A Muddy Secret

Lovely reviewers:

Thisbe: Update is here at last. Could be the end of the week before another.

LadyVoldemort87: YAY YOU! I LOVE BRITS! (if I'd neglected to mention if before! *wink*) I loves Draco too! Who doesn't? A great British actor was born today! TOM FELTON! HE PLAYS DRACO! *claps* As long as Hermione gives him a good punch in the face being mean to Sev, you know similar to the way that she whaps Draco (POOR DRACO! *sniffs*) for Schadenfreude (Schadenfreude is a great German word!) at Hagrid's apparent loss of Beaky!

Lauriurix: Hope this one is just as good!

Jessie: Tell me if you guessed right about this chapter. I am curious! Enjoy!

LaBibliographe: I am going to pretend that it is a mixture of squeal and sequel. The truth is that is one of the words I have deep issues spelling. I was taught how to spell it incorrectly, and it stuck with me. Hermione didn't know he locked the door. He knew she wouldn't let him get away with it. It was a timed spell to let her out after the start of her class. I am going to try for italics with this chapter. It'll work for me likely as not!

Utopia: I will need to check that book out! I'm always looking for good books.

Nasty people always get their comeupance. ALWAYS! And if the tortured are there, they enjoy watching the bastards and bitches squirm! *cackles* werewolfhime has a dark side!

Yes, little Snapeykins is quite adorable. He can not be sensually smooth and acerbic at the tender age of twelve. At best he can be precocious in diction and whiney in delivery.

Considering the UK spawns such culinary disasters as scotch eggs, haggis, blood sausages, etc. I will take that as a compliment. However, some of it tastes only half as bad as it looks and less than half as bad as it sounds. (Just teasing...though the food in UK does {for Americans, most of the time} leave much to be desired. *wink*) I think yu may also have apple pie, and that would cancel almost everything disturbing to the American mind out. It's not the same as American Apple Pie but just as tasty. Also, if you ever come here, don't get fish and chips. It'll be bad. For some bizarre reason, Americans have great difficulty executing something as simple as this. I miss that from England. *pouts*
Is smoked meat, decidedly too American for Brits? I hadn’t paused to consider that until you said something.

Hermione needs to learn of Lucius' infinite powers of HOTNESS! If she were American, it would be over the minute she heard the accent (like it was for me *sighs* I remember it well!). Many girls (all ages) here go ga-ga for proper British accents spewing forth from proper British male mouths. Don't tell them that though! And the Americans who are faking are obvious.

Why would you rescue them? Have you sense of Schadenfreude? It's human nature to laugh at the pain of others! I sent sophomores (the eqivalent of firsties in Midwest high schools.) off in the wrong direction all the time if they bothered me while I was reading my books! Joking again. I was the nice one who helped them too. I admit it.

Heidi191976: Look forward by clicking down.

~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~
This chapter took a while to get written or it felt like a while. It is a great deal longer than any of the previous chapters. So hopefully that will make up for taking a few days to get it done. I am rather fond of this chapter. Be grateful that I am not as perfectionistic about my fanfiction as I am about my original work. You'd get monthly updates if that were the case.

Check this out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98hHZ3gOnJo . A tribute to the ONLY good canon couple, even if friends was all they were! Tiny Snape/Lily obsession!

I am going to try to put italics in today! Maybe I'll succeed, likely as not.

http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/_I.html

With no futher ado, I present Chapter VI!
~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~

Hermione stood staring at herself in the mirror in her bathroom. She’d been mostly unable to sleep the night before except in brief bursts. Her dreams had been troubling.

Every time she shut her eyes, she saw Lucius Malfoy as an adult pointing his wand at her. When she turned away from the adult, she felt a hand on her shoulder. She would turn to see Lucius Malfoy as a boy looking at her with the smile he’d had on his face when she agreed to spend the day with him.

How had she gotten herself into this mess? Why did she agree to go with Luc-Malfoy to Hogsmeade? She wouldn’t have any fun. She just hoped he wasn’t going to take her to Madam Puddifoot’s Teashop. That place made her want to vomit. All the frilly pink and floating hearts and disgustingly sweet tea laced with love potion. Just thinking about it made her grimace.

