Chapter 10: Duck, Duck, Goose

Now that things had settled down since the Ministry fell, pressure was coming down heavily on Mircea's department to think of ways to round up those who opposed the new regime. Random sweeps of London had worked for a while but clearly there were now safe houses for the rebels to hide in. Mircea was hoping to come up with some genius idea that could keep her solidly in everyone's good graces now that the glamour of the ball had faded away.

This all wandered through her mind as she sat cross-legged on Lucius's bed with Lucius sitting on the edge of the bed in front of her. She had taken to fixing his hair on a regular basis since she did not mind it and he was wretched at it. Lucius loved the feeling of her nails against his scalp and her fingers working through the strands. Of course he had not told her that.

He was dressed for work and perusing the Daily Prophet. He always ate alone and was at the Ministry long before her to keep suspicion at bay. She slept later but worked later, so it evened out.

Mircea let Lucius's silky hair run through her fingers before gathering it all together and tying it back. She was only half listening to what he was reading in the paper, half to her and half to himself.

"I cannot fathom why this topic is so taboo. There is no reason we should not address the serious problem that Mudbloods who mate with Purebloods pose to the very fundamentals of our society."

Something broke through Mircea's thoughts and she accidentally yanked the ponytail.

"Bloody–!" Lucius started but she cut him off.

"Repeat what you just said. Word for word."

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "I said," he drawled in a caustic tone, "I cannot fathom why this topic is so taboo."

Mircea's excited shriek cut him off again. He intended to chew her out for screaming in his ears, but he felt her arms around his neck and then the undeniable softness of lips against his cheek.

"You've done it! You've found our next move!"

Mircea Disapparated without further comment, leaving him sitting on the edge of his bed, alone. He knew somewhere in the back of his mind he should care about what she had been banging on about but honestly he did not care about that at the moment.

Closing his eyes for a moment, he could nearly feel her lips on his cheek once again.

At the Ministry, their block of offices was abuzz and when he reached his own office, he saw the door standing open with several men standing around Mircea's desk as she pointed at a parchment on her desk.

Their eyes met and Lucius could feel himself color slightly. Damn fool! Get a hold of yourself! he scolded himself.

"Is there anything you need, Miss Elaide?" Lucius asked, standing respectfully in the doorway.

"Yes, Lucius. Come here."

The men at the desk shuffled about a little to make room for him. He could see a very old book lying open now that he was closer, and on the parchment lying on top of the book was a list of words. Harry Potter. Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore.

"We are planning a Taboo, Malfoy," Mircea said meaningfully. "The word we choose will set off an alarm allowing us to find whomever said it. The problem is that these words are far too general. Even if we get everyone here to call Potter 'Undesirable Number One' we cannot stop the rest of the world. Any thoughts?"

Lucius stared at the parchment. He had one but he was afraid to say it.

Mircea could read his expression though. "Malfoy, what is the word you are thinking of?"

"Voldemort."

A shudder ran through the room and Mircea leaned away from him somewhat, as if afraid he would be hit by lightening.

"Only Potter and his closest cohorts dare to use that name."

"How do you know that?" someone to his right sneered.

"Remind me where you were when Sirius Black died, Dorat," Lucius snapped back.

Quiet acceptance settled over the room. Though he was now fallen, it would require a great deal of lying to deny Lucius had once been the most powerful of them. The task to retrieve the Prophecy was proof of this.

Mircea slowly wrote the name on the parchment. It seemed to soak deeper and blacker, than the other words there.

"It's perfect."

By the end of the day, the Taboo was in effect. Mircea was given credit as the genesis of the idea, but when Lucius began packing up to go home, he noticed a box on his desk. The box was a deep green with a silver monogram stamped in the lid, compromised of the letters "REE." Slowly, Lucius opened the box. His expression changed quickly to open delight. In the box was a sinfully expensive necktie he had been eyeing for the past week.

"Looks like you have an admirer," Mircea commented, leaning against the doorframe and smiling as he examined the midnight blue silk.

"Well, she has excellent taste," he returned, not hiding his pleasure at the gift.

"Interesting…"

"Yes?"

Mircea gave him a wicked grin. "You assume it's a lady. Good night, Mr. Malfoy."

