Fic: I Ask You To Be Mine
Title: I Ask You To Be Mine
Author: carnivalgirl
Ratings: G. Severe fluff warning.
Format & Word Count:Fic, 3883 words
Prompts: Enchanted snow and "Well, think back… Have you ever let it slip that you'd like to go out in public with the words 'My Sweetheart' round your neck?" (HBP)
Summary: June between HBP and DH, and Remus is ready to propose to Tonks, but there's a little problem with the ring. Six months later on Christmas Day, she'll find out how he solved it, and they look to the past, present and future.
Author's Note: HUGE thanks to my beta reader an_ardent_rain. Title comes from The Beatles song (can always rely on the Beatles, eh?) 'Should Have Known Better' and a 'Corpse Bride' quote that would have been the title were it not so long: 'With this ring, I ask you to be mine'.
Part One
It was the twenty-fifth of June, 1997, and set to be a memorable date. Tonight, Remus Lupin was going to propose marriage to the love of his life, Nymphadora Tonks, and on the whole he was also looking forward to it. The thought of being engaged to her, and marrying her when all this was over would sustain him through any battle and any hardship, provided she said yes of course, and judging by the way she kept casually dropping Bill and Fleur's wedding into conversation she almost certainly would. She had been through so much strain this year, and he was responsible for a lot of it, and so now he couldn't wait to make one of her dreams come true.
It was not only a momentous occasion for Remus and Tonks and their relationship, but for the history of the Lupin family, as the engagement ring was actually older than either of them. It was an antique; a thin silver band set with two opals, and Remus's father, John Lupin had bought it to propose to his mother, Élodie Morhange, over forty years ago. Seventeen years prior to this day, it had been passed down, completely unexpectedly, to Remus.
He examined the collection of items that his mother had been wearing at the point of her death. It was very little, enough to hold in one hand. A cheap watch, a necklace he knew was second-hand, her wedding ring, and this beautiful, shining engagement ring.
"I think you should put this back on," he said to the undertaker's assistant. "She was very fond of it."
The assistant was very young, probably the same age as he was, but he knew his job. "The will stated that all material possessions belong to the deceased were to go to her son. Perhaps your mother thought, Mr Lupin, that you might one day find a fiancée to give this to."
"I very much doubt that these days."
The assistant's face expressed sympathy. Many of their generation had lost loved ones, and he had probably witnessed many a broken-hearted soul left behind. Remus was fortunate in that that the only real romantic relationships he had had up to this point had ended amicably, not tragically. Still his had not stopped him from feeling pessimistic about it. How and why would any woman choose him to spend the rest of her life with?
"There's always hope, you know," he said, closing Remus's hand over the items. "Even in times like these."
It was a message he'd heard many times. From Sirius...James...Lily....and of course, Mama. Whatever he thought of his future, Remus couldn't imagine giving anyone the ring anyway. It was Mama's, and hers only.
An awful lot had changed since then. There was still a war, and people were still losing their partners, though thanks to his quick dodge in the Battle of Hogwarts Tonks still had him around. He was still jobless, still a werewolf, and had more regrets and more cause for despair than his twenty-year-old self might have thought possible. He had kept the ring with him on all his misadventures, and never even considered selling it, even when he had reluctantly sold a number of other valuables for the sake of a little more rent money. Upon reflection he had thought this was out of affection for his mother, and a desire to keep some part of the family going. Even when he reflected as an adult he couldn't fully imagine the hardships they must have faced with him, and the guilt, especially on his poor father who had never been able to forgive himself about Greyback. They stood by each other and understood each other, and their happiness and goodness had ensured his. What was more, for a long time he unquestioningly believed that he would never find someone to stand by him in the same way, and that the family would die out with him.
Then again, now that he had found her, he sometimes wondered if it was an unconscious act of destiny.
For all that he had thought about the ring being Mama's, he now felt it was meant for Tonks. The opals were especially reminiscent of her; like them, she had many colours and could look different at any moment, but was always beautiful.
Even this morning, snoring on their bed with her pink hair all over the place and her mouth wide open and giving out that 'morning breath' smell. He watched her for a second, then gently whispered in her ear, "Tonks, are you asleep?"
This got a loud snore in response. He grinned. He had some time.
He moved out of bed extremely carefully and went to the wardrobe where she had put away his old 'Professor R.J Lupin' suitcase. The ring was in a secret woollen compartment in there. He hadn't removed it from there since he had allowed his six-year-old cousin to try it on, only for her to then show it to her toddler brother, who swallowed. Order was restored after a series of useful spells, but he had decided that keeping it in the same place was the only way to keep it safe and perfect.
