Seventh Year Part 1, 1997
She made a perfunctory return to her parents' home after leaving Hogwarts, but as soon as she could, she port-keyed to the lodge in Scotland to meet her lover, arriving back in Scotland on what she learned was just two days after Draco's 17th birthday.
Lucius was deeply appreciative of what she'd done for Draco, how she'd taken the sectumsempra curse for him, but it was overshadowed by his anger and grief: the Dark Lord had marked Draco as a Death Eater on his birthday. Her heart broke for Lucius that day. Her lover raged for hours, yelling as he destroyed and then magically repaired parts of the lodge before venturing outside to magically explode boulders.
Through his angry outburst, she learned that Draco's task had been to find a way to get Death Eaters through the wards at Hogwarts, that finding the vulnerability in the school's armour would send a larger message to the wizarding world: there is nowhere you can hide from Lord Voldemort. She had to admit it was a chilling message. The Death Eaters were there to wreak havoc, cause terror, and to witness Severus Snape's murder of Albus Dumbledore. As a 'reward' for his success, Draco was 'permitted' to witness Snape cast the avada kedavra and was later given the dark mark, something the Dark Lord apparently considered a great 'honour.'
"The whole thing, the whole bloody fucking thing was about testing Severus! About making him PROVE his loyalty! Severus is loyal! And the old bastard was dying already!" Lucius raged.
Hermione frowned. She'd not realised that the Order's spy was in such a precarious position with the Dark Lord. Then again, Severus could not exactly be counted as a spy, not anymore. Not after what he'd done to Dumbledore. She hadn't gotten along with the late headmaster, not since learning he'd violated her mind, but that didn't mean she wanted him dead. The Order was in chaos now with Dumbledore gone, and there was widespread panic that Snape had been privy to so many details about their comings and goings. She couldn't help but wonder where Severus Snape's loyalties truly lie.
She was drawn from her thoughts by the crash of a large birch tree, felled by Lucius's magic, and she moved quickly out of reach of the falling branches. At one time this expression of anger would have terrified her, but now his obvious love for his son only endeared him further to Hermione. Maybe once he was calm, she could talk to him about Draco's crude comments and actions the night of Dumbledore's death. She used her magic to erect a shield around herself to block any falling debris and waited patiently for Lucius to either let out all of his anger or exhaust himself.
When he finally calmed, she took him inside, and he took her up against the stone wall in the great hall and then again in the bedroom where he murmured soft words of gratitude as his fingers traced the faint scars left behind from Harry's curse. He slept fitfully beside her that night, and when she woke the next morning, he was already awake, watching her from a wingback chair by the fireplace, a pensive look on his face. She was unsettled enough by his silence and his expression that she opted to keep the conversation light that morning.
It was not until later that day that he brought up the uncomfortable subject of her parents.
"Tell me, pet, are your parents aware of just how much danger you are potentially in?"
They were seated at the kitchen table in the home in Scotland that she'd come to think of as theirs, enjoying a light meal of cheeses, bread, olives, and wine, Lucius in his trousers, and Hermione in his shirt. Her parents believed she was spending a few days with a friend from school.
"No, of course not. There's so much I can't tell them. I made that decision a long time ago. Telling them the truth about what I've experienced at school, what's happening in our world...they'd never let me stay at Hogwarts. I'm an adult in the magical world and have been for some time now, but not in the muggle world."
"Do they know how much danger they are in?" he asked, raising an eyebrow at the suddenly frightened expression on her face.
"They're...they're dentists, Lucius, muggle healers for teeth. They're of no consequence to anyone!"
He sipped his wine and looked disdainfully at her.
"You disappoint me. I had thought you brighter than that. You are widely known as Potter's close friend, and depending on how much one believes of the gossip in what passes for the newspaper, also possibly his paramour. Many followers of the Dark Lord would happily go through you to get to Potter," he said.
"Yes, through ME. Not my parents. My parents have nothing to do with this. They're… they're just muggles!"
"And you are a witch. You cannot straddle both worlds. You cannot expect to garner any respect in our world if you insist on holding onto your muggle connections."
She recoiled at the words coming from her lover's mouth, even though she'd had similar traitorous thoughts of her own over the years.
