A/N: I am SO sorry for the delay in this. It's due to a number of things – writer's block, not knowing quite where to take the story, struggling between realism and sentimentalism and a scene where they might just have a bloody good fuck ... it's been a tricky one. I've also been at university, which is extremely intense and leaves me with next to no time to write at all.

That said, I would prefer to put this up after the delay and know I've thought it through a little more than hastily write a next chapter for the sake of regular updating. Shame the interval had to be quite so long.

Anyway, that's my apology. Many thanks to all who have reviewed so far – please keep it up – it helps so much ...

On with the story.

IN THE NOISE OF SORRY NIGHT

Chapter 9

The light slipped in through the crack in the curtains and filtered into the rest of the room, not smooth, but grainy and soft.

Lucius Malfoy lay quietly gazing at the ceiling, a small smile on his lips. He glanced down at the body sleeping next to him, ran a hand over the long brown hair and pulled the sheet up around her shoulders. He sighed, and remained perfectly still, contented.

Having been awake all night, and unable to contemplate rest, Severus Snape became more and more frustrated.

When Hermione woke and saw his bare skin next to her, she was frightened, and began to move away, before she remembered what had happened.

She looked at him. His eyes were alarmed, like hers, and she realised that he was reliving their first (and only) morning together, when she had fled. Then she smiled, and leaned forwards to kiss him on the lips.

'Good morning.'

Lucius closed his eyes and sighed deeply. 'Thank God,' he whispered. 'You're not doing it again.'

Hermione sat up and kissed him again, savouring him, her mind heavy with happiness. 'I'll never do it again.'

He wrapped his arms around her, and they lay for several minutes, listening to each other's breathing. Several times Hermione was on the verge of telling him that she loved him, but she stopped herself. She did not want to force him to say it in return: it was not really fitting with his character. Besides, she was so unsure of her own feelings that she could not bear the thought of lying. In the end, she asked him: 'Shall we be all right, Lucius?'

'It depends,' he sighed, 'what you mean by "all right".'

'Why, that we'll be married in a perfect wedding, with all our friends and family around us, that our marriage will unite the houses of Gryffindor and Slytherin and end the war, and that we'll live happily ever after, of course,' she joked.

There was a beat when Lucius looked at her, and then he laughed warmly, deeply, more than she expected, before she understood why.

'Honestly, Hermione,' he said, smiling, 'do you really think there's happy ever after for people like us?'

As soon as Severus opened the door and saw Lucius, he knew what he had come to say.

He moved aside, letting Lucius into the flat. 'Come in. Sit down.'

Lucius lowered himself gracefully into one of Severus' armchairs. Severus took a seat opposite him, carefully placing a black leather strip over the page he had been reading, and closing the heavy book.

There was a pause. Lucius was evidently trying to phrase something into words. Severus rose silently, and poured them drinks.

'I -' Lucius began.

Severus turned to look at him from his drinks cabinet. 'I'm sorry?'

Lucius lowered his eyes. 'It's quite … it's difficult, Severus, you understand. You do understand what I mean, don't you?' He looked at the other man.

Severus did not move.

'I mean, you understand what I've come to say,' Lucius explained quietly.

Another pause. Then, trying to subdue the sudden wave of sorrow that had risen in his chest, Severus nodded slowly. His face felt very stiff.

Lucius sighed. 'Yes. You usually do … Anyway, I suppose I should explain. I fell in love with the girl, Severus. Even more than I – well, you know.'

'Yes.'

Suddenly Lucius began to talk quickly. 'I couldn't help it, I – I went to her room last night, and I talked to her, and we argued, of course, but … But we couldn't help it. And I think she loves me, Severus. And I think … for the first time in my life, or the first time since … since Narcissa, I have a desire to be monogamous. To wake up every morning and see her face, to spend my evenings with her, to -'

Severus turned his face away, as Lucius continued to talk. He remembered when Lucius had been in love with Narcissa. Before he'd grown so bitter at her coldness, before he'd come to hate her. It was like that all over again, the same earnest, apologetic air. He had had less to apologise for then, though. Then, it hadn't been twenty years.

Lucius stopped abruptly. 'I'm sorry, Severus. I know what it means. And I did love you – or I do still, I'm not sure. There's always been something between us, and we've both enjoyed it, we've both loved it. We both hated it at times, I know. But we've always had so much between us. But Hermione … it's like she's my chance to put it all right, everything that happened with Narcissa. To do it all properly. I don't really understand it; I don't expect that you will either. But I think this needs to be done.'

