My Hero, My Friend, My Love

A/N- This is my favorite chapter so far. Thanks to all the reviewers!

Disclaimer: I own nothing, except the plot.

Chapter Thirteen: Surprises

Monday afternoon Ginny was down at the lake, writing in her journal. She was startled out of her thoughts when her owl flew over and dropped a letter into her lap. She looked at the handwriting and saw that it wasn't from Remus. However, the script did look familiar. She opened it and read it quickly.

Ginny,

I'm tired of watching you being hurt. It's taken me a long time to realize that I was the one hurting you.

I can't promise that I will be happy about it, but I will no longer stand in the way of your friendship with Moony. I only ask that you promise me two things.

First, please be careful. Don't let yourself get caught in a bad situation. And secondly, if anything happens, if you get hurt or scared, please come to me first. I want to be here for you.

At my age in life, I am forced to realize that I will probably never have children of my own. And while I can never replace your wonderful parents, I hope that you will give me the chance to love you as a daughter. You have brought more joy to my life in the last year than I've had in a very long time. And for that I am eternally grateful.

All my love,

Sirius

Ginny looked up to meet Sirius' eyes. He smiled gently at her, and she leapt up from the ground threw herself into his arms, crying.

"Thank you, Sirius," she sobbed. "I'm sorry I've been so terrible. Please forgive me."

He pulled away to look at her. "Ginny, you don't need to be forgiven. I do. I'm sorry I've been such a prat."

"Yes, you have," she said trying to laugh a little. "But I forgive you." She hugged him tightly, but he still managed to hear her muffled words. "I love you."

While Ginny and Sirius were having their moment, Remus Lupin was staring down at his desk. An unopened letter stared back at him. He knew who it was from and he was afraid to open it. "Damn it, Moony," he said aloud to himself. "Just open it." He ripped open the letter and read it slowly, expecting the worst. However, he was surprisingly disappointed.

Moony,

I admit it. I've been a prat. I see Ginny when she's with you or when she reads one of your letters, and she's the happiest then. I see you with her, and you're the happiest too. I will no longer come between the two of you. But promise me that you will not try to have anything more than friendship with her. I'm still very concerned about your feelings for her, as she is still quite young and impressionable. But I trust you enough to keep your affections to yourself.

That being said, I wanted to tell you that I'm planning a surprise birthday party for her in a few weeks. As you know, she will be eighteen, and all her brothers will be able to come. I know she'd be thrilled to see you. I've cleared it with Dumbledore, and he's allowed use of an empty parlor in the castle for the party. I hope you will be able to make it. It's April 12 at 8 p.m.

I know it will take a while to get back to where our friendship was. But I hope that we can do that. You are my oldest living friend, and I think as the two remaining Mauraders, we owe it to ourselves to try and get back what we had.

See you in April.

Sirius

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Ginny was in the Gryffindor common room, studying her Transfiguration when Sirius came in and interrupted her.

"Ginny, I'm sorry to bother you, but your presence is needed in the empty parlor on the fifth floor," he said cryptically. "Oh, and by the way, you may want to dress up a bit." He grinned mischievously at her before leaving.

Confused as she was, she went up to her dorm and changed into a black dress she'd recently bought. It was just above knee-length, sleeveless, with a V-neck. She, of course, wore Remus' bracelet and the necklace and earrings she'd gotten from Bill two Christmases ago. She briefly glanced at her reflection before shrugging and leaving the Tower.

She found the parlor without incident and opened the door.

"SURPRISE!!!" She was greeted with loud shouts, and she looked around the room at all her friends and family that were there.

"Oh, my!" she exclaimed. "What's all this?" She was smiling and laughing from being startled.

Bill came over to hug his sister. "You didn't really think we'd let your eighteenth birthday go by without making a fuss, did you?"

"I just can't believe it," she said. "Who did all this?"

Ron spoke up next. "That would be Sirius. He said you'd been having a tough go of it lately and so he planned all this."

Ginny let go of Ron and ran to hug Sirius. She kissed him firmly on the cheek. "Sirius Black, you are without a doubt the best!"