He had been wrong. When he removed the ring, the opal was in fine condition, but the silver was now covered in a layer of horrible black stuff, with some patches of copper. A little tarnishing sometimes made the thing look older and more valuable, but this ring looked ruined. He could never present it to Tonks like this! He was crushed with disappointment; she was expecting him to make her dinner tonight, and then they were planning to spend the evening on the balcony because the night was expected to be dry and warm. It had been the perfect night to propose, and now..
He decided there was no time to lose. He went, very quietly but hurriedly, to the living room to find his spellbook.
"Tap, tap dancing, tardiness, target, tarmac, tarnish!" He rapidly turned to the page where the spell was, only to find a note saying 'For particularly bad tarnishes, consult a professional.'
So, when Tonks had left for work, Remus went to the antique shop in Diagon Alley, which was run by an old man who remembered selling the ring years ago. He was a short fellow with wisp white hair and long patchwork robes with all kinds of colours. He examined the ring with a tiny gold magnifying glass, and murmured the diagnosis to himself. It was an appalling case of tarnishing.
"I have just the potion to treat this tarnish," he said. "But," and his eyes took in Remus's patched robes and untidy hair, "the service will cost you four Galleons."
Remus sighed - four Galleons was four-fifths of a werewolf's weekly unemployment benefit. However, a new ring would be quadruple the price. He handed over the money, and in no time at all the ring was suspended in a beaker full of pink liquid on the counter.
"This will only take ten minutes," he reassured Remus. "You will need to take better care of it in the future though. I have a leaflet that might interest you..."
Remus was consulting this when he fancied he saw a twinkle out of the corner of his eye. He ignored it, thinking it was a trick of the light, but it persisted, and when he looked up he saw that the ring was glowing. He had never seen anything like it.
"Is...is it meant to do that?" he said, pointing and gaping at the beaker.
The shop-owner looked at it without seeming surprised. "No...I expect it has one of these charms that we put on engagement rings sometimes. In conditions of extreme heat or cold, or when submerged in water, the ring will glow with a certain message. Most choose the name of the beloved."
Remus felt a feeling of dread rising. Oh, God, he thought. Please no, please no, please no...
He leant forwards and looked closely at the ring. "ÉLODIE" was printed on it in copperplate writing which shone beautifully. Apparently Dad had been a bit of a romantic. Remus knew Tonks was kind-hearted and would forgive it, but she deserved better than to see another woman's name glowing from her engagement ring whenever she touched something wet, even if that woman was Remus's mother, not his ex-wife.
The shop-owner heard the low groan coming from Remus's throat and said gently, "I...take it your lady's name is not Élodie?"
"No, definitely not. It was my mother's name."
"Ah, yes. Actually I think I may have put this charm on myself, unless it was another Élodie, which seems rather unlikely. If your father had only mentioned it was an heirloom, we could have..."
"Um, well...I'm not sure it was intended to be one," Remus admitted. "It's just that...I could never afford a new ring, and I think my mother decided to prepare me in advance..."
The old man gave him a sympathetic look. "It's not how the heirloom gets passed down, but who passes it down, and what the heir does with it, that matters."
"Is there anything you can do?
"Well...really the whole point of the charm is that it's permanent, just as the marriage should be."
And the family, Remus thought, though he didn't imagine he and Tonks would be continuing the line.
"I don't think I could get rid of the charm..."
Remus sighed heavily. He didn't want to cause any bother or expense. "Never mind. It's alright, I'm sure she..."
The shop-owner's face was screwed up in thought, then he smiled, and his blue eyes crinkled slightly as a solution came to him. "However...there is a chance that I could change it. What is your intended's name?"
"Tonks," Remus said, then when the man looked rather surprised, added; "Nymphadora Tonks. Dora."
The man raised his eyebrows. "She goes by all of those?"
Remus nodded, and smiled despite himself. "She's unique like that."
"Which one will you have, then?"
Well, this was a difficult question. 'Tonks' would not be her name if she changed it to 'Lupin'. She hated 'Nymphadora', and 'Dora' was really what her parents called her. Then it occurred to Remus that if the miraculous happened and he and Tonks had a child, a son, he might want to give the ring to his fiancée, only to find that she didn't want to go round with his mother's name on her finger for the rest of her life and the whole issue would start all over again.
"Perhaps, 'Mrs Lupin'..." Remus said vaguely, then another thought occurred to him. What if Tonks didn't want to change her name to Mrs Lupin, or if their hypothetical daughter-in-law didn't want to be Mrs Lupin? Or...what if they had a daughter, and no sons? What would she do with an heirloom that said 'Mrs Lupin' if there were no Lupins left? What if this future Miss or Mr Lupin didn't want to marry at all, or got divorced?
