Closer, part three.

A/N: I kinda forgot about this fic until it popped into my head again. Thought I'd give it another shot... so… this is a fluffy, FLUFFY transitional chapter. Not so much going on… morning-after-deal. Another chapter with more action should pop up in the next few days.

Mild HBP spoilers. Lyrics are from The Rasmus "In the Shadows" (looks ashamed). As always, the occasional NIN lyric is likely to slide into dialogue. JKR owns characters and my soul.

---

They say that I must learn to kill before I can feel safe

But I, I'd rather kill myself than turn into their slave

Sometimes I feel that I should go and play with the thunder

Somehow I just don't wanna stay and wait for a wonder

I've been watching, I've been waiting

In the shadows for my time

I've been searching, I've been living

For tomorrows all my life

She awoke with a hard start, her pulse racing and her eyes narrowed. Calloused hands stroked her hair and arms as gentle breath danced across her cheek. She moaned softly and rolled over to face her companion.

"The wound is healed," Remus said, smiling half-heartedly.

Ginny returned his smile with a weak turn in the corner of her mouth. "Yours or mine?"

He looked stunned by this for a moment and replied "Neither," with a raw kind of honesty she wasn't quite prepared for.

Ginny, in turn, looked as though she'd been slapped, but curled closer into him anyhow. "It's over, at any rate. We've got all the time in the world to form scars."

"I'm more concerned about forming the courage to walk downstairs," he murmured into her hair. "I feel like they'll all know... they'll smell it on us. On you."

"What does it matter?" she scoffed.

"I'm at least twenty years your senior, Gin..."

"Doesn't stop Hermione and Snape." Ginny shook her head. "She left after midnight. Harry hasn't quite forgiven everyone's favorite professor to the extent where he could stay in the house."

Remus' eyes slid shut. "As much as Harry may resent Severus for doing his job, I think even he would agree that their evening activities would be measurably less sinister than the creation of a werewolf."

"Yes, well... Hermione simply couldn't bear to be alone..." she rolled her eyes.

"Nor could you, it seems," Remus remarked, laughing softly at her scowl. "What made you come to me?"

It was stark and silent for a few moments, a sickening haze of uncertainty falling over them both. "I thought you might understand," she said, when it became too excruciating. "I suppose I couldn't see the sense in waiting any longer."

"Waiting?"

"For something permanent," she said, her hand covering his where it lay over her thundering pulse. "I've spent six... nearly seven years waiting for Tom to promise me an eternity, knowing full well that a promise from him would mean next to nothing. All the while, you were here with everything I wanted..."

"I'm not sure whether I should feel flattered or used."

"Perhaps both," she admitted, "but we're together now."

"Permanently," he replied, swallowing hard.

"Do you regret it?" Ginny asked, looking at his eyes with an emotion akin to fear. "Do you wish you'd changed Sirius before?" She looked away. "Instead?"

Remus often questioned himself in this line, but generally came to the same conclusion. "It wasn't meant to be. By the time he left Azkaban, everything we did was a huge rush for survival. Besides," he swallowed hard again, unable to rid himself of the boulder in his throat, "if I'd changed him, you'd be alone now." His eyes filled and he willed the little wells to evaporate.

They didn't escape Ginny's notice, who quickly developed a boulder of her own. "You'd be happy," she whispered, brushing the pads of her fingers over his cheekbone.

Remus blinked slowly and shook his head, finding his strength. "I wouldn't let you fall apart."

She smiled weakly, grappling to regain control. "You said that before..." She ignored the pang of envy in her side when she saw how quickly he could steel himself against his ghosts.

"You remembered." The look on his face was enough to sooth the envy… and nearly everything else raging inside her.

"How could I forget?" She sat up, her head thudding lazily against the headboard, a soft beam dancing across her lips. "When I tried to do the blood sacrifice... you had this look in your eyes. I never forgot that look."

Remus sat up beside her, inexplicably chilled. He kissed her temple before sliding out of the bed. "It was an unforgettable day."

"We've got a lot of those ahead."

He laughed a hollow laugh. "I get the distinct impression that today will be one of them," he said, his eyes scanning her white skin as she slipped her nightgown back over her head. He tugged on a pair of pajama pants and an old Weird Sisters shirt that Ginny distinctly remembered having seen on Sirius. She wondered briefly whose shirt it had been originally. His voice gently broke her reverie. "Ready?"

She nodded, looking unfazed. "We've got two or three days before the moon comes, right?"

He nodded grimly. "If Hermione is at breakfast… she might be able warn Severus that his Wolfsbane reserves will be used up for this month…"

"I'll tell her in private," Ginny said, placing her hand between his shoulder blades. "For all we know, the others might be too wrapped up in their own lives to notice."

"I suppose we can always cross our fingers," he said dryly, warily eyeing his fearless companion's grip on the doorknob.

"They don't matter, Remus. We're in this together now." She turned the knob. "Nothing can stop us."

Nothing can stop me now…