The Seduction Game

Disclaimer: All of the Harry Potter characters and the Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling/Warnerbros. I am making no money.

Right, here we are again! :) This is sort of a turning point - following this there\'ll be just a bit of smutty goodness with Severus and Hermione, as one could only predict... :) Well, sorry it\'s been so long - here\'s the next chapter:

***
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: SEVERUS\'S REVENGE

She didn\'t look as startled as she had on her first night of encounter with Lucius Malfoy - she looked rather angry, hurt and - well - vengeful, as well as exhausted at that. She didn\'t look so much as a woman scorn as a woman desperate to seek her revenge, but seemingly too tired to do so.

Her anger, however, was nothing compared to Severus\'s.

He came to her at once, taking her shoulders into his hands in a caring way and looking into her eyes. \"Are you hurt?\"

\"My pride is, yes,\" she muttered, \"but nothing more.\"

\"I am seconds away from doing something which is sure to have me ending up in Azkaban,\" said Severus in a forced calm voice, \"but before I do, please tell me how on earth you managed to get away from him. He is a not a man easily escaped.\"

\"Cunning,\" smiled Hermione simply. \"I think your Slytherin habits are getting to me - I actually found a way of tricking him. I\'d rather not talk about it, though,\" she added hastily, and Severus thought he could guess why - he knew what sort of thing was likely to fool a man like Lucius when he was with a woman. No wonder Hermione wished to keep silent about something like THAT.

\"Will you - will you be alright?\" asked Severus, rubbing her shoulders gently. \"I should like for you to stay here while I - sort a few things out.\"

\"Don\'t, please,\" said Hermione, her head hanging slightly out of tiredness. \"Please, just forget about it... Don\'t fuss.\"

\"Don\'t fuss?\" he echoed, fighting the urge to flee the room and go straight for Lucius\'s throat. \"The man tried to rape you, Hermoine! He abused you, I am not likely to not -\"

\"I think I humiliated him quite badly,\" she smiled simply. \"I\'m hoping it\'s enough to keep him away. Please, just - I don\'t want to think about it. I\'m just... exhausted, for some queer reason.\"

\"It\'s normal,\" said Severus automatically, \"it\'s perfectly normal to be tired and shaken. But believe me, Lucius being slightly humiliated -\" She shot him a look, and he corrected himself, \"- all right then, quite badly humiliated - does not justify anything. I should very much like to deal with him, once and for all...\"

\"Please, let it go for now,\" Hermione practically moaned, her eyelids dropping slightly. She really was quite tired. \"Just... wait. Never mind for now.\"

He nodded, at last realizing how much she just needed to rest and let everything sink in. Severus didn\'t even know how far things had gotten - he wasn\'t about to ask her the worst kinds of intimate questions just yet.

Though he had quite a job fighting off his fury towards Lucius as he put a hand around Hermione\'s waist and gently moved he his his bed, helping her lie down. \"Rest,\" he ordered, one hand gently stroking her cheek.

Hermione smiled. \"Thanks,\" she whispered, her weariness very apparent now. What had she done, really, with Lucius? How bad was it?

\"Can I sleep?\" She barely whispered, but Severus heard her.

\"Of course you can,\" he said gently, one thumb stroking along her jawlike. Gods, her skin really was so soft... \"Sleep as long as you like.\"

\"Thanks,\" she muttered again, then her eyes slid shut, a slight smile almost apparent as a result of Severus\'s caress. Then slowly, he moved his hand away, worried that if he carried on she wouldn\'t exactly get much sleep... And she really needed that.

It didn\'t take her long. Within seconds, her breathing was steady and slow. Severus lingered at her side for a second, then stood from his seat on the bed. Hermione would sleep for a little while now, wouldn\'t she?

It was time to seek out an old friend.

* * *

\"Gods,\" he muttered to himself, grasping the covers of the bed with both hands. How had she managed THAT?

Lucius had underestimated her. That was it. He\'d taken her for some simple-minded, naïve young girl with no idea for cunning or planwork. He\'d clearly been wrong - she\'d twisted him around her little finger with her seductive moans and movements of pleasure, and then, when she\'d seen her opportunity - fled.

