(A/N):

*peeks head out to see if the coast is clear*

*realizes it is not*

*hangs head in shame and comes out to face the music*

... surprise?! I'm back?! I'm sorry?! Any of these working for you?!

I really am sorry for being gone from this story for so long. I just got so bogged down with work and my master's program. But now I'm free! All I have to worry about is work and getting moved into a new place in the next few weeks. Both of which are easy enough to deal with, if I'm being honest.

An overwhelming amount of gratitude to Loneata, Arionna O'Driscoll, ShezzaBoo0233, RubiSlippers, BratGirl83, AnnoyingGrizzly, peachx89, 1991, Catzandbookz8, Abbey Carolyn, and mrav8924 for reviewing! Knowing that there were people out there enjoying this story so much really helped me regain my passion for it.

Thanks to Catzandbookz8 for beta reading some of these scene for me. It's my first time really writing smut and I was (and still am) really nervous about it. Hopefully I did okay.

This chapter is brought to you by two individuals totally in denial about how into each other they are. Because who doesn't love lovers in denial lol

Some dialogue has been taken from Arrow S1E18.

Thanks for reading! Enjoy!


Hermione had no idea what was happening.

Slade's lips were hot on hers and the way the bristles on his chin and lip brushed against her skin was driving her a little insane.

She wasn't sure when she had started kissing him back, but she was pretty sure that this didn't really fit with her plan of putting some distance between them. And then Slade did something with his tongue that sent her mind skittering off its mental tracks because it had been far too long.

Her back slammed against a tree and Hermione was distantly surprised that they'd been moving without her noticing. Slade's hands fell to her hips, lifting her up, and Hermione wrapped her legs around his waist and ground down against him as she slid her hands into his hair.

Air, her mind vaguely reminded her, but Hermione ignored it. Passing out from lack of oxygen was one way to get out of talking about what the hell they were doing.

Slade groaned into her mouth as she moved against him and Hermione melted a bit at the sound, pressing her chest against his as tightly as possible so that there was no space between them. His fingers flexed on her hips and then clamped down, taking control and forcing her to grind down onto him at a faster, harder pace.

Hermione whimpered, both wanting Slade to let go so she could move herself and never wanting him to because it was perfect.

He finally broke the kiss, barely pulling away more than a centimeter as he inhaled sharply. She was also gasping for air but made sure to use her grip on his hair to keep him from pulling too far away. Slade didn't seem to be interested in putting a stop to anything though, only taking a few moments to breathe while staring into her eyes before diving back in and plunging his tongue into her mouth to tangle with hers.

Her orgasm hit her unexpectedly- a perfect storm washing over her at the feel of Slade's tongue against hers, the radiating warmth of his body heat, the large muscles she could feel around her, and his hard length pressing repeatedly against her center. Even the bits of armor and weapons pressed against her limbs wasn't enough to detract from the experience. In fact, Hermione realized, with a bit of shame, it all added a sense of danger to their encounter.

She felt too good to worry about anything though as she shook against Slade. He broke their kiss again as soon as he realized that she'd come, pulling away to intently study her and the look in his gaze forced a whine out of her throat as she slammed her eyes shut, head falling back as she shuddered again and again.

Slade's lips began to worry at the exposed skin of her throat and Hermione hoped he left a mark there to go with the ones she knew she'd have of his fingers on her sides. After a few more thrusts, he let out a low growl as he came apart, face buried in her neck.

It was silent for a long minute as they both caught their breath and for the first time in months, Hermione felt completely relaxed. If it wasn't for the fact that the position they were in wasn't exactly comfortable, she might have fallen asleep right there.

Eventually, Slade pulled away, gently prying her limbs off of him. Hermione blinked slowly up at him, distantly aware that she must look a right mess.

"We shouldn't have done that," he finally told her.

"Do you mean in general, or that we shouldn't have done that," she gestured at the tree behind her, "because now you have to walk back to your hideout like that?"

A huff of laughter escaped him. "Both."

Hermione took a deep breath, trying to order her scattered thoughts. "If you're worried about getting 'attached' or something, then don't. We're both adults here. More importantly, we're adults who have been trapped on this island for a long time with little to no human interaction. We're also both relatively attractive. There's no reason for us to make this incident into something more than what it is- a bit of stress relief between too consenting adults."

Slade's brows rose in surprise. "You really think that adding sex to this isn't going to complicate things?"

