~o~

"What happened?" Fleur asked on the other end of the line.

Hermione hugged her knees to her chest. She sat on the sofa at home, with an elderly Crookshanks snoozing by the fire. The Kneazles amber eyes happily half
closed in his squashed face. If only her life could be as simple as a cat's.

"'Ermione?"

Hermione realized she hadn't responded. "Sorry. Nothing."

"Nothing?" Fleur repeated. "Lucius told me you took him to court. Again."

"Oh, yeah, that happened too."

"When you told me the date went bad, I thought you were exaggerating!"

Hermione grimaced, torn between laughing at herself or crying. What had she even been thinking, going after Lucius like that? Of course it would backfire and now she felt just as confused and affronted as they day the older wizard had kissed her.

"It's complicated," Hermione was loathe to admit.

"You can say that again," Fleur said. "You make me and Bill seem like an old married couple, no problems, and Bill goes crazy every full moon!"

"We're not a couple."

"You are always together, no?"

"That's not true." Only in court hearings and elevators, and sometimes letters and then that one awful blind date, of course.

The Frenchwoman was not fooled and made a clicking sound with her tongue.

"Okay! So we might've run into each other a few times..." She brushed it off. Though her cheeks flushed all on their own when she thought of their last heated meeting in the elevator.

Fleur giggled. "He kissed you?"

Hermione winced. "Please don't remind me."

"It was good then?"

"How would you know?"

"Narcissa and I are still friends. She says he's an amazing kisser, one of the best."

Hermione slapped her own forehead. "Oh great. So now everything I do is going to reported back to her."

"Non, non! Your secrets are safe with me. Unless you want me to tell her."

"She must hate me. Lucius told me the reason he divorced her was because of me."

"And you believed him?"

"Should I not have?"

Fleur chuckled a deep, throaty laugh. "You can be naive sometimes, my friend. Narcissa and Lucius had their issues long before. Many, many issues." Fleur paused dramatically and hummed under her breath as if going over her thoughts. "Although she did tell me right before she filed for divorce, he slept with three different brunettes."

"So he did sleep with those women!" Hermione exclaimed and ran a hand through her hair. "He lied about that too."

Fleur did not seem to understand what Hermione was fussing about, but the Frenchwoman murmured in a sad tone. "Yes, yes. Narcissa was upset. Because she is blonde. Like me...She said she could've forgiven him if the other women had been blonde and looked like herself."

Hermione rolled her eyes. Of course, a vain narcissist would allow infidelity if the mistresses were all doppelgangers that paled to the original article. Narcissa nee Black Malfoy must've been a piece of work in herself, Hermione thought, though Lucius was no cup of tea either. No wonder the Malfoy's marriage had worked as long as it did, being that shallow. However, the end of a long marriage, even if based on mutual vanity, was still a terrible loss. So she did sympathize with Narcissa.

Hermione cleared her mind of further judgmental thoughts, and instead focused on being sympathetic. "I'm sorry that sounds terrible." She bit at her lip. "What were they married, like two decades almost? You can assure Narcissa I'm not one of the three brunettes, or ever will be."

"Oh do not worry about Narcissa! She is long over the divorce."

"Really? But it's only been, what, four months?" Hermione tried to do the math in her head, wondering how Lucius's blonde ex-wife could bounce back so speedily. "And they were married at least twenty years?"

Fleur cooed as if Hermione were missing a vital clue on how life really ebbed on. "You underestimate Narcissa, she's already had four lovers, one for each month." Fleur giggled in a very French elegant way. "I don't think Lucius has had one lover since his doomed affairs."

Hermione's face heat up. It would be a lie to say this vital piece of information...didn't immediately stir in her certain, more favourable feelings towards the elder Malfoy. But why should that be? Why did this interest her? She shouldn't care, should she...and why did her damn heartbeat have to start to race!

She steadied her voice, trying not to show too much interest. "Really? Not one?" So what Lucius had told her was true—bar, that he did bed the three brunettes.

"Oh no, no!" Fleur hummed into the phone. "He seems to be stuck on just one brunette, one person who has no interest in him, or say they say." Fleur paused. "I don't think he's gone on one date since the date wit you he asked me to arrange, 'Ermione. Shame, he could be having lots of fun right now."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked sharply,

"Nothing. Just an attractive man like Lucius Malfoy attracts many admirers and he has the funds to lead any lifestyle he wants...I hoped my cousin would move abroad to Paris for a time maybe."

Hermione felt her stomach drop. "Why Paris?"

