A Muddy Secret

Lovely Reviewers:

HermioneMalfoyFan - Severus is a character I do not picture as getting many hugs. It was shock as much as anything else. COZY COZY COZY! But for how long? *witchy cackle*

Voracious_Reader - It just keeps buildin' doesn't it? At least, I hope it does.

andarte - Wait! WAit! WAIt! WAIT! no more.

LadyVoldemort87 - *tutting* Poor Lucius. I do so love him, as do we all. LONG LIVE LUCIUS! *toasts with glass of milk* ALL HAIL LUCIUS! *drinks deeply from glass of milk* (I am rather perky today. It's a little scary. Even for me! AND I AM ME! At least I think so.)

Heidi191976 - Waiting is such a trial, isn't it?

LaBibliographe - She knows Lucius is a death eater, that is not in dispute. But I just think that it left her mind the more she got to know him. Things are not always as they seem. About the LM/HG comment. I mean comparatively they are difficult to come by whn one looks at the numbers of Snape/Hermione and Draco/Hermione. Lumione is a small community. *sobs* We need to convert people!

Utopia - Before I looked it up, I though Andromeda was the youngest. Draco is sexy. Sorry 'bout that.

If Dumbles didn't hire Voldie for being competition for the most outrageously dressed wizard at Hogwarts, how would you explain Lockhart? He would be competition for the wierdest words stated to the student body as well as outrageously dressed. He wears "lurid pink robes" and suggests students ask Professor Snape "how to whip up a love potion" (CS 13). And my dear Snapeykins (who's alive) would have force-fed the students poison if they asked. I think that blows "Nitwit! Oddment! Blubber! Tweak!" (PS 7) out of the water.

Don't you love Slytherins? I'm one!

Schools in the US were much the same at that time, corporal punishment and all. Filch would suspend students by their thumbs in the dungeons. *chortles about Filch* My teachers saw how other students treated me and turned the same blind eye to it that Dumbledore does to the marauders. I told my parents what was happening, and they didn't help either (their own kid). It happens every day. For whatever reason it happens, it happens. And it happens even and (I would say) especially when people know. And I am sure that Dumbledore and other teachers knew what was going on. All I can say is that you would be surprised by what people allow. I understand the frustration with it all having been in Snape's position with only my brainpower. I wish I could tell you that real schools were better than that, but deep down they aren't. I like how Rowling portrayed teh situation, even though the situation is utterly deplorable. I do not like that they (the marauders) were portrayed as good guys.

meankitty69 - READ READ READ!

Linneh - *bows*

Byrony - CISSA CISSA CISSA! Who knows how I AS THE AUTHOR will deal with it? Oh wait, teehee, I do! The message at the bottom will leave instructions for how you to can join the loop!

Citten - I always saw Severus and Lucius as great friends. The wait might be getting longer between chapters, sad to say. I might be getting a job, a real job. I might be able to get a job working in the ecology lab on campus, though I doubt it. I have a feeling it will go to other students. It makes me sad though. Because it would be perfect. I would be assisting the professors with their research which is really cool!

Lauriurix - Yes, you get more!

Anon - *bows*

Avanell - *bows*

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I should let y'all know. I have been developing hand problems where one hand spasms or goes numb for hours. Yesterday, my half of my left forarm and hand was numb for over two hours. I can't do too much typing when that occurs. *frowns darkly* It's screwing up right now too, so I am typing one handed! It takes a long time to type anything when it's this way. I tend to type as much as I can as quickly as I can. I am trying to stay positive about it and avoid doctors.

Anyway the next chapter is here. Read on, and review.

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Hermione didn’t wake until nearly half past noon. She sighed still tired from the stress of the previous night. Something warm was under her cheek, and a soft thumping was in her ear. She closed her eyes again and snuggled closer. Her pillow moved up and down slowly as if breathing, and Hermione wrapped an arm around it to make it be still so she could rest.

“Hermione,” she heard a soft voice say.

Hermione’s eyes shot open. She jerked up remembering that she was supposed to be watching over Lucius.

“Lucius, are you alright?”

