A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! Huge thank you to SynnDagger for beta reading this chapter as well!
Please let me know what you think of chapter four and be on the lookout for chapter five tomorrow!
Hermione spent a restless night tossing and turning, her mind playing the engagement party over and over again. She couldn't believe how she'd completely failed to prepare answers for the most basic relationship questions she and Marcus might be asked. Really, she was lucky that it had gone as well as it had, with Harry and Ron not wanting to kick up a fuss at Lavender's party.
She supposed that she must have been so ecstatic at having found a way out of her lie that she'd forgotten to ask Marcus about his family or how they had "met."
And she certainly hadn't imagined that he would be so demonstrative. She'd felt confident but awkward with his large hand resting just above her arse. And when he'd kissed her, she was sure that her heart had actually skipped a beat.
But, the fact of the matter remained that she and Marcus weren't really dating, so that kind of thing should be off the table. Right?
She was glad that Marcus had been amenable to meeting one on one to hammer out details such as this. She realized that their initial agreement did not really make room for spending time together when they didn't have an official engagement to attend. They had agreed to meet at one of the Muggle restaurants in her village in the hopes that it would allow them to discuss their fake relationship without anyone overhearing.
Pulling herself out of bed, Hermione looked through her closet for something to wear for brunch with Marcus. Settling on jeans, a sleeveless blouse, and a cardigan to stave off the morning chill, Hermione slipped into the bathroom. She applied a bit of makeup - even though she didn't need to impress Marcus, she didn't want him to think that she wouldn't put in any effort.
Once she was pleased that she looked presentable, Hermione fed Crookshanks before making the short walk to the cozy little brunch spot. Marcus was waiting for her in front of the door, dressed very casually and looking a little worse for wear.
"You're looking far too chipper," he grumbled, holding the door open for her.
Hermione was touched by the chivalry, but laughed. "Did you have too much firewhiskey?" she asked. "You didn't seem too far gone when I left you."
"Well, with Weasley paying, I did my best to make a dent in his Gringotts account," Marcus explained, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips despite the hangover.
"Why didn't you just take a Pepper Up?" Hermione questioned. Honestly, if you had the power and convenience of a potion that could kill a hangover, why wouldn't you use it? Potions were one of the things she truly appreciated, being Muggle-born.
"I don't usually keep it on hand. Generally don't drink too much when I'm training," Marcus said with a shrug of his shoulders.
"You could have owled me and I'd have brought you a vial. If you want to stop over at mine after brunch, I could give you one," she offered, knowing that she had a well-kept potions supply.
Marcus gave her a lopsided grin before slumping into the opposite side of the booth from her. "You take such good care of me, Hermione," he said with a wink. "If I'd have known having a girlfriend would have such perks, I would have gotten one a long time ago."
She blushed at his words, thinking that she was just being friendly. "I am sure that getting a bit of food in you will do lots of good," she said, before opening up the menu, even though she already knew what she would be ordering.
The waitress came by and they gave their orders - a massive plate of steak and eggs for Marcus and a tomato and gruyere omelette for Hermione - leaving them with nothing else to distract themselves with. They couldn't put off actually talking to one another forever.
"I never thought to ask you what you were doing at the Hag's Head," Hermione said, learning forward on her elbows. "Does your sister really live in the village?"
"Yeah, that wasn't a lie," he said. "Can't say that I'm a regular here, though."
"Oh," Hermione flushed. The thought that she might cross paths with Marcus after they ended their fake relationship made her stomach twist. "I didn't know that you had siblings. Probably something that I should know about as your girlfriend."
"I've got three older siblings. Max is the oldest, then Lavinia and then Sabina, my sisters," he explained, running through their names. "I'm obviously the youngest."
Hermione couldn't help but smile at that. "You're the baby," she teased, tickled at the ridiculous notion that someone as large as Marcus could be the baby of anyone's family. "Well that explains why I don't remember them from Hogwarts."
"Yeah, Sabina is four years older than me, so you would have missed her," Marcus agreed.
She bit her lower lip, suddenly nervous. "And does your family...do they like me?" she asked, tentative.
"Undoubtedly Max and Lav would get a kick out of you," he decided after a few moments. "I think Sabina would find you a bit uppity."
"Your candor is refreshing," she deadpanned, thinking that it was nice to know what she was getting into.
"Well, you don't have to worry about her too much. Sabina is off in Greece with some of her friends for the summer," he attempted to wave off her fears.
Hermione bit her lower lip. "And what about your parents?" she asked. She wasn't sure why she was so keen to know about the familial strife Marcus's relationship with her would be causing, especially when she knew about his father's past. "Obviously your father would have been horrified. Muggle-born and all."
Marcus contemplated her question for a brief moment. "Yeah, father wouldn't like it one bit," he agreed. "But he didn't like me playing Quidditch either. I never really gave a damn about what he thought, especially once I went off to Hogwarts."
