," Fred yelled as he ducked from a orange spell that caught the instruments on the stage on fire. "It's you they want."
"Yeah?" Harry looked surprised by that for some reason. As if Harry wasn't always the one in the most danger in any given situation. He flicked his fingers at the ground, causing rocks to jut through the floor and entrap the attackers he was pursuing. He lunged for Fred and grabbed his hand. "Catch me if you can!" Harry yelled at them with a mocking laugh.
Fred married a dramatic moron.
Crack!
Harry apparated them to the front garden.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Harry grinned at his patronus. "Go tell them, 'I'm out front'."
"Cute," Fred smirked.
Harry grinned, that damn crooked grin that broke Fred's heart and stitched it back together every time he saw it. "I try."
It didn't take long for a crowd of probably a dozen witches and wizards in those odd dark red robes—
Were these bloody DMLE employees?!
"Don't kill them," Fred said as it clicked in his head. "Tell Snape to evacuate everyone and just get rid of them."
"Oh, I'm definitely killing them," Harry said nonchalantly. He disarmed them one by one.
Fred jumped side to side to catch the wands and snap them in half. "It's a setup, or something. These aren't death eaters, they're ministry employees."
Or, one and the same, Fred wasn't entirely sure.
"Oh, fuck me," Harry groaned. He waved his hand side to side, blowing wind so strong that it was knocking the group down.
It was brilliant seeing Harry use his magic when he didn't feel constrained by the presence of others. Harry's magic smelled like a hurricane and set every nerve in Fred's body alight.
Harry had already done something to keep the attackers in place and he looked truly putout by Fred's words. "Fine," he sighed. He spun his index finger in a circle, wrapping a rope around the snarling attackers. He sent a patronus off to Snape then smirked at Fred. "Another fuckin setup, yeah? Where do we take them?"
Fred was joking when he quipped, "The middle of the ocean."
Harry wasn't.
Fred convinced him to not drop them in the middle of the ocean, but they did stun and apparate them to the sea that bordered Bill's place. They took them over eighty miles away from Bill's and left their bodies in stunned piles on the coast line.
Fred laughed as he left the piles of broken wands beside the unconscious bodies. "It'll take them a while to make it back without these."
"Brill," Harry grinned.
Fred looked Harry over slowly, checking for injuries, and got distracted by the passionate look Harry always wore after a good duel.
"Sorry our wedding got ruined," Fred said as he clasped Harry's hands in his.
Harry shook his head at him, his green eyes were bright and his cheeks were flushed with joy. "Are you kidding? This is way better than dancing." He stood on his tiptoes and kissed Fred lightly. "Love you, Mister Potter."
*****
"I love you more than anything," Fred told Harry as the first rays of sunlight began filtering through their window. "Always have, always will."
Harry kissed the top of his head and kept his nose buried in his hair. "I will love you until my last breath, Fred."