Beyond the Veil -- COMPLETE
folder
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Lucius/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
50
Views:
67,594
Reviews:
1221
Recommended:
5
Currently Reading:
6
Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Lucius/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
50
Views:
67,594
Reviews:
1221
Recommended:
5
Currently Reading:
6
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.
The Knoll
_____________________________________________
Updated 2-6-08
Thank you all for the lovely reviews. I enjoy them as much as you like reading stories. Maybe more, LOL. I will post at least once a week, sometimes a bit sooner, depending on real life intruding as it so often rudely does.
A few of your questions are answered in this chapter. Other questions must wait to unfold with the story.
And my reviewer, Scary Bear Hair, called it correctly. I dislike Sirius as a character so he will NOT show up in this story. Using this story's take on the Veil, fans of Sirius are welcome to write any fate they wish for him.
StarKneazle - Cannibalistic sheep? Do they eat each other? Or humans? Sounds like a fun movie for the whole family. 8-)
Sheherazade - "brittle comedy-of-manners? Ah, because of where they are, right? 'Nuff said.
ashmo21 - monsters like "Resident Evil"? - hmm, maybe similar but with three heads, like Fluffy in "Sorcerer's Stone" and not so slimy.
Onward...
_____________________________________________
Chapter Two
The Knoll
Time passed, Lucius didn’t know how much, but the little witch finally stirred and raised up on her elbow. “Mr. Malfoy?”
Hearing his name jolted the wizard. She knew who he was. He opened his eyes and looked a bit more closely at his companion. “Yes? You know me?”
“You’re Draco’s father, Lucius Malfoy. You used to be one of the school governors at Hogwarts. I’ve met you a few times,” she said, a trace of sarcasm creeping into her voice, “once at Flourish and Blott’s when I was twelve, when you gave Ginny the book that nearly got her killed. And then in the Department of Mysteries several years back, but we weren’t really introduced then, not when you and your fellow Death Eaters were trying to kill us.” She paused, “And again when you stood by at your mansion, letting Bellatrix torture me.”
Lucius silently groaned, deciding that fate had a disgusting sense of humor to have landed him in wherever he was with a witch who knew some of his less distinguished behavior, not that he cared a jot what her opinion of him was. He’d been as circumspect as the Dark Lord would allow, keeping his family name from being connected solidly with the Death Eaters - until that fiasco in the Department of Mysteries - while serving Voldemort, who had ultimately been vanquished by that Potter prat. For his participation in Voldemort’s ‘army’, Lucius had spent many years rotting in prison.
Everything had blown up in Lucius’ face when he had been sent to Azkaban after being caught in the Department of Mysteries fiasco. Voldemort had released him before the final battle, but his family’s fortunes had taken multiple debilitating hits as the life and death struggle between the Dark Lord and Potter played itself out. Voldemort had finally lost and Lucius had been sent back to Azkaban. It was only years after Voldemort’s death, when the whirlwind of the New Wave had hit, that all the inmates including Lucius were let out of prison. None of his own magic community wanted to leave their kind at the mercy of the Master, trapped in prison cells just to be slowly tortured and murdered for his pleasure.
“Oh?” Lucius hesitated, “ Hmm, yes, Miss Weasley…Ginevra… I remember her, but…” There had been several females tortured at his mansion in that dark time and Bellatrix had done most of it. Some of them had died, but some had lived and been released through Voldemort’s whim and against Bellatrix’s wishes. The Department of Mysteries mess had been largely conducted in the dark and at the time it had seemed as though hordes had been running through the rooms there. He tried to get a closer look at the little witch; her abundance of riotous curls had mostly obscured her face when he had come across her defending herself against the sheep. In the summery darkness, her features were still indistinguishable so her answer came as a severe shock.
“My name is Hermione Granger.”
The blond wizard half sat up in dismay, hissing in displeasure, “Granger! Potter’s friend?” Lucius cursed his luck; of all the witches he could have saved, it had to be this one. He certainly knew this witch - one of the Golden Trio who had been instrumental in finally bringing down all the intricate work the Death Eaters had done to change wizarding society politically to their aims. Oh yes, he knew her very well, her and Potter and that blood traitor Weasley and their untimely interference in his lord’s entire political agenda.
Lucius had long since let go of those distant memories. He’d found his own sense of peace in the twelve years of the twenty-year sentence he’d spent in prison before being freed to fend for himself in the disaster - dredging up old grievances over ancient history now was worse than useless. In hindsight, even he had seen that Voldemort had been sinking further and further into madness and the blond wizard hadn’t been entirely sad to see an end to the Death Eaters’ failed rebellion.
