Only Time

Lovely Reviewers:

Mia - I'm glad that you know Lucius is not as benign as he might appear. Lucius will, of course, become a bit more Lucius-like. Ronald is a "that". It was about time someone shut him up!

Byrony - Someone had to do it, and Lucius was the man of the moment.

Linneh - I'm glad that you look every day. *blushes with pleasure*

Jessie - You like it a bit fluffier? Hope you aren't expecting me to make this too easy on dear Hermione and Lucius.

Heidi191976 - Well, Ron always thinks that he can help, but he needs to own up to the fact that he owes his grades to Hermione and no this own brain.

Voracious Reader - You'll find out as the others do.

Tempest Princess - Severus is ALIVE! I hope both sequels Exceed Expectations.

maddie50 - As if the curse is the only problem that our favorite lovers will face. I never cared much for Ron. The actor who plays him is lovely though.

Ashley - Moody is cool, but I wouldn't want to walk like him or look like him...okay the magical eye would be kind of cool...

Lauriurix - That darn Bella...hated killing her...but she is nuts...she didn't get enough hugs as a child...

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Well, I have an appt. with a doctor who takes my insurance on Nov. 4 at 3:30. It was the soonest that they could see me. And it is reasonably close to my apartment. Still not thrilled to be going to the doctor. I'm not sure what they think that I am coming for...makes me laugh a little bit. They probably think that it is just a checkup or something. Doctors...they need to be punished.

Until I am told otherwise, I intend to try to keep writing and typing for y'all.

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Lucius walked up the stairs to the second level of his home looking at the destruction that the death eaters had left behind. He shook his head. He would fix it up and make it better and happier than it had ever been.

Hopefully, Hermione would be able and willing to help him with it.

“Father,” Draco’s voice called. “Is that you?”

Lucius looked up toward the third floor of the home.

“Yes, Draco. The war is over. Harry Potter has overcome the Dark Lord.”

“What does that mean for you?” Draco asked, running down the stairs to his sire. “Why do you have Granger?”

“MISS Granger,” Lucius emphasized the ‘Miss’, “saved me from a spell that your Aunt Bellatrix sent at me.”

“You were on the same side,” Draco said, tilting his head to the right.

“Not entirely true, son,” Lucius said as the doors to the master bedroom door opened.

“What are you talking about?” Draco asked, following his father into the room. "Which part wasn't true?"

Lucius laid Hermione on his bed and smoothed her bushy hair back as he stared at her face. When he was sure that Hermione was comfortable, he stepped back.

“YOUR WARDS ARE NICE LUCIUS!” Severus yelled. His voice echoed in the entrance hall.

“Uncle Severus!” Draco yelled, and he ran from the room. He’d heard from Yaxley that his godfather was going to be murdered by the Dark Lord.

Draco hugged his godfather.

Harry and Ron stared at him in wonder. Ron was still without lips.

Draco glared.

“Reports of my death have been quite exaggerated,” Severus said, allowing his godson the show of affection and even wrapping his arms around the younger man. He rubbed his throat. "It will take more than a little venomous snake bite to kill a potions' master. A little blood replenisher and a bezoar, and your godfather is good to go."

“I’m glad,” Draco said, pulling back.

“You’re the first one to be glad.”

Draco glared at Harry and Ron. “Who invited you?” he snarled, looking at them as if they were cross bred creatures Hagrid had come up with in spare time.

“Hermione is our friend!” Harry said, glaring at Draco. “Who knew you could be grateful for something?”

“How’d you feel when your godfather died?” Draco snipped in return.

Harry pulled out his wand.

“Be nice Draco,” Severus admonished gently.

“Yes, Uncle Severus.”

“I shall go to the library and begin researching for the spell,” Severus said, and he gave Hermione a last look before he left the room.

“We’ll help,” Harry said, moving to follow Severus down the manor hallway.

“Potter, your brain is taking a nap,” Draco said, pointing to Hermione who was peacefully arranged on his father’s bed under the covers.

Harry’s fists balled up as Draco stood there with a smirk.

“Draco, you weren’t raised to be rude to guests in this house, whether they were invited or not,” Lucius said, glaring at the uninvited seventeen-year-old boys.

“Put Ron right,” Harry said.

