Hermione arrived back at the stables in record time, hopping off Milly to run into the castle as ungracefully as ever. Before she could make it to a corridor, however, she was stopped by guards.

"The King wishes to speak to you in the throne room," one told her curtly. She nodded obediently, having no choice but to follow them there. Hermione entered the room and the doors were immediately shut behind her. Uther pushed himself out of his throne to walk over. She curtsied clumsily, still a little out of breath and wanting to get away as soon as possible. Hermione watched as he approached regally and held out his hand. She placed hers in his and he kissed the top gently, his face quickly falling in concern.

"Princess, I am so glad to see you well, and so very sorry," he apologized sincerely. "I don't know who is trying to hurt you, but trust me in that I will get to the bottom of things very soon. I think it best I inform your brother of recent events for your own safety..."

"No!"

Uther had turned away in his speech, but now he was facing her again, confused and taken aback by her tone. Hermione cursed at herself mentally and cleared her throat.

"What I mean, My King... is I don't think he needs to know at the moment," she backtracked. "It would only create more worry, and he already has a battle to concern himself with. I know he trusts you fully with my protection."

She hid her hands behind her back, twisting her fingers and drumming them quietly against herself. She hoped he would take her horrible lie and run with it. Uther examined her carefully before slowly, very slowly, nodding his head in agreement.

"A wise and selfless decision at the moment," Uther concluded. "But we must tell him eventually."

"Of course/"

Uther allowed her a polite smile and stroked his chin. "Might I ask where you've been, Princess?"

He looked pointedly at her outfit and she panicked momentarily.

"Oh! I was actually just out taking my wedding gift for a ride. She's a lovely horse, thank you, My King."

Uther was appeased by this response and waved his hand as if it were no big deal. "I am glad to hear you're so fond of the horse. I want you to feel like a Pendragon, and I spare no expense for family, Princess."

The witch gave a small, close-lipped smile at his words.

"Now, I won't detain you any longer. You are excused, Princess."

Hermione curtsied once more and shuffled away, wondering how much longer she could keep up the charade of her royal status. She sighed dejectedly and rubbed her eyes. The witch then wandered the corridors and stairs over to her room, but found herself in front of Arthur's chamber doors, one of which was open. She leaned against the doorway, allowing her head to rest against the frame. Her eyes shut and she took a moment to breathe, to get her thoughts back on a reasonable track.

"You're blocking my doorway."

The voice Hermione was dreading had spoken from right behind her. Her heart rate spiked up at the tone in his voice.

"Sorry," she said, hoping he could not hear the mix of emotions she was dealing with in her voice. She forced herself to get a backbone and turn around. Arthur seemed to be struggling himself to keep his feelings beneath the surface, and Hermione couldn't seem to detect any one particular emotion at once. He didn't say a thing—instead, he moved the both of them forward so he could shut the door behind him.

"What are you doing?" she questioned, moving to reach behind him and open the door again. He blocked her move and crossed his arms.

"Tell me, why did you kiss me? Please, I'm just curious." She didn't like the inflection she heard in his voice. Despite the fact she wasn't supposed to care about how Arthur felt about her, she suddenly felt herself caring very deeply in this moment.

"I—I don't know," she stumbled across her words, frantically looking for in answer in her head that just simply wasn't there. "It's your fault, anyway."

Arthur looked really close to laughing and his face was sort of screwed up in that way you get just before you laugh really hard. She didn't like it one bit.

"Explain," he managed to say calmly.

"Something about you makes me do things I would never normally do. Somehow you make me more impulsive, which is something I've tried very hard not to be my entire life, and yet I can't help myself when I'm in your presence. It's ridiculous, I shouldn't even want to kiss you considering I hardly know you and I don't have any real feelings for you—"

Arthur stepped closer and she was given the tiniest waft of the same scent from before, which only brought back the memory and made her feel even tinier and more ashamed.

"It was nothing," Arthur said, shrugging and searching her eyes to be sure she was on the same page. "I don't have any feelings for you, and you have none for me. We may be arranged to be married, but that doesn't mean we have to be in love. Am I wrong?"

