Adventurous Hearts Part III: Merlin's Tomb

Chapter 15: Closure







Claire was watching Hermione as she supervised the last of the artifacts being removed from the tomb. It had been a bit of a disappointment when they hadn’t found the remains of the great wizard, but it opened up a whole new discussion about what exactly had happened to the elders of the magical world, where had they gone? Was there another realm where the most powerful of magical folk went at the end of their lives on earth?





Hermione clutched her coat more tightly around her, yawning a bit as she still hadn’t completely regained the energy levels she had maintained before the accident. She had been avoiding Lucius over the previous weeks as she finished up the excavation of Merlin’s tomb. It was bittersweet for her as it would be her final project for a while. In the fall she would be taking Severus up on his offer of a job and she would design and implement a new area of study at Hogwarts for seventh year students.





It would be a combination of the history of magic and cursed artifacts, the stories behind the legends and the items that survived them. Severus assured her that dealing with students at Hogwarts would be plenty adventurous. She was still maintaining a freelance position with the Ministry, hiring out her skills during the summer months to fulfill her need for discovery, for the rush of the find.





She had almost gotten things settled enough to surprise Lucius with her decision. She wasn’t certain that he would be receptive to her compromise as he did seem to want her to quit completely. Maybe a little time away from her had a changed his mind. She hoped it had at any rate. She missed him terribly and was eager to see him again, talk to him, and touch him.





A small smile graced her lips at the thought of him. Claire of course recognized that smile. She found it rather interesting and almost sweet, if one could apply the term sweet to Dr. Granger. She had softened a little bit since she had fallen in love with, Mr. Malfoy. Claire couldn’t blame her for succumbing. Lucius Malfoy was a man of fantasies; he had starred in more than a few of hers. His son wasn’t half bad either, though he had a bit of a reputation as a ladies man.





Claire sighed, sitting up straight when Dr. Granger turned to look in her direction.





“Everything alright, Claire?” She asked.







“Everything is fine, Dr. Granger.” She answered.







“Very good, I am going to go inside and begin the final documentation before the closing of the tomb.” She said, happy for the excuse to get off of her feet for a bit.







“Of course, I will supervise the removal of goods.” Claire said smiling. Hermione walked past her and laid her hand on her assistant’s shoulder.







“Thank you, Claire.” She said softly before walking up the hill towards the tent that served as her office on site.





Claire watched carefully as the workers packed and carried several crates from within the tomb to load onto the backs of thestral drawn carriages to be delivered to the ministry. She caught the flutter of royal blue in her peripherals and turned her head to see a tall, striking blond man wrapped in blue wool coming towards her.







“Mr. Malfoy!” She smiled brightly, unable to control her response to the man. She wondered how many women had that reaction to him.







“Ah, hello Claire.” Lucius said. “Is Hermione around?”







He had been dreadfully unhappy since he had left her in Severus’s care a few weeks previously. He had held on to some hope that she would suddenly decide that she was content to be a lady of leisure. It was only a miniscule sliver of hope, but he could be rather stubborn when he had his mind set. It had taken some unfortunate ribbing from Draco to finally convince him to bend and go see her, to work things out.







“Dr. Granger is finishing up the project paperwork, she’s inside the tent.” Claire pointed to the tent at the top of the hill.







“Thank you very much.” He said, bowing slightly. She smiled and Lucius thought she might be kind of pretty if it weren’t for the fluffy hair and enormous spectacles. She giggled, an odd tittering noise that ruined the thought and had Lucius frowning at her in his usual manner before he turned on his heel and marched up the hill.







He stopped outside the entrance and took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure what his reception would be and he was rather nervous. With his shoulders back and his head held high he parted the flaps and stepped inside. She was sitting at a small table bent over a stack of parchments with a quill tucked behind her ear. Her bottom lip was pulled between her teeth as she focused on the documents before her.







“Did you need me for something?” She asked.







“I always need you, my darling.” He said. She looked up clearly surprised to see him standing there. For a moment it looked as though she may throw him out, but then her features softened and she almost smiled.







“Lucius, what brings you here?” She asked, trying not to betray her excitement at seeing him with the quavering of her voice. He began tugging off his leather gloves, his silver eyes locked on her.







“You of course.” He said. “I kept thinking you would come back to the house so that we could talk once your temper cooled.”







“Perhaps it hasn’t cooled yet.” She couldn’t help but watch him as he shed his cloak and hat, tossing them onto the chair behind him. He smoothed his hair with his hands and tossed it back over his shoulder. He looked amazing in his royal blue robes and trousers with the blue and gold waistcoat.







“Then feel free to pummel me verbally for being an idiot. I certainly deserve it.” He said. She caught her breath, holding it as she tried to process his words.