Then Remus thought of something that would work for any situation the ring, and the Lupin family, might end up in. He would need to make a dash to Gringotts, which was all the way down the other end of the Alley, and the ring was still floating in the anti-tarnish solution.
"Could I...leave this here while I..." He was almost too proud to admit he needed to go to the bank to get four more Galleons, but he knew he couldn't hide the truth. "...while I go to the bank? I'll be back as fast as I can."
"Sir," the old man said proudly, "this ring is one of mine. I assure you it could not be safer if it were in Gringotts itself."
Eventually, the four galleons were paid, and the message decided. Remus received it eagerly in all its shiny glory and would have gone straight home with it in his pocket had the jeweller not put it in a lovely new box.
"How much will that be?" Remus asked, not wanting to go to Gringotts again, because the goblins knew how little he had and grumbled about the waste of a good-sized vault.
"On the house," the jeweller said. "You'd be surprised how seriously some witches take the box, and after all this trouble I would hate for yours to be disappointed."
It occurred to Remus that the whole process might be something of a waste if Tonks didn't accept...perhaps he would give it to her anyway. She deserved it.
Part Two
Six months later, it was Christmas Day, and even though the war was going on with no sign of ending everything in the world looked wonderful for the day. Remus and Tonks had married after two weeks of engagement, rather than two years as Remus had envisioned. Even more unexpectedly, they were going to have a baby boy in the spring, and Madam Pomfrey's examinations showed he was a healthy little chap, so the Lupin family would be carrying on for at least one more generation. Even though they were willingly let this excitement take over their lives, it was their first Christmas as husband and wife too, and it would be an unforgettable one.
Once again, Remus got up early, while it was still dark and freezing cold everywhere outside of the bed. He glanced over at Tonks, who was curled up in the blankets and looked as sweet as a child dreaming of sugar wands, and smiled, thinking of the surprise he had for her. He then carefully slid a box of enchanted snow out from under the bed and carried it downstairs. Once he had finished decorating, he slipped back into bed next to her, and fell asleep again.
When he woke three hours later, the sun was shining and Dora was sat up in bed, reading their baby book. She gave him a look of mock sternness.
"Good morning," he said, as if it were any other day.
"Merry Christmas," she said. "I was wondering when you were going to wake up."
"You could have gone downstairs without me," he said. "I wouldn't have minded." In fact, he had rather hoped that she would.
"I don't like going downstairs alone on Christmas Day, it's not right," she said. "Although I'm never alone these days." She patted her belly. "You know our baby will be eight months old next Christmas? The book says he'll be crawling around, or possibly just shuffling around on its bum. He's my kid, so probably the latter."
He chuckled at this, even though he couldn't quite imagine it yet, and got out of bed so he could gallantly run over to her and offer his hand.
"I'm not that big yet, I can get up by myself," she grumbled, but took his hand anyway, and they walked out of the room, where Tonks was immediately confronted with a beautiful vision of enchanted snow.
Despite the small supply, Remus had created a work of snowy art. The banisters had a thin layer of snow all the way along, with little snowmen at each end. The stairs had snowy footprints going all the way down, as if Father Christmas had been, and when they got downstairs to the living room, a thick layer of snow with icicles covered the mantelpiece and all the picture frames on it, over an already blazing fire.
"Oh, it's beautiful..." Tonks said. "When did you do all this?"
"About three hours ago," Remus said, and she threw her arms around him.
"Oh, thank you! It's perfect, it's just like it was when I was a kid, or maybe even better, because Dad could never be bothered..."
She trailed off, because they still weren't sure where Ted was or if he was coming at all, but she still looked happy. Andromeda then came in from the kitchen.
"So you did this, Remus?" she said. "I thought it was a bit unlikely that elves had come in during the night. It looks wonderful."
A compliment from his mother-in-law was a treat, so Remus nodded very humbly. "Thank you, Andromeda. I thought we deserved something beautiful."
"Absolutely," she agreed. "Although you could have done something with the spare snow, instead of piling it up over there."
She gestured to an undignified pile of surplus snow in the corner, next to the sofa.
"Oh, we'll think of something to do with that..." Tonks said, and she and Remus exchanged winks.
It was just as well Remus had saved some snow, because it was a long wait between opening presents (there wasn't much fun to be had from those, because everything was for the baby) and dinner. Andromeda was reluctant to let Tonks help after the Great Stuffing Catastrophe of '94, so Remus kept her company in the living room.
"I think we should get reacquainted with our childish sides," he said. "After all, next year we'll be back to Father Christmas and party games and chocolates on the tree..."
