Lucifer used the dark, private street as an opportunity to fly off. He needed to use up some of this energy. And maybe he'd find some answers while he was at it.
Crookshanks wanted out of the house. There was something worth hunting in the garden, and he wasn't going to let Hermione keep reading until he was outside.
"Fine." She said out loud to her familiar, the way most people do to their pets. Except she knew Crookshanks really did understand.
When Hermione got up to let the cat into the front garden she saw the early morning light through the window.
What she hadn't seen was the 6-foot 3-inch Devil seated on her threshold.
The usually ornery cat let himself be pet and scratched for a solid 2 minutes before pursuing his prey in the garden. Hermione quietly chuckled to herself, watching these two interact.
Once Crookshanks left, he stood, and even a step below her, he was taller than her.
"Sorry, I couldn't sleep, so I returned early. I can go if you're sick of me."
He was half-joking, but the step he took backwards when offering to leave looked like it hurt him. She noticed it because it hurt her, too.
"No!" She shouted a bit too loud for the time of day.
"Come in," she returned to a more reasonable volume. "I'll make some coffee?"
"I brought some." Next to where he had sat on her stoop, were two take-away cups from her local cafe.
He picked them up, his hands briefly turned an orangey-pink color, then returned to normal.
"Make sure it's not too hot," he recommended, handing her a cup. She smiled as he handed her the coffee, their fingers brushing one another's during the coffee hand-off. He took off his own cup's lid and blew on it before taking a sip.
She stepped halfway out of the door to let him enter, so he had to squeeze past her to get in, intentionally. He stopped his progress directly in front of her, facing her. The heat coming from him was palpable.
"If you start this now, we'll get exactly one thing done today." His comment was as much a promise as it was a threat.
"I can think of at least three things we can get done." She returned his promise. Lucifer planted his hands on either side of her head, both aflame, as he bent to kiss her mouth.
Lucifer pulled his lips from hers, resting his forehead against hers. "Keep talking like that and I'll make you prove it." His palms left scorch marks on the wall. He moved the rest of the way into the room and let Hermione close the door.
Hermione had no idea where her behavior was coming from, but if it got this kind of a response from Lucifer, she was prepared to go into autopilot.
They sat opposite one another at the table, sipping coffee. Hermione looked at the tall, gorgeous fallen-angel in her kitchen and rather than ask a hundred intellectual questions, all she could do was check him out, and fight the urge to jump into his lap.
"Wait - you're in a new suit?" She asked, almost with a tone of disapproval.
"I am." He smirked.
Now she was mad, partly at him, partly at herself.
"I'm still in my clothes from yesterday!"
"Yes." He continued to smirk.
She stood up, declared she would be right back, and departed in a huff.
Lucifer took the opportunity to let Crookshanks back into the house, after requiring he leave his vanquished prey in the garden.
Hermione came back into the room, with fresh new clothes, and her wand in her hand, which was simultaneously drying and styling her hair.
"Do you have to go to work or anything?" Lucifer realized that he didn't know what witches and wizards did for a living, and more specifically what Hermione did.
"Uh, no, not really. I have a couple orders for some potions, and those are fine brewing on their own, and the one amulet order I have needs the new moon, so I can't do that for another 3 weeks yet." Hermione sat next to Lucifer this time, picking up her coffee cup to finish it.
Hermione explained that her brief time working in the public had been crippling for the business owner, with more people there to celebrity-watch than to buy anything. So, Hermione had started her own business, making difficult and time-consuming magical items for those willing to pay a large amount of money for it.
"I did some research last night." Hermione braced herself for the ridicule, which usually followed when she made such a declaration. It didn't come. She looked at Lucifer. He had their joined hands up, and he leaned the rest of the way to kiss Hermione's hand.
"Me too," he said. She looked at him, almost startled.
"You first," he encouraged.
If Hermione hadn't had the hots for him before, she sure did now.
Hermione collected herself to explain her findings, though they didn't have definitive answers. She outlined the methodology of her research, the statistical probabilities that went into arithmancy and what each probability line meant in the equations. She did this seamlessly as she explained her research into their encounter and each other's lives.
"So, our lines merge." She paused for effect, which was dampened by the fact Lucifer hadn't studied arithmancy, despite her earlier explanations.
"Usually lines get close, sometimes they intertwine, but to become one together, I've never seen it. The books I have don't even discuss it." She offered, finally.
