AN: This chapter is dedicated to a dear friend of mine. It's her birthday today or was since it is almost over. Thank you for being my friend. Happy birthday, Arel!

English

'thoughts'

'thoughts of Sesshomaru's beast'

The next morning Hermione was sitting in front of Lady Kaede's hut with a book in her lap. She had returned a few hours ago with the deer. She had put it under a stasis charm and put it into her bag until Inuyasha and Miroku would leave the village. Still miffed at them she had decided to ignore them if they should try talking to her, and she wouldn't give them any of her meat.

She spent most of her time after she had returned from her hunt trying to read and thinking about Lord Sesshomaru. She had been surprised seeing him there. And most of all she had not expected for him to give her their prey, even if it was her first hunt. Rin had told her a lot of stories about her Lord Sesshomaru, but so had the others. She didn't know which to believe since it was probable that both were telling the truth or exaggerating. Until now he had treated her politely, so she wasn't sure if Inuyasha didn't overreact. But she also could not see the warm person that Rin talked about. He seemed to be rather arrogant and cold. He kind of reminded her of a mix between younger Draco, Lucius and Snape. Draco had changed since the war, and they had even become friends somehow. He had come to apologize to her and her friends, and they had decided to forgive him since they had all been kids when everything started. Well, not everybody. Ron had held a grudge for a while longer. He hadn't liked that Hermione was around Draco, even if he knew that she hadn't had much of a choice because she was working with him. He had finally forgiven him when she had already been travelling for a year.

She sighed heavily and pushed her thoughts away, for they would only make her depressed. Getting up, she decided to go and see if Kagome or Sango were already awake because she wanted to ask them to teach her prepare the deer. She also planned to serve a piece of the deer to Lord Sesshomaru when he came by later, for she felt the urge to let him try a piece of her first catch, which he technically had caught it too.

As she came to the two houses, she listened and could hear that the inhabitants of one house were awake already while the other one was silent.

'They are probably still sleeping, Kagome was tired the last few days.'

Her assumption was incorrect because when she knocked at the door and opened it, they were all sitting around the fireplace eating breakfast.

"Good morning Kagome, Sango and kids. How did you sleep?" she greeted them, not looking at Miroku and Inuyasha as she sat down between the kids and took a bowl to eat as well.

She normally ate with Rin and Lady Kaede, but occasionally she would visit Kagome or Sango and eat with them, even helping Sango with the kids sometimes.

"Hey, wench! Why aren't you greeting me? Got up whit the wrong foot this morning?"

Ignoring him she turned to Minoru to help him eat his food.

"Hey! Stop ignoring me! Why is she ignoring me?!"

"Maybe you said something wrong. Lady Hermione, what did Inuyasha say to you for you to let him feel your wrath?"

She ignored Miroku too and now was helping Sakie and Saori to some more of the soup.

"Ha! She is ignoring you too, you perverted monk!"

They went on to bicker at each other for the rest of the meal while Sango and Kagome tried not to laugh and chattered with Hermione.

When they were finished they all went outside to send off Inuyasha and Miroku who were still quarrelling. Kagome became slowly annoyed.

"Inuyasha… Sit!"

And he faceplanted to the ground again, this time leaving no crater since she didn't say it to strongly.

"Stop it you two. You know exactly why Hermione is cross with you. You don't want to take her to the hunt," said Sango while holding Minoru and looking sternly at the two men, "Now off you go before Hermione decides ignoring you is not enough and sets you on fire."

They looked at each other and were gone in seconds. She had told them the story of how she set her professors robes on fire, so they knew the threat was real.

"I meant to ask a long while ago, but it slipped my mind and it never came up again until know. How exactly are you able to command Inuyasha to faceplant into the ground?"

"Oh, That's actually a funny story. Lady Kaede put the beads he wears around his neck onto Inuyasha when I met him, and he tried to kill me. She said I should use the word of subjugation. I didn't know what she meant, and she said to say any word that came to mind. I saw his dog ears and said: 'sit boy'. I don't use it often now, since we have got married."

