Hidden in the Bushes

Hermione flushes all the way up to her forehead, remembering her previous conversation with Gideon, and sighing a little in frustration because what he's implying is exactly what they had been doing earlier, and what they could be doing again if only he would go away. Oh, jeez, and now his shirt is coming off, with all her lovingly created picnic food flattened to it. Oh, his chest is perfectly clean though. Hermione looks away quickly, grimacing just a little bit in Luna's direction and thinking the other girl had the right idea - hide from the handsome, shirtless, older boy until he goes away. "Erm, right. I well remember your theories, thanks" she says awkwardly, having no idea what else to say and frowning a little at the extra work it might take the House Elves to get all that caked in food out of his clothing.

Gideon's grin only widens as he clearly sees Hermione looking at his chest, although Luna appears to be too awkward to say anything - it must be his presence, he reasons. He leans forward, gently placing a finger under Luna's chin and lifting it so that he is looking into her eyes, and her into his. "You know, I can tell you're not reading. You're staring at the page, love. I may be attractive, but I didn't think I had the capacity to make people speechless." He lets go of Luna's chin and looks over at Hermione, all flushed and awkward. "Or maybe I do. What do you think, Hermione?"

Hermione feels a flash of jealousy as Gideon puts his hand on Luna's chin and tilts her face upwards to capture her gaze, and her own hand is actually moving upwards to slap him away from her girlfriend when he releases Luna's face and turns to her, eyes sparking mischievously. Hermione's hand jumps to her hair as if that had been her intention all along and she swallows, biting her lip in nervousness at having almost been caught. "M-maybe it's that you seem so full of yourself that people think you don't require a response," she blurts, her levels of tact and diplomacy slipping greatly in her distress at having an unexpected gatecrashed who may have very well stumbled on more than he'd bargained for had he not been whistling and alerted them of his approach.

Luna just wants to slap Gideon across the face because she hates how he's acting during the middle of their date, and what's worse is that he doesn't even know he's doing it so she really has no reason to show that she's upset with him. It's not like she'd be able to explain herself anyway. Luna opens her mouth to tell Gideon off, only to find that Hermione has done it for her, turning Luna's frout into a gream. "That's right," she says firmly as she pushes a tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "And how would you know I wasn't reading? I doubt you've ever opened a book in your life." Oh, jealous Luna can get rather snippy, can't she?

Gideon is still grinning, and he shows no sign of slowing down. He is thoroughly enjoying this moment, and loves it when the girls put up what he thinks is just a bit of a fight against his manly charm. "Well, I know I can perfectly carry on a conversation on my own, but that doesn't mean I want to. Which I don't. And actually, I may not have opened a book, but I have read magazines, and I find that when you read your eyes tend to move across the page." He says, not realising how snarky that might actually sound.

Hermione blinks, digesting all that Gideon's just come out with. Somehow she doubts the types of magazines Gideon would be reading would have much in the way of articles, but rather more pictures, if you catch her drift. A part of her wishes she had an ounce of the nerve it would take to say such a thing out loud. "Do you often come faceplanting into other people's meals?" she asks instead, out of a combination of sheer curiosity and lingering annoyance at the interruption to her date. There is just one tiny strand of Luna's hair out of place, you see, and Hermione would love nothing more than to fix it for her, except for the presence of their unexpected guest.

Luna had been pretty proud of her last comment to Gideon, and he just turned it around on her so she sort of failed there. And now she's all embarrassed and blushing again so she'll just let her girlfriend do all the talking before she says something silly again.

If Hermione had said what she'd intended, Gideon would have pointed out that while he may own a few of those magazines, he also owns ones with print and articles, thank you very much. "Well, not really," Gideon admits, "but it has been known to happen. I don't remember exactly when, but I'm sure my sister Molly has probably got a catalogue somewhere of everything embarrassing that ever happens to me in case of blackmail. I'm sure you could ask her. And come to think of it, do you often go picnicking behind the bushes?"

Hermione blushes a little, worried that Gideon is going to read into their choice of location exactly what she doesn't want him to read into it. "Er, well, after the last time I was interrupted while studying, I'd hoped I'd lowered those odds by moving further still away from the castle. Clearly I was wrong."
That piece of hair brushing Luna's cheek really is starting to drive Hermione up the wall. Well, there's no walls out here, but that is only a figure of speech. Without thinking, she reaches out and tucks it behind the younger girl's ear, smiling a tiny smile at her before she realises exactly what she's done and has a half a second of panic.
"Exactly how many of you Prewetts running around are there?" she blurts, throwing out the first thing that comes to mind as a distraction. "You're like rabbits, or Weasleys!"

Luna's face lights up at the touch, improving her mood despite Gideon still being here and talking to them which is not amusing Luna one bit. In fact, that improved her mood so much that she actually giggled at Hermione's last comment.

Gideon watches the small gesture - he has never seen a girl do that to another, but then again, he doesn't exactly hang out with more than one girl at a time, if you get my drift... Unless they're into it too. So he doesn't think anything of it. Instead, he smiles. "Well, we're not like the Weasleys, although I have only met a few of them. There's just 4 of us - my twin Fabian, then Molly, and Alice is the youngest. And myself, of course. But we're all pretty cool. There are many more Weasleys than us, trust me. You have siblings, ladies?"

