Adele Black: The End

She Would've Made Such a Lovely Bride

A month after my 21st birthday, I found myself scrambling around a big tent in the forest right outside Camp Half Blood. Annabeth was helping me set up the drink station, which had a variety of different options. There was a bunch of Diet Cokes, a plethora of other soda, Gatorade, bottled butter beer and hidden deep down in a cooler was some alcohol that Percy had nabbed off of his mom and Paul.

Within the past year, not a whole lot has happened. Well, Harry and Ginny got married, Victorie turned one, Teddy turned 3, Annabeth and Percy were on track to graduate college, and I was kicking butt with Themis and my brother Malcolm on Olympus. The New York branch of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes was doing extremely well.

Oh, and Fred and I eloped a month ago. He had proposed to me outside of the Parthenon like I knew he would, and I said yes, obviously. George, Angelina, Annabeth and Percy were our witnesses.

"Alright, this should be good," Annabeth said as she put the last cooler under the table. "Is there anything else?"

I looked around the tent, which had an extremely high ceiling and was big enough to fit probably 1,000 people. There were several long picnic tables set up on one side, and each table had a tiny broom stick on them with olive wreath branches wrapped around it. There were some balloons of various different colors lying around.

In one corner of the tent, the game section (which was Fred's idea, because we didn't want the party to be boring) was being set up by Fred, Percy and Leo Valdez. Fred had brought various gobstone sets, a wizards chess set and some fun trinkets from the shop, and some quaffels and a snitch. Percy carried the ping pong table from the Big House out and found ping pong paddles and ping pong balls in the attic. He had also brought random card games from Paul and Sally's apartment, including Cards Against Humanity (which Fred and I both agreed we needed to keep away from Mrs. Weasley) and Uno. Leo had the ingenious idea to make a way smaller lava rock climbing wall with a replica of Festus' head at the top. I had made sure to put charms around the rock climbing wall so that nobody actually caught on fire, and if somebody fell into a pool of lava, they'd automatically be shot with a bunch of water. They wouldn't get dried off, but that was a risk that the climber would have to take.

Also in the tent was a table full of Wizarding and Muggle candy. There was also a make your own sandwich, gyro, hot dog, salad and taco bar. George was currently figuring out how to grill a hot dog from Angelina; there was no obvious signs of distress from the two so I assumed it was going well.

"Just the music, I think," I finally responded to Annabeth. "But I think Percy said he borrowed Paul's Prius and has an aux cord in there, so we can just connect one of the demigod and Hephaestus approved phones to it and we'll be all set."

There was suddenly clang and Annabeth and I both whipped around.

"Oops," I heard Piper sheepishly say. Her and Clarisse were putting up a banner made by the Ares cabin (so it was extra... pretty) that said "Congrats Adele and Fred" and the ladder had tipped over, effectively leading to Clarisse falling onto her butt.

"Don't worry, we've got it!" Clarisse assured me when she saw my worried gaze.

"Alright, good. We have a few hours left until people start showing up, but it's probably going to get wild tonight, so Fred and I told everybody to just wear something comfortable on the invitations," I said.

"Oh, and Percy wanted me to remind you that when Sally and Paul arrive, they're bringing a platter of blue cookies," Annabeth informed me.

Annabeth and I chatted about random things for a few more minutes. Arms wrapped around my waist and I felt the familiar outline of Fred's jaw resting on top of my head.

"Hello my lovely wife," he said. I could feel the smile.

"Hello my wonderful husband," I responded, taking his hands and wrapping them around me tighter.

"Ugh, you both are disgustingly cute," Annabeth said.

"You two should play a game," Fred proposed, "see how many wizards mix you two up. You look remarkably similar. Only difference is the nose."

I grinned. "That'll be fun. What'd you say, Annie?"

"We need to make it more interesting. If somebody doesn't mix us up, we should gaslight them into thinking they did," Annabeth said with an impish grin and an evil look in her eyes, "Also, don't call me Annie."

"So we should gatekeep, gaslight, girl boss?" I said. "Sounds good to me!"

The three of us chatted for a little while longer before Annabeth went to go use the bathroom. Soon it was just Fred and me, and I twisted around so I could quickly give him a peck on the lips.