How could such a passive little Gryffindor, one of the many shadows of the great Harry Potter, have been so brilliant?

True, Severus had always spoken greatly of her intellect and mind, but it had never occurred to Lucius that her genious stretched into ways of cunning and tricking, too... She\'d actually fooled HIM, the one and only Lucius Malfoy, into believing she wanted him. Which had made him weak, so weak...

She\'d fought like a frightened kitten during their last little encounter, that really should have been the first clear sign not to trust her.

\"You stupid fool,\" Lucius muttered to himself - of course she wouldn\'t change her mind just like that! He should have realized she was trying to trick him when she started to moan, to enjoy it... It had just been too good to be true - although Lucius loved a fighting woman, being a man at the age he was made it slightly more comfortable not having to hold her down and control her constantly.

A willing woman was actually preferable now, simply because it was less exhausting. And Lucius was tired, as it were... The war being lost, Narcissa\'s death... It had all tired him - and now his weakness had been proven. He\'d actually fallen for a Mudblood\'s trickery.

\"Bloody bitch,\" he whispered to himself, staring angrily at the now closed door in front of him. Who was she to try and outsmart him? He, Lucius Malfoy, the greatest Death Eater there ever was, who\'d even managed to fool the Ministry of Magic into believing he was all good? He, who was the BEST at cunning and such mindwork?

And yet - Hermione had done it, hadn\'t she. Outsmarted him.

Gods. His desire for her - well, for women in general, really - and his tiredness had blinded him. His wish just to have her there, willing for him... When she\'d offered, he\'d blindly taken it, not even stopping to think. Stupid, STUPID man he was.

A loud bang caught his attention, and he looked up - someone had thrown the door open.

\"Ah, Severus,\" sighed Lucius, staring up at his old friend, \"I was wondering when you\'d show your face. Didn\'t take you long. Well, I didn\'t expect it to...\"

Severus looked positively furious - fuming with anger, in fact. His wand was out, and the fire in his eyes was one that Lucius hadn\'t seen since back in the days of the war. It was pure loathing, and Lucius knew only too well that the man was using every inch of self control he had not to simply attack with all means avaliable.

\"She came running straight for you, eh?\" asked Lucius.

\"Stand up like a man,\" snarled Severus, his lips barely moving.

\"Going to kill me, are you?\"

\"Stand.\" That left no room for an argument, it was frighteningly convincing. Lucius stood.

\"So. Going to kill me?\" asked Lucius calmly. He just wasn\'t in the mood for a screaming debate; he\'d just lost a rather nice opportunity for a good shag. He had every right to be in a bad mood.

\"I should think not,\" replied Severus angrily, \"seeing as how I would not like to spend the rest of my days in Azkaban.\"

\"So what is to happen here, then?\" asked Lucius. \"Are we duelling?\" He said it in a mocking voice, as though indicating that Severus would never dare challenge him to a duel.

\"What did you do to her?\" asked Severus in a simple, dangerous voice.

\"Nothing much, really,\" replied Lucius earnestly, \"I didn\'t get much of a chance. She outsmarted me. Me, Severus! Can you believe it?\" He had to laugh at that; speaking the words of his own downfall was such an embarrassment - yet, he didn\'t seem to care. Gods, he was tired, wasn\'t he? Sick of it all, really...

\"It pleases me to think you underestimated her,\" said Severus. \"All these years and you still have learned nothing... Still you think yourself so above the rest of the world that you believe no one is capable of outsmarting you.\"

\"Well, she proved me wrong, didn\'t she.\"

\"She certainly did.\"

Lucius caught Severus\'s eye for a second. \"Are you saying that\'s it, then? I mean, you\'re not going to attack me, not avenge her... Because she did her job so well you don\'t need to act?\"

Severus laughed slightly at that - an evil, bitter laugh. \"Lucius. Do you really think that highly of me? I could not care less about your damaged pride - I care about the girl\'s -\" He suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, clearly not sure of how to articulate himself.

