"So, are we going to do this now or…?" Lucius Malfoy asked with hesitation and uncertainty mingled in his voice as the woman clambered off his lap. Logic told him that yes, it was probably going to happen now, or she wouldn't have dragged him back to her apartment. The kiss he had bestowed upon her had no feeling and was merely a show of comradery. He had no plan to fall for Hermione now or ever. In fact, he had no plan to really hang around after the deed was done. The only thing the two had in common was the burning desire for a child and not much else.

Never in his life did he think he would ever fraternize with Hermione Granger on a deeper level than a curt nod as they passed in the halls of the ministry. But then again, he never thought he would lose his wife and only son and thus the only heir to the Malfoy fortune and was looking down the barrel of having his fortune pulled out from beneath the Malfoy name should he expire before such a time another heir was produced. Desperate times called for desperate measures and what better person to procreate with than a woman smart enough to pull top rank within their world. Sure, she was no pureblood but there wasn't a pureblood left after their insidious war that he wasn't related to one way or another and he was all for keeping things in the family, but he didn't extend that sentiment that far. Purebloods were already so closely related they were one genetic misfortune away from producing a two-headed cyclops he was certain.

"No, let's schedule it for a month from today, Lucius," she huffed with a roll of her eyes. "Of course, we are doing it now and we will keep doing it until such a time I fall pregnant. You get what you want, an heir, and I get what I want, a child to love. It really is the perfect compromise and solution to both of our issues. And neither of us must endure one another outside of parental obligations. I will make time for you in my schedule for seven pm every night until the time comes when I can produce a positive pregnancy test."

He paled considerably at this sentiment. "Witch. I am not as young as you and whilst sexual desire is there and very much achievable, I hardly doubt I will be able to satisfy your need to fornicate on a daily basis."

Chocolate eyes rolled just so at his statement. "Well you better find the stamina somewhere because you really don't have any say in the matter," she snapped harshly.

She grabbed him around the wrist and began to drag him into her bedroom. She had never been this brazen before in her life and she probably never would again, but she wanted this baby so desperately she was willing to do anything to get one. Her biological clock was ticking, and she needed to have a baby sooner rather than later. Even though it was common knowledge witches and wizards lived far longer lives than the average muggle, she was unsure if that applied to her or not coming from a line of muggles rather than a lineage of magic.

Dropping his wrist once she had passed through the threshold of her bedroom she screwed her nose up in disgust. "Wait, I can't do anything with all of these looking at us." She walked around the room pulling photos of her and Ron off the walls. Some were beaming at the camera and in others they were waving and kissing or looking very much is love and she felt the anger and the bile begin to rise. How could she have been so stupid not to see what was going on under her nose?

Lucius Snatched a photo off of the nightstand just as Hermione went to grab it, fingertips gently brushed as they did so.

He studied the photo critically for a few seconds. "Who'd have thought? You look like the quintessential cookie-cutter husband and wife in all these photos. You look so happy it's almost sickening."

He handed the photo to her just as she snatched it from his fingertips violently. "Yeah, well I didn't even think it would happen and it was happening right under my nose," she huffed as the threw the stack of photos onto a spare chair in the corner of the room and threw a towel that was draped over the chair on top of them so she didn't have to keep looking at them offending paraphernalia.

"I must remember to burn those tomorrow," she bit savagely thrusting a finger in the direction of the photos. "Honestly, who does he think he is?"

"I've honestly got no idea," Lucius bit back with feigned innocence. He felt an impromptu therapy session coming up.

"Can you believe he just tossed me aside like yesterdays Daily Prophet for someone younger and skinnier? What is wrong with me?" She walked over to a full-length mirror and began to study the image staring back critically, picking every issue staring back at her.

"Sure I might have not been around as much as I usually was. And I have a few more wrinkles and a little extra weight around the mid-section," she rested her hands on her almost flat stomach and looked at herself with a critical eye in the mirror with her nose wrinkled.

"No wonder he left me, I am looking like an old hag. May as well pension me off and send me to the retirement paddock."

Lucius sat on the bed examining the woman for a fleeting moment before rolling his eyes. "You are not a hag, nor are you fat or ugly, Hermione. You are seeing things that aren't there and trying to justify why he went following his cock to another wet hole instead of just resting on the fact he is clearly a moron and didn't deserve you in the first place. If I were you, I would have kicked my foot so far up his ass he would have had to visit a proctologist to remove it. Now do you want me to set you up a meeting with my therapist or would you rather me bide my time as play the ersatz therapist to you instead of getting the task done at hand?" He flicked a long blonde lock off his shoulder and eyed it as if it had insulted him on a personal level.

