A New Order of Wizards - COMPLETE

The characters belong to J.K.Rowling. I am only borrowing them for a while. No copyright transgressions are intended and no profit is made.
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Updated 10-31-06

Thank you all for the nice reviews. And thank you for letting me put in the transitional chapter where it needed to go, even if it was short. You'll like this chapter better. Guaranteed!

Here's a favorite pic of Lucius (add the "http://" to the beginning - I don't want to make a hot link here)

i65.photobucket.com/albums/h239/Scotsvine/Luciussweetandsexy.jpg

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Chapter Twenty – The Dance


The night of the dance Lucius appeared in their foyer dressed in one of his tuxedos, the blinding white of his pleated shirt in contrast to the black suit and tie. He had added a low-cut waistcoat in charcoal brocade instead of a cummerbund, drawing attention to his narrow waist. Hermione’s breath hitched in her throat. The difference between this night and so many others was Lucius was smiling at her as she apparated into the entryway. She had to admit he was a very handsome man, his intense masculinity definitely on display. For her? Had a sore bum made him respect her more? She smiled back at him, already wearing her outer wrap over her siren’s dress. She had made them a touch late with her private anxiety over her slinky gown, so Lucius whisked them together to the front of the host’s mansion. Hermione released the catch on her cloak and handed it to a servant. She heard her name in a shocked whisper.


“Hermione Jane Malfoy!! Where did you get that dress? If it is a dress. Is part of it missing?” Lucius steered her over to the side of the entryway. “What are you playing at? You look more like a stripper than a wife.” His eyebrows met in frowning disapproval.


“Oh, so you like it then? I couldn’t wear any knickers with it, you know. It would have ruined the line. No bra either. I’m saving you pots of money on underthings.” Hermione watched with satisfaction as the front of Lucius’ trousers belied his stormy face.”


“Little witch,” Lucius fumed in exasperated arousal, “I can’t take you anywhere.” He irritably adjusted his trouser front and marched her over to the receiving line. While they waited in the line, Lucius’ hand repeatedly smoothed the skin of Hermione’s bare back going from nape to waist and back again. They finally greeted their hosts and soon found themselves in the large ballroom at the back of the house.


Hermione saw Ginny and Harry with a small court of people around them so she decided to wait to talk to them. Ginny was glowing in a dark gold gown that wrapped around her pregnant form, leaving her arms bare in the magic candlelight spilling down from the floating candles. Harry looked faintly uncomfortable as usual in his tux, but his hair was combed for once and recently cut. Hermione figured Ginny had managed that feat. For all he was only twenty, the dignity of his office sat on his shoulders easily, giving him an air of authority much needed in their current political circumstances. He had made smart choices for his advisors, allowing some input from the vanquished Purebloods that provided a sop to their defeat and dismantlement. Even her husband, Lucius, was allowed to recommend financial ideas to the new government. It was a known fact that he had a flair for money.


Lucius touched her arm and she allowed him to show her to a table, where he held a chair for her to sit. She settled herself and Lucius murmured that he wished to circulate with some financial backers for a few minutes, if she would excuse him. Hermione nodded and Lucius glided away into the crowd. Hermione watched his tight butt disappear and wondered if it was still sore. She was smiling at her thought when Severus Snape and his wife, Pamela, came over and settled at the table with Hermione.


“Good evening, Hermione. Has Lucius abandoned you already? Making business deals, I suppose.” Snape knew Lucius as well as anyone, and Hermione wasn’t insulted at his salvo.


“Correct. But he promised me some dancing later. How are the two of you? I haven’t seen either of you for a while.” Hermione knew that sweet little Pamela bored holes into Lucius with her greedy eyes whenever he and she were in the same vicinity. She didn’t particularly want the covetous little witch near her husband. Hermione startled herself with that thought. Oh no, - no, no - not jealousy! She calmed herself with the delusion that she just felt disrespected by Pamela’s behavior, which would be an insult to any wife. Hermione smiled warmly at them both.


“Will Lucius be back soon?” asked Pamela artlessly.


