A/N: Okay, first off: I'M SO ! For some strange reason, this chapter was just not ending up in the right place and I just got way unmotivated. Plus, school sucks so bad right now. So now I'm going to stop with my excuses and you can start the chapter! Oh, and I apologize for the shortness of this chapter. There was supposed to be a second scene and then I just decided you guys would want this now as opposed to later haha.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter in any way, shape or form. I bow down to Jo in all her glory.


I awoke with a jolt. A rattling noise was coming from the foot of the bed, like someone was setting teacups onto their saucers. Light filled the room from the windows with the curtains thrown wide open. It faced east, and the sun was well up over the horizon. My cheek wasn't on a pillow like it should have been. It was resting on the gently rising and falling chest of Lucius Malfoy, and my arm was draped across his abdomen.

Realization suddenly hit me. I had slept through the night at Malfoy Manor. I woke up cuddled next to Lucius. And from his shallow breaths, I could tell he was awake. He didn't move me away from him when he woke up.

If we weren't a couple, if we weren't even friends, what in the hell was this?

I sat up quickly, any notion of morning bleariness gone. A house elf stood a few feet away, and like I had figured, it was pouring tea.

"Good morning," I heard Lucius say, but before I could say anything in return, a wave of nausea overcame me and I practically jumped out of bed to hurtle towards what I hoped was the bathroom. Morning sickness was generally constant for me for the first few weeks, but lately, it had been reduced to whenever I sat up or turned too quickly. And somehow, I could never remember that.

As I expelled whatever was left in my stomach (which was mostly just bile), the conversation between Lucius and his house elf, muffled from behind the door, piqued my interest.

"Is the lady alright, sir?" The house elf said in a high, squeaky voice, not so dissimilar from Dobby's.

He shifted in bed, probably to stand up to put his robe on. "Don't worry yourself, Dippy, she'll be fine," he said, a little annoyed.

"But sir, Dippy could prepare some broth for the lady-"

"Just go," he practically growled, and I heard the elf scamper away.

The door creaked loudly as I pushed it open, and I found him standing at the middle window, gazing out over his grounds, teacup in hand.

"You don't have to be rude to her for my expense, you know," I said from the doorway, leaning against it.

He took a drink, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "The less she knows the better. Draco still lives in this house, he still has use of her," he pointed out.

"Is she the only one you have?" I asked, just out of curiosity.

"Right now, yes. We used to have three. Her mother died just last year and, well, you know what happened to Dobby."

Yes, I did know. I remembered that some of his last few moments of his life were spent in the ballroom just below us. I remembered how he nearly hexed twelve-year-old Harry when he made him inadvertently free Dobby. Those were memories and stories that were ages ago, and now only lived as fragments in my mind.

"How is Draco?" I asked, changing the subject. The ill feeling had left me, and I moved from the door frame towards the tea tray and began to pour myself a cup.

He sighed. "Fine," he said simply, obviously aware that our conversation this morning would be clearly lacking.

"And Astoria? Has she said anything to you?" I asked as I joined him at the window, my shoulder grazing against his arm, gazing out onto the south garden of his grounds.

He shook his head. "She's barely said one word to me. I'm afraid she's always been intimidated by me, and now she just squeaks out her answer to any question I may ask."

I chuckled once, a smile gracing my face for the first time that morning. "Poor girl," I commented, leaning my head against him.

Setting his tea on the windowsill, he turned to me and enveloped me in his arms. Instantly, I stiffened, still not used to his new found tenderness. "Is this how it's going to be from now on? You and your, um, niceness," I asked, my cheek pressed against his bare chest.

"It's still too early in the morning for me to be anything but," he said.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. "Lucius. It's ten-thirty in the morning. I don't think that qualifies as early," I chided, turning my head up to look at him.

"Well, we're not all morning people like you, Hermione." A smug smile was on his lips, and my hand reached up to lightly slap his cheek. And then it stayed there. My fingers did just as they did the night before, traced across his prominent, masculine jawline, tickled by the stubble that had probably been there for a couple of days. When I reached his lips, his mouth opened slightly to whisper my name. How desperately I wanted them to caress mine like they did just last night.

"What exactly are you doing?" He asked me, before pulling my hand down with his own.

I stepped back, shaking myself from the reverie. I awkwardly cleared my throat, my wrist burning from his grip around it. "Sometimes...sometimes I start to think you're a normal person. That this, erm, being together thing, would be okay. But none of this would ever be normal," I said, keeping absolutely no eye contact with him.

"Do you honestly believe that?" He questioned, his grip tightening, leaving it to burn ferociously.

I pried his fingers away, finally, and paced to the other side of the bed. Far away. "We come from two completely different worlds, and by completely I mean about as far apart as you can get. I might as well have been from some remote African tribe and it wouldn't have been any different."

"Hermione-"

I held my hand up to stop him from saying anything. "No, I understand that this is all my fault. This was all supposed to be a one-time deal, and I was the one who came back. I get it."

There was nothing I had really regretted in my life until that night. Ron and I had gotten into a fight that had escalated to about the worst it's ever been, and honestly neither of us can now remember what we were fighting about. I ran out of the house and the first place I thought to apparate to was Malfoy Manor. Lucius was surprised to see me at his door, and that quickly dissipated once my hands were at his trousers.

Not my proudest moment.

We would 'visit' each other every time we had a particularly bad day, and then it grew to if we had a good day, and by the end it was just any day, really. Until I decided it was getting ridiculously out of hand.

Before I could continue, he crossed over to his armoire to begin dressing. I watched him, completely mesmerized, because seriously, watching the muscles in his shoulders shift as he shrugged his shirt on would probably be the highlight of my day. It's that good.

"I could have said no to you," he pointed out as he buttoned up his crisp, white shirt.

Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Not one month beforehand he was shoving me up against my dresser, coaxing information out of me to make me feel like I had done all of this, all of this to him. So he's now letting the blame fall onto himself? What was this?

"You said you only wanted me once, that this was all me. You can't just start throwing out chivalry whenever you feel like it, Lucius. Don't try to make me feel better about this," I said, words scathing.

He turned his head to look at me quite pointedly. Steely gray eyes and all. "I did just want you once, dear. Truth be told, you proved to be quite the voracious and insatiable lover that I was pleased when you came crawling back."

Jesus Christ, those words did not just come out of his mouth.

I probably looked ridiculous, my mouth hung open in complete surprise and my fists clenching at my sides, itching to smack him square in the nose. I decided to let that thought fall to the back of my mind as I paced determinedly towards him. "You," I began, shoving a finger into his chest, "are the most detestable man I have ever had the pleasure of coming across!"

Turning on my heel, I practically marched out of that place, grabbing my wand from the side table as I walked past, and was positive I would never have to be in his presence again. What on earth could have possessed him to say such a thing to my face? I cursed at myself when I realized that I had been crying, and I had no idea for how long, as I crunched along the gravel that lined the path to the gates.

But, as I wiped my tears off my cheeks, another pair of eyes watched me disappear from view through a front window. I'm glad I didn't notice, because another panic attack would not have been conducive to anything remotely good at that moment. But it did fuck things up royally.


A/N: Haha, I'm pretty sure all of you want to kill me right now. But I PROMISE things will work out! Can't have Lucius being all nice and fluffy all of the time :)

I would totally beg for reviews, but since you guys waited for so long for this chapter, I will just ask politely! So please, spare some time and review, it would make my day!

Bailey