Lyria glanced in the mirror and then stopped, looking again.
“Lyria, calm down. You’re gonna make yourself sick.” Lyndell
ordered, pushing her into a chair.
“I’m not nervous,
“Then stop pacing.
You’ll make *me* sick.”
“It’s sort of strange, I guess. I never really thought I’d be back
here.” Lyria glanced about. They were waiting in McGonagall’s office; they
couldn’t exactly rent a hall, and as it was the summer holiday, getting married
at Hogwarts had seemed appropriate to both Sirius and Lyria. Furthermore, Sirius had *refused* to get
married at the house.
“At least, not like this.” Lyndell replied. “You guys are getting married in the Great
Hall.”
“Thanks, I knew that.”
Lyria laughed a bit and glanced in the mirror again. “Do I pass inspection?”
“You do. You look
perfect.” Lyndell smiled. “That dress
looks like it’s almost brand new.”
“Not hardly. My grandmother wore it even before my mother
did. But it’s been taken care of.”
“Make sure you inform Sirius of that when he tries to rip it
to shreds after he sees all the buttons.”
“It’ll be fun to make him work a bit, don’t you think?” The smile was almost wicked. “But it’s really a lovely dress.”
“It’s gorgeous, Lyri.
We definitely approve. Now you
just have to put your veil on before we go.”
“Help,” she said.
“I’ll mess up the curls if I try to do it myself.”
Lyndell picked the veil up off the desk. “Sit down so I can get this on right.” She
lowered the veil over Lyria’s head and bobby pinned it to her hair, careful not
to muss the curls. “All
done.”
“Then let’s go.”
Lyria picked up her bouquet.
Lyndell followed Lyria, making sure the train of her dress
didn’t get trampled on the walk down.
“Let’s get this started.”
Lyria smiled.
Sirius’s eyes were glued to the main doors as they opened
and Lyndell walked through first. Lyria
came a few seconds later and Sirius simply stared at her. She was more beautiful than he’d ever
remembered seeing her. He silently
willed her to move her feet faster.
Aragorn Strider placed his daughter’s hand in her soon-to-be
husband’s. “If you hurt her again, I’ll
kill you,” Aragorn warned, then kissed his daughter’s cheek and took his place.
Sirius smiled at Lyria and squeezed her hand as the ceremony
began.
“You look nice,” Lyria told Sirius as he pulled her close
for a last dance before they snuck off.
“You look amazing. Angelic.” He replied, smiling at her although there was a
hint of sadness in his eyes.
“What’s wrong?” She
asked suddenly. “Don’t say nothing, I
know you too well.”
“You deserve a nice honeymoon, Lyri. But we can’t *go* anywhere.”
“I don’t care.
Lyndell and Remus are going to watch Connor,
we’ll have the house… pretty much to ourselves…”
“Except for the seemingly permanent house
guests.” Sirius muttered. “As
long as we’re in that house, we’re not going to have it to ourselves.”
“Right, I guess there’s always your mum.” Lyria kissed his cheek. “Sirius, I don’t care. Honestly.
It’s enough that we’re married.”
“But still. Can’t a
guy just want to ravish his new wife in private?”
“Company’s never really stopped you before,” she pointed out
dryly.
“But that was different.
This is supposed to be our honeymoon.”
“We’ll make do.”
Lyria kissed him softly.
“Wanna get a head start and beat the rush home?”
She smiled. “Absolutely.”
“Alright then. Let’s find someway out of here.” Sirius led
her to the double doors.
Remus stopped them there.
“And just where do you two think you’re going?”
“That’s none of your damned business.” Sirius retorted.
He smiled a bit at his friend’s impatience. “If you two want to get away for a bit,
Lyndell and I would be willing to swap houses for a couple weeks. Let Connor stay where he’s familiar, after
all.” Remus grinned slightly.
Sirius’s dark glare turned into a grin. “Thanks Moony. We really appreciate this.” He clapped his
friend on the shoulder.
“Go on, you two.” Just after Lyria left, Remus seemed to
remember something and turned to his friend.