He smiled broadly, pleased with her reaction to the party. Soon, everyone began mingling and eating. Ginny had just finished her drink when Professor Dumbledore came over to her. "Headmaster, I'm so glad you came," she said, greeting the elder wizard.

"Happy Birthday, my dear. I'm afraid I can't stay long. But I do have those papers you filled out last week. Perhaps you'd like them now?" he asked pulling a roll of parchments from his robe pocket.

She grinned at him, and he winked in return. She took the parchments and went in search of Sirius. She found him, talking with George and Katie. "Excuse us for a moment, won't you?" she asked before leading Sirius away by the hand. She led him out onto the balcony and pulled the door almost closed behind them.

"Having fun?" he asked her. She nodded vigorously.

"I can never thank you enough for this, Sirius, for everything. You've been truly wonderful," she began, getting a little nervous. "I have something for you. I hope you'll be happy about it." She handed him the parchments, and he perused them, puzzled for a moment, before his eyes stopped reading and he looked up at her with the biggest smile she'd ever seen on his face.

"You changed your name?" he questioned, not really believing it.

"Yes," she replied. "You said you wanted to love me like a daughter, and I realized I wanted to love you like a father, not as a replacement father, but sort of like a second father. So Dumbledore helped me with the paperwork. He just brought it to me. It's official. I'm now Ginny Black-Weasley."

The words had barely left her mouth before he enveloped her into a hug. She heard quiet sniffs and realized that he was crying. He pulled away and turned. "I'm sorry," he said embarrassed. "I'm just so happy. You've made me feel so blessed."

"Yes, Ginny does have a way of doing that," a voice interrupted.

Sirius and Ginny both looked up to find Remus standing in the doorway. "Sorry," he said, "didn't meant to interrupt. Someone said you were out here, and I wanted to see the birthday girl."

"REMUS!!!" Ginny exclaimed launching herself at him. His face lit up as he hugged her, and Sirius watched with a pleased expression.

Sirius cleared his throat and turned to his old friend. "Good to see you, Moony. I'm glad you came." The two men shook hands and clapped each other on the shoulder. Sirius looked at Remus, then at Ginny. "Well, I'll just head back in." He walked over to Ginny and hugged her again and kissed her cheek. "Love you," he said softly.

She smiled at him. "Love you too." They watched him go back to the party, closing the door completely behind him.

Remus turned back to face Ginny. "That was quite something, changing your name. I think you just gave Sirius the best moment in his life." He paused. "He really does think of you as his daughter, you know that right?"

She nodded. "Yes, I'm glad he does. He says he'll never have children of his own. So Harry and I are it, I suppose. Although, part of me wishes Sirius would get married and have children of his own."

Remus chuckled at her remark. "What's so funny?" she asked.

"Nothing, I just can't imagine Sirius as a one-woman man. You'd understand if you knew him long ago. I could tell you some stories that would make your toes curl," he laughed.

She giggled at the thought before looking up at her friend. "Well, what about you? You seem like the one-woman type. Why haven't you ever settled down?"

Remus turned away from her. "I almost did, once. A long time ago."

Her curiosity piqued, she asked, "What happened?"

He shrugged and looked down at the ground. "She couldn't love me completely."

Knowing he was referring to the wolf aspect of his life, she became angry. "How could she not? You are the most wonderful man I know. You're warm, kind, funny and wonderful. And you're completely...beautiful," she said the last word softly. "How could any woman not love you?"

Remus turned to face her and fought with himself to not tell her how he felt right then and there. Instead, he smiled wryly. "Let's not talk about that. I'm perfectly content with my life without being married. You, on the other hand, will have dozens of marriage proposals before long. Perhaps you've already had a few?" he questioned with raised eyebrows.

She walked over to the railing of the balcony and looked out over the castle grounds. "Nope, not one, unless you count Draco's almost-proposal last year." She began to idly play with her bracelet. "Besides, no one would want me when they found out the truth."

Remus came to stand next to her. "And what truth is that?" he pressed gently.

She turned her head away from his searching gaze. Very quietly she admitted to him what no one else knew. "I can't have children."

