Chapter 09:
Since her 17th birthday was celebrated at Hogwarts with her friends, Gideon had invited her over at the Prewitt Manor for her Christmas break. Hermione happily agreed, fully expecting all her answers over the three weeks break.
What she hadn't expected was a ginormous rock-solid grey-brown stone smack dab in the middle of the beautiful gardens around the property Fabian and Gideon had worked hard to put back into shape after their return to life. But there it was! A giant boulder in the middle of the formal gardens, artistically laid beside the pond there.
"Happy Christmas!" Gideon removed his hands from Hermione's eyes and proudly looked on as she stared at the large boulder in front of her.
"You got me a rock?"
"Isn't that what muggles do? You were speaking with that kid from the Thai takeaway place that one time… You're friend said yes to the proposal when she got a gigantic rock?" Gideon's smug smirk was slowly slipping from his face.
Hermione bit her lip when she realised just how literally the purebloods in particular and the magical community in general lived. Turning around in Gideon's arms, she tried to stop her chuckles as she hugged him.
"So, do you like it?" he asked doubtfully, unsure how his gift had been received. "I chipped it off the Rock of Gibraltar myself."
"You did what?" Hermione looked at him funny, stretching a tight band of elastic around his chest that had him wondering about his gift choice.
"What is it?" he asked, eyeing her sceptically. Was it the wrong type of rock? Wrong size? Wrong time? Or was it just wrong him? Self-doubts flooded his mind.
"Nothing.. Yes.. I love it.." Hermione replied biting her inner cheek to keep from laughing out loud, "and... I love you.."
Gideon stiffened in her arms at her proclamation. Pulling her back so he could look in her eyes, "You do?" he asked, unsure he'd heard it right the first time around.
"Yes," Hermione nodded. "I love you."
Gideon gulped. "Then will you wear this for me?" He pulled a small blue velvet box out of his pocket, opening it to give her a good look inside. "I mean rocks and all are.. uhm.. wonderful, and uhm.. strong.. of course, but you can't really lug that boulder around with you, can you now? If you wear this though, everyone in our world will know you're taken."
Hermione looked wide-eyed at the solitaire ring Gideon was offering her. The rock on it looked big enough to be at least a couple of carats in weight and its colour and clarity were making her eyes squint with their brilliance.
"Gideon," Hermione started before holding her tongue in check. How could she tell him what he was asking without really offending his pureblood sensibilities? "I'm not sure you quite get what you're asking here," she settled for saying.
"This should mark you as taken," Gideon insisted before realising something else. "Why? What does it say in the muggle world?"
"Pretty much the same, just.." Hermione swallowed, "It's more of a physical depiction of the promise to marry."
Hermione didn't dare to look at Gideon or the ring after she'd told him what a diamond-studded ring meant to people from her side of the world. She pointedly looked down at her shoes, rubbing the soft soil under her feet with her converses as she gave Gideon the time to put the box away, hoping he would someday offer it to her knowing all the implications.
"Put it on, Hermione," Gideon softly whispered, his eyes not moving from her face as he pushed her face towards him and she looked up at him in shock. "Wear it, my darling angel," he coaxed her in that soft dulcet voice of his, "and I promise you we'll wed on the date you set. Whenever you're ready to take the plunge, be it tomorrow or ten years from now."
Hermione stood mesmerised as she looked into his bright arctic blue eyes that seemed to be full of hope, love and vulnerability all at the same time. "Ask me," she heard herself whispering. Gideon's face clouded over in confusion. "Ask me to marry you," she clarified for him with a wide smile.
His face held an answering grin that changed his features from vulnerable to winning within a heartbeat. "Marry me, Hermione, for I can't imagine a life without you by my side, nor do I want to," he said earnestly. Both their eyes shone with their love.
"Yes," Hermione answered nodding her head and held out her left hand, wriggling her ring finger for him.
Taking the hint, Gideon plucked out the ring and threw the box away, placing the ring on the finger she indicated. He held on to her hand, marvelling at just how perfect the ring looked on her dainty finger before placing the hand carefully on his chest as he chanced a glance at his betrothed.
Hermione's gaze wavered from the ring on her finger to her small hand on a strong chest before she finally looked up at her fiancé, doing a merry jig in her mind at the perfection that harmonised within her at using that title for Gideon.
