Just Around the Riverbend

Voracious Reader
angeles
Anathema
HarryGinny4Eva
Daughter of a serpent
margaritama
chimeracandor
Alina
jkw625
Labibliographe

Thank you all for your WONDERFUL reviews, and I hope I get as good a haul this chapter!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As a Slytherin, Lucius took advantage of each situation presented to him. Every situation had an advantage to those who knew how to look for them, and those who knew how to take them. This new revelation with Hermione was upsetting. She had told Daisy about something he wanted to keep quiet just a little while longer. He had even begun to think recently about how he was going to tell the young girl.

And come to find out, Hermione had already blabbed it only a few days after Daisy had come. It was distressing, and he certainly was genuinely upset. If it had been any other employee of his, he would have let them go immediately. But this was Hermione. He had an emotional attachment to her.

And yet, like a true Slytherin, he had discovered a way to turn this abysmal situation around to an advantage for him. And it was enjoyable, indeed.

~~

Hermione sat in her room on one of her chairs, staring forlornly at the wall. She hadn’t meant to upset Lucius. Gods forbid it. The man had a mercurial temper, and she didn’t want to get on the bad side of it.
She didn’t want to leave, either. She’d become attached to Daisy. The girl was like a little sister, or a close niece. And Lucius was getting under her skin. She was looking forward to seeing how far their relationship could go, and it couldn’t go far if he sacked her.

She was startled out of her reverie by a knock on her door. She scrambled up quickly, and walked briskly to the door, and opened it. Lucius stood at the door, his face a perfectly unreadable mask. Hermione swallowed hard.

“Lucius, I just-” But he cut her off by raising his hand.

“Be silent and listen for a moment, Hermione.” He said, his voice firm and soft. “I am extremely disappointed in your lack of control.” He added, and Hermione’s eyes lowered ashamedly. “I have thought long and hard about what to do about this, and I have come up with an ultimatum. You can either submit to a punishment for your transgression, or you can leave here.”

Hermione blinked. Punishment?

“What kind of punishment?” Hermione asked carefully. Lucius regarded her for a moment.

“Since you attempted to thrash my reputation to my cousin, I have decided to return the favor to your bottom.”
Hermione blinked. Her bottom? What was he- oh…..Oh!

“You want to spank me? I’m not four!” she huffed indignantly.

“I realize that, Hermione. But let me assure you: I will not hedge on this decision. You can submit to a spanking, or leave. If you choose to submit for the spanking, you will report to my rooms this evening for your punishment. You will be there no more than an hour, and when you leave, I will not bring up this transgression again. The slate will be wiped clean. If you choose to leave, I will have the elves help you move your things, and I expect everything to be gone at the end of the week.” He said matter-of-factly.

Hermione stared at him, her mouth open. A spanking? That was…well…she didn’t quite know what that was…
Lucius saw Hermione shiver slightly, and knew he had her.

But Hermione’s face suddenly morphed into a mask of stubbornness.

“I don’t understand why you’re so upset about this. Are you ashamed of your past?” Hermione asked. Lucius seemed almost surprised when she asked. He’d thought she was this close to acquiescence to a spanking.

“Listen to me, Hermione. I hate having to repeat myself.” He said stiffly. “She is thirteen years old-”

“There were plenty of thirteen-year-olds involved in that war!” Hermione interjected, puffing up. Hell, she had been a thirteen-year-old involved in that war!

“But not that one!” Lucius said, his voice rising in volume. “That was not her war! She was here with me three days! Her parents were freshly dead, and she was with a stranger she didn’t know. Didn’t you think it was a bad idea to tell her about that yet?” he asked. Hermione’s glare didn’t yield, and there was a slight awkward pause between them. Lucius let out a soft breath.

“Hermione. You’ve known Mr. Potter for years, correct?” he asked suddenly. Hermione blinked, but nodded. “And you became friends almost immediately, am I right?” he added. Here, Hermione made a face.

“Well…Halloween…” she said. Lucius smiled smugly at her.

“Ah, yes….the troll. Draco was full of stories about that particular incident for weeks. But I digress. My point is that up until that point, Mr. Potter’s only crime was being a great brat, yes?”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Hermione said, unsure of where he was going with this.

