Beyond the Veil -- COMPLETE

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Updated 8-26-08

Omigosh, I'm here again and it hasn't even been a week. I guess I haven't given you time to digest the deeply profound chapter I posted last time, but I'll forge ahead anyway. (Now, now, no smart remarks.)


Some answers for my reviewers -


HermioneMalfoyFan – I’m glad you like the Squib idea and a dominant Lucius. Hermione does, too. I don’t think you need to worry about who is whose ancestor. Several readers have brought up that question. This is a magic world. Anything can happen (especially in my fertile if wacky imagination LOL).


CoCo.M – I’m a sucker for dressing Lucius in clothes that lend him an aura – of any kind. Then I take them off him. I’ll bet you saw that pattern long ago…


Snapes_Goddess - Oops! Sorry I made you late for work. I’m posting this chapter in the evening. That should be better. If Lucius told you to kiss his ass, he’d have a taker, for sure. But he might ask first if you bite?


Heidi191976 – I think Hermione would REALLY wield the whip hand in the raising of any children. And I do imagine she would be better at it than he. Again, thanks for the review!


Mrs_Helene_Snape - Lucius certainly has a combo dom/sub in him. And it looks like Hermione is following suit. Glad you liked the riding crop. I had fun with that scene. Oooh, the rest of your questions are under wraps for now. Sorry…but I do appreciate your ideas.


doodle - Happy to oblige with the riding outfit. It seems to have its fans for sure.


sisterae - Hermione was withdrawn. I agree she wasn’t a pushover even with the first two gits she slept with. Just someone who loved and wasn’t loved back. Now how often does that ever happen? Howler answers will happen – later. I’m glad you’re enjoying the story!


nitesfool – Twenty million Galleons. Remember they’re useless in the Muggle world. Do you feel better now? You liked the riding outfit, too? He did look good in it, didn’t he. Your method of reviewing as you read is my favored technique, too. It’s how I do all my reviews of other authors’ stories. That way I remember everything I wanted to say. I think it’s a brilliant technique. I guess that black corset got you completely entwined in the chapter. Yay! But sorry for you being unavoidably put off until evening. That ‘finger myself into submission’ was a great line!


pittwitch – Hi PW. Guess I should have added a fan with that last chapter. I should have known a horsewoman would fall right into the scene. Would you believe I’ve never smelled a horse in my life?


Rini – More on villainy later, heh, heh. You know, I wonder if Hermione is okay with smacking Lucius BECAUSE she senses he likes it okay? That would make sense. Lucius’ childhood canings are far in his past. They just fashioned his pleasure sensations, which he does like. I figure those two will amicably arrive at a balance of authority that will suit them both. It can’t be all one-sided and still work. They’re both too strong as individuals.


T Stevenson – Sometimes it IS hard to get a character to do what you want. The way I see Lucius 1) Hermione has to have or offer him something he wants enough to let go of his control, and 2) he has to care about her to some extent. If those items aren’t established, she can’t have any leverage against his usually stronger position. Once he cares in some way (and that can take oodles of chapters to acknowledge LOL), then Hermione has at least equal power as a character. Lucius can then control all he wants, but the reader knows he’ll now also listen to Hermione’s wishes. And as for the sex scenes, I jump into them and watch closely as it’s going on, observing each movement. The description just follows. (I’m actually not kidding here. I visualize and write down what I think is happening. Voyeurism is an advantage to a writer LOL.)


Citten – Oh dear, I have never been on a horse. I have cats. My powers of observation are useless in that context I’m afraid. So you asked if you had to wait a whole week for the next chapter? I guess not [grin]. Your delightful whine was wasted. Would you like it back for next chapter? 8-)


RhiannonoftheMoon – I’m up there on your LM/HG good story list? Grins widely! Your perceptive questions will have to wait and I’ll do as you say and I won’t answer them [laughing].


