A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! You can find me on tumblr (nauticalparamour). Just a heads up that we are starting to wrap this story up. It's intended to be 16 chapters in total.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter twelve and be on the lookout for chapter thirteen!
By the time that March had rolled around, Hermione had sent off her manuscript to her publisher, quite pleased with what she had pulled together. She was proud of how realistic she thought the flying and the Quidditch details turned out to be and she had a lot of creative energy to write the more romantic bits, drawing from her own experiences with Marcus. Of course, she never wrote anything exactly as it happened, but he'd given her more than enough inspiration to last in her next five novels!
Clementine Dearly was not hurting for source material, that much was certain.
With the writing portion off her plate, Hermione suddenly found herself with a lot more free time than she'd had thus far. And, that suddenly left her Saturday mornings open to watch Quidditch matches when they rolled around. She had a new appreciation for the sport that surely had absolutely nothing to do with salivating over the hot ref who she was doing unmentionable things with.
The Gryffindor and Slytherin match up rolled around and that was not a match that she would typically miss, and it was no different this year. Hermione bundled herself up, hoping that she looked cute, but also sporting her Gryffindor red, proud of her house and hoping that they would pummel those sneaky snakes!
She sat with Neville the whole time in the teachers box, who was bemoaning how terrible the Gryffindor Seeker was, wishing for a time when Harry was still the Seeker. It was true that there would probably never be another Seeker like Harry Potter, who, while he wasn't the most talented, certainly was the most daring they'd ever seen. Hermione tried to cheer up her friend, but ultimately his fears were well founded when Slytherin came up with the snitch to end the game.
Neville mentioned that he was probably going to head to the Three Broomsticks later that evening if she wanted to join and Hermione told him she would think about it. She and Marcus had joined Neville a few times and found it quite enjoyable, actually. But, she wasn't sure if he would be up for it after such a long day.
Wishing Neville a pleasant afternoon, Hermione headed off in the direction of the dressing rooms so that she could meet Marcus in his office. Pushing the door open, she was half-way through asking if he wanted to spend the afternoon with her before she realized he had company. Looking around, she quickly identified Adrian Pucey, Cassius Warrington and Graham Montague.
"Oh, I didn't realize that you had guests," she said, her cheeks going bright red. Godric, she wondered what they would think of how casually she was waltzing into his office? She could only imagine Ron's reaction when he figured out that Hermione was spending so much time with Marcus Flint of all people. And how could she have forgotten that he'd said all those months ago that they would be visiting for this exact game? Of course, she'd been way more distracted by his rugged good looks to think about anything else at the time.
"It's okay," Marcus reassured her, his dark hair wet from the shower. "I'm sure you're familiar, but this is Ades, Cass and Graham. Guys, you remember Hermione... erm, Granger?"
Cassius had a huge, shark-like grin on his face, like this was the best thing that he'd ever heard of, quickly putting the pieces together. "Of course I remember Hermione," he said. "She's only one of the most written about witches in the world! Although all the good gossip about you has really dried up since you started teaching up here."
Hermione felt her flush only deepen. "Oh, you can't believe anything you read anyway," she joked. "The number of things that they got wrong about me, you wouldn't believe."
He looked between her and Marcus and gave her a little smirk. "Well, now that I know that I should go directly to Marcus to get all the details about what's going on," he said.
She laughed nervously, feeling a bit uncomfortable at how quickly Cassius was putting together the pieces of her and Marcus's relationship. Were they having a very hot and heavy sexual exploration with one another? Yes. Did they enjoy spending time with one another? Yes. Had they ever defined a label for what exactly they were doing with one another? No. And did she fancy tip-toeing around this fact in front of his friends? Absolutely not.
Hermione was greatly enjoying what she and Marcus had, but she was far too nervous to bring up some of her most burning questions due to the fear of upsetting the delicate balance of what they had. If she asked him if he wanted more (which she so desperately did) and he didn't want to date her, would he break things off, knowing the depths of her feelings for him? It seemed too real a possibility to chance it.
"Well, like I said, I didn't realize that you had company, so I will just leave you guys to it," she said, hoping to make a quick exit.
"Nonsense - the more the merrier, Granger." This time it was Adrian Pucey's turn to speak. It seemed that he had clocked the sexual tension between her and Marcus, even if he didn't let on the same way that Cassius had.
"Oh, I wouldn't want to intrude," she said, still trying to wave herself out of the situation.
Montague grunted. "Yeah, well, it's sort of a guys' afternoon so maybe that's for the best," he said a bit rudely.
Marcus looked at her, his grey-blue eyes drinking her in, hair windswept and wearing a Gryffindor scarf. "We are just going to the Hog's Head," he explained. "But, it would be nice to have you along. If you didn't have anything else to do."
That was unexpected, Hermione thought. She hadn't expected that Marcus would actually want her to spend time with his friends. But, it was enough to have her seriously considering his offer.
"Of course she doesn't have anything else to do!" Cassius said, dashing any chance of changing her mind. "She was here to spend time with you, you big oaf. Of course Hermione will come and have a fire whiskey with us."
She swallowed, but nodded, the decision already made for her. "I will come have a fire whiskey," she agreed. "But, just one. Then I will leave you four to your afternoon."
