Prisoners of Love - A Mystery - COMPLETE
folder
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Lucius/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
41
Views:
76,178
Reviews:
999
Recommended:
2
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Lucius/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
41
Views:
76,178
Reviews:
999
Recommended:
2
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Isolation
_______________________________________________________________
Updated 8-28-07
Such a range of reviews this time! There seems to be an interest in smut! YOU:
Love the Harry-Ginny smut.
Hate the Harry-Ginny smut.
Wish it were Lucius-Hermione smut (don't we all?)
And a few hoping for Snape smut.
To sort this out:
1) No more Harry-Ginny smut
2) Lucius-Hermione smut - later, not now
3) For Snape smut, you'll need to visit the Snape sections of AFF or read my other story, "The Wedding". He's an important character, but we won't be visiting his bedroom. Awww.
Moving on...
_______________________________________________________________
Chapter Fifteen
Isolation
A month later Lucius came awake again, sweating under his thin blanket. He sat up and scrubbed his unshaven chin, dragging his fingers through the snarls he hadn’t bothered to comb out for several days. When was she going to leave him alone? He was alone in his dreary cold cell, so alone he was having trouble sleeping without her, didn’t feel like eating the unpalatable food, heard the echoes of her laughter taunting him for his persnickety ways and he couldn’t seem to get past the loss of her presence - now he wasn’t even able to care about his appearance or his exercising. And his damned headache had come back.
He knew he needed to get a grip on himself, needed to halt this downward spiral that was fast sucking the interest out of his every attempt to function. He groaned, burying his face in his hands. She wasn’t worth it. Why couldn’t he make himself believe that? If he couldn’t make himself believe it, his mental connection with her would never fade and he’d be tortured like this for the rest of his incarceration. He’d never make it.
Snape had been to visit Lucius at the prison three days before and had been appalled at the blond wizard’s lack of care for himself. The only lifeline apparently keeping the blond wizard lucid was his continued business dealings on behalf of his alma mater. Lucius continued to direct the school’s finances because he couldn’t let Hogwarts down and that buoyed him up just enough to keep him eating a little. Snape knew he needed to get Lucius out of the prison or get Hermione in to see her husband, but her written applications for a visitor’s permit had come back stamped denied each time she attempted to gain access to her husband. Even Lucius’ solicitor had had a go at it, but the prison rules held firm against Hermione’s repeated tries at visiting her mate.
And oddly, Lucius didn’t want to talk about his wife or see her. He got testy whenever Snape tried to send him messages from Hermione. Snape now wasn’t allowed to pass any written messages to Lucius in the visitor’s room, only the Daily Prophet, which the prison officials considered acceptable. However, now the guards were checking the newspaper before handing it to Lucius and they had never done that before. But Lucius was also closing his mind to Snape’s repeated attempts to communicate Hermione’s concerns through legilimency as well as verbally. Snape’s few attempts at sub rosa legilimency were met with truculent defeat too.
After two such abortive sessions with the recalcitrant wizard, Snape began to suspect Lucius was being somehow deliberately isolated and worn down mentally, but he couldn’t see a reason why, who, or how it was done, if they were continuing to let him in to see the wizard. There were nearly fifty guards throughout the prison, and any of them could be affecting the wealthy wizard’s existence when Snape wasn’t around.
Snape passed along the important business messages through the dummy parts of the financial section of the paper, which the guards would never catch and their business correspondence continued through the clandestine owls and Otto, but Lucius had cautioned Snape not to bother him with unwanted messages from Hermione. Snape reluctantly began to believe perhaps Lucius truly wanted to be shut of his wife. But why? Lucius was looking more and more brittle each time Snape visited and so he made many more visits than he otherwise would have, trying to provide a source of outside connection for the blond wizard to focus on in his extremity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lucius sat in his cell reproaching himself for his weakness. He knew it had been too good to be true. Just accept it you fool, he disciplined himself. Hermione is several decades younger than you - why should she want to remain tied to you when there’s a world full of younger men available, all of whom she seems to have found already? That Potter brat had probably been pouring poison in her ear, influencing her to dump him, while he sat rotting in his cell.
Lucius didn’t want to hear that she wanted out of the marriage. He wouldn’t last a sennight if Snape delivered that message so he just didn’t listen when Snape tried to talk to him about his wife. He had to overcome this dangerous heartache and his mind bridge first, get stronger, and then excise her from his mind, his soul. He could do it. He WOULD do it. Her power over him was frightening and he needed to tear her ascendancy over him out by its roots. Lucius lay back down, staring grimly up at the dark gray sky visible from his high window, wondering who she was out with tonight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, Hermione was discovering a problem of her own.
