Hermione stared at the piece of parchment spread out on the desk before her. Peacock quill hovering at the ready, but she didn't know what to compose. This was bullshit.
There were plenty of nay-sayers when she came to office, all men, of course. Men who believed a woman's place wasn't in such a prominent position of power because they thought too much with their hearts and not their heads. And right now, the same men were calling for her resignation over the current developments.
"This is fucking bullshit!" She snapped, throwing the quill across the room and watched as it flew tip-first like a missile towards a target.
"It is," Lucius cooed, sitting on her desk. He was there for moral support and little more at the moment. After all, he still needed that heir.
"I researched the history of all the ministers before me. Their lives full of infidelity and illegitimate children and not one of those had an article run on them or had a pack out for their blood."
"And Cornelius Fudge used to keep the company of many a hooker despite his wife sitting at home nursing their newborn child, and nothing was done about that," Lucius interjected.
"See!" She threw her hands up in the air; defeated. "I may as well stand down now and start packing my belongings because I can't do this anymore." She laid her head on the blank parchment as if waiting for her thoughts to spill onto the paper and the words manifest themselves into a reality.
"Because you are a woman, you will always have to prove your worth, Hermione. It petrifies men of women who are smarter, stronger, or braver than they. It is intimidating to them to have a female better than they are and that is why they will do anything to drag you down. That is why you need to get up, stand tall, and show them you can do the job. Show them you aren't scared of their tactics and their doubt. Put them in their place." He offered his wisdom as someone on the outside looking in. He knew she had been plagued with male chauvinists since the day she stepped into office, but he hadn't seen any of it until he started sleeping with her.
She let the weight of his words fully sink in before she sat back up and smoothed her hands over her shirt. He was right. She would not bow down and be oppressed because a few tiny-dicked men were intimidated by her.
"Susan, where is Ronald now?"
"Locked up down in the Aurors cells awaiting your next orders."
"And his little home wrecker?"
"Legend has it she is marching the halls looking for you so she can strangle you," Lucius mused.
"Not helping the situation," she interjected, looking pointedly at him.
She needed to come up with a plan of attack and work out what she was going to do. She couldn't hold Ron down there forever because it would only turn into a pressure cooker that would eventually explode in spectacular style.
Truth was, she didn't really want him to go to Azkaban, she just wanted him to suffer to the full extent and give him the illusion he was going there. She smirked. She could imagine him now, sitting down there having kittens whilst pacing his cell. It gave her a warm fuzzy feeling.
"And when can I go to St Mungo's for a fertility test to ensure he didn't destroy my ability to conceive a child?"
"Any time you feel up to it. I can clear your schedule," Susan offered.
She tapped her lower lip in deep thought, trying to work out how she would go about all of this.
"I'll go today," she confirmed. "And what course of action would you suggest I take to get me out of this predicament, Susan?"
"I can't advise you, Hermione, only you can decide, but the consensus is you pushed Ronald into the arms of another woman by never being there for him and thus he is an innocent victim in this entire ordeal. The Weasleys are held in high regard obviously because Ron is a war hero. To the general population, they can do no wrong."
Lucius snorted heavily through his nose at that revelation.
"Don't you start, Lucius. You are lucky you are on the right side of Hermione. Everyone loathes you and wishes they could be rid of you but are too scared because of your money and status."
"Rude," he snapped harshly. Eyes narrowing into slits.
"And there is another issue. It could look unfavorably on you if you conceive a child with him. It will either go one of two ways. People will turn on you for it, or they will push away their hatred and accept him and hold his in good stead. Out of all the wizards in the world, you choose that one." Susan stabbed a finger in his direction.
"I'm here, you know," Lucius snapped.
"Imagine what I say about you behind your back then," she sneered evilly.
"Do you honestly know who you are talking to?" He countered, rounding on her a stormy hatred brewing in his eyes.
"Children. Stop." Hermione clapped her hands, getting their attention. "Honestly, have some decorum, the two of you."
"Sorry," they both mumbled in unison, casting a sheepish glance at one another.
"The last thing I need is the two of you trying to tear each other's throats out!" She admonished.
"Now. If you two don't mind, I am heading to 's. Lucius, Susan, you two can go home if you like."