Suddenly, it all made sense. He thought back to her letter about Draco and how she said he would have regretted marrying her and about how she always looked at her brother's children with a wistful, sad look.

"Ginny," he said turning her around to him. "I had no idea. I'm so sorry."

She shook her head. "It's from the war. One of the curses they sent at me. It's impossible for me to ever get pregnant." She swallowed hard, trying not to cry. "You're the only one who knows, Remus, the only person I've ever told." She paused. "You're the only person I've ever wanted to tell."

Remus' head was spinning. He didn't know what to do. He just pulled her into his arms and held her for a while. After several moments, he pulled back and smiled down at her.

"I almost forgot. I have your birthday present," he said.

She smiled broadly. Remus always gave the best presents. Excitedly, she asked, "Well, where is it?"

He laughed at her enthusiasm, and pulled the small box from his pocket.

"This was my mother's. It was meant to be for the woman I married, but I've never...well, you know. I want you to have it. You're my closest friend and the person that means the most to me in the world," he explained. He opened the box to reveal his mother's engagement ring, a diamond, flanked by two small emeralds, surrounded by a white gold band. Ginny gasped.

"Remus, I can't accept this," she said breathlessly.

"Please," he insisted. "I'd be honored for you to have it." Before she could argue, he pulled the ring from the box and slipped it on the ring finger of her right hand.

She stared down at it for a moment before looking back up into his eyes. Before she even thought about it, she reached her hand up to his cheek and caressed it softly before gently pulling his head towards hers. Ever so delicately, she kissed his lips. Remus' hand immediately went to the nape of her neck and he kissed her back, very tenderly. After a moment, they pulled away and rested their foreheads together, and she whispered, "Thank you."

A loud crash from inside brought them back to reality, and she giggled. "I'm sure one of my brothers has done something." She paused and bit her lower lip. "We should go in now."

He nodded in response, too bewildered from their brief kiss to string words together in a coherent sentence. He followed her back into the party, where she was swept up in a crowd of her family.

Ginny nervously visited with her brothers and sisters-in-law for the rest of the evening. She often glanced furtively over at Remus and when their eyes met, he would blush and smile at her before getting flustered and looking away. Ginny was amazed at how soft his lips had been when she kissed him. She didn't even know why she'd done it. It just somehow felt right at that moment.

She was listening to Hermione complain about the baby waking up at all hours of the night, but she couldn't help looking over the other girl's shoulder to watch Remus talk to Ron. He certainly was handsome, but she'd always thought that. But now when she looked at him she didn't just see a handsome, older man. She saw a beautiful man who made her stomach dance in fits. "What the hell is going on with me?" she thought.

Meanwhile, Remus had noticed the time. He needed to get home, as he had to be at work early in the morning. He excused himself from Ron and went in search of the birthday girl. He found her talking with Hermione and went over and politely interrupted the two.

"I'm so sorry, but I wanted to tell Ginny good-bye. It's late and I have to be going," he explained.

The ever perceptive Hermione noticed the looks the pair was giving each other and silently stepped away to give them a moment.

Ginny stood and led Remus out into the hallway. "I wish you could stay," she said, taking his hand.

Remus, feeling a sudden jolt at her touch, smiled warmly at her. "Me too, but I have this annoying thing called a job that I have to go to in the morning," he kidded.

She giggled at him, before getting serious. "Remus, I still don't feel right about keeping the ring. It's beautiful and I love it, but it's a family treasure. Don't you think you should keep it? What if you fall in love with someone?" she asked, searching his eyes.

"It's too late for that." He noticed her confused expression. "Never mind," he explained. "Besides, it fits you perfectly, almost as if it were made for you. I want you to have it," he pleaded.

At his insistence, she nodded and smiled. "Your father had good taste. It's lovely."

"Actually, it was his father who had the good taste. It was my grandmother's first," he stated. "It's been passed down since then...and now it's yours forever. I couldn't think of anyone more special to have it," he said before leaning down to kiss her cheek. As he did so, she closed her eyes and reveled in his touch.

"I have to go, but I'll see you before too long. Graduation?" he reminded her.

She nodded and hugged him before he left.