“I think so, but I am not fully certain how I arrived here,” Lucius said. “Not that I’m complaining. Waking up with a gorgeous girl is a definite plus from the last thing I remember.”

“What do you last remember?” Hermione asked, picking up her wand and waving it over Lucius slowly to check his vitals.

“I was in a clearing and there were—” Lucius stopped quickly. “I don’t remember anything after that.”

Lucius looked away from her.

“How did you find me?” Lucius asked, hoping that she wasn’t suspicious of him.

Hermione told him the story of how she cursed a blonde man with a beard who claimed to be his father, how the man had been appeared holding Lucius in his arms with tears in his eyes, and how she and Severus took care of him at the request of not going to the infirmary.

Lucius’ eyes warmed as she told him about taking care of him as suddenly as they had chilled at the description of his father.

“Did your father do this to you, Lucius?”

Lucius snorted. “My father barely looks at me; I hardly think him capable of performing the cruciatus on me.”

“Who did?”

“I don’t know,” Lucius said, looking down at the sleeve covering his left forearm. He tucked it under the sheets and pulled the covers up around him tightly and shivered.

“They won’t do it again,” Hermione said, draping her arms around him. “Not while I’m alive and able to stop it.”

Lucius choked a bit as magic swirled about them and an oath took hold.

“No, don’t say that,” Lucius whispered, lifting his right hand up to rest in the crook of her elbow.

“What’s done is done,” Hermione said.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

“Hermione, let me in! It’s Severus, and it's two in the afternoon.”

Hermione rose to her feet and unlocked the door with a spell. She opened the door, and Severus came in panting and looking a bit flushed in the cheeks.

“Headmaster Dumbledore has requested that you and Lucius report to his office.”

“What for?” Hermione asked as she glanced at the bed where Lucius had straightened up.

“He wouldn’t tell me,” Severus said snippily as he crossed his arms and looked at the pair through a curtain of greasy black locks.

“I’ll go and get dressed then, shall I?” said Lucius, sliding out of the bed and standing tall.

Hermione nodded.

“I’ll go with you Lucius,” Severus said firmly, letting Lucius know that there would be no bullying him out of it.

Lucius walked around the bed only stopping once for a moment to steady himself by holding onto the bed post.

Hermione moved to him, but he held up a hand to stop her.

“My pride is in shambles right now. Please let me do this on my own.”

Hermione withdrew her hands and watched him exit the room carefully with Severus trailing him. She shut the door and dressed quickly wondering what the headmaster could want with both Lucius and her.

She stood tapping her foot in the common room while waiting for Lucius to come. He arrived seconds later looking healthy as ever.

“What got in you?” Hermione whispered to him as they walked out into the dungeon corridor.

“Invigoration Draught. I always keep it on hand in my potions’ cupboard,” Lucius responded as they walked up the stairs toward the gargoyle on the second floor.

“Licorice Wand,” Lucius said to the gargoyle, and it leapt aside.

“What do you think the headmaster wants with us?”

“I haven’t a clue.”

The door was open when they reached the top, and Dumbledore was sitting at the desk waiting for them. He smiled at them though there was no twinkle in his blue eyes.

“Headmaster,” Lucius greeted with a nod of his head as he took a seat.

Hermione took the chair next to him, the same that she had been in at her meeting with the headmaster almost two months ago.

“Why have you called us both here, Headmaster?” Hermione asked. “Are we in trouble?”

“Is there anything either of you want to tell me?” Dumbledore asked, peering over the tops of his half-moon glasses at him.

Both of them shook their heads gazing steadily into the blue eyes.

“I called you both here because there is something that I need your help with. Are you willing to help me? It will require the both of you.”

Hermione started to say that they would do anything to help him, but Lucius spoke faster.

“What kind of help?”

“I am in the middle of doing some research, and I was hoping you would go and speak to someone for me.”

“Who?” Lucius asked firmly as his eyes narrowed.

“Lady Nimue,” he responded, lacing his fingers together.

“Nimue,” Hermione broke into the conversation.

“Is there a reason why you won’t go and see her yourself?” Lucius asked, glowering at the old man as he leaned back and examined his nails in disinterest.

“Matters at school are pressing at the moment,” Dumbledore answered tapping is fingers together.

