Prisoners of Love - A Mystery - COMPLETE
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Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Lucius/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
41
Views:
76,209
Reviews:
999
Recommended:
2
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Lucius/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
41
Views:
76,209
Reviews:
999
Recommended:
2
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
I do not own Harry Potter, nor any of the characters from the books or movies. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
How Do I Love Thee?
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Updated 12-9-07
This is the last chapter and I'm sad. I've enjoyed posting this story and reading all your amazing reviews in return. I very much appreciate all your circumspect reviews which didn't name the villains. Thank you so much for all your support!
Sheherazade I have my Muse hogtied to the end of Lucius' bed where I spend a great deal of time being inspired.
Scary Bear Hair How funny - I didn't see my double entendre with the 'wand action' that you did. I stupidly just meant to warn about some weaponry, rather than merely using it for daily activities. I like your version much better. And I think some of Lucius' wealth derived from selling maps to the bedrooms of the sexier witches who have entertained him. LOL
Citten Lucius' red roses will be beautiful next year.(Snerk)
dynonugget Snape says not to worry about the paint you left on him, but please use the cream cheese flavored paint next time - it has a built-in moisturizer.
lilbitbord Looking forward to your writing.
Damiana In truth, the story originally did NOT have the mystery, but I went back and began interweaving it after I got some of the way through the original and decided it could work as a mystery as well as a love story. I'm not sure I'll do a mystery again in the classic style, with clues interspersed in the story. I too have read all the Agatha Christies (and countless other mysteries), but it definitely is a complex genre to write.
To all my regular reviewers I'm sending out white rose bouquets for your pleasure. (No RED roses, for obvious reasons.)
And to all my lurkers, thank you for reading my story. You know who you are. If this is your first story by me, I invite you to try my other ones. All of them are complete.
Sob, here we go...
_______________________________________________________
Chapter Forty-One
How Do I Love Thee?
A day later Lucius sat down beside Hermione on one of their sitting room sofas, a favorite place of theirs that had already seen many fascinating uses in their new marriage, “Well, we now know that Hardcastle and Le Fay merely wanted me angry with you, angry enough to perhaps have you killed for infidelity. I’d be stuck back in Azkaban forever and you’d be dead. Two for the price of one. Likely I’d have perished mysteriously in the prison soon thereafter with no one to mourn the vicious murderer.”
Lucius picked up Hermione’s hand and held it, stroking idly across her palm with his thumb. “We had both managed to get away from Le Fay’s machinations once already through dumb luck and that horny guard forcing my hand. So then they tried to make me turn on you with the Daily Prophet articles. It was Hardcastle, by the way, who orchestrated your nights on the town with all those eligible young Ministry assistants. That was in his files at his home.” Lucius didn’t add the information that both Jax and Ben had likely met their fates at the hands of their co-conspirator, Le Fay Junior.
Hermione murmured, “They didn’t count on us falling in love.”
Lucius looked a little conscious, “Yes, well,” his voice trailed off for a few awkward seconds, then he continued, staring down at their joined hands rather than at his wife’s face, “Le Fay was a very clever young man, not at all like his sire. Slytherin, of course. His partner, Hardcastle, was a Ravenclaw, coldly analytical with a ‘better’ plan to rule the wizarding world – I think he was certifiably insane, if very intelligent. A rather explosive combination.” Lucius wondered if he had any Ravenclaws in his own organization. He would need to review his employee files. “They each had an obvious case of megalomania.”
Hermione didn’t say anything more, but she figured Lucius ought to know a bit about that disorder, having a touch of it himself. Luckily he had her to curb his more outrageous tendencies now, making it more comfortable for his peers, whether they ever acknowledged her contribution or not.
There would be a few less Pureblood victims of Lucius’ quest to own the wizarding financial world and a few more charitable accomplishments attributed to her handsome spouse. But just sometimes, she wished her dark wizard had come with some sort of manual for relaxing his eternal wheeling and dealing – except perhaps in the bedroom. She had no interest in tampering with a good thing there.
“Lucius, I’ve always wondered why when you transfigured your way out of your cell you didn’t escape?” The little witch looked up at her mate, her unending curiosity making her eyes sparkle.