She was surprised to hear that. Marcus didn't strike her as a free thinker per se, but it wasn't as if he was a follower either. He'd been the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team, after all. And, if you listened to Oliver Wood tell it, it seemed that a lot of their success was down to Flint's strategy and stubbornness.
Breaking his runny egg with a bit of toast, Marcus ran the bread through the velvety yolk before taking a bite. "Now, my mother on the other hand..." he trailed off. "I don't want to scare you off or anything, but she is a little baby obsessed. She'd be so thrilled that I was getting serious with a witch that she wouldn't care about the whole blood purity thing."
Hermione swallowed thickly. That wasn't nearly as reassuring as Marcus thought it was to hear that his mother would be willing to overlook her unfortunate blood status if she was willing to be a little baby incubator. She took a sip of her water. "Well, I suppose it's a good thing that we aren't actually at that point," she said diplomatically.
"Mum will probably want to meet you once things get out to the press, you know," Marcus powered forward. "But I can handle her. I won't let her pressure you into anything."
She flushed. Of course she couldn't be pressured into anything, seeing as they weren't even in a real relationship!
Her mind kept circling back to the question of blood purity. Marcus was a Slytherin, and it wasn't as if the house made a big secret about their thoughts on people like her attending Hogwarts. She didn't know Marcus well enough to know what his thoughts on the matter were and felt compelled to ask.
"And what is your take on my blood status?" she asked, almost a bit timid.
Marcus's eyes snapped up from his plate, looking at her in wonder. "I wouldn't be here if it was a problem," he answered.
Hermione scoffed. "Let's not pretend like you aren't getting anything out of this, Marcus. My reputation will hopefully help you repair yours," she responded. "I think that you could put aside a little prejudice for a year if it meant playing Quidditch again."
"I think it's all a bit silly and...and made up," he said, sounding like it was the first time he'd ever voiced his opinion on the matter. "I won't pretend that I know a lot about Muggles...some of their tools frighten me, if I'm honest. But I'm not entirely stupid either. There aren't any actual purebloods left and it seems a bit silly to pretend like it matters."
While he hadn't been the most elegant in his description of his feelings, Hermione respected his honesty. It felt nice to know that he wouldn't look down on her because of her blood status. "I understand," she told him, reaching across the table to give his hand a little squeeze.
"I wasn't ever friends with people like Malfoy," he continued, obviously feeling a bit judged. "My friends weren't like that either."
"And what will your friends think of me?" Hermione asked, her nose scrunched up at the thought of meeting them. "Don't worry, you obviously saw that Harry and Ron had no trouble hiding their true feelings about you."
"Adrian will like you a lot, even though he will pretend not to," Marcus said, after a brief moment. "He'll love to pick an argument with you just to see if he can win. He's a solicitor now."
Hermione vaguely remembered Adrian Pucey from school, but hadn't kept tabs on him. "Well, at least I'll be able to talk to one person about something other than Quidditch," she mused.
"Graham will probably be pretty snobbish towards you, but you can't take it personally. He's like that with everyone," he continued. "And Cassius...Cass will love you. He's obsessed with gossip, so getting to talk directly to the source will be a dream come true, I'm sure."
She groaned, wondering what Cassius Warrington might think of her if he'd only gotten his information from the tabloids. Hermione could count on one hand how often they had been right about her. "I suppose I can set the record straight," she said.
"What about your family? Do you have siblings?" he asked, giving her a cautious glance.
"Oh, I'm an only child," Hermione told him, breezing through the uncomfortable topic. She didn't talk about her family much with anyone, least of all Marcus Flint. "And you don't have to worry about my parents. They're in Australia and not coming back." She gave him a tight smile.
Her mood must have sufficiently expressed how little Hermione wanted to visit this topic at a sunny brunch spot because Marcus didn't pry. She knew that her boyfriend of a whole year might know the truth, but she wasn't willing to open up about it.
"You know," she said, pushing around a breakfast potato on her plate. "We really should have thought of a reasonable way for us to meet before we went to the party, but I actually think that we came up with a good lie on the spot. It helps that it wasn't too far from the truth."
"At least Potter seemed to buy it," Marcus agreed.
"I can't believe that you said you wrote me love letters!" Hermione added with a giggle. "It seems a little difficult to imagine you penning long letters. It's sweet."
She spied twin pink circles high on his cheeks at his embarrassment. "It's not like I could have visited you at Hogwarts," he said finally.
"I think it made perfect sense," she told him. "And it would allow us to get to know one another better."
"Weasley will probably demand to see them all as proof," he quipped.
"Maybe, but he isn't privy to all the facts in my love life," Hermione insisted with a sniff. "He may be my friend, but he is not entitled to every detail of my life, no matter what he thinks."