“What if you had found out some time before Halloween that Mr. Potter had willingly made a…stupid…mistake that nearly cost him and his family their lives? Would you have been reticent to go anywhere near him?” he finished, his glacial eyes pinning her. Hermione’s brow furrowed and Lucius could almost see the wheels turning in her head.

“Yeah…I guess I would have…” she said softly.

“Can you not imagine how much you frightened her? Daisy is a double half-blood, both in race and magical purity. She must have thought I would sneak into her room and strangle her in her sleep…”

“I didn’t….I didn’t think about it from an emotional perspective. I only saw the knowledge of it. She wanted….she wanted to know.” Hermione said, beginning to look devastated.

He reached out and took her face in his hands. “And so you see that not all knowledge is harmless.”

“I’m sorry.” Hermione whimpered. Lucius right hand reached up to pet her hair, running his fingers through her unruly curls.

“You’re forgiven.”

They stayed like that for a few moments, before Hermione looked up at Lucius through her eyelashes.

“So…you’re not going to spank me, then?” she asked weakly. Lucius chuckled.

“Oh, my dear Hermione, I’m still going to spank you, and I’m going to do a thorough job of it.” He replied. He had to hide a smile when Hermione pulled away, a look of shock on her face.

“What? Why? I thought you were going to forgive me…” she said pitifully. She was trying to play the sympathy card with him, unaware that he had no sympathy for her at this moment.

“I did, kitten. But I’m going to teach you a lesson about watching your tongue that you won’t soon forget.” He purred. Hermione squirmed, not liking the way those glacial eyes liquefied her insides. She shivered when he turned her slightly to the side, and looked at her bottom. “Oh yes…I’m going to enjoy turning that pretty, pert bottom a hot cherry red.” He all but moaned. Hermione shuddered, completely terrified, and completely aroused all at once. Why was her body reacting this way? He was going to spank her! She should be horrified…but the way he was speaking about it so casually…the deep timbre his voice had dropped to, and the smell of her own arousal mixing with his cologne was extremely intoxicating.

Lucius could smell her arousal, too, and it was affecting him. He stalked behind her fluidly, almost cat-like, and shifted the front of his robes when she couldn’t see. He leaned forward so that his mouth was against her ear, and spoke.

“You will not wear knickers to dinner tonight.” He commanded softly. Hermione gasped, turning her head towards him.

“But we’re not the only ones there!” But Lucius only placed his hands gently on her shoulders.

“You will not wear knickers to dinner tonight.” He repeated. “You will meet me in the corridor directly after, and I will take you to my rooms to receive your punishment.” And he left her there, floating out of the room almost like an apparition. Hermione let out a low moan.

“Oh gods….I’m a sick woman…” she groaned, rubbing her thighs together to attempt to relieve the ache that had started.

~~

Dinner passed too quickly for Hermione’s tastes, and the entire time she had pixies in her tummy, yet she tried to force down food to stall. She had foregone her knickers as Lucius had ordered, and felt strangely naughty sitting on the chair in her denim pants and nothing under them. She squirmed in her chair as dessert was brought along, her insides quivering even worse.

Phelan seemed distant during the whole meal, rarely speaking even when spoken too, and looking distracted as he ate. It was a simple reason, really. He could smell Hermione’s anticipation and arousal, and it was twisting his own insides. He was hard as a rock, and kept shifting his robes so that no one could see. He nearly groaned when he finally looked up to see Hermione licking the last bit of chocolate sauce from her spoon.

Hermione put her spoon down slowly, her heart pounding in her chest. She saw Lucius place his napkin on the table, and he stood leisurely from his place.

“I hope dinner was to everyone’s satisfaction.” He said slowly, looking at the mixed group at the table. Phelan grunted a positive response, and Daisy nodded happily, still enjoying her ice cream.

