Beyond the Veil -- COMPLETE
folder
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Lucius/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
50
Views:
67,705
Reviews:
1221
Recommended:
5
Currently Reading:
6
Category:
Harry Potter › Het - Male/Female › Lucius/Hermione
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
50
Views:
67,705
Reviews:
1221
Recommended:
5
Currently Reading:
6
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.
More Secrets Revealed
_________________________________________________________
Updated 10-7-08
Thank you all for the lovely reviews. I'm very lucky to have readers who give me such wonderful feedback. Writing is a lonely business, so responses are doubly appreciated.
Some responses of my own to you:
Voracious_Reader – Yes, that’s correct. They need to kill the root so the tree will die. Chapter updates should take care of that issue.
Snapes_Goddess – Your Halloween story should be good and eww, the wood chipper idea should fit in with that story.
WhiteWitch – You were correct about the villain, but I couldn’t say so at the time LOL. Did you also know he was a murderer?
sisterae – Lucius has the occasional Death Eater impulses that still surface, but Hermione is his lodestone for right and wrong. Harry and Ron versus Lucius in an argument for Lucius dating Hermione? No contest (grin).
Jesse – Fear not, I wouldn’t harm our main characters. Lucius is Hermione’s willing mate and he tries to meet her expectations morally (sometimes a tough job for him – snicker).
godblessemohair – Ah, you’ve read “The Wedding”? I’m happy you’ve overcome your lurker habits for this story. The Master’s full title is the New Wave Master and he’s an enigma or sorts who’s caused the decimation of the wizarding world. It’s why Hermione and Lucius are trying to change history. This villain is not Voldemort. A re-read of Chapter One might clear that up for you.
doodle – You like Lucius and Hermione in this 1817 time period? Are you a devotee of tight pantaloons or is it the general times? Just wondering…
Citten – Your suspicions of Nesbitt were correct. Lucius regressed to Death Eater for a short while, dealing with Nesbitt, but Hermione’s presence deterred his more vicious preferences. If Ron told his dad about the drawing room floor, the second unplottable spell may have shielded the secret cache. And Lucius (in the second movie in a deleted scene [stupid movie editor]) was quickly seen in Borgin and Burke’s selling off his little dark arts toys. I’m not sure what Arthur Weasley ever did with the information, if anything.
blue artemis – Lucius’ Death Eater side does have its dark attractions, doesn’t it? Lucius or Ron? Laughing here. No contest for me either.
Muffy – I’m glad you agree that the Veil should take on the ‘disposal’ of Nesbitt. We’ll see what happens.
Scary Bear Hair – Scary, you are possible Death Eater material. Lucius taking out the garbage? How bloodthirsty. Hermione is affecting his choices – now. She didn’t so much earlier when he made three deposits in the Forbidden Forest. That’s our boy! For me, Lucius is part and parcel of his entire past, including CoS. If I want a Lucius character anywhere near canon, his behavior back then couldn’t be swept under the literary rug of an alternate universe. (Not that this isn’t about as alternate as it gets LOL.) Now, Scary, we both know how much I luuuurv Sirius Black, blech.
jesustheatheist – Oh darn! You mean my electric belt won’t make me slim and trim overnight? Well, pooh. Maybe Lucius could try out his stasis spell on me. Hmmm.
Heidi191976 – More is just a few lines away.
Utopia – You don’t know that old Malfoy family exclamation, ‘fuck me, suck me, and give me a shave’? I thought everyone did. LOL anyway, if there were Death Eater training camps for hiding dead bodies, Lucius probably excelled at the forester’s badge. How Lucius dealt with the documents will be covered. Sometimes I wonder about you, Utopia, knowing enough to write an essay about bodysnatchers…[grin].
ShiningEyes – My goodness, ShiningEyes, where were you when I wrote this? You’ve got plot twists down to a science. Great idea.
Damiana – There will be a few more questions to go, then answers, then (sigh) THE END. And then an epilogue.
shez - Why not use the Veil as a giant dustbin for criminals? I guess it matters who is shoving the waste through the arch LOL. Enlighten me on what a ‘tool’ is in England? Anything beyond another euphemism for a cock? Like most parents, Lucius wasn’t privy to many of Draco’s operations. I’ve done character-driven stories, but I’m finding it easier to write the hidden menace/puzzlers. Odd, I guess, that I’m so wussy about reading suspense. Oh, and of course mysteries with smut.
tambrathegreat – LOL, Hermione didn’t tell Lucius about her Polyjuice whiskers and tail, and he didn’t mention the particulars of his forays to his bordello. Unfortunately for him, that came out anyway. Neither wants to quite tell everything and perhaps leaving the past alone is a good thing. Most of theirs wasn’t so lovely. More to come with the Veil.
Rini – Lucius obviously knew something was wrong, but not HOW wrong until Hermione told him. What sort of Mills and Boon novel? They usually have a pattern for hero and heroine. I think my sex scenes would be a little beyond their comfort zone. The LOAN idea was something I could do because of pre-writing the tale. I just like to be able to knit the story together with lots of details. Re your correction for ‘in trim’, I was using the word as a noun instead of a verb, although it could go either way. See (http://www.yourdictionary.com/trim)
“noun
1. order; arrangement; condition in proper trim
2. good condition or order to keep in trim for sports”
Robyn Hawkes – Your input on the lawyer’s future has been duly sent to the Veil. If you controlled time, where would you send the villain if you didn’t just kill him?
dynonugget – Thinking of Lucius with red hair was difficult - I think his blond locks can’t be beat. By now I imagine you’ve read how they fared at Diagon Alley. Much plot thickening. We haven’t even yet solved the ‘real heir’ dilemma. I suppose you’ll read this in its allotted time.
jw – How bloodthirsty, jw. The villain’s victims would have hexed him to pieces, a millimeter at a time. Some of those victims weren’t very law-abiding, you know. It’s how they got blackmailed LOL.