When they had both finished their breakfasts, Marcus insisted on paying the bill. Hermione was a little put out at not being able to take care of her half, but he reminded her that he was her boyfriend and he was entitled to treat her every now and again. Hermione insisted that she would be allowed to reciprocate at some future date.
It was curious to see him handle the Muggle money, though. Marcus had brushed up a bit on his Muggle currency and was able to hand out the correct number of notes to the waitress. Hermione wasn't sure if this was done just for her benefit, but she appreciated that he'd tried and that he'd been so successful at it. Many wizards would not be so deft.
Walking out of the diner and into the sunlight of the morning, Hermione found herself not wanting to be parted from Marcus so soon. "Do you still want that Pepper Up or are you feeling better now?" she asked.
He gave her a curious sort of look. "Now that you mention it, I could use one," he answered. "You're a short walk away; it's not out of my way."
Hermione led the way to her cottage, which was only a couple minutes' walk away. It was nice to have someone to walk beside, able to point out little things that she noticed along the way, like the friendly old Krupp who normally barked happily at her when she went by its house.
All the while, she was plucking up the courage to bring up how possessive he'd been at the engagement party. When they arrived at her cottage, Hermione retreated to the bathroom to retrieve the Pepper Up Potion and to give herself a little pep talk in the mirror.
She returned to her living room to find Marcus making himself rather at home, giving Crookshanks a scratch on his belly. Her traitorous old half-Kneezle was stretched out, purring loudly at the treatment he was getting.
"Crooks really like you," Hermione said, after clearing her throat. "He almost never lets anyone pet him, let alone show his belly."
"He's a good cat," Marcus said with a smile, giving Crookshanks an affectionate pat on his exposed belly, before standing up to his full height. The wizard plucked the potion from her hands and removed the cork, downing it all in one go. Reddish steam came out of his ears for a brief second before subsiding. "Thanks for that."
Hermione's fingers found a wayward curl on her shoulder and she busied herself with twirling it. "You know, there was one other thing I wanted to bring up..." she said trailing off.
Marcus looked at her expectantly when she didn't continue. "Go on," he encouraged.
"It's just...you were rather um, handsy at the engagement party," she said, feeling the heat of a blush on her cheeks. "I don't think I've ever kissed anyone in front of Harry or Ron."
"And you practically jumped every time I put my hands on your waist," he countered, before stepping into her personal space. As if to prove his point, his large hands grabbed her waist, pulling her towards his chest.
Hermione gasped reflexively and felt her flush deepen.
"See, just look at you," he said with a bit of a frown. "How is anyone going to believe that we've been secretly dating for a whole year if you flinch every time I touch you? How is it going to be believable if you won't even let your boyfriend kiss you goodbye?"
"Uh," Hermione said, her voice catching in her throat while her mind scrambled to come up with a counter-argument. "I don't know that we need to be quite so public with our affection. Maybe we don't have that sort of relationship."
He smirked at her. "I don't think so," he answered. "I think that you are just going to have to get used to me touching you like this." He used one hand to cup her jaw, his thumb gently tilting her chin up so that she could look into his deep blue eyes. When she didn't break eye contact, the pad of his thumb traced along her lower lip.
Hermione's lips parted. She realized that she was silently pleading with him to continue.
"I think that you are just going to have to get used to me kissing you," he added, his voice gravelly and dark.
He gave her a brief moment to protest, but when she didn't, he tilted his head down to meet hers. Their height difference was substantial but it was of no consequence when his lips were on hers perfectly. He held her to him tightly and Hermione was certain he could feel her heart beating wildly. Marcus wasn't paying it any mind if he could.
Instead, he was determined to deepen the kiss. Catching her lower lip between his, he groaned when she opened up to him. His tongue slipped into her mouth and found hers, sliding against it. Marcus wasn't by any means an expert kisser, but he was a quick study, filing away all the things that made her gasp.
Hermione wanted this to go on forever, her fingers holding onto his strong biceps. She felt completely wrapped up in him, with his arms around her. It scared her a little bit how much she was actually enjoying this, especially considering that it wasn't real. It didn't mean anything to Marcus.
Eventually, he pulled back and looked down at her with a smirk. "I think I'm going to enjoy practicing with you, Granger," he teased. "I'll kiss you as many times as it takes for you not to flinch."
She felt her flush creep down her neck. "Hey, just because we are fake dating doesn't mean that I'm willing to, you know...sleep with you," she said, wanting to keep that barrier between them. Their relationship didn't need that extra complication. "But I agree that getting used to one another physically is a good idea."
Hermione thought she detected a flicker of hurt on his face, but he recovered quickly. "Sounds good," he said, giving her another wink. "Until next time."
"Until next time," she agreed, sad to see him leave her little cottage.