The policies and strong-arm tactics that Voldemort had been using to crush the opposition had seemed more and more senseless. Lucius had always preferred subterfuge and persuasion to gain his objectives. Too many valuable pieces of the wizarding world were being needlessly obliterated when some quiet coercion would have served the purpose leaving the structure intact. But that was so far in the past, it didn’t much interest the ex-Death Eater any more.
Lucius was much more interested in his family. What with the devastation the ‘New Wave Master’ had sown, he hadn’t a clue what had happened to his son Draco or Draco’s family and now he probably never would, but dwelling on what he couldn’t manipulate or control was not his style and had always seemed counterproductive to him. He could mourn for them, but that would have to come when he had more leisure – and privacy.
His current circumstances required more immediate attention. He didn’t have the slightest clue where they were, although it still felt like England. The wind, the smells (some good, some not so much), and the very atmosphere of the place felt familiar. At least he wasn’t writhing on the floor in his death throes from the poison of the hellhounds as he had seen happen to others. He could be thankful for that, although he now had a new problem leaning up against him, shivering in the cool night. He was saddled with a witch who likely hated his guts and would as easily fry his liver for him as look at him. But no, that wasn’t entirely true if she couldn’t even kill two Muggle 'sheep' who were intent on obliterating her. Lucius tried to stretch out and relax his muscles as he felt the soft grass tickle his face.
Had they merely landed elsewhere in England? No, that couldn’t be, or all the people who had gone through the Veil would still have been around. None had ever returned and it had been assumed the Veil hid only death. Lucius’ mouth quirked. Now he had firsthand experience that the Veil was something else, but what? His ruminations had taken him mentally far away from his companion, so her sudden response startled him a bit.
“Yes, I’m Harry’s friend, but I’ve lost contact with everyone these past few weeks. I was hiding in a small storage locker in the Artifacts Department where I worked and the first sweeps of the sheep missed me. Apparently the lead lining of the locker repels the Magic-Hunting device because I could see through the locker’s air vent that the device was aiming at me. I thought I was dead. But they didn’t react to my presence and moved on.
“I had a bit of food in my desk – going all the way to the cafeteria every day from my spot in the basement was inconvenient so I had stockpiled some items for lunches. But I ran out last night and decided I needed to try to find my way out and away from the Ministry. As you can see, I didn’t get very far.”
“Yes, I saw all right, you couldn’t kill two sheep who were going to kill you,” Lucius said querulously, lying quietly on the grass, not bothering to look at his former enemy.
“I was giving them warning shots first,” she said defensively, ineffectually trying to swipe her hair back from her face. “I would have used the Unforgivable if I had to.”
“What? You thought a few jolts of that innocuous red magic would make them decide to leave you alone? What fairytale did you come from?” Lucius was too tired from his last few days of fighting and hiding to ream her out for her idiocy, but his new little sidekick would have to prove herself a lot more able than he’d seen so far if she was going to stay with him in…wherever they were.
“So I’m not as used to throwing death curses as you are, I don’t see that as a flaw, Mr. Malfoy, even if you do.”
“I’m still alive because I am used to throwing death curses. And may I point out, my dear, so are you. If I hadn’t delivered those two to whatever hell they now inhabit, you would no doubt be floating on a heavenly cloud right now, being fitted for a pair of wings. So seraphic as you are, I’m sure you would have been welcomed into St. Guinevere’s arms with joy.”
“Well, we didn’t have to go through the Veil. Why couldn’t you have cursed the hounds? Then we could have stayed in our own world. You didn’t know we would live, going through the Veil. You might have killed us.” Hermione looked around her apprehensively, worry about her new surroundings creeping over her and making her shiver in the slight breeze. “This seems like England, though. Maybe the Veil didn’t work right and we’re still here, just in the country somewhere.”
Lucius snorted in contempt, “And which hound would you have had me point at first? Didn’t you notice they had split up? I could have got two of them, maybe, before the other two got to us.”
Hermione just huffed in irritation, but snuggled closer to the warmth of her rescuer’s body. His greater size was generating much needed heat for her smaller frame.
“Well,” Lucius digested her information as a head of curly hair tickled his chin. He was somewhat amused at being simultaneously hugged and castigated, “for whatever good it does us, and that appears to be none, it’s interesting that the sheep devices don’t penetrate lead. Do you see the Veil anywhere? I don’t suppose one can just go back through it and return to the Ministry or someone would have done it by now.”