FlowersBecomeScreens – Hi FBS! I will happily wait until you can spend time reading and reviewing. I always enjoy your comments. Thanks for letting me know, though. It was very gracious of you.
Please note: This chapter requires a careful reading. It is a little intricate, so read for the complex content.
Forging ahead...
_________________________________________________________
Chapter Forty-Five
More Secrets Revealed
The next morning, Lucius, Hermione, and a little old lady covered in numerous shawls looking a little glassy-eyed walked through the Atrium of the Ministry and took an elevator to the Department of Mysteries.
“This place is starting to grow on me,” Hermione whispered. “Do you think the Veil is making us feel all warm and cozy whenever we come?”
Lucius leaned over and whispered back, “I feel all warm and cozy every time I ‘come’ and I don’t have to be anywhere near here.” He barked with laughter when he got punched on his arm by his sprite.
“Vulgar,” was all she said, but Lucius could see her smiling. The two of them supported the little old lady between them down the corridor to the doorway to the Chamber where the Veil stood. A few people strode by them on their way to somewhere else, but no one paid them any attention.
“I found out that our geriatric party girl, Miss Thornhill, who guards this area, takes her lunch precisely at this time every day. Such a shame we’ll miss her. I wonder what color ruffles she’s wearing today?” Lucius was in good spirits at having the blackmail scheme resolved and the likelihood that their leftover problem, propped up between them, would soon be solved also.
“Shall we get on with this? I don’t want to be caught.” Hermione was starting to feel a crushing sense of guilt as she hustled the three of them down the aisle and onto the dais. She felt it was cowardly of her, but she wanted any decision about Nesbitt to be made by the Veil.
She and Lucius hustled their docile, living bundle up onto the stage area and held onto to him as Hermione looked up at the stone arch and spoke, “Um, hello Veil. We need you to adjudicate a problem for us. This wizard caused part of the Squib bigotry. His partner, another wizard who helped create the disenfranchisement of the Squibs is dead. But maybe you knew that?”
Silence.
“Anyway,” Hermione shrugged her shoulders and plowed on, “we’ve taken care of most of the problem, but this wizard murdered someone. We hope you’ll decide what to do with him. May we send him through?”
At once a soft, caressing positive emotion flowed through both Lucius’ and Hermione’s brains. “That’s a yes, then?” she asked.
The stone arch’s tatty curtain began to ruffle as though in a strong breeze, reaching out toward the still figure of the little old lady, Augustus Nesbitt, wrapped up like a mummy, glamoured, and imperiused into near catatonia.
Hermione and Lucius stood back and away from Nesbitt and slowly he began shuffling on his own toward the arch. He never faltered as he inched right through and disappeared completely.
“Thank you,” Hermione said in a low, fervent voice. “Neither Lucius nor I could kill him, but we couldn’t leave him to hurt anyone else.”
Lucius didn’t know what the Veil sent to Hermione, but he got a shot of cynical amusement wafting into his brain. Damned lump of stone. It knew Lucius could have killed the rogue wizard and gone on to a six-course meal with dancing to follow, and never shed a tear.
I did it – or rather I didn’t do it for her. Keep your snarky emotions to yourself! Lucius furiously aimed his thoughts at the huge hunk of rock. This time he got a warm, soothing wave in his mind and he was slightly mollified at the interfering arch’s peace gesture.
“Um, Veil? What did you do with Nesbitt?” Hermione’s curiosity was never-ending and she wanted to know, both for her own peace of mind and just to know.
Silence.
“Obviously the Veil isn’t inclined to pander to your idle curiosity, love. We’re finished here for now,” Lucius said firmly, seeing his wife’s frustrated chagrin at being left with a mystery she would never solve. Lucius settled Hermione’s hand on his arm and tugged her out of the Ministry before she could get any more ideas on trying to pry the answer from the sentient arch.
~~~~
The two Malfoys sat listlessly in their library after a morose lunch, not saying much. Hermione was in low spirits because she had contributed to Nesbitt’s death – or disappearance into the unknown. She would never know which. Lucius was in low spirits because Hermione was. Lucius knew he had to let Hermione get past her guilt feelings by herself. She had no reason to feel any remorse; she had acted to protect innocent people from a conniving, probably insane predator. Who knew how long he had made the lives of others miserable?
The records of Lucius’ uncle had gone back more than thirty years just for this one illegal project. Lucius suspected Mr. Augustus Nesbitt had been active far longer than that in his schemes. But the blond wizard knew his wife was aware of all that, just as he was. So they sat together on the sofa and watched the flames in the fireplace leap and throw off sparks.
Finally Hermione roused herself, “We got rid of the root, didn’t we, Lucius?” she asked. “Nesbitt was the root along with your uncle. They were both destroying the future of the Squibs in our society. That’s right, isn’t it?” She wanted to be reassured that what they had done was the right thing.
Lucius didn’t immediately answer and Hermione scooted over to lean up against her mate. “What?” he asked.
“The root of your prophecy. Nesbitt was the root, right?”
He sighed and sat back, slumping on the sofa. “Right. Nesbitt and uncle were the root. The owl with the odd-colored tail feathers was in Nesbitt’s owlery. The untraceable idea was brilliant, but obviously he still only used it for his blackmail and no other messages. He was clever. I used the same owl to return all the blackmail documents so the victims would think it was from the person persecuting them and I included a brief anonymous note saying the blackmail was over.”