“Aside from the fact that the wards on the prison were so strong, if I’d tried it I would have fried my nuts, you mean?” The blond wizard relaxed back on the sofa and one cynical eyebrow lifted, “Where would I go?”
“I don’t understand. You could have gone anywhere.” Hermione relaxed back with him so they were shoulder to shoulder. She picked up her husband’s hand and intertwined her fingers with his.
“Could I have gone home? Could I have visited Diagon Alley whenever I wished? Or stayed in control of my financial interests?” Lucius closed his eyes, “No, I would have been an outlaw and unable to ever have my life back as it was before I was sent to Azkaban. On the other hand, if I could survive prison for five years, I could step back into my life and world legitimately. I couldn’t have borne being relegated to the Muggle world, an outcast from my own kind. Which would you have chosen? Oh, sorry, I forgot you can live in the Muggle world quite easily.” He squeezed her hand in apology.
“No. I think I too would have chosen to stay,” Hermione replied. “Yes, I can live in the Muggle world, but to be cut off from wizarding society for the rest of my life? I don’t think I could bear it.”
The two Malfoys sat together quietly for a time, enjoying each other’s company as their mind bridge brought a sense of peace to them.
“Lucius?” Hermione roused herself. She had something important to discuss and now seemed like a good time as he was feeling mellow.
“Yes?” Lucius warily peeked at his little curly-haired world, then he smoothly leaned back against the green velvet again and closed his eyes once more. Maybe she would let it slide. He was very much afraid he knew what she wanted and he was rather twitchy about the whole thing.
Lucius, I want another baby.”
Lucius’ icy gray eyes shot open and he stared in open-mouthed wonder at her shocking words. That certainly wasn’t what he had thought she was going to say. “WHAT?”
“I want another b -”
“I heard you, tidbit. I’m just surprised. No, dumbfounded might be more accurate.” Lucius frowned down at her in total confusion. “Why?”
“I don’t want Lucien to face your stratum of society alone. He should have a brother or sister halfblood, or maybe both.”
“MORE babies?” Now Lucius was beyond shock. The idea of a brood of Malfoys had never been one he had ever entertained because his circle couldn’t seem to get pregnant as a rule and it hadn’t been a possibility within his reach before. The idea began to percolate through his crafty mind, impeded a little by the idea of them all being halfbloods. He recalled Draco’s desire to have more siblings to share in running the Malfoy interests. He hadn’t really processed the idea at the time in the exigency of Draco spilling the beans about his illness to Hermione and the fallout he knew would result from that. Plus, one new baby was quite enough to think about.
Hermione had thought a lot about the idea already and she was ready with some food for thought, “What would your coterie think if you showed up year after year with another new baby? Well,” she hastily reconsidered, “maybe every two years. I think you’d be nearly a god with that kind of fertility. The Weasleys are considered an astounding anomaly and Ginny said she’d had several proposals before she ever finished Hogwarts. She told me, ‘they want my genes, not me,’ and she married Harry who wanted the rest of her.”
Hermione went on, “You could be a leader in reinvigorating your snooty in-crowd. Their desiccated little gene pool is currently about to dry up and become extinct from inbreeding. Frankly I don’t know why you’re as smart as you are. Goyle and Crabbe are much more the norm. Are their fathers just as stupid?”
“Are you implying that Pureblood is synonymous with stupid?” Lucius was sitting up straight now and glaring at his nasty little tormentor. She was doing it again, raising his blood pressure without a speck of effort. It was entirely off the point if both Crabbe and Goyle Seniors were dumb as dragon droppings.
“So what do you think of my idea?” she asked, ignoring his incensed question, considering it rhetorical. “Lucius Malfoy, father of five. I think that sounds rather splendid, don’t you?”
“Five?” Lucius echoed faintly. Oh Sweet Guinevere, that did have a certain ring to it, didn’t it? A Malfoy had led the Pureblood community for many years, perhaps through strong arm tactics, but still…; it made sense for a Malfoy to lead the way to a more fertile future in a new dynastic direction with a more viable genetic generation. Viable – hmmmm, he could probably sell that idea at least to the younger, single Purebloods whose collective heritage was looking shakiest with only one child going back for multiple generations. One ‘dumb as dragon droppings’ child. It would probably be easy enough to sway them into rethinking the Pureblood heritage code, relaxing it some.