Hermione lifted her head from the warmth of Lucius’ shoulder where she had rested it, and gazed around the knoll, what she could see of it in the dark. “I don’t see anything but grass and maybe some woods in the distance – it appears a little darker over there and I think I see some treetops in the moonlight.” Hermione pointed to a spot in the distance, then scooted up against her human heater again. She didn’t have on anything other than a work blouse and skirt, her stockings, underwear and shoes. Lucius, on the other hand was wearing a beautifully tailored full-length wool coat over a suit and dress shirt and tie. Hermione couldn’t help thinking he had obviously been more concerned with his sartorial appearance than with the horrific events the magic community had suffered.
Lucius could feel the little witch shivering up against his side and, exasperated with her and annoyed at the entire world in general, he sat up, removed his wool coat, took off his suit jacket and slung it around her slim shoulders. He turned more toward the little witch so he could button his jacket on her petite frame. When she had put her arms into the jacket sleeves and it was securely closed against the night air Lucius merely lay down again and pulled her close, throwing the full-length coat over the both of them. He rechecked his cane in his overcoat, positioning the slitted pocket between them as a safeguard against losing it in the dark.
“Do you still have your wand?” he whispered in her ear.
“Yes. It’s in my pocket. Do you have yours?”
“Yes,” Lucius replied. Wands were just as important as another arm to any magic person. It would be unusual for anyone to let go of it unless the circumstances were dire, but of course the Department of Mysteries situation of going through the Veil had qualified on all counts.
“We have no idea where we’ve landed, so we may as well try to get a bit of sleep,” counseled the blond wizard, weariness etched into his voice. “When dawn comes, if it comes in this place, it will be soon enough to begin our investigation into where we are. Moving around in the dark may pitch us into a ravine or a cow pie. I suspect we may be somewhere near fresh bovine excrement if the general smell is any indication. I for one would like to retain what little I have left in good order.”
Hermione drowsily nodded her head on Lucius’ shoulder, feeling a bit safer hearing him use the word, ‘we’. He certainly wasn’t her favorite person, but she felt strangely safe huddled up against him in the dark. A comforting scent of lime and male surrounded her as she slumped down and was dead asleep in seconds.
tbc...
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Hmmm, where are they? Is there another question to be asked? What could it be?
.
.
Updated 2-6-08
Thank you all for the lovely reviews. I enjoy them as much as you like reading stories. Maybe more, LOL. I will post at least once a week, sometimes a bit sooner, depending on real life intruding as it so often rudely does.
A few of your questions are answered in this chapter. Other questions must wait to unfold with the story.
And my reviewer, Scary Bear Hair, called it correctly. I dislike Sirius as a character so he will NOT show up in this story. Using this story's take on the Veil, fans of Sirius are welcome to write any fate they wish for him.
StarKneazle - Cannibalistic sheep? Do they eat each other? Or humans? Sounds like a fun movie for the whole family. 8-)
Sheherazade - "brittle comedy-of-manners? Ah, because of where they are, right? 'Nuff said.
ashmo21 - monsters like "Resident Evil"? - hmm, maybe similar but with three heads, like Fluffy in "Sorcerer's Stone" and not so slimy.
Onward...
_____________________________________________
Chapter Two
The Knoll
Time passed, Lucius didn’t know how much, but the little witch finally stirred and raised up on her elbow. “Mr. Malfoy?”
Hearing his name jolted the wizard. She knew who he was. He opened his eyes and looked a bit more closely at his companion. “Yes? You know me?”
“You’re Draco’s father, Lucius Malfoy. You used to be one of the school governors at Hogwarts. I’ve met you a few times,” she said, a trace of sarcasm creeping into her voice, “once at Flourish and Blott’s when I was twelve, when you gave Ginny the book that nearly got her killed. And then in the Department of Mysteries several years back, but we weren’t really introduced then, not when you and your fellow Death Eaters were trying to kill us.” She paused, “And again when you stood by at your mansion, letting Bellatrix torture me.”
Lucius silently groaned, deciding that fate had a disgusting sense of humor to have landed him in wherever he was with a witch who knew some of his less distinguished behavior, not that he cared a jot what her opinion of him was. He’d been as circumspect as the Dark Lord would allow, keeping his family name from being connected solidly with the Death Eaters - until that fiasco in the Department of Mysteries - while serving Voldemort, who had ultimately been vanquished by that Potter prat. For his participation in Voldemort’s ‘army’, Lucius had spent many years rotting in prison.
