When Lucius awoke the next morning, he immediately wished he hadn't. A persistent throb was pounding cheerfully through his skull, and his dry mouth felt like sandpaper and tasted disgusting.
"Fuuuck," he moaned, pulling a pillow over his face. Something was digging uncomfortably into his hip, and he groped around until his fist curled around his belt buckle. He'd fallen asleep fully dressed, after...
After...
Fuck. He couldn't remember last night. There'd been something about tequila shots with Rodolphus. Lucius couldn't remember how many he'd done, but he did remember downing half a bottle of victory firewhiskey after Rodolphus threw up.
Merlin, thinking hurt. He was just going to go back to sleep. Lucius rolled over, trying to will away the pain and sink back into oblivion.
But there was something... a tiny, nagging something, that he thought he was forgetting. Something important.
"Get up, sunshine."
Light spilled in as the hangings on his bed were ripped apart; Lucius cried out at this unjust torture.
"What the hell were you thinking last night, Malfoy?" the same voice demanded, crackling with fury.
"I... For Merlin's sake Bella, go away," he groaned. "My head hurts."
"Oh, a lot more than your head will be hurting if you don't explain yourself!"
"Fine. What is it?"
"What d'you mean, 'what is it'?"
"I don't remember anything from last night. What did I do?"
"You violated my baby sister!"
"WHAT?" Lucius bolted upright, eyes darting with panic, staring at Bellatrix in disbelief.
"Well, in a manner of speaking," she sniffed. "From what she says, you tried to get your hands under her shirt, and when she turned you down, you invited her up to bed. Naturally, she refused."
"But, I didn't- surely I wouldn't have forced her- I can't have..." Lucius shoved both hands through his hair, fingers shaking with horror. "Bella, I was drunk, I don't remember- but even so, there's no way- what happened next?"
"You bid her good night and passed out up here."
He waited, but no more was forthcoming. "Where's the part where I-"
"IS PINNING MY LITTLE SISTER TO A WALL AND PUTTING YOUR FILTHY HANDS ALL OVER HER NOT BAD ENOUGH, MALFOY?" she shrieked, drawing her wand.
"Belle," Rodolphus's voice mumbled miserably from the next bed over. She ignored him as Lucius collapsed on his bed.
"Let me go back to sleep, you heartless bitch," he grumbled. "I don't think you understand that my head's going to fucking explode in about ten seconds."
"Hey, gorgeous," Rodolphus tried again. "C'mere. I have something for you."
"It can wait," she snapped. "Malfoy, you are going to go apologize to Cissy right this minute."
"Fuck that," he snorted, as Rodolphus called,
"But Bella, it can't wait. And it's getting rather uncomfortable."
Bellatrix's eyes narrowed into slits, and she whirled on one heel and marched over to Rodolphus's bed. She flung the hangings aside and crawled in.
"Hey, Be- FUCK!" Rodolphus's bellow could have easily woken every one in the dungeon, but no sleepy faces poked out in the seventh year boy's dormitory- aching heads were merely buried beneath pillows.
"Bella," he whimpered, voice several octaves higher than normal, "What the hell-"
"That should take care of your little problem," she hissed, climbing out of his bed, leaving Rodolphus curled up in misery. "I said it could wait. That should put it off for a couple hours, at least. Now, Malfoy," she continued, advancing on Lucius once more, who fought the urge to draw his knees defensively to his chest.
"Look, I was drunk, it won't happen again. Happy?"
"No. I will not be content until you have begged for her forgiveness on you knees. She may or may not choose to grant it."
"Bella," Rodolphus called. Lucius had to admire his bravery. "Give him a break, we can all hold our alcohol like you can-"
"Did I tell you you could speak?" she snarled, whipping back around.
"No, but I don't think I need your permission to-"
"I swear I'll do it again if I hear one more word from you!"
Immediately, he fell silent. She turned once more to Lucius.
"Alright," he agreed quickly. "I'll say sorry. Just give me an hour so I'm coherent?" Lucius thought this was a very reasonable request.
"No! Absolutely not. Get up now, or it'll be worse for you than him!"
"Bellatrix," he wheedled. "Please, just let me-"
"UP!" she roared, and Lucius groaned loudly, dragging himself to his feet.
"You fucking bitch," he growled, staggering as one hand gripped his head. The pounding had redoubled when he rose.
"I should scourgify your mouth, and I hope you don't speak to my baby sister like that," she huffed, and began to make her was down to the Common Room, with Lucius close behind.
