Well thanks again my lovely readers for your reviews, follows and favourites. I know updates aren't as quick as usual but it's a very strange time and my brain is not always in the mood to write and escape. That said, the story in continuing, I will update and it will have a suitable ending...at some point. So I hope you too enjoy a little escapism when reading.
That said as always I apologise for any errors, grammatical or otherwise. If anyone is interested part of this chapter is bases on one of my favourite Bond Pre-title sequences so I hope you enjoy it...
Father regarded son, two sets of almost identical grey blue eyes clashing unrelentingly.
"You really shouldn't have opened that door my dear boy." Lucius said slowly his wand still pointing at his indifferent son.
The surprise on Draco Malfoy's face didn't seem to reach his body, he dropped the magazine he'd been aimlessly thumbing through onto the seat next to him but didn't jump up in alarm. He continued to look at his father, or rather at the tip of his wand.
It was hardly the first time the younger blonde had been on one end or another of his father's vicious wand. Whilst Draco was growing up Lucius had not been averse to using either part to discipline his son. The hard elm had of course been replaced since then, after Lord Voldemort had humiliatingly snapped it and taken it from its rightful master. The new wood had been carefully crafted back into the antique serpent headed cane, but it was still as threatening as ever when in Lucius Malfoy's skilled hands. The younger man however remained unperturbed.
Lucius lowered it a fraction. Perhaps with everything going on he was being hypersensitive.
"I was just being polite to your guest father." Draco offered, slipping his trainer shod feet from the stool.
"Admirable Draco, but more than a little out of character." Lucius observed, remaining unconvinced, by his son's defence, his guard very much up. His rather sweaty fingers tightening around the cool silver head.
His son shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, pushing his foppish fringe back from his face, that certainly wasn't out of character, but Lucius knew something was amiss, even if he couldn't quite put his finger on it. He couldn't take any chances especially at the moment, better to look a fool in front of his son than to end up on the wrong side of Julius Nihil or one of his minions.
"Revelio" He said in a quiet menacing voice, raising his wand once more and pointing the glowing tip at his oddly amused son.
A knowing, very satisfied smirk lifted Lucius Malfoy's own cruelly set mouth as before his eyes "Draco's" hair began to darken. The white blonde slowly morphing into a much darker shade, his straight locks beginning to curl ever so slightly. Lucius took a small step backwards but wielding his wand closer to his "son". He knew it! Whilst the younger man's physical attributes continued to gradually change, his clothing remained the same, the trainers, the jeans… The suspicious scowl which had been clouding Lucius features began to soften, a brow rising in surprise.
"Quite revealing" Sarcasm dripped from his clipped tone.
"You would think I would recognise my own shirt". He said shaking his head at Hermione who was feigning annoyance but smiling nonetheless.
"Well you didn't "recognise" your own son so what chance did your shirt stand."
Lucius adopted a similar feigned anger. "Draco and I have similar taste in shirts." He defended the sartorial reference rather than perhaps his poor observation as a parent.
He quickly lifted his lowered wand again, this time encompassing the room.
"Nube fentrestrum"
Hermione glanced about her, noticing the long windows in Lucius office had become slightly milky in appearance, shielding them from prying eyes.
"Nice ward Mister Malfoy."
"Thank you Miss Granger." He acknowledged with exaggerated politeness. "Nice …. polyjuice…?"
Hermione nodded, wrinkling her nose. "Shame I forgot that Draco wasn't quite so polite."
"Indeed!" His father concurred.
"No matter how much I tried to instil in him otherwise, my son was always of the opinion that being of pureblood meant that good manners were not required." He gave Hermione a resigned look.
"Other than your good manners you really were very convincing; I was completely fooled until that point. However I assume the polyjuicing was not really for my benefit."
"Well yes and no. Of course if I could fool you as Draco I could probably fool anyone. But I also wanted to see if the new improved potion did actually taste better."
Lucius looked amused at her rather girly statement but remained silent.
"As for the fact it is longer lasting, well that remains to be seen as my good manners put paid to that little experiment. I thought maybe SIDD might have made it a bit more resistant to revealing charms to, but I suppose you can't have everything."
"Had you not been so polite my dear, I really would not have suspected a thing." Lucius assured her.
"I doubt even Draco's mother would have given you a second look."
