The two English walked into a fine restaurant. The place offered a plate of mackerel sashimi, which was arranged to look like a chrysanthemum. The silver skin of the little fish reflected the light beautifully. Heated wine complimented the cold food and made the young witch curl up to the tall wizard. He found her drunken state quite amusing. If they had been in a little more private spot of the restaurant he would have begun feeding her and had ordered another bottle of the with hot water diluted shochu to see how far he could take things with the delicious little witch.
Once the last slice of fish had been eaten, Hermione lifted the plate and turned it around. There was indeed the name of the potter scratched in and the logo of the restaurant was stamped in as well.
"It serves as theft protection, whatever can be stolen will be stolen. Having a crest embedded ensures no one can sell it. Of course, at some venues, people steal those implements as souvenirs. Those places have charms on their property which either bring the item back to its place or just add it to the bill." He explained.
"I didn't know. I don't come from a family of thieves, but knowing Mundungus Fletcher, having such precautions in place does make sense."
"Ahh, Mundungus Fletcher, lovely Fella. The last time I turned my back to him, he stole 2 Galleon from me."
"What did you do to him?" the bushy-haired witch demanded to know.
"Nothing."
She looked skeptical.
"Sometimes it is better to allow the other party to think they got away with it. It makes them feel smart and no one likes people they cannot win against, you of all people should know that."
The young witch remained unconvinced.
"I could not throw any nasty curses with my son watching, otherwise he would have tried them on young Mr. Potter. Such an incident would have raised even more awkward questions. As if raising a family under constant scrutiny and harassment was not hard enough… hopefully, Narcissa managed to hide all questionable objects well, I would hate Draco to have to endure the same treatment I received in the last decades."
Hermione rolled her eyes, one could also simply behave like a law-abiding citizen… "Oh please, are those not the problems your Galleons make just disappear?"
"You spent far too much time among Weasleys. Their stupidity clouds your judgment. My family is powerful and wealthy but has never been popular. Money is the only thing desired from me and I like to keep them wanting, works far better. If I bribed everyone who wanted it I would be both poor and locked up in Azkaban. Money is a burden, I have learned to deal with over the years. Success is nothing but turning your weaknesses into strengths."
"You can't expect me to pity you."
"Of course not, tiger. But be honest, did you ever want to be the richest witch alive?"
Hermione swallowed hard, she had not yet thought of the implications her new marital status bring with it. For her, it was his money and his estate. While she liked the idea of shared wealth and accounts, in general, the massive gap between them made her feel crushed. She could not see herself comfortably spending Malfoy money.
Why did it all have to be so complicated? Not wanting to think about money the young witch agreed with her husband and urged him to start their hunt for tableware.
"Desert?" he asked.
"I don't think I should eat that much…"
Lucius exhaled loudly, his body trembled in anger, he even broke his chopsticks. He raised himself and just left. Hermione set there for a moment confused before she got up. She told the waiter to mail her the bill and rushed after her husband. She lost sight of him. Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. He couldn't just abandon her. Before panic robbed her of every clear thought she spotted his platinum blonde hair several shops ahead. Luckily her wizard was tall and stood easily out of the crowd.
Hermione sprinted after him. People stopped to stare at her, others ignored her in a very Japanese way, turns out that a tipsy English witch running in high-heels through a shopping district was an unusual sight in Japan. She finally caught up with him, but her heels didn't give her enough grip to slow down and she crashed into his strong back and awkwardly swung around his torso.
"Lucius, wait!" Hermione cried trying to catch her breath. He stopped and stared at the young Gryffindor just like he did at the last World Cup and just like than she met his gaze and stared back. He knew she would falter. He refused to be stared down by a teenager.
SMACK
Out of nowhere, the young witch had slapped him. He grabbed her arms and dragged her into an emergency staircase. He locked the door behind them and cast an array of charms to ensure their privacy then he pushed her face forward against the wall.
"Never insult me in public ever again!" he demanded.
"Says the one who just abandoned his wife in a restaurant!"
That sentence angered the furious man even more. His hand reached beneath her dress and ripped with one powerful pull the knickers of her body. Hermione groaned in pain. Before she knew what was happening, he had already unzipped his trousers. She shivered in anticipation and he pushed himself inside her tight passage.
She was incredibly wet for not having had any preparation whatsoever. She pressed her butt against him, her inner walls were clenching around him. His hand reached forward and toyed with her clit. After only a few hard thrusts, her muscles contracted around him, milking him. Grunting loudly he came, emptying himself deep inside of her.
The whole affair had taken less than 40 seconds. He slid out of her and with his last ounce of strength he caught the young witch to prevent her from crashing down onto the concrete floor. Leaning against the wall he held her in his arms.
"Oh tiger, you will be the death of me."
"You sound surprised," Hermione breathed.
"No, it is just the circumstances I find somewhat unexpected."
"You'd rather I killed you on the battlefield?"
"Definitely not, this is far more interesting."
He retrieved a crisp white handkerchief from his inner pocket and whipped his semen from her sex. Lucius kissed her temples and cast a series of healing charms, he was a strong male and the little witch looked so small and fragile in his arms. With a simple reparo he repaired her underwear and helped make her look decent. The dark wizard was about to get up but his tiger was crying.
"Was I too rough? Are you still hurt?"
"No, it was fine."
"Fine?"
"You've been great, really. It's me," Hermione said.
He leaned back and closed his eyes. Nothing good had ever come after a witch had said those three words. He bit his tongue in an effort to not sound annoyed. "Do you want to talk?"
"Not really… But if your offer still stands, I'd love to have a lava-cake with vanilla ice-cream and cream."
