Chapter 34

It would take Lucius quite some time (years, even, though he would never admit to being so slow on the uptake) to realise the importance of the feeling he'd had moments before the knock on his door changed his life forever.

In the furor that followed, he'd never really contemplated the sensation that had rolled over him, making him feel safe and secure and whole.

He felt loved. And he felt like he was home.

Which, of course, made absolutely no sense whatsoever because he was currently holed up in the saddest of sad motel rooms, pondering whether he trusted his faulty magic enough to just take a Portkey and be done with it...and if he ended up in the ocean, well, at least it wouldn't be Canada anymore.

Suddenly it seemed stupid to have ever thought that he'd be anything but perfectly all right.

And when the knock sounded and his stomach tightened because it just couldn't be, Lucius' sensation of completion was put aside in favour of telling Kent that, no, he did not want to try a poutine and would he please stop asking, thanks ever so.

He swung the door open, and he was struck by how utterly uncliché it was to note that time had stopped.

Then Lucius' arms were full of Hermione Granger, and his eyes were full of his son, and he realised there would be no more running.

"You complete and utter arsehole!" Hermione cried, swatting at him angrily. Though how she could see him through her watery eyes, he'd never know.

"Hermione," he said in wonder. "Draco." He easily took her abuse because it didn't really seem couth not to.

Hermione stepped back a moment to make room for Draco, and Lucius was struck.

Literally.

"And you deserve worse," Draco snapped before yanking Lucius into his arms. Lucius allowed the mistreatment, though his cheek stung from his son's admonishment. How things had changed.

Lucius didn't even try to protest the charge, and he was even less likely to reproach his son when he noticed how the boy was shaking in his arms. A cool hand touched his flaming cheek, and Lucius realised beyond the basics what was happening.

"How did you find me?" he asked, his voice steady only from decades of practise.

"Hermione has a handy little homing device," Draco said with the same trained nonchalance with which Lucius had spoken.

"I could feel you," she whispered, folding herself into their hug. "How far you were, when you were nearer. I knew. And you'll never run away again, will you, Lucius? Not only because I can find you, but because it was a damned cowardly thing to do, and you've proven that you're a lot of things, but never that. You can leave the triad, if you want to. If you have to. I won't like it, but it's up to you. But you can't run away without explaining yourself. You... you can't do that again. All right?"

Draco hushed Hermione softly, pushing her hair back from her face and kissing her forehead. She was shaking her head, but she appeared calmer.

"I thought I was..." Lucius wanted to explain, but suddenly he couldn't understand his reasons, and he knew if he didn't understand, there was no way they could. "I thought it was the right thing," he finished lamely.

"Light the fire, will you, Father?" Draco asked, gesturing toward the well-used fireplace in the corner of the room and rubbing Hermione's arms briskly.

Lucius reluctantly left their embrace to stoke the dying embers, but Draco drew him back.

"We're together now," he reminded Lucius. "Use magic."

But when Lucius drew his wand, Draco stopped him again. "Wandlessly. Prove that you want this."

Hermione was watching him steadily, hope fighting with resignation in her eyes, and Lucius hated to see her look so sad.

But he was afraid.

Wandless magic had never really worked for him before. It came and went, but it was much more difficult and less effective than when he used his wand. It was part of the reason he'd been able to convince himself to leave. Draco's and Hermione's wandless magic worked perfectly with almost no effort...he obviously wasn't on the same level as they were.

But Draco was acting as though he just had to want the triad, to give himself over, fully. Had he ever done that? He'd accepted, even fought for and pursued, what they had together, but had he ever really abandoned himself to it?

Finding strength in Draco's familiar grey eyes, Lucius took a deep breath and held his hand out toward the hearth. He closed his eyes and thought of how much he loved Hermione and Draco. How much he wanted them, all together. And he whispered, "Incendio."

And the heat was instantaneous.

The fire roared, and Lucius instinctively pushed Hermione and Draco back, though the flames quickly subsided, flickering softly in the confines of the fireplace.

