Lord of the Land

Chapter 25


On the day of homage Harry sent Hermione a note that read,
‘ Come to the Hall early.’ He also sent a very dark blue dress, almost black, for her to wear.
People had come early too, with their offerings.

Hermione still wasn’t fully recovered so Harry offered her a drink and a seat at his table. She was surprised to see so many tables set out. It looked more like a party, than an homage.

By mid-morning most of the village was in the Hall and the garden just out side.

When it seem everyone was there, Sirius stood and announced that Lord Harry Potter was about to speak.

Harry stood in front of the main table.

“ Good day. You were to gather here to pay homage to my family. But I feel we are here to celebrate surviving a horrible plague
and drought that has hit our village so hard.
Many of you have suffered from one or both. We have lost many friends and family.”
He looked at Hermione and then turned back to the crowd.
“Your livelihoods have been threatened. I feel we should celebrate, feast, drink, sing and dance today. I only ask for small portion of your offering to me for the feast, the rest you should take home.”

Harry raised his hands and a feast appeared before the crowd.
Pigs, deer and lambs were roasting over fires on spits.
There were bowls of vegetables and fruits. Platters of pastries, pies of all sorts, and breads and cakes of all kinds were on the tables.
There were minstrels playing music and singing.

When everyone had food on their plates and wine in the cups, Sirius stood up and gave a toast
“ To our Lord ..Harry Potter,” raising his goblet.

Everyone raise their cups and said,
“Aye to Lord Harry Potter,” with great enthusiasm.

Harry sat down next to Hermione with an overflowing plate.
“ You must be very hungry my lord.” Hermione said.

“All the women who cooked and baked for today wanted me to sample their goods.” Harry said with a worried look,
“ I don’t think I’ll be able to eat all of this.”

“Take your time.” she laughed and started to eat her plate of
chicken, ham, sweet potato, carrots, beans and some hot rolls and wine in her goblet.

“ Harry I’ve been meaning to asked you.. about the night Draco ..”
Hermione began.

Harry stopped eating and his eyes widened with almost horror.
He pulled Hermione away from their table and took her to the inside garden.

Shaking his head he whispered,
“ You remember that night? We're not supposed to .. but we’ll talk about it later. Don't ask anyone about that night. Don’t talk about Draco, okay, not to any one, understand?” He said anxiously.

“Yes.” Hermione answered.

Harry noticed they were alone for the first time, in a long time.
He pulled her in to his arms, and said,
“ I asked your father for your hand in marriage. And he finally gave me his blessing. That is, if you’ll have me. Hermione, will you marry me?” He
asked looking into her eyes.

Hermione smiled and nodded,
“ Yes.” She said, wrapping her arms around his neck, “Yes.”

“ There’s too much going on, right now to make the announcement, so let’s wait until things have died down some,” Harry suggested.

Harry’s lips took hers in a long soft kiss that left Hermione wanting more. Harry smiled saying, “ We’re doing things right this time…
Respectable, properly and it will drive me mad until I bed you again.”

They walked back to the table and the two started to enjoy the feast.
Hermione finished her plate and just sat back resting.
Harry tried a little bit of everything to make the cooks happy, thou the last thing in front of him was a piece pumpkin pie.

Hermione looked at it with it’s flaking crust and spice sweet aroma.
Harry looked around, and when no one was looking, took his fork and cut off a piece . He nudged Hermione and brought the fork up to her lips. She took the piece quickly, blushing.

Harry smiled, “You're blushing,” and cutting off another piece, eating it himself.

“ You might as well shout out to all the world, we’ve been intimate,”
Hermione said looking down, embarrassed.

“It seems the whole world does know we been intimate. Besides I'm just feeding you food; we’ve done that before, you didn’t mind it in the forest,” he reminded her.

“We were alone then, we are not alone now. People will be watching us.
Every move we make. Which reminds me are you going to dance with all the woman here?” Hermione asked with a curious grin.

“I’m sure I will have to, but the first dance I will dance with you,”
Harry announced.

Harry and Hermione ate a few more forkfuls of the pie, until it was gone.

