Disclaimer: See chapter one.
Hermione rested her elbows on the stainless steel workbench, staring blankly at the calculations. It was three weeks after her last meeting with Severus, and she had had no contact from Voldemort. She was in her lab at the Ministry trying not to worry about what that could mean, while endeavoring to determine the concentration of an unknown substance she'd been asked to analyze. So far she'd gotten pretty much nowhere. Straightening, she turned to watch her assistant, Travis, clean up the remnants of their last experiment. Shaking her head at the ineffectiveness of it, Hermione glanced at her watch and, mainly because she was starving, decided that it was time for lunch. "Travis," she said, and the young man looked up.
"Yes, Miss Granger?"
"Go for lunch. You can finish when you get back."
He nodded in response, and put down the scrub brush and beaker. Hanging his lab coat on the stand, and wishing Hermione a good lunch herself, he exited through the main doors leading out into the Ministry corridor.
Hermione smiled at him; all in all she liked this assistant, who would be working with her until December. He was efficient, listened to instruction, followed safety procedures, and was just generally polite, all qualities Hermione found essential in her lab. Although, to be fair, it wasn't really her lab. It was, in fact, the Ministry's seminar and training center. When Hermione had first been offered her position, she had been given the choice between a semi-private smaller lab and the large and newly renovated public lab. After some careful consideration, she'd decided to take the public lab, and had not regretted it since. There were standard seminars twice a year, and occasionally someone would request the lab for a tutorial, but other than that the state of the art showpiece was hers. Her favorite part of the lab was the four small workbenches in the center that allowed for several experiments to be conducted at the same time without fear of cross-contamination. Of course, she also thoroughly enjoyed the large, spacious and comfortable office adjoining the lab, which was twice the size of the standard offices, and only occasionally had to be shared for team meetings.
Neatly gathering her papers into a folder, Hermione crossed the lab to her office and, upon opening the door, jumped. Draped over her desk chair was Lucius, his feet propped on her desk.
"I was wondering when you would finish up in there," he drawled, not moving.
Hermione raised an eyebrow, placing her folder on the long project table to her right. "I don't recall giving you the password to my office."
Lucius chuckled, "You didn't. Although, interestingly enough, I don't really have a problem getting into any office here at the Ministry."
Hermione inclined her head. "No, I don't suppose you do," she conceded. "Although, I will say that I don't really appreciate the invasion of privacy."
"Afraid I might find something incriminating?" he asked, his voice all silk.
Hermione rolled her eyes. She wasn't concerned; any correspondence between her and the Resistance was always burned. "Why are you here anyway?" She changed tack, knowing that there was no appropriate answer.
"Are you displeased, my dear?" He sounded amused.
"Not exactly. I just wasn't expecting to see you until this evening."
"Yes, well, I thought it might be nice to go for lunch."
"Did you?" Hermione sounded pleased.
"Indeed," he smirked. "And I think you should take the rest of the afternoon off."
"I don't know, Lucius," Hermione bit her lip. "I'm really very busy right now."
Lucius smiled at her, "I thought you might say that, so I took the liberty of asking you superiors to give you the afternoon off."
"And they didn't object?" Hermione was genuinely surprised.
"I didn't give them much of a choice."
"Oh," Hermione thought about it. "Where do you suggest we go then?"
Lucius smirked, standing up and walking to the office door, "I think you'll like what I have in mind." Lucius extended his arm to Hermione, who crossed the room to take it.
"I have no doubt I will," she said. And the two left the office.
***
Blinking, Hermione raised her hand to shield her eyes from what could only be the early morning sun. Looking around, she found that luscious green vegetation, and various sweet smelling blossoms surrounded her. To one side was a steep embankment dropping off to a white sandy beach that flowed gently to the turquoise-blue of the ocean. About a hundred yards back from the embankment was a large one-story villa. Its peach clay shingles seemed to shine in the sun.
A creased formed in Hermione's forehead, "Where are we?"
"Grand Cayman," Lucius replied. "Pease Bay to be specific."
"Oh?"
"I'm thinking of purchasing the property, and I thought that lunch here might be enjoyable."
Hermione nodded, looking around. "Decided you wanted to do some offshore banking among the Muggles?"
"I'm not terribly inclined to pay taxes on my Muggle investments, my dear."
"That must be why we get along so well," Hermione replied. "Were both hypocrites in our own right."
