Mastering Temptation

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: Friends With Questions





“So are you going to tell me what’s going on with you or not?” Draco asked from his seat on Hermione’s bed. He was reclining back against the mountain of decorative pillows twirling his wand between his fingers like a baton.





“Draco, I have no idea what you are talking about.” Hermione said, her voice muffled from the other side of the bathroom door.





“You didn’t come home the other night, I stopped by to see you and you weren’t here.” He said. “And if I’m not mistaken, that looks like a fading love bite behind your ear.”





Hermione opened the bathroom door and padded into her bedroom on bare feet. She was wearing the dress Draco had bought her for her birthday. He had seen her admiring it a couple weeks previously but she just couldn’t justify the cost of something so frivolous. She should have known it would eventually end up in her closet, Draco and Lucius both were very generous gifters when it came to her.





“I was working late, helping out with a problem student and it’s a bug bite, not a love bite.” Hermione hated having to lie to Draco, she wasn’t good at telling falsehoods, and her face always gave her away.





“Bollocks! I know a love bite when I see it, who are you seeing and why don’t you want me to know about him?” Draco asked. “You look hot in that dress by the way.”





“Thank you, could you tie the sash for me?” She turned her back towards him and answered his question while he tied the sash on her dress. “I am seeing someone but he really isn’t ready to go public yet. I hate not being able to tell you.”





Hermione stepped away from Draco once he was finished and glanced at her reflection in the mirror. The long sleeved black dress was snug in the arms and bodice with a deep purple sash that tied just under the breasts, leaving the lower half of the skirt to fall loosely to a few inches above her knees.



“Are you sure this isn’t too short?” She asked, turning around to look at the back.





“The dress is fine. You know you can tell me anything, Hermione. Are you afraid I won’t approve of him?” Draco asked, sitting down on the end of the bed beside her while she pulled her boots on.





“I know that, I would love nothing more than to tell you all about him, I just swore I wouldn’t say anything until we figure out where we are going.” She felt horrible when she looked at him because she could see that he was concerned she didn’t trust him. “Don’t look at me like that, Draco. No one knows just him and me.”





“Promise I’ll be the first?” He asked, giving her an exaggerated pout. Hermione laughed and mussed his carefully styled hair.





“I promise, Ferret.” She said. “Now, I need to do something with this mess I call hair.”





“If it were me I’d shave it, it’s hopeless you know.” Draco said, ducking when she threw a house slipper at him.





“Keep it up, Ferret.” She said, giving him a look that should have been threatening as she disappeared back into the bathroom.





“I’m only joshing you. You’re quite pretty despite that tangled nest you call hair.” He said, scooting back to resume his position reclining against the pillows. “Didn’t my dad teach you a spell to tame it?”





“Yes, I just hadn’t gotten around to doing anything with my hair yet. I would have had it done by now if a certain pain in my arse would stop bothering me.” She said, reaching for her wand.





“So this mystery man of yours, is he muggle or wizard?” Draco asked. He reached for a photograph of the two of them sitting on low bureau near her bed.





“Wizard, dating muggle men is too complicated when you are a witch.” She said, smoothing her wand over her frizzy curls and transfiguring them into big, silky ringlets.





“You are shagging him then?” He asked, opening the top drawer of the bureau just as Hermione exited the bathroom.





“None of your business…..what are you doing in my lingerie drawer?” she rushed across the room just as he was pulling out a pair of lacy underpants.





“Do you wear this stuff all the time?” He asked, blocking her from closing the drawer as he rifled through her under things.





“Draco, you pervert! Get out of my underwear drawer!” She was reaching around him in an attempt to pull the silk and lace garments from his hands as he withdrew item after item and held it up for inspection.





“I had no idea you were wearing this sort of thing under your clothes all the time!” Draco said, admiring a black lace bra. Hermione grabbed him by the back of his jacket and jerked him away from the bureau, shoving him face down on her bed and climbing up to sit in the middle of his back………









MEANWHILE DOWNSTAIRS…….







Lucius sat by himself in Hermione’s family room trying to figure out why he had allowed himself to be coerced into going out with she and Draco. He was staring at the silver device that operated her television, debating on whether or not he wanted to attempt to use it when Severus stepped through the hearth and into the room.





