A/N: Thank you for your reviews, favorites and follows! Huge thanks to lanamarymack for alpha/beta reading this chapter!
It was not much longer before Sirius knocked on the door to the tiny cabin that Hermione and Remus occupied, looking between them with thinly veiled interest. If he was expecting that something would have happened between them, he was sorely disappointed.
"Yes, Sirius?" Remus asked, a bit annoyed at having been interrupted.
"I just came to tell you that we've made landfall and our hold is in sight," Sirius said, with a smirk. "I assumed that you would want our most precious of treasure to be safely within the walls of the hold as soon as possible?"
Remus gave her a furtive look, before agreeing with the other man. "Yes, I suppose that's a good idea. I will personally supervise seeing the princess to the hold," he said, obviously not wanting them to be separated again.
"Oh, I bet you will," Sirius said, not bothering to hide his grin.
Hermione flushed, knowing what he was thinking. She wanted to assure him that Remus most certainly was not interested in her that way, but knew that it was a good idea to stay close to her only other real companion. Privately, she wondered what Sirius would think about her and Remus being together. Would he be supportive or find it off-putting?
"I'll will leave you in charge of unloading the rest of our wealth, then?" Remus dared, narrowing his green eyes at the other man.
Sirius waved the pair of them off. "Yes, yes, go enjoy your prize," he said, obviously enjoying himself a bit too much.
Once they came up on deck, Hermione and Remus made the short walk from the shoreline up to the imposing looking hold. The small town was surrounded by a large wall with towers interspersed along the ring. They walked in through the main gate and towards the largest building, which was undoubtedly the jarl's, which it was becoming evident Remus was.
Hermione nibbled at her bottom lip, trying to think about something to talk about with the tall wizard, but could come up with nothing. He was looking around, taking in every bit of information that he could about their surroundings.
"The architecture is surprisingly true to history," he said, sounding subtly impressed, before his eyes dropped to her pink dress. "Though the clothing leaves a bit to be desired."
She flushed, wondering if he would prefer that she was more covered up. "Well yes again, I didn't read the book for its historical accuracy, Remus," she seethed.
"Why do you read them anyway?" he asked, cautiously. "Surely there are plenty of wizards who'd be happy to take you out."
"Why do you assume that I need a wizard in my life?" she huffed. "I am perfectly happy with myself, thank you. And to answer your question - though I don't know why you would even ask - it's just a bit of light reading, you know? A bit of entertainment to pass the time."
She most certainly did not want to tell him that the real reason she spent so much time reading romance novels was because the object of her affections did not seem to be even a little bit interested in her. In fact, he seemed almost embarrassed when confronted with the fact that she was a woman, judging on how he reacted to seeing her in the dress, inaccurate as it may be. The dress wasn't supposed to be true to history - it was supposed to be sexy.
When they finally arrived at the jarl's house, Remus guided her up the stairs past the people working on the first floor, not really caring to talk to anyone else at the moment. He quickly found what he assumed was his room and shuffled her inside.
Hermione looked around, surprised to see that the room was actually decorated in a way that she might enjoy, with plenty of books tucked into the nooks and crannies and plenty of comfortable places to read them. "At least we won't be bored while we are here," she said to Remus, giving him a smirk. "It seems that Jarl Remus is as well read as you are."
Remus pulled one of the books from the desk, opening it, only to show Hermione the blank pages. "Unfortunately not," he said with a sigh. "In any case, this kind of book binding didn't come to Great Britain until the 18th century."
"Of course, you are right," Hermione said glumly, wondering how she could have forgotten such a fact. She sat back against the desk, pressing her arms behind her in an attempt to find a comfortable seat.
"If only this author had taken a little more time to do some historical research," he said, the tips of his ears going a bit pink as he gestured to her dress again. "Scottish Princesses didn't wear anything close to that. I mean...the impracticality of it all-"
"Yes," Hermione seethed. "We've gone over this now several times. The dress is hideous and out of place. It's not as if I can change into anything else. The book is an absolute travesty of a history book, but that's okay, considering it's a bloody romance novel and I got it in the one knut bin at the used bookstore! Okay? Let's put it behind us."
Oh, damn the blasted dress! Hermione cursed to herself. It wasn't even comfortable for her to wear in the first place, but being reassured of Remus's disgust at having to catch the tiniest hint of her cleavage was almost more than she could bear. She had got the message loud and clear that he wasn't interested in her.
An uncomfortable silence settled between them for the rest of the day. Remus spent most of his time sulking or stalking back and forth like a trapped wild animal who was going to snap and strike out at any moment. Unfortunately, Hermione figured she was the only one around to snap at. She tried to remind herself that Remus was just frustrated with the situation and it was nothing personal, but it didn't seem to help.