He wasn't sure he really believed in next year's Christmas, but it was good to act like he did.
"I don't know about you, but I've never really lost my childish side," she said. "Especially about the chocolates. It's been so hard to restrain myself from eating those Chocoball Baubles. The baby kicks me when I go near them, I think he wants them too."
Remus gasped. "Wha...those are...oh no, I thought they were plastic!"
"Just as well!" Tonks laughed. "So, snow man or snowball fight?"
"Both. We build the snowman, then squash him and make him into snowballs."
"But destroying a snowman is cruel!" she said. "I used to like keeping them up for as long as possible, then very gently putting them away. You're a typical boy, you are."
"Pfft, you're a typical girl! I expect you'll want to dress him up and everything."
"Obviously! Do you keep your snowmen naked then?"
While she was fetching a hat and a scarf, he moved the pile of snow into the middle of the floor, and felt it warming up his hands. His first feeling was of reminiscence; one of the reasons snowmen had ended up destroyed at his house was because his cousins had built them around him, and after the obligatory silly photo he would do a star jump and scatter the snow everywhere. If...when their son was older he and Dora would have to do the same. Thinking of home and warmth, and then of Dora, suddenly made him wonder...
She returned with his hat and her scarf in her hands, and threw them to the ground.
"OK, we've got approximately two hours 'til dinner. Plenty of time for us to make a masterpiece."
"Will we use our hands or our wands?" Remus asked in a suggestive manner, flicking his wand and lifting a little of the snow into the air.
"Hands only. We are true artists, we connect with our medium!" Tonks declared, and plunged her hands into the pile of enchanted snow.
Remus held his breath. She usually removed her ring for physical activity, not only because he had passed the message on about getting it damaged again, but because the Death Eaters, thanks to Wormtail, knew about it. As such she had no idea about the secret message. Would she now?
When she lifted up a handful of snow with an extra large, blinking twinkle, he held back a smile. Yes, she would...
"Whoa, this brings a new meaning to snow blindness," she said, squinting, then turned her hand around. "Wow...what's going on with my ring?"
She looked closely at it, and he saw her face turn from slightly confused to utterly delighted.
"I...love...you," she read, with a lot of emotion in her voice. "That's...that's wonderful."
"I know it's a very simple message," Remus said. "But I do have a good reason for it. Even though I know a little bit more about the future than I did when I chose it..." His eyes darted to her belly, "...there are still thousands of different things that could happen to both us and our...our family. I just wanted to show you that whatever Fate decides to throw at us next, there is one small but precious thing that no one can take away, and that's...our love for each other."
He felt his face growing hot as he said this. It probably sounded ridiculous, but it was what he felt, and she needed to know. She was speechless. For a moment all she did was stare at him, and he averted his eyes and thought of how they could move on.
Then suddenly she made a sort of 'Nnnng' sound and the next thing he knew she was holding him tightly and there were tears on his shoulder.
"'I love you' is perfect," she said thickly. "I want to say it too. I love you, I love you..."
"And I you, Dora," he replied, relieved and a little amused at her reaction.
She held her left hand in front of her face to look at the ring again. "It's so beautiful, I feel so lucky. Remus...if something happens to us next year, I want our little boy to have this, so he'll know that even if we lost our last fight..."
She struggled to say this, but it was something that had been there ever since they had discovered she was pregnant. Remus's worries focused entirely on the baby's birth and health, but Tonks, who had no doubts about this, looked further. There was a chance that they would not be around to raise him, but she wanted him to feel as safe in life as if they had.
"...we-we held on for as long as we could. For each other, and for him." she finished. Remus thought of his mother and father, and all they had achieved for him. If they died, would their son find someone he could say 'I love you' to?
"And then one day," Tonks sniffed, and raised her eyes up to the ceiling as if looking to the stars, "he'll meet that someone, and maybe they'll have a child together too, and the message will last forever."
"Oh yes. I don't think even You-Know-Who himself could reckon with it," Remus assured her.
"And if he doesn't...I mean, if he doesn't find someone, which he will because he'll be wonderful," Tonks, needless to say, had a great vision of who her son would be, whoever raised him, such that it would be difficult not to love him. "...then there is one other constant he'll have..."
"And what's that?"
She broke apart from their hug, looked him in the eyes and said, quite seriously;
"Christmas."
At first he thought this was the corniest thing he had heard all day, which really was saying something, but at the same time, it was true. Maybe their son would end up alone, out of choice or not, but he'd still have Christmas and all its trimmings, and most importantly, that feeling of cheer that came with it.
