The Favor

A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. They mean a lot to me. MarksPet-Lucius will tell Hermione exactly what happened that night, in the next chapter.

*~*~*~*

Monday morning Hermione stormed into Draco's office. “Draco!” she bellowed at him angrily.

“What is it, Hermione?” he purred, unaffected by her tone of voice.

She leaned over on his desk. “You didn't tell me that your father won't leave the manor!”

He stood up. “Yes, I did.”

“No, you told me he doesn't leave the manor, not that he won't!”

“What's the difference?” Draco asked confused.

“Friday night he took me out on an almost forced date.”

Now he was even more confused. “Almost forced?”

“Don't interrupt.”

“He bought me a designer dress and shoes. He sent his house-elf over to do my hair. He brought me flowers and made nice with Ron and Harry.”

Draco was laughing. “Am I supposed to feel sorry for you, or jealous of you?”

She ignored his comment. “Then we had a very lovely dinner, in your garden!”

“That is a nice spot.”

“Draco, that's not the point. Does he ever go anywhere except to the Leaky Cauldron?”

“No, that is why I asked you to talk to him. He never steps outside of the manor. Well, except Friday night when he went to your house. He usually Floos or Apparates.”

“That's interesting.” Hermione thought for a moment, calming down a bit. “Does he ever go to Muggle London?”

“Not that I know of, but I don't follow him.”

Hermione sat down thinking. “My home is in a Muggle neighborhood. Yet he came to my home without a problem. Something is not right. I think I might have to talk with Lucius, today.”

“Hearing you say his name like that sounds very weird,” Draco said, sitting down also. He was a little confused about his feelings.

Hermione laughed. “Yet, you are the one who wanted me to date him.”

“I am a complicated man,” he said with a grin.

*~*~*~*

After work, Hermione decided to pay Lucius a little visit, and get to the bottom of this little mystery. Tippy answered the door; Hermione was becoming very fond of the little elf.

“Hello, Tippy,” Hermione said cheerfully.

The elf's eyes brightened when she was who was at the door. “Hello, Miss. I will let the Master know you are here,” she said, beaming.

Hermione laughed a bit. She was certainly an expressive house-elf.

Tippy winked back into the room. “He is in his library; I will take you to him.”

“Thank you,” Hermione said.

Tippy led her into an enormous room, lined with bookshelves that were filled floor to ceiling. He was sitting in a leather chair, sipping on some brandy. Tippy winked out, leaving Hermione and Lucius alone.

“Hermione, what are you doing here?” he asked, but not getting up from his chair. He had been thinking about something before Hermione showed up. She was still in her work robes, he noticed. “Whatever she wants it must be important,” he thought.

“I came because I need to know something.”

He gestured to the other chair beside him. “Please have a seat, would you like something to drink?”

“No, thank you,” she said as she sat down.

“What did you want to ask me?”

“Lucius, why don't you leave the manor?” she asked, not beating around the bush.

“I do, I go to The Leaky Cauldron,” he said, taking a sip of brandy.

“Why don't you go anywhere else? The house-elves run all your errands. You will only meet people at your home. Is there a reason?”

“Yes.”

“Why? Is it because you are getting attacked?” Hermione wondered if any rouge Death Eaters, were going after Lucius because of his role as a spy.

He sighed heavily. “It's because women won't leave me alone.”

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“After my divorce became public, I went to Diagon Alley to Gringotts, and I was mauled by several women.”

“Mauled? What did they want?” she asked concerned.

“Sex, money, marriage. It was quite distressing,” he said, shuddering at the memory.

Hermione was shaking with laughter. She was trying to hold it in, but it wasn't working. “I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but you are afraid to step outside because women are throwing themselves at you? I figured you would be thrilled.”

Lucius eyes flashed with anger. “Why would I be thrilled? I've had to put an anti-entrance charm on the manor because of all the attempted break-ins! Any owls I get are forwarded to the Ministry where the mail is tested for charms, potions, or any type of tampering.”

Hermione's face went from amused to shock. This was a serious problem. “I'm sorry for laughing; it was very rude of me. I didn't know that severity of the problem.”

“I wanted to take you out to a nice restaurant, like you deserve, but I'm afraid that you would have been attacked if you were seen in public with me. I don't want to put you in harm's way.”

