Beyond the Veil -- COMPLETE

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Updated 4-8-08


Thank you for all the great reviews. Each one is a shaft of sunlight for me as an author. I really appreciate the time you take to gift me with your comments.


Some answers and comments for my reviewers (including for the last chapter – I’m sorry I was laid low with a cold and neglected any queries…)

cab2000 - I don’t feel I have Snape’s voice as well as I have Lucius’, but I have added Severus as a character in my story, “The Wedding”. I’m working on an idea for him as a character in my next story, too (although the main hero is still Lucius). As for Lucius and his affection for anal enjoyment, you aren’t going to be disappointed in this story either. But not just yet, sorry.

Damiana – Thanks for the eye info - I’ve fixed it. The Forbidden Forest may have changed a little in two hundred years, but probably not that much. It’s pretty much off limits as a dangerous place to most of the magic folk.

Utopia – I love the two Bridget Jones movies (and Colin Firth ain’t bad either). And I do think Lucius may be looking for a new member of his erotic orchestra – auditions are always open for a skin flautist. 8-)

pittwitch – I think Lucius is going to teach Hermione a whole LOT of new things before this story is over. LOL But she’ll teach him a thing or two, also.

LadyBlueEyes – Lucius isn’t ready to visit the 1817 wizarding world yet. He wants to be filthy rich when he enters it.

jw – I like Lucius as a devious Slytherin who takes care of his own. And I, too, live in the Bay Area.

To those of you (most of you) who were bummed at the cliffhanger - you are getting a new chapter so no throwing of heavy objects or curses please.


Onward -


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Chapter Twelve

Backlash



The furiously angry wizard combed the building, trying to home in on the whereabouts of the little insensitive virago, always so parsimonious with her attentions, never offering him a thank you for his efforts on her behalf, never giving him the ghost of an approving smile. Serving him this latest spiteful turn. Did she think he always served others as he’d done for her?

Ten frenzied minutes of frantic searching later, he finally ran her to ground in the tight space behind their bedroom wall, fast asleep on one of the quilts dragged from their bed. The panel in the wall had yielded to his determined yank easily and he had seen his quarry curled up snugly, without any consideration for his escalating flights of fear as he had searched for her. No doubt she was hiding to give him the heart attack he’d succumbed to in his worry for her.

Lucius’ all too fertile mind had already conjured dozens of horrific fates that might have been hers, plumbing the depths of his own extensive knowledge of the dangers available for any unwary young woman in this world and especially in this segment of society. That she should have been safe from any of those fates in his warded protection didn’t register in his tired, distempered mind. He had gone from unreasoning fear to unreasoning fury, skipping right over any reasoning at all.

When he’d seen her so peacefully asleep, his higher functions had shut down and his ferocious temper had come to the fore obliterating anything but vengeance for the torture she’d put him through.

The first Hermione knew of Lucius’ homecoming was being yanked up abruptly from her little nest and dragged out into the bedroom. At first Hermione thought she was being kidnapped again, but one look at her abuser shocked her speechless – for about five seconds.

“Flexus extendo caduceus!” the irate wizard ruptured the quiet with his command.

Two of those seconds later she was upended over a rock hard knee, her nice, newly transfigured granny nightie from another of the old quilts pulled over her head, and she was being spanked within an inch of her life – with his wand!

“Lucius, noooo,” she yelled, trying to untangle herself from the nightie fabric and twist out of his grasp, hitting impervious pantalooned knees with her fist, “Stop it. Ow! Stop this instant, damn it. Ow, ow, ow, stop it. You’re hurting me. Don’t! No! Why, Lucius? Please don’t. Why?” Hermione hissed with the blistering thwacks of a flexed and lengthened wand hitting her bare skin.

His hold was like steel, her legs clamped in place between his as her stomach began to roil with fear and pain at the blows raining down on her unprotected bum. Each slap of his wand echoed like a pistol shot in the dark room punctuating the misery of one loud whap after another on her tender backside.