“Oh, Sirius… Lyndell told me to wish you luck with the buttons.”
“What buttons?”
Remus simply smiled and disappeared into the crowd.
~*~*~*~
Sirius had forgotten Remus’s
button comment until after they’d reached the house and gotten to the guest
bedroom. He saw the back of Lyria’s
dress and suddenly understood. “Lyria…?”
“Mm-hmm?” She dropped the bag they’d hastily thrown
things into and tossed it along with her shoes into a corner of the room.
“How…how exactly…tell me….there are
buttons on your dress.” Sirius blurted out after a few tries.
“Fifty-seven of them.”
Sirius just stared at her.
“Are they for decoration?”
“Oh no, they’re the only way into or out of this dress. And you’d better keep it nice, because I want
our
“Lyri…you had a boy….and I don’t think he’s going to want to
wear your dress.”
“Not Connor.
Sirius blinked. “Wha….? That’s a lot
of buttons.” Sirius went on as if he hadn’t heard her.
“Then maybe you should get started. Unless, of course, you’re
no longer interested.”
“I’m always interested.” Sirius kissed the back of her neck
as he began hastily undoing the buttons.
She decided to wait until he was about half-way done. “Sirius? You could have used your wand, you know.”
“Lyria…even *I* am not that talented.”
She laughed softly.
“And I suppose you’re thinking with… something long and hard that’s not
so much your wand?”
Sirius blinked and looked up at her. “I don’t think I’ve seen this side of you
before. I kinda
like it.”
“Yes, well, you’ve corrupted me.”
“Ah yes, one of my greatest accomplishments.” He grinned as he’d undone the last buttons.
~*~*~*~
Lyndell watched as the basement door disappeared into the
wall. They’d all forgotten about the
full moon and while she and Remus had promised Lyria and Sirius their house,
Remus needed to be in the basement. She
went into the kitchen and looked around.
Everything seemed to be in order, although there wasn’t a trace of
Sirius or Lyria anywhere on the first floor.
Sirius sauntered down the stairs, whistling happily. His hair was a mess and he went into the
kitchen stark naked. “WHAT THE HELL ARE
YOU DOING HERE?”
Lyndell jumped and turned around. “Well I know what you’re doing up there.” She
replied. “You might wanna get some
clothes on, prancing around my house naked isn’t
really a good idea.”
Sirius looked down and moved behind the island counter. “What are you doing here?” He repeated.
“Full moon, and Remus needed to get
into the basement before he transformed.”
“So? You could’ve stuck him in the basement at our house.”
“The basement here doesn’t have a door until tomorrow
morning, so it’s a lot safer.” Lyndell replied.
“I’ll be back tomorrow to open it.”
“Great….” Sirius muttered.
“Now we get to listen to barking and howling all night long.”
Lyndell stared at him.
“Well from the looks of things, there’s been enough barking and howling
going on here.” She retorted dryly.
“Just be glad I didn’t bring Connor.”
Sirius practically flew up the stairs into the room that he
and Lyria had taken over for the time being.
“Lyria!”
“That’s me,” she replied, sitting up. “You alright?”
“No! My sister just saw me naked!”
“Well, if it makes you feel better, I doubt you’re the first
man she’s ever seen naked,” Lyria offered.
“Ewww!
Gross!” Sirius exclaimed. “I don’t need
the mental picture of Remus naked!”
Lyria sighed. “Come
here.”
Sirius made a face at her.
“I can’t now, I’ve got the picture of my
brother-in-law running around naked in my head.”
Lyria thought of the many things she could say. “I’m not going to jump you, get over here,”
she ordered.
“Then what are you going to do?”
“If you’re curious, you’re just going to have to come over
here and find out.”
Sirius approached her.
“Okay, what are you going to do?”
She guided him to sit in front of her on the bed and began
to rub his shoulders. “Told
you I wasn’t going to jump you.”
“You waiting for me to jump you?”
“Maybe. I did initiate the last round.”
“Well then I guess it’s my turn…”
“Guess so,” she agreed with a smile.