Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Hermione returned to Grimmauld Place, glad to finally be free of the Aurors. They had questioned her, but she had nothing valuable to tell them. Even the Healers had not had much to say. The Death Eaters had stormed into the room and quickly knocked everyone out.

As she entered the drawing room, she said, "Lucius." When she noticed he wasn't there, she asked Remus, "Where is he?"

"He was with you," replied a confused Remus.

"He left early. Something happened at the hospital, and he had to leave without me."

"When was that?"

"About an hour ago." She was growing concerned.

Remus shook his head. "No one has come in since the two of you left." He saw her turn to leave and called, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to see if he went to his manor." She couldn't believe he had run; he had told her that she could trust him. Instead, he had proven to be a liar. Once again, she had fallen prey to his smooth words.

She stood outside the front gates to Malfoy's manor, waiting for him or one of the house-elves to show up.

Gupper popped in front of her. "Miss Hermione, how can Gupper be helping you?"

"Is Mr. Malfoy here?"

"No, miss. Master has not been here since Tuesday. Should Gupper be expecting Master?"

Hermione furrowed her brow trying to think of somewhere else Lucius could be that was not with the Death Eaters. She could not. "Thank you," she replied sadly and Disapparated before Gupper said anything else.

She found Remus waiting for her when she returned.

"He wasn't there?" he asked gently.

She shook her head and let him lead her to the kitchen. "No. Gupper says he hasn't seen Lucius. I can't believe he's run back to the Death Eaters."

Remus poured her some tea. "It is possible he was kidnapped. He might have been seen before, and whoever saw him might not have fallen for the prisoner act we tried to use."

Being captured was not a possibility she had considered. "If they found him..." He had already told her that if the Death Eaters found him, they weren't likely to let him live. She started crying on Remus' shoulder.

****************

Lucius looked around as soon as he arrived at his destination. As he scanned the shabby room, he felt the Disillusionment Charm being removed. He still could not see whoever had brought him here. "Who are you?" he asked, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice. Truth be told, he was nervous. He was unarmed and in an unknown location.

Severus threw off an Invisibility Cloak. "The Dark Lord has your daughter."

Somewhat relieved to see it was only Severus, Lucius replied, "You didn't need to abduct me to tell me that. I figured that out already."

"Ah, yes. You and dear Muggle-born Hermione were at the hospital together. How is that going?"

"That is not your concern. Why am I here?" He knew that he couldn't stay long. He wasn't sure how long Hermione would be at St. Mungo's, and he needed to return to Grimmauld Place before she returned.

"You don't want to meet with an old friend? I thought you would welcome some time away from your prison."

"Severus, you obviously had some reason for searching me out. Quit wasting my time and tell me what it is," Lucius replied impatiently.

"Temper, temper. Would you care for something to drink?"

"You live in this...hovel?" Lucius asked disdainfully.

Deciding Lucius was going to ignore his hospitality, he took a seat. "From time to time. It suits my needs. I was quite surprised that the Healers had let your daughter live. If they were smart, they would have killed that abomination. But of course, they are compassionate fools..."

"Get to your point," Lucius growled.

"As I said, the Dark Lord has your daughter, and he knows who she is."

Lucius could feel the blood draining from his face and took a seat on the threadbare sofa. "He knows?" he whispered.

"Yes. There was the small matter of the birth certificate. Rather careless to let them put your name on it. Needless to say, he was quite displeased," Severus replied almost casually.

Lucius tried to sound as though this information was inconsequential. "He has already taken away my family. What can he do to me now?"

"You should know better than to ask that. You are trying to start a family with Granger."

"She is already openly his enemy, and her parents are well protected."

"He will use your child against you. Oh, don't give me that look of disbelief. You know I speak the truth. He believes the two of you will be too sentimental to kill your child."

"Can she be saved?"

"That is precisely the weakness he will exploit!" Severus retorted.

"Can she be saved?" Lucius asked angrily. He was quickly losing patience with Severus.