Really, thought Hermione in disgust, her smile disappearing, doesn’t she have an ounce of brains in that gorgeous head? Hermione could see as well as anyone else that Pamela was very beautiful and she worried a bit about Lucius’ reaction to the empty-headed doll. But Lucius had never liked stupidity and this little female was afflicted with a severe case of it. Covetous and dumb. A disastrous combination. Hermione resolved to watch Pamela carefully. “I suppose he’ll be back in a while. He’s only just left. Severus, how is the new class of Hogwarts students? Any of them showing a talent for potions?”


Hermione and Severus carried on a desultory conversation punctuated at intervals with inane comments from Pamela about various dresses she saw going past. Pamela’s eyes roamed constantly, looking for something. She complained about being thirsty, so Severus obligingly went to get her some lemonade and asked Hermione if she wanted some too. Snape had no sooner left than Pamela’s face suddenly lit up and Hermione knew her husband was returning to their table.


Lucius saw who was sitting at the table with Hermione and at first recoiled. But then he remembered his plot to have Pamela receive two black eyes and he strolled over and slowed down beside Pamela’s chair waiting ostensibly for several couples to go by, positioning himself invitingly close to Pamela’s chair and looking as innocent as he could, while giving Hermione an excellent view of his posterior. Pamela took the bait instantly, running her hand up the back of Lucius’ trouser leg and stroking his backside. He moved as if shocked, and looked oh, so helplessly at his wife who had taken in the entire show. Lucius immediately moved away from Pamela and sat down next to Hermione, primming up his mouth with distaste. So far, so good. He hoped he wasn’t overplaying his reaction. But he wanted Pamela off his back, or butt as the case may be, and Hermione was his way to do it.


Hermione saw Pamela, the stupid little cow, mauling her husband’s butt and was so astounded that at first she didn’t notice Lucius looking at her. Lucius immediately came over and sat by her, almost seeking protection. His mouth was a thin line of disapproval. She leaned over and asked, “Do you get that type of behavior from women a lot?”


Lucius eyed her warily, “It happens occasionally. I don’t like it, but what choice do I have? Make a scene? I’ve warned some of the harpies before, but it doesn’t have much effect. Apparently if a woman does that to me, she’s not the type to take no for an answer. I can’t exactly take them out and thrash them.” Maybe that would give Hermione the idea. Lucius couldn’t be much more blatant without clever Hermione smelling a Death Eater-sized rat.


“Some?” Hermione looked daggers at Pamela who wasn’t paying any attention; her gaze was strictly on Lucius. “What do you mean, some? How many have done that to you?”


“Over the years? I’ve lost count. Haven’t you ever had a man touch you without your permission? I like sex as well as anyone, but I don’t like being pawed when I’m not interested.” So far this was going well. Lucius goaded Hermione just a bit more. “Pamela is a very beautiful woman. But very, shall we say, lacking in grey matter. No Snitch in her Quidditch. Perhaps you could have a small talk with…no, that probably would be completely useless. She’s not very bright, but she does seem to have a bit of a fixation on me. It’s very annoying trying to maintain a friendship with Severus with her underfoot.” Lucius let it lie and waited.


Hermione was looking at Pamela while Lucius was talking to her and saw that Pamela hadn’t taken her eyes off Lucius the whole time. Hermione rose and walked around the table to Pamela, pulling her up by her arm. “We need to go to the powder room, right now, Pamela.” She began dragging Pamela away through the crowd.


“Oh, but I don’t want to leave the table.” Pamela could only keep one idea in her head at a time and the handsome, blonde wizard at their table was completely occupying it.


Hermione walked Pamela out of the terrace doors, down the steps and into some shrubbery at the side of a wing. She shoved Pamela up against the side of the building.


“This isn’t the ladies’.” Pamela was certainly quick with the obvious.


“No, you’re right, it isn’t. Look at me Pamela. I want to make this so clear even you won’t have any trouble understanding. If you ever, ever, ever, touch my husband again, I will personally come to your house and cut up each and every piece of clothing you own. I will take all your jewelry and bury it where you will never find it. And I will hold you down and cut all that lovely blonde hair off your head right down to the roots.” Hermione yanked hard on that hair to make her point. She noticed with some interest that Pamela had two recent and one fading love bites at the back of her neck under her hair. “ If you persist, I will take my nail scissors to your face. You won’t be pretty any more and your own husband will get rid of you. No more nice things. No one will want an ugly girl with no hair. And if you even tell your husband about this, I’ll still do it. Do we understand each other?” Hermione yanked again, “Do we?”


