Refashioning Affection

Chapter Seven: Green Monster

It had been four full days since Lucius had spoken to Hermione. He had seen her and they shared basic greetings, but she was running around trying to organize a team to head out to Shetland.

He had spoken to some of his contacts; there may be a distant Gaunt cousin still alive and willing to work with the Ministry. That was a good enough excuse to visit her office.

He made his way down the corridor, lying to himself the whole way, that it was strictly a business-related call. That only worked until he made it to her threshold where he saw a man standing behind her while she sat at her desk, explaining something on what appeared to be a map.

The man must have been around thirty years old. He was broad shouldered with light brown hair and was as tall as Lucius, who stood at six foot two. Hermione looked up when she heard the squeaky board of her entryway let out a squeal.

“Hello, Lucius.” She gave him one of her smiles that made him want to kiss her full lips.

“Good afternoon, Hermione and…” he trailed off looking at the unfamiliar man.

“Oh, excuse me. Liam McTavish, this is Lucius Malfoy, High Commissioner for the Board of Governors, as well as a volunteer researcher for the Department. Lucius, Liam is the new team leader for the Shetland project.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Governor Malfoy.” The burly Scotsman extended his hand over Hermione’s desk, leaving one hand firmly on the back of her chair, which irked Lucius something awful.

“Likewise, Mr. McTavish. Hail from the Highlands, do you?”

“What gave it away?” he joked causing Hermione to laugh.

“We figured he would be the best for the job. He used to work as an account manager at Gringotts, so he can organize and do paperwork. Plus, he knows the islands of the North Sea better than anyone I interviewed.”

“Did you attend Hogwarts, Mr. McTavish?”

“Aye, I was a Ravenclaw, graduated a year before Hermione entered.”

“Apparently, he was bored with the work at the bank so he decided to branch out. I am very grateful for that.” Hermione smiled up at the man who readily returned the gesture.

“Don’t be grateful until you see my report,” he rumbled in his Scots accent and gave her a wink. Lucius could see the want in his blue eyes.

“I am sorry I interrupted, Hermione. I have gathered some information on the Vaults project.”

“Oh, of course.” She started when there was a knock on her doorjamb. She found Ron leaning against the wood portal with a smirk on his face.

“I will return later today, Hermione, when your attention is not in such high demand.” Hermione was a bit shocked at the tone of Lucius’s voice. It was a mix of anger and confusion.

“Liam and I are all finished, Lucius…”

“No, no, attend to your business. I will talk to you another time.” He bowed slightly and exited the room in stiff long strides not bothering to acknowledge the other men.

“I best be off as well, Hermione. I have to get ready to brief the team. Will I see you at the department meeting on Wednesday?”

“Yes, of course. Have a good day, Liam.”

As Liam left, he smiled and nodded to Ron, recognizing one part of the hero trio. Ron sauntered in, closed the door and let out a low whistle.

“‘Mione, who was the hunk?”

“Ron, you know Lucius Malfoy.” Hermione replied not really paying attention as she sorted paperwork back into files. She looked up when she heard Ron snort and laugh.

“Good one, ‘Mione. Don’t get me wrong, I love blondes, but I meant the tall brunette with an arse of marble.”

At this point he had flopped himself down on the small leather couch and Hermione had sent up a silent prayer of thanks that Ron had thought her slip a joke. She really had to focus.

“Ah, Liam McTavish caught your eye?”

“If I wasn’t already involved, I wouldn’t mind a go with the Highlander.”

Hermione laughed and sat on the couch next to her friend, lounging back on the arm and draping her legs over his thighs.

“I hate to break it to you, but I think he just fancies witches.”

“It was worth a shot.” He shrugged and gave her a lopsided grin. “Still wearing your heels?”

“Not for long.” Hermione toed off the offending footwear and let them fall to the floor with a thunk. She wiggled her poor toes.

“So, what brings you to this part of the Ministry? Hey, stop that!” She scolded as he lightly tickled her instep.

“I had a meeting to finalize my contract with the Cannons and decided to pop in and see my favorite Department Head.”

“Oh, well, that was sweet, Ron. You seem really happy, good meeting or…”

“Yeah, I saw him.” She knew him far too well.

“And…”

“He is fine and we are going out this Friday night.”

“Fabulous, do you know where you are going?”

“He only told me it was club.”

“I am sure you will have a great time, Ron.”

“Are you going over to the Burrow tonight for dinner?”

Hermione thought for a moment, the look on Lucius’s face had unnerved her.

“I don’t think I can make it tonight. Tell Molly I will make it up to her; I am just swamped right now.”

“I will let her know. Shite! Is it really three?”

Hermione looked at the clock, surprised at where the day had gone.

“I have a fitting in a half hour for my new kit!” He hopped off the couch and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead before jogging out of the room and calling goodbye over his shoulder.

