SPLITAPARTS: lessons in love ✔️

Marry Me

Late October 1981

In early October, during a meeting of the Order, Albus had pulled Sirius to the side and informed him of what was known as the "Split-Apart's curse", which was, once the seed was planted, the couple should part as soon as possible, lest harm befall one or both of them. It became the primary reason that Sirius wanted to put Cassie on a plane bound for America once they realized that she had become pregnant for the third time; they might both be at risk. Sirius told her time and time again, that while his own safety was of little concern to him, hers was paramount especially once she became pregnant...Cassie told him that she didn't like the idea of raising their child on her own. She privately thought of remaining with Remus and thought of approaching him with it, but knew that he would refuse stating that while he adored her, he felt he wasn't worthy, but her senses told her otherwise: he didn't want to have to share her with Sirius. She was going to have to raise her child on her own, just has her own mother did before marrying Theodore leBlanc. She learned early on that her Grandmother was already married, with two daughters and she did the same, separating from Albus once her mother had been born.

Sirius passed a particular jewelry store on countless occasions and resisted wandering inside. The war was heating to a rolling boil and Sirius knew that he'd be leaving for parts unknown the day she boarded her plane back to America; he dreaded having to break the news to her though...she was not going to take it well.

One chilly afternoon in late October, he drove past the store on three separate occasions and finally decided to enter the muggle shop. He noticed that a lot of the jewelry was pre-owned and quite old. He resisted going the way of the antique and found a simple ring made of what he thought was silver with two diamonds set inside. Part of him delighted in the fact that it was silver; Moony would never be able to touch her left hand again, the traitor. The jeweler informed him that the metal was in fact, titanium and not silver, was far more expensive and that he could switch out the diamonds for other stones if Sirius agreed to make the purchase.

"I've never heard of titanium, Sir," Sirius confessed.

"Ah, here let me show you on the elemental table," he said.

Sirius's eyes darted around immediately as he covertly reached for his wand...a muggle shop with invisible elementals residing inside on a tabletop no less, was indeed a dangerous place to find himself in. He felt silly when the jeweler returned with a piece of paper, with squares, numbers and letters all over it. When the older man explained about what the numbers and the letters meant; Sirius saw that the number 22 figured prominently and he was thankful for his single semester of arithromancy in his fourth year...He was tickled when Cassie told him that arithromancy was known as numerology by muggles and that she was quite schooled in that particular form of divination. She had told him that the number 22 was a Master number and that it was her life path number. Finally, he grimaced and asked the price of the ring. To his surprise, without the diamonds, it was actually affordable...the jeweler wanted to be rid of it as it had been in his inventory for two years. Sirius saw it as a sign and he ordered the ring with Cassie's and his birthstones in place of the diamonds, which brought the price down quite a bit more.

"An opal and a topaz, yes, sir—I think I have just the stones that will fit the setting. I'll let you pick them out," the jeweler said. "You're certain that you don't want the diamonds?"

"Nope, she's not a diamond kind of girl. She's rather unique. Like this ring's gonna be."

"Then it was meant to be, Sir."

"Certainly seems that way, doesn't it?"

The jeweler left Sirius for a moment and returned with two small cases. He opened the first case to reveal a cache full of fiery opals of many different colors. He found a stone that he fell in love with and grimaced when he learned that the stone alone would cost more than the entire set of rings with a high quality topaz. He ran numbers in his head and realized that he simply could not afford the stone he wanted and his face showed his disappointment...he still had two rooms of furniture to purchase for their new house; Cassie refused to let him conjure furniture..."Bad enough that we're adding on rooms magically," she had said on several occasions.