Out of her Hands

[Wetembers]

I am suffering eye strain. I read everything in one sitting. Please update soon.

[QuillofMinerva]

Out of her Hands

A/n: Well here we are, the final chapter of this story. I would like to say a HUGE big thank you to all the reviewers who have taken their time to let me know what they think of this story, I am very grateful and I hope you like this final chapter.

This chapter hasn’t been beta read because Ang has had to dash off to be with a friend and I was impatient, so I apologise in advance for clumsy mistakes ECT. On with the final chapter…..

Chapter 17: Second Time Lucky

Minerva McGonagall looked at her best friend and smiled, Poppy Pomfrey was standing in front of a long mirror looking at herself intently. She smoothed down the crisp ivory silk of her wedding robes and smiled happily, she was finally marrying Alastor and the threat of going into labour wasn’t hanging over her head this time.

“I do believe that these set of robes are even more beautiful than the ones you had first time around!” observed Minerva

“You will still upstage me though!” replied Poppy with a smile.

Poppy walked over to her dressing table and rooted around in her jewellery box, she gave a triumphant sigh when she found she was looking for. She turned around to face Minerva, the white gold chain with a teardrop diamond necklace that Minerva had given her on her previous wedding day in her hand.

“I think you should have this back,” suggested Poppy “it will go better with your robes than it will mine.”

“Are you sure?” asked Minerva, even though the necklace belonged to her.

Poppy raised an eyebrow and shook her head, without a word she walked forward and looped it around her friends neck and clasped the small, dainty necklace. The necklace fell beautifully just above the valley between Minerva’s breasts and looked stunning next to Minerva’s porcelain coloured skin. It certainly did look better on Minerva than it had done on Poppy.

“Thank you!” replied Minerva as she clasped the teardrop diamond in her hand.

Poppy simply smiled and fiddled with the ivy that Minerva had threaded through her ebony locks, Minerva batted her friends interfering hand always playfully and rolled her eyes dramatically.

“Will you stop fiddling,” she asked, “you will only mess it up if you keep trying to correct it and we have a wedding to get to.”

“Oh Merlin, can’t be late for my wedding for a second time,” said Poppy with half a giggle “Alastor will think I have gone into labour again.”

Poppy made a grab for her bouquet and glanced in the full-length mirror once more before taking hold of Minerva’s hand and pulling her out of the bedroom. They hurried along the corridor and soon stepped out into the unusually warm September air where a horse drawn carriage was waiting for them. Poppy squealed with excitement as she saw the distinguished and elegant thoroughbreds waiting patiently for them. She had always wanted to go to her wedding in a horse drawn carriage and thanks to Albus who had managed to pull a few strings, her wish had come true.

“Oh Minerva,” gasped Poppy as she was helped into the carriage by a tall foot man who she didn’t recognise to be Aberforth Dumbledore till Minerva had pointed it out, half way to the chapel.

Poppy’s constant fidgeting was slowly becoming to irritate Minerva as the journey to the chapel progressed, Minerva placed her hand on Poppy’s arm and tried to come her friend but it didn’t work and Minerva was beginning to think that the only way she was going to get Poppy to calm down was if she pulled her wand out from under her robes.

The carriage trundled along the road at a steady pace and was just as uncomfortable and bumpy as Minerva thought it would have been despite the soft cushions they were sat on. She couldn’t really complain since Poppy was obviously enjoying it and Albus had gone to so much trouble sorting this out for them, she had to admit that the horses were magnificent.

“Alastor said that he will be holding Maxim when we enter and then he will hand him over to his mother for the service,” explained Poppy “I can’t wait to see the two most important men in my life!”