"Yeah? I can talk however I want. Fuck!" he said loudly. She ignored him as she moved down the stairs, inspiring him to shout. "Shit! Damn! Bitch! H- oh. Good morning, Narcissa."
They were in the Common Room by now, and Narcissa was among the few students already awake. Her eyes were huge and her lips parted, as she stared at him with a mixture of shock and revulsion.
"I just remembered," she said quickly, rising to her feet. "I have somewhere I need to be."
"Narcissa," he called weakly as she scurried from the room. Bellatrix crossed her arms.
"Well, are you going to go after her?"
He did, but he didn't want to- didn't want to at all. He was certain he'd never had such an awful migraine before, ever, and the pain was literally making him sick to his stomach.
"Narcissa," he said again when he finally caught up to her in the corridor.
"Oh!" she tried to sound pleasantly surprised, but failed entirely. "How are you this morning?"
"Bloody horrible," he growled, leaning against the wall for support. "Look, I'm sorry for whatever I did last night... I cant exactly remember what... but never mind, I'm sorry. But I don't think you should have sent your fucking crazy sister into my dormitory this morning and threaten me! Even if I wasn't hungover, that's still a bit much!"
Narcissa looked taken aback. "I didn't send Bella up. Why would I do that?"
"Well..." So perhaps Bella had come up on her own. "You didn't need to tell her that I'd assaulted you! Because I did no such thing!"
"I didn't say that, either!" Narcissa was growing irritated now. "I know you were drunk last night, I'm not stupid and I don't have unrealistic expectations of boys! The only thing I said was, when Bella came over and asked where you were, that you were inebriated and had gone to bed," she huffed.
"But then, how..." She'd known precisely what had happened. She'd been no where nearby at the time, so unless she had picked the memory from Narcissa's mind, there was no way-
Oh, fuck. He felt this thought should be verbalized. "Oh, fuck. Bella's started learning Legilimency. We're all screwed."
"Lucius!" Her tone was sharp, and he glanced up, startled. "It may not be my place to ask you this, but would you mind trying to watch your language? It's obscene."
"Of course," he said quickly. "Sorry."
She exhaled slowly. "You're forgiven. On all accounts."
"Really?"
She regarded his surprise with suspicion. "Should I not forgive you?"
"Please, do. I just expected to have to work a bit harder for it."
She smiled, and Lucius felt himself relax. "You may make it up to me in any way you see fit," she assured him.
He grinned. "I'll keep that in mind. So you're not mad, then?"
"I'm not."
"Good." He turned around, and promptly threw up.
The weeks passed, and Lucius, miraculously, did nothing to anger Narcissa to the point that she'd have no more to do with him. In fact, she seemed to grow more comfortable with him each day, eventually coming to sit with him by the fire in the evening, often going for walks with him around the lake, and revising peacefully beside him in the library. However, even by December, she would not grant him what he so desperately wanted, though she would gladly curl up next to him on the wide loveseat and snuggle chastely against his side.
"Aren't you going home for Christmas?" Narcissa asked curiously, lifting her head from his shoulder. They were angled before the fire, easily the warmest spot in the Common Room. Rodolphus and Bellatrix, who were seated mere inches further from the flame, were using their "bloody dreadful seat"'s position as an excuse to share body heat, though Narcissa doubted they could actually feel a difference from where she and Lucius sat.
"I'm not; my parents have decided they want to go somewhere warmer for the holidays and- well, you've never met my parents, but they're not the sort you want to go on holiday with." His expression was one of extreme distaste, but he did not elaborate. Rodolphus snorted, however, and lifted his head from Bella's neck.
"You know, whenever I try to figure out what the hell is wrong with you, it always goes back to your parents."
"Yes, thank you," he snapped, cutting him off with a sharp look. Narcissa was concerned.
"But they're not... they aren't bad parents, are they?"
"Yes!" Lucius announced bitterly. Rodolphus laughed.
"Be fair to them, she going to think you we're bloody abused as a kid."
"I was," Lucius moaned, tilting his head back and sighing heavily.
"Drama queen." Rodolphus rolled his eyes. "See, Cissy, his parents are-"
"I don't want to talk about my parents!" Lucius interrupted loudly. "The point is, I'm never going on holiday with them again. Ever."
"But you'll be the only Slytherin staying," Narcissa said with concern. Lucius shrugged.