“You deserve it do you?”







“I do. I crossed a line by trying to force you to do something instead of talking to you about my concerns. For that I will apologize.” He said as he came to stand across the table from her. “However, I will not apologize for wanting to take care of you, for loving you.”







“I wouldn’t want you to apologize for that.” She said quietly, not quite believing that Lucius Malfoy was humbling himself before her, admitting he was wrong.







“Are you really still in a snit?” He asked.







“Why? Are you going to say something to make it worse?” She asked. “Did you come to make more demands?”







“No, but I came with a request.” He said softly.







“Oh? Does it involve my job?”







“No. It does involve your future though.” He said.







“My future?” Hermione was intrigued as she pushed her chair back and stood, coming around the table to stand in front of him.





“And mine.” He said, reaching into his pocket. When he withdrew his hand his pinky finger was encircled by a platinum band set with a perfectly cut pear shaped diamond. Hermione gasped and took a step back, her eyes wide and glistening as she stared at the ring.





“Lucius?” He stepped close to her; his cheeks were flushed as he looked into her eyes.







“Hermione, I know that you never imagined that you and I would fall in love. No one could have pictured this scenario for us. I have not led the most admirable of lives. I was a death eater, a bigot and a lousy father. I am divorced, a convicted criminal and am currently on parole. I am stubborn, controlling and spoiled, though prison did temper that a bit. I am jealous, possessive and I will no doubt drive you to anger again and again. But I love you. I love every thing about you, the fact that you are brilliant, that you can forgive even the most horrible pasts, that you can laugh, love and enjoy life so fully. I love that you don’t give a damn about propriety, that you goad me and taunt me with your foul language though I must admit that it turns me on just a little.” He said smiling.







“Is there anything you don’t love?” She croaked, making jokes as her nerves began to get the better of her.







“Well…I can’t say that I love how you flee to Severus every time I upset you, but I know he is your family so I can not hold that against you. At least when you run to him I will always know you are well loved until you calm down and come home.” He took her hand and knelt before her. “I love you, Hermione. I love you and I wish to be your husband if you will have me.”







“What about my work? You said you couldn’t handle it…”







“I worry about you, I always will, that is non negotiable. Since I can not stand to sit at home worrying about you while you are in the field I will simply travel with you, where I can watch you all the time and keep you out of trouble.” He said smiling. “I can run my businesses from anywhere, I am mostly a behind the scenes decision maker anyhow.”







“You would do that for me?” Tears rolled slowly down her cheeks as she stared at him in disbelief.







“I would do anything for you.” He said. “Are you going to answer me?”





She looked so vulnerable, her cheeks streaked with tears, her lower lip trembling just a little. When he first met her again in the Azkaban visiting room she had spent her time busting his balls, even after they had become lovers she enjoyed making things difficult for him, making him work for her affection. But as she fell in love with him she began to soften, not turning to complete mush, but softening enough to show him just how she felt. She tossed his question around her head again and again and only one answer registered.





“Yes.” She whispered. “Yes, yes and yes again.” She threw her arms around his neck, falling to her knees in front of him as she rained kisses over his face. “I love you.”







“I love you.” He slid the ring onto her finger and smirked a little when she barely glanced at it, staring at him instead. Narcissa had ignored him to gawk at the size of the rock on her hand. “So if you are finished here, where do we go next and when can we fit in the wedding?” He asked, still holding her tight.





“Oh, Lucius, I need to tell you something.” She said, pulling back from him. “I was going to come see you as soon as I finished up with this project.”







“Is everything alright?” He looked concerned.







“After making me feel like a world class twit, Severus made it very clear to me that you did what you did with good intentions.” She said. “He made me see that maybe it was time for me to slow down. This will be my last project until summer, I will be working in Greece this summer, excavating a temple ruin, then in the fall I will begin teaching a class to seventh years at Hogwarts. I will be freelancing during the summer holidays.”







“Severus never said a word to me.” He said softly.









“He promised he would let me tell you. So you see…I too can change.” She said.







“So then…we are going to do this, marriage, babies the whole thing? A normal life with a normal family?” He was smiling so broadly that she could see his dimples.







“I don’t know how normal we will be.” She laughed. “I mean you’re a pureblood, I am a mudblood and then there is Severus….oh gods I am going to be Draco’s step mother!” She said, throwing her head back to laugh.







“I thought I told you not to say that vulgar word.” He said.







“Don’t tell me what to do you big bully.” She was smiling as she tightened her arms around his neck.







“I adore you.” He whispered, his lips brushing over hers.