Lucius wasn’t totally coherent as his mind refused to move from the oppressive terror he was still operating under. He had spent the last few weeks fighting against human monsters, watching them kill adults and children alike, seeing the wreckage of not only his own home and the uncertainty about his family, but the pitiful remains of the magic world’s population, helplessly unable to counteract the inexorable strength of the New Wave Master’s sheep. Following on that, he’d stepped through the Veil expecting to die and been shockingly set into an alien time, after which he’d had to rescue this little female, whom he had signally failed to protect while indulging himself elsewhere, from one of the more degenerate brothels he’d had the misfortune to see.

And it still hadn’t been over for him – he’d had to deal with the predators who had accosted this little vixen. He was tired and heartsore and somewhere between his entering the empty bedroom and his finally finding Hermione behind the wall, his temper had slipped its leash and was ruling him. This time the spanking wasn’t about sex. It was for his anguish. He was so absolutely livid with the little witch for putting him through the agony of this final distress, piled on top of all his other recent miseries, he hadn’t even thought to disarm her before throwing her over his knee.

Hermione kept wriggling, trying desperately not to cry and give that nasty bastard any pleasure from his vicious attack, but her eyes began to tear up and she wiped away the first drops, while still writhing on his lap. That was when she discovered she still had her wand in her hand. With no thought whatsoever, Hermione’s self protective instincts took over and she brought her wand up, aimed it at the dark wizard and yelled, “Stupefy!” meaning it with every fiber of her being.

Lucius’ last lucid thought was chagrined surprise at Hermione’s wand as it shot red light directly at his head. He dropped like a stone onto the floor, completely unconscious. Unfortunately Hermione had still been struggling on his lap and she wound up under him as he pitched forward.

Hermione pulled herself out from under the heavy wizard who was completely limp, his very pliancy impeding her escape. She managed to draw herself up and away from the man who had shocked her silly with his unprovoked attack. Ironically, she had taken a leaf out of Lucius’ ‘lessons on survival’ and had gone to sleep with her wand firmly in her hand. She had successfully protected herself never thinking it would be from him. Her bum was on fire, making her breath come a little erratically as she fought to master the intense waves of throbbing pain on her backside. The slight dampness between her legs she ignored.

Why had he done that? She had started to trust him a little and he’d turned on her just like the others. Their attacks had been emotional and his had been physical but she was rapidly coming to the conclusion that men as a group were to be avoided at all costs.

Was it something about her that incited any man whom she allowed close to injure her some way? Hermione looked down at the now peacefully quiescent wizard and shivered. What had set him off? She needed to find some place of safety from him before he woke up. But there was no place for her to go. She didn’t know the London of this time and he’d been correct that she shouldn’t venture outdoors alone – certainly not at night. However, this time Hermione was older, more mature and self-confident, and she was less inclined to shoulder the entire blame for being mistreated. She was no longer that very young witch who had been dealt those emotionally scarring blows.

Hermione mulled over her options and finally had a plan.

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Half an hour later Lucius groggily roused from the vehement stupefy he’d courted with his unbound temper. The sleep had actually done him some good, not that it was going to be much help to him in his current position - and his current position was slowly dawning on him as he tried to move his arms, then his legs.

As Lucius regained full consciousness, he saw – and definitely felt - that he was tightly bound, wrists and ankles, facedown, to the four corners of their bed. He only struggled briefly, testing the cords’ strength before relaxing down onto the one patched coverlet remaining on the bed. His heartbeat was a little fast, but he tried maintaining a regular tempo of breathing as he listened to the sounds in the room. He was, of course, leery of his situation, but the familiarity of his physical restraints was almost comforting to a man for whom bondage had always been an enjoyable variation of sex play.