Besides, being a Pureblood didn’t do any good if there was no one to be a Pureblood with, or to marry, or to make money from, and for Lucius pragmatic often overtook and bested dogmatic if money was involved. Plus, his heritage was already tainted if Draco didn’t continue the line. Why should the other Purebloods be given an opportunity to feel their bloodlines were now better than a Malfoy’s?
His fate was sealed – to hers. It was only fair that the other Purebloods should have the same happen to them. He knew better than to couch his possible acquiescence in just those terms, however. Hermione was unreasonably touchy about his genetic superiority.
Lucius decided he needed to explore this new idea more thoroughly in intensive conference with his wife. In bed where they had all their best conferences. “Let’s go to bed, tidbit where we can discuss this plan in more ‘detail’, shall we?”
“Of course, but first tell me you love me,” Hermione said, slickly blindsiding her shocked spouse who had counted himself safe. “I want to hear you say it just for itself. Three words, unconnected to anything else. I’ve never heard them from you and I want them.”
Dammit! DAMMIT! Did she have unsuspected legilimency powers he hadn’t perceived? No, it was that irritating emotional connection flaring to life again. Lucius’ twitchy feeling came back full force. She was becoming as devious as he, slipping that in on him like she had. Couldn’t she be happy going along as they were? He’d said it to her, sort of, when he’d admitted he’d been in love with her in prison. The fact that she’d been the one to actually say the words wasn’t truly important. And he’d admitted it almost in words when he’d told her Snape had said he, Lucius, was in love with her. He’d said, “So what?” That was nearly saying it himself. Wasn’t that good enough?
Hermione watched her husband stewing over her demand, his head sinking onto the back of the sofa again, staring up at the light fixture. They both knew he was going to do it, the recalcitrant rogue. Why did he have to be such a wussy coward about saying it out loud?
Hermione crossed her arms under her breasts, doggedly determined to outwait him. The longer he waited, the harder it would be to say. That’s why she was forcing the issue. She didn’t want to be married twenty years and still be waiting for him to actually tell her in words he loved her. She knew her shifty husband and she knew that was exactly what would happen if she didn’t make a stand now.
“Just get it over with, Lucius. It hurts the most the first time. Then it gets easier. And look at me when you tell me, don’t look at the chandelier.”
Lucius’ gaze came down from the ceiling and he glared pettishly at his wife, completely vexed. Really, sometimes she could be the most nasty, managing, insensitive, irksome, sermonizing, annoying little… “Iloveyou,” Lucius mumbled so low it was all but inaudible.
Hermione climbed onto his lap and slid her fingers into his hair, boring into his silvery eyes with her determined brown, “Again!” she demanded.
Lucius huffed a bit, eyeing his soulmate, the mother of his baby son and…and… was surprised to find she was right. It was easier the second time. “I love you,” he enunciated each word clearly and then smiled in bemused wonder as a freeing sense of joy shot through him – and through their mind bridge to her. Lucius cocked his head, grinning down at the tiny owner of his heart, “I love you. Isn’t that amazing? It’s not hard to say at all! You were quite right, tidbit.”
Lucius lifted his wife up from the sofa and made a beeline for the bedroom as he carried her, her slim arms twined around his neck. “Now let’s go discuss those babies, shall we? I’d like all boys, of course…Ow!” Lucius yelped, his receding voice aggrieved, “Dammit, tidbit, what have I told you about pinching…” as he kicked the door to their bedroom shut.
THE END
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_______________________________________________________
Well, here we are at the end of the story. I’ve had a delightful time spinning my tale and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all your wonderful reviews. They are what decided me to begin another story, which is now about three-quarters done. As you may know, I don’t start posting a story until it is finished, guaranteeing that you will have an entire, completed tale, so it will be a few weeks before my new one starts posting. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the main culprits for making me behind, along with a slightly more convoluted storyline. It is also a Lucius-Hermione story so it will start posting in this same section. For those who celebrate it, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.
