Adventurous Hearts: The Temple

CHAPTER 4: A Little Insight into Dr. Granger









Lucius walked through the open doorway of his study to find Hermione lying on her stomach on the floor, her outer robes thrown over the back of a chair, her shoes discarded. Her legs were bent, her bare feet flexing in the air as she read from the book resting on the carpet in front of her. She looked much younger than her twenty eight years in that moment.







“Find something interesting?” He asked. She looked up, her brows lifting when she saw him.









“Amazing, you look almost like your old self.” She said.









“Almost?” He asked walking across the room and settling into his comfortable chair behind his desk. A look of pure pleasure washed over his face at the feel of the familiar, soft leather embracing him.







Hermione rolled onto her side and watched him, almost smiling at his joy.







“Well, if memory serves you were a bit more…filled out….back in the day.” She said.









“I was getting regular meals that actually filled me then, as well as regular exercise to keep me fit.” He said, opening and closing desk drawers to ascertain their contents. All appeared to be as he left it. “I wasn’t aware you noticed such things about my person.” He said distractedly as he withdrew several files and laid them on his desk.











“You were a real prick, Lucius, but I was a teenage girl, of course I noticed. Despite your idiotic actions you did cut a rather dashing figure in the heat of battle.” She said, laughing.







Lucius’s head snapped up, shocked to hear her admit to finding him attractive. He would have thought she would rather have her tongue cut out by Bella’s blade than to admit something like that. Even Narcissa, his wife of over twenty years had never openly admired his looks.







“Do you always say whatever comes into your head?” He asked.









“Generally.” She replied, moving slowly to her feet and walking across the room to put away the text she had been reading. “I believe in honesty, with myself and with others. Only a fool tries to lie to themselves, and I am no fool.”









She was nearly slammed into the wall when the study doors were flung back and Draco Malfoy came skidding to a halt in the middle of the room.







“Father?” He croaked, stunned to see his sire sitting behind his desk, going over papers the way he always had before imprisonment. “It’s true…I thought the house elves were drinking again.” He said. Lucius stood and came around the desk and Hermione watched as the elder Malfoy was able to embrace his child for the first time in years.







Lucius’s eyes were tightly closed as he hugged his son, his hands fisted in the fabric of the young man’s robes. She felt tears begin to burn her eyes as she watched the tender moment. She may not care for the two of them, but she knew that all they had was each other and some part of her took great pride in helping to reunite a broken family, even if it was to her own benefit.







“It is good to be home, son.” Lucius said, leaning back to look at his son. The boy had been visiting him faithfully every week for ten years yet Lucius had not been allowed to get close to him, to touch him in any way. He had missed his child, his constant companion from the time the boy could leave his nursery until he went off to school.









“What…how….you still have ten years on your sentence!” Draco had trouble stringing together a clear thought in his excitement to have his father home.









“It seems I have been paroled, on account of my good behavior and overcrowding. I am still on probation for the remainder of my sentence and I am obligated to assist the Ministry in a certain matter…but I am free.” He smiled at Draco, a real smile that had Hermione catching her breath.







“I just can’t believe it! What does the ministry need you for?” Draco asked, shrugging out of his robes and turning to drape them over the chair. It was then that he noticed the woman’s robes and shoes and looked up to see Hermione standing by the bookcase. “Granger? What in the hell are you doing here?”







“Hello, Draco…long time no see.” She said, her lips twisting into a smirk. “What’s it been…eight years or so?”







“At least you’re dressed this time.” He sneered, looking her over.









“Oh you didn’t seem to mind so much, you could have left as soon as you realized what was going on.” She said, strolling across the room and brushing up against him before taking a seat in the chair. “You must have liked the view since you stayed.”

Draco growled and stepped back, glaring at her as she smiled at him from the chair.







“It was like witnessing an accident, you don’t want to look but you can’t look away.” He said, sitting on the sofa where he was joined by his father.







“Did it teach you to knock before you enter a room?” She asked.









“What in the devil are you two on about?” Lucius looked between the two of them in confusion.









“While your manners are without compare, Lucius, your son’s leave a lot to be desired, especially when it comes to knocking before entering a room.” Hermione said, crossing her legs.









