Beyond the Veil -- COMPLETE

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Updated 10-17-08


A few things in real life took hold for a short while, but I've managed to slough them off again. So! Where were we? Ah, yes, the Veil. Does everyone have their nineteenth century clothing on? Wouldn't want the Veil to send you to a pajama party in Azkaban. Next stop that snarky stone arch.

Some answers...


Snapes_Goddess - I agree time travel gets very complex to write, a fact I only discovered after I was well into this tale.(Sigh) I hope to dig myself out of the time twists without too many bricks being thrown.


pittwitch – The Master wasn’t canon, sorry. He was related to canon, is that good enough? Can’t talk about the rest. Sorry ‘bout that, too. (nervous grin)


sisterae – I’m glad my explanation held up. All the rest I have to keep mum about for now.


angelnomiko – Thank you, angel! Nice to hear from you (waves)


Steph – Spanners are us! I do like to yank my tale around.


Voracious Reader – I’m glad you like the twisty plot. What happens next? Can’t say for now.


DragonFyre – Yay. Thank you for breaking your habit. I’m going crazy trying to finish my next story right now, but I have found and bookmarked your story for later. I do remember your story. Pet your poodle for me.


Citten – Yes, time travel plots are miserably hard. Lucius and Hermione started from opposite ends of the spectrum, but they’re closer together now. Much closer.


slytherin-princess – I’m happy the complex plot was okay with you. As for what comes next? Lips zipped for now.


kitty – I usually try to stay close to canon – until I have to tell my own story, but even then I don’t go wild with changes to the HP world (unless you call the Veil being a giant time turner wild…hmmmm.)


Scary Bear Hair – I’m relieved you think the chapter was easy to understand. I did worry about it. If you were the Veil, what would you have done with Gus? Two hundred years ago were the Gaunts still wealthy and prestigious? Dunno. Yup, I remember the City on the Edge of Forever, with Joan Collins. I think Captain Kirk poked her, too. What a scoreboard he had, although I preferred Spock.


Heidi191976 – I have noted your vote for where the story should go. Wherever it does, I do hope you enjoy it. Lucius and Hermione need to stay a couple after all their hard work getting there.


blue artemis – Hermione is the prosaic one and Lucius is the dramatic one. A good combination. They work well as foils for each other.


godblessemohair – I have also become engrossed in a story where it is complete and I want to read it because it’s all there. Reviewing does slow down a good read. A nice review at the end depicting a couple of things you really liked never comes amiss, though. Authors gobble that stuff up. Grin. (Also, my technique is to open an empty word document beside the chapter and type comments as I read. When I finish the chapter I have a complete review with little strain. I use Word because AFF has been known to eat a few of my reviews as they try to post. I copy and paste and voila!)


FlowersBecomeScreens – you are correct that Hermione has not yet said the L word to Lucius. You are brain fartless. Do you think his vocal chords loosened up while Hermione serviced him and the L word slipped out? He’s certainly serviced her enough times, but with no reciprocal success. Maybe soon. And Hermione was sick and tired of being victimized. The minute she perceived danger this time, she armed herself. Not stupid, our two-wanded witch. Uncle Malfoy was no saint, but he had a vestigial sense of honor for some things. I just don’t think a conscience is much admired in Malfoys. Oops! I hope I haven’t yelled at you not to kill Lucius, but I know I did worry about it at the beginning of HTC. I love Hermione talking Lucius down from his excesses. He’s an excess kind of guy and needs a tether. It’s no secret that I always have a happy ending. I know that doesn’t answer your question exactly.


CoCo.M – Extended family living with you does take a lot of energy and time. I did get a little naughty with the jade columns and (yet again) with Lucius’ pantaloons. I can’t help myself LOL. Sounds like you can’t help it either. You should know the villain now. I hope it made sense.


sweettiff_14 – Your listing of things you liked made my day. Thank you. I admit I liked the cow lick, too. I don’t even know where that came from. It just showed up as I typed. Ditto for the dirty paintings. And I wonder if I have a fetish for Lucius. That would explain a lot. LOL The man is made for lemons. He’s very easy to write in the sack, mostly because he seems to enjoy it so.


shez - The turnabout of Gaunt versus Gaunt is poetic justice I think. Even if both sides were over the top. If I ever want to write another time travel, kick me. I think I’ll keep Lucius in one time period from now on. Although the idea of him running from the dinosaurs in an itty-bitty piece of tanned hide intrigues. Maybe I’ll just read a Tarzan book.


tambrathegreat – Now that you mention it, I, too, wonder what the Gaunt family was doing two hundred years ago. Another reviewer mentioned that. They might have still been wealthy then. But never a nice, upstanding family I’d bet.