And, as usual, the review link is below. The rating button is there, too. Thank you all!!
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.
Updated 12-9-07
This is the last chapter and I'm sad. I've enjoyed posting this story and reading all your amazing reviews in return. I very much appreciate all your circumspect reviews which didn't name the villains. Thank you so much for all your support!
Sheherazade I have my Muse hogtied to the end of Lucius' bed where I spend a great deal of time being inspired.
Scary Bear Hair How funny - I didn't see my double entendre with the 'wand action' that you did. I stupidly just meant to warn about some weaponry, rather than merely using it for daily activities. I like your version much better. And I think some of Lucius' wealth derived from selling maps to the bedrooms of the sexier witches who have entertained him. LOL
Citten Lucius' red roses will be beautiful next year.(Snerk)
dynonugget Snape says not to worry about the paint you left on him, but please use the cream cheese flavored paint next time - it has a built-in moisturizer.
lilbitbord Looking forward to your writing.
Damiana In truth, the story originally did NOT have the mystery, but I went back and began interweaving it after I got some of the way through the original and decided it could work as a mystery as well as a love story. I'm not sure I'll do a mystery again in the classic style, with clues interspersed in the story. I too have read all the Agatha Christies (and countless other mysteries), but it definitely is a complex genre to write.
To all my regular reviewers I'm sending out white rose bouquets for your pleasure. (No RED roses, for obvious reasons.)
And to all my lurkers, thank you for reading my story. You know who you are. If this is your first story by me, I invite you to try my other ones. All of them are complete.
Sob, here we go...
_______________________________________________________
Chapter Forty-One
How Do I Love Thee?
A day later Lucius sat down beside Hermione on one of their sitting room sofas, a favorite place of theirs that had already seen many fascinating uses in their new marriage, “Well, we now know that Hardcastle and Le Fay merely wanted me angry with you, angry enough to perhaps have you killed for infidelity. I’d be stuck back in Azkaban forever and you’d be dead. Two for the price of one. Likely I’d have perished mysteriously in the prison soon thereafter with no one to mourn the vicious murderer.”
Lucius picked up Hermione’s hand and held it, stroking idly across her palm with his thumb. “We had both managed to get away from Le Fay’s machinations once already through dumb luck and that horny guard forcing my hand. So then they tried to make me turn on you with the Daily Prophet articles. It was Hardcastle, by the way, who orchestrated your nights on the town with all those eligible young Ministry assistants. That was in his files at his home.” Lucius didn’t add the information that both Jax and Ben had likely met their fates at the hands of their co-conspirator, Le Fay Junior.
Hermione murmured, “They didn’t count on us falling in love.”
Lucius looked a little conscious, “Yes, well,” his voice trailed off for a few awkward seconds, then he continued, staring down at their joined hands rather than at his wife’s face, “Le Fay was a very clever young man, not at all like his sire. Slytherin, of course. His partner, Hardcastle, was a Ravenclaw, coldly analytical with a ‘better’ plan to rule the wizarding world – I think he was certifiably insane, if very intelligent. A rather explosive combination.” Lucius wondered if he had any Ravenclaws in his own organization. He would need to review his employee files. “They each had an obvious case of megalomania.”
Hermione didn’t say anything more, but she figured Lucius ought to know a bit about that disorder, having a touch of it himself. Luckily he had her to curb his more outrageous tendencies now, making it more comfortable for his peers, whether they ever acknowledged her contribution or not.
There would be a few less Pureblood victims of Lucius’ quest to own the wizarding financial world and a few more charitable accomplishments attributed to her handsome spouse. But just sometimes, she wished her dark wizard had come with some sort of manual for relaxing his eternal wheeling and dealing – except perhaps in the bedroom. She had no interest in tampering with a good thing there.
“Lucius, I’ve always wondered why when you transfigured your way out of your cell you didn’t escape?” The little witch looked up at her mate, her unending curiosity making her eyes sparkle.
“Aside from the fact that the wards on the prison were so strong, if I’d tried it I would have fried my nuts, you mean?” The blond wizard relaxed back on the sofa and one cynical eyebrow lifted, “Where would I go?”