“I never had to knock before. I was always welcome to come and go as I pleased.” He said through gritted teeth.







“Is someone going to tell me what in the hell you two are talking about or are you just going to continue on as though I am not sitting right here?” Lucius asked, folding his arms across his chest in irritation.









“You didn’t have to stay and watch you know.” She said.









“I didn’t expect to walk in and find you bouncing in his lap! You know you could have stopped when you saw me there, you didn’t have to keep going.” He said with a frown.









“We had a good rhythm going, I didn’t want to lose it.” She smirked.









“Will someone please tell me what you are talking about!” Lucius roared.









“About eight years ago I went to visit my godfather and walked in on him and this one shagging to within an inch of their lives in his office.” Draco said his lip curling in disgust. “And instead of stopping and covering themselves, they…finished.”







Lucius stared at his son for a moment as though trying to absorb what he was saying, and then suddenly burst out laughing hysterically. He laughed until tears leaked from the corners of his eyes and his voice began to sound raspy and hoarse.







“I don’t see how it is all that funny!” Draco said, staring at his father, then to the smiling and amused Hermione.







“Oh, Draco, son…I’m not sure what is funnier, the fact that the girl was shagging Snape or imagining the look on your face while you were watching them!” Lucius said, sighing and wiping at his eyes.







“It was traumatizing at best, nearly put me off of sex! Uncle Sev is frightening in normal, everyday interaction; he’s even more so mid-shag!” Draco said. “And her…she was even worse, I swear she eats wizards alive…she maintained eye contact with me the entire time!”







Lucius looked over at her, amused and intrigued at the same time.







“A bit of an exhibitionist are we?” He asked.







“I was curious to see how long he would stand there and watch us.” She said shrugging. “Of course Severus was whispering in my ear that I should invite him to join.”







“What?” Draco looked completely horrified, his face flushing bright red to the point his white blonde hair was practically glowing.







“Sounds like Sev.” Lucius said with a chuckle.









“What….aren’t you horrified?” Draco asked. “He was shagging a mudblood and kept right on shagging her even though they had company!”









“I’ve known Severus Snape since his first year at Hogwarts, Draco, nothing he does surprises me.” Lucius said, actually smiling in Hermione’s direction. So she was a sexually liberated witch, was she?







“Still, it was disgusting.” Draco said, shuddering exaggeratedly. “You never said what you are doing here, Granger.”









“She is the reason I was released, Draco, so please try to show some respect. She may be a mudblood, but she is still a woman and the one responsible for my freedom.” Lucius said.









“You? Why would you of all people get him released?” Draco asked.







“I need him.” She said, a sly smile lifting the corner of her lips. Draco snorted and rolled his eyes.







“What you couldn’t find anyone to shag you so you had to troll Azkaban?” He said rudely and was rewarded with a swat to the back of his head by his father.







“Be good, Draco…you know if I asked you to you would be all over me in seconds and I am quite certain it would be over just as quickly.” She taunted, catching the grin on Lucius’s face before he looked away.









“Funny, Granger, I wouldn’t sully myself with the likes of you. And I promise you I would be better than Snape.” He said smugly.









“I don’t know about that, Draco, Severus is surprisingly…creative.” She said. “None the less, shagging your father is not the reason I am here. I require his assistance with unraveling some deatheater wards, seemed that my need and his good luck came together at just the right time.”









“Why couldn’t Snape help you? Or even me, I was a death eater too, briefly.” He said.









“Severus is busy at school and a tad miffed at me at the moment, and no offense, Draco, but you just aren’t powerful enough to help me.” She said, giving him a sad, pitying look.







“So what, he helps you and that’s all….he’s free?”









“Providing he behaves himself and stays out of trouble, yes, he is free.” She said. “But for now he will be coming with me to the site, we will begin working on it first thing in the morning.”







“How long will it take?” Draco asked. “How long will he be gone?”









“As long as it takes for me to be satisfied.” She said suggestively. She still got a thrill out of baiting Draco and enjoyed the livid expression on his face. What baffled her, however, was the rather interested look in Lucius’s eye .