“You have an open connection to Hermione’s house?” Lucius asked curiously.





“I accessed it through the office; she has an open connection to work.” Severus lied. “Where are they?”







“Hermione is getting ready and her lapdog is with her.” Lucius said, rolling his eyes. Severus removed a throw pillow from a chair and sat down to wait with his friend.





“They do seem unusually close. You seem quite taken with her yourself; care to tell me how that came about?” Severus asked.





“Wasn’t like that when she first started working with Draco, she was very wary of me for a while, she didn’t trust me, with good reason of course.” Lucius said. “But gradually she began to relax and we fell into an easy friendship.”





“I didn’t think I would ever see the day that the Malfoys would become so close with a muggleborn.” Severus said, his eyes drifting towards the staircase.





“The thing is, after the war, the same people who were all too eager to befriend me in hopes of earning favor with the Dark Lord, refused to acknowledge or even consider that perhaps I had changed.” Lucius tilted his head, his expression thoughtful. “You can’t begin to imagine my surprise when I realized that a young woman who had every reason to despise both Draco and I, was the one person willing to give us a second chance.”





“So you moved her into your backyard?” Severus asked, jerking his head towards the window where the view showed the impressive manor house sitting on the hill.





“Oh, well she was living in this horrid, dingy little flat in London and she was burglarized, so Draco and I made arrangements to purchase this little house for her.” Lucius said, his face flushing only slightly.





“Purchased it or had it erected just for her?” Severus asked, one brow arched as he stared at the flustered blonde. “You really do care for her; you are quite protective of her aren’t you?”





“Alright, yes, I had this house put here for her. I am very fond of her and I am very protective of her. She has been good for and good to both Draco and I, especially Draco.” Lucius said. “Why so curious, Severus? You aren’t usually so chatty nor do you question me about my relationships with women. You seem almost…..jealous?”





“I just find the way she handles the two of you interesting is all. What is taking so long?” Severus was looking towards the stairs again





“I haven’t the foggiest…” There was a sudden crash upstairs accompanied by muffled shouts. Lucius and Severus both made their way slowly up the steps, wands drawn. The voices became clearer as they climbed.









“Give it to me, Draco!”





“Quit bouncing so hard, are you trying to break my back?”





“I’ll break more than your back…come on, give it to me!”





“Damn it woman, do you have to squeeze so hard?”











Severus and Lucius looked at each other. Lucius looked rather curious and bemused as he noticed that Severus looked rather put out. They turned the corner and stood in the doorway of her bedroom. Draco was laying face down on Hermione’s bed and she was sitting on his back, her hand gripping the back of his neck.





“Give it up, now!” She said through gritted teeth as she bounced on his back once more.





“Ok, I surrender!” Draco said, waving a black bra in the air like a flag. Hermione snatched it from his hand, and just for spite bounced on him one more time.





“Stay out of my lingerie drawer!” She said.





“Ahem.” Lucius leaned against the doorframe, enjoying the deer in the headlights look he was getting from the witch and wizard on the bed. “What is going on here?”





Hermione was staring at Severus, her heart thumping as it always did when he was close. He looked slightly angry and she wondered if he thought there was more going on with she and Draco than there was.





“Um….Mione, could you get off, love?” Draco pushed himself up and Hermione slid off of his back with a yelp and landed on the mattress.





“Draco was rifling through my lingerie drawer.” She said, getting up and shoving the garment she had just retrieved back into the drawer.





“If I hadn’t born witness to the parade of women you bring in and out of the manor, Draco, I would begin to wonder about your interest in ladies clothing.” Lucius said, shaking his head and flouncing out of the doorway.





“I’ll just go downstairs and wait with Lucius.” Severus said, casting a long, heated look in Hermione’s direction that caused her breath to hitch slightly. She exhaled long and slow through pursed lips when he disappeared back down the hall. When she looked over, Draco was staring at her, an odd smile on his face.





“What?” She asked, scooting off of the bed and smoothing her dress.





“Nothing. We should get going before we’re late for dinner.” He said, offering her his arm and escorting her downstairs where Lucius and Severus were waiting.











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I know, I know, it took me forever to update this time……but here it is, the prelude to the night out with her dark wizards…..enjoy.