A/N: Thank you all for your patience, messages, and reviews! Some of you have been making some very shrewd guesses.
A Time of Peace
With the erection of the Royal Blood Wards, a time of great peace and prosperity began in Greenwood the Great, even as the lands outside of it became ever more fraught with danger. Orcs, spiders, and formless evils, no longer able to penetrate the wood, sought other prey, some even settling in the nearby area of Dol Guldur. Beings called Istari came to the Greenwood requesting to speak to the royal family, wanting to know the secret of the forest's protection and to request aid in combating the evil that terrorized Villages of Men and encroached on some place called The Shire.
Thranduil rode to the edge of the wood to question one of the Istari, a Radagast the Brown, but after discovering what he wanted turned the wizard away and kept all word of the goings on outside the Greenwood from his children. Both Legolas and Hermione were soft hearted and would allow themselves to be used to fight battles that were not their own. Thranduil would not allow it.
And if he had his way, Hermione would never meet an Istari. For, according to Radagast, she had appeared in the forest the very same year that the other Istari came to be. There was a Saruman the White, a Gandalf the Grey, Radagast, and two Blue Istari and a Green that Radagast had not met nor heard of being identified.
Thranduil did not have any doubts at all as to who the Green Istari was. For though she was female and Eldar and seemingly unaware of it herself, his daughter worked what Thranduil could only regard as miracles on a daily basis. He would not have her pressed into the service of the entirety of Arda. She was Hermione A'maeliel, Princess of Greenwood.
She would never be called Hermione the Green.
-l-
Years passed in peaceful study and song. In between attending her father and going on what amounted to dates with Legolas, Hermione refined her artificing skills, and soon every elf in Greenwood had their own bottomless bag, enchanted to keep any food or potions fresh and to weigh nothing at all. Members of the royal family and those closest to them had runic armor that was as light and flexible as cloth, yet as impenetrable as mithril, and self cleaning to boot. Legolas' bow was inscribed with runes for luck and clear sight, and his quiver enchanted to never run out of arrows. When winter came the people were given glass orbs filled with blue flames that never went out or burned the hand, but provided light and heat. It had been tricky to recreate that magic with only runes and arithmantic equations, but Hermione managed it in the end, and could not be prouder of herself.
She only wished that she were able to outfit every elf in the manner she did those closest to her. Alas, it was not possible. She had discovered early in her experimentation that she had to inscribe all the runes herself for an enchantment to work. If even one line was made by someone else, the symbols were only so much decoration. She suspected it was because no one else in Arda had magic quite like hers.
Almost sooner than seemed possible Hermione's hundredth birthday came, and the Greenwood celebrated for an entire week. Flower garlands were hung, feasts were held, and Hermione was stopped every few minutes by an elf wishing to present her with a gift. She was inundated with little sachets of herbs, freshly picked bouquets, sweet bread, and more extravagant gifts such as a new set of carving tools and blown glass vessels for use in her magic.
She found herself the recipient of an entire new wardrobe full of more gowns, breeches, and tunics than she could ever possibly wear, though oddly none of it was in any shade of green despite how often Wood Elves wore the color. Thranduil had developed an aversion to seeing Hermione in green, and no one wanted to displease the king. Hermione almost wanted to accuse him of anti-Slytherin bias, but knowing that he'd have no idea what she meant she accepted it as one of his odd quirks and didn't let it bother her.
Her most treasured gifts came from friends and family. Tauriel, who had long become her best friend, gifted Hermione with the very set of knives that Tauriel herself had been given on her coming of age. When Hermione tried to demur, Tauriel would hear none of it. So Hermione simply hugged her friend and promised to use the blades well.
Thranduil gave to Hermione all of the jewels that had once belonged to his own wife. Knowing how much he cherished everything he had left of the former queen, Hermione shed a few tears, but said nothing but, "Thank you, Ada."
After all these years, the pain was still too near for Thranduil to speak of his wife beyond a few words.
Legolas, knowing how much Hermione had come to enjoy riding on Thranduil's war elk, had spent several weeks in the forest in the utmost secrecy. And so on Hermione's birthday he was able to present her with not an elk, but a solid white hart that stood as tall as a stallion.
"I had almost given up," Legolas explained as Hermione stroked the stag's velvety nose. "So many times did he give me the slip. It was not until I fell to my knees, worn to exhaustion, and asked him why he did not want to be the mount of the Princess of Greenwood that he turned and looked at me, as if only just realizing why I hunted him. After that he stood still and allowed me to put the lead rein on him."
"He's beautiful, Legolas," Hermione said, turning to look up at her prince. "I name him Prongs, in honor of an old friend."
All at once, it occurred to her that she was officially an adult now. Her pulse thrumming and her palms sweaty, she stepped closer to Legolas and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, surging up to kiss him full on the mouth before she could lose her nerve.
He froze in shock for a single instant. Then, just before Hermione could begin to think she'd made a terrible mistake, Legolas' hands were winding themselves into her hair and his tongue was in her mouth and she was making a mess of his archer's braids, and one of his fingers grazed the tip of her ear and she shuddered against him, holding him even tighter.
The sound of a throat clearing stopped her before she could do something completely indecorous like hike her skirts up and wrap her legs around Legolas' waist.
Breaking away from Legolas, Hermione smoothed down her skirt and helped Legolas get his braids sorted out to the amusement of Tauriel, who was pointedly looking at the ceiling.
Hermione couldn't believe she'd forgotten Tauriel followed them to the stable. Tauriel followed Hermione everywhere. It was her job.
-l-
There was a great ball in Hermione's honor and, like they had once before, the rulers of Lothlorien and Imladris came to pay their respects. They found Greenwood much changed in the century since their last visit, all thanks to one young princess.
Both Elrond and Celeborn mentioned to Thranduil that they would be honored to have the princess visit their realms. Elrond in particular was most insistent that he wished to learn potioneering from Hermione, and would teach her his own methods of healing. Thranduil put them both off with a lazy, "Perhaps after the wedding," though he privately swore to keep the idea far from Hermione's ears.
Alas, it was not to be, for even as Thranduil spoke with the two elf lords Hermione was dancing with Arwen and several other elf maids in a ring dance, and coming to find that she liked the daughter of Elrond and Celebrian a great deal. She was especially taken with the idea of visiting Imladris, for Arwen spoke much of their great library and her father's prowess in the art of healing. Just as Elrond wished to learn from Hermione, she wished to learn from him. And Arwen was much talented in the art of sewing and weaving, something that when combined with Hermione's skills as artificer could lead to new wonders. Perhaps she'd even be able to manage an invisibility cloak.
Yes, Hermione wanted to visit Imladris. There was much for her to learn there.