Lucius raised an eyebrow, "Touché," he replied drily. "Although I do believe that you would know more about that than I." Lucius eyed her carefully for a moment before smiling, "Now, I do believe it's time for lunch." He gestured toward a gazebo that Hermione had failed to notice before. It was sheltered by several Bougainvillea shrubs their flowers bright purple and white. They reminded Hermione of lilies, only more tropical.
Following Lucius up the steps of the gazebo, she was surprised to find a small table set for two. Surrounded by the aroma of the Bougainvilleas and the fresh ocean air, in this quite little hideaway…it was almost romantic. Sitting down, Hermione smiled, "So what's on the menu?"
"Some local favorites." As if on cue, two white clad waiters approached the table placing a small plate in front of her. Picking up one of the large pieces of meat, Hermione took a tentative bite, the intense flavor of curry, ginger, and other indistinguishable spices invading her mouth. She liked it. After swallowing a second, bigger bit, she asked, "So, what is this?"
"Jerked shrimp, I do believe," Lucius replied. He also seemed to be enjoying the appetizer.
"Lucius," Hermione said some time later, after the appetizers had been cleared, "I don't mean to be so forward, but isn't Lord Voldemort a little less then pleased that you do business in the Muggle world?"
"He doesn't seem to mind," Lucius reflected. "Particularly as many of the investments are on his behalf."
Hermione considered, "What kind of investments?"
He shrugged, "Oh, it depends on the market. I have a very competent financial advisor, and, of course, some rather unconventional means of discovering information."
"Yes, I'm sure Obliviate comes in handy," she replied drily, taking a long sip of her Pina Colada. "So that's how the Dark Lord is financing his revolution? Ironic really."
Lucius smirked, "Indeed."
"I suppose he chooses not to randomly mention this."
"Of course."
Hermione knotted her brow, "So why are you telling me?"
Lucius sighed, "Because our Lord prefers that his strategic advisors be privy to certain details. Besides, I thought you would enjoy the irony."
Her eyes widened. "What?" she cried.
"You know, irony, when something is contrary to what one would expect. Sometimes it's used as a literary device to promote humour–"
"Lucius," Hermione raised her hand to stop him, "you know I wasn't asking about irony. "What do you mean 'strategic advisor?'"
Lucius' smirk only grew bigger. "Ah yes," he drawled, "last night the senior Death Eaters had a meeting to discuss potential uses for you." Hermione rolled her eyes. "While some of the suggestions where considerably more…lurid than a lady should ever have to hear, it was generally agreed that given your past experience with Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore you should be brought in as a Resistance expert."
Hermione digested this, "I see," she said. "But surely Voldemort realizes that I haven't been on speaking terms with Potter for a very long time. And I certainly haven't been privy to their meetings or intelligence for several years, now. Surely someone like Professor Snape would be much better suited to provide intelligence and perspective on the goings on at Hogwarts."
Lucius inclined his head, "While Severus does provide us with valuable information, he was never close to Mr. Potter, and has he never had a relationship with any members of the staff, including Dumbledore. You, on the other hand, have. And your many years of friendship with Potter give you an insight that no one else has." He smiled at her, "I do believe that you said something to that effect during your first night in my house. You were quite right of course, although I didn't tell you at the time."
Ignoring the last comment, Hermione said instead, "But I don't even have the Dark Mark. Doesn't Lord Voldemort see that as a problem?"
Lucius shook his head, "Apparently he agrees with your suggestion that your gifts would be put to better use as a more or less an objective party. For now, at least."
'Ah, well that's a relief,' she though, and then smiled broadly at Lucius. "This is quite an honour."
"And one that you should not take lightly, my dear," he drawled. "Although I'm sure you'll do well."
Hermione nodded, "So when do we start?"
"Soon." Hermione raised an eyebrow. "I not exactly certain when you'll be summoned," Lucius admitted, "but it should be soon."
Hermione inclined her head, and then turned her attention to the plate of food she hadn't noticed being placed on the table. This was obviously a wonderful opportunity for her to gather information for Dumbledore and company. No single individual, aside from Voldemort, and possibly Lucius, knew all of the Dark Lord's plans. However, combining the information that she could gather with the information that Severus usually had would allow the Resistance to fill in crucial gaps. All she had to do was get letters to them detailing what she was bound to find out. This would be difficult. Very difficult. 'But of course it's worth the risk,' a voice deep inside her said; it sounded remarkably like Severus. 'Or is it?' came a reply that was not nearly as deep rooted, nor convincing, but sounded eerily like Lucius. 'Of course it is,' Hermione snapped at herself, and could have sworn she heard a small Lucius-like chuckle. "Not hungry?" Lucius drawled. Hermione jumped.