“And did you read all the incriminating evidence before you sent it back?” Hermione’s lips quirked cynically.
“Of course I did.” The blond wizard was surprised Hermione would even ask. “How would I know who to send the evidence to otherwise?” Lucius shook his head wearily, “Several of those people should be ashamed of themselves and a couple should really be in Azkaban, but that’s not my problem, thank the Gods. It’s just as well you didn’t read any of it. With your sanctimonious little heart you wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing what some of them had done.”
“What a terrible thing to say,” Hermione huffed. “I can look the other way when I have to.” She bit her lip at the blatant lie; the relief at not knowing the particulars of the blackmail was enormous and she was guiltily thankful Lucius had shouldered that burden. Her gloomy thoughts were totally diverted at Lucius’ next words.
Lucius worriedly eyed his wife from under his lashes, “I’m more worried that I’m the tree. “Kill the root and the tree dies.” Isn’t that what the prophecy said?”
“Lucius! Why would you say such a thing? That’s ridiculous.”
“Maybe not,” he groaned. “Oh, I don’t mean that I’m going to actually die, but…let me tell you what I know. Then you can tell me if it’s ridiculous or not,” and Lucius reluctantly began a tale he had kept to himself all the time they had been in the nineteenth century.
“The New Wave Master’s last name was Gaunt.” Lucius heard Hermione’s gasp, but kept talking, “He was related to Voldemort; he was Voldemort’s Squib cousin’s son.”
“Voldemort? He’s involved in this?” Hermione was aghast.
“Not precisely,” Lucius said. “Let me finish. Morfin Gaunt, Voldemort’s uncle and brother of Voldemort’s mother, had fathered a bastard Squib on a rural Halfblood miss in his youth. That Squib child – Verill - took the surname of Gaunt in retaliation when he was sent away from his mother’s family at seventeen as useless, being not only illegitimate, but without magic powers. Verill Gaunt, Voldemort’s cousin, also had a Squib son and he instilled in his son – who became the New Wave Master - his burning resentment against the magic world for labeling him basically as valueless.”
Lucius glanced at Hermione, “Even in our time, we’re insensitive to Squibs. What happened while I was with Voldemort is one of the reasons I’m establishing the academy for the Lynx. I’m trying to turn around the New Wave Master’s hatred before it happens two hundred years from now. Unfortunately for all concerned, if we can’t change the future, the Master, who is brilliant, will aim all his malice at us and the seeds of doom for all magic folk will be sown, reaped and burned to ash in the fire of his hatred for the wizarding world.”
“You’ve known the Master’s name all this time?” Hermione was dumbfounded. “Why didn’t you tell me when I asked you?”
“I didn’t know it was the Squibs we needed to help at first, so you learning the name of the New Wave Master didn’t seem important enough for me to tell you all this dirty linen.”
“And when we did discover the Squibs were important you still didn’t tell me. Why was that?” Hermione’s heart hurt at the monumental secret Lucius hadn’t confided in her.
“At that point I began planning for the Cross-Cultural Academy and I hoped that would reroute history for the Squibs. And by then I had even less interest in you knowing I was culpable in the future wizarding world debacle.”
Lucius saw his wife was about to ask why again so he hurried on, “In his youth, with Verill’s reluctant permission, the New Wave Master made one last attempt to reconnect with us, with his birth world. He offered his technical knowledge to the Death Eaters, to Voldemort as his kin when the Dark Lord returned to power, but he was laughed out the door with a crucio before he could explain his power, this Muggle technology he excelled at and that we’ve all now suffered in the death throes of the wizarding world. Verill’s son, the Master, limped away from my mansion, nursing, I’m sure, a wish for revenge against all things magic. Not only was his father rejected, he too was rejected – viciously – by his own relative.”
Lucius stared unseeing into the fire as he brought forth the rest of his memories, “I learned later from Voldemort that the Squib we had turned away was his second cousin, the son of his cousin, Verill. I remembered the young Squib from that meeting, of course, but I hadn’t known the Squib we had rejected and the New Wave Master were one and the same until I came up behind one of the Muggle sheep who was watching a moving picture in a flat metal box. The face and voice intoning his destructive instructions called himself the New Wave Master. I killed the sheep and blasted the box with my wand, but I recognized Voldemort’s second cousin. So you see it makes some sense that all Squibs would be immune to the Master’s vendetta, but that isn’t much consolation to the ruined wizarding community.”
Hermione gazed wide-eyed at her husband, “That must have been a laptop computer you destroyed. Had Voldemort known the power his relative was capable of, he might have made some use of him and we would all still have been in terrible trouble from him. Either way the New Wave Master was – or will be – a terrible catastrophe for our kind.” She narrowed her eyes at her mate, “So are you working to have Squibs accepted so Voldemort will welcome his cousin with open arms?”
“Of course not!” Lucius was incensed. He hadn’t seen that wrinkle. “Oh sweet hell, will that happen now?” He put his head in his hands. “This time turning is very convoluted. At least I’ll be there. The Gaunt cousin wasn’t a Pureblood, so even with the Squibs being acknowledged maybe that whole scenario won’t change. Voldemort would probably still have rejected his Squib cousin, Verill Gaunt, and Verill’s son. He had no love for the Gaunts. And the Dark Lord courted only the Purebloods. He couldn’t really palm off a Halfblood cousin on us, especially a Squib, as a colleague.”
