Beyond the Veil -- COMPLETE

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Updated 9-11-08


I have had the best time reading your reviews. Thank you so much for taking the time to write them! I know it's easier to read and then click away, so I truly appreciate your responses.

Don't take off your evening togs just yet. We have more of the party at the Armbrusters' to get through.


Some answers first:


sisterae – The layout for the chapters was awkward along here so I had to cut it where I did. The plot is definitely boiling now (of course not so thick we can’t wedge in a lemon soon) LOL.


pittwitch – It’s a shock more men aren’t blind the way they lose their eyeballs in women’s cleavage. At the party I think a few women are going to misplace their eyeballs, too. Heh, heh.


Snapes_Goddess – Hmmm, DH can stand for dickhead as well as dear husband. There’s a lesson in there somewhere… Your DH’s clueless behavior made me laugh. Social ability is just as important as military ability in the service if one wants to get anywhere. // It does seem that Lucius and Hermione have become a true couple.


meankitty69 – Priceless! Lucius bending and stretching his new leaf with yoga and pilates. That’s good! He’s an incredibly flexible character. He had to be to survive Voldemort, I’m thinking…


FlowersBecomeScreens – Yes, I love the dialogue, too. They’re fun to write. Both have wicked tongues. I don’t think Lucius could bear a mate who paid NO attention to clothing. He’ll likely take her in hand. She can learn. She’s interested in nearly everything, so learning the difference between taffeta and velvet shouldn’t be difficult. I’m sorry I can’t reply to theories, but I really enjoy them.


Citten – Lucius playing to an enthralled feminine audience is familiar ground to him. I sincerely hope he’s made it clear that neither of them needs to be jealous as this outing is for investigative reasons. You want a chapter faster than a week? Well, it takes me time to answer these comments and they come in over several days. I don’t want to give anyone short shrift if they are nice enough to write me a review.


Utopia – I like a nice Snapey nose. Alan Rickman is exceptionally attractive. I wouldn’t burden Hermione with a cap. Ugh. I always think of those caps as for spinsters who have given up on finding a mate. Or older matrons. I WISH Lucius were in more Playwitches. Do you have the online issue he strutted his stuff in? Yes, ankles were erotic in this era. I knew the wives wouldn’t have the scone recipes themselves, but decided Lucius wouldn’t really worry about how he made his point. Plus I was too lazy to think of another example LOL.


sheherazade – When I write a scene I write the framework, then start thinking what it really looks like to a participant. It’s like adding ornaments to a Christmas tree I guess. I add one description, then another, an adjective here, an adverb there until it feels good enough as it stands. I’m usually right in the middle of whatever is going on. Sometimes that’s goooood and sometimes, not so hot if the characters are arguing or in a bad situation. My fatal flaw is I’m verbose, but I also take an ornament off the tree sometimes if it detracts or clashes with later writing. See the above? Verbose. I think Hermione’s language is loosening up at home, don’t you? (snicker) I originally said ‘navel’ but that seemed so pedestrian.


WhiteWitch – You have very interesting theories and I can tell you’ve done some speculating, but I’m sorry I can’t reply. Unscramble to your heart’s content. That’s what mysteries are for, I think. I love mysteries myself.


slytherin-princess – We are about 80% through the story. I’m happy you’re enjoying it. I may have to insert a lemon on the way to the blackmailer, but we’ll get there.


Scary Bear Hair – I don’t mind to give a hint about my next story. The main characters are Lucius Malfoy and Hermione Granger. How’s that? (I’m so mean.) If Hermione rolled a towel under Lucius’ head while he slept, I like to think she also kept the water warm for him. A lovely fanwank. You want to touch Lucius’ tight, white pants, too? I may be able to make some Galleons...nah, Lucius would take too big a cut of the profits. You’d think he would just be satisfied with all the touching he’d be given, sigh. But that’s how the rich get richer. Dandies were at the extremes of fashion and he’s not. He’s merely fashionable in a delectable way. So you are correct that he’s not really a dandy. The Veil may be yanking his chain a bit there. Lucius probably only wants his wife displayed up to but not past the proprieties for their evening of investigation.


blue artemis – The rest of the dinner party will be an eye opener for the ladies who get to ogle those white pantaloons. Lucius is so naughty.


CoCo.M – One pair of tight, white pantaloons, coming up (hmmm, that came out a bit risqué…) No, you aren’t the only one still working on the puzzle of the blackmailer.


jw – You can bet Lucius has a penchant for a bit of exhibitionism and he doesn’t need to be coaxed to do it either. Blackmailer…you’ll find out very soon.


helensgirl – I’m so glad you like the story. No lemon this chapter, but quite a bit of teasing. We’re still at the dinner party.