She jolted slightly. Despite what they'd just done, Hermione's brain hadn't jumped from that to sex and now that Slade had brought it up, she couldn't help remembering how Slade had looked without a shirt while he was working out and the feel of his hand against her throat or the weight of him pinning her down against the ground. She instantly felt warm again because now that sex was apparently an option, she really wanted it.

"Yes," she answered, voice husky and Hermione quickly cleared her throat. "I think we've both made it clear that we're on the same page when it comes to the prospect of getting attached. We're both intelligent enough to understand how unsustainable such a thing would be."

He hummed, stepping forward and leaning in close. Brushing his cheek against hers, Slade whispered, "You sure about this, girl?"

Hermione almost moaned, hands automatically coming up to clench in the front of his jacket. "So sure."

The walk back to the fuselage was incredibly uncomfortable for Slade. He'd forgotten how disgusting it was to walk around in wet, sticky trousers- he hadn't had to do it since he was a teen. Slade honestly wasn't even sure what had come over him. He'd seen Hermione standing there with the circuit board they'd thought they lost, holding the one advantage they had over Fyers, while she'd mouthed off at him and had just lost control.

He didn't regret it though. Not even a little. Remembering the soft surprised noise Hermione had made when he'd first kissed her made Slade want to turn right back around and find her so he could get her to make it again.

Slade had worried that things would be awkward afterwards, that she'd think they were something more than they actually were, but it seemed they were on the same page. And, if that was the case, then Slade didn't see any harm in them having a little fun while they were both still stuck on the island. After all, sex was much more enjoyable than training. Although, Slade could imagine a few ways in which the two could be combined.

His dick twitched and Slade grimaced, pushing away all thoughts of Hermione and how it felt to feel her body pressed against his. He needed to get back to the fuselage and get cleaned up without Oliver or Shado noticing.

Shado had been an unexpected gift during their fight with Fyers. Slade knew that Yao Fei was a skilled fighter, but he hadn't considered the idea that he would have trained his kid. He hadn't even considering training Joe when his son was younger and had only just begun looking into possible classes for the teen to take when he'd been sent on this mission. Should Slade have done as Yao Fei did and taken the chance to help his son learn how to protect himself when he'd had the chance? Or did he do the right thing allowing his son to have the freedom to choose his own activities as a kid?

Adeline probably wouldn't have been thrilled with the idea of Joe even peripherally following in Slade's footsteps, but Slade was sure she would have seen sense in the idea of Joe being able to protect himself. Then again, she might have fought him on it just to be difficult.

When he reached the outskirts of the clearing, Slade took a moment to check that the front of his trousers wasn't stained. Hopefully, if he was quick enough, no one would ask any questions.

The next morning, Slade offered to spar with Shado, wanting to see if she was as capable as he suspected her to be. To his relief, it seemed that the abilities she'd shown the previous day hadn't been a fluke.

She matched him hit for hit, blocking every one of his strikes for several minutes. When Slade grabbed her and lifted her up to throw her onto the ground, Shado gripped his arm and flipped herself over it exactly the way Hermione had done during their first training session. She then managed to get the jump on him, getting one leg over his shoulder and twisting so he was falling to the ground on his back with her hovering over his chest.

"You're teaching me that one," he grunted, already wondering how he could help Hermione learn it. It was the perfect move for her smaller frame, but it would be difficult for him to teach her it because of their size difference.

"Only if you show me where the knife was," Shado returned, and Slade grinned, pressing the blade he'd managed to slip into his hand as he was falling against her lower back.

Standing up and stepping back, Shado offered a hand to Slade and pulled him to his feet.

"Who taught you how to fight?" Slade questioned, wanting to be sure that it had actually been Yao Fei who trained her.

"My father wanted a son," she answered, and Slade could hear the banked anger in her tone.

Is that why Yao Fei had taken to Oliver so quickly? he wondered. If so, that was incredibly foolish of him. Then Slade realized that Shado would have been born during China's one-child policy. Perhaps that kept him from getting the son he wanted. Though, if Yao Fei had been bitter enough about not having a son for it to have made such a long-lasting impression on his daughter, Slade wondered why he hadn't just given her up.

"Seems he got something better," he finally told her, as she turned away to grab a canteen of water.

Spotting Oliver pulling at the string on Yao Fei's bow, Shado warned, "Careful! The tension in that bow is 150 pounds. Snap it, and you'll end up with covered fiber shrapnel in your eyes."