“And why was this so secret you couldn’t tell me before? It might have hastened our solving the prophecy and averting the annihilation of our kind.” Hermione softly yanked on Lucius’ hair to get him to sit up again and he obliged, turning sideways to face her fully.
“On Voldemort’s orders, I was the one who delivered the crucio. So in effect, I am the tree of the prophecy. I brought about the destruction of our kind.” Lucius held his breath, waiting for his wife to hate him, reject him.
“Oh bull puckey,” she snorted. “You and your conceits. If you hadn’t delivered the crucio, my bet is that someone else would have been told to do it and you would have been crucio’d in turn. I do have some knowledge of your delightful Dark Lord’s personality quirks.” Hermione huffed, “How do you see yourself as the tree? The tree was the spreading antipathy toward Squibs in general, started by your uncle and that git Nesbitt. If anything you were only a minor twig. Or maybe your famed leaf,” she laughed.
Hermione’s words shocked Lucius. Didn’t she see that he had helped cause the New Wave Master to hunt them to extinction?
“No wonder you’ve been struggling to turn over that new leaf,” she chuckled. “You’ve been trying to upend a whole tree full of leaves. Stupid man. Are you sure your penchant for pleasure-pain doesn’t include a martyr complex in there somewhere? I can see where they would go together.”
She shook her curls, disappointed in his irrational idiocy. “And you tell me I’m illogical. You lost heart with Voldemort’s agenda and yet you couldn’t stop the ball rolling even in your position as one of his chief lieutenants. Do you think you could have stopped this New Wave Master sometime later before he completed his plans when you were a) in prison and b) hadn’t the slightest idea what went on in the Muggle world to see his threat coming?
“If you want to beat yourself up, Lucius, do it for fun with a riding crop, but not for reasons that weren’t your fault. If one stupid ‘crucio’ set him off on his vendetta, he was ripe for reprisal anyway; something else would have tipped him into his retribution even if you hadn’t hurt him. He must have known you chose a ‘crucio’ and not the killing curse.”
Lucius looked even more conscious, “I could have stopped it all. Voldemort told me to use the Unforgivable on Verill’s son when he had cleared the estate, but I only used a crucio. I could have killed him and saved our world right then.”
“Why? Why did you use a ‘crucio’ instead of the Killing Curse?”
“I don’t know,” Lucius sighed. “I felt sorry for him, I guess. I was supposed to kill him, but the Dark Lord just specified an Unforgivable and the Cruciatus Curse is an Unforgivable. I knew all along that Voldemort meant the Killing Curse, but I evaded punishment by pretending I hadn’t understood his meaning. Voldemort didn’t care enough to send me after the young man and cast the Killing Curse on him. So maybe I was more responsible than you think.”
“So let’s look at what happened,” Hermione proposed, perching on the sofa in her superior, professorial mode, annoying Lucius out of his self-pity for the moment. “You spared the New Wave Master’s life. He comes back and destroys the wizarding world. We’re sent back in time and we change history, not only negating the Master’s threat, but also changing all the Squibs’ – sorry, Lynx’s – lives for the better. Everything went full circle, but the Lynx are much better off. Sorry, but I think you’re back to being a twig.”
Lucius looked dubious, but her words were soothing to his conscience. “Maybe I was only a twig. You do have a way of whittling my ego down to a toothpick.” His spirits rose a little. “If we have managed to change the world, I wonder if that will change Voldemort’s mother’s life?” Lucius put forward another possible twist. “Maybe her family would be nicer to her and her son wouldn’t become the Dark Lord.”
Hermione shook her head, “As I understand it, the Gaunt family was a miserable, vicious lot for other reasons than her merely being a Muggle lover. She would still have fallen in love with a Muggle. She would still have used a love spell on him. None of that would have changed. I don’t think Voldemort’s threat to the magic world was enough to activate the Veil. He didn’t seek to decimate our world, only rule it.
“So,” Hermione continued to hypothesize, “my theory is that if we succeed, Voldemort will still happen. We vanquished him ourselves and the Veil would know that we could, so it wouldn’t step in. That means the New Wave Master will destroy the magic world in the future. So the Veil commandeered us to change that future.”
“Then,” Lucius speculated, “the Veil does act only in times of catastrophic danger to the magic community.” He relaxed a little with his profound relief that he hadn’t caused the magic world to crumble with his parting ‘crucio’ on the New Wave Master. The hulking stone arch had given him the means to retrieve his mistake and help Hermione reroute history. He wondered if they already had. “How do we know if we have finished doing what we were sent here for?”
They both said at the same time, “Go see the Veil.” Hermione smiled, but Lucius groaned at being dragged anywhere near that behemoth Cupid again. He did want to know if they were now free to live out their lives in their new environment, but he wasn’t eager to be laughed at again. Lucius wasn’t yet too adept at accepting laughter aimed at him and he acknowledged that failing.
Hermione laughed with him and she certainly laughed at him and it was growing on him that it wasn’t so bad. He was slowly learning from his wife that he needn’t be all-powerful or shoulder all the decision-making for the two of them. She was willing to accept some of the financial, social, and day-to-day burdens of the Malfoy lifestyle and he was learning to loosen up with her. She didn’t do patriarchal very well, but he was finding out he rather liked sharing some of the load. However, being a source of amusement for the timeless arch did not appeal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[siblings]
Morfin Gaunt - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Merope Gaunt
[cousins]
Verill (son)................................................. Voldemort (son)
New Wave Master (grandson)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tbc...
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Ah, Lucius needs Hermione, he really does. She brings clarity to his sometimes too serpentine thought processes. (And she also douses his ego when it gets too big for those tight pantaloons.)