They stepped out in front of the main table and waited for the music to begin.

They bowed to each other and held hands and danced stepping to each other and back. Stepping close to each other and then back , Hermione spinning around about the room.
They got in one dance and Harry was asked to dance by all the older widows and even some married ladies. He even danced with Aunt Marie
who interrogated him on where the two has disappeared.

The feast went on for two days. As some people went home to sleep, others stayed up all night dancing, singing, cooking and eating. Hermione was feeling better and her bleeding had finally stopped.

Hermione came back to the festivities the next morning; her father and aunt trailing her with exhausted expressions on their faces.

Hermione went to the main room were she saw Sirius talking to Judge Crouch.
They all said “ Good morning.”

The Judge informed Hermione that the Malfoy’s notary was there but at the moment sobering up.

Sirius excused himself from the two said,
“I’m going to see if his lordship is ready to come down now.”

Hermione started to say, “ I’ll come with..” but Sirius signaled her to
stay.

Hermione sat there drinking tea and eating a biscuit when Sirius tapped her on the shoulder.
Hermione, Mr. Granger and Aunt Marie followed Sirius to the Sitting room.

Harry was waiting there in semiformal dress robes.
He looked a little surprised to see Hermione’s father and aunt with her.

“ Eh, good morning. May I speak to Hermione alone?” Harry asked the chaperones.
“ What ever you say, you can say in front of us,” Mr. Granger replied.

Harry gently pulled her away from her father’s side. Leaning close to her he whispered, “ I was going to give you this yesterday,” showing her a gold ring, “ it was to get the other ring off of you, but I would like you to wear this one. Pulling out another gold ring with a blue sapphire stone in it surrounded by very small diamonds .

“ Oh Harry it’s beautiful.” Hermione softly breathed out.

Harry drew her hand up and placed it at the tip of her finger.

Hermione felt the sensation of her blood rushing to her feet; she felt stone cold. Harry pushed the ring to her first knuckle and Hermione’s heart started to pound.
Harry slid the ring to her next knuckle and Hermione started to tremble and shake.
Harry pushed the ring all the way on to her finger and Hermione felt the pain of her finger being chopped off.

Hermione woke up on the floor in Harry’s arms.

He had an unhappy, almost angry expression on his face,
“ What happen to you?” He asked.

“ Did I faint?” She asked.

“Yes but not before you howled in pain and pulled the ring off,”
Harry told her.

“I’m so sorry Harry,” she said with remorse.

“Don’t you want to marry me? I mean you acted as if you
were in pain. Why?” Harry asked.

“ It hurt. It was like chopping my finger off again, so I could remove THAT ring so Icould escape from Draco,” she explained,
“ I experienced the pain of having my finger cut off. I don’t know why.”

“Why did you cut off your finger?”

“I couldn’t stay there any longer. He did .. it was horror .. I screamed and begged him to stop. But he had been drinking Grey Liquor.
It made him mad.” Hermione said.

Harry helped her up and into a chair.

Maggie came in to the room and said,
“ Judge Couch is going to his office now. The Malfoy’s Legal representative will be there in an hour or so, after he cleans up.”

“ Are you up to going to Crouch’s office?” Harry asked.

“ Yes. I want this part of my life to be over and done with.” Hermione said bitterly, “ I never want to have to think about Draco again.”

“ When you’re ready,” Harry put the engagement ring in her hand,
“ put it on.” Hermione slipped the ring in to her dress pocket.

“ I want to be with you Harry. I want to have a family with you,”
she said yearningly.

“We’ll write up the contracts for the marriage tonight. We can be married within a month.” Harry said with hope in his voice. He leaned in to Hermione’s neck, kissing it, breathing out softly,
“We can try for a child on our wedding night.”

“ I’d better check with Madame Pomfrey to make sure I can try again that soon,”
Hermione commented.

“Yeah, let’s make sure the infection is completely gone,”
Harry added as they walked out of the room and back to festival.


This is the end of Part one.. part II will be titled 'The Lord the Lady the Land.'
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