She was making cooing sound at the bird as we made our way back to the hotel. Sowerby would make a pleased sound and gentle nip at her fingers.
"He missed you." I say quietly bringing her attention back to me. Her eyes were warm and she seemed much more relaxed.
"I missed him. He was my only friend when Harry was gone." She seemed lost in thought but happy so I let her stay in her daydreams.
"You like kids, don't you?" I finally asked and she nodded giving me a lazy smile.
"Yeah, well they like me and who can not like kids. Plus my voice doesn't effect them as much." She leaned her head against Sowerby cage.
"You look better my love." I reach my hand out and she takes it with a smile.
"I feel better." She pulled my hand to her face and rubbed her face against it. "I need to stop letting Draco rile me."
"We both need to." I didn't mind that she was still rubbing her cheeks and lips against my hand. I'm fairly sure she doesn't realize she's doing it. When I pulled my hand back she made a pouting face.
"I was doing it again wasn't I?" She turned a light pink shade before looking inside Sowerby cage. I couldn't stand her being embarrassed so I moved across and sat next to her. Without saying a word I nuzzled her neck. She sighed and leaned against me.
"I don't know why I keep doing that, I'm sorry." She whispered, sighing when I nuzzled the other side of her neck.
"Don't worry my love, you do whatever makes you comfortable. I'm here for you." She rest her head on my shoulder and I hold her until we arrive at the hotel.
"Can we go to the water without him?" She asks me quietly before he opens the door. I nod and she smiled as the door opens.
"We'll leave after dinner beautiful." Draco says after her offers his hand. She handed him Sowerby cage then got out.
"Sorry mate, we've made other arrangements." I say when I got out taking the cage from him. She giggles and dances off towards the lift. Draco grabs my arm.
"Keep an eye on her, she's more precious then you realize." He let go and walked towards the hotel bar. I was confused as I joined her in the lift.
"What did he want?" She ask wrapping her arms around my waist.
"Just to keep you safe." I kiss the top of her head.
"That's." She paused and looked at me with confused smile. "Nice?"
I shrug and we get out of lift, she opens the door to our room. As she get a cup of water for Sowerby I put his cage on the small balcony out of the room.
"Will he be okay out in the cold?" I ask as she puts some more chunks of apples and some corn for him.
"He survived a hurricane, I'm sure he'll survive a cool evening. He needs to stretch his wings, need to be free." She was talking about herself. I wrap my arms around her from behind and rest my chin on her shoulder.
"He's as free as he wants to be my love. I'm not going to stop him from doing what he wants to do." I feel the large breath she takes.
"You're a lot smarter then you look." She say leaning her head back and kisses my jaw.
"Are you saying I look dumb?" I ask furrowing my eyebrows in pretend annoyances. She shrugs and walks back into hotel room.
She pulls out a swimsuit and goes into the bathroom like I haven't already memorized every inch of her body. When she came out she looked more like herself again. Her hair was down and curling wildly, she has a long dress and jumper on.
"There's my pretty girl." I pull her into a hug and nuzzle my nose into her crazed hair. I love the way she smells like the ocean and jasmine. We sway together for a few moments. Her lightly humming as I draw small circles on her lower back.
"Get changed, I want to go eat dinner before we go." She walked back towards the balcony and I heard Sowerby caw softly as he flew into her arm. I put my swim trunks in under some trousers and threw on a button up shirt on.
"Don't scare me like that again my friend." I overhear her chide her bird and it snipes at a curl causing her to laugh.
"Ready my love?" I offer her my arm and grabbed a thick jacket as we left. She convinces me to take her to an Asian food restaurant.
"Would you like to try some?" She offers me a piece of her sushi, I scrunch up my nose.
"No baby, I'm okay with my sweet and sour chicken." I use a fork to grab a piece and eat the fried food. She shakes her head with a silent laugh.
"You're eating chicken nuggets." She sounded amused so I stuck my tongue out. Hermione rolled her eyes as she eats another piece of rice and fish. "Don't you want something different."
"No, once I decide I like something that's it for me." I smirk at her and wink. She puts down her chopsticks and shakes her head.
"You don't have to keep flirting so hard, you know I'm yours." Her brown eyes were filled with a happy emotion.
"I'm always going to flirt with you, for the rest of our lives." I take a drink of water watching her put her chop sticks down and squint at me. "What is it,Baby?"
"I've asked you to marry me twice now." She sounded upset, her mood has been ever changing since Draco showed up. She's nearly giving me whiplash from it.
"And I've said yes twice." I wasn't going to fight with her. The waitress bring us the ticket and I pay it.
"You don't act like it." I ignore her comment putting my jacket on her shoulder as we hail a cab outside the restaurant. I told her I would get her a ring yesterday.Shite no wonder she's upset.
"Hermione, I love you. You love me. It's been two days since you introduced me as your fiancé. Baby girl you have to give a guy a break." I hated sounding so short with her. She frowned and curled into my side as we waited for the cab to stop. I opened the door and helped her in. She pouted a little more as I closed the door.
"Where to lovebirds?" A gruff accented voice asked us. I sigh and kiss the top of her head.
"The nearest jewelry store that is still open." I say and she smiles at me and wraps her arms around my neck. "If you wanted a present you just had to ask my love." I whisper into her ear. The driver laughed and drove off.