I would really appreciate a review for this chapter, even if you haven't overcome your shyness before. This is a complex chapter and I would like the input from you. Many thanks in advance.
.
.
Updated 10-7-08
Thank you all for the lovely reviews. I'm very lucky to have readers who give me such wonderful feedback. Writing is a lonely business, so responses are doubly appreciated.
Some responses of my own to you:
Voracious_Reader – Yes, that’s correct. They need to kill the root so the tree will die. Chapter updates should take care of that issue.
Snapes_Goddess – Your Halloween story should be good and eww, the wood chipper idea should fit in with that story.
WhiteWitch – You were correct about the villain, but I couldn’t say so at the time LOL. Did you also know he was a murderer?
sisterae – Lucius has the occasional Death Eater impulses that still surface, but Hermione is his lodestone for right and wrong. Harry and Ron versus Lucius in an argument for Lucius dating Hermione? No contest (grin).
Jesse – Fear not, I wouldn’t harm our main characters. Lucius is Hermione’s willing mate and he tries to meet her expectations morally (sometimes a tough job for him – snicker).
godblessemohair – Ah, you’ve read “The Wedding”? I’m happy you’ve overcome your lurker habits for this story. The Master’s full title is the New Wave Master and he’s an enigma or sorts who’s caused the decimation of the wizarding world. It’s why Hermione and Lucius are trying to change history. This villain is not Voldemort. A re-read of Chapter One might clear that up for you.
doodle – You like Lucius and Hermione in this 1817 time period? Are you a devotee of tight pantaloons or is it the general times? Just wondering…
Citten – Your suspicions of Nesbitt were correct. Lucius regressed to Death Eater for a short while, dealing with Nesbitt, but Hermione’s presence deterred his more vicious preferences. If Ron told his dad about the drawing room floor, the second unplottable spell may have shielded the secret cache. And Lucius (in the second movie in a deleted scene [stupid movie editor]) was quickly seen in Borgin and Burke’s selling off his little dark arts toys. I’m not sure what Arthur Weasley ever did with the information, if anything.
blue artemis – Lucius’ Death Eater side does have its dark attractions, doesn’t it? Lucius or Ron? Laughing here. No contest for me either.
Muffy – I’m glad you agree that the Veil should take on the ‘disposal’ of Nesbitt. We’ll see what happens.
Scary Bear Hair – Scary, you are possible Death Eater material. Lucius taking out the garbage? How bloodthirsty. Hermione is affecting his choices – now. She didn’t so much earlier when he made three deposits in the Forbidden Forest. That’s our boy! For me, Lucius is part and parcel of his entire past, including CoS. If I want a Lucius character anywhere near canon, his behavior back then couldn’t be swept under the literary rug of an alternate universe. (Not that this isn’t about as alternate as it gets LOL.) Now, Scary, we both know how much I luuuurv Sirius Black, blech.
jesustheatheist – Oh darn! You mean my electric belt won’t make me slim and trim overnight? Well, pooh. Maybe Lucius could try out his stasis spell on me. Hmmm.
Heidi191976 – More is just a few lines away.
Utopia – You don’t know that old Malfoy family exclamation, ‘fuck me, suck me, and give me a shave’? I thought everyone did. LOL anyway, if there were Death Eater training camps for hiding dead bodies, Lucius probably excelled at the forester’s badge. How Lucius dealt with the documents will be covered. Sometimes I wonder about you, Utopia, knowing enough to write an essay about bodysnatchers…[grin].
ShiningEyes – My goodness, ShiningEyes, where were you when I wrote this? You’ve got plot twists down to a science. Great idea.
Damiana – There will be a few more questions to go, then answers, then (sigh) THE END. And then an epilogue.
shez - Why not use the Veil as a giant dustbin for criminals? I guess it matters who is shoving the waste through the arch LOL. Enlighten me on what a ‘tool’ is in England? Anything beyond another euphemism for a cock? Like most parents, Lucius wasn’t privy to many of Draco’s operations. I’ve done character-driven stories, but I’m finding it easier to write the hidden menace/puzzlers. Odd, I guess, that I’m so wussy about reading suspense. Oh, and of course mysteries with smut.
tambrathegreat – LOL, Hermione didn’t tell Lucius about her Polyjuice whiskers and tail, and he didn’t mention the particulars of his forays to his bordello. Unfortunately for him, that came out anyway. Neither wants to quite tell everything and perhaps leaving the past alone is a good thing. Most of theirs wasn’t so lovely. More to come with the Veil.
Rini – Lucius obviously knew something was wrong, but not HOW wrong until Hermione told him. What sort of Mills and Boon novel? They usually have a pattern for hero and heroine. I think my sex scenes would be a little beyond their comfort zone. The LOAN idea was something I could do because of pre-writing the tale. I just like to be able to knit the story together with lots of details. Re your correction for ‘in trim’, I was using the word as a noun instead of a verb, although it could go either way. See (http://www.yourdictionary.com/trim)
“noun
1. order; arrangement; condition in proper trim
2. good condition or order to keep in trim for sports”
Robyn Hawkes – Your input on the lawyer’s future has been duly sent to the Veil. If you controlled time, where would you send the villain if you didn’t just kill him?
dynonugget – Thinking of Lucius with red hair was difficult - I think his blond locks can’t be beat. By now I imagine you’ve read how they fared at Diagon Alley. Much plot thickening. We haven’t even yet solved the ‘real heir’ dilemma. I suppose you’ll read this in its allotted time.
jw – How bloodthirsty, jw. The villain’s victims would have hexed him to pieces, a millimeter at a time. Some of those victims weren’t very law-abiding, you know. It’s how they got blackmailed LOL.