“I don’t understand. You could have gone anywhere.” Hermione relaxed back with him so they were shoulder to shoulder. She picked up her husband’s hand and intertwined her fingers with his.
“Could I have gone home? Could I have visited Diagon Alley whenever I wished? Or stayed in control of my financial interests?” Lucius closed his eyes, “No, I would have been an outlaw and unable to ever have my life back as it was before I was sent to Azkaban. On the other hand, if I could survive prison for five years, I could step back into my life and world legitimately. I couldn’t have borne being relegated to the Muggle world, an outcast from my own kind. Which would you have chosen? Oh, sorry, I forgot you can live in the Muggle world quite easily.” He squeezed her hand in apology.
“No. I think I too would have chosen to stay,” Hermione replied. “Yes, I can live in the Muggle world, but to be cut off from wizarding society for the rest of my life? I don’t think I could bear it.”
The two Malfoys sat together quietly for a time, enjoying each other’s company as their mind bridge brought a sense of peace to them.
“Lucius?” Hermione roused herself. She had something important to discuss and now seemed like a good time as he was feeling mellow.
“Yes?” Lucius warily peeked at his little curly-haired world, then he smoothly leaned back against the green velvet again and closed his eyes once more. Maybe she would let it slide. He was very much afraid he knew what she wanted and he was rather twitchy about the whole thing.
Lucius, I want another baby.”
Lucius’ icy gray eyes shot open and he stared in open-mouthed wonder at her shocking words. That certainly wasn’t what he had thought she was going to say. “WHAT?”
“I want another b -”
“I heard you, tidbit. I’m just surprised. No, dumbfounded might be more accurate.” Lucius frowned down at her in total confusion. “Why?”
“I don’t want Lucien to face your stratum of society alone. He should have a brother or sister halfblood, or maybe both.”
“MORE babies?” Now Lucius was beyond shock. The idea of a brood of Malfoys had never been one he had ever entertained because his circle couldn’t seem to get pregnant as a rule and it hadn’t been a possibility within his reach before. The idea began to percolate through his crafty mind, impeded a little by the idea of them all being halfbloods. He recalled Draco’s desire to have more siblings to share in running the Malfoy interests. He hadn’t really processed the idea at the time in the exigency of Draco spilling the beans about his illness to Hermione and the fallout he knew would result from that. Plus, one new baby was quite enough to think about.
Hermione had thought a lot about the idea already and she was ready with some food for thought, “What would your coterie think if you showed up year after year with another new baby? Well,” she hastily reconsidered, “maybe every two years. I think you’d be nearly a god with that kind of fertility. The Weasleys are considered an astounding anomaly and Ginny said she’d had several proposals before she ever finished Hogwarts. She told me, ‘they want my genes, not me,’ and she married Harry who wanted the rest of her.”
Hermione went on, “You could be a leader in reinvigorating your snooty in-crowd. Their desiccated little gene pool is currently about to dry up and become extinct from inbreeding. Frankly I don’t know why you’re as smart as you are. Goyle and Crabbe are much more the norm. Are their fathers just as stupid?”
“Are you implying that Pureblood is synonymous with stupid?” Lucius was sitting up straight now and glaring at his nasty little tormentor. She was doing it again, raising his blood pressure without a speck of effort. It was entirely off the point if both Crabbe and Goyle Seniors were dumb as dragon droppings.
“So what do you think of my idea?” she asked, ignoring his incensed question, considering it rhetorical. “Lucius Malfoy, father of five. I think that sounds rather splendid, don’t you?”
“Five?” Lucius echoed faintly. Oh Sweet Guinevere, that did have a certain ring to it, didn’t it? A Malfoy had led the Pureblood community for many years, perhaps through strong arm tactics, but still…; it made sense for a Malfoy to lead the way to a more fertile future in a new dynastic direction with a more viable genetic generation. Viable – hmmmm, he could probably sell that idea at least to the younger, single Purebloods whose collective heritage was looking shakiest with only one child going back for multiple generations. One ‘dumb as dragon droppings’ child. It would probably be easy enough to sway them into rethinking the Pureblood heritage code, relaxing it some.
