The Marriage Law // Remus Lupin

xxxii. all i want is you

Unsurprisingly, Aurora spent the rest of the day up in her room, discreetly attempting to avoid Remus in efforts to try and stop her heart from beating so loud every time he was near.

And also unsurprisingly, it did not work as the mere thought of him sped her heart rate up.

She did everything she could have done to try and distract herself; she cleaned her room, picked up a book—found she couldn't concentrate and put it down again—, reorganised her bookshelf into alphabetical order, then by colour.

She thought about how James had asked her if she liked Remus. How easily an oblivious boy had picked up on it. Did that mean Remus had too?

It was when she was halfway through sorting her mismatched socks that there was a light knock on the door.

Briefly, she looked up at the clock and saw that it was 4pm. It had been a very long 4 hours since she had holed herself up in the room.

"Come in." She said, turning back to her task.

"What are you doing?" Remus' voice came from behind her, getting louder as he walked closer to her and perched on the side of her bed.

"I'm cleaning my sock drawer." Aurora told him, looking up from where she was sat on the floor—directly in front of the nightstand, sitting cross-legged.

"You know," He said thoughtfully, amber eyes baring into her own causing her heart to practically beat out of her chest. "You're not doing it correctly."

A bemused expression painted her face, doing what correctly? She looked back and forth between her drawer and the young man on her bed. "Do you mean putting socks in a drawer?" Her voice had taken a tone of disbelief. How else were you meant to put socks away?

"Yes, you have to fold them."

Aurora stared at Remus, blinking slowly. "You mean...fold my socks? Why on earth would I do that?"

A light blush crept its way up from Remus' neck, threatening to spill on his cheeks. "Organisation?"

He didn't sound so sure about it though, so she narrowed her gaze teasingly. "And why would I need to 'organise' my socks?"

"For simplification." The blush had reached the tips of his ears, and she couldn't help but think it was more endearing than it should have been.

"Naturally." Aurora grinned up at him, and continued pairing her socks together.

They sat in a comfortable silence after that—Remus not bothering to reply—enjoying the other's presence.

It continued until she had paired all of her socks together and sat next to him on her bed.

"How was the bookshop?" She asked, realising she had a much better view of his face from beside him.

Remus blinked suddenly, as if he hadn't been paying attention. "The what?" His response only confirmed that he had spaced out, and Aurora grinned at him.

"The bookshop. James said you went with Lily."

"It was...fun." Remus replied, sounding unsure again.

"Just fun?" She teased. "There must be more."

At her small push, Remus delved into his morning with Lily, talking about books the pair had enjoyed and new books he found interesting. Aurora was only slightly ashamed to say that she wasn't paying much attention.

Instead, she had been looking at him. She saw the light dust of freckles that gathered around his nose, spreading out further with distance. She saw the small scar that ran diagonally on the bridge of his nose; it wasn't all that large, no longer than a few centimetres.

"Aurora?" Remus' brows were furrowed, and she just wanted to smooth it out with her thumb.

"You know you can call me Rory, right?"

That earned her a small grin from the taller boy, and she felt her chest tighten. "Okay then, Rory."

That was it. She was going to die. Cause of death: Remus Lupin's irritatingly perfect smile.

And she found herself powerless to do anything else other than to smile back.

"Fun fact number two," Aurora said to fill the silence between then. "Cows can sleep standing up."

"Are all your fun facts about sleeping animals?" He raised an eyebrow at her, trying to seem unimpressed, but she could see the corners of his mouth twitching in efforts to fight off a smile.

"You have to wait to find out."

"How long would I have to wait?"

"However long it takes for me to run out," She stated, "But that might take a while."

Remus pursed his lips, contemplating his answer. "I think I'm willing to wait."

"Even if it took a month?" She leaned in; he nodded. "What about six?" He nodded again. "A year?" The more she asked, the closer in she leaned, and so did he. "What about ten?"

"However long you want." Remus said, voice coming out just louder than a whisper.

Aurora felt her heart beating loudly, she felt the breath escaping his lips just covering hers as they were mere inches away.

Her eyes locked with his. If she just leaned a little closer, their lips would be touching. She saw his eyes flick down to her lips, the thought obviously running through his mind too.

She wanted to close the distance. She wanted to reach forward and kiss him. She wanted to—

A loud noise came from the hallway, startling them. As if on reflex, she bounced back, space being put between them.

They didn't say anything to one another, just stared for a minute. Then Remus was broken out of the trance, darting off of the bed and into the hallway to check where the noise came from.

Aurora watched him as he left, her eyes following him closely, and then standing up to follow his footsteps.

Peering round her doorframe, she saw Sirius and James sprawled on top of each other at the bottom of the stairs.

"Are you two alright?" She asked, hesitantly walking down the stairs and crouching down next to them, seeing Remus do the same out of the corner of her eye.

"We are great." Sirius responded for the both of them, grinning up lazily at them.

At that moment, she was not very fond of her sister's husband.

AN:
muahahahahahah i feel so evil wow

reread? no. will i ever reread my chapters before posting them? no, i'm lazy :)))

wooooow guys we are so close to 100k, i mean, wow. jeez guys i did not see this happening like...ever. so thank you all so so so much i love every single one of you

fuck, marry, kill: newt scamander, nymphadora tonks, cedric diggory