FlowersBecomeScreens – Hi FBS! I will happily wait until you can spend time reading and reviewing. I always enjoy your comments. Thanks for letting me know, though. It was very gracious of you.
Please note: This chapter requires a careful reading. It is a little intricate, so read for the complex content.
Forging ahead...
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More Secrets Revealed
The next morning, Lucius, Hermione, and a little old lady covered in numerous shawls looking a little glassy-eyed walked through the Atrium of the Ministry and took an elevator to the Department of Mysteries.
“This place is starting to grow on me,” Hermione whispered. “Do you think the Veil is making us feel all warm and cozy whenever we come?”
Lucius leaned over and whispered back, “I feel all warm and cozy every time I ‘come’ and I don’t have to be anywhere near here.” He barked with laughter when he got punched on his arm by his sprite.
“Vulgar,” was all she said, but Lucius could see her smiling. The two of them supported the little old lady between them down the corridor to the doorway to the Chamber where the Veil stood. A few people strode by them on their way to somewhere else, but no one paid them any attention.
“I found out that our geriatric party girl, Miss Thornhill, who guards this area, takes her lunch precisely at this time every day. Such a shame we’ll miss her. I wonder what color ruffles she’s wearing today?” Lucius was in good spirits at having the blackmail scheme resolved and the likelihood that their leftover problem, propped up between them, would soon be solved also.
“Shall we get on with this? I don’t want to be caught.” Hermione was starting to feel a crushing sense of guilt as she hustled the three of them down the aisle and onto the dais. She felt it was cowardly of her, but she wanted any decision about Nesbitt to be made by the Veil.
She and Lucius hustled their docile, living bundle up onto the stage area and held onto to him as Hermione looked up at the stone arch and spoke, “Um, hello Veil. We need you to adjudicate a problem for us. This wizard caused part of the Squib bigotry. His partner, another wizard who helped create the disenfranchisement of the Squibs is dead. But maybe you knew that?”
Silence.
“Anyway,” Hermione shrugged her shoulders and plowed on, “we’ve taken care of most of the problem, but this wizard murdered someone. We hope you’ll decide what to do with him. May we send him through?”
At once a soft, caressing positive emotion flowed through both Lucius’ and Hermione’s brains. “That’s a yes, then?” she asked.
The stone arch’s tatty curtain began to ruffle as though in a strong breeze, reaching out toward the still figure of the little old lady, Augustus Nesbitt, wrapped up like a mummy, glamoured, and imperiused into near catatonia.
Hermione and Lucius stood back and away from Nesbitt and slowly he began shuffling on his own toward the arch. He never faltered as he inched right through and disappeared completely.
“Thank you,” Hermione said in a low, fervent voice. “Neither Lucius nor I could kill him, but we couldn’t leave him to hurt anyone else.”
Lucius didn’t know what the Veil sent to Hermione, but he got a shot of cynical amusement wafting into his brain. Damned lump of stone. It knew Lucius could have killed the rogue wizard and gone on to a six-course meal with dancing to follow, and never shed a tear.
I did it – or rather I didn’t do it for her. Keep your snarky emotions to yourself! Lucius furiously aimed his thoughts at the huge hunk of rock. This time he got a warm, soothing wave in his mind and he was slightly mollified at the interfering arch’s peace gesture.
“Um, Veil? What did you do with Nesbitt?” Hermione’s curiosity was never-ending and she wanted to know, both for her own peace of mind and just to know.
Silence.
“Obviously the Veil isn’t inclined to pander to your idle curiosity, love. We’re finished here for now,” Lucius said firmly, seeing his wife’s frustrated chagrin at being left with a mystery she would never solve. Lucius settled Hermione’s hand on his arm and tugged her out of the Ministry before she could get any more ideas on trying to pry the answer from the sentient arch.
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The two Malfoys sat listlessly in their library after a morose lunch, not saying much. Hermione was in low spirits because she had contributed to Nesbitt’s death – or disappearance into the unknown. She would never know which. Lucius was in low spirits because Hermione was. Lucius knew he had to let Hermione get past her guilt feelings by herself. She had no reason to feel any remorse; she had acted to protect innocent people from a conniving, probably insane predator. Who knew how long he had made the lives of others miserable?
The records of Lucius’ uncle had gone back more than thirty years just for this one illegal project. Lucius suspected Mr. Augustus Nesbitt had been active far longer than that in his schemes. But the blond wizard knew his wife was aware of all that, just as he was. So they sat together on the sofa and watched the flames in the fireplace leap and throw off sparks.
Finally Hermione roused herself, “We got rid of the root, didn’t we, Lucius?” she asked. “Nesbitt was the root along with your uncle. They were both destroying the future of the Squibs in our society. That’s right, isn’t it?” She wanted to be reassured that what they had done was the right thing.
Lucius didn’t immediately answer and Hermione scooted over to lean up against her mate. “What?” he asked.
“The root of your prophecy. Nesbitt was the root, right?”
He sighed and sat back, slumping on the sofa. “Right. Nesbitt and uncle were the root. The owl with the odd-colored tail feathers was in Nesbitt’s owlery. The untraceable idea was brilliant, but obviously he still only used it for his blackmail and no other messages. He was clever. I used the same owl to return all the blackmail documents so the victims would think it was from the person persecuting them and I included a brief anonymous note saying the blackmail was over.”
“And did you read all the incriminating evidence before you sent it back?” Hermione’s lips quirked cynically.