The door closed behind her and Lucius chuckled to himself as he put the box in his briefcase.

"If you keep leaving that hall door open, we will need to have a chat, Mr. Malfoy," Mircea called to Lucius, not looking up from what she was writing.

"Your paranoia will not cut me off from the rest of society, Miss Elaide. With all due respect."

The last phrase in particular was loaded with sarcasm, so Mircea looked up to scold him but stopped short.

"What? No scathing riposte?" Lucius teased, looking up from his own parchment. But he too lost his train of thought.

There was a duck standing quite placidly in the open doorway. Or at least, it was mostly placid; something in its rimmed eyes gave away malicious intentions. From her vantage point Mircea could see Lucius start to move for his wand. The duck opened its bill and hissed at them, revealing short, needle-sharp teeth. Flecks of poison flew from the teeth and burned holes in the carpet.

"Merlin's saggy balls," Lucius breathed, leaning back into his original position. But Mircea could see his muscles were all still tensed.

"Lucius…" Mircea warned, but it was too late.

The duck took off in a flurry of wings and Lucius reacted. The stunning spell did nothing but anger the duck. Lucius tripped over his desk chair in trying to keep his eye on the hellish creature and get as far from it as he could. He fell, nearly catching his head on the desk, and his wand spun out of his hand and behind a cabinet. Running, Mircea was able to get between the two and she shrieked as the duck's teeth bit into her forearm. Cursing, Lucius knocked it off of her arm with a thick tome he grabbed from a shelf, which also sent her wand flying under his desk. Mircea grabbed him and shoved him into her office, slamming the door behind them just in time.

Sounds of quacking, which sounded far too sweet and commonplace for the creature they knew was making them, and scratching filled the silence as Mircea held her arm to her chest, gritting her teeth and trying to not scream. Her skin was burning and she did not know what to do about it. Lucius picked himself up off the floor assessing his own body – burned on the shoulders and a cheek, but whole – before he noticed Mircea. She was scooped up and placed on the edge of her desk, like a child at the doctor's office, before she could protest.

Lucius wrenched her arm away from her body so he could look at it more closely. In return, he felt Mircea's hand strike him across the face. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to not hit her back.

"Do not make me curse you."

He yanked her arm back to where he could see it and she resisted the urge to hit him again.

"It bloody hurts and you're yanking it about like that!"

But he ignored her. "You need Watquor Sap," he murmured. "This venom will eat through your arm. See how that thing injected more in?" Mircea went whiter than his hair and he stopped talking.

"You have the most horrible bedside manner," she hissed at him as sweat beaded on her forehead. "Would you happen to have any of this sap on you?"

"No. You do though," Lucius answered, moving to her desk drawers and pulling open the lowest one. "I took the liberty of placing medi-potions kits in our desks after you tried to fry me."

"Which you fully deserved," she shot back, trying to keep from fainting. "Could you move a bit slower?"

Lucius squeezed a dab of pink gel onto the tip of his forefinger, keeping the tube out of sight. "Here…You need to consume this."

Mircea looked at him doubtfully and then gently took his fingertip in her mouth. Lucius was surprised at how quickly his pulse raced once he felt her tongue against his skin. Her lips were so warm and so very soft. And the pattern she wove with her tongue could drive a man out of his mind were it to be utilized correctly. Mircea's cheeks reddened a little as well as his hand curled to cup her face. She looked up at him through long lashes, just barely catching the aching look he was giving her. But a look of fury flashed over her features and before he could react she bit down hard on his fingertip. He pulled his hand away from her mouth in time to catch her as she fell forward, unconscious.

"Little harpy," he fumed as he gently lay her on the desk. "See if I don't take your arm off for that."

When Mircea woke up she could not figure out where she was. The last thing she remembered was her arm being on fire and then…

She sat up and saw Lucius sitting on the floor of her office, watching her. Mircea could feel her arm was bandaged now and no longer felt like it was full of live wires. But why had she been asleep?

"You!" she exclaimed, remembering. "What was that?!"

"You want hurried work and you'll get bad work. Easier to knock you out and do good work. And you now have the full use of your arm do you not?"

