Vivens cum Pericula
Chapter 16: Decision
By Anne B. Walsh
She sang to herself as she tended the small garden. She’d never cared for grubbing in the dirt before, but here there was world enough and time. The soil smelled sweet and crumbled well between her fingers, and she thought of her mother, who had loved to watch things grow, who would bring her daughters outdoors with her and teach them the names of the plants and the birds.
Strange how it all comes together in the end. Her two lives, her two faces, had in this place blended into one, so that the woman who now watered the thorny bush growing under the fence had hair neither as straight as Pericula Grant nor as curly as Gertrude Granger, a face neither as old as Danger’s nor as young as Peri’s. Her eyes were her own, warm and shapely and brown, with no tint of any other color.
The song which came to her lips was from both worlds as well, though it belonged more to the first world she had known, from times she had not lived. The boy she had loved, and taken again as her own, would sing it, or had sung it, to the lady of his heart, a shared joke about the fickleness neither of them had ever shown.
"O father, go and dig my grave," she sang, smoothing the dirt again over the bush’s roots.
"Go dig it soft and narrow;
"Sweet William died for me today,
"I’ll die for him tomorrow."
Only that wasn’t right. In the story she half-recalled, the lady had died first, and the gentleman after...shaking her head, she moved to the next verse.
"They buried her in the old churchyard,
"Sweet William’s grave was nigh her;
"And from his heart grew a red, red rose,
"And from her heart a briar."
For his faithfulness in love, and her fickle and thorny nature. That sounds right.
"They grew upon the old church wall,
"Till they could grow no higher;
"And there they twined in a true love’s knot,
"The red rose round the briar."
She sighed, straightening up slowly. "So what they couldn’t have in life, they had in death," she said, brushing off her hands. "That makes sense, I suppose."
A glance upward showed that the strange beam of golden light still touched the top of her cottage, as it had for nearly an hour. She’d wondered, when it first appeared, if this meant she should follow the light towards something else, but had felt no pull, no urge to move to a different place.
It was just as well. She liked this place. It was safe and peaceful. No pain or worry could touch her here. She barely even recalled what she had been fleeing when she found this place, or what she had left behind in her flight.
Because you choose not to, whispered a nagging voice in the back of her mind. Because you hide from those thoughts.
She dusted her hands again, more briskly, sending the voice flying with the last of the dirt. "Time to start supper," she said, and turned towards the cottage.
The golden light was moving.
She stood very still and held her breath as it slid down the wall and across the ground, jerking rhythmically along its way rather than the smooth glide she would have expected. Closer and closer it came to her—perhaps it was meant for her to follow after all?
But how can I follow it to myself?
The light centered itself on her chest and glowed extra bright for a moment, then faded out.
Around the clump of trees that marked the edge of her place came a boy. No one she had ever known, in either life, but heartbreakingly familiar for all that—brown hair, soft and smooth, a long and expressive face, and cobalt blue eyes with only one match anywhere in the world—
Remus’ child, if that were possible. Remus’ child and mine.
The eyes focused on her and lit up with a joy she’d known for more than seven years. "Peri!"
"Ray?" The question was more than half a statement; she could never mistake that voice, or that smile. "Ray!"
She was already holding him before the impossibility of it struck her. "Ray, what are you doing here?" She pulled away from him to look him over. "And what have you done to yourself?"
"What do you mean?" Ray asked. "I didn’t do anything to myself."
Peri reached into her pocket and found what she needed—it hadn’t been there before, but she didn’t let a little detail like that bother her. "Have a look," she said, handing Ray the small mirror.
Ray looked, and didn’t seem inclined to stop looking. "When did that happen?" His hand went up to his face, feeling its new contours tentatively. "I didn’t even notice—no one else said anything—"
"No one else?" Peri said, feeling a sudden stab of alarm. "Ray, who else is here?"
"Everyone, of course. We came to find out how to take off the curse—"
"What curse?"
"You don’t know?" Ray jerked his head up to stare at her. "But you’re supposed to know how to take it off—Harry’s mum sent us to find you—"
"Harry’s mother is dead, how could she possibly have sent you anywhere—"
"She set the curse, we thought she was the only one who could help us, but she said to go to you—"
"Hold on," Peri said, raising her hands. "First things first. Who do you mean when you say ‘everyone’?"
"Well, everyone. Me and Harry and Hermione and Meghan, and Letha and Padfoot—"
"Padfoot? Sirius?"