The walk from the Quidditch pitch to Hogsmeade went by in the blink of an eye, mostly because Cassius was keeping her busy with a million questions about Ginny and Harry's wedding that had taken place two years prior. There had been tons of speculation in the press, but because it was held at the Burrow, there hadn't been many pictures or details leaked to the reporters, outside of the announcement and pictures that Harry and Ginny had released. It was just as Harry wanted it. Like Hermione, he had never trusted the press after the way that they had written about him when he was the only one saying that Voldemort was back. Hermione was happy to share a few details with Cassius, though. Like that she'd worn a blush set of robes and that they had signature cocktails which were really far too delicious for their own good.
When they arrived at the Hog's Head, Cassius and Graham went to the bar to order the first round, while Adrian, Marcus and Hermione piled into one of the booths. She found herself pressed up against Marcus tightly, and she relaxed into his warmth. Nothing could go wrong while she was with him. Under the table, his hand found her fingers and gave them a reassuring squeeze.
"We always used to come here after our games against Gryffindor," Marcus explained. "Bit of a tradition - wallowing in our pity that Potter had caught the snitch again."
Adrian looked at her cautiously, turning his head slightly. "Careful, Marcus," he warmed. "She's practically still a prefect. She might get house points taken away from you."
"Oh you'd be surprised," Marcus said, giving Hermione one of those crooked smiles. "Hermione got up to way more mischief than we ever did. In fact, you could say she was a bit of a delinquent."
"Marcus!" she said, playfully affronted. She lightly tapped her hand on his shoulder. "I was nothing of the sort. Just... sometimes you have to break the rules, if it's done for the right reason."
Adrian laughed. "I will have to remember that line of argument for court," he quipped. Vaguely, she remembered that he was a solicitor, so that made sense. Somehow she doubted that he'd not thought of that argument before.
Cassius and Graham joined then, passing around glasses full of firewhiskey. Hermione took her glass and took a small sip, happy that she'd had a little bit of practice imbibing with Marcus so she didn't sputter and cough at the burn in her throat. She desperately didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Marcus's friends.
"So, how did the two of you become so friendly?" Graham asked, clearly the most suspicious of the three. He was the lone holdout who did not seem to want her there. "I'm surprised Granger is so familiar with you that she'd just barge right into your office."
Hermione bit her lip to keep from talking back that she didn't barge in, when she really did. She looked at Marcus, wanting to follow his lead. These were his friends after all. She planned on going with whatever he was willing to share really.
"She helped me out earlier this year with some warding," he explained, keeping it to the facts. "There were some students who were breaking into the dressing rooms and she helped me catch them."
"It took a bit of time," Hermione added. "I still don't understand how they were getting past my wards. It took a couple of evenings, but eventually we caught them. But, Marcus and I had a lot of time to chat and catch up."
Adrian and Cassius shared a look that Hermione didn't quite understand. "I can't believe anyone thought of breaking into your domain," Adrian said, looking to Marcus. "I can't imagine anything worse than you catching someone's bare arse out of bed."
Marcus chuckled. "You don't even know the half of it," he said with a grin. "It was Urquhart and Mason - you know him, he's the Gryffindor captain? - in the end. Can you imagine if James were here and he knew what his little sister was up to!"
The Slytherin boys all started laughing, remembering their former teammate. Hermione was not very familiar with James Urquhart, but she thought that she might know which one they were talking about. She generally thought that Ivy was a well-mannered and nice girl, but mostly, very pretty.
"I think that he'd just tell her off twenty ways for getting caught!" Graham said with a laugh. "Surely, she should have learned how to sneak around better."
"I think he'd be most upset about her getting caught with a Gryffindor," Adrian said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, surely that doesn't really matter anymore?" Hermione said, before she could stop herself. She couldn't believe that house loyalties between Gryffindor and Slytherin could really matter after the war. Surely, everyone could see how silly it was after everything that they'd been through?
From across the table, Adrian, Cassius and Graham all looked at her. "Oh, absolutely, it does," Graham said, eventually. "What if he is just with her to try and get tactics out of her? What if she off-handedly says something about their training that tips him off and then they win?"
Hermione could feel herself relax. It wasn't so much that she was with a Gryffindor, rather a rival Quidditch team member. It felt better to know that they wouldn't out and out dislike her and Marcus together simply because she was a Gryffindor.
"Well, based on how we played today, perhaps it was Miss Urquhart who was using Mason," Hermione said, teasingly. "Maybe Urquhart should be proud of his sister?"
The suggestion was well received and they suddenly looked at it much differently, each of them now praising Ivy Urquhart's wiliness, until the conversation drifted to other topics - like professional Quidditch.
Hermione was talked into staying for a second drink while she shared details about Ginny's time at the Holyhead Harpies and a little bit more about her previous relationship with Viktor Krum. But, eventually, she felt like she had really overstayed her welcome, no matter how much Marcus denied it.
Slipping out of the booth, she wished the others a fabulous rest of their afternoon, only to be pulled back when Marcus caught her hand. Without thinking, he pulled her down for a quick peck on the lips, to a chorus of oohs from Cassius.
Hermione felt her cheeks pink while she walked away, but mostly, she couldn't hear a single thought over the sound of her pounding heartbeat.