Prompt Twenty-Four: Taking A Chance
Title: Taking a Chance
Author:
gijane7702
Format & Word Count: Fic//2575
Rating: PG13/R
Warning(s): Deathly Hallows spoilers//mentions of sexual intercourse; domestic dispute; nakedness
Prompt: #24- lyrics from “Stay the Night” by Ghosts
Summary: “…Tonks, her hair miraculously returned to vividest pink; Remus Lupin, which whom she seemed to be holding hands…” (Half-Blood Prince, p 641-American edition)
Author’s Notes: We’ve all done “The Discussion” fics, but now I can do one that’s canon compliant!
Goodness, this took all day to write. Silly thunderstorm. Unbeat’ed. Please point out any silly mistakes.
Thanks go to
teddy_tips and
patriot_jackie who IM’ed with me and put up with me as I wrote.
I’m staring out the window down onto Main Street, Hogsmeade. Everything’s blurry. I don’t know it’s because of the gently falling rain or because of my tears. Plopping down into the window seat, I draw my knees up to my chest and lay my head on them. I can’t believe what I did.
Earlier this evening (or should I say last night, since it’s dawn of the next day now), I confronted Remus: in front of the children and most of the Order, at Hogwarts, while Bill Weasley’s injured, Molly and Fleur are reconciling, we’re all still reeling from Snape’s defection, and from Dumbledore’s death.
I let out a groan that almost drowns out the soft knock on the door. Not wanting to talk to anyone, I don’t respond. There is another knock, this one louder and more insistent, but I ignore it too. If it was anyone important, Order or Ministry, they would have identified themselves by now.
As if on cue as I’m thinking that, a hoarse voice from the other side of the door quietly says, “Nymphadora, its Remus.”
My head jerks up from my knees. Remus. He’s the last person I thought that would come looking for me. I wipe my face with the back of my hand as I stand, thinking that I must look like a total mess. What does it matter? He’s seen me looking my best…and my worst.
I’m about to open the door when I pause. I should really let him go. Why put myself through another confrontation where he’s just going to reject me again. I release the doorknob and step back from the door.
“Nymphadora,” Remus says quietly. “Open up and let me in.”
I can almost see him…feel him… through the thick oak door. I place one hand up on it and then jump back from the heat, which I don’t know is real or imagined. I go to open the door, then change my mind again.
“Dora love.” I pause as he uses his pet name for me. I haven’t heard it in nearly a year. “Dora love,” Remus repeats, “please, let me in. We need to talk.” I remain silent so he continues, “I know you’re in there, sweetheart. Proudfoot let me in.”
Damned Proudfoot. I’m standing there mentally cursing him out and thinking of what hexes I’m going to use on him when the knob turns and the door opens. I look up into Remus’ beautiful, brilliant blue eyes and my mind goes blank (like it always does).
“The door wasn’t locked,” he says simply to me.
I knew it wasn’t, but I just stare at him. He smiles lopsidedly at me, closes the door, and walks into my room. I turn around and watch as Remus makes his way over to the bed and sits down on it. “What are you doing here?” I finally croak out.
He looks up from fiddling with a loose thread on the blanket. “We need to talk.”
I call on all the etiquette training that my mother forced into me: I assume a proper, but blank, look on my face and my spine straightens until I think it’s going to crack. “Whatever about?” I ask him over politely.
Remus frowns, knowing exactly what I’m doing. “Us,” he says quietly.
I smile coldly. “There is no ‘us’. There hasn’t been an ‘us’ for almost a year.” I pause, then add, “I would like to formally apologise for-”
“Stop it, Dora!” Remus commands, his eyes flashing.
“-the scene I caused this evening. It shan’t ever happen again,” I plough on, ignoring him.
“Dora…” he growls and I know it’s really angering him.
“Thank you for stopping by and checking on me,” I tell him so primly Mum would be proud of me (if she wasn’t a Remus/Dora Supporter, that is) “I shall see you at the next Order meeting.”