She picked up the charmed hairbrush that Dumbledore had provided for her. She ran it through her hair. She wanted to take it with her when she returned to her time, whenever that would be. It removed tangles from her thick, bushy hair without any pain or difficulty. She wandered out into her room continuing to idly run the brush through her hair as she climbed onto her bed and pulled out the book she was reading about Merlin. It would have been fascinating even if she wasn’t an insatiable reader.

She frowned when she reached a passage.

Merlin, beyond doubt, is considered to be one of the two most powerful magical beings in all recorded history. The other, of course, is Viviane (otherwise known as Nimue), who was a witch of great power and about whom little other information is known. Her powers are not catalogued in any public library in wizarding Britain, and overseas the name is only mentioned with an undertone of fear. Nothing even as basic as birth or death dates are known about her, but it is rumored that she gave birth to at least one child. No wizarding family has come forward with concrete proof of relationship to her. It is the opinion of this humble author that those rumors are just rumors.

Hermione frowned. She’d never heard of that witch before.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

“Hermione, it’s time to go to Hogsmeade.”

Lucius knew the smile could be heard in his voice when he called through the door.

“I’ll be right out,” Hermione called through the door.

She slid the bookmark into the book and decided to look at the bookstore in Hogsmeade for books that mentioned the witch. After all, "The History of Merlin" was one-hundred and fifty years old. She walked into the bathroom and put the brush on the counter. She took a last look at her self in the mirror. Satisfied that she looked as good as she believed she could (though why she cared was a mystery, it was just Malfoy.), she went and opened the door.

Lucius was leaning against the wall across the hall from her. His arms were crossed, and one of his feet was holding his whole weight while the other was pressed against the wall behind him. His hair was pulled back with a black satin ribbon, and he was dressed grey trousers and a black silk shirt. His outer robe was black with pewter snake pieces adorning the lapels of it. It clung to him draping in a way that best showed off his broad shoulders and more narrowed waist.

Lucius straightened his posture when she appeared. He smiled.

“You look beautiful,” Lucius complimented, offering her his arm.

Hermione tried not to stare at him as she took his arm. She let her eyes trail up and down his body for a moment. She blushed when she reached his eyes again knowing that he'd been watching her.

Her perusal was not lost on Lucius, and he bit his tongue to hold in his offer of going to his room and doing a strip tease for her if she would return the favor. He did not want to ruin the day before it began. She had promised, but she was a Slytherin. She might arrive in Hogsmeade with him and turn around and leave a minute later. She just promised to spend time that day with him in Hogsmeade. She did not say how long. Crafty witch!

Lucius and Hermione walked calmly up the dungeon stairs to the main hall. They were outside and walking around the lake before either spoke.

“It’s a lovely day,” Hermione observed quietly as she stared at the unusually cloudless sky and brightly shining sun.

“Indeed,” Lucius responded. “Have you been to Hogsmeade?”

“Not for a long time,” Hermione decided to answer. It was truthful. Her first visit to Hogsmeade village would not be for about twenty years.

“It’s great! Did you know that it is the only all wizarding village in Britain? It was founded—”

“By Hengist of Woodcroft,” Hermione finished.

“How’d you know that?” Lucius asked.

“How often have you seen me without a book in my hands?”

Lucius looked her over for a minute, mostly because he wanted an excuse to check her out.

“Counting this time, three,” Lucius answered.

“You’ve paid that close of attention?” Hermione asked, looking down and blushing a bit.

“No,” Lucius said. “But when I met you, you didn’t have a book. After you came down from Dumbledore’s office, you didn’t have a book. Other than that you read at meals and spend your free time in the library doing homework or light reading.”

Hermione smiled at him.

“I spend a lot of my time reading as well. Can I tell you a secret?” Lucius asked, and he winked at her.

“What?”

“In third year, I was given a time-turner so I could attend all of my classes. I was signed up for all of the classes except muggle studies. I wasn’t interested in it, and who cares what muggles do? Wizards are superior in every way,” Lucius said, brushing back a strand of hair that fell in his face.

Hermione tensed at these words.

“I took muggle studies for a year at Beauxbatons,” she said acidly to him.

Lucius looked stunned for a moment, but he responded quietly.

“Why?”

“It’s a good question,” Hermione said, relaxing the grip of her fingers. “But muggles do some amazing things. Look at how they travel across vast distances. They don’t have floo powder or apparition, but they can fly through the air at great speeds and span oceans.”