"Maybe next year I'll get you a necklace for that, then," he said, and kissed her.
Author: carnivalgirl
Ratings: G. Severe fluff warning.
Format & Word Count:Fic, 3883 words
Prompts: Enchanted snow and "Well, think back… Have you ever let it slip that you'd like to go out in public with the words 'My Sweetheart' round your neck?" (HBP)
Summary: June between HBP and DH, and Remus is ready to propose to Tonks, but there's a little problem with the ring. Six months later on Christmas Day, she'll find out how he solved it, and they look to the past, present and future.
Author's Note: HUGE thanks to my beta reader an_ardent_rain. Title comes from The Beatles song (can always rely on the Beatles, eh?) 'Should Have Known Better' and a 'Corpse Bride' quote that would have been the title were it not so long: 'With this ring, I ask you to be mine'.
Part One
It was the twenty-fifth of June, 1997, and set to be a memorable date. Tonight, Remus Lupin was going to propose marriage to the love of his life, Nymphadora Tonks, and on the whole he was also looking forward to it. The thought of being engaged to her, and marrying her when all this was over would sustain him through any battle and any hardship, provided she said yes of course, and judging by the way she kept casually dropping Bill and Fleur's wedding into conversation she almost certainly would. She had been through so much strain this year, and he was responsible for a lot of it, and so now he couldn't wait to make one of her dreams come true.
It was not only a momentous occasion for Remus and Tonks and their relationship, but for the history of the Lupin family, as the engagement ring was actually older than either of them. It was an antique; a thin silver band set with two opals, and Remus's father, John Lupin had bought it to propose to his mother, Élodie Morhange, over forty years ago. Seventeen years prior to this day, it had been passed down, completely unexpectedly, to Remus.
He examined the collection of items that his mother had been wearing at the point of her death. It was very little, enough to hold in one hand. A cheap watch, a necklace he knew was second-hand, her wedding ring, and this beautiful, shining engagement ring.
"I think you should put this back on," he said to the undertaker's assistant. "She was very fond of it."
The assistant was very young, probably the same age as he was, but he knew his job. "The will stated that all material possessions belong to the deceased were to go to her son. Perhaps your mother thought, Mr Lupin, that you might one day find a fiancée to give this to."
"I very much doubt that these days."
The assistant's face expressed sympathy. Many of their generation had lost loved ones, and he had probably witnessed many a broken-hearted soul left behind. Remus was fortunate in that that the only real romantic relationships he had had up to this point had ended amicably, not tragically. Still his had not stopped him from feeling pessimistic about it. How and why would any woman choose him to spend the rest of her life with?
"There's always hope, you know," he said, closing Remus's hand over the items. "Even in times like these."
It was a message he'd heard many times. From Sirius...James...Lily....and of course, Mama. Whatever he thought of his future, Remus couldn't imagine giving anyone the ring anyway. It was Mama's, and hers only.
An awful lot had changed since then. There was still a war, and people were still losing their partners, though thanks to his quick dodge in the Battle of Hogwarts Tonks still had him around. He was still jobless, still a werewolf, and had more regrets and more cause for despair than his twenty-year-old self might have thought possible. He had kept the ring with him on all his misadventures, and never even considered selling it, even when he had reluctantly sold a number of other valuables for the sake of a little more rent money. Upon reflection he had thought this was out of affection for his mother, and a desire to keep some part of the family going. Even when he reflected as an adult he couldn't fully imagine the hardships they must have faced with him, and the guilt, especially on his poor father who had never been able to forgive himself about Greyback. They stood by each other and understood each other, and their happiness and goodness had ensured his. What was more, for a long time he unquestioningly believed that he would never find someone to stand by him in the same way, and that the family would die out with him.
Then again, now that he had found her, he sometimes wondered if it was an unconscious act of destiny.
For all that he had thought about the ring being Mama's, he now felt it was meant for Tonks. The opals were especially reminiscent of her; like them, she had many colours and could look different at any moment, but was always beautiful.
Even this morning, snoring on their bed with her pink hair all over the place and her mouth wide open and giving out that 'morning breath' smell. He watched her for a second, then gently whispered in her ear, "Tonks, are you asleep?"
This got a loud snore in response. He grinned. He had some time.
He moved out of bed extremely carefully and went to the wardrobe where she had put away his old 'Professor R.J Lupin' suitcase. The ring was in a secret woollen compartment in there. He hadn't removed it from there since he had allowed his six-year-old cousin to try it on, only for her to then show it to her toddler brother, who swallowed. Order was restored after a series of useful spells, but he had decided that keeping it in the same place was the only way to keep it safe and perfect.