"She's right," Slade agreed, grabbing his own canteen and downing half of it as he watched Oliver quickly set the bow aside. "You're not strong enough yet." Turning back to Shado, he offered, "Go again?"

"You know," Oliver interjected. "It's pretty exciting that both of you are such badasses but do you think that maybe we should be making a plan to stop Fyers and, I don't know, save your dad?"

"Does he always whine this much?" Shado asked Slade.

"This is one of his good days," he informed her, smothering a grin. It was a shame Hermione had refused to join them; he had a feeling she and Shado would get along.

Shado and Slade began to circle on another, preparing for another round. "Can he fight?"

"I've tried, but with limited success."

"Sitting right here," Oliver reminded him.

Glancing over at the kid, Shado grinned. "Well, I haven't tried yet."

Slade laughed. "You're welcome to try; best of luck."

Hermione woke up and immediately rolled over and buried her face in the folded blanket she was using in lieu of a pillow.

"I'm an idiot," she moaned.

She couldn't believe she had gone from being firm in the decision to go her separate way from Slade to letting him slam her against a tree and basically have his way with her.

Softly banging her head against the folded fabric, Hermione considered her options.

Hiding away from Slade for the rest of his time on the island was certainly an appealing one. But she suspected that it was not a sustainable one. If Hermione stayed away for too long, then Slade would just comb the island to find her and she was almost positive she wouldn't like the results if he was forced to do that.

Could they just pretend nothing had happened? It only took a few seconds of contemplation for Hermione to throw that idea away. Even if Slade could do it, she didn't think she would be able to. Now that she knew what it felt like to be pressed against him for non-training purposes, Hermione didn't think she'd be able to just train. Simply remembering the night before made her feel hot and tense.

So, running away or ignoring the situation were out. That just left facing the music.

Hermione was getting attached. She was aware of that and knew that it was an issue.

Attachments are distractions, and distractions cloud your judgement and are what are going to get you killed.

Slade had made his opinions very clear and Hermione had agreed with him- still agreed with him. She couldn't let herself get attached to Slade because it would distract her from her end goal of defeating Dolohov.

Physical did not necessarily also mean emotional. If she focused just on the physical side of things- focused on training and sex- and remained as emotionally distant from Slade as possible, then maybe this could work. In fact, the more Hermione thought about it, the surer she was that everything would be fine. Logical thinking was what she did best; wasn't that what Harry and the others were always complaining about? That she was too logical for her own good?

Rolling back over, Hermione pushed herself up and got ready to meet Slade.

This was fine. Everything was fine and would continue to be fine. She could handle this.

… she was such an idiot, and she was absolutely going to mess this up.

Slade walked towards his and Hermione's clearing, still rolling his eyes at Shado's version of training. What good was slapping a bowl of water going to do against Fyers?

He was very carefully not thinking about anything that had happened the night before. Slade was going to let Hermione take the lead with the conversation today; it wouldn't be smart of him to make the first move again.

When he arrived, he found Hermione bent over in the middle of the field, shifting carefully between yoga poses. As she moved to press her lower body to the ground while her arms pushed her upwards with her chest to the sky, she caught sight of him. Slade took in the way her face flushed even as she smiled.

"Good morning," she called lightly, lowering her chest to the ground and pressing her toes into the grass to push her ass into the air. Holding the pose for a moment, Hermione bent her knees and jumped forward so her feet were by her hands and then flowed upwards.

Slade took a deep breath. "Morning," he grunted, coming to a stop a few steps in front of her.

Hermione watched him for a handful of seconds, eyes inscrutable. "How's everything back at camp?"

"Fine. Shado's taking over Oliver's training for the day."

"Shado?"

"The girl the Fyers brought to the island. She's Yao Fei's daughter. He tried to use her as a distraction while his men were searching for the circuit board. Guess he didn't know she was one hell of a fighter."

"You trust her enough to help with training Oliver?" she questioned, slipping her hands into the pockets of her jacket.

He shrugged. "I trust that she wants to take down Fyers as much as we do. And we need all the allies we can get."

"Yes, but you left her alone with someone completely untrained and let's be honest here, very naïve. Are you sure it's wise to give her such freedom?"

Frowning, Slade commented, "Would you rather we have not met today?" he questioned, ignoring the way the thought made him want to grit his teeth.

