The Marriage Law // Remus Lupin

xxxviii. a great love (one for the ages)

"What are you three doing?" Regulus asked as he sat down next to his brother who was sat opposite Lois and Aurora.

Aurora smiled up at him. "We're painting our nails and Lois and Sirius are being edgy by choosing black."

"What colour have you got?" He leaned over to look at the colour on her hands, but Lois smacked him away lightly.

"They're drying." She shrugged and turned back to finish Sirius' index. "And she's no less 'edgy' than we are, she still chose dark green."

"But it's got more colour than yours." She poked her tongue out. "Want me to paint your nails?" Aurora asked him, curious to what his answer would be. She hadn't expected Sirius to but he surprised her and said that Lois and Marlene used to paint his nails all the time in school.

Regulus looked in between the pot and his nails undecidedly. Aurora was expecting him to reject it, but he surprised her by accepting and shyly holding his hand out for her when she gestured for it.

"You're really going for the Slytherin look today." Sirius teased her from his seat at the table. Aurora looked down at herself to see what he was talking about and remembered that the jumper she was wearing was a dark green as well.

"Isn't that Remus'?" Lois piped up, getting a scowl from her sister. Once Remus had told her she could borrow one of his jumpers she had resisted for 15 minutes, she was very proud of that, she ran into his room with him following closely behind. Instantly she had found the dark green jumper, remembering when she had seen him wear it a few moths ago when they had come face to face for the first time in years.

"Yes, it's Remus'." She grumbled as she started putting the first coat of polish on Regulus' nails as soon as hers had dried. Aurora had tried her hardest not to be creepy and smell it, but eventually throughout the day she had caved and smelled the same thing she had in her amortentia potion back in sixth year. The thought had always put a scowl on her face, and now she was almost struggling to keep a small smile off of it.

Sirius started waggling his eyebrows in her direction. "What happened yesterday?"

"As if you didn't already ask Remus." She quirked a brow at him.

"Yeah, but he refused to tell us." He pouted back at her, causing Lois to laugh as she reached over the table to plant a kiss on his cheek, but Sirius swerved his head so it was on his lips instead and grinned as Lois pulled away.

Aurora wrinkled her nose at the display, catching Regulus do the same thing. "If I ever end up like that, I give you full permission to hex me repeatedly." She deadpanned.

"I'll hold you to your word." He grinned at her, ignoring the couples protests about how they weren't sappy. Aurora grinned back at him as she moved on to his second hand.

The four of them sat in comfortable silence, the only noise being made by Sirius as he hummed a song under his breath. Unsurprisingly, she found herself enjoying the trio's company, the quiet muttering telling both of the boys to stop moving their hands and the exasperated looks her and Lois would share with one another.

"It's awfully quiet in here." Lily broke the silence as she walked in with Remus, James and Harry—who was perched on his father's hip, tugging on his ear.

Aurora shrugged. She knew they might have expected silence from her and Regulus, but definitely not from the sappy couple next to them. "Just been nail painting." Lois informed them, holding her hands up to show them.

James walked over to them and looked down at Sirius' nails. "Lois, you are so much better than Marlene at this." He also held up his hand that wasn't holding the child to show Marlene's horror show that was inflicted upon his nails. Aurora could feel herself grimacing just looking at it. It was only the laughter coming from Remus that she realised that she had physically recoiled from James' nails.

Aurora did her best to muster up a scowl to aim at him, but was completely diminished when she saw the fond smile he was giving her. She quickly looked away as she felt warmth spread to her cheeks, not wanting him to see her blushing and instead opted to pull the sleeves of his jumper over her hands. She only looked up again when she felt his presence next to her as he pulled out a chair.

"Good day?" He asked her as he sat down, taking her jumper covered hand into his, thumb running gently on the top of it.

"You saw me a few hours ago." They had spent the whole of the day sat on the sofa and watching movies—she successfully got him to watch The Aristocats with her. At his exasperated sigh, she smiled at him and chose to answer his question. "It was a good day." I spent it with you, what else would you expect? She had wanted to tell him. "What about yours?" She opted for instead.

"I was thinking," He said, biting down on his lip nervously in a way that shouldn't have been as attractive as it was. "That I ought to ask you on a date."

Aurora bit down the sarcastic remark that was threatening to leave her lips. "Oh?" Was all that came out in the end. "And when were you planning to ask?"

"Well," Remus cleared his throat and grinned at her. "Aurora Sullivan, would you do me the honour of going on a date with me?"

Aurora leaned back in her chair, pretending to think the question through. "I guess I must do you the honour if you're going to ask so nicely." She grinned at him, loving the happiness shown all over his face as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Still want me to hex you?" Regulus asked from the other side of the table. Aurora wanted to smack him.

AN:
I am so sorry for how long this took for me to write, I've been wrapped up in laziness and exams, but the good new is that they finish of Wednesday and then I have three months for summer (this is absolutely unreal for England but I'm definitely going to enjoy it)

how are you all? I hope you're all doing well and once again thank you so much for all of the love you guys give and all the votes (10k!!!!!!!!) and reads (240k????!!!!).

because I missed the last chapter's game:

fuck, marry, kill: sirius, marlene, lily

fuck, marry, kill: remus, fred, cedric

and sorry for no double update!! once again pure laziness on my part :(