"I'll manage." By 'manage', he meant catch up on the school work that had been accumulating as he devoted more time and effort to Narcissa. He'd failed miserably so far-by his own standards, at least. Perhaps not by Narcissa's, as they spent exorbitant amount of time together, and she had, on occasion, allowed him to unbutton her blouse. Lucius felt particularly proud of this point, but Narcissa seemed far more interested in hearing about his day, his Quidditch practice, his theories and aspirations rather than have sex. Which Lucius thought was terribly unfair. He was making progress, but it was dreadfully slow, and he was beginning to fear that Rodolphus was right and he'd have to marry her before she'd let him get her knickers off. At the very least, it was, at this rate, unlikely that he'd have her before graduation.
But Lucius Malfoy did not give up. Malfoys didn't quit when things were not going to plan, although the usual tactics of bribery, intimidation and torture were, sadly, not applicable here. Still, he told himself smugly, he didn't doubt that she was steadily falling in love with him, and once she was fully dependent upon him, he would exploit that delicious little body of hers to his heart's content.
He closed his eyes in pleasure at the mere thought, blocking out the chatter around him to focus solely on the light, warm pressure of her, leaning against him, her breath brushing his neck as she settled her cheek back against his shoulder, and he reached out for her. When her delicate fingers curled around his, he lifted her hand to his mouth.
Anyone watching would assume he was merely pressing a chaste peck to her skin, but instead he kept his face entirely impassive as he sucked lightly on the knuckle of her index finger, flicking his tongue against the knob of bone. She tried to subtly pull away, but Lucius smirked and held on tightly, nipping playfully at the tendon of her thumb.
"Lucius," she tried to look stern, but the blush that was blooming gave her away.
"Hm?" He quirked an eyebrow innocently, but slid his tongue between her fingers, laving the ultra-sensitive skin at the apex of the digits.
It was too much. She whipped her hand back and folded her arms, eliminating any possibility that he might recapture one.
"I forgot," she said stiffly. "I still need to pack. Help me, Bella?" she implored meaningfully.
"For Merlin's sake, surely you can throw a few things in a trunk by yourself-"
"Help me!" she snapped, rising to her feet. With a heavy sigh, Bellatrix rose as well.
Rodolphus watched them leaving, a pleased smirk all over his face and eyes fastened on Bella's retreating bottom.
"She's got a great ass," he murmured in a satisfied way. "Not that you should be looking," he added hastily, throwing Lucius a warning glare. "because it's mine."
"You can have it, she's fucking insane," Lucius replied under his breath. Then, so his friend could hear, "Rodolphus, I haven't gotten laid in almost three months. I think I'm going to die. Is that possible? Do people just wither up and die when they can't have sex?"
"Er... I don't know." He frowned, thinking. "Maybe."
"I'm going to die," Lucius stated with finality. "I haven't gone this long with fucking since I was thirteen."
"Maybe it's time to give up, then. What if she just doesn't like you?"
"She does!" Lucius insisted. "She does like me! She's just unbearably prudish. It won't help if I break up with her. I don't want to have sex with just anyone-" he paused. "That's not true. I do want to have sex with anyone. But even when I'm sleeping with someone else, she tortures me... I have to have her!"
Rodolphus stared back, unmoved by his vehement passion.
"Yeah. Whatever. I guess you staying at Hogwarts means you'll miss the Montrose game?"
"I hate you."
Lucius was surprised at the twinge of sadness he felt to see Narcissa board the train and blow him a kiss as the Hogwarts Express departed. He firmly told himself that this was because two full weeks would pass without any hope of seducing her, and it would be terribly boring in the school with no other Slytherins about.
However, when he arrived back in the Common Room, brushing snow from his cloak, a warm, husky voice cause him to still.
"Hey, you." Francesca rose slowly and sauntered over, draping her arms around his neck and kissing him lingeringly. "I've missed you."
"You decided to stay behind?"
"Well, when I saw you'd put your name down, I figured it'd be a good chance for us to... reconnect."
Lucius did not reply, instead flinging his cloak onto a chair and settling into his own warm seat. Francesca sank onto his lap, running her fingers over his chest. Automatically, his hand slid beneath her snug sweater, stroking the bare skin of her back.
"How've you been recently?" she asked softly, pressing soft pecks to his throat as she savored the closeness that had been denied to her for the past months.
"Oh, you know," he began ambiguously. "Alright."
"Just alright?" she prompted in a kittenish tone, nibbling on he earlobe.
"Horny," he growled at last, crudely, as he shifted her abruptly so she was lying on her back. "She's been driving me mad," he confessed as he hastily yanked her sweater upwards, his hand sliding around to unfasten her bra.
"Maybe she's not worth it," she gasped as his hands and mouth moved over her bared chest.
"I'll have her." His reply, though slightly muffled, was full of confidence. "But right now, I'm going to have you."