Muffy – Hermione has that effect on Lucius. He goes off on some intricate idea and she cuts through to the heart while he’s weaving his complex plans. There’s room for both in that relationship. I appreciate your nice compliment! (writes it
on post-it note for computer)


Utopia – It must be a chore to figure out how to talk to a rock that invades your mind. I don’t understand - is what not quite as unforgivable? I got lost. I think Lucius can shrug off the blackmail loose ends easily, but he probably drinks a nice aged firewhiskey rather than having Horlicks or Ovaltine. Lucius kept silent about the 'tree' angle to protect himself. He didn’t want Hermione to reject him because if she did, he’d be alone in the past. Then he fell in love and wanted her to know about what he considered his involvement with the crumbling of the wizarding world even less. No one ever claimed he was selfless.


Rini – I’ve read many M&Bs. It’s good to know they’re letting their heroines grow up some. Voldie’s family was dysfunctional big time, wasn’t it? I don’t think the Ministry worried about the Veil or who went to look at it. They just thought it was a death trap, but not sentient.


dynonugget – Hermione did like her chocolate ice. The Veil is a mystery of its own. I hope you’re catching up –I don’t want to give away anything before it is time.


WhiteWitch – I adjusted your review just a tad to XXX out the name of the villain for anyone reading reviews. Then I went back and added several warnings, so your review helped me close a problem I hadn’t thought of, late coming readers. Thank you. Lucius does have Hermione’s best interests at heart. I think that’s how he’s put together anyway. Protecting his family. You’re right about the descendants of Salazar Slytherin.


jw – The Veil has its good points. Another good idea I didn’t think of, that a good wizarding home for orphans might have saved Voldemort. Was he inherently wicked or might he have been different with a different childhood?


Robyn Hawkes – The time travel angle confuses me, too. It’s tricky and I’m going to stick to one time period for my next story LOL. But I’m glad you’re enjoying this story.


Clare1984 – Hermione was clever to protect herself better this time than the last time. It’s no weirder for you to love the dark, protective side of Lucius than for me to do it. That just comes with the character. Voldie in therapy? There’s a picture, him lying on a couch telling a shrink all about his mistreated childhood and why he runs around with a big snake as his best pal. Lucius and the Veil haven’t yet come to terms, I guess. I’ll happily wait until you feel right about your story. I spent 6 months on this one. And don’t EVEN ask about the one on the back burner. That one’s been 10 months and I’m still dithering. Sigh. Some characters are easier to write than others.


LadyVoldemort87 – Thank you, LV. Yes, you were number 1,000. That’s the highest I’ve gone on a story so far and I think most of the reviews have been very thoughtful and individual. I’m very lucky. (one dozen red roses for you)


doodle – Well, the future Lucius would be his own grand-SON if the story develops that way. These time travel stories are very difficult [gnashes teeth].


Damiana - To tell the truth, I could have written so much more of the people of this old time period, how Hermione and Lucius interacted with them and on and on. You might not have noticed (oh, you DID?), but I tend to write horrendously long stories, so the temptation would be to keep adding and adding scene upon scene. I had to call a halt somewhere and this story had so much to get through already I decided to give the readers a break and not imitate ‘War and Peace’. I do agree that more foreshadowing could have happened to build toward the Voldie connection, but I didn’t know it was going to go that way at the beginning (or the middle). I just start writing and things happen. I could have gone back and inserted more hints, but this thing got so large, I was overwhelmed, frankly.


Belas – You’ve played catch-up big time. I try to always give enough information so the solution to the bad person is possible, although the whole Master connection was impossible for readers to know ahead of time. (Actually, I didn't know either until I got there and the idea appeared.) I think your guessing was quite good. It does seem like people keep getting tied up at that manor, doesn’t it? Oh yeah, Lucius didn’t like that his family was nearly ruined by Draco’s loose lips. Hermione brought her husband’s swelled head down to size with a large dose of reality. I think he was pleased about it this time.


ruck_fules84 - Hello! I’m happy to hear from you again. I’m glad you’re enjoying this story. Read on...


And now.........the Veil......and more.


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Chapter Forty-Six

Are We There Yet?



“Do you feel that?” Hermione asked her husband as she stepped onto the dais. “Did you feel the same rumbling under our feet when we stood on the Veil’s dais and fended off the dogs?”