\"Care about - the girl, quite simply. Am I right?\" smirked Lucius, correcting his ex friend\'s sentence. \"You care about Hermione, I know that... There is nothing you can hide from me, Severus, not even now... My little seduction game, the game to get Hermione into my bed... I knew you always hated it, and I knew you had your personal reasons - mind, I thought you simply desired her. But no - you CARE for her... Oh, this is so ironic! The once Death Eater, Severus Snape, in love with a Mudblood...\"

Severus raised his wand. \"Do NOT call her that,\" he warned dangerously.

Lucius simply sighed and allowed himself to sit back down on the bed. \"I suppose I shouldn\'t. You\'ll end up killing me after all, won\'t you...\"

Severus simply glared. \"What has gotten into you, Lucius? I never thought you so weak a man - just because your pride has received a bump you seem unable to even stand up and defend yourself.\"

\"That may be,\" smiled Lucius. \"What will you have me do? What will YOU do, if I stand?\"

\"It matters very little to me whether you stand or sit,\" replied Severus, \"but I should think you would later hold it against me that I would attack you unarmed and not on your feet.\"

\"How very noble of you,\" smirked Lucius. \"Your honour is that worthy of a Gryffindor, isn\'t it... The lot you hang around rub off, I had expected them to.\"

Severus gave a slight smile - n - not, Lucius suspected, at his comment, but at something going through the wizard\'s mind. Then, he spoke: \"I am going to deal with you now - you can either choose to stand and fight my attempts like a man, or you can sit back and accept them.\"

\"I have no desire to stand,\" snarled Lucius.

\"Have it your way then - the day has indeed come for the great Lucius Malfoy to show himself as the weak, helpless creature he really is.\"

Luciimplimply scowled. Then, in spite of his desire to just sit back and not care, he asked: \"Just tell me, won\'t you - what exactly are you to do? Since you will not kill me?\"

Severus sighed. \"I am going to Obliviate you.\"

Lucius laughed brutally. \"What is that for a punishment! Dear me, you ARE noble, Severus! Depriving me of the memories of my humiliation, what an awful fate indeed!\"

Severus didn\'t reply - he just stared blankly and almost apologetically into his old friend\'s eyes. And then... Lucius realized. He understood what Severus had really meant when he\'d said \"Obliviate\"...

\"No,\" whispered Lucius, panic growing in his voice, \"please, Severus, not th you you know if there is one thing I do NOT want -\"

\"I know,\" Severus cut off, raising his wand.

\"NO!\" shouted Lucius desperately, getting to his feet in an instant, his hand on the inside of his robes -

But it was all too late. Severus\'s strong and determined voice was heard already by the time Lucius\'s fingers had curled around the wand: \"Obliviate.\"

And Lucius simply fell back down onto the bed, unconscious as an effect of the strong dose of memory treatment he\'d just received. He would wake up several hours later - with no recollection whatsoever of who he was.

* * *

Severus slowly made his way back to his rooms, feeling - among other things - slightly melancholic and guilty about the whole ordeal.

He could pride himself on being a man who knew Lucius Malfoy better than most - and knowing Lucius Malfoy, there is one thing which could be considered the worst of punishments for him. Although Severus had originally intended to harm Lucius by means of violence, he had found himself unable to; the man had seemed so tired, so helpless... All because of a Gryffindor\'s cunning.

Or perhaps that was just the tip of the iceberg, really. Perhaps Lucius\'s mind had been fighting against him for years now, pulling him down, making what was left of him into a pathetic, eldering man too full of himself.

Either way, Severus was one of those in the world who knew what Lucius hond hid higher than anything: His own self. His very being, his name and his accomplishments... The very essence of Lucius Malfoy. His life\'s work.

Himself. Lucius loved knowing who he was, being who he was... Even if he indeed had grown weak and tired over the years, something which had finally been uncovered by someone as unlikely as Hermione Granger.

And so, as the ultimate punishment, Severus had both defused Lucius and avenged Hermione in one: He\'d taken away every piece of SELF Lucius had ever had.

And overall, he felt really good about it.

***
There we are! Reviews...? :) I decided Lucius probably would, deep down, be pretty weak and pathetic in the end after all he\'d been through... Though who would suspect it would be Hermione to bring it forth? ;) I\'ll get right on the next chappie, hopefully it won\'t take as long...!