Hermione ran her hand through the hair which was now all her own dark wavy mass.
"You looked a little concerned before that, just after we left the table." She observed, putting her own feet, not Draco's back on the little foot stool.
"I thought you suspected something then."
Lucius grey blue eyes narrowed, recalling the exact moment she was referring to. Smiling he moved towards the small sofa and tossing the glossy magazine from the seat sat down next to her.
"Well at that point, I was going to suggest that "Draco" wait for me in my suite, not here. That was the moment it occurred to me that you would floo directly back there. I thought you might jump in the shower or even take a nap, and how in Merlin's name was I going to explain a naked Hermione Granger to my son."
Heat suffused Hermione's body, not only at the fact of Draco Malfoy finding her in his father's suite, in the shower or naked in his bed, but simply at the thought of being in Lucius' suite, in his shower or naked in his bed. Devilment got the better of her in this instance.
"For that Lucius I wish I had my time turn turner, although I am not sure if it works with polyjuice potion, and me being two people at the same but different times."
She screwed up her face, her brain almost hurting at the scenarios. Lucius had a similar expression on his amused face, clearly trying to decipher what she was saying.
"Mixing the two might prove to be rather dangerous, the polyjuice and the time turner that is, although mixing you and Draco might also prove similarly hazardous."
Hermione frowned at his inference.
"I like to think I've grown up a little since Draco and I were at school together, these days I could be trusted not to punch him on the nose or hex him."
Lucius' frown matched hers, but there was amusement in his eyes.
"Believe it or not under normal circumstances I would probably say the same of Draco. However finding someone you were at school with, in your father's bed or shower might not be the way to test that theory."
"Good point." Hermione gave Lucius a rueful smile.
"Well the entertainment factor aside, that's why I don't think it would work. Even as a polyjuiced Draco I wouldn't have the same reaction as the real one, finding me in your bed."
Hermione couldn't contain her laughter; the entire thing was becoming very confusing.
"Merlin's teeth!" Lucius exclaimed shaking his blonde head.
"I think operation Grand Slam is less complicated. Talking of which, other than obviously visiting SIDD and causing my brain to all but implode, how did your meeting with RM go?"
Hermione's face became serious once more.
"Very well, I got the feeling he was relieved we were now on the same side; we must keep him updated but wants us to continue working together."
Hermione omitted any of the inadvertent double entendres Ralph Messervy had used, knowing Lucius mind would go down the exact same route as her own and they would probably end up being side-tracked.
"He is fully supportive of our strategy, which was actually the reason for visiting SIDD. RM thought some polyjuice might come in handy all things being considered. AND…" She added with similar excitement to that the eccentric old wizard had shown.
"Boothroyd Llewellyn has already been working on a potion form of Imperius for some time, apparently it just needs a little tweaking and fine tuning. All we need to do is work on the rest of the plan, how we are going to substitute it for the Deltanovem for instance. Which brings me onto something else I picked up at the Ministry."
Hermione grabbed Lucius' arm and once again they apparated to his suite.
"This is really getting to be a very regular habit". Lucius observed as he steadied himself on the plush rug in his room, but Hermione was distracted, already riffling through a bag on the bed, one he hadn't noticed before, when he'd had her things moved into his suite.
"Here!" She announced, totally oblivious to Lucius' comment and thrusting the brown parchment folder Lois Bliss had given her at the Dark Wizard.
"Vesper Dr…" His grey eyes shot from the name on the file to Hermione's flushed faced, immediately realising what she had in mind.
"No Hermione you are not serious, Polyjuicing into Vesper Drax that is incredibly dangerous. Neither of us know enough about her, fooling Julius as my son, someone you spent years at school with is one thing, but Vesper is far too close to him, possibly closer than either of us are aware…he would know and besides which you need some of her hair…"
Hermione wasn't to be deterred, cutting Lucius off.
"I have a file on her Lucius, and I have plenty of time to study it, she was, is staying here, I am sure we can get a hair from her room."
Lucius eyes went from the file to Hermione and back again, shaking his head. He'd always known the young witch was courageous but as far as he was concerned this was more foolhardy than brave, but who was he to tell her that.
"No Hermione." He still heard himself saying.
"It's just too risky, it will never work, not even you could pull it off."