"My home or yours? Lucius shouted down the corridor as she walked away."
"Surprise me," She called back before disappearing into the distance.
o-o-o-o-o-o
"I'm sorry. Are you sure?" She asked, exasperated, mouth agape in disbelief, staring blankly at the medi-wizard trying to comprehend what was happening right at this moment.
"I'm the head of Fertility here at St Mungo's, Miss Granger. I have written three theses about twin pregnancies. Yes, I am sure. It is incredibly rare to have a twin pregnancy without a history in the family, but it can happen. The fertility potions he gave you haven't harmed your ability to conceive, obviously, but I cannot say they didn't attribute to the twins," he ended matter-of-factly.
"B-But I'd be lucky to be a month along. How can you know for sure," she pressed. Her face was as white as a bedsheet.
"Yes, and thanks to the leaps and bounds in both modern and magical medicine, we can pinpoint a pregnancy at only two weeks and the number of embryos not much further along than that."
Her hands convulsing and a lump in her throat, her mind was spinning so much she thought she may vomit. Twins. No. This wasn't meant to happen, there was only meant to be one. How would she tell Lucius that not only had they been successful in their mission, they had over-achieved and she was carrying two of his children?
Her heart sank a little with sadness. Now that she was pregnant, he would have no need to visit any longer and no need for intimacy. She would be alone again until she birthed the babies and that weighed heavily on her psyche. She despised loneliness of late and her heart yearned for companionship. Of course, she couldn't let Lucius know that, after all, the whole deal had been made on the assumption neither would want to become romantically involved with the other and she intended to uphold her end of the bargain.
She sighed sadly and sat up at the end of the examining table.
"Thank you. I will arrange for my assistant to book prenatal appointments with you at both of our conveniences." She nodded curtly, sliding off the table.
o-o-o-o-o
"No wine tonight?" Lucius asked with a raise of a brow, noting the cup of water sitting on her bench where the wine usually sat whilst she was cooking dinner.
He had become privy to her routine and knew that this wasn't the norm for her. It was usual for her to finish a bottle a night with little effort and rarely did he help her do so.
Placing a hand on her hip, he pulled her curls over the shoulder, exposing the nape of her neck, and placed a delicate kiss upon the equally delicate flesh.
She titled her head to the side and closed her eyes, breathing shallowly, reveling in the small show of intimacy. She bit her lip and breathed in heavily. Well, it sucked that this had to end soon.
It was strange to her she wanted affection and intimacy from Lucius. The one man that wanted to personally at one stage kill her and eradicate her kind and now: well now… She was almost desperate for his touch. It made her wonder though, was she just using him as a rebound after Ronald?
No. Surely not. She liked him more than she liked Ronald, which was strange in its own way because she had been married to Ron for years and had been sleeping with Lucius for what seemed like the blink of an eye.
"Hmm?" She brought herself back from her thoughts, turning on her heel to face him. Looking up into his steely grey eyes before pulling away quickly. She didn't want him to see the sadness swimming in her eyes. It was bad enough sorrow would be tangled in her voice when she told him.
"No wine tonight?" He repeated, casually placing a hand on each of her hips.
"Not for a while," she said casually as he dropped a chaste kiss on her forehead. Hoping he would catch her drift. He didn't.
"Oh? Health kick?" He gently pushed her aside, picking up a wooden spoon she had set on the bench, and began stirring the contents of the saucepan.
She took in a deep breath. "First, I didn't know you could cook, and second, no I am not on a health kick, Lucius."
"You stigmatize my abilities because I was born into the wealthiest family in Britain. But yes, believe it or not, I do have basic life skills that were taught to me when I was younger. It wasn't all house-elves and cav-" He stopped mid-sentence, eyes growing wide he placed the wooden spoon down on the bench and turned back to her.
Finally. He worked it out.
"Y-you're. Already? H-how!" he forced out, tripping over his words multiple times.
"Well, when two people-"
He held up a hand to stop her. "I know how, Hermione. I was a participant in the ordeal, I just wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly."
