The Snake and The Lioness

A/N: Leonora, I am so sorry that you didn\'t like the way I wrote the last chapter. Fact is, I had a bad case of writer\'s block, so I unfortunately took advice from my own brother, he is one of the worst people to ask for advice, and he gave me the idea of telling her brother about that. It didn\'t seem natural to me, but since he is my brother and an egotistical maniac, I just let him write what he wanted. He is so proud of his chapter and I have had to keep him from your review to save his feelings. He would go nutters if he saw it.
Anyway, hope everyone likes the new chapter. This is where Lucius finds out about Adrienne\'s job. I decided to let Lucius deal with his anger in his usual unfeeling and calm manner, but you do feel the pain and anger in what he says and what he does. On with the story. Sorry my notes are so long.


Adrienne went to work that morning with a smile on her face. Luckily, there was nothing big going on and she was able to have a long night with Lucius. The only thing that bothered her was that she would have to tell Lucius about the spying she was doing.

The evening came quicker than she could imagine. She didn\'t get the usual message from her brother, asking her what time she would be coming home. Goodness, she thought, Chris really has stopped trying to run my life.

She apparated to the Manor. She looked around for Lucius. She decided to just wait in her room. One of the house elves would tell Lucius she was here. She knew what she was doing. She was stalling. He was most likely in his room, but she didn\'t want to face him so soon.

Lucius was in his room when Dippy came in and announced that Adrienne had arrived about twenty minutes ago. Twenty minutes ago, Lucius thought, why hadn\'t she come to find him?

It wasn\'t that he was bothered that she was there, minding her own business(because she did that a lot), but didn\'t she say she had something important to tell him? So, why hadn\'t she come to him immediately?

Adrienne almost jumped fifty feet into the air when Lucius stepped into her room. She needed to calm down. Tonight would probably already be eventful enough without her hitting her head on the ceiling.

\"Hello Adrienne, my pet.\" Lucius said, sitting next to Adrienne and kissing her neck.

\"Hello...Lucius. \" Adrienne said slowly. Adrienne laid back on the bed and pulled Lucius over her and into a kiss. She was trying to prolong the inevitable, but she didn\'t know why .... because it was inevitably going to happen.

\"So eager. I like that, but, as you know with me, business before pleasure.\" Lucius said, letting the last word slowly drip off his tongue. Adrienne felt like she would melt. She wanted the pleasure now, because she might not get it later.

Lucius crawled off her and laid at her side. Adrienne, still trying to buy time, acted as if there was a pesky, stray string on her clothing. Lucius watched her with amusement.

\"Adrienne....\" Lucius said in a warning voice. That meant that she needed to go ahead and say what she had to say. She knew Lucius was not the kind of wizard you played little, immature games with.

\"Um, Lucius. Gods, this is hard to say.\" Adrienne said. Even though it was cool in the house, she was sweating.

\"What is it, Adrienne. Are you pregnant?\"

\"No. it\'s not that. You know my job, right?\" Adrienne asked.

\"Yes. You know you never told me what you do.\" Lucius said.

\"I know. I ... I\'m going to tell you now. I\'m a, well you remember when I came with Harry and some other people to confiscate some of your things?\" Lucius nodded. \"Well, I\'m a .... sort of ... detective.\" Adrienne finished with a sigh.

\"A detective. That\' s interesting. So, who have you been detecting...because with all the time you spend here, I don\'t see who you could be watching.\" Lucius said, still oblivious to what Adrienne was trying to tell him.

\"Lucius....I\'ve been watching you.\" Adrienne said slowly. She waited for a reaction, but Lucius\' face remained fixed on hers, just looking into her eyes. \"My first date with you was set up by my boss. I basically fell in love with you on accident. It was never supposed to be like this.\"

\"Really?\" Was all Lucius said. He was urging her to continue with her explaination.

\"I\'m sorry. I know you never expected this. It\'s just....my job. I hope that you don\'t hate me for this. If you don\'t want to be with me anymore, I understand, but I hope you don\'t choose that. I hope that you can see past that because I do love you. But if you do choose to leave, please don\'t let us part on bad terms.\" Adrienne said. She was using every bit of her self-control to hold herself together.

Lucius sighed. He lifted himself off the bed and walked across the room. Adrienne thought he was going to leave, but he didn\'t. Right before he opened the door, he turned.

\"You want us to part on good terms? That will be hard, since there are so many things that are not respectable that I want to say to you. I suggest that you leave before I do say something that you won\'t like.\"

\"But Lucius, please-\" Adrienne started, but Lucius opened the door and motioned for her to leave.

Adrienne didn\'t want to leave, but she knew that if Lucius really wanted her gone, he would get her to, even if it was done in a rough manner. She crawled out of the bed and started for the door. She reached up to give Lucius one last kiss, but he held up his hand over his mouth.

Adrienne wanted to cry, but she held herself together. She stepped out into the hallway and walked through the Manor, for what might be the last time. She closed the door behind herself and waited until she was a good ways away.

\"Goodbye.\" She whispered and the air carried her voice up through the air. Then Adrienne apparated away with a sad, meek pop.

Lucius, who watched her from the hallway of her room, had heard the whispered goodbye from Adrienne\'s lips.

He was angry that she could do all that without even telling him anything. Didn\'t she trust him enough to just ask him about whatever she was there to detect? Obviously not. How could he be with someone who didn\'t trust him?

Even though he couldn\'t stand that she basically betrayed him, he still couldn\'t bring himself to just shut her out. In all truth, he had come to be used to her. To rely on and enjoy her company. He had become completely enamored with her.

He had never let a woman, much less a girl, invade his senses like she had. The thing was, he had been powerless to stop it. Being with Adrienne just became a habit and then a comfort. Adrienne was a disease that totally consumed him and there was no cure. He wasn\'t sure that he wanted one either.