“How long have they been flying? Broomsticks have been used for more than 1000 years by wizards,” Lucius said authoritatively raising his hand in the air and shaking it as he expounded.

“Less than one hundred years.”

Lucius snorted.

“But the advancements made to what they,” Hermione felt a twinge at again referring to muggles, the people of her heritage, as ‘they’, “call airplanes since their conception have been countless.”

“The advances to brooms are booming! In ten years, who can say what will happen?” Lucius told her. “Let’s talk of something else. I tire of this talk of muggles. They are boring!”

Hermione rolled her eyes as they crossed the train tracks and entered the village.

Hermione found herself more and more surprised as the day was very enjoyably spent. Lucius was brilliant in his conversations. The topics ranged from charms to animagi to potions. Quidditch never became a topic. They spent three hours straight in the bookshop searching for books about various things after they enjoyed a light lunch of fish and chips at the Three Broomsticks in the late morning after just walking up and down the streets.

Hermione was disappointed when she found nothing there that referred to Viviane.

“What’re you looking for?” Lucius asked after she stood in the history section for nearly forty minutes searching the indexes of almost all the books.

“Information about a witch named Viviane who was supposedly trained by Merlin.”

“Viviane?” Lucius repeated softly. “What would you want to know about her for?”

“The author of “The History of Merlin” mentions her as being perhaps the most powerful magical being to live after Merlin. Even more so than Morgana.”

“She was more powerful and more cunning than Merlin and much more so than Morgana,” Lucius said, plucking the book from Hermione’s hands. “You won’t find information about her here. The ministry of magic archives only own a few texts with her name and nothing that talks about anything more than her being trained by Merlin.”

“There has to be more to her than being trained by Merlin. The tone of the book is just a whisper of her name. Why be afraid of the name of a dead witch?”

“What do you want to know about her?” Lucius repeated.

“Why she is believed to be so famous for one, and just general information about her life I guess, birth date, death date, that kind of thing,” Hermione said looking at him. "Why there is nothing written about her."

“She was born in 461. Viviane, though her given name, is a less commonly used for her, more commonly she is called by her other name Nimue, which she chose for herself. She is famous for being one of the most conniving and beautiful women in history. She had two children, boys through different fathers born four years apart,” Lucius said, taking her hand and leading her from the shop. “Not a lot is written about her because her power is—er—was so feared. Even today, her power is legend and not spoken of. She was not a dark witch though.”

“How do you know this?” Hermione asked, looking at him with wide, curious eyes.

Lucius shrugged, knowing he could get in trouble if he started talking about Her too much. He had probably expounded too far as it was.

“Thought everyone knew it,” he responded, looking directly into her eyes without faltering. “Let’s go see the shrieking shack. I’m not sure what moved in there. But it wasn’t like that a couple years back.”

He hoped she wouldn’t notice his lapse. He wasn’t supposed to talk about his ancestor to anyone until they were married into the family.

“You just said—” Hermione began, and she placed her other hand on the one holding hers.

“Did you know what I discovered in Snape’s potions’ book?” Lucius said asked as he tugged her down the dirt path to the side of the main road by the rail.

“What?” Hermione asked as her thoughts raced.

Why won’t he tell me more of Viviane or Nimue if he knows? Hermione thought as she looked up at him. How did he know these things if it wasn’t at a public wizard library or ministry archives or Hogwarts? Then she remembered what she read in a book about ancient pureblood families.

In all of Europe, no library can surpass Malfoy Manor’s in its vastness. No less than two-hundred thousand books and scrolls some as older than the founders of Hogwarts. Even given the sheer extensiveness and value of the collection, the Malfoys are notoriously stingy about sharing it. No one, save the Malfoys either married into the family or blood relatives, has entered it.

Of course, he has the Malfoy Manor’s library at his disposal. Who knew what wondrous history and spells of all kinds were hidden in its depths? And those parsimonious prats didn’t share! Well, he was going to share the library with her even if he had to owl the texts to her. She didn’t want to go back in that house again!

“It's a spell that hangs them in the air upside down by one ankle! It is amazing. It is non-verbal.”

Hermione carefully eased her wand into her hand as she slipped her hand from his arm.

“Like this,” she asked, waving her wand at him.

Lucius yelped as his world inverted, and he was looking at Hermione’s upside down face.

