The Heaviest Burden of All

LaBibliographe: No, you could NOT possibly be the decay part, hon – I’m sorry! :P And I wouldn’t be jealous at Sheryl cuz she gets to sleep with naked Lucius, either… my fanfic Lucius always sleeps naked. It’s just too expensive to buy him velvety or silky night things. ;)

In some kinda way, Voldy and Lucy… uhm, I mean Lucius definitely still live in the 50’s. I heard that blond was the latest fashion then… *lol* Imagine Lucius in a rock band at this point. Oh my God… *first aid, please* And Voldy is the kind of Lockhard-dad: “So sorry. Dozed off. What have I missed??” Fathers…

Me having trouble uploading my story with paragraphs? Honey, I get nervous breakdowns whenever I just THINK about uploading chapters!!! *lol*
Honestly, I upload my chapters by text now instead of using html-files. I’m no fan of html and it never worked out as I wanted anyway. So I write all my stories in Microsoft Word, then copy it into the text field and that’s it. I do my paragraphs as I always do them in word – just one empty line between them. You’re right, though: the paragraphs don’t actually fully separate the way I want them to. I wished I could change it or that the word file I copy would be filled in how it looks like in Word, but that’s something to dream off rather than hoping it comes true one day. Now if I ever catch the cause for those troubles, I’m likely to experience a little with my Death Curse on it, rest assured… ;)
Hope I was some help!

Again, thank you for your brilliant review – I had the laugh of my life. If only Lucius could see that… I’d almost do everything to see that amusement you would cause on his face! :D

And I’m afraid the question of getting INTO Sheryl’s knickers is off the topic after this chapter. Hehe.