Hermione morosely remembered that she should have made the leap of understanding when she’d seen that she could dry her hair in the small apartment with no trouble. The dampening wards for the prison hadn’t extended to that section of the compound; that apparently had also meant that neither had the contraceptive protection. She hadn’t made that leap of logic and now her life was changing again. In a matter of months she would be a mother.
The idea of a baby with Lucius elated her, but she was less certain of Lucius’ attitude since he, like she, had thought himself protected from contraception occurring and had taken no other precautions. She was well aware that he’d still been a little bothered about their Pureblood-Muggleborn marriage, but had thought he would have over four years to get used to the idea. Now that it was quite possible he would be released soon and she was free too, she didn’t know quite how he’d react. His choice on whether or not to dilute his bloodline had been taken from him and she knew that was an important part of his ego.
Hermione had never heard of the phenomenon of acute mental bonding, so she was quite unaware of exactly how much connection she now shared with Lucius – tendrils of their minds had actually bridged their physical bodies and woven together; physical proximity and touching enhanced the link while distance tugged and tore at the mental nexus, creating stress and increasing misery for both partners. It wasn’t lethal, but distance created a terrible strain for both parties until with time it finally receded enough to be ignored. In some cases it could be broken, but more often it never quite dissipated completely.
Hermione only knew it felt as though she had a hollow place tugging at her mind constantly, a nagging, forlorn emptiness that made her increasingly sad and gave her headaches if she focused on it too much. She had labeled it simple heartache, missing her husband. Her two saving graces were the appeal she worked ceaselessly on, and the necessity to care for herself because of the baby.
It was very strange and frightening to Hermione that Severus had said Lucius refused to talk about her or receive her messages to him. She had run to Snape and told him about the inventory of toilet paper and other supplies that the Warden had said should have been in all the prisoners’ cells, but neither she nor Lucius had received any of those listed supplies at all. The theft of her Ministry supplies inventory and her whirlwind incarceration in Azkaban made a bit more sense now.
Snape said he had uncovered very little more so far. There was definite pilfering going on, but Hermione didn’t know the scope of it, nor could she now prove anything with all the records gone. She had no access to all the cells in Azkaban – maybe Lucius had been singled out for ill-treatment. He wasn’t the most lovable wizard in the British magic community. But she missed him so much she nearly felt ill with it.
No matter what she’d tried, she couldn’t get in to visit him and that worried her even more. Was he actually blocking her visits? She knew how she’d felt at being separated from him, but she had a part of him nestled within her and that helped diminish the constant internal keening assailing her at the continued absence of her spouse. Lucius didn’t have that bit of security to hang onto. Was he rethinking her place in his life? Was his distaste for her Muggle blood going to triumph over what they had discovered in that cell? That worried and picked at her confidence incessantly, making her doubt her assumption of the secure place she had in his heart.
She had believed with all her heart that he loved her, even if he hadn’t said it to her. They’d been playing an amusing, taunting game of denying each other those three words in their first days of marriage, each trying to outwait the other, but they’d both known what they were doing and it had been merely having fun, their cat and mouse game of postponing what each of them wanted to hear from the other first. Then Harry had come and it was too late. She’d managed to whisper to Lucius what had been in her heart, but she knew Lucius wouldn’t say anything to her in front of Harry. His feelings weren’t fodder for Potter’s scorn.
Now he was completely cut off from her. If Snape couldn’t get the stubborn sorcerer to listen, no one could. She had to wait either until he won his appeal and was released or she could find a way back into Azkaban to see him. Hermione had begun making inquiries into living at Azkaban with an inmate. She had needed to know all the possible ways to be with Lucius if his appeal went sour, but that possibility was lost now with her new responsibility.
Snape certainly didn’t feel it was his place now to explain to Hermione about her added tenuous mental connection to Lucius, if Lucius was going to try to break the link and it sounded as though he wanted to. The Headmaster’s repeated attempts to get through to Lucius with messages from Hermione had met with resounding defeat. So be it! The mental bonding wasn’t so necessary or life-threatening that it couldn’t be mostly dissolved if the partners both wanted the bond to break, so Snape decided to leave himself out of their intimate relationship. He was no cupid. He’d done what he could.
tbc...
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
So - a glimpse of how Lucius is faring in prison - and Hermione has another added task now. Snape has discreetly decided to stay out of the intricacies of Lucius' and Hermione's marriage, beyond trying his best to keep the blond wizard alive. Twists and turns.
