Gellert couldn't stop glancing at the piece of parchment on his desk. It was thick and luxurious, almost like card. The ink glistened across the surface in his mother's best script and three seals were printed into wax in the bottom in two different shades of wax.
It depicted the terms of their courting; although most of the clauses were to negate the common assumptions of a courting contract. It made it very clear that either one of them could choose to dissolve the agreement at any time, subject to a cooling off period of two weeks but Gellert was still over the moon to have even achieved that much.
'Beastie?' He called, running his fingers over his and Hermione's seals. Hers used wax of her family colours - woad blue. It was lighter than the rich royal blue of his own family seal with almost a touch of green, like the colour of the sea outside his window. The seal itself was much more simple than his own complex coat of arms, but it was still of similar size and the craftsmanship was excellent. He'd run his fingers over it so many times that he was already intimately familiar with the way the seal had been depressed a little more on the left side, resulting in a slight slope to the impressed grim and a large bulge of wax.
'What is yous needing?' Beastie demanded.
'I need to do something for Hermione to celebrate.' He announced.
'So what is yous needing?' Beastie repeated. Gellert's mind went blank. He had vague ideas of flowers and jewels but when he considered that he realised that Hermione wasn't really overly interesting in those kinds of things. Spells, books, knowledge - those were what she was really interested in. But she had no problems procuring those kinds of things on her own.
So he needed to find something really special for her.
'Could you ask Hermione if I could borrow Mordred?' Gellert asked, his elf disappearing with a pop and appearing a moment later with the ancient sword in hand. Mordred appeared as soon as Gellert connected their magic.
'Hermione is terrified that you're going to go off the rails when she eventually disappears.' Mordred informed him succinctly, his eyes falling on the contract.
'I won't.' Gellert promised quickly. 'I'm just happy to have the chance.'
Mordred hummed, skimming over the page. The only thing that betrayed his difficulty reading the language was the furrow between his eyebrows. Gellert didn't know what enchantment allowed Mordred to speak and understand German and English but it clearly didn't extend to writing.
'What did your mother think?' He eventually asked. 'Did she request these clauses, or you?'
'I requested most of them, and I made sure that neither of us would be bound to anything if something happened to either of us. It seemed like that's what Hermione was worried about and I wanted her to be comfortable.' Gellert admitted. He knew that Hermione was uncomfortable with the formal wixen courting practices. She'd explained the concept of "dating" to him as the muggles did it but he'd found the practice far too liable to ending in dishonour to both parties. The formal contract included vows of silence that meant that they couldn't discuss intimate matters with anyone outside their respective family circles, a protection clause that allowed neither party to raise a hand or wand against the other. The only thing that had been left out was the chastity spell, because Gellert would be damned if he stopped embracing her to say good night.
'Good.' Mordred decided, finally placing the parchment back down on his desk. 'So why do you need me?'
'I need to celebrate... she told me all about how muggles date, and she said they go somewhere or do something special when they begin "dating".'
'And...' Mordred left the prompt open.
'I was planning to take her to the archive in Greece but every time we've left home or school in the past year, it's ended up in either an attack of a kidnapping.'
'So?'
'I wanted to organise something special in the cove instead.' Gellert announced. He managed to hold his head high but he found his fingers tangling unconsciously in his robes.
'What do you wish to organise?' Mordred asked. Gellert wondered if he was being deliberately reticent.
'That's what I don't really know.' Gellert admitted.
'So you were hoping that I might have a suggestion?
'No. I was hoping that you might be able to listen to my thoughts, and help me improve them as one of the few other wizards that knows Hermione and is as invested as I am in making her "first date" wonderful.' He corrected slyly. Mordred huffed and took a seat.
Six hours later he landed Katana in front of Hermione's room and dismounted, smoothing his hands on the fabric of his robes.
'Why am I nervous?' He asked the beast. Katana tossed his head coincidentally in the direction of Hermione's room and then started cropping on the vivid green grass that flourished in the shelter of the walls. Gellert steeled himself and knocked on her door.
