Happy Traditions, everyone! Title: Unlikely Bedfellows, Part 9 Author:cmwinters Gift For: all fest participants! [original recipient] wanted hurt/comfort, D/s with spanking and femmedom, threesome, Eastern Europan Summer Solstice/Festival of St. John the Baptist, Saturnalia/Yule, Lammas/First Fruits, anything Jewish and/or anything Christian. Er, I tried. Pairing(s): Lucius/Hermione/Severus, Lucius/Severus Summary: Hermione finds herself in a strange alliance with the Malfoy family when it's discovered that Snape is alive and in desperate need of immediate medical attention Rating: NC-17 Warnings: BDSM, hurt/comfort, slightly dominant female, threesome, some homosexual themes although I wouldn't strictly call it "slash" Author's notes: I hope the beginning isn't too entirely boring. I tried to set it up for something plausible. The muse went on the warpath here. *stabs her with a rusty titanium spork*
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 The next morning when Hermione awoke, she was lying alone in the massive master bed under the delightfully soft silk and down duvet. Were it not for the insistence of her bladder, she'd have easily drifted right back to sleep despite the bright sunlight streaming into the room.
She stood up, somewhat surprised to note that her pyjamas had been replaced at some point. She pondered what had happened last night. It was extremely unlike her to sit passively by while someone was abused but whenever she tried to focus on it, her frustration darted just slightly out of reach and she scowled. She hadn't felt as if she were altered, and it wasn't as if she could politely ask if Lucius had slipped her something or cast her under a spell.
She padded off to the bathroom, but the sound of someone bathing made her self-conscious and she wandered down the hall to the bathroom in her own suite instead, a decision her bladder was highly displeased about. She was ravenous but couldn't stand to face anyone covered with the evidence of last night's recreational activities, particularly as it appeared as if the other participants in said recreation were also disposing of the evidence, as it were.
She promised her stomach — which had taken over complaining when her bladder had left off — a very brief shower if it would kindly stop threatening her spine with imminent consumption, and once accomplished, she quickly dressed and went downstairs.
"Good morning, Hermione," Lucius greeted her with a broad smile, standing as she entered the room. "Did you sleep well?
Not quite sure what to say, she smiled slightly and nodded. She sat next to him on the far side of the table and goggled at the spread in front of her. The Malfoys were known for their extravagances but the table was nearly buckling under the weight of the food on it. Clearly, the house elves had not been informed the party was over last night.
Lucius noticed her expression and chuckled. "They do this every time Severus sleeps here. I'm not quite certain why they go to such an extreme; he always complains that he feels like they're trying to fatten him up for market."
She was exceptionally glad she hadn't started eating anything yet because she would have choked. She managed to stutter out between giggles "well he should be used to it by now, the elves at Hogwarts do the same thing!"
"Yes, I know," Lucius conceded, "but that's the entire school. This," he said, waving his hand at the table, "is three people!"
"Oh," she said, suddenly serious. "He's still here?"
Lucius cast her a fleeting glance of concern before lounging languidly in his chair. "Yes. He's probably in a right state about those buttons of his. He does hate it when I vanish his clothing."
She looked at him for a moment before replying. "I don't really know what to think — I don't think I understand your relationship with him."
"Do you need to understand our relationship, Hermione?" Lucius goaded her, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "What is there not to understand? We are friends, occasionally lovers, he is godfather to my son, we've worked together in a professional capacity . . ."
"Do you consider the Death Eaters a profession?"
He scoffed. "Ah, that too, but my statement about professional capacity was directed at my time as a school governor while he was still teaching at Hogwarts. We also went to school together. What is it you wanted to know?"
"I don't know," she admitted. She didn't really want to know anything, she just wanted to understand. "Does Draco know?"
Lucius smirked playfully. "That Severus is his godfather?" he asked with a wink. "I daresay he does. Does he know we are lovers?" he continued, more seriously. "I honestly do not know. I've certainly not shagged Severus in front of him, but I sincerely doubt he'd be surprised, or alarmed. Such things are not unusual," he shrugged.
