Standing on the steps of the castle, Hermione tried to focus her thoughts and concentrate on what she was doing. Today they were welcoming the guests from the neighbouring kingdoms, who were arriving to attend the tournament which started the following day. Hermione's mind however, was stuck on the King and her maid and what they were getting up to in their spare time.
It had been nearly three weeks since her initial talk with Draco and since then her lover had informed her that Ginny was fast becoming the only maid King Severus took to bed. While the Queen was disturbed by the news, Hermione was downright disgusted and appalled. Hermione was beginning to dread the end of the story, when she would return to reality. Facing Draco would be embarrassing enough but now she wouldn't ever be able to look at Ginny and Snape in the same light again, every time she saw her friend and Potions Professor she would remember her experiences here and what the pair had been getting up to.
Hermione's focus was returned to the present when it was announced the party for Ravenclaw were arriving. Plastering a smile on her face, Hermione stepped forward with King Severus as the royal carriage and several knights on horseback entered the courtyard. When the carriage ground to a halt King Filius stepped out of the carriage and greeted the King. He then turned to Hermione and she greeted the royal counterpart to her Charms Professor.
Once the greeting were done, Hermione summoned a few servants to take the Ravenclaw party to their rooms. The knights of Ravenclaw were escorted to their rooms by a few knights of Slytherin and the royal carriage was taken from the courtyard as the group prepared to greet the next arrivals.
The next arrivals were from Hufflepuff, Queen Pomona and her knights. The greetings ran exactly the same, with Hermione effortlessly moving the party into the castle without seeming too pushy. After the party from Hufflepuff came a few minor kingdoms, who were all only entering a few men in the tournament.
After what seemed like hours of smiling politely at visiting dignitaries, Hermione was relieved to hear the last party was approaching. The last party was the group from Gryffindor and as they entered the courtyard Hermione's smile suddenly became genuine at the sight of her friends and family. When the royal coach pulled up the two Kings greeted each other while Hermione and Queen Minerva shared a hug. Hermione then hugged King Albus as the old man turned to his daughter.
"I'll show you to your chambers." Hermione offered to her parents. While the servants had shown everyone else to their rooms, Hermione had wanted to walk her parents to their room herself.
As Hermione headed up the stairs with the King and Queen of Gryffindor, she spotted Draco talking to the knights of Gryffindor. Apart from Sir Ron, who was scowling at the blond knight, the others looked pleased to see Draco and they followed after him happily as he took them to where they were staying with the other visiting knights.
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Hermione sat on her throne, trying to look like she was paying attention to King Severus's speech. Today was the opening day of the tournament and the King was opening the tournament officially. Hermione and the other royalty were sitting in the royal box in the custom built fighting arena. The arena would stage the first two stages of the tournament, before the action shifted to the jousting arena for the final in two days' time.
Instead of paying attention to the King's rather boring and long winded speech Hermione scanned the competing knights, looking for Draco. Everyone who was competing was assembled in the arena, listening to King Severus. As the King carried on talking Hermione easily found Draco, with his platinum blond hair he tended to stick out from the crowd. Sharing a quick smile with her lover, Hermione turned her attention back to her husband, who was just beginning to explain the rules.
The rules for the tournament were very simple and easy to follow. Today was the hand to hand combat where half the competitors were to be eliminated. Each knight was randomly paired with another knight and the duo fought in the arena, the winner progressed to the following days sword fight whilst the loser was eliminated. The sword fights the following day were three tiered, you had to win all three of your rounds to progress to the final. Only four knights would progress to the final, which was a jousting tournament. From the jousting tournament an overall winner would be determined.
"Let the tournament begin." King Severus boomed as he ended his speech to much applause and cheering.
As the King settled back down next to Hermione, the knights made their way out of the arena. Once the arena was clear the first two knights were called into battle. After a few fights Hermione decided she didn't like hand to hand combat, she'd seen sword fighting and jousting in training and in films and television programmes she had watched but the hand to hand was boring and often over very quickly.
