Prisoners of Love - A Mystery - COMPLETE

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Updated 11-3-07


Thank you all for your comments. I appreciate your taking the time so much. Reading your thoughts always gives me more ideas. Win-win.

Some replies:


ffpoisongirl I can only say I hope I always make you feel inadequate as a critic if you can’t find anything to criticize. But don’t worry, you have plenty of chapters to go.

Sheesh Sheherazade Lucius could have installed a bed in the cellar for you and Snape. You only had to say something. Unless you like IT on the floor. I won’t tell the potions mistress and I suspect Snape won’t either. He’s not stupid. (Just horny, I guess.)

ladydeathfaerie That was shortsighted of me not to provide popcorn for the kink show. I’ll try to remember next time. (And of course, there will be a next time…) Draco will show up again. I hope he meets with your expectations of his now being a big brother.

Damiana Actually inducing sexual feelings to hurry along labor is true. Look up oxytocin and nipple stimulation.

Ravenna Lucius explained that the similarity between their names (Lucius and Lucien) would keep his Pureblood clique cognizant of his protection for his child, even though the child was a Halfblood.

Snape_Goddess If you can’t make up your mind between Lucius and Severus (there would be a stampede if the two of them ever sold tickets to a night of bed sport for three) why not have them both? They get along well together and I’m sure they would share you. Lucius can bring his ivory toy. I love the name Sebastian.

Scary Bear Hair I actually hovered wildly on the edge of having the potions mistress named Liberty. (Hi Sheherazade!!) But the urge passed. I think the only time Hermione should trust Lucius is when he’s ‘baring’ gifts. Then she can see he has nothing up his sleeve.

Settling into the mansion and married life for both of them...


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Chapter Thirty-Four

Adjustments


With that goal in mind, Lucius wanted to try to attach his wife to him romantically as much as possible. After the birth he was with her most of each day and yet he was so lonely he ached. He knew she was shutting him out even though they slept wrapped in each other’s arms at night. He had never believed in the concept of soulmates – until her. He wasn’t whole any more – his happiness depended on her and he had to come to terms with her power or become a shadow man. He hadn’t wanted a soulmate, dammit. Soulmates were incredibly inconvenient and terrifyingly…intimate. He was hostage to the seduction of his new family, though, and he knew it down to the very bottom of his being.

He had so much trouble being able to process his dependency he didn’t know if he was alive or merely dead and unaware of it. He felt crushed and unsettled, not able to function without her approval, but still unable to accept her sovereignty over him. He was a man, a superior Pureblood, one of the most powerful wizards in England… and he was nothing. She was everything and it made him demented knowing his dependency was more than hers.

How could he learn to live amicably with a woman who had so much power over him? He was on a seesaw of emotion – anger and rage constantly battling obsession, devotion, and tenderness. The glimpse he’d had of the unity of his life with her and their child was the only thing that kept him seeking to overcome his antipathy to being owned.

He knew he’d brought her nothing but pain and wariness – and a child. He assumed it was the only reason she was allowing him to be with her, sharing a home and a bedroom – that and the sex she’d admitted to wanting. He wanted to be more - a part of her, as integral to her existence as she was to his. When she fell asleep at night he lay beside her reliving the happy moments in Azkaban when she had wanted him and then he slowly went out of his mind torturing himself, but he knew there was nothing he could do. And still he sought a way, some way to belong.

There was no getting over her. He knew that now. Had Narcissa felt that way about him? He didn’t think so. No one had really ever felt that way about him - maybe his money or his influence, but not him. It was a lowering thought, giving him an insight into how others might feel and humbling him as never before. Lucius was coming slowly to understand just what he had done to his wife in rejecting her and choosing his freedom over their marriage. Freedom that had been nothing but a marble mausoleum on a sterile estate and blood-sucking friends.

Neither Lucius nor Hermione wanted to broach the bland surface of their marriage, afraid of discovering the other’s disinterest or worse, hatred. Hermione didn’t know if she could continue the charade - loving Lucius, seeing him every day, and falling more in love with him every night, but never knowing if she was only an unwanted social burden with side benefits to him. Her own animosity at his defection still burned brightly no matter how hard she tried to forgive him. But how could she separate from him? He would never allow their child to go with her and she couldn’t leave her baby either. Could she bear to leave him at all?

