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Catch and Release	By : AndreaLorraine Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Lucius/Hermione Views: 19606 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his universe aren't mine and I'm not making any profit from the writing of this fanfic.

Chapter List
- 10
- 11
- 12
�� The
official trial began a few weeks later.� In
a mere five hours, Draco managed to shame, argue, and
outmaneuver the Wizengamot to the point that their
only option was to give him exactly what he wanted.� It seemed that Draco
was born to be a lawyer.� He had somehow
convinced them that Lucius�s two years spent in the Muggle world counted as punishment.� It said a lot about the hypocrisy of the Wizengamot; they wanted to lock him up and throw away they
key because of the anti-Muggle beliefs he once held,
yet they accepted that living among Muggles was on
par with prison.

�� Not wanting
them to believe it was about old prejudices, Lucius
had told him about the magical deprivation.�
Draco readily jumped upon it.� It wasn�t torture to be with Muggles; it was torture to be without magic - worse torture than that
afforded by the isolation and boredom of Azkaban.

�� Draco had tried to make that count for the remainder of Lucius�s sentence, but the Wizengamot
couldn�t be pushed quite that far. �They
accepted his two years as a fugitive.�
That left two more years for him to serve.� The Wizengamot
wanted to confine him to stasis to be certain that there was absolutely no
chance of escape.� Draco
railed against it, stirring enough human-rights frenzy that the court quailed
before his threats to organize protests, petition the Ministry, and speak to
the papers of the corruption on the bench.

�� Stasis was
abandoned.� So, too, was Azkaban under
the force of Draco�s skillful blend of concentrated
guilt and iron logic.� In the end, Lucius was sentenced to two years of house arrest at Malfoy Manor.� He was
confined to one set of rooms.� He could
not leave those rooms at any time unless he was in imminent danger.� He was barred from any correspondence, face
to face or written, from anyone save those designated by the court.� He would have no house elves or wand.� However, he would be allowed to perform basic
wandless spells and charms deemed harmless to keep
him from suffering from magical deprivation again.� That was a boon, and felt like a bit of
common sense, because he could hardly damage someone with a teeth-cleaning
charm.

�� He was in a
bit of a daze when the gavel fell.� After
many ups and downs, he had more or less gotten what he wanted.� He was going to go home with his family.� However, the no correspondence rule meant he
would have to go two years without any contact with Hermione at all, and that
worried him.� What if she met someone
else in that time?� He had no right to
demand that she wait.

�� Lucius was led out by the bailiff.� They would take his prison clothing, return
to him the outfit he had been captured in, and then he would be released to Draco�s custody.� He
was walking dutifully along the long, dark corridor when a whisper sounded up
ahead.

�� Confundus!�

�� The bailiff
stopped in his tracks, his eyes glazing over.�
Lucius looked around, his heart leaping into
his throat as his body tensed for attack.�

�� None
came.� Instead, a Disillusionment charm
was lifted, and before him stood Hermione.�
She was radiant, every bit the beautiful woman whose memory kept him
warm in his holding cell.

�� She didn�t
allow him any time for words.� Hermione
stepped forward, lifted up on her toes, and kissed him.� Her soft lips dashed all thoughts from his
head.� He leaned in, angling his lips
against hers, searching for the pert little tongue that he knew so well.

�� Oh, if he
only had the time, he would make love to her right here, right in front of the Confunded Auror.

�� Hermione
felt the cold touch of his manacles against her cheeks and beneath her
chin.� It pained her to see him chained
up, but at least he was about to go to a place where she knew he would be
treated well.� Draco
had done the right thing, and although she knew he still harbored some
resentment towards his father, Lucius was in good
hands.

�� His mouth
was as warm and skillful as she remembered.�
The press of his body told her that his ardor had not cooled even one
degree.� She could feel the giddy buzz of
sexual energy that always seemed to build between them rising in the deep
recesses of her body.� She would give
anything for a little more time alone with him, just a half an hour to touch
him and taste him and memorize him before the long drought to come�

�� But there
was no time for that.� This stolen moment
could easily get her thrown in jail herself.�
When the door at the end of the corridor began to clank open, she pulled
back from him, whispering, �I love you.�

�� She was
gone as quickly as she had appeared.�
Already he ached for her.� Her
words had calmed his anxiety, but the brief encounter served as a reminder of
what he would lack for the next two years.�
She had kept him happy for a long time.�
Now he was on his own.

�� The bailiff
tugged him along as if nothing had happened.�
Once in the room at the end of the corridor, he had to undress in front
of the two Aurors.�
One stepped forward to remove his shackles.� Absently, Lucius
rubbed at the chafed skin they had covered.

�� That was
when he noticed the way the two men were looking at him, and it occurred to him
that he was naked and defenseless.� Their
looks said they knew it. �The fists came
swiftly and painfully.� It was the
beating they had wanted to bestow for the past eight weeks, and damned if he
was getting away without it.