Her eyes widened in obvious surprise. "No!" she hastily answered before wincing. "I just want to make sure you're being safe. Not that I think you're not being safe. I'm sure you are. But as your… ally, I would rather you not get yourself killed before we've finished our training." She winced again and Slade forced himself not to laugh. "That sounded harsher than I meant it. I mean I do want to finish our training, but I also don't want you to die in general. Not yet, anyway. Because everyone dies."

"Alright," Slade interrupted, taking pity on her. "I get it." Narrowing his eyes, he carefully considered the air of nervousness around the witch. "Are you sure about this?" he abruptly asked her. When she made a questioning noise, he continued, "If you're not sure you can handle what happened yesterday, then it'd be better for us to just pretend nothing happened."

He wouldn't like it, but it would be better to not start adding sex to this now rather than start something that would make things more complicated in the future.

Hermione grimaced, shaking her head. "It's not like that. I'm just not sure how to proceed from here. I don't want to make things uncomfortable for either one of us going forward."

Slade stepped forward. "Are you uncomfortable now?" he asked softly.

She gave a small huff of laughter, hands slipping out of her pocket to hover over his chest. "Uncomfortable is not the word to describe my state right now."

"No?" he hummed, sliding his hands onto her waist.

Her hands finally settled onto his chest as she pushed herself up onto her toes and pressed her lips to his.

While her actions may have seemed tentative, her kiss was anything but. Slade allowed her to take control, content to follow her lead for the moment. It was only when her hands fell to the front of his trousers that he moved, taking both of her wrists into one of his hands as he pulled away.

"Not yet," he rasped, grinning down at her. "Gotta earn it first."

Hermione reacted just as he knew she would, eyes going wide as she demanded, "Excuse me?!"

Slade squeezed her wrists. "First, we spar. Show me that you can stay focused on the fight despite feeling wound up. Then, we can have a bit of fun."

She glared up at him. "What, do you think I'm that weak-willed or desperate that I'm going to be unable to focus on anything other than getting into your pants?"

He laughed, letting go of her hands and taking a step back. No, Slade didn't think she was desperate now, but he fully intended to make sure she was by the time they finished. "Let's find out."

Hermione made a mistake- she'd forgotten that Slade didn't fight fair.

She had fully intended to make him eat his words because, despite what he seemed to think, she wasn't that easy. Except, as she made herself throw an elbow back into his stomach while simultaneously stomping on his foot as she slipped out of his grip, Hermione was forced to come to the realization that she might be wrong about that.

Slade trying to pin her was a staple of their spars. After all, the end result of sparring was to either take down your opponent or get taken down and sometimes that meant getting your opponent on the ground long enough to take them out. What was not a usual part of their training was him using pins as a way of pressing as much of his body against hers as he could.

He'd also apparently noticed her reaction to having his hand at her throat and his breath on her ear and he taken advantage of it several times. Even occlumency could only do so much against the constant assault on her senses. The one good thing about Slade's actions was that Hermione could tell that he took as much pleasure out of this as she did, but he seemed much better at ignoring his reactions than she was.

Though, her mind was processing everything as repeated stimulation with no end in sight while he clearly had a plan in place so perhaps that made it easier for him.

Was this all just extended foreplay to him?

Merlin, they were fucked up. It couldn't be a good idea in any way, shape, or form to tie fighting to sex yet here they were. A mental health professional would have a field day with her if she ever bothered to see one. And was honest with them, of course.

After Slade got her on her back for the fourth time, Hermione finally broke. He was warm and heavy above her and the broadness of his shoulders made her feel protected and safe. "Slade," she begged, arching her back to press her chest against his while her legs wrapped around his waist. "Please."

He chuckled, dropping down so that her hips were trapped between the ground and his, leaving her unable to move. "I don't know, girl," he murmured, nosing at her jawline. "Do you think you did a good enough job today?"

"I would have done better if you were still fighting like the end goal was to not die instead of you being able to have your way with me," she grumbled, letting her head fall to the side so he had easier access.

Slade paused. "Oh? Would you like me to stop then?"

He shifted back, as if preparing to stand, and Hermione tightened her legs around him and shifted to free her hands so that she could tangle them in his hair. "Don't you dare," she hissed.

Laughing again, Slade slid a hand under her to press against her lower back. "Well done, Hermione," he praised, and she inhaled sharply. "You lasted longer than I thought you would."

Sitting back on his heels, Slade lifted Hermione up with him and settled her in his lap. As he reached up to remove the band holding her hair back, she stopped him.

"Your gloves," she told him, taking one of his hand in hers and undoing the latch on his glove before sliding it off and repeating her actions with the other. Hermione knew her cheeks were bright red as she shyly admitted, "I want to feel you."

