A Muddy Secret

Lovely Reviewers:

Tempest Princess - Well, I suppose I might have to do two separate sequels.

ohsnap_theresa - I have never had such a request before, but I see no reason to deny it.

Heidi191976 - You shall be permitted to read more. It is my priviledge and honor to update.

Avanell - I would love to post on GrangerEnchanted. I had tried to post this there before to no avail.

Utopia - We don't have a system like NHS. It sounds rather simple compared to what we have! which is awesome!

I am a "Uni" student. Wildlife/Conservation Biology or Ecology for a degree with maybe a lesser in the creative writing area. I love my animals and my books and my research.

I think symbolically speaking, that is what Rowling is going for with the sword.

Well, at least you like them as MUCH as Snape. I like them less. *frowns* CHILDREN! YUCK! Broody isn't bad. You have a guy with which to start one.

I changed it to a more L.C. word. Check it out if you like!

I was wondering if you would do me a tiny favor.

Citten - I suppose that two separate sequels it will be, for I see no way to combine the ideas and one of them, I still am rather lost on. Well Both really. I suppose it will be easier to see what I am going to do when I finish this though.

C.P.I.G. - Well, the Lady of the Lake was known for her wiles!

Byrony - Smexy LM/HG lovin'. Maybe in some far off gentler chapter that shall be allowed to happen. But that chapter might be a while in coming.

La Bibliographe - What Dumbledore did to anger Nimue is irrelevant to the story, but I know. So I shall tell you. It has to do with his part in Ariana's death. Ariana was the Lady's first granddaughter. There was plenty of roadtrip in the seventh book. It was good road trip though.

HermioneMalfoyFan - The doctor is my second stop Monday (not open till then!){My friend threatened "to toss me o'er his shoulder like a bag of potatoes and carry me kickin' and screamin' if I didn't.}, and the first is Ecology class. I could barely hold the book I was reading yesterday. That was when I decided my time had come. One of my friends had a similar problem. She was diagnosed with MS. Of course, first they were checking for brain tumors, however, she had a lot more going on before she got checked out.

There might be two sequels depending on what I decide to do. I probably could combine them without too much difficulty but I am unsure of that. What do you think?

Tidbit is here.

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I present to y'all Chapter XV. Hope you like it.
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Lucius awoke that morning with a hand running up and down his left arm. He turned and saw Hermione rubbing it with a smile as she looked at him.

“What are you doing?” Lucius asked, removing his arm as softly as he could so as not to cause alarm.

“Just thinking about things,” Hermione replied as she stood up. She walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen.

Lucius stood up and stretched as he walked into the bathroom.

“Lucius,” Hermione called when she heard the bathroom door open.

“Hmm,” Lucius responded as he took out his best robe. His grandmother wouldn’t approve of him showing up looking anything less than perfect.

“What would you like for breakfast?”

“Whatever you’re having is fine,” Lucius said as he buttoned both of the sleeves of his robe tightly to be sure that they wouldn’t ride up and that if he forgot and tried to push them up, he would remember.

He didn’t want Hermione to know that he had that dark magic mark on his skin. She would hate him for it, and he already hated himself for it. He knew that he joined to prevent being disinherited and in a small way out of longing for his father’s approval. Even though he’d been ignored and stomped on by the man his whole life, he still had had the desire to hear five words from the man. Just five words, “I’m proud of you, son.” He knew, now, that he wouldn’t hear them. After the physical torture he’d been through, he knew that.

He walked out into the main room where Hermione already had the table set and some toast and scrambled eggs on it.

“Nothing fancy to eat today,” Hermione said, giving him an apologetic smile. “I’m no cook.”

“Well, that is what house elves are for,” Lucius said quietly. “I do not know a pureblood woman who cooks at all.”

“House elves should be free,” Hermione said firmly glaring at him.

“Not this crap again,” Lucius began, glowering across the table at her.

“They should be paid and treated with respect and have sick days and days off,” Hermione said as she began to rant about elf rights.

“Hermione, have you spoken to the elves?” Lucius asked, rolling his eyes at her.

“Yes,” Hermione said.

“How many indicated that they wanted wages, sick days, and the other rigmarole you are spouting?”

“I’ve met one.”

“And how many have you spoken to?” Lucius asked, leaning back with a smirk on his face.

Hermione looked at the ground and didn’t answer as she nibbled a bit of toast.

“That’s what I thought,” Lucius said, scooping some eggs up carefully with his fork and popping it in his mouth.

Hermione glared at him.

“We ought to hurry and get going if we want to reach the lake quickly. I don’t want to miss too much of classes,” Lucius said.

Hermione frowned as he rose and left the tent.

She quickly cleared the dishes and walked out to join him.

Hermione gasped as she joined him. They were at the edge of the forest and not two hundred yards away, the Lady of the Lake Inn could be seen with smoke curling out of the chimney.

"What happened, Lucius?" Hermione asked.

"Grandmother Nimue," Lucius growled as he jabbed his hands into his pocket.

"How?"

"She is TWISTED!" Lucius yelled into the edges of the forest.

A crow sitting in the tree cackled and cawed at him before whisking away through the woods continuing to chatter.