She licked her lips and nervously analyzed his expression, making sure there was no lie in his words. She hated the disappointment that welled up in her chest when she realized he meant it entirely. It was nothing, and he had felt nothing.

"No," she found the courage to finally respond, drawing herself up to her full height and carrying a new air of indifference about her. "You're not. It won't happen again, because... I feel nothing for you."

He narrowed his eyes slightly, though there was no anger or disappointment evident in his Roman features, which somehow only made her feel worse. Still, she remained resilient and turned to open the door and exit the chamber.

This is good, isn't it? she thought to herself as she walked down the corridor. No more tension. You both know the truth and now you can't be distracted anymore.

But truth be told, she felt that seem gut-wrangling, heart-clenching emotion that had attacked her when Ron had walked out on her and Harry. It was a disappointment that felt one-sided, and now she was perhaps more distracted than ever.

Of course he didn't like her. What was there to like? Hormones caused tension, but that didn't mean there was any real feeling involved. Not that it mattered, anyway. She didn't belong here, and she wasn't staying long.

She decided to pay Merlin and Gaius a visit, to clear her mind and get things done so she could leave as soon as possible.

"Merlin, Gaius! I need one of you to tell me you can send me home today," Hermione announced as she entered the chamber. Merlin looked bewildered from his stance mopping the floor and Gaius just continued mixing things in a bowl.

"We can't, we still haven't found the right spell yet," Gaius told her monotonously without looking up.

"Look—I made a mistake... I kissed Arthur, I can't wait any longer," she spewed out before she could think of a more suitable reason. Gaius dropped his bowl and Merlin gaped, before realizing he had another mess to clean up for a single moment.

"You what?" he asked in astonishment, moving over to clean up the new mess.

"Nevermind that," Hermione replied brightly, trying to change the subject as she approached the pair. "Let's search, shall we?"

"You know, he thought you and I were..." Merlin awkwardly pointed at himself, then her, and put his hands together. "I mean, together."

"What?"

"Because he saw us talking and hugging and got the idea into his head," Merlin sighed as he picked up bowl pieces, though eyes eagerly trained on her face to see her further reaction.

Hermione rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "Of course he'd come up with an idiotic thing like that. Do you think that's why?... Nevermind."

Could that be why he'd told her he felt nothing for her? Because he thought she liked Merlin? It was laughable, but maybe it was best if she didn't try to prove him wrong. If she did and it encouraged him to take back everything he'd said, then what? No, it was better to avoid it. He had meant every word and so had she.

"Why what?"

"Why he... said he had no feelings for me," Hermione admitted, biting her lip. She rushed on to explain. "I mean, I said it back and told him it was just an accident that would never happen again. But now I'm not so sure if he meant it or... you know, this is stupid, I don't know why I'm allowing myself to become so absorbed in something so adolescent—"

"If Arthur didn't actually have any feelings for you, I don't think he would have come to me telling me how improper it was for me to be so close to you," Merlin chuckled wryly, tossing out the shattered bowl. "I mean, I know he's probably also just making sure nothing ruins this arranged marriage, but I think there was more to it than that."

"He did?" Hermione asked, a new interest blooming inside of her despite her previous decision to suppress everything. "It really could have just been about making sure nothing would ruin this betrothal..."

Still, Hermione couldn't help but wonder to herself... had Arthur been jealous? She didn't know the answer to a question, for once in her life. Love and relationships were puzzles the witch had never been very good at solving.

"Right. So what will lessons be like now after that little... incident?" Merlin asked as he began mopping up the mixture on the floor, trying to retain nonchalance over the awkward subject.

"I don't have a choice in stopping," Hermione answered honestly. "I need training. It can't be avoided."

"Plus Uther will soon realize you're a fraud when he travels to Powys," Gaius added in afterthought.

"I know," she sighed. "If you two don't mind, I'm going to stay in here and keep looking through the books."

With that, she took a seat at the table and began searching once more through old and yellowed pages, hoping with every page she turned that the answer would be right there for her eyes to land on.