Heidi191976 – Thank you and more is coming up right now.


lurkyloo – I’m pleased you’re entertained and I hope you enjoy this next chapter. Lucius is at his most pleasing and predatory.


Rini - I began as an English Lit major but switched to science. There’s little subjectivity in it and I did better. It’s either calcite or it’s not. The chemical formula for lead sulfide is always PbS. Much tidier. Also, the dreary ‘great literature’ depressed me. As for Hermione’s dress, check out these representations for Regency wear:
http://www.janeausten.co.uk/images/jap4large.jpg
http://www.janeausten.co.uk/graphics/nfball.jpg
http://www.janeausten.co.uk/graphics/emmacopy.jpg
http://www.janeausten.co.uk/graphics/may-1816.jpg
Does that answer your question? I was a little confused by it.


Muffy – Lucius is not averse to using any assets to get what he wants. Usually it’s his money, but not always LOL. More party coming up!


tambrathegreat – It was fun to write the Malfoys preparing for the dinner party. Lucius is such a clothes horse, he makes me laugh. Hermione is getting quite territorial and protective. He should feel good about her behavior. The whole time period is familiar from the hundreds of Regency romances I’ve read. It was an elegant time period for the rich and the aristocracy. I think I don’t usually go for longer than a week between chapters if that helps.


On with the dinner party...

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Chapter Forty

Lucius Charms


Hermione was far from being anyone’s favorite person in the drawing room and Leticia Armbruster had to take over, being the hostess, and make the majority of conversation with the little witch. The combination of suspicion over the blackmail and jealousy at her beautiful ensemble of amethysts and iridescent gown (not to mention her dazzling, but possibly villainous husband) were enough to make the other witches politely shun her with false smiles and minimal conversation. Hermione tried valiantly to ignore the unpleasant atmosphere and let out a big sigh of relief when not half an hour later, the men came into the room.

Lucius went to his wife and smiled, getting a strained grimace from her in return. He put a comforting hand on her back, surreptitiously rubbing her spine while he perused the room, seeing the subtle hostility of the other wives as they in turn greeted their own husbands. The blond wizard had managed to dispel the slight innuendos the men had thrown at him after the ladies had left the dining room. Lucius summed up the situation fomenting between his wife and the other women in the drawing room and led Hermione over to a small knot of husbands, inserting her into their conversation.

The wizards were a little surprised to learn that Lucius’ wife was an expert in potions and Arithmancy and it was enough to get several of the men involved in a discussion of various financial formulas and recipes and treatments for broomstick handling.

Apparently none of the husbands could even entertain the idea that a mere female might be capable of blackmail. They had decided over their after-dinner port that Lucius wouldn’t blackmail them and then turn around and fund an entire academy for the very people he was accused of tormenting.

The husbands were much more aware than their wives that Lucius Malfoy didn’t need money; his bank vaults and investments made him much more wealthy than most of them, so asking for blackmail money didn’t make sense to them. Logic, unfortunately wasn’t their wives’ forte.

As Hermione entered into a conversation she had no trouble contributing to, she silently laughed that she could thank Ron for her knowledge of broomstick potions because he had been after her constantly in their school years to increase his broomstick’s speed and make it more maneuverable. Few other topics were of more interest to the men than how to use Arithmancy to foretell better investments or ways to make their broomsticks go faster. After a few moments, Lucius quietly drifted away from their conversation and in a seemingly aimless fashion, moved toward another woman on Hermione’s list.

He decided to try Hermione’s idea of using his charm to winkle the blackmail details out of her. It was shortly apparent that his charm could be effective, but it would be much slower going than using dark arts legilimency; he had to overcome the women’s gossip that he was following in his uncle’s footsteps and blackmailing them for Hermione’s sake.

Lucius began by maneuvering his target female to a grouping of chairs in a corner, towering over her and bringing his mesmerizing, icy eyes to bear on the young woman, then settling beside her on one of the chairs, facing her. “I’ve met your husband I believe, in the Ministry,” he murmured in a low, seductive voice at odds with his prosaic question. “Was it the Department of International Magical Cooperation or Magical Law Enforcement?”

“Oh, I’m sure it must have been in the Department of International Magical Cooperation. He often has business there, but he’s not officially attached to the Ministry.” The wife nervously responded to Lucius’ smile and his hypnotic eyes without quite knowing why she felt so warm and intrigued. She registered that he was an extraordinarily attractive man and unconsciously sighed, feasting her eyes on him close up.

