CHAPTER TEN – FIVE HOURS LATER, AT HERMIONE'S FLAT
Her legs covered by the blanket and naked from the waist upwards, Hermione was leaning comfortably against the padded headboard of her bed and smoking a cigarette. She'd taken up the habit of enjoying a post-coital cigarette a few years ago, mostly to spite Ron. If you could call something you had done once every six weeks, for only three years, a habit, she thought grimly. Well, she had every intention of consuming a lot of cigarettes in the future.
Severus emerged from the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his waist. 'You ought to have joined me,' he murmured, slipping back under the covers.
'I was in a bit of a dilemma. I would have liked to do all kinds of naughty things with soap, but in the end I decided that I wanted to keep your scent on my skin.'
With his arm around her shoulders, he began to nuzzle her throat. 'A very valid argument, my darling. Only I hate feeling sweaty.'
'Pity,' Hermione said, bending away from him to stub out her cigarette, 'because I'm planning on getting you very sweaty again.' She pushed him onto his back and got up on her knees to sit astride him. 'Are you feeling better now?'
He snorted. 'I can't remember ever having felt better.'
'You seemed a bit out of sorts earlier in the evening. You said something about being disappointed.'
'Oh, that. Yes, I was, but that has somehow receded into a haze of good food and marvellous sex. In strictly chronological order.'
'Wouldn't you like to tell me about it?'
Severus opened his eyes which had fluttered closed when she'd started caressing his chest and arms. 'I don't think I want to go there right now.'
'It's about Lucius, isn't it?'
Propping himself up on his elbows, he frowned at her. 'What makes you think it is?'
'Well, is it?' She leaned forward to nibble his earlobe.
'Erm, yes. But I can't tell you about it, my darling.'
'Can't?'
'Yes, can't. It's not that I don't want to, I really can't.'
'Works a bit like a Fidelius Charm, doesn't it?'
Severus stared up at her. 'You're a Legilimens?'
'I wish I were, sometimes. Though I would never use it on you, and certainly not without your explicit permission.'
'Well, that's a relief.' He let himself fall back into the cushions, still visibly shaken. 'But how do you know?'
'Do you promise not to tell anybody? It's still new, and highly classified – a brand new gadget we've been working on.'
'Of course I won't tell anybody. You know you can trust me.'
Hermione kissed him deeply, in a sudden outburst of emotion. 'I know I can, my love.'
She was holding him so tightly that he could almost hear his ribs crack, but it was a wonderful feeling. 'Say that again.'
'I know I can.'
He chuckled and smacked her arse. 'Not that, the other bit.'
'My love.'
Half an hour later, the tendrils of smoke from another cigarette were curling up towards the ceiling.
'You were going to tell me about some sensational new whatever-it-is,' Severus drawled lazily. 'Before we got a bit… distracted.'
'So I was. Buss me, my lord – you don't mind if I taste of cigarette, do you?'
'Not in the least. I think I'd like one myself. So,' he said, lighting up, 'about that invention.'
'It's a combination between a tracking spell and an eavesdropping charm, basically,' Hermione said. 'A bit similar to what Fred and George used when they created the Extendable Ears, but of course infinitely more subtle and really quite complicated. I had the idea about a year ago, when preparations were made to release the first prisoners on parole. We – that would be the Wizengamot, the Minister, my boss and I – agreed that their reintegration into society would come off a lot more smoothly if we let them out a bit earlier.'
'Reintegrating Lucius into society is every bit as impossible as squeezing an elephant through a keyhole.'
'If you tried with a very small elephant and a very big keyhole… Yep, still impossible. Then again, prolonged isolation isn't exactly conducive to re-socialization. In any case, we'd decided that they still ought to report back to the Ministry every ten days once they were out – really more for psychological reasons, to remind them that we're keeping an eye on them. But what we needed was constant monitoring, and so we came up with the spell. Bill, Bill Weasley that is, did the final polishing. He had this brilliant idea to insert a kind of trigger into the formula. We didn't want the subjects to know they'd been tagged, and Bill found a way to place the spell on one's own hand first, so it can be transferred by touch and activated by the target's magical aura. Bill's a genius.'
'I'm reluctant to agree, merely on principle, but yes, that is indeed quite brilliant. So, there's the target on one end – what's on the other?'
'A modified Pensieve. That part still requires a bit of work, because as it is now, somebody has to go through its contents every day, then put the memories in a sealed vessel – seeing as all this is highly confidential, we can't let any Tom, Dick or Harry do it. And with more prisoners being released on parole, it would be too much work for me alone.'
'So,' Severus said, absentmindedly stroking her thigh, 'you saw Lucius's visit the other day at my house.'
'I'm very glad you punched him, or I would've had to go and do it myself.'
'He would probably have enjoyed that. He's always had that soft spot for dominant women.'
'Severus, I wouldn't have spanked him, I would have broken his fucking aristocratic nose!' She sat up and grinned at him. 'Did it crunch satisfyingly? Books always say it crunches satisfyingly.'
'You are a very disturbing young woman,' Severus said severely. 'And I'm very tired. Let's sleep for a bit, hm?'