I falter then. Would there be another Order meeting now that Dumbledore was dead?
Remus takes advantage of my hesitation: he practically springs off the bed and stalks over to me. He uses his height to his advantage and looks down at me, making me feel small on purpose. “Dora,” he says quietly but so full of…love that it melts the reserve around my heart. “I want to talk about us.”
“I don’t want to,” I whisper back, staring at the floor. “Every time we do, I get hurt. I’m tired of being hurt, Remus.”
Remus places two fingers under my chin and lifts my face up so I’m looking at him. “I know…and I’m so sorry about it.” A tear slips down my cheek and he wipes it away with the pad of his thumb. “I’m so sorry, Dora. Please, don’t cry anymore.”
But I can’t help it as more tears fall. “Sorry,” I mutter, scrubbing them away.
“Don’t apologise to me, Dora. I’m the cause of them. Sweetheart, I see now that Minerva was correct…there is a need for a little more love in this world. There needs to be an ‘us’.”
I blink at him. “What about ‘too old, too poor, too dangerous’?”
He winces as I throw his excuses at him. “Twelve years isn’t really that bad of an age gap,” he tells me.
I gape at him. Did Remus just said that? “Too poor?” I question him.
“You make a very decent living as an Auror. I have Order work to do now, but once the war is over I can go back to tutoring Muggle children. We’ll survive.”
I’m sure my mouth is hung open in shock because Remus smiles at me. “Too dangerous,” I whisper out the final excuse.
“Ah…that one we can’t avoid. But if I take my regiment of Wolfsbane Potion and we take the usual precautions…it’ll be fine.”
“Remus…” I begin, but I stop, not knowing what I want to say. “When…?” is all I manage eventually.
“After you left the Hospital Wing, I followed you but you were too quick for this old man. Sorry,” he says as I scowl at him. “I checked that you were here at the Three Broomsticks, so I went to the Shrieking Shack. I had to think. And I did.” Remus pauses.
“And…” I prompt him, scarcely believing he’s saying this.
“And I came to the conclusion that everyone else…you, your parents, Minerva, Molly, Arthur, Fleur…” I giggle as the list goes on for a bit. He smiles slightly. It is rather amusing, in a twisted way. “You all were correct: I do deserve love. I do deserve you.” His hands have cupped my face. I know he’s going to kiss me, so I pull back. Remus frowns. “Dora?” he questions.
I walk over to the window and sit back down. “I’m sorry, Remus. But I can’t. I can’t…I’ve been hurt too many times.”
He follows me, kneeling down in front of me. “I know,” Remus whispers. “I know I’ve hurt you. I’m so sorry, my love.” He puts his head in my lap and I’m shocked when he begins to cry. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers.
I don’t know how long we sit there, me on the window seat, him kneeling on the floor his head in my lap with me stroking his greying hair (which has a lot more grey in it I notice), but eventually the crick in my back gets to me. I nudge Remus’ shoulder and he looks up at me, his eyes still wet. “My back,” I mutter to him.
He nods his understanding and stands. I do take his offered hand, and then sit down on the bed. Remus is still standing at the window, his hands shoved into his pockets. He only does that when he doesn’t know what to do, so I hold my hand out to him.
Remus shuffles over. I pat the spot on the other side of the bed and he sits down. “We need sleep, darling,” I tell him. He brightens at the term of endearment. “We’ve both been up all night and were both exhausted, both physically and mentally.” I pause. “Can we talk more in the morning?” He nods and we both lay down.
Within minutes I’m giggling because he’s lying on his back stiff as a board, hands at his side. I know he’s trying so hard not to touch me, so I roll over on my side and cuddle up to him. “Go to bed, Remus.”
He mummers contently, holding me close, and we sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I’m awoken by a banging on my door just a few hours later. “Nymphadora! Nymphadora! Open up!”
It’s my mother.
