A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who favorited, followed and reviewed after last chapter! I am so glad you liked their little date after last chapter. I can't believe it, but we've reached the halfway point of this story already. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour). Also, I have a new little oneshot coming out on Friday. It's a Fred x Hermione, so it would be great if you would check that out as well.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirteen and be on the lookout for chapter fourteen soon!
October, 1999
When Hermione woke up the following day, it was by long fingers playing with her hair, gently removing the tangles that had formed in the night. There was bright white sunlight streaming in from the windows, none of the previous day's gray clouds lingered, and if she strained her ears, she could just hear birds chirping in the courtyard.
She was still curled around Lucius, she realized, grazing her fingertips over his chest. It really shouldn't be aloud for him to be so good looking.
Hermione was surprised that she wasn't completely upset that she'd slept with him. She did feel a little bit guilty for giving into her baser needs, but she was so attracted to him, and Merlin, did she want him. It was wrong, she knew, to sleep with her boss, but, she quickly pushed those feelings out of her mind.
The only thing that was troubling her was that she felt she had no idea what Lucius wanted with her. He was obviously attracted to her, but was he just using her to scratch an itch, or was there a possibility that he wanted more with her?
Deciding that just doing whatever she wanted had suited her quite well the past couple of weeks, she decided to ask him. Taking a deep breath and gathering her courage, she looked up into his mercurial gray blue eyes. "Lucius, what do you want with me?" She asked.
He gave her a smirk. "Careful, that sounds like an invitation to your delectable body." He said, his finger coming down to pinch Hermione's nipple, causing her to gasp in shock and pleasure.
"I'm being serious Lucius." Hermione said, unable to continue looking at him. "Were you just looking for the chase, and now that you've had me, you'll start treating me like garbage?"
He looked affronted at her insinuation. "Absolutely not. I want you, Hermione, and I'm not entirely sure why, but I do want you, crave you." He let his fingers traverse the length of her spine. "But what I want right now is to spend the day with you at the Louvre."
Hermione didn't want to end the conversation like that, but she could also sense that it wasn't really a conversation either of them was ready to have, so she let it drop. Feeling a sense of pride fill her that he wanted her, desired her, Hermione gave him a bright smile. "Alright, I'll just go get changed, then."
Lucius reluctantly let her leave the bed, watching her nude form stalk off in the direction of the bathroom. He briefly thought about joining her, but decided it was best to let her sort out her thoughts by herself.
She did use her time showering to her advantage, trying to decide what to do about Lucius. It was true that he wanted her, but did she want him the same way? Yes, of course she did, was her obvious response. But, did it really matter if their relationship fizzled out after the weekend? Or should she just enjoy it while it happened?
Toweling herself off, she decided that it didn't matter, if it even made her a little bit happy, even if it only lasted a few days. She was taking control of her life, and that meant not getting tangled up in other people's sensibilities.
Once she was dressed and ready to go, Hermione met Lucius in the kitchen again. It was odd to see him looking quite so casual, and yet, fancy at the same time. She doubted that Lucius Malfoy could ever really do casual, she mused.
Offering her his arm again, Lucius led them to a patisserie on the way to the museum, getting her a chocolate croissant that melted like butter in her mouth. When they'd finished their breakfast, they walked across the Pont Neuf to the Louvre.
The museum was massive, but Lucius guided her along with a gentle pressure on her lower back to art he thought she might like, his deep voice whispering into her ear with various titbits he'd learned about the artists. The wizarding portion of the museum was vast, but he mainly showed her the artwork relating to Morgana, which she sincerely enjoyed.
By the time that they left, the sun had already set, and Hermione was embarrassed by how loud her stomach was grumbling. With a smile, Lucius led her to another restaurant, this one much more casual than the one from the night before, to get them some sandwiches, which they ate together on a bench overlooking the Seine.
Hermione thought that her heart just might explode with how romantic it all was. She never imagined she could find this level of connection with Lucius, but she had. She supposed people always told her she was so mature for her age, so it made sense that she would be attracted to an older man.
Returning to the apartment, Hermione didn't want the night to end after such a perfect day, didn't want to spend a moment out of Lucius's presence, but she was lucky to find that he shared the same thought process. "Would you like to share my bed this evening, Hermione?" He asked without a hint of nerves or embarrassment.
Eagerly, she nodded, and followed him into the bedroom.
When Hermione got back to England, she was nervous that her fairy tale weekend with Lucius might mean the end to their little relationship, and she was surprised by how much she hated thinking that way. To her immense surprise, though, just outside of the portkey office, he gave her a kiss on the forehead and told her he'd very much like to see her again.
