"Three cheers for The Pheonix!" the caption read, but it was the image underneath that had trapped Hermione's attention over the breakfast table the next morning. She was laughing as Gellert twirled her around in the air, then he placed her down and they shared their kiss. The little details were etched into her mind by now, the way her eyes flickered closed as their lips touched and the moon threw long shadows of her eyelashes across her cheeks. How the silver bird on the back of Gellert's cloak seemed to fly as he moved and the way her hands had balled into the material of his sleeves.

She sighed and turned the paper over as Gellert appeared through the doorway. It suddenly felt very awkward as he sat in his usual seat opposite her and she focused intensely on her croissant as he observed her.

'Gellert, last night... I shouldn't have...' She began, but he interrupted before she could finish.

'I apologise sincerely. It was remiss of me to make such a move without entering a formal courtship. I have stained your honour after all you have done for me.' He sounded truly regretful and she finally looked up at him.

'A formal what? No, Gellert, it doesn't work like that anymore. I just thought you were gay!' She exclaimed and the dark wizard suddenly looked mortified.

'I am not a poof.' He said indignantly and somewhat defensively.

'It's not a bad thing to be gay anymore Gellert, if you feel that way it's okay to admit it. Some people just aren't interested in the opposite sex.'

'Where on earth would you get that idea?' He hissed, casting a privacy charm on the door.

'It's just basic human kindness, to be tolerant of people with different views.' She hissed back, outraged on the behalf of every homosexual.

'No! That I was interested in men.' He coughed, stumbling over the last few words, raising his hands in a pacifying gesture. Hermione paused in her indignant rage as she took that in.

'Oh... Er, Dumbledore said that he had romantic feelings for you.' She finally explained, then remembered she had actually read that in Rita Skeeter's book. She considered telling him that but decided against it in the end. He had only just been pardoned for his crimes after all.

'Albus?' Gellert asked incredulously, then he seemed to run over several events in his mind, connecting clues and realising that Hermione was right. 'Oh. I never realised. I have never had the best understanding of love.' He admitted awkwardly and Hermione sighed.

'So you're not gay?' She asked, squashing the excitement this realisation was having.

'No, not at all.' Gellert confirmed and they both relaxed back into their chairs to continue with breakfast.

They were out on the balcony afterwards, enjoying the light of the morning sun as they watched the ICW waking up in their camp. The wards seemed to have gone dormant overnight because the aurors were casually strolling across the lower reaches of the grounds. She could still feel them though, buzzing in the corner of her awareness as mistress of the house.

She watched as one auror fell afoul of a patch of Neville's devil's snare and had to be rescued by his fellows. The small squad seemed to take it in good humour though, as even from here she could hear laughter rolling up the hillside. Closer to the castle, Neville and a group of students were already working on dismantling his garden defence system – an unknown magical creature started shrieking loudly as it was pulled from the stream and forced into whatever container Lupin had deemed suitable.

Gellert stood beside her, dressed casually with his shirt untucked and sleeves unbuttoned. His blue eye sparkled in the pale light and his darker one seemed to shine with contentment. He fixed his gaze on Hermione as she observed him, taking in the blue robe that she wore over her muggle jeans.

Then he suddenly told her to wait and disappeared inside. Curious, she watched the doors as he disappeared through them, her focus soon shifting back to the aurors in the garden below. They seemed to have noticed what Neville's students were doing and had teamed up with them to defeat a boggart.

'Hermione?' Gellert said from the doorway and she turned around to look up at him. He looked more nervous than she had ever seen him, even before he had cast his first patronus. 'You are a brilliant, talented and beautiful witch. I know that I am not a good wizard by any measure but you bring out the best in me. I know you don't have formal courtships any more but I wouldn't feel right doing it any other way.'

He held out the box that he had been holding and opened it so that she could see the delicate silver bracelet nestled inside. She was too fixated on his face for more than a passing glance towards the jewellery and she laid her hands over his around the box.

'I would offer you my courtship, that we may become acquainted with each other.' He spoke the words formally, and Hermione tried to keep the huge smile off her face.

'What do I say?' She mumbled awkwardly,

'Just say yes, Maüschen.' He whispered.

'Yes.' She uttered and he wrapped her into a hug. The kiss they shared this time was far longer and more intimate than the ones of the evening before. She could taste the coffee he'd just drunk and feel the warmth of his lips. Her hands came up behind his head to bury in his spiky-soft hair and his wrapped around her waist, pulling her body into him.

'Thank you, Hermione.' He murmured when they pulled apart.

He opened the box again and carefully removed the bracelet from inside. It was exquisitely shaped silver; two ribbons of metal studded with tiny diamonds and joined by a length of delicate chain. The clasp was somehow worked into the sapphire that twinkled between the two twinkling strands. She was almost too terrified to wear it even as he fastened it around her wrist.

'It was my Grandmother's, if you press the sapphire up against a wall, you'll be able to hear through it even if there are privacy charms in place. She was an avid gossiper but it could definitely be put to more political uses.' He told her gently as he concentrated on doing up the clasp without catching her skin.

'It's beautiful, Gellert. Thank you.'