“Yet, you have time to do whatever research you are doing,” Lucius said, staring at the various spinning and whirring objects on the table to his left.

“She was displeased with me last time.”

“What do you need us to go to this witch for?” Hermione tried to break into the conversation.

“So, she hexed you. What’d you do?” Lucius asked with a broad smirk as he leveled cold grey eyes on the man.

“Nothing I will discuss with you, Mr. Malfoy,” the headmaster said, shifting in his chair and looking away from the teens.

“I don’t know if I feel like going,” Lucius drawled as he slumped back in the comfortable chair to make a point to the old man.

“What do you need from this witch?” Hermione asked.

“Something to help those to the future.”

Lucius straightened and looked at Dumbledore. What the hell did that mean?

“Lucius, we should do this to help the headmaster,” Hermione said, touching his arm lightly.

“Hermione, I think we should know why he won’t go himself,” Lucius said before grinning as the freshly caught Cornish pixies did when they grabbed Neville Longbottom and lifted him by his ears, “to see his grandmother.”

“You want us to go and see your grandmother?” Hermione asked, looking incredulous.

The woman had to be ancient.

“Why don’t you want to go and see our grandmother, Mr. Malfoy?”

“I never said I didn’t,” Lucius said calmly. “I said I didn’t know if I felt like it.”

Lucius was smirking widely as the older man’s eyes darkened a bit.

“Wait, you two have the same grandmother,” Hermione asked, and her jaw dropped.

“Yes,” Dumbledore responded not taking his eyes from Lucius and choosing not to further elaborate about the woman.

“I would like to hear why you won’t go to see that serpentine witch,” Lucius said.

“Maybe I should tell her what you said,” Dumbledore said thoughtfully waving Fawkes over to him.

“Then maybe you’ll be stuck forever in your “research.” It’s not like Aberforth will help you. No secret he hates you, but it is a “family” secret as to why.”

“Lucius,” Hermione pleaded. “We should help the headmaster.”

“Why? He won’t tell me the tiny thing I want to know.”

“You’ll get out of school for a little while, and I will personally excuse you from the course work.”

“So then I can be less prepared for the NEWTs. That’s a bad idea,” Lucius said, licking his lips and leaning forward to better examine the shrewd old man behind the desk.

“Lucius, the headmaster has a right to privacy,” Hermione tried to reason.

“I’m his cousin, in a far off kind of way,” Lucius said, smirking widely as he noticed the headmaster’s discomfort. “So we’re family. Families don’t keep secrets.”

“I made you headboy.”

“I earned that the five years before you became headmaster as much as the one you were! Besides you aren’t really into nepotism, are you?”

“Lucius.”

“Albus,” Lucius answered brushing imaginary dust off of his fingernails.

“Everything will be explained to you at the proper time.”

“I want to know now,” Lucius drawled, quirking a lip up.

“Miss Granger, would you give Mr. Malfoy a moment alone to discuss a private family matter?”

Hermione stood, “I’ll wait at the bottom of the stairs.”

“Thank you.”

Hermione heard raised voices as she descended. She turned and looked up the stairs wanting to go and listen at the door, but she knew Dumbledore would know if she did that.

Hermione paced outside the gargoyle for more than half an hour before Lucius arrived at the bottom of the steps with a satisfied and somewhat bewildered expression on his face.

Headmaster Dumbledore arrived moments later with a grim expression on his face.

“Lucius has decided to take you to the lake.”

“Where are we going?”

“We,” Lucius emphasized, “are going directly to the lake at the center of the Forest of Dean.”

“The Forest of Dean?”

“Yes,” Lucius responded. “We ought to pack immediately. We will floo from Hogsmeade to a small inn at the edge before we proceed into it. It is only possible to reach the lake on foot. I recommend that we pack a little bit of food. It can be tricky to get there if Grandmother Nimue is in one of her 'playful' moods.”

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It just keeps goin' on. You wannna know whacha you gotta do?
Just keep reviewing! Just keep reviewing! Just keep reviewing! REVIEWING REVIEWING! What do we do? We review-view-view!

I am almost disturbingly upbeat today.
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