Everything had blown up in Lucius’ face when he had been sent to Azkaban after being caught in the Department of Mysteries fiasco. Voldemort had released him before the final battle, but his family’s fortunes had taken multiple debilitating hits as the life and death struggle between the Dark Lord and Potter played itself out. Voldemort had finally lost and Lucius had been sent back to Azkaban. It was only years after Voldemort’s death, when the whirlwind of the New Wave had hit, that all the inmates including Lucius were let out of prison. None of his own magic community wanted to leave their kind at the mercy of the Master, trapped in prison cells just to be slowly tortured and murdered for his pleasure.
“Oh?” Lucius hesitated, “ Hmm, yes, Miss Weasley…Ginevra… I remember her, but…” There had been several females tortured at his mansion in that dark time and Bellatrix had done most of it. Some of them had died, but some had lived and been released through Voldemort’s whim and against Bellatrix’s wishes. The Department of Mysteries mess had been largely conducted in the dark and at the time it had seemed as though hordes had been running through the rooms there. He tried to get a closer look at the little witch; her abundance of riotous curls had mostly obscured her face when he had come across her defending herself against the sheep. In the summery darkness, her features were still indistinguishable so her answer came as a severe shock.
“My name is Hermione Granger.”
The blond wizard half sat up in dismay, hissing in displeasure, “Granger! Potter’s friend?” Lucius cursed his luck; of all the witches he could have saved, it had to be this one. He certainly knew this witch - one of the Golden Trio who had been instrumental in finally bringing down all the intricate work the Death Eaters had done to change wizarding society politically to their aims. Oh yes, he knew her very well, her and Potter and that blood traitor Weasley and their untimely interference in his lord’s entire political agenda.
Lucius had long since let go of those distant memories. He’d found his own sense of peace in the twelve years of the twenty-year sentence he’d spent in prison before being freed to fend for himself in the disaster - dredging up old grievances over ancient history now was worse than useless. In hindsight, even he had seen that Voldemort had been sinking further and further into madness and the blond wizard hadn’t been entirely sad to see an end to the Death Eaters’ failed rebellion.
The policies and strong-arm tactics that Voldemort had been using to crush the opposition had seemed more and more senseless. Lucius had always preferred subterfuge and persuasion to gain his objectives. Too many valuable pieces of the wizarding world were being needlessly obliterated when some quiet coercion would have served the purpose leaving the structure intact. But that was so far in the past, it didn’t much interest the ex-Death Eater any more.
Lucius was much more interested in his family. What with the devastation the ‘New Wave Master’ had sown, he hadn’t a clue what had happened to his son Draco or Draco’s family and now he probably never would, but dwelling on what he couldn’t manipulate or control was not his style and had always seemed counterproductive to him. He could mourn for them, but that would have to come when he had more leisure – and privacy.
His current circumstances required more immediate attention. He didn’t have the slightest clue where they were, although it still felt like England. The wind, the smells (some good, some not so much), and the very atmosphere of the place felt familiar. At least he wasn’t writhing on the floor in his death throes from the poison of the hellhounds as he had seen happen to others. He could be thankful for that, although he now had a new problem leaning up against him, shivering in the cool night. He was saddled with a witch who likely hated his guts and would as easily fry his liver for him as look at him. But no, that wasn’t entirely true if she couldn’t even kill two Muggle 'sheep' who were intent on obliterating her. Lucius tried to stretch out and relax his muscles as he felt the soft grass tickle his face.
Had they merely landed elsewhere in England? No, that couldn’t be, or all the people who had gone through the Veil would still have been around. None had ever returned and it had been assumed the Veil hid only death. Lucius’ mouth quirked. Now he had firsthand experience that the Veil was something else, but what? His ruminations had taken him mentally far away from his companion, so her sudden response startled him a bit.
“Yes, I’m Harry’s friend, but I’ve lost contact with everyone these past few weeks. I was hiding in a small storage locker in the Artifacts Department where I worked and the first sweeps of the sheep missed me. Apparently the lead lining of the locker repels the Magic-Hunting device because I could see through the locker’s air vent that the device was aiming at me. I thought I was dead. But they didn’t react to my presence and moved on.
“I had a bit of food in my desk – going all the way to the cafeteria every day from my spot in the basement was inconvenient so I had stockpiled some items for lunches. But I ran out last night and decided I needed to try to find my way out and away from the Ministry. As you can see, I didn’t get very far.”
