Sorry for the delay! This was another chapter that was difficult to write because I knew their dynamic had to be perfectly worked out for things to be believable. Still a little rough around the edges, but I think it portrays what I needed it to. And don't worry, another chapter or two and the embers will light like fire and gasoline. ;) Thanks again for all the reviews! I read them all, and they make me so happy. I love reading my regulars' reviews, but I'm excited to see some new faces in the comments as well! :)

Chapter 13

Hermione slept for the rest of the day, only waking when Lucius nudged her and encouraged her to drink more of the various potions he was preparing. Hermione's suspicions of ill-will were long in the past, and she groggily drank whatever he offered her before falling asleep once more. Lucius would then wordlessly leave, and he still seemed intent on not talking to her, despite her decision to remain in Malfoy Manor.

Hermione's dreams offered little refuge from her waking thoughts, however. Even in her slumber she found herself wondering why she didn't accept Harry's offer, why she wanted to continue playing this wicked game, and why each and every day she missed Ron a little less…

The next day, Hermione awoke fully and rediscovered her appetite. When Lucius arrived to administer her next dose of medicine, Hermione asked, "When's breakfast?" She really had no idea what time it was, only that the sun was filtering in through the large glass window across the room from her spot on the couch.

"You mean dinner," Lucius sniffed, turning to leave. "Dipsy can bring you your meal whenever-"

"No," Hermione said, and Lucius froze in the doorway. "I want…"

I want to eat dinner with you,she thought.

"I want to eat dinner in the dining room."

Although his back was to her, Hermione could feel Lucius roll his eyes. "Miss Granger, it is quite impractical with your leg-"

"I know, but I want to eat in the dining room."

Lucius turned to face her and began to lecture her like a parent scolding a child. "I will not have you hobbling around this house and risking injuring your leg further just because you want a change of scenery."

Hermione was so frustrated. In her current state, the game wasn't fair; the players weren't evenly matched. All she wanted to do was talk to the man, for Merlin's sake, just to figure out where he had gone, what she had done to make him leave, and what her uncertain future in Malfoy Manor was going to look like. But Lucius was running away, and she knew that she could not chase after him while being cooped up in the study.

"You want me to eat to get my strength back? I won't eat unless it's in the dining room."

Lucius's face began to flush, and she saw his lips draw themselves in frustration. "Why must you make this so difficult?" he hissed.

"Why must you?" Hermione retorted, raising her voice.

"I just said-"

"I know what you said-"

"It's only that-"

"You're being ridiculous-"

"I just don't want to be alone!"

Hermione yelled the words before she even realized that was how she felt. Lucius looked taken aback, and his arguments died on his lips.

"I don't want to be alone…" Hermione murmured again. "And neither do you…and that's why you have me here."

It wasn't a question.

Lucius's face was a cold mask. Hermione searched his grey eyes for a flicker of emotion but found none.

Finally, he approached her and offered his arm wordlessly.

Hermione smiled slightly in spite of herself and wrapped her hand around his forearm as he helped pull her to her feet.

Putting any pressure on her bandaged foot instantly shot pain up Hermione's leg, and she instinctively nearly tumbled to the ground. Thankfully, Lucius kept a firm grip on her arm and pulled her into a standing position next to him. He wrapped one arm around her waist, and Hermione put the other over his shoulder. She didn't want to admit it, but his touch, not just his strength, was reassuring.

"I'm not carrying you anywhere else in this damned house," Lucius muttered.

"Well I refuse to be carried anywhere else in this house," Hermione shot back. "I can walk just fine."

She attempted to take a step on her own before instantly stumbling. She would have fallen to the floor had it not been for Lucius's firm grip on her hip.

Rolling his eyes, Lucius commanded, "Just hold on and follow my lead," and he began taking slow steps, allowing Hermione to use him as a human crutch. "I would offer you this," he gestured with the snake head cane he held in his other hand, "but I don't think it would take too kindly to you." Hermione kept walking and said nothing. If a book nearly turned her hand to ashes, she didn't want to imagine what the cane of Voldemort's former second-in-command would do to a Muggleborn like her.

