A Different Happy Ending || xrego
When she and Nik had promised each other forever, Mary had never imagined that forever could ever be a possibility for them. They were on opposite sides of the war. She was a muggleborn, everything that he was meant to hate and despise and he came from a pureblood family whose ideals would not be swayed simply because their son had fallen in love.
And yet somehow it was happening, they were making it work. It wasn't perfect and Mary doubted it ever could be perfect but it was something and they were together. She would out up with a lot to insure that they could stay together. As it was, Nik's family had a cottage, out of the way of everything, that was unused and practically forgotten by the family. It was there that Mary and Nik had moved once school had finished and it was there that they lived. She apparated into London most days, to attend her healer training and to work her shifts at the Leaky Cauldron. It wasn't as if money would be a problem, Nik's family were prestigious and rich but Mary still wanted money of her own. She didn't want to have to rely on Nik for everything.
More often than not, Mary would return to an empty home, with Nik on varying mission for the Death Eaters, He would be gone for days, sometimes weeks at a time before coming home for one night and then be gone by the time she woke the next morning. It wasn't perfect, but they were still together. She never asked what he did in those days spent away, didn't want to know the atrocities he was being forced to commit. They lived double lives and it wouldn't do for them to get entangled.
It was on a day such as that, when Nik had been away for about a week, that Mary returned to the cottage, having finished her training earlier than usual. As she approached the house, she drew her wand to remove the wards, only to find them already down and that only equated to one thing in her head, that Nik was home. It was with that joy in her heart that she practically ran into the house, calling his name.