�� You�re
scum, Malfoy,� one of them enunciated as he slumped
along the wall, head tucked to protect what was left of his face.� �No amount of fancy legal work can change
that.�� They threw his clothing at him
and left.

��

�� Draco walked into the holding room to pick up his
father.� He was feeling ornery, as he
usually did after a rough trial, and that feeling increased tenfold when he saw
his father sitting against the far wall with his face covered in blood.� He was dressed in his Muggle
clothing and otherwise looked fine, but it was plain that his nose was broken.

�� Draco fixed it without a word.� He almost wiped the blood away with a
conjured towel, as he would have done for one of his sons, but thought better
of it and simply handed the towel over.� Lucius cleaned himself up in silence.� In five minutes, it was like it had never
happened.

�� Except that
during the carriage ride from the apparition point to the Manor�s gate, his
father kept wincing.� There were other
injuries, bruises Lucius had covered with his
clothing.� Draco
had received similar treatment once.

�� What�s
wrong with you?� Draco bit off after the tenth
wince.� He didn�t mean for his voice to
come out so clipped and cold, but he was angry�furious, and still not sure how
to care for a man that had nearly ruined his life.

�� Lucius�s eyes flickered up to him.� �Nothing,� he said, a hand straying tellingly
to his ribs.� �It�ll heal.�

�� Draco stared out the window, jaw
clenched, and let the words wash over him.

�� It�ll heal.

�� In time, he
could only hope that it would.

�� They had
given him the part of the house that had been occupied by fugitive Death Eaters
during the war.� Everything had been
redone, but Lucius saw it for the mild punishment
that it was.� He took it in stride; at
least they had given him a library.

�� Draco showed him the rooms that were his.� He had a bedroom, a bathroom, a small sitting
room, and the library.� They had granted
him a Wireless unit to listen to and a desk stocked with parchment and quills,
though he wasn�t sure of the point of that.�
He couldn�t write any letters � none that would be sent, anyway.

�� His
wardrobe was stocked with some of his older robes.� He wasn�t going to tell Draco
that he now found robes strange and uncomfortable.� He would just stick to wearing the trousers
and dress shirts that went under them, and in time they would get the
idea.�

�� Briefly, he
was introduced to Draco�s wife, Astoria.�
She was gentle and pretty and she seemed to have a calming effect on Draco; everything about him softened when she was
present.� Lucius
was happy to know that he had found his perfect match.� He had always wanted that for Draco.

�� Astoria was visibly
pregnant, but perhaps only three or four months along.� Soon there would be another grandchild, and
he hoped with everything he had that he might be a factor in this child�s life.� Astoria
departed with a smile, and he was left alone with Draco
once more.

�� Your meals
will appear in your sitting room when they�re ready and disappear ninety
minutes later.� Just tell me if you need
supplies and I�ll see that they get up here.�
In the meantime, you have plenty of books and the wireless to keep you
occupied.� I�ll check in with you when I
get home from work each day.�

�� Lucius nodded.

�� Draco turned to leave, then
paused.� He looked back at his
father.� �I know you want to see the
children, but it will be a long time before I trust you enough to let you near
them, if I ever trust you at all.� This
is as far as my goodwill goes.� If you
need something, I will get it for you, but I�m not going to just let you elbow
your way back into my life.� It�s a
privilege to be accepted back into this family, not a right.�

�� Lucius bit the inside of his lips, his hope of being
involved in the lives of his grandchildren fading.� �What�what can I do to gain your trust?� he
asked softly.

�� Draco considered it for a long time, partially because he
had expected an argument, not quiet acceptance.�
Then he sighed.�

�I don�t know.�

Hermione went home, overwhelmed by
the day�s events.� Home didn�t offer much
shelter.� The bathroom still held the
evidence of what had pushed her to be so reckless on the mere chance that she
could have a moment with Lucius in the first place.

She had only had the time to tell
him one of the two things she needed to say.�
The first was obvious, but she�d never gotten the chance.� The second�a half-minute�s stolen embrace
wasn�t enough time to explain something so complicated.

She had gone back to the Library at
Alexandria to
try to understand it herself.� That same
old Dumbledore-esque wizard was there.� He had led her to the books on magic and
fertility without a word.� He seemed to
understand that there was no good way to phrase her question.

Well,
you see, I seem to be pregnant with a sterile wizard�s baby, and I�m just
wondering how that could be possible�

The books told her of old magic,
magic as ancient as the world itself.�
Magic that flowed from the earth into those connected with it.� The best she could come up with was that in
those many encounters where they had lain twined together on deserted beaches,
the tide lapping at their toes, or in the times when they teased one another to
release beneath gentle ocean waves next to the boat, they had summoned that
ancient power.�

More specifically, Lucius had.� Sex
magic was the only method of expression he was capable of, and its primal
nature had opened him to those older magics.� The earth recognized its greatest urge in his
desire and virility: the urge to germinate.

It didn�t matter that someone had
taken that ability away from him.� Voldemort was no match for the gathered power of the
earth.� It funneled its magic into its
two unwitting disciples � he the seed and plow, she the fertile field.� It granted them a wish both unknown and
unspoken.

