It Had To Be Her

27: "May I Have This Dance?"

Hermione

The banquet hall, like the rest of the heavily fortified castle, I was to find out later, was designed in a very elegant gothic style that made me think of the descriptions Harry Potter gave of what the Slytherin common room appeared. Of course, both of my guy friends felt  very uncomfortable in such a setting, and if I had not been halfway a cat in polyjuice form, I could have soothed their discomfiture in such a location. As it was, I quite liked the ambiance.

Queen Ellara noticed my silent interest in my surroundings and smiled. "My clan kingdom was much more intimidating in life, I must admit, but in Limbo here, I can recreate my home with Kaelin from memory."

"Will I see him? I mean, not merely in Severus's face from time to time?"

Ellara frowned a brief moment before sighing, "Yes. I suppose that I must resign myself to our shared interest in our mates, although if we had been separate from the beginning, I would rip you to shreds for laying a finger on my beloved mate. One condition to this, and you will agree to this here and now, sister."

"I...I had no intention of stealing him from you. You know that."

She nodded. "Yes. However, I will live in your very being. Our bodies one, our womb one, our powers and mind one. I will have your mate in those moments. Kael takes control and has you. You will agree to this or you will not meet him as he appeared in life."

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. "I agree. I understand, I love my husband very much. This bond is...odd."

She appeared to relax. "Agreed. Well, now that this understanding has been reached between us, I see no reason why we can not be sisters
and I will introduce you as such to my subjects."

I felt my heart warm to her then. "I have never had a sister. Thank you...Ellara."

She patted my hand as we walked arm in arm. "You are welcome. I lost my three sisters in the war that Kaelin knew he had to wage in order to keep the vampire clans from our lands. He...he did not anticipate that Empress Lilith would send in one of her best Assassin Mages. A pity really, such a mage would have been useful to our cause, but as the wolves are squeamish to using such 'underhanded magic,' as they call it, or any mage lore for that matter, well, we were defeated in an almost farcical manner."

I laughed, "He sounds like a Slytherin, this mage."

Ellara laughed, "Indeed. Now, enough politics, no doubt your condition is leaving you famished."

I touched my flat belly. "I don't look pregnant here."

"Nor are you here, naturally. However, you will feel its effects since your physical body is. Come, let us not tarry here."

She led me into the banquet hall proper, and it was a very large space with at least five hundred nobles present. Some feasted at the tables that were set up, some couples danced to the lively tune the musicians were playing. Kaelin was sitting in pride of place at the head of the high table, and seeing him as he appeared in life, I was struck dumb by how attractive he was. The nobles noticed we were in the room, and so did the court herald.

"Presenting Queen Ellara and her esteemed guest Lady Hermione Prince," the herald announced us.

Nobles bowed and curtsied to us as Ellara led us to the high table. Kaelin appraised me, and his expression was stoic, but his black eyes missed nothing. He rose and held out his hand. I took it, and he pressed a kiss there. "Ah yes, my mate brings my other mate to me this night," he announced, his words in that flowery language, only I could understand some of it now. "Play a Volta, minstrels."

He led me to the dance floor and switched to English, "May I have this dance?" He bowed.

I curtsied in my best ballet student curtsy, "I don't know the steps."