"Let's go, Gold," said Gareth to the giant horse after Hermione left. "I need to release those fairies." They galloped to the area of the forest where Onyx and Puff waited in the cave.

Onyx caught his scent before she saw him ride into the clearing, the red sunset offering him the perfect lighting, as it emphasized his bare chest and glinted the dark curls of his hair.

Her breath quickened. Mindful of what she'd told him they would be doing while he was gone; she called Puff over to her. The plump pink fairy had sat silently watching her after Onyx's rebuff earlier. Now she eagerly flew to her.

Onyx leaned against a smooth rock that was almost like a tilted wall. She kissed Puff then pushed her head down, just before Gareth rode up to the cave. She squeezed her nipples to make them hard and pointy, the way she knew he liked them. She was in faux rapture as he rolled away the boulder and stepped inside.

Whether he'd planned to just return them to their original size or something else, all thoughts left him when he saw Onyx, with parted lips and slowly-raising eyes, hold out her arms for him.

He kissed the lips first, then her neck, breast bone, stomach…slowly moving down until he took Puff's place, kneeling before the exquisite black fairy, as if at an altar to be sanctified with his tongue. This time her ecstatic sounds were genuine.

He looked up at her. "Can you fly us over to the bed?" She nodded and lifted herself into the air, with Scabior, clutching her hips and his head buried between her legs, as he continued his adulation.

Puff followed, resenting him for interrupting her and Onyx, just when she'd finally called for her to play.

Gareth returned to Onyx's mouth and beckoned for Puff to join them. He wrapped an arm around her. "You're so cute," he said playfully, brushing his face on her downy skin with a silly smile. "But neither of us are good enough for her, are we? She's too beautiful for the likes of us. Maybe we should console each other," he continued, kissing Puff, while still running a hand over Onyx's body.

Onyx looked at the two of them and decided to take matters into her own hands. She pulled Gareth back to her and kissed him then looked into his eyes. "Make Puff small and send away," she transmitted to him. " 'Nyx only want Man."

"But, Onyx, I'm enjoying both of you," Gareth said in response, pulling Puff close so that the three of them were clustered together. Puff began nuzzling the side of Onyx where she lay.

Onyx concentrated again. " 'Nyx do anything, be everything. Man not miss Puff."

"God, she's beautiful," he thought, staring into her black eyes. She sensed she had him but, for good measure, repeated, " 'Nyx only want Man."

Sighing, Gareth stretched his body across Puff's shorter one and began the reversal incantation. She flew away, twittering angrily. He chuckled as he watched her fly through the crack between the cave entrance and the boulder.

Onyx placed small kisses around his face until he turned back to her. She kissed him happily then glided her lips and nose around the scar that encircled his neck…until she got a whiff of an unfamiliar smell…floral and, to her, threatening.

"Ah, you smell Hermione, don't you," he said.

"Her-mine," Onyx repeated slowly to herself, then, realizing what she smelled and what she said, she locked her eyes on him. "No, Man mine, not Her-mine." She rubbed herself against him, thinking to him " 'Nyx only want Man; Man only want 'Nyx."

"I like it when you call me Man. But my name is Gareth. Can you speak at all?"

She nodded and said in a tiny voice, "Gaaare."

"Close enough," he said, smiling. She was mesmerizing. "Yes, Onyx, when I'm with you, I want only you. Hermione doesn't concern you. It's just a prior and slightly stronger claim."

Onyx smiled, satisfied, and began fulfilling her promise to do anything and be everything for him.

On the other side of the boulder, Puff watched Onyx intently, as she and Man played without her.

Hermione arrived home shortly before Ron was due to return from his trip to Ireland with Harry to watch Ginny's quidditch match.

She had just gotten in the bathtub, when Ron came in grinning, already taking off his sweater and kicking off his shoes. "That's what a man wants to come home to," he said enthusiastically, "his wife, wet and naked."

Removing his pants, he said, "Can you make it bigger?" and after a wave of Hermione's wand, "Whoa, I was talking about the tub but…your choice."

"Sorry," she said absent-mindedly, about to use her wand to correct her mistake.

"No, no," he said quickly, stepping into the normal-sized bath. "We'll keep it that way if you think you can handle it. But you'll have to enlarge the tub for there to be enough room."

Smiling, Hermione silently did the Engorgio charm a second time, then floated over to her playfully aroused husband.

They swirled endlessly in the heated pool, not wanting to break the connection, in no hurry to reach an apex.

When they did finally leave the tub, Ron carried her, with her legs wrapped around his waist and the two of them still joined, to the bed. Out of the water, their urgency increased and they moved with each other in perfect harmony, until crying out in shared relief.

Ron continued to clutch her, eventually saying, "I'm starving. But I don't want either of us to get up."

"Let me try something," said Hermione, sitting up and clearing away the bedside table. She concentrated on food and Hogwarts and clapped her hands over the table, which was suddenly covered with enough choices to satisfy even her voracious man.

"How did you do that?" he asked with delighted shock.

"It's something available to anyone from Hogwarts who needs it," said Hermione, "though I don't think it should be used often. We'll say this is a special occasion."

"What's the occasion?" he asked, popping a croquette into his mouth then hers.

"Just that we want each other more than we want to get up for food," she answered, now regretting her action, because she could tell that Ron had other questions…but they didn't come.

He shook his head ruefully. "All the times I was such an ass about food and we could have just summoned it from Hogwarts?" He leaned his head on her shoulder. "I'm sorry."

"It was a long time ago, Ron-chy," she said, calling him the name that she'd given him on their wild, sexy honeymoon. "We didn't know."

"Yeah," he said, his voice taking on a note of irritation, "If Dumbledore had any idea of what we were going to be doing, he should have told us."

"Well, maybe he would have if he hadn't been killed," she reasoned.

"Maybe," he said softly. No longer hungry, he wrapped her in his arms. "I don't like thinking about our being at odds, like we were then or…"

He raised her head and placed a gentle hand on the side of her face. "You love me, don't you?"

"Yes, very much," Hermione answered, curious about this change in mood.

"And you don't see that changing, do you?" he asked.

"No," she responded, still confused.

He smiled. "I don't either." He rubbed his face on hers. "You won't always be so restless, Hermione. It will pass. Just remember who loves you," he said with a kiss. "Has always loved you," he added, kissing her again, "and always will." The pronouncement ended with a final kiss then Ron pulled her close again.

She tried to raise her head, so that she could see the confirmation in his face of what she thought she'd heard him say, but he held her tightly, yet tenderly in that position.

Even if she had seen him though, she wouldn't know anymore than she did. Ron had proven himself so well as an auror because he had enviable contacts and he'd learned to control his emotions and expressions. So when he wanted to be...when he needed to be, like now, he was inscrutable.