A few days went by and you were still numb from the events that had happened back at Lucius' mansion. Although you hated yourself for it, you literally could not stop thinking about him. It pained you to still pine after him; to long for that intoxicating scent of his, to want to have those grey eyes stare at you, even when those eyes felt so cold and hateful. You longed to be in his presence so badly, and yet at the same time you knew you would like nothing more than to forget about him altogether. It was as if you were a drug addict. Longing so much to have that drug but knowing deep down it was the worst thing for you. Lucius was your drug, and now, after seeing him for the first time in years, you once again felt the strong desire for him in your body, mind and soul.

On the second night of deciding you couldn't go back to that mansion, you were sitting out in your garden, just watching the stars above you, or what little you could see of them from the city of London, thinking about nothing in particular. Your mind numb as usual. All of a sudden you saw a small white owl flying above your head and then saw it come even closer as it was clearly coming to deliver you something.

With a sigh, you knew it was the same owl that had delivered you the first letter a few weeks ago about the job opportunity, so you knew it came from Lucius…well most likely his elf.

With a hoot the little owl landed on the arm of your chair where you were sitting out in the garden and you untied the letter from its foot.

Sure enough, upon opening the letter, you saw neat handwriting asking you where you had been.

"Miss, I have not seen you for the past few days. Master has requested your presence back here to continue the work in the gardens and to speak with you. Please come tomorrow around noon."

The note said nothing else. It didn't need to. You knew it was the anxious elf writing to you, wondering where you were, most likely getting berated by her Master, Lucius, as to why work in the gardens wasn't continuing.

You were angry. Angry because it seemed as if seeing you hadn't effected Lucius as much as you thought it had? You had thought he wouldn't want to see you at his home or anywhere near him anymore. That the pain of seeing each other would have been too much for him. But worse though, was that it seemed he just saw you as his worker and nothing more, and he was annoyed that the work wasn't getting done.

You should have known though that Lucius didn't have a heart enough to feel anything anymore. He wasn't about sentimentality. He didn't care.

You got up and gave the owl a treat before sending it on its way. Of course you wouldn't send a response back. You had no intention of going back to that place. And so you went to bed that night thinking your mind had been made up.

However, you soon realized your mind clearly hadn't been made up at all. All night you tossed and turned as your mind worked in overdrive thinking about everything and all things Lucius, and what going back to that mansion would mean. There were two very equal parts of you that were conflicting as you tossed and turned and rethought things. On one hand, you had been so happy to be working on such a spectacular space and garden to showcase your amazing herbology and gardening skills. The pay was also beyond anything you could have asked for in a job too and you would be lying to yourself if you said the money wasn't tempting.

On the other hand, there was the big, obvious issue of Lucius. But that was the thing…was that a bad thing? You knew for your mental health the obvious answer was yes! However, as you lay in bed in the dead of night thinking about Lucius, your mind couldn't help but wander to the good times…the times when you had been in deep love with each other. You still didn't know if those times had been fake or truly meant anything to Lucius, but they had meant everything to you, and the more and more you stayed up into the night and early morning the more your brain became confused on if seeing Lucius and being around him was something you didn't want…subconsciously you knew you secretly did, even if you kept telling yourself that you didn't.

The whole night your mind went back and forth on what to do, until finally you fell asleep at around 4:00 in the morning, exhausted, anxiety ridden and confused.


You woke up with a slight headache from the uncomfortable night you had, and you slowly blinked your eyes open and rubbed them trying to make the exhaustion go away. You knew it was rather late in the morning, or perhaps even in the afternoon, as the sun which was pouring through your window was bright and clear, with no signs of the early morning fog and gloom that often made itself known in London, no matter what time of year.

By the time you had fallen asleep last night, you had dreamed in fragmented pieces. Visions of grey eyes, platinum hair, alabaster skin, and sprawling rose gardens haunted your minimal dreams and you knew that your heart had gotten the best of you. You knew you would return back to the mansion in that moment; there was no helping it. Of course, there was apart of you still that thought it was rather foolish, but you couldn't help yourself.