“Of course I did.” The blond wizard was surprised Hermione would even ask. “How would I know who to send the evidence to otherwise?” Lucius shook his head wearily, “Several of those people should be ashamed of themselves and a couple should really be in Azkaban, but that’s not my problem, thank the Gods. It’s just as well you didn’t read any of it. With your sanctimonious little heart you wouldn’t be able to sleep at night knowing what some of them had done.”
“What a terrible thing to say,” Hermione huffed. “I can look the other way when I have to.” She bit her lip at the blatant lie; the relief at not knowing the particulars of the blackmail was enormous and she was guiltily thankful Lucius had shouldered that burden. Her gloomy thoughts were totally diverted at Lucius’ next words.
Lucius worriedly eyed his wife from under his lashes, “I’m more worried that I’m the tree. “Kill the root and the tree dies.” Isn’t that what the prophecy said?”
“Lucius! Why would you say such a thing? That’s ridiculous.”
“Maybe not,” he groaned. “Oh, I don’t mean that I’m going to actually die, but…let me tell you what I know. Then you can tell me if it’s ridiculous or not,” and Lucius reluctantly began a tale he had kept to himself all the time they had been in the nineteenth century.
“The New Wave Master’s last name was Gaunt.” Lucius heard Hermione’s gasp, but kept talking, “He was related to Voldemort; he was Voldemort’s Squib cousin’s son.”
“Voldemort? He’s involved in this?” Hermione was aghast.
“Not precisely,” Lucius said. “Let me finish. Morfin Gaunt, Voldemort’s uncle and brother of Voldemort’s mother, had fathered a bastard Squib on a rural Halfblood miss in his youth. That Squib child – Verill - took the surname of Gaunt in retaliation when he was sent away from his mother’s family at seventeen as useless, being not only illegitimate, but without magic powers. Verill Gaunt, Voldemort’s cousin, also had a Squib son and he instilled in his son – who became the New Wave Master - his burning resentment against the magic world for labeling him basically as valueless.”
Lucius glanced at Hermione, “Even in our time, we’re insensitive to Squibs. What happened while I was with Voldemort is one of the reasons I’m establishing the academy for the Lynx. I’m trying to turn around the New Wave Master’s hatred before it happens two hundred years from now. Unfortunately for all concerned, if we can’t change the future, the Master, who is brilliant, will aim all his malice at us and the seeds of doom for all magic folk will be sown, reaped and burned to ash in the fire of his hatred for the wizarding world.”
“You’ve known the Master’s name all this time?” Hermione was dumbfounded. “Why didn’t you tell me when I asked you?”
“I didn’t know it was the Squibs we needed to help at first, so you learning the name of the New Wave Master didn’t seem important enough for me to tell you all this dirty linen.”
“And when we did discover the Squibs were important you still didn’t tell me. Why was that?” Hermione’s heart hurt at the monumental secret Lucius hadn’t confided in her.
“At that point I began planning for the Cross-Cultural Academy and I hoped that would reroute history for the Squibs. And by then I had even less interest in you knowing I was culpable in the future wizarding world debacle.”
Lucius saw his wife was about to ask why again so he hurried on, “In his youth, with Verill’s reluctant permission, the New Wave Master made one last attempt to reconnect with us, with his birth world. He offered his technical knowledge to the Death Eaters, to Voldemort as his kin when the Dark Lord returned to power, but he was laughed out the door with a crucio before he could explain his power, this Muggle technology he excelled at and that we’ve all now suffered in the death throes of the wizarding world. Verill’s son, the Master, limped away from my mansion, nursing, I’m sure, a wish for revenge against all things magic. Not only was his father rejected, he too was rejected – viciously – by his own relative.”
Lucius stared unseeing into the fire as he brought forth the rest of his memories, “I learned later from Voldemort that the Squib we had turned away was his second cousin, the son of his cousin, Verill. I remembered the young Squib from that meeting, of course, but I hadn’t known the Squib we had rejected and the New Wave Master were one and the same until I came up behind one of the Muggle sheep who was watching a moving picture in a flat metal box. The face and voice intoning his destructive instructions called himself the New Wave Master. I killed the sheep and blasted the box with my wand, but I recognized Voldemort’s second cousin. So you see it makes some sense that all Squibs would be immune to the Master’s vendetta, but that isn’t much consolation to the ruined wizarding community.”
Hermione gazed wide-eyed at her husband, “That must have been a laptop computer you destroyed. Had Voldemort known the power his relative was capable of, he might have made some use of him and we would all still have been in terrible trouble from him. Either way the New Wave Master was – or will be – a terrible catastrophe for our kind.” She narrowed her eyes at her mate, “So are you working to have Squibs accepted so Voldemort will welcome his cousin with open arms?”
“Of course not!” Lucius was incensed. He hadn’t seen that wrinkle. “Oh sweet hell, will that happen now?” He put his head in his hands. “This time turning is very convoluted. At least I’ll be there. The Gaunt cousin wasn’t a Pureblood, so even with the Squibs being acknowledged maybe that whole scenario won’t change. Voldemort would probably still have rejected his Squib cousin, Verill Gaunt, and Verill’s son. He had no love for the Gaunts. And the Dark Lord courted only the Purebloods. He couldn’t really palm off a Halfblood cousin on us, especially a Squib, as a colleague.”
“And why was this so secret you couldn’t tell me before? It might have hastened our solving the prophecy and averting the annihilation of our kind.” Hermione softly yanked on Lucius’ hair to get him to sit up again and he obliged, turning sideways to face her fully.
