Give Her Time

Prologue – Other People’s Weddings

Ginny sat at the wedding reception and looked out over the crowd. Her new husband of two years was nowhere to be found; well, that wasn’t strictly true. He would be found in some hidden place snogging some random woman. Snogging was probably putting it nicely, too. Neville Longbottom had grown up to become an extremely handsome, charming man. Too bad he hadn’t grown up to be a good man.

“Hello Ginny,” came a warm rich voice from behind her. Ginny turned around and blinked into the sunlight as a figure moved to help shade her.

“Oh, hallo Remus. Enjoying yourself?” She hadn’t seen Remus Lupin in almost two years, since right before marrying Neville.

“It was a wonderful wedding, and I’ve enjoyed catching up with everyone,” Remus replied. He moved to sit next to her so she wouldn’t have to stare up at him. Yet another marked difference between her husband and the rest of humanity.

“Do you mind?” he asked before sitting in the chair next to hers.

“Not at all, it will keep all the riff-raff away,” she joked. Why hadn’t she noticed how attractive Remus was before? He had broad shoulders and a well developed body…

“Shouldn’t your husband be keeping the rifff fff from bothering you?” he joked.

“Remus, my husband is the riff-raff,” Ginny replied with a laugh. The shocked look on Remus’ face made her pause. That wasn’t something you generally shared with people in the first few minutes of conversation.

“I’m kidding. He’s off somewhere attending to something,” Ginny covered with a vague lie while brushing imaginary dust from her blue silk dress.

“Of course,” Remus replied before asking after her family. Then he asked after her health and such, and they talked a while, just enjoying each other\'s company. It came out that Remus was going to be returning to Hogwarts, as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher and Ginny grinned.

“About damned time they had a good teacher at the school, the last guy couldn’t even defend himself against flying spit balls, much less the dark arts!”

“You knew him?” Remus asked. “I didn’t know you still kept up with who taught at the school.”

“Of course I do, I work there. I’m working with Poppy,” Ginny explained and winked at Remus before adding, “So don’t screw up and get hurt, because we are busy enough as it is!”

The delighted look on the handsome man\'s face when she told him she now worked with Madam Pomfrey was balm for her shattered ego. They sat and laughed and talked until the sun went down. As the guests started thinning out, Hermione showed up at their table (her belly clearly showing) and thanked them for coming to the wedding. Ginny noted how she glowed, and not just from the new life kicking in her body either. Hermione had the look of a woman whose most heart-felt wish had just been granted.

“Hermione, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world!” Ginny winked at Hermione. Ginny had been the matron of honor. The dress Hermione had picked out was a light blue silk sheath which flattered Ginny’s thin figure and auburn hair.

“No, you couldn’t have, I was mostly talking to Remus there,” Hermione grinned.

“Of course, ‘Mione. I wouldn’t have missed it either. You look radiant!” Remus said as he stood and hugged a very pregnant Hermione Snape.

“Oi! Ginny!” muttered an obviously drunk Neville Longbottom as he stumbled up to her table. “Get your rear in gear and get us home.” Hermione shot her friend a look of disgust and compassion – it absolutely sucked being Neville’s wife.

“Neville, congratulate Hermione,” Ginny said, trying to remind him they were at a wedding, not a bar.

“Oh. Yeah, congratulations on getting knocked up and forcing Snape into marrying you. Sounds like you both got shafted on that one, but if that’s what floats your boat –” Neville rambled. Hermione shot him an icy look.

“And I might say congratulations on your latest conquest Neville. It appears she was wearing Cherry Passion Pink tonight. Tell me, do you remember her name? Or did you even bother to ask?” There was no love lost between Hermione and Neville. Ginny sank into her seat and covered her face with her hands. This was awful. As much as she hated Neville, she just couldn’t believe he would act like this at the wedding of her closest friend. Of course, as much as Neville seemed to hate her, maybe he was acting like this because they were at the wedding of her closest friend.

A warm strong hand rested on her shoulder and she looked up. Remus was looking at her with undisguised pity on his face. Damn it all! She had been sitting next to the sexiest man to walk into her life ever and he had seemed to be enjoying her company too, and then blasted Neville showed up and ruined it all. Shdn’tdn’t need pity; she needed a divorce. And that wasn’t going to happen.

Through her embarrassment, Ginny managed to pull herself together. It was obviously time to go now before Neville started screaming at her in front of the rest of the wedding guests.

“It was lovely Hermione, and you were beaul! l! Owl me after your honeymoon and we can get together to see what goodies you got, okay?” Ginny asked, ignoring the glares Neville was sending her way.

“Okay love,” Hermione said with a kiss on Ginny’s cheek. Hermione said her goodbyes to Remus, and left, completely ignoring the moody man to Ginny’s right.

“See you at the castle this fall, Remus,” Ginny said. He nodded and shot her a look of understanding. It was pretty clear she couldn’t say anything more to him with her husband standing next to her.

“See you at the castle this fall, Remus,” Neville mimicked her. Ginny rolled her eyes and grabbed his hand before walking to the edge of the party and disapparating.


~*~*~*~*~


After chatting with Ginny for almost an hour and a half, it jolted Remus to be reminded she was married to such a cad as Longbottom. After the comments a normally sweet tempered Hermione had made, it was apparent Neville could be counted on to be unfaithful to Ginny as often as the sun rose, and why she was still married to him was a complete mystery. True love must be a powerful thing.

Remus watched Ginny being pulled away by her faithless husband and sighed deeply. While Remus wasn’t a lonely man by any means, he still hadn’t found a live-long love like the happy couple who got married today, and he didn’t seem likely too. It would take a sg wog woman to deal with a transformation once a month, even if it wasn’t as bad as it use to be.

For a little while there, talking to the gorgeous red head, Remus had been able to forget the fact that she wasn’t available for the taking. And it shocked him that he had been thinking about trying to get to know her… better.

Shaking his head, Remus stood up. It was just the wedding that had him thinking like this; he wasn’t really lonely. After all, he had his friends, health, and a great job. What more could a bloke want?




Next Chapter my dears... Then I\'ll ask for a review ;)