A/N: I wrote this to be the original prolouge for this trilogy. After I'd written it, I decided it didn't really fit and decided not to include it in the finished product. Now however, the more I read it, the more I like it as part of this piece. So here it is. The beginning you received much too late...

Confidence: Waiting

"Don't worry Remus. It's-it's just a temporary glitch nothing more!"

I stroke his arm and try to help him calm down. He's going into self-deprecation mode, I can see it in his face. I hate when he does this!

"Is it Tonks?" He looks at me with a sad grimace and chuckle which just spells out irony. "Do you really believe that this will all just go away?"

"Of course not. You know what I mean. We will be married, no matter how many long winded, ridiculously borring un-fair hearings we have to sit through to do it!" I insist trying to keep my voice light. After all, someone has to be the positive one. Even if the situation does look very close to impossible.

"And if they say no?" He asks lightly. He's trying to put up the cold, distant, professor face again. That won't work either, I grasp his hand to keep him from slipping too far away from me.

"Then we'll try again. We can always appeal." He suddenly pulls his hand away from mine, stands up and begins pacing the length of the living room.

"And if they slap us down again, and again and again…? I told you Tonks. I am a marked man. They are not going to simply give into the wants, even the needs of a werewolf. They will fight us to the very end."

"Then we'll just have to fight back won't we?"

"It's not that simple," he doesn't look at me when he says this. I have a feeling he's going to go for another one of his noble 'too old, too poor, too dangerous' speeches. I don't care to have the discussion again so I walk up to him slowly and stroke the side of his face in a way that I know he loves.

Sure enough, he closes his eyes and leans into my hand.

"It could be that simple, Remus. And no matter what, we have to let ourselves try."

I take his hand and lead him to the couch. I can hear his breathing slow. He is calmer now.

"Remember darling, we can both be very stubborn when we want to be. And we have all the time in the world to wear those old ministry toads down."

"It may take months. Even years," His voice no longer holds the sound of dire warning, merely caution.

"Then we'll wait. Believe it or not Remus, I can be very patient about some things. We've come this far; I'm not going to let a few measly years separate me from you."

I stroke the base of his wrist with my hand, and this time he reaches up to carress my cheek, and I lean into his touch.

"Whatever did I do to deserve you?"

I feel a jolt in my stomach as he says this.

"Mmm…nothing," I answer truthfully moving in to lay my head against his chest.

"You were just you. And guess what?"

"What?"

"I still love you for it."

He smiles and places his lips against mine in a quick kiss.

"Even though I have a severe socio-political stigma and a widely feared lunar habit?"

I pull away from him exasperated.

"Oh, for heaven sake Remus are you ever going to let that go?"

"Yes."

I look at him in shock. His face is fairly serious.

"Eventually. But not now. Now, I believe, it is time for tea…"

He rises from the couch and moves into the kitchen, and I marvel at the way nothing, not even a mandatory ministry hearing over his marriage license in less than a week, can upset his tea schedule. Still, what I said holds true. I do not want to marry him because he is spontaneous, or young or handsome in the manner of Gilderoy Lockhart.

I love him because he is simply Remus, and that is more than enough.

So, instead of saying anything more on the subject of hearings, marriage or love, I silently follow my soon to be husband into the kitchen and pray that he doesn't burn the toast.