“On Voldemort’s orders, I was the one who delivered the crucio. So in effect, I am the tree of the prophecy. I brought about the destruction of our kind.” Lucius held his breath, waiting for his wife to hate him, reject him.
“Oh bull puckey,” she snorted. “You and your conceits. If you hadn’t delivered the crucio, my bet is that someone else would have been told to do it and you would have been crucio’d in turn. I do have some knowledge of your delightful Dark Lord’s personality quirks.” Hermione huffed, “How do you see yourself as the tree? The tree was the spreading antipathy toward Squibs in general, started by your uncle and that git Nesbitt. If anything you were only a minor twig. Or maybe your famed leaf,” she laughed.
Hermione’s words shocked Lucius. Didn’t she see that he had helped cause the New Wave Master to hunt them to extinction?
“No wonder you’ve been struggling to turn over that new leaf,” she chuckled. “You’ve been trying to upend a whole tree full of leaves. Stupid man. Are you sure your penchant for pleasure-pain doesn’t include a martyr complex in there somewhere? I can see where they would go together.”
She shook her curls, disappointed in his irrational idiocy. “And you tell me I’m illogical. You lost heart with Voldemort’s agenda and yet you couldn’t stop the ball rolling even in your position as one of his chief lieutenants. Do you think you could have stopped this New Wave Master sometime later before he completed his plans when you were a) in prison and b) hadn’t the slightest idea what went on in the Muggle world to see his threat coming?
“If you want to beat yourself up, Lucius, do it for fun with a riding crop, but not for reasons that weren’t your fault. If one stupid ‘crucio’ set him off on his vendetta, he was ripe for reprisal anyway; something else would have tipped him into his retribution even if you hadn’t hurt him. He must have known you chose a ‘crucio’ and not the killing curse.”
Lucius looked even more conscious, “I could have stopped it all. Voldemort told me to use the Unforgivable on Verill’s son when he had cleared the estate, but I only used a crucio. I could have killed him and saved our world right then.”
“Why? Why did you use a ‘crucio’ instead of the Killing Curse?”
“I don’t know,” Lucius sighed. “I felt sorry for him, I guess. I was supposed to kill him, but the Dark Lord just specified an Unforgivable and the Cruciatus Curse is an Unforgivable. I knew all along that Voldemort meant the Killing Curse, but I evaded punishment by pretending I hadn’t understood his meaning. Voldemort didn’t care enough to send me after the young man and cast the Killing Curse on him. So maybe I was more responsible than you think.”
“So let’s look at what happened,” Hermione proposed, perching on the sofa in her superior, professorial mode, annoying Lucius out of his self-pity for the moment. “You spared the New Wave Master’s life. He comes back and destroys the wizarding world. We’re sent back in time and we change history, not only negating the Master’s threat, but also changing all the Squibs’ – sorry, Lynx’s – lives for the better. Everything went full circle, but the Lynx are much better off. Sorry, but I think you’re back to being a twig.”
Lucius looked dubious, but her words were soothing to his conscience. “Maybe I was only a twig. You do have a way of whittling my ego down to a toothpick.” His spirits rose a little. “If we have managed to change the world, I wonder if that will change Voldemort’s mother’s life?” Lucius put forward another possible twist. “Maybe her family would be nicer to her and her son wouldn’t become the Dark Lord.”
Hermione shook her head, “As I understand it, the Gaunt family was a miserable, vicious lot for other reasons than her merely being a Muggle lover. She would still have fallen in love with a Muggle. She would still have used a love spell on him. None of that would have changed. I don’t think Voldemort’s threat to the magic world was enough to activate the Veil. He didn’t seek to decimate our world, only rule it.
“So,” Hermione continued to hypothesize, “my theory is that if we succeed, Voldemort will still happen. We vanquished him ourselves and the Veil would know that we could, so it wouldn’t step in. That means the New Wave Master will destroy the magic world in the future. So the Veil commandeered us to change that future.”
“Then,” Lucius speculated, “the Veil does act only in times of catastrophic danger to the magic community.” He relaxed a little with his profound relief that he hadn’t caused the magic world to crumble with his parting ‘crucio’ on the New Wave Master. The hulking stone arch had given him the means to retrieve his mistake and help Hermione reroute history. He wondered if they already had. “How do we know if we have finished doing what we were sent here for?”
They both said at the same time, “Go see the Veil.” Hermione smiled, but Lucius groaned at being dragged anywhere near that behemoth Cupid again. He did want to know if they were now free to live out their lives in their new environment, but he wasn’t eager to be laughed at again. Lucius wasn’t yet too adept at accepting laughter aimed at him and he acknowledged that failing.
Hermione laughed with him and she certainly laughed at him and it was growing on him that it wasn’t so bad. He was slowly learning from his wife that he needn’t be all-powerful or shoulder all the decision-making for the two of them. She was willing to accept some of the financial, social, and day-to-day burdens of the Malfoy lifestyle and he was learning to loosen up with her. She didn’t do patriarchal very well, but he was finding out he rather liked sharing some of the load. However, being a source of amusement for the timeless arch did not appeal.
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[siblings]
Morfin Gaunt - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Merope Gaunt
[cousins]
Verill (son)................................................. Voldemort (son)
New Wave Master (grandson)
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tbc...
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Ah, Lucius needs Hermione, he really does. She brings clarity to his sometimes too serpentine thought processes. (And she also douses his ego when it gets too big for those tight pantaloons.)
I would really appreciate a review for this chapter, even if you haven't overcome your shyness before. This is a complex chapter and I would like the input from you. Many thanks in advance.
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