Ron stepped forward and the candlelight revealed his lipless face. Draco began to laugh.

“What did you do to Father to make him do that?” Draco asked as he gasped for breath.

“Do I need to perform the spell on you, Draco?” Lucius asked, taking his wand out.

“No, father,” Draco said, controlling the laughter. Though, the mirth sparkled in his eyes, and his lips were quirked in true amusement for the first time in the last dark months.

Lucius flicked his wand at Ron.

“That’s a dark spell!” Ron said as soon as he had his lips back.

“Actually, it is more grey than black,” Draco said. “What were you saying about you and Aunt Bella not really being on the same side?”

“This will be a long conversation,” Lucius said, and he pointed at the chairs and love seat before the roaring fireplace in the room. “We should get comfortable, and you two ought to stay and hear this.”

Lucius began to give Draco, Harry, and Ron the information about how he was a spy leaving out that the woman he had loved was Hermione and that Hermione was alive and well, that he had schemed to send her back from the moment he was certain that she was real and had come from the future to the past. He had to be sure that she would know him as he knew her. She was meant to go back in time. And he didn’t share his plans of the future.

Draco watched his father the whole time he spoke. He saw his father's eyes cut over to look at Hermione from time to time.

When he was done, he rose and walked over to Hermione’s bedside. He couldn’t remember how long he had wished for her to be in his bed just the way she was in his memory, but never like this, never with a spell on her.

He’d hoped that she would come to him late one night to tell him that she loved him before dropping a skimpy dress, that she wanted to be with him. And she would be wearing the most delightful matching lacy gold bra and panty sets preferably ones spelled so only he could remove them. He would kiss her, and she would collapse in his arms. He would pick her up and cup her bottom while grinding into her before he dropped them on his bed while she clawed at his clothes.

Lucius shifted as his thoughts got the better of him. He pulled his black outer robes about him more tightly to hide his reaction to his thoughts of her from the boys.

She had shown powerful emotions for him. He had not expected it. He sat down at the edge of the bed, and he took her hand.

“Don’t touch her,” Ron said, moving quickly to get Lucius away from Hermione. “She’s going to marry me.”

“Only if we find the counter-spell,” Lucius said, placing her hand down on the bed softly beore turning to Ron. “And let me tell you something, little boy. Miss Granger is a very intelligent witch, far too intelligent for you. Many spells of this nature make us realize mistakes. I have no doubt that Miss B-Granger will see the error of being with you. She will know that what she deserves is someone who is not going to treat her like a little baby-making house-frau.”

Lucius stood up when he remembered how she looked at him when he was seventeen, and she ran away from him. He looked down at her again before shaking her head.

“I’m going to go and help Severus with researching. I would like all of you out of this room. I think that Miss Granger could use rest,” Lucius said, pointing toward the door.

“We’re not going to bother her.”

“OUT!” Lucius barked.

Draco was the first through the door pulling Harry back from getting through first by hauling him back.

Ron just stood there.

“Do I need to put another hex on you to make my point?” Lucius asked, quirking a lip at the red-head.

Ron turned and walked slowly toward the door tossing sullen looks over his shoulder every two or three steps.

Lucius smirked and twitched his hand at his side to evoke a spell.

A small sparkle of electrical energy sizzled through the air and zapped Ron. Ron yelped and scooted for the door clutching the left, and now numb, side of his rear.

Lucius warded the door strongly so the boys could see and also used the ancient wards that could only be enacted by the lord of the manor.

“You two may leave,” Lucius said to Ron and Harry as he finished. He placed a hand on the door. She was as safe as he could make her.

“What about Hermione?” Ron demanded, grabbing the back of Lucius robes and spinning him to look at them before releasing the man and wiping his hands on his own robes as if afraid the evil of a death eater could be spread.

“Have you just been raised with poor manners?” Lucius asked, brushing his own robes off as if afraid of poor people had germs were contagious that would cause the loss of his money. He shook his head and sheathed his wand.

“He’s always been that way, father,” Draco said, sniffing and looking down nose at Ron.

“Thank you, Draco,” Lucius said, and he waved a hand to dismiss his son.

Draco turned and walked off with his back straight and his chin high. He had more questions, but those were surely not to be asked in the presence of any people but family or his Uncle Severus.