"Oh, by the way, George and I put together a fireworks show for later, so that'll be fun," Fred said with a cheeky grin.

Fred and I stood there just holding each other for a little bit before the humid air made hugging a little unbearable.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to how humid summers are here."

"Oh, trust me, it can get hotter than this," I promised him with a smile.

"Hello? Fred? Adele?" Mrs. Weasley's voice suddenly rang out.

Fred looked at me with panic. "Why is she here early? The invitation says it starts at 5:30, and it's only 2:30!"

My eyes went wide. "Oh Gods, she probably wanted to help set up. That's nice of her, actually—"

"But now she's going to try to change everything," Fred groaned. "She's going to absolutely hate the lava rock climbing wall, not to mention the fact that this isn't a traditional wedding reception!"

I rubbed his arm. "Fred, it's going to be okay. When have we ever done things the traditional way? Besides, if she gives you a hard time I'm sure I can distract her with something else. And, I'm sure she'll get along great with Sally. And your dad will love talking to Paul, especially when he sees the car. It's all going to be okay."

Fred took a deep breath and smiled softly at me. He hugged me tightly despite the humidity. I grinned up at him.

"Fred? Adele?" Mrs. Weasley called again from the front of the tent.

Fred and I quickly jogged up to the front. Mrs. Weasley was wearing the same thing that she always seemed to wear, but she had a heavy wizards robe over it. I held back a grimace, because I knew she was going to overheat in that. She was carrying what looked like a pie. Mr. Weasley was wearing a pair of khaki pants and the Hawaiian shirt that Ginny and Harry got him as a souvenir from their Hawaiian honeymoon.

"Hello Mum, Dad," Fred said, "You found this place alright? No issues with finding it?"

"Well we figured that the huge tent must be where we were supposed to go. We showed up early to help set up," Mrs. Weasley said, confirming my suspicions about her early arrival. "Oh, and I made some apple pie, I was told it's a popular American dessert?"

I smiled warmly at her. "That was so sweet of you! If you would like, I can bring you over to the dessert table and I can show you where to put it?"

"That'd be wonderful, dear," Mrs. Weasley said.

"Fred, do you think you could go help Percy and Leo?" I asked him once I caught sight of the two demigods having issues with putting streamers up. "Leo looks like he's about to start a fire."

"Of course! Dad, why don't you come with me?" Fred said. He gave me a quick peck on the head and went over to Percy and Leo with his father.

Mrs. Weasley and I walked to the far side of the tent. Her brown eyes were taking in everything, and I saw them widen when she saw the lava rock climbing wall, but she didn't make a comment about it just yet. We finally got to the dessert table, and I noticed that the pictures that Piper, Annabeth, Clarisse and I had put up were still hanging off the clothespins.

"The set up is... certainly something. Are you and Fred announcing something? Should we have brought a gift?" Mrs. Weasley worriedly said.

"Well, Fred and I promised not to say anything out loud until later, but if you look up, you'll see two of my favorite pictures," I slyly told her. She did as I said and looked at the pictures.

One image was of Fred and I outside the Parthenon in May. He was on one knee, and I had my hands covering my mouth with my blonde hair blowing in the wind. The other image was a picture I had taken of the two of us with a camera; Fred was hugging me from behind and I was holding up my hand to show off my engagement ring.

"Oh, an engagement party! How wonderful! Oh, we'll have to go over details for the wedding! We can hold the reception at the Burrow—"

"It'd be hard to hold at the Burrow. My family is pretty much all here and I would like them there, but it'd be hard for everybody to get there," I pointed out. I felt bad for indulging in this conversation with her, especially considering that Fred and I were already married and this was the reception, but I was going to distract her from making critiques about the decorations.

"I suppose... what about the ceremony? There's a church in Ottery-St.-Catchpole that tons of Wizard families have used in the past... the Diggory's, the Fawcett's, the Lovegood's, the Weasley's... The church has these gorgeous stained glass windows," Mrs. Weasley gushed, "and the arches are wonderful."

"Mrs. Weasley," I bluntly said without thinking, "you wouldn't actually expect me to get married in a church, right?"

Mrs. Weasley looked at me like I had slapped her. "It's a tradition! Getting married in a church is a beautiful tradition. It's always so touching to—"

"Mrs. Weasley, why would I get married in a church?" I asked, still dumbfounded as to why she would even assume that I would be.

