The morning of the day she was to marry Severus was horrible. She threw up three times and no anti-nausea potion was settling her stomach for love or money. She had tried a ginger tea, deep breathing and going for a walk, all of which intensified her need to throw the contents of her stomach up even further.
She had paced the length of the bathroom more times than she could keep count as last-second thoughts swirled through her mind of ways she could escape this nightmare. She came up with nothing.
She weighed up one more time in her head whether it would really be a terrible thing to be banished to muggle society… she could integrate back in easily and leave everyone and everything behind.
Smoothing her hands over her torso, and down her thighs, she critically looked over herself in the mirror. The knee-length black dress the covered her shoulders but dipped down low enough that you could see the swell of her breasts that she had picked out would suffice she may as well be going to a funeral.
o-o-o-o-o
"Severus. Good to see you," Lucifer's accent cut through the air as Severus stepped out of the lift at the Ministry. He had opted to come alone and wait for Hermione. It would be less awkward this way, he thought.
The little colour Severus had in his face drained as if someone had pulled a plug. "W…What are you doing here?" He cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Well. Rumour has it you are getting married today which really piqued my interest given our little deal, so I came along to see for myself."
"Well," Severus began, "You are barking up the wrong tree there because I can't even stand being in the same room as the little chit, let alone have an ounce of love for her within my being."
"Oh?" Lucifer asked, confused. "Then why marry her?"
"Marriage law," he stated simply. "It's either marry the annoying girl or go to live amongst the muggles."
"Muggles?"
Severus sighed. "Normal, non-magic people," Severus said.
"Oh, right? Quite the predicament. Wish I could help, but doubt I could," Lucifer said airily, waving a hand.
"You're the devil. Tormentor of souls, keeper of the damned, I am sure you could pull a few strings."
"I could, you are right. But I like to see squirm." he flashed a bright smile.
Severus only rolled his eyes. Who did he think he was with his perfect smile and equally perfect facial features coupled with hair that looked as if he had tended it to for at least an hour and, setting that off with a perfectly pressed suit? He was everything Severus wasn't.
"It seems like everyone is out to see me suffer," Severus grumbled half to himself and half to Lucifer.
"Or maybe everything happens for a reason? Perhaps the universe has set things in motion to better your life," Lucifer suggested.
Severus snorted. "I am being forced to marry a girl I could not care less about. I think the universe is punishing me."
"Or maybe the universe is punishing her? A young girl being forced to wed a miserable twat like you."
"Did you come here just to insult me?" Severus asked the other man with a bitter tone deep in his voice. "And while you are here, I have a question. The other day I punched the wall in the shower and cut my hand open and I bled-"
"Well, Severus. My advice to you would be not to punch the wall of the shower and it won't happen."
"Thanks for the unsolicited advice there, but I thought I was immortal."
"Immortal yes. But not invulnerable nor celestial. You can still bleed and hurt. Hell, you could have your head severed off and you would feel every cut of the blade as it did so, but you won't die from it."
"Well, what is the point of being immortal then if I don't get everything that comes with it."
"Because Severus, it is a lesson in life."
"You never told me you were teaching me a lesson," Severus raised his voice a few octaves and threw his hands in the air, frustrated.
"I never said it was a lesson for you. But it is a lesson. Just trust me on this."
"My first rule in life is to trust no one who says trust me," Severus muttered.
"Perhaps, yes. But I am the bloody devil, Severus. If you can't trust me, who can you trust?"
"I can think of a list of one hundred people off the top of my head that I could probably confide in and trust more than you."
"See, that is where you are wrong. Sometimes you are better with the devil you know."
o-o-o-o-o-o
Her stomach began tying itself into knots as she strode with purpose through the ministry. If she averted her gaze, perhaps no one would engage in conversation with her. Entering the lift, she let out a deep sigh she had been holding in. Thank Merlin no one was in here. Palms sweating, she wiped them over her fabric-covered thighs. When she heard the ding of the elevator, her heart almost pounded out of her chest. There was no denying this anymore. Just outside this elevator stood her destiny.
Gulping hard, she stepped out. Get in, sign the paper, get out. That's all she had to do. No ceremony, no fanfare, quick and painless. She nodded to herself and turned to the left, baulking slightly when she saw Severus hovering around a door waiting for her and interestingly enough, he was with another man.
"Who's this?" Hermione asked in a curious tone as she strode up to them, side-eyeing a tall and quite strapping man if she said so herself.
"Lucifer Morningstar. Pleasure. Severus said this was a wedding, but it is more of a kidnapping." He held a hand out to her, and she grasped it gently as she threw a darkened look at Severus.
"I wouldn't even call it a wedding," she scoffed, taking his hand and shaking it politely, shooting an accusing gaze at Severus
"I told you the truth," Severus said as he held his hands up defensively.
Still holding Lucifer's hand awkwardly, she rounded on him. "Did it hurt, when you fell from heaven?" She asked in a mocking tone.
"Well actually, yes, it bloody did," he scoffed, looking down at her. "You try falling that far and see how you fair."
"Seriously?" She pulled her hand from his grasp harshly and took a step back from the two of them. "You two expect me to believe that the great Lucifer Morningstar, the devil, has ascended from hell and is standing in the middle of the Ministry talking to me?"
"Well, obviously," Lucifer offered, somewhat offended. "I don't lie."
The silence hung awkwardly in the air as Hermione tried to make head and tails of the situation. Why would Severus bring a man along and get him to claim to be Lucifer?