"Yes, he’s all right. He was never actually dead. He was Jump, Hermione’s Jump. None of us believed it either to begin with." Ray grinned. "He’s just as much fun as you always said."
"I’ll take your word for it." Peri put her hands to her head. "So Sirius is alive, and he and Aletha are chaperoning you four on some crazy adventure to—what, exactly? What is this curse you were talking about?"
Ray’s face shut down. "It’s bad." He moved closer to Peri, giving her the sidewise look that was their public code for ‘Please hug me and make it look like an accident’. Peri obliged. "It’s on my father, actually, but it was set to hurt his family too, so it’s on me. And you."
"Me?" Peri laughed. "Ray, I was many things to your father, but I don’t think family was one of them."
"But the curse thinks you are. Because of the baby."
"The baby?" Peri blinked a few times. "What baby?"
"You didn’t know?" Ray stared at her blankly. "But I thought—"
"There’s no innate magic to it, Ray," Peri said. "Muggle women usually don’t know until at least a month along, and it can’t have been that much already, can it?"
Ray shook his head. "Just a couple days."
"Let me sit down, please," Peri said, looking around for the bench—there it was, back by the house. She took the few steps to it and sat. "So there’s a curse on you through your father, and it’s also on me because, apparently, I’m carrying his child?"
"I’m sorry," Ray said, kicking at a clump of dirt. "I didn’t know you didn’t know."
"It’s all right." Peri shut her eyes and rested her head against the side of the house. Put that away for the moment, she told her mind. You knew it already anyway. "So what does this curse do?"
A gust of air and a jiggle on the bench was Ray sitting down next to her. "It hurts," he said, resting his face against her shoulder. "It hurts all over, sometimes worse, sometimes better, but it always hurts. And it doesn’t get any better." His voice was hushed, the way it sometimes was when he told her about his nightmares. "Moony said, unless they could find some way to take it off...it wouldn’t get better."
"It wouldn’t get better, meaning?" Peri opened her eyes to look down at the small brown head against her side where a blond one had so often lain. "Meaning it would stay bad, or meaning it would keep getting worse?"
Ray squirmed closer to her. "Second one."
"And did Moony tell you what that might mean in the end?" Peri wasn’t sure what answer she was hoping for.
"He said...he said we were going to die."
Peri winced. That wasn’t it.
"But he said dying might not be so bad," Ray went on, his voice getting dreamy. "Like walking through a door, and being in a beautiful place, and seeing people you love again." He looked up at her. "Am I dead, Peri?"
"No." Peri flicked Ray’s nose, making him yelp and cover it with a hand. "Not nearly. And you are not going to be, either. Not on my watch. Now, where is the rest of this ‘everyone’ you were talking about? We can start figuring out what to do as soon as they get here."
"Oops," Ray said guiltily, jumping up. "I think I left them behind. Mrs. Potter made my locket glow and shoot a beam of light to where you were—"
"You mean my locket," Peri corrected, noticing the necklace for the first time. "Or, if we’re being perfectly precise, your mother’s locket. It was hers first."
"It was?"
"Yes, but that’s not important now. You had the guide to find me here, didn’t you?"
Ray nodded, looking shamefaced.
"And you just ran on ahead and left everyone else behind." Peri stood up and shook a finger at Ray. "Naughty, naughty, very naughty. Go on back and find them—" Voices from down the road caught her ear. "Or don’t. I think they’re coming now."
"Here!" Ray shouted. "Here we are!"
"Finally!" Hermione called, coming into view. "We’ve been looking forever!"
"I never knew forever meant five minutes," said Ray sulkily. "I just wanted to get here."
"And leave everyone else behind," Hermione retorted before running to Peri. "I’m so glad to see you, Peri. We’ve been worried for you."
"So I’ve been hearing. How are you, little love?"
"I’m fine. Everyone is fine. Except Ray. And you. Did Ray tell you?"
"He did, and I’m starting to have an idea what I can do." All her powers were strong in this in-between world, even ones she hadn’t used for a long time. "Let’s wait for the rest of your merry band, and then we’ll see what we shall see."
Harry rounded the trees. "Found her!" he yelled over his shoulder. "Here she is!"
"Yes, here I am," Peri said. "You’re all so very happy to see me—hello to you too," she added, laughing as Meghan darted around the corner and assaulted her with a full-on hug. "I’m happy to see you too, but really, it hasn’t been nearly long enough for you to be this happy..."