Hermione knew that in part Lucius was right, despite the comprehensive file that she had been given at the Ministry, there would be things that Julius Nihil knew that weren't in there. They could be involved on a far more personal level and she could easily be caught out. She just had to be clever and devious, after all it wasn't the first time she'd done such a thing.
"If I can get into Gringotts as Bellatrix Lestrange." She said sounding a little bit like a petulant child.
"WHAT?"
"Crap" Hermione thought silently, really wishing she hadn't opened this can of worms especially as she knew exactly what was coming next.
"And you got away with it?"
Urgh and here it was, the all-important question.
"Well we managed to get into her vault with relative ease, getting out was a little more tricky."
There was that familiar brow rising again, it had a bloody life of its own. It went well with the smirk that had settled on Lucius' face, the one which said clearly that plan hadn't gone so well, and neither would this one.
"Obviously, you did get out..." Lucius supplied, undoubtedly waiting for her to fill in the blanks and elaborate on the "tricky" part.
Hermione had opened this particular door as it were, so she had to go through it, even if it wasn't going to help her cause. At the end of the day however it was her decision, Lucius would obviously take a little more persuading that it would work but she could be very persuasive when she had to be.
"We did." The sheepish look was back.
"On the back of the Ukrainian Ironbelly that was used to guard it."
For a moment Lucius just looked at the young woman standing before him, her words slowly sinking in.
"Yes I would certainly call that "tricky"." Incredulity and sarcasm laced his words.
"But whilst not ideal, I have to confess if you are prepared to ride a dragon, an Ironbelly at that, fear is evidently not something you are overly familiar with."
Hermione half shrugged her shoulders, fear of the dragon hadn't been paramount in her thoughts at the time, getting out had.
"You do what you have to do Lucius, you know that. If me posing as Vesper Drax is what I have to do this time then so be it."
"What else did RM say?"
Lucius asked, not wanting to dwell on Hermione's risky idea at the moment, his mind still a little distracted at the thought of her riding the dragon. Trying not to compare how dangerous that was to polyjuicing into Vesper Drax, could they even be comparable?
"That I needed to stay put and stay out of sight, that I shouldn't return to my flat. Anyone seeing me could compromise both of our safeties and jeopardise the mission going forward. But we already knew that it's just a case of making that work. I can stay here."
"No you can't." Lucius said decisively and seemingly without any thought.
"There are too many people here and far too many chances someone might see you and you cannot spend the next few weeks shut up in here like a prisoner."
"Well I would hardly compare your five star establishment to Azkaban." Flippant as her words were, she had already realised that even staying here she would basically be confined to her, his room. The notion having already occurred to her earlier in the day.
"And the alternative is…?" She asked, sensing he had something in mind.
"Malfoy Manor, you will be much safer there."
Hermione couldn't help but laugh out loud, but it was a laugh borne more of trepidation than humour. From the look on Lucius Malfoy's pale face she could see that he was deadly serious. Malfoy Manor and safe were not words she would have used in the same sentence.
Of course it was actually the perfect solution but just the idea made Hermione Granger's blood run just a little cold. She could also see a lot more in those handsome chiselled features of his, concern for one but also a mischievous little twinkle. Not wanting him to pick up on her fears from long ago, she homed in on his mischievous twinkle.
"Hmm I am not sure just how safe I am going to be at Malfoy Manor, alone with the master of the house."
The twinkle deepened but oddly she could still see concern lurking in the depths.
"Oh trust me my dear in some ways you will be much safer there than you were in the past."
He didn't elaborate as his hand came to gently caress her arm, but they both knew without question to what he referred. Hermione found herself more interested in the "some ways" as clearly there were "some others".
"And in other ways Lucius." She asked taking a step into him, the parchment file creasing between them.
"In others ways my dear Hermione, you are in so much more danger."
Instead of an icy chill his words sent heat coursing through her body, she knew the exact kind of danger she was going to be in.
"I am supposed to be dead Lucius."
It was the first time either of them had used the actual words aloud, she saw the mischievous twinkle in his eyes darken at her perhaps somewhat untimely reminder. Oddly, she felt they needed to be said and she needed to say them. She raised her head defiantly, her face millimetres from his.
"But, there's no point in living, if you can't feel alive Lucius."
His fingers tightened around her forearm, the folder was all but crushed as his pulled her hard against him and his mouth covered hers.
