Chapter 14: Solace in His Arms
The constant sting from the tops of her knees caused the tears to continue to fall. The dreadful effects of the truth-telling potion still lingered deep in her bones. The skin on her lips seemed to vibrate and crack while the corners of her eyes violently twitched. The image of Ron's rage-filled face still stained the fabric of her mind, and his dreadful scream still rang in her ears.
"I hate him." Her words hung in the air as visible puffs of chilly breath. She wanted her voice to reach the night sky. "I hate him!" She wished Ron's head would have exploded during his god-awful screaming. She kept replaying the night over and over again in her head, feeling utterly stupid for drinking that truth-telling potion. She wrapped her arms around her chest and gripped the sleeves of her jacket, reassuring herself that none of this was her fault.
What Ron did was immoral. She questioned if the reason he bought her the Cherry Bombs was to take advantage of her. This was the lowest she ever thought of Ron, the idea that he would do something so awful to her during their first time seeing each other after months of being apart. The fact that he lied to her, the fact that he deliberately manipulated her into thinking he was helping her by giving her that yellow potion, all of it felt repulsive.
She silently walked through the small village outside Hogsmeade and crossed the bridge over the Furlong River. She stopped and looked out over the river. "It's over," She told herself. "I hope I never see Ron again."
She convinced herself Ron never loved or cared about her; the way he took everyone's word over hers and decided to end things, how he never had her back while the students spread horrible rumors about her, and now their trust had been violated ironically by a truth-telling potion. She wiped her tear-stained cheeks and sniffled.
The way the skin on her knees pulled and stretched made her eyes water against the icy breeze as she made her way up the hill. She passed Willow Lane and turned down Shadowmourne Dr towards the dark, looming Victorian-style house at the end of the cul-de-sac. There seemed to be a delicate white glow on the other side of the tall iron fence around Lucius' house. As she passed through the iron gate, she noticed the light coming from the glowing white roses on every bush around Lucius' home. Their luminosity lit the pathway towards the grand entrance as she stepped lightly onto his porch.
She held the ring that stuck out from the snake head's mouth and considered turning back. Lucius might not even be home, and they haven't spoken since they walked around Hogsmeade village. The thought of more rejection was more than she could bear, but the blood from her kneecaps continued to slide down her legs. She let go of the ring knocker and pressed the key for the doorbell.
A tightly twisted knot formed in her stomach as she stood and waited to see if she could hear anything inside the house. As the small taping of feet approached the door, the knot became tighter. Her hands and legs trembled as the door clicked open to show Lucius in an all-black suit with his hair slicked back behind his ears.
"Hermione?" His eyes grew wide in astonishment at the sight of her. His gaze glided across her chest from one exposed collarbone to another, then began admiring the accentuated curves in her dress. His jaw dropped slightly open once he noticed the streaks of blood dripping down her legs. It was subtle, but his expression was stricken with grief, and a sadness soon settled in his eyes.
"I'm sorry," she started, but Lucius moved swiftly as he scooped her up into his arms with one hand gripping her lower back and the other gripping her thighs. She wrapped her arms around his neck as sweet relief filled her body and her muscles untensed now that the pressure was taken off of her knees. Lucius carried her into the house and under the two grand staircases into a large living room. Hermione couldn't help but ogle at the opulent taste in decor and furnishings.
The room's main feature was a glorious black marble fireplace that climbed up the 20-foot wall. Its edges were lined with gold glass with specs of diamonds that shimmered within the marble. The inside where the fire burned was lined with a separate colored marble mixed with greys and whites that glowed from the dancing flames. The room was adorned with a warm glow as flickering shadows bounced across regal lavender furniture that sat across from the fireplace. Underneath was a furry white rug that contrasted beautifully against the black marble floors.
Lucius carried Hermione to the lavender couch and tenderly guided her descent until the back of her legs met with the comforting warmth from the couch cushion. Without saying a word, he gently unwrapped the strap from her heels and slowly pulled them off her feet. After setting her shoes aside, he turned and walked up a small flight of stairs into another level of the house, leaving Hermione with the chance to take in more of the elegant features. Above the center of the room was a large chandelier made from dozens of white candles, while across from the couch and diagonal from the fireplace were two circular love seats that matched the color and fabric of the couch.