Poppy and Alastor had finally decided on a name for their son, it had been a long drawn out process that lasted for ten days but they finally named him Maxim Cedric Moody. Maxim had been Alastor’s grandfather and Cedric had been the name of Poppy’s favourite uncle. Everyone had agreed that the name had suited the newborn and the men had gone down to The Three Broomsticks and wetted Maxim’s head. Poppy hadn’t been too happy when Alastor and Albus had staggered in early the next morning. Alastor had walked into the table and had knocked the kettle on to the floor waking both Poppy and Maxim up. Albus had tried to cover for his friend but Poppy wasn’t having any of it and made Alastor spend the night on the lumpy couch.

Minerva only half listened to Poppy as she gushed about being a mother; her thoughts were tied up thinking about what Albus would look like in his dress robes. He was acting as Alastor’s best man as well as performing other duties that day; he would certainly be busy, as would she during the binding ceremony.

“Don’t you agree Minerva?” asked Poppy, suddenly breaking into Minerva’s thoughts.

“Um, yes!” replied Minerva absent mindley.

Poppy seemed satisfied with her friends answer, not even realising that Minerva wasn’t even listening to her. She continued to ramble on and Minerva was rather relived that the nervous twitch that had consumed Poppy a few moments before had disappeared. The carriage came to a stop and Poppy reached for Minerva’s hand.

“I think I need the bathroom!” she whispered.

“I don’t think the chapel has one,” answered Minerva “are you sure you need to go!”

“For Merlin’s sake Minerva,” snapped Poppy “of course I need to go otherwise I wouldn’t have said that I needed to. What is wrong with you today?”

Minerva looked out of the carriage window and towards the chapel, she couldn’t see an out toilet and she knew for a fact that there wasn’t one in the chapel itself. She had discovered that last week at the practice ceremony.

“You will have to go behind a tree!” stated Minerva

“WHAT?” cried Poppy in a high pitched voice “You have got to be joking, I am not doing that especially in my wedding robes! How could you even suggest such a thing!”

Minerva tried to fight back a smile but failed miserably and Poppy got even more irate with her.

“So glad you think this is funny Minerva,” she snapped, “if the shoe had been on the other foot, I would have offered sensible advice.”

“Just don’t think about it and it will go away,” said Minerva “once we get back to the house you can go!”

“I suppose that’s all I can do,” snapped Poppy “is my face all flushed now because of you and your unhelpful advice!”

“You look radiant!” answered Minerva

“And you’re a liar!” replied Poppy with a sniff as she tapped the door to be open for her.

The door swung open and the footman offered Poppy his hand, she climbed out without thanking him and smoothed down her robes. Minerva stepped out and thanked Aberforth for the both of them and said that she would see him in there in a few moments. Poppy was pacing up and down, her eyes closed and she was whispering to herself.

“Poppy?” asked Minerva gently “Are you okay?”

“How can you be so calm?” questioned Poppy as she opened her eyes and looked at Minerva.

Before Minerva could answer, the muggle wedding march began and the two women rushed forward to the chapel doors. They looked at each other and quickly smoothed down each other’s robes before entering side by side where Aberforth and Poppy’s father were waiting for them. Poppy smiled and took hold of her fathers arm while Minerva did the same with Aberforth who squeezed her hand with his free hand.

Up in front of them, Minerva could see Alastor holding baby Maxim and standing to his left was Albus. Alastor and Maxim became a blur and all Minerva could see was Albus, he was wearing navy blue dress robes that had silver piping along the cuffs and hem. He looked extremely distinguished looking as he stood there with a silly smile on his face, his blue eyes were twinkling brightly and he winked in her direction. The mere sight of him set her heart a flutter; she felt giddy and was sure she had a silly grin plastered on her face.

The chapel looked beautiful with white and blue flowers arranged all over the place, there were people smiling in every seat they walked past and whispering how beautiful and handsome they looked. Aberforth was particularly happy that he was getting some female attention and would often flash a bright Dumbledore smile at the witches he knew were single. The walk down the aisle was shorter than Minerva had expected and she soon found herself standing behind Poppy and beside Albus instead of Aberforth who had quickly sat down next to Felicia Whitwell.