"Maybe we need to shop for some more books?" Lucifer offered.
"Marry me?" Hermione blurted out. She put her hands on her mouth, clearly embarrassed.
"Early days," was his response, and he leaned over to kiss her. His lips were soft, but his presence was firm. Where their lips touched felt like a flame, but his tongue was the cooling salve to keep her there. He broke apart, to catch his breath. He looked back to her, longing clearly evident in his eyes.
"Did you find anything else?" He asked, adjusting his slacks, clearly trying to hide his growing desire for her.
Hermione looked up at Lucifer, a look that apparently expressed her desire for him in return, which ignited his hands again. She stood up, deliberately letting go of his hand, heading to the cabinet to get glasses for water, because it was clearly too warm in the small kitchen. She fixed glasses of ice water and set one in front of Lucifer. She remained standing, in an effort to try and keep them both thinking clearly.
"I did find something else." She paused.
Lucifer saw her hesitation.
"You don't want to tell me?" He was worried. In their brief time together, Hermione speaking her mind had been prevalent, holding back hadn't been high on their to-do list either.
She took a deep breath.
"Someone made me a witch."
Lucifer didn't understand, and he told her as much.
"Most witches are magical by heredity - one or both of their parents are magical. Mine aren't, they're dentists."
"There aren't other muggle-both witches in the world?"
"Sure, there are, but when I look at their lines, and compare them to mine, theirs are acts of nature. My line was deliberately manipulated. First to make me a witch, but there's more going on that I have to investigate further." Faced with this mystery to solve, she started to chew the cuticle of her thumb.
Lucifer stood up and stood next to her, he pulled on her sleeve to pull her thumb from her teeth.
"If anyone is going to eat you today, it is going to be me."
Hermione was not sure how something could be sweet and sexy at the same time, but he managed it with that line.
They stood in front of each other, not touching each other.
Hermione broke the tension. "What kind of research did you do?" Lucifer took the opportunity to walk over to the sink, depositing his empty cup and looking out the window into the garden.
"I talked to my brother, Gabe."
Hermione didn't follow at first, but then realized his brother, Gabriel, was the voice of their Father. If anyone has the inside scoop, Gabe would be it.
"What did he tell you?"
"I'll tell you later." Lucifer smiled a big, Cheshire-cat grin.
Hermione was about to get angry when there was a knock at the door. He had seen the visitor from the window.
She squinted at him in mock-indignation, and quickly stuck her tongue out at him.
He winked at her.
At the door there were in fact two visitors: Ginny and Harry.
Harry had a bag of pastries from the muggle shop down the street from his new house, and Ginny had yet another sweater from her mother for Hermione. The woman was trying to knit the relationship between Ron and Hermione back together. Everyone except her knew it was over. Hermione noticed Lucifer had stepped away, though she definitely thought he was hiding.
Harry walked into the living room and helped himself to a seat on the sofa; when there was no extremely handsome stranger standing around the room, Ginny reluctantly joined him.
"So. Who's your new friend?" Harry dared broach the subject. He had that "I fought Voldemort and won" invincible grin going on. Hermione couldn't help but laugh. She was genuinely happy, and her friend, her best friend, could see it, so of course he had to make fun of her for it.
"Well, he's Lucifer."
"His name is Lucifer, after the devil?" Ginny looked startled.
"No," Hermione continued calmly. "He is the Devil, Lucifer Morningstar." Harry looked impressed; Ginny looked horrified.
"Nice," replied Harry. Ginny slapped his arm.
"It's not 'nice,'" she aimed at Harry. "You dumped my brother for the Devil!?" Ginny was getting red in the face, loud in volume and targeting Hermione with her anger.
Lucifer, who has been eavesdropping, flushed the loo and walked into the room, drying his hands on a towel.
"No, Ginevra, I dumped your brother because he cheated on me with half the witches in London. I'm with Lucifer because he makes me happy." Hermione's volume was flat, but her tone was firm, she wasn't in the mood to deal with any Weasley bullshit. The men in the room knew it, unfortunately the one Weasley didn't.
Lucifer tried to intercede, discarding the towel, stepping further into the room and shaking hands with Harry.
"Lucifer. Pleasure to meet you."
"Harry. I went to your club a few years back, nice place."
Lucifer looked pleased.
Ginny did not.
"You did what?" She was starting to resemble her mother, Hermione thought.