“It was particularly good tonight, Mr. Malfoy.” Harry said, rubbing his stomach contentedly. Lucius could say one good thing for Harry Potter: He had a great enjoyment of good food. He did not inhale his food as he’d heard Mr. Weasley did, and he appreciated the taste just as much as the volume of it. A strange creature Mr. Potter was, but a polite one. Most of the time. Okay, some of the time. Well…he gave the boy an ‘A’ for effort…

“Very good. Now I bid you all good evening. I will be retiring to my rooms early tonight. If anyone needs anything they can call for the elves.” Lucius said, and walked quietly from the room. Hermione waited a few moments, before standing as well, and leaving through the same door Lucius had. Harry gave a brief look to the door.

“She’s taking the long way to the library again. I hope she doesn’t get lost in that room full of naked portraits like last time. I didn’t know she could turn so red.” Harry said, shaking his head.

Phelan suddenly stood, his grey brows drawn together, and his nostrils flared, and walked quickly and stiffly from the dining room.

“What crawled up his ass and died?” Daisy asked around a mouthful of ice cream. Harry shrugged.

“I don’t know. Everyone’s been acting weird tonight…”

~~

Hermione followed behind Lucius, feeling akin to an inmate on her way to the death chamber. She knew she wasn’t going to die, but she had no idea what to expect. The last time she’d been spanked was when she was six. She’d taken apart one of her father’s favorite clocks to see how it worked, and had been unable to get it back together before her father found out. He’d been suitably impressed at her reasoning, but incredibly annoyed that he had to pay to get it fixed. He’d spanked her under the reasoning of destroying another’s property. It hadn’t been particularly hard, either. A few sniffles and she was playing again in no time.

She had a strange feeling that whatever Lucius Malfoy was about to do to her was going to sting. A lot.
He led her through the coldly decorated hallways, up one of the winding staircases, and off into the Master’s wing of the house. This wing was done in dark forest greens and rich mahogany wood, with not-so-subtle accents of black and silver throughout. Lucius came to a dark mahogany door, carved with protective runes in a decorative pattern around the edges. He turned the intricate silver doorknob, and entered the room. Hermione, shivering, entered after him.

He waited by the door as she entered, and closed the door behind her. Hermione turned to face him, her eyes wide.

“Are you nervous?” he asked, his voice soft and deep. He didn’t want to go into full Dominant mode tonight. He didn’t want to frighten her. Yes, this was supposed to be a punishment, and yes, he would eventually train her to submit at the right times, but as of now he wanted her to stay curious about spankings. He so enjoyed spanking a woman.

Narcissa had rather enjoyed getting spanked by his hand, and even occasionally she let him strap her. She was a sweet, docile creature in the bedroom, and had been no trouble to train. But this was not Narcissa. Hermione could bolt after this spanking. And he didn’t want that.

“Mm hmm.” She said, too skittish to speak.

“One more question, my dear, and I want an honest answer from you.”

“Okay. Shoot.” Hermione said, and giggled nervously.

Not yet, Lucius thought miserably. Courting took so damned long.

“Are you aroused?” he asked, all but rumbling the low question. Hermione’s eyes widened slightly, and she swallowed hard.

“N-no…” And Lucius gave her a smile that could only be described as ‘wicked.’

“Well then. Shall we start?”

He held his hand out and she took it gingerly. He led her to a large black leather chair near his personal fireplace, and he sat down on the edge, with her facing him. He took her other hand in his, holding her cold fingers in his own warm grasp.

“Do you know why you’re here?” he asked. Hermione swallowed.

“I told Daisy about you being a Death Eater with no regard to how she would react to it.” Hermione said.

“Yes. And do you regret it?”

“Yes. I do regret it now that I realize how she could have reacted. I should have sent her to you with any questions she had.” Hermione added. He nodded.

“Very good, Hermione. Now, pull those ghastly denim jeans down to your knees.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Ducks* Hey...whoever's throwing bricks needs to stop! That means you, LaBib! *Shifty eyes*

I know that was a horrible thing for me to do, but I wanted to make sure I got the next chapter just right because it could either make or break so many things. I hope to see a lot of encouragement from you guys, and I hope my cliffie didn't piss you off too much. If it makes you feel any better, over half of the next chap is written. ^_^

You've read the chapter, now rate/review.