"Four is a lot," Hermione insists, shifting nervously because even though Gideon is smiling easily now, she's pretty sure his eyes had followed her thoughtless gesture. "Even if it's not as many as the Weasleys, it still seems like a big family to me. I'm an only child, so I suppose that's why it seems so many to me," she rambles on, colour high in her cheeks and not able to look Gideon in the eye for fear of seeing that knowing, judging gleam.

Luna nods in agreement, oblivious to the fact that Gideon probably saw Hermione adjust that strand of hair out of her face. She perks up slightly at the name, Molly, and because Luna doesn't quite know how to make the snarky comments going around, she says the first thing she can think of. "I know Molly. She's nice..."

Gideon turns to Luna and nods. "That she is, my dear. She is nearly quite as awesome as me, you see; all us Prewetts inherit extra awesome genes. We're cool like that. I suppose four siblings is quite a few; I suppose I'm used to it... It's always chaotic at the Prewett house, but you should see our family gatherings! An only child, Hermione? Who did you have to play games with and practice your Beating skills on?" Gideon asks, confused as to how someone could enjoy any fun activities at all as an only child. And yes, his confusion is genuine.

Inner!Molly would like to point out that she is just a little more awesome. Yeah. Anyway...
Hermione blinks. "I'm muggleborn. Until five years ago, I had no earthly clue what a beater's bat was. I had a large collection of books," she explains as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, because she grew up with her nose in a book, of course. "And some puzzles, as well."

Luna just nods and pretends like she doesn't want to shove Gideon into the lake so she can go back to snuggling and snogging Hermione. Yep. Koality post.

Gideon's smile fades a little. "Oh, of course," he says to Hermione, all serious like. Yes, he is being genuine, don't get your knickers in a twist. He notices Luna is still quiet - maybe she's just a little tired or something, he thinks. Then, he shivers, despite the warm sun. "You know ladies, it is a little cold without my shirt on. I might go and find myself a clean one. I shall see you ladies another time!" And with that he stands, shirt in one hand and his chest puffed out just a tiny bit, and makes his way confidently back to the castle.

"Bye," Hermione says blankly as Gideon gets up and swaggers away. When he's out of sight and the sounds of his footfalls have retreated, Hermione turns to Luna and laughs a little despondently, because their picnic has been pretty much decimated now. "Well that was interesting," she comments, then leans in and kisses Luna on the cheek. "I'm sorry things didn't go exactly to plan. Are you alright?" she worries, because Luna has indeed been quiet.

Luna waves absentmindedly, glad to see Gideon go because this means she's alone with Hermione again. Her disappointed 'my first real date was just ruined' look is quickly replaced with a smile as Hermione kisses her on the cheek. "Yeah, better now. Just wasn't expecting that, I guess," she shrugs. "Sorry about all that food you made. Guess we won't be finishing it," she says with a small smile because now that Gideon's gone, it's sort of funny to think about how a guy just walked over and fell into their lunch.

"Well, I suppose at least this will be a memorable first date," Hermione salvages, squeezing Luna's hand and sighing. "Well I suppose there's nothing we can do about it now - let's just clean up and head back to the castle? It's starting to get a little chilly." A little reluctantly, she releases Luna's hand and begins piling things back into the picnic basket.

Luna smiles and nods her head as she starts to help Hermione clean up their little picnic. "It certainly was," she says with a small giggle because seeing Gideon covered in food is sort of funny now that she looks back on it. At the time, she just wanted him far, far away so she could be with Hermione, but now that he is gone, it's a lot easier to laugh about.

FSKENFKLNSKFNS IT'S SO FUNNY OMG I DON'T REMEMBER IT BOUNCING THIS FAST

Hermione is glad Luna is able to laugh off their little hiccup. She stuffs the picnic blanket back in the basket - she'll clean it off a little herself later before giving it to the House Elves - and stands, smiling happily at Luna because even though it was interrupted by a shirtless boy, that was most definitely the best first date she's ever had. She glances around, but Gideon is long gone and there is nobody else in sight, and then leans in to kiss Luna sweetly. "Thanks for the great date," she whispers, and squeezes her hand momentarily. Moving towards a break in the cluster of bushes, she drops Luna's hand as they pass back into the potential view of the rest of the world and sends her one last secret smile.

Caradoc is here.
HIDDEN IN THE BUSHES.
Except you know, he's peeking out to see if Aurelia's coming, 'cause YOU SLYTHERIN BITCHES, WE HAVE A PLAN.

Oh.
And he's got these:


THE MARSHMALLOW SHOOTER.


THE MARSHMALLOW BLASTER.


AND THE MARSHMALLOW M-FORCER SEMI AUTOMATIC PISTOL.

Oh and obviously this:

Aurelia is walking across the grounds, completely ignoring the bushes because, you know, THEY'RE BUSHES. COMPLETELY HARMLESS. Anyway, so she's just walking along and enjoying the sunshine.

Caradoc promptly reaches out, grabs Aurelia by the hand, and drags her into the bushes, and claps a hand over her mouth before she yells RAPE or does something else dumb. "YOU'RE LATE! We've got to form a plan of attack yes? BUT I CAN'T FIND ANY SLYTHERINS! It's like, one minute, they're all up in your face, and when you want to pummel one, they all disappear. Gryffindors would've made easier targets."