Besides, being a Pureblood didn’t do any good if there was no one to be a Pureblood with, or to marry, or to make money from, and for Lucius pragmatic often overtook and bested dogmatic if money was involved. Plus, his heritage was already tainted if Draco didn’t continue the line. Why should the other Purebloods be given an opportunity to feel their bloodlines were now better than a Malfoy’s?
His fate was sealed – to hers. It was only fair that the other Purebloods should have the same happen to them. He knew better than to couch his possible acquiescence in just those terms, however. Hermione was unreasonably touchy about his genetic superiority.
Lucius decided he needed to explore this new idea more thoroughly in intensive conference with his wife. In bed where they had all their best conferences. “Let’s go to bed, tidbit where we can discuss this plan in more ‘detail’, shall we?”
“Of course, but first tell me you love me,” Hermione said, slickly blindsiding her shocked spouse who had counted himself safe. “I want to hear you say it just for itself. Three words, unconnected to anything else. I’ve never heard them from you and I want them.”
Dammit! DAMMIT! Did she have unsuspected legilimency powers he hadn’t perceived? No, it was that irritating emotional connection flaring to life again. Lucius’ twitchy feeling came back full force. She was becoming as devious as he, slipping that in on him like she had. Couldn’t she be happy going along as they were? He’d said it to her, sort of, when he’d admitted he’d been in love with her in prison. The fact that she’d been the one to actually say the words wasn’t truly important. And he’d admitted it almost in words when he’d told her Snape had said he, Lucius, was in love with her. He’d said, “So what?” That was nearly saying it himself. Wasn’t that good enough?
Hermione watched her husband stewing over her demand, his head sinking onto the back of the sofa again, staring up at the light fixture. They both knew he was going to do it, the recalcitrant rogue. Why did he have to be such a wussy coward about saying it out loud?
Hermione crossed her arms under her breasts, doggedly determined to outwait him. The longer he waited, the harder it would be to say. That’s why she was forcing the issue. She didn’t want to be married twenty years and still be waiting for him to actually tell her in words he loved her. She knew her shifty husband and she knew that was exactly what would happen if she didn’t make a stand now.
“Just get it over with, Lucius. It hurts the most the first time. Then it gets easier. And look at me when you tell me, don’t look at the chandelier.”
Lucius’ gaze came down from the ceiling and he glared pettishly at his wife, completely vexed. Really, sometimes she could be the most nasty, managing, insensitive, irksome, sermonizing, annoying little… “Iloveyou,” Lucius mumbled so low it was all but inaudible.
Hermione climbed onto his lap and slid her fingers into his hair, boring into his silvery eyes with her determined brown, “Again!” she demanded.
Lucius huffed a bit, eyeing his soulmate, the mother of his baby son and…and… was surprised to find she was right. It was easier the second time. “I love you,” he enunciated each word clearly and then smiled in bemused wonder as a freeing sense of joy shot through him – and through their mind bridge to her. Lucius cocked his head, grinning down at the tiny owner of his heart, “I love you. Isn’t that amazing? It’s not hard to say at all! You were quite right, tidbit.”
Lucius lifted his wife up from the sofa and made a beeline for the bedroom as he carried her, her slim arms twined around his neck. “Now let’s go discuss those babies, shall we? I’d like all boys, of course…Ow!” Lucius yelped, his receding voice aggrieved, “Dammit, tidbit, what have I told you about pinching…” as he kicked the door to their bedroom shut.
THE END
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
Well, here we are at the end of the story. I’ve had a delightful time spinning my tale and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all your wonderful reviews. They are what decided me to begin another story, which is now about three-quarters done. As you may know, I don’t start posting a story until it is finished, guaranteeing that you will have an entire, completed tale, so it will be a few weeks before my new one starts posting. Thanksgiving and Christmas are the main culprits for making me behind, along with a slightly more convoluted storyline. It is also a Lucius-Hermione story so it will start posting in this same section. For those who celebrate it, I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season.
And, as usual, the review link is below. The rating button is there, too. Thank you all!!
.
.