"Sorry," She blushed awkwardly. "I don't get to unleash often, well, not since the whole Ron saga. Obviously I used to vent to him but now I can't and I haven't told anyone else for fear of what will follow and all of the shit I have to go through, any way you don't want to know about my issues."

"Not particularly, no. So how do you want to start?"

She looked at him perplexed. "Do you not know how to have sex?"

He rolled his eyes at her. "I don't know how you want to do this. Slow, fast, missionary, on top, on the bottom, d-"

She held up a hand to silence him. "I don't care if you do it artificially if I am honest as long as it ends up in a positive pregnancy test you could paint your bollocks pink and wear a fuzzy hat for all I care." She sniffed indignantly.

He watched as she moved with speed and precision and zero hesitation removing her shirt followed quickly by her skirt and then her undergarments. He was a little crestfallen he didn't get to appreciate the way she undressed a little more. She stood before him totally naked and didn't seem to have a care in the world about doing so. The way she stood there radiating confidence was a far cry from the woman who was just critically critiquing herself in the mirror and picking out her every fault and flaw.

"Wow. Straight to the point." His eyes raked up and down her body welcoming the sight for a moment. Unsure why she was so hard on herself he appreciated the female form before him. There was nothing at all wrong with her It was unfathomable that she thought there was something wrong with herself. He didn't know if he should look at her or look away. He had no idea where to look if he were being honest.

She took in a shuddered breath as she realised how exposed and vulnerable, she felt right now. She had just stripped naked in front of Lucius Malfoy. The blood supremacist from not that long ago. The man who wanted to wipe her and her kind out of existence and now they were both coming to a compromise to conceive a child and bring it into the world.

There was no logical reason why she couldn't or shouldn't use Lucius Malfoy as the father of her child. There were no feelings between them at all. Both wanted the same end results and neither wanted anything else from their union. She knew Lucius Malfoy wouldn't go around shouting from the rooftops what they were doing because he had no reason to hold anything against her. At the end of the day, she needed him as much as he needed her and thus, she concluded he was the best choice within their world to produce a child of magical ability. Well, that and he basically fell into her lap just at the opportune time. She did believe that things fell into place and happened for a reason and this one situation was no different.

"So laying the rules down one more time. No feelings. No relationship. We both have the end goal in mind, and we won't deviate from that. Right?"

"Yes, yes. No relationship. No offence pet but you are far from my type." He was hopping on one foot trying to remove a shoe and sock off his foot as he talked.

"Thanks for that," She bit sarcastically. "What is your type anyway? Tall, blonde and pureblood?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. And last time I checked you didn't fit an of those prerequisites, pet. But you aren't without your charm."

"Well I'm s-" She stopped talking in an instant trying to strain her hearing. She was certain she had just heard the front door open and shut quickly.

"What were you saying?" Lucius asked, now only in his long pants and began to unbutton those.

"Shh." She held a hand up to silence him, fishing around in the clothes on the floor for her wand, breath hitched in her throat she slowly walked across the bedroom wand raised high at the ready should she need to use it.

A shadow cast in the doorway and her heart skipped a beat. Fuck. It was right at that moment she knew who it was and mentally scolded herself for not changing the wards when she had a chance.

"Hermione, what are y-" Ron appeared in the doorway, looking incredibly perplexed as to why she was standing naked in the bedroom with her wand ready to hex him, then his eyes fell to a half-naked Lucius Malfoy. What the fuck.

"What the fuck, Hermione? What is he doing here and why are you naked?" His voice raising a few octaves in both surprise and anger.

Flushing crimson she darted across the room and grabbed the towel she had thrown over the photos with such speed, the pile toppled on the floor in a baptism of broken glass and she could only groan.

"Are they photos of us?" Ron snapped; pain etched onto his face. He didn't expect her to be moving on so quickly.

"Yes. I don't need the constant reminder around that the man I married cheated on me under my nose, thank you very much." Wrapping the towel around her body she tucked it in place.

Lucius awkwardly standing in the bedroom made his was to the bed and sat on it. May as well get comfortable for the drama that was about to unfold.

"What do you want, Ronald. Shouldn't you be off with what's-her-face right now?" She barked angrily. She knew her name, she just refused to use it because it tasted like acid in her mouth.