Hermione walked around to the side of the bed Lucius was facing in his prone position so he could see her. “I see you’re awake again. Please excuse your less than felicitous accommodations. At first I was going to truss you up like a Christmas goose, but I didn’t want to hurt you – at least not until I gave you a chance to explain why you subjected me to that uncalled for and unmerited attack.” She smiled grimly, “You see? I’m being more forgiving than you were for whatever imagined slight I was guilty of. If, however, your answer isn’t acceptable, then I’ll hurt you. I haven’t thrown any crucios in many years as you are so fond of pointing out, but I don’t think I’ve completely lost my touch.”

Lucius smiled at that, much calmer now from his little catnap than he’d been when he’d thrown decorum to the wind and gone on his rampage. “Kitten, I don’t believe you’ve ever thrown an unforgivable curse in your entire life.” His placid, self-possessed serenity began eating holes in Hermione’s temper, “I was walloping the daylights out of you and your gut reaction was a ‘stupefy’. No, my dear, I’m not going to be crucio’d today.”

“Lucius, you’re not in a bargaining position just now. If you have any mitigating defense for what you did to me, I’ll have it immediately or we’ll move on to some way to negate your power permanently. I can’t have you pouncing on me, subjecting me to physical abuse whenever the mood strikes you. This time you’ve bruised my backside so I can’t sit down right now. What will you do to me the next time you flip out?”

At that Lucius did feel some remorse, his eyes gazing sadly at his little jailer, “My excuse is flimsy at best, but I’ll try to put into words my feelings. I had been so sure that you were now safe here after having failed you so badly before that when I came home and looked for you in your room, the shock of you not being there again rather unhinged me. I tested the connection charm and discovered you were here on the premises somewhere and I’ll admit I then thought you were paying me back for leaving you by hiding from me to make me frightened again. Unfortunately you succeeded beyond your wildest dreams, except now I wasn’t frightened, I was livid. I’ve been both your errand boy and guard dog, seeing to your comfort and safety (here Lucius grimaced), but you’ve not once thanked me or made me feel my offerings were anything more than your due. I boiled over and you felt the results.”

The blond wizard looked steadily at the angry witch standing at the side of the bed, her hand swishing her wand like an angry cat swishes its tail as she gazed back at her captive with narrowed eyes. Lucius knew she was grappling with his explanation while still feeling the brunt of his fierce anger on her posterior. Suddenly he had an idea. He smiled faintly. Win – win he thought.

“May I suggest a solution to this contretemps we find ourselves in?” he asked meekly, giving Hermione his best sad, puppy dog look.

Hermione’s eyes narrowed further; Lucius and meekness couldn’t even coexist on the same planet. Watching him attempt it was very jarring to the little archivist. She preferred him as his elegant, arrogant, overbearing self and his submissiveness would have disturbed her, if she had believed his sham humility for even a moment. Hermione very much wanted to resolve the unpleasant situation, but he had now proved himself to be a danger to her and she had to be careful of his pretense of docile behavior. However, he had said he’d been frightened for her and that had fueled his actions. “Go ahead. You understand that I now don’t trust you?”

“It may interest you to know that I don’t trust you either,” Lucius retorted, stung, his eyes suddenly flashing before they were hooded with apparent boredom and some disdain. After all he’d done for her! One little walloping on her backside and he was back to square one? Lucius corralled his irritation and tried for a calm demeanor.

“What?” Hermione almost smiled at Lucius’ reversion to his normal, autocratic, quick-tempered self. It looked like the humble act was over as quickly as it had appeared, but she was left rather confused.

“My trust in you was damaged, and I believe your trust in me has been mangled, too,” Lucius averred. “You also have no liking for my political views, not that those are currently of any use.”

“Are you going to start up that mess again? Why can’t you accept that all humans have a right to live in this world, magic and nonmagic alike?”

“Considering recent events, I find that excruciatingly ironic.”

Hermione waved her wand at Lucius, “Well, go on then, what is your solution? What idea do you have that will make me feel safe enough to let you loose from there?”

“Besides a bursting bladder?” Lucius asked, amusement creeping into his voice.

“I’m afraid of you now, Lucius. Don’t try to joke your way out of this.”