He had been wrong. When he removed the ring, the opal was in fine condition, but the silver was now covered in a layer of horrible black stuff, with some patches of copper. A little tarnishing sometimes made the thing look older and more valuable, but this ring looked ruined. He could never present it to Tonks like this! He was crushed with disappointment; she was expecting him to make her dinner tonight, and then they were planning to spend the evening on the balcony because the night was expected to be dry and warm. It had been the perfect night to propose, and now..
He decided there was no time to lose. He went, very quietly but hurriedly, to the living room to find his spellbook.
"Tap, tap dancing, tardiness, target, tarmac, tarnish!" He rapidly turned to the page where the spell was, only to find a note saying 'For particularly bad tarnishes, consult a professional.'
So, when Tonks had left for work, Remus went to the antique shop in Diagon Alley, which was run by an old man who remembered selling the ring years ago. He was a short fellow with wisp white hair and long patchwork robes with all kinds of colours. He examined the ring with a tiny gold magnifying glass, and murmured the diagnosis to himself. It was an appalling case of tarnishing.
"I have just the potion to treat this tarnish," he said. "But," and his eyes took in Remus's patched robes and untidy hair, "the service will cost you four Galleons."
Remus sighed - four Galleons was four-fifths of a werewolf's weekly unemployment benefit. However, a new ring would be quadruple the price. He handed over the money, and in no time at all the ring was suspended in a beaker full of pink liquid on the counter.
"This will only take ten minutes," he reassured Remus. "You will need to take better care of it in the future though. I have a leaflet that might interest you..."
Remus was consulting this when he fancied he saw a twinkle out of the corner of his eye. He ignored it, thinking it was a trick of the light, but it persisted, and when he looked up he saw that the ring was glowing. He had never seen anything like it.
"Is...is it meant to do that?" he said, pointing and gaping at the beaker.
The shop-owner looked at it without seeming surprised. "No...I expect it has one of these charms that we put on engagement rings sometimes. In conditions of extreme heat or cold, or when submerged in water, the ring will glow with a certain message. Most choose the name of the beloved."
Remus felt a feeling of dread rising. Oh, God, he thought. Please no, please no, please no...
He leant forwards and looked closely at the ring. "ÉLODIE" was printed on it in copperplate writing which shone beautifully. Apparently Dad had been a bit of a romantic. Remus knew Tonks was kind-hearted and would forgive it, but she deserved better than to see another woman's name glowing from her engagement ring whenever she touched something wet, even if that woman was Remus's mother, not his ex-wife.
The shop-owner heard the low groan coming from Remus's throat and said gently, "I...take it your lady's name is not Élodie?"
"No, definitely not. It was my mother's name."
"Ah, yes. Actually I think I may have put this charm on myself, unless it was another Élodie, which seems rather unlikely. If your father had only mentioned it was an heirloom, we could have..."
"Um, well...I'm not sure it was intended to be one," Remus admitted. "It's just that...I could never afford a new ring, and I think my mother decided to prepare me in advance..."
The old man gave him a sympathetic look. "It's not how the heirloom gets passed down, but who passes it down, and what the heir does with it, that matters."
"Is there anything you can do?
"Well...really the whole point of the charm is that it's permanent, just as the marriage should be."
And the family, Remus thought, though he didn't imagine he and Tonks would be continuing the line.
"I don't think I could get rid of the charm..."
Remus sighed heavily. He didn't want to cause any bother or expense. "Never mind. It's alright, I'm sure she..."
The shop-owner's face was screwed up in thought, then he smiled, and his blue eyes crinkled slightly as a solution came to him. "However...there is a chance that I could change it. What is your intended's name?"
"Tonks," Remus said, then when the man looked rather surprised, added; "Nymphadora Tonks. Dora."
The man raised his eyebrows. "She goes by all of those?"
Remus nodded, and smiled despite himself. "She's unique like that."
"Which one will you have, then?"
Well, this was a difficult question. 'Tonks' would not be her name if she changed it to 'Lupin'. She hated 'Nymphadora', and 'Dora' was really what her parents called her. Then it occurred to Remus that if the miraculous happened and he and Tonks had a child, a son, he might want to give the ring to his fiancée, only to find that she didn't want to go round with his mother's name on her finger for the rest of her life and the whole issue would start all over again.
"Perhaps, 'Mrs Lupin'..." Remus said vaguely, then another thought occurred to him. What if Tonks didn't want to change her name to Mrs Lupin, or if their hypothetical daughter-in-law didn't want to be Mrs Lupin? Or...what if they had a daughter, and no sons? What would she do with an heirloom that said 'Mrs Lupin' if there were no Lupins left? What if this future Miss or Mr Lupin didn't want to marry at all, or got divorced?