Scary Bear Hair – Oooh, sorry to frustrate you on the mystery. It wasn’t intentional, honest. Hermione in the arms of Morpheus. Yup, the little cheater, snicker. Perhaps after his session with the crop he has come to understand Hermione isn’t timid. He’s learned it now, I think. PONY PLAY? OMG, no, not me, although a few TV episodes recently have explored that form of recreation, most notably Bones. That was an education. Lucius won’t ever be a perfect submissive but Hermione won’t care. She will have to earn back his total trust after her little adventure with the numbing ointment, though. Oh, did you think Lucius was perhaps not quite the chest-beating traditional he liked to make out? Hermione isn’t worried.


blue artemis – Lucius has just discovered he is a VERY lucky man. And I had to laugh at Lucius being his own great-grandfather. There’s nothing like keeping the bloodline pure, but THAT pure? It amuses me, too.


tambrathegreat – Lucius got a thorough drubbing on his derriere this time. It’s going to be good for them to ‘share the power’. I don’t think there will be any gits in Hermione’s nest if and when they have children. To Lucius, money is nearly as seductive as sex. He loves the stuff and knows how to make it work for him.


sheherazade – Uh, no, Lucius will not be using his equine transportation anytime soon. Even in a coach, he’d have to sit. Apparition is in his near future. He likes the sting so he probably won’t be using the numbing cream. I don’t know why Hermione so often turns into the paddler or whipper, etc. It dumbfounds me. I think it’s not she who is causing it, it’s Lucius. He’s just all-around kinky to me.


malfoysplaymate - You got a new computer? Lucky! Not so lucky that your other one crashed. Sorry to hear that. But I’m glad you’re back with us. [waves]


FlowersBecomeScreens- Nup, you didn’t review already. I get that way sometimes. I think it’s ‘cause I read a chapter late at night and decide to review the next day. Then I read it again and think I’ve been there before. And I have – sigh. I now keep most of my reviews alphabetically by story title on a word document. That helps me remember what happened before a little, and tells me if I wrote a review yet. I’m hopeless. Oooh, you too liked the riding clothes and his crop? Those items were more exciting to the readers than I expected. I just wanted a riding crop to appear and didn’t even know how it was going to be used until Lucius smacked Hermione’s rear as she walked by LOL. The characters definitely have a life of their own in my world. And of course, you know the sh*t always hits the fan somewhere in my stories.

And now...next morning.

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Chapter Thirty-Seven

Hermione’s Help

At breakfast the following morning, Lucius finally asked what had been tickling at the back of his mind all the previous day, “Hermione, you were very creative yesterday with the leather tieback and the binding and the whipping. How did you know what to do? It has occurred to me that your past experience, of which there was apparently very little, wouldn’t have taught you any of that.” He was resting more comfortably in his chair this morning; his welts were starting to feel a little better. Yesterday his appointments had been mostly a succession of him standing or leaning against mantels.

Hermione began diligently buttering her toast as if the fate of magickind hung on the accomplishment of getting each millimeter of butter precisely positioned over every separate crumb.

“Hermione?” Now Lucius was even more suspicious of his wife’s unexplained expertise. Had she actually been more involved with someone than he had known about? He could see her bent over her toast, but her eyes were peeping up at him through her lashes. He could see their gleam. “Hermione? Perhaps if you give me an honest answer within the next minute, you won’t earn another spanking. I’m thinking twenty strokes for mendacity and another twenty for trickery.”

“That’s not fair!” she sat up, erupting hotly, her toast forgotten. “I haven’t lied to you at all. And I didn’t trick you,” she trailed away, then mumbled, “maybe I did a little research.”

“You did research on bondage? Wherever did you get that information? Does the Malfoy library have books on deviant sex?” Lucius was surprised – in his own time his library hadn’t contained any books like that. He didn’t think this time period had been any more indulgent than his own.

“Oh, is that deviant sex? I didn’t know.” Now Hermione looked more interested than outraged.

Lucius saw he was being led away from his initial question. “Hermione,” he growled. “Lies can be by omission. Your spanking awaits.”

“I only wanted to please you like you do for me. I thought my inexperience was a handicap so I talked to an expert. That’s all.” Hermione began carving up her slice of ham as though the conversation was at an end.

“An expert. Was it a he? If I discover you’ve had conversations with another male on bondage, you won’t be sitting down for a month.” Lucius was getting angry at the thought of his wife discussing such intimate topics with one of those young wizards who seemed to be everywhere the two of them went in public.

“Of course not!” Hermione was shocked. “Eww, I wouldn’t talk about that with a male.”

“Who then? One of the wizard’s wives? I certainly wouldn’t like you discussing our sex life with them either.”

“Margaret,” Hermione murmured into her teacup.