"Narcissa knows," she stated, although she wasn't sure enough to bet her life on it.
He laughed. "Of course she knows! Last night was not the first time Severus and I have shared the attentions of a woman." She frowned. "What's wrong?" he asked.
"It's . . . just . . . " Well, what is it, really? she asked herself before continuing. She huffed her annoyance at being unable to articulate her concern. "It's just that you, um, said something a while back, about me being his 'type'. I dunno. It's just that, last night, he seemed like he was far more into you than he was into me."
Lucius looked at her seriously for quite some time before replying. "Severus is burdened by an overwhelming sense of propriety, Hermione. He is also tyrannised by an overwhelming fear of rejection. His having been a teacher for so long, in his mind, sincerely narrows his choice of available partners, and he never would have pursued you had I not intervened. But allow me to remind you whose mouth was where last night, and to point out that had he been truly unwilling, he could simply have walked out the door. He knows the word that will release those bonds, even without his wand."
She didn't know what to say or think about that statement. On the one hand, if Severus could have left and didn't, that indicated an interest; on the other, she still wasn't convinced that left to his own devices he would have had any interest in pursuing her even had she overcome his sense of propriety and rejection. She frowned again.
"Don't be jealous of me, Hermione; I have a wife. And I would be no more jealous of you if she sought pleasure in your arms."
Hermione laughed outright at that. "I SINCERELY doubt I'm Narcissa's type!" she declared.
Lucius leaned back in his chair and examined her for a long moment. "I suppose you're right," he conceded softly. "Someone like Fleur Delacour would be more her type. She really prefers her women tall, willowy, and ultra-feminine. But she does like her men masculine," he offered.
It was all she could do not to gawk at the man. She was absolutely not going to discuss Narcissa's preference in women with her husband, and she did not need to hear that Lucius and Narcissa had shared the attentions of a woman, either. In what she hoped was a tactful manner, she changed the subject.
"What were you speaking . . . you know, last night?"
Lucius' eyes glittered and he leaned back, lacing his fingers behind his head before smirking triumphantly. "The language of magic," he announced, looking for all the world like a Kneazle who captured a Snidget.
She stared at him. "Magic has a language?"
He leered at her. "Remember what I said about knowledge, Hermione?" He let that sink in for a few moments before continuing. "Yes, it does. All of us know it."
She frowned at him knowing her triggers so well. But, she reasoned, she wasn't actually trying to learn the actual language, just who the speakers were. And maybe, (just perhaps), the name of it. "Us?" she asked.
"Well, the inner circle, anyway. Not all of the Death Eaters, maybe, but Severus knows it."
"Knows what?" rumbled a deep voice.
"AH!" Lucius declared with a delighted grin. "And there's our Severus! Cheerful as always first thing in the morning I see."
Severus leveled a glare so severe at Lucius that Hermione was surprised the blond man didn't recoil. A steaming cup of black coffee appeared in the air in front of the sullen man and he downed it without moving his eyes. "Knows what?" he repeated as the cup refilled itself.
"Nostratian," Lucius replied.
"Mmm," Severus grunted non-committally.
"I've never even heard of it," Hermione stated primly.
Severus sighed softly and rolled his eyes. Hermione flushed, but her embarrassment vanished as she watched Severus take his seat gingerly. She gasped when she realised the reason, and he looked at her with some concern.
Do you want me to heal that? she projected at him, her eyes intense. She hoped he'd get the point. She'd never actually tried to have a known Legilimens read her thoughts, and she wasn't sure if he needed his wand, or to cast a spell.
He scoffed softly, amusement lighting his eyes, but he shook his head nearly imperceptibly in the negative.
"What?" Lucius demanded, having not missed the little byplay.
"Nothing," Hermione said, turning to him with a completely bland expression. Severus smirked approvingly.
"What?" Lucius demanded again, staring at Snape. It was clear he wasn't going to let the private conversation remain private.
