[A/N – A new chapter for all y'all. :-) Hehe, let's have a bit of background information for this chapter… a couple years ago I began a different Lucius/Harry fic. A worse one with much unnecessities about it. :-p But this scene was part of it, and I still really really like it. It got all polished up, and here it is. Hurt/comfort sort stuff, with our first glimpse of slash. :-)
And let's thank the reviewers before we begin:
Lady Phasma – Ooh, two reviews from you now. Does that mean I've got a dedicated reviewer? :-) (No pressure or anything, hehe…)
Marschild – Your comment honestly made me laugh out loud. Maybe I've just gone round the bend, but I crack up at the idea of him asking Lucius for a deck of cards.
Dark phoenix in flight – Thank you. :-)
GothicAnn87 – Thanks, and continued!
There, there's your incentive for reviewing; you get your name and a comment in my note. :-p But seriously, I like to hear feedback from anyone reading. Feel free. :-p]
Lucius had just gotten out of a hot shower when there was a knock on the door. He frowned. Who would dare disturb his morning routine? He tied his hair back and pushed the door open. Izzy, one of his house elves, stood there. "Sir?" she said timidly, "Harry Potter, um, isn't in his room."
"He's not in his room?" Lucius repeated. "Was the door unlocked?"
"Yes, sir; I think that it was left that way when you, um." She trailed off, not willing to blame Lucius for anything.
"And do you know where he is?"
"No, sir."
Lucius pushed past her, out of his bedroom, and down the stairs. He can't have gone far, there's a barrier all the way around the manor. But it could take hours to find him. He hurried past the library to the narrow hallway where Potter's room was located.
The door had been pushed almost completely closed by a house elf, but Lucius threw it open. There was no Potter in the room. Lucius ventured further in. Nor was he hiding out in the small adjoining bathroom. Damn. He strode out of the room, wondering frantically where he could have disappeared to.
The room was the first in a long hall of closed, foreboding doors. Behind most hid elaborate torture devices, either to be used deliberately or as makeshift burglar hindrances. Chances were high Harry had wandered into one of them. Lucius's stomach dropped and he started throwing open doors.
Because of his Malfoy blood no traps were triggered when he entered the rooms, but Harry would have no such luck. But each room brought the same result: damp, musty emptiness. Potter was nowhere to be found.
He had checked perhaps thirty doors among three hallways when he heard it: a faint cry for help. Potter's voice. At the other end of the hallway. Lucius broke into a jog to get there, and pushed open the door before he had even stopped.
Potter was hanging from his wrists, suspended by two long chains dangling from the ceiling. Below him, Lucius knew - although in the darkness he couldn't see it – there was a vast pit. If Potter were to slip, he would have plenty of time to scream before he hit the contents of the abyss.
"Mr. Malfoy?" Harry's voice was small and unsure in the darkness. "Help me. Please," he begged.
"And if I decide it would be more amusing to just let you stay here?"
"You can't," Harry answered desperately. "I'm sorry for whatever you want me to be. But I can't get out of this on my own."
Lucius suppressed a smirk at hearing the boy plead. This could be used against him later. "Fine." He pushed his fingers through his hair, disrupting the ponytail he had pulled it into. "You have to be able to follow instructions, however. So I don't know if this will work."
"I'll do whatever you need me to," Harry promised shakily, squirming.
"Alright. First. I'll need to cast some light to aim properly, but when I do, do not look down. I can explain why later. For the moment, however, you'll have to trust me."
"Okay." Harry's voice caught in his throat.
"Lumos." Harry obediently kept his eyes trained on Lucius's face. Lucius studied the pit and chains, a frown creasing his brow. Finally he said, "Harry, you promised you would follow directions absolutely, right?"
"Yes."
"I'm going to unlock the chains. Do not try and grab them, and do not squirm. Let yourself fall."
"No," Harry replied bluntly.
Lucius gave him a sharp look. "If you don't follow instructions you will be killed. It is really that simple. I'm willing to help you, but I can't if you don't cooperate." Harry bit his lip and nodded. "Thank you. As I was saying. You will let yourself fall, but I'll do the petrifying charm and mobilicorpus immediately after. I can rescue you, but you can't move while I do. Now do you trust me?"
"There's no other way?" Harry asked, panicked.
"No," Lucius told him firmly. "And I won't perform the spell until you trust me because there's absolutely no room for error."
"And what if something does go wrong?" Harry demanded.
Lucius sighed. "I will do everything in my power to keep that from happening. But you have to do the same. Now do you trust me?"
Harry hesitated. "I don't have much of a choice, do I," he finally answered quietly.
Lucius raised his wand, and Harry instinctively flinched and grabbed the shackles. "Let go, Harry," Lucius coaxed.
"I'm scared," Harry admitted, keeping his grip on the chains deathly firm.
"Let go, Harry," Lucius repeated. He did so reluctantly. Lucius inhaled deeply. All in one breath: "Alohomora! Petrificus totalus! Mobilicorpus!"
Lucius levitated Harry from above the pit and lowered him onto the smooth, safe stone in the hallway. He knelt next to the boy and murmured, "Apetrificus."
Harry sat up shakily. Lucius straightened up and tucked his wand back in his pocket. He offered his hand to Harry, who accepted and got up, trembling. His knees seemed prone to giving out from under him, so Lucius looped an arm around Harry's waist.
"What was that place?" Harry asked as they walked down the hall. "And what was in the pit?"
Lucius answered grimly, "That lovely piece of work was my great-uncle's idea. This whole section - " he nodded at the halls around him " - was created so it wasn't likely a thief could manage to get through to the manor, as there's an entrance along the back wall. That particular room was especially grotesque, I think. Shackles clamp around the intruder's wrists once they're aware of the hole in the middle of the room. They're left to dangle there until they starve and grow so emaciated they simply slip out of the manacles. Or, if they decide that will take too long, they chew through their own arms. As to what's in the pit," he suppressed a shudder, "well, it was just an empty hole at first. Now it's filled with the half-decomposed bodies of burglars and just those that someone decided to torture, as well as whatever byproducts they spilled while they were there." He spoke calmly, but was sure his features betrayed his thoughts. "Are you alright?" Lucius asked abruptly a moment later. "You're still shaking."
"I'll be fine," Harry answered, an obvious lie.
They emerged into the main hall, and Harry squinted at the unexpected brightness of the gold and white marble. "You'll be staying in a guest bedroom from now on, I think," Lucius told him lightly, letting him go to point out the key features. Next to him. "The library." Across the hall. "The dining room. Behind that is the kitchen. If you ever need a house elf that will be where you can find them." He glanced at the open hallway of the second story that the sweeping staircase led to. "Your bedroom will be the third door from the right." He motioned to it. "There's a bathroom adjacent to that to get cleaned up in, and an armoire of clothing in your size as well." He cast a disparaging glance at Harry's current outfit. "Please, boy, get out of those rags, I beg you."
Harry looked down at the filthy, tattered, and oversized clothes that covered him. "They're my cousin's," he shrugged.
Lucius sneered. "I'm not surprised. I unfortunately had to be at the Ministry three-quarters of an hour ago, but I trust I can leave you to your own devices until this evening." He smoothed his hair and adjusted a wrinkle in the fabric of his robes. "Have a good day, Potter." He swept out the door, leaving Harry, stunned and overwhelmed, standing in the middle of the massive hall.