"Look, Lucifer or whatever your real name is, with all due respect you honestly can't expect me to believe you are who you say you are." Hermione folded her arms tightly across her chest and held him under her heavy gaze. "And if you really are the devil, where did Voldemort end up? He believed deep down that what he was doing was right. I'm told that you only go to hell if that is where you believe you should end up. Now, if Voldemort doesn't believe what he did was evil or untoward, then he must be in heaven." She smiled smugly. Check and mate.
"Well, he was a difficult one to place. Because he had broken his soul into pieces, we classed his soul as cursed and broken. As each piece died off, they meandered through the depths of hell, eventually coming across each missing piece. Even once his soul was reunited, what he had done to his soul was abhorrent, and that alone was enough to keep him out of Heaven. So, the answer to your question is yes, he is in hell on a technicality."
"Wait. How did you know about Voldemort and his soul splitting?" She asked, curiously.
"I'm the devil. He's in my domain. I know everyone's story down there. You should see his hell-loop, it's spectacular."
"So the one thing he hinged all his hopes on for immortality landed him in the depths of hell? Interesting."
"Tell me, Hermione is it? What do you truly desire?" Lucifer looked intensely into her eyes.
She stood rooted to the spot, unable to move, mesmerised by the man's eyes. Mouth opening and closing as she tried to force words into her mouth. "To not marry him." She bit.
"To not marry me," Severus said in unison with Hermione.
Lucifer tutted. "This is the thing I do. Stop butting in with whatever voodoo magic it is you possess."
"I don't know what scam you two are pulling here, but it isn't convincing me one bit. You expect me to believe that the devil wears Prada?"
"And Armani," Lucifer added.
"I can see you two are extremely busy, so I will just be taking my leave." Lucifer nodded curtly and turned on his heel.
"Let me guess, you are going down to Georgia?" Hermione asked sarcastically, watching as the man stopped on the spot and turned back slowly.
"Who told you about that?" Question deep in Lucifer's eyes.
"I have my sources," she sniffed indignantly.
"We don't talk about that," Lucifer pushed gently.
Hermione patted Lucifer sympathetically on the shoulder. "Yes. I am sure it really happened too," tone dripping with hot sarcasm.
A burly man with a receding hairline and horn-rimmed glasses stepped out from behind a door. "Please, enter." He ushered Hermione and Lucifer into the room together, rounding on Severus as they walked. "You must be the witness." He looked pointedly at Severus.
"No. I am the one marrying her." He pointed at Hermione.
"Oh. The man looked taken aback slightly."
"So, you are the witness?" He asked Lucifer.
"I suppose I am." He grinned broadly, entering the room.
"This marriage couldn't be any more cursed, we may as well have the devil bear witness to our unblissful matrimony," Severus muttered as he followed everyone into the room.
o-o-o-o-o
The heavy silence they shared was one of the most awkward situations Hermione had ever found herself in. Walking to the dungeons together, a meter apart, yet right now she felt like they might be on different planets.
She prayed the entirety of their walk that they never came across another soul, and she was thankful that at least for once, the universe was listening to her.
He pushed open the door to his chambers and gently waved a hand, ushering her in before him and he closed the door behind them.
"Down the hall, to the right. I have it on good authority that the elves have already brought your belongings down. You are free to do as you wish as long as you don't impede on my space or annoy me with a barrage of stupid questions. I'm not your keeper and you aren't mine; you can come and go as you please and I will not bother you with the tireless questions where you were or whom you have been with, and I expect the same courtesy when the roles are reversed. We may live together now and that is only because it is expected. We are in no capacity, the traditional husband and wife. This is merely a relationship of convenience, the convenience being neither of us wanted to be thrown out into the Muggle world." He took a deep breath and sat in an armchair, leaning across and plucking a bottle of half-drank whiskey off the table. "In class, you treat me as if nothing has changed. I am your professor; you are my student. I will not be lenient on you, and I expect you to perform and exceed as usual in class."
"Anything else?" She asked bitterly, watching as he pressed the bottle to his lips and took a generous sip.
He sat in silence for what felt like an eternity, but in reality, only seconds had passed. "Don't expect affection and don't seek comfort. There are no feelings for you and don't think because we are married I must feel anything towards you because I don't and I won't. We have enough time to conceive a child that I don't even need to bed you for the interim."
"Don't worry, Severus," she made a point of using his name and it felt like acid upon her tongue as she spat it out bitterly, "I wouldn't dream of seeking even friendship from you, let alone comfort or affection. A gnat would have more empathy than you, and I would gladly seek counsel with one first before coming to you," she said matter-of-factly before turning on her heel and striding down the hallway.
He pressed the bottle to his lips and drank the amber liquid down like it was his lifeblood. When he was younger, he thought perhaps one day he would meet a girl once he had gotten over the death of lily and fall in love before marrying the woman that made his heart full. He would love and adore her with every fibre of his being, and he would have done anything for her. But now he was married, he felt dull, empty and like life as he knew it had come to a grinding halt, never expecting Hermione Granger to take his last name.
Downing the rest of the bottle in one fluid motion, he slammed the glass bottle onto the coffee table. How was he going to do this? How was he going to be amicable towards a person he didn't particularly like but was stuck with for the rest of her life?
Right now, hell looked like a better place.
A/N: I'm sorry if I have written Lucius instead of Lucifer anywhere. It is harder than one would think to write Lucifer instead of Lucius when you have spent years writing Harry Potter Fanfiction, it's muscle memory.
-Aliasmel1