Wedding Cakes

"Remus."

The familiar name escaped her lips in a throaty whisper as she stood, posture rigid, staring up at her home of the last nineteen years.

His grip on her hand tightened and his fingers wove their way through hers.

In one rapid movement, she had turned to face him and their eyes-hers a frightened brown, his a wise gray-delved into the others.

His tired lips turned up at the corners in a sad smile. Their past years had worn ill on both, but it seemed that her soft features had been most affected. Her fiery hair had faded as a tribute to their losses, her freckles stood out upon her pale skin just as her hair had, when she had been young and innocent, against her white robes on that memorable day that seemed so long ago.

She raised a quivering hand and ran it through his tidily kept hair, its strands of brown ever being flecked with an aging gray. His smile spread and he took both her hands into his, urging them to become still as he covered them.

What he had lost was told in the lines that etched his face, but despite these horrifying tales and the undying terror he would be forever faced with, he stood tall along side this woman.

He bowed his head and felt a shiver travel up his spine as his lips brushed against hers. Her stomach repeated a familiar flip flop, and a smile graced her face as she pulled away from him.

Standing on tip toe, she raised her hands and tangled her fingers in the hair at the back of his neck. She drew forward once more and pulled at his bottom lip playfully with her mouth.

He lifted his head with a kind smile, and reached for her hands. Spotting a pout playing on her lips, he shushed her with two quietly spoken words. "Your mother."

Fighting to keep a smile on her face as her mood grew somber, she fell back on her heels. Grasping his hand with her own, she let her other fall to her side as she turned back to the house.

An unsturdy multiple story house, it sat on top a crumbling plot of land, hidden from a ruined Muggle village.

She took a step forward, drawing all needed strength from the hand wrapped around her own. She took in a long staggering breath and another step forward.

He followed with careful steps of his own, watching the back of his Love's head with concern.

She walked past it all without pause, not stopping to linger at the door frame her twin brothers had broken when she was fourteen, not stopping at the staircase she'd ran down so many times. They walked through the door, open to let in the refreshing pure air of outside. With only several short paced steps, they stood in the kitchen.

Her eyes began to tear as she found her mother scurrying around their kitchen table, muttering and pointing her wand at a flat white cake. She fell into Remus's arms as she watched pink letters appear, spelling out the well meant message of 'Congratulations, Ginny and Harry!"

Her sudden gasp halted her mother's actions, and as the plump woman turned towards her daughter, she pressed hardly against Remus.

He placed his hand on her shoulders as an act to sturdy her. Keeping just one hand on her, he stepped forward. "Molly..."

She looked past him and to her daughter, whose eyes were pressed close and left hand held out. On one poised and shaking finger was a single gold wedding band.

"Ginny?"

She only nodded, reaching for the hand on her shoulder.

"Molly, please forgive us." He extended his hand to the stricken woman. She stared for an unceasing moment at the identical wedding band he wore, only breaking it to fall into the nearest chair. She moved her mouth as if to say something, but no words came out. As her face grew increasingly red, she managed to find them. "How, Ginny? How could you do this?"

Ginny stepped forward, shaking, and rested her hand on the side of Remus's face. "I love him."