"Pet, if I wanted to go through you to get to Potter, I'd use your parents to do it. If I could pull your file as a member of the Board of Governors, then so can Severus, so can anyone else with access and ill intent. Once that file is in hand, it's a simple matter of apparating to your parents home," he said gently.
"I...I can ward their home. I'm very good with wards. I've been practising," she stammered.
"Mmmm, I know you have. They won't stay in their home all the time though, will they? They'll leave at some point, and when they do, the Dark Lord will have them killed if He decides it's worth His time."
Her heart twisted painfully in her chest at the thought. Her parents hadn't asked for this. They hadn't asked for any of it. If they could go back and do it all over again, they'd probably have preferred to just have a normal muggle child. Her magic had terrified her parents, who'd sought a scientific explanation for what she could do. Once she was accepted at Hogwarts, magic slowly drove a wedge between them. She loved her parents dearly. They were really the only family she had, but she knew that if they saw her, really saw who and what she'd become, they'd never accept it. They would never want to believe that their sweet little Hermione was in love with a much older, married wizard, a wizard who bore the mark of a violent, fascist, would-be dictator and madman. They would never approve of their only child fighting in a war and risking her life time and time again. But even if they wouldn't recognise the witch she was today, she owed it to them to do whatever she could to save their lives.
"I don't know how to protect them," she admitted in a tearful whisper. "Lucius, I know they're just muggles to you, but they're my parents. I can't just let Him kill them."
He stroked her hair sympathetically.
"You need to cut ties to them, and they need to get as far from you as possible."
She thought about it for a long moment. "Would Australia be far enough? They've talked for some time about wanting to retire there."
"Perhaps. They will need a new identity, and Hermione Granger can no longer exist for them."
"Are you… are you suggesting that I obliviate them? Remove myself from their minds? That's… Lucius, that could kill them or drive them insane."
"No. Not anything as crude as an obliviate. I have a book in the library that has a spell in it that merges a memory charm with a variant of the imperius that should suffice."
"It's dark magic."
"It is."
"You want me to wield dark magic against my parents," she whispered in horror.
He leaned forward and stared intently at her. "No, pet. I want you to prove that you belong here. I want you to send them away because letting them stay will certainly lead to their deaths. How is it truly dark if it saves their lives?"
She swallowed hard as she looked at the wizard she loved. In all her thoughts about how to best prepare for the horcrux hunt with Harry and Ron, she'd neglected to think about protecting her parents. Lucius Malfoy, pureblood wizard, Death Eater, had thought about her muggle parents' safety before she had, and he had given her the tool she needed to save their lives.
"Will you help me? Learn the spell? I...I don't want to make a mistake with their minds."
A slow smile spread across his face. "But of course."
For a year, he'd tempted her with knowledge about a whole area of magic she'd never known. She did not realise it at the time, but it had all led to this. The desire to protect her parents would lead her to wield dark magic, to use it against another person for the first time. It would not be the last.
~oOo~
The day she took her parents' memories marked a turning point in her life that felt as momentous to Hermione as the day she met Lucius in Flourish & Blotts or the day she gave him the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries. She'd experienced a bit of the physical sensations involved with using dark magic whilst practising with Lucius, but actually using it against a defenseless person was indescribable. She felt raw, unsettled.
As soon as it was done, she used her bracelet to portkey to the house in Scotland and message Lucius. When he arrived, he found her in a sobbing heap on the floor. She clung to him, and he tore at her clothes, taking her violently on the oushak rug in front of the fireplace as she sobbed and dragged her nails painfully down his back. It was animalistic and out of control and somehow exactly what she needed. Afterward, he wrapped her in a blanket and fed her small pieces of fine chocolate and told her how proud he was of her. She basked in his praise and told herself how lucky she was to have him.
She stayed with him there for three weeks, alternating between frantic and meticulous planning for what was to come with Harry and Ron and curling her body around Lucius and pretending the rest of the world did not exist. Lucius came and went during this time, sometimes carrying his Death Eater robes and mask. Her heart always twisted at the sight of the mask, but she did not ask where he went or what he did in his service to a cruel master, and he did not press her overmuch about her plans with Harry. It was tense, it was odd, it was wonderful all at once.
