Once the toasts were finished and the empty plates had been vanished, the red-headed ushers began levitating the tables to the sides of the marquee to create a dance floor in the centre. Or, rather, that was what they were supposed to be doing. Instead, the brothers had become distracted, and were now directing tables to knock into one another in what appeared to be a game that only they knew the rules of.

Across the room, Charlie made eye contact with Artemis before sending his table zooming into Bill's. At Artemis' side, their former Transfiguration professor was smiling through tight lips as she watched the scene.

"They never do grow up, do they?" said Professor McGonagall, with an almost imperceptible shake of her head.

"Boys, you mean?" Artemis asked her.

"I was going to say 'men', but I dare say that the terms could be used interchangeably."

Artemis laughed, and looked back at the still-bantering brothers. From the looks of things, Bill had summoned one of Charlie's shoes from his foot. He was now holding it high above his head, out of Charlie's reach, whilst George held him back.

"I dare say so, too," Artemis murmured sagely.

From the other side of the marquee, Fleur appeared, Dominique in her arms. She walked purposefully across the empty space that had minutes earlier been filled with tables and thrust the baby into the arms of her husband. She hissed something into his ear, and his face became suddenly serious. He nodded earnestly, returned his brother's shoe, and kissed his wife on the cheek.

"Well," said Professor McGonagall, raising her eyebrows and widening her eyes slightly. Artemis recognised her facial expression from years of lessons with her: she was impressed. "That one has been well-trained, at least."

Artemis crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"I'll have you know that my one is also very well-trained," she informed her old teacher, who chuckled quietly.

"I do know, Miss Hexley. He has been for a long time."

With that, Professor McGonagall gave Artemis another thin-lipped smile and walked away. Across the marquee, Charlie had replaced his shoe and was now fiddling with an old gramophone.

Figuring that he could probably do with her input, Artemis started to walk over to him, her high-heeled shoes clicking with each step she took across the dancefloor. The open space had already been commandeered by two of the only guests that were shorter than her: her goddaughter Victoire and Teddy Lupin the pageboy. Apparently inspired by Victoire's father and uncles' antics, the pair had begun to chase one another around the dancefloor at speed.

As the two of them ran past Artemis, Teddy dodged her, but at only three years old, Victoire was not so agile. She nearly collided with Artemis' leg, and as Artemis stepped sideways to avoid her, she found herself falling.

Whether the floor was slippery, or uneven, or whether she was just out of practice when it came to wearing heels, she didn't know. She didn't have much time to think about what the reason was; she only had time to make the snap decision to put her arms out in front of her as she plummeted face first towards the ground, hitting it with an audible smack.

"Are you okay, Artemis?" said a gentle voice. Artemis looked up to see Arthur Weasley standing over her. He helped her back onto her feet, and she brushed herself off, and adjusted the front of her dress. Two more red-haired men rushed over to her, as well as Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"I'm fine, stop fussing."

Artemis really was fine, but Kingsley and Arthur both looked unconvinced.

"Are you sure? That was a pretty impressive fall you had there, Tiny," Kingsley said.

As Kingsley frowned deeply, Charlie began to examine Artemis' scuffed palms. She rolled her eyes.

"For Merlin's sake, I just tripped over. I've had much worse injuries playing bloody Quidditch, let alone in the rest of my life." She tugged her hands away from Charlie's and pulled out her wand. "Episkey!"

She healed the grazes on her hands, then the cut on her knee.

"There's one on your chin, too," Charlie told her, and she handed him her wand to do that one for her.

"See, I'm fine. Just my dignity that's been damaged."

"Understandable. I think that everyone has now seen entirely far too much of you today," muttered Bill, half-hugging, half-restraining his oldest daughter.

"Well, at least I have knickers on."

"Yes, Artemis, that's exactly the most inappropriate thing you could say to this particular group of people."

