ELEVEN –
If someone had hit her in the chest with a bolt of electricity, Hermione wouldn't have been as shocked as she was by Lucius' statement. He knew Allen. He knew him and worked with him before he died. She stood up from his lap, walked over to the desk and said, "Repeat that! How did you know Allen? When did you work with him?"
Lucius knew this information would come as quite a blow to his young lover, but he had wanted to confide in her long before they had become intimate. He stood up, and put his hand out in front of him and said, "Come back here and sit down, and we will discuss this."
Those few words, which meant nothing and everything, were enough to cause her to bolt. She ran down the stairs. Lucius cursed and then ran after her. He caught her in the hallway, by the front door. She struggled in his arms and yelled, "Let me go! You are such a liar!"
He let her go, but stood in front of the door. "When have I lied to you?"
"You didn't tell me you knew Allen!" she said.
"Yes I did, just now," he said blatantly. "Hermione, calm down; let me explain everything to you."
She was having trouble breathing. Her hand was on her chest and she fought back tears, but she said, "Explain!"
"A few months before your Allen died, he visited me in prison," Lucius started. He began to walk toward her. She kept her hand out in front of her, to ward him away. That did nothing to deter him. It was as if he was corralling her, and in a way he was. He wanted to get her to the living room, so he could be sure she wouldn't run away when he finally confessed 'his sins'. He continued walking toward her; she continued walking backwards, until they were in the living room. He finally spoke again. "He was working on a top secret project, of which I know basically nothing about. He was referred to me by the Minister, and in exchange for my help, I was granted amnesty and an early release from prison."
"How could you help him?" she asked.
"Much like you needed my help on the dark objects, he needed help unraveling a dark curse, and that is as much as I am willing to say on the matter."
"You were granted an early release and then what happened? He died and they sent you back to prison?" she asked.
"I've never gone back. I've been free since then," he finally admitted.
Her hands flew to her face and she gasped. "But, why would the Minister lie to me, and tell me that you were granted your release in exchange for working with me? Are you really even under house arrest? Was your wand ever taken from you?"
"I have had my wand since I was discharged from prison. I was under a sort of house arrest, until the time I began working with you. I was sent back to prison right before I began working with you, but only as a ruse, so none of the Aurors or Ministry Officials would know I had already been released."
Her head was spinning. She sat on the couch. He remained standing. "Why are you working with me?"
"I asked to work with you. The grant money that you are seeking is from me as well. There, I've told you the truth," he said, as if he were proud of himself.
She bent at the waist and began to cry. She said, "The Minister lied to me?"
"He told you what I asked him to tell you. My offer to help you was always a sincere offer. I thought I could help. I think I have."
He was slightly alarmed as she was shaking all over.
She stood back up and said, "You've lied to me! Everyone's lied to me! Has Harry lied to me?" she asked.
"He believes the same as you," he answered.
"You lied to me!" she repeated. She backed up against the wall. He came to stand in front of her.
"Yes, I did."
"Why?" she cried.
"I wanted to know you. I wanted to help you. I wasn't able to help your fiancé, so I wanted to help you, and that again, is the sincere truth," he said. "I decided to offer the grant money to you, if you continued with the work Allen started. The Minister was always aware the money was from me. He is the only one. He wants to find out what happened to Allen as badly as I do, and probably as badly as you do. I thought I could help figure that out, but I was wrong. I have no clue why or how he died, but I do know one thing, Hermione, he loved you very much. I dare say that I love you, because he did."
Hermione walked up to him and slapped him so hard in the face that his face snapped to the side.
"You get that one for free, but don't repeat it, for I won't be responsible if you do," he warned.
"Get out of my house."
"No, you will listen to me," he said with almost a growl.
She tried to run past him, but he grabbed her arm, and actually threw her on the sofa. He kneeled on the couch next to her, his hand holding her shoulder to the cushion. He said, "Allen spoke of you with such love and devotion. He knew that I didn't totally trust him, and the thing we were working on depended on complete trust, so he too, let me use Legilimens on him, and I saw you so clearly in his mind. I saw how much he loved you. I almost think that is when I fell in love with you. Are we finished? You finally got your answers to the questions of 'where and when' I fell in love with you!"
She turned her head toward the sofa cushions and sobbed. He moved from his knees to sit on the sofa by her hip. He placed his arm along the sofa back, so she could not spring up and run away.
Without looking at him, and with tears still flowing, she said, "What do you know about his death?"