The pair made it through the study door and continued down the hallway, and Hermione was suddenly sensitive to their proximity to one another. She leaned heavily up against him, her arm was wrapped around Lucius's broad shoulders, and his hand had a firm grip on her waist…

They finally reached the dining room, and Lucius helped Hermione ease herself into a chair before finding another to prop her leg up on.

"Thank you," Hermione said, forcing a smile. Lucius still said nothing.

Dipsy had already prepared a meal, and the two ate in silence. Hermione wished Lucius would say something, but at least he was acknowledging her existence. Just the sounds of him fiddling with his robes, tapping his cane unconsciously against the toe of his boot, and sipping his red wine was enough for Hermione. She didn't want to admit how much she had missed those sounds in the deafening silence Lucius left in his absence.

Once the pair had finished their meal, Lucius helped Hermione back to the study before suggesting, "I should probably change those bandages and make sure the wound is healing as I'd hoped."

Hermione nodded and sat back on the chesterfield, delicately extending her wounded leg.

Lucius knelt down next to her and looked over his handiwork. His fingers worked slowly, gently unwrapping the bandages, and Hermione observed the deftness of his hands. Those hands that had slipped the diary into Ginny Weasley's cauldron, that didn't have the grip to hold onto the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries, that had cast the Cruciatus curse, the Imperius Curse, Avada Kedavra...

Lucius pulled the rest of the bandages away smoothly, but Hermione winced anyway. Looking over the wound, Lucius nodded, seemingly proud of his handiwork. Following his gaze, Hermione was impressed as well. Her wound was healing quickly; at this rate, it might not even leave a scar.

Lucius applied some kind of cream to the remaining angry gashes before covering the wound once more and turning to leave the room.

"Lucius, wait."

He stopped but did not turn around.

Hermione struggled to find her words. "I…there's nothing to do here. Alone. I just…can't we at least talk, Lucius? Talk about where you went, why you left, what my future here is going to look like now that…"

Hermione trailed off, staring at Lucius's back for what felt like hours. "Now that what, Miss Granger?" he said over his shoulder.

"Things have changed, Lucius. You know they have."

Hermione's defiant stare was burning a hole in the back of Lucius's cloak, yet he stood unflinchingly, never turning to look at her. Finally, he made his way to the armchair across from the sofa. He eased himself down and rested his cane against the arm of the chair before folding his hands across his lap and beginning to speak.

"Yes, some things have changed. Your leg, for instance, was once significantly more intact than it is now, before you went against my advice and-"

"That's not what I'm talking about," Hermione snapped, and Lucius was actually somewhat taken aback by her demeanor. "The game is different now…" Hermione murmured. "It's changed…"

"How so?" Lucius asked, lip still curled in his usual cold sneer.

"You know it has, Lucius. I mean, we've gotten the papers talking, I've certainly gotten my revenge and enough money to set out on my own, and yet I'm still here…We can't keep living this charade forever…"

Lucius's smirk faded, but it was replaced by his emotionless mask.

"Things changed, somewhere along the way."

Lucius was unreadable. Finally, he breathed, "What are you insinuating, Miss Granger?"

Now it was Hermione's turn to smirk. "I was not insinuating anything, Lucius, but since you seem to think so, do tell, what was I insinuating?"

Color rose in Lucius's pale cheeks, and she could hear him push a controlled breath through his nose.

Since he didn't seem keen on answering that question, Hermione tried another. "At least tell me why you left me here for days alone. What if I had come across another Dark artifact? Hell, what if the ghosts of the Manor had gotten to me? When this place is silent, Lucius, it creaks and groans and cries…it's quite haunting."

"I know that better than anyone."

As Hermione looked into the depths displayed in his grey eyes, she believed it, and she fell silent.

With a sigh, Lucius straightened up in his chair and slowly began, "I stated earlier, Miss Granger, I had business to attend to. It has now been, more or less, resolved. No matter how many times you ask, I will not provide details since you do not need them. I hope it will not happen again, and I will try my best to remain here more consistently. I understand that the Manor is not the most comfortable building to stay in alone, but it is my home regardless, for better or worse."