“We fended? Was crooning ‘nice doggie’ your version of fending them off, because I must say you had me fooled completely.”

“Never mind that,” Hermione pouted. “Remember the vibration under our feet? I’ve been there before and it didn’t rumble then. It didn’t vibrate when you stood on the dais fighting Harry and Sirius, did it?”

“I was somewhat preoccupied at the time, but no, I don’t think there was any resonance like this at all.” Lucius was exasperated with their whole field trip. “Tell me again why on earth we both needed to come back here. You could have come alone.” He glared at the gigantic arch over Hermione’s shoulder.

“Because we think we have the answers and we should both be here physically for this. It’s important. Maybe it can make us feel that emotion thing again if we’re right.” Hermione turned toward the arch and addressed it directly, “We’ve – or rather you’ve made time fly backwards. We think the root is Lucius’ ever so great uncle and his villainous cohort, Nesbitt whom you have accepted through your arch. We think the tree is their antagonism toward Squibs, which will flourish if we haven’t succeeded in stopping the bigotry with their departure, and the Squibs are the weak we are supposed to embrace, showing they are valuable parts of our magic community. Is that right? And will Lucius’ idea for the new academy for Squibs, which we will call The Lynx’, be enough to stop the bigotry?”

Lucius was just as happy that Hermione hadn’t added that he had thought he might be the tree, but the all-knowing giant, sentient time-turner probably was already well aware of…Lucius blinked. Dammit! – it had probably known all the time that Lucius had thought he was guilty. Well, hell.

The sudden overwhelming outpouring of serene contentment stopped Lucius’ embarrassed discomfiture in its tracks and nearly made them both collapse with boneless pleasure as their correct suppositions were rewarded by the shimmery vibrations flowing through their bodies. It was close to having a religious experience shot through with overtones of sheer carnality and the two Malfoys were breathless with the ecstatic emanations coursing through them.

When she could speak, Hermione sighed blissfully, “I have never felt anything quite like that before.” Another sigh, “We must be right, but right now I’m rather, um, turned on.”

Lucius was having trouble readjusting his overwhelming erection; he felt like he had just burst into flame. “An understatement, kitten. It’s a good thing you’re with me, because right now I feel as though I could happily fuck old Miss Thornhill if she came through that door, I’m throbbing so badly. I think we need to go home - now!”

“Um, good-bye Veil,” Hermione waved back at the arch as she was firmly led toward the exit to the large chamber. “We’ll talk again sooooo-” Her voice was cut off as she was propelled through the door.

It took twenty minutes for Lucius to guide Hermione through the crowds and out of the bowels of the Ministry to the floo exits and into their bedroom, and twenty seconds for him to strip her, pierce her, and bring them both to the first of that afternoon’s multiple climaxes. The moment they came together it was as though lightning had struck them both.

“Are you… okay, kitten?” Lucius was panting so hard he could hardly get the words out, but he was worried that the explosive orgasms they had just weathered had injured Hermione who was panting in time to his own labored breaths.

“Guh,” she moaned, grabbing his butt cheeks with both hands and trying to pull more of him into her than just his cock. Her digging fingernails spoke volumes where her voice was lost in her gusts of gulping air.

“Oh Gods, yes,” Lucius concurred as his body took him - and her – on another joyride. Within moments another climax ripped through them, making them reel with an unfettered lust that only got worse.

