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"Hermione?" Lucius voice whispered in her ear. The morning sunlight streamed in through her window right into her eyes, helping him to wake her. She stretched and rolled over, discovering he was lying on the bed next to her. "Good morning," he said with a smile.
"Did you sleep well?" Hermione inquired, trying not to snicker.
"Not a wink," he informed her with a mild expression on his handsome face. It was too comical to Hermione, who had figured out by now that the more serious he pretended to be, the more likely it was that he was masking a deeper emotion. She held a hand over her mouth to stifle the chuckle that almost escaped her lips.
"I slept like a baby," she told him, stretching again, only this time with the sole purpose of looking more enticing. It seemed to work, since he groaned low in his throat and pressed her back into the mattress as he kissed her soundly.
"You think I can't be good for ten whole days, wench?" he inquired against her lips.
"Have you ever tried?" Hermione inquired sweetly.
"Never," he grinned. "Not with you as my focal point. I'm lucky to have made it this far."
"Because of the anticipation?" she cooed.
"Here's something for you to dream about," he answered, and his tongue delved into her mouth as one of his hands slid down to her thigh and slid the hem of her nightgown up her leg until it was no longer covering her underwear. Then he rubbed the apex between her legs right through the satiny fabric that covered her most secret place. No one but her had ever touched it before this, not even Ron. Her reaction was immediate and quite intense as she gripped the blankets underneath her and gave off some kind of a sound somewhere between a gasp and a groan.
When Lucius had gotten her good and wet, he gave her a wicked grin and said, "Time to get dressed, my dear. You're getting fitted for your gown in about an hour, and I must be off to work soon."
"Bastard," she groaned as he let go of her. He chuckled evilly as he pulled her to her feet.
"Meet me for breakfast as soon as you're ready," he said. "You've got a busy morning ahead of you." With that, he kissed the top of her head and left the room.
Hermione stood in nothing but her bra and panties while the seamstress used magic to make the tape measure wrap around the parts she needed the numbers on, while a quill and parchment floated nearby to write down the results. Meanwhile, the seamstress herself was pouring over a huge tome filled with wedding gown designs--both Wizarding World and Muggle.
Hermione kept craning her neck, trying to see the beautiful dresses and offer input about them, but the tape measure kept pulling her back into the position it wanted her in. She was never so happy as when the thing finally released her and she was able to surge forward to join the woman at the little table and chair set up the woman had conjured upon her arrival.
"Definitely not that one," she commented as she looked at the most hideous dress ever. It was a Wizarding world dress, and looked as though it had been made from black spider webs. Only the important bits had any real covering, while the rest of the thing looked more like fishnet than fabric.
"Certainly not, Mistress," the woman replied. "You are about to become a woman of some importance. You need something that will say to all the world that you are worthy of your new position. Here is the dress I see for you."
Made in the princess style, with puffed sleeves and a sweetheart neckline, this dress clung to all the right places and the sumptuous skirt trailed behind a good yard or so. Hermione thought it was a bit too long for someone as short as she was, but other than that it was absolutely gorgeous. She could already see herself in it, the snowy white gown in stark contrast to the Slytherin green she was certain her groom was likely to wear.
"Where is this wedding going to take place, Liza?" she asked the seamstress. "I don't want to drag a train through the muck or anything."
"It is to take place in the Grand Hall of the Ministry itself," said the woman, expecting Hermione to be suitably impressed by this news. She wasn't quite prepared for the girl to turn as green as the curtains of the drawing room the two currently occupied.
"It's going to be where?" she gasped, falling down into the chair behind her dizzily. "How many people will be there?"
"Just a thousand," she said. "There's no room for more, or I'm quite certain they would attend. You know that the Malfoys are a very important family in our society, and you are to be the mother of the next heir. People will want to get a look at you."
"Why should they want to do that?" she asked curiously. "I know that Lucius works for the Ministry, but why should that make him so very important?"
"It's all got to do with lineage, my dear," Liza explained. "Lucius is in direct line to become an Earl if his cousin's line were to end. His great, great, great grandfather is the second son of the Earl of Gilmorand, a prominent Wizarding family. He was the first Malfoy, and each Malfoy down the line has only ever had one son-including Lucius, so far. Some people believe the line is cursed, but I don't hold to such rubbish, myself."
"Why would anybody want to curse the Malfoy line?" Hermione scoffed.
"To prevent any second sons, I would imagine," Liza said. "You see, the first Malfoy has traditionally been heir to the Earldom, while any other sons would be able to wrest the title away from the Viscount of Chalconry, as the line was secured through a Gilmorand daughter at one time, but a second male would take precedence."
"Now I remember why I always hated heraldry," said Hermione as she began to rub her temples.
Liza chuckled at this. "You know, you are most definitely nothing like Narcissa, Mistress," she told Hermione as she shook her head.
"What do you mean?"
"She couldn't have cared less about Lucius's line one way or the other. She was too busy with--well, with other thoughts, shall we say," she answered.
"Yes, so Lucius has told me," Hermione answered softly, holding her hand up as if to ward off the topic. "Something like that would be enough to make any man a bit cranky."
"Cranky?" Liza scoffed. "You call Lucius cranky? He's a bleedin' grouch, that's all there is to it."
"No, not really," Hermione said. "I think I might be able to cheer him up a bit."
Liza looked her over with a critical eye, and said, "Hmph. You might, at that."
"I didn't mean just by giving him sex," Hermione said with a blush. "What he needs is someone he can talk to. Someone who will stimulate his mind as well as his body. I think he's really been kind of lonely with Draco off at school and Narcissa so distant. I hate to say it, but I feel bad about the way he has been living these last few years. His wife was so inattentive, he went off and became a Death Eater just for something to do."
"Ha!" the woman scoffed. "Now that's rich."
"Yeah, I know," Hermione chuckled. "But wouldn't it be crazy if I was right?"
"You are not right," said Lucius from the door.
"Oh!" Hermione blushed, as she was still wearing only her undergarments. "I was just kidding, you know."
"I was a Death Eater because my father was a Death Eater," Lucius told her. "It was expected of me, and I have always been a man of duty. I hope you haven't been filling Hermione's head with nonsense, Liza. I've only just gotten her to the point of not hating me, and I don't want to have to start all over again."
Hermione laughed when she saw that he, too, was joking. He leaned down to kiss her and cover her with his cape at the same time.
"You need to put on your clothes, my dear, we'll be having company soon," he told her. "The new Minister and his wife will be here for
dinner."
"What!" Hermione gasped. "You should have let me know, I would have taken a bath and got ready well before this!"
"Calm down, Hermione," he said as his hand cupped her face. "This is just a casual dinner, nothing to get all worried about. He wants to see for himself that we are happy about the upcoming nuptials. We are happy, are we not?"
Hermione blushed hotly and shook her head, and Lucius kissed the tip of her nose.
"Go get dressed, before you tempt me to come and help you."
That was all she needed to hear. She quickly turned on her heel and Apparated back to her room. It took her a moment to realize he must have removed the anti-apparation spell he'd been keeping her here with originally--and she didn't even know when he'd done it.
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