Chapter 5

The next morning Hermione dressed for a long journey. She wore a woolen coat, white with gold and underneath the had a light blue dress. Her hair was loose and her maid had helped her pack. The trunk which held her stuff was huge and it seemed like she packed for months.
"Are you ready, my darling" Draco greeted her at the gates.
"yes, all packed and ready" she smiled.
"Lady Hermione, do you have a second?" James was there again, like he always was.
"Yes, only a minute though" she answered. He pulled her to the side.
"I wanted to give you this." He pressed a dagger in her hands, it was beautiful and embellished with rubies.
"What? Why?" she quickly hid it in her coat.
"I want you to be safe and there are rumours about our prince" he whispered.
"He would never hurt me" she stated.
"I just want you to be safe, and I'll be here when you return." He whispered, his hand brushing across her cheek. He retreated and she joined Draco. He reached his hand out to her and she took it, he helped her get in the carriage and joined her straight after. He ordered the driver to leave and the carriage shook into motion.
"So where are we going again?" she asked him. He sat opposite her.
"one of our smaller castles a couple villages over, my advisor spoke to me about it and t sounded a little more secluded than court so I figured it would be great to just spend some time there" he explained.
"Maybe we'll find a way to get back home" she whispered.
"Yeah maybe" he didn't tell her that he wasn't sure they would ever be able to get back to their real lives. Ever since the day he was born, he had been able to do some magic. Even as a young child, he could do some things, like shoot tiny sparks from his fingertips. But that had all stopped the day they ended up here, he hadn't done anything magical since. It bugged him to no end, but eventually, he just accepted his faith and decided to move on with this life as best he could. After a couple of minutes Hermione dozed off and he took a moment to just look at her. After an exhausting day's ride, they ended up in an inn. The innkeepers went on and on about how honored they were to accommodate their future king and queen. Hermione was still dozing in the carriage so Draco just picked her up, and carried her to his room in his arms, despite the constant bickering of his guards that it wasn't proper. He laid her down on the bed and took of her dress, leaving her in her corset. He figured she would kill him if he were to take that off too, so he just tucked her in like that. After doing that, he got ready to sleep himself and crawled into bed next to her. It didn't take him long to drift off to his dreamworld.

Hermione felt the sun on her face as morning came. She didn't want to get up because she was super comfortable, but she expected her ladythingperson would soon be there to dress her again. It was a tedious routine and Hermione didn't much care for getting dressed by others. She mumbled a little and moved to get a better sleeping position. Just a minute longer. Her movement caused someone else to tighten his grip on her and her back was pressed against another body. Hermione's eyes grew big. Who the hell was in her bed. She turned around and looked in the face of a sleeping Draco.
"Malfoy?" she hissed.
"Just a couple more minutes, hush" he whispered. Hermione rolled her eyes. She contemplated getting up but he was warm and snuggly, so she turned back around and let it be. Well, she tried at least, until she felt something poking her lower back. She jumped up out of the bed.
"Malfoy! What the hell!" she shrieked at him.
"Granger, lower your volume" he hissed.
"I won't lower my volume! What the hell are you doing" she pointed at his crotch.
"It's the morning, Granger, don't take it personally" he smirked.
"Well, keep your morning issues away from me" she shouted.
"Sure, my love" he smiled, adding some extra sarcasm to the sentence. Hermione grunted and threw her hands up.
"Where are we anyways?" she asked him, looking out the window.
"We're at an inn, about halfway through the journey. I suspect we'll be departing soon and we'll arrive at the castle around noon." He explained.
"Well, okay then ,I guess I'll get dressed" she finally answered, rummaging through her trunk.
"Good luck with that, we didn't bring your maid, remember?" he smirked.
"Urgh, I've been dressing myself my entire life, I'll manage." She hissed. Draco left the room when he dressed himself, luckily for him it was easy. He just had to throw on a shirt, some pants and a cloak of some sort and he was done. Hermione on the other hand would struggle a lot more.

When she finally emerged from the inn, Hermione was sure there would be plenty of people gossiping about her choice of outfit. She was wearing black pants, laces up at the sides and knee high brown boots. She had thrown some shirt of Malfoy on and had her corset laced at the front. She did, however, have an expensive looking fur coat over her shoulders, so that should do the trick into making her look royal enough.
"Is that my shirt?" Draco smirked as he took her hand and guided her into the carriage.
"Shut up, Malfoy" she hissed under her breath.
"I'm kidding, you look better in it than I would." He stated. Hermione looked at him, one eyebrow raised. Was that a compliment?
"Thanks, it was the best I could do on my own" she whispered. They spent the next hour in total silence while riding to their destination.
"What if we can't get back?" she suddenly asked.
"What?" he felt like she had been having an argument in her head and he only just now got involved.
"What if we never get out of this freaky timezone?" she asked again.
"Oh, yeah, that" he whispered.
"Seriously, Draco, what if we never get back" she insisted.
"Well, then I guess we'll get married" he continued.
"Malfoy, don't mock me" she hissed. "I'm not, that's what would happen when we didn't get out of here. We would get married and reign this country and yours and eventually we would have our heirs take over" he continued.
"Our heirs?!" Hermione yelled at him.
"Keep your voice down, do you want all our guards to know you are a lunatic" he smiled.
"Heirs, Malfoy? Do you even hear yourself?" she whispered aggressively.
"That's just the way it is with royals, Granger, I'm just repeating what my medieval mother has been telling me ever since we got here." He averted his gaze to the landscape passing them by.
"I will not be producing any heirs for you, Malfoy" she retorted, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting.
"Whatever you say, Hermione" he finished the conversation. After another half hour she broke the silence.
"When are we arriving, I'm so sick of this carriage" she complained. Draco opened the carriage window and quickly asked his driver how long they would still have to be on the way.
"It's just up ahead, about ten minutes or so" he answered her question.
"Good, then I'll be able to stretch my legs" she smiled. He was amazed how easy it was to make her smile. She certainly seemed to enjoy the little things, more than he ever had. Maybe he should take a page out of her book on that matter, it definitely seemed the happier solution.
"We'll take a tour of the grounds when we arrive" he told her and she nodded.
"I think I'd like that" she whispered.
Ten minutes later they arrived at the small chateau. It was definitely a lot smaller than the one they were currently residing in, but it was beautiful none the less.
"Wow Draco, it's amazing" she gazed at it in awe.
"Yes it definitely is." He answered.
"I could live here" she said. Draco looked at the girl he had been travelling with, she didn't look like the mudblood he had met in first year. She had changed a lot over the years, grown, just like he had of course. He dismissed the guards and told them to just partrol a little. His footman he ordered to get the quarters prepared and a meal fixed.
"Let's take the tour then?" he asked. Hermione nodded and they wandered off to the garden which was decorated with colourful flowers.
"Oh look, there's a little farm up ahead" she pointed at a small building a little further.
"That's part of the estate, Granger, some of the servants that mind the grounds live there, I believe" He made a mental note that she clearly didn't know anything about nobility, he knew a little from his studies, but she didn't know anything.
"Oh,so that's still part of the grounds?" she asked and he simply nodded in response.
"Wow, this really isn't as small as I imagined it to be" she smiled.
"How long are we staying here again?" she asked. "Just one or two days, or longer, if you'd like" he looked at her.
"I think I'd like to stay longer, I could get used to this" she said as she gestured to the view.
"Yeah, me too" he whispered, she would never know that he wasn't looking at the view.