Chapter Eleven: A conclusion and a kiss

I have thought for a while how to logistically post the next few chapters as I am leaving not just the country but the continent for my first EVER trip to Asia so excited. However were I am travelling may not have internet access (think rural Vietnam rather than Seoul) therefore I will not be able to post until I return on 16th August. If you follow this, and/or my other stories you will know that I am pretty consistent about posting on Thursday evening or Friday UK time every week. Thus I have decided to post TWO chapters tonight and two as soon as I return. The next four chapters are all proof read and ready to post so when I return to the UK I will try and post it as soon as possible.

Thank you for all comments, favourites, story alerts so far I love, appreciate and read every single one. If you haven't said anything so far please so I really appreciate your words of encouragement and wisdom. So please review and as always enjoy

Love C.J.

"The twelfth fairy had still to make her wish and she hesitated. She had been going to wish the gift of joy on the baby but now she wanted to stop the princess dying on her sixteenth birthday. Her magic was not strong enough to Sleeping Beauty break the spell but she tried to weaken the evil. She wished that the princess would fall asleep for a hundred years instead of dying. Over the years the princess grew into the happiest, kindest and most beautiful child anyone had ever seen. It seemed as though all the wishes of the first fifteen fairies had come true. The king and queen decided they could prevent the wicked fairy's spell from working by making sure that the princess never saw a spinning wheel. One day just before her sixteenth birthday, the Princess awoke early. She was up so early in the morning, that she realised everyone else still slept. The Princess roamed through the halls trying to keep herself occupied until the rest of the castle awoke. She wandered about the whole place, looking at rooms and halls as she pleased and at last she came to an old tower. She climbed the narrow, winding staircase and reached a little door. A rusty key was sticking in the lock and when she turned it, the door flew open. In a little room sat an old woman with a spindle, busily spinning her flax.

"Good morning," said the Princess, "what are you doing?"

"I am spinning," said the old woman.

"What is the thing that whirls round?" asked the Princess and she took the spindle and tried to spin too.

But she had scarcely touched the spindle when it pricked her finger. At that moment she fell upon the bed which was standing near and lay still in a deep sleep.

The King, Queen and servants had all started their morning routines and right in the midst of them fell asleep too. The horses fell asleep in the stable, the dogs in the yard, the doves on the roof and the flies on the wall. Even the fire in the hearth grew still and went to sleep. The wind died down and on the trees in front of the castle not a leaf stirred.

Round the castle a hedge of brier roses began to grow up. Every year it grew higher until at last nothing could be seen of the sleeping castle.

There was a legend in the land about the lovely Sleeping Beauty, as the King's daughter was called, and from time to time Princes came and tried to force their way through the hedge and into the castle. But they found it impossible for the thorns, as though they were alive, grabbed at them and would not let them through.

After a hundred years a Prince came again to the country and heard an old man tell the tale of the castle which stood behind the brier hedge and the beautiful Princess who had slept within for a hundred years. He heard also that many Princes had tried to make it through the brier hedge but none had succeeded and many had been caught in it and died.

The the young Prince said, "I am not afraid. I must go and see this Sleeping Beauty."

The good old man did all in his power to persuade him not to go, but the Prince would not listen.

Now the hundred years were just ended. When the Prince approached the brier hedge it was covered with beautiful large roses. The shrubs made way for him of their own accord and let him pass unharmed.

In the courtyard, the Prince saw the horses and dogs lying asleep. On the roof sat the sleeping doves with their heads tucked under their wings. When he went into the house, the flies were asleep on the walls and the servants asleep in the halls. Near the throne lay the King and Queen, sleeping peacefully beside each other.

The Prince went on further. All was so still that he could hear his own breathing. At last he reached the tower and opened the door into the little room where the Princess was asleep. There she lay, looking so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off her. He bent down and gave her a kiss. As he touched her, Sleeping Beauty opened her eyes and smiled up at him. Throughout the castle, everyone and everything woke up and looked at each other with astonished eyes. The Prince and Princess were married and lived happily ever after."

"Are all muggle fairytales so cosy as the end?" Draco asked surprised.

"Yes mostly although a lot of them have been tided up I believe more used to be gruesome in the past."

"So what have we leant?" Draco asked.

"I don't know."

"Come on Hermione," he leant in "you can do better than this you figured out the hallows just from the tale of the three brothers."

"How do you know that?" She asked.

"Weasley told me." He answered.

"The curse lasted for a hundred years," she said slowly "so if nothing else then we have time."

"Good," Draco smiled "what else?" Hermione moved closer to him, there was now barely twelve inches between them but it could have been a thousand miles. She needed him closer to her.

"The princess was young Ginny is too so maybe that's a factor?" Hermione questioned.

"And?" Draco asked closing the gap between them.

"The curse was broken by a kiss," she breathed her voice heavy she could see his eyes boring in hers they were barely a centimetre apart. Hermione breathed outwards. It was enough the tension that had been growing between the pair snapped afterwards neither were sure who truly instigated the kiss but they both knew they wanted it.

Hermione felt Draco's lips on her as they met. Her brain couldn't think right she knew that in this moment this was exactly what she wanted or needed she didn't care they were for a moment the same thing.

Draco felt his lips touch Hermione's and he knew that every thought and feeling that had been pumped through his body was right. If he'd been asked in that moment he's have sworn that he loved her. It just felt so right as he pulled her closer he didn't want to be anywhere else in the world.