Epilogue: The Appendices

It was a Midsummer Day wedding, just as Aragorn and Arwen’s had been, held on the lawn of the Prince Estate. Severus and Hermione had decided on a “Lord of the Rings” theme for their wedding, partly because asking their guests to dress in a costume appropriate for The Lord of the Rings meant that they could invite a few of Hermione’s Muggle relatives, and partly because it was the book that had—at least, indirectly—brought them together.

Hermione had chosen to wear a pale green gown similar to one that Arwen had worn in the film, and Severus wore robes in dark forest green in the style of Aragorn. Nodd had done an outstanding job on the gardens, and the colours were as breathtaking as Hermione had imagined at Christmas. They stood under an arched canopy in front of a garden full of roses to exchange their vows.

After the ceremony, guests enjoyed the refreshments that had been prepared by Winkin. Blinkin was in charge of seeing that everything was running as smoothly as possible, which he did without drawing much attention at all. Hermione’s Great-Aunt Edwina happened to be walking toward Hermione just as she finished conferring with Blinkin on some matters.

“Hermione!” Aunt Edwina trilled.

Oh no. What did she see? Hermione reached for her wand, concealed under the sweeping sleeves of her gown. She had been hoping to avoid Obliviating any of her Muggle relatives, but she had known it might be a possibility.

“Somebody certainly is creative,” Aunt Edwina enthused. “Dressing their son as Gollum. I wonder how they got him to wear all that make-up?”

It wasn’t long before Hermione and Severus wandered over to a table of their colleagues. James and Jasmine Beekman were sitting across from Edward Beekman and Ivy Turner. The table was also shared by many members of the book club. Septima had apparently brought up the plan of having Hogwarts Film Nights during the upcoming school year.

“Who will decide on what films to show the students?” James asked.

“Perhaps we’d better view some first and decide what is suitable,” Minerva pondered. “Instead of having a staff book club or sports club, we might need a staff film club.”

“I have a few suggestions,” Edward mentioned, but his amused glance was for Severus and Hermione. “How about Bringing Up Baby?”

“Oh,” Jasmine broke in, “or Three Men and a Baby.”

“How about Look Who’s Talking?” James queried.

Their colleagues were looking at Severus with varying degrees of amusement. Hermione turned to him to see the look of fear on his face. With mock anger, Hermione turned to the staff members and said, “Don’t be traumatizing my husband on his wedding day.”

Pomona giggled. “You must have something in mind you want him to do later on today, eh, Hermione?”

Poor Severus was blushing as Hermione turned to lead him away. Looking back over her shoulder, she gave a little wink and a smile. “Indeed I do.”

Severus led Hermione toward the head table. “You sound anxious, my dear,” he said teasingly. “Perhaps it’s time for us to thank our guests and take our leave?”

Hermione nodded her agreement with a glint in her eyes. “Yes,” she answered throatily. “I want my husband all to myself.”

“Your wish is my command,” he purred in his silky voice. Holding his hand up to get their guests’ attention, Severus waited until they had appropriately quieted before beginning his speech. “My dear family, relatives, colleagues, friends, acquaintances: We are gathered together here... Wait, we’ve already done that part.” There were appreciative grins from the crowd who were happy to have their share in even a mild joke.

“We hope you have enjoyed yourselves as much as we have,” Severus continued. A ripple of applause ran through the guests. “We won’t keep you long. I just have a few things I want to say. First of all, Hermione and I feel that it was a wonderful occasion to have all of you together. On occasions such as these, there is never enough time to catch up on all the news. Now, let me make sure I get this part right. ‘I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.’”

At this, those who were familiar with The Lord of the Rings gave a hearty laugh as they recognized a quote from Bilbo’s birthday party speech. Hermione saw Harry sit up a little straighter as he listened to what Severus had to say. “Secondly, we appreciate you playing along with our wedding theme.” He put his arm around Hermione’s shoulders. “I like to think that I would have been smart enough to fall in love with this beautiful lady without the help of our book club, but the fact is that The Lord of the Rings helped bring us together, and it will always hold a special place in our hearts. We thank you for sharing our special day.

“Thirdly and finally, I wish to make an announcement.” Hermione didn’t know of any plan to make an announcement, and she stopped looking over the crowd and instead looked up into her husband’s face. Severus looked down at her with a smile and moved his hand from her shoulder to her waist to hug her to him more tightly. “I regret to announce that—though, as I said, this has been far too short a time to spend among you—my wife and I have some pressing business to attend to.” There were a few chuckles, winks and nods from their audience. “We are going. We are leaving now. Good-bye!” With a look of suppressed glee, Severus twisted them both into an Apparation which took them to the master suite of Prince House amid the gasps and shouts of their guests.

~~o~~0~~o~~0~~o~~

Harry refused to speak to them for several weeks since he was put in charge of the Memory Squad that had to deal with the Muggle wedding guests. Strangely, Severus and Hermione didn’t seem to mind. They were attending to pressing business.

The End

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A/N: This is a work of fanfic which is written for fun, not payment. J.K. Rowling, Scholastic and Warner Brothers own the words, characters and images in the Harry Potter universe. The estate of J.R.R. Tolkien, along with various publishing companies, and New Line Cinema own the words, characters and images in the Lord of the Rings universe. I used chapter titles from the Lord of the Rings books and adapted Severus’s wedding speech from Bilbo’s birthday speech in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Thanks, as always, to my alpha/beta team of sshg316 and morethansirius for their help. In particular, the ending of this story would not have been as satisfying to me without their helpful input.

This was written as a gift for lotrangel17 for the 2011 SSHG Exchange. While the story was written based on lotrangel17's prompts and interests, a hook for me to get into the setting and characters more quickly was to write a sort of prequel to my drabble series Walking Club. So if you're in the mood for a short (and very fluffy) look at Severus and Hermione's married life after this story, you could take a look there.