Eighteen was not even two years ago but it might as well have been twenty. Hogwarts barely registers as a real place where they spent seven years of life, learned to love each other.
The students at Hogwarts, the oldest students at Hogwarts, were less than two years younger then he was. They could make mistakes. They lived in relative safety. He wondered how Dumbledore and McGonagall could do it. Be here and there, and not go crazy from the juxtaposition. He wished they would warn the seventh years, the way none of them had been warned.
You are not prepared.
Less then two years ago he and Alice had joined the Ministry as auror trainees, right out of Hogwarts, almost the next day. No time to do what other members of his family had done, traveled the world, spent time on a beach in France, eating food in Italy. Not in this world, not when people were dying every day. The Ministry needed aurors and they wanted to be aurors. There would be time for vacations later. Hopefully.
Hogwarts had not prepared him for the long hours of training. Learning protocol, procedures, what rules they had to follow. If they caught a Death Eater what to do with him. Although no one had. Not really. They caught people, but no one important enough to be useful, and half of them were clearly imperius'd.
Meanwhile the Death Eaters killed off top notch aurors, in their homes, along with their entire families, and there was no one to replace them. How addresses got into DE hands he didn't know, but now everyone had added protection, and none of the information on the Ministry forms were correct. Alastor Moody had personally changed them.
It had not helped much.
Probably someone in the office was feeding information. It was hard to think that someone you went out with, to fight alongside, might be selling your information to save their own skin. How to trust your partner. Safety procedures were more numerous daily. Some people say Moody was going crazy with paranoia, Frank thought it was more likely he was going crazy from losing colleagues. From having to cut the amount of time trainees got training because he needed the manpower. They were supposed to get a minimum of three years. But he and Alice had passed their qualification tests three months ago. He wasn't even sure it had been a year and a half.
They were not supposed to go on missions without a more experience auror as a supervisor. Frank gave that six months before being rejected. More and more people went out alone, when they were supposed to have partners, groups. And everyone had a stack of paperwork up to their cubicle wall.
Nothing compared to Moody's. He had to install a new bookcase, and it was more then half full. Constantly.
Despite the fact it was well past five, no one had left for home yet. Everyone took their days off seriously, unless there was an emergency, although you always hoped there wouldn't be. But everyone worked several hours more than they had too. Sometimes he thought Moody slept at his desk.
Less then two years ago they had thought they had been prepared for this. Now they had the training that said they were prepared for this. Now they knew there was no way to prepare.
He had proposed to her at their auror certification ceremony, right there, in front of everyone. She'd yelled, told him to stand up, he was making a fool of himself. But everyone had cheered and clapped and he hadn't moved, not until she said yes. It had seemed imperative in that moment, he had to know. He hadn't even bought a ring yet.
They'd picked it out together.
A pair of jean clad legs sidled up to him, a hand with fingernails bitten down to the nubs pushed a stack of paperwork out of the way so she could sit on his desk.
"I was working on that."
"No you're working on that." He looked up to meet her gaze and she winked at him. "I think we should elope."
"What?"
"Let's get married. Now. Tonight."
"WHAT?!"
"Frank, one of us could be dead tomorrow. If I die, I want to die married to you."
"We promised no talk of dying."
Alice grabbed the quill out of his hand and grabbed one of the sheets of paper, scribbling out in her awful handwriting: Frank, one of us could be dead tomorrow. If I die, I want to die married to you.
"Even if we don't die tomorrow I want to be married to you. I don't want to wait. I don't want fuss, I just want to be Alice Longbottom. Your name is terrible by the way. It's awful and no one in their right mind would want it, but I do. It feels like a million years since you proposed and I can't wait another million to get married."
He pushed his chair back. "Alright. Let's go get married."
She jumped off the desk, wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a big sloppy kiss on the mouth. "I know we'll make it, but I'd rather make it as your wife."