She had been working on something - ink splattered her cheek, evidence of a broken quill and her fingers were stained black on her right hand. She wore blue robes, decorated with little embroidered birds around the hems. Her braided hair was twisted into a messy bun and stuck through with a spare quill.
Gellert thought she was only more beautiful when she was duelling.
'I wanted to show you something.' He said before he had the chance to back out. His witch looked intrigued, her eyes drifting to Katana behind him.
'Sure. Let me just get a cloak.'
She disappeared back inside then emerged a moment later with a light silk half cloak designed to keep the sun and wind off her arms. He escorted her to Katana and helped her mount.
She'd grown a lot since he first helped her up onto the tall horse. She was still too small for him; her legs came down to barely half way down his slender sides but it was better than how she'd once looked like some kind of doll on his back. She held a hand down to him, helping him to clamber up behind her.
'Where to?' She asked
'The cove.' He instructed. Beneath him, Katana gathered himself and then leapt into the air with a surge of wind. Hermione swayed and adjusted to his movements like the two were symbiotic creatures, Gellert tried his hardest to not fall off. He hated flying.
The flight was short. Katana flew quickly even when he wasn't being pushed and within moments he was setting down on the rattling pebbles of the cove. Gellert dismounted quickly and then helped Hermione down. She looked around, mystified.
It was late afternoon so the sun was just beginning to set. The tall cliffs that surrounded them cast deep, dramatic shadows. The golden light that streamed through the narrow entrance coated his skin like warm honey and the gentle ripples of waves hitting the beach sounded like the muted breathing of a mighty beast, perhaps who'd jagged teeth were the stones that jutted out of the water at the entrance like stalagmites in a cave.
He'd banished all the dead seaweed from their area of the beach so that it was clean and smelled fresh, then he'd spent hours on his broomstick fixing grey candles to each jagged rock and spotted all over the cliff face. With the high contrast of the setting sun streaming through the entrance to the cove, they were all but invisible.
He offered his arm to Hermione and she took it almost immediately, seeming to react subconsciously as she scanned the area for whatever he'd wanted her to see. Without a word, he led her up the beach and towards one of the larger, shallow and more central caves. It was a significant distance from the one the muggles had been in last year and the entrance was high enough off the floor that it wasn't full of storm debris. He'd gotten Mordred to help him levitate a large boulder over to help them climb in.
'Oh, Gellert!' Hermione breathed as she took in the interior.
Just inside the cave, where the light still warmed the rock, he'd had the elves set up two tables and chairs. He escorted her to the chair and pushed it in for her. A pot of tea appeared with a pop and he poured them both a cup, then offered her a plate of biscuits. They were ugly; uneven and lumpy with patches that were barely bordering on cooked and others that were only unturned by the skin of his teeth. But he'd made them himself with almost no help from the elves and Hermione, ever intuitive, picked up on that.
She complimented them, her smile brighter than the sun as she took one and bit into it. Her little hum of pleasure suggested that they at least tasted better than they looked. He smiled into his own biscuit. Hermione ventured dipping her biscuit into her tea and seemed delighted when it came out intact, quickly taking another to give the same treatment.
'These are my Nan's recipe.' Hermione finally realised. 'They're using darker flour that I'm used to and the honey is richer, so I almost didn't realise. How did you get it?'
'I remembered it.' He admitted, grinning. He saw the moment that Hermione remembered the event he was talking about. They hadn't actually managed to make them that time; it had descended into a very messy food fight, but he'd remembered the recipe and a quick bit of legilimency on his mother's part had even the numbers and quantities correct.
Hermione's mouth fell open.
'It took me two tries and Flighty was there to offer advice, but I managed.' Gellert shrugged, as if the effort had been a minor concern. It had taken several more that two attempts to get the temperature of the fire under the oven right and to figure out how to size the biscuits to get them to cook right. In fact, it had almost taken so long that he'd run out of time to organise the rest of the evening.
'Oh, Gellert. They're really good.' Hermione enthused.
'Don't eat them all - we've got dinner soon.' He cautioned. The witch aborted her move for third cookie and picked up his hand instead, intertwining their fingers.
'What's for dinner?' She asked curiously.
