Learning to Trust

Ink- True, the characters are a bit OOC, but I find that most of the time. It's okay. OCC is fine in my opinion. Thanks for reading and reviewing!

Snapes_Goddess- After reading so many of your stories over the years this feels odd responding to one of yours instead! Thanks so very much. Getting a positive review from one of the best fanfiction writers out there in my opinion is just about making me giddy!

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read the story. As usual, read and review!

Chapter Five


Hermione strolled down Diagon Alley and went straight over to Flourish and Botts. Books, she thought were idols of her religion and the store was most definitely her church. Smiling she ran her fingers over leather bindings and went about looking at the old texts and tomes. Nothing made her as happy as looking for new books. Hermione was in the middle of looking at the potions manuals when she was pushed. She stumbled slightly and looked towards the person doing the shoving.


Draco was standing there looking smug. “Granger.”


“Draco,” she said with a small tight smile. “To what do I owe this confrontation?”


He snarled at her. “As if you have to ask.”


“Yes, I have to ask, as I am not a mind reader,” she replied, her hand resting on her wand’s grip.


“You took him away from me!”


“Who?”


“Potter!” he roared. “You took him from me!”


She was about to say something, but he pushed her again this time harder. Hermione was about to speak again, but instead it was a protective arm going around her shoulders that had her speechless. Standing next to her was none other than Oliver Wood. The trouble was that he too had been sleeping with Harry. Something told her that she was sitting on a keg of dynamite and that someone had just lit the fuse.


“Imp?” she looked over to see Lucius strolling over to push Oliver away from her and proceeded to glare at his son. “What is going on here?”


“She took Harry from me!”


“He’s with me actually,” Oliver corrected, his voice full of temper.


“No…”


“Hush the both of you,” Lucius snapped the order. “Hermione had nothing to do with Harry Potter dumping the lot of you.” He looked over to Oliver who was now blushing red-hot. “Bluffing never works well for you, hmm?” He then stepped closer to Hermione. “Trying to intimidate you, imp?” When she nodded, he snarled as he looked over to the two men. “Really? Severus!”


“What now?” he asked, sounding bored. “I was looking at the Bicentennial edition of Potion Master’s Magazine.” He let the extremely large book he had been looking at drop right onto Oliver’s foot. When he started howling in pain, Snape said dryly, “Oh I’m so sorry. I didn’t see you standing there.”


Lucius, on the other hand, went straight over to his son and yanked him off to a corner. “Jealous of Miss Granger, Draco? She isn’t Mr. Potter’s lover.”


“She isn’t? But…”


“That is because if you took the time to observe, your lover was fucking all and sundry,” he hissed. “He has issues. What they are, I don’t know nor do I care. But I will say this much, he could use a friend.”


“But I want…”


“If you want more that is where you are going to have to start, my boy,” he told him.


“Okay,” he whispered. “What are you doing calling Granger ‘imp’ and protecting her, father?”


“Because she is my imp,” he answered, looking over to Hermione who was looking over a large book with Severus.


“But she’s a mud…” he started, but never got to finish as his father slapped his face.


“You will never use that word again,” he growled at him. “Ever.”


Draco watched in shock as his father went over to Hermione. She absently leaned back against him as she continued her debate with Snape. Lucius slipped his arm around her waist and kissed her temple.


“Let’s go home, imp,” he told her. “The elves have a treat for you.”


Smiling, she went on tiptoe and kissed Severus on his cheek. His godfather blushed and said a fond goodbye to the young witch. His father offered her his arm and the two left chatting with each other quietly. Draco ended up following the two straight over to the mansion, not knowing what to expect.


Once at the mansion, he watched as his father covered her eyes and walked her inside. He heard her giggling and his father murmuring, but not what he had said. Draco stopped at the sight of his father pulling to a stop at the very spot that his aunt Bellatrix had tortured her for hours. But it had been changed. The entire area was so drastically different that the young wizard debated whether he was in the correct location.


When his father released her, Hermione let out a gasp. She walked around, touching the new mantle as well as the small knickknacks that were on it. Hermione looked over to Lucius, tears in her eyes as she stood looking at him.


“I know you told me that you didn’t need me to change this place,” he said, his voice sad. “But I am not blind. I saw how you avoided it, Hermione.” She flew to him, hugging him tightly as he went on with, “I did it for me too, imp. I kept seeing you…hearing your screams…it was for both of us.”


