Disclaimer: If you recognise it, it's not mine.

-Fragile-

"Attention, please! Remus and I have something to announce...Darling?"

"Well, I...we, that is, would like to share with you that...eh..."

"We're getting married!"

There was a loud CRACK! of dishes shattering on the floor.

"Oh dear! Seems that someone got overexcited with the news here! You should be more careful, Hermione...", exclaimed Molly, as she approached the soon-to-be-weds to congratulate them.

#

"Hermione."

She lifts her gaze. He closes her bedroom door behind him.

"She's pregnant, for the love of Merlin. I could not leave her without a name and my unborn child fatherless!"

"Go, Remus. It's better this way, really."

As she gazes into his liquid silver eyes, a single tear escapes past her dignity and furrows her cheek. Hand trembling with emotion, he cups her face and licks away the diamond drop, as her body leans in for human contact.

#

She dreads the nights when it's her turn to keep guard outside their tent. Those are the only moments in a day that she is left alone, without something more urgent occupying her mind. They're hunting horcruxes, after all.

At times like this she suffers. In her solitariness, the thoughts of him penetrate her being and the wretched heart she carries aches with bitterness as she recalls his voice caressing her skin and the feeling of her fingers being dug in his hair, while she moaned for him to take her, that first night at Grimmauld Place. And he most certainly obliged, the strength of his masculinity overpowering her while he whispered in her ear "I love you as my own flesh; I think I always have.".

At times like this she is vengeful. Her love unspoken yet betrayed, she could have left her two companions and apparated in his house, silver dagger in hand. She'd creep into his bedroom, and behold with her eyes his sculpted frame, warm still from making love to his hugely pregnant wife. And then, with one swift movement, she'd plunge the dagger deep in his heart.

If she could not have him, no one would.

" 'Morning, 'Mione. Get back in there, get some rest."

#

"It's a boy! We've named him Ted, after Dora's father!"

His eyes spark like little flames and his smile beams from ear to ear.

"Harry, will you be godfather? Dora quite agrees, no one better..."

"Godfather? Blimey, Remus..."

"Settled then! Just one drink, Bill, then I'll go...To Teddy Remus Lupin, a great wizard in the making!"

She sips in rejoice, and indeed, she is happy for his happiness. Her eyes, however, must hold a different tale, as his laugh falters slightly when he meets her pained expression.

#

"How did you find us?"

"I sent my patronus; it led me here. No need to worry, though – your protection charms are strong and would impede anyone out of your trust to reach you."

She considers him for a long moment in awe.

"What is it you want from me, anyway? Why do you hunt me down all these months? We're in the middle of war, damn it!"

"You cannot always avoid me!"

"I have to go back; Ron and Harry will be expecting me."

"No, you won't until we set this matter straight!"

"Matter? There is no matter, there never was. Let me through!"

The grasp of his hand on her arm is painful; the gritting of her clenched teeth loud and angry.

"Stop behaving so childish!"

"Oh, now I'm being childish! Well, maybe I am. I love you, Remus. Now, leave me be."

"You'll stay HERE!"

The abrupt, forceful release of his grasp and her awkward meeting face to face with the great trunk of a tree took a few moments for him to realise what happened and reach out for her against it.

He handles her as if she's fragile; his tears are genuine. They blend with hers as he lays her on the wet earth and covers her body with his own. Temples pressing to one another and tongues burning in open-mouthed kisses, their hands touch wherever possible in a frantic dance. Tearing masks and lacerating fears, ridding themselves of all shame and propriety, they shed their clothes and their souls mingle together as their vessels become one once more. They roll downhill and their backs bleed in their contact with the scattered pebbles, their hair gets baptised in the soil, two true children of Mother Earth in its most sacred act of unity. And in those screams of passion and luscious movements that make the heart race, the tears of love become ones of fulfillment, as each thrust binds them closer together and makes rougher to bear their pending separation, waiting to be voiced.

#

"Goodbye, Remus."

The words are uttered in a barely heard, throaty voice, himself still inside her, her back against his chest as she holds for dear life onto his arms of stone that claim her wholly.

He doesn't speak; he prefers to listen to the sun rising on the leaves of the trees surrounding them, crisp, golden beams setting off to play into her locks of brown. He tightens his embrace as a lark song hits his ear. And just as the melody becomes even more piercing and uncomfortable, he opens his arms and withdraws from her body, standing up and dressing taciturnly. Then, a silent pop! ensues, and so he leaves her curled up on the ground, alone, bare and empty.

#

The very same night, he would lay beside his loving wife under the bewitched ceiling of the Great Hall at Hogwarts, silver eyes solid and unfocused, limbs forever quiet. Years after the war, Teddy Lupin, as he grew older, would always hear stories of his father's kindness, valour and dreams of a world in which his son could live a happier life from his Aunt Hermione.