"You weren’t ever like you are now before," Meghan said seriously, pulling back enough to look up into Peri’s face.
"Say that again, please?"
"You’re sick now, and you’re not waking up. You were never that way before. We were worried."
"Well, thank you," Peri said, accepting Harry’s brief one-armed hello hug, "but I’m just fine, as you can see, and I think you have far more exciting news of your own. A little fox told me that someone has a daddy again, and someone else has his godfather back..."
Harry and Meghan both grinned, and Harry turned back towards the trees to throw his arms wide. "Here he is—the one, the only—Padfoot!"
Peri hurried forward, Meghan still attached to her waist, to embrace the grinning Sirius. "You were Jump?" she asked, rumpling his hair. "All this time, you’ve been right there?"
"I’m not proud of it." Sirius grimaced. "At least someone got Bella after what she did. And Lucius now. I’m just sorry it hit you and Ray in the backlash."
"Well, I think I might be able to help Ray." Peri let go of Sirius to hug Aletha, who had come up behind them. "Let’s go inside and we’ll get started."
"Wait," Aletha said, pulling away to look over her shoulder. "We’re not all here yet."
"Not all here?" Peri frowned. "Ray didn’t mention anyone else..."
Her mind caught up with her mouth just in time for her eyes to confirm it, as Remus came around the bend in the path and saw her.
Oh God. The pain in his face was unmistakable, the desire likewise. Peri took a step forward under the spell of that desire before turning aside. "Hello, Remus," she said quietly.
"Hello, Peri." His voice was quiet and a touch breathy, as though he’d been running. "May we come in?"
"Of course. Everyone, please, come inside." Peri turned to lead the way, her mind racing. I can give them what they need, then send them away and get on with what I’m here for... they won’t want to stay too long, it’s too dangerous, especially for Ray if he’s not well...
The knowledge she’d put off rushed back on her, making her bite her lip. I’m going to have a baby. Lucius Malfoy’s baby.
Her hand went to her belly, resting there lightly. How would that change things? Between me and Ray, between me and Remus, between me and myself, even? Could I look at myself in the mirror and know I was going to give birth to a Malfoy child?
But then, after what happened to the me in this world, could I look at myself if I wasn’t?
She pushed the thoughts away again. Help Ray first. Be philosophical later.
"So let me hear this story from the beginning," she said when everyone was seated around her small kitchen table. "Who even thought of talking to Lily? How did you know you could?"
Harry and Hermione both spoke up, talking in turn, Meghan chiming in to add to their account. Sirius and Aletha told their part when the story got to them. Remus remained silent, leaning against the counter rather than taking a seat with the rest of the group.
He wants to talk to me. Peri could feel his eyes boring into her shoulder. He wants to know what’s going on. Oh, love, don’t ask, don’t ask—it will only hurt us both...
"So, we’re here," Sirius finished. "What exactly do you know about this curse that we don’t—and if you knew about it, why didn’t you ever tell anyone?"
"I didn’t know about it. But I can help you find out what was said." Peri got up and walked over to the back door, placed her hand on the glass of the window there, and drew it firmly across. Show me James and Lily Potter, the day Lily’s parents were killed, she willed. Let me see and hear them. Let me hear what she said.
The window blurred for a moment, then cleared to show the Potters sitting together on their couch, James holding Lily’s hands. "Lily, I don’t know how to tell you this. I’m so sorry. It’s your parents."
"My parents?"
"They were visiting your sister. Just as they were leaving, their car was ambushed. Death Eaters. I’m sorry."
Peri frowned. Visiting her sister—Petunia—if this is exactly seven years ago, then that would put them—
"Both of them?" Lily asked, her voice starting to shake.
James nodded.
Lily’s composure shattered, and she fell crying into James’ arms.
Peri’s breath was coming short. It’s August. The middle of August. Seven years ago, the middle of August, on Privet Drive, what was supposed to happen?
"I hate them," Lily sobbed out in the picture. "I hate them all. May they live in pain and die in despair and see everything they ever loved destroyed in front of their faces. Them and their whole families. Damn them all."
Peri closed her eyes. I stopped the attack on my family, but I never bothered to think what else might happen.
I deserve this.
"Enough," she told the window under her breath as Lily continued to cry. "You can stop now."
The sound from there cut off, but someone in the room was still sniffling. Peri thought it might even be her. Surreptitiously, she looked over at the table.