Mrs. Weasley still looked at me like I said something blasphemous. "It's just what's expected, isn't it? Most, if not all, Wizarding families get married in a church."

I felt my hands slowly tighten into fists. I squeezed them for a few seconds before releasing both my fists and a deep breath. "Mrs. Weasley, I'd never get married in a church."

"It's really not a big deal, Adele. I'm sure your father made sure you were baptized as an infant," Mrs. Weasley said off handedly, "And if he didn't, I'm sure you'd be able to marry in a church regardless."

The idea of Sirius Black getting his one week old, unwanted baby baptized before dropping it off with a centaur made me want to laugh. In fact, I almost did, but I could tell that Mrs. Weasley was starting to get frustrated with me.

"Mrs. Weasley, why would I get married somewhere that celebrates a God that I don't believe in?" I asked her. I probably sounded condescending when I said that, but I was genuinely too baffled to even begin apologizing for my tone. "My mother is the goddess of wisdom, strategy, and crafts. Why would I get married in a Christian church?"

"I just thought that since you're marrying Fred you'd—"

"I'd what, suddenly drop my practices and beliefs and what I know is true? That I'd strip away part of my identity? I'd never give up who I am and change who I am for a boy," I said. "The Greek gods are half of who I am. I'm not Christian, I'm not... I'm not the perfect girl you probably envisioned for your son. I don't need you to support or pray to the Greek gods, I just need you to respect me and my family."

"Uhm, Adele?" Annabeth said, suddenly appearing next to me. "Chiron wanted me to tell you that the Party Ponies showed up."

I cursed so badly that Mrs. Weasley blushed. "That means we can't do pin the tail on the centaur. Remember what happened last time?"

Annabeth shivered. "Lawrence was so mad about that."

Annabeth and I reminisced over the trials and perils of Lawrence the Party Pony and the events of that summer so many years ago.

"Thanks for letting me know. Oh, Annabeth, this is Mrs. Weasley, Fred's mom," I said, introducing the two. "Mrs. Weasley, this is Annabeth Chase, my half-sister."

"Hello," Mrs. Weasley warmly said, seemingly forgetting all about the tense conversation that we were having moments ago. "It's nice to meet you! Adele talks about you all the time! You and Adele look eerily similar!"

"Uh, hello Mrs. Weasley," Annabeth said. "This might be weird, but I've always wondered ever since Adele told me about your home, how does it stand up? What architectural mechanisms are in place?"

"You two go ahead and discuss this, I'm going to go tell the others that the Party Ponies are here," I told the two of them before rushing off awkwardly, eager to get away from Mrs. Weasley so I didn't have to have another weird and tense conversation with her for at least another few hours.

"Right, so we've invited you all here today because we have an announcement," Fred yelled out later on while everybody was eating.

George and Annabeth handed each of us a plate. I briefly saw Hermione's eyes widen in realization from across the tent by the picnic tables. Ron just looked confused but continued to stuff food into his mouth.

I grasped Fred's hand in mine and smiled brightly. "Fred and I got married!"

We grinned widely at one another, briefly kissed, and then dropped our plates.

"OPA!" We both yelled as the plates smashed onto the floor and shattered into pieces.

There was a roar of applause and cheering from my fellow demigods, and I even saw Mr. D lazily clapping his hands. Chiron clapped and smiled widely, whilst the Party Ponies slammed their hooves onto the ground in celebration. Most of the Weasley's and associates were cheering as well. Mrs. Weasley looked deeply upset.

"Alright, you can continue eating," I announced.

"We should get our food," Fred said. I agreed, and together we went to the buffet. I decided on a hot dog with mustard and ketchup, a taco, a blue cookie and a small slice of Mrs. Weasley's apple pie. I grabbed a bottle of butter beer for good measure. Fred piled food onto his plate and we made our way to the nearest table by the buffet.

I slid into the space next to Hermione. Fred quickly sat next to me. The table included Hermione, Ron, Harry, Ginny, George, Angelina, Piper, Percy, Annabeth, and Will.

"Hello everybody!" I cheerfully said. Fred wrapped his arm around me and I felt my stomach flutter with butterflies and my skin become warm at his touch. "Are you guys enjoying the food?"

