Hermione nervously bit her lip, her eyes glued to her stunning emerald ring that felt entirely too heavy on her finger while she sat with Lucius in his study; both of them awaiting full dark when Severus would awaken. Her thumb reached under her other fingers to twist the white gold band laden with diamonds, liking how the facets sparkled in the light of the fire.
Lucius sat in the solitary leather chair he'd pinned her to the night before while she sat with her legs curled up on the sofa; her heart beating rapidly with nervousness.
"Calm yourself." Lucius drawled slowly as though he had a window into her mind.
"Shut up Lucius…" she began loudly when Severus opened door and stepped into the heated room. Before she could stop herself Hermione was on her feet rushing over to him, throwing herself into his arms. His arms constricted around her ribs tightly, holding her closely while he buried his face in her neck; inhaling deeply.
"Severus…" she whispered, tears pricking the edges of her eyes.
"Are you alright Hermione?" he asked, surprised at her outburst of affection.
"I'm fine." She muttered, pushing herself out of his arms and wiping her eyes.
"Care to get this over with?" Lucius piped up scathingly from the chair where he still sat unmoving. Hermione wanted to reach around and smack his head but refrained; life was hard enough as it was without adding a pissy Lucius into the mix.
Severus made his way to the sofa while Hermione went to pour herself two fingers of firewhiskey before joining him on the large leather couch, her free hand immediately grabbing his and holding it tightly. Lucius's venomous gaze was not lost on her.
"So what details must we discuss?" She began after a few moments of awkward silence.
"Tomorrow we are to meet with the Dark Lord and his… hoard," Lucius explained, "we need to discuss what you are going to say. You need to have seemingly valuable preliminary information to prove your value to him… from there it's a game; you cannot give too much information but you must prove your loyalty to him which will require a fair amount of acting on your part." She took a deep swig of the amber liquor while digesting this.
"So what do you know about necromancy?" Severus asked.
"Not a whole lot but more than they do I'm sure," she responded, "But I do know this; necromancy is wrong. No one should be able to bring the dead back to life. It defies the laws of nature… why do you think this magic was hidden for so long and so well? He, along with many other wizards who have tried before, was unable to uncover it for years. It's a slap in the face of Mother Nature and that is the last thing you should ever do."
"We know this… why do you think we sought you out? It was not simply because he ordered us to do so; this is dangerous… he, as you well know, is not just raising the dead. He wants to resurrect his followers and turn them into vampires… if he succeeds the entire wizarding and human world is in danger." Severus chimed in.
"So it is essential that you play your part convincingly." Lucius added.
"You need not worry about me being convincing; we need to worry about this 'edge' we think we have." As much as it irked her to think about marry Lucius she could not deny how convincing it would look to them; there was nothing more loyal than marrying Voldemort's right hand man.
"Tomorrow we are to meet with him; you are to tell him a very basic outline of your knowledge without giving him any essential details which he might utilize and regain power with. Then we are going to announce our plans to marry and a week from then it shall be done." Lucius told her point blank as though she had no say in the matter which, in reality, she didn't.
"What are you not telling me? At this point I know your bargaining skills well enough to know that you are leaving something out." She asked scathingly, not liking the darting Severus's eyes were doing.
"As you are aware we need this to look as convincing as possible," Lucius began cautiously, "therefore we have decided it to be prudent if… at our wedding… you take the dark mark."
The only moment that she had been more dumbfounded than she was now was when Severus walked into her bedroom after having been 'dead' for years. There were no words to describe how she was feeling, no emotions befitting of the pure terror and anger constricting around her heart; her breath left her lungs in a sharp gasp.
"Are you serious?" was all she could come up with once the breath returned to her now burning lungs. The image of her already scarred forearm being further marred with the dark mark made her physically sick to the stomach. Her eyes darted back and forth between the two wizards who stared at her with nothing but seriousness in their dark gazes; she hoped against all logical hope that they were joking but deep down inside she knew they were serious and it made her shake with fury, "I refuse…" she whispered darkly, her anger bitter on her tongue as she clenched her fists until her nails dug bloody incisions into her palm.
"Hermione think logically…" Severus began but was promptly interrupted when Hermione stood and rushed over to Lucius, her arm arching back and swinging forward; her hand connecting with his left cheek much like it did the previous night.
"You sick bastard! I shall never bear that disgusting mark on my skin!" she screamed, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Lucius sat there dazedly for just a moment before launching himself out of the chair to tower over Hermione who didn't move an inch from where she stood staring up at him. Severus stood from his seat as well and ran to the pair who were staring daggers at each other. Before he could reach them Lucius delivered a vicious, head snapping smack to her cheek that made her cry out and fall to the floor from the intensity of the blow. Severus grabbed him by the lapels of his robes and jerked him violently, his fangs on full display as he snarled in the other wizard's face.