A beat. 'I see.' Severus raised a hand to his eyes, ashamed at the tears that were beginning to pool there. 'We're finished, then.'

Lucius did not reply.

Severus nodded. He almost wanted to smile at this seemingly resurrected memory of Lucius as a young man, the clear, silver eyes, the open face. Not in the whole twenty years had he ever been like this.

Of course there were a few points on which Severus was curious. 'Does she know about us?'

Lucius looked a little awkward. 'No … no, she doesn't. I'm not going to tell her. If it's over, there's no need, really.'

'What she doesn't know can't hurt her. Although it's another example of your unfailing infidelity.'

Lucius closed his eyes. 'Precisely the reason I'm breaking it off now.'

'I see.'

'Don't tell her, Severus. It wouldn't really be fair, and … well, I hope you're not spiteful like that. You never were before.'

'I had no need before,' Severus said calmly.

Lucius' eyes grew desperate. 'Please, Severus. It won't make me come back to you. Please, you owe me that, at least. At least give me a chance of making a go of it.'

Severus sighed. 'Fine,' he agreed heavily. 'What are you going to do about Voldemort?'

'What about him?'

'Are you just going to casually inform him you're fucking a Gryffindor? Or are you just going to hope he doesn't find out? Or are you going to leave?'

'I don't know yet. I'm going to discuss it with her later. There's no safe way out of that, I know. But it'll be all right.'

Severus snorted. 'If you insist on ruining your career, your reputation and your friends in one move I won't try to stop you, Lucius. Our Master won't like it. And frankly, if you don't tell him, I will. Or he'll take it out on me, as you well know. So you'd better hurry up.'

Helplessly Lucius nodded. 'I'm sorry, Severus.'

'So you've said.' Severus inhaled sharply. 'You'd better go, Lucius,' he said softly. He did not want to break down in front of his lover. Former lover. No longer a lover.

'I'm -'

'Go on. Go to her. I've no claim to you any more.'

Lucius nodded, and left quietly.

Severus took several deep breaths, his mouth open and his eyes wide. Then, as the tears began their heavy, salty way down his skin, his body shuddered violently with the anguish, and he cried out. It was a hot, raw shout, and Lucius tried to pretend he had not heard it as he made his way out of the door below the flat.

The emotions made their slow way through Severus' body, and in pain he pulled at his own clothes, his hair, trying to release it. His robe ripped, and he sank to the floor, clutching the scrap of material, sobbing violently.

Severus had never really been one for revenge. He had watched Lucius handle it a few times – rather more than a few, he admitted – and decided that it was petty more than anything else, and very rarely worth it.

But his libido was something he had never taken into account. It was not, by comparison to some he'd encountered, so terribly high, but when it was frustrated, and when Lucius was not available, it boiled in his groin, straining and pushing. And at the same time, tears were steadily forced from his eyes, his whole body almost squirming with the pain, the fury.

It happened in the middle of the night. Severus hated it. And, of course, the frustration got to his head.

Though Severus had always, always thought things through before he acted, this time he let instinct, and his broken emotions, take over.

Even so, he lay awake for the rest of the night, making sure.

Harry let him in more out of surprise than of any real feeling of cordiality. 'I – I didn't expect to see you here.'

Snape smiled, and the corners of his mouth twisted slightly. 'Yes, well … I'm not thrilled to have to be here, I'm afraid.'

Harry raised an eyebrow.

'I've come about Miss Granger.'

'Hermione? What about her?'

Snape cleared his throat quietly. 'Do you – have you seen her recently?'

'Not for the last … oh, I don't know – two days, maybe? Why, what's wrong?'

'She's gone back to Lucius.'

There was an icy pause. 'What?'

Snape sighed.

'No, that can't be right, she's not that stupid … she's not in love with him, is she?'

'It would seem she is,' Snape muttered.

Harry exhaled sharply. He put his hand over the back of a wooden chair and gripped it hard, his tendons standing stark on his hand. 'Hermione, you fool … what are you doing?'

'You're in love with her,' Snape softly.

Harry froze. 'What?'

'Your reaction … it's quite understandable.'

'What are you talking about? Who gave you the right to tell me who I am and am not in love with? It's none of your business.'

'I know,' Snape said. 'I know.' He watched Harry stare into space. 'I know.' Somehow he could not stop repeating it, hoping to prolong the moment, hoping he wouldn't come to the betrayal, hoping they would never reach that moment.

