The Marriage Law // Remus Lupin

xlvi. sorry that i hurt you

"I will set a niffler on you."

Aurora leaned back in the chair, smile growing. "I don't own anything valuable." Technically she did, but they were at the Potters', and if the niffler was to come after her whilst she was at their parents' house, it would be taking from them.

"That's such a lie."

"Fine, what do I have that's valuable?"

Lois stared at her now, her expression serious. "You have Remus' heart, and you have Remus' love."

She could barely contain the laughter that came out of her mouth. "That's bullshit, Lois. If he 'loves' me, as you claim, why would he say the things he did? Why isn't he apologising to me?"

She was silent now, processing the words. "Perhaps he's afraid."

Aurora could feel her eyes rolling. "Great, so he's scared of letting me in but also scared of...what? Me rejecting his apology? Rejecting him?"

"Yes, he's scared." Lois said as if him being scared of rejection was an incredibly obvious conclusion. "I shouldn't be telling you this," She sighed. "But I guess you know he had a girlfriend a few years back?"

Aurora was confused. How did Remus having an ex-girlfriend matter? "Peter mentioned it." She was also sure he had tried to add how he was getting over someone—she hoped he had meant her—before James elbowed him to get him to shut up.

"Well, he wanted to open up to her, as he believed she was opening up to him. He confided in her about his condition, and she threw it at his face, rejecting him, calling him a monster, a beast."

If there was any way to be more confused, she was. "I would never do any of those things."

"Of course you wouldn't. But that still doesn't dull the fear of it, that one day you might wake up and believe the same as her. That you might already be starting to."

If he was here now, she would hit him so hard for thinking that. No matter how angry she was at him, she would never hate him for his lycanthropy. She didn't think that she would ever be able to hate him. "Don't you have lunch with your husband?" She asked, no longer wanting to talk about it.

Lois' eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but were then raised as she remembered her lie. "Yes! And you should be getting home! Right now!"

"Why do you want me to go home so badly?"

"No reason." Lois shook her head. "I just think you could miss something important if you don't go home."

"If this is about you wanting me to record a film on the telly for you." She glared at her twin, but she only shrugged, an innocent smile on her face. "Fine. I'll leave. But I won't record anything." She stood up, moving the chair back to its original position. "I'll see you." Aurora grinned and walked out of the room.

When she had returned to her parents' house, her initial plan was to probably take a nap, Merlin knew she needed one. However, as she passed into the hallway, she saw someone outside the front door, sitting down on the porch, head in their hands. The next thing she noticed was the rain pouring outside, coming down harder than it had this morning, no longer a light drizzle.

She moved closer to the door, unlocking it and opening it slightly, gaining the person's attention, their head swivelling round at the noise. "Remus?" She asked, surprised to see him there. She watched as he stood up and turned to face her, obviously having been caught in the rain as he ran a hand through his wet hair. So that was why Lois was wanting her to go home.

"I wasn't sure you were here." He said, eyes moving around nervously, never landing on her.

"I wasn't." She said, leaning on the door frame, arms crossed in front of her. "But you waited anyway."

Remus nodded, teeth gnawing at his bottom lip. "I wanted to apologise."

"Whatever for?" Aurora said, the sarcasm dripping with each word.

He looked up to meet her gaze, releasing his bottom lip. "For what I said...how I acted, how I hurt you."

"That's quite a bit to apologise for." She said, the distance between them feeling further than it had in the past week despite him being right in front of her.

"I know, and I'm sorry."

They stood there in silence, eyes locked on to one another, waiting for someone to speak. "This engagement is no longer something that happened to me, Remus. I want this, and I want you." Aurora said, breaking the silence between them, shattering like glass. Remus opened his mouth to speak, but she held up a hand, cutting him off. "But not like this."

"Like this?" She could tell he was confused by what she meant.

"Yes, like this. I don't want you to push me away because you think I wouldn't accept you for who you are, because I will."

Remus stared at her, a look of vulnerability on his face, more than she had ever seen on him. "Don't make promises you don't know if you can keep." He spoke the words softly, no malice intended to be directed at her.

"Merlin, Remus," Aurora stood up straight, no longer leaning on the door frame. "This isn't going to be an empty promise."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I'm..." in love with you. Aurora had caught herself before she finished the sentence, not even realising that was how she felt about the man in front of her until now. Instead of finishing her sentence, she sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "You're just going to have to trust me." The sound of the rain hitting the concrete behind Remus kept steady, not wavering. "Can you trust me?"

He nodded. "I trust you."

"That's good." She could feel the smile start to form on her face. "But I need you to promise me that you'll try your best to talk about things with me instead of pushing me away, because this week hasn't been great."

Somehow during the length of their conversation, Remus had gotten closer to her without her realising, only now standing less than half a metre away. "I can try." That was good enough for her. It was all she was asking.

Remus tentatively brought a hand up to the side of her face, only making contact when he saw her nod. "I'm sorry." He said once more, smiling lightly when she moved her hand up to cover his, thumb stroking over the skin gently. "I missed you. So much."

She had missed him too.

"Do you want to go home?" Remus asked her.

"We're going to have to find a place of our own soon." She told him. Living with the Potters' was fun, but... well, she didn't enjoy being interrupted. "Lois and Sirius are moving out soon as well." Lois had told her the other day that they were thinking of finding somewhere for themselves.

"Probably should." Remus laughed.

AN:
sorry for this taking so long again, had a few busy weeks, but i tried to make this chapter longer to make up for it!

last week i read this book 'tsarina' my friend got me for my birthday, and oh my god it was amazing, definitely recommend it!! and also finished the folk of the air series and again was this amazing as well.

as always :) : fuck, marry, kill: andromeda, narcissa, bellatrix