Small Packages

"Thank you." She said with a smile touching the necklace carefully making sure she didn't accidentally turn it. She knew that she wouldn't take it off not because that it was something that protects her. It would be because her soon to be husband gave it to her.

"Yeah?" She said looking at Khaat. "Really? The first one? Yeah though I still think Marcus looks like a statue at times." She said with a smile. "Really? It never comes off?" She said wondering why but she didn't want to pry so she kept her mouth shut. "Well it's a very beautiful necklace."

She smiled back and looked at the dresses she pulled out. One of them caught her eye immediately, "We'll try blue first and see how it looks. Okay," She said with a smile taking the ones that Khaat pulled out and going to go try some of them on.

She tried on the one that caught her eye and looked at it from what she could see. She smoothed out the invisible wrinkles from the dress. She went up to Khaat, "How's this look? I really like this one but I wanted to know your opinion of how I looked." She asked with a small smile. She really liked the dress and she felt a little nervous about everything.

"When my mother got pregnant with me, Uncle Remus didn't believe he would ever be able to get married or have a family of his own because he figured his curse would endanger anyone with him too much. He couldn't hold a job, couldn't do a lot of anything. He lived off and on with us at my parent's farm, but would always make himself scarce over the full moon.

"Anyway, he was afraid his curse would endanger me. So, he used his connection with the Order to reach out to Nicolas Flamel. As I understand it, he had Flamel make the necklace. I'm not entirely sure what all it does, but I do know that it forbids my being turned into a werewolf. Doesn't protect me from being injured by one, but the stone seems to get a bit ticky when a werewolf is around. Anyway, the night I was born, Uncle Remus put this on my neck and enchanted it so that he was the only one who could take it off. And, well, he's obviously not here anymore to take it off. I don't believe he'd ever have done it anyway."

When she said Marcus reminded her of a statue, she laughed. "He is a bit rigid on some things," she said. "Even when we're here at the house all day, he still insists on wearing that dark suit when he's working. Believe me, I've tried to get him to lighten up about that, but, yeah, thats not gonna happen. I have managed to get him to ditch the suits on his days off, but that took awhile. I think, for him, it comes because he used to bodyguard the Bulgarian minister of magic, and he didn't have a choice about the formality. But that's also where he learned to have just really meticulous fashion sense and about tailoring spells and glamour spells. He looks stiff, I agree, but if there's trouble, he's anything but stiff."

She watched Bella pull out a blue dress, and she smiled. "I think its perfect. Great choice. Now, I know I have a few different styles of sapphire earrings. And I know there are bracelets. Brian has bought me a lot of jewelry. He's always said he prefers me to have a few good pieces rather than a lot of paste stuff. Well, he knows what he likes, and he's really generous. We'll look through my jewelry and see if there's anything there you like. And, I love shoes, so if I had one pair less, Marcus would be very happy. If there's one thing he hates, its my high heels. It makes him crazy. He says they're a safety hazard because he says he's afraid I won't be able to run in them if I need to. He doesn't get it that if you wear heels long enough you can do just about anything in them. He ruins more of my shoes by just breaking the heels off them. So if you see something you like, by all means, have at them. It'll save them from Marcus," she laughed.

She listened to her talk about her Uncle Remus but felt sympathy for the man. She knew that it had to be tough having to leave ever full moon. Leave in fear that you might accidentally change a loved one but, Remus had to of had a big heart to make sure that he wasn't anywhere near them.

"Nicolas Flamel? The alchemist?" She asked her eyes wide remembering reading about Nicolas when she was in school. "He must of thought that was a chance that he might find his way back and end up hurting someone. Or he thought maybe some day you'd need that protection from other werewolves." She said softly going through things in her head. "Yeah, your Uncle Remus sounds like a very wonderful man and it seems like he loved you very much." She didn't know what else she might say to her about her Uncle but she knew that Remus loved his niece. Loved her enough to make sure that she was protected against any werewolf bite and that only he could remove it from her.

"Yeah," She said with a smile. "There's a few times I thought about changing the color of his ties just to see what he does." She said with a laugh. "Well at least he doesn't wear them all the time. Oh well that is something, having to make sure that your always formal because you don't have a choice. So he gets his tailoring spells and fashion sense from having been a bodyguard of the Bulgarian minster. I still think we should change the color of his tie make it look all bright and colorful to see how long it would take him to notice. Maybe tie dye colors or a lime green, the only problem is doing it without him seeing you do it." She said with a grin.

"Yeah?" She said looking down at the dress and back up with a smile on her face. "I actually have a perfect pair of earrings to go with this dress. I saw them a few years ago in a muggle shop in London, they are teardrop sapphires with two diamonds going up. I don't really wear bracelets because I always end up getting them caught on something." She laughed when Khaat said that Marcus would be happy if she had one pair of shoes less than what she has now. "I like high heels but I couldn't run in them if I tried. I'd break my ankle or something. Well I think they're only a safety hazard if you don't know how to run in them. Or if you are a really clumsy person or are accident prone. That's true the more you wear things like that the more likely are you to be able to run in them." She laughed when Khaat said that she'd be saving the heels from Marcus if she chose a pair. "Do you have any white ones?" She asked with a small smile.