"Yeah, these hot dogs are really good," Harry said. Ginny nodded in agreement.

"I can't believe you two got married!" Hermione uncharacteristically squealed. "When did it happen?"

"About a month ago," I smiled. "We didn't want to make a big deal of a ceremony... so we went to city hall with Percy, Annabeth, George and Angelina and got married. We wanted a party where we'd have everybody and tell them, but we wanted the party on our own terms."

"Yeah, we didn't want some people coming in and completely disregarding our wishes and trying to get us get married in a church," Fred said. He was talking about his mother, because I had told him what she had said to me earlier and he was upset about it.

There was a sudden scream and I anxiously looked to find the culprit, only to see that it was a young demigod falling off of the rock climbing wall and walking away sopping wet. I chuckled.

After Fred and I finished eating, it became dark outside. Percy connected his demigod approved phone with the aux chord in the Prius and started playing a mixture of music genres: pop, punk, rock, the works. There were flashing lights like there was in a nightclub, and it was getting extremely rambunctious. The Party Ponies were getting extremely drunk off of whatever alcohol they had brought and somebody got hit in the face with a hoof.

I weaved in and out of the dancing crowd, Fred pulling me through the gaps of people. We found Chiron, Paul, Sally and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sitting at a table in the back. Well, everybody but Chiron was sitting— he was standing in his full centaur form.

"I'm ecstatic for them," I heard Sally say. "I've never seen Adele so happy as I have recently. You raised a wonderful young man, Molly, Arthur." Paul nodded in agreement.

"I do agree," Chiron said, "I've known Adele her entire life and the way she lights up when she talks about Fred or is even in his presence is something I've seen in few couples throughout the years."

"They do seem very happy together," Mr. Weasley said in agreement. "Now, Paul, how do these phones work without being connected to something?"

Paul and Mr. Weasley began their own conversation. Mr. Weasley's bright blue eyes were rapt with attention as Paul explained the mechanisms of a cell phone.

"It's just... She would've made such a lovely bride," Mrs. Weasley bemoaned.

"What a shame she's fucked in the head," I thought to myself.

I had hoped that Fred didn't hear what his mother said, because it hurt for me to hear it, and I imagined that he would feel even worse about it since it came from his own mother. Alas, he had heard it.

"She was a lovely bride," Fred said, causing the people sitting at the table to jump in surprise. Chiron simply chuckled at the expense of the four. "And now she's a lovely wife."

I wrapped my arms around Fred's waist and rested my head into his side despite the fact that the summer air had not cooled off as the night went on.

"Sorry for not telling you, Mrs. Weasley," I said to my mother-in-law. "It's just... big, fluffy weddings aren't really our style. But we wanted to celebrate with everybody so we threw this party-"

As soon as I said the word party I heard glass break and somebody (most likely the ever so wonderful Mr. D) complaining about not winning in a round of Uno. I winced.

"Did you at least take the Weasley name?" Mrs. Weasley asked me, almost as if she was waiting for at least some sort of traditional thing to have been involved in our marriage.

"Uhm," I said, preparing to brace myself for whatever came next, "Professionally, I'm still going to be known as Adele Black. But any kids that Fred and I have, if any, will have a hyphenated last name."

"But anyways, we have pictures from the day we got married in a photo album at home. Maybe tomorrow you and Dad could come over to look at them?" Fred rushed out. Mrs. Weasley immediately softened at the idea of seeing the pictures.

"That would be wonderful," she said. "And Adele, call me Molly."

I nodded. "Alright then. Well, I'm going to go and—"

Suddenly, I saw a quaffle dart across the tent. It then hit somebody in the end behind me.

"Oops, sorry Dad!" I heard Percy sheepishly yell out. I turned to where he was and saw that he, Harry, Annabeth and Ginny were all in a large uneven circle where they were tossing (more like chucking) the ball around. I then stiffened because I realized that Percy had said dad, and that meant—

"I wasn't invited to the party?" Poseidon said accusingly, tapping me on the shoulder. I swiveled around to face the god. He was wearing his typical khaki Bermuda shorts and a Tommy Bahama Hawaiian shirt that looked like it would belong to somebody who lived at Margaritaville.