“Until more research is accomplished and the spell cast upon Miss B-Granger is understood, there is nothing you can do,” Lucius said, walking down the hallway toward his study, staring at the pictures of all the pureblood Malfoys, some of whom were whispering to other portraits and pointing at Lucius.

“We want to stay near Hermione until she is well,” Ron said, pointing at the door behind which Hermione lay in spell-induced rest.

“I’m going to put what I say next in blunt, Gryffindor-understandable speech so your brains will not have to work to decipher it,” Lucius said, turning to look at the boys as his lip curled up. He clenched the snake-head cane. “There is no guarantee that Miss Granger will awaken. There is no guarantee that Severus and I will be successful in finding a counter-curse. There is nothing either of you can do to help. You are useless hangers-on. You are not capable of aiding us. If there is a solution to Miss Granger’s predicament, my library will have the answer hidden somewhere within it. You two are not welcome there. Go. Celebrate. Your. Victory.”

“We could still help!” Ron shouted, making a move to hit Lucius.

Harry caught him as he lunged.

“No, Mr. Weasley. You can’t. To be perfectly honest, YOU are a gormless little bugger. You are heading right toward being cursed again. Now, you may leave this house of your own free will, or I can forcibly remove you.”

“Ron, let’s go,” Harry said, gripping the redhead’s arm. He was going to get himself cursed again. “May we at least visit Hermione tomorrow?”

“You may visit, Mr. Potter,” Lucius said as he turned away from them. “Please don’t bring any more sidekicks who have less manners than a pack of rabid werewolves at the full moon.”

“Ron can behave himself. He’s just upset about Hermione,” Harry said, slapping a hand over Ron’s mouth.

“As are we all, Mr. Potter. But it hasn’t resulted in the waning of your manners. I must hasten to the library to offer Severus aid in researching. After all, it would be a shame for Miss Granger to be laid up too long. I trust you can find your own way out.”

Harry nodded, “We’ll visit at 3:30 if that is agreeable to you.”

“3:30 would be fine,” Lucius said. “And I do not want to see any more faces than the two of yours.”

“Thank you, Mr. Malfoy,” Harry said, inclining his head the slightest degree.

Lucius turned and followed the boys in the shadows to be sure that they would not make any detours.

“You can’t seriously leave Hermione with them,” Ron spluttered as they walked down the hallway. “He let her be cruciated here! He’ll rape her first chance he gets!”

Lucius pulled out his wand and sent a tripping spell at Ron. Little Bastard. He’d never raped a woman. He’d been faithful to his wife, though he’d never initiated the act after Draco was conceived. Narcissa just wasn’t for him.

Ron stumbled.

“Bloody Hell!” Ron said, rubbing his head where he bumped it against a small table with a marble top. He looked around but didn’t see Lucius smirking at him in the shadows.

Wanker. Talk badly about him in his home. Got what he deserved.

“Ron, Hermione is safe there. Malfoy owes her a life debt for what she did. Snape was on our side; he won’t let Malfoy do anything.”

“We’re just going to leave our friend here?” Ron asked. “I-I want to marry her, mate.”

Lucius clenched a hand around his wand, but he didn’t cast another hex.

“If anyone can cure her, it would be the two top death eater’s of Voldemort. They are experts at this kind of thing. Remember Dumbledore at the Astronomy Tower. Snape, Snape, Snape. Snape can fix Hermione, or at least find the way to do it.”

“I still don’t like it, Harry,” Ron said, punching a fist into his hand as they pushed open the main door.

“I don’t like leaving her either,” Harry said, standing in the doorway and staring up the way he’d come missing the silver eyes watching him in the shadows. “But given that they were on our side, if not all along, well, at least at the end helping me, what do we have to be afraid of? Hermione marrying old ferret face?”

Ron laughed for the first time in days. The thought of Hermione marrying a Malfoy was almost as absurd as hippogriffs dancing Swan Lake in lurid pink tutus, Snape giving points to Gryffindor, or Hagrid giving away one of his prized and loved monster pets.

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Hope y'all enjoyed it. Drop a review. I do so love um. I ended up combining Chapters five and six here. I hope that it was okay...Please review.

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