“But for three years? Those are some very persistent women!” Hermione said.

Lucius shook his head. “I never see the same woman twice.”

Hermione was trying to figure this out. “So, why haven't they attacked you at The Leaky Cauldron?”

“I don't know, maybe because I never enter through the doors. Tom lets me use his private Floo.”

“Are you sure that they are still after you? Maybe your... um, appeal has diminished? When was the last time you were attacked?” Hermione spouted of questions.

“On Saturday afternoon, after you left, I went to Diagon Alley to see the location that Severus is considering for his shop. I was attacked by three very hyperactive girls. They looked fresh out of Hogwarts. Was there a law passed that made me the center of attention?”

“Not that I know of. I might have to look, considering how long this has been going on,” Hermione said, half joking.

Lucius just sipped more brandy and sighed.

Hermione leaned over and took his hand. “Lucius, I can handle any hyper witch who tries to attack me; goodness knows I've been through a lot. Let's go out and see what happens? You have warned me what could happen, I will be prepared.”

“I don't want to risk it,” Lucius said somberly.

Hermione threw her hands up. “What is the alternative, you lock yourself away in the manor? How long before they start getting through your protection charms? How long before they start going after Draco? Has the Ministry done anything about this?”

Lucius looked at her as if she was out of her mind. “The Ministry hasn't done anything. The only reason they are sorting my mail is because it is against the law to send mail that contains illegal charms and potions. I have become a prisoner in my own home.”

Hermione closed her eyes in frustration. “At least it's spacious,” she said, trying lighten the mood.

Lucius raised an eyebrow. “Very, I am finding secrets rooms that I didn't even know existed.”

That perked Hermione's interest. “Really?”

“When my great grandfather had this house built; he had numerous secret rooms included in the construction. I have found over a dozen but there are still more.”

“What did he use the rooms for?”

“I'm not sure, most of them were empty. Some of them had glass bottles, I wonder if one of them was used as a lab.”

“Fascinating,” Hermione said in astonishment.

“I found the original blue-prints to the manor in one of the rooms, but the secret rooms were not marked.”

Hermione looked confused. “Then how did you find the ones you did?”

“By chance and luck, but the last one I found I was in my study looking at the blue-prints, and I noticed that the room was smaller than how the plans were drawn. So I started looking. It took me over an hour to find the latch that opened one of the bookcases.”

“I've always been intrigued by secret rooms, ever since I was a little girl.”

“Maybe you can help me find one of them?”

“Really? I would love too!” Hermione said excitedly.

Lucius got up from his chair and offered Hermione his hand. “Then let's go to my study and take a look at the blue-prints.”

*~*~*~*

They studied the plans for more than an hour. They decided to try one of the rooms on the unused third floor.

Hermione shrugged out of her work robes and placed them on the back of the chair she was sitting on. She pointed to one of the rooms. “I think we should try here.”

“Why there?”

“I have no idea. I am just randomly pointing, but we are getting nowhere studying pieces of paper.”

Lucius nodded in agreement. They left the study and made their way up to the third floor. The room that Hermione chose was at the end of a long corridor. The door squeaked when they opened it. The room was furnished with heavy wooden pieces that were covered with an inch of dust.

“I guess the house-elves don't clean this room very often,” Hermione said, looking around at all the dusty furniture.

“Most of the rooms on this level are not in use, so I told them not to bother cleaning them,” Lucius said nonchalantly.

“I'm surprised; I took you for the sort of wizard who wants his manor in immaculate condition.”

“Why would you assume that? It is a waste of time and energy for rooms to be cleaned if nobody is ever going to see them.”

“I'm seeing them,” Hermione said with a laugh.

Lucius smiled. “You are the exception. Other than me nobody has seen this room in over two decades.”

“It's a shame; the pieces of furniture in here are beautiful, even through the dust.” Hermione took a discarded cloth and cleaned off the top of a chest of draws. “This piece here is a sixteenth century; made out of oak I believe.” She walked to the nightstand by the bed. “This piece right here is French, from the eighteen hundreds, also oak with a beautiful marble top. Oh, and the matching one on the other side. This room is a treasure trove,” she said excitedly.

Lucius watched her with fascination. “How do you know so much about antiques?”