She had to admit that it seemed she did. There was a dull ache but that was nothing compared to the excruciating pain it had replaced. Mircea began to pull up the edges of the bandage but Lucius tutted at her annoyingly.

"If you can leave it alone it won't scar."

She left the bandage alone and turned her attention to the clock in her office. It was now one in the afternoon.

"How long ago did that thing show up?"

"About forty minutes."

"Is it still out there?"

"Yes. It know were here and it is waiting for us."

"Surely I have a meeting or something. Someone will miss us eventually."

Lucius was smirking at her in a way Mircea did not like at all.

"What?"

"You asked me to clear your schedule today. No one will notice we are trapped with a psychotic duck unless they happen to walk by and draw it away."

"You haven't even tried to get rid of it?"

"With what?" Lucius snapped, holding his suit open for her to see he had only had the usual things on him. "My wand was knocked behind a cabinet and yours is under my desk. You're Miss 'I-Know-Dark-Magic' so you do it."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly up to it," she snarled at him, waving her arm at him. "I don't think I could run if I had to. Your little stunt with drugging me didn't help that, for the record."

"So what do we do then?"

"We wait. Either until one of us decides they can fight that thing off with wandless magic or until someone comes looking for it."

"What bloody luck!" Lucius barked, but it was clear he was not yelling at her.

"Where do you think it came from?" Mircea asked, joining him on the floor, with her back against her desk.

"Experimental Charms probably," Lucius shrugged. "They've been working on animals for about a month now. Though why a duck I have no idea."

"Well, apparently it worked."

They looked at each other and both of them could not help but laugh. It was ridiculous; they had been trapped in an office by a duck.

"Yes, apparently," Lucius said with a grin. It was only the second or third time she had seen that completely at ease smile and each time it made her heart flutter. "Well, there's only one thing to do."

"You terrible cheater!" Mircea laughed loudly, twenty minutes later. They both sat on the floor still, now with a deck of cards split between them. Mircea was shaking her hand from Lucius's vicious slap. They were playing Snap.

"Take those rings off, Malfoy!" she commanded regally.

"Not a chance. I haven't taken the one off since my father died and as for my wedding band…" Lucius let his words drop off and stared at his left hand. Why hadn't he taken off his wedding band? Narcissa had left him when he was in prison. True, she had died and he had mourned her, but they were no longer married when that had happened. And if she were alive, she would not be with him and she would not come back to him.

Lucius worked the ring off of his finger and tossed it across the room, without a word. Mircea watched him, wide-eyed. She hadn't meant to get such a response; she was only trying to tease him.

"Come now. You going to play or what?" Lucius grumbled, trying to direct attention away from what he had done.

Ace, two, four, Ace.

Mircea and Lucius made significant faces at one another. Neither of them wanted to lose their Aces.

Queen, Jack, Queen.

Mircea slapped the cards just seconds ahead of Lucius, but on a whim he decided there was no way he was going to settle for that verdict. Shoving her over roughly, he grabbed the cards and shuffled them into his deck.

"You!" Mircea couldn't think of any words for her amused annoyance so she simply cast a card shark charm. The cards she should have won floated out of his hand and into the air. Lucius swiped at them and they scattered across the room. Playing cards was a very serious business for two very competitive Death Eaters.

Mircea jumped up and gathered as many up as she could while Lucius did the same. Not surprisingly, the pair collided when they both turned in the opposite directions for the same card. They toppled over in different directions.

Mircea was laughing and Lucius grinned in return, scooping up the card that now lay closer to him on the floor. But he noticed red staining her bandage and he quickly became serious.

"You're hurt. Here," he led her to a chair and unwound the gauze.

Mircea saw her healing wound for the first time and was astonished. Her arm had a long trench of pink, baby-new skin where it had been filled in from the poison burns. The new skin had torn away from her arm a little and was bleeding. Lucius quickly healed the wound shut and examined his work.

"You did this yourself?" Mircea asked.

Lucius shrugged modestly, but she knew better.

"This is very impressive. Makes me feel a little bad about my patch job on your side."

Lucius smirked at her. "As you should." But his face took on a more serious expression. "I simply thought you would not like to have any further scarring. After all…" Their eyes met and the pause seemed to last an hour. "…you are lovely."

