Author's Note: Hello everyone! This is my first time posting a Dramione fic that is not a one shot. I hope you like it :) I plan to expand on this later on *wink*. Please be advised that the M rating is mainly due to sexual content, profanity and later on, violence.
Sending beta love to: Filisgare and StormageddonDarkLadyOfAll! This wouldn't have been possible without your encouragement and all the worked both of you poured to this fic. Also, thank you Safewordisdevilsnare and LaBelladone for your support! Coyg_81, thank you for giving me this chance!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything! All the characters here belong to JK Rowling. This fic is based on a movie prompt fest. The movie prompt given to me was Friends with Benefits, which, doesn't belong to me as well.
Chapter 1: Something akin to desire and desperation
Lady Hermione was staring at the vast scenery before her. The sun was setting and she was looking at her kingdom as the merchants started to close shop, as the children were being taken inside for dinner and as some knight's returned from the day's training. She looked down at the roll of parchment in her hands, which invited her to the All Hallow's Eve ball that lasted all week. She would be traveling beyond the three hills she could see at a distance. Those three hills were known as the Triplets, beyond the Triplets, there was a valley that held nothing but greenery and after a day's ride in the distance, the Kingdom of Terra could be seen.
She looked at her own Kingdom of Aquaria once more since she didn't know when she would be able to set foot on it again. Tomorrow, she would travel with her knights to Terra and start the proceedings for her future nuptials that would merge both kingdoms. King Harry and she had been friends since childhood and when he asked her to be in attendance with him, her mind debated. The union between the two would be ingenious. King Harry was known for his humility, his strength, his loyalty, but mostly because he protected and cared for his people. Not only that, his power to control the Earth element ran down the line of his family. It had long since been clear that a union between Hermione's and Harry's kingdoms could be a great defense against any threat that dared to rear its head.
Well, at least, they would become a force to be reckoned with.
Aquaria had been left to her by her father after he had been taken by a sickness. Hermione, being the only living heir by blood, has guided her people as best as possible with her Consul, Sirius. He had also consulted her father and was like another father to her. He had admired her father, protected him and befriended him and for that, Hermione cared about and trusted Sirius explicitly. The absence of her father was not lost to her. She missed him incredibly, but she knew she had to stay strong and guide her people. She was not ignorant. Now that her father was gone, her people expected her to wed and strengthen the kingdom. Her and Harry's enemies were watchful and she waited feeling that soon, those enemies would come barging in, wanting to take her kingdom.
She was not afraid for herself.
Many suspected but only Sirius, her dead father, Harry and herself knew the truth: She possessed the power to control the water elements. With that, and the help Harry's line would bring, she didn't doubt she could stop any enemy that dared bring havoc and destruction to Aquaria.
She was happy knowing she would be seeing Harry but she knew how she felt about him. She loved him but she wasn't in love with him.
That truth was long ago discovered when both of them, on a whim - although mostly, it was due to curiosity and knowing their future nuptials were inevitable - they decided to "consummate" their future wedding night long before it would be decided upon.
That experience had been nice but it had lacked fire. It had felt like they hadn't fit properly, like they both tried too hard. Maybe it had something to do with their bloodlines - perhaps water and earth were simply not meant to merge.
After that, they both realized they could only be friends and nothing more.
As time passed and Hermione grew in knowledge, she wondered if what they lacked was experience. Suffice to say, that was her only experience. Being the daughter of a wealthy, strong, respected and catholic King did make that hurdle harder to jump. Men looked at her with lustful eyes and she knew she could pick out any who would dare to have her so she could practice and see what was missing.
However, that proved to be quite difficult. Hermione was constantly watched and protected.
Her father had ordered guards for Hermione, who kept him alert to all of her goings on. Every person she met or talked to was reported, every place she went or visited was recorded in minute detail. Every man who ever dared look at her was logged and checked through a meticulous process to make sure that they were 'acceptable company'. If they did not pass this process, the guards would make sure that the man was thoroughly terrified so he wouldn't even raise his head to look at her.
It was so frustrating, knowing that her desires would never be sated. It often left her feeling overwhelmed, like she was drowning in her want for passion. The thought that she would have to live the rest of her life in a comfortable yet passionless marriage filled Hermione with dread.
Tomorrow, she would ride to Terra. Hermione refused to ride in carriages, as she had always thought doing so made her a damsel - something she refused to be. She much preferred to ride her own horse. Her father would often frown at her independence, but Sirius would just smile at her fondly and leave it at that.
Once she was in Terra, she could scope it out and see if anyone caught her eye and maybe, just maybe, she could make a friend that would show her the benefits of "friendship" in what she had been yearning for years: Someone that could quench her thirst with a look, a touch and his voice.
As she gazed upon her Kingdom that had offered her no knowledge of passion, she thought of what she may discover, and sweat formed on her brow as her imagination ran wild.
Hermione would only have to wait a little longer. She didn't know that on Terra, The First Knight - known as Draconis, the title was given to him by King Harry six months prior - was returning from a long training session with his men.
Draconis knew that his men respected him. However, he also knew that some were wary of him since they felt him to be cautious and aloof sometimes - for reasons they have yet to decipher. As he reached the kingdom, he left his horse with the stablemen and went up to his room to clean before meeting with the King. Even though he trained the soldiers hard and himself even harder, his anxiety did not dissipate.
He suspected that the reason behind his anxiety was due to the King's announcement two weeks ago about the all Hallow's Eve ball. That would mean he would likely have to entertain guests and be eye candy to many women. By being First Knight, it meant that he would need to attend all the parties and would have to be viewed by many, especially women.
Since the loss of his wife, he decided to join in the ranks of King Harry in Terra. That was no easy feat since he was a stranger that arrived by himself to the kingdom. No one knew of him and gaining the knights trust was strenuous but he did not blame them for mistrusting him.
However, King Harry had trusted him since he had saved Harry's life - and the lives of his people - many years ago. So when Draconis had come back to Terra, Harry had immediately bestowed upon him the highest possible honor: The First Knight position.
Draconis valued that trust above all else, but it also gave him pause.
Many women eyed him and the King had tried to push him into taking a companion. When he was an adolescent, he was well known for his sexual prowess. However, after meeting his beloved, now-deceased wife, he had changed completely, choosing to be intimate with his wife alone. Since then, no woman has taken his attention and he hadn't had the desire to bed any of them.
He had heard the whispers. Such good looking young man - well mannered, brave, strong, liked by the king - should be releasing his daily anxieties and stress by bedding the more-than-willing women who continued to watch him like hawks. He knew a lot of the knights did during their nights off after they had had lots of liquor. However, he had hardly joined them in their rendezvous and they would ask themselves why that was.
He kept his knights, and indeed everyone he knew at arm's length. He could not allow anyone to find out about the fire within him, how hard it was to keep contained. How much it had cost him in his life, overall.
Therefore, he kept much to himself, as much as he could. Such desires of the flesh were dangerous. No woman should warm his bed. He could do that by himself.
Draconis remembered that the King had also announced that the first guests to arrive would be from Aquaria. According to the date, they are arriving tomorrow. The King had entrusted him with the safety of Lady Hermione who, apparently, was one of his great friends. That meeting was not something he was looking forward to, but for the King's sake, he did not protest. He would ask his fellow Knights what they knew about her.
Nothing, however, would prepare Draconis for what lay ahead. He could not know that the Lady he was trusted to meet tomorrow could be his completion or his doom.
Fire and water, after all, was a powerful combination. Too much of either could snuff out everything, including fire and water itself.
But, together, they could also come together and become steam, something mighty in and of itself.