Draco had a smug smile on his face, but Hermione still looked uncertain. Recalling her rather rambling speech, Lucius drew her closer to him.

"You're right, of course." He dropped his head, blinking. He hadn't expected this to be quite so hard...not that he'd really expected it at all. "I ran because I was scared. I thought you couldn't possibly love me as you do Draco. And I thought Draco deserved a chance to be the only man in his marriage."

All at once, the truth crashed on Lucius even harder than the previous epiphany about wanting them.

They wanted him.

"But you do," Lucius continued, dazed. "You love me." He looked at Hermione in awe before turning to his son. "And you want me in your marriage."

Hermione laughed wetly and slapped Lucius on the arm. "I do love you, you silly, infuriating, beautiful man." And while Lucius absorbed that, Hermione said to Draco, "And I love you, you pesky, spoilt, perfect man."

Draco grinned widely and winked at his father before kissing Hermione's nose. "And for some reason, I love you, you swotty..."

Lucius picked up the thread. "...Lovely..."

"...Irritating..."

"...Brilliant..."

"...Know-it-all..."

"...Stunning..."

"Draco!" Hermione interjected after watching the volleying back and forth. "I think you should add something nice. Your father is saying all the good things, and it sounds like you might not like me very much!" Though Hermione's eyes were red-rimmed and she seemed very tired, a playful smile curved her lips.

"You know how I feel," Draco whispered, suddenly serious. His tone spoke of a hundred nights of whispered promises under the sheets or under the stars. And Lucius didn't feel jealous because he knew it was his, too.

It was all his, too.

"So," Draco said, breaking Lucius' thoughts with his light tone. "Canada, Father?"

Still in disbelief that he was apparently forgiven, Lucius laughed. "Not my first choice, but I've come to... appreciate their quaint way of life."

"Actually," Hermione said, eyes bright with the desire to share knowledge, "Canada has one of the most ideologically advanced wizarding communities in the world. Homosexual witches and wizards have been able to get married here for centuries."

"Good for them," Lucius said. "I, for one, cannot wait to get out of here. And now that we know we can..." He trailed off when he saw Draco staring at Hermione.

"Who else can get married here, Hermione?" he asked quietly, eyes intent.

Hermione looked thoughtful. "Just about anyone. Magical creatures, as long as they are of human intelligence...werewolves and centaurs and even goblins, if I remember correctly."

Draco was about to say something else, but Lucius caught his eye. He knew what his son was getting at, and he already knew the answer. Kent had said that polyamoury was fairly popular in this community, and that marriage between three people was perfectly legal and recognised. The recognition wouldn't follow them back to Britain, of course, but it was a great deal better than nothing.

Over Hermione's head, Lucius mouthed later at his son, and Draco nodded once.

If there was to be a wedding, Lucius wanted to propose properly, not in some slum with pathetically low-count cotton sheets and plastic flowers in cheap vases on the bedside tables.

Not to mention the fact that he was going to be proposing alongside someone, and that would take special planning.

Finally warmed by the fire, Hermione and Draco became less animated as the evening wore on, and finally, Lucius had to send the pathetic pair to bed.

They curled around each other under the blankets, falling asleep in a matter of minutes, but not before telling Lucius they loved him and waiting expectantly for his words in return. And he said them. And he meant them.

And everything was right and easy as he watched them sleep for over an hour, knowing they were safe and happy and full of forgiveness that he didn't deserve but would greedily accept.

When he finally joined them, two pairs of tired arms wrapped him in a tangled embrace, and finally he understood that this was where he belonged.

Draco watched lazily...contentedly...as Hermione snogged his father.

He was more than willing to give the two the time together they obviously needed after such a confusing and utterly useless separation. Hermione had been at risk of losing more, in Draco's eyes.

Lucius would always be his father, whether he ran away to Canada or just away from their bed. But Hermione had almost lost her lover, and that, he knew, had been very frightening.

