Unexpected chapter! This farm-metaphored Lucius sort of fell out of my fingers. I still have to see where he goes.

The Malfoy Ball and aftermath will be multi-chapter so I want to get it all written before I begin posting.

I also wrote a page of the ending…and got a bit sniffly…

"Severus! To what do we owe this honour? If you're after Narcissa and her arrangements for your bound little witch, she's in Paris." Lucius flipped back his copy of the Prophet and tilted his head. Sunlight from the long window gilded his still-perfect profile and fired his hair into a halo of white gold. His lips formed a moue. "There are things she has to do with place settings. And linen. I asked no further."

Severus, for all his manners, for all his elegance, could never achieve that which Lucius Malfoy did with a turn of his head. And sometimes he envied the man's almost ethereal beauty. Sometimes.

"Simply a question." The Potions Master handed his snow-wet cloak to a hovering house elf and sank into the silk-lined chair. Amelia had clucked at the use of such rare and expensive fabric in a day chair, set in the full sun. But this was Malfoy extravagance at its worst. "Why didn't you tell me Miss Granger had already visited your home?"

Lucius' pale eyes fixed on him. The moue faded to a thinned line. "That."

"Yes, that." Severus let out a slow breath. "The girl was tortured here. From what I understand, in this very room. And you didn't think it was relevant to mention?"

Lucius lifted an eyebrow. "I thought you knew."

"That she was tortured by Bellatrix. But not that the three of you…attended."

Or that Greyback had mawled her.

Severus didn't admit the last one, because he doubted he could hold onto his temper. The thought of the perverted werewolf's paws on Hermione had twisted in his thoughts, digging deep and only increasing his impotent anger. Greyback had been repeatedly stabbed with silver, burnt to ashes and those ashes had been pushed beyond the veil. Still, it didn't satisfy Severus.

"Really." Lucius huffed the word out on a breath. "What were we meant to do? And the witch was holding her own against my insane sister-in-law." His blue eyes glittered. "Aren't we putting that sordid past behind us with a muggle-born ribbon wearer?"

So, Lucius didn't approve. Even with all his power and standing, he couldn't go against two war heroes and sacred tradition. It didn't mean he wouldn't try…

Severus shoved down the idea that he could make Lucius apologise. He wouldn't. And it would tip Severus' hand now if he asked for one. Shit. "Indeed we are."

Severus was back within their fold. Truly, he had never left. Lucius didn't care that he'd been a traitor to the Dark Lord. In the end, they'd both recognised Voldemort was a canker that needed to be removed. Severus continued to let Lucius believe that he had been playing the side that suited him best: the winning one. Just as a true Slytherin should.

A little elf appeared with a tea tray and Severus helped himself, pouring a cup for Lucius too. He wouldn't distract him with the deference, but it suggested that Severus was more on his side. Even if it was a lie. Playing Lucius had been a serious hobby for almost twenty five years. "I hear that little witches are queuing up now to take the ribbon."

Lucius perfect lips quirked upwards, reacting to the salacious cut to Severus' tone. "That I were free to indulge them. Still…" he smirked around his cup, "there is always after. A slew of witches broken in and eager to try out their newly acquired skills? It's almost as fine a prospect."

"Quite." A fist tightened in Severus' gut. The wizard would touch Hermione over his cold, dead body. He didn't care if she found the bastard pretty, or charming, or anything else Lucius Malfoy could project to hide his true personality. He would not have her.

"Of course you are enjoying untouched flesh. Not at all like you, Severus."

Severus curled his lip. "The residents of Grimmauld Place objected. Strongly. How could I ignore such a…challenge?"

Lucius barked a laugh. "So you swept the witch up. Well done. They can be so po-faced." His nose wrinkled. "As if Molly Prewett didn't spend the entire Seventh Year with her heels in the air. I have it on good authority that more than Arthur Weasley ploughed that deep furrow. And as for Nymphadora Tonks…"

Something sparked in Lucius gaze and Severus' stomach turned. Instead of horror, he affected the air of a jaded reprobate and laughed softly. "Your niece, Lucius. Really?"

"As if you haven't tasted the delights of a woman who can be anyone you desire."

"I know how clumsy she is. I feared for certain parts of my anatomy."

Lucius sipped his tea. His pale eyebrow rose. "Body binds are useful in such situations…"

Bastard. Fuck, he hadn't known. That one had got by him. How? He'd worked bloody hard to keep everyone safe. First Hermione, now this. Severus hated that money, a perceived turning on the part of the Malfoy family, and the deference the wizarding world had for the blond shits had kept them all from Azkaban. There was some hope for Draco, but Lucius, Lucius should've been reduced to ash and shoved through the veil.

"I jest, Severus! Where is your sense of humour today? Narcissa would have my crown jewels for a rather unattractive tiara if I tupped another Black."

"After Bellatrix…"

Lucius gave a delicate shudder. "I couldn't walk for a week."

"It was deserved."

Lucius allowed that with elegant incline of his head. "Are you moulding your witch well, Severus? I don't want a fright at my ball."

"Miss Granger is a bright witch. Very willing to take instruction."

Lucius gave a snort. "So it's not a complete bind? And after, you'll be a sought man. Witches do love a wizard who's worn the Ring."

Severus smile was slow. He wanted out of this hated drawing room. He wasn't focused. That he couldn't see that Lucius was joking about Tonks was a dangerous slip. The idea of Hermione suffering in the room swirled through his thoughts and he wanted to search, find the echo of her pain and set fiend fyre on it.

"This whole thing has you distracted."

Severus pinched the bridge of his nose. "I have to be polite to people, Lucius. It's simply not right."

"Merlin forbid Severus Snape be courteous to those who are so far beneath him."

Severus toasted him with his teacup. "Precisely."

"Don't worry, your season will soon be over and you'll be free of her. You can enjoy watching her bounce from bed to bed, knowing that she's wasting her talent on lesser wizards. And that every wizard that does get between her thighs knows that the hated Professor Snape taught her everything she's doing to them."

Lucius smile was wicked even as Severus' stomach turned over. He'd hex anyone that touched her. He could hardly believe that he'd almost taken her against a stack of books the night before. The temptation was there...and through the night he'd fought the fierce need to find her in her bed. Make her his. Fuck, he hated the magic of the Ring that made him so possessive, so...wanting of Hermione Granger.

Severus willed ice over this thoughts and his pounding heart slowed. "If they dwell, poor Miss Granger will never see another wizard but me."

Something glittered in Lucius' gaze that pricked Severus' senses, before the wizard picked up his paper again. "You should crawl back to Amelia. Settle down. Raise some ankle-biters."

"Amelia would never take me back."

Not in a formal, contracted way. For all her flirting and innuendo, and he admitted, the casual sex in which they sometimes indulged, it was true. She had broken their betrothal in disgust -he could hardly blame her, she had caught him with another witch- and ran off to marry Bertamn Athcasta, an ancient Austrian wizard. He'd been dead five years now. Amelia always insisted it was natural causes. Severus had his doubts.

Lucius looked at him over the top of his paper. "You let a very fine witch slip through your fingers."

Severus wanted to agree with him. And couldn't.

He purposely did not examine the reason why.

The last post for a week or a little longer. Let me know what you think :)

And ooh Severus and Madam Athcasta? I know, I'm a very bad SS/HG writer... *mwahaha*