"I don't believe we've met." He said smoothly. "Lucius Malfoy. And you are?"
"Hermione." She responded without thinking.
He raised an expectant eyebrow.
"Granger." She added, chastising herself instantly for seeming to be unable to hide her identity even a little bit.
"I see." He said, not with a sneer as she would have expected after hearing her clearly muggle name, but with the slightest smile.
Hermione figured Lucius must be nearing the end of his last year at Hogwarts but he seemed far older than eighteen. There was this air about him that should belong to a much older man, someone who'd been through a lot. Perhaps he already had, the first wizarding war was brewing and Lucius had undoubtedly been drawn into some part of it already because of his father.
"You're not a student here are you." He stated casually, so confident in his assumption and clearly untroubled by it. "I'm sure I would have noticed you before if you attended here."
Hermione blushed, she shouldn't have but she did, there was something about Lucius that seemed to make her feel like a schoolgirl with a crush.
She'd always found him attractive but it was something she'd never really admitted to herself. He was her enemy, he was prejudiced, she shouldn't like him therefore she'd pretended to herself that she didn't. Seeing him like this though she couldn't seem to help herself. He was young and beautiful, no less so than he looked in her own time, but different, and this was before all the evil things he'd done in his life so admitting how he made her feel was so much easier.
"You're the first person to notice." She admitted freely, there wasn't much point in denying it now. "I'm a journalist doing a piece on friendship between the houses."
Fortunately, she managed to lie this time, keeping up a consistent story from earlier too. It wouldn't be good for people to know she was from the future, that was when they could ask questions she really shouldn't be answering.
"Ah I see, that sounds like an intriguing piece." He said, looking pensively out at the quidditch pitch. "I'm assuming you have permission to be here." He asked somewhat jokingly, knowing she couldn't be here had she not.
"Oh yes, McGonagall gave me the all clear." She played along.
He looked slightly confused but seemed to accept what she'd said, Hermione having forgotten that Professor Dumbledore was the head of Hogwarts in this time.
Hermione knew she should try and get away from Lucius soon, she really didn't want to interact with people too much, but then again, she had until midnight to get the timeturner back, and part of her didn't quite want to go just yet.
"I could show you around if you like." Lucius offered somewhat spontaneously.
"Don't you have classes this afternoon?" Hermione asked, finally wondering what exactly Lucius was in fact doing out here.
"I got some big news today so I've been let out of my classes for the rest of the day." He explained, a sombre edge to his voice.
"Oh." She wasn't sure what to say. "I hope you're alright."
"No, no. I shouldn't feel bad about it, I'm just, I don't know, I suppose I didn't realise I would be disappointed even though I knew it was coming…sorry, I don't know why I'm telling you this, I doubt you would understand."
Hermione searched her brain for what might have got him so down. Maybe it was being forced into his father's footsteps and getting involved with Voldemort, but she doubted he would be regretting that at this time, it wasn't until his family was threatened that Lucius truly started to regret. Besides, the school wouldn't exactly give him the afternoon off for joining the dark side, Hermione almost laughing at the absurdity of the thought. It must be something else but she couldn't think what.
"Well I can leave you be if you like." Hermione offered, a little disappointed that she wouldn't get to spend more time with him but wanting to give him some space.
"No." He said quickly. "I could really use the distraction, if you don't mind."
"Of course not." She smiled, trying not to think on why she was going along with this. It would be a waste to go back now she tried to convince herself, it wasn't often one got the chance to spend the day 28 years in the past, and perhaps it would help her to understand Lucius who had intrigued her for so long, to gain a better grasping of his view of the world that she sometimes found it so hard to comprehend.
"But I'm almost done here at the castle and was planning on going into Hogsmeade." She added. Hermione really didn't think staying in the castle or it's grounds would be a good idea, it just meant that she'd see more people who could potentially question her being there when they inevitably didn't recognise her. "Unless you're not allowed off the grounds without permission of course."
"That sounds like a good idea, I think getting away from the castle for a bit might help." He agreed. "And it shouldn't be a problem, being a prefect has its perks." He added with a dashing smile.