Groaning, he admitted, "You're killing me, girl."

She grinned down at him, sitting up on her knees and reaching between them to undo the button and fly on his trouser and slipping her hand inside to wrap around his cock. Slade hissed, head falling back in pleasure as Hermione began to slowly slide her hand up and down, familiarizing herself with the weight and feel of him. It'd been so long that he'd almost forgotten how good it felt to be touched by someone else.

Pulling him free, Hermione pressed her lips against his. "Show me what you like," she whispered. "Show me how to touch you."

What Slade would have liked was to throw Hermione down and fuck her until the only thing she could even think was his name, but, since that wasn't an option yet, Slade wrapped his hand around hers and encouraged her to tighten her grip while moving slightly faster. Every time her hand reached the head of his cock, he had her swipe the palm of her hand over it to collect the precome beginning to drip from it to ease the friction of her movements.

"Fuck, Hermione," he hissed. "So good. Feels so good."

It didn't take long for him to come apart, shaking in her arms. Hermione didn't stop moving her hand until Slade reached out to drag her away from his overly sensitive length. Letting his head fall to her shoulder, he worked to regain his breath. Hermione let her clean hand drift up and began running her fingers through his hair as the last bit of tension in his shoulders drained away. She wiped her other hand in the damp grass next to them, making a mental note that she'd need to stop by the nearby river to wash up a bit after they were done.

Once Slade's breathing became a bit steadier, he tucked his cock back into his trousers and straightened, lifting a hand up to run it through his hair.

"Better?" Hermione asked, smirking at the languid look in his eyes.

Laughing, Slade started to respond but paused as he looked at his hand. "Damn," he swore, suddenly looking annoyed.

Hermione followed his gaze. "Is something wrong?"

Sighing, he admitted, "Just realized how long it's been since I actually gave my hands a good scrub."

"Oh." Settling back so she was seated more comfortably in Slade's lap, Hermione shrugged. "It's fine. To be honest, I was just thinking that your hands are large enough that I'd probably have to pull down my pants a bit in order for you to touch me at all, and it's far too cold for that." A fact she was not happy about in the slightest, but it was still winter on the island and she wasn't desperate enough to be stupid. Yet.

He hummed, gaze turning a little more considering as he studied Hermione. "It's bad form to leave a lady unsatisfied."

Her eyes narrowed. "Bit late to try and play the part of a gentleman, isn't it? Or for me to claim to be a lady."

"True," Slade agreed, smirking. Then his hands were tightening on her hips and lifting her up enough for him to shift his legs beneath her and moved her onto her back with him hovering over her, one of his thighs pressed between hers. "You know, last night you were able to come with just a bit of friction," he murmured, brushing his nose against hers, and Hermione could feel herself turning red.

"Well, it has been a while," she stated defensively, ignoring the way her stomach clenched at Slade's casual show of strength. "You didn't exactly last long yourself."

Slade's lips traced across her jawline and up to her ear. "Like you said, it's been a while. Couldn't resist how nicely you submitted to me. You'd have let me do just about anything to you, wouldn't you? And you looked so pretty shaking against me as you came."

Hermione was feeling rather shaky right then, Slade's low growl ramping up her own arousal. Then his hand slid beneath her jacket and shirt to stroke against the skin of her stomach and she let out a soft whine, arching up and grinding down against Slade's thigh.

He chuckled, breath hot on her ear. "That's it, girl. You need it, don't you? Need me to let you come. Bet you could just from this- my leg between yours and the sound of my voice and nothing more." His fingers slowly slid up her torso, pausing to trace over the edge of her sports bra before abruptly shoving the fabric up and out of the way.

She cried out at the feel of the cloth catching on her hard nipples and dragging against them for a second before disappearing and being replaced by Slade's calloused fingers, increasing the speed at which her hips moved. Hermione's hands flew up and into Slade's hair, tugging at the short strands. "Slade," she begged, trying to pull his mouth to hers.

Slade shook his head, refusing to let her move him. "Want to hear you. Love how you sound when you're desperate." He lightly thumbed her nipple before catching it between his fingertips and pinching roughly. The spark of pain sent tingles down Hermione's spine and she could have cried at how good it felt.

"You're so good for me," he continued, nipping at her ear. "So responsive. Can't wait to see how you sound when I'm actually fucking you. Have you thought about it? Thought about me peeling off your clothes and pinning you down, sliding into you and fucking you stupid? How long has it been for you? Years?"