In the hours and days when she could pretend they were just an ordinary couple, she wondered what their lives would be like had there been no Voldemort. It hurt her to remember that even in a world free of the Dark Lord, he would still be married to a cold and unfeeling wife who did not love him, and she would still be relegated to being...whatever she was. His lover. His secret. She hesitated to think of herself as his mistress, but in a world free from the chaos of war, that's probably what she would have been.
But then, if it weren't for Voldemort and His desire to get to the prophecy in the Department of Mysteries, would she have even had the opportunity to make such a blatant overture to Lucius? She decided that summer in Scotland that yes, she probably would have found some way to make her feelings known to the handsome wizard she now loved.
Two days before her planned departure for the Burrow, they sat in the library together, Hermione combing through texts Lucius had brought to her from Malfoy Manor's enormous library and making copious notes. He sat beside her, watching in silence for a rather long time before he finally spoke up.
"I admire your faith in Potter, and in the prophecy, but can you be certain that the Dark Lord can even be killed? He has returned once before. I was there when He was resurrected. Even if Potter succeeds in getting close enough to Him to cast the killing curse, He will simply return again," he said with a frown.
"So you expect me to do nothing? Lucius, they've taken over the Ministry. Umbridge wants to round up muggleborns and throw them in jail for 'stealing' magic. As if such a thing were even possible!" she cried. "How can you expect me to do nothing? How am I to survive in a world ruled by the Dark Lord?"
He plucked her quill from her fingers and tossed it aside before pulling her closer to him.
"I will protect you if it comes to that," he murmured. "I may not be there by choice, but I am in the inner circle. He respects me, as much as He respects anyone. I will keep you safe."
Her initial reaction was to want to bask in the glow of his affection, to feel joy at the idea that he cared so much for her that he would promise to protect her, even from Voldemort. She knew though that there was only so much Lucius could do. He'd been unable to prevent Voldemort from marking Draco, after all, and she knew no one mattered as much to Lucius as his son.
She wrapped her arms around him and allowed herself a few moments of contentment in his embrace.
He did not know, she realised. He did not know that there was a way to end this all.
Harry had been adamant about keeping secret the knowledge that Voldemort had made horcruxes. She personally thought that letting the Order in on the secret would mean more people available to help search, but Harry refused. Not even Sirius knew that the trio's upcoming mission was a horcrux hunt.
But if Lucius knew… she twisted the end of a lock of his long blond hair in her fingers as she considered the possibility. He was brilliant, he'd taught her so much already - valuable knowledge that she was passing on to Harry when she could. Lucius had helped her protect her parents and had just insisted he'd do what he could to protect her from the Dark Lord. Lucius knew so much about darker magics and had entire libraries at his disposal. He'd be a tremendous assistance to her in the task that lie ahead, she was certain of it.
But to tell him… Harry would consider it the worst sort of betrayal that she'd dare take a Death Eater into confidence about their plans. And Ron… well, Ron would never understand her love for Lucius. He'd probably think her under the imperius curse. If she confided in Lucius, she would have to keep it from her dearest friends. She'd kept the secret of her love for Lucius thus far though. This was just one more little detail she'd need to keep to herself. She could do that. Besides, she rationalised, it could hardly be considered a bad thing if betraying Harry's confidence ultimately led to Voldemort's downfall. It was for the greater good, wasn't it?
"You are terribly quiet, pet. What are you thinking?" Lucius asked softly.
Hermione pushed back from his embrace and touched his cheek gently with her fingertips. "It means so much to me that you are concerned for my safety, but you cannot guarantee my protection."
His jaw tightened, and she knew instinctively that she'd just reminded him of his inability to protect his own son. She pressed on quickly though before he could get upset.
"I don't wish to argue with you about it, but the fact of the matter is that He CAN be killed Lucius! He's not immortal, not truly! He made horcruxes!" Her heart pounded as she pushed out the words, as she told her Death Eater lover one of the greatest secrets Harry and the light had.
His mouth opened and then closed as he seemed to gather his thoughts. He looked ill.
"Horcruxes?"
"You know what they are?" she asked. She'd thought perhaps she'd have to explain it to him. From what Harry had told her and what she'd been able to learn thus far, horcruxes seemed to be an obscure bit of magic.
"I do, pet," he said gravely. "It is horrible magic of the darkest sort."
