English

'thoughts'

'thoughts of Sesshomaru's beast'

The next morning Hermione was woken by a knock on the door post. She called out for the one outside to come in, but there was only a louder knock as a response. Then she remembered her spells and charms she had put up the last night, so as not to disturb the castle's inhabitants if she had a nightmare. She quickly dissolved them and called out again. The door slid open and the servant who had brought her to the room yesterday came in with a pitcher of water.

Nishi bowed to her and spoke softly: "I apologize for waking you up, Lady Hermione, but Lady Misaki and the seamstresses will be here shortly, and Lord Sesshomaru ordered me to make sure you were presentable by that time. I brought you fresh water to wash yourself. Will you need my assistance with anything?"

"Oh, you don't have to apologize for that. Thank you, and I have just one question. Where can I get something to eat?"

The woman still did not look at her and appeared a little flushed now.

"Lord Sesshomaru ordered your food to be taken to his quarters, where you will take your meals with the lord and with Lady Rin from now on."

Hermione frowned. From Nishi's reaction she assumed this was not how this was normally done. However, asking her would not help, for she seemed very shy and would probably not answer truthfully. She would ask Lord Sesshomaru.

'Wait, what if she is not shy, but afraid of Lord Sesshomaru? Does he mistreat his employees?'

"Nishi, I have another question. Does Lord Sesshomaru treat you well?"

The young woman's eyes widened dramatically, the hairs on her tail stood up, it began to twitch, and she spluttered for a moment before answering her: "Wha-what? Of course, Lord Sesshomaru treats me well! He took me in when I was a kitten. W-why did you ask? Did I do something to anger you?"

"Oh no, no. I was just curious. I did not mean to upset you. Thank you for your work, I will not need your assistance at the moment."

Bowing, the servant left, and Hermione took a calming breath. This situation reminded her of how house-elves reacted to her questions. In the years after the war she had realised that most of the house-elves were very happy with serving wizards and witches and were distraught when questioned in their work. Trying to free them was mostly met with hostility not only from the house-elves themselves but also from the families they served. She had not stopped her endeavours until Neville's grandmother had taken her aside and explained the relationship between house-elves and their master and his family. Some of the elves had served a family for generations and were practically part of the wizarding family. There were mistreated elves, but they weren't the norm.

Putting these thoughts away, she stood up and went to wash herself with a washcloth and warm water. Afterwards she put on a light-yellow kimono with an orange flower pattern and went to Lord Sesshomaru's rooms for breakfast.

There was a servant kneeling in front of the lord's door who announced her arrival and opened the door for her and then closed it again after she had stepped inside.

Rin and Lord Sesshomaru were already seated at the table and were eating and talking. Well, Rin was talking while Sesshomaru was listening and sometimes making some noise.

"Good morning!"

"Good morning, Hermione! Did you sleep well?" asked Rin.

"Yes, I actually did."

"That is good to hear, little witch. This Sesshomaru wishes you a good morning as well."

Hermione rolled her eyes at the way he called her but thanked him politely. They talked a bit while they were eating or listened to Rin. When they finished their morning meal, there was a knock on the door post and the arrival of Lady Misaki in Lady Hermione's room was announced.

"Rin, go with Hermione for the fitting, then you will accompany her lessons. I will see you both for dinner."

Without another word he left his rooms. Hermione and Rin went to the other room where Lady Misaki was waiting for them. She looked like a very refined middle-aged woman, which meant she was a really old demon since she had also pointy ears. The woman wore her black hair in an intricate hairdo on top of her head, being held up by gold pins and expensive looking jewellery. She was a bit taller than Hermione and wore a complex layered yellow and blue kimono. Cold blue eyes surrounded by tiny wrinkles looked her over critically.

"You must be Lady Hermione. I am Lady Misaki. Lord Sesshomaru gave me the task to tutor you in everything regarding the court. As I understand you are good at reading and speak a number of languages. So, I won't waste the little time we have on these things. We will start with the measuring and fitting for kimonos. For that we will go to another room, so please follow me."

Hermione just nodded, being slightly baffled by the energetical demon lady, and followed her together with Rin.

They arrived at a big room with floor half wooden and the other half was laid out with straw mats. She could see a low table with pillows surrounding it and some tea set on it. Before she could look around more she was urged to the middle of the wooden half of the room and three demonesses began measuring her. She saw the same happen to Rin. After the seamstresses were finished with measuring, Hermione and Rin had to try on already complete kimonos to see if they had to be altered. Hermione lost count of time and how many kimonos and layers of kimonos she had tried on.

Suddenly they were finished, and the seamstresses packed everything up and left to return another day with more kimonos. They had left both her and Rin in many layered kimonos, which she wasn't sure how to get out from. She would have to ask Nishi to help her.

After the fitting was done, the time to practice kneeling came. Lady Misaki was very strict and corrected Hermione's posture until she was satisfied. Fortunately, Hermione has accustomed to kneeling after she arrived in this time; if that wasn't the case she would have not been able to kneel for such a long time. While they were kneeling at the table, she had to pour tea in a specific way since she would personally be serving tea to the lord and his guests. After the demoness was satisfied with that as well she droned on and on about court etiquette. Hermione, having been used to Professor McGonagall and Professor Binns, was listening with interest, trying to memorise everything. Rin had drifted of a long while ago.

