The Snake and The Lioness

A/N: Thanks for the birthday wishes. I finally excaped my family for a few hours, so I decided to put up my next chapter. Hope you like it.


About a month later, Nina had finally gotten Adrienne to open up about what had happened between Adrienne and Lucius. It had been a long, tearful, and cheerless discussion.

Nina decided that, even if she knew Christian would disapprove, she would get Lucius and Adrienne back together. Not just for Adrienne\'s sake, but for the sake of true love. Nina was romantic that way.

Nina stood in front of Malfoy Manor. She was ushered into the house by a young witch, about her age. Maybe older. The girl was scantly dressed, making Nina wonder if this was the right thing to do.

Nina waited in the parlour for a few minutes before Lucius appeared. Nina stood up as he entered the room. He didn\'t say anything, just took a seat across from her. He seemed so cold and unfeeling, unconcerned. Nina wondered what Adrienne saw in him.

\"Mr. Malfoy, I\'m sure Adrienne told you about me. I\'m Nina Skylark.\" She said, holding her hand out for him to shake. He waved it away.

\"I\'m sure Adrienne also informed you that we are no longer associating. That means that I do not play host to her associates. State your business and leave.\" Lucius said with a harsh coldness in his voice. He was angry that he had not heard from Adrienne for over a month. Then she sends some girl to ... do whatever.

\"Well, I wanted to talk to you about Adrienne. She-\"

Lucius cut her off. \"Is this something important?\"

\"Yes. It is.\" Nina moved over to stand right in front of Lucius and looked him in the eyes. \"Look, I know you miss her. She misses you, too. Can\'t you see, it was a simple coincidence. It\'s not like she planned on hurting you. It just happened. It wasn\'t like she knew she would start having feelings for you, she was just doing her job.\"

\"That\'s the thing. She has no qualms about hurting someone.\" Lucius said, shrugging Nina\'s plea off.

\"You\'re wrong. Adrienne has never tried to hurt anyone. Are you forgeting all that she has done for you?\" Nina said. She wouldn\'t leave until she saw some sort of emotion that showed he missed Adrienne.

\"What has she done for me? All she ever did was accept gifts that I gave her because of my feelings for her. She didn\'t even have the sensibility to not accept them when she knew all of this was a sham.\" Lucius said. Nina could see his eyes flash with pain. Only for a moment. If she would have blinked she would have missed it.

\"You forgot that she went against her brother for you. And by proxy, she went against her parents and their wishes. I know Adrienne never intended that. She also used to sneak out of the house just to be with you. Why? Becuase she wanted to. If she didn\'t care about you ... the relationship ... she wouldn\'t have gone through all that trouble. And you know that.\" Nina said. A tear was traveling down her face. She really knew they wanted to be together, why was he letting something so stupid come between them? \"Just look in my eyes and tell me you think Adrienne meant to hurt you, that she doesn\'t love you. If you can do that, I\'ll leave and make sure that Adrienne never comes back to bother you.\"

Lucius looked up at her. \"Adrienne doesn\'t ... she did ... I know she ...\" Lucius stopped. He realized he couldn\'t do it. \"Okay, so I can\'t do it. Maybe she didn\'t mean to hurt me and she does love me, but it\'s the principle. Why did she wait so long to say something? Why did she wait until we got so serious before she could tell me the truth?\"

\"She didn\'t want to hurt you, okay. She didn\'t. The secret she was holding in was eating her up everyday. Everytime she was with you. She knew it would hurt you, that is why she didn\'t say anything. Look at what it\'s doing now. You\'re here ... doing whatever, but I know you are missing her. She is sitting at home ... waiting for an owl for you. She sits by that window every available moment. Waiting for you to write her. She misses you and loves you. I know your relationship is stronger than this, to let some simple coincidence part you two.\" Nina said, she sat back down in her own chair. She was shaking. This man seemed inpossible.

\"I thought our relationship was strong enough, but maybe it wasn\'t.\" Lucius said simply. \"I can\'t sit around worrying about some young witch whom of which is probably not even sure of what she wants. I have a life to lead.\"

\"But what is life without love?\" Nina countered.

\"And what is love without trust?\" Lucius chuckled. \"You can\'t have life without love, love without trust, trust without feeling, feeling without heart, heart without soul, soul with mind, mind without body. Don\'t start throwing quotes at me.\"

\"I\'m just trying to help you see that you are making a mistake. Don\'t let Adrienne pass by. She is meant for you and you for her. Just think about what I said. Please.\" Nina said, standing up again. \"Bonsoir.\"

It wasn\'t until after Nina left that Lucius let his facade fall. He sat there truly thinking about everything Nina had said. He did miss Adrienne and maybe he had been a bit rough on her, but he had been angry. Furious really.

It was hard to accept that their relationship had been a coincidence, not just a meeting of souls like he had thought. He remembered the night Adrienne left. He had seen the hurt look in her eyes when she tried to kiss him. Her eyes starting to tear up.

It hurt him to just watch her leave. The one women who had ever stirred up such strong feelings within him. It had hurt when he heard her apparate. He wanted to go after her, but pride and anger kept him from doing it.

Now he didn\'t feel pride. He didn\'t feel anger. He just felt cold. He felt foolish. Why didn\'t he see that Adrienne had only been trying to keep from hurting him? Why didn\'t he see that she had a good reason to do what she did. Obviously within the time they spent together, she had come to know him well enough to know that he would probably send her away when he found out the truth.

The young witch that let Nina into the manor came into the parlour and sat down in Lucius\' lap. \"Now that that girl is gone, we can finish where we left off.\" She giggled.

Lucius pushed her off of his lap. The girl sat on the floor in shock. What in the world was going on, she wondered. She stood up slowly.

\"Get your things and get out.\" Lucius said, pointing to the door.

\"But Lucius, you can\'t do this. You said we could spend the weekend together. I\'m not leaving until I get an explaination.\" The girl said, stamping her high heel on the hardwood floor.

\"You won\'t get anything. Don\'t make me force you out.\" Lucius said, starting to walk out of the room. \"Be gone before I return.\" With that, Lucius was gone with a loud crack.