Harvest Moon

Voracious Reader: More scares in the future. Hehehe. But I think our duo can handle them.

Zets: You’ll find out later. Yes, I know I’m an evil tease. I have to talk to you anyway about whether or not I’m putting this story on hiatus for a couple of weeks. I’ll explain why later.

Meankitty69 and Heidi191976: Glad you’re still reading and enjoying.

Taz: I may only put it on hold for a couple of weeks. Why are you fussing? You know more of the plot than anyone else aside from me does.

***



Lucius lifted his face from where it had been buried in Hermione’s hair to look at her.



“Are you injured?” he asked, pushing himself up on his forearms and looking her over. He tried to ignore the rather interesting position they were in.



“I’m perfectly fine, Lucius,” she said, trying not to squirm under him. “What about you?”



“I’ve survived far worse than this before,” Lucius said, sitting up and shaking the debris from his hair and clothing. Sweet gods, if he’d stayed sprawled on top of her for another instant something very bad or something very good would have happened. Best to keep his distance from her. For the moment any way. He’d put certain plans into action when the probability of them being in danger was less than it was at the current moment.



Hermione found herself sorry for the loss of his warmth and weight against her. So much so that she nearly whined in protest. She shook her head. She was going mad; there was just no other explanation for it.



“You know I probably could have dodged,” she pointed out to him. She felt the need to reinforce the fact she could take care of herself to this man.



“I’m aware of that in hindsight. But I was raised to be a gentleman and a gentleman always protects a lady when at all possible.” Hermione snorted and Lucius smiled. “Yes, I can see where you’d find that hard to believe. As for your ability to defend yourself there was never any question of it in my mind. By the way, Ara did mention you are an amazing fighter and your reflexes are incredible.”



Hermione laughed a little, thinking on the sparring match she and Arabella had shortly before Samhain. “Yes, well, Arabella is no slouch herself in that department.”



Lucius chuckled. “That is the truth. Who won? If you don’t mind my asking.”



“I think it was a draw.”



“That’s interesting. Considering Ara usually destroys grown men,” Lucius said, sounding more than a little amused. “She grew up in a less than safe area of the city as I understand it.”



“That’s how I understand it as well.”



Lucius raked his hands through his hair, looking at the now destroyed cabinet. “Well, I suppose it’s safe to presume any evidence to be had is now thoroughly decimated,” he said, going over to carefully examine it.



“Yes, I think you’re right in that regard.”



He sighed heavily. “No energy signature to indicate who did this. Whomever it was did a very thorough job of erasing their presence.”



“Does anyone have access to this area aside from the family and the house elves?”



Lucius shook his head. “No. The wards are specifically set to family energy signatures as far as human beings go. The house elves have their own ways of getting through. Anyone trying to get in on their own . . . would most likely not survive. Unless they had a family member with them. I suppose I’ll have to let Draco bring some of the other aurors through to investigate this,” he said, nodding toward the cabinet.



“I think that might be a good idea.”



He looked around at the scattered debris for a moment. “I don’t believe we would have found anything of value here.”



“Why not?”



“The dark lord reinforced all Deatheater’s masks and robes so they could not be destroyed by magickal means.”



“But an explosion wouldn’t be magickal, Lucius,” Hermione pointed out.



“Not as a general rule, no. However, this one had a magickal ignition point. That being so, if the mask and robes were still here they would have been thrown free still intact.”



Hermione looked around her, not seeing anything that remotely resembled Lucius’ mask or robes. She sighed and shook her head. “That means they weren’t there.”



“Indeed. It also means I have a thief in my household at very least.”



Lucius brushed off his robes before holding his hand out to Hermione to help her up from the floor. Hermione put her hand into his and felt little shocks of awareness shiver up her arm. If Lucius noticed, he thankfully said nothing of it. Though he did turn his hand and lace his fingers through hers before starting to walk out of the vault. The other hand held his wand, with the walking stick pushed awkwardly into the belt of his robes.



“Anyone who knows me, even a bit, knows enough to presume I would come away from the cabinet exploding at least semi-functional and under my own power. They might have put in other traps along the way that are set to engage upon leaving rather than coming in.”



Hermione nodded, drawing out her wand as well. At Lucius’ raised eyebrow she smiled a little. “Didn’t we just have this conversation? I am an auror, you know. I’m perfectly capable of defending myself.”



“I am aware. However, since you were nearly injured in my home, it’s my responsibility to see you safely above ground.”



“We’ll watch out for each other. Deal?”



“Do I have a choice in the matter?”



Hermione shrugged. “Not exactly.”



“Stubborn witch.”



“Pompous wizard.”



“Touché,” Lucius said, then pointed his wand upward through the center of the spiral staircase. “Periculosus illuminati.”



A fine white mist swirled from the tip of his wand and drifted upward. Hermione watched in horrified fascination as the mist seemed to adhere to what looked like red strands of light. Lucius’ eyes narrowed and he growled a little under his breath.



“Someone certainly wasn’t taking any chances of me getting back out without being hurt. Probably quite badly.”



“Are all of those traps?” Hermione asked, counting at least half a dozen of them in close proximity of each other.



“They are. Did they fail to teach you this sort of thing in auror training?” he questioned, looking concerned.



“After a fashion. But usually if there are suspected traps the curse breakers are brought in to disarm them before any of the other aurors.”



“They’ve been remiss in your education, Hermione. It’s always best to know you can do things yourself. Curse breakers may not be there to assist you at times,” Lucius said before pointing the wand upward again. “Solvo!” A blast of blue light shot from the wand, dissolving the strands of red. “It’s only a temporary dissolution. We need to hurry.”



They scrambled up the steps as quickly as they could, barely reaching the second landing before several of the traps fired at once. Both of them had to hold onto the banister as the whole house rocked in the wake of the traps activating. The stone steps they had just come up were now hissing mounds of gelatinous goo.



“Well, Lucius, you certainly know how to show a girl a good time,” Hermione said weakly, trying to avoid dwelling on the thought that she could have very well been part of the now oozing staircase.



“I assure you, Mine, this is not my idea of a good time.”