"Oh la belle vie, why else? It's in his blood to seek pleasure and the finer things in life...like musique, the theatre, architecture, la pâtisserie, love, croissants.."

"Right. Croissants and love." Hermione worried her bottom lip between her teeth. Suddenly she felt out of depth like Lucius, Narcissa and Fleur all understood things about life that an Englishwoman like herself perhaps never would. To the outside, perhaps they seemed indulgent and selfish...but perhaps the French knew something of what was to be valued. Hermione sighed out heavily.

"Why do you sound disappointed?"

"I'm not disappointed, Fleur," she said shortly.

Fleur broke into a peal of laughter. "I know. You would just miss taking Lucius to court as much, no, if he went to Paris?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I'm not this litigious, cardigan-wearing harpy everyone seems to think I am. I did have serious, legitimate reasons each time. I mean, dark stuff, war crimes and sabotage...political tampering too I think..."

"Of course, of course. Still it is the past!"

"Not that far in the past." Why was Fleur making her feel so stuffy and uptight? Were the French really so forgiving and carefree they could shrug everything off, and carry on with life? Hermione didn't think it was wrong to hold out for justice...was it? Even if the proof was long gone, like much of the shattered lives and damage caused by the war.

Hermione added, in her defense. "Muggle legislators still go after war criminals sometimes decades after the war. Sometimes a century...They didn't give up? Why would I?"

"I know, 'Ermione, your heart is in the right place. But for your own good, I think you should let go of the war...live a little."

"I am."

"Are you?"

Why did Fleur have to sound so doubtful? Hermione knew her friend had a point, but still..she was making her feel so tight-laced. Like she really was this cardigan-wearing dour English legal Ministry drone.

"What are you doing this Saturday?" the Frenchwoman demanded.

Hermione wished she had something exciting to say. Her reply embarrassed her really, even if she was normally passionate about the subject. "I'm returning some law books actually, about various precedent cases of House Elf rights to the Ministry's archives."

"Oh 'Ermione!" Fleur bemoaned, as if she'd never heard something so tragic. "That is terrible. House-elf rights are important. But go out. Go out!"

"No, I have no hot dates planned, thanks, with or without your help." Hermione chuckled though as she remembered the terrible blind date with Lucius she felt a shiver up her spine. The way Lucius had looked at her, like he'd never seen something so beautiful, when she arrived in the restaurant wearing that red dress. But then everything he had said, and just his whole belief system, had ruined any good feelings that night might've led to. It didn't matter if Lucius's eyes still devoured her every time they passed...or Merlin, his lips in the elevator...the man was a war criminal, whether he lived a thousand years without ever getting called out on it.

"When I was your age, before Bill, I went on a million dates. Pour le fun, you know? You don't have to take it seriously, it's about the experience. Because when you are married, you won't be able to anymore."

"I know, I will later. I really do need to go the archives."

"You're going to become old before your time, 'Ermione," Fleur pleaded.

Hermione exhaled loudly. "Yes, so may it be. But isn't it you who once told me witches never age, unless they chose to? There's a million spells to choose from."

"I meant old at heart, mon amie."

The words stuck with her. Fleur wasn't usually harsh, but Hermione knew her words came from a place of caring...or perhaps, just meddling. Fleur made it no secret she wanted Hermione to give Lucius another chance.

Old at heart. Thanks Fleur. Great friend.

Yet the words made her almost believe Fleur had it right this time...that Hermione had grabbed the wrong end of the stick. But then Fleur herself had rushed into marriage at an early age and the blonde didn't have much of a career now outside babies and gossip, of course. So maybe Fleur shouldn't be lecturing her on la bonne vie or whatever she'd called it. She hardly knew what the Frenchwoman meant by bon vivant or la bonne vie anyways. Too French for her understanding.

Or perhaps Fleur was merely projecting her own boredom with domestic bliss. Changing nappies all day could do that to you. While she always had her mind occupied with her career in reforming the wizarding world's laws for magical animals.

Either way, Hermione wasn't about to fall right into Lucius's lap because she felt a...bit...lonely.

It didn't matter how good his kisses were either, reputation for his making out skills, well earned or not.

Hermione flushed as she tried not to think anymore of Lucius.

She slipped into her bathroom and took a shower, ignoring the owl pecking at her window with a letter.

.

.

~o~

a/n: Is Fleur right or wrong? Has Hermione become near sighted from always looking over her shoulder into the past and the war, expecting someone to hurt her? Or should she give Lucius another chance? Is Lucius trustable in his intentions?