She noticed his eyes had lit up at the revelation and a small smile tugged at the corners of his lips and perhaps this is what he needed as well. Hiding behind the façade of needing an Heir for the Malfoy line when perhaps he too was lonely and too proud to admit it. Maybe this sparked hope that his life could start shifting into normality like it was once previously when he had both Draco and Narcissa.
"It's twins," she blurted out, not even thinking before she spoke again.
He said nothing at the moment. He really couldn't even if he wanted to because right now his mouth was dry and his hands shaking. He didn't think they would conceive one child, let alone two at once.
"But there are no twins i-"
"In the Malfoy line?" She finished his sentence for him. "There are none on my side either, so I was just as surprised as you. Believe me."
She nudged him aside and picked up the wooden spoon again and took charge of the saucepan once more.
"An Heir and a spare. How convenient."
"That is a horrid thing to say about your own children, Lucius." She swatted his arm gently.
Moments passed in relative silence. The bubbling of the sauce on the stove-top the only noise cutting through the silent room.
"Are you staying for dinner?" She enquired, attention focused on the bubbling saucepan, hoping deep down that he would accept the offer.
"I will if you want me to. I don't want to overstay my welcome now we have achieved our end goal…" He trailed off, picking up the pepper grinder, which was now becoming increasingly interesting to him in the awkward moment.
"Well, I started cooking for you anyway, so you may as well stay." Not wanting to sound desperate instead making out like it was a matter of convenience if he stayed.
Putting the pepper grinder back on the bench, he stood idly, studying her as she moved around the kitchen. He had grown fond of the woman he once hated as a child. She was different. He was different. It was strange how much your persona changed when everything you ever loved or cared for was taken away from you in the blink of an eye without even as much as a backward thought from the person doing it.
She was kind, humble, and very down to earth considering her position of power, and the fact she was willing to help him with an heir spoke volumes to him about the type of person she really was. The woman barely had ten minutes to herself and yet found time to cook for not only herself but him as well and she really didn't have to, but she stood for the house-elves' freedom and refused to use them.
He noted how much confidence she had lost though since she was younger. She rarely smiled now, and she picked faults with her body daily. He knew deep down she hated herself and the way she looked, but she forced it deep, deep down under lock and key where she thought nobody would be able to notice it. Except he did. He noticed everything about her. The apparent sadness, the self-loathing, and the fear of being alone.
A baby was only on her agenda because she wanted someone to love her unconditionally and there was no greater unconditional love than that of a mother and child and he knew that is all she wanted. Love.
Putting on a strong façade over the past few weeks whilst she battled with the issues Weasley had bestowed upon her was really taking its toll on her mental health and he would like to hang around as often as he could to pull her out of that slump. For his children, of course.
It was just unfortunate that they had both come to an agreement that there would be no romantic feelings for one another through the entire ordeal because right now he could see himself settling down with her and their two children and rebuilding the life he once had before it was cruelly taken from him. It made perfect sense honestly, but he knew she wouldn't want to have a bar of the idea, so he never suggested it.
"Lucius?" A hand snapped fingers in front of his face, trying to bring him back to earth.
"Hmm? Yes, pet?" He sucked in a jagged breath, eyes focusing on the woman before him once again.
"Do you want pepper on you-" She didn't even have a chance to finish her sentence before he gripped her chin with his long fingers and pulled her towards him, planting his lips hotly on her own.
Tongue gently running along her bottom lip, she opened her mouth just enough for him to slide his tongue in as they met in a battle for supremacy. His other arm snaked around her waist and dragged her in closer to him, her body heat radiating against his own before sliding over the swell of her ass and sitting on her bare thigh just beneath her skirt.
She pulled her lips away from his own to protest for just a moment. "But dinner is ready."
She didn't care about dinner anymore, instead only wanting to be close to him. She wanted to feel him inside of her again, filling her emptiness for but just a fleeting moment so for a short time she could feel somewhat whole again.
"And technically we don't need to do this but here we are," He murmured in her ear huskily before picking her up and placing her on the bench, his lips assaulting hers once more. Dinner could wait, this was much more appetizing.
A/N: I offer you another chapter with my humblest thanks for the reviews I have been given. I have had readers go as far as saying this is one of the best Lumione stories they have read, which is so flattering considering I wouldn't even put my writing anywhere close to the middle of the pack of works that are out there.