Severus turned to his bookshelves. "I don't know. The book I gave you may have the answer, though I am surprised that you haven't already found it." Realization dawned. "You haven't cracked the code yet," Severus sneered. "I guess you aren't the powerful Dark Wizard I thought you were."

"Then you should think again. Other events have precluded me from finding the time to study the book. I notice that you don't know what's in it either."

Severus shrugged. "The Dark Lord was interested in it. I thought it might be valuable to you."

"A-ha! So you don't know exactly what is in there, either, do you?" Lucius couldn't help but feel triumphant.

Severus ignored the outburst. "When you broke the connection, it was to save Granger's life. It was assumed the child would be forfeit. Unfortunately, none of the others felt that way. I have only partially read that book, but it seems to have useful information, though I would not hold out hope for a miracle."

Lucius clenched his teeth, realizing that Severus was baiting him. "If this is all you had to tell me, I really should be going."

****************

Hermione heard the knock at the door and rushed downstairs. Throwing open the door, she pointed her wand at Lucius and demanded, "Where have you been?"

Lucius momentarily let the shock of his unwelcome greeting flash across his face before regaining his composure. "I was unavoidably detained. Darling, I don't think we should be lingering in the door. May I come in?"

She moved aside and let him enter the house. "You were supposed to come straight back here. And why are you visible?"

He noticed that Remus was coming down the stairs. Realizing this was a potentially volatile situation, he said, "I think we should discuss this down in the kitchen so as not to set off the portrait."

Lucius was glad that Hermione did not argue. Once in the kitchen, he explained, "As I said, I was unavoidably detained. The Dark Lord knows that I am the father."

"And how would you know that? Did you run back to him?" she accused.

He sighed. Obviously, she had not gotten past this point. "I most certainly did not. I have told you, I have no interest in him." He quickly recapped his visit with Severus. "I shall continue to research the book in my possession."

"Oh, really? And we are supposed to let you keep that book in your position so you can discover some horrible spell? Are you going to use it on me?" she asked sarcastically.

She had been so reasonable before. He definitely didn't care for her mood swings. "Hermione, please believe me. I am on your side. If you don't believe me, send me back to Azkaban, but that will be signing my death warrant."

"What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously.

"The Dark Lord knows that I am free, and that I am working with the Order. You have seen what he does to those that desert him. Imagine what he would do with a traitor?"

"But you would be in the prison. He can't touch you there. The only reason the others escaped was because the dementors helped them."

Lucius chuckled. "Do you honestly expect the prison walls to stop them? The only reason he left me in prison was to punish me. If it takes my death to prove my sincerity to you, so be it."

Remus decided to intervene to keep the peace. "I think we should continuing working on the book. In the mean time, I don't think it's safe for you to leave the house anymore."

"Agreed," replied Lucius. If Severus had been able to find him, the others would as well. "There is another danger. As Severus said, the Dark Lord will use our child as a weapon. We have to find a way to stop her."

"How would he use her as a weapon?" she asked.

"As you know, she will mature at a frightening rate. It won't be long before he can use her to wreak havoc. He will also make sure that everyone knows who she is. He is counting on members of the Order being sentimental and not wanting to kill a child, especially your child."

"He's right. I don't want to kill my child."

He reached out to touch her cheek since her anger seemed to have migrated back to the Dark Lord. "Neither do I, but she will have to be stopped. That may, unfortunately, involve her death. She may be very difficult to capture." Stepping closer to her, he wrapped her in a protective embrace.

"Is there anything I can do to help at school?"

Lucius had forgotten that she would be going back to school. He had hoped that they could work on the translation together. "Not at this moment. I have not yet been able to reveal any of the hidden pages. When will you be leaving?"

"Soon. I need to get back to school. We are getting closer to unlocking some of the secrets. We've found a few secret rooms, but nothing important."

Realizing that tempers had calmed, Remus slipped out of the room.

"I should come with you. The castle is large enough that my presence could easily be kept secret. This would allow us to work together to unlock the secrets in the book."