Mircea glowed pink but did not chastise him and did not break eye contact. "Thank you, Lucius."

Tentatively, her hand ran up his shoulder to cup his face. Her heart was thundering in her ears but she did not care. He had thought of her insecurities and he still found her to be lovely despite them.

The sound of an explosion from the outer office jerked them apart in an instant. Both parties turned very red and neither made eye contact, furious at the interruption. The pair flew out of the office, shoving the little man who had opened the door backwards. Another man had the duck contained in a bubble of some unknown substance that moved when the duck flew at the sides but did not give way to the animal. This man held Mircea's wand in his hand, which he had picked up from under the desk. She tore it out of his hand and aimed it at him.

The man crumpled, screaming.

"What the hell was that?! I have a hole in my arm due to your ineptitude!"

The men pulled themselves to their feet and looked in one another in alarm. Finally, one of them spoke. "It got away from us. Any damages can be reported to the head of the department and you will be compensated."

"Compensated! How can you compensate me for a full day of work being thrown away? How can you compensate me for agonizing pain and scars on my arm?"

The men remained silent, pale and shaking.

"Get out," she snarled at them.

The men hurried out taking the duck with them. Without looking at Lucius, Mircea left the office, turning down a corridor, and he did not see her again that day.

Zhenya had not forgotten Lucius. Over the days following the Dragon Ball, he had learned that Lucius worked under Mircea. He had decided to follow Lucius, hoping to discover some weakness that he could use to bring him out of favor with Mircea. Clearly there could not be competition if Zhenya was to win the affections of the female Death Eater.

Hanging around the Ministry Defense block of offices, where Mirecea's office was located, he was eventually rewarded with the sight of a white-blonde head moving down a hall. The dark haired man followed at a distance.

Lucius was not aware that he was being followed. He was lost in his own thoughts. Ever since the incident with the Poisonous Duck, his desire for Mircea had grown exponentially. He did not dare act on it; there was a delicate balance that must be maintained if he wanted her to continue showing up every night. But in his mind, he could have whatever he wanted.

Zhenya saw Lucius stop in a line for reimbursements and so he stopped some distance away. What Zhenya prided himself in the most, and what he tried to keep from being too well known, was his ability to slip into people's minds unnoticed. As long as people did not know he was doing it, he was able to see the unguarded thoughts of most of the people he attempted this on. He cleared his own mind and focused on Lucius. He was sucked into a surge of hormones and desire as he entered the other wizard's mind.

His lips brushed her collarbone and she made a breathy sound. Her skin was so soft and her long hair hung about them like a curtain as he pulled her on top of him. She buried her hands in his hair, her nails raking his scalp, and he moaned. Their lips met with haste and lust, tongues tangling hungrily. He was on top of her now and she breathed his name. "Lucius…" She unbuttoned his shirt and threw it aside. He leaned forward, his stomach and chest pressed against hers, and he kissed her neck, her shoulders, her–

Lucius jerked himself away from his fantasy. Someone was in his mind!

But he was hit with a stunning spell before he could try to find the culprit. He flew through the other witches and wizards who waited in line, his parchments scattering, until he hit the desk on the far end of the room.

Zhenya moved in before Lucius could pick himself up off the floor. He had expected something he could use to anger Mircea but this was enough to infuriate him as well. This lowly, has-been was vividly imagining screwing his boss! The inappropriateness of it made Zhenya as angry as the idea of competing with a mere secretary for this woman, and the vividness made him almost question if this were based in reality. But it could not be true. It mustn't be true.

Zhenya grabbed Lucius by the collar and punched him full in the face. Lucius threw an elbow and connected with the Ukrainian's jaw, but he was much weaker than the younger and stronger man he was fighting. The next blow Lucius received made his head spin and he could feel the wetness of blood on his face.

Mircea had forgotten to give Lucius a receipt and was headed out to find him when she heard the shouts and clattering of a fight. Worry swallowed her and she ran around the corner to find the man she had met at the Dragon Ball repeatedly punching Lucius in the face. Lucius was weakly defending himself and his face was bloody. She felt her pulse skyrocket as her stomach dropped.