That wasn't to say that Draco hadn't been both terrified and furious. He'd kept himself going on just the adrenalin of what he planned on doing to his father, and the fear that he'd never be able to find him.

Annoyingly enough, once Draco had found him, his anger had pretty much disappeared, with just enough left over for a very well-deserved punch.

Hermione moaned softly as Lucius devoured her lips, obviously starving. Draco may not ever understand what had driven Lucius away...he suspected even Lucius did not entirely understand...but he was willing to forget the entire thing if it meant getting his father and Hermione back to Wiltshire where they belonged...with him.

But if he'd interpreted his father's intentions correctly, they might be in Canada longer than either of them had anticipated.

As Draco watched Hermione roll her hips up against Lucius' form, he thought about what being married meant to him. Pure-bloods very rarely divorced, so his parents' own split had come as a shock. To Draco, marriage was an institution, but that didn't mean it took a certain type of person to join. In his opinion, which he liked to think was rather enlightened, marriage should be available to anyone who could do it justice.

Of course, before Hermione, his ideas hadn't been quite so... evolved. But no matter. As far as he was concerned, they were all already married. 'I love you's had been exchanged all around, they lived together, they planned on having children... the only difference would be a certificate that wouldn't even be truly valid in his home country.

But it mattered to him.

And he wanted it. He surprised himself, actually, with the intensity with which he wanted to be married to Hermione, and to his father, in a way. It didn't mean that he and his father were married to each other, really, just that they were all together.

Draco shook his head. Those details didn't really matter.

"Are you just going to watch all day, or do you plan on contributing?" Hermione asked with impressive alacrity as Lucius sucked her nipple into his mouth.

"You plan on going at this all day?" Draco asked, smiling.

Hermione turned her head to look at him, and there was such a grateful peace in her eyes that Draco was almost stunned by it...almost. He knew, however, that a similar expression was mirrored on his own face.

Lucius made a sudden move that Draco made a mental note to try later, and suddenly Hermione was straddling his father in the centre of the bed.

"In a hotel room?" Draco teased his father. "How tawdry. "

Lucius tsked. "There can be nothing tawdry about making love to the most important woman in your life."

Hermione laughed. "And that's how you sweet talk a girl. Draco, I hope you're making notes."

Draco leaned over and bit Hermione's thigh. "And I hope you're not suggesting I need them," he said haughtily.

"Of course not," Hermione whispered soothingly, threading her fingers through Draco's hair. He leaned into the touch like a cat, enjoying the attention.

"But they wouldn't go amiss," Lucius added smartly, patting Draco's head patronizingly.

Draco snapped his teeth at his father's hand, and Hermione laughed. "My boys," she whispered, smiling and leaning back down to kiss Lucius.

Shimmying out of his pants, Draco hoped he wasn't being too forward. But he'd gotten used to a certain level of intimacy, and things had been quite strained even before Lucius had left. Now he wanted to reassert that they were together, and he could think of no better way...though somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought he heard Hermione's chiding voice saying he was confusing sex with intimacy, but his cock was hard from the noises Hermione had been making, and he didn't much care.

They'd sort the actual intimacy out later, he was sure.

"I think my son has the right idea," Lucius said lowly, and Hermione glanced over, grinning wickedly when she saw Draco, naked and hard for her.

She moved off Lucius to divest him of his pants, and quickly doffed the borrowed tee shirt she'd been wearing. She looked between the two of them, seeming at a loss, but Draco was quick to direct.

"Straddle him again, but facing his feet," Draco said, kneeling on either side of his father's legs and helping Hermione into position over Lucius' groin. "Don't seat yourself yet," he said softly, kissing her for the first time that morning.

"Father, prepare her." Draco slid his hands over the smooth and flushed skin of Hermione's back and gently parted her arsecheeks, distracting her with a hard, demanding kiss.

He knew the moment his father's fingers entered her back hole because she squeaked against Draco's mouth and almost tried to move away. But Draco held her firmly, whispering, "It's going to feel so good to be inside you. To feel you so tight around me, around us. And you'll feel so full, so perfectly and completely whole..."