The marriage made in prison is getting jolted. What will happen next? Will lots of reviews save this couple's wedded bliss? Oh, I hope so. 8-)
.
.
Updated 8-28-07
Such a range of reviews this time! There seems to be an interest in smut! YOU:
Love the Harry-Ginny smut.
Hate the Harry-Ginny smut.
Wish it were Lucius-Hermione smut (don't we all?)
And a few hoping for Snape smut.
To sort this out:
1) No more Harry-Ginny smut
2) Lucius-Hermione smut - later, not now
3) For Snape smut, you'll need to visit the Snape sections of AFF or read my other story, "The Wedding". He's an important character, but we won't be visiting his bedroom. Awww.
Moving on...
_______________________________________________________________
Chapter Fifteen
Isolation
A month later Lucius came awake again, sweating under his thin blanket. He sat up and scrubbed his unshaven chin, dragging his fingers through the snarls he hadn’t bothered to comb out for several days. When was she going to leave him alone? He was alone in his dreary cold cell, so alone he was having trouble sleeping without her, didn’t feel like eating the unpalatable food, heard the echoes of her laughter taunting him for his persnickety ways and he couldn’t seem to get past the loss of her presence - now he wasn’t even able to care about his appearance or his exercising. And his damned headache had come back.
He knew he needed to get a grip on himself, needed to halt this downward spiral that was fast sucking the interest out of his every attempt to function. He groaned, burying his face in his hands. She wasn’t worth it. Why couldn’t he make himself believe that? If he couldn’t make himself believe it, his mental connection with her would never fade and he’d be tortured like this for the rest of his incarceration. He’d never make it.
Snape had been to visit Lucius at the prison three days before and had been appalled at the blond wizard’s lack of care for himself. The only lifeline apparently keeping the blond wizard lucid was his continued business dealings on behalf of his alma mater. Lucius continued to direct the school’s finances because he couldn’t let Hogwarts down and that buoyed him up just enough to keep him eating a little. Snape knew he needed to get Lucius out of the prison or get Hermione in to see her husband, but her written applications for a visitor’s permit had come back stamped denied each time she attempted to gain access to her husband. Even Lucius’ solicitor had had a go at it, but the prison rules held firm against Hermione’s repeated tries at visiting her mate.
And oddly, Lucius didn’t want to talk about his wife or see her. He got testy whenever Snape tried to send him messages from Hermione. Snape now wasn’t allowed to pass any written messages to Lucius in the visitor’s room, only the Daily Prophet, which the prison officials considered acceptable. However, now the guards were checking the newspaper before handing it to Lucius and they had never done that before. But Lucius was also closing his mind to Snape’s repeated attempts to communicate Hermione’s concerns through legilimency as well as verbally. Snape’s few attempts at sub rosa legilimency were met with truculent defeat too.
After two such abortive sessions with the recalcitrant wizard, Snape began to suspect Lucius was being somehow deliberately isolated and worn down mentally, but he couldn’t see a reason why, who, or how it was done, if they were continuing to let him in to see the wizard. There were nearly fifty guards throughout the prison, and any of them could be affecting the wealthy wizard’s existence when Snape wasn’t around.
Snape passed along the important business messages through the dummy parts of the financial section of the paper, which the guards would never catch and their business correspondence continued through the clandestine owls and Otto, but Lucius had cautioned Snape not to bother him with unwanted messages from Hermione. Snape reluctantly began to believe perhaps Lucius truly wanted to be shut of his wife. But why? Lucius was looking more and more brittle each time Snape visited and so he made many more visits than he otherwise would have, trying to provide a source of outside connection for the blond wizard to focus on in his extremity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lucius sat in his cell reproaching himself for his weakness. He knew it had been too good to be true. Just accept it you fool, he disciplined himself. Hermione is several decades younger than you - why should she want to remain tied to you when there’s a world full of younger men available, all of whom she seems to have found already? That Potter brat had probably been pouring poison in her ear, influencing her to dump him, while he sat rotting in his cell.
Lucius didn’t want to hear that she wanted out of the marriage. He wouldn’t last a sennight if Snape delivered that message so he just didn’t listen when Snape tried to talk to him about his wife. He had to overcome this dangerous heartache and his mind bridge first, get stronger, and then excise her from his mind, his soul. He could do it. He WOULD do it. Her power over him was frightening and he needed to tear her ascendancy over him out by its roots. Lucius lay back down, staring grimly up at the dark gray sky visible from his high window, wondering who she was out with tonight.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile, Hermione was discovering a problem of her own.
