In Love and War

Disclaimer: I own nothing of the Harry Potter series. All characters,events and places belong to J K Rowling. I make no profit whatsoever from the writing of this fanfiction.

A quick note~ This chapter contains violence and non-consensual sex. There is quite a bit of OOC in this chapter, but this was how I wrote it. If you love Ron, please skip this chapter.

In Love and War

Chapter 10

Hermione sat the book that she had been trying to read for the past two hours down on the coffee table. It landed with a dull thud, knocking over her long forgotten mug of tea.

“This is ridiculous.” She muttered to herself and to the empty room.

Her mind had been stuck at the same place for two weeks. Ever since her evening, and brief morning, at the Manor, her mind had been filled with thoughts of Lucius. Even doing her most mundane tasks, such as cleaning the oven, his face would swim before her eyes and his words would echo in her ears.

She had taken his advice and reapplied for her old job at Gringotts. They were thrilled, well as thrilled as a goblin could get, that she wanted to resume her previous position. Unfortunately, they hadn't been able to accommodate her request as they were looking to cut back in her old department. The head lawyer at the department had politely told her that they would keep her in mind if things turned around for the bank and their department received a higher budget. She had smiled at the man and left a few minutes later, her courage deflating somewhat as she reached the street.

She knew that going back to work would be good for her, would show the world as well as Ron that she wasn't their walking mat. Hermione knew that Lucius had been right when he suggested her returning to the work force.

It wasn't only his advice that had stuck with her, it was everything else. She hadn't allowed herself to think on it, even though she always did, but somehow a smile would grace her lips every time a stray thought would pop into her head. She didn't want to read too much into it, but she knew that something had truly sparked between them that night as he left her in the Blue room of the manor. She felt it and knew, subconsciously, that he did too.

“Hermione!” Ron's voice yelled from the front door.

She rolled her eyes in defiance and picked her mug up off the floor, using her wand to clean up the mess that had been left on the carpet.

“Yes Ron?” She asked, walking into the kitchen and depositing the dish in the sink.

“I need my dress robes dropped off to Madam Malkin.” He said, sticking his head into the refrigerator. “Have her readjust the hem's of the sleeves and trousers. I need them by Friday.”

She wasn't really listening to him as her ears tended to tune him out on the occasions that he was actually at the house.

“Hermione,” he snapped his fingers in her face. “Are you listening to me? Did you hear what I asked you to do?”

“I'm sorry Ron, my mind wandered.” She mumbled.

“By the gods, Hermione. What is your problem?” He snapped as he pulled a glass out of one of the cupboards and filled it with a cola.

“I don't know what you're talking about.” She said, placing her hands on her hips in a defiant stance. It was one that she had used in a long time and it felt good, a little too good.

After taking a long sip, he slammed the glass on the counter. It surprised her that it didn't shatter.

“You know, I don't ask you for much.” He pursed his lips as his ears started to turn a bright red. “In exchange for me providing you with a wonderful home and all the comforts available all I require is that you keep the house clean and run a few errands for me.”

Hermione breathed in deep through her nose and counted silently to ten, hoping to put a curb on her anger. By the time she got to seven, she hadn't relaxed at all. If anything she had gotten angrier.

“You know what Ronald? If it's so important to have your robes hemmed, why don't you take them yourself?” She challenged, her voice turning arctic as she stared him down, causing him to back up away from her.

“You're in charge of the house and the laundry.” He said, his fists tightened, turning his knuckles white as he held them against his sides. “See that it's done. I will pick them up Thursday evening in time for the benefit on Friday night.”

“What benefit?” Hermione asked as Ron accio'd his bag from upstairs.

“Don't you bother reading the paper?” He questioned with an unbecoming sneer on his face. “It's a charity ball to help raise money to rebuild the house dorms at Hogwarts. I had thought that you would keep up on the happenings at our old school, considering how Rose is there.”

For her, it was the last straw. He had no right to insinuate that she didn't care about their daughter. Rose had been Hermione's entire life since the moment she had been born. There was nothing that she wouldn't do for her little girl.

“Don't cast aspirations on my parenting skills, Ronald.” She said, grinding her teeth in annoyance. “You don't exactly set the best example when it comes to her.”

“What are you talking about?” He yelled back, his face the picture of innocence.

“You've got to be joking Ron!” She exclaimed, shaking her head in his directions. “What do you think you're showing her while you're going off with Lavender?”

