Love Thy Enemy

CHAPTER 23: A Familiar Face





Hermione didn’t see him at dinner; she took her meal in their room. In fact she hadn’t spoken to Lucius since returning from the healer. Her wound was superficial, just a slight bump and a scratch on the back of her head. It was nothing that would not heal in a few days time. She wasn’t so sure about her emotions.





She rubbed her arms absentmindedly and tried to get a grasp on her thoughts. They were everywhere at once. It wasn’t as though she hadn’t seen Lucius like that before. They had been at each other’s throats for years, but seeing his wrath and battling him from a distance was one thing; being up close and personal was another.





The rage and pain in his eyes haunted her more than her memories of the war. She understood loss, she too had lost loved ones; friends, her parents. While her loss had been great, she had grieved and moved on. But she supposed it was different when the person you lost was your child, perhaps that sort of thing was impossible to overcome.





She felt the heavy burden of guilt weighing on her shoulders. She should have walked right back out when she realized it was Draco’s room. She shouldn’t have uncovered the painting and engaged in a conversation with him.





There was a part of her that said she was to blame for Lucius’s reaction; she knew he had not mourned properly. But she also knew that Lucius needed to get a grasp on his anger. He was always tightly in control of his emotions, but she feared now that she may not be safe from him if he were pushed too far. Was it just that particular situation, those specific events lining up that created an isolated incident?





She was tired, emotionally drained, and her mind was a little foggy from the pain draught she had taken for her aching head. She rose from her chair by the window, stumbling a little under the effects of the medication, and made her way to the bed.





“I can’t think about that right now, if I do Ill go crazy. I’ll think about it tomorrow.” She quoted Scarlett O’Hara as she tossed her dressing gown onto the foot of the bed and crawled beneath the coverlet. It wasn’t difficult to let the pain draught carry her off to sleep.









Lucius found his way into their room, one too many fire-whiskeys burning in his belly. He had eaten alone, brutally aware of the empty place where she usually sat. He had spent hours sitting in his study. He was unable to work; he just couldn’t turn off the memory of blood soaking into the material of her blouse. As a deatheater he had been grateful for the masks and hoods of their ‘uniform’ for it hid his disgust in those times when captives were tortured and killed. Unlike some, he had never taken any sort of enjoyment from the brutality, but he was just as guilty since he had done nothing to stop or prevent it to begin with.



He had put off going to bed for as long as he could, but finally had no choice when the ring on his finger began to burn slightly, a reminder of their marriage terms. He stood beside the bed and stared at the empty vial of a pain relief potion lying on the nightstand. He tugged the covers back and winced at the dark purple marks on her arms, glaring up at him in the moonlit room. He had done that to her, he had harmed her when he promised he wouldn’t.





Lucius walked across the room to his bureau. He didn’t even look in the mirror; he didn’t want to see his own face at that moment. Between his guilt and his intoxication he was afraid he might hex himself just to make his current bout of melancholy stop. He opened his top drawer and shoved aside a stack of embroidered handkerchiefs and hair ribbons to reveal a large, black velvet bag with a drawstring closure.





He set his glass on top of the bureau and untied the knot of the silky ropes. From within the soft cloth he withdrew the old familiar face of the man he used to be, the man he had though buried with his wife and son. He held the mask up to his face, and only then did he raise his eyes to look in the mirror. He found the dark base with the lighter, elegantly etched design ironic. Light and pretty on the surface, but dark underneath. He snorted softly and pulled the mask away. He shoved it back into its bag and returned it to its resting place in his drawer.





He stripped out of his clothing leaving them in a careless heap on the floor. He was just too tired to worry about it in that moment. He crawled into the bed beside her and laid his head on her pillow, his nose not even and inch from hers. He ran his fingers lightly over her arm; over the marks he had so carelessly given her, wishing that his touch alone could erase the damage both on and below the surface.





She opened her eyes slowly, barely able to focus on his face. She reached up and pushed his hair back off of his face.



“Go to sleep, Lucius. Tomorrow is another day.” She muttered before rolling over snuggling back into his warmth and returning quickly to sleep. Lucius breathed in the scent of her hair and kissed the back of her head. He fell asleep wondering if he could be forgiven.



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Short Chapter I know. I don’t think Hermione will hold it against him too much, but I think it will make her wary for awhile. Poor Lucius, self loathing sucks, and whiskey only make it worse. He still has to apologize…..it seemed wrong for him to say sorry when he was pissed and she was drugged LOL….we still have a ball…..the ministry and Kingsley are still hovering in the background, so don’t think its over yet.





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OK….I will not mention your name, because you are annoying me now, but to a certain rather nasty individual who seems to have issues with the fact that I do not write my stories to be compliant with the books, I will continue to delete your comments : ) If you don’t like non compliant tales STOP READING THEM!





Now, onto those who either have constructive things to say and whose opinion I care about LOL





Mandy - Thank you. Lucius will fix it, he’s hard to resist when he’s sweet, and even harder to resist when he’s an ass….. (I have a thing for Alpha Males; I find assholes kind of sexy)



AthenaMalfoy – I think I was traumatized by watching Mike Leigh’s movie Naked last night with David Thewlis…was a very dark, rather twisted and violent movie, hence the rather dark turn things took in my story…..but David (Lupin) got naked hehe, that was a bright spot. I guess I have to get Lucius naked again soon huh?



Sampdoria - I know I can always count on you for a positive review : )

You are right, in the story and life in general, you have to overcome the past to move into the future. I have faith in my boy Lucius……and in Hermione.



Bluezauza - I think maybe others are seeing what neither one of them are willing to admit. Its going to take some doing for these two stubborn people to see and admit that they have strong feelings for each other that aren’t negative



Heidi – Sad yes. But grief is the saddest, strangest thing in the world to witness and go through. It is so irrational you wonder how you come out of it sane. And losing a child…well, it just magnifies it and the anger phase seems to linger the longest. : (











The quotes from "Gone with the wind" were a tribute to my friend Georgina "Jo" in Dover....she loves the book and never fails to make me laugh when she quotes the southern belle in her thick, sort of cockney accent LOL





If you have never seen Lucius Deatheater mask in detail, take a look. Its quite beautiful actually, like him.



http://www.noblecollection.com/catalog/product.cfm?id=NN7118&catid=21