Losing No More Time

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CHAPTER V


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Lucius was quiet on the walk to Hogsmeade. He didn’t really listen to Hermione as she told him about the village. The road was dry and the fallen autumn leaves crunched under foot.


He was, instead, contemplating his parents’ decided upon fate of marrying Miss Narcissa Black.


He ran his hand along the edge of the lapel of his cloak sighing at the feel of the silk lining as he thought about when he first saw Narcissa verses when he first saw Hermione.


“Oh, you’re Lucius Malfoy, aren’t you?” a tall, blond girl said to Lucius while he sat in the Slytherin common room sipping tea and studying for his potions O.W.L.


Lucius looked up, feeling his nose crinkle as he eyed the third year girl. He stood. He looked her over up and down.


He lifted his chin and, looking into her eyes with coldness, spoke, “And you are?”


As if the chit thought he would not notice the corner of white silk sticking through a place between buttons at the chest of her blouse. He set his teacup down and shut his book pursing his lips.


“Narcissa Black,” she said, blushing brightly as Lucius met her eyes. She offered Lucius a hand hoping for him to kiss it as he had other girls with whom she had seen him interacting.


“If you’ll excuse me,” Lucius said, looking at her hand as if he supposed it to be poisoned.


His teacup sparkled and vanished as he bowed and left Narcissa standing there with her hands balling on her waist and her chin jutting forward and her lower lip puffed out.


“Interesting sister you have, Miss Black,” Lucius said, arching an eyebrow at Bellatrix as he turned down the hall to his room. He could hear the row between the Black sisters he caused and smirked.


“Hermione!” a voice shouted.


Lucius was jerked from his memory as a red-haired, gangly boy ran up to Hermione.


Lucius bristled as the freckled young man grabbed Hermione and spun her around lifting her off the ground.


“Who are you?”


Lucius didn’t answer as he looked the stranger over. He looked at Hermione and smiled a little.


“This is Adonis Malfoy,” Hermione said, stepping back and taking his arm to pull him forward. “He is a transfer from Durmstrang this year. He was sorted into Gryffindor and needs to get his books and robes and some other things in Hogsmeade. I’m showing him around.”


Lucius looked down at where her hand held his robes. He didn’t say a word.


“Adonis,” Hermione said, sliding her hand down and squeezing his hand a little in encouragement. “This is Ron Weasley. He is one of my best friends. He’s in training to be an Auror right now with my other dear friend, Harry Potter.”


Lucius bowed slightly to Ron never lowering his eyes, “I'm honored.”


Ron looked him over like he was odd, “Malfoy?”


“Yes,” Lucius said, lifting his chin.


Ron said nothing further on the subject.


Lucius pushed his hair back and tied it with a black ribbon.


“Hermione, can I see you tonight?”


Lucius bristled as he noticed where the uncouth man’s eyes were looking.


“Ron, you know that I have to study,” Hermione said, sighing as she led Lucius down the path to Hogsmeade still holding his hand.


“Hermione, you have the course books memorized, damn it,” Ron said, glaring at her. “And it would be good for you to get out.”


Lucius gently pulled his hand free of Hermione’s as he noticed her hand trying to wriggle free from Ron’s.


Hermione turned and looked at him. Lucius looked away at the old trees of the forbidden forest and strolled quietly.


“Come on, Herms. I miss you.”


Lucius didn’t speak. Instead, he stared at a small, red bird flittering about between two trees. The bird tweeted at him. He glared at the bird.


“Please Herms.”


“Maybe you can stop by after class and before dinner and we can have a tea,” Hermione said, smiling at Ron. “And maybe bring Harry with you. It’s been several months since I saw him, though he writes often.”


“Afterward, there is something that I want to ask you,” Ron said, reaching out and touching her chin.


Hermione’s eyes cut toward Lucius and noticed him engaged in a staring contest with the bird.


Lucius slit his eyes back toward them. Didn’t want a boyfriend. She was practically engaged to the slobbering buffoon. Was that the kind of wizard Hermione desired?


Ron wrapped his arms around her waist and tugged her close.


Lucius looked down.


“Ron, stop. Adonis is here. This is not right.”


“I don’t care who sees that you’re my witch,” Ron said, leaning down and kissing her mouth. He tried to push his tongue inside, but Hermione pulled back.


Lucius spun away but stayed within earshot. His silver eyes flashed as he squeezed his wand.


Ron stumbled as Hermione pushed him.


“Bye Ron,” Hermione said, wishing she could get the bad taste out of her mouth. “I’ll see you and Harry this afternoon around 3:45.”


