"Don't you have a home you can go to?" Susan snapped as she walked into Hermione's kitchen early one morning to see him perched atop a stool innocently eating his breakfast.
"You say that every single morning you walk in here, it is obvious I have a home, but I choose not to frequent it," he snapped back just as harshly, grey eyes boring almost into the other woman's sole with utter hatred and contempt. He grew tired of her constant harassment daily. She hated him, and it was no secret that he disliked her as well.
He knew why she hated him, of course, he did, wounds of the past were still raw and probably always would be no matter how many years passed, and if he remembered correctly, her parents perished needlessly in tie attributed to the war.
"Perhaps you should look into frequenting your own home more than you do this one," she suggested mockingly.
"Look, Susan. I know you have it in for me and for good reason, but waltzing in here daily and asking why I am still here is getting redundant. If Hermione didn't want me here, then she would tell me," He barked madly at the woman who took a small step backward before folding arms tightly across her chest and pursed her lips tightly.
"You know, when Hermione told me she was going to have a baby, I was happy for her. Then she informed me you were going to be the father and I have never hated an idea more in my life. You are vile, evil, and little more than a murderer. The only reason you are walking free is that you had enough money to line the palms of those you needed to turn a blind eye and let you walk out with not even an apology," she seethed. Chest rising and falling as she tried to stop herself from reaching out and wrapping her slender fingers around his neck that looked ever so much like it needed to be strangled.
"You were part of a cult with a blood lust for those people that didn't fit into your ideologies. One of those people you were out to decimate now lets you crawl in beside her every night and sleep beside her and ravish her body to fulfill your desires because you have somehow thrown up a smokescreen hiding your true colours from her." She took another step forward and took in a deep, shaky breath.
She noticed he was just staring at her, expressionless, and was unsure if she should be afraid or happy that he had nothing to come back with right now.
"I've begged, and I've pleaded with her to not have your child, but it only fell on deaf ears. So, whilst she is blind to who you really are, I am not, and thus I will treat you accordingly. I warned her this would happen, and she didn't listen."
"Warned her of what?" He asked inquisitively, cocking his head slightly to the side.
"That it wouldn't just be a casual fling with an end to the means. I warned her quite sternly may I add she would end up catching feelings for you and I was right. Rebounding straight from Ron with her broken heart to you, she has latched on to the first man that showed her some affection and she has fallen head over heels."
"She has no feelings for me, nor I for her. We have strict contracts in pla-"
"You're kidding yourself if you think she has no feelings for you, Lucius. I see the way she looks at you, the look in her eye, the small smile whenever you walk into a room. Merlin knows you're not worthy of the love or affection from someone as great as her, but I cannot control who she shows affection to."
She exhaled sharply through her nose, pulling a stool out from beside him and throwing herself atop it hard.
"And I swear to every god out there, if you hurt her, I will hurt you. She has been so good to me these past years when I was at my lowest. She lifted me up. When she was at her lowest, I returned the favour. She is selfless and hard working. She cares little about herself and more about everyone else. That's why she is so burnt out and on the brink of a nervous breakdown. She is the hero everyone needed but didn't deserve."
She sighed sadly and looked out of the window for a few moments as if she were in deep thought.
"Of course, she will never admit that she is fond of you. She never really admits anything to anyone, no matter how well you know her. She is extremely stoic and rarely lets her walls down. Even when she was with Ron she never really let him in."
"Can you believe this?" Hermione's shrill voice rang loudly through the kitchen seconds before she stormed in.
She stopped and stared at Susan and Lucius sitting happily beside one another and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. Something was going on there, but right now, she didn't have the need or care to know.
"Ron must've told his family about the twins and now they've sent me a letter basically telling me if they are Ron's they have rights to have a relationship with them whether I approve."
She flung the letter on the bench and sat beside Susan and rested her head on the bench silently.
Long fingers reaching out to pluck the note from the bench-top, his eyes darting side to side as he read the repugnant handwriting of Molly Weasley.
He placed it back down on the bench and this time Susan read it meticulously before throwing it down as forcefully as Hermione had done so.
"She's delusional, isn't she? I know that if they are Ron's, technically they are related, yes, but the entire family has been so toxic towards me I don't want that type of energy around my children. I am their mother and I feel I have a right to choose who they have in their lives or not. Is that so wrong?"