Harry looked up at Snape. He stared at him. Then he stood up, straight, stiff. 'Oh, Merlin … you as well?'

'I beg your pardon?'

'For fuck's sake, Snape, why can't you just leave her alone?'

'What the bloody hell are you talking about, Potter?' the older man snapped.

'You're in love with Hermione!'

Snape's eyes widened, and for a beat he stared at Harry in shock. Then he laughed shortly. 'Hermione? Oh, would that it were, Harry. Oh, fuck, no. No, I'm in love with Lucius.'

That night again, Severus lay awake. Severus lay with his wand in his hand, waiting for the Aurors.

A small vial sat on his windowsill, in the moonlight.

There was always a choice.

When Hermione arrived at Lucius' flat after work, he was waiting for her in his chair. Hair loose, shirt partly unbuttoned, bare feet pushing forward from under his black trousers.

Hermione walked straight to him, and let him hold her waist firmly, and kissed him. Then she lifted up his left sleeve.

'Ah yes,' he murmured. 'Our little problem.'

'What's he going to do?' she asked.

He paused. Abruptly he pulled her forward, jerked her robe away from her throat. Then he gripped her neck, and squeezed with his fingers, pressed into her windpipe.

'Lucius ...'

He tightened his grip. Then, just as her eyes were growing panicked, at the moment when she hated him, he released her and drew her down onto him. 'Did you think I would?'

Hermione looked at him, velvet eyes wide. 'I don't know.'

'Believe me, Hermione,' he sighed. 'If he had done to me what I think he'll want to, then I would have. And would again. And always would, rather than have that pain.'

She nodded, barely moving at first, but then firmly. 'I don't care.'

Suddenly he smiled. 'Well, then that gives us a little ... breathing room.' He slid a hand up her side, under her robe.

But Hermione squirmed away. 'No, Lucius, you can't just ignore it. You can't pretend he won't find out – you can't pretend he won't – won't kill you. He probably already knows, doesn't he?'

'I expect so. Not that anyone except Severus knows about it, as yet, but he may find it his duty to turn me in.'

'But – he wouldn't – he wouldn't betray his closest friend, would he?'

Lucius did not reply. He appeared in fact not to have heard what Hermione had said: he was staring past her, obviously deep in thought.

'Lucius!' She snapped her fingers in front of his face. 'Would he betray you?'

'I don't know. He disapproves very strongly of what I'm doing.'

Hermione knew very well that Snape would be a dangerous subject for them, since Lucius, as far as she knew, did not realise that Snape was a spy, and presumably believed he was loyal to Voldemort. Indeed, Lucius' split loyalties were likely to cause problems everywhere.

She had not really bothered to wonder whether she was being stubborn in believing that Lucius and she could be happy together; she was ready to admit she had been largely controlled by lust. But he seemed so serious in his feelings for her that she could not help but return them. After all, it was he who faced the greater danger if Voldemort did discover their relationship. And yes, he had become reckless with his life since he had grown so unhappy – but then wouldn't she be unhappy if she could not have him? Would she not hate herself for dismissing him despite all the anguish she had experienced?

'Why did you feel the need to tell him, Lucius?'

'He'd have realised as soon as he saw me, even if I hadn't told him. Keeping secrets from Severus is much more difficult than keeping them from the Dark Lord. Severus is extremely perceptive – I'm sure you've noticed that.'

'Yes … on numerous occasions. I suppose –'

There was a loud knock on the door. Instantly Hermione was silent. Lucius' eyes were terrified and pleading. She motioned him towards the bathroom and, reluctantly, he obeyed her.

The knock was repeated. 'Hermione? Are you there?'

Hermione started. 'Harry?'

'Yes, it's me … let me in, for God's sake.'

She opened the door, and Harry strode into the room, movements large and wild. 'Is he here? Is he here?'

'Is who here?' she asked, trying to sound innocent and confused.

'Malfoy,' Harry snarled. 'Are you hiding him?'

'Harry, please, calm down,' Hermione pleaded desperately, with little effect.

Harry, apparently satisfied that Lucius was not in the bedroom, walked to the bathroom door and pulled open the door – and Hermione squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the sound of wet, breaking bones and hoarse cries – but they did not come. She heard Harry pull back the curtain around the bath, and then a few seconds later he returned to the bedroom. 'Where is he?'

'If you mean Lucius Malfoy, then I don't know.'

'Well, his things are here,' Harry pointed out, furiously indicating Lucius' shoes on the floor by the bed. 'You've seen him?'