No, it’s Neenie. My mistake.
"Peri, is it just me, or is your hair different than it was?" Sirius asked, looking closely at her.
"A little bit. I think this is a place where desires are fulfilled," Peri invented quickly. "Just have a look at Ray."
Everyone looked. Ray, never loathe to show off, propped his chin in his hands. "Cheeeeese," he said, putting on a huge, phony smile.
"And you’ve always wanted curly hair?" Aletha said, looking back at Peri.
Peri shrugged. "It’s pretty."
"Why didn’t I notice that?" Harry was asking Ray.
"Because you need stronger glasses?" Ray ducked the smack Harry aimed at him.
"Because it doesn’t matter," Meghan said. "Ray is Ray, no matter what he looks like."
"And we’re wasting time," Remus said quietly, but in a tone that drew all eyes to him. "We know now what the curse was. We should start thinking about ways to reverse it."
"But can we?" Hermione said doubtfully. "Ray’s father must have killed one of Harry’s mum’s parents, and that means the curse belongs on him."
"But it doesn’t belong on Ray, or on Peri," Sirius said. "I think the key is that last phrase. ‘Them and their whole families.’ If we could make Ray and Peri not part of Malfoy’s family anymore..."
"Then the curse wouldn’t have any hold on them," Aletha finished. "It would all revert to Malfoy, where it belongs. Sirius, I think you’ve got something there!"
Sirius smiled lopsidedly. "All part of the service, ma’am."
"But Ray is Malfoy’s family," Harry said. "Sorry, Ray, but it’s true. You’re his son."
"It’s not like I wanted to be," said Ray, making a fist. "You can’t choose your family—"
"Yes, you can," Hermione interrupted. "Or maybe not the one you start out with, but the one you make for yourself."
"I can’t exactly get married, Hermione."
"That’s not what I’m talking about!" Hermione put her hands in her hair and tugged gently. "All right, yes, you were born the son of Lucius Malfoy. And Padfoot was born the son of his parents too. But then, when he got older and they didn’t like what he thought, they said he wasn’t their son anymore. They sent him away."
"Disownment," Sirius said, sounding struck. "I never thought of that—you really think it would work?"
"It might," Aletha said. "Depending on how physical the curse is, if we can get Malfoy to disown Ray, to cast him off completely, that might break the bond. And the same with Peri and the baby. He has to have meant to do that deliberately..." She trailed off. "How much do you know about that?" she asked Peri.
"Obviously not enough." Peri moved in to take a seat at the table.
"Outside," Sirius said to the children. "Go on, shoo. Play, but don’t go far."
"And no listening at the door," Remus added, sitting across from Peri. She was grateful, as she didn’t know how she’d be able to keep from taking his hand if they were closer. "We will know."
"You’re no fun," Ray said, making a face.
"Yes, I know, it’s how I make my living. Out." Remus pointed firmly at the door.
The children vacated the premises, Ray waving once to Peri before he shut the door behind them.
"There is no good way to say this," Aletha said, facing Peri. "I can dance around it for a while and then tell you, or I can just tell you."
"Just tell me, please."
"Malfoy did what he did to you deliberately. He meant to impregnate you. I have no idea why—whether he knew it would make you part of the curse, or whether he was simply trying to hurt you—"
Peri tensed, knowing what was coming. I didn’t want this—this is why I ran—this is why I’m here in the first place—
"Second one," she choked out, losing the words as the moment engulfed her again.
Malfoy ran his slimy fingers across her bare skin and laughed as she shuddered away. "Will your so-faithful lover want you now? Now that you carry my child in you? More likely he’ll throw you out like the bitch you are, and you and your mongrel will starve." He affected a society tone. "If you thank me nicely for the favor I’ve shown you today, I might be willing to pay you a little something. Enough to keep yourself alive, and the brat if you so choose." His hands slid up her body to the back of her head and untied the gag he’d conjured earlier. "What do you say?"
She spat at him. He wiped it away and smeared it across her face, his breath beginning to come faster, his idiot grin returning. "Ah, you’d like some more. I understand you, you can’t fool me—playing hard to get, I know your type—"
She couldn’t keep from screaming as the nightmare started over, worse than before.
"Peri!" Someone was shaking her, shaking her and holding her—or were they just holding her, and the shaking was her own doing? She couldn’t tell. "Peri, breathe. Just keep breathing. In, out. In, out. That’s right. Good. Good."