Hermione was so bored that the only time she really paid any attention was when a knight from Gryffindor or Slytherin participated. Sir Neville, Sir Gregory, Sir Dean and Sir Seamus all fought pretty early in the day and Hermione was pleased to see them all progress. She had to wait until after lunch for any more knights of Gryffindor or Slytherin to fight, but when they did Sir Theodore, Sir Blaise, Sir Harry and Sir Ron all progressed smoothly.
Watching Harry and Ron fight was a strange experience for Hermione. As far as she knew neither of her friends were strong fighters so it was odd to see them ducking and weaving with such skill. Hermione also had to deal with her mixed emotions regarding their wins, obviously she wanted them both to do well but she couldn't deny she didn't want either of them winning the tournament. Not only did Queen Hermione want Sir Draco to win, but Hermione herself did. Over the last few months Hermione had come to realise a lot of the feelings the Queen had towards the blond were shared by her, the only problem was she now thought she was going to end up leaving the story with an even bigger crush on Draco.
The most involved Hermione got in the proceedings was when it was Sir Draco's turn to fight. He was one of the last fights of the day and with all the waiting Hermione was a nervous wreck inside when he strolled into the arena. Despite being confident in his fighting skills, Hermione's heart was in her mouth as she watched her lover compete. Throughout the whole fight Hermione had to fight to remain composed and to look impartial, even though she couldn't stop the huge grin that appeared on her face when Draco won.
"I take it you're supporting Sir Draco." Queen Minerva commented from her seat next to Hermione.
"I am." Hermione nodded. She knew as long as she kept her real feelings in check that no-one would think it was odd that she was supporting Draco, he was the best knight in Slytherin and she was the Queen so it was only natural she should be supporting him.
Queen Minerva nodded in response. "It's only natural that you'd support your best knight. Even though it's odd to see you supporting someone other than a Gryffindor."
Hermione chuckled softly as the two women returned their attention to the remaining couple of fights. It definitely felt odd to be supporting a Slytherin over the Gryffindor men, but it felt right to be supporting Draco.
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On the second morning of the tournament Hermione entered the royal box at King Severus's side, eager to watch Draco fight. Earlier that morning Hermione had been watching her lover practice from the window in her chambers, and he look pretty impressive. Hermione had spent nearly half an hour ogling the blond knight and until he had looked up and smirked at her before he finished, she had thought he hadn't noticed she had been watching him.
Settling into her seat Hermione tuned out the King, who once again made an overly long speech before declaring the second event ready to begin. The morning was scheduled to hold the first round of the sword fights, with the second and third round taking place on the afternoon. Like the hand to hand combat the previous day the format was simple, if you lost you were out of the tournament and if you won you progressed to the next round.
Within an hour of the sword fighting beginning both Slytherin and Gryffindor lost their first knight, Sir Neville and Sir Gregory both suffered losses in their opening battles. Swiftly after that however, Sir Theodore and Sir Blaise progressed for Slytherin while Sir Dean and Sir Seamus advanced for Gryffindor. In the middle of the morning there was a bunch of matches Hermione wasn't interested in, but her attention was raised when Sir Harry strode into the arena.
Hermione watched as Sir Harry quickly defeated his opponent from Hufflepuff. While he wasn't quite as skilled as Sir Draco, in Hermione's humble opinion, Sir Harry was still a formidable fighter and a force to be reckoned with in the tournament. Hermione wasn't surprised by the ease in which Sir Harry won his bout, he was Gryffindor's top knight and in all honesty everyone expected him to reach the finals with ease.
After Harry had fought it was the turn of Sir Ron. The redhead made harder work of his fight, but in the end he triumphed and progressed to the next stage. The last fight of the morning was Sir Draco and the blond knight disarmed his opponent in record time, bringing an end to the first round of sword play.
After the first round it was lunch time and Hermione ended up dining with the other royalty. The talk throughout lunch was all about the potential winners of the tournament. Despite King Filius and Queen Pomona trying to talk up their knights' chances the general consensus was that Slytherin and Gryffindor had the top fighters. While debates on exactly who would win raged across the table, Sir Harry and Sir Draco were quickly emerging at the two favourites.