"Enough!" she roared and froze Zhenya's arm in midair. With a great effort, Zhenya wrenched his arm free of the spell and tossed away the battered Lucius. Mircea pushed aside a bewildered Zhenya and began to inspect Lucius's wounds. He had some serious gashes from the rings the other man wore, but he would be okay.

Their eyes met and she could see the pleading look in them. But she could no more have turned Lucius over to this brute than she could have sacrificed herself. She stood and faced Zhenya, waiting for an explanation.

He saw this as his opportunity to be heroic. "Do you know what that thing was playing through his mind as he went about his business?"

Mircea's eyes darted to Lucius; from the guilty look he was giving her it was not hard to guess.

"I am sure you will enlighten me in a manner that compromises no one here," she replied dangerously.

The Ukrainian checked himself; no need to over do it or she would resent him. "He was envisioning, in great detail, a scene of a quite salacious nature between you – his superior – and himself."

"How exactly did you come across this information?"

"Occulmency."

"And you expect what? That I thank you for invading the mind of my secretary? For trying to find out any secrets in my office? For spying on me?"

"That is hardly what I was doing," he snapped, now getting defensive.

"Then what were you looking for in his mind? Is my office not worthy of the Ministry's trust now? Here." She took his hand and placed it on her head. "Read my mind. Maybe there will be something there for you to beat me over."

Zhenya was furious. This had not gone the way he had expected, though it seemed obvious now that there was no real reason for him to have invaded Lucius's mind. He pulled his hand away from her head and left the room in a fury. Those that had gathered to see what was happening quickly dispersed; they didn't want to be around when Mircea dealt with Lucius.

But Mircea did not deal with Lucius. She called for a medi-witch and stayed with him until the medical team led him away. She did not speak to him and she told him to be silent if he attempted to speak.

Lucius's head spun and he kept thinking that she was waiting to kill him in his own home. He was patched up (there would be slight scarring but nothing major) and he was sent home as soon as he could stumble away. There had been more incidents with the Experimental Charms department and the medical ward was very busy. Luckily this allowed his injuries to go mostly without comment.

He managed slip through the house without attracting Draco's attention and once in his room he striped off his bloody clothes. Lucius fell into bed and was asleep in moments. He wanted nothing more than oblivion, without Mircea or Zhenya or constant danger.

When he woke, Mircea was sitting in an armchair beside his bed and staring at him intently. He opened his mouth to speak and she held up a hand to silence him.

"Is what he said true?"

Lucius was not embarrassed for thinking it; he was embarrassed for getting caught. "Yes, it is."

"Then this bed sharing ends now. You clearly cannot control your mind and I cannot afford to cover for such indiscreet mistakes."

"Mircea…" He caught her hand as she rose to walk away from him. She pulled her hand out of his but not too quickly.

"It will not happen again. I swear it."

The obvious question was "the fantasies or the getting caught?" but Mircea did not ask. She did not want to know the answer. Her eyes ran over his shirtless body - scarred and pale - before moving to his scabbed and bruised face. He didn't look arrogant and proud like this; he looked small and vulnerable. He looked the way she felt.

"Lucius, it is too much. We are already in such danger and this is a fool's errand. We are only creating trouble for ourselves."

"We are not the problem," Lucius growled. "This ham-fisted thug is the problem."

Mircea's good sense told her to walk away, to thank Lucius for what he had done for her so far and sever all ties. That was what she had always done before and it had kept her safe. But she was sick of that.

Lucius watched her conflicting emotions, which played out on her face, and slowly took her hand in his own.

"I promise, nothing will happen to you as long as I can help it. But…" He nearly chocked on the words, but he forced himself to plunge ahead; some emotional honesty wouldn't kill him. "I need you."

And she needed him. She needed his strength and pride and steadfastness. And it was good to need and be needed like this.

Mircea sighed and then nudged him over in the bed. She climbed into his arms and rested her head against his shoulder.

"And I need you, you pompous ass."

He smirked a little, resting his cheek against the top of her head.

The duck incident is inspired by one throwaway line in the 7th book when Harry visits the Ministry. I read it and knew I had to do something with it! :-)

Reviews are much appreciated!