"Uncle Remus is a whole different story," Khaat said with a smile. "Sometime when you're bored, I'll fill in the gap for you. Anyway, your earrings sound perfect. You want white shoes, I've got several different styles. They're over here." She took her over to the shoe shelves and showed her where the white shoes were. Pick whatever you want."

"You do know that Angus will be lucky if Marcus doesn't stuff him into a tux," Khaat laughed. "I'd love to be a fly on the wall listening to that discussion. Marcus will be trying to dress him up, and Angus will be saying its overkill. If you're wise, you'll push Angus to get his coat on and get going when your vows are finished before Angus runs out of patience with Marcus. Personally, I think its funny. He's certainly not opposed to marrying you, but he definitely isn't into the formality. He doesn't like the spotlight being on him, I don't think. On the other hand, I think he's going to spoil you rotten and enjoy every minute of it. I think he waited a long time for love, and I was sorta thinking that he'd given up altogether. I'm glad I was wrong. I'm happy for you both."

She smiled looking at her, "Okay. They are my favorite ones." She looked at the different styles of shoes and saw a pair of pleated peek toe shoes that looked nice. She picked them up. "How would these look?" She asked wondering as she looked at the heel on them.

She laughed at Khaat's words, "I guess if he is in one, he can tell me that I jinxed it. I told him before that he would look good in a tux." She said laughing some more. "Oh yes that would be a very interesting conversation. I can just hear it now in my head them bickering back and forth about it. Oh I'll make sure that I get Angus going before he loses his patience. Yeah he told me that he would rather elope than have the whole ceremony, I'm actually glad we're eloping. I don't have to stress out about anything and I honestly didn't want to wait any longer. Well for a moment it will be and he's just gonna have to deal with that. It would take a while for me to get used to that, if he does spoil me. I'm glad that he didn't give up before I could find him. Thank you Khaat your a really great friend to me." She said with a smile and hugged her softly.

"I think they'll look great," Khaat smiled. She went over to a rack of coats and jackets and took a slender, long belted wool trench coat off the hangar. "You're going to want a warm coat, especially after dark. It gets cold there this time of year. This should do the trick, unless you find something better when you get there."

Khaat certainly knew what it was like not to want to wait. She had felt that way about her first husband, and, then, later, when her childhood friendship with Brian had blossomed into something much deeper, she didn't want to wait another second. Her wedding to Rob had been traditional, well planned, orchestrated to be perfect, and then the marriage had gone down in flames.

Her wedding to Brian had been a lot like this one. Last minute, impromptu, but hers had been on a beach in Hawaii at sunrise--smack dab in the middle of a family vacation.

She smiled when Bella hugged her. "I'm glad we're friends too. You do know we have to stop saying that because in a few minutes we won't be friends, we'll be family. And that's fine by me. Okay, I think I should go let you get dressed and go find out if Marcus has gotten anywhere getting Angus changed. Take your time. I'll be back in a few minutes."

She stepped out of the huge closet and pulled the door closed to give Bella a few minutes for herself to change. Then she headed down the hall to Angus's room.

"Thanks." She said with a smile. She saw her go to her coats and take a trench coat off the hanger. "Thank you Khaat. It looks really warm. I'll make sure to return this when we get back." She touched the coat and then smiled up at her.

She started getting nervous about this but it was what she wanted. She wanted to be married to Angus, she was just nervous about how she would look in the dress and shoes. She took a deep breath to calm herself before smiling at Khaat.

She laughed at her words, "Yeah your right. My family is gonna get a whole lot bigger and it's gonna be wonderful. Okay, I wonder what battle was won or lost when it came to him getting dressed for this. Ok I'll see you in a few minutes." She said with a big smile.

As soon as Khaat stepped out of the closet she took another deep breath. After a moment she was calm and changed into the dress then put on the shoes. She smoothed out the dress as she took a few easy steps in the shoes making sure she could walk properly in them. She then realized that her earrings were in her room which was right across from Angus' bedroom.

She grabbed her wand and walked out of the closet, she opened the door a little bit looking at her door. She wondered how she was going to open it then she saw Rose who was heading to the room. She opened the door and peeked inside as if looking for Bella. So Bella quickly accioed her earrings to her while the door was still open and thanked her lucky stars that Rose opened the door. She closed the bedroom door softly and quickly walked back to the closet putting the earrings on.

Khaat went down the hallway and knocked on Angus's door. She didn't hear arguing or squabbling. That sounded like a good sign.  Marcus opened the door.

"How goes it?" Khaat asked.

"Its fine," Marcus said. "He's dressed, or at least decent.  He's overthinking the tie. Come give him an objective opinion. He's picked out about five of them, and he can't make a decision. I told him what I'd do, but he's still indecisive."

Khaat went in and looked at the four ties that were laying on the bed and the one that Angus was trying to tie.

"Not that one," she said to Angus. "Use this one." She picked up one of the ties laying on the bed and handed it to him.  