“Keep her out of this Hermione. What I do with her is none of your god damn business.”

“Oh, I think it is. I may not be happy being your wife, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to sit back any longer and let you flaunt this affair in front of my face.”

She had done it, she had finally confronted him, and it felt good.

He took a few steps toward her as his hands shot out and gripped her shoulders painfully.

She waited for him to speak, but no words came out. She would have been lying if she said that a sliver of fear wasn't running through her veins. Hermione quickly recognized that the small mark on her wrist was throbbing with anger.

“Remove your hands from me right now Ronald.” She ground out through her teeth, her hand gripped tightly around her wand. She had no problem cursing someone, especially her husband.

He stepped back from her slowly, his face a mass of rage and his eyes glittering with malice. “You want this to be a real marriage, Hermione? Fine.”

Hermione cried out as he crushed her between his body and the hard granite counter, her wand falling to the ground at her feet.

“You want a real husband?” He whispered in her ear, his breath hot against her neck. “Well, a real husband fucks his wife.”

Hermione whimpered as his teeth sunk into the tender skin at the juncture of her shoulders and his hands ripped the skirt from her body. His fingers dug into the soft flesh of her thighs brutally.

She heard the zipper of his jeans being lowered and she knew what he was going to do.

“No.” She cried out as he forced her upper body across the counter, his arm pressing down on her head, holding her body immobile.

“Oh, I think not, wife.” He said as she felt his cock at her entrance.

Hermione screamed as he thrust through her intimate flesh.

“Have you missed me? Has your filthy pussy craved for your husband's touch, mudblood?”

When he finished, he let go of her body. Hermione sank to the floor as scalding tears traced down her cheeks.

“Have my suit ready on Thursday.” Ron said, not even bothering to look back at her.

Sobs erupted, painfully, from her body as the front door slammed closed.

She couldn't believe that this could happen. Ron had been angry, but she had never really thought that he would hurt her. In the times before Rose had been born, Ron had been somewhat considerate during sex. Even if he didn't delve into foreplay, he would at least use lubrication so as not to harm her or cause her discomfort. She didn't think that he could actually be this cruel.

Trying to block the image from her mind, she curled into herself on the floor and hugged her arms to her body. Hermione repeated to herself that this had to be a dream, a nightmare. With that thought in her head and tears streaking down her face, she fell asleep.

~@~

Hermione awoke less than an hour later to the sounds of the walls shaking. She grasped for her fallen wand and lowered the wards, not caring who it was.

Less than a minute later she heard booted footsteps coming into her kitchen and a subsequent hiss of anger.

His intoxicating smell of linen and spice made it's way into her sense's and she automatically relaxed. She even laughed inwardly at the thought that she would relax in the presence of a death eater, albeit a reformed one.

“What the fuck happened here?” Lucius raved as he knelt down beside her and turned her body over to face him. She heard his breath hitch as his eyes trailed down her body, taking in the marks on her arms, the red bite on her neck, the black bruises on her hips and the scrap of material that had once been her skirt.

Her sense of modesty took over as his fingers skimmed over the bruises on her arms.

“It was nothing.” Hermione said quietly, wishing that her voice wasn't shaking. “Just...,” she stuttered, “a misunderstanding.”

She pushed away from him and reached for the counter to pull herself up. The action proved to be too much for at that moment because she collapsed again, only to be caught by his arms.

“Gryffindors make for horrible liars, my dear.” Lucius said as he scooped her up in his arms.

Hermione tried to push herself out of his arms, but dissolved into great shudders that raked her body.

“You can't stay here.” He mumbled, mostly to himself as his feet propelled them out of the kitchen.

She gave up trying to fight him and relaxed further in his arms, feeling secure.

On their way out the door she noticed that Lucius picked up a set of robes and draped them across her body to cover her partial nudity. The sense of deja vu did not escape her. It had been a long time ago that he had held her in his arms like this, the only difference was that this time she wasn't afraid. She trusted him completely.

As soon as they arrived at the manor he took her into the Blue room and lay her down gently on the bed covers.

“I have to call for a healer Hermione.” Lucius said softly, his eyes meeting her with a tenderness that she did not expect.

“No, Lucius. If this gets out it will be in the papers and I can't do that to Rose.” Hermione pleaded with him.

“I will make sure it doesn't get out.”

She reached for his hand as he sat next to her on the bed. “Please.”