It was around 11:00, and so without eating breakfast, and with only a quick cup of coffee, you got ready to leave. You had remembered being embarrassed the last time Lucius had seen you, in your plain jeans and t-shirt, and so you dressed a bit better today in a light floral dress, which would be cool enough to work in, and a bit more presentable.

You took the mile walk from your place in South Kensington to the grand mansion at the end of St. James Park. Your heart beat fast as you saw the white stones of the place and as you used the knocker on the door, a huge part of you felt like immediately turning around and running away.

The door opened quickly and Lucius' elf appeared. "Oh Miss! I thought you may never come back! Please please," said the elf as she ushered you in.

"Me either…" you muttered under your breath. Your palms were beginning to sweat. You didn't know if you should just go straight back to the gardens and begin work again, or if Lucius would seek you out.

Your thoughts were answered when the elf stopped in the large entry way and looked up at you with bright green eyes. "Master would like to speak with you," she said as she pointed her finger towards the stairs indicating you should head up to his study.

You closed your eyes and swallowed hard, your nerves becoming almost unbearable. Why did you do this to yourself?

You nodded your head silently to the elf and began making your way up the stairs towards Lucius' study. Your hands were a bit shaky, and as you got up to the door you knocked again like you had the first time; three small knocks.

"Come in," you heard his smooth voice say.

You walked into his study, feeling like your legs were going to give out, however you were proud of yourself that it didn't show outwardly, although it was hard with the delicious scent of him that washed over you and the tall form of him that was standing besides his desk, looking as intimidating as he had last time. He looked stunning as usual, but today even more so, wearing tighter fitting charcoal grey slacks and a white button up shirt that fit his muscular torso extremely well, the first few buttons undone which revealed his smooth, pale chest. His platinum hair shining long and radiant down his back.

As you stood there, you noticed for a brief second Lucius' eyes flash up and down your body, taking you in. If you hadn't been staring so intently at him as well, you might have missed it. You blushed slightly, and noticed Lucius' jaw clenched a bit as he just stared at you.

You didn't know what else to say and you began to feel extremely awkward and maybe a bit annoyed. "I'm back," was all you managed to get out.

"So it seems," Lucius said, his eyes finally seeming to focus on what he wanted to say. He paused a bit and then drew in a breath, as if he was preparing what to say. "I don't like it when someone I hire, walks out on the work they have promised to do."

You didn't know what he had wanted to say, but for some reason you hadn't realized that it would be to scold you for wanting to leave after finding out he was the owner of the property.

You didn't speak for what seemed like a very long while, the anger in you starting to come back. "But you didn't hire me…your elf did," you said with a bit of an attitude.

Lucius narrowed his eyes, clearly not pleased with your response. "The elf works on my behalf. She does as I say. Make no mistake, I am the one, that told her to find the best herbologist in London…and I suppose that was you," he said, his jaw clenching once again.

"And would you have hired the best herbologist in London if you knew it was me?" You asked, wanting the truth.

Lucius stared at you for a bit as he contemplated your question. And then with a very deep and low voice, almost so quiet you could barely hear, he simply said, "No."

Your heart hurt at hearing that. Somewhere deep down you had wished he had sought you out, but of course you knew that he hadn't. "So then why do you want me back?"

Lucius took a while to respond again. "As I said before…I don't like when I hire someone and then they don't finish the work I paid them for," he said, pausing a bit and then continuing. "Plus, the work I have seen so far is exactly what I am looking for and I would like it to continue. Is the pay not sufficient enough?"

"No the pay is more than sufficient," you responded to his question.

"Good," he said as he went to go sit back down at his desk, acting like he was done with the conversation.

Your heart felt a bit lighter then at hearing he was pleased with your work. You knew that he already knew of your herbology skills, however it was nice to hear nonetheless. Talking with Lucius was giving you whiplash. One minute he was crushing you with his cold and heartless tone, the next he seemed to have that glimmer of the old Lucius you had missed with ever fiber of your soul. You were so confused.