“Bloody hell,” I mutter. “Hold on, Mum!” I yell at her as she continues to hammer on the door.
I stumble out of bed and nearly tear the door off its hinges as I rip it open.
My mother nearly topples me to the floor as she rushes me into a hug. “Oh, Nymphadora, you’re all right!”
“Yeah,” I mumble. My face is pressed into her cloak. “Didn’t the Ministry contact you?”
Mum lets go of me and Dad, right behind her, immediately hugs me. “Yes, Dora, they did. But you mother wanted to see that you were okay with her own eyes.” In a quieter tone, he told me, “They told us what happened to Bill Weasley. It scared her. Remus!” he exclaims in a surprised, but happy, tone.
I turn around to see Mum now hugging a shocked Remus, who’s sitting up in bed. Dad and I exchange glances, and then we begin to laugh at the bewildered look on his face.
“Are you two back together?” Mum asks me.
I’m taken back by the apprehensive, but hopeful, look in her eyes. I know she adores Remus and was ecstatic when we began to date, but I didn’t realise, so absorbed in myself for the past year, how our break-up must have affected her as well. I glance at Remus and know that he’s seen the same look and come to the same conclusion.
“We’re talking, Andromeda,” he tells Mum hoarsely.
Her eyes are bright with unshed tears as she bounces up off the bed and potters back over to me and Dad. “Well…talking is good,” she says, playing with my brown hair. “Daddy and I will leave you alone, Nymphadora, so you can talk. I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“I’m fine, Mum.”
She smiles quickly at me, and then turns back to Remus. “You’re all right?”
“I’m fine, Andromeda.”
“Wonderful. Well, Ted and I will be off. Talk…please. I love you both.”
And with that, they were gone. I’m staring at the closed door when from behind me Remus says, “I didn’t realise how hard she took us breaking up.”
“We didn’t break up, Remus. You broke up with me.” His eyes widen and I wince immediately since it came out sharper than I wanted it to. “Sorry…but it’s true.”
“I’m sorry-” he begins.
“Please…don’t apologise. I know you’re sorry. I’m just cranky. You know what I’m like with not enough sleep.” Remus smirks knowingly. I shoot him a look and he wipes the smirk off immediately. “And I slept in my robes. Ugh! I need a shower.” I as I begin to strip, I catch Remus averting his eyes. “I think you’ve seen it all before,” I tell him sarcastically.
“And then some,” he quips, then his blue eyes go large at his daring.
“There’s my Remus!” I laugh, now completely naked. “I want him back.”
I’m hoping he does what ‘My Remus’ would do in a situation (me totally starkers in front of him) like this. And I’m pleased when he doesn’t disappoint me: he stands up and strips down too.
“Shower together,” Remus asks hopefully.
“It’ll save water,” I tell him back and he grins. That was always his ‘excuse’ for us showering together. I pad over to the bathroom, calling over my shoulder, “Are you coming?”
I burst out laughing as he answers, “Not yet.”
The shower takes a bit longer than it normally would with more touching and feeling going on than actual washing, but no kissing. We’re not back to ‘us’ quite yet.
But it’s a start.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I miss the pink,” Remus whispers to me.
I reach up and touch a limp brown lock. “Me too,” I tell him honestly.
A few hours after our shower, the two of us are lying on the bed on our sides facing each other. I’m dressed in a cami and shorts set, Remus is in one of his t-shirts I nabbed ages ago and his boxers.
“Do you think it’ll be pink again?”
“Probably.”
“When you’re secure that I won’t leave you again,” he said bluntly.
“Yes,” I answer honestly.
Remus makes to say something, but a Patronus comes streaking into the room. The cat, complete with square-framed glasses so reminiscent of its owner’s, perches itself on the end of the bed and meows by way of greeting. It then says, “There will be a meeting tonight at the Hog’s Head Inn. In the sitting room. 7pm. I hope you are both well.”