Artemis pulled a face at Bill. Charlie's face was passive, but as her eyes met his, he raised his eyebrows fractionally. Their father cleared his throat.

"Why don't you go and clean yourself up, Artemis?" he suggested. "If you go back inside the house, Ginny's makeup might still be out. I'm sure she won't mind you borrowing some."

Having reassured the group of would-be knights in shining armour that she really didn't require anyone's help to walk the short distance to the house, Artemis went to clean herself up.

In the Weasleys' bathroom mirror, she assessed the damage. There was very little, the cuts and grazes having already been healed, but there was still blood on her chin, her knee and the heels of her hands. She washed them all off, and padded into the room that used to be Ginny's bedroom. The decor was largely unchanged, and Artemis found everything she needed in the drawer of the dressing table.

She touched up her makeup, and decided to return to the party. Hopefully, Charlie would have sorted out the music by now. She opened the door of Ginny's old bedroom, to find Mrs Weasley on the other side of it.

"Merlin, Molly! What are you sneaking around for?"

"Sorry, dear," said Mrs Weasley, frowning deeply at her. "Arthur said you'd fallen over, I just wanted to make sure that you were okay."

"I'm fine. Thank you, though."

"Are you sure you don't need me to contact a Healer?"

"Really, Molly, there's nothing to worry about." Artemis almost laughed. Mrs Weasley had always known how to fuss over people. "They were all making a mountain out of a gnomehill, I swear."

"Well, if you're certain..."

"Positive."

Molly shook her head and sighed deeply with her eyes closed. When they opened again, they had a peculiar expression in them. And... was she about to cry?

"Oh, Artemis," she said, holding her arms out to her. "My beautiful, brave girl."

"Um, thanks," said Artemis. She took a step backwards. "Molly, is everything okay?"

"Everything is wonderful, Artemis. And I... I'm delighted."

"That's good. I'm, um... happy for you."

"No, dear," Mrs Weasley sniffed. "I'm happy for you."

Before Artemis had a chance to do or say anything in response, Molly had thrown her arms around her and pulled her into a very tight hug, pressing Artemis' face into her bosom. After a longer time than Artemis was strictly comfortable with, Mrs Weasley released her grip and held her at arm's length, still staring at her and blinking back tears.

"Oh, right." Artemis nodded, though she had no idea what was happening to her. Perhaps Mrs Weasley had drunk too much champagne during the speeches. It was an emotional day for her, after all. "You know, Molly. That's brilliant. I'm really glad that you're so happy."

"How could I not be? This is so wonderful. Sorry, dear, I'm just overjoyed. I think... you know, this might be the best day of my life."

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Of course, it would be better if you and Charlie were married."

Artemis blinked. "You what?"

"No, no. I'm not judging, I understand that it's the twenty-first century now, and you're both adults, and, let's be honest, it would be rather hypocritical of me to — never mind that," Mrs Weasley took her first breath in what might have been almost a minute. "But, really, Artemis, dear, you should be considering doing it as soon as possible. Really, I'm surprised you aren't already. You've been together for a few years, and you are both thirty now, after all. Maybe this will be the push that both of you need. A blessing in disguise, if you will, not that it isn't already a blessing."

"Wait." Artemis opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before she could form a full sentence. "You want us to get married?"

"I do think it would be the best course of action. We could do it here, a small ceremony, a little party. It wouldn't take too much organising, I'm sure if Charlie's work let him have the time off we could get everything sorted for a couple of months' time."

"A couple of months?"

"Maybe less if we really crack on, limit bits and bobs here and there." Mrs Weasley patted Artemis on the cheek. "Don't look so worried, dear. We'll sort it all out."

Artemis screwed her eyes tight and opened them again. Mrs Weasley was still in front of her. She pinched herself. It hurt. She really wasn't dreaming, then.

"I don't need it sorted out, Molly," she said, her heart starting to pound wildly. "I don't want to get married!"

"Don't you want to be a proper family?"