After the short explanation they went inside and cleaned up after the breakfast. Hermione then asked them for help with the deer and also told them how she got it. They were very surprised to hear that – not about her being able to change into a very big cat, but more about the fact that Hermione had collided with Sesshomaru and was still alive, and that he had relinquished the deer to her. Both the slayer and priestess were thinking rapidly about the possible meanings of these actions. They looked at each other and were able to tell that they were both thinking the same. They would later test their theory when Sesshomaru came to visit.

HxS

Hermione had successfully prepared the deer and was now roasting the meat over the fire at Lady Kaede's place. She had placed the best piece aside for Lord Sesshomaru, leaving it mostly raw since she assumed he would have similar eating habits as Remus had had.

She could hear Rin calling 'Lord Sesshomaru' enthusiastically and was now able to sense him too. She was a bit nervous. Lady Kaede had left the village for the day, visiting the neighbouring one, so that meant Hermione would host the lord. To her relive Lord Sesshomaru came inside the hut with only Rin and without the toad-like creature called Jaken. She did not hate him or anything like that, but she had been afraid of what the little imp would say and what it would trigger. She welcomed Lord Sesshomaru and explained Lady Kaede's absence. She served him freshly brewed tea and told Rin to read to Lord Sesshomaru aloud, so he could see the progress she had made, while she finished roasting the meat over the fire to give it to the children of the village and her two female friends.

She started carving the meat of the carcass and dividing it in to portions, which she put onto little pieces of fabric. She listened to Rin while working and helped her a few times with the pronunciation and translation. After she finished the carving she wrapped the meat up and went outside, calling for the children.

HxS

Sesshomaru watched the woman from the corner of his eyes while listening to Rin. She had improved greatly. He noticed that Rin tried to read the story like a storyteller and suspected that she had picked that up from the woman when she was reading for his ward.

The foreigner had gone outside for a short while, and he was watching her distributing the meat to the children, while she also played with them and talked to them as well. His beast was purring and nodding approvingly. 'She is good with pups, she is intelligent and teaching our human pup, she is beautiful, she makes a good mate.'

Sesshomaru choked on his tea slightly by the blunt statement of his beast. 'We have seen her three times, and she is human.' He argued. 'She is a witch and can change into a big cougar.' 'We don't know her well enough.' 'Our human pup trusts her.' 'Yes, but she also trusts the half-breed Inuyasha.' 'Point taken. We have time to get to know her and let her get to know us.'

In that moment the woman stepped back inside the hut.

She looked at him and then hit her forehead with her flat hand saying: "Oh, I almost forgot!"

He saw how she took out a little purple bag with beads on it out of her clothes and placing it on the wooden floor. Then she took a wooden stick out of her left sleeve and flicked it saying: "Accio, deer meat!"

Flying out of the tiny bag came a big piece of meat that should not have had enough space inside there. She caught the meat with a wooden plate and sat down beside him holding out the plate.

"I thought that since you so generously left me the deer, you would like to try the meat of my first hunt. I hope it is to your liking."

He eyed the piece critically and discovered that it was still on the raw side, exactly how he liked it. 'She wants us to approve of her first hunt and she knows how we like our meat. How does she know?'

"How do you know how this Sesshomaru likes his meat? Did Rin tell you?"

She blushed slightly.

"No, I had a werewolf as a friend and he liked his meat mostly raw as well. I thought maybe so did you."

He took the plate, sniffed the food and teared into the offered meat.

"It is good. You did well on your first hunt."

She beamed at him and started cleaning the utensils while softly humming. Sesshomaru could also see Rin smiling brightly at that. He asked her about her time spent in the village and she happily told him.

HxS

Neither of them had noticed the two women that had seen and heard everything, standing outside the hut. They were smiling knowingly at each other, having their theories affirmed.

AN: Thank you for your support! I hope you continue liking the story! I am always thankful for your feedback. If everything works as planed I will post another chapter tomorrow. So, look forward to it!

This story is now betaed by Pyo-Kiyo, I am very grateful for her help.

Thanks, and enjoy.