"She and I have had this conversation before Severus," Lucius began evenly, "she was well aware that she should not strike unless prepared to be struck back." he finished as though it excused everything.
"Do not ever lay a hand on her again." Severus snarled, releasing the blonde wizard who simply readjusted his cloaks and stood back. Hermione coughed, her nose and mouth were bleeding profusely as she spat into her hand revealing the top of a molar that had broken off. Her tears had stopped and had been replaced with ice cold anger. Slowly she stood with the help of Severus who was finding it harder and harder to control himself at the sight of her blood. She easily sauntered over to where Lucius stood staring down at her with the same amount of frostiness in his gaze.
"I shall marry you Lucius, I shall share your bed and deceive your 'friends'," she began evenly, darkly, "but I shall never forgive nor forget what you have done to me…"
"Is that a threat Granger?" he snarled.
"Yes Lucius, it's a threat," she spat, turning around she walked to the open doorway. She stopped halfway through the door and turned back to glare at him, "Once he is dead all bets are off Malfoy." She spat and walked out the door leaving both the wizards reeling at the sheer coldness she displayed.
##
Hermione sighed and slumped against her bedroom door once she was safely inside. Her blood coated hands ran through her hair shakily, warding off the cold that was spreading through her body. In reality she knew it was wrong to engage anyone with physical violence but she couldn't shake the anger that was gripping her.
Standing on wobbly feet she made her way over to ornate gilded full length mirror that looked vaguely familiar to her. She sighed when she saw the drops of blood on the white silk of her brand new dress; her face was beginning to swell from the buildup of blood, her lip was split but her nose was unbroken thankfully.
"What am I doing here?" she asked herself woefully. Walking over to the large adjoining bathroom she turned the faucet on full blast and let the water heat up before dragging a soft black washcloth underneath its flow. Walking back to the mirror she mopped up the drying blood from her skin until it was entirely clean.
"What am I doing here?" she repeated, this time truly asking herself. Her eyes wandered the edges of the mirror trying to figure out where she'd seen it before but before she could place it her eyes landed back on her reflection and what she saw made her jump.
"Erised…" she muttered. In the image she was standing with Harry and Ron, they were all laughing and smiling like they used to. Tears began pricking her eyes as the image shifted to Severus kissing her forehead and hugging her tightly to him. She began sobbing lightly as she watched her and Severus embrace more tightly, her heart aching for that to be real. Then the image shifted and her crying ceased to be replaced with shock. Her image stood staring at her point blank, her belly full and round with child; then Lucius walked up behind her, his large hand holding her belly gently, his thumb rubbing it softly as she closed her eyes and laid her head against his shoulder. Hermione angrily turned when Lucius kissed her temple in the image.
"You are wrong." She snarled to the mirror even though she knew it was preposterous to be talking to it.
"Hermione?" A voice called out from beyond her door.
"Come in." she said even though she was fairly certain her privacy would have been completely disregarded.
The door opened slowly to reveal Lucius standing in the doorway, hesitant to enter.
"What do you want?" she snarled, undoing her hair from its elaborate up-do to fall in messy waved around her face. Ignoring his statue like stance she walked over to the massive closet and turned the light on, taking inventory of her sleeping attire she chose a basic red baby-doll and shrugged her slinky silk dress off.
"I want to fix your tooth." He offered, stepping into the room just as she exited the closet clad in nothing but the all too revealing silk lingerie that made him harden and ache. He'd never admit it but he felt bad about hitting her; he knew it wasn't right but at the time he wasn't sure he would have been able to stop himself.
"Forget it." She snapped, unwilling to let him near her with a wand lest he turn her into a toad or worse.
"Granger…" he growled.
"What are you gonna do Malfoy?" she snarled, walking up to him slowly until they were nearly touching, her head angled upwards so she could look him in the eye, "hit me again?"
"No. Never again." He promised.
"Fucking liar; I'm sure you decked Narcissa more than a few times," she instigated, unable to stop herself, "she didn't let you fuck her so you probably hit her until she blacked out then had your way with her unconscious body… it would be just like you." His face went stonier, colder with every word she uttered.
"If it weren't for the safety of the wizarding world I would have killed you by now." She whispered lowly.
"You don't think very highly of me." He muttered.
"Why should I? You've killed so many people, you were Voldemort's right hand man through the war… the way things are now is partially your fault. Why should I think highly of a man like you Lucius?" she asked, tears pricking the backs of her eyes at the images of the many fallen children he had taken part in bringing to their untimely deaths.