Hermione just shook her head, too distracted by the feeling of his hand on her breast and the way he kept shifting to press his thigh more tightly to her core even as she rocked her hips against it. It was almost embarrassing how close she was with just this…

And then Slade was twisting his fingers and biting down on her earlobe and Hermione came with a cry of his name. He didn't stop, continuing to toy with her until she was shaking from overstimulation. Only then did his touch turn soothing, fingers gently stroking against her stomach as his body became a warm, grounding presence above her.

As her muscles slowly went lax, Hermione's hands slid out of Slade's hair and fell limply to the ground. "Fuck," she sighed, blinking up at the older man.

He smiled down at her, pulling his hand out from under her shirt and lifting it to cup her cheek, thumb stroking lightly beneath her eye. "Beautiful," he praised, leaning down to press a soft kiss to her lips.

As soon as he pulled back, Hermione blurted, "There's a hot spring not far from here." Slade's brows rose and she blushed. "We can go tomorrow. If you can get away from Oliver and Shado again."

Slade smirked. "A hot spring huh? Sounds relaxing."

Hermione smirked, regaining her equilibrium quickly. "They can really help with sore muscles. Figured it might be nice to have one on hand in case you pull something putting your money where your mouth is. After all, you are getting up there in years and it's apparently been a while since you've done this."

Sitting back on his heels, Slade grinned down at her. "Would have thought you'd learn your lesson by now about mouthing off to me."

Propping herself up on her elbows after righting her clothes, Hermione retorted, "You should know by now that I'm not one to back down so easily."

"Oh, believe me, I'm aware."

Slowly sitting up, she pulled her legs under her and sighed. "Well, now that that's out of the way, we should talk about what happened yesterday."

Slade stiffened. "What about yesterday?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Would you stop being such a stereotypical male? I'm not trying to pick a fight or, Merlin forbid, request you be emotionally vulnerable. Tensions were high yesterday and I think we need to address some things that were said."

"Alright. You first."

This man… "Fine. I don't appreciate you questioning my motives or my abilities when it comes to Dolohov and I especially don't appreciate you forcing us to have the same argument over and over again. I can understand how it might look like I'm not doing all I could to change my situation, but I know you're more intelligent than you came across as yesterday. You know why it wouldn't be a good idea to try and fight with Dolohov on a boat. I know you know. In close quarters, with both you and Oliver nearby, and the fact that I clearly haven't been as alone as I should have been- there's no way Dolohov wouldn't go after you two first. Not because he'd register you as a threat, but simply because there's a chance I might actually care about what happens to you and that's too fun a possibility for him to ignore."

Pressing his lips tightly together, Slade reluctantly nodded. "Fine. I can see your point. But that doesn't change the fact that it doesn't seem like you have any intentions of actually defeating Dolohov and getting off this island."

"I am trying to be practical about it. With your training, I believe I have a greater chance of beating Dolohov in a fight if I can catch him off guard. But I need to make sure that I'm fighting him somewhere that gives me the better odds. Which, at this point, is Lian Yu. Also, like I told you before, defeating Dolohov does not mean I'm going to be able to escape from Lian Yu. I'll have a wand, but there's no guarantees it'll work for me."

"And what if it doesn't?" Slade demanded. "What then?"

Hermione glanced away, brows furrowed. "Well, I might not be able to cast the kind of spells that would be needed to take down the wards around the island, but I'll still be able to do some magic with his wand regardless of compatibility. I may not be able to magic us off the island, but it wouldn't be impossible to… catch the attention of people on the mainland. Magical people, to be exact."

Slade's eyes widened a bit. "Really? And you think that won't end terribly?"

"Not for me. But it might for you and Oliver because neither of you are magical. I would likely be able to convince them not to kill you both, but at the very least your memories of me could be erased."

His eyes hardened. "No. Absolutely not."

Unsurprised by his reaction, Hermione shrugged. "If we could convince them that you and I are together, then you'd legally be allowed to keep your memories because of the ICW decrees regarding a magical person and their non-magical partner, but it might be a fight and that protection would not extend to Oliver."

Crossing his arms over his chest, Slade said, "I don't care if you mess with the kid's memories, but no one's touching mine."

Smiling softly, Hermione nodded. "Understood. Sir."

Eyes flashing, Slade warned, "You're playing with fire, girl."

"Yes. That's what I do."