Lucius spoke in low tones to her, complimenting her on her toilette, asking her if she got her gowns at Madam Celestine’s, eliciting increasingly informal and then confidential information from the woman, including the names of her children, her favorite books and so on, until she sat enthralled with the handsome wizard’s individual attention just on her. He congratulated himself that he hadn’t even needed to tighten his trousers to unhinge her tongue.

The handsome interrogator was careful never to cross any line of politeness into a hint of impropriety, correctly gauging these wealthy women as being thrilled by a little harmless dalliance as long as it didn’t wander too far into carnal territory. He was well aware that his brand of physical masculinity was simultaneously exciting and exceedingly overpowering to many women who were too timid to feel comfortable with that much overt sexuality. At the arousing knowledge that his own wife wasn’t at all cowed by his potent appeal, Lucius’ heart thumped happily in his chest. There were times that she actually overwhelmed him - and he loved it.

The blond wizard gently coaxed the woman with their cozy conversation into relaxing with him and when he judged it time, he commiserated with her on the sad plight of the Squibs and made sure she had heard about the academy he and Hermione were funding, softening her even more. He led her into the poor attitudes that the wizarding world was visiting upon the innocent Squibs, citing a near relative on his wife’s side who was a Squib (a total fabrication that he made a note to tell Hermione about later).

His focused attention on his female target finally did the trick and she let slip that her family had suffered from pressure to keep her brother from marrying a Squib witch. She gazed at Lucius and intimated that it seemed outlandish that people would think he was behind any of the pressure when he was building the academy, a complete turnabout from the attitude she had walked into the drawing room with a scant hour ago.

Lucius assured her that he would never be so cruel. At that point three of the other wives, feeling that he had been monopolized long enough by one of their number, moved over and sat beside them, entering the conversation and making it more general. Lucius thought it time to mix the pot a little, “I truly don’t understand the prevailing attitude here about the magic folk called the odd name of Squibs. At the academy I’m funding we’ve selected a new name.” While they were adjusting their dresses and posing, he surreptitiously tightened his trousers. Four women corralled in the corner at once seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.

Lucius drew their attention to his face with a come hither smile, “The Squibs at my new school shall be known as ‘The Lynx’, spelled L-Y-N-X, like the cat, and they’ll be taught ways to subtly link our world to the Muggle world. I believe wizarding society needs to know our counterparts in this world we both inhabit. I certainly don’t subscribe to them knowing anything about us,” and he got a round of ladylike laughter, “but I do believe we need to protect ourselves better from them. And how better than to know them?”

“In any case,” Lucius continued to his audience of fascinated women, “the idea that Squibs are less valuable is ludicrous.” He hoped he was doing Hermione some good, but he assessed his crowd and figured he could be reciting his laundry list and still get those glazed looks of ladylike desire.

He plugged doggedly on, “Where Hermione and I come from, the most powerful wizard of us all had a Squib for a mother and a Muggle for a father. His ability as a wizard was unparalleled. So obviously I don’t see the problem with Squibs, or rather ‘The Lynx’, as full members of our magic world. All magic families will always have Lynx, but their genes are just as potent as anyone else’s. We all know Squibs can have normal magic children. Muggles can have magic children. Do we want to throw away valuable members of our own families?” Lucius let those bits of information percolate in their minds and, he sincerely hoped, escape their mouths to others as gossip. He smiled to himself - at the rate he was bending the truth, Hermione would need a list to memorize. Voldemort's mother hadn't been a Squib, but no one here would know that.

Lucius was unable to approach the final woman he was supposed to charm because the women around him kept him fully occupied with questions about his life before he took over as heir and he was kept busy inventing a purely mythical past which he sincerely hoped would be accepted as gospel without the women examining it too closely. More information for him to alert Hermione to so she didn’t step blindly into any of his lies.

Lucius finally brought out his secret weapon for distracting the women from any more intensive questioning – he shifted his body and allowed his pantaloons to stretch across his groin, stifling most of the feminine chatter as one by one their eyes were drawn to the bulge of his impressive male assets. He pretended to be looking away for a moment giving the ladies time to absorb the unexpected view. When he slowly turned back to them, he met four pairs of eyes staring wide-eyed with spurious virtue at his face, trying to appear innocent, but their faces betrayed them with rosy blushes.

Lucius used the break in their prattle to firmly shift the conversation into other channels besides his own life and moved again, camouflaging his showstopper with a casual crossing of his legs. He slyly noticed that the women all traded silent looks with each other and he figured there would be plenty of feminine gossip later about Hermione’s love life. Maybe their curiosity would keep them from alienating her at least until they could find out what sex with him was like.