The heat of his eyes directed at her had her biting her lip before her tongue flew out to caress the abused part. Gideon sucked in a breath between his teeth before they looked at each other again. "I think now that we're engaged, this is allowed," he said in a husky tone before he pushed her closer to himself, lightly pulling at her waist as he adjusted for their height difference before his lips finally found hers.
All it took was a small touch of their lips before everything around them ceased to exist. Gideon didn't even register it when he walked Hermione backwards towards the large boulder as he straightened himself and pulled her legs up, getting her to wrap them around his waist as he cradled her between himself and the rock and lost himself to the feeling of having her pressed so intimately against him.
The position gave Hermione a better access to deepen the kiss and she took the chance with both hands, losing her sanity somewhere along the lines.
Gideon barely gave her time to breath in between kisses while he got busy with her neck before claiming her mouth all over again. When he took a moment to look at her, he knew he'd never seen anything so sexy in all his life. With her hair flying in the wind, her blush running high on her cheeks, a hungry look in her sultry eyes, her dark pink kiss swollen lips…
Gideon growled when the possessive feeling in him doubled at the wild look Hermione was sporting.
"Mine," Hermione's voice rumbled, echoing his thoughts as she pulled him back on herself again.
He barely had time to add, "Yes, Ma'am," before the chuckling abruptly stopped, soft moans filling the air again.
…
Over the next few days, Gideon had cornered Hermione around various different passageways and rooms and stairs and well, everywhere he could and pressed her on the closest flat surface before devouring her mouth.
"I just want to kiss you all day," he whispered close to her lips before crashing down on them yet again until he heard a distinct throat clearing.
"Honestly you two! Get a freaking room," Sirius grumbled.
"This has lost all its novelty real quick," Fabian agreed.
"Stop scarring my eyes!" Harry whined.
"You go, girl!" Ginny whistled at the couple entangled between the Christmas decorations. Gideon was sitting up, one leg stretched out in front of him, the other folded at the knee with Hermione sitting on his lap, almost spread across his chest while leaning on his folded leg and all of this in the smack-dab-middle of the most colourful assortment of Christmas décor Ginny had ever seen in her life. And boy did Hermione look kissed! "Oh, come on, don't be like that," Ginny turned to face the three men she had walked in with. "This has been a long time coming. Let them have this new relationship glow."
Fabian snorted.
"That settles it. Ginny you are officially my favourite niece," Gideon winked from his place on the floor, still holding on to Hermione, neither standing up.
"I am your only niece, Uncle Gid," Ginny grinned, winking back at her uncle.
"Come on now," Fabian implored, "Up with you two," he said setting down the box he was carrying close to the other boxed up decorations before offering both his hands to the couple on the floor. "Gid, you wanted to throw a party. You are not leaving me alone to do all the work by myself."
"Oh, come on Fab," Gideon teased, though he did take the hand offered, "after everything I've been through for you, you can't organize a small party for me while I'm occupied elsewhere?"
"Yeah... Try that guilt-trip where it works," Fabian rolled his eyes but firmly held Hermione's hand as he pulled her to the other side of the room far away from Gideon. "Little dove, you work here, well away from that wizard there. And Gid, you stick to the far back. Not a step out of line, you two," Fabian warned.
Yet after just half an hour, the new couple was again nowhere to be found. Sirius smirked and Fabian simply shook his head. He could not begrudge his brother this slice of happiness. After all, he only had these ten days with his betrothed before she had to be back in school again for a few more months. Had it been Fabian, he won't even have bothered with stepping out of the bedroom, parties be damned!
…
Hermione was quickly losing her sanity with every kiss bestowed upon her, something inside her was tearing her apart. Her wizard was hot, sinful with his kisses with those fabled long fingers and large feet to boot!
He was equipped to kiss her rationality away and burn her everywhere he touched but he was being a complete tease! He never went further than the kisses that were steaming up the near-by windows and Hermione's hormones were not helping her any.
Unable to help herself, Hermione rolled her hips seeking any friction she could find.
Gideon quickly placed his hand on her hips making her halt. "I'm going to get hypothermia if you continue behaving like this. Do you know how many cold showers I've taken since you got here?"
And again, just like the past few days, before Hermione could even question him about what he was speaking of, he was gone. Walking it off he'd told her the first time and every time since. Groaning Hermione hit her head on the window behind her.
Hmm.. maybe cold showers weren't such a bad idea after all. That thought though brought out images of shared showers making Hermione bang her head with more rhythmic precision.