"Let's just get started, Lucius," Hermione said, waving her wand to pack everything up.

Lucius glared through the mist at the trees.

GO FIGURE! He needed this to be a fast trip, and Grandmother was purposely delaying him! What was her problem?

Hermione took Lucius' hand, and they started into the forest. Lucius was stomping and muttering about wicked women and their wiles and how they liked to torment him.

Hermione had to bite her tongue to hold in laughter. They walked for over an hour in this fashion before Hermione began to notice something odd about the forest.

No twittering birds. No scuttling squirrels. No buzzing insects.

"Lucius," Hermione dared to say in a quiet voice. It sounded like a shout in the silence.

Lucius jumped, and turned to her.

"What?"

"Is it always so quiet here?" Hermione asked, looking around. "I haven't seen anything since the crow this morning, and yesterday the forest was full of noises."

"It shouldn't be this quiet," Lucius said, pulling his hand free of her hold to take his wand out.

Hermione took her own out and backed up so she was pressed back to back with Lucius.

SNAP!

They both spun around searching for the whatever-it-was.

"ROAR!"

Hermione fell on the ground at the ferocity of the bellow and looked up to see a massive animal descending upon them smashing through the undergrowth.

Lucius jumped nimbly to the side as it charged at them. Hermione wasn’t in its direct path. She stood up, and the animal charged toward Lucius again.

Hermione’s eyes narrowed and her wand felt more than usually warm in her hand as it seemed to raise of its own accord. She didn’t take time to consider how similar it seemed to when Harry mentioned his wand suddenly twisting and doing something when the Order had helped him escape from the Dursleys.

Without saying a word, a red jet of light burst from the end of the wand to sever the head of the animal right as it would have hit Lucius’ chest.

“What spell was that?” Lucius asked as thick red blood gushed from the neck of the animal to soak his shoes.

“I don’t know,” Hermione lied as she stared at the beast on the ground.

As she stared at it, the body began to sparkle and glimmer and fade away.

“What happened to the animal?” Hermione asked staring at where blood and gore and body had been seconds earlier.

“It was an illusion,” Lucius said darkly.

“An illusion?”

“It means not real,” Lucius snapped.

“I know what it means,” Hermione said in return as her nose crinkled up and she looked down her nose at him.

“I shouldn’t have spoken like that to you, Hermione,” Lucius said softly, turning to look at her. “I just don’t like this.”

“I can understand that.”

“Excuse me for a moment,” Lucius said as he turned to the forest. “THAT WAS NICE, GRAMS!”

Laughter floated toward them on the wind carrying a light sandy dust.

Lucius stalked off not taking note of what had occurred around them. He stepped into the moat of white sand that had formed a ring around them.

He yelped as he was sucked down.

“LUCIUS!” Hermione screamed, and she plunged in after him without a thought. Not remembering him saying that the dangers weren’t applicable to him because his grandmother was the power of the forest.

She was choking on the grit that seemed to fill her mouth, ears, and nose as she was sucked down. Just when she thought that it was the end because no more oxygen remained in her lungs, she felt herself belched from whatever had been pulling her along. She rolled onto her back and coughed though nothing emerged from her mouth.

Hermione’s eyes darted about looking for Lucius.

“I’m under you,” Lucius grunted.

“Oh!” Hermione said, and she tried to get off him.

Lucius grabbed her and held her on his chest.

“Lucius, I need to move,” Hermione said.

Lucius frowned staring at her mouth for a moment. She had leapt after him. That was not Slytherin. Not Slytherin at all unless something stronger than friendship was falling around them. It was almost (gag) Gryffindor. He didn’t know anyone who would have so carelessly leapt into a pit of who-knew-what for him. Without further thought, he flipped them over.

“Lucius, I need to get up,” Hermione said when she felt his warmth atop her.

This was so wrong. He felt so right to be wrong.

“You jumped into the pit to save me,” Lucius said looking down at her.

“Yes,” Hermione answered.

“Why?”

“If I couldn’t let Severus take on three Gryffindors alone, what makes you think after you were attacked by the illusion that I would let you face whatever lay in here alone. I told you, I think Slytherins have to stick together.”

Lucius leaned down and shoved his lips against Hermione’s to quiet her. When he pulled away a minute or five later, he tugged her close helping her to her feet and squeezing her in his arms.

“Thank you,” he whispered, leaning down so his lips tickled her ear as he spoke. “I don’t know what would become of me without you here.”

“Y—” Hermione started to tell him that he would live but stopped when she saw what was before her eyes.

In front of her was the most beautiful lake she’d ever seen. Trees surrounded it and the sun was shining down on the water that was without murk. Dozens of white and purple flowers were in bloom and lined a grey stone path to the water. The lake was rather ovular in shape and thousands of tiny sparkling stones lined its bottom. Tiny fish darted to and fro near the surface. A small bluebird sang in the tree to the right. Several stags and does stood on the other side kneeling to drink. A fox paddled about in the lake happily.

“Grandmother seems to have transported us to her lake,” Lucius said.

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Hope it was delightful. Drop a review if you would. They make me happy! *wink* Must be off to work on creative writing assignment.
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