“I can’t wait,” Ron said. “See ya, Malfoy.”


Lucius turned and bowed, “Good Day, Mr. Weasley.”


Ron laughed.


“I have to go with Adonis to get his school stuff now,” Hermione said, walking over to the blond.


Lucius looked at Hemione after Ron disapparated. What was so funny about him?


Lucius walked at her side not offering his arm as she didn’t seem to want it. They stopped in the Three Broomsticks to warm up with a butterbeer that Lucius staunchly insisted upon paying for and he also bought her a cookie she was eyeing in Honeydukes’ window, without a word.


Hermione was narrating the history of Hogsmeade to him as they walked through the town. She even told him about the importance of the Shreiking Shack and the significance of Hogsmeade in the final battle with Voldemort.


Lucius didn’t respond.


“So you are engaged?” he asked, after he paid for his course books and shrunk them to fit in his pocket.


“What?” Hermione asked, turning to him with wide eyes. “What gave you that idea?”


“Mr. Weasley was quite friendly with you. He kissed you,” Lucius said, walking a little faster.


“You’ve kissed me as well,” Hermione said, remembering the fluttering in her stomach when he had kissed her hand the last time.


“Only your hand and out of gentlemanly conduct,” Lucius said, eyes widening as he looked away contemplating how she could compare his conduct to Weasley's.


Hermione put a hand over her heart as she watched him.


“Adonis, I hope I didn’t offend you,” she said, walking up and putting a hand on his shoulder, “but Ron and I have been friends now for nearly eight years. I don’t think too much about not greeting him warmly.”


“His conduct is shameful, not yours,” Lucius said, stomping a little as they walked into the quill shop to buy ink and parchment. “He behaved as if he thought nothing of you at all.”


“What?” Hermione asked, cocking her head and looking at the wizard confusedly. “I’m confused.”


“You said you are not engaged to him, yet he kissed you. You even told him not to do so, and he disregarded your feelings,” Lucius said, grabbing a couple bottles of plain black ink and one red and two rolls of parchment. He set them on the table and gave his Gringotts account number to charge the materials.


“Yes, but after what we’ve been through…”


“It shows conceited nature and disrespect for you. If I were to be blessed with a daughter in the future, and she had such a suitor, I should dismiss him at once as he might do her a harm,” Lucius said, collecting his parcel and walking out of the store. “It would be my job as her father to do such, even if she were very angry with me.”


“You’d pick whom your daughter marries, if you had one?” Hermione asked, jamming her hands on her hips. Of all the sexist, chauvinistic attitudes. “She deserves to marry for love!”


“Why should I not choose whom my children marry? My parents have basically decided for me,” Lucius said, holding the door open for Hermione. He licked his lips.


“That’s horrible,” Hermione said, walking out of the shop and looking up into his wintery eyes. “What about who you fall in love with? Where does that leave her in your world?”


Lucius didn’t answer but offered her his arm as a small winter rain shower had slicked the roads. A lady shouldn't hear that he would likely take a witch he loved as his mistress. His father had had several witches.


“You should let any child you have marry for love, and not take out what your parents do to you on them,” Hermione said. “Who do they want you to marry?”


“It’s not important. They have not decided yet, and the end decision is mine I suppose as I am to announce it when they throw a ball for me. They will strongly encourage me to choose the witch they desire for my wife, a lady of good breeding and all. It is tradition,” Lucius stopped as he stepped over the muddy train tracks and looked back at Hermione who was trying to find a way to avoid the mud.


Lucius whipped off his cloak a moment later and stood with one foot on each side of the muddy tracks as he laid it down for her. He offered her his hand.


“Adonis, that is an expensive cloak,” Hermione said as he laid it with the silk lining down in the mud. “What would your parents say?”


“I dare say my father would be…upset…for my not having offered it more quickly to you,” Lucius said, helping her gingerly walk across the cloak covered mud puddle. He stooped and gathered it up draping it over his arm.


“How are you and your brother so different, Adonis?” Hermione asked, staring at the wizard keeping perfect pace with her.


“It’s the difference perhaps between the expectations our parents had of us,” Lucius said, trying not to blush at the thought that Hermione found his son to be such a nuisance. “What class do we have this afternoon?” He held the door open for her and walked at her side up the grand staircase.


“Charms,” Hermione answered, leading the way to the room.


“Diffindo,” a second year Slytherin boy said, aiming his wand at a first year Gryffindor girl.


“Fifteen points from Slytherin, Mr. Nott, for trying to hex a fellow student,” Hermione said, as the spell sliced the bag open sending the contents to the floor and shattering the ink bottle.