"No," she whispered, her eyes still shut tight. "Bad."
"What’s bad?"
"Me. I am."
"No." A firmer negative she’d never heard. "You are good."
"I’m a coward. I ran."
"You stayed. You put yourself between Harry and Lucius Malfoy. That’s not cowardly."
"But then I ran away." Easiest to get it all out now, to make it clear, so that he would know everything. "I’ve always run when things got hard. I’m still running now."
"I don’t understand."
"I know." Peri—no, it’s time to tell myself the truth, now that I know it—Danger opened her eyes. Remus held her in his arms, so familiar, so safe, but she had forfeited her right to that safety long ago. "If you’ll let me, I’ll try to explain."
"I’ll listen."
"I don’t belong in this world." She held up a hand to still his protest. "That’s not a value judgment. It’s a statement of fact. In the world where you live, I don’t exist. I was never even born."
Remus quirked an eyebrow. "Then what, or whom, have I been...friends with for the last seven-odd years?"
Danger licked her lips. "I was placed in this world at the age of twenty-one," she said. "I came here because of a bargain I made in the world where I was born. That bargain helped my family, my friends, tremendously. I was able to save them from a war, along with everyone else in that world. At the price of only one life."
"Your own."
"My own." Danger tried to recall what it had felt like to die, or to be reborn, but nothing came to her. "I left their lives, and those lives were changed for the better."
"As far as you could see," Remus said carefully. "You have no idea how things would have fallen out if you had stayed."
"We would have had to fight a war!" Danger snapped. "People would have died! Innocent people, who had never done anything wrong!"
"And what have you done so wrong, that makes you an appropriate sacrifice?" The sarcasm was gentle, but no less cutting for that. "Why are you punishing yourself?"
"I’m not. I helped people. It doesn’t matter what happens to me."
"I don’t believe that." Remus’ voice cracked in the middle of the long word, and he stopped and cleared his throat before going on. "It matters a great deal what happens to you. It matters to me."
"You don’t understand." Danger pressed herself against his arms, and was obscurely disappointed when they opened immediately. She scooted backwards across the kitchen floor until she had her back to the wall.
Remus wrapped his arms around his knees instead. "Then let me."
"I was married. In the world I came from. I walked out on my marriage. My happy, wonderful, everything-I-ever-could-have-hoped-for marriage." Danger slapped herself lightly on the forehead. "And now I sound like I’m playing for sympathy, and I’m not. I don’t even know what I’m trying to say anymore."
"May I make an observation, then?"
"Observe away."
Remus moved a little closer to her, just close enough that they could hold hands if they both wanted to. "There are some things men will walk through fire for," he said. "Some things that might make even living through a war bearable. And one of them, though I doubt you’ll ever get any other man to admit it, is love. Men don’t say it as much, but they need it as much as any woman." He laid his hand on the floor between them, palm up. "There have been times when the people I loved have been my only reason to get up in the morning. And you rank very high on that list."
"I shouldn’t."
"Let me be the judge of that, please?"
"You don’t understand!" Danger screamed, closing her eyes to hide her soul from the hope and love in his.
"You keep saying that," said Remus in a tone that suggested he was very close to either laughter or tears, "but you don’t do anything about it..."
"The world I left," Danger began, shaking. No, I can’t. But I have to. "The world I left was this world. Except for me. I was born there. Here I wasn’t. But everything else was the same. Everything. My friends, my family—" Her voice broke. She forced it to work for two more words. "My husband."
The silence in the room was absolute. Danger breathed it in and let it fill her, and then let herself fill it. "I loved Remus Lupin more than I loved my own life. And I proved that. I had a choice to make. I could return to my family and become a burden on them, or I could leave them forever and give them all lives from a fairy tale. Happily ever after. I chose to leave.
"But as a very wise man once told me, I’m a human being, not a guardian angel. I couldn’t watch them be happy without me. It hurt too much. So I came here, to this world. And I tried to make things better. But they just went wrong a different way. I hoped to stop Sirius from suffering, but I made his life worse. Harry had to stay with the Dursleys, where in my world he got away from them. And what I’ve done for Ray...
She laughed shortly. "Maybe, if making Lucius disown him works, that will be the one unblemished good thing in my life. But it would serve me right if it didn’t work. Because I’m the reason he’s cursed. I saved my own parents, or the people who would have been my parents if things had gone differently, and instead Lily’s parents died. Lily cursed the people who killed her parents, and their families, and now here we are. Poetic justice."
