"Can we go for a walk?" Her question was genuine and she wanted to talk to him but didn't want to in her room. Or have nothing to do with her hands.
"Here?" He asked her and she looked up then. He was watching her and she smiled.
"I love the one to the river. Once you get past the gardens anyways." She said and he grinned at her. He was so gorgeous and she wanted to touch him. She almost always did and it was hard not to.
A few minutes later she had a hoodie on and was walking down the cobbled paths with him beside her, hands in the conveniently placed pockets.
"Is there something you wanted to talk about?" Finn asked her and she nodded.
"Lots of things. So many things." She answered and he laughed at her grim tone.
"Soren's birthday is next week." Hermione started with this and he nodded.
"I've been waiting for you to bring it up." He said and she rolled her eyes.
"Usually we have a small party here." She said and he stopped walking and faced her.
"Is that what we are doing this year?" He asked her and she wanted to stop walking, wanting to stomp her foot.
"I don't know Finn. Do you want to do something else? It's your son's birthday too." She said it as evenly as she could and turned back up the path.
"I'm assuming this isn't about his birthday." The words were quieter and she just kept walking for a bit before she spoke.
"Yes it is, and it's other things too." She said and he didn't reply so she carried on.
"Have you asked him what he wants to do?" This was hard, new terrain between them.
"No. I will in the morning if you think I should. I didn't know I was supposed to." Hermione thought he meant those words and there was no heat in his voice. Her shoulders slumped and she was glad when they reached the end of the more formal paths and she stepped onto the dirt trail that wound along the river.
"He told me that he wanted to go somewhere. The three of us." She said and he stopped again.
"Let's do that then." He said and she looked up at him in the near darkness.
"Alright. He wouldn't decide until you were home and then I didn't think about it." He smiled at her admittance and she looked down then. After a moment he started walking again and she happily kept pace.
"Is this where you usually walk?" He asked her and she realised she hadn't been doing it.
"Yes. Most nights except when the weather is really bad." She answered him and he replied almost immediately.
"You haven't been though, you've been with me." He said and she nodded, wondering how to ask him or talk to him about any of the things she was thinking.
"What else haven't you been doing?" His tone made it clear this wasn't a musing question.
"Lots of things. Some of it was nice, like a vacation. Narcissa and Andromeda demand our weekly lunches and I haven't seen Harry nearly as much. He owled me yesterday about it. Other things too. I will, maybe not as faithfully as before but I see them all and will." She answered honestly and looked over at him when he didn't say anything. He didn't look happy.
"What's wrong?" She asked him, wanting to know but they didn't talk like this. About them as much as everything else. Hermione just kept walking and hoped he would share.
"I don't know how to say it. Any of what I think." His words were even and not confrontational so she waited. He didn't speak so she decided to, one of them had to.
"We told Soren we would tell him if something changed." She started, he made a low sound of some kind and stopped walking. So she did too and waited.
"Carry on." It was terse and she didn't like it. His face wasn't hard though, or she didn't think so in this light.
"It hasn't. It hasn't at all and I don't know what to think about that." She said quietly and this time she waited the silence out.
"You mean it's been the same as before." He said and she wasn't sure what he meant.
"Before I touched you." He said it firmly and she felt better about his usual assertiveness returning.
"Yes." She said and he was completely still. Watching her and she couldn't help twining her fingers together in the pocket of her sweater.
"What do you want?" He asked her eventually and she blinked at the question. Not liking the way this had gone, she wanted to ask questions.
"What do you want?" She might have been defensive but she wasn't. She wanted to know what he wanted.
"Everything. All the time. All of you." He hadn't moved at all and she was stunned. So surprised by the slowly spoken and even words that she just froze with her mouth slightly open.
"You are surprised? Why did you want to be out here in the dark?" He asked her both questions with exasperation and reached for her arm. Then with a crack they were in the apparition room and she looked around. The light was bright and he dropped her arm then leaned against the closest wall.
"Yes i'm surprised." She answered the previous question.
"So I couldn't see you." Hermione answered dumbly and then blushed. Toeing off her sneakers gave her a second and an excuse to look down.
"Why wouldn't you want to be able to see?" Finn sounded curious and she rolled her eyes when she turned to face him.
"It's hard to ask things like that. I usually walk by myself and don't stop or apparate home." She said sarcastically, irritated that this hadn't gone well. They hadn't even talked.
"I want to be able to see you. If we are talking about something important then I need to be able to see your face." He didn't respond to her sarcasm but spoke calmly and she turned to the door.
The witch didn't make things easy. They talked all the time and she did talk about emotional things with him. Nearly every night since he came home they had layers together and talked. Memories or questions, whatever they wanted. This was clearly different and he wondered how Soren's birthday and this were connected in her mind.
He followed her up the stairs and into her rooms. She shot him a look then and he wanted to laugh but didn't. Wasn't sure enough of her to laugh when she was upset. Irritated yes but actually upset, no. He wanted to be though.
"What did that look mean?" He asked and made it genuine, met her eyes when she looked at him and her shoulders fell.
"Why don't you like your rooms? If you don't like them then why do you use them? Change them or something." She asked him and he could see the curiosity on her face.