And now, here she was, pregnant,
entirely unable to contact him.

�� She had
thought it over extensively.� There were
only two options open to her.� One was to
simply tell Draco or his wife that she was pregnant
with Lucius�s baby, or give them a letter to pass on.� That was about as appealing as eating a
Blast-Ended Skrewt.�
The other option was to try as hard as she possibly could to become an animagus.� That way,
she could access Lucius undetected.� It had worked for him and she had no reason
to believe that it would be any different for her.� She hadn�t a clu what her form would be, but was confident that
she could use it to get to him, whatever it was.

�� There was a
distant third option, that being that she could falsely accuse Lucius of a crime so that he would have to leave the Manor
for the trial, therefore giving her access to him.� Then she could drop all the charges.� However, she wasn�t eager to give him any
more bad press, nor was she keen to draw that kind of attention to herself.

�� Of the
three, the animagus transformation was the most
reasonable.� She wasted no time
contacting Minerva McGonagall; her old Head of House was more than happy to
give her lessons.� She did warn Hermione
that it wasn�t a skill that everyone could tap into, even some of the best and
brightest; no one really knew what determined who could become an animagus and who couldn�t.�

�� Six weeks
later, Hermione was beginning to despair.�
Nothing had ever taken her this long to master.� Her transfiguration skills for objects other
than herself were superb.� Evidently, her
own body wasn�t as cooperative.

�� It was
midway through the eighth lesson when Minerva sat her down with a very serious
look on her face.� �Hermione, are you
pregnant?�

�� Damn
it.� She knew her clothes were feeling a
bit too tight.

�� Yes,� she
answered cautiously.

�� Well,
first and foremost, congratulations.�

�� Thank
you.�

�� I was
wondering what could cause one of the most talented witches I know to have
difficulty mastering this.�� She
smiled.� �Hermione, many witches find it challenging
or impossible to complete an animagus transformation
while pregnant.� The child just takes up
too much energy and magic.� There isn�t
enough left over to transform your entire body and the child along with it.�

�� But it�s
doable?�

�� For some,
but it�s exceptionally draining.� One
woman I knew slept for three days after a transformation.� That was how she figured out she was
pregnant.�

�� Can it
damage the child?�

�� If it�s done too frequently, yes.�

�� She
sighed.� She didn�t want to do anything
that could potentially harm the baby.�

�� It�s all
right, Hermione, dear.� Just wait until
after the baby is born and we�ll resume our lessons.� When�s the due date?�

�� Mid-March.�

�� Minerva
grinned in genuine happiness.� �It seems
a long way away, but it will fly by.�

�� It would,
and Hermione was equal parts saddened and relieved.� She was sad because Lucius
would miss it all, but relieved that every month gone meant she was a month
closer to being able to see him again.�
She thanked Minerva, agreeing that they would try again after the baby�s
arrival, and left.�

It didn�t occur to her until she
was walking through the door of her flat that Minerva had never asked who the
father was, and she silently thanked the tactful old witch.� Nonetheless, this meant it was time to move
on to Plan B�and that meant she had to come up with a viable strategy that
wouldn�t be completely disastrous.

�� All the
books in the world would not have been enough to keep him entertained.� It had only been two months and he was burned
out.� The library still held more books,
but his eyes were tired of the small print and his ears were tired of the
silence, or worse, the inane babble of the Wireless.� He needed to do things.

�� Draco had relaxed somewhat in their interactions.� There was still a certain amount of
guardedness in him, but he let himself smile and joke.� One might almost be able to believe they were
a normal father and son, except that Lucius was still
barred from interacting with his grandsons.

�� Even so, Lucius sensed that Draco had
meant what he said when he first arrived.�
If he needed something, he would get it.�
The next day, Lucius dared to bring up the
fact that he felt stir-crazy, that he couldn�t sleep at night because he wasn�t
expelling enough energy during the day�that he was bored out of his mind.

�� Draco asked him what he needed.� His response was that he only needed two
things: a way to exercise and something meaningful to do.� A week later he found himself in charge of
Astoria�s cosmetics company�s finances (because what was the point of paying
someone else if he would do it for free, and probably better?) and the
recipient of a shiny new smooth current individual swimming pool.

�� He couldn�t
have been happier.� Lucius
could spend hours in that pool.� The
water made him feel like he was free; as long as he kept his eyes closed, it
felt like he was back out there, cutting great swathes across the world�s
oceans.

�� Then, once
he�d tired himself out, he could sit down to the accounts and exercise his
brain.� It was clear that Astoria and Daphne�s
previous accountant was not the brightest.�
They would be happy with the improvements.� Maybe it would raise him a notch in Draco�s esteem.

�� At the end
of the day he could settle into bed to enjoy the Wireless and a chapter of a
book.� He felt much better.� The only thing that would have completed it
all was the ability to see his lover and his grandchildren.� But�

�� Well, it
would come with time, and that was all he had.
- 10
- 11
- 12
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Catch and Release