"I admit fault; I understand what I did was wrong and sick. I have paid for my sins and now I am trying to right my wrongs."
"Have you Lucius? Have you really paid for them?" she asked, tears now flowing freely down her cheeks.
"My wife is dead and my son is a mindless crony with no future… my future is dismal without you," he began in such a way it almost made her ache, almost, "despite what you may think of me I loved Narcissa and I had had high hopes for our future; I loved my son and wanted nothing but the best for him. I might not be the best at showing my love but it is there… I was the only death eater capable of compassion and emotion. You are the last sliver of brightness in my life," he explained, reaching up and placing his hand on the junction between her neck and shoulder, his thumb stroking her neck, "I am sorry for striking you. You can rest assured it will never happen again. Please allow me to fix your tooth Hermione."
"Why should I trust you?" she asked, wanting so badly to believe him, to make sense of the whole fucked up situation she found herself in… to find a glimmer of happiness.
"Because we need to trust each other if this is ever going to work… because you are going to be my wife and I want your trust," he all but begged and despite her better judgment she believed him, "please…"
"Fine." She whispered. Released her neck he reached into his robes and pulled forth his wand. Hermione hesitantly opened her mouth and placed the top of the broken molar back in its place. Lucius pointed his wand towards her mouth and muttered a simple mending spell that sent shockwaves of pain through her nerves making her hiss. Mending bones in any way was an incredibly painful process but she had the advantage; it was a tooth and not encased in muscle.
"Sorry." He muttered in response to her pain.
"Thank you," She said when he placed his wand back into his robes, "So how is tomorrow going to work?" she asked when the silence became deafening.
"We are meeting in the Forbidden Forest with him and everyone else." Her heart rate kicked up a few notches at the prospect of seeing him and his cronies again.
"Okay…" she muttered.
"I'll be there the whole time," This made her laugh out loud, "what?" he asked, genuinely puzzled at her sudden shift in emotion.
"It's just funny… you saying that. Five years ago I would have been horrified at the prospect of being in the Forbidden Forest with death eaters and Voldemort exclusively but now… the thought of you being there comforts me which is completely mental," She laughed maniacally, this entire situation finally getting to her; it all felt like a sick, surreal nightmare that she couldn't wake up from. Forty eight hours ago she was a simple librarian in a Maine town with a population of just over 1,000 and now she'd been roped into yet another possibly cataclysmic battle with Voldemort except this time she played a much bigger role than just the helper; she was the catalyst in the whole deal and that unnerved her, "so forgive me for being scared and lashing out… I fought this battle once before with the hopes that I would never have to again; this is not easy for me."
"I realize that," He whispered, fully digesting what she was saying, "this isn't easy for either of us Hermione. I had hoped that once that battle was finished we wouldn't engage ever again but I could not ignore this."
"I know I just… I need to sleep." She sighed, her energy for the situation having been completely depleted.
"Then sleep." He offered gently, leaning in to place a soft kiss to her forehead that made comforting warmth spread throughout her entire body right down to her fingertips. He turned and started to walk towards the door when she reached out and grabbed his arm, stopping him dead in his tracks.
"Stay with me…" she found herself begging before she could think better of it, "I need to just not feel so painfully responsible for everything for once." She whispered feeling like a complete nut job for begging the man who had not even an hour ago smacked her in the face to sleep with her. But the request had bubbled up from somewhere deep inside of her and burst from her mouth like she had less control of her own functions than a first year so who was she to question it?
"Okay." He agreed, releasing the doorknob he had been holding lightly. They both turned towards the bed and walked to it, Hermione immediately slipping into the covers while Lucius removed his many layers of clothing until he was clad in nothing but a black button down shirt and a pair of emerald green silk boxers. Hermione blushed as he slowly began to undo the buttons with much more deliberate, concise actions than he had discarded his other clothes with. He finally finished with the last button and dropped the shirt to the floor leaving him in only his boxer shorts. Hermione sucked in a quite breath at the sight of his bare chest; thankful he had regained his healthy weight since the last time she had seen him on the bluffs in Maine. With a swish of his wand the lights all extinguished in unison throwing the room into stifling blackness just before he slipped into bed beside her. Reaching over he wrapped his muscled arm around her waist and yanked her over so he was cradling her from behind; his unmistakable erection pressing into her lower back making her heart rate pick up speed.
"Calm down; that is not what tonight is about," he whispered against her hair, "When I take you it will be much more… deliberate. It shall not be a hasty decision made in a time of emotional turmoil; you will want it," He promised darkly making her shiver, "tonight just sleep in my arms knowing you are safe and sound."
And she did.