Severus snickered. "It seems Miss Gran — pardon me, force of habit — Hermione is concerned for my well-being, and has offered to heal me."
Lucius chortled.
Hermione didn't get the joke, but before she could consider this further or retort, Lucius spoke again.
"Oh! Narcissa Floo'd to say she should be home shortly."
"How is her cousin, then?" Hermione asked, taking the hint to change the subject.
"Her cousin?" Lucius asked, a bewildered expression on his face. "OH!" he laughed. "There was nothing wrong with her cousin," he said, waving his hand dismissively.
Severus tore his eyes away from the plate of eggs he was warily eyeing to glare at his host. Several seconds of tense silence passed before Severus snarled, "I do not appreciate being misled, Lucius — and that's twice in twenty-four hours!"
"I have not misled you even once in the past twenty-four hours, Severus, so don't get your knickers in a twist."
Snape slammed his fist into the table. "First you tell me you will be home alone, and now I find out that Narcissa's cousin is not ill! How can you say you have not misled me?" he demanded.
"I did not tell you I would be home alone," Lucius reminded him, "nor did I say Narcissa's cousin was sick. I told you Narcissa and Draco wouldn't be home, which they were not. Narcissa told Hermione that her cousin was sick. Hermione passed that along to you. I had nothing to do with it," he pointed out, his voice calm and reasonable.
Severus looked furious enough to boil water from looks alone, and Lucius challenged him, staring him unblinkingly in the eye. "Tell me, Severus, tell me honestly, that it wasn't worth every single second to you, and not only will I apologise with true contriteness, but I shall never do it again," he offered, holding out his hand, eyebrows raised.
Hermione wasn't quite sure how she knew this, but she knew that for Severus to expect this, he'd have to be willing to surrender the stone. And she'd bet her first-born son that he wouldn't dream of doing that.
Severus merely glowered at Lucius, who eventually dropped his hand with a look of triumph.
Hermione thought it an apt time to interject and get some questions answered. "What should I do with this?" she asked meekly, holding her own stone — which was still pulsating from energy — out for them to see.
In keeping with Lucius' wishes, she hadn't dropped the stone. She'd woken up with it clenched protectively in her palm and she hadn't even sat it down while getting ready for the morning. When she'd needed both her hands, she simply held the stone in her mouth or tucked it inside her bra, but she didn't think she could conceivably continue to do that for eternity.
Lucius beamed at her. "Anything you wish," he replied, and Hermione had to suppress a huff of annoyance. While she was quite certain that constituted a perfectly reasonable response from Lucius' perspective, she had no idea what would be appropriate for her to wish of such an object.
"If I may?" Severus intoned, and Lucius waved his hand that Severus should continue.
"That stone belongs to you," Severus lectured. "It is comprised almost entirely of your energy, and you may do whatever you want with it. However; barring any immediate need to use it, which I have yet to be made aware of, if I were you, what I would do is hold it in safekeeping. When you establish a home of your own — not a flat, not a temporary residence, but a HOME — then I would use the stone then to reinforce protective enchantments around the home. The stone will hold the charge indefinitely, although you need to be aware that should you lose it, it can be used as a weapon against you, because it contains your energy."
Hermione studied Severus' face and considered that.
"Mostly, if I were you," he emphasised, "I would use it for the defensive enchantments because it also contains some of my energy, and some of Lucius', and therefore we would not be able to use it against you, or you against us."
"So it's not a weapon, then?" she asked after careful contemplation.
"It can be used defensively against either of us, but not offensively. However," he stared at her, his black eyes seeming to drill into her very soul, "were we, for example, compelled to attack you, the charge in that stone — or in the defensive enchantments you set using the charge within it — would retaliate far more effectively than you could, which is one reason why they are frequently used for home defence. You are protected, even in your sleep."
To her side, Lucius was nodding. "Absolutely. It's quite common for a newly-wedded couple to use their wedding night to such a purpose. My parents did; Narcissa and I did, and I strongly recommend Draco to do the same thing. It is one thing that keeps the home and legacy stable for future generations."