The spectral cat vanishes and Remus and I look at each other. “A meeting already?” I ask.
“How’d she know we were together?” Remus questions.
“Minerva’s known you how long now?” I ask with an arched eyebrow.
He grins sheepishly. “Since I was eleven. I suppose the meeting is about Dumbledore’s death-”
“And Snape’s defection!” I add hotly. “That-” and I follow with a string of curse words.
“And what the Order is going to do next,” Remus finishes with a sad smile.
“Sorry, not very ladylike, I know.”
“But very Dora-like,” he tells me, leaning over and kissing my forehead.
It’s a gesture that he’s done a thousand times when we were dating. But it’s been almost a year since the last time: when he left. He had kissed my forehead, told me goodbye, and left. I know he’s thinking the same thing when he whispers, “Sorry.”
“Stop telling my your sorry!” I order him.
Then I kiss him. On the mouth. Hard.
His eyes open wide with shock, but he’s soon kissing me back, but chastely. I want more. So I open my mouth and I watch as his eyes slid close in bliss. Remus reaches over and drags me across the bed and up against to him. He kisses me with such passion; it literally takes my breath away.
Our kiss ends and he re-opens those beautiful blue eyes and they lock with my own dark ones. I am in awe at the love reflecting in them and I know right then and there that Remus truly loves me. And that he wants a relationship again. That he’s returned to me. To stay.
I smile. “Wow.”
“Yeah,” he agrees, brushing a strand of hair out of my eyes. “I love you, Dora. I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” I whisper.
Remus grins brightly. He then leans in and says, “Your hair’s a very nice shade of pink.”
I gasp, then reach up and pull the same lock of hair back into my eyes. My hair is pink. Bright, vivid pink. Fuchsia. “Oh…I’m pink.”
“Very pink.”
“I’m pink!” I say excitedly and I lean over and give him a hard quick kiss, which he promptly returns.
Still in his arms, Remus whispers hoarsely. “Marry me, Dora.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
FIN
Author:
gijane7702
Format & Word Count: Fic//2575
Rating: PG13/R
Warning(s): Deathly Hallows spoilers//mentions of sexual intercourse; domestic dispute; nakedness
Prompt: #24- lyrics from “Stay the Night” by Ghosts
Summary: “…Tonks, her hair miraculously returned to vividest pink; Remus Lupin, which whom she seemed to be holding hands…” (Half-Blood Prince, p 641-American edition)
Author’s Notes: We’ve all done “The Discussion” fics, but now I can do one that’s canon compliant!
Goodness, this took all day to write. Silly thunderstorm. Unbeat’ed. Please point out any silly mistakes.
Thanks go to
teddy_tips and
patriot_jackie who IM’ed with me and put up with me as I wrote.
I’m staring out the window down onto Main Street, Hogsmeade. Everything’s blurry. I don’t know it’s because of the gently falling rain or because of my tears. Plopping down into the window seat, I draw my knees up to my chest and lay my head on them. I can’t believe what I did.
Earlier this evening (or should I say last night, since it’s dawn of the next day now), I confronted Remus: in front of the children and most of the Order, at Hogwarts, while Bill Weasley’s injured, Molly and Fleur are reconciling, we’re all still reeling from Snape’s defection, and from Dumbledore’s death.
I let out a groan that almost drowns out the soft knock on the door. Not wanting to talk to anyone, I don’t respond. There is another knock, this one louder and more insistent, but I ignore it too. If it was anyone important, Order or Ministry, they would have identified themselves by now.
As if on cue as I’m thinking that, a hoarse voice from the other side of the door quietly says, “Nymphadora, its Remus.”
My head jerks up from my knees. Remus. He’s the last person I thought that would come looking for me. I wipe my face with the back of my hand as I stand, thinking that I must look like a total mess. What does it matter? He’s seen me looking my best…and my worst.
I’m about to open the door when I pause. I should really let him go. Why put myself through another confrontation where he’s just going to reject me again. I release the doorknob and step back from the door.