Lucius smiled cynically to himself. Narcissa used to come home and tell him about the rude questions she was asked about the same subject. He figured nothing much had changed in two hundred years when it came to anyone’s preoccupation with sex. Well, one more thing to alert Hermione to after the dinner party was over.

At that moment, the Armbrusters’ house elves brought in the tea and the groups split up, moving over to Leticia who was pouring, to accept their delicate cups of hot tea. Soon thereafter the different couples said their goodbyes and apparated to their own homes after thanking their hosts for a lovely evening.

Lucius whisked Hermione right into their bedroom, instantly pulling his neckcloth free in the manner of all men cursed with wearing them. He strode into the dressing room, now their bathroom, and stood in front of his open wardrobe, quickly removing his fitted black wool jacket and gray satin waistcoat, his evening slippers, his socks and lastly his trousers. All he still wore was his white lawn shirt, reminding Hermione of the other time he’d worn nothing except his shirt as she whipped that muscular, ivory butt.

The dinner party hadn’t been the little witch’s most enjoyable evening, but seeing her husband standing casually in an almost sheer shirt on top of long, bare, well-formed legs was lifting her spirits tremendously.

Lucius turned to speak to his wife and saw her smiling at him – or, to be more accurate, his body. The evening had been something of a trial to him too, and he wanted some relaxation. He walked over to Hermione and turned her so he could help her with the fastenings of her dress.

“Hermione, I would like to begin working tonight on the painting you mentioned the other day.” Lucius traced her spine from her nape to the top of her buttocks in a slow, sensuous sweep of fingers, making her shiver with…was it fear…or arousal? Or both?

Hermione knew immediately which painting Lucius meant. As her gown fell off her to the floor, she suddenly felt exposed and a little apprehensive, but Lucius wasn’t finished surprising his wife.

“Hermione, I’ve said that I won’t ask you to take the riding crop - I realize you don’t want to be the one whipped and I am happy to honor your wish. However, I want you to understand that for me, anal sex is extremely erotic, and in this case, I am a true switch. I prefer both giving and getting so I am making it clear that I want to make love to you anally. For tonight, I’d like you to give and I’ll show you how. But soon, I want you to think seriously about reciprocating. Please.”

Hermione looked up into her husband’s wintry stare and her breath hitched in her throat. The idea of providing him with the experience the woman in the painting was giving the man now paled beside him entering her with his oversize tool. “Lucius, I’m afraid you’ll damage me. You’re so much bigger than I am. I…I’m willing to do what that woman in the painting is doing, but I’m scared it will hurt if you do that to me. It will, won’t it?”

“Hermione, the pain will be minimal if I spend time preparing you. I would no more toss you onto the bed and take you anally without careful build-up than I would go to the Ministry and tell them we come from the future. Neither action is in my best interests or yours. I want you to learn to enjoy it and I can promise you, the time will come when you will. For now can you just agree to start the process with very small penetration? Not me, not yet. I will take all the time you need to work up to my size.”

“Huh? You start with little, skinny sticks and they get bigger and bigger?” Hermione felt a modicum of relief that she didn’t have to accept Lucius, at least not immediately. She’d never heard of graduated anal penetration – she’d barely heard of anal sex at all - but she acknowledged that her husband was likely something of an expert, if he was running a bordello.

Lucius grinned, “Little sticks? I like that.” He nodded, “Essentially, yes. For tonight I’ll gather what we need. Why don’t you settle on the bed and get your worrying over with while I make the arrangements?”

Hermione gave him a reproachful pout and went into the bedroom. First, she went over to stare at the moving painting whose technique she was going to be emulating. The painted male figure looked like he was enjoying the unusual sex and she realized Lucius must like it, too. Hermione decided she didn’t want to think about who had offered that form of sex to Lucius in the past. She stepped back and the painting went still.

Hermione ran over to the bed and jumped up into the middle wearing only her chemise over her irritating pantalettes and the jewelry she’d forgotten to remove when she’d been surprised by Lucius’ announcement. Hermione got rid of the pantalettes, tossing them over the side onto the floor. She was more careful of the jewelry, removing the pieces and placing them on her nightstand. She moved back to the center of the bed and sat cross-legged with her elbows on her knees and her chin in her hands, now wearing only her thin chemise, which stopped mid-thigh.

His desire to explore anal sex with her was a more salacious side of her husband and she admitted to herself she rather liked the other things he had introduced her to. She was of two minds whether he had learned his repertoire in the brothel he owned or elsewhere. She came to the conclusion his experience was of long standing. Lucius had promised her that for him the brothel was purely a business and she believed him.

