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Warning for Bromance to Romance/co-workers trope, also a slight bit out of character due to the tropes used. Word count is 1,918 words. I hope that you all enjoyed Marry Me.

I stared in complete and utter shock as the young Auror I had been dating on the down-low knelt in my office, a ring box in his hand. His dark hair was as messy as it had ever been. His green eyes were almost a sea-green as he looked up at me. Even his spectacles seemed to shine with a certain light today.

I, however, could only feel my heart in my throat which felt like it was about to explode. I had told Harry that people wouldn't be ready to accept our relationship for what it was. Plus there would also be questions of why he had gotten that raise he'd gotten recently. Which he'd gotten on merit and not because he was my boyfriend of almost two years. Not that people would see that merit now that Harry had let the cat out of the bag.

I could hear the muttering of shocked whispers from behind me. People were confused as to why Harry was here and why he seemed to be down on one knee in front of me. I could feel my cheeks heat up as I pulled Harry to his feet.

"Can I talk to you private, Auror Potter?" I asked, watching as the happy shine slowly left his face.

"Of course, Minister Shacklebolt," he said, dropping his gaze from my own and towards his feet instead.

I led him into my office. A place that held so many memories for both of us. This had been the place we'd had our first kiss even before we started dating. This had been the place where Harry had asked me to go on our first date. A Quidditch match and dinner. This had almost been the place we'd been together for the first time.

"What was that about, Kingsley?" Harry asked, not sounding angry but also not sounding happy either. "Don't you love me? Don't you want to be with me and let everyone know that we're together?"

I took his hands and led him over to the sofa in my office. A place which had seen many passion-filled kisses between the two of us. I sat him down and turned to look at him. I let a breath that I hadn't known that I had been holding.

"I do love you, Harry," I said, kissing him gently on the tip of the nose. "But you have to understand that people won't understand our relationship fully. They will see our relationship and think that you're getting raises and promotions not out of merit but because you're with me. I don't want people to think about you like that, do you understand?"

"No," Harry said, looking more upset than I'd ever seen him before. "I don't understand. Why should it matter what they think? They are just people who work for you, Kingsley. Shouldn't what we think and want matter much more?"

"You don't really understand the way the world works yet, Harry," I said, feeling the lump rise up in my throat to meet my heart which was still beating wildly there. "You don't understand yet that how people see something can affect my position as Minister of Magic and….."

"So, we're just a-a-a something now?" Harry asked, tears filling his sea-green eyes as he looked up at me. "When we start being a something and not a relationship?"

"Harry, lower your voice," I said, a tone of warning going into my voice as I put my finger to his lips to shush him. "People will hear….."

"That the Minister of Magic has been screwing the Head of the Auror Department for two years and basically just rejected his proposal of marriage," Harry yelled, pulling away from me. "Oh no, Kingsley. Your little secret is out now. Guess I'd better go…."

"Harry," I said, feeling like I was about to cry, or pass out, or be violently or three at the same time, "I…."

"You what, Kingsley? You love me? You want to marry me? You want me out of your office? What do you want from me?"

The tears were streaming down his face in torrents now. I could feel tears prickling my own eyes as I watched him standing there. His hand on the doorknob getting ready to leave my office more than likely for good.

All I wanted to do at this point was scream for him to stay. That I would marry him and we could be happy together. But on the other hand, didn't he understand that this was not the time or the place to ask me to marry him? Didn't he understand what sort of person he was making me look like to all those people out there?

"Nothing to say?"

I opened my mouth and searched for the words that yearned to come out but nothing did. I couldn't say those words. Not here. Not the way he wanted me to. So I let him go. I stood watching his retreating back as he stormed off more than likely towards the Auror Department to vent to his best mate Ron.

"Minister Shacklebolt," my secretary, a stricken-looking young woman with eyes so blue they were almost the color of robin egg blue, "you have a meeting with the Muggle Prime Minister in fifteen minutes."

I mentally cursed and went about preparing for my meeting. I could feel the shattered remains of my heart crashing back into its regular spot with a pang of hurt. But right now I had to put on a

brave face and get ready for the Muggle Prime Minister.

That night when I'd gone home, I found that Harry had moved all his personal items from the flat we shared for almost two years now. Not one piece was left to indicate that another human being had once lived here.