You didn't know whether you should leave his study or not and so you began to walk out, although you could feel his eyes burning into the back of your head as he watched you.

As you reached the threshold of the door you turned around, and sure enough he was intently watching you leave. You had to ask the next questions that came to your mind.

"Why didn't you just hire another gardener when I left and didn't come back?"

Lucius seemed annoyed. "I told you…I wanted the best…and so I will have it," he said deeply, which caused your skin to break out in gooseflesh.

"Why the white roses?" You asked, knowing you were testing fate and his patience with your questions.

Lucius seemed to breath in a breath as he realized what you had asked him, his eyes flashing a dangerous deep grey.

The next thing you saw was Lucius pulling his wand out of his pocket and pointing it at the door. "Colloportus," he said clearly, causing the door to slam shut in your face, making you trip out into the hallway outside of his study.

Besides being shocked and slightly offended he kicked you out like that, the only thing that really seemed to stick in your mind, was what you had noticed as he had pulled out his wand. On the top was the head of a silver snake with green jewels for eyes. The same snake you had gotten him all those years ago for Christmas. He had kept it…

For whatever reason, your eyes began to water, and you quickly made your way back downstairs to get back to gardening, so many thoughts swirling in your head.


After clearing your head a bit in the fresh air in the beautiful gardens, you briefly admired your work from a few days ago. All of the stone pathways lined with the most beautiful roses; they were already starting to flourish and the whites of the petals seemed to light the way of the path, even in the daytime.

You headed over to the first grove you were going to work on towards the front left side of the garden. In this space you had planned on making a beautiful British style rose garden, something that was fit for the Queen of England herself.
The space was beautiful and was circular and so you knew you would create archways that would encompass the circle and you would have all types of colored roses climbing up those archways. In the middle you would put a beautiful gazebo, under which people could enjoy afternoon tea and the nature around them.

And so you set to work.

By the time it was Friday of that week, you had already constructed the arches that made up the circle of the garden. You used very rare Manzanita wood to construct them and the reddish color of the wood really popped against the green plants of the garden. Monday morning you would have hundreds of roses arrive and then you would be able to begin.

You hadn't seen Lucius again since those few days ago, and you were beginning to wonder if you ever would see him again. You certainly knew you would if you refused to come back to work, and there was a small part of you that wanted to not show up so that he would summon you to his office again and you could see him. You felt extremely pathetic even having that thought, but as you walked home that Friday night, your mind still constantly swirled with thoughts of him. Maybe in a different world he would look at you with love and kindness in his eyes, and not the distain you only felt from him.

You spent the weekend feeling antsy. Antsy to get back to work and finish the British style rose garden, and you were grateful when Monday finally rolled around.

As usual, when you arrived, Lucius was nowhere to be seen and so you made your way back into he gardens and were delighted to see that the hundreds of different colored roses had arrived so that you could magically make them climb up the archways in the garden, looking like they had been there forever.

There were pinks, reds, and peach colored ones, but of course you made sure there were plenty of white ones as well, and by the end of the day the entire space looked as if it had been like that for decades, as all of the roses were now winding their way along the archways and plenty of rose bushes lined the stone pathway that circled the garden.

A few days later, the new gazebo had arrived as well and you had magically moved it into the space you wanted, right in the middle, so that one could sit down and enjoy the stunning rose garden.

Towards the end of the day you had put in the gazebo, after all of your hard work was done, you sat under the gazebo with a lovely cup of tea, admiring your week's work. It was incredible what had been done. The sun hadn't quite set yet, but the weather was finally getting a bit cooler, as it was now getting closer to autumn and so you pulled your cute olive green sweater on and sat quite cozily drinking your tea and admiring your garden. Well, it technically wasn't your garden, but it was your work, and so you felt connected to it all the same. You couldn't believe that in only a few weeks you had managed to transform so much of the space.