'I don't know.' Gellert said with a mysterious smile. 'We need to go and pick it up.'
Looking puzzled, Hermione took his offered hand and stood. Together, they walked back out onto the beach where Gellert led her all the way down to the shore. The tide was out, the pebbles quickly giving way to angular slabs of stone. His boots crunched over the barnacles that coated the damp rocks. He eyed the area carefully, spotting a likely rock and leading his still mystified witch over to it.
He'd been correct - looking almost like a carpet of deepest blue, mussels crowded the sheltered face.
'Come on.' He urged, pulling out a pot form his pocket and enlarging it with a flick of his wand. 'We're getting our own dinner tonight.'
'Oh wow!' Hermione breathed, scrambling over to help him select the largest shellfish. He scooped up half a pot of seawater, almost soaking himself in the process and earning a round of giggles from Hermione. One they'd collected several good handfuls, he carefully cast the charm that Mordred had taught him that morning to make sure they were safe - it was close to September, when muggles often foraged them, but wizards could extend the season with a rather simple spell.
'What next?' Hermione asked eagerly as he pulled out another pan.
'Seaweed. Here - apparently these are good.' He plunged his arm into the water and pulled a jagged looking brownish-yellow weed form the rock. It was slippery and he dropped it almost immediately, having to scoop it back out of the water. 'This too.' He added, tangling his fingers through a bright green, silky sheet.
As the sun set, they hunted through the shallows for more of the plants that Mordred had shown Gellert earlier. With a good selection of both what the dark knight had called 'brown' and 'light' plants, Gellert set them aside.
It was fun, walking along the slippery rocks. They both lost their balance several times and once Hermione fully slipped and fell into a small tidal pool. She screeched with laughter, then screeched lightly more urgently as a large crab scuttled out from a shadowy corner to investigate the disturbance. Breathless with laughter, Gellert barely managed to cast a drying charm over her and she chucked a handful of kelp at him in retaliation. His expression of outrage as the large, smelly plant sailed past, whipping his face and hair had her joining him in laughter.
It was getting rather dark by the time he reached the rockpool where the most important part of their meal was. Initially, he'd wanted to fish like muggles with rods and worms but when Mordred had told him that it would be unlikely that he caught a suitable fish in the allowed timeframe, he's surrendered to the idea of summoning one from the sea and trapping it in the largest of the pools to be caught with bows and arrows.
It turned out to be a very wet and tricky task. The shivering water made it difficult to aim correctly and the fish could move incredibly fast despite it's large size. He gave up quickly, jumping into the water and wading around until he managed to corner it, at which point Hermione darted in over the rocky ledge and snatched it by the slippery tail. Laughing, soaked to the skin and bedraggled from her earlier encounter, she dragged the large silver fish onto the rock where Gellert stunned it with a quick wandless spell.
'Wow.' Hermione exclaimed, inspecting the silver scales and brushing her fingers over the scattered black dots and delicately fronded fins.
'It's a salmon.' Gellert informed her proudly, hefting the fish by it's tail and carrying it over to their two other pots of foraged food.
'This has been fantastic.' Hermione informed him happily, almost dancing along the rocks as they made their way back to the beach. The tide had turned and the waves began to push meaningfully at their heels.
'We still get to eat it.' He reminded her. An elf popped in to gather the fruits of their labour, then popped away to the kitchens with it a moment later. Gellert cast a final drying charm as they reached the pebbles again and offered her his arm to lead her up to the cave.
Whilst they'd been away, elves had replaced the tea with gleaming silver plates and two candlesticks which flickered warmly. The summer breeze was just a touch too cool for their daywear, so Gellert cast a gentle warming charm over the entrance and pulled out Hermione's chair for her.
Quietly, they watched as the sun dipped below the horizon and the sky shifted from orange to red to purple and finally to a deep navy blue.
'Ignis.' Gellert whispered, flicking his wand beneath the table. Hermione glanced at him, not missing the incantation, then looked out as it took effect. Across the bay, up the cliff and wrapping around the beach, candles flickered alight like stars in the sky. They reflected off the water, creating rippling and dancing patterns that reflected like dancing strands of silver across the cave. Some cast shadows like hulking beasts which wasn't intentional but looked fantastic anyway.