For Lucius’ part, his morose drinking, restlessness, and even more detrimental behaviors had subsided with their reunion, and he was able to repair the rents in his many social ‘friendships’ and business dealings; everyone was relieved that their powerful associate was more relaxed and amenable to business deals and social connections again without knowing exactly why, but a few of the more astute Purebloods put the credit where it truly went – to his new Mudblood wife. Whatever the reason, they were all profiting from Lucius’ return to normalcy and his acute Slytherin mind – everyone except Hermione. She hadn’t been with him during his loss of control and therefore she had only the vaguest understanding of the change in her husband from Draco’ comments.

That was for Snape to explain.

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Snape and Hermione sat in the library, Lucius’ son fast asleep in the corner in his carved cradle. “Severus, I’m afraid we have been remiss.” Hermione had decided to broach the subject of Severus bringing a guest to their occasional dinners that evening while the Headmaster was waiting for Lucius to finish with a client and before the three of them went in to dinner

“Oh? In what way?” Snape’s gazed at his former student from his relaxed position, half slumped in one of the easy chairs near the sofa where Hermione sat. He amused himself wondering if she liked the sofa best because Lucius liked it best, or if it was just another manifestation of like minds. Perhaps the sofa had retained a permanent, if subtle, scent of the blond wizard and Hermione was subconsciously drawn to it. His gaze sharpened immediately, though, as Hermione blundered into his personal territory. Snape sat up a bit straighter in his chair.

“If you wished to bring a guest to dinner with us, we would be happy to extend our open invitation to include another.” She hadn’t asked Lucius before making her mind up to ask Severus and now she felt a bit like she’d ventured onto quicksand. Hermione nervously waited for her tentative foray into the dark-haired wizard’s social life to be rebuffed.

As it was, albeit gently. “Thank you, Hermione,” Snape said with a quirk to his mobile mouth. “I appreciate the offer. If I ever want to invite another to come with me, I’m gratified to know your offer stands.” He relapsed back onto the cushions of his chair half-closing his eyes and looking abstractedly at the fireplace in dismissal of her question. For it had been a question and one he had no intention of answering.

Hermione knew that avenue of inquiry was closed and she couldn’t really blame the former potions master. She wouldn’t have liked to be interrogated about a new relationship either. But she had given in to her inquisitive nature. She was sorry she had, but figured there was no real harm done.

When she slogged on and tried to ask how Hogwarts was doing, Snape took pity on her and bombarded her with much more information than she had even known existed. She was soon enthralled with the many aspects of his and Lucius’ business dealings. Snape was rightfully proud of what they had accomplished together and he thought Hermione, as an equally intelligent if incredibly more naïve Malfoy, should know something of their work. He was pretty sure Lucius, the old clam-mouth, hadn’t told her anything much. He was right.

Moving on from the Hogwarts dealings, he alluded, without adding any great detail, to Lucius’ problems with his ‘freedom’, omitting any reference to the drug-taking, and ending by telling Hermione he was very glad the two of them had joined together again.

Hermione gained the intelligence that Lucius had been in rather more dire circumstances without her than he had let on. Financial reverses, my arse!, thought Hermione. How had she missed the obviously gaunt appearance of her mate and accepted his facile lies? Because she had wanted to believe his woes were behind him, that’s why. And they had been, in a way.

A few moments later Lucius strode into the library and went straight for the cradle. He stood looking down, hands on his hips, disappointed to see his son was sleeping. He had been hoping for the last interminable hour that he could play with baby Lucien, but Hermione didn’t like him to disturb the infant if he was asleep. He swiveled to his wife, “Hermione, when will Lucien wake up?”

Hermione consulted her watch, a Muggle present from her parents on their new grandchild’s birth, and replied with an inward chuckle, “He’ll probably sleep for another hour. Why don’t you join us for a pre-dinner aperitif while you wait for the person you really want to be with to wake up?” Identical quizzical smiles from those seated, one male and one female, rose at Lucius’ scowl.