"I don't know..." he frowned.

"That's exactly the same one I picked out," Marcus laughed.  

"But,..." Angus started. Khaat took away the tie Angus had been trying to tie and put the one she had chosen around his neck.  She saw him look at it, questioning it.

"You're pitiful," Marcus sighed. "Let me. Here." He stepped in and tied Angus's elegant silk tie into a sophisticated Eldredge knot.

"Oh, very sharp, Marcus," Khaat said. She wanted Angus start to roll up his sleeves, something that he just naturally did with his shirts.

"Stop that," Marcus scowled. He rolled the sleeves back down, and looked inside the valet box on the dresser. He found one pair of cufflinks--gold and onyx, each one with a small diamond set in the center of the onyx.  "These'll do," he said. He handed Angus the cufflinks.

"How's Bella?" Angus asked.

"She's doing fine," Khaat said. "How soon will you be ready?"

"I think I'm ready," he said.

"Um..no," Marcus said, pointing to Angus's stocking feet. "Shoes would be good." He looked back at Khaat. "Better give us a minute. He's not exactly focused. Oh, and your mother went to the greenhouse for a few flowers, I think."

"Sounds like we have it covered," Khaat said. "I'll leave you to finish supervising him."  She was heading back to her bedroom when her mother stopped her.

"Will this do?" she asked. Her mother had taken a dozen white roses and changed their color to a beautiful sapphire blue. She'd added six perfect calla lillies, some baby's breath and some greenery and wrapped the stem of the bouquet with satin ribbon and then attached an antique dangling brooch to the satin ribbon for a little sparkle. It was white gold, set with diamonds and a sapphire.

"Isn't that the brooch you found when we were shopping at those flea markets?"

"It was," Kate laughed. "They didn't know what they had. Had it in a lot of costume jewelry.  Cost me a just a couple of quid, but I've never worn it. I think its time to go to someone who'll appreciate it more than I do. Do you think this will do?"

"I think she'll love it," Khaat said.

"Every bride needs a bouquet," Kate said. "Is there anything else you need?"

"I don't think so. Just Marcus to come and do some last minute fittings."

"I'll hurry the boys along," Kate promised. Khaat went to her room and found Bella was dressed. "Perfect," she smiled. "It's lovely. He's going to be speechless. Oh, by the way, my mother went to the greenhouse and found a few flowers. What do you think? Will this do for a bouquet?" She handed the bouquet to her.

Bella heard a little knock on the bedroom door and smiled knowing her daughter was knocking. She went to the door and opened it up. Her daughter walked in and looked at her with her head tilted to the side trying to figure out why she was dressed up.

"Mommy why are dressed up?" Rose asked touching the dress softly.

Bella went down to her knees and smiled at her, "Well honey. Angus and mommy are getting married, he's going to be your step daddy." She said trying to find the right words so that her daughter would understand her. "He's gonna be part of our family."

Rose's eyes lit up when Bella had said that she was gonna have Angus as a step daddy. Then her face scrunched up, "Can I call him daddy?" She asked softly looking down at her hands. "I love ggie."

Bella smiled at her daughters words, "Well I don't think he'll mind. However I think we should ask him just in case." She said with a smile as her daughter squealed with delight of this. "Well we're gonna be away for a few days and you'll be here with Auntie Khaat and Uncle Brian."

Rose nodded and said, "I'm gonna go ask ggie now. I love you mommy." She hugged Bella and ran out of the room down the hall with glee. She had saw Khaat and Kate in the hallway as she knocked on the door where Angus was getting ready.

Bella stood up from the floor and smoothed out her dress smiling. She looked over when Khaat walked in, "Really?" She asked looking down at her outfit feeling nervous. "How does he look?" She looked at the flowers with a big smile on her face. "They're beautiful, they are perfect for a bouquet." She said taking the bouquet and smelled the flowers. "They smell amazing."

Angus was sitting on the foot of the bed and putting on his shoes when he heard a knock on the door. Marcus answered it.

"Oh," he said, a little surprised. "Hello. Are you looking for your mom?" Angus looked up and saw Rose at the door.

"Come on in, Rose," he motioned. "I thought you were downstairs with the rest of the kids. I'm sorry but things are just a little off schedule this morning. It'll get better. Mom's down the hall in Aunt Khaat's room. I think they're looking at dresses. Aunt Khaat has a really big closet."

"If you've got this, I think I'll go see if I need to do any tailoring for the ladies," Marcus said, and he excused himself and went down the hall.

"He looks sharp," Khaat smiled. "He's got good taste, but, honestly, I think he was a little nervous. Marcus has him put together--if he remembers to put his shoes on." Marcus knocked on the door but he basically went ahead and let himself in.

"Oh, very nice," Marcus smiled. "I won't have to do much. Lovely choice. So, we can tailor the fit a smidgeon. What else? For Khaat, I usually help her with a glamour spell so she doesn't have to use muggle makeup, maybe a touch of a spell to tidy her hair. I wouldn't want to do much with you, though. I think you're lovely as you are."