Hermione was rather embarrassed that she was babbling about furniture. “My aunt is an appraiser; she owns an antique store in Winchester. I would spend part of my summers with her, and she would teach me a bit about the pieces in her shop.”

Lucius looked at her with new respect. “You're head is just full of information.”

Hermione smiled. “I'm going to take that as a compliment.”

Lucius smiled at her. “It was one.” He looked around the room. “Now, according to the blue-prints this room is supposed to be eighteen by fifteen square feet, but it is clearly smaller.”

“Well, I think we can rule out the wall with the French doors leading to the balcony. What about the wall behind the bed?”

He agreed. “Let's take a look.”

They carefully moved the heavy bed from against the wall and started feeling for a latch. Hermione lightly knocked on the wall to see if it was solid or hollow. She couldn't tell the difference in sounds.

“Maybe it's on another wall,” she said.

She looked back at the nightstand. A black wooden box with mother of pearl inlay was sitting on the top. It looked out of place in a room that was full of oak. It was also dust free. “How odd,” she whispered as she carefully opened the top.

Hermione furrowed her eyebrows in confusion; there was nothing in the box. She was sure something would be inside. The box intrigued her; she picked it up to look at the bottom to see if there was an artist stamp. The moment she picked it up she and Lucius both heard a click. The wall opposite the bed slid opened.

“What did you do?” Lucius asked, snapping his head back to her.

Hermione held out the box. “All I did was move this box.”

“That's all?” Lucius said as he walked into the just revealed room.

Hermione shrugged she had no idea what she did. She set down the box and followed Lucius. Oil lamps magically lit themselves, when they entered the room, Hermione gasped at what she saw. The room looked the set of a bondage porno movie, not that she watched any of those! There was a long wooden bench with padded leather cuffs on the corners, and a smaller padded bench. There were various leather whips, gags, clothing, and other various toys hanging on the wall. “Whoes room was this?”

“My great grandfather's,” Lucius said with a laugh.

“He had, interesting taste,” Hermione said as she took in all the unusual things in the rooms.

Lucius explored the room further. “I didn't think this room existed. There was talk in the family about it, but nobody knew where, or if, it was actually here.”

Hermione looked out the doorway and saw out of the corner of her eye, the black box moving back into place on the nightstand, by itself, just before the door closed, trapping them inside.

Lucius turned around at the slamming of the door. “What the hell just happened?”

“I don't know, I saw the box move back into place on the nightstand, and the door slammed closed.”

Lucius eyes widened. “The box moved by itself?”

“Yes. How do we get out?” Hermione asked nervously.

Lucius shook his head. “I'm not sure.”

“You're not sure?” Hermione squeaked.

“Quiet, let me think. Tippy!” Lucius bellowed for his house-elf. Nobody came.

“That's not good,” Hermione said in a panicked voice.

Lucius cringed a bit. “I was afraid of that. In the family legend, it was rumored that any couple who enter this room cannot leave until both are sexually satisfied.”

Hermione's eyes widened. “What! Are you telling me that we are stuck in this room?”

“I'm afraid so,” he sighed.

Hermione took out her wand and tried to open the door. Nothing happened. “What's wrong with my wand?”

“There seems to be a dampening field around this room. No magic. That explains why Tippy can't hear me.”

“Oh, this is great, I come over to try and get you out of the manor, and I get us trapped in this room.”

“This is not your fault. You had no idea the door would close by itself.”

“I know, but if I wasn't all excited about finding a secret room we wouldn't be in this mess,” she said as she pushed against the closed door. It didn't even budge.

“There is only one way to get out,” he said as he watched her trying in vain to open the door.

“I'm not having sex with you, especially not in this room. God only knows, what this stuff was used for,” she said, giving up on the door and sliding down to the floor.

Lucius watched her with amusement. “Rumor is that my great grandfather had many mistresses. I suppose he brought them here to have his way with them.”

Hermione face scrunched up in disgust. “You would think that a room like this would be in the dungeons?”

Lucius looked at her confused. “Why would this be in the cold damp dungeons? That doesn't make much sense.”

Hermione just sighed. “We need to think about how to get out of here,” she said, getting up and pushing on the door again.

Lucius came behind her and whispered in her ear. “There is only one way,” he said as he began kissing her neck.

A/N: Thank you to my wonderful beta Valady.