“I'm sorry. I have to have someone come check you out. We don't know if you are injured.” He pushed.

She closed her eyes and willed the tears behind her eyes to stay where they were. She hated to think of what would happen if her daughter was to find out what her father as done. Hermione could barely believe it herself. It hadn't been the act that unsettled her so much, but the inability to protect herself.

“I can't have anyone knowing.” She beeseched him.

“Hermione,” he said slowly, steepleing his fingers on the bridge of his nose. “You can't allow him to get away with this.”

“I don't mean to.” She said under her breath, promising herself that Ron would pay for this.

Lucius squeezed her hand and she smiled up at him softly. “Regardless, I'm still calling for a healer.”

He pressed a kiss to her hand that was joined with his and quickly exited the room, assuring her that he would be back soon.

“Lucius Malfoy,” she yelled, hoping her voice would travel through the wall to reach his thick head.

She didn't receive a reply from him and almost instantly she felt panic start to surface through her again at being alone.

To occupy her mind, she slipped out of the bed and gingerly made her way over to the en suite bathroom.

She sighed as she turned on the shower, waiting for the water to get steaming hot. She watched her movements in the mirror as she gently removed her remaining clothes from her body.

Her eyes took in every mark on her body. She brought her fingers to the bite mark on her neck.

'A real husband fucks his wife.'

She trailed them down to the quickly developing black marks at her arms.

'Filthy mudblood.'

By the time she got to the bruises at her hips she had to rush to the toilet.

Hermione threw up everything that had ever been in her stomach. She felt sick, dirty, unworthy. She retched until all she was vomiting was sickening yellow bile and then the tears started falling again.

She felt a cool cloth pressed to the back of her neck as her hair was lifted out of the way. She didn't have to look up to know that it was Lucius. She quickly wondered if he thought she might have deserved it because of her blood.

“Get those thoughts out of your head right now.” He snapped although his voice stayed even.

Hermione nodded quickly and leaned against his chest, breathing in deep his scent to calm herself.

“You shouldn't shower before the healer gets here.”

She could tell that he was trying to keep his wrath out of his voice. His body was tense with anger and suddenly felt sorry for Ron if Lucius was ever to see him out in public. He wouldn't stand a chance against the older, more experienced wizard.

She clenched onto the rich cloth of his robes. “I feel so dirty. I have to get clean, get him out of me.”

At her words, she heard a deep growl resonate from his chest.

He gripped her arms and pushed back the sleeves of his robes. She saw the fading dark mark on his arm, but didn't blink an eye at the brand on his skin. She looked to his other arm and saw the otter playing at the skin of his wrist, the dark black contrasting with the pale hue of his skin.

She watched Lucius pull his arm out from the shower before lifting her up once again into his arms before bringing them both into the marbled shower.

Hermione knew that she should be shocked, that given what had happened to her earlier, she should be covering her body from his eyes. But, she had complete trust in him and knew that what he was doing, he was doing for her. He wasn't getting any pleasure out of it.

She didn't protest as he moved to wash her body, only watched his hands as they dipped soap onto a thick sponge. If anyone had ever told her that one day Lucius Malfoy would be washing her in the shower, fully dressed, she would have laughed. But in this moment, she couldn't feel anything else towards him except for gratitude.

He was gentle as he brushed the sponge across her bruised skin. He took great care in washing her hair, saturating every strand with some kind of lemon shampoo. He didn't even flinch as she leaned into him, allowing him to rub the sponge across her back. The only time he faltered was when it came to her private areas. He wordlessly handed her the sponge and turned his back. She was grateful and washed quickly.

Hermione waited for him to shut off the water before she stepped out of the shower. He instantly had her body enveloped in a thick white towel that drank up the water on her body, greedily.

When she was dry, he whispered a drying spell on her hair and himself before he handed her a overly large black robe.

“Thank you.” She choked out, almost not trusting herself to speak.

She took his hand and followed him back into the bedroom. He settled her under the covers and moved to the door to allow the healer entrance.

“Hello Mrs. Weasley, I'm Healer Edwards.”

Hermione looked the healer over and shuddered slightly. She didn't want to go through this.

“I understand that you had a bit of a skirmish with your husband tonight. Is that correct?”

She looked over at Lucius who was standing in the door frame. He gave her a small smile, but she could see the fury burning within his silvery eyes.

“Yes.” She said quietly, averting her eyes from Lucius' so that he wouldn't see her shame.