Lucius returned with a small towel and first aid kit. He knelt in front of her and slowly dabbed the blood that dripped from her kneecaps with the warm washcloth. She watched as his hands softly patted the gashes on her knees and cleaned the dried blood from her calves and off the souls of her feet where the blood had settled in her shoes. The way the washcloth glided down her legs left Hermione with no choice but to look around the room, forcing the divine feeling into the back of her mind. Their eyes never met as Lucius seemed to study every inch of her bear legs for any more injuries. He then clicked open the first aid kit and took out a small bottle of peroxide and two gauze pads.
She winced as he applied a small amount of peroxide to the fresh wounds on her knees with a cotton round. After taping gauze pads over her kneecaps, he unwound a roll of medical tape, gripped the edge with his teeth, and tore off two equal-sized pieces. He wrapped the tape over and under her knees to secure the gauze, his eyes never looking up from her legs. He stood up, pulled off his black blazer, and put it over Hermione's lower half, and suddenly she realized she was cold. The awful ache in her kneecaps and the slow recovery from the truth-telling potion must have allowed her to block out how cold she was as she walked from the portkey in Hogsmeade to Lucius' house.
Now that her knees were bandaged, she sat up and leaned back against the couch. She held the blazer in place over her legs as Lucius sat beside her and rubbed the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb with his brows furrowed and his eyes shut.
As she watched him sitting there, without a glance in her direction, she could feel that he was annoyed and inconvenienced by her unexpected visit. An unbearable weight of embarrassment seemed to crush her shoulders. "I'm sorry—
"What happened?" His eyes suddenly glared into hers like storm clouds and caused the hair on her arms to stand up.
A quiver danced across her lips as tears glistened in the corners of her eyes like dewdrops desperately clinging to petals as she replayed her night over in her head. The tears slowly cascaded down her cheeks as she spoke. "Ron," she started, noticing Lucius' hands balling into fists. "He saw me at the Witching Hour. We drank together, and then he led me to believe he was giving me a potion to help me with the effects of the alcohol in the morning."
As she spoke, she could see corners of Lucius' mouth bent in disgust, but he remained poised and contained. However, she could see the rise and fall of his chest deepen as a fury swirled in the greys of his eyes.
"What was it?" He asked her, as one of his knees began to bounce.
She choked back on her tears. "It was a truth-telling potion." The memory of the excruciating pain filled the gaps in her mind. "I only drank half of it. Then he started asking me all sorts of questions… as I tried to control its effects—
He cut her off. "Acting against the effects of a truth-telling potion causes unbearable pain, Hermione. Please tell me you didn't try to fight it." His lips pressed together and lines etched into his forehead, and she could see his muscles tensing beneath his black dress shirt.
She looked down and hid her eyes, suddenly feeling foolish. "It was awful, but the questions he was asking me…I didn't want to answer them." She covered her tear-stained face with her palms. "I tried my best."
She felt Lucius stand from the couch and looked up to see his face covered with anger.
"Please," he started, "don't go anywhere. I have a tea that I think will help you." He walked back up the small flight of stairs and quickly returned with a small cup of tea with a tea bag still steeping. She held the cup between her palms and let the warmth wash over the rest of her body, letting the tea cool before taking her first sip.
Lucius sat down so close that their thighs were almost touching. "Tell me what happened to your knees." His eyes dragged up from her knees and searched her face, but she just shook her head and gave him a weak smile.
"The effects from the potion became so overwhelming that I couldn't hold myself up. I ended up falling and cutting both of my knees." She gently rubbed the tops of the bandages.
Lucius' gaze was fixed on her. "Where was Ron?"
Hermione let out a pathetic chuckle. "He was standing over me, screaming at me." She shook her head and tried to blink the new batch of tears away. She looked down as a tear dripped into the cup of tea, stirring up a cloud of herbal swirls and reminding her to take another sip.
Lucius' knuckles cracked as his fingers strained even harder into a fist. He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees as he clutched his hands together and rested his chin on his knuckles. He shut his eyes, and Hermione could see the rage emanating from his core, and the flame still flickering in the fireplace seemed to grow.
