To The Devil's Doorstep

Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters, I only take them out to play with to suit my weird needs. Then I reluctantly give them back to JKR.

******
Chapter 19
Reach Out & Touch Somebody


Hermione looked at the clock in her room and saw that it read 4 o’clock. She was surprised that the time had flown so quickly and a little concerned that Lucius hadn’t called for her since she had left with her breakfast hours before. She quickly decided that she had to go check on him to make sure he was ok.

She padded out to the study to find him sitting in the exact same chair he had been sitting in that morning, seemingly not to have moved at all, looking off toward the fireplace. Hermione kneeled down before him and drew his hand into hers.

“Lucius, are you alright?” she asked, with trepidation.

“Yes, Hermione, I am even better now that you are here before me.” Lucius replied, looking at her lovingly kneeling by his feet. Would she ever know what an alluring slave she actually was? He would have to be sure to show her sometime soon.

“Is everything ok between Draco and yourself? You didn’t look too pleased this morning or just now, when I came in here.”

“No, pet. I’m afraid things are most definitely not ok with my son and myself. He heard us this morning in the tub and didn’t take it very well, I’m sorry to say.”

“But Lucius, I don’t understand how that would disturb him. I was brought here to serve both of you, not just serve Draco’s personal needs. Why would he be so angry? Surely he knew that you would be taking advantage of the situation as he has done.”

“Pet, I believe that his feelings for you have gone past that of contractual binding.”

What are you talking about? Draco has always hated me, even in school, he despised for my heritage. He could never have feelings other than disgust for me.” Hermione stated simply.

“Hermione, have you not noticed the way he looks at you when he doesn’t think you will see? He may not have thought he had feelings for you, but I believe you living here full time has changed that.” Lucius replied, looking down at his beautiful witch.
“I’ll have to digress the conversation for now Lucius. It has been hours and you look as if you haven’t moved since this morning. Have you eaten at all today?” she said defiantly.

“Yes, pet, I did eat my breakfast. I was starving after having you give me such a good cleansing this morning.,” he told her, raising his eyebrow at her seductively.

Hermione blushed at the thought of the thorough cleansing they had each got that morning.

“No need to blush, pet. What we did felt right to me. Did it not to you?”

“Yes, you know it did. It did have an odd feeling though. Did it have the same feel for you?”

“What feeling was that Hermione?” Lucius asked her, wondering if she had felt him invade her thoughts, or possibly her feeling the strong bond he wanted to create with her.

“It sort of felt like a type of magical binding, but not quite. It was just a strange feeling I had. Probably nothing.” Hermione said, just about kicking herself for revealing too much. “Anyway, shall we get dinner called up here? I have to make that floo call in a few hours and I’d rather eat earlier than later.”

Lucius looked at her and read her feelings about revealing too much to him. He decided not to press the issue right now and wait until after her call this evening as he had originally planned.

“Yes I agree Hermione. Dinner with you sounds wonderful, even if it is just here in the study. I shall summon Harkey.”

The pleasant house elf was there in a second and took their orders for dinner, promising to be back in but a few minutes. In the meantime, Hermione had risen and took a seat on the soft love seat, gazing intently into the fire.

“Hermione, pet, please don’t be so concerned about your friends finding out that you aren’t having nearly as unpleasant of a time here as everyone thought you would have. We shall go over certain things that you might be able to say that wouldn’t make them suspicious after dinner.”

“Alright Lucius, but I have to admit, I’m a horrible liar, especially when it comes to my friends.”

“Yes, but not so much to your professors, as Severus has told me.” he replied, winking conspiratorially.

“Yes, well Professor Snape was a different story at school. He would never take the time to listen to a student unless said student was one of his beloved Slytherins. Sometimes the truth had to be withheld from him to reduce yearlong detentions and numerous school point loss.” Hermione said with a slight grin on her face.

Harkey returned with their dinner and they proceeded to eat together in a comfortable silence. By the time pudding was served, they were both full and content. Being content was probably what made Hermione request her lessons from Lucius on what she could say to her friends, as it was only about 45 minutes until she had to place the call.

“Well, love, you can say certain things that wouldn’t be exactly lying to them, just not telling them certain things. Obviously, you won’t come out and say that you’re having a grand time shagging their archenemy and the Dark Lord’s supposed ‘right-hand man’. You could explain about the cleaning of the dungeons and proceed to tell them that currently we have employed you to be more of a nursemaid to me. Just tell them I was slightly injured at the last dark revel. If they ask you how, simply tell them you are not sure. The only thing you know is that I need constant nursing.”

She listened to him intently, absorbing every word he told her. Actually she was absorbing him, the look of him, the smell of him, the sound of his silky voice. She had to try her hardest to not think about him sexually as he spoke to her.