"I... I thought..." Artemis felt her chest tighten, a pain settling between her ribs. "Am I not already family?"

"Well, I just meant that it would be good idea to make it official. Really be a part of the family."

The room started to spin around Artemis. At least, that's what it felt like. Maybe she had hit her head too many times today. Maybe Molly had, too.

Mrs Weasley sighed, and reached a hand out to hers.

"I know this is all a lot to deal with. Trust me, I've been there," she said kindly, patting Artemis on the wrist. "I think Charlie would say the same as me, though. What has he said to you about it?"

"He... Nothing. We never... We haven't—"

"Oh," Mrs Weasley's eyes widened and her eyebrows shot upwards. "Oh, Artemis. You've not spoken about this with Charlie yet, have you?"

"No," replied Artemis.

"So, he has no idea what's going on right now?"

Artemis had to laugh at that. "Molly, I have no idea what's going on right now!"

"That's perfectly normal, dear. Everyone feels like that to start with, but you'll figure it out eventually."

"Thank Godric for that," Artemis muttered under her breath.

"It's much easier if you aren't doing it alone, though. You really should talk to Charlie," Molly nodded. She sighed again, and let out a small giggle. "Although, I'm surprised he hasn't noticed. That's boys for you, I suppose. It's just that it's so obvious."

"Is it?" Artemis wrinkled her nose. She didn't think that anything about this was obvious.

"I'd say so. I mean, we can all see that your breasts have gotten bigger." At Molly's observation, Artemis instinctively put a hand in front of her chest. She should never have listened to Charlie about the dress. "And then, at the toast, I saw that you didn't drink the champagne—"

Suddenly, Artemis realised what Molly meant. She grimaced. This conversation was about to become even less fun.

"— and there's just this glow about you. I noticed it when you came in just before the speeches," Molly chuckled, completely oblivious to the fact that Artemis' face had turned a spectacular shade of beetroot. "Of course, I was looking out for it then, because Charlie had just made that comment about your morning sickness."

"Hang on." Artemis held up a hand. "Charlie made a what about my what, now?"

"He told me that you were vomiting this morning."

"Did he really?" said Artemis, her voice a low growl.

"Like I said, I'm surprised he's not worked it all out," Mrs Weasley shook her head. "I know he's not as academic as Bill or Percy—"

"Molly!"

"— but he's clever in other ways, and normally very observant, especially when it comes to, well... you."

Artemis softened slightly, despite her rapidly increasing anger. Mrs Weasley was Charlie's mum, and she was trying to be kind to her, even if she apparently didn't think that she counted as family.

"Look, Molly, I think that Charlie might—"

"I agree. You need to talk to Charlie before we do anything else."

"The thing is, Molly, there's nothing to talk—"

"Once you've spoken to each other, we can all decide what to do about the wedding."

"I don't want—"

"You two are coming back in the morning to help take down the marquee, we can discuss it then. Unless you don't want to tell him until tomorrow, that's understandable, there's a lot going on today, after all."

"No, listen—"

"Don't fret, dear. I won't go spilling the beans," Mrs Weasley said, and she started to back away through the door, tapping her nose with her forefinger. "Your secret's safe with me."

"There's no secret!"

Mrs Weasley said nothing, but as she walked away Artemis heard her make a high pitched squeaking noise.

"Molly, wait. Molly. Molly."

But Mrs Weasley had already left. Artemis exhaled loudly, before exiting Ginny's old room and bellowing down the darkened staircase:

"MOLLY!"

There was no answer. Mrs Weasley was gone. Artemis slammed her hands to her forehead and made a strangled sound somewhere between a scream and a growl. Moving her hands away from her face, she clenched her fists and sighed. What kind of ridiculous mess of a situation was this? How did this even happen?

Well, the answer to that question was simple enough: Charlie. Bloody Charlie. She shook her head, fuming.

Forget marrying him. She was going to murder him.