“Margaret? You mean…MARGARET? From my bordello? How on earth did you manage to speak to her? You haven’t been to the bordello alone, have you? You know I would forbid that instantly.” Lucius threw down his napkin and glared at the little witch calmly sipping her tea.

“We talked at a small teashop in London. You don’t have to worry. Margaret is smart about reputations and such. She always wears a heavy veil to the teashop and so do I.” Hermione was eyeing her husband with a slight bit of misgiving, but she knew she had the purest of motives and had only wanted to please him. It would be too bad of him to object.

“Always? ALWAYS? Does that mean you’ve done it more than once? Dammit, Hermione,” Lucius’ color was getting higher as his temper rose.

“Well, the first time I learned a little about accepting spanking and the fun of role-playing. Remember I offered to be spanked and asked if I should be a schoolgirl or slave or something? Margaret said those were roles many men liked.”

“Oh, sweet Guinevere,” he moaned, “I missed that completely. My Gods, Hermione, you were taking lessons in sex from Margaret all this time?” Lucius sat back, totally stunned.

“You liked it. I know you did. So I asked Margaret for some more hints. I felt so ignorant and uneducated – so stupid next to your expertise. I could see just from the paintings in the bedroom I was completely untutored. I don’t like feeling an imbecile. I wanted to bring you a more polished partner in bed. You liked the collar and being tied up, too. Margaret was right about that. She said you were a snatch because you told me you liked it either way.”

Lucius nearly spit his tea onto the linen tablecloth at Hermione’s innocent mistake. “Merlin’s balls, Hermione, you told her I liked it either way? Did you leave out anything about our sex life? And I’m sure she called me a ‘switch’, not a snatch.” Lucius grumbled to himself, “The day I’m labeled a snatch…”

“Are you? A… a switch, I mean?” Hermione gazed at her sexy mate with the beginnings of a wicked smile lighting her features. “Margaret says she thinks I may be one, too. That’s good, isn’t it?”

“Did it never occur to you that I might enjoy teaching you the nuances and variations of sex myself?” Lucius sighed and resumed his breakfast. If Margaret didn’t tell the entire staff about his private proclivities he would be very surprised. “So now the whole bordello knows how I like my sex. Wonderful.”

“No, no, Margaret is very discreet. I imagine one has to be in her profession. Our sex life won’t go beyond her to your staff. She promised.” Hermione felt bad for ruining Lucius’ chance to teach her his version of sex and wanted to make it up to him. “I was wondering about one of those paintings…” she softly offered.

“Which one?” Lucius glumly wondered what was left that Margaret hadn’t already divulged to his knowledge-junkie wife.

“Uh…the painting where the woman is pushing some sort of stick into the man’s…uh…” Hermione blushed bright red and stuttered to a halt.

Lucius perked up. “The anal sex picture? You’re interested in that one? Are you just trying to make me feel better or are you really interested?"

“So that painting appeals to you? Doing that would please you?” Hermione blinked with a bit of trepidation, but also with a frisson of salacious excitement that she was honest enough to admit to herself meant she might truly want to do that. To him. “I might prefer to be the giver rather than the receiver, though. Like the woman in the painting.”

“Is this another of Margaret’s charming bits of erotic etiquette?” Lucius’ anal pucker was already quivering with the anticipated treat, something he’d rarely indulged in while in prison lest the guards get any ideas. The candles he’d used in his cell hadn’t held up very well anyway, so most of his attempts had been rather unsatisfying.

“No,” Hermione lied without compunction. Margaret had told her a bit about the process when she had asked, but she decided Lucius could explain the procedure to her and she would get a more complete picture from a man’s view anyway. She could see that he liked the idea – a lot. She gulped, but figured if she could face down hellhounds, a mountain troll, a Basilisk, and Bellatrix, she could give her husband a new pleasure in bed. It was why she had approached Margaret in the first place. This was exactly what she wanted for him.

“We can discuss it more, but the idea does please me. Several of your sexual offerings have been very pleasing to me. Twelve years in prison was a long time to be by myself. I told you that you make me happy. That’s one of the ways you’ve been doing it.” Lucius smiled at his adventurous partner in marriage knowing he was an extremely lucky man.

“All right. We can talk later about when you want to try it. I think I may need some precise instruction, though. I don’t want to hurt you by mistake.” Hermione smiled back at her mate, happy that he was interested in teaching her his nuances just as he had said. “For now I wanted to talk with you more about the Veil and some information I’ve found in researching ancient artifacts.”