Hermione watched Ron leave, then, begrudgingly, slipped her heels back on and headed down to the Governors’ corridor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Hermione had been entertaining Ron, Lucius swooped back into his office.

“Alan, is there anything that needs my immediate attention?” he asked his assistant.

“Yes, first off, though you just missed Draco, he said to send his apologies that he cannot join you and Professor Snape this Friday night as planned.”

“Yes.”

“And we have had a number of letters coming in complaining about the new Divination professor. Apparently, she is using some type of tainted smoke to help the students ‘open their minds’ I believe was the term used.”

“Oh, for the love of Merlin.”

“Yes, the Headmistress wishes to speak to you as soon as possible.”

“Send her a note telling her that I am free every morning this week. If am not available when she can meet, make it so that I am. Have you notified the other Governors about this?”

“Yes sir, and Governor Cowen asked that you floo his office whenever you get a chance.”

“Of course. Can you send a note to my son saying that I will see him Saturday afternoon for lunch if he must miss dinner on Friday?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you, Alan.”

A few moments later, Lucius was sitting in front of his floo speaking with the balding Governor Cowen.

“Charles, she is essentially drugging the students.”

“Come now, it can’t be that bad.”

“Explain that to the pile of angry letters from parents sitting on my desk. We need to get a group in there to assess the situation. I am sure the Headmistress has banned anything other than tea leaves and crystal balls at this point, but the parents want the Board to handle it. We may or may not be hiring a new professor, so I suggest you get a team together quickly.”

“I will get a group over there by the end of this week,” grumbled the Governor.

“Thank you, Charles.”

Lucius sat back as the fire turned back to the normal yellow and orange flames. He hadn’t like Professor Govina when the Board had voted her in ten to three, and now he knew why. She was insane.

He rubbed his temples, trying to ease the headache coming on and his thoughts wandered back to Hermione. Who does this McTavish fellow think he is, anyway? A man doesn’t wink at woman unless he wants something less than chivalrous.

‘What was I thinking?’ he wondered. ‘I have no claim on the witch, even if I want one. She could be with whoever she chose. Better not be that Scottish…”

“Lucius?”

‘Wonderful! Now I’m hearing her voice!’

“Lucius? Are you okay?”

‘Wait, that wasn’t in my head…’ He turned toward the door to see her standing a few feet in the room with a look of concern on her soft features.

“Pardon?” he asked.

“You seemed…out of sorts earlier and I wanted to make sure you were well.”

“Oh yes, just been a stressful day.”

“I understand.” She had moved forward to stand before him, still looking down at him, studying him with her whiskey eyes.

“I…um…my contacts have found some information on the Gaunt family.”

“Ah, how about we talk about it over dinner? You seem preoccupied at the moment. You can come and relax while I cook tonight and then we can go over what we have found.”

“As you wish.” Like he could say no to that offer.

“Floo to my home at seven?” He agreed with a nod.

“Excellent. I will open the floo; just call out Granger cottage.”

“I shall see you tonight then.”

“Yes, bring your appetite. I tend to cook for ten instead of two.” She waved as she all but floated out of his office.

Once she was out of sight, Lucius let his head drop back to land on the back of his chair and groaned out one word,

“Doomed.”

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A/N Okay chapter seven up and the first two up an edited. Thank you my wonderful Beta!!

LaBib: One of my english prof. once said I channeled Huxley while I wrote. I have a tendency to drop the reader into a world and leave subtle hints and observations. I am sure you will start to pick up on small things now. Oh and the Dragon Blood will be explained soon. I always picture the beautiful Jason while I write Lucius, but for once I wanted him to be the one falling over himself for Hermione because he is changed and unsure of himself. He has had to build his new identity where before it was just given to him.

Utopia: First off WOW! never had such detailed reviews even while at Uni. I do know how crazy your british system is, I work for it. I am currently working as a researcher at Holyrood. But as you can tell I am a yank by birth. Sadly my time in Scotland is coming to a close but I will be moving to South Africa so that is a new adventure. For this Universe I am mixing and matching different elements of the US and UK systems so everyone can kinda get a grasp of what is happening at the MOM. I hope this chapter answered a few questions about that. The Three Sisters is my local pub here in Edinburgh, and Babel is after the mythical tower of languages, which the fish is named after lol. Almost everything in this story that is not HP cannon can be traced back to something in my life. Write what you know and all that. Oh and graham crackers are a kind of sweet treat in the US, I use a crust made out of Graham Cracker instead of the Scottish shortbread when I make my carmel chocolate squares :D

*Thanks to everyone who had read and enjoyed!*
Don't be afraid to ask questions if you are lost in my plot, I will try to help you out.

cheers,

xoxo Sarah