The healer turned to Lucius and tilted his head slightly to the left. “Will you be staying for the examination?”

Hermione's chest constricted in terror as his hand reached for the knob. “Please don't leave me.” She cried, begging him to stay. “Please.”

He nodded his head and moved around the bed to kneel at her head.

“I'm going to move the blanket now.” Healer Edwards said quietly before looking to Lucius for permission.

She turned her face into Lucius' neck, he was so close to her. Her hand shook as she reached for his hand.

“I'm assuming that you cleaned yourself after you got here Mrs. Weasley?”

“Yes,” Lucius spoke for her, his voice hoarse and shaking slightly.

“It's of no matter I suppose since she doesn't want to press charges.”

Lucius' thumb stroked over the skin of her hand as the doctor went about the examination. Her tears soaked his robes as the Healers hands probed at her most intimate parts.

“This wasn't your fault.” He whispered softly in her ear before reassuring her that she was safe.

Hermione felt the sheets being lowered back onto her body and let out a sigh of relief.

She watched the healer go through his bag and she tightened her grip on Lucius' hand.

“You're going to need a healing draught. It will need to be administered every four hours for the next two days.” He pulled out a blue glass bottle along with a small jar of white cream. “This ointment needs to be applied every three hours until the bruising goes away.”

Lucius took the jars from the healer and sat them on the table.

“I appreciate your discretion.” Lucius said.

“Of course.” Edwards replied before his expression turned grave. “If it is ok with Mrs. Weasley, I would like a moment alone.”

Hermione nodded at the man beside her even though she didn't want him to leave.

“I will be right outside.”

The door shut behind him with a quiet click, leaving her alone with the healer.

“Mrs. Weasley-”

“Hermione, please.” She said, her voice quivering slightly.

“Hermione, then. Rape is a very serious offense. It wouldn't be wrong to lay charges against your husband.”

“I understand this,” she replied politely. “However, I am sure you are aware of my husband's reputation as well as my own. I cannot press charges because they would be published in every paper and I cannot allow that to happen.”

“Mr. Malfoy assures me that the matter can be taken care of very quietly.”

“I'm sure he has, but for I can't take the risk that my daughter could find out. Ron may be a deplorable husband, but he loves his daughter.”

“Well, you will have to forgive me if I can't agree with that.” Healer Edwards said roughly. “I am of the opinion that if a man can do this to his wife, there is no telling what may happen if his anger is turned on his child.”

“Ron would never hurt Rose.” She said forcefully, even as a seed of doubt was planted in the back of her mind.

“Very well, as you wish. However, should you change your mind at a later date, please be guaranteed that I will testify in court on your behalf.”

“Thank you, although that will not be necessary.” She pulled the covers back closer to her body.

The door opened silently as the Healer began packing up his bag. With that done, he placed his card on bedside table. He looked at her with sad eyes before nodding in Lucius' direction.

“Thank you, again.” Hermione called out to the healer as he left the room.

Healer Edwards smiled briefly at her before shutting the door behind him.

“Lucius, I-”

“Don't.” His tone brokered no refusal on her part. “I didn't save you all those years ago only to lose you now.”

“Stay with me tonight?” She asked tentatively while looking up at him through her lashes. She knew it was a silly request to ask him, but she couldn't bear to be alone, especially when he was so close.

She watched as he pulled a chair from before the fireplace and sat it near the bed.

“No,” she shook her head. “Here.” She patted the space beside her.

Hermione watched a look of grim resignation cross his aristocratic features before he gave in and climbed onto the bed next to her, gathering her into his strong embrace.

She automatically curled her fingers into his long stands of pale hair as his fingers stroked comforting lines up and down her back.

As she was just about asleep, she felt his fingers move to her left hand and stroke over her wedding rings. Before she could say anything he slipped the rings from her fingers and vanished them quickly with his wand.

“Why did you do that?” She asked him softly.

“Those rings mean nothing now, if they ever did. The sooner you realize that, the better.” Lucius replied, before tucking her body in closer to his own. “Those rings have no place in this house.” He continued more resolutely.

She looked up at him, confusion quickly washing away as she gazed into his eyes. There weren't words to describe her feelings at this moment so she did the only thing she could think of- she buried her face into his chest, a secret smile on her lips.

She feel asleep minutes later, all thoughts of Ron pushed from her mind as she slept in Lucius' arms, content and safe.