“Nymphadora,” Remus says quietly. “Open up and let me in.”
I can almost see him…feel him… through the thick oak door. I place one hand up on it and then jump back from the heat, which I don’t know is real or imagined. I go to open the door, then change my mind again.
“Dora love.” I pause as he uses his pet name for me. I haven’t heard it in nearly a year. “Dora love,” Remus repeats, “please, let me in. We need to talk.” I remain silent so he continues, “I know you’re in there, sweetheart. Proudfoot let me in.”
Damned Proudfoot. I’m standing there mentally cursing him out and thinking of what hexes I’m going to use on him when the knob turns and the door opens. I look up into Remus’ beautiful, brilliant blue eyes and my mind goes blank (like it always does).
“The door wasn’t locked,” he says simply to me.
I knew it wasn’t, but I just stare at him. He smiles lopsidedly at me, closes the door, and walks into my room. I turn around and watch as Remus makes his way over to the bed and sits down on it. “What are you doing here?” I finally croak out.
He looks up from fiddling with a loose thread on the blanket. “We need to talk.”
I call on all the etiquette training that my mother forced into me: I assume a proper, but blank, look on my face and my spine straightens until I think it’s going to crack. “Whatever about?” I ask him over politely.
Remus frowns, knowing exactly what I’m doing. “Us,” he says quietly.
I smile coldly. “There is no ‘us’. There hasn’t been an ‘us’ for almost a year.” I pause, then add, “I would like to formally apologise for-”
“Stop it, Dora!” Remus commands, his eyes flashing.
“-the scene I caused this evening. It shan’t ever happen again,” I plough on, ignoring him.
“Dora…” he growls and I know it’s really angering him.
“Thank you for stopping by and checking on me,” I tell him so primly Mum would be proud of me (if she wasn’t a Remus/Dora Supporter, that is) “I shall see you at the next Order meeting.”
I falter then. Would there be another Order meeting now that Dumbledore was dead?
Remus takes advantage of my hesitation: he practically springs off the bed and stalks over to me. He uses his height to his advantage and looks down at me, making me feel small on purpose. “Dora,” he says quietly but so full of…love that it melts the reserve around my heart. “I want to talk about us.”
“I don’t want to,” I whisper back, staring at the floor. “Every time we do, I get hurt. I’m tired of being hurt, Remus.”
Remus places two fingers under my chin and lifts my face up so I’m looking at him. “I know…and I’m so sorry about it.” A tear slips down my cheek and he wipes it away with the pad of his thumb. “I’m so sorry, Dora. Please, don’t cry anymore.”
But I can’t help it as more tears fall. “Sorry,” I mutter, scrubbing them away.
“Don’t apologise to me, Dora. I’m the cause of them. Sweetheart, I see now that Minerva was correct…there is a need for a little more love in this world. There needs to be an ‘us’.”
I blink at him. “What about ‘too old, too poor, too dangerous’?”
He winces as I throw his excuses at him. “Twelve years isn’t really that bad of an age gap,” he tells me.
I gape at him. Did Remus just said that? “Too poor?” I question him.
“You make a very decent living as an Auror. I have Order work to do now, but once the war is over I can go back to tutoring Muggle children. We’ll survive.”
I’m sure my mouth is hung open in shock because Remus smiles at me. “Too dangerous,” I whisper out the final excuse.
“Ah…that one we can’t avoid. But if I take my regiment of Wolfsbane Potion and we take the usual precautions…it’ll be fine.”
“Remus…” I begin, but I stop, not knowing what I want to say. “When…?” is all I manage eventually.
“After you left the Hospital Wing, I followed you but you were too quick for this old man. Sorry,” he says as I scowl at him. “I checked that you were here at the Three Broomsticks, so I went to the Shrieking Shack. I had to think. And I did.” Remus pauses.
“And…” I prompt him, scarcely believing he’s saying this.