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Chapter 6
Taming snakes


Malfoy’s smug expression dropped so fast that she had to savor each wonderful moment of it to properly remember it forever.
“I ruined the mood, I’m sorry”, she sadistically laughed at the glorious sight in front of her and turned away from the utterly speechless wizard as his hand suddenly shot up and grabbed her wrist in an iron grip.
“Liar!”, he hissed through clenched teeth, yet the panicked concern behind his rage was too visible. Sheryl knew that she’d better not try her luck once more, yet there was little to lose by now. She might have turned useless for the ritual anyway by telling the truth.
“You’re hurting me…”
“I’m aware of that. Now, my dear, please repeat what you’ve just said.”
The grip on her wrist grew more painful as he pulled at her to bring her close to himself.
“I didn’t lie. Last winter, there was a Bulgarian exchange student at Hogwarts and… I’m surely not going to tell you any details about it!”
She could be making up this story as well, Lucius realized in sheer distrust. For all he knew, she could very well think of him to believe her words. He wouldn’t let her get away so easily, though. There was no spell to check someone’s virginity, therefore he had to rely on his other experiences with women. For the fraction of a guilty instant, Malfoy vaguely remembered Voldemort telling him to not touch her before the ritual, but he couldn’t risk being lied to or not knowing the truth. His hand released her wrist only to push her on her back the next second and press her down by using his own body. In an attempt to get him off of her, she hit him quite hard, thus forcing him to choose the cruel way. An unfamiliar sounding spell to Sheryl left his mouth, and she suddenly felt invisible ropes holding her hands and feet down. No matter how hard she tried to find a counter curse, she wasn’t able to lift them from her, but felt Malfoy parting her legs with his knee instead. Her pants disappeared without a sound and were replaced by his left hand that found its way effortlessly to her thighs and eventually to her opening. She didn’t even try pleading with him for the look on his face told her that she would only waste her energy. A warm finger entered her body quite forcefully and unexpectedly. If she had still been a virgin by now, this would definitely had hurt like hell, but she knew that was exactly his intention. Since she had spoken the truth before, however, she merely flinched at the sudden penetration. He stopped his movement, his thoughts racing in a mixture of panic, confusion and pure fury. What was he supposed to do now? Why couldn’t Voldemort have taken care of that not to happen?
“I wasn’t lying”, her quiet voice came to his ear. For the first time since their forced intimacy Lucius looked up to meet her calm gaze. Dignity was something he definitely wouldn’t have expected of a girl her age in a situation like that. It was a feature she must have earned from her mother, though, as he knew Voldemort’s behavior just too well, and that was, to put it mildly, not quite dignified most of the time. When did he actually start to think of his Lord as a maniac? Lucius met her gaze once more, finally retreating his finger and covering her lower body with the blanket to not further embarrass her. After all, it wasn’t her fault that she had lived as any other person for seventeen years.
The binding spell came off of Sheryl as he moved away from her again and sat on the opposite side of the bed, his sorrow and worries obvious even in his usual elegance. She hated to admit that she felt pity for him, no matter what he had done just seconds ago, and she also realized that he was but a mere puppet on Voldemort’s string, no matter how powerful he appeared or how much he wanted to be free himself.
“Lucius?”
He turned his head to face her as she used his name the very first time.
“Voldemort will punish you for this, right?”, her voice asked quietly, almost sadly.
“Why should that bother you?”
The soft smile didn’t manage to betray his torn insides.
“It’s not fair to pay for something you haven’t been responsible for.”
“Do you truly think the dark Lord will admit that it’s his own fault? No”, he gave a slight sneer, “that’s what we are here for.”
“You just accept it?”
“Am I given a choice?”
She realized the bitter truth just then. What was it worth to follow someone who didn’t even allow his people to think for themselves? And suddenly, a small flicker of some weird idea crossed her mind.
“What happens if something in the ritual goes wrong?”
“The dark Lord won’t gain the powers he needs. In fact, he will even become much weaker than he had been during the last years when he was without human form.”
“You know, we could just pretend that the ritual goes its normal way…”
“And weaken him? You forget that I’m still one of his followers”, Malfoy dangerously narrowed his eyes.
“That doesn’t mean you still want to be, though.”
“How dare you!”, he hissed at her and wanted to get up, but she had already expected him to leave, so she crawled across the bed and caught his bare left forearm. As he turned towards her, she realized the dark mark on his skin beneath her fingers started to feel weird.
“What are you doing?”, she asked in astonishment, however, his own look seemed no less surprised.
“In fact, I wanted to know that from you.”
Both their gazes focused onto the mark, her hand still holding his arm. First it seemed like the skull was only continuing to grin madly, but then, as Sheryl experimentally stroked across it with one finger, something happened that took Lucius more by surprise than he could hide. The snake recoiled from her touch. A voice like an angry hiss filled the room for a few seconds until it was gone again.
“Repeat it”, he quietly said, his eyes on the dark mark.
This time, Sheryl aimed at the snake’s head with two fingers, and the pained hiss that followed her movement hurt her ears. The animal tried to escape her desperately, writhing beneath her hand while the skull lost its grin.
“Does it hurt?”, so far she hadn’t even wondered about the effect it possibly had on Malfoy’s body.
“No.”
“I thought you were surprised because it did.”
“I am surprised because the pain stopped for once”, he said with a smile that reminded her of cultivated happiness.
“The mark hurts all the time?”
“How would you constantly remind your followers of your existence or punish defectors?”
Her hand released his arm, causing another angry hiss to rush through the room. Malfoy couldn’t quite hide the pain that returned the moment her touch ended, yet he had been used to it for so many years by now that he managed to simply clench his teeth without letting out any sound.
“I’m sorry”, she said, laying her hand on his forearm again. He didn’t quite know whether she excused for the new touch or the pain that had returned after her retreat before. Even if he refused to admit his little weakness, he still couldn’t help closing his eyes at the feel of a relief he hadn’t had for so long.
“You changed it”, he finally said.
“But it still looks the same when I move my hand away.”
“No, not the mark. I meant the prophecy.”


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Smut ahead, though, I can assure you… :D