Hermione laughed as she looked at his shocked face. His expensive robes swung in the breeze.

“Put me down, Hermione,” Lucius demanded.

“Only if you tell me how you know so much about Viviane,” Hermione said with a smirk.

“You’d leave me here,” he asked with wide eyes.

“It’s up to you if you want to take the chance of someone coming along and a chance that I wouldn’t put a silencing spell around you,” Hermione offered with a laugh as she patted his cheek.

She wouldn’t really do that. But he did not know that she was really a Gryffindor, a rather warm-hearted one at that. He thought she was a Slytherin who would manipulate her way to getting whatever she wanted.

“I read about her,” Lucius said crossing his arms.

“Where?” Hermione asked. “You said, no public library has information about her.”

“That wasn’t part of the deal. I told you how I know about her!” Lucius said, and he looked above his head at the ground. He could see his elm wand out of reach on it.

“I don’t remember making a deal,” Hermione asked, and she turned around and started to walk off.

“I read about her in my family’s library!” Lucius cried his voice rising as he called out. “Don’t leave me here!”

“There, there. Was that so terrible to admit?” Hermione asked. She flicked her wand.

Lucius was dropped to the ground without being righted first. He stooped and picked up his wand.

“That was nice, Hermione!” Lucius shouted after her as he brushed himself off. He pointed his wand at her back and performed the same spell.

“MALFOY!” Hermione screeched when she found herself in the air.

“What?” he asked, walking by her without even giving her glance as he snatched her wand from her hand.

“Put me down NOW!” Hermione commanded, feeling intensely glad that she had worn the bell-bottom slacks instead of the skirt she’d been considering. “MALFOY!”

“No, I don’t think I will,” Lucius drawled as he turned around. “Unless—”

“Unless what?” Hermione demanded crossing her arms as she hung there.

“Unless—” Lucius continued as if she hadn’t interrupted him. “You agree to kiss me.”

“NO!” Hermione yelled.

“Very well,” Lucius said, giving his wand a circular flourish in the air. “Silencio.”

“MALFOY!”

“Tut. Tut. Is that any way to talk to your captor?” Lucius asked, wagging a finger in her face. “You got the information you wanted from me, now I get something I want from you.”

“Fine!” Hermione said, and she puckered her lips and closed her eyes.

“You have to ask me nicely,” Lucius said, looking at his nails for dirt and speaking in long suffering tone and dragging out the word 'nicely'.

“Fine, will you kiss me, Malfoy?!” Hermione asked rolling her eyes.

“That wasn’t sincere. I’ve never had to force my attentions on a woman. I won’t start now,” he sniffed, flicking a piece of crunched brown oak leave from his expensive robes. “And my name—is Lucius.”

“Will you kiss me, Lucius?”

Lucius looked at her slyly from behind his long lashes.

“Say please,” he said with a grin spreading across his face.

“Will you PLEASE kiss me, Lucius?”

She was going to strangle him when he got close enough. Watching his face turn blue would be satisfying beyond comprehension. It would be her pleasure!

“There, there. Was that so terrible?” Lucius mocked.

He strode up to her capturing one of her wrists in each hand before moving in closer.

Hermione licked her lips in anticipation as her eyes watched his mouth as it moved closer.

Lucius tilted his head to the side and brushed his lips lightly against Hermione’s as he transferred her wrists so they were both in one hand. He moved his other hand back to her hair and pulled it free of its confines before pulling her in closer to his mouth and sucking on her bottom lip gently. Hermione began to tug at the hand holding her wrists. She managed to work one free and flung it back to go into his hair all thoughts of strangling Lucius gone. She removed the ribbon and dropped it on the ground as her fingers worked through silky tresses. Lucius groaned and released her other hand to touch her cheek as his tongue licked her lower lip. Hermione whimpered and opened her mouth quickly. His tongue was lightning fast in its intrusion but gentle as it roved. It swirled around inside her, and she pulled on his hair as he groaned into her mouth. Lucius pulled back a moment later to catch his breath.

Hermione looked at him glassy eyed before trying to pull him back for another kiss. He chuckled and lifted his mouth to avoid hers. He pressed his nose against her neck before he began to suckle at her throat. Hermione keened and tugged at his hair shoving her neck closer to his lips.