After lunch Hermione and the rest of the spectators gathered in the arena for the second round of battles. The fights in the second round quickly proved longer and tougher and unfortunately Sir Seamus and Sir Theodore both lost in tight battles. Sir Ron was also involved in a long, hard fought battle, but luckily for him he managed to overcome his opponent.
When Draco emerged to fight in the early stages of the second round Hermione was relieved. In both the first round and the hand to hand the previous day, Draco had been one of the last to fight and by the time he entered the arena Hermione was fraught with nerves. This way, Hermione had spent less time worrying about the outcome of the fight so she wasn't quite as nervous. As it turned out Hermione didn't have any need to be nervous at all, Draco quickly defeated his opponent and his performance was already a class above everyone else's.
After Sir Draco's impressive win there were quick and easy wins for Sir Harry and Sir Blaise. Both men showed plenty of flair and skill, setting themselves up to be serious competition for Sir Draco. After those three impressive performances the only other fight of any note was the one involving Sir Dean. The Knight from Gryffindor was involved in a lengthy tussle with Sir Justin of Hufflepuff and the upper hand seesawed from one to the other before Sir Dean managed to disarm his opponent.
Before the final round there was a short break and Hermione used the opportunity to go and speak to Draco. The competing knights had tents set up near to the arena, where they rested between rounds and prepared for their next fight. Sir Draco was sharing a tent with the other Slytherin knights, so when Hermione entered it she was confronted by three men in armour. Sir Gregory had already joined the crowds watching and Sir Theodore was gathering his belongings and exiting the tent.
"My Lady." Sir Theodore bowed to Hermione, before he shuffled off moaning about his loss.
"I just came to wish you both good luck." Hermione told the two remaining knights.
"Thank you, Your Majesty." Sir Blaise nodded as he picked up his sword and shield. "If you'll excuse me, I'm fighting first and need to warm up."
Hermione made sure Blaise had left and was out of earshot before she turned to Draco, smiling widely at her lover. "You were very impressive." She told him as she stalked towards the blond knight.
"Thank you, My Lady." Draco grinned, pulling Hermione into his body when she was close enough for him to reach her. "I'm pleased you enjoyed the show."
"I did, very much." Hermione purred, looking up at Draco. "I can't wait to celebrate tonight after you're in the final."
"What if I don't make it through to the final?" Draco questioned.
"Then we can't celebrate." Hermione pouted. "But that won't happen. You'll win your last fight and we can spend the night celebrating."
"If the reward of winning my next fight is a night celebrating with you, then I'm definitely going to win." Draco grinned before engaging Hermione in a passionate kiss.
Hermione wrapped her arms around Draco's neck and returned the kiss with feeling. After a few minutes however, she reluctantly pulled away and stepped out of his arms.
"I have to go and take my seat." She said. "Good luck and make sure you win."
"I will." Draco replied as Hermione turned and left the tent.
After leaving Draco, Hermione made her way back to the royal box. As she slipped into her seat no-one commented on her absence or asked where she had been. If they had asked she would have been perfectly honest with them and revealed she had been wishing Sir Blaise and Sir Draco good luck in their final fight. No-one needed to know exactly what sort of incentive she was offering Draco if he should progress through to the final.
The third and final round of sword fighting consisted of four fights and all of them held some interest to Hermione. The first fight was between Sir Blaise and Sir Dean, while Sir Ron was in the second bout, Sir Harry in the third and Sir Draco was in the last fight.
The first fight between Sir Blaise and Sir Dean was a long one, but eventually the previous fight Sir Dean had participated in started to take its toll and Sir Blaise gained the upper hand. Once Sir Blaise got the upper hand he quickly finished off the fight and emerged victorious. After the drama of the first fight the next three were all more one sided, with Sir Harry, Sir Ron and Sir Draco emerging as victors. Sir Harry and Sir Draco both won easily and fairly quickly and although Sir Ron's fight was longer and tougher he still prevailed in dominant style.
After the sword fights King Severus gathered the top four knights in the arena and publically announced them as finalists. As the knights soaked up the adoration Hermione couldn't help but share a secretive smile with Draco. He'd done exactly as he'd promised and won his final fight, meaning they would be celebrating in bed later on.