"I just don't want you getting your hopes up too much, Hermione." He swallowed around the lump in his throat and looked away. "Don't want either of us getting our hopes up too much. We still don't know what's going to happen after the war – or if we'll even see the end of the war, or if we'll win..." It all came crowding into his head – all the dire possibilities, all the worst case scenarios, and for a second he wondered how he could have been so stupid as to promise to marry Hermione – even conditionally – when so much was uncertain.