Who knew Lucius Malfoy was such an enjoyable companion? Who knew he was so smart? Who would have guessed that he loved to read as much as she did? All these thoughts flew out of her head as soon as he kissed her. Who knew what he could do with that mouth? All that mattered were those lips.

He continued rubbing his nose close to her throat and running his teeth lightly over her pulse while he sucked. He pulled back some time later to examine a rather large love bite on her neck. He smirked at his handiwork.

“Was that so terrible?” he asked, kissing her lips again.

Hermione shook her head still dazed and hot. No boy had a right to kiss that way. She’d never been kissed that way. Viktor had been rough and grabby when he kissed, Ron was wet and rather slobbery, but Lucius was, well, Lucius. She had never seen him make a movement consciously that was without grace and poise and perfectly calculated. His kissing…

Lucius tried to take a step back, but she pulled on his hair a bit and whimpered trying to pull his lips back.

"Don’t you want down? I assure you I am perfectly willing to continue this when you are right side up,” he breathed against her lips.

Hermione managed a nod as Lucius lifted his wand and gently maneuvered her about so she hovered right-side up. With his arms beneath her, he eased her down.

Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and rested for a moment forgetting that he was the cause of her being in such an undignified position moments earlier.

“Put me down, Lucius,” she requested panting a bit against his neck.

She could smell him. He smelled so yummy. She could feel all of his muscles. He was so solid. She could see his grey eyes staring into her brown ones, the smile on his full lips. He was so very handsome.

He carefully placed her on her feet.

She shook herself out of her daze and started off down the path trying to regain her senses.

“Hermione, did you forget something?” Lucius asked.

She turned back and saw him waving her wand tauntingly in the air. She held out her hand for it and pursed her lips.

He held it out of her reach.

“Kiss me again, and I’ll give you your wand,” he said.

“Or I’ll push you in the mud!” Hermione said, lunging at him. “And take my wand!”

Lucius took off down the path laughing as he raced for the school.

“No! I won’t be pushed in the mud.”

Hermione ran after him yelling at him to “get his arse back to where she was and return her wand.”

Lucius laughed looking back at her until he collided with something smaller than he was and went roughly to the ground face first. He heard the squelch of the mud as he landed and felt it get in his nostrils and mouth.

Hermione laughed and laughed when she caught up to him. She snatched her wand back.

Lucius sat up and looked for what had caused his fall. He felt his face heat in anger and embarrassment when he saw a fourth year Gryffindor flat on her butt in the mud behind him. He recognized the kid too.

“Watch where you’re going next time!” he snarled, standing up and trying to wipe the mud from his face but only smearing it around. He winced when he felt a small cut on his lip where he'd bitten himself accidentally. “Filthy MUDBLOOD!”

Hermione felt as if a dementor had just born down on her. All the happiness just ruined with two words.

She covered her ears with her hands as she remembered hearing a similar voice saying those words. Now she knew beyond doubt where Draco learned it. Nothing would change! Why had she thought that she could change him? Why had she let herself be fooled by him.

MUDBLOOD! FILTHY MUDBLOOD! MUDBLOOD! FILTHY MUDBLOOD!

Hermione felt tears well in her eyes before she blinked them back.

The Gryffindor had risen in tears and was running toward the castle as quickly as she could.

Lucius turned to look at Hermione and was startled to see brightness in her eyes. Lividness like none he’d ever seen before was evident in the flush of cheeks, the dark narrow slant of her eyes, the crinkle of her nose, the pinch of her lips.

“Wh—” he started, but he never finished.

BAM!

Lucius reeled from the shock of the blow. His cheek felt as if liquid fire had been injected into it. He lifted a hand to his cheek and looked at Hermione as he stood doubled over.

“Don’t you EVER say that word again!” she yelled unable to hold the tears back. “Don’t you EVER speak to me again!”

Hermione took off for the school without a backwards glance.

Lucius watched her back as she ran through under the trees that lined the sides of the lake. Why did she hit him? What had he done?

~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~*~-~

Hope you all enjoyed it. I had fun writing it though it was trickier than the other chapters. Took the extra time to get everything right. As I said above, be grateful my perfectionism drops to a reasonable level when composing fanfiction.

Drop me a review. They give me warm and fuzzy feelings. Hope to hear from y'all. I shall try to have an update again by at least Friday if not sooner. It probably will be sooner.