Hermione moaned, and soon she was moving back into Lucius' fingers. Draco met his father's eyes and Lucius nodded.

Draco helped Hermione raise herself up enough that Lucius could position himself, and he smiled at the twin moans that escaped him when she...infinitely slowly...lowered herself onto his father's cock.

"Okay?" he asked, pushing her hair away from her face and lightly biting her collarbone. He could hear Lucius breathing deeply, and Hermione was obviously trying to match his inhalations.

"Okay," she said, smiling.

"Father, put your hands on her back to brace her. I'm going to lower her against your chest."

"I always knew you'd be a ruthless dictator," Lucius said, but any witty repartee was cut off when Draco slowly pushed Hermione back and she inevitably tightened around Lucius' cock.

Draco watched a moment as Lucius ran his hands over Hermione's body, cupping her breasts and pulling her hair back so he could kiss her.

Moving closer, Draco guided Hermione's legs around his waist, feeling completely desperate to sink into her tight heat. It had been much too long.

When he finally entered her, all three seemed to fall apart at the same time. Unlike last time when a rhythm was establish between them, Draco was completely in control. His father couldn't really move much in his position, nor could Hermione, especially with Lucius' arms around her.

Draco began to thrust, his hands clenching on Hermione's hips as he pounded into her. Her head lolled back and forth on Lucius' chest, her mouth parted and cheeks highly flushed.

Sparing a glance for his father before losing himself in the dance, Draco noted Lucius was very valiantly trying to maintain control of himself. But then Lucius grabbed both of Hermione's hands and pulled them over both their heads, stretching her body and making her back arch deliciously. His other hand slid between her folds, and she trembled as he manipulated her.

His climax took him by surprise...he'd been watching intently the look on Hermione's face or the pace of his father's hand, and while he'd kept moving, he hadn't thought to try to stave off his orgasm.

"Fuck!" he cried, sorry it was over already, but unable to regret the beautiful pulsing of his entire body.

He slowly slipped out of Hermione and rather ungracefully flopped onto his back, trying to catch his breath.

With another stealthy move, Lucius sat up, still inside Hermione, and manoeuvred her onto her fours while he knelt behind her, pounding into her, apparently grateful now that he could fully move.

Hermione cried out in pleasure, completely malleable to Lucius' movements. Draco, almost lazily, moved his hand beneath her to finger her clit, watching her face for signs of discomfort...Lucius was not being gentle. But Hermione seemed to love it, and only a moment later, she stiffened all over and moaned, dropping her upper body onto the mattress. Draco removed his hand, tasting her absently as his father finished inside her.

After he came, Lucius pulled out gently and shifted them so Hermione lay between them on the hotel room bed.

Draco thought that he'd never be able to sleep in another hotel knowing what depraved people like himself did in the beds. On the covers, no less.

"I hope you don't consider that a reward for bad behaviour," Hermione said softly, shifting to face Lucius.

"Hermione..." Lucius' voice was soft and as apologetic as Draco had ever heard it. "Can you forgive an old man for his doubts and insecurities?"

"I can forgive you anything but running away," she whispered pleadingly.

Draco simply watched and listened as the two worked out the troubling differences that faced them. Lucius did seem repentant, and Draco very much doubted his father would ever choose such a route again, but it was difficult to forget when the pain of being abandoned was still so fresh.

He'd felt completely helpless without his magic, of course. That had been a staggering shock, and the defencelessness and vulnerability still made his teeth clench.

But more than that was the fear that Lucius had truly left forever. Draco was the first to admit that his feelings for his father were confused and unconventional, but there was nothing uncertain about the fact that Draco loved and needed him. And for Lucius to just leave all that behind, after all they'd suffered and shared together... he didn't know if he'd ever forget that pain.