Harry, knowing it had to happen regardless, ripped the Band-Aid right off. "Remember for my stag party, the boys and I apparated to a club in LA? Lucifer owns LUX."
Lucifer stood next to Harry, arms crossed over his chest, pleased with himself. He had heard about Harry from Hermione, winning the war against dark wizards, and was thrilled his club had enough reputation to bring such a big name across the world.
Hermione tried to signal to Lucifer with her eyes to tone it down, but he didn't know what she was doing. Next thing he knew, a fireball had burnt the front of his suit and shirt off him. Of course, fire didn't hurt him, but it did hurt Prada. He looked up to see the offending red-head in some sort of containment bubble, being escorted from the premises at the end of Hermione's wand.
Harry kissed Hermione on the cheeks as he left, to release his wife from the bubble outside the front gate. Hermione slammed the door shut.
"The nerve of her," Hermione was fuming.
"She won't come back and try it again?" Lucifer was worried about the remainder of his suit.
"She can't. Once she has malice in her heart against me, she can't enter. Until she gets over it."
Hermione was angrily pacing, so it took a minute for her to realize he was staring at her.
"What?"
"You didn't do that spell when she attacked me?"
"No, it's the wards I put up. To protect . . . "
She had caught up with him.
"Your house protected me?"
"Apparently."
She blushed.
He went over to her and pulled her into a hug. He meant it to be chaste, but with most of his shirt missing, she was pressed against his bare chest. He tried to hold as still as possible, hoping that he could ignore his erection. Then she pressed against his chest more, and moaned, ever-so-slightly.
At this point his moan was involuntary.
Hermione, knowing what opportunity presented itself, reached up, putting her hands on the base of his neck, his skin warm under her fingers.
"I didn't tell you about my research." Lucifer thought he could buy some time with the truth.
Hermione was finding it hard to listen. Pressed up against Lucifer, she could feel every last inch of him. She threaded one of her hands into the hair at the nape of his neck, the contact was as necessary as air to the lungs.
Lucifer almost forgot what he was going to say.
"Hermione," he was pleading with her, he couldn't say no to her at this point, so he needed her to wait, for the two of them.
He put his hands on her wrists, and she stopped, releasing her hands from him, so that they stood facing each other, holding hands between them.
"Gabe told me, that," he paused, he needed to breath, their proximity and contact was overwhelming.
"He told me that my Father had made me another half. That they would be counter to me, be everything I'm not. He said that they would be smart where I'm not. And naive where I'm experienced. Gentle where I'm firm and powerful when I'm weak. That we could be together, for eternity, if we bonded. But that while we could give each other strength, we would be each other's weakness - the death of one would mean the death of both. Once we . . . bond, we're sealed."
Hermione was watching his lips move. Lucifer was worried that lust had addled her brain. He needed her to be the smart one, he was always the horny one.
"Hermione, do you understand?"
She blinked a few times to clear her thoughts.
"If we consummate this relationship, we are bonded, immortally, eternally, to one another."
"Exactly." He was panting now, the exertion of staying apart was exhausting.
"And that I was made for you, by your Father?"
Lucifer nodded his response.
"Do we have a choice? What if we don't, uh, bond?"
Lucifer cringed at the thought, it physically brought him pain.
"The closer we are, like now, it becomes painful to fight the bond. If we stay apart, geographically, it gets weaker. But now that we've been so close, that even your magic has recognized the connection, even if we stay on opposite sides of the world, we will still feel the separation. An empty void. What we felt last night when I left."
Hermione was starting to shake, her body wasn't as strong as his, and wouldn't be able to fight much longer.
"I have to go, you have to decide without me," Lucifer told her.
"Why is it my decision? You don't get a say?"
"Humans get free-will, angels don't. My Father has made that plenty clear to me over the ages. Plus, I can't ask you to commit to eternity under the influence." Lucifer managed to be chivalrous, even with a massive erection in his trousers.
Hermione wanted to protest his decision, to make it her decision, but some logical part of her brain still worked. She nodded.
He let go and practically ran for the door, before they could change their minds. Hermione heard his wings beat the air outside, but when she looked out to the sunny garden, she didn't see him. All this at not even 10 o'clock.
While the fog had cleared from her brain, she had a sensation like a black hole in her chest, a chasm that couldn't be filled. She tried eating lunch, her favorite curry. She tried a visit to her parents. She called Harry. Helpful as it had been to vent, he couldn't make the decision for her.