Then Remus thought of something that would work for any situation the ring, and the Lupin family, might end up in. He would need to make a dash to Gringotts, which was all the way down the other end of the Alley, and the ring was still floating in the anti-tarnish solution.
"Could I...leave this here while I..." He was almost too proud to admit he needed to go to the bank to get four more Galleons, but he knew he couldn't hide the truth. "...while I go to the bank? I'll be back as fast as I can."
"Sir," the old man said proudly, "this ring is one of mine. I assure you it could not be safer if it were in Gringotts itself."
Eventually, the four galleons were paid, and the message decided. Remus received it eagerly in all its shiny glory and would have gone straight home with it in his pocket had the jeweller not put it in a lovely new box.
"How much will that be?" Remus asked, not wanting to go to Gringotts again, because the goblins knew how little he had and grumbled about the waste of a good-sized vault.
"On the house," the jeweller said. "You'd be surprised how seriously some witches take the box, and after all this trouble I would hate for yours to be disappointed."
It occurred to Remus that the whole process might be something of a waste if Tonks didn't accept...perhaps he would give it to her anyway. She deserved it.
Part Two
Six months later, it was Christmas Day, and even though the war was going on with no sign of ending everything in the world looked wonderful for the day. Remus and Tonks had married after two weeks of engagement, rather than two years as Remus had envisioned. Even more unexpectedly, they were going to have a baby boy in the spring, and Madam Pomfrey's examinations showed he was a healthy little chap, so the Lupin family would be carrying on for at least one more generation. Even though they were willingly let this excitement take over their lives, it was their first Christmas as husband and wife too, and it would be an unforgettable one.
Once again, Remus got up early, while it was still dark and freezing cold everywhere outside of the bed. He glanced over at Tonks, who was curled up in the blankets and looked as sweet as a child dreaming of sugar wands, and smiled, thinking of the surprise he had for her. He then carefully slid a box of enchanted snow out from under the bed and carried it downstairs. Once he had finished decorating, he slipped back into bed next to her, and fell asleep again.
When he woke three hours later, the sun was shining and Dora was sat up in bed, reading their baby book. She gave him a look of mock sternness.
"Good morning," he said, as if it were any other day.
"Merry Christmas," she said. "I was wondering when you were going to wake up."
"You could have gone downstairs without me," he said. "I wouldn't have minded." In fact, he had rather hoped that she would.
"I don't like going downstairs alone on Christmas Day, it's not right," she said. "Although I'm never alone these days." She patted her belly. "You know our baby will be eight months old next Christmas? The book says he'll be crawling around, or possibly just shuffling around on its bum. He's my kid, so probably the latter."
He chuckled at this, even though he couldn't quite imagine it yet, and got out of bed so he could gallantly run over to her and offer his hand.
"I'm not that big yet, I can get up by myself," she grumbled, but took his hand anyway, and they walked out of the room, where Tonks was immediately confronted with a beautiful vision of enchanted snow.
Despite the small supply, Remus had created a work of snowy art. The banisters had a thin layer of snow all the way along, with little snowmen at each end. The stairs had snowy footprints going all the way down, as if Father Christmas had been, and when they got downstairs to the living room, a thick layer of snow with icicles covered the mantelpiece and all the picture frames on it, over an already blazing fire.
"Oh, it's beautiful..." Tonks said. "When did you do all this?"
"About three hours ago," Remus said, and she threw her arms around him.
"Oh, thank you! It's perfect, it's just like it was when I was a kid, or maybe even better, because Dad could never be bothered..."
She trailed off, because they still weren't sure where Ted was or if he was coming at all, but she still looked happy. Andromeda then came in from the kitchen.
"So you did this, Remus?" she said. "I thought it was a bit unlikely that elves had come in during the night. It looks wonderful."
A compliment from his mother-in-law was a treat, so Remus nodded very humbly. "Thank you, Andromeda. I thought we deserved something beautiful."
"Absolutely," she agreed. "Although you could have done something with the spare snow, instead of piling it up over there."
She gestured to an undignified pile of surplus snow in the corner, next to the sofa.
"Oh, we'll think of something to do with that..." Tonks said, and she and Remus exchanged winks.
It was just as well Remus had saved some snow, because it was a long wait between opening presents (there wasn't much fun to be had from those, because everything was for the baby) and dinner. Andromeda was reluctant to let Tonks help after the Great Stuffing Catastrophe of '94, so Remus kept her company in the living room.
"I think we should get reacquainted with our childish sides," he said. "After all, next year we'll be back to Father Christmas and party games and chocolates on the tree..."