Remus let his breath out slowly. "So this is what you’ve been carrying around in your head all these years," he said. "I’ll admit I’d wondered, but this...this is beyond anything I’d imagined."
"You understand, then." Danger lowered her head until her forehead rested on her arms. "You understand why I can’t come back. I’ll help get the curse off Ray, he shouldn’t suffer for what I did—I can link you to a dream of Malfoy’s, you can do it there, it ought to be just as binding as in real life—but I have to pay the price for what I did."
"For what you did? Trying to save your parents?" Remus didn’t bother with gentle sarcasm this time. "Or is it not being perfect you’re trying to atone for? Peri, you’re human. We make mistakes. What makes love so amazing is that we’re willing to forgive them."
"Well, maybe you shouldn’t be." Danger hunched her shoulders. "Or haven’t you figured it out yet? I ran out on one Remus Lupin. What makes you think I won’t do the same to you?"
She heard Remus moving into place behind her. "Did you give him this choice?" he asked softly. "Did you ask him what he’d rather you do? Or did you decide alone?"
"He wasn’t there. I had to decide it myself."
"I understand." She heard Remus shift in his place. "May I touch your shoulder?"
"Yes." Danger drew a hungry breath as Remus’ scent washed over her, and another as his soft touch sent ripples down her back.
"Earlier," he said quietly, beginning to massage her shoulder. "When you were taken over by your memory. We—we heard it."
Danger hissed, tensing.
"Did I hurt you?"
"No—it’s just..."
"I’ll never bring it up again," Remus said. "But I had to tell you something. Malfoy has me completely backwards." He chuckled briefly. "He’s probably judging me by himself. So let me set the record straight. What happened to you is in no way your fault. I love you, and nothing anyone else can do will change that. And if you will allow me, I would love to be a father to your child."
His other hand began work on her other shoulder. "I know you won’t run out on me, because I won’t let you. Unless you truly want to go, unless you think that your life would be better without me in it, I want you beside me. I have spent seven years hoping you would someday enter my house and make it not mine, but ours."
His hands paused in the middle of her back. "It’s not fair that one mistake should have the power to define so much of who we are. But that’s the way it is sometimes. I made a mistake when I was a very little boy. You made one when you were a woman grown. I won’t try to compare them, to play ‘who hurts more’ with you. That would be stupid. But I will ask one favor of you."
"What?" Danger asked warily.
"Think about everything I’ve said considering only what you want. Not what you think you deserve, or what you ought to have. Think about what you want, and then give me an answer."
"Answer to what question?"
"This question." A few rustles as of cloth, and then silence.
Danger turned to see Remus sitting back on his knees. "Pericula Grant," he said quietly, "will you marry me?"
My name is Gertrude. And I can’t.
She opened her mouth, was about to say it, to cut him out of her life forever—
No.
It was a voice she hadn’t heard in her mind for a long time.
Your name was Gertrude. But you left that behind. Just like you left behind the mistakes you made as Gertrude. You always hated that name anyway, remember? Granted, Pericula’s not much better—a small chuckle—but it’s yours to have and to hate. And Pericula hasn’t made any horrible mistakes, and certainly not any that would deserve a painful death.
Besides, what about Remus? What about Ray? And what about that baby inside you? Why should they be punished for whatever you feel you’ve done wrong?
Let it go, Danger. Enough. Move on.
Brown eyes narrowed. I believe I’m being messed with.
You needed it. Now give that man the answer he deserves and go have a decent life.
Peri laughed aloud. "All right," she said.
"All right what?" Remus said cautiously.
"All right." She wasn’t surprised somehow to find laughter turning to tears. "Yes. I’ll marry you."
Remus stared at her, and her laughter overtook her tears again. "You—you weren’t expecting me to say yes, were you?" she giggled, wiping her eyes. "Truth, now..."
"I did think you might need a little more convincing than that," Remus said, stretching out a tentative hand.
"Not anymore." Peri latched onto his hand and pulled herself into his arms. "Not ever again."
I know where I belong. I know where we all belong.
Now to make sure we can keep what we’ve won...
Author Notes:
Anne can’t write an author’s note right now. She’s too busy hastily dismantling the big flashing ‘Sappy Setup’ sign that appeared out of nowhere a while back. Review and she might just get inspired again tomorrow...