“I have had appointments with idiots all day with no chance to hold him.” Lucius shot back in a low voice so he didn’t wake Lucien, “I don’t need your smart comments on my wanting to spend some time with my child. You’ve had him all day.” The blond wizard had endured several windbag clients who thought they knew more about investing their Galleons than Lucius, even though they were paying for his expertise. His patience was approaching nil and he wanted to forget the obnoxious investors and enjoy some playtime with little Lucien.

Hermione didn’t want her husband to wake up the baby because his routine would be completely off for the next day and because Lucius was in a snit and she felt it would transfer to the baby. She decided to distract him by giving him to understand that Snape had let her in on their business transactions. That definitely caught his attention.

Lucius turned his ill-temper on his business partner and friend with the single wrathful word, “Why?”

Snape cocked his head, his hair swinging to the side as a small pained smile appeared, “I’m finding it increasingly annoying to be constantly monitoring my informal conversations with your wife, keeping our perfectly straightforward projects, ideas, transactions and sundry other minutiae from escaping when we talk.

Hermione smiled at her husband, enjoying his irritation, which now was directed away from her to Snape. “I understand you’ve done rather more than outfit one Slytherin Quidditch team with broomsticks now,” she said slyly.

Lucius didn’t think it was any part of Hermione’s business to know about his partnership with Headmaster Snape and their financial dealings. But he discovered that Snape had told her nearly everything already himself. Knowing her, she’d probably get a completely skewed view of her husband’s purely financially-motivated business dealings. He could do without the unearned panygerics for his ideas that she would try to foist on him.

He underestimated her there, because she knew better than to praise him for any efforts by labeling them as selfless. He’d hate it, believing it made him look weak. Stupid man.

Hermione had discovered through Snape that Lucius had bankrolled Hogwarts into several lucrative financial deals that had made a lot of money for the old alma mater. New broomsticks with the latest features now graced the playing field, the dormitories had all received new furniture for their common rooms with the old items adding to the profits of the Auld Furniture Faire, and textbooks were now provided to all students, relieving parents of the necessity of buying them for their children.

Flourish and Blotts hadn’t lost on the deal either because Hogwarts just bought all the texts directly from them, although at a slight discount negotiated by Hogwarts’ blond fairy godfather. A great many needed improvements had happened because Lucius Malfoy had taken over the decrepit accounts of the school and turned them into gold Galleons beyond Snape’s wildest dreams. It was, of course, good business for the wily, wealthy entrepreneur who made money from his slice of the profits.

It seemed all the Purebloods wanted to accommodate their alma mater if they could do it without it costing too much and Lucius had made an attractive deal where they could feel virtuous about contributing to Hogwarts and also be recognized for their donations. Several hallways now had the names of benefactors inscribed in the stonework for all to read (for a hefty monetary consideration to be renewed each year). Everyone was really very pleased.

Headmaster Snape didn’t care what the frigging hallways were named as long as his school had the money to operate well. The monies Lucius collected for the inscriptions were being shrewdly invested and now Hogwarts had a large nest egg for many years to come. Snape and Malfoy continued to consult monthly on all the various investments Hogwarts was involved in, with Lucius giving an accounting and the monies being deposited in Gringott’s. Everyone was profiting from making Hogwarts a school to be proud of. If Lucius’ motives were a tad more mercenary than charitable, it certainly wasn’t anything that kept Snape up at night now that Lucius was back in the pink of health and his financial chicanery was back up to speed. As Headmaster he was drawing down an exorbitant salary and the new Potions Mistress hired away from Beauxbatons helped him with his sweet dreams. Life was really very good for Severus Snape.

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Life was starting to look up for Lucius also, if he had been aware of the general relaxation of tensions due to his slowly changing methods of garnering approval for his projects and financial schemes. Hermione’s quiet influence on him to ease the reins on his herd of slippery Slytherin Purebloods and to lead instead of threaten them, had returned dividends Lucius couldn’t see or assess, but Hermione felt it in the nicer greetings and increased social invitations that she knew Lucius had not had a hand in.