“Hermione, pet, do you think you can do this without raising their suspicions?”

“Yes Lucius, but I am still nervous.”

Lucius rose from his chair and came over to sit next to Hermione, taking her gently into his arms. He held her soothingly, whispering to her that he had all the faith in the world in her. She felt wonderful at his soft caring words. She settled herself more deeply into his arms and sighed contentedly. Lucius put his mouth down against her curly hair and placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head, stopping himself before he told her how much he cared for her. It simply wouldn’t do to play his hand too soon.

Lucius looked at the clock above his mantel, seeing that it was only five minutes to seven. He moved away from her gently.

“Pet, it is nearing time to place your call. Are you ready?”

“Yes Lucius, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. Thank you for being such a calming force to me.” Hermione whispered to him as she got up and approached the fireplace.

She grabbed a handful of floo powder and threw it into the fire say “Headquarters”. She didn’t want to say out loud where the headquarters for The Order of the Phoenix were. She stuck her head in the fire and called for Harry.

“’Mione, is that really you?” Harry replied.

“Of course it’s me you silly git. Who else would be calling you at the precise time you told me to?” Hermione laughed as she lightly chastised her dear friend.

The next thing she heard was Harry calling out for everybody to gather round and talk to Hermione as she was only limited to ten minutes. Molly’s voice was the next she heard.

“Hermione dear, are you alright? They’re not mistreating you are they?” she asked hesitantly, not knowing if she truly wanted to know the answer.

“No Molly, they’re not.” Hermione replied.

“Thank the Gods, at least they’re not harming you dear. Are you alright, though? Harry and Ron told me they’ve taken your wand and you’re pretty helpless.”

“I’m actually ok, Molly. Neither of them is attacking me in the halls or anything, seriously. And after all the fighting we’ve done already in this damned war, I don’t hardly consider myself helpless.”

“Of course you’re not. I didn’t mean it in that way. We all know that you can handle yourself better than most.” Molly told her. “Well just know that we’re trying our hardest to get you home. Right now Ron is yanking at my robe to get to talk to you.”

“Ok, Molly. Thank you for trying as hard as you are. I only have a few minutes left so please tell Ronald to hurry.” Hermione said sweetly. Molly was a dear person, just a bit over the top at times with all the mothering she did.

“’Mione, if they’re touching one hair on your head, I swear I’ll… I’ll…” Ron said vehemently, puttering out a bit at the end.

“You’ll what Ronald? Sputter them to death?” she said, laughing.

She could hear everyone in the kitchen laughing along and it lifted her heart to know they were all there even though she knew she wouldn’t get to speak to them all.

“Just kidding, Ron. I know that if I were being hurt you’d come barging in here looking for vengeance. “ Hermione told him gently.

“But are you being ‘Mione?” he asked.

“No. I’m honestly not being hurt at all. Please everybody, believe me. My job here is quite easy although a bit menial.,” she said.

She could hear grumbling in the background as Ron told her Dumbledore wanted to speak to her.

“Hermione, I believe wholeheartedly that you are not in any pertinent danger. If you were we would find a way to get you out of there before morning. Thank you dear for putting everyone’s mind to rest.” Dumbledore told her.

At this point, Lucius decided that the call had gone quite well and as it was ten past he would stop it as he said he would.

He rose from the couch and went to the closest door, opening it and closing it with a bang.

“Miss Granger, your ten minutes is up. Please say your goodbyes and stop tying up my floo with your calls.”

“Yes Sir.” Hermione replied to him.

“Sorry I didn’t get to talk to everyone. I’ll owl you and we can press out a schedule on who talks which time I call. I love you all and miss you terribly.” Hermione called out as she broke the connection.

She stood up and looked up at Lucius. Suddenly she could help but reach out for him. He came to her and looked down into her face. Her lips caught his and she began to kiss him. She loved the way he tasted.

Lucius succumbed to her grabbing him and kissing him. But before he would go any further, he wanted to talk to her. He broke their kiss off and took her by the hand to the couch they had sat on before.

“Pet, your call went wonderfully. Would you consent to a serious conversation with me?” Lucius asked her.

“Of course Lucius. The call went so well because of what you told me and because they were all scrambling to speak with me. What would you like to discuss?” she replied with a smile on her face.

“ Hermione, have you ever considered having a magical binding that didn’t really have to do with marriage?” he asked her with a bit of a tremble in his voice.

**************************

AN: Sorry it took so long to get another chapter up. The wedding went great and so did the honeymoon, for those who wanted to know. Thanks for being so patient with me. I’ll get to finishing this soon I hope. Let me know where you’d like this to go, as I’m a bit on the fence about where to finish this at. Please read, review, critique … just don’t flame me.