Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N: Sorry this story is taking so long. I hope you guys enjoy. Thanks for reading. P.S., this chapter will be short but the next, which will skip way ahead into the sixth book, will hopefully be longer.
Saffron lay against me, fast asleep, her breathing soft against my neck.
We were both exhausted and I was surprised I hadn't fallen asleep as fast as she had. I had taken to spending the night at her house after missions for the Order, seeing as how we were already always together anyway.
Today had been big. We've heard rumors that the Death Eaters were planning something and we were sent to try to find something, anything out.
We managed to catch up with a couple of Death Eaters though they ran from us. We ended up chasing them for miles, Apparating, Disapparating, flying . . . . The whole day was exhaustingly painful.
And then, when we managed to catch them, they didn't know anything, even after we'd given them truth serum. They were thrown in Azkaban, anyway, because they're names were listed as notorious Death Eaters but it didn't matter. We were still no closer to finding out what was happening.
I looked down at Saffron, running my fingers over her shoulder. We had had to duel with those guys, if all the running around hadn't been bad enough. She'd gotten hit a couple of times by their spells and had fallen back but she kept going, kept fighting. She was bleeding pretty badly when we'd gotten back to headquarters but of course they'd gotten her fixed up.
The whole thing though, made me realize just how much I cared about her. I'd been so worried when she'd passed out against me, too weary to Apparate anywhere. And she'd been in so much pain I didn't even notice, didn't even care that I was bleeding too.
But when she'd opened her eyes again and smiled at me, everything was all right, I knew it would be.
Now, as she lay with her head on my shoulder and her arm across my waist, I held her tighter than I'd ever had before, thinking about how I'd almost lost her and how I couldn't imagine losing her and how this war was so . . . unpredictable.
Hesitating for a moment, a shook her gently, saying, "Saf? Saf, wake up."
She stirred, her head tilting up so that she could look at me through tired eyes. She gave me a small smile. "What's up?" she said.
"Will you marry me?" I asked, softly.
Saffron was silent for a moment before she jerked up into a sitting position. Even in the dark I could see how bright her eyes were. "What did you just say?"
I sat up too, taking a deep breath. "I love you, Saffron. And I really want to be with you. . . . I want you to be my wife and I want to marry you now because – because I don't know what is going to happen next. So . . . will you marry me?"
Once again, Saffron fell silent. I felt as if time had stopped and as if I couldn't breathe. I had to know her answer because it meant everything to me.
The next thing I know, Saffron flings her arms around my neck, her lips smashing into mine in a very intense kiss. It was enough to give me my answer.