It wasn't snowing, but it was the 18th November. The moment they appeared in the safe apparition point at the far side of the cobbled village square, he wondered if she knew. The street lamps were reflecting in the puddles from the rain the past couple of days, but at least it had relented for the moment. There was the faint noise of a choir practice from within St Celementine, hymns for an upcoming wedding.

Guide me, O thou great Redeemer,
pilgrim though this barren land;
I am weak, but thou art mightly;
hold me with thy powerful hand;

Francis smiled gently to Gabrielle as they popped into view, hands clasped. Dinner, he'd said earlier, just the two of them. It had been lovely, out at their favourite restaurant. Gabrielle looked ever more beautiful. The worries of months past lifted, life more or less back to normal. Between Biggleswade and Wiltshire, they found it hard to spend a night alone, normally only through Gabrielle's Department Head duties. Francis couldn't imagine waking each morning without Gabrielle now, not after a year of being back together.

… let the fiery cloudy pillar
lead me all my journey through;

He let his love look about herself, realising where they were. His smile was unfaltering as he watched her eyes catch the light in the dark evening. Her expression shifted as she recognised where they were and they exchanged a look. Francis offered her his arm and together their feet crossed wet cobbles. Two silhouettes with curls in the November air. As they approached the gates of the church, Francis extended his hand to push open the gates.

When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside;
bear me through the swelling current,
land me safe on Canaan's side;

Here the sound of the church hymns was clearer, underpinned by the organ inside the little church. The choir's voices reaching the higher notes with increasing crescendos as they neared, entering the edge of the churchyard, walking up between graves of Godric's Hollow residents past. Although he knew that by this moment, this clever, kind and beautiful witch upon his arm would know what was to come, Francis did not pause, did not break from his elected route to do this very evening.

..songs of praises,
I will ever give to thee.

And so they came to the steps, Francis relinquished his arm to take Gabrielle's hands in his again. The single lamp above the door shone down on them both, shadowing their faces as the breeze pulled through the almost bare trees of the churchyard around them.

"Here we are," he spoke at last, gently, but very carefully. "Twenty-one years to the day." The unspeakable squeezed his lover's hands tight, kissed one then the other on the back of the fingers. "Such a long time, and yet it feels like it was only yesterday." He let go of one hand and caressed her cheek gently, staring happily into the eyes he knew so well. The ones he only ever wanted to gaze in for the rest of his years.

The rain began again in earnest, and they both looked up, dismayed. Francis dropped Gabrielle's hand, and reached his wand above them, wordlessly casting - a bright white beam shot up for a moment or so - the rain changed before their eyes, falling as great snowflakes onto the wet ground. It would not lay, as it had in 1989, but it would not interrupt.

Settling down onto one knee on the steps before her, Francis composed himself, though his face bore a great wide smile he could hardly humble.
"Gabrielle," he spoke, taking her hand. "I can't imagine growing old with anyone else, nor do I want to. I've known all my life you are the only one I want to share the rest of my life with." He swallowed, "Will you marry me?"

The evening had gone so well, considering all and Gabrielle was grateful that for the most part the weather had held through. Francis’ company was always so well deserved and met with positivity opposed to drabble and disappointment that came with business affairs of the day. Her stomach was still settling itself from the scrumptious meal and dessert, recalling their grinning at every moment for the duration of the meal. Laughing and smiling as though they were in their younger days once again – no worries about diplomats, irate fathers, not even pressure to become something in their lives. Her eyes had quirked briefly when they appeared in Godric’s Hollow, curious as to what Francis was up to.

But through that thought, Gabrielle had learned well enough to not question the methods behind that beautiful madness of a man. Her eyes lit up as Francis had well enough seen and when looking back to her partner’s eyes, Gabrielle smiled right back to match his own. Listening quietly to the choir’s voices and staying focused upon Francis’ march, Gabrielle couldn’t have been happier than what she was at this very moment. They weren’t young like they were once those many years ago, but she knew what their hearts felt, desired. Twenty one years, Francis had informed. Twenty one years to where Gabrielle had cried, sobbed even when realising how terrible she had been to the same Francis Pepper who stood now before her in proud display.

Gabrielle took quick note of how the glow of the lamp illuminated how blissful Francis was with all of this. “Mm, seems almost a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?” she finally said, her voice tender and gentle. His hand caressing her face made Gabrielle sighed contentedly from it, willing the tears of his kindness to be kept away for now. After all, crying wouldn’t do well in such a joyful time spent between the pair.  But, the evening’s clouds wanted to do give a different opinion on the matter as droplets began their descent, pelting the couple with their celestial offerings. A soft gasp of surprise as the rain became make shift snow took Gabrielle by surprise, almost as if she didn’t know Francis was able to complete such feats. If she were to be taken by surprise by that, it didn’t compare to what came next.

This wondrous, clever, brilliant man.

Tears of everything swelling within Gabrielle’s mind, heart came to a full motion as they descended from her eyes. Nodding happily enough, Gabrielle was grinning, sniffling and wiping the tears from her face as to keep from seeming that she was overwhelmed, alarmed like the Gabrielle of twenty one years prior. “Nothing in this universe would please me more than to be yours, Francis Albert Pepper. A million times yes. I will marry you and love you until my dying breath,” Gabrielle reassured, laughing briefly. “I love you more than I did twenty one years ago and like you, I don’t want to ever not stop loving you ever again.”