She shook her head. "That wouldn't work. Harry has a map that shows everyone in the castle." She started thinking about the Room of Requirement. Normally, it would have been a good place to hide him, but they had been searching through the detritus of the ages, looking for things that might aid them. "There is one place we might be able hide you, but not right now."

He reached to cup her cheek in his hand. "Hermione..."

She took his hand and placed a kiss on his palm. "I'll be fine. The castle is one of the safest places I can be. Remus can deliver messages so you can let me know if you find anything important."

With his fingers, he tipped her chin up so he could look into her eyes. "Be careful. Nowhere is as safe as you think it is. A way was found around the protective wards once, it could happen again. Severus has said that the Dark Lord is working toward that."

"I'm a very careful person."

"You've already been hurt once," he said softly before giving her a passionate kiss.

Molly came downstairs and interrupted their kiss. "There you are..." she trailed off as she saw what the two of them were doing.

Lucius took his time pulling away from Hermione, letting her know that they had nothing to be embarrassed about.

After calming down, Molly said, "Remus tells me you want to head back to school. Are you sure you're ready?"

"I am. I need to get back to some sort of normalcy."

"Are you sure, dear? You've been through a lot and no one would fault you if you stayed here a while."

Hermione shook her head. "That's all right. I want to get back to school and the library. There's a lot I can learn there. Things that I can use..." She bit her lip, trying to fight back the tears.

Lucius moved behind her and comforted her with his embrace. "There is the possibility that information in the library can help us find a way to save our child. I would go and assist her in the search, but I have been informed we could not keep my presence secret."

Molly frowned in disapproval. She had already told Hermione that she didn't really approve of the relationship, but there seemed to be nothing that Molly could do to forestall it. "Well, then, let's see if you are ready to go back. Come, dear."

Hermione looked back at Lucius.

"Go ahead, darling," he said in a reassuring voice.

****************

Lucius retired to his room, quite pleased with himself. He was reasonably sure that Hermione once again trusted him. Other than the fact that the Dark Lord had corrupted his child, his life was looking up. Picking up the book from the desk, he continued reading through it and taking notes, hoping to unlock the secret.

Of the hundred or so pages in the book, only about twenty of them were visible. So far, he had been unable to discern what the key was. Even if he did have an idea, he would have to go to the others and convince them to give him his wand. He was sure they would insist they be the ones to cast the spells on the book, but he knew that none of them had the necessary experience with the Dark Arts.

After an hour of making no progress, he slammed the book shut and rubbed his temples in an attempt to stave off the headache he could feel forming. He had hoped that Hermione would have come by to visit him. It was foolishly optimistic. Surely Molly was doing everything she could to convince Hermione to move on.

Deciding that he couldn't let her leave without seeing her again, he rose from the desk to go down to her room. As he opened the door, he jumped back upon seeing her hand poised to knock. "Hermione, what a pleasant surprise."

She threw herself at him and wrapped her arms around him. "Did you think I would leave without coming to see you?"

"That thought had crossed my mind. I know that Mrs. Weasley can be quite insistent."

"Well, so can I. I told her that I wouldn't leave without coming to see you."

He gazed into her warm brown eyes. "I'm glad that you did. How long do we have?"

"Not long. We don't want to wait too late for me to return to the castle." She stood up on tiptoes and kissed him.

"Are you sure you're ready?" he asked when he broke the kiss.

"I'll be fine. I need to get back to work, and I can't do that here. I'll find the answer."

He brushed her hair. "Defeating the Dark Lord must remain our primary task. Don't forget your work to find the Horcrux. I will continue to work on decoding the book and will communicate with you through Remus. He has agreed to post letters to you for me. I only wish I could join you at Hogwarts."

"And how much work would we get done if that happened?" she asked playfully. "I really have to go."

He kissed her again. "If you insist."

"I do. Lucius, please."

"Very well," he replied and released her. "Do be careful. I would hate for anything to happen to you."