He could forgive, though. Lucius was human, he'd proven so many times over the years with the grave mistakes he'd made. And he would...they all would...continue to fumble, confused, scared, uncertain, throughout their lives. That was just human nature. Nobody was perfect.

But Lucius had to promise they would be imperfect together from now on.

"Father," he whispered, his voice stained and cracking a little. He squeezed his eyes shut, surprised at the quick flood of emotion that assaulted him. Weight on the bed shifted quickly, and he laughed weakly when he felt Hermione press against his back, her slender frame embracing him as best she could.

Lucius gathered Draco into his arms, and Draco thought it should be strange with only a sheet separating them, but he was just so relieved to have his father back. He wrapped his arms around Lucius' neck and burrowed his face into his chest, checking his tears. Malfoys, after all, didn't cry. Hugging was okay, though, he was pretty sure.

"Shh, Draco, son, it's all right," Lucius said, his voice barely more than a vibration by Draco's ear.

Draco calmed quickly under the dual ministrations of Hermione and his father, and he wasn't surprised when his anger briefly resurfaced. "You left," he belatedly accused, suddenly feeling as though the right hook he'd sent his father's way hadn't been quite enough.

"I did," Lucius said simply. He pushed Draco's hair from his eyes and pinned it behind his ear. Draco shivered when his father pressed a kiss against his forehead. "I did because I was scared and foolish, and because I was wrong. But I promise you, Draco..." Lucius paused to take a deep breath, tilting Draco's chin up to face Lucius. Draco opened his eyes, brow furrowed as Lucius continued to speak fiercely. "I promise you I will never leave you again. Never."

"And if you get scared?" Draco prompted, his jaw clenching with the effort to regain control of his emotions.

"You'll be the first to know of it."

"Oi!" Hermione cried, making Draco laugh. He turned to give her a kiss, her wide smile making his heart skip a beat. Or two.

Draco hauled her into the middle of the bed, and she immediately curled around Lucius, taking Draco's hand and pulling his against her back. Sighing softly, Draco kissed her shoulder.

Everything would be all right... even if they were in Canada.

As intently as Draco had watched Lucius and Hermione explore one another earlier, Lucius watched his two lovers sleep.

His need to protect them was almost overwhelming, making him wonder...again...how he could have been frightened enough to hurt them. It shouldn't have been possible or permitted. Some greater power should have stepped in to cure the pain he'd cause them and himself.

But then, he thought, maybe it had. Hermione had found him in the barren wasteland of Northern Canada, with nothing more than a tickle inside her mind. That, surely, constituted a miracle.

Lucius patiently extracted one of Hermione's wild curls from Draco's open mouth. With his airway cleared, Draco snuffled and dragged Hermione against him. She struggled sleepily but easily gave into the merciless embrace.

Not long ago he would have been jealous by their unconscious companionship. He'd said all along that jealousy wasn't possible within a triad, but it wasn't that Lucius was jealous of Draco. He knew he could have Hermione whenever he needed her, and that she loved him as much as she did Draco.

But it hadn't been a question of what his heart wanted. His head had easily...too easily...convinced him that the right thing was to give them their time together. To let them be a real couple. And spurred on by the belief that they...like Michael and Thello...would not suffer from the magical backlash, Lucius had very nearly lost it all.

And yet, here it all was again, in his arms, in his bed, in his reach.

Lucius vowed to never try to be selfless again.

"You met Kent?" Lucius said in surprise as he closed the hotel door behind him. Hermione was still resting, and that was all to the good as Lucius wanted to talk to his son about what the burly Canadian had said.

"He seemed to have your number," Draco said teasingly.

The brisk morning air carved a path in his lungs, and Lucius sneered at the blinding white that surrounded them. The roads were covered in snow, gleaming and wet, and despite being ten o'clock, the town seemed deserted. A little snow was apparently enough to through the place into shutdown mode, which was fine with Lucius. The solitude would do them all good.