She knew he checked in on his business almost daily, but he was home with her every night, usually randy, and often wanting sex the next morning too, so she decided if he had any leftover sex drive after the amount he spent on her, she couldn’t keep up with him anyway. And as it turned out, she had availed herself of the brothel’s expertise through Margaret as well, so she could hardly berate Lucius for keeping the lucrative business.

Just as Hermione was starting to get jittery, Lucius apparated into the bedroom. She hadn’t known he had left the bathroom, but she saw where he had been from what he held in his hands. All he still had on was the dress shirt and she giggled at the formal wear over his bare legs.

Lucius strode to his side of the bed and carefully placed ten dark green jade columns on the surface of his nightstand.

“Why did you bring those up here?” Hermione asked, completely flummoxed by the art objects.

“Ah,” he said, “I did have a good time seeing you take four of these and placing them on the parchment of the blueprints for the Lynx Academy when we were looking at it in the library.”

“I remember – when I put them back, you had a funny grin on your face, but I didn’t connect it with those jade columns. What are they then?” Hermione saw ten slender jade forms of varying heights and thicknesses that she had thought were merely rather boring, if expensive, mantel decorations.

“These are the different sized ‘sticks’ you mentioned,” Lucius said and now he laughed at Hermione goggling at the innocuous pieces of jade before scooting to the far side of the bed.

“Those go in your…my…and I was using them to hold down the parchment? Ewww! Lucius! You might have warned me. Why do you keep them on the library mantel? That’s disgusting.”

“Sorry, my love, it’s an old Malfoy inside joke. Those jade pieces have been in the family for nearly four hundred years. I think we obtained them sometime in the seventeenth century during the bawdy reign of your King Charles II well before the wizarding world withdrew completely from the Muggle realm. They really are ancient artifacts – as an Unspeakable you should be fascinated by them, not repelled.” Lucius sat on his side of the bed and twisted to face his wife, “Actually, I’m exaggerating just a little. These pieces of jade are themselves like a blueprint. One doesn’t use them, one uses them for measuring.”

As Lucius sat down, then twisted with a bent knee to face her on their bed, Hermione was treated to her favorite view – cock à la Lucius, although at the moment his thick length was semi-relaxed, lying quietly up over his thigh.

Lucius saw her preoccupation and discreetly covered his wares with his shirttail and smiled to see Hermione frown. Her head snapped up to meet his laughing, gray eyes as she realized her view had been lost on purpose. “You are such a tease, Lucius,” she pouted in disappointment. “Is there a reason you are parading around only in your shirt?”

“Parading. Hmmm, It sounds rather military and forceful. And yes, as you ask so nicely, there is a reason why I am only wearing my shirt,” Lucius graciously nodded his head at his wife, his flaxen hair momentarily falling forward before being impatiently flung back over his shoulders again with a flick of his wrist.

“It’s a bit cool both here in the bedroom and in the bathroom even with the fire going so I wanted something to keep the slight chill off my shoulders, hence leaving the shirt on. I could warm the room magically, I suppose, but every time I left, the magic would dissipate and I’d need to replenish it. That would be draining after a while. I don’t think I’m up to inventing central heating just now.

“Instead, this thin piece of clothing works and doesn’t take any energy. Moreover, as I have spent the last several hours wearing a pair of tight woolen pants, I am now exulting in being able to hang loose for a while. No matter how expensive and finely woven the wool is, it begins to chafe after a few hours. Any more questions?”

“The obvious one,” Hermione retorted. “Why don’t you wear underwear and save yourself the discomfort?”

“Ah. Well, for this evening the tight pantaloons were part of my ‘charm’, so to speak. But as I told you before, chafing keeps the tool sharpened, my love. So it’s not exactly discomfort, but more like your military parade person. I’m constantly ‘at attention’ for hours, before finally taking off my trousers so I can be ‘at ease’. I do believe you noticed that at the moment I’m ‘at parade rest’.” Lucius watched a blush bloom in Hermione’s cheeks. “That’s because I’ll be going back on duty quite soon,” he leaned forward and began tracing a gentle circle eight up, over, and around Hermione’s breasts under her thin chemise. “Are you ready to learn a new skill?” he asked, a wicked glint in his eyes.

tbc...

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I'd point out that there will be a kinky lemon in the next chapter for those who want to skip it, but I imagine everyone has figured that out already. Home life at the Malfoys' is becoming quite cozy and increasingly, happily, deviant. Who wouldn't cater to a few of Lucius' more adventurous capers in the boudoir?


Last Reminder: it is best if you do NOT read the reviews newer than the dates on each chapter. There may be spoilers in them.

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