Only Time

Lovely reviewers:

Ashley - Retarded Blood Cells suck! I'm so sorry. I hope that it gets better...That sounds AWFUL! I'm glad that the stories are good! I am having an incredible time writing them. They make me feel good like reviews! I will be attempting a trip to a doctor's office on Monday. No doctors, but emergency rooms open on weekends in my neck o' the woods. A family doctor is my second Monday stop...as my first is class which occurs before the doctor's office opens anyway.

andarte - Lucius isn't Lucius without pride, motivation, cunning, and...and...SEX APPEAL! A HOT BODY! LONG BLONDE HAIR! DESIGNER ROBES! AND MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL...THE PIMP CANE! I object to being able to buy Harry, Ron, or Hermione wand replicas but the PIMP CANE! I would buy the PIMP CANE! *happy dance inspired by thoughts of the PIMP CANE*

Heidi191976 - Tonks tried to steal werewolfhime's man! She had to go! No body touches my REMY-KINS! *snaps fingers* No she didnt! I know that bitch ain't goinna mess wit' my Remus John Lupin! *shakes head sassily*

Jessie - *bows*

TheSlytherinPrincess - Lucius is one of only three characters cool enough to do it! (Harry and Ron are NOT the other two! They suck! Everyone knows, I hope, that the title of book one is really "Severus Snape and the Philosopher's Stone".) The problems for our starcrossed lovers might just be beginning.

Avanell - I know all about be doped up on pain meds. This is the "nicer" version...Lucius is more sane here! Bellatrix is my hero! She's my best friend. She takes no shit from anybody!

maddie50 - We shall discover the spell together, shall we not? Bellatrix RULES!

Lyssander - Of course, my dear.

Linneh - I hope to be back to perfect working order soon. I rather enjoy writing the Lucius of the Dark one better. He is unpredictable even for me. AND I'M the Writer!

AlyBalyBonTaly - The bunnies are rabid! They're PSYCHO! Don't worry...Chapters are about to lengthen.

Lauriurix - NO! BELLATRIX RULES! I am saddened by what occurs to her in canon! It is depressing! She was the coolest. I want to be like her. She is the only death eater cool enough to do what happens! Oh yeah! oh yeah! oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah!

HermioneMalfoyFan - *shrugs*

Deatheaterqueenie - LM/HG is one of the top three best couples to be sure! We always need more stories to be added to our group! You will read and find out about Hermione with every one else. It is fun to be patient.

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While my hands are not good, I still have some chapters already pretyped. *wink*

Also, I have a much better idea of where this story is going. I found something that has quite sparked my muse for it completely by accident...course I can't tell any of you what it was...might reveal too much to you...that would be no good.

A most delightful miracle will occur in this chapter. *wipes tear and sniffs*

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“What did you do to her, you death eater bastard?” Harry yelled when he saw Lucius Malfoy carrying Hermione into the great hall of Hogwarts where a team of medi-witches and wizards were running around tending to the wounded. “Put her down!”

Lucius squeezed Hermione, who was still wrapped in his robe, a bit tighter and pulled her back from Potter glaring at him with silver eyes.

“I didn’t do this to her. Bellatrix Lestrange worked this,” Lucius said, looking down at Hermione who wore a content, relaxed expression on her face. “I intend to put her down as soon as there is a place where she would be comfortable and a proper person to check her over. I certainly will do her no harm; I owe her a life debt for pushing me out of the way of the spell.”

Harry stared at the blonde man. Harry could see how close Lucius held Hermione as if afraid some pain would befall her.

“It is over?” Lucius said in a tired voice.

“Yes. I-is she dead?” Harry asked, stowing his wand. He’d seen how powerful life debts could hold wizards and wasn't about to interfere with one.

“My former sister-in-law said that the spell was for me and was a fate worse than death,” Lucius said slowly; he smiled internally at what he had done to the cruel witch after seeing Molly Weasley send her soul to the afterlife. He felt some absolution after dismembering the corpse of the woman who cursed the sweet witch in his arms. “I’m surprised that you haven’t hexed me, Mr. Potter.”

“I have seen how powerful life debts are. And your wife saved my life,” Harry said. “The least I can do in return is not hex her husband.”

“Where is Cissa?” Lucius asked, looking around for her. Narcissa was good with healing spells.

“She was killed by Voldemort right before I killed him,” Harry said unable to look into Lucius’ eyes.

Lucius didn’t respond. Narcissa had given him his greatest treasure, Draco. But he’d never been in love with her. She denied him in so many aspects of his marriage while while wringing every galleon from him she could get.

He looked down at Hermione. He could barely make out the rise and fall of her chest.

“Where is Severus?”

