Smile

Forest Glenny

PG 13

Disclaimer: I don't own. You don't sue. We're all happy.

Notes: This is the last chapter, at least for now. Once the fifth book comes out, there might be another one- we'll see. Anyway, this takes place after Sirius' name is (hypothetically) cleared. Thank you all for reading!

V.

I can't stop the happiness from decorating my face with its gaudy colors. I am grinning madly I'm sure as he looks at me as if in a trance can't believe it's you you've come home. Set down the suitcase just outside the door and then beckon, come here. I step out onto the porch and he lifts me up still and ever effortless and swings me giddily around. I laugh loud and crinkly like the crows feet near dear old grandmothers' eyes and when he refuses to set me down I reach for his suitcase with a Leviosa spell.

Like so he carries us over the threshold and this is our home. His home. My home. And Harry, mustn't forget him, he's coming to live with us. Dear lord! I'm going to have a family! Our home, once again. The Marauders are slowly coming home.

Put me down oh so gently on my feet at the bottom of our stairs and then hand-holding I give him the grand tour of the tiny house. Kitchen. Bathroom. Sitting room. Closet. And our bedroom. Our bed. Our bed. This bed...

There is no allowance for me to finish the thought. Lips soft as rose petals but so much sweeter smile nibble lick admittance please? against mine, equally willing to participate but thoroughly repressed by the bonds of love. We stay almost still except to move willing arms around each other and steadily discover once more how our scents and tastes mingle together to form something more pure and complete than either alone could ever be. I grin dreamily so relaxed into the kiss. A smirk, he kisses against my tongue and I gasp into his mouth when fingers penetrate a shirt hem. Do you want this? they ask. Yes more than anything, I try to reply, reaching for pesky buttons on his woolly itchy Northerner's sweater.

Now he is still smiling as he bite licks a trail down my neck and under an unbuttoned collar and across my stomach where I giggle uncontrollably ticklish nervous as the not-so-little schoolboy was the first time we tried this. Is this really okay? he asks softly smiling as he plucks at the button holding my trousers up.

I nod, yes, yes of course. Want your skin on me, your love surrounding me. I want to reek of you tomorrow morning. He pulls me down to the bed.

Sun shines brightly in my blinking awake eyes. I am sated and full again and his distinct perfume covers me, penetrates every pore. I turn over and he is smiling, soft and sleepy, good morning love. The white is now not so bleached perfect and his lips are chronically bitten and chapped, just as the eyes are slightly dull and I'll have to convince him to get glasses soon enough. And of course the hair is shaggy and long and not quite as night-pitch as it once was, because of the silver gray grain that graces it.

But still, I know this face. I know that it is the closest thing to perfect I have ever witnessed, because, like some dark phoenix, he has died of grief and risen again, realizing his fault and accepting it and not moving on but somehow continuing anyway. His poor beloved perfect face. How I have missed that face...

I curl my toes in sleepy glee, happy that all it takes is this smile.

fin.

written 12 may 03

typed 24 may 03

edited 24 may 03

Please review? Thank you all for reading. I hope it ended satisfactorily.