'Oh Gellert. It's fantastic.' She breathed, leaning almost out of her chair to get a better look. Warm success glowed in his chest. Then an elf popped in with a small bowl, placing it on the table between them.
'I is serving crispy wrack plants, fried in garlic oils.' The elf announced, then disappeared after a deep bow. Gellert offered the bowl to Hermione, then picked out one of the dark leaves. He'd expected it to taste fishy, but instead found that the delicate mouthful dissolved on his tongue, filling his mouth with a rich, earthy taste. The garlic cut through and complemented it perfectly.
'It's good.' Hermione noted, eyes wide with surprise. She reached for another couple, letting them crackle on her tongue. Gellert didn't know what he'd expected; dark ages food was not exactly reputed to be good but this was delectable enough that he wondered why it wasn't eaten more commonly.
They finished the crispy wrack quickly and the bowl disappeared. Then after a moment the elf appeared again.
'Mussels in spicy white wine sauce.' The creature announced, placing two bowls in front of them. The shellfish had opened when they were cooked and were half submerged in a fragrant juice. Hermione didn't even bother with her spoon - she picked up one of the shellfish and scooped out the bright orange flesh, then used the empty shell like a delicate set of pincers to pick the meat out of the rest. Assuming that she had more experience, he copied her.
Like the first course of seaweed, these shellfish were also delicious. They weren't as slimy as oysters, even if their texture was slightly odd. It wasn't until his teeth crunched on something that he came up with a second idea. He spat out the medium sized pearl and placed it carefully on the table. A moment later Hermione did the same with one that she found.
The course was fabulous. Once he'd finished all the shellfish he copied Hermione and used the largest shell as a spoon to scoop the rich, flavourful sauce into his mouth. Then they both utterly spoiled the white napkins by using them to clean their greasy, fishy fingers.
'This is already the best meal ever.' Hermione declared as the messy dishes were cleaned away. 'I think gathering everything yourself just makes it so much better.'
'Good.' Gellert agreed, sweeping the little collection of pearls up and putting them safely away in his pocket. 'I know that you find the wixen way of doing this to be a little to detached and formal, so I wanted to include some of the muggle parts for you.'
'You've done very well.' Hermione informed him, reaching over and picking up his hand. Somehow, the way she entwined her fingers over the top of his made it much more intimate that the way they usually held hands. She used her other to gesture out at the spectacularly light speckled bay. 'The view is stunning, the activity was fun and new and now dinner is incredible. Not to mention that you made my favourite cookies from a recipe that I mentioned once, years ago.'
Gellert flushed proudly just as the elf appeared again. It placed two plates in front of them. The salmon was a rich orange, bedded on the vibrant green sea lettuce and drizzled with a thick, creamy looking sauce. Fresh, fragrant lemon and sweet fennel steamed up and despite having already eaten a fair amount, Gellert couldn't wait to tuck in.
The Grindelwald elves were excellent cooks and the fish couldn't have been more fresh. He'd been to plenty of lavish meals in his time, but this was undoubtedly the best. They ate in silence, with the exception of Hermione's little moan of pleasure when she first bit into her first mouthful.
They finished quickly and Gellert was surprised when she picked up one of the candle sticks and reached out for his hand. She pulled him up from the table and led him to the very entrance of the cave, taking a seat on the rocks with her legs draping over the edge. He sat next to her and she blew out the candle, leaving them in the dim light of the moon. Around them, the candles seemed to brighten.
'This had been one of the most beautiful nights of my life, Gellert.' Hermione informed him.
'I'm glad. I don't have much experience.' He admitted, his voice a quiet murmur to match hers.
'I'll have to go soon.' She said quietly. 'But thank you.'
'Thank you, for agreeing to court me.' He replied quickly.
Then she leant over and ghosted her lips across his. It was fleeting, barely a touch and utterly chaste but it made little tingles explode across his skin. She drew back, flashed him a delightful little smile, then vanished.
Suddenly alone, Gellert brought his own hand up to touch where her's had been barely a second ago.