This is why I ask for reviews, and I so appreciate them! A reviewer caught a hint of something slipping into my writing, as my original posted version of chapter 7, A Conflagration, suggested that Hermione did not want Lucius to kiss her, and that is definitely not what I wanted. I read a great article recently on what it means when people talk about a 'rape culture' in the US, and the author made the point that women are too often portrayed as and expected to be passive when it comes to consent-a woman should say "no" instead of the expectation being that a woman will say "yes". And there I went along with that cultural norm, not even thinking. What a wake up call! So, I want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to the anonymous reviewer who caught that and called it out. It is a hard line to walk with Lucius, because he is using underhanded means with the ritual, and he's not above playing dirty. At his heart, though, Lucius is a gentleman, and Hermione is willing. I have revised that chapter and hope that you go back and see what I mean. It's just a few sentences, but it does give it a different flavor, I think. Persuasion is quite a different thing to coercion-and I hope you great readers call me again if I inadvertently cross that line. Thank you!


Hermione was not expecting the flash of a curse when they popped into her living room, but Lucius reacted instantly from habit and experience. He threw a shield charm around them both and fired back at the assailant, making some type of contact from the muffled grunt.

"Lumos!" Hermione's wand lit up, but not the lights in the room, costing another precious few seconds as Lucius traded spells with the unseen attacker. Hermione cast the lumos miasma charm, causing a pale light to suffuse through the air, then threw her own curses at the lanky wizard who was clearly well versed in dark magic. Lucius threw her out of the path of a blistering hex and shifted his wand to his left hand, throwing two spells in quick succession.

"Protego! Mimblewimble!"

"Locomotor mortis!" Hermione threw her own curse underneath Lucius' arm, simultaneously irritated and pleased by Lucius' concern for her safety.

Both Lucius' and Hermione's spells hit the man, and he dropped like a stone.

"Petrificus Totalus," Lucius hissed, further incapacitating the wizard, then stunning him for good measure. Hermione disarmed the man and put the wand down quickly. It felt squicky, the magic nasty. Lucius looked up at her after a cursory examination of the unconscious wizard.

"Call the Aurors," he said grimly. "Now!"

Hermione was thankful that Ron was one of the Aurors who responded to the call to her flat. Lucius had cast Priori incantatum on the wand himself, and Hermione had not recognized half of the charms. Lucius apparently knew many of them, however, and he cursed violently under his breath before throwing the wand down on her coffee table with disgust and pacing near the still breathing body until the Aurors' arrival was announced by the multiple cracks outside her door.

"Hermione! What's going on?" Ron said as the other three Aurors rushed into her flat, wands at the ready.

He stepped inside with her and saw Lucius Malfoy, who said, "This assailant fired a curse at Miss Granger and myself when we Apparated into her living room. We exchanged curses and together we stunned him and disarmed him."

The Aurors were always extra careful around a Malfoy, simply because they had so much pull at the Ministry. Therefore they did not immediately claim Lucius' or Hermione's wands for testing, but instead examined the unconscious wizard's wand. Severt muttered darkly at the spells being reeled off while Thompson and Percivel levitated the wizard, who groaned as he began to come out of the last stunner that Lucius had sent.

"He won't make much sense for a while," Lucius said darkly as the two Aurors removed the man from the flat, prepared to Disapparate directly to the Ministry holding facilities. They nodded and vanished soundlessly, one of the supposedly private privileges of an Auror, but which was frequently employed by many others.

"Tell me what happened, please," Ron said as Severt cast a recording spell, then held out his hand for Hermione's wand.

"Only the last ten spells, if you please," Lucius demanded imperiously, and Ron exchanged a look with Severt, who nodded. Leaving his partner to check the prior spells, Ron listened as first Lucius and then Hermione explained the circumstances of the attack and their subsequent defenses. Lucius wordlessly surrendered his wand to Severt's interrogation, a lifted eyebrow all that was sufficient to remind the wizard of the spell limit.

"Have you ever seen him before?" Ron posed the question first to Hermione, then Malfoy. According to Ginny, this was going to be Hermione's husband in short order, alternative match to Neville or not. Seeing how possessive the elder Malfoy was of Hermione, Ron could well believe it. He had thought Ginny was ridiculous in her assertion that Hermione would choose Malfoy, but she had just Apparated him into her flat—hardly something she would do if she weren't comfortable with him.

A thought occurred to him and he stood and drew Hermione aside. "Excuse us for a few minutes," he said, then pulled her into the kitchen, casting a Muffliato.

"Hermione, are you all right?" Ron was less interested in her verbal answer than in her body language. Everything about her screamed 'upset', although she was trying to hide it. She actually seemed to care about that prat, because she was casting worried glances toward the couch where Malfoy was calmly answering Severt's questions. In fact, she looked just like she did whenever they got past some terrible scrape or mission...and that relieved him greatly.

"Am I all right? I just apparated into my own living room and someone tried to kill me. If Lucius hadn't insisted on coming here with me to add wards, I don't know if would have reacted fast enough! I'm upset, Ron! I can't even go to my own home without some lunatic with a grudge lying in wait for me! How am I going to sleep tonight?"

"Right, of course, Hermione. Let's go back now." Ron heaved a mental sigh of relief as he turned his friend gently back toward the other room. Whatever else was going on, she was not under the Imperius, of that he was certain.

He took over the questions again as she sat down right next to Lucius. Both had asserted they did not know him, and given the circumstances, Ron had no reason to believe Malfoy was lying. He assumed Severt had cast the calming spell, a useful little trick up an Auror's sleeve that Malfoy probably already knew about but clearly wasn't worried about either. There were ways to counter it, but they could usually tell when they had been used, and Severt was one of the best at body language cues.