"I should have reminded you." She admits and she weaves her finger though mine. I pulled her close to me and kissed the top of her head.
"I should have remembered, everything seems to be happening so fast. I'm struggling to keep up. That is not an excuse. Just know that I'm trying my love." A smile plays on her lips as she shakes her head.With a deep content sigh she rest her head on my shoulder.
"I'll try to keep my emotions in check." I lean over and kiss her temple. This tour is to much for her. She just so bloody stubborn.
"You two better hurry, they're closing soon." The driver said breaking me out of my internal debate. Thanking him quickly we entered the store. She leaves my side and dances off towards a case.
"Can I help you sir?" A man behind a counter asks, I smile and motion towards Hermione.
"Need an engagement ring for the prettiest girl on land and sea." I say and she laughs as she looks at the rings.
"I'm done." Hermione smiles at me and drags me to a case. A woman behind the counter smiles opens the case to bring out a tray of rings. "I want this and I want you to wear this."
She had pointed to a pair of simple silver bands with abalone inlay. One was a little thicker then the other. Hermione was grinning from ear to ear so proud of her find.
"Baby normally the man doesn't wear a ring til after the wedding." I say and she presses on her toes and gives me a quick peck and a hug.
"Since when do we do anything normally." I look up at the ceiling and laugh silently before kissing the top of her head.
"You heard her, two bands." I say and the two workers look at each other in amusement. One helps Hermione find the right size as I pay the other one. "Baby, why don't you get us another cab while I finish up."
With a shrug of her shoulder she came and kissed my cheek before leaving.
"We all know I have to get her a real engagement ring." I say and they nod pulling a couple of trays out.
"I think she would like this one." The woman said pulling a small ring with tiny pearls and a blue stone.
"Yeah I think you're right. Thank you." I handed them a stack of the paper money. Potter has been on me to get one the plastic things but I didn't want to bother with that. However since I'm going to be staying in the muggle world with her I guess I'll have to. When I got outside she had manage to get a cab.
"Can you take us to a marina that is still open, I need to rent a boat." I asked the man and he nodded. When we arrived at the Marina she stayed on the dock looking out at water.In a moment of impulse I asked the man how long we could rent it. He told me as long as we wanted to. I asked him why and he gave me a sympathetic smile.
"Because Mr.Diggory, my niece told me about what happened at that tournament. I figure you could use a good long vacation with the misses." He looked down at the band Hermione insisted I wear. It was weird being recognized again, hadn't happen since I left England.
"You're the first wizard I've met in the states." I say and he shrugs.
"We're around, I'll just wire Gringotts. Make sure you return her in one piece." The kind man handed me the keys and I walked back to Hermione.
"So, Baby. I was thinking instead of staying in hotels and constantly traveling with Draco we could take a boat." I should have asked her first, it's wrong for me to make decisions about our life without her.
"That's a brilliant idea my love, do you know where we can get one? Are you sure, you hate the water?" She said looking so excited at the prospect of staying away from Draco.
"But I love you. And I kind of already made arrangements." I bit my lip and waited for her to yell. Instead she hugged me and sighed a tired sigh.
"Thank you for thinking of me. I know how much you hate the water. It means so much that you'd do this for me." Her words made my heart seize and a happy sob punched the back of my throat. "Now take me to our temporary home my love."
Not going to lie, hearing her refer to something as ours makes me feel a little giddy. We drove out to cleaner water. As she swam around I sat on the edge of the ladder waiting for her. The kind man hasn't meant to stir up bad memories. The image of the Fleur sister not breathing on the dock when they were able to finally bring her out of the water.I was lost in thought I must have not heard Hermione say something. Finally her voice broke though the dark water and screams. It startled me and I fell off the ladder into the water.
What was a bad daydream immediately became my dark reality. I couldn't breathe, hands were trying to pull me more under. I thrashed trying to get back to the surface. A sharp pressure on my shoulder forced my eyes open to see the creature with glowing eyes. Eyes filled with concern and fear. Her soft lips pressed against mine pushing air into my lungs again. Like Draco she was stronger in the water and wrapped her arms around mine to stop the uncoordinated movements. With a few kicks of her legs she brought us back to the surface. She helped me up the ladder and I collapsed onto the floor.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. Are you okay, please Cedric talk to me." She was going a mile a minute as I laid trying to calm myself back down. I reach for her drag her to my chest, holding her tight against me.
"I'm okay. I'm sorry I'm so broken love." I stare up at the night sky happy to be back in the present with her.
"You're not broken my love, we all have nightmares." She kissed my chest and I had to thank Merlin for sending me to her. I reached into the pocket of my wet pants happy to find the ring still there.
"Will you stay with me, help keep the nightmares away?" I asked and she nods her head with a small laugh.
"I asked you to marry me, of course I'll stay with you." She answered sitting up a little, I rose up to meet her. I wrapped a hand around the back of her head and kissed her deeply.
"Good." I whisper when we break apart. I put the ring in the palm of her hand. She makes a happy sound and slide it against the new band.
"It's beautiful, you didn't have to get me another ring." Hermione said as she stared at the small ring. I lifted her chin and kissed her chastely.
"I know but I wanted to." She smiled at my words and wrapped her arms around my neck for a deep less chaste kiss.