"Not at all-" He stopped when she held a single hand up, eyes wide she shot to her feet and sprinted to the bathroom clutching her stomach tight.
"Morning sickness," Lucius and Susan both said in unison as the sound of heaving filled the apartment.
"Kill me now," Hermione groaned feverishly as she knelt beside the toilet bowl, head resting on the seat. She didn't care how dirty sitting on the floor by the toilet was because if she wasn't here, she would lie in her kitchen in a pool of vomit.
Lucius darkened the doorway, leaning coolly against the doorframe, grey eyes watching her with a sympathy within them. Narcissa had been just as ill when she was carrying Draco to the point she had spent weeks in bed under doctor's orders. He remembered vividly how bad she looked and how much it broke his heart to not be able to help her situation.
"I think you need to go back to bed, Hermione," He pushed, gently.
"And take the day off of work?" She admonished, turning to look at him both critically and in disbelief.
Face red and covered in sweat, eyes watering and hands shaking, it was obvious she wasn't in any fit state to head into the office.
"He's right, Hermione. You look terrible," Susan added her two sickles worth to the conversation, pushing past Lucius to enter the bathroom.
"It isn't a show for you all to watch," Hermione bit at the two standing in the doorway watching her as if she was the most interesting thing right now in their lives.
"If I take days off, people will talk and assume that I am unfit for the position, and then the wheels will turn in motion, and before I know it I am being replaced by someone else who isn't throwing their breakfast up everywhere."
"I wish Severus were around, he'd whip you something up to curb that sickness in no time," Lucius tutted in deep thought.
"I'll go to St. Mungo's and see what they can do for you, Hermione. They ought to have something that can take some of the sickness away," Susan said, thoughtfully.
"It won't be anywhere near as good as Severus could have brewed," Lucius retorted scornfully. It was no secret he and Severus were good friends, and it was equally no secret that Severus was at the top of his craft.
"Well," Susan snapped, rounding on Lucius. "If you can contact the dead, reanimate his chalked bones and set-up a lab for him, ask him to brew a potion, but in the meantime I will go see what the living offers us."
He watched as she turned on her heel and stormed from the bathroom, leaving Lucius and Hermione alone in awkward silence.
"She really dislikes you," she huffed as another wave of sickness washed over her like a wave hitting the shore during a violent story.
"I think the word you are after is hate. She loathes me with every fiber of her being."
"That bothers you?" She looked at him, eyelashes fluttering slowly as she tried to deal with the sickness that was churning her stomach as she had never felt before in her life.
"No. Not at all. I don't care who likes me and who doesn't. I live my life for me and not anybody else. You either love me or you hate me, and I take it at face value. I'm not changing myself to fit into a cookie-cutter society. But the fact of the matter is I exchange nothing but pleasantries with the woman and she acts as if I am the worse human she has had the displeasure of knowing. I only wish to be treated the way I tread someone."
"Lucius, I say this in the nicest possible way, but I don't have the energy to referee your and Susan's conundrum right now. Like each other or hate each other, I don't really care. She is my assistant and friend. You are hopefully the father of the children I am carrying and you both, like it or not, hold a special place in my life so it is imperative you both get on."
She cast a disapproving glance his way, narrowed eyes before she heaved the contents of her stomach up again. Was it too late to change her mind about this whole baby thing?
o-o-o-o-o-o
"Lucius?" She called through her incredibly silent house in search of the man who had somehow made himself at home in her apartment without them ever actually having a conversation about it ever happening.
After she had exhausted the search in all rooms, she deduced he must've gone out or gone to his own home momentarily. It was at that moment she realised he had never really left her side through the entire ordeal and this was probably the first time he hadn't been waiting for her when she had expected him to be and that kind of made her feel hollow within.
She glanced at the fireplace for a moment, remembering she opened a floo network directly between their homes. The only thing was, she felt she may be imposing if she stepped in and landed in his home unannounced. She didn't feel they were in that spot in their relationship where she could traipse into his home unannounced… Then again; he did just that to her regardless, and she was potentially carrying heirs to the Malfoy line. Surely that would allow her free access to the mansion.