It took three solid hours of pleasure building on pleasure, climaxes overlapping climaxes, dotted with desperate touching and kissing, two tangled bodies sweaty and seeking, for the storm to finally reach its conclusion, bringing them at last to rest in a peaceful calm of contentment and sore muscles. They both lost consciousness at the same moment.

~~~~

“Hermione?” Lucius rasped unsteadily. They had both awakened several hours later, feeling replete and at peace with the world, if entirely limp from their marathon bout of Veil-induced sex. The blond wizard lifted his head from its comfortable spot on Hermione’s stomach. His voice was uncharacteristically uncertain and those mesmerizing, pale gray eyes of his petitioned her in growing wonder under brows drawn in perplexity, his face a strange amalgam of awe and shock.

“What is it?” The little witch was floating on a cloud of satisfied lust, half-asleep with her chocolate eyes closed. At the sound of her husband’s odd tone of voice, she opened one eye to look down at his beloved face to see he was perturbed about something. Had her stomach gurgled?

Lucius gave Hermione a searching look and went up on his elbows, moving and resettling himself so his face was near hers. He drifted long, manicured fingers down the side of her face, turning her to face him more fully. “Hermione,” he murmured, his voice low and quiet, “did you remove the contraceptive charm?”

Now Hermione’s eyes both came open and she frowned in confusion. “No, of course not. I wouldn’t do that without us discussing it first. Why?”

As answer he took her small hand, increased the sensation in her fingers severalfold with a small, temporary charm he’d learned from his father for sorting out the best pearls, and placed it over her lower belly where he had been resting his head. “Do you feel that?”

Hermione didn’t know what Lucius was showing her, “No, I don’t feel anyth -” she pressed down more, “Oh yes, it’s my heartbeat. I can feel it now, faintly.”

“Hermione, love, that’s not your heartbeat. This is yours,” and he put her other hand over her own heart.

“Oh! Yes, it’s different. Then what is…No!... Lucius, I can’t be. You protected me. I felt the charm take hold. It should still be working.” Hermione sat up and pressed harder into her lower belly, feeling the incontrovertible evidence of the little fluttery heartbeat deep within. It was so faint she might not have noticed it herself for months. She was somewhat late, but not glaringly so. She’d never been very regular. But she supposed she would have noticed in a week or so that she was very late.

“Oh Lucius,” she looked at her husband, trying to read his face, her own face a mask of confusion and timid question. “Was it the sex we just had? Would the Veil do that to us?”

Lucius shook his head, “I couldn’t have heard the baby’s heartbeat if you had just conceived. This must have happened before.” He anxiously scanned her face for her feelings. “Are you very unhappy, Hermione? I don’t know what happened. I didn’t remove the charm either.”

Suddenly he groaned, “Sweet Guinevere’s girdle, yes, it is my fault. I never stopped to think. It was the gazebo, kitten. Remember I said you couldn’t apparate out without me lifting the spell? The spell was a very simple one. It negated all magic while we were in the maze. It negated the contraceptive charm. I am so sorry, my love.” He rolled to the side of the bed and sat there, his back to his mate, his head in his hands, berating himself. He just went from strength to strength, helping to cause the decimation of the wizarding world and taking Hermione’s most important choice away from her.

“Are you very unhappy, Lucius? I thought you wanted children. Is it me? Because I’m not a Pureblood?” Hermione sat stiffly in the middle of the bed, watching her wizard, the one she loved above all others and waited for his answer with trembling lips.

Lucius turned at her question, “Hermione, I can’t imagine a woman on the face of this earth I’d choose over you for the mother of my children. I’ve said before that you would be called upon to give me heirs someday. I just never meant to take the decision on when away from you. I’m sorry for that, but only that. My first reaction on hearing my baby’s heartbeat was sheer joy – and a bit of masculine triumph,” he added sheepishly. “To tell the truth, I want to owl the Daily Prophet and have the morning’s headline read ‘I got Hermione pregnant!’ Well, I had better sign it with my name right under the big print, hadn’t I?” Lucius’ rueful grin invited Hermione to share his undoubted delight.

“How very…caveman of you,” she grinned back. “It makes me feel all warm and gooey inside and terribly feminine.”

Lucius’ face got its crafty look, “Where exactly is that warm and gooey place inside? Anywhere I can celebrate?”

“You are kidding, aren’t you? You’ve just celebrated enough to satisfy the entire Wizengamot and all their wives, husbands, and mistresses. Frankly, I feel like I’ve been laid by the entire male contingent of the World Quidditch Confederation – twice.”

Lucius chuckled, “I admit I’m not in peak condition right now, but I can always find some way to enjoy a warm and gooey wife,” Lucius’ ice-colored eyes twinkled at his heart’s joy, his petite witch.

“If you’re this horny now, what must you have been like as a hormone-driven teen,” Hermione ribbed her mate good-naturedly.

“Anything in a skirt was in perilous danger. I even contemplated Minerva, but my sense of self-preservation kicked in before she could kick me in the balls.” Lucius decided his experimentation with a few of the students not wearing skirts could be left in the past where it definitely belonged. He had soon chosen the side he preferred and hadn’t strayed since.

