Adventurous Hearts Part 2: Nimue's Island

CHAPTER 5: Settling In







It wasn’t quite dawn when Severus pulled himself from the bed and walked to the window. He could see the creatures still lumbering about though fewer in numbers now. He glanced back at the bed when he heard Hermione moaning. She was arching her back and trying to get comfortable but her pain potion had worn off.







He walked across the room to retrieve another phial of healing and pain potion from his satchel and came back to the bed. Lucius was awake and trying to comfort her.







“Lift her head for me.” Severus said. Lucius put his hand on the back of her head and lifted it from the pillow. “Open up, Minute, it will make you feel better.” He said, using his thumb to nudge her chin down and part her lips, pouring the potions into her mouth and encouraging her to swallow.





Lucius laid her back down and helped her roll onto her right side, spooning up behind her as he brushed her hair back from her face. She was out again quickly and after checking her bandages to make certain they were still tight, Severus left the bed again and sat in the chair near the window.







“You still keep odd hours I see.” Lucius said from the bed.







“It’s a wonder I sleep at all.” Severus said quietly. “Nightmares still plague me.”







“Me too.” Lucius replied. “What do you think is happening here?”







“I’m not sure.” Severus said, pulling the drapes back and staring outside. The sun was beginning to peek over the cliffs and the creatures were all heading towards the woods. Where were they going and why? “Those creatures are heading back into the woods.”









“All of them?” Lucius asked, lifting up slightly, careful not to disturb Hermione.







“Appears that way. We need to try and find something to explain what is happening on this island. Why are the dead walking and where is the goddess?” Severus was staring at Hermione curled up on her side, her shoulder bandaged, the marks on her arms and neck already healing thanks to the potions.







“There are two libraries, one downstairs and one a few doors down. Maybe we can find something in one of those.” Lucius adjusted his arm beneath Hermione’s head and put his arm around her waist. She sighed and snuggled back into him.







“She will likely sleep all day, which is best, her shoulder was seriously injured and the healing potions will need time to repair the massive amounts of damage.” Severus said, glancing outside once more to see the sun shining high in the sky and the land zombie free. “It will give us time to search. I don’t think we should leave the castle until we get some answers.”







“Fine by me, I have no interest in getting close to those things again.” Lucius said with a shudder. “I still feel filthy after last night.”







“Stay with her while I go clean up, there are more potions in my bag if she needs them. I’ll come back and sit with her when I’m done so that you can use the facilities.” Severus got up and walked across the room through the bathing chamber door, closing it behind him and leaving Lucius alone with Hermione.







He pressed his lips to the back of her neck and inhaled deeply, the scent of her like a drug after so long away from her. He shouldn’t feel the way he did, not for someone so young, someone so different, but he couldn’t help it. He wanted her.







“Lucius?” She slurred, stirring against him.







“Shush, I’m here, go back to sleep.” He whispered.







“You shouldn’t be here…probation.” She muttered.







“Knowing you are alive is worth going back.” He said, shocked at his own words and the fact that he meant them.







“Hopeless romantic.” She said before she drifted off again into a drug induced sleep, wrapped in the protective arms of a man willing to risk his freedom for her.







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By early afternoon Severus and Lucius had gone through one library and were busily tearing through the other. Hermione was still sleeping, her shoulder healing while she dreamed. Periodically one of the wizards would go up to check on her before getting back to work.







Lucius had just returned from giving Hermione another dose to find Severus leaning over a desk reading through a leather bound, handwritten journal.







“Find something?” Lucius asked, coming to stand beside Lucius and read over his shoulder.







“A journal belonging to a mage who served under Nimue.” Severus said, turning the pages as he read . “It’s very interesting and…sad.”









“Not everyone reads as quickly as you, Sev, so either slow down so I can read it myself or summarize.” Lucius grouched, watching the dark wizard flip through pages at a rapid pace.







“When Arthur fell Camelot fell with him, leaving them with no king and thus cursing the people of the kingdom. They blamed Nimue, saying that she could have used her powers to restore him and his kingdom but she forsook them. Nimue, being a typical goddess was temperamental and in a fit of angry indignation she exiled the people of Camelot to this island, cursed to walk in darkness for all eternity.” He said. “Now according to this the walking dead can only come out at night, they can not walk in the sun or they incinerate. They apparently hide within the cliffs on the opposite side of the island during the day. It says that their souls are forever doomed until the throne is restored by Arthur’s line.”







“But Arthur had only one child, Mordred, and he fell in combat with his father. His only sibling was Morganna, his line died with him!” Lucius said. “These people have no hope for peace.”







“Grow a conscience in prison?” Severus asked, a smirk on his face as he looked up from his reading.







“No, it simply found it’s voice and tormented me for a decade with every single thing I have done wrong in my life.” Lucius snapped. “So there is nothing we can do for them?”







“Not unless you are somehow related to the House of Pendragon and are willing to overthrow the currently reigning monarch to sit the throne yourself.” Severus closed the journal and set it aside.







“You know, I had forgotten what a bastard you could be when you wanted to.” Lucius said. “I see that life without the Dark Lord has done little to sweeten your disposition. One would think that regular sex without strings would make you a bit…nicer.”







“I lack the genetic code for niceness and I prefer ropes, strings break too easily.” Severus walked across the room to a small cabinet with crystal decanters sitting on top of it filled with dark, amber liquid. “How old do you think this brandy is?”







“A few centuries at least.” Lucius said, settling onto a low padded bench as he thumbed through the journal Severus had abandoned.







“This place seems to have a stasis spell, it’s clean and fresh smelling despite the fact that we are obviously the first people here in who knows how long.” Severus pulled the stopper and sniffed then poured a small amount into a glass. He brought it to his lips and took a small sip, swishing it in his mouth to try and detect anything off about the liquor. It seemed just fine so he poured himself some more. “Drink?”