He wasn't sure he really believed in next year's Christmas, but it was good to act like he did.
"I don't know about you, but I've never really lost my childish side," she said. "Especially about the chocolates. It's been so hard to restrain myself from eating those Chocoball Baubles. The baby kicks me when I go near them, I think he wants them too."
Remus gasped. "Wha...those are...oh no, I thought they were plastic!"
"Just as well!" Tonks laughed. "So, snow man or snowball fight?"
"Both. We build the snowman, then squash him and make him into snowballs."
"But destroying a snowman is cruel!" she said. "I used to like keeping them up for as long as possible, then very gently putting them away. You're a typical boy, you are."
"Pfft, you're a typical girl! I expect you'll want to dress him up and everything."
"Obviously! Do you keep your snowmen naked then?"
While she was fetching a hat and a scarf, he moved the pile of snow into the middle of the floor, and felt it warming up his hands. His first feeling was of reminiscence; one of the reasons snowmen had ended up destroyed at his house was because his cousins had built them around him, and after the obligatory silly photo he would do a star jump and scatter the snow everywhere. If...when their son was older he and Dora would have to do the same. Thinking of home and warmth, and then of Dora, suddenly made him wonder...
She returned with his hat and her scarf in her hands, and threw them to the ground.
"OK, we've got approximately two hours 'til dinner. Plenty of time for us to make a masterpiece."
"Will we use our hands or our wands?" Remus asked in a suggestive manner, flicking his wand and lifting a little of the snow into the air.
"Hands only. We are true artists, we connect with our medium!" Tonks declared, and plunged her hands into the pile of enchanted snow.
Remus held his breath. She usually removed her ring for physical activity, not only because he had passed the message on about getting it damaged again, but because the Death Eaters, thanks to Wormtail, knew about it. As such she had no idea about the secret message. Would she now?
When she lifted up a handful of snow with an extra large, blinking twinkle, he held back a smile. Yes, she would...
"Whoa, this brings a new meaning to snow blindness," she said, squinting, then turned her hand around. "Wow...what's going on with my ring?"
She looked closely at it, and he saw her face turn from slightly confused to utterly delighted.
"I...love...you," she read, with a lot of emotion in her voice. "That's...that's wonderful."
"I know it's a very simple message," Remus said. "But I do have a good reason for it. Even though I know a little bit more about the future than I did when I chose it..." His eyes darted to her belly, "...there are still thousands of different things that could happen to both us and our...our family. I just wanted to show you that whatever Fate decides to throw at us next, there is one small but precious thing that no one can take away, and that's...our love for each other."
He felt his face growing hot as he said this. It probably sounded ridiculous, but it was what he felt, and she needed to know. She was speechless. For a moment all she did was stare at him, and he averted his eyes and thought of how they could move on.
Then suddenly she made a sort of 'Nnnng' sound and the next thing he knew she was holding him tightly and there were tears on his shoulder.
"'I love you' is perfect," she said thickly. "I want to say it too. I love you, I love you..."
"And I you, Dora," he replied, relieved and a little amused at her reaction.
She held her left hand in front of her face to look at the ring again. "It's so beautiful, I feel so lucky. Remus...if something happens to us next year, I want our little boy to have this, so he'll know that even if we lost our last fight..."
She struggled to say this, but it was something that had been there ever since they had discovered she was pregnant. Remus's worries focused entirely on the baby's birth and health, but Tonks, who had no doubts about this, looked further. There was a chance that they would not be around to raise him, but she wanted him to feel as safe in life as if they had.
"...we-we held on for as long as we could. For each other, and for him." she finished. Remus thought of his mother and father, and all they had achieved for him. If they died, would their son find someone he could say 'I love you' to?
"And then one day," Tonks sniffed, and raised her eyes up to the ceiling as if looking to the stars, "he'll meet that someone, and maybe they'll have a child together too, and the message will last forever."
"Oh yes. I don't think even You-Know-Who himself could reckon with it," Remus assured her.
"And if he doesn't...I mean, if he doesn't find someone, which he will because he'll be wonderful," Tonks, needless to say, had a great vision of who her son would be, whoever raised him, such that it would be difficult not to love him. "...then there is one other constant he'll have..."
"And what's that?"
She broke apart from their hug, looked him in the eyes and said, quite seriously;
"Christmas."
At first he thought this was the corniest thing he had heard all day, which really was saying something, but at the same time, it was true. Maybe their son would end up alone, out of choice or not, but he'd still have Christmas and all its trimmings, and most importantly, that feeling of cheer that came with it.
"Maybe next year I'll get you a necklace for that, then," he said, and kissed her.