"We have to find them and destroy them. We've already destroyed two - His diary, and a ring owned by His mother's family. We know that another one is a necklace that belonged to Salazar Slytherin. We thought we'd found it, but… well, it doesn't matter. We need to locate it and destroy it and then try to figure out what else He might have used."
"He did this more than once?"
She nodded.
"How many times do you believe He did this, split His soul?"
"I don't know how many times it's possible," she admitted. "I would not have thought it would be doable more than even once. Harry says that Professor Dumbledore thought that there were perhaps six?"
Lucius was ghastly pale and looked horrified at the number. "SIX?"
She nodded, and he looked away, appearing to be deep in thought.
"So you've destroyed one third, almost one half once you locate the necklace," he finally said.
"Do you have any idea what the others might be?" she asked eagerly.
"I'm afraid not, pet," he admitted. "Wait - you said the diary was a horcrux? The diary that I…"
"That you gave Ginny Weasley? Yes, it was a horcrux. Harry says it's the first one He ever made."
He looked both shocked and contrite. "I knew it teemed with dark magic. That much was obvious to anyone familiar enough with darker magics to know what to look for. I did not know it held a piece of Him. You must know that I would not have given that to a child had I know what it was."
"I know. I know you wouldn't. But it's for the best that you did give it to her because now it's destroyed instead of safely locked up somewhere at your home," she pointed out.
"Indeed. I retrieved the damaged diary from young Mr. Potter at the end of your second year. It actually IS locked up somewhere in my home, or what's left of it anyway. The Dark Lord is aware that I still have it. However, as I am still alive, it is apparent that He does not know the horcrux within it was destroyed."
"Oh but that's wonderful! It means He doesn't know how far we've come!"
"But you have no idea what else could be out there. It could be anything, couldn't it?" he asked.
"I suppose so," she admitted.
"A pebble on a beach? A book in a library? A randomly chosen galleon locked in a vault?"
Her face fell at his words as the enormity of their task loomed before her.
"I...yes, yes, you're right. It could be any or all of those things, but my gut feeling - and Harry's too - is that they're something special, something significant."
"And if you destroy all of these things, whatever they are…"
"He can be killed."
"You are certain of this?"
She nodded. "Lucius, I know that you're trapped, that you're doing what you can to protect your son, but if we end this...if Harry can fulfill the prophecy and finally put an end to the Dark Lord, you'll be free! You won't have to answer to anyone!"
"Oh pet." He kissed her forehead and tucked her head back into the crook of his neck. "I am a condemned wizard no matter what."
She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "No! Don't say that!"
"If the Dark Lord wins, if He destroys Potter, then my only means of survival is to continue as I have been since He returned. I will protect Draco, and I will protect you, but my life is not my own."
"Which is all the more reason for you to help as much as you can!"
"And if Potter by some miracle manages to locate and destroy all of these horcruxes and defeat the Dark Lord, what then, pet? I am a marked Death Eater. I am in the inner circle. My son let the Death Eaters into Hogwarts, resulting in Dumbledore's death. I know, the old man was dying anyway from that curse, but most are unaware of that. Draco and I will likely both either face the kiss or a life sentence in Azkaban."
"You didn't choose this, and I know Draco didn't want this either. You've already helped me so much just with the books and the lessons you've provided. I know you don't want anyone to know that you're helping me, but Lucius, anything you can do, any information you can share with me that helps us, I can use to help you and Draco after this all ends. No matter happens, we'll protect each other," she insisted. "I will make sure the Order knows what you've done for me, for all of us."
He sighed and stroked her hair. "I don't deserve you, pet."
~oOo~
I know a lot of you wanted Hermione to tell Lucius exactly what Draco said and did the night Dumbledore died. I wrote out part of that scene in response to reader feedback, but it didn't feel right. I ultimately left it out because at the end of the day, it did not advance the plot itself. I believe that Hermione had every intention of telling Lucius and demanding to know just what kind of conversation he had with his son before the Death Eaters were let into the castle, but between the time of Dumbledore's death and her time at the lodge, Draco was marked, Lucius was beside himself, then the issue of her parents' safety arose. There were bigger issues than his son being a jerk, and while I don't think she's forgotten about it, I do think she's pragmatic enough that she'd set it aside and focus the important issues ahead. So the plot marches on, Hermione takes another step into the dark, and Lucius now knows what Harry must do to end Voldemort.