“Yes, I saw all right, you couldn’t kill two sheep who were going to kill you,” Lucius said querulously, lying quietly on the grass, not bothering to look at his former enemy.
“I was giving them warning shots first,” she said defensively, ineffectually trying to swipe her hair back from her face. “I would have used the Unforgivable if I had to.”
“What? You thought a few jolts of that innocuous red magic would make them decide to leave you alone? What fairytale did you come from?” Lucius was too tired from his last few days of fighting and hiding to ream her out for her idiocy, but his new little sidekick would have to prove herself a lot more able than he’d seen so far if she was going to stay with him in…wherever they were.
“So I’m not as used to throwing death curses as you are, I don’t see that as a flaw, Mr. Malfoy, even if you do.”
“I’m still alive because I am used to throwing death curses. And may I point out, my dear, so are you. If I hadn’t delivered those two to whatever hell they now inhabit, you would no doubt be floating on a heavenly cloud right now, being fitted for a pair of wings. So seraphic as you are, I’m sure you would have been welcomed into St. Guinevere’s arms with joy.”
“Well, we didn’t have to go through the Veil. Why couldn’t you have cursed the hounds? Then we could have stayed in our own world. You didn’t know we would live, going through the Veil. You might have killed us.” Hermione looked around her apprehensively, worry about her new surroundings creeping over her and making her shiver in the slight breeze. “This seems like England, though. Maybe the Veil didn’t work right and we’re still here, just in the country somewhere.”
Lucius snorted in contempt, “And which hound would you have had me point at first? Didn’t you notice they had split up? I could have got two of them, maybe, before the other two got to us.”
Hermione just huffed in irritation, but snuggled closer to the warmth of her rescuer’s body. His greater size was generating much needed heat for her smaller frame.
“Well,” Lucius digested her information as a head of curly hair tickled his chin. He was somewhat amused at being simultaneously hugged and castigated, “for whatever good it does us, and that appears to be none, it’s interesting that the sheep devices don’t penetrate lead. Do you see the Veil anywhere? I don’t suppose one can just go back through it and return to the Ministry or someone would have done it by now.”
Hermione lifted her head from the warmth of Lucius’ shoulder where she had rested it, and gazed around the knoll, what she could see of it in the dark. “I don’t see anything but grass and maybe some woods in the distance – it appears a little darker over there and I think I see some treetops in the moonlight.” Hermione pointed to a spot in the distance, then scooted up against her human heater again. She didn’t have on anything other than a work blouse and skirt, her stockings, underwear and shoes. Lucius, on the other hand was wearing a beautifully tailored full-length wool coat over a suit and dress shirt and tie. Hermione couldn’t help thinking he had obviously been more concerned with his sartorial appearance than with the horrific events the magic community had suffered.
Lucius could feel the little witch shivering up against his side and, exasperated with her and annoyed at the entire world in general, he sat up, removed his wool coat, took off his suit jacket and slung it around her slim shoulders. He turned more toward the little witch so he could button his jacket on her petite frame. When she had put her arms into the jacket sleeves and it was securely closed against the night air Lucius merely lay down again and pulled her close, throwing the full-length coat over the both of them. He rechecked his cane in his overcoat, positioning the slitted pocket between them as a safeguard against losing it in the dark.
“Do you still have your wand?” he whispered in her ear.
“Yes. It’s in my pocket. Do you have yours?”
“Yes,” Lucius replied. Wands were just as important as another arm to any magic person. It would be unusual for anyone to let go of it unless the circumstances were dire, but of course the Department of Mysteries situation of going through the Veil had qualified on all counts.
“We have no idea where we’ve landed, so we may as well try to get a bit of sleep,” counseled the blond wizard, weariness etched into his voice. “When dawn comes, if it comes in this place, it will be soon enough to begin our investigation into where we are. Moving around in the dark may pitch us into a ravine or a cow pie. I suspect we may be somewhere near fresh bovine excrement if the general smell is any indication. I for one would like to retain what little I have left in good order.”
Hermione drowsily nodded her head on Lucius’ shoulder, feeling a bit safer hearing him use the word, ‘we’. He certainly wasn’t her favorite person, but she felt strangely safe huddled up against him in the dark. A comforting scent of lime and male surrounded her as she slumped down and was dead asleep in seconds.
tbc...
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Hmmm, where are they? Is there another question to be asked? What could it be?
.
.