"So, you want to marry her, then?" Draco asked at length, the time crawling by with shivers just at the sight of the snow. The heating charm Lucius cast wandlessly did well to warm them, but that didn't help the fact that it simply looked as though it was cold enough to leave his balls behind.

"I do," Lucius said simply. His met the eyes...so like his own, but so different...of his son. "I know I needn't ask you, but I will. You wish to marry her as well?"

"Of course," Draco answered easily, shrugging with the relaxed certainty of youth. "I'd be mad not to want to."

"And you believe she'll be... amenable to our proposal?"

"Do I think she'll say yes?" Draco's eyes were gently teasing. "Of course."

"What am I saying yes to?" Hermione asked from behind them.

Lucius started unbecomingly. He hadn't heard the door open, so intent had he been on Draco's response.

"We were just saying how much you'd appreciate breakfast in bed," Draco covered smoothly, but Hermione's eyes were bright and laughing.

"I suppose now is the time to tell you I heard the whole thing," Hermione admitted, grinning.

Draco groaned and Lucius held his breath.

"You ruin everything," Draco chided, pulling her yielding form into his arms and kissing her soundly.

"Was it supposed to be a surprise?" she asked breathlessly once the kiss broke.

"I wanted to ask you properly," Lucius said softly, tracing her cheek with his knuckles. No woman should be so lovely, but since Hermione already was, it was very lucky that she had two men to love of her instead of one. One man would never be enough for his Hermione.

"You still can," she said cheekily, turning in Draco's arms to face him.

"I don't have a ring." He eyed the snow-covered ground with distaste. "And these are my only decent trousers...kneeling in them would not be prudent."

Hermione laughed. "Well, that was very romantic, Lucius. And the answer's yes, if you were wondering."

"Are you serious?" Draco demanded, his voice louder than necessary. He spun Hermione to face him, gripping her upper arms and almost shaking her.

She was laughing, trying to catch her breath as she nodded vigorously. "Of course I am. I love you both. It makes sense. I want to. It's perfect. And we're in Canada... we might as well make use of it. It won't be legal in Britain, though," she added regretfully.

"You will be legally married to one of us," Lucius said quietly. This was something he'd given a lot of thought to, and he'd come to a very natural conclusion while they'd been sleeping. "The first man to sign the document will be your lawful husband in the eyes of the wizarding world."

"But I could never..." Hermione began, but she seemed to see something in Lucius' eyes. "Oh, Lucius, you don't have to do that. I'd rather not marry either of you than make you choose that."

But Lucius was smiling softly. He took Hermione into his arms. Draco watched with wide eyes. "I love you, Hermione Granger. In my heart, I am already your husband. Whether that transfers to paper or not doesn't matter to me. Not anymore. And it's the more practical choice. Draco's child is the next heir, and the heir has to be born in wedlock to be recognised." He raised his hand against Hermione's immediate protestations on the customs of pure-bloods. "That is just the way it is. He will be your husband legally, but we will both be married to you. No one can change that, not ever."

"Father," Draco said quietly, his eyes full of gratitude and concern. "Thank you."

Lucius touched Draco's cheek softly. "It's the right thing to do. And I know that to be true because there's nothing inside me screaming to the contrary." Like last time, he added mentally. No, this was the answer, he was sure. And it wasn't a sacrifice, not really; it was just pragmatic.

"But we'll get married here?" Hermione asked, her excitement palpable. "We don't have to wait any longer, we can do it right away?"

"I'd rather not stay here any longer than absolutely necessary," Lucius deadpanned.

"But don't you want to invite your friends?" Draco asked softly.

Hermione bit her lip. "We'll throw a party when we get back," she said decisively. "A huge one, and all my friends will come, and all yours, and it will be horribly awkward and uncomfortable and just perfect. But the wedding... let that be ours. Just ours."

"Just ours," Draco repeated. "I like the sound of that."

"Ours," Lucius confirmed. He opened the door to the hotel room and gestured for Draco and Hermione to get back inside. The snow was depressing him, and he wanted to enjoy being affianced for the short duration it would last.