“And I came to the conclusion that everyone else…you, your parents, Minerva, Molly, Arthur, Fleur…” I giggle as the list goes on for a bit. He smiles slightly. It is rather amusing, in a twisted way. “You all were correct: I do deserve love. I do deserve you.” His hands have cupped my face. I know he’s going to kiss me, so I pull back. Remus frowns. “Dora?” he questions.
I walk over to the window and sit back down. “I’m sorry, Remus. But I can’t. I can’t…I’ve been hurt too many times.”
He follows me, kneeling down in front of me. “I know,” Remus whispers. “I know I’ve hurt you. I’m so sorry, my love.” He puts his head in my lap and I’m shocked when he begins to cry. “I’m so sorry,” he whispers.
I don’t know how long we sit there, me on the window seat, him kneeling on the floor his head in my lap with me stroking his greying hair (which has a lot more grey in it I notice), but eventually the crick in my back gets to me. I nudge Remus’ shoulder and he looks up at me, his eyes still wet. “My back,” I mutter to him.
He nods his understanding and stands. I do take his offered hand, and then sit down on the bed. Remus is still standing at the window, his hands shoved into his pockets. He only does that when he doesn’t know what to do, so I hold my hand out to him.
Remus shuffles over. I pat the spot on the other side of the bed and he sits down. “We need sleep, darling,” I tell him. He brightens at the term of endearment. “We’ve both been up all night and were both exhausted, both physically and mentally.” I pause. “Can we talk more in the morning?” He nods and we both lay down.
Within minutes I’m giggling because he’s lying on his back stiff as a board, hands at his side. I know he’s trying so hard not to touch me, so I roll over on my side and cuddle up to him. “Go to bed, Remus.”
He mummers contently, holding me close, and we sleep.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
I’m awoken by a banging on my door just a few hours later. “Nymphadora! Nymphadora! Open up!”
It’s my mother.
“Bloody hell,” I mutter. “Hold on, Mum!” I yell at her as she continues to hammer on the door.
I stumble out of bed and nearly tear the door off its hinges as I rip it open.
My mother nearly topples me to the floor as she rushes me into a hug. “Oh, Nymphadora, you’re all right!”
“Yeah,” I mumble. My face is pressed into her cloak. “Didn’t the Ministry contact you?”
Mum lets go of me and Dad, right behind her, immediately hugs me. “Yes, Dora, they did. But you mother wanted to see that you were okay with her own eyes.” In a quieter tone, he told me, “They told us what happened to Bill Weasley. It scared her. Remus!” he exclaims in a surprised, but happy, tone.
I turn around to see Mum now hugging a shocked Remus, who’s sitting up in bed. Dad and I exchange glances, and then we begin to laugh at the bewildered look on his face.
“Are you two back together?” Mum asks me.
I’m taken back by the apprehensive, but hopeful, look in her eyes. I know she adores Remus and was ecstatic when we began to date, but I didn’t realise, so absorbed in myself for the past year, how our break-up must have affected her as well. I glance at Remus and know that he’s seen the same look and come to the same conclusion.
“We’re talking, Andromeda,” he tells Mum hoarsely.
Her eyes are bright with unshed tears as she bounces up off the bed and potters back over to me and Dad. “Well…talking is good,” she says, playing with my brown hair. “Daddy and I will leave you alone, Nymphadora, so you can talk. I just wanted to make sure you were all right.”
“I’m fine, Mum.”
She smiles quickly at me, and then turns back to Remus. “You’re all right?”
“I’m fine, Andromeda.”
“Wonderful. Well, Ted and I will be off. Talk…please. I love you both.”
And with that, they were gone. I’m staring at the closed door when from behind me Remus says, “I didn’t realise how hard she took us breaking up.”
“We didn’t break up, Remus. You broke up with me.” His eyes widen and I wince immediately since it came out sharper than I wanted it to. “Sorry…but it’s true.”