She thought about that a moment; it made a great deal of sense. But as per usual, she had other questions. "So, what would be considered an appropriate immediate need to use it?"
Lucius and Severus exchanged a glance. "In for a Knut, in for a Galleon," was Lucius only comment.
Severus turned back to her. "Not to cast any aspersions upon your activities over the past year, but had you been knowledgeable about such a thing, it would have been exceedingly resourceful of you to cast such enchantments while on your . . . travels."
Her eyes flew open as she took in his meaning, then narrowed. "But we moved every night," she murmurred.
"It doesn't matter," Lucius replied. "The energy is there, for the taking, whenever you wish to harvest it." He stared hard at her for a moment. "And — forgive me — but I dare say, had any of you been aware of such a possibility, that your two young companions would have been . . . shall we say, up to the task?"
She blanched but she knew he was right.
He coughed. "In fact, it's entirely possible that, had you been adept at such things, that you wouldn't have come here in the first place."
She glanced at Severus, but he just shrugged non-committally. "There is little point in idle speculation at this juncture; what's done is done. But such stones," he said, nodding toward her hand, "are useful for many things. I quite likely owe my continued existence to one very like it." He looked at Lucius speculatively. "You do know about what Narcissa and I did . . . while you were in Azkaban?"
Lucius looked appalled. "Of course!" he snorted. "Merlin forbid you hadn't!"
Severus looked back at Hermione. "Well then. I'm sure you get the point."
She nodded, and nibbled at her food a bit more. "I think I should go," she said. "I have things to do with my family this week."
Both Severus and Lucius stood when she rose from the table.
Lucius grinned at her. "Come back any time; we'd love to have you."
She smiled wanly at him. She knew she shouldn't say anything, because she also knew she'd be made a fool of if she said she wouldn't return.
She walked toward the door and heard Lucius intone, "I'll trust Severus to escort you."
She shot a suspicious look at Lucius, who beamed back at her with all innocence.
But she felt more than heard Snape's glare to Lucius' next whispered remark, which was "you do know where the stones are, don't you, ol' chap?"
Somehow, Hermione wasn't quite sure she'd be leaving in the next two hours.
And she was quite right in that conclusion.
Author's notes:
Dervish and Banges is a shop in Hogsmeade. Some of the shop owners were known to have fought in the battle, and I figured of the shops we are most familiar with, the "magical equipment" shop which sells Dark Detectors is more likely to produce a fighter than Scrivenshaft's or Madam Puddifoot's. Dervishi and variants thereof are fairly common surnames in Albanian lands, and Arben is a reasonably common forename. Further, Arben Bajraktaraj is the Albanian actor who played "Azkaban Death Eater" in the Order of the Phoenix film, so I took one given name and one surname to come up with the name for an otherwise purely fictional character. (And yes, I do know how to pronounce "Bajraktaraj", and I even know what the translation is.) ;)
For the American readers (including the giftee!) "Rounders" is a baseball-like sport. For the British readers, in American baseball, players frequently "slide" into base, sometimes on their stomach, and sometimes on their bums.
The stone Lucius gives her is Crystalline Chrysocolla. According to The Encyclopedia of Crystals, Judy Hall, ISBN — 13: 978-1-59233-266-3, this stone is "Beneficial for: Personal power, creativity, self-awareness, confidence, motivation, letting go, phobias, guilt, mental tension, miasms."< and "is the most evolved form of Chrysocolla, increasing the rate at which energies are stabilized, balancing the physical with the etheric. A powerful healing stone for women. It connects with the Goddess and enhances the deep joy of being a woman."
Nostratian is a contested hypothetical protolanguage. As it would predate proto-Indo-European, it certainly predates the Statute of Secrecy. *wink* (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostratic_language)
Profuse apologies to Amsev for the appalling length and delay.
Many thanks to Hecticity for her patience, Jairissa for starting such an awesome fest, and S for the beta, (the vast majority of which she had to accomplish while I was still writing!!!)