"Any idea why he might have wanted to harm you?"

"Other than the fact that she's turned the entire wizarding world on its head?" Lucius snarled. "Can't you do better than that?"

"Yeah, mate, I can. Perhaps you might know a bit more, eh? Word has been flying around the Ministry about the requests coming from other countries for Hermione's tests. Who would be the most well placed to divert those requests, or subvert them to their own purposes?"

"Pleased to find you have slightly more grey matter underneath that ginger cap than some," Lucius muttered. "Yes, Weasley, there are several wizards who might fit that criteria, including myself, given my business interests outside of the Ministry. However, I think you will find that the personal nature of the stakes in my case should direct your attention elsewhere."

"I'd already figured that one out, mate. Can't you give me a name? The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the safer she'll be."

Lucius' jaw was tight and with a sudden flash of insight Hermione realized that the only time he interacted with the MLE at this level was when they were either accusing him of malfeasance or trying to worm information out of him.

"Drop it, Ron. Please. If he knew he'd have already brought it to your attention." She took Lucius' hand and inhaled sharply. It was akin to a public acknowledgement of their betrothal, and she knew Lucius regarded it as such when his eyes flashed to meet hers with a hot flare of approval.

Ron shook his head, then stood up and nodded to Severt. "I hope you know what you're doing, Hermione."

"Don't I always?" Hermione said with a half-smile, standing in tandem with Lucius and pretending more confidence than she felt about the matter. "Be sure to ask Lavender if she approves of my choice."

"I don't think there's any question you'll be informed one way or another." Ron glanced at his partner, who was waiting without comment. He reckoned Underwood had paired them pretty well, given how little Severt liked to talk. "You'll both get a copy of our report," he said, then kissed Hermione on the cheek and let himself and his partner out of the flat.

The sudden silence was uncomfortable on one level, but eerily soothing on another. Gathering her Gryffindor courage, Hermione turned to face Lucius, who was regarding her warmly.

She had still managed to surprise him. There was only one acceptable response.

"Witch." A wealth of meaning was infused in that one word, then he crushed her to him and claimed her mouth for an aching, thorough kiss that set fire to his blood and hers, the magic pressed on them by the ritual intensifying their feelings to a level that excluded everything else.

He broke the kiss, then cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking her skin gently. "My witch."

His silver eyes held her brown ones, coolly amused, and Hermione tapped her fingers lightly on his chest and said, "We really must discuss this Neanderthal tendency of yours. I sincerely hope it is merely the affectation of habit and not how you really think of me."

"Such a quick learner." He kissed her again briefly and stepped back. "Time for those protection charms, pet."

She stood back to watch. Lucius closed his eyes and took a deep breath to prepare himself, then conjured the Fidelius charm, his wand waving elegantly in the oscillations required. Hermione felt the charm take hold, then he walked over to her, the whisper of her address in her ear almost a caress.

"Thank you," she whispered in reply, placing a kiss on his jaw near his ear. She was not quite accomplished enough in her wandwork to cast the Fidelius herself, although Filius told her she was quite close. She had had to sacrifice furthering her charms studies when she began the genetics project, but Filius was kind enough to meet her occasionally to offer pointers. She had hoped to not need it anytime soon, quite frankly, so it hadn't seemed a pressing matter.

"What about my friends?" she asked. Since Lucius had made himself the Secret Keeper, Harry, Ginny, and the rest of her friends would not be able to Apparate to her flat any longer.

"I'll take care of that," he promised. He stopped her before she could kiss him again.

"I'm not finished," he growled lightly, stepping back again before pointing his wand skyward and beginning the complex incantations required for the Protego Horribilis. Hermione was shocked that he would cast such a spell, but since she had not seen it cast before, she was transfixed as his voice carefully danced through the spell, his pronunciation of the mixed Latin and what sounded like proto-Celtic tongues absolutely perfect. A rush of wind signified the spell taking hold, and Lucius lowered his wand and stared at her again.

"I wish you would come stay at the Manor. The wards are quite old and powerful. I would be much happier if you would make that choice."

Hermione knew it was quite something for Lucius Malfoy to offer such an olive branch. "I'm beginning to appreciate just how seriously you take your responsibilities, but as of right now, I want to remain in my own space."

Lucius crossed to her in two steps and pulled her close. "If I took you right here, right now, that would be enough for us to be married in the eyes of the Ministry. Such is the power of the Beltane rite, Hermione. Against my better judgement," Hermione snorted to herself and thought rather it was against his training, "I will refrain from doing so, as I would wish our first time to be in surroundings more conducive to many subsequent repetitions without a care for any external concerns. But only today, witch. If you have anyone you want present at our bonding ceremony, send the owls now, dear, because tomorrow you are in my bed and you will not be leaving it."

Hermione felt a flustering combination of desire, indignation, and shock warring in her mind. "A week," she said, blindly negotiating as thoughts of a wedding! Moving! Sex with Lucius…Merlin, assaulted her brain. Lucius flicked his eyes to the clock, which showed that it was just past midnight.

"Tomorrow," Lucius countered in clipped tones. "That's final."

She read the steely intent in his eyes and felt weak in the knees. "It's too soon…" she was fumbling now, and Lucius was done.

"Hermione, had I not come home with you tonight, you could have been incapacitated or killed. I am done seeing you stumble through the rippling effects from your research, and I know this is only the start of it. You need me, period. Bonding will provide far more benefits of which you are aware, and some benefits of which you are presently ignorant. I meant it when I said I would teach you. And, by god, you will learn…starting tomorrow."

With a bow, Lucius disapparated on the spot.