The Gryffindor girl’s eyes teared as she looked at her messy books and ruined parchment. She stooped down and began to try to gather together her ruined things.


Lucius moved quickly to the younger girl and cast a spell to mend her bag.


She looked up at him with big watery eyes.


Lucius reached into his bag as he cast cleaning spells over the hall floor and the girl’s books. He pulled out one of the bottles of ink he’d bought earlier that day and one of the rolls of parchment.


“Here, take these for the day,” Lucius said. “I’m sure you don’t have time to get to the dorms to replace those that are ruined.”


She looked up at him and quickly wrapped her arms around his waist, “Thank you.”


Lucius patted her head, and sent her on her way to class and turned to listen to Hermione finish lecturing the Slytherin.


The boy just glared at her and skulked away.


“There was no need to dress him down like that,” Lucius said, gently as Hermione stormed toward the Charms room.


“Yes, there was. The arrogant little sod was doing it to upset her on purpose.”


“He wants her attention. He likes her. Didn’t you see him going to help her pick her things up before you set upon him like a swarm of Cornish Pixies?”


“He needs to learn to properly show attraction to a girl, which does not include vandalizing her things or tormenting her person,” Hermione said, wrenching the door open and plopping in her seat angrily.


Lucius pulled out a chair for her and helped her scoot in.


Hermione smiled up at Lucius.


Lucius smiled softly back at her and set his bag on the table.


“Mr. Malfoy,” a small voice squeaked.


Lucius looked down, “Good Afternoon, Professor Flitwick,” he greeted smiling.


“May I have a quick word with you before class? I had a small request to ask of you.”


Lucius nodded, “Please excuse us, Hermione.”


Hermione nodded and watched Lucius stride to the front of the classroom where Flitwick climbed the stack of books in his chair and stood on his desk. Even so, Lucius still had to lean down so the short wizard to whisper in his ear.


He nodded his head in understanding at the end, and he walked back to Hermione avoiding eye contact with her.


“What was that about?” Hermione asked, placing a hand on his elbow.


Lucius shifted a little at the soft, small hand.


“Professor Flitwick wants me to demonstrate the charm for class today,” he said, and a pink color tinted his high cheeks.


“Really?” Hermione asked. “That’s wonderful. We are just going off what is in the book, though, right?”


“Not exactly,” Lucius said as the last stragglers made it to the class.


“Well,” Hermione said, looking at him expectantly after she took out a sheet of parchment. “What is it?”


“I’m not supposed to say,” Lucius said, leaning back and frowning as he blinked slowly at the Professor in silent contemplation.


“I’m your partner for potions,” Hermione said, poking his upper arm. “Share.”


“Mr. Malfoy, our new student,” Professor Flitwick began after he finished taking role, “is going to be demonstrating the family of charms we will be working on today; they were designed by...his family. One well known charm of this family is forbidden by magical law, as it was the mark of he-who-must-not-be-named. Of course, these charms have many other uses.”


Lucius blushed as Professor Flitwick motioned that he should step up. He had never thought the Charm family he designed for his Seventh Year Charms Project would be taught in Hogwarts or have one forbidden by the Ministry.


“Please demonstrate, young man,” Professor Flitwick said. “And please wordlessly, if you are able.”


Lucius looked a little ruffled and squared his shoulders.


He paused for a moment and concentrated on the one he had been working on this morning. He pointed his wand toward Hermione, who shifted a little.


From the tip of the wand burst about a hundred tiny pink and silver sparkling and glowing stars.


Everyone in the room gasped at the prettiness of the spell.


The winking stars raced toward Hermione and formed a heart around her face before Lucius flicked his wand causing them shower down on her in a rain of sparkles that vanished.


Hermione giggled a little as a warmth and happiness spread over her that she couldn’t explain.


All the girls clapped happily and giggled as Lucius returned to his seat.


“I hope you didn’t mind,” he whispered to her.


“Not at all,” Hermione said, smiling at him and placing a hand on his.


Lucius curved his hand up to hold hers a little, and tapped her quill with his wand so it would take notes for her as they looked into each other’s eyes.


Hermione quickly looked up at the Professor as he spoke.


Professor Flitwick bounced happily as he told the students more about the charm and how to perform it.


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Well, there was Chapter V. If some of the lurkers wouldn't mind leaving reviews, I would be very obliged. They really are helpful and pleasing to read, to all writers. It's not that we are insecure, we just want to know that you like the story. *giggles*

Hope to read lots of reviews...


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