"That's the thing, I know nothing. I know what we were working on, but I have a hard time believing that had anything to do with his death. When I found out he was killed, I was stunned," he admitted.
She looked at him. "Are you sure it had nothing to do with you?"
"I knew that what we were working on was dangerous, and I'm certain that he was murdered to keep us from uncovering something. I believe that the person that killed him and the person that is trying to kill you are one in the same. However, I'm not completely sure that it has anything to do with me, and I am also not completely sure, but that it might," he said. He reached over and stroked her hair. "I'm going to find out which is the truth, one way or the other, I will figure this entire thing out, and I will protect you."
She sat up, his arm still trapping her, and she said, "Tell me more, please!"
"I can only tell you that he talked of you non-stop. He loved you very much. As I told you, before I agreed to work with Allen, I used Legilimens on him. I wanted to be sure I could trust him. I may have delved further into his mind than he wanted, for I saw you, and I saw what you meant to him. I saw how much he loved you, and I have to say that I was intrigued."
She finally pushed his arm away, and scrambled to bring her legs to the floor. She stood up and said, "You are nothing but a stalker! You don't love me! Perhaps you're the one trying to kill me, so you can save me!"
"You are talking nonsense, and it's not as if I became obsessed with you, so stop this right now, and don't EVER tell me whom I love and whom I don't! Believe me, I have loved very few people in my life, so if I say I love you, I do," he said. He stood up next to her.
"It's your fault he'is dead! I know it! You as good as killed him yourself, and now you're going to get me killed! Why would the person who killed Allen want to kill me, if it wasn't because of you! I wish you had never come to the Ministry that day! I curse the day I met you again! I want to go back to the way things were!" She put her arms around herself and hugged her own body tightly. She needed comfort from someone, and she didn't particularly want it from him at that moment.
"It is not my fault he died, so I will not take the blame! How dare you say that! And you say you want to go back to the way things were? How were they, Hermione? You want to go back to sleeping with a dead man's pillow? You want to go back to looking at old pictures every weekend? You want to go back to being alone and sad and miserable?" He continued to raise his voice, because he wanted her to see the lunacy in that statement.
"Stop living in the past! Stop holding on to a dead man! You are a young woman who is reveling in mourning your dead fiancé! Keeping his clothing in one closet, in the extra bedroom was sad enough, but to have them in the extra closet is your room is sick!"
She looked as if he punched her in her gut. She ran up the stairs to her room with Lucius close behind. Running through the doorway and then to the small closet by the bathroom, she threw open the doors to find it empty. She ran to the bureau and opened the top drawer, then the second, the third, and the last. All empty. She pulled the last drawer all the way out and tossed it on the floor.
She turned to him, pushed him, (though he didn't budge) and said, "Where are they! Where are his clothes?"
She ran to her own closet and pulled out his pillow. She wanted to make sure it was still there. She hid it there the first night Lucius showed up. Thank goodness he had not touched it. She said, "What have you done, please, what have you done?" She wasn't just referring to the clothing, or to his confession. She wasn't even just speaking to Lucius. She was, in a way, talking to HIM, talking to Allen. She continued to sob uncontrollably.
Lucius said, "I will help you live again! My promise to make sure no one kills you extends to keeping you from dying inside as well, Hermione. I won't let you wither away. I won't let you grow old before your time." She threw the pillow down and grasped his arms.
"Please, where are his things?" she cried. He put his hands on her arms as well.
"His things are gone, just like he is gone! I did what you should have done a long time ago!" he said. He shook her so hard her teeth rattled.
She sunk to the ground at his feet. "What have you done?" she asked once again, softly.
He stroked her hair and said, "I told you, I did what should have been done long ago. I didn't destroy them, but by all that is holy, Hermione, they were about to destroy you! They are safely in your garage. That is the first step. The next step is up to you. You must be the one to finally rid them from your life forever. Keeping his memory alive is fine! Keep him in your heart! But, keeping his old socks and pants won't bring him back to you, you know."
She stood up and looked more hurt than he had ever seen her. She pushed him once more, ran down the stairs, and down the hall. He followed again, and was on the bottom step when he heard the backdoor screen screech open and then slam shut. He turned the corner toward the kitchen in time to see her flying down the porch steps, her red dress flowing behind her.
A red dress.
"Wait," he said to himself. The vision revealed by the death teller early this morning, the one which he assumed took place in a garden shed…could it have been a garage instead? She had on a red sundress in that vision. He sprinted through the house, drawing his wand, and calling her name as he ran out the door. "HERMIONE!"