“Dead, as well,” Harry answered, and tears rose in his emerald eyes as he thought about the man. Snape had been a real bastard. There was no denying it. But every step Snape had taken in the war for the light side had been out of love for his mother.

“I’m hardly dead, Mr. Potter,” a smooth voice spoke softly behind him.

“Professor,” Harry said, spinning and looking at him. “Wh—wh—whe—How?”

“Your ability to hold an articulate conversation, as always, leaves me breathless with wonder,” Severus said, curling his nose up and sneering down at the shorter young man.

Harry stared at him as he had when he first saw the ghosts float through on their way to the great hall while he was waiting to be sorted. For a brief moment, Harry’s eyes crossed, and he looked like he would throw his arms around his former Potions master.

“If you touch me, I will make you wish the Dark Lord had killed you,” Severus hissed as he stepped around Lily’s only child to look at the bundle in his best friend’s arms. “What happened?”

“I didn’t hear the curse that was fired. Bellatrix sent it saying my fate for defecting to the side of light would be worse than death. It took her till the end to discover me as a traitor to the despot.”

“What?” Harry squawked.

“Do shut up, Mr. Potter,” Severus snapped at the boy.

“Let’s take her to my quarters,” Severus said, walking toward the stairs that led to the dungeons.

“She’s needs a medi-witch.”

“Mr. Potter, she was most likely hit with a dark spell. And I know more about dark spells than the medi-witches will,” Severus said as he led them to a blank wall across the hall from where the Slytherin common room was.

Severus ran a hand gently down the wall and it opened up. He walked into the room, the one room that he’d seen that looked unaffected by the battle. He moved quietly to a shelf of books that filled the entire back wall except for the doorway through which a bed could be seen.

Lucius carried Hermione to the black leather sofa and sat down holding her on his lap.

“You can set her down,” Harry said, raising his eyebrows. “You can stop holding her.”

“YOU, Mr. Potter, ought to go find Mr. Weasley and inform him of the condition of his friend,” Severus called from the library. “And, you ought not to tell your elders what to do.”

“He doesn’t need to be snu—”

“GO find Mr. Weasley, Potter,” Severus said and he lowered his voice at the end.

Harry, even though he had faced Voldemort and won even when an infant, was still intimidated by the dark man in the library.

“I can hear you breathing, Potter. GET. OUT.”

Harry sprinted from the room to find Ron. He didn’t want to deal with Professor Snape if he was there when the man exited the private library.

Lucius held Hermione and rocked back and forth a bit. He was still furious with her. He still wanted to even the score.

But seeing her so weak made him ache, he never wanted her to be physically harmed. Lucius lifted her and placed a hand on her neck to hold her face against his shoulder.

“Don’t die Hermione. You can’t,” Lucius whispered, squeezing her more tightly. “You shouldn’t have done that.”

“Lucius,” Severus said. He placed a hand on Lucius’ shoulder. “She won’t die. Bellatrix is insane, but she said this would be worse than death. I see no reason to believe that the spell will ever result in death.”

Lucius jerked away from Severus and squeezed Hermione more tightly glaring up at Severus.

“Get a hold of yourself,” Severus said, withdrawing from the older man and looking down at him scornfully. “It wasn’t like you were the only one Hermione left behind.”

Lucius looked at Severus.

“The last thing she said before she left me almost thirty years ago was that she hated me. She was terrified of me in the Moaning Myrtle’s Lavatory. She thought I would hurt her. I’ve never laid a hand on her in anger with the intent to do her harm, and she thought I would,” Lucius said, and he placed Hermione on the couch and stepped back from her.

“Do you not remember this, Lucius?” Severus asked, reaching out and grabbing Lucius’ arm. He pulled the glove off, and a thin scar white with age stood out against Lucius’ naturally soft tanned skin.

“I didn’t mean her harm when I grabbed her in the hallway. I only wanted to talk,” Lucius answered, snatching the glove from Severus and sliding it over his hand. He didn’t like having that scar seen.

“Did you hear the spell cast?” Severus asked, sitting down on his coffee table and taking Hermione’s wrist to check her pulse while holding a book under his arm.

Lucius shook his head.

“Bellatrix is dead, so we have no hope of finding her and forcing it out of her.”

“How?” Severus asked, not the least upset that the mad woman was gone.

“She attacked one Ginevra Weasley. Well, Molly didn’t care for that. Bellatrix didn’t believe Molly a match for her and was careless,” Lucius responded quietly, not adding what he’d done to the corpse.

“I could have told her that was suicide,” Severus said, and a wide smile crossed his face as if he’d just taken one hundred points from Gryffindor with very little provocation.

Lucius shrugged and backed up farther from Hermione and Severus. He didn’t take his eyes from Hermione’s softly rising chest. He had to make sure that she kept breathing.