“And I you, now shut up and kiss me, Lucius.” She parted her lips and captured his. Kissing him with all of the love and passion she felt for him. He responded in kind, his tongue coming forth to tangle with hers as she tugged him closer, shifting her legs so that she could lie back on the carpeted floor of the tent. She loved magic, loved that something so uncomfortable and less than homey in the muggle world could be so inviting and perfect in the magical world.







“What are the odds that one of your team is going to come in here?” He asked, his lips moving along the side of her neck.







“Slim, but be quick just in case.” She groaned as his hand cupped her through her shirt.





“I don’t want to be quick, we are newly betrothed, and I wish to make love to you properly not have a quickie on the floor of a tent.” He said though he did not stop kissing her or working the buttons on her blouse free.







“Since when is once a night enough for you?” She panted as she pulled at the buttons on his waistcoat. Her ring would occasionally catch the glow of the lamps and her heart would pound even harder as she struggled to get his clothes off. “Or me for that matter.” She said as she finally got her hands inside and onto bare skin.





His hands slid down her hips, over the soft suede trousers clinging to her curves. He growled when he reached the tops of her boots.





“Damn that bat he might as well have given you a chastity belt when he gave you these boots! I can’t get your trousers off with these damned things in the way!” He lifted his head and looked around. “Where is my wand?”







“You are not vanishing these trousers, Lucius, they are my favorite pair.” She said. “I know you can be very creative.” She said suggestively as she pushed him up off of her enough to roll over beneath him. She pushed up onto her knees, her backside pressing into his abdomen as she did. “I know how fond you are of my arse; you can have a perfect view of it from this angle.”







“Saucy witch.” He growled as his hands slid over the lush, round curve of her ass. He reached around her and slid the buttons of her fly free, tucking his fingers under the waistband and tugging the suede, along with her knickers. He pushed them down her thighs until they bunched around her knees then his fingers went to work on his own trousers, wrenching them open and freeing the painfully erect cock pressing into the fabric. “Head down, arse up.” He pressed his hands between her shoulder blades and urged her into position, her hands sliding forward to wrap around the tent pole in front of her.







“You say the sweetest things.” Her soft laugh turned into a groan as he rubbed his tip against the slick opening, pressing slowly into her until he was seated to the hilt.





“You know this isn’t the most romantic way to seal a proposal.” He said, pulling back until the tip of his cock was poised at her entrance.







“It works for me, romance is overrated.” She cried out as he pushed into her forcefully. “Oh god, Lucius!”







He curled his body over her back shoving her blouse up and out of his way so that he could feel the heat of her skin against his chest and abdomen. He pressed his lips to the back of her neck as he arched his hips into her again and again. He braced one hand on the tent post, the other curling around her and sliding down over her belly searching out the pearl of her clit and stroking his finger over it as he rode her body more fiercely.







She was crying out, her shrills of pleasure filling the air and pushing him ever closer to orgasm.







“This damn tent is going to come down around us!” He looked up at the canvas shuddering above them as the tent post shook thanks to them using it for leverage.







“I don’t care, don’t stop!” She cried, rocking back against him as the tension coiled low in her belly. He pressed his finger hard into her clit and thrust fast and hard inside her. Her back bowed and her pussy clenched tight around him, pulsing with her pleasure as she keened loudly, taking him with her over the edge.







“You are the most amazing witch.” He sighed as he fell onto her back, pressing her flat to the floor and curling his hands around hers where they gripped the post.





“You had better not forget it either.” She said, turning her face to kiss his slack mouth lightly. “My god people are going to have a fit when they hear the news.”







“Severus already knows I was going to ask you, and Draco of course.” He said, groaning as he slid his softening cock from between her thighs and sat up.







“How does Severus know?” She tugged her trousers and underwear back up, but didn’t bother to move, she just continued to lie on the floor staring at him.





“Well, you don’t have a father or an older brother, so I asked him for your hand. He gave me his blessing, along with many threats of bodily harm, curses, disembowelment, castration, dismemberment and a rather unsavory threat that had to do with my beheading and bodily functions down my neck should I do anything to…fuck…it up.”







“Aww, Lucius.” Hermione started laughing.







“I don’t see what’s so funny.” He said.







“You said fuck.” She burst into laughter that had him quickly joining her.







“Well, it seems your appalling manners are rubbing off on me.” He smirked.





“Let me finish this up and you can take me home and I’ll rub something else off on you later.” She taunted with a wink. “I hope you know what you’re getting yourself in to, Lucius.”







“Oh, I think I have a pretty good idea. Don’t worry, I can handle it.” He said. “I can handle you.” He bent down and kissed her cheek lightly.







“We’ll have to see about that.” She said, the smile on her face priceless.