Wedding Plans

Beth exited the kitchen when she heard Nic come back in. "Why did you go out?" She promptly dropped the platter she was holding when she saw who was in the foyer with her brother. "Sirius! How did you? Oh my god you're here." She threw herself at him. He staggered a little bit as he caught her. A second later Beth felt tackled from the side as Harry threw himself into the group hug.

Roderick Stevens looked at Beth, the joy on her face made it very clear to him how much his stubbornness had cost him. The entire family joined them in the foyer. He moved next to Maryanne, "Acceptable apology?"

"I find the gesture acceptable but I still think you need to say the words."

"I will a little later. I want her to have some time with him first."

Sirius pulled Beth's sleeping body closer, it was amazing to him how wonderful it was to hold her again. He cuddled her as he thought about the news Beth gave him. In August their family would expand. Beth would be going back to work in the coming week, he would have to work with the real estate agent to find a house, find a school for Harry, get a car, find out about some electrical engineering and computer engineering courses for himself, deal with clearing his name here in the United States and last but not least see about arranging a wedding. But for tonight he would enjoy holding Beth.

The week that followed lived up to it's promise of being busy. Monday Sirius met with Matthias Beckley, Silverton Richards, and Nic he underwent a questioning session under the influence of veritaserum, after which he spent three hours filling out paperwork so he and Harry would have all the proper documents they would need to establish a life in the U.S. He bought a BMV M5 and insurance for it and found a wedding planner that worked with both magical and muggle people. That evening he, Beth, and Harry went house hunting with Ronda. She showed them four homes none of which they liked enough to buy. Beth had spoken to her co-workers and had gotten the names of several private schools for them to look into. Tuesday Sirius and Harry spoke to administrators of three of the schools it didn't take them long to determine they needed to keep looking. That night they had dinner with Beth's parents.

After dinner, Roderick looked at Beth as she talked with Maryanne and young Harry. "Things must be crowded at Nic's. Maryanne was hoping to convince Beth to move home to the castle." he said to Sirius.

Sirius looked at Beth. Nic's condo was small with the four of them and the security team members. But as far as he was concerned it was up to Beth, one of the reasons she had agreed to dinner was so they could talk with her parents about their plans. He would rather find an apartment until they found a house because the castle would be bad for Harry.

"Short term if Beth wants to, but Harry has a condition that would be adversely affected by the magic levels here."

"I thought he was a wizard. I've never heard of any condition that would do that."

"Yeah well Harry is one of a kind. We will need to find a healer, another thing for my list."

Maryanne and Beth came over to them, "What are you two talking about?" Beth asked.

"You moving home. I was saying Nic's must be crowded and that if you moved here things would be better."

Beth noticed Sirius pressed his lips together but said nothing. She got the impression that "better" was her father's assessment. "Actually Daddy, Sirius, Harry and I came here for dinner tonight because we had some news for you. We've set the date for our wedding, we'll be getting married on Valentine's day. We're still looking for a house. Yes we're a bit crowded at Nic's but the atmosphere here at the castle is bad for Harry. It's bad enough at Nic's the castle would be worse. If we temporarily stay anywhere, I'll probably try to set up one of the secure condominiums that the state department has."

Maryanne spoke up, "Valentine's day but that's only six weeks away! How can you plan a nice wedding in such a short amount of time. Surely it would be better to wait until next summer."

"Mother, I know this will come as a shock but Sirius and I are expecting in early August. I don't want to be obviously pregnant on our wedding day. Sirius has already looked into getting a wedding planner. We have an appointment with her tomorrow night I was hoping you would be free to come along. Be sure to bring a list of people you want to invite. We hope to keep it smallish, friends and family a few co-workers, not a monstrously large society event. Sirius' side will be lightly attended most likely." Both of her parents looked gobsmacked. "I realize that there are certain invitations that have to be given for political reasons, I've already put the Reagans and the rest of the Muggle Cabinet down but I know the President and the Vice President will be out of town that weekend so I'm hopeful that only a few in the cabinet will come. I've done the same for your cabinet but I refuse to invite all of those... in the wizarding congress; most have looked down their noses at me one to many times. This will be a muggle style wedding and I don't wish to strain their small minds by forcing them to blend in. I also plan on inviting my whole detail; they'll probably change out for each other over the course of the day. I plan on the O'Neills through 1st cousins, though I doubt Jack and Sarah will come given they're in Guam. I plan on having my college roommates as my bridesmaids. I'll ask Lia to be maid of honor since she's local and able to help. Sirius who will you have to stand up with you?"

Sirius couldn't help but smirk at how effectively Beth had derailed her father's plans. "I would like to see if we can sneak Remus in he's been a best friend since Hogwarts. The tricky part is he's a werewolf and Britain has all those pesky archaic laws regarding his freedom to travel fortunately for him he's dual citizenship in France maybe we can portkey him from there and just skip the whole stamp the passport thing just have him here for the weekend no one in Britain would be the wiser as long as his passport didn't get stamped. Amelia, if she comes, would know but as she's an ally. She'd probably look the other way. Oh and Beth remind me to send details to Grimjaw. He'll want to come but he need time to set up a glamour stone to blend in with the crowd and I'll want him to bring the tiaras and the family jewels so you can pick what you want to wear for the wedding. I think the de Sable inheritance included a tiara that was once Empress Marie Theresa's. The last Duke bought it for his bride after World War I, if I remember the inventories correctly."

"Maybe he can send photographs of it all to us in the next week or two, and then he would only have to bring the pieces we want." Beth suggested.

"Excellent idea, actually I think I should probably have it all gone through cleaned, appraised, and photographed. I'm sure the goblins would be delighted to do it for a fee of course."

"Bien sur" Harry said. [of course]

Beth smiled down at Harry but then noticed he looked strained, "Harry are you okay?"

"Je regret. J'ai mal a la tete." [I'm sorry. I have a headache]

"Perhaps we should go. Call me tomorrow at lunchtime at work Mother?"

Roderick finally found his voice, "You can't just drop a bombshell like that and leave!"

"Good night Daddy." Beth collected her jacket, and headed towards the castle's main doors Sirius and Harry trailing in her wake.

As she walked away she heard her mother ask, "Did he just say the last Duke?" She grinned.

The next day Beth went to work, and Sirius and Harry went school hunting. They met up at six to speak with Bonnie Barnes, they were joined by Maryanne. They got to her office right on time.

Bonnie waited patiently for her six p.m. Appointment. She was a muggleborn witch that had taken her mother's love of a good party and he father's administrative talents and turned them to a unique purpose in the magical world. She was interested in talking to the couple because it was the groom and not the bride that had first contacted her, she looked up, as four people came through her door. It was disconcerting that they had four others with them that stayed outside. She looked closer at the women of the group and realized who her potential new clients were. "First Lady of Magic Maryanne Stevens, and Beth O'Neill the President of Magic's step-daughter. Oh my goodness."

Sirius smirked, "Hi Miss Barnes I see introductions are only half necessary. I'm Sirius Black and this is my godson and ward Harry Potter."

Coming back to herself Bonnie reached forward to shake hands with everyone starting with Harry. "Call me Bonnie please. I'm curious how come did you come to me? I'm good at what I do and all but I'm a newcomer to the field and you could get just about anyone you wanted."

....

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