Lucius sighed, “I know, and you have a right to feel afraid. I can’t promise that my temper will never get the better of me again. You must admit that snotty attitude of yours can be incredibly annoying on occasion. But I could have crucio’d you or worse, Hermione, and all I did was spank you. See that for how important it is.”

Hermione stood by the bed watching Lucius’ facial expressions for truth, which she knew was more useless than trying to sell lipstick to chickens. He could present the picture of innocence while carving up his own grandmother for dragon treats.

“So I’m in no real danger from you, even though I’ve tied you up? You can’t be happy about that,” Hermione parried, wanting an end to this stalemate - anything that wouldn’t get her killed by a free, furious Lucius.

“You’ve actually made me quite comfortable.” Lucius replied. “I was dead tired when I came home, which probably exacerbated my distempered freak. I’ve had a nice lie down now and I’m feeling rather mellow, but I don’t expect you to believe me, which is why I’m offering my solution.”

“Which is?”

“Tit for tat,” Lucius raised his eyebrows and smiled engagingly, focusing all the charm he could manage on his temporary keeper. He felt his efforts were diluted some by his horizontal position, but his charisma had used to be accounted lethal. It couldn’t hurt to try. It would be useful to know if he had any effect at all on this intransigent little near-spinster.

“What does that mean?” Hermione glared suspiciously at the lounging wizard, bellicosity the only reaction Lucius could see in her.

Well, Lucius caught back a tiny huff of annoyance before it could emerge, that wasn’t a rousing success. Lucius gauged his captor to be unimpressed with his looks and shrugged mentally. There must be something he could use or be or offer that would begin to lure her into the permanent relationship he had every intention of imposing on this woman, his woman. Better offer up my solution, then. At least I’ll enjoy that.

“I mean, dear lady, that you may strike me in the same way and in the same amount as I struck you. That would then make us even and we may go on with our affairs as compatriots again, no longer at odds. Do you agree?”

Hermione stepped back from the bed, shocked at the wizard’s proposal. A turnabout had never occurred to her. Her face went blank, but her mind was chasing the idea around like a garden gnome after a june bug. Oooh, just once she’d like to wallop him for treating her like a half-witted house elf.

Lucius kept his visage perfectly calm, but he saw the telltale expansion of her pupils in those clear brown eyes of hers. Not quite so virtuous as we had thought, are we, my dear? Lucius finally had a small piece of the hidden Hermione for his meager hoard of knowledge about the tiny termagant. There’s hope for us yet. Lucius was almost ecstatic at the unlooked for but very welcome sign that this little witch might come someday to favor some of the more ‘robust’ versions of sex he occasionally enjoyed even if her reaction tonight was more bloodthirsty than romantic.

Hermione saw Lucius’ pupils expand and she knew something was going on in his fertile brain that wasn’t coming out his mouth. “So in order for us to level the playing field again, you’re going to suck it up and take one for the team. Do I have that right?”

“Essentially, yes.”

“How many swats did you give me?”

“Why?” he asked, intrigued.

“Because that’s how many I’m going to give you. So how many?”

“Turn around and lift your geriatric nightie and I can count the welts.”

“No thank you,” Hermione said primly, the flash in her eyes rebuking him for his slur on her nightwear. She twirled her wand at him, “Turn your head away so I can check in the mirror.”

Lucius merely looked sleepy and uninterested and turned his head to the other side obediently, waiting for Hermione to determine the number of strokes he was going to get. He grinned unseen into the quilt at her instant rebuff of his offer to count her welts for her. So predictable. She could have had him slathering with unappeased lust tied helplessly to the bed, letting him count as she waved that petite butt in the air at him, but she didn’t understand her power at all. The idea of his soon-to-come chastisement at her hands had him hard with expectation. It had been a long twelve years.

tbc...

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Please review and tell me if you think Lucius is going to get a just punishment. Do you hope Hermione will go through with it? (Insert evil laugh from author here.) Review link is below. Anonymous reviews happily accepted. Sign up as Snow White or Captain Hook if you want. Any name will do. Thanks!!

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