Surprised by his seemingly sincere response, Hermione timidly asked, "And as for my future here?"

Lucius's brow furrowed slightly as he looked at the fire, contemplating his words carefully. "As it stands, Miss Granger, the library still needs to be finished, and the press is hungry as ever for more gossip. However, should you want to leave once your leg has healed, the doors to the Manor will open for you, but if you walk out of them again, they will forever be barred to you."

Hermione looked confused. "So, regardless of when or why I leave, you're saying I can never come back?"

"We've both achieved what we set out to in the beginning. You said it yourself. Do you really see yourself stopping by for afternoon tea after leaving here, finding a prestigious job, settling down with someone new-"

"That's not fair, Lucius. That's ridiculous, why would you-"

"What do you want from me, Hermione?" Lucius snapped.

Hermione was taken aback. "I mean…just a little bit of transparency about your intentions-"

Lucius launched up from the chair. Hermione went to match him but was settled by the pain in her leg, and she was left with no other option but to watch him approach her, seething.

"I have been nothing but transparent about my intentions! It is you, my dear, who have been deceitful!"

"Me?"

"You act like the victim of the game, but you chose to play it. Every game has a winner and a loser-"

"And all you ever cared about was winning, right, Lucius Malfoy? You had a winning bank account, a winning wife, and a winning career until-"

"Don't…" Lucius hissed, and for once, Hermione listened to him and left her unfinished sentence hanging in the air above them.

"I'm sorry…" Hermione murmured, and she meant it. Lucius turned his back to her and faced the fire. She could tell by his heaving shoulders that he was still seething. "…I missed you."

Lucius turned away from the fire slowly to see a sincere Hermione looking up at him from her spot on the sofa. "…What?"

"I…" She wasn't sure how to being. "I missed you, Lucius. On the days you weren't here. I missed playing our games, sick as they are. I missed your obnoxious check-ins in the library, your snide comments at dinner, your relentless pruning and preening." Lucius flushed and dropped the hand that was adjusting the buttons on his vest. "I didn't want to leave…but it was less painful than feeling abandoned in this mansion."

Lucius stared at her in disbelief for long moments before composing himself. He swallowed and filtered his speech; she could see the concentration on his face as he murmured, "I never meant to abandon you, Miss Granger. For that…I am truly sorry."

"Can a Malfoy be sorry?" Hermione asked mockingly. She noticed Lucius was approaching her slowly.

"It is not in our nature," Lucius knelt down so he could look Hermione in the face clearly. "But in extraordinary circumstances, it is possible."

Hermione looked at Lucius, really looked at him for the first time in a long time. She saw the cold grey eyes and the thin lips she had grown so accustomed to, and perhaps it was just the lighting from the fire burning in the hearth, but she swore she saw a warmth wash over his features. It almost looked like he wanted to reach out and touch her, to stroke her face, to move a strand of hair…but he did nothing.

Tearing her gaze away, Hermione announced, "I would like to stay here…at least until the library is finished and I feel like my head is on straight again."

Lucius's usual smirk returned. "Permission granted, Miss Granger." He rose from her side and grabbed his cane from its perch on the armchair, but Hermione spoke up.

"Just answer one more question, Lucius." He froze in the doorway one last time. "I just have to know…I'm not trying to make you a 'changed man,' nor do I believe I have that power, but you once told me you were trying to become one…and I find myself wondering…Do you still believe in everything? The pureblood values, the honor in your heritage, the domination of the Wizarding World? The cause that you fought for, that you were willing to die for?"

Lucius mulled the question over in silence for minutes. When he spoke, the words themselves seemed painful, although he never showed Hermione his face. "I still don't believe I was wrong…but perhaps I wasn't entirely right, either."

Hermione smiled slightly to herself before murmuring, "Goodnight, Lucius."

The figure in the doorway took a deep breath before saying, "Goodnight…Hermione," and sweeping down the hall, never turning around to face the wounded form on the sofa, its balancing force, its biggest fear.