Being in the room with him was all consuming. There really wasn't much to do at all and no one else disturbed them, so all Hermione could focus on was him. He was so tall and the viking get up really suited him. She thought that the wolf pelt was a nice touch, though she doubted that Remus saw the humor in it at all.
With a sigh, she wondered what was meant to happen between the Scottish Princess and the Jarl during this portion of the plot. Were they meant to be exchanging steamy kisses? Arguing as the sexual tension built? Was the Princess overcome by the passion of the Jarl? Merlin, she wanted to know what it was like to be on the receiving end of Remus Lupin's romantic attention, but it seemed that all she was going to get was deep frowns and stomping.
Finally a knock at the door broke the awful tension that had settled between them. Remus cleared his throat. "Come in," he ordered, his voice a bit lower than she was used to.
Sirius popped his head in. "I hate to disturb you, but dinner is ready and I thought that you'd want to see James before we sent him off in the morning," he said.
"James?" Remus asked, his voice catching in his throat at the thought of seeing his old friend again.
"Yeah," Sirius said, bewildered. "You know he's heading south tomorrow. Might be a few months before we see him again."
"Of course," he said. Hermione watched his adam's apple bob up and down in his throat. "Hermione, come."
Normally she would bristle at being called to like a dog, but she decided that she would give him a pass this one time. Hoping down from the desk, Hermione walked to his side and accompanied Remus down the stairs to the main hall, where they caught a glimpse of messy black hair.
Remus's large hand shot out and grabbed her own, giving it a tight squeeze when he finally laid eyes on James Potter again. The pair of them slipped into the seats across from James and the one that Sirius had taken next to him.
Hermione looked at the man who was obviously Remus's memory of Harry's father. He was much younger than Hermione had imagined, but looked so much like Harry it was almost too much. But, there was almost nothing of Harry in his personality. James was loud and boisterous and smirking. She could totally understand how he and Sirius were such fast friends.
"So this is the Princess, then?" James asked, giving her an overdone wink. "Sirius told me that you weren't to be disturbed while in your quarters, but I wanted to see her before I went off. Though, she doesn't look like you've spent all day in bed so maybe it was a pointless warning."
She felt her cheeks go pink and Remus shifted next to her. "You didn't need to do that," he said, sounding unsure of himself. "I wouldn't have minded."
"I don't know, Remus," Sirius said. "She's the only woman you've ever taken under your protection. She is beautiful, of course, but there must be something special about her, too."
If he agreed with book Sirius's assessment, Remus did not say anything.
James threw him a lifeline. "Yes, her kingdom's vast wealth is surely special enough," he said, before turning to address her. "Don't worry, little Princess. I'm off to see your mother Queen Minerva in the morning to discuss your ransom and I am sure old Minnie will give all the gold in her castle to get her precious daughter back safely."
Hermione tried to hide her smile at him calling Minerva 'old Minnie'. She wondered what Professor McGonagall would think if she could hear it herself.
"And in the meantime, I am sure that Remus will be dedicated to keeping you well entertained, Kitten," Sirius added with a waggle of his eyebrows.
She frowned. "I doubt that," she countered, tartly. "Why, he spent the whole day scowling at me and complaining about historical accuracy. I doubt he knows how to show a woman a good time at all." She knew that she was teasing, but she was annoyed that Remus was acting like it was all her fault. It wasn't as if she'd tricked him into joining the book with her! In fact, if he'd never tried to grab it, she wouldn't have even known it was a couples adventure book!
"If he doesn't satisfy you, Kitten, you know where to find me," Sirius said, leaning back into his seat. "I'm just on the other side of the Hall." He pointed to where his room was, before giving her a little wink.
Hermione took note of it, even if she obviously wasn't going to do anything about it. This Sirius was only an imaginary character and not the real Sirius, otherwise, she was sure that she would be absolutely mortified at the suggestion.
Unfortunately, her joke only seemed to make the very real Remus more annoyed with her. He called for more ale and the three friends started to talk about raids past, which sounded a lot like practical jokes that they had played at Hogwarts, each one drinking their weight in ale. Hermione had barely touched her horn when she realized that the ale didn't actually have a taste at all and it wasn't intoxicating either.
Instead, she just slumped into her seat and listened to the friends laugh, forgetting all about her until it was finally time for James to slip off to sleep. Remus didn't seem to want to let him go, but he did have a long journey, his friend reminded him. The tall werewolf pulled the other man into a tight hug, before reluctantly returning up the stairs to his room in the hall, with Hermione following dutifully behind.