The lecture was interrupted by some servants bringing in a small feast. Sadly, they could not just eat it but had a lesson in table manners. Lady Misaki was soon content with them and began eating while the demoness discussed adequate subjects that could be talked about over a meal and also which topics females were allowed to discuss. Hermione was not happy about the narrow mindedness of the lady, but held her tongue, reminding herself that this was not her time and that women had even less to say than in the British wizarding society back in her time.

After they had finished eating, servants came, took the dishes away and brought in flowers and vases. Hermione did not know what she had to do with these things, but she soon found out. Rin and she were taught in flower arranging for a few hours. Hermione still did not know how flower arranging would help in her task to translate for the guests but didn't want to cross her strict teacher.

When Lady Misaki was satisfied with their arrangements for the day they had a lesson in tea ceremony. They had to learn the procedure, the utensils and the customs of it. Lady Misaki showed them how it was done, and Hermione had to say she liked the quiet and calm atmosphere. However, she had some difficulty with the correct procedure since Lady Misaki expected perfection.

At dinner time they were finally released from the tutoring and were allowed to leave for Lord Sesshomaru's rooms. Hermione had received some books to read from the strict demoness. Stepping out of the room, they saw Rin's servant, who was to bring them to Lord Sesshomaru's quarters. She was introduced to Hermione as Rin's servant and friend Tomomi. She was a young dog demon and the daughter of Wakana and Yamato, both personal servants of Sesshomaru. She had straight black hair which reached her shoulder blades and warm friendly brown eyes. Tomomi asked them how their day was, and Rin began to tell her as they went to find their dinner.

When they entered the demon lord's quarters they saw that dinner was already on the table, and Sesshomaru was seated at the head of the table, reading a scroll. He put it down and looked at them. He had a strange look in his eyes as he took in their appearance. Hermione was confused and looked down at herself. Realising she was still wearing the beautiful layered kimono, she blushed slightly and sat down properly, like she had learned today. Sesshomaru gave her an approving look.

"You both look beautiful in your new kimonos, and I see the tutoring has already born fruits. How was your day?"

Hermione blushed at the compliment and Rin began to retell the day's events. They ate while listening to her.

After they had finished Tomomi came back to get Rin ready for bed.

"Join me for tea and tell me how your day went, Hermione," Lord Sesshomaru invited her, purring her name.

She prepared some tea and poured it for him, using her lessons from the day again.

HxS

Sesshomaru watched as she poured him tea. She did it very elegantly, and he could see that Lady Misaki had left some impressions. The new kimono looked very beautiful on her and he wondered how she would look with face paint and some jewellery. 'I would like to see how she looks without the many overlapping kimonos. Want to peel off the layers one after another.' Sesshomaru reprimanded his beast, for it was too soon, but that picture was now clear before his eyes.

"It was very interesting, I learned a lot of new things. Some I think very useful for the task you have given me, but some elude me with their purpose."

He mentally shook his head to clear his thoughts and pay attention to the conversation.

"Which ones do you mean?"

"I do not see how flower arranging will be useful for the visit."

'Ah, we are caught. That will not have any use for the stay of the guests, but we want her to have this knowledge because we want her as our mate.' 'You are not helping.'

He tried to come up with an excuse, and before she would think the long pause to awkward he replied: "For the time you are staying here you are a lady of this court, and they are adept in the art of flower arranging. So, that is why you are being taught."

She frowned first then relaxed and said: "Well, that makes sense."

'It does?'

Sesshomaru ignored his beast.

"How was your day?" Hermione asked.

He looked at her and saw that she seemed genuinely interested, so he told her a bit of it. About the managing of the land, the boring paper work, about the training sessions and inspections of his palace and surroundings. They had talked for a long while before they realised that it was already late, and they were both tired.

"Lord Sesshomaru, how can I call a servant? I need help with the kimonos if I don't want to ruin them. "

'We could help.' 'No. Patience.'

He went to the door and opened it. Wakana was kneeling outside.

"Wakana, help Lady Hermione to change for the night, then you may retire."

She bowed to him and stood, waiting for the witch to come out.

As she passed him he purred lowly: "Good night, little witch. I will see you in the morning Hermione."

He saw her swallow and nod slightly, then disappeared to her room with his servant. He closed his door and leaned his forehead to the wooden post. He needed a cold shower after the images his beast came up with.

After the shower he went to bed, and as he drifted to sleep a thought crossed his mind. 'Why can't I hear, smell or feel our little witch?'

AN: I am so happy about all your reviews and I am sorry I haven't responded to some of them yet, but I plan to! Thank you all so much for your support. I hope you continue liking the story.

This story is now betaed by Pyo-Kiyo, I am very grateful for her help. She is also going over the already written chapters, so there might be a few small changes.

Some of you guessed correctly. Our guests will appear in the next chapter and one of them will be Nicolas Flamel. But who is the other? Any Ideas?

Thanks, and enjoy!