Chapter Text
Courage
Don't you dare fail me now
A year later, Remus pulled Hermione into the deserted corner of the Burrow’s garden, away from the twinkling lights and murmur of voices already enjoying the party. The snow was just beginning to fall, and Hermione drew closer to the heat radiating from his body.
“It’s freezing out here. What are we doing?” Remus chuckled, brushing her fingers that were again fisted in the front of his robes. It was something she still hadn’t gotten over, and he hoped she never did; just like he hoped she’d never stop looking at him like she did now.
“Did I ever tell you about the promise I made Lily, the Christmas before she died?” Remus tucked the petite witch into his chest, resting his chin on her head. Her curls tickled his throat as she shook her head; the sweet lavender and vanilla scent of her hair filling his nose.
“She and James had just gotten married. It was right after a full moon, before the Wolfsbane Potion had been discovered so I was miserable. I don’t even remember where James, Sirius, and Pete had gotten to, but she made tea and we were talking… Somehow it got turned around to my love life.” He snorted, and Hermione giggled into his chest.
“Lily told me I needed to find a girl that made me forget the moon… I promised her that if I ever found her, I’d make her my sun. The center of my universe. Lily would have had my ass if she’d been here when I pulled what I did last Christmas.”
Remus could practically feel the curiosity radiating off her in waves. “I told Molly I wasn’t coming because I was afraid that you weren’t as serious as I was. I was scared.”
“But you did come. What changed your mind?” Her voice was muffled, still buried in his chest.
“Harry and Ginny. I swear to Godric it was like seeing James and Lily all over. I believe Ginny used the phrase, ‘I will fucking end you’ and Harry compared me to Dumbledore. It was a bit of a rude awakening, but I should probably thank them… Eventually.”
Hermione shifted so he could see her brown eyes peeking above the layers of robes, cloaks, and scarves. The wide-eyed shock was enough to make Remus laugh, a full-bodied laugh that shook his frame and lit up his face. “So I let Ginny bully me a bit. But I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
She surged up, capturing his lips between hers. “I’ll have to remember that. But can we go in? Not all of us run hot and it’s freezing out here.”
Remus wrapped his arms more securely around her. Godric, this was it. Where was that Gryffindor courage James and Sirius were always invoking? He needed it now.
“We’ll go in, but I have a question first.” He squeezed her gently, and suddenly wished he could feel her skin against his for this. Too late now. “Hermione, will you marry me?” He brought one arm around, a small velvet box in his open palm. Her eyes got even bigger, taking in the diamond ring. “It was my mother’s… It’s not much, but I like to think she would have liked you, and would want you to have it.”
The tears gathering in her eyes were the kind he didn’t mind so much; they were the tears that bubbled up when she couldn’t contain her joy. When Remus had first kissed her, when she’d moved in to their cottage after graduation, at Harry and Ginny’s wedding, when her parents finally came around to forgive her. He pried her left hand from his robes just long enough to slide it over her finger, and replaced her hand. The marquise-cut gem sparkled in the low light, and she just blinked at it.
“You are everything to me Hermione, and I love you. You are my sun. I won’t fail you again.”