The Marriage Law // Remus Lupin

iv. all roads (they lead me here)

"Honey, stop freaking out, I'm sure his parents will love you," Aurora's mother tried to reassure her, but it wasn't helping too much. Aurora only hoped that Remus had skipped out on the not liking her for several years part to his parents.

Aurora took a deep shaky breath in and smoothed out her dress. "Please don't go around and ask him questions about his lycanthropy that could make him uncomfortable, yes Rosie?" She had told her family last week about Remus' condition, as she knew they would be understanding, the only thought that worried her was Rosie's curiosity. "You can ask him if he can answer some of your questions, but don't pressure him," She told her younger sister.

The young girl mumbled for a bit about 'dying to know the answers', but Aurora just shook her head. "Fine," Rosie grumbled.

She smiled at her younger sister's antics, remembering when she was that young and wanted to know everything.

Aurora tore her gaze from her little sister and faced her parents. "Is Lois not coming?" She asked them. As soon as she asked, her parents' gaze became sad. Aurora knew that her twin sister wasn't going to come, but she was still hopeful.

"No, I'm sorry honey," Her mother, Elizabeth, said.

Aurora and Lois used to be as thick as thieves when they were younger. But as they grew up, Lois was sorted into Hufflepuff and Aurora into Slytherin. They had promised each other to not let it interfere with their relationship, but in the end, it always does.

Aurora smiled at her parents anyway though, trying to brush off the hurt she felt knowing her sister didn't want to even see her, let alone talk to her. "Are we good to go?" She settled for asking her family.

"Yes, yes. Don't keep us waiting," Her parents hurried her, now excited to meet her fiancé.

The family all went one by one into the fireplace, with a bit of a worry from her father, as he was a muggle and still didn't like using the floo network.

But only a few short seconds later, and the family was standing in the living room of the Potter residence.

"все еще не нравится [still don't like that]" Her father muttered under his breath in Russian, causing Aurora to let out a small laugh.

The first person Aurora saw, was little Harry. He ran right towards her, which she found adorable as he kept on nearly falling over his tiny legs. "Rory!"

A wide grin spread on to Aurora's face at the sight of the young boy. "Hello Harry, do you think you could show us where everyone else is?" She asked him, hoping he could at least drag her to where Remus and his family would be, if he didn't understand her.

Luckily, the young boy slightly understood what she had said, as he started walking - or really falling over consistently enough to at least make it seem like he was moving forward - in the direction of the garden.

The garden was surrounded by beautiful rose bushes, growing red and white roses, on all sides of the house, and small fountains with statues dotted around the small paths and flowers. Near the back of the house, next to the patio, was a long wooden table, with floating fairy lights above. The scene looked like something out of one of her sister's Disney films.

Remus watched Aurora as she took in the scene around her. It was all Lily who had done it. She had wanted everything to be nice, which he had found really sweet, as she knew that Remus had been worrying over meeting Aurora's family ever since they had arranged it.

Remus slowly approached the family with a kind smile on his face. If she might not like him, he at least wanted her family to. "Hello," He said. "I'm Remus,". He had stuck his hand out, intended for her parents to shake, but was instead greeted with a hug.

"Alright mum, let him breathe," He heard Aurora say to her mother.

"Okay, okay," Mrs Sullivan reluctantly let him go and moved to stand next to her husband. "It's lovely to meet you Remus, I'm Elizabeth," Remus gave her a small smile of acknowledgement before her husband spoke up.

"And I'm Alexei," Aurora's father said in a harsh Russian accent. He moved to shake Remus' hand instead of a hug, which Remus was thankful for, as he didn't know how many surprise hugs he could take. "This is Rosie," Alexei gestured to a young girl who was standing next to her mother. The young girl's face lit up once she was mentioned and Aurora groaned. She just knew that Rosie was going to ask an inappropriate question, no matter how many times she was told not to.

"Hello," Rosie said. She was trying to remain respectful, but she was nearly overflowing with questions. "If you eat chocolate does it kill you?" The words had accidentally slipped from her mouth, and only started to regret them when she saw her older sister's face of panic, and her parents' faces of shock.

But to the family's surprise, Remus just laughed. "Well I hope it doesn't, because I'm rather fond of eating chocolate,"

"That's good. Otherwise you might miss out on chocolate frogs!" Rosie sighed in relief.

"I am so sorry about her," Aurora whispered into Remus' ear.

Remus let out a small chuckle and nervously rubbed the back of his neck. "It's— It's alright. I'm quite used to getting weird questions,"

She groaned for what she had felt was the thousandth time just that evening and placed her head in her hands. "I did tell her not to ask uncomfortable questions, but I probably should have ruled out weird too," Remus grinned at her suffering of second hand embarrassment from her younger sister.

"Come on, you've got to meet my parents," He said to her, taking her hand.

Aurora felt her heart start beating at a rate that couldn't possibly be safe. The prospect of meeting parent's of a partner was never something she had to deal with. And now she was nervous that she was going to fuck it up.

Soon enough, they were standing in front of a man who looked exactly like Remus, only a tiny but shorter, and a much shorter woman, who had to be one of the most beautiful people Aurora had ever seen. "Hello," The woman said to her, "I'm Hope, and this is Lyall," She gestured to her husband.

"It's lovely to meet you both. It's now clear where Remus gets his good looks from," She said, and Remus' cheeks went a nice shade of red at her compliment. Upon seeing the effect her words had, Aurora smirked at him.

"You're too sweet dear," Hope said to her. "Well, we'll leave you two for now. Lyall?" Aurora watched the couple walk away and felt the nerves leave with them.

"Your parents seem nice," She said.

"Yeah, they are," Remus replied, the blush still adorning his cheeks.

"You're blush is very cute," Aurora commented, poking his cheeks where the red was continuing to spread.

"Piss off," He said, brushing her hands away. But all she did was smirk at him and walk away to greet Lily.

Remus watched her leave, and found himself unable to stop looking at her, convincing himself it was because of how she annoyed him. "Don't you look smitten, Moons," James came up to him and slapped an arm around his shoulder.

"I'm not 'smitten' James,"

"Still hate her then?"

"Of course," Remus answered. He knew that they would try and act friendly with each other for the benefit of this marriage, but he also knew that it didn't change anything between them.

AN
this might be my last chapter before the new year??? if I don't update before then, I hope you all have a good new year's :)