"Well, I came around to ask you when you were going to announce our marriage had dissolved because I just found out today I'm going to be a father." He beamed.

Her heart skipped a beat, then another and then a third. Chest growing tight as if a metal band was tingling around her rib cage she stumbled a few steps backs and landed breathless on the bed as her mind tried to process what he had just told her.

"I'm sorry, what?" She shook her head as if in disbelief. Surely she heard wrong.

"She's pregnant. I'm going to be a father," he repeated a little slower. He watched as her face dropped and her mouth opened and closed slowly as if trying to force words out and they never came.

"So you come here to ask me to rush through the announcement so you can then further make me look like an idiot by announcing she is pregnant. That is just glaringly obvious that you were sneaking around behind my back but whatever." She shrugged, adjusting the towel around her breasts.

"What's he doing here?" Ron tried to change the subject, thrusting a thumb in Lucius' direction.

"Well, Ronald. Seeing as you failed for years to impregnate me I felt the need to go and find someone up to the task to give me what I so desperately desire, however, it seems that may be futile because if you got that harlot up the duff then perhaps the problem lies wholly and fully with me and I cannot produce a child."

"Well. Actually." He cleared his throat and looked to the ground, hoping it would open and swallow him whole. "I may or may not have been slipping you potions in your morning coffee to stop you conceiving. But I only did it for you, Hermione. You were always much too busy for a child and I didn't feel it was the right time to bring a child into the world. I loved you but I never loved you enough to be saddled with the responsibility of juggling a kid and having you work long hours."

"You what?" She asked so calmly and so darkly Lucius got Goosebumps all over his body at her tone alone.

"Hermione…" Ron warned sternly. A child wasn't something to bring into this world. You were much to career-focused to do so."

She sucked in a few steadying breaths, brown eyes glittering dangerously with malice. She sprung to her feet with so much for the towel fell to the ground and pooled around her feet.

"I hate you Ronald Weasley and I regret the day I ever married you!" She screamed so loud her voice instantly became hoarse. "Now get the hell out of my home."

Ron didn't have to be told twice, spinning on his heel he almost sprinted from the room leaving the two in silence. Tension so palpable you could almost reach out and touch it.

Turning to Lucius with tears welling in her eyes she forcefully pushed him on the bed and landed atop of him, pushing pink lips hungrily against his own thin ones she forced all her anger and sadness out into the kiss.

A hand came up to gently stroke the smooth skin on her back, causing her to buck into him slightly as the kiss deepened. A kiss of anger or hate and of frustration as her heart broke into a million pieces in her chest. How could someone she had loved for so long be so sneaky and so untrustworthy?

He ran a hand from her shoulder to the swell of her arse, grasping the flesh hard he pulled her close to him as she ground her hips against him. Her scent filling his nostrils and the anger palpable in the air consumed him. Lipping her over so she was now beneath him he nipped playfully at her neck as he kicked his pants off down around his ankles.

He loved sex that was full of anger and tonight wasn't going to disappoint. Kissing her once more he bit her lip hard causing her to wince and lean into his lips harder.

Sheathing himself in her wet folds he thrust hard causing her to be pushed up the bed a few centimetres with the force.

She groaned appreciatively as he matched that with another and another. Rough and hard sex was at the top of his list if he did say so himself.

The raw pure primal instinct came over him as he thrust hard repeatedly into her. She squirmed beneath him matching his pace with her own hips meeting his thrusts as if her life depended on them.

Her breath hitched in her throat she sunk white teeth into a broad shoulder, eyes closed half mast she exhaled sharply through her nose as velvet walls closed in on his length.

"For fuck sake," he bit under his breath as the walls crushed his cock so tight it sent him over the edge and beyond, seed spilling within her.

Mission accomplished.

He lay breathless atop of her for a moment in the silence of the night gaining his composure before rolling off.

"Are you ok?" He eventually broke the silence; it was clear she was seething still.

"I will be fine. Thank you," she huffed angrily.

He slid from the bed, collecting his clothes and dressing in haste.

"I'll see you tomorrow." He nodded curtly before leaving the bedroom.

Once he was gone Hermione lay face down in the pillow and sobbed until she fell asleep. She had never felt so alone.

A/N: So many of you have reviewed and asked me to keep going, which of course I am, so don't worry about that. I write when inspiration strikes and in between real life. I hope you like this chapter. I've been trying to write it for two weeks, but it just wouldn't come. Finally, I managed to get it together.