"I could say the same for you. After all, Voldemort's bound to be looking for you now." She glanced over her shoulder before disappearing downstairs.

****************

Lucius immersed himself in studying the book. After nearly a week, he had only revealed four pages. None of them seemed to have anything enlightening. Most of the spells discussed were ones that he already knew.

He heard a sound and jumped awake, realizing he had fallen asleep at his desk again. Since it was now dark, he waved his hand to light his lamp. When the lamp didn't light, he began to panic. Realizing there was nothing he could do in his room, he decided to investigate the noise as the portrait in the front hall was now screaming.

Cautiously, he moved downstairs, knowing surprise was the only advantage he had. He was relieved to see Tonks righting the umbrella stand. After helping her close the curtains, they moved upstairs. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I was coming to see Remus. I didn't mean to wake the whole house," she replied apologetically.

Since he realized it wasn't Death Eaters after him, he saw this as an opportunity to explore his difficulty with magic. "Let me see your wand," he said abruptly.

"Why?" she asked suspiciously.

"When I heard you come in, I tried to light the lamp in my room but found I couldn't. I want to use your wand to determine the extent of my...affliction."

Tonks debated a few seconds before handing over her wand.

Lucius tried summoning books and even the basic Lumos spell to no avail.

Remus poked his head in the room, looking as though he was mostly asleep. "What's going on here?"

"Remus, I need my wand," Lucius demanded with a hint of desperation.

"What?" asked Remus groggily.

"My wand. I need to check something. I seem to have lost my ability to use magic."

The last statement seemed to break through Remus' sleepy haze. "Lost your magic?"

Lucius was trying hard not to lose patience. "Yes. And I need my wand to see if this is true. I tried Tonks' wand and was unable to perform even the simplest spell."

"Right. I'll be right back," Remus replied.

"What does that mean? If you've lost your magic, I mean," Tonks asked.

Lucius had been trying to form theories on what it might mean, what might have caused it, and so far, had come up with nothing. "I'm not sure." He paced anxiously, awaiting Remus' return.

"Here you go," Remus said, offering the wand to Lucius.

Lucius wanted to snatch the wand out of the other man's hand but forced himself to calmly take it. Pointing it away from the others, he tried a series of small spells, all ending in failure. He took several deep breaths to ward off the panic attack he could feel threatening to overtake him.

Remus was now wide-awake. "We need to rationalize this."

"Rationalize? How you can you rationalize something like this?" Rational was not a word to describe his emotional state.

"If we don't know the cause, we can't find the cure, can we?" Remus asked.

Lucius realized he had a point. His mind was racing, trying to latch on to any possible cause.

"Snape didn't do this, did he?" Remus asked.

"Other than removing the Disillusionment Charm, I don't recall him casting any magic, and I did not eat or drink anything. Besides, I was able to Apparate back here." He started pacing, hoping it would help him think. The first thing he tried to do was pinpoint when this might have started. As he did not routinely use magic, this was proving quite difficult. Three days ago, he had managed to reveal the few pages of the book, but that had been a spoken incantation. Like most books of this variety, a wand did not seem to be required to reveal the hidden pages.

Since he trusted Severus, he ruled out Severus as having anything to do with it. He briefly considered that the book might have been responsible for it, but he realized that Severus had read part of the book and did not seem to be affected. As he continued pacing, he tried to remember what had changed in the last few days. "Hermione!"

"What's that?" asked Remus, who had been in conversation with Tonks.

"Hermione. Can one of you get in touch with her and find out if she is affected? The only thing that has changed is that she went back to Hogwarts."

"You think the two are connected?" Tonks asked skeptically.

He shrugged. "I don't know, but it's all I have to go on right now."

"I'll go check with her in the morning," Tonks offered.

Lucius really wanted the answer now, but he knew that he wasn't in a position to make demands.

A/N: Thanks again to Mimy for providing a sanity check and helping through any little stumbling blocks in the plot department. I hope that you continue to enjoy this story as it continues it's dark twists and turns. The plot went places I had not imagined when I first outlined this story.