Hermione morosely remembered that she should have made the leap of understanding when she’d seen that she could dry her hair in the small apartment with no trouble. The dampening wards for the prison hadn’t extended to that section of the compound; that apparently had also meant that neither had the contraceptive protection. She hadn’t made that leap of logic and now her life was changing again. In a matter of months she would be a mother.
The idea of a baby with Lucius elated her, but she was less certain of Lucius’ attitude since he, like she, had thought himself protected from contraception occurring and had taken no other precautions. She was well aware that he’d still been a little bothered about their Pureblood-Muggleborn marriage, but had thought he would have over four years to get used to the idea. Now that it was quite possible he would be released soon and she was free too, she didn’t know quite how he’d react. His choice on whether or not to dilute his bloodline had been taken from him and she knew that was an important part of his ego.
Hermione had never heard of the phenomenon of acute mental bonding, so she was quite unaware of exactly how much connection she now shared with Lucius – tendrils of their minds had actually bridged their physical bodies and woven together; physical proximity and touching enhanced the link while distance tugged and tore at the mental nexus, creating stress and increasing misery for both partners. It wasn’t lethal, but distance created a terrible strain for both parties until with time it finally receded enough to be ignored. In some cases it could be broken, but more often it never quite dissipated completely.
Hermione only knew it felt as though she had a hollow place tugging at her mind constantly, a nagging, forlorn emptiness that made her increasingly sad and gave her headaches if she focused on it too much. She had labeled it simple heartache, missing her husband. Her two saving graces were the appeal she worked ceaselessly on, and the necessity to care for herself because of the baby.
It was very strange and frightening to Hermione that Severus had said Lucius refused to talk about her or receive her messages to him. She had run to Snape and told him about the inventory of toilet paper and other supplies that the Warden had said should have been in all the prisoners’ cells, but neither she nor Lucius had received any of those listed supplies at all. The theft of her Ministry supplies inventory and her whirlwind incarceration in Azkaban made a bit more sense now.
Snape said he had uncovered very little more so far. There was definite pilfering going on, but Hermione didn’t know the scope of it, nor could she now prove anything with all the records gone. She had no access to all the cells in Azkaban – maybe Lucius had been singled out for ill-treatment. He wasn’t the most lovable wizard in the British magic community. But she missed him so much she nearly felt ill with it.
No matter what she’d tried, she couldn’t get in to visit him and that worried her even more. Was he actually blocking her visits? She knew how she’d felt at being separated from him, but she had a part of him nestled within her and that helped diminish the constant internal keening assailing her at the continued absence of her spouse. Lucius didn’t have that bit of security to hang onto. Was he rethinking her place in his life? Was his distaste for her Muggle blood going to triumph over what they had discovered in that cell? That worried and picked at her confidence incessantly, making her doubt her assumption of the secure place she had in his heart.
She had believed with all her heart that he loved her, even if he hadn’t said it to her. They’d been playing an amusing, taunting game of denying each other those three words in their first days of marriage, each trying to outwait the other, but they’d both known what they were doing and it had been merely having fun, their cat and mouse game of postponing what each of them wanted to hear from the other first. Then Harry had come and it was too late. She’d managed to whisper to Lucius what had been in her heart, but she knew Lucius wouldn’t say anything to her in front of Harry. His feelings weren’t fodder for Potter’s scorn.
Now he was completely cut off from her. If Snape couldn’t get the stubborn sorcerer to listen, no one could. She had to wait either until he won his appeal and was released or she could find a way back into Azkaban to see him. Hermione had begun making inquiries into living at Azkaban with an inmate. She had needed to know all the possible ways to be with Lucius if his appeal went sour, but that possibility was lost now with her new responsibility.
Snape certainly didn’t feel it was his place now to explain to Hermione about her added tenuous mental connection to Lucius, if Lucius was going to try to break the link and it sounded as though he wanted to. The Headmaster’s repeated attempts to get through to Lucius with messages from Hermione had met with resounding defeat. So be it! The mental bonding wasn’t so necessary or life-threatening that it couldn’t be mostly dissolved if the partners both wanted the bond to break, so Snape decided to leave himself out of their intimate relationship. He was no cupid. He’d done what he could.
tbc...
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
So - a glimpse of how Lucius is faring in prison - and Hermione has another added task now. Snape has discreetly decided to stay out of the intricacies of Lucius' and Hermione's marriage, beyond trying his best to keep the blond wizard alive. Twists and turns.
The marriage made in prison is getting jolted. What will happen next? Will lots of reviews save this couple's wedded bliss? Oh, I hope so. 8-)
.
.