She knew that she told herself she was content with just a weekend fling, but that one tiny statement gave her so much hope that she might find something more with Lucius, even if she knew that it wasn't likely to last.
When she returned to her flat, she found a thank you note from Harry and Ginny - well, Ginny mostly - thanking her for her gift. Ginny had also wrote how lovely she looked on her date in the picture from the Daily Prophet, and how did she know Warrington, and did this mean Hermione wasn't going to be a Hollyhead Harpies fan any more, and just where did she get her dress, and would Hermione go to shopping with her sometime.
Hermione sighed at Ginny's words, thinking that the younger girl was making an effort to pretend like nothing had happened, when really if she would just acknowledge that Ron was out of order, things would be a lot less strained.
Harry had written in a tiny corner how much they'd missed her at the party and that he hoped her trip to France had been worthwhile.
A secret smile formed on her face when she thought about just how worthwhile of a weekend it had been for her. She had a secret lover now, which was, wow, just a bizarre thing to say.
Hermione Granger had a secret lover.
It was exciting and new and heady and Hermione liked having this secret. She couldn't remember the last time she had a secret that she didn't share with Harry and Ron. Thinking back, she supposed it was that she'd obliviated her parents and sent them to Australia...but that thought threatened to chase away all of these new happy feelings.
It was better to focus on the good things now, she thought stubborning, pushing thoughts of her parents out of her mind. It was better to think of how Lucius looked in the morning, tousled, and bathed in sunlight.
Feeling rather alone curled in the bed in her flat, Hermione let thoughts of Lucius rock her gently to sleep.
Seeing Lucius again at work had Hermione feeling quite nervous. All morning, her stomach had been in knots, wondering how he would react to her when he came into the office that day. Would she be able to stand it if he reacted coldly to her presence?
In the end, Lucius acted rather naturally when he made his way past her desk, and Hermione was rather a bit disappointed. That was until he sent her a secret smile when he was just out of sight of Lucian Bole.
Honestly, one look in her direction from that glorious man and her heart was beating wildly. It was almost embarrassing, Hermione thought, with a blush on her cheeks. Did she affect him this much? That, she thought, was probably not likely.
She tried to focus on her work, because, really she had quite a lot that had piled up in the two days that she was gone, but she found that it was eluding her. She was Hermione Granger for Merlin's sake! She should easily be able to power through some memos to the Wizengamot, who were set to approve some of their recent trade deals.
Hermione Granger shouldn't be desperately clenching her thighs together, trying to kill some of the heat that formed there, caused by a man sitting just feet away from her! If it wasn't the only thing that she could think about, Hermione would be embarrassed.
Finally, unable to think of anything else, she decided to pen him a sexy little note to seduce him. She absolutely needed to have him again and she was going to get her way. Chewing on the end of her quill, she thought what phrase would best titillate the man, but she was unable to come up with something that didn't sound quite so...scientific.
Giggling to herself as she tried to come up with some word other than 'penis' to describe the bit of his anatomy that she missed the most, she didn't notice Daphne sneaking up on her until she was right behind her. "Hermione!" Daphne gasped.
Hermione hoped beyond hope that Daphne hadn't seen anything on the paper, but the look in her eyes made Hermione think that she probably knew exactly what Hermione was doing. "Merlin, Daphne, don't sneak up on me like that!"
"Hermione. What are you doing?" Daphne demanded, not even attempting to apologize for startling the girl. Wasn't constant vigilance some kind of Gryffindor motto? Obviously not when writing salacious notes, because no Slytherin would be caught dead doing that.
Hermione caught her lower lip between her teeth, feeling horribly guilty about the situation she was in. "It's nothing. I was just getting caught up on memo writing." She knew that the bright red color of her cheeks was giving her away though.
"It doesn't look like nothing." Daphne said, crossing her arms across her chest, clearly not approving of Hermione's actions. Hermione winced, feeling like a naughty child. She hadn't felt this much disappointment in herself since she lied to Professor McGonagall and told her that she went after the mountain troll. "Come on, you and I are going to go to lunch and have a little chat."
Merlin, the last thing that Hermione wanted to do was to talk about this with Daphne. "But, I'm not hungry, Daphne, and really, I have a lot of work to catch up on." She attempted.
Daphne gave her a saccharine smile that was anything but sweet. "It will be quick I promise." Placing her hand on Hermione's arm, she began pulling her towards the door. "Come on. Lunch now."
Hermione reluctantly followed her friend out of the office to be interrogated over salads, wondering just how it was everyone thought she was the bossy one at Hogwarts.