English

'thoughts'

'thoughts of Sesshomaru's beast'

Once again, a month had gone by. Hermione hadn't been in contact with her magical family for three months, being still stuck in the feudal era and not being able to find a way back. She had read through all of her books that contained even the slightest bit about time travel, but she had found nothing.

Her new friends had felt that she was starting to get depressed again and tried to distract her from the dark thoughts. Hermione was very glad that she had Kagome, who understood how she felt – at least a bit, being a time traveller as well. There were good days where she even felt happy, but there were also bad days where she felt sad and depressed and didn't know what to do. At least her nightmares had gotten better. They didn't come each night anymore but only once in a few days.

She was also glad to be able to help the people in the village, and she had also started helping in the neighbouring villages. Word spread that there was a benevolent healer around this area who could heal almost every ailment with a special brew. She had read up on healing spells and potions to be able to help the priestesses better and to contribute to the village that had welcomed her with open arms. Another reason for her was to start earning money to repay their kindness and to be able to buy things for herself. Books were very expensive in this era and she had to find one that could help her get home.

Her potions haven't gained her much money yet, she mostly received some sort of food or fabric or other thing that was useful – but not for her plan to earn money. Another idea of her was that maybe some lord would hear the rumours about her skills and would ask for her services, and so she could gain access to their library. She knew these thoughts were farfetched, but she needed hope.

The lessons with Rin made great progress, and the books Lord Sesshomaru brought were very interesting, and since Rin was an intelligent girl they could also have great conversations and debates about the book contents. When Lord Sesshomaru had visited them two weeks ago he had also joined their conversation about the book they were reading at that time. Hermione was positively surprised by how intellectual he was. They were so immersed in a discussion at one time that they had completely forgot that the objective of the conversation was to teach Rin. Rin had happily watched the two adults speak animatedly about the book, even when she could not always follow their arguments.

Hermione had changed her view of him a little after that. To be truthful he had reminded her of a spoiled child at the beginning. He was still arrogant, no question there, but she had seen another side of him, and she had to admit that she was kind of curious what other sides the seemingly cold demon lord had. She knew that appearance could be deceiving and that what someone showed on the outside wasn't always what was on the inside – best examples of this were Umbridge and Snape. Umbridge was always in pink – a little woman with an overly sweet way to talk – but evil on the inside, while her old professor, who was always clad in black and seemingly constantly in a bad mood and seemed to be always mean, was actually a spy for the light side that had tried to protect the son of his best friend and only love and his rival and school bully.

Hermione was pulled out of her thoughts by a hand waving in front of her face.

"Earth to Hermione! Didn't you hear me calling you for the past few minutes?"

Before her stood Kagome with her hands placed on her hips. Behind her were Sango, her kids and Rin.

"Sorry, I was lost in thoughts and didn't hear you. What did you want?"

"We are going to a hot spring near here. Are you coming as well?"

She saw how Rin looked at her pleadingly with puppy dog eyes and she sighed defeatedly. She couldn't say no to those eyes, at least not in this case.

"Yes, let me get my things."

She stood up and went inside the hut to get a new set of clothes, having the rest of things in her bag. She could hear a happy whop coming from outside. When she joined the women and children again, they made their way to a nearby hot spring, while talking about this and that.

Once they reached the spring, the children stripped out of their clothes like lightening and jumped into the water. Only Minoru stayed with his mom, since he was still too little to go alone. Kagome and Sango had also begun to strip, and it was then that Hermione realised she hadn't thought about her scars. She was unsure about what to do. On one side, she wanted to have this moment to bond with the other two females, but on the other side she wasn't ready to talk about her scars or to be judged because of them; not yet. She shifted uncomfortably on the spot, not taking her clothes of until Kagome noticed it and asked her why she wasn't getting in the water.

Rin had also seen this and thought she knew what the problem was.

"Hermione, I said it the first time we met; you do not have to talk about them if you do not want to."

Hermione smiled slightly at the girl, while the other two women looked at them confused.

"What are you talking about?" asked Sango, who was taking the clothes off of Minoru.

"I have… scars I am uncomfortable talking about," Hermione told them a bit hesitantly.

"Like Rin said, if you don't want to talk about them, you don't have to. We will try not to look and won't judge. We have also a few scars of our own."

Kagome smiled encouragingly at her. Hermione thought about it for a moment and nodded. She began to strip slowly as well and when she was finished she climbed into the water. If they were looking she could not feel them. At least she was sure they were not starring at her scars and they didn't question her about them.

What they did question her about was her past love life. They already knew that she didn't have a boyfriend in her time, but they were curious about her experiences and were also talking about theirs. Kagome told them about a boy named Hojo from her time that always tried to ask her out. Hermione told them about her first kiss with Victor Krum at the Yule ball in her fourth year and about Ron and their relationship and their break up later on. She felt good telling them about her friends and decided to do that more often from now on, but she still left out the whole Voldemort situation. She also told them that she was still a virgin. Her relationship with Ron had never gone further than roaming hands over clothes and passionate kisses. One reason had been her scars, but it hadn't been the only one.

They also asked her if she had met someone here that caught her interest, while looking strangely at each other. She had told them a 'no' immediately, but after that she had thought for quite a long about the question. Maybe someone did come to mind…?

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. Thank you so so much.

Thanks, and enjoy.