"Uhm, well, you see, I didn't think you'd want to come because you don't really like me," I awkwardly said, bracing for incineration.

Poseidon snorted. "What is it with spawns of Athena thinking I hate them?"

"You don't have the best track record," I bluntly said before covering my mouth in shock. "I didn't mean that."

"I can still turn you into a dolphin—"

"Barnacle Boy! Stop threatening my daughter!" I heard Athena scowl. I let out breath. Of course the gods would crash the party.

"Please, I would never," Poseidon scoffed.

"Dad! You've got to try this blue blended margarita," Percy suddenly appeared with a drink in his hand.

I whipped around to face Percy, my eyes narrowing. My blonde pony tail almost hit Molly in the face. "And where did you get that?"

Percy faltered as he handed the glass to his father. His face drained of color. "Well, you're not going to believe this, but Argus has a slushy machine, and he brought it, and Pollux had alcohol and put it in."

I put my hands on my hips. "You expect me to believe that Argus has a slushy machine?"

"Yes," Percy said. He sounded like an idiot, and his father guffawed.

"Argus, the guy whose a typical blonde surfer dude, except he has 100 eyes? And one on his tongue, so he hardly ever speaks? That Argus?" I asked him. "Argus, who is in charge of security at Camp? The guy who would never let a bottle of any sort of alcohol into Camp? Percy, you've said a lot of things, but this has to be one of the stupidest," I told him.

"Alright, George and I supplied the slushy machine," Fred admitted. "But it was just for slushies! We weren't expecting there to be alcohol in them!"

"I don't blame you, dear," I told Fred. "Besides, you're 23, and allowed to drink. Percy, on the other hand, hasn't turned 21 yet, and if the cops were to show up, everybody would be in a lot of trouble."

"Ugh, such a stickler to the rules!" Poseidon groaned, clapping Percy on the back and downing the drink.

"Laws are in place for a reason," Athena said with her hands on her hips. "It's wise to not break them, especially one like this. Could you imagine if any of these kids got into a car? Remember the last time Apollo got drunk? He got into his chariot and there was a huge solar flare! Wiped out power grids for days!"

Poseidon became silent. "I suppose... Just... drink responsibly. I'm going to get another one of those margaritas."

He left, and Athena followed him. The two of them bantered on and on.

"That was—"

"Percy, I don't care that it's spiked," I said. I caught Sally's eyes and saw that they had an amused glint to them, much like Paul and Arthur's. Chiron's looked exasperated and Molly's looked disappointed.

"Yeah mate," Fred grinned, clapping him on the back, "the whole goal was to get this party popping. Make it one nobody will forget."

"The cans of lemonade? Those are Mike's Hard Lemonade, I just put a spell on the can to make it look like it was some random gross brand of lemonade," I said, picking at my nail. "Besides, I really just kind of wanted to see my mom rip one into your dad." A evil grin slithered onto my face.

Molly let out a shocked gasp, alarmed at my behavior. Arthur and Paul let out hearty laughs, Chiron chuckled and Sally even let out a laugh.

"You're such a snake," Percy rolled his eyes.

"Snakes are one of my mother's symbols," I playfully smirked.

"Sometimes I wonder how you didn't get into Slytherin," Fred said, looking at me with pride.

I shrugged. "My bravery probably just outweighed my self-preservation."

"No, Adele's just a snake. She's a Gemini, after all," Percy said with a snarky grin before running off.

"Hey, get back here you jerk!" I yelled out to him before running after him.

It was late. It was super late. The fireworks put on by Fred and George had gone off with out a hitch. Everybody got turnt. Mr. D finally won at Uno.

"We should clean up," I groaned. I was currently sitting down on the ground inside the tent, curled up into Fred's side. He was playing with my hands and I played with his.

"We can do it in the morning," Fred whispered into my ear. "We'll get these gits to help us too."

The gits in question happened to be most of the Weasley's and associates, as well as the campers I was closest too. Everybody was pretty much zonked out; light snores erupted every so often. Mr. D was even asleep in his chair with a Diet Coke in hand.

"Yeah," I yawned. "Sounds good."

I snuggled closer into Fred's side and he laid down. I felt my eyes flutter shut, and I hoped that I dreamed of the moments that made Fred and I.