Pamela was crying in shock and fear at the monstrous threats she was getting. “I promise, I promise. Don’t ruin my clothes or my hair. I won’t bother Lucius again. He’s just so pretty…” Hermione yanked Pamela’s hair once again and Pamela screamed, “I promise!!” She was sobbing in earnest now.


Hermione said remorselessly, “Good. I’ll know if you try to touch him again. You know what I’ll do. I know exactly where you live so don’t think I am bluffing. Just try to remember all your jewelry covered in dirt. Think about your favorite dresses cut into little pieces and thrown all over your room.” Hermione figured it was more useful to give Snitchless Pamela some visual reminders; they might stay in her mind longer. She left Pamela crying in the shrubbery and returned to the terrace to find Lucius waiting for her. He handed her some lemonade. “Severus said to let him know where you left her and he’ll take her home. He’s hoping your methods will prevail where his haven’t.”


Hermione looked at Lucius, upset. Severus knew about all this?


Lucius put his arm around her, drawing her back into the ballroom. “Yes,” he read her face, “he knows. He’s not in love with her and it’s been an annoyance for us both for quite a while.”


“Why did he marry her then?” Hermione was at a loss.


“Her family is very wealthy and snobbish. They liked Severus’ connections to Minister Potter, which they thought would redound on them. Severus has been appointed the Chief Advisor for the Ministry’s new School Board. Our brainless Pamela wanted the cachet of being associated with someone near the top of the Ministry. Hence her marriage to Snape. He got money and a pretty ornament for his bed, and she got very little since Snape doesn’t like being around the Minister much. Rather amusing if it weren’t so inconvenient.”


“Why would Severus want such a sterile marriage? He could have had so much more with someone he loved.” Hermione thought about it, “But I don’t think it’s entirely true that he doesn’t love her. His expression sometimes when he looks at her…” She didn’t want to give away the love bites to Lucius for fuel to tease Severus.

“Well I don’t see it - except for that ring. Severus probably hasn’t limited himself to our little Pamela. He’s Halfblood and can go where he likes for intelligence, but men aren’t like women, and I’m sure he enjoys the beauty of his wife in his bed even without the presence of love. As a slight bonus, she’s Slytherin.”


Hermione mentally threw up her hands at the enigma of the male mind.

“So what did you do to Pamela? Does she have two black eyes?” Lucius wanted to know how he’d been vindicated.


“I told her I’d cut up all her clothes, bury her jewelry, and cut off her hair if she touched you again.” Hermione smiled reminiscently at her brilliant strategy.


“You what? That’s all? You didn’t hit her? Pamela won’t care about a simple tongue lashing!” Lucius looked at Hermione in disappointment. Hermione hadn’t defended him at all. Merlin’s balls, why should he care? She hadn’t defended him. That …hurt.


“I pulled her hair until she cried. Does that make you feel better? If you’d wanted her slugged, you could have done that yourself. Knowing you, I’m sure you could have found a way to get away with it. Hitting her would have done nothing to stop her. She would have forgotten that in a few days. If you hadn’t noticed, she rather lives in the moment. That’s why she had the audacity to grab your bum in front of me. My threats were designed to strike absolute terror into her where she would remember and be scared for a long time.”


Hermione reversed his phrase, “Women aren’t like men, Lucius. I had to hit her where it would do the most damage. I had to threaten the things most precious to her – her clothes, jewelry, and status. I don’t think she will bother you any more. But I hope you’re satisfied. It was inspired, the way you set me up – again.” Hermione was remembering his oral sex con. “I know it was important to you for some reason to have me take care of your problem. You didn’t ask her to grope you so I do see it was a problem. I hope your friendship with Severus isn’t ruined over this.” Hermione left a chagrined Lucius standing with his thoughts in turmoil, and went upstairs to the ladies’ for a breather.
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The dance isn't over yet. Not nearly... As always, a review is appreciated.