"You've seen them, they are fine." Both of her brows went up at his words and he stared at her. She had never been in his rooms.
"You lived in my house for years and never opened the door?" He asked her, needing to check. She nodded and he shook his head. His witch was brilliant but she was stubborn and he didn't always understand her.
"Is it too bright in here to continue our previous conversation?" He wanted to talk to her, now or later. She had brought it up and he didn't want it to disappear. Like the question he asked her weeks ago had, gone and not answered.
"No, It's fine." She waved her hand and the lights turned down, not dim but cozier. Like sock feet and comfortable furniture, smaller tables and no center pieces. His witch liked to be comfortable and to be able to communicate. Maybe she had gone outside so he wouldn't touch her, now he wanted to. In here he usually did and they had been spending more time up here. There was more of Soren's toys in here than there had been when he came home.
"Talk to me witch." He finally said as he watched her pace ten steps and not speak.
"We had that night and the morning." She said and then turned to face him. Gryffindor through and through. There she was, the same witch who had asked him if he was betrothed and told him to let her go. He could only nod at her, not wanting to get distracted.
"Then nothing." She said quietly and held his eyes. Not in challenge but demand. He understood now and felt his frustration flare.
"I didn't give anything up." It was all he could say. They had sat shoulder to shoulder on the couch with their son and spent the evening together. Eaten together and read books then curled up in her bed and he had felt so good. Better than he had since this began. Then nothing. She was right, he had waited for her to reach for him. Outside of the time they had at night and it hadn't happened. All of their accepted contact did but nothing else.
"You didn't offer." He knew his voice was rough but he held her gaze.
"Offer." She said the word quietly and scanned him before turning away from him and grabbing a wine glass and decanter from the cupboard. Her glance asked if he wanted one and he shook his head. She put her filled glass down and switched the wine for whiskey and poured him one. Then with both glasses in hand she crossed the room to him and gestured he sit. He did and she sat across from him. The low square chairs were comfortable and she folded herself into the chair.
"You were waiting for me to do something. What?" She asked him and he could see the uncertainty there. What was the witch thinking?
"It worked last time." He said honestly and watched her forehead furrow. Then she took a sip of the red wine and he could tell she was waiting. Honesty was best with her and he sat back in his seat and balanced his glass.
"I knew I had you when you came to me. The first time you came up to me and threw some tart comment at me before stalking away. Knew you would kiss me if I just let you know I wanted to, honestly wanted to. Waited for you to ask me to touch you and for you to want to touch me enough to say so. You always asked for what you wanted, or took it." He said and watched the pinched expression fall away as he spoke. She didn't blush and met his eyes.
"You always pushed though." Eventually she spoke and he thought about that, couldn't help the grin as he did.
"Yeah I did. I want to now, push you and tease you. Deliberately get you riled up enough that you release your inhibitions. This isn't like that though." He didn't like adding on the last part, knew she would ask and he wasn't sure how to explain.
"I don't understand." She said quietly and he could see that she didn't, that she wanted to though.
"This time it's more Hermione. It's everything and I'm not going to push you and have you regret anything. It's not time away from your friends or something I can take without much guilt. It's your whole life." He watched her listen and then sit back. She shifted and put her legs over the chair arm before looking back at him.
He could only wait and wonder. Wonder what she thought and how she felt. He didn't know. She liked him, loved him even, wanted him. The witch loved many people though and wanting wasn't enough, it wouldn't be from her. Maybe someone else, but he knew her and wanted all of her. To have her love him, openly and honestly. Poncy, but if he had the chance to have it then not trying would be stupid.
"I want you to kiss me. I want you to speak your mind and tell me how you feel. We didn't get that before. I want so many things." Her head fell back and she cradled her glass. "I want to go away with you and Soren for a few days. To where no one knows us. Could we kiss casually, like in public? What would it be like to be a family Finn?" Her words were like darts as she spoke them so softly.
"Let's go, we will go and try. I want you. You and him. You are mine. The only one I want and Soren's too." He felt brave then, like he had been Gryffindor for a second. He watched her swallow and then she was standing up.
She put her half empty glass on the table and stepped around it. Her curls spilled over her shoulders as she walked he could only wait. It only took a few steps and she held his eyes. Then she lifted a leg and climbed into his lap. Settled down straddling his thighs and braced her hands on the chair arms. He just watched her face. The intent look on her face and the determination there.
"Finish your drink." She said it quietly and he felt his whole body react to her voice. Even more than her climbing onto him.
"Little cub." He said. Not wanting her to do something she didn't want to. He didn't continue when her face hardened and watched her while he took two swallows of the burning liquid. She held his eyes for the first one but watched the second. He groaned after he swallowed, her eyes had flicked back up to his and the mischief there was torture. She picked up the glass and reached behind her to put it down on the table then turned back to him and waited.
"Touch me." She said firmly and he couldn't help his grin at her stern tone. Then it fell when her eyes softened and it was just her there, waiting for him. His hands were on her waist and then traced down her thighs and he watched her face as her eyes slid closed and she leaned against her arms a bit more. Hermione was his and so gorgeous.