“Minerva?” Hermione sputtered. “Really? How strange. She’s a lovely woman and you could have done a lot worse, but you were wise to keep your balls to yourself. I can’t imagine Lucius Malfoy as a eunuch.” A brief fit of giggling charmed her besotted husband, then Hermione praised, “I think you must have been quite beguiling to any of the girl students who caught your eye. Merlin knows you’re absolutely lethal now.” She slipped her hand through Lucius’ locks, finger-combing them and making her mate purr with pleasure.

“Oh, I don’t think me finding Minerva alluring is so strange,” Lucius said and his expression turned wistful. She’s about 29 years older than I am –I am 25 years older than you. Does the age difference bother you, Hermione? I’ll be quite a bit older than many of the other fathers of young children as our child grows up.”

Hermione was surprised at her husband’s maudlin turn of mind, “Lucius, have you noticed the age difference in most of the marriages here?” Hermione shook her head, “No. Never mind. That doesn’t matter.” Hermione put her hands on either side of Lucius' face, holding him still as she looked him in the eyes, “I want to say this clearly. I want this baby. I want you. Only you. It surprises me sometimes how much. I can’t imagine my life without you now. I’ve been a coward and put this off, but you deserve to know and if it makes you uncomfortable, I’m sorry for it. I love you. I am in love with you, all of you, not just the pretty bits. I love the entire entity known as Lucius Malfoy.” Hermione let go of his face. “I even love those leaves you haven’t turned over yet.”

Lucius put his hands on Hermione’s shoulders, rubbing convulsively and she could feel they were shaking. “You love me? Truly love me, whether I’m in a temper or impatient or arrogant or snobby? You’re sure? Forever?”

“Of course, I’m sure, forever. Do you think I go around admitting undying love to every handsome wizard who drags me through the Veil, whips me with his wand, spanks me, loses me to a bordello, marries me in a Muggle church I’ll never find again, and gets me pregnant by accident?” Hermione frowned horribly at her incredibly thick-headed husband. “Really, Lucius, I’m not one of these empty-headed witches populating this era’s wizarding world.”



“And thank the Gods for that,” Lucius said fervently. He gently ran trembling fingers down the side of her beloved face, “I’ve been in love with you since before the bordello, but that incident sealed my fate completely. I have never been so terrified in my life!” He corralled her fingers and looked at his wife with such vulnerable tenderness Hermione felt tears gather in her eyes. “Undying? Really?” he asked.

“Really,” she answered smiling. Then her inquiring mind sought an answer of her own, “So when you married me, you were in love with me?” she asked.

“Hermione, I wouldn’t have married you otherwise. I know you weren’t in love with me yet. I accepted that. I just desperately hoped you would learn to love me a little, even if you only ever loved the ‘pretty bits’.” Lucius gazed devotedly at the woman who made him feel so calm and happy, but also energized and invincible - like he could conquer worlds if she were beside him, grounding him with her love.

“Lucius, I don’t know what to say. I think I was falling in love with you, but at that point I couldn’t acknowledge it to myself. I couldn’t put my heart into jeopardy again. Like I said, I was a coward.” Hermione wiggled herself onto Lucius’ lap and he scooted back to sit leaning up against the bed’s headboard, letting her snuggle under his chin as usual. Her curls tickled him as she burrowed her nose into his chest, inhaling her favorite lime and Lucius scent.

“I think I fell in love with your scent first,” she rubbed her face back and forth against his collarbone. “It might have been that first night I spent under you in that cow pasture.”

The blond wizard playfully lamented, “So I owe your undying love to my smelling better than bovine excrement, how deflating.” He joked in retaliation, “I believe your Tahitian Sunset knickers greased the way to true love for me.” He jerked away in reflex, laughing when Hermione’s tickling fingers found his ribs. “Of course, it was really what was in those knickers that I found irresistible. And still do.”

“Only what was in my knickers?” Hermione leaned back to look into her husband’s face, a trace of uncertainty lacing her voice.

“Hermione…” Lucius growled, “don’t start that again. I find every square millimeter of you mesmerizing. I love every square millimeter of you – he started to count off on his fingers - your riotous curls, bright brown eyes, button nose, kissable lips, world-class knockers -”

“Lucius!”

“Long, shiny scar, sweet hips, cute brown muff, pink clit and glistening petals hiding that ever-tantalizing cave, slim thighs topping long, lovely legs and tasty, tiny toes. But most of all, I love your ever-curious mind which makes me sometimes want to strangle you and other times feel so intrigued and proud I don’t know what to do with myself.” He pulled her under his chin again, “We’ll have to decide on names. I favor Agamemnon if it’s a boy and Clytemnestra if it’s a girl.”


“Lucius!”


tbc...


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Is the world ready for another Malfoy? Well, perhaps - with Hermione as the mother.

So, what do you think of Lucius' baby names? (OMG, the girl's name could be shortened to Clyt!! Very unfortunate. Someone ought to mention it to Lucius. Any takers?)

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