"What?" she snapped, slightly breathless.
"You haven't touched you food," Lucius pointed his fork at her plate. Where hers didn't even have a bite out of it, Lucius' was almost empty. "You're either not hungry, or you don't like it. So which is it?"
"Oh, I…uh…I seem to have lost my appetite," Hermione said, smiling, and picking up her fork. "So what are these lovely dishes I see before me?"
"Well, there's white rice, cassava which is similar to a potato, and turtle steak."
Hermione raised her right eyebrow, "Turtle steak?"
"Umm-uh."
Her left brow joined the right, "So is it really from a turtle, or is just called turtle?"
Lucius shrugged, "I'm not entirely sure. It's quite good though."
"I bet," Hermione said drily. There was something about eating a turtle that she found rather distasteful, so she half-heartedly pick at the rice and the cassava, hoping the dessert would be more appealing. Lucius smiled at her obvious displeasure, but said nothing.
"There's something that's been bothering me for a while," Hermione said a few minutes later, after she'd given up trying to eat all together. "When we were at the Ministry earlier, you said that you didn't need a password to get into the offices. That made me wonder, and not for the first time: what exactly do you do?"
Lucius brought his steel blue eyes up to meet hers, "You mean aside from financing a new world order?" Hermione nodded. "Well, I'm a business man, Hermione; I do many things."
"Like what," she pressed.
"I sit on the boards of the companies that I have invested in. And when I'm not in meetings, or having business lunches, I check up on the investments that I've made, and make sure that the companies I'm dealing with are doing what they said they would do." He smiled slightly. "Occasionally, when I'm feeling…pleasant, I donate to worthy charities. Although that was something Narcissa usually handled." Hermione lowered her eyes. "She was a very charitable woman."
"I have no doubt," Hermione replied softly, still not looking at him. "What happened to her was unfortunate."
"Yes, well," Lucius said, sounding a little too breezy, "Your sympathies are appreciated."
Hermione ventured to look at him, and smiled sadly. "You must miss her terribly," she said.
Again, Lucius met her eyes, and Hermione nearly gasped at the sadness she saw there. "She was my wife, Hermione, of course I miss her." His voice sounded distant.
"That's not what I meant," Hermione reached across the table to cover his hand with hers.
Lucius raised his eyebrows and snorted, snatching his hand away, "I don't want to talk about this." He stood up, and turned away.
"Alright," she said slowly, watching him as he leaned on the railing of the gazebo, his cloaks falling elegantly around him, and lit a cigarette. "But if you ever decide you want to, talk that is, I would be more than happy to listen."
"Thank you, but it doesn't really concern you," he drawled.
'Oh, it does more than you think,' Hermione thought, standing up to join him. "I didn't know you smoked," she said.
Lucius shrugged, "I don't normally."
Hermione reached over and took the cigarette from between his long aristocratic figures. "I don't either," she said, taking a drag.
"Why the change of heart?"
'I helped kill you're wife.' Hermione opted to shrug instead, handing him back the smoke. "I doubt it will be a permanent change."
"Good," he took a drag himself, and then, dropping the cigarette, he pulled Hermione to him. His lips captured hers, blowing the smoke into her lungs. She tried to pull away, but he would not let her, his tongue savagely invading her mouth. Hermione, left with no other choice, allowed herself to surrender. She felt like she was suffocating. The combination of the smoke and the suddenness of what was happening, and, truth be told, the kiss itself, were making it hard to breathe.
As suddenly as it had begun, Lucius pulled away, clutching his arm. Hermione pulled back, inhaling sharply and causing herself to choke. It was a moment before she could breath normally, and it was then that she noticed that Lucius was rubbing his left forearm, watching her. "It's time," he said, grabbing her hand. Apparently, 'soon' really did mean soon.
***
Next Chapter: Voldemort, strategic planning, and Lucius visits Hermione's flat.
Author's Notes: There, see, that was much quicker then the last installment. Go me. A shout out to all who reviewed, as always the enthusiasm just makes my day. Thank you to Alex for being a sounding board and beta. And a special thank you to Tania, my new beta. She's very, very thorough. And the chapter title is hers.