“I’m finished with breakfast. Shall we move to the library?” Lucius stood and gestured toward the door to the hallway.

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I’ve been thinking,” Hermione said, closing one of the books on the few snippets of the Veil’s history she had been showing Lucius while they sat at the library table.

“Never a profitable venture for me,” Lucius quipped.

Hermione ignored his provoking comment, “If we had gone straight to the wizarding world, you would have been recognized and we would have had all the resources the Malfoy name commands within hours of our arrival. It was your demand that we stay in the Muggle world until you could arrive in the magic world with money that kept us from finding the wealth of the Malfoy estate right away. I think we were supposed to have come here immediately.” Hermione quirked her lips, “Ironic, wouldn’t you say?”

“Then that makes me even more responsible for the trauma of you being taken to the bordello. I think I’ll have nightmares for a very long time about that,” Lucius’ wintry eyes went unfocused as he somberly stared inward at his failure.

“Lucius, I was only there for a matter of hours before you saved me. Aside from a couple of clouts on the head, my premier objections to the experience were the horrible perfume they doused me with, and the unpleasant examination that madame gave me. I assume they’ve paid very dearly for touching me. You came to my rescue. Don’t berate yourself for the vicious behavior of others.” She added, trying to sidetrack Lucius’ morose thoughts, “I don’t understand why the Veil didn’t just deposit us in Diagon Alley. Do you have an theories on that?”

Lucius roused himself from his internal recriminations to focus again on what Hermione was saying. “I’ve already wondered about that myself and I think there were several reasons. One,” he said, “we were dressed very incorrectly and it would have been difficult to explain away our odd clothing. Two, if we’d been dropped in Diagon Alley, we would probably have thought we were in our own time period for awhile, and the differences there would have completely dismayed us. We might have made errors we couldn’t retrieve easily. Three, the Veil needed time to accustom us to its unusual method of translating and entering our minds, immersing us in this culture and time slowly. It gained the time it needed by putting us down in the middle of nowhere. We weren’t really far from London, but far enough for it to acclimatize us.”

“Well, I think it should have acclimatized us with those roast beef sandwiches we wished for at the very least,” Hermione huffed. “Oh! I guess we should have arrived in the magic world by that night and we could have had any meal we wanted here in the mansion.” Hermione grinned, “Okay, I forgive it for not delivering on the sandwiches.” She turned back to her research results.

“These are the places where I found pieces of information on the Veil’s attributes,” Hermione explained as she put her hand on a tall pile of books at the end of the library table. “To sum up my research, I’ve found that the Veil predates all of the other artifacts the Ministry owns or stores in its vaults and believe me, I’ve seen most of them. Using the books I have available, which are only as new as this year unfortunately, it appears that only a few others have had any experience with the Veil. I suspect it is because, unlike what happened to us, the Veil obliviates those who go through it. I think it was built to relocate people in time because it is certainly large enough to accommodate great time shifts, unlike the smaller time turners the Ministry has. And all those small time turners are very old also. No one now knows how to make one. The small time turners can only displace small amounts of time. We know the large one has displaced us nearly two hundred years.

“But there’s more,” she said. “The Malfoy library has an interesting collection of books on the dark arts. I’m sure you find that amazing,” Hermione winked at her husband, amused irony lacing her words. All she got in return was an irritated snort.

“In one of them,” she said, “the Veil is mentioned indirectly as a method for disposing of bodies and even for making living individuals disappear. One interesting account has a dead body being pushed through the Veil, but it merely landed on the other side, still in the chamber. The miscreants trying to dispose of the body attempted to send it through the Veil several times and finally had to give up, taking the body elsewhere. That incident sounds like the Veil we know and love, doesn’t it,” Hermione chuckled.

Lucius merely sighed. His own experiences with the Veil felt sometimes as though the thing had a nasty sense of humor. His few personal interactions with the large rock arch hadn’t been entirely businesslike. There was almost a streak of playfulness. Then a startling thought occurred to him, “You know, I’ve been unconvinced that the Veil could really have sentience enough to direct our lives as it has, but we do have another example of a so-called inanimate object having a will of its own and the power to invade our minds. We’ve all been exposed to the Sorting Hat. In a way, the Veil has a very similar ability. Both can see inside our minds and interact with our thoughts.”