Stepping in and grabbing a handful of floo powder, she threw it heavily upon the blackened base of the fireplace. "Malfoy Manor," she coughed as a few specs of the powder made it up her nose and down her throat. Blinking once, twice, thrice as the smoke settled, allowing her to view the room in which she landed.
Stepping out, she dusted herself off meticulously. Eyes darting left and right she deduced from the large oak desk in the middle of the room and the books lining the walls that looked centuries old perhaps it was the study, or one of, she assumed.
Glacially slow the leather wingback chair turned to face her. Lucius sat crossed-legged with a niftier of brandy clutched tightly in his hand. The amber liquid dancing in the glass as he did so.
"I was wondering how long it would take you to seek me out," He smiled like the Cheshire cat, placing the brandy on his desk silently. "I've been thinking… Perhaps you could consider moving in here. There is more than enough room for the two of us and two babies. Your place isn't without its charm, but it is no Manor."
She looked slowly around the room, almost with a critical eye. The history within the walls was insurmountable. The tapestries and artworks that hung proudly on the walls from every century through the ages tying everything together neatly. The marble floors that spanned thousands of square feet would have cost more than she would have made in ten years, even as the minister covered the entirety of the home.
As beautiful as the manor was, there were also the terrible memories of the time Bellatrix had pinned her mercilessly to that exact exquisite French marble flooring as she spilled her blood upon it.
He must've noticed the uncomfortable stance she had taken or the way her eyes darted frantically around the room as her thought process changed. "Hermione. I know the things that happened in the Manor were repugnant and would bring up deep-seated memories, but I promise you will be nothing but safe within these walls. No Weasley's waltzing in. No prying eyes sitting outside your apartment waiting for you to slip up-"
"No, Susan bluntly telling you to go to your own home and leave mine," she interjected, smiling slightly.
"That too. That was my number one reason but didn't want to seem insensitive."
She took in a deep, calming breath, trying to rationalise with herself that there was nary a reason to be concerned about being in the Manor any longer. Bellatrix was dead and buried nigh on twenty years ago and there was no way her slain, rotted corpse would claw its way back from the grave and into the Manor to finish her.
All of his points were highly valid. The Manor was far enough down the garden path, surrounded by hedges and magic that no one could traipse in on their own accord, and for that, she would be thankful.
"It's a tremendous step, Lucius," she began. "We were supposed to uphold our end of the contract and go our separate ways, not move in with one another."
"While I agree there was a contract in place, I am sure it would mean little if we disregarded certain aspects as circumstances change along the way. For example, I was unaware I would be compatible with you and wouldn't want to strangle you at any chance."
"Same, honestly." She nodded in mock solidarity. "Who knew you would be half decent company."
"Only half decent?" He asked, holding his hand in mock hurt over his heart.
"I don't want to over-inflate your already enormous ego," she retorted cheekily.
"Miss Granger, I've never been so insulted in my life." He stood quickly, taking the three steps across the room to where she stood, embracing her within his arms. She let herself visibly relax against him and for once, right at this moment, she felt truly happy and at ease. She felt as if she didn't need to be someone she wasn't nor tread on eggshells as she did with Ron to keep the peace.
"I've something else bigger than my ego you might like to see," He said coyly, leaning down and place a chaste kiss on her lips.
"Is that so, Mister Malfoy?" She asked innocently, resting her head against his chest and closing her eyes as she basked in his touch. "And what may that be?"
"Well. Let me show you." He smirked mischievously. Grabbing her hand in his own he pulled her along through a set of double doors in his study and pushed them open revealing an expanse personal library that would rival most others.
There were books for as far as the eye could see, placed so meticulously on the shelves she could be mistaken that when they had been placed there, they used a ruler for perfect placement. Books of old and books of new lined the hand-crafted wooden shelves by genre and author.
She loosened her grip from his and lurched forward towards a shelf, pink fingers skimming the surface of each book gently feeling the leather, paper, and cloth bindings beneath her touch, taking in a breath as she did so. There were works long thought lost from authors penned centuries ago, and they were right here for her to peruse at her leisure should she so wish.
Turning to face him slowly, he could see the excitement in her eyes and happiness within her soul he had not seen since sleeping with her.
"You know what? I think I might've found something just slightly bigger than your ego."