They headed out of the stadium together, Hermione managing to subtly snap a picture of James flying by as they did having almost forgotten that that was why she had come here in the first place.
As they left the pitch someone called after Lucius, Hermione surprised to see Severus running towards them in his quidditch gear.
"What is it Severus?" Lucius asked with what Hermione could only describe as a brotherly smile.
He blushed slightly but pushed forward past his shyness. "I was wondering if your friend would like me to take a picture of the two of you for her article."'
Hermione couldn't help but feel touched by Severus' offer. The picture she had taken of him and Lily must have meant a lot to him and, perhaps, somehow, he knew that taking a picture of Lucius and she would mean a lot to her too. Strange. It was as if now it didn't mean a lot to her, but she had this feeling that in the future it would. Time. What a funny thing it was.
Before she got the chance to agree, Lucius spoke.
"Thank you Severus, that sounds like an excellent idea."
Snape looked very pleased that Lucius approved of his idea, it seemed as though he really looked up to the Malfoy heir.
Hermione pulled her camera out of her bag and handed it to Severus, hoping dearly that neither of them would notice that the model was well beyond anything in their time, it was cutting edge even for her own.
She wasn't entirely sure how to pose but Lucius took the lead for her, offering her his arm which she took gently, leaning into him ever so slightly.
The smile came seemingly naturally as she stood arm in arm with him. It shouldn't have, but it did, and part of her couldn't help but wonder what her life would have been like if she was from this time, or if he was from her own at this age.
She was snapped from her reverie when Severus ran up to show them both the picture.
"You both look great." He beamed, clearly happy with his work. It was strange for Hermione to see him in such high spirits, she rarely had in all the time she'd known him. Only recently had she seen him anything close to what she would call happy, and it made her sad to think that he would have a life filled with so much sorrow.
They really did look great in the picture. Hermione had to admit that she wasn't usually the most photogenic of people but magically in this particular photo she'd managed to look rather nice. Perhaps it was the perfect specimen of a man that was standing next to her who had helped to make her look better. He exuded confidence and beauty, and she supposed it must have rubbed off.
"Would you mind if I had a copy too." Lucius asked, sounding almost tentative. Hermione doubted Lucius could every sound truly tentative after all, always so sure in himself. "Just in case you never get published." He added jokingly, almost using her exact words from earlier.
"Of course." She said, trying to hide her surprise as she developed another for him.
"And thank you Severus." She turned to her young professor. "I hadn't got one of a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw yet, and this one is perfect."
Snape started blushing again and mumbled a 'you're welcome' before Lucius sent him back to his quidditch lesson, jokingly saying that he wouldn't hesitate to dock points for cutting class even from a member of his own house.
They continued to walk through the grounds together in a strangely comfortable silence, only broken when Hermione couldn't contain her curiosity.
"So are you friends with that boy?" She asked. "Severus was it?"
"Mm, yes." Lucius said, his mind having clearly been elsewhere. "He's a first year in my house. He shows great promise both magically and academically but he's picked on a little, especially by those wretched Gryffindors, so I've taken him under my wing a little. Sometimes I worry what will happen to him when I've gone…"
Normally Hermione would have found herself affronted at his stab at her house but this time she found herself caring little. She knew that Harry's father and his friends had tormented Severus, so found it hard to argue with Lucius on this one.
"I'm sure he will be alright." She lied weakly, knowing all too well that for so much of his life he would not be.
They spent the rest of their walk talking about magic, Lucius impressed by her great knowledge of it, as was she by his. Hermione hadn't talked with someone like this for so long, someone who shared her passion and understood it at the same level as she. Lucius too seemed to agree with her as he talked freely and animatedly, what appeared to be uncharacteristically so.
He asked her about her hobbies, her job – which she managed to get through by saying she was normally a court journalist so could talk relatively freely about her work as a lawyer. He himself seemed much less enthused by his own career prospects, saying he had little choice in following his father into running the Malfoy estate. It saddened Hermione more that she thought it would, to see this man with so much potential having so little freedom in where his life was going.