Softly, he asked: "Are you okay?" She watched his lips move against his knuckles as he spoke.
She nodded. "The tea seems to be helping the effects of the potion." She gave Lucius another small smile, but his eyes never left the dancing flames until he stood up and began to pace back and forth from the couch to the fireplace. He slid his sleeves up, exposing the bottom half of his arms. As the fire lit the room, she could see the veins in his arms begin to bulge like bolts of lightning as his shoulders rose and fell with deeper breaths.
"Lucius?"
"I won't let him get away with this, Hermione." His voice was low and stern as he faced away from her and stood with his arm resting above his head against the marble of the fireplace. She watched as the glow from the fireplace cast dancing shadows around him. She traced the outline of his silhouette with her eyes and wished he was closer to her again.
"But—
"What he did was wrong, Hermione!" His voice, low and intense, carried through the house, sending a chill down her spine. "What he did to you…I won't let him live with it." He growled.
Hermione cringed as she rested her cup of tea on a small golden end table and stood up from the couch. A painful sting radiated up her legs as she approached the fireplace. Lucius' expression changed from anger to worry as he reached for Hermione and held her underneath her arms, with the palms up his hands supporting her elbows.
"Please Hermione, sit down or the injuries on your knees will reopen." She looked closer into his eyes and watched the glow of the fire curl within the dazzling pools of grey and blue. She gripped his arms for balance, mesmerized with how his entity changed now that she was near, breathing in his nostalgic scent of pine and sandalwood.
"I promise I'm ok." She assured him, but his eyes fell back down to the bandages on her legs, and her heart dropped along with them. Every time his eyes left hers, her heart ached for their return, for the feeling of them seemed to take away her pain. The only sound around them was the crackling of fire as she studied Lucius' suddenly vacant expression. His eyes were glued to her arms on top of his, and slowly, an uneasy feeling seemed to wash over his face, contouring his cheeks as he clenched his jaw.
"Why did you fight the effects of the potion? Why put yourself through so much pain?" He asked, his gaze still lost somewhere in the tops of her arms.
She swallowed hard. "I had no desire to answer Ron's questions." Lucius' eyes squinted slightly at the mention of Ron's name.
"What kind of question would cause you to endure such torment?"
She hesitated as a blush of embarrassment painted her cheeks. She looked down and admired the way his masculine hands wrapped around her entire arms.
"He, uh, asked me questions about if I've seen anyone else from school since leaving." She paused to catch Lucius' unchanged expression. "I told him I'd seen Dean Thomas at the shop, but that was it."
His gaze shifted back towards Hermione's face as he listened, and his being felt hollow and empty as she spoke. "Then he asked me if I had anyone new and special in my life." She paused again as Lucius' eyes grew, and his hands gripped her arms tighter. "I didn't want to tell him about you, but I had already cut both of my knees, and I couldn't handle the pain anymore. I'm sorry." She fought back more tears, her knees shaking with every word that left her trembling lips. "I know you probably don't want anyone else to know what's happened with…you know. I tried my best, but in the end, it wasn't enough."
A single tear fell from her eye as Lucius guided her arms around his waist and to his back, pulling her into him until their bodies couldn't get any closer. He wrapped his arms around her with one hand in the middle of her back and the other behind her head, gripping strands of her hair and pressing her into his chest. Her fingers slowly sprawled across the muscles in his back as he rested his cheek on the top of her head. She quieted her mind and allowed the tears to fall as she focused hard on feeling his heartbeat against her cheek. He stroked her hair as his strong and capable arms encompassed her in a captivating embrace.
She felt his jaw move against her scalp as he said: "I hate that you went through that dreadful hell to protect me. I would have made it known to the world about you and me if it meant you were safe."
Hermione pulled her head away from his chest, her tongue caught in a knot as she lifted her head to see him. Lucius untangled his fingers from her hair, held her cheek in the palm of his hand, and wiped a single tear from her cheek. The warm sensation of his hands made her knees move like jello. He smiled softly, a gorgeous sight that made Hermione feel like she could collapse at any moment. With her cheek resting in the palm of his hand, melting in the heat of his skin, he said:
"Stay with me tonight."