“I’m sorry-” he begins.
“Please…don’t apologise. I know you’re sorry. I’m just cranky. You know what I’m like with not enough sleep.” Remus smirks knowingly. I shoot him a look and he wipes the smirk off immediately. “And I slept in my robes. Ugh! I need a shower.” I as I begin to strip, I catch Remus averting his eyes. “I think you’ve seen it all before,” I tell him sarcastically.
“And then some,” he quips, then his blue eyes go large at his daring.
“There’s my Remus!” I laugh, now completely naked. “I want him back.”
I’m hoping he does what ‘My Remus’ would do in a situation (me totally starkers in front of him) like this. And I’m pleased when he doesn’t disappoint me: he stands up and strips down too.
“Shower together,” Remus asks hopefully.
“It’ll save water,” I tell him back and he grins. That was always his ‘excuse’ for us showering together. I pad over to the bathroom, calling over my shoulder, “Are you coming?”
I burst out laughing as he answers, “Not yet.”
The shower takes a bit longer than it normally would with more touching and feeling going on than actual washing, but no kissing. We’re not back to ‘us’ quite yet.
But it’s a start.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“I miss the pink,” Remus whispers to me.
I reach up and touch a limp brown lock. “Me too,” I tell him honestly.
A few hours after our shower, the two of us are lying on the bed on our sides facing each other. I’m dressed in a cami and shorts set, Remus is in one of his t-shirts I nabbed ages ago and his boxers.
“Do you think it’ll be pink again?”
“Probably.”
“When you’re secure that I won’t leave you again,” he said bluntly.
“Yes,” I answer honestly.
Remus makes to say something, but a Patronus comes streaking into the room. The cat, complete with square-framed glasses so reminiscent of its owner’s, perches itself on the end of the bed and meows by way of greeting. It then says, “There will be a meeting tonight at the Hog’s Head Inn. In the sitting room. 7pm. I hope you are both well.”
The spectral cat vanishes and Remus and I look at each other. “A meeting already?” I ask.
“How’d she know we were together?” Remus questions.
“Minerva’s known you how long now?” I ask with an arched eyebrow.
He grins sheepishly. “Since I was eleven. I suppose the meeting is about Dumbledore’s death-”
“And Snape’s defection!” I add hotly. “That-” and I follow with a string of curse words.
“And what the Order is going to do next,” Remus finishes with a sad smile.
“Sorry, not very ladylike, I know.”
“But very Dora-like,” he tells me, leaning over and kissing my forehead.
It’s a gesture that he’s done a thousand times when we were dating. But it’s been almost a year since the last time: when he left. He had kissed my forehead, told me goodbye, and left. I know he’s thinking the same thing when he whispers, “Sorry.”
“Stop telling my your sorry!” I order him.
Then I kiss him. On the mouth. Hard.
His eyes open wide with shock, but he’s soon kissing me back, but chastely. I want more. So I open my mouth and I watch as his eyes slid close in bliss. Remus reaches over and drags me across the bed and up against to him. He kisses me with such passion; it literally takes my breath away.
Our kiss ends and he re-opens those beautiful blue eyes and they lock with my own dark ones. I am in awe at the love reflecting in them and I know right then and there that Remus truly loves me. And that he wants a relationship again. That he’s returned to me. To stay.
I smile. “Wow.”
“Yeah,” he agrees, brushing a strand of hair out of my eyes. “I love you, Dora. I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” I whisper.
Remus grins brightly. He then leans in and says, “Your hair’s a very nice shade of pink.”
I gasp, then reach up and pull the same lock of hair back into my eyes. My hair is pink. Bright, vivid pink. Fuchsia. “Oh…I’m pink.”
“Very pink.”
“I’m pink!” I say excitedly and I lean over and give him a hard quick kiss, which he promptly returns.
Still in his arms, Remus whispers hoarsely. “Marry me, Dora.”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
FIN