You were just about done with your tea, when all of a sudden you heard some footsteps coming from behind you. You knew it wasn't the elf, as she was usually barefoot and her steps didn't make that type of sound. The hair on the back of your neck prickled in a nervous, but good way, realizing it was probably the master of the house; Lucius.

You placed your teacup gently down on the table and just stayed facing the other direction, waiting for him to say something.

"The work is exquisite," you heard a deep, low voice say behind you, causing you to close your eyes and revel in it. He was still behind you and so he couldn't see the effect his honeyed voice had upon you. Thank goodness.

"Thank you," you said simply.

You heard him step closer and then around so that he now stood in front of you, his grey eyes staring down at you; this time finally without as much disdain.

You slowly stood up from where you sat, looking down a bit, not able to directly meet his eye for too long.

He continued speaking, clearly understanding you didn't have much to say to him in that moment. "It reminds me of the gazebo at my ancestral home; the Malfoy Manor," he said as he looked up at the beautiful gazebo and then back to you.

You didn't know whether that observation was a good or bad thing. You knew his past, and you knew he had mixed feelings about his ancestral home. "It does? I'm sorry…" you began to say as you instantly became nervous that you had done something wrong.

"Don't be," he said walking around a bit as he observed the rest of the garden. "Those gardens were always a place of peace. Much like I would like these gardens to be," he said as he began walking under the numerous archways in which the various colored roses were.

You silently followed him as he walked, relieved that you didn't create a bad association between his two homes.

"I wanted to create a classic English style rose garden," you said as you followed him around the space. "I suppose I didn't realize that it would be similar to your other gardens…however I have good memories of that place too…" you immediately stopped realizing what words you were saying as they had quickly poured out of your mouth. You hadn't meant to say that. To bring up the happier memories of the past that you two shared.

Lucius stopped walking and then turned to look at you once more. His face was unreadable and you wished so much in that moment that the shining silver would return to his eyes. The shine in his eyes that enchanted you back at Hogwarts, and made you know that he was happier in his soul than he clearly was now. You didn't look away from his gaze this time, and for a while the two of you just stared at each other, so many unsaid things passing between the two of you. You longed for answers. What had happened all of those years ago? Why did you two ever have to be parted? Why did he hate you so much?

You may had been imagining it, but you thought then that he took one small step closer to you, closing the space that was between you ever so slightly, as if he was being drawn into you. His lips parted slightly as if he wanted to say something, but then his mouth closed, and his jaw clenched, in that all too familiar look of dislike.

"Well," he began once more as if composing his thoughts. "I look forward to the progress on the rest of the gardens."

You hated how robotic and annoyed he sounded when talking to you, and you stepped back a bit unknowingly and breathed out a breath you didn't realize you had been holding.

"Yes," you nodded your head a bit, "I start on the Austrian style gardens tomorrow. There will be much larger rose bushes in that one. All white."

Lucius nodded his head once as if pleased with your answer. You so wished he would say more. He had never answered your question on why he had wanted white roses everywhere. Deep in your heart you wished it was because he still had thought about you for all those years, still loved you. However, with the way he spoke to you and looked at you with such dislike, you realized that couldn't be the reason. Like he had just said, he had found his gardens at Malfoy Manor to be a peaceful place, and so perhaps that is just what he wanted to recreate here.

With nothing else to say Lucius walked past you to go back inside his home, clearly dismissing you for the evening. As he walked by you, his arm briefly brushed against your own and you felt your breath catch in your throat at the contact. Even though it was the briefest of moments, you could feel the warmth of him radiating and you stared at his retreating form with wide eyes.

He hadn't looked back at you after that slight brush, but you saw his shoulders tense as he walked away. He clearly hadn't meant to do that and you were sure, that just like yourself, you both had never expected to see each other again let alone physically touch.

It had been just the slightest touch, but the brief feel of him and his delicious scent which you loved so much seemed to take over your senses as he had passed by you. You felt that same sense of craziness at being so effected by him, but you knew what you had signed up for when you had found out that he owned this mansion. The real questions you still had though were unanswered. What was he thinking? What was he feeling? You had a feeling you would never know.