Lucius was her center, but he certainly wasn’t a calming presence in her somewhat chaotic existence, rather he was a catalyst for widening and broadening her understanding of the many facets of the wizarding world. She was attempting to constantly span the two wildly different strata in her life, but it was getting easier.

She was still always more at home with Ginny, Harry, Ron and Lavender and the Weasley clan and she had been able to finally get everyone to agree to come over for an alfresco meal and relaxation on the large back terrace where a few of the more astringent emotions between her friends and Lucius were indirectly addressed and the senior Malfoy was able to offer some placating if perhaps slightly less than heartfelt amends, as well as showing his sincere care for Hermione and his unabashed joy in his new son. Molly always appreciated those who loved their children so Lucius gained a slight foothold into the Weasley stronghold through Molly by way of Lucien. Harry was a reluctant member of the outdoor party, but he kept his more acidic thoughts to himself allowing the general mood to remain mild.

Hermione was also fast gaining more sophistication and dreading Lucius’ friends less, who as a group had turned out by and large to be less ferocious than her own husband. How ironic that her greatest challenge slept beside her.

Hermione loved her husband unreservedly, but there had always been something elemental and untamed about him. For all his sophisticated highborn elegance, underneath a magnificently male, lethal animal lurked. It was the primal animal magnetism of a successful predator thinly cloaked in his peacock ways that made him so fearsome and attractive at once.

Sometime she wondered if there was an essence of the Veela strain. His white blond long hair, handsome face and perceptive use of his looks alone could have qualified him for the Veelas. She’d never heard a whisper of any Pureblood owning up to Veela blood though.

Hermione was well aware his glamorous gloss hid a scheming mentality that was more of the jungle – eat or be eaten. If his jungle was draped in velvet and coated in gold leaf, it was still a pernicious place filled with rapacious Purebloods where Lucius had by sheer vicious will become the king of the beasts. Others in his world had long recognized that if one challenged Lucius Malfoy, one courted disgrace or even disappearance, while on the other hand working with him brought increased wealth, the venal god of their circle. With Hermione’s advent the beast was purring and his cohorts found that very comforting to their pocketbooks – and their necks.

Lucius’ treacherous supremacy showed equally in the ballroom and the boardroom, but surprisingly not in the bedroom where he was consummately generous to his partner, usually offering more than he took. Hermione felt this quirk in his otherwise rather predatory personality held the key to his inner self, the one she rarely ever got a glimpse of. She knew the closest she had ever come had been in Azkaban, but little rays of something occasionally shone out of Lucius’ face when he played with his son.

By the time Lucien woke, Lucius had calmed down enough to enjoy some cuddling and a rather one-sided father-son talk on how Lucien was going to play seeker at Hogwarts when he was older, just like his brother and father before him. Hermione merely rolled her eyes and sat talking to Severus about which House looked best for winning the Quidditch tournament this year.

Lucius’ pontificating had promptly put Lucien back to sleep cradled warmly in his father’s arms and Hermione took their sleeping son from his father, going up to the nursery to feed him. Once in the nursery Hermione had needed to jiggle the baby awake again for his feeding. Lucius could be better than a Dreamless sleep potion sometimes when he got on one of his hobbyhorses. It was rather cute, if soporific for his listener. Luckily Lucius didn’t seem to have the same garrulous tendencies out in public. Only with her – and Snape - did he wax eloquent, something of a mixed blessing, but she knew she was being given the gift of his more personal side. She wasn’t sure if Snape saw Lucius’ loquaciousness as a gift. She thought sometimes Severus wasn’t entirely listening to her husband’s idle conversation as the Headmaster sat sipping his favorite after dinner apertif.

tbc...


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I think of Lucius as an enthusiastic father who doesn't know quite what to do with his child after it learns to talk (and talk back). This time any unrealistic expectations he harbors for his new son will be smartly nipped in the bud by Hermione, ditto his extravagance. He may learn to be a good father yet.


As usual your opinions and comments are welcomed.
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