But that had been a week ago. A whole week had gone by and he still wouldn't talk to me. Sure he'd say hello when we passed each other in the halls of the Ministry and give all the other niceties one should give their superior. But nothing besides that.

That is when I almost lost him for good. The Auror division had been sent out to deal with a rather nasty cell of Death Eaters that had escaped detection after the Battle of Hogwarts. The fight I was told had been a hard-fought one. Ending only when Sectumsempra spell had hit Harry who'd jumped between the spell and Muggleborn Auror. Now I was sat by the side of Harry's bed, being his emergency contact person.

"When did you make me your emergency contact person?" I asked the unconscious man, moving a lock of hair that had fallen onto his forehead. "It must have been around the time you bought that ring."

I held onto the pale white hand that lay upon the blankets of his bed. I could still lose him and he wouldn't know that I cared about him as much as he cared about me. I watched the slow rise and fall of his chest as he slumbered on in unconsciousness.

"I know that I didn't handle the sit….your proposal, as well as you, thought I would," I said, bringing his hand up to my lips. "I wasn't ready for that. I knew how you felt about me from the first kiss. And I knew how I felt about you from that moment too. But I wasn't ready for the rest of the world to know how we felt about each other. I would take my reaction to your proposal that day back if you only open your eyes and ask me again."

I looked down upon his still unconscious form. His chest kept rising and falling which was a good thing. The blood replenisher was working marvelously. But Merlin knows how long he'd been bleeding before he was treated. Merlin knew how much blood he'd lost on his way to St. Mungos.

"You do know that everyone at the Ministry knew you and Harry were dating before your big row a week ago, right?" a voice asked from the doorway.

I turned to find Ron staring at me with Hermione at his elbow. I gave him a confused look. We had been very careful not to let our relationship slip into the public knowledge. Hadn't we been? Then how did Ron Weasley and apparently the rest of the Ministry know this well-guarded secret of ours?

"Harry told us when the two of you first started going out," Hermione said, putting a hand on Ron's arm. "He told us after he broke up with Ginny."

"He did?" I asked, looking over Harry's sweat-streaked brow.

"He did. He didn't want to keep living a lie about who he was. He wanted to be out in the open and honest about the two of you. He really does love you, Kingsley. He loves you so much that he wants to be with you for the rest of your lives. Don't you get that yet?"

"But how did everyone find out about…." I trailed off as I pointed between Harry and myself.

"Ginny was more upset than Harry thought," Ron said, shrugging. "None of us thought she'd got to Rita Skeeter or that Rita would do an actual article on the matter. Not one of those Quick Quote Quill ones."

"So all this time we've been hiding and we could have been….."

"Yeah," said a weak voice from the bed.

I turned to see Harry smiling weakly up at me. I could feel the tears that he previously been stinging my eyes rolling down my face in torrents. I put my arms around Harry and held him as if I would never let him go.

"You never answer the question that I never got to ask you at Ministry, Kingsley," Harry said, looking up at me awkwardly.

"What question would that be?" I asked, knowing full well what question he wanted to ask me.

"Here, mate," Ron said, handing Harry something before he could speak once more. "You might need this in order to ask that particular question."

"Thanks, Ron," Harry said, turning his attention back to me. "I know we've only been dating for almost two years now. But when you know you've found the right one. You sort of know, you know?"

I nodded.

"And I most certainly know that you Kingsley Shacklebolt are the perfect man for me. I could ask for no better a boyfriend and lover than you. I want us to be forever. I want to wake up to your face in the morning and I want your face to be the last one I see before I go to sleep. I want to live my life for you and with you. You are my everything. So, Kingsley Shacklebolt, will you marry me and make me the happiest man in the world?" He held out the now open black velvet box.

The ring that shone up at me was the most beautiful thing that I'd ever seen. It was white gold and had diamonds across the band with a ruby and emerald sat next to each other. It was one of the most gorgeous things that I'd ever seen.

"Yes," I said, gulping back the lump in my throat as he put the ring on my finger. Looking down at the ring on my finger I couldn't wait to start planning Harry's and my dream wedding.

I hope you all enjoyed Marry Me as much as I enjoyed writing it.