“No thank you.” Lucius said, bent over the journal. “It says here that Nimue abandoned the people and her mages shortly after she cursed them, crossing into the other realm. The mages lived here until they died, they are the ones buried in the churchyard outside.”







“So she cursed them, then when things became difficult she fled…tale as old as time.” Severus said as he stood by the window staring out at the green landscape.







“What are we going to do?” Lucius asked, closing the journal after reading the last entry.







“Well, for today I suggest we watch. See what those…people do, figure out a schedule for when we can leave the castle. We will be here for a month and I do not wish to be locked inside for the duration and I know she won’t, she dislikes being cooped up.” Severus said.









“Why do you call her Minute?” Lucius asked, watching his old friend. Severus’s lips twitched as he stared down into his glass.







“Just a pet name.” He said. “I’ve called her that for years.”









“That much I gathered, but why such an odd name?” He asked, wondering why Severus was being so evasive.









“Once, years ago just after she and I began sleeping together I made the comment that it was an odd attraction we shared given I had known her since she was no bigger than a minute…and it took barely that for me to make her come.” He took a long drink from the glass as he stared at Lucius from over the rim. The wizard did not look pleased with his answer. “You asked.”







“Why?” Lucius didn’t need to elaborate, Severus understood what he wanted.







“She was attending University at the time, getting ready to start the graduate program. That idiot Weasley had just informed her that he swung the other way, but not before he had done serious damage to her self esteem.” Severus ran his finger around the rim of the glass as he pulled from his memory. “She was sullen and withdrawn, I was the only person she would speak to but she never wanted to talk about what happened. She kept it all bottled up so I began teaching her self defense that summer, trying to use it to build her self esteem, her confidence. She finally told me about her relationship with that dolt, how he made her feel lacking, like she wasn’t a real woman because she wasn’t responsive in bed. She was growing angry as she spoke and I could see that she was finally feeling it so I pulled her into a sparring session to blow off steam and she damn near kicked my ass too.” He laughed. “Next thing I knew…” He gave a little shrug and took another drink.









“Why have the two of you kept it so casual? Don’t you ever think of having a family? What if she had gotten pregnant?” Lucius asked.







“I don’t have any great desire to procreate, but had she gotten pregnant I would have supported her and the child. I would have married her if she indicated a desire for it. I will marry her if she desires it. I have pushed for nothing more because things are fine as they are, though I am not adverse to it if she wants that. She knows that all she needs to do is ask it of me and it is hers.” He said. “She has always known that.”









“I think you love her.” Lucius said, amazed to see Severus show such emotion. “How can you be happy with so little?”









“She cares for me, very much and I know that. She is…she is my best friend and probably the only person in this world who loves me in any way. Even if it is platonic, I am honored to have her care.” He said. “Let me make this very clear to you, Lucius, her happiness is all that matters to me. I will do whatever it takes to ensure that and protect her from being hurt, you and I have along history as friends, but I will protect her from you if I need to. I will not allow you to hurt her in any way.”







“Hurting her is the furthest thing from my mind.” Lucius said, his stomach hurting as he pondered Severus’s words. Severus clearly loved her even if he never admitted it, to have Hermione meant hurting his oldest friend yet he just couldn’t walk away from her. “I don’t want to hurt anyone, I just want a chance to see if what we had in that temple was more than just a refreshing drink after a walk in the desert.”







“She has a way of getting under a man’s skin.”









“And on his nerves.” Lucius scowled. “She just opens her mouth and lets whatever is in her head out, no matter how inappropriate, she is arrogant and immodest, her manners are abysmal yet I cant help but want her. Do you know she actually thanked me for a good time? In front of Draco no less. The boy laughed about it for a fortnight.”







“She is actually quite stunning and well mannered when she needs to be. Her boldness is probably my fault, I encouraged it. She was tired of being what everyone else wanted her to be, the perfect little Gryffindor princess. She was getting hell from everyone because she and Ron hadn’t gotten married right out of Hogwarts, because she opted to continue her education. Then when the relationship blew up they blamed her, as though it were her fault that Ron preferred men. Of course things got really ugly when word got around that she had a rather unorthodox relationship with me. Don’t try to change her, Lucius. I wont let you or anyone else break her spirit again, to shove her into their mold.” He could see Severus’s eyes flashing, a look he knew from days of old, a look that told him on no uncertain terms that this man would kill for the witch sleeping a few doors down.







“Funny as it may sound, I wouldn’t dream of it. Her candor is one of the things I find rather appealing. She actually has intelligent conversations though sometimes I wonder about her logic. I never had a boring conversation with her.” He said. “And she always has some crazy theory or facts about nearly everything. I like her as she is.” He said softly. “Truthfully the only thing I would change about her is you.”







“At least you are honest about it. The old Lucius would have just used subterfuge to get his way.” Severus said as he put his glass on to the desk.









“The old Lucius is dead, for the most part. The new Lucius fights his battles in the open, fairly. I want her, and I mean to win.” He said.









Severus smirked and headed towards the door.









“Good luck to you then, I won’t block your wooing, Lucius, but I won’t clear the way for you either. I need to go check on our girl, she needs water and probably more potions. Do me a favor and watch the wood line, note the time when you begin seeing those things.” With that Severus left the room.









Lucius pulled a chair up to the window and frowned as he stared out at the line of trees. He didn’t particularly care for the way Severus had said our girl. He had changed a lot, but he was still a Malfoy and he didn’t like to share.







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Alright, the first five chapters are up! This is the shortest of the 3 with only 15 chapters…but they are important to the tale….so I hope you enjoyed the first part…as is my habit you can expect several updates a week until all 15 are posted…