"So, tell me about your family?" He asked, no doubt assuming she already knew all about his own, which in a way she did, it was just the family he was yet to have.
"My parents are dead." She lied sombrely. They weren't, it was just easier to lie, they couldn't remember her because she had erased their memory of her…for fear that someone like the man next to her might go after them.
"I'm sorry." Lucius said sounding genuinely so. "I shouldn't have asked."
Hermione almost laughed at how messed up this was, if only Lucius had apologised to her in her own time, but perhaps this was as close as she'd get.
"Muggles, were they?" He asked tentatively, but without the sneer that accompanied that same question when he asked her in back in her second year in Flourish and Blotts.
"Yes." She nodded.
"Hm." Lucius mused, a curious expression on his face. "You know, it's strange, I was always told that muggleborns were...lower-" He said slightly embarrassed. "-Than half bloods but that never made sense to me. The muggle parents would never know that they were going to have a magical child, a new magical person for our world, whereas half-bloods knowingly mixed their blood."
"None of it makes sense." Said Hermione strongly. "Where one's magic comes from does not determine our equality or power"
Lucius stood stunned, Hermione continuing walking on with renewed vigour, doubting anyone had spoken to him like that on the subject before. She knew nothing she did here would change the future, but she had to wonder if their encounter here today had had an effect on him at all, if his future self perhaps remembered her. That was a strange thought. It was unlikely he did, it was almost 20 years later for him when they would meet again, and her 11-year-old self did not exactly look anything like her 21 year old self did. He did know her name though, so perhaps he did, even if he couldn't place her, the name might ring a distant bell. Maybe she would have to try and find out once she got back.
Lucius soon caught up with her and they continued towards Hogsmeade with not far to go, Hermione taking a few pictures of the scenery and castle as they did.
"I apologise." Said Lucius with what Hermione could only call sincerity. "I did not mean to offend you."
Two apologies from Lucius Malfoy in the space of ten minutes, now that had to be a record.
She didn't want to say it was okay, because it wasn't, so she simply nodded half-heartedly in acknowledgement.
Hermione had to wonder, what had changed him from this relatively reasonable person into the man he would become. Someone who hated her kind, wouldn't hesitate to kill someone like her, let alone call them mudblood. She expected Voldemort had played a large part in that…
Finally, they reached Hogsmede and just like Hogwarts, it had changed little. A few of the shops looked different but it was essentially the same.
They walked along looking through all the shop windows when suddenly Hermione spotted something that stopped her in her tracks.
There, in a tailor shop, was a display of different ribbons. They came in all different sizes, textures and colours but the one that caught Hermione's attention was black, and smooth, lined with silver thread.
So this is where Lucius must have got the ribbon from that the pixies stole…
"What is it?" Lucius asked, snapping her from her thoughts.
"Oh, it's just the ribbon I lost which blew away earlier, it looks just like that black one there." Hermione explained, pointing it out. "I think I'll just pop in a get a replacement." She added, the two of them going into the shop.
What good luck, she would be able to replace Lucius' ribbon from her own time, keeping her promise to the man with the pixies and hopefully returning something to Lucius that she expected meant something special to him.
"It is a very pretty ribbon." Lucius commented as she paid for it, Hermione happy she had quite a bit of money stored away in her little pink bag otherwise she would have been in a bit of a pickle.
"It is, isn't it." She agreed, sure it was the same ribbon as before, it felt just as smooth between her fingers.
Hermione felt very pleased with herself as they left the shop. Not only had she achieved her goal and gotten some great pictures for Harry's birthday present, but she'd managed to resolve losing Lucius' ribbon and gained a valuable insight into his past self.
She was so caught up in her successful mission in fact that she didn't see the children running down the street, and when she did, it was too late. They crashed into her and she fell to the ground with a thud, Lucius' outstretched hand missing her by a millimetre as she did.
It wasn't the grazes she could feel on her knees that bothered her, nor the sharp pain in her ankle, but the unmistakable crunch of the timeturner against her chest.