“Thank you, Lucius,” she said quietly. “This means so much.” She pulled back slightly. “I think I’ll go thank the house elves while you talk to him.”


Frowning he asked, “Who?”


“Your son,” she stated. “He followed us back and you need to talk with him in private.” With that she kissed his cheek and went off to the kitchen to thank all of the elves.


Lucius looked over to his son standing there stunned. He went over to him and asked, “What would you like to know?”


“How long has this been going on with Granger?” he inquired.


Lucius thought it over and answered, “Since the victory celebration.”


“Why her?”


Lucius smiled. “I don’t know, but, Draco, she makes me happy.”


“Mum…”


“Is dead,” he cut him off. “It pains me more than I can express, but there is nothing I can do to bring her back.”


Draco blushed, as he had never heard his father speak this way before. “Just how serious are you and Granger?”


“She has moved in with me here,” he told his son. “I offered her any of the guestrooms, but I found her camping out in my bed that night. She has yet to leave.” He sighed contently. “Hermione is a good person, Draco. She is so giving. It is…odd. I have never met anyone so selfless or without a need to hold anger within her.”


“Oh she has a temper!”


“Yes, she does at that,” Lucius said, smiling. “But it is short lived and once she has blown off the majority of it she is back to how she was before.”


Hermione slipped up to Lucius, slipping her arm around his waist. She smiled at Draco and said, “The elves have informed me that lunch is ready. Will you be joining us?”


“Uh…” He looked over to his father. “This is my house.”


“I know,” she said. “But I didn’t want to assume anything such as where you were going to eat. If you are going to eat here, it’s your favorite. Or so Daisy told me.”


“Daisy?”


“The house elf in charge of the kitchens,” she answered. “She knows all the food you love and when I told her that you were here, she started right off on the meal you love.”


Draco blushed.


“Whatever you choose, lunch is ready to be served,” she announced.


Lunch was civil. Hermione sat next to his father, eating off her own plate as well as his despite the fact that it appeared that they both had the same food. At one point his father went still and looked over to Hermione who grinned with an innocent yet playfully devilish look on her face. He had a feeling that what he was missing was going on under the table. He dropped his napkin and saw what she was doing. He had expected her to be giving him a hand job, but what he found there was oddly sweet.


Her leg was resting over Lucius’s lap. Hermione was tracing his father's hand that was resting on her thigh lightly with her fingertips. Draco sat up and watched as his father stood up and pulled her to her feet.


“What about dessert?” she asked him even as he was throwing her over his shoulder.


“You, my playful imp, are my dessert.”


It wasn’t until several hours later that Draco saw his father again. He was looking relaxed as well as totally sated. The younger wizard went over and sat across from his father at his desk.


“I won’t claim to comprehend your relationship with Granger, but if it makes you happy, so be it. All I ask is that you don’t expect me to call her mother at any given date.”


Lucius smiled to himself as he watched his son get up and leave. Hermione had been correct, he thought. He snorted with laughter at the petite witch telling him that his son loved him and that his problem most probably lay with the fact that she could at one time or another end up being his stepmother.


“Now, I’m not saying I will,” she told him. “I’m only telling you what I think he’s thinking. The thought of him calling me ‘mummy’ will more than likely having him wake up in cold sweats.”


Still laughing he went up stairs into his bedroom. Once there, he stripped and got into bed with his lover who was still asleep. Nuzzling her neck, he felt her stir and slip her arms around him.


“Hmm, Lucius,” she purred.


“Having a lovely nap, my imp?” he asked her quietly.


“Yes,” she murmured, tilting her head back so she could look into his eyes. “I’ve been thinking.”


“You don’t say? About what pray tell?”


“About my current lack of purpose,” she told him, pushing him onto his back as she began to kiss her way down his body. “I am a woman of objectives, as you know.”


“Yes-s-s,” he hissed as she nipped at his nipple.


“I’ve come up with a goal,” she told him, licking at the beginning of his happy trail down to his thick blond thatch of pubic hair.


“And what would that be?” he barely was able to moan out.


“I want to fuck you dry,” she announced, only to have him roll her over to her back and thrust hard into her in one hard plunge.


“Commendable goal, my sweet imp,” he muttered, nipping at her neck. “Very commendable in deed.”