“Hello my love,” whispered Albus “may I say how beautiful you look!”

“You may,” she whispered back “hello darling, you look very handsome!”

Minerva watched as Alastor passed Maxim over to his mother, not before Poppy had a hold and cuddle though. The ministry official cleared his throat and stood up right as he looked around at the people filling the small chapel, he smiled and reached for his scrolls that were residing on a small silver stand beside him.

“We are gathered here today,” he began “to celebrate love and watch the joining of man and woman.”

Poppy let out a loud sniff and Alastor leaned in and whispered something in her ear that only made her sniff a bit more, Alastor made a face and shrugged, he had thought telling her that he loved her would have calmed her down. The ministry official looked at Poppy and took her smile and nod of the head as a meaning that he could continue.

“Love is something we can search for and sometimes we can continue searching for years until we find it,” he read “here before me love has been found and is shared. A wizarding bond has been chosen for this service, such a bond is not to be entered into light heartedly. A life time of togetherness will be pledged and bound in magic that can not be broken even by the most powerful of witches or wizards.”

Minerva took in the words that the ministry official was saying, the wizarding bonds were hardly used in this day and age now. Most of the weddings she had attended had been simple; they had used the muggle ceremony as a platform and added bits as they went along. She felt Albus squeeze her hand; she looked at him from the corner of her eye and saw that he was looking at her.

“By the declaration of the purest magic of all,” said the official as he raised his wand over clasped hands, golden sparks flew from his wand and danced around the wrists “I bound thee to each other, to love one another, to be together in all times good and bad. I bound thee, I bound thee by the purest magic.”

A sense of overwhelming power flooded through the chapel, causing everyone to gasp and look up the couple before them.

“With the power invested in me,” stated the official “I pronounce you as husband and wife!”

The chapel watched in silence as for the second time that day, they watched a newly joined witch and wizard seal their magical bond to one another with a searing kiss. Once the kiss had finished, he minister stepped down between Minerva and Poppy and held their hands.

“I would like to introduce Mr and Mrs Alastor Moody and Mr and Mrs Albus Dumbledore!”

THE END!

[Sensiblyquirky]

I'm so glad you updated, and I loved the end!! Brilliant.

Christy

[ginger newts]

Oops, I missed the chapter before this. Been doing a lot of that lately it seems. It was very sweet, I loved their date. And I liked this last chapter too, the surprise wedding was a cute idea. I'm so glad they sorted everything out and are happy again.

[TartanPhoenix]

A perfect ending to another great story. The part with Poppy and a tree was great; I laughed so hard it hurt.

[Miss Q]

Ahhhh.. This made my morning! And Now I don't even care that I might have to work, even on a Saturday. Thank you for this lovely ending!

M

[snowcat]

*jumps around in a wild happy dance* This just made my day!

Elisabet

[Nerweniel]

An absolutely magnificently cute ending to a great story! Made my day ;D!

Love,

Lies

[tanja]

Sorry for not reviewing on ff.net, but I´ll make it up here.
I loved the ending!!!Very very very nice...just perfect !Very well done.

[JKMcGonagall]

Wonderful end to a wonderful story. I have enjoyed it immensely. Thank you.

Kay

[Miss Q]

This story is amazing! I think that it'll become one of those that I return back to every now and then to re-read. Thank you so much! And I do hope that you'll continue to write more stories!

M

[Jessabelle]

Interesting twist! Very good!
-Jess

[Minx]

I absolutely agree, BRAVO! What a wonderful ending to the story. ;D

[Trulyamused]

Cool. Great end to a great story.

Thank you.

T

[~ Rosaliee ~]

Just love this story, Read it Yesterday, And like the twist of the suprise wedding on the end!

Great job ! :-)

[minerva]

Love this story :)Well done and good job!

[Mandy McGonagall-Dumbledore]

I love this!!!!!!!!