He helped her up but when she tried to put weight on her left foot, it gave in. She must have twisted an ankle running after him. Lucius caught her instinctively and healed her with a swift flick of his wand. She looked up to him with her big brown eyes and he kissed her tears dry.
"I would offer you my handkerchief…"
"I pass."
Sitting in a lovely café with a half-eaten lava cake, ice-cream, and more whipped cream than what was considered normal, she got curious as to what exactly upset him that much.
"When you share the table with someone for decades, little annoyances tend to become unbearable. You see, I swim, I do kendo and exercise. When I join my family on the table after I swam a few laps and worked through most of my daily correspondence, I like to indulge in an old English breakfast. The Savoy would be put to shame by my kitchen-elves. When your lovely wife, like all upper-class females, picks half-hearted on half a vegetable and a lettuce leaf… I thought you were different."
"Well, most people need to work to look good."
"Let us be frank for a moment, most witches do things in order to make themselves more appealing, I, like every other businessman would be sent to Azkaban for and the irony of it is: it is not even working."
"But Narcissa is beautiful," Hermione said, not daring to look at him.
"So are all of her sisters. They won the genetic lottery, at least in that aspect. And just to be clear, my former wife was never the most attractive of the lot. She also was more beautiful before she started to work on it."
"Still, you can't expect me to stay in form and prevent me from dieting at the same time."
"I told you I prefer a healthier weight, did I not?"
"You did, I just didn't believe you meant it. After all, everybody wants to be skinny and I saw your last wife. This is all I can go by."
"What is wrong with muggle and their sexuality?! When I went to Hogwarts fucking around indiscriminately, seemed the only thing they did for fun except for substance abuse. They did not even wear knickers beneath their nylons and mini-skirts and today denying their femininity is in-vogue. Why would you allow gay-designers, who have absolutely no interest in women or anything female for that matter dictate you what beauty is? If I wanted to bed a wizard I could have found myself one. Turns out I generally prefer witches with delightful curves and a plump butt. Nature wants procreation therefore, witches whose body functions have been reduced to those of a child cannot be sexually appealing. On the plus side, I never had to worry about my ex-wife's cycle, not that it mattered since we lead separate lives."
"But if men like curvy women… why would skinny people be considered pretty?" Hermione asked.
"Simple, being thin is associated with being disciplined which makes partly sense, since it requires an effort and a lot of discipline to go against everything your body needs. The only problem is that we all have limits in our productivity and when you are hungry and have invested all your will power in not giving in to your primal urges, there is simply no energy left to work, which makes it counterproductive. On the other hand, having more on your ribs is associated with the joy of life… In other words, cultures who value fun more than work prefer chubby people, while Asians want to be as skinny as possible. You will not see many overweight women in leadership positions."
She sighed. "And what does that mean for me?"
"Just eat what you want. You have never been overweight, it is unlikely that you are prone to it so stop fretting and enjoy your life, works for me just fine. Want some more ice-cream?"
She looked over to his plate. He had eaten his lava cake up and there was still some ice-cream left. She hesitated.
"Actually yes, I would love to have a spoon full."
"You can have it all."
"I don't want it all. I just want a spoon full," Hermione said.
"As you wish."
Having settled all immediate conflicts the odd couple went to the 2nd floor on the east side of the island to choose pottery. Sprawling through the area, Hermione grew frustrated. She had no idea so many types of tableware existed and none of the plates displayed looked familiar.
There were no pasta or soup plates, no charger or dinner plates, or something resembling anything used in Europe. Most pieces were too small to be considered practical at least from a western point of view. Lucius was as lost as Hermione was.
Funny all it took to overwhelm Voldemort's right-hand man and the brightest-witch-of-her-age was shopping for domestic goods. Hermione had never lived by herself and Lucius was accustomed to house-elves keeping things afloat and a wife making that kind of decision for him.
How many sets does one need? Do they even need sets? Japanese don't have a long history of eating together and it was usually only the two of them. But will they be receiving guests more frequently? And if yes, how many people at a time? She certainly won't be throwing parties. Four copies of each plate sounded nice, one for a guest and one spare.
"Why can't we look for the nearest IKEA and simply buy an entire set. That's what my parents did anyway?"
"What is this IKEA?" Lucius asked.
"It's a huge furniture shop chain from Sweden. It's rather cheap and the minimalistic, Nordic design is quite nice."
"And they sell porcelain?"
"Well, it's more like mass-produced pottery from china. But it's cheap and my parents did not want to invest in breakable things with little me around. Apparently, I destroyed quite a few of the finer pieces from the set they picked out before their wedding and my being a witch did not help either."
"I see, Draco was terrible. Especially when he started to display his magical abilities. Nothing was safe from his temper tantrums."
Hermione giggled. "Why do we need beautiful tableware anyway? We could simply transfigure something."
"You do know that everything wants to keep its natural shape after sometime transfigured items turn back."
"Of course, I do! I just don't see why this won't do for one single evening."
"Because the information will be lost. The pieces we choose today will add to our legacy and will be enjoyed by Malfoys for centuries to come."
"No pressure then." Hermione rolled her eyes.
Since neither of them knew how to host a dinner let alone a formal Japanese one or witch plates to choose for which dish, (they hadn't even planned a menu) the two usually well-organized Brits went from store to store and bought everything either of them wanted. Lucius made sure the finished products would be floo-delivered to Tora-jou.
Japan's well developed public floo-network was one of the things she loved most about Japan. In Britain, mail-order was limited by the maximum weight an owl could carry. But since most Japanese did not regularly carry a wand, public fireplaces were omnipresent. Naturally, enterprises were fast to exploit the possibilities, and floo-delivery services with logistic-centers in the middle of nowhere sprang to life. Some of them relied on a human workforce and others utilize elves. Some shops also deliver their parcels personally.