Lucius slowly shook his head, “So I guess I have to be a believer if I accept the power of the Sorting Hat and that hat has been an accepted sentient artifact in our world for millennia.” Lucius added, “The Veil appears to be much more powerful than the Sorting Hat, but I’ll accept that it seems mostly a benign influence. If the account in that book is real and not apocryphal, the Veil repelled villains trying to get rid of a body, so it seems to have some sort of honor code.”

“If our ideas are correct,” Hermione queried, “about the Veil I mean, and your school idea reroutes the antagonistic attitude toward the Squibs in the future, have we accomplished that prophecy?” She asked the other question that was bothering them both, “That does ‘embrace the weak’, but have we killed the root? If we haven’t done that then the unknown tree mentioned won’t die and we’ve failed.”

Lucius sat for a few minutes thinking and Hermione was quiet as she waited, just enjoying sitting beside her husband and inhaling his soothing lime and Lucius smell. His scent always brought her a sense of peace even as it worked to make her unbearably aware of him as a man. Hermione’s mind began wandering down its own erotic path, thinking about what her handsome wizard was going to demand of her in bed that night. When he had announced weeks ago that he liked sex and usually wanted it every night and some days, she had soon discovered he had been telling no more than the simple truth. If he had to do without for any reason, he soon got a little cranky. She supposed he must have been a real joy in prison – either that or his hand must have developed calluses from constant use. In any case, she was determined that he should look forward to their bed each night. She didn’t want him dipping his wick at the bordello because he was unhappy sexually at home.

Lucius stirred from his brown study and said pensively, “We haven’t solved the problem of the blackmail. We are trying to help the Links by building the academy, but if the blackmail continues to alienate the Links and their families, part of the difficulty remains. I think the blackmail may be the ‘root’ which still might grow into a tree of hate for the Squibs, er, Links.”

“Oh! I just realized if we call the Squibs Links, our prophecy refers to ‘weak Links’.” Hermione chuckled.

“So?” Lucius frowned at the frivolous comment.

“It’s a Muggle phrase usually referring to the most undependable or most cowardly or even just the least capable person in a group. I guess we shouldn’t tell anyone about your prophecy’s actual wording so that particular parallel isn’t drawn. Just trust me, we don’t want to put those two terms together.”

“If it’s such a derogatory term, perhaps we should rethink the name. ‘Lucians’ comes to mind,” Lucius said with a commendably straight face.

“Tell me that was a joke,” Hermione’s brows lowered over her brown eyes in a scowl designed to hide her desire to laugh in his face. Lucius was so adorable sometimes. Sometimes.

Lucius sighed, “Yes, I suppose it was. Well, what do you suggest then?”

“Why can’t we just call them Lynx, like we do the other houses? We have Hufflepuffs and that name is sillier than Lynx would ever be. They can still be called ‘The Lynx’, rather like a strong, cohesive army.” The change of spelling should help tamp down on any unamusing jokes.”

“You’re the Muggle expert. I’ll adjust the spelling, call the school the Cross-Cultural Lynx Academy and let that go.” Lucius turned more somber, “Madam Armbruster said the blackmail continues and she said the information was something my dear uncle knew.” Lucius ruminated on that point, then said, “Obviously someone else knows, too. We need to work on who that person is. I’ve fielded a few unpleasant comments from assorted folk and I’m assuming that they are also being blackmailed and they think I’m doing it, carrying on uncle’s intolerant attitude. I know I’m innocent, but I’m at a loss for how to prove it. That message you got at the ground-breaking ceremony was more of the same.”

“I have a question about that,” Hermione clasped her hands in her lap and drew in a determined breath. “Are you really that concerned about the rights and prospects of our Lynx? Forgive me, but it seems out of character for you to care. Except as it applies to saving the entire wizarding world in the future.”

“Isn’t that enough?” Lucius raised a supercilious eyebrow. “As it happens, the Malfoy lineage has had its share of Lynx. All wizarding families do. Why shouldn’t I want to look out for my own relatives on the Malfoy family tree?” He mused, “It does feel somehow better to think of them as Lynx, rather than Squibs,
doesn’t it? I’m liking this idea more and more.”

tbc...

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Hermione had a little surprise for Lucius heh, heh.

You all know I love your reviews. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. For the typing challenged among you, the ratings are down below on the right side. Arigato, merci, danke, thanks!

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