“Have me do something before I go mad,” Lucius said, releasing the breath he was holding. “Will she be alright? Will she awaken?”

“I don’t know what spell was used,” Severus said, waving his wand over Hermione. “It seems more like the effect of a potion, Lucius.”

“What potion?”

“What do you get when you add powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?” Severus asked, sliding a hand of the peaceful face of the girl who had cursed the marauders for him. He drew his hand back suddenly, the girl who left him with empty words, promises of the greatness he would achieve. He’d thought that meant within the death eaters. But it was only when he fell and begged Dumbledore for his help that he truly knew his role. He was far from great. He killed the greatest wizard to ever live.

“Don’t play stupid guessing games with me, Severus,” Lucius said, clutching his wand.

His Hermione was lying there under the power of an evil spell, and Severus wanted him to answer riddles about potions.

“Lucius, you need to calm down. What will her two dunderheaded friends think if they see you so worked up?”

“I have nothing to hide anymore,” Lucius said, collapsing back in a chair.

“Aren’t you worried for Draco?”

“My son is safe,” Lucius said simply.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

“LET ME IN!” Ron’s voice sounded muffled from the other side of the wall.

“LET US IN!” Harry’s voice joined Ron’s.

“NO!” Severus shouted.

“Fine, we’ll break in!” Harry shouted.

Severus pointed his wand at the wall that opened to the hallway and muttered a spell.

“Reducto!” Ron yelled.

Twang. CRACK! BANG!

“BLIMEY! What the fuck is your problem?”

“Sorry mate,” Ron said. “Let us in Snape!”

“That’s Professor Snape to you!” Severus yelled, continuing his examination as if he’d not just heard the door to the potions’ room blasted into its interior.

“Let us in Professor Snape!” Harry screamed.

“No, I don’t think I will,” Severus said, grinning maliciously as he turned to face the wall Harry and Ron were behind.

“Play nicely, children,” Lucius said, aiming his wand at the wall and causing it to rise.

Harry and Ron dashed into the room.

“What’re you doing here, you foul git?” Ron asked, brandishing his wand at Lucius.

“Ron, he saved Hermione. He brought her up here for treatment,” Harry said, grabbing Ron’s wand. "Like I told you earlier."

“Why?” Ron asked.

“The spell she was hit with was intended to hit me,” Lucius answered, sliding himself back into the shadows of the black wingback chair in Severus’ sitting room.

“LIAR! Hermione wouldn’t save a Malfoy.”

“I beg to differ, Weasley,” Lucius said, locking his fingers together to resist the urge to curse the creature.

Weasley didn’t deserve Hermione, and she wanted to marry THAT.

THAT couldn’t provide for her. THAT was not a gentleman. THAT was not intelligent. THAT probably discovered her femininity five minutes ago. THAT would want her to waste away in poverty with it. THAT didn’t deserve her friendship.

Lucius stood straight.

“What can I do for you, Severus?”

“We could move this little assembly to your home. Access to the Malfoy Library would, no doubt, prove useful in this endeavor.”

“Very well,” Lucius said, moving closer to where Hermione rested on Severus' leather sofa.

“We’re coming,” Harry announced, moving to stand near Hermione.

“Is it your natural behavior to impulsively invite yourself to the home of another?” Lucius asked tiredly as he took Hermione's arms and draped them around his neck.

“Is it your natural behavior to throw guests into the dungeons?” Harry snarled back.

“You mistake prisoners for guests,” Lucius said, curling his lip and gathering Hermione in his arms.

“I’ll carry Hermione,” Ron said, trying to take her away.

Lucius had his wand out and between Ron’s eyes before he could touch Hermione.

“You, Weasley, cannot handle apparating without splinching yourself. I am more than capable of double apparition.”

“Who knows what you’ll do to Hermione if you’re alone with her?” Ron shouted. “You’re a pervert. Draping a girl's arms around your neck. A girl who is less than half your age.”

Lucius swished his wand at Ron.

Ron tried to speak and began to panic when no sound came out. He raised a hand to his mouth, and tears came into his eyes when no mouth or lips could be found. He slapped his face where his lips should be before he began to hop up and down pointing at Lucius with fire like a Sweedish short-snout's alight in his eyes.

Lucius smirked.

“That is much better. Now, others may only make comment about your dumbness.”

Severus smiled.

“Put him right,” Harry said, staring at Ron who seemed almost hysterical at this point with his wide rolling blue eyes.

“When he learns manners and respect, I will indeed, Put him right,” Lucius said calmly as he readjusted Hermione so her head rested upon his shoulder. “Now, we should hasten to my home. I would like to see this resolved.”

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Well, I hope it was good. I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you will enjoy dropping a review.

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