'Yes.'

'You're fucking him?'

Hermione closed her eyes in pain at Harry's harsh tone. 'Yes,' she whispered.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. 'You stupid, stupid girl, Hermione, he's a Death Eater, for fuck's sake …'

'I know!' she shouted suddenly. 'I know he is, but I love him! And he loves me, and –'

'He doesn't love you, Hermione, he doesn't know how. He's been unfaithful to you.'

'Philippa diMarco, you mean?' she said exasperatedly. 'I know about that, Harry, we've talked about it –'

Harry gripped her shoulders firmly. 'No, not Philippa diMarco,' he said. 'This has lasted twenty years, Hermione.'

'Who, Harry?'

Suddenly Lucius appeared from the bathroom. Harry immediately lunged at him, but Lucius blocked him easily, and said, 'I've decided my Invisibility Cloak is no longer necessary. I'd like the opportunity to be able to give Hermione the truth of what you're about to say.'

'Go on, then, you tell her,' Harry sneered. 'Tell her just how much of a bastard you really are, Malfoy.'

Lucius looked at Hermione, his face pale. 'Promise you'll hear me out,' he said tersely.

She nodded, terrified of what he was about to say. Could it be worse than Philippa diMarco, could it –?

'Hermione, for the last twenty years or so, I've been – that is to say – well …' He paused, then spoke flatly. 'For the last twenty years, Severus Snape and I have been lovers.'

Hermione froze. She replayed his words in her head, trying to understand what they meant. Then the shock hit her in the stomach, and she gasped for air, trying to breathe, trying to stand up. Harry caught her, and helped her to the edge of the bed, where she sat, curled up, staring numbly at Lucius.

'You have to understand – we – we've always been very close. It's been on and off. Sometimes we've hated each other. But we know each other so well, and … We've never been exclusive partners. Severus graciously allowed me the freedom to enjoy women, too.'

'How generous of him,' Harry retorted.

'Stay out of it, Potter,' Lucius spat, then continued. 'Anyway … when I realised I was in love with you, and after you left me that first time, I submitted to the Faiblesse charm, to try to rid myself of my feelings. But of course it only worked for a while. As you saw. I tried – I tried Philippa, and I tried Severus. Neither worked. Not even Severus – who's never been unable to soothe my frustration before.

'Anyway, I came to see you … after we met at the Ministry … and you took me back … and this morning, when you went to work, I went to see Severus … and I broke it off. I do not wish to be unfaithful to you.' Lucius' voice was very quiet. 'And he wasn't happy about it. In fact, I believe he was quite upset. I expect his telling Harry was something of an attempt at revenge, or sabotage.'

Harry was standing, open-mouthed, apparently speechless with anger. Then he appeared to compose himself. 'Hermione. I'm sorry you've had to hear this. Frankly, I'm amazed the coward had the courage to tell you himself, rather than leave it to someone else who can't bear to hurt you.'

'If you have a point, Harry, I suggest you make it,' Hermione said quietly.

He looked at her for a second. Then, without warning, he pointed his wand at Lucius; with a bang, Lucius was thrown to the ground, and his wand sailed through the air to land firmly in Harry's hand. At the same time, Remus and Tonks appeared in the room, both aiming their wands at Lucius, whose face was blank, betraying no fear, but obviously anticipating what was to come.

Harry spoke. 'Lucius Malfoy, I am placing you under arrest for suspected treason to the wizarding world, and to the Muggle world, in supporting and assisting the criminal Lord Voldemort; for the charges of murder, assault, rape, torture, both of wizards and witches and of muggles, amongst many others. You will go with us to the Ministry and will be held in Azkaban prison until formal trial.'

Hermione did not move as Remus and Tonks bound Lucius. She watched the fear gradually overwhelm his face, until he was visibly shaking. She felt nothing.

Only when they had left, when Harry had thrown a passing, pitying glance at her before Apparating with the others, did she sink to the floor, sobbing violently. She could not have known that a few hours earlier, Severus had curled his arms and legs around himself in the same way, and cried as she now did.

A/N: I'd just like to take this opportunity to advertise a relatively new story I'm writing, 'The Raven's Claw', which focuses on an interesting, tension-filled triangle between Severus, Lucius and a character of my own creation, Ash, Severus' very good friend. Exchange of wits, hostility, drunkenness, promiscuity, nudity, hints of slash ... the usual good stuff. Readers and reviewers would be fabulous!