Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

What If.....?	By : valkyrie136 Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Lucius/Hermione Views: 4465 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I Do not own the rights to Pillow Book or to Harry Potter or anything in that universe nor do I not make any profits from it. J.K. Rowling does. Please support the author by reading her books.

Chapter List
- 6
- 7
- 8
Charles Martel.
The Whispering Whitewood was made up of the skeletal remains of an ancient wood. It was home to the Mytherians, a broken line of human magic people related to wizards.
The legend stated that they did not trust wands, believing that they used people, not the other way around, and believed that wandless magic was the only true way to practice magic. This created a split in the wizarding community, which erupted in war. Outnumbered, the Mytherians lost and took refuge in the Whispering Whitewood. Unfortunately, they were possessed of a delicate nature and were fragile—after just a few generations in the forest they had come acclimated and could not survive outside because the forest produced a unique miasma that stabilized their constitutions—without which they would die.
In order to protect themselves, they created a powerful enchantment and gradually faded into obscurity. This enchantment allowed for the forest to open up annually, and the opening was extremely small and hard to find—it allowed for diplomatic envoys to come and go but only very skilled wizards and witches could even locate the entrance—such was the power of their enchantment.
It seemed that Charles Martel’s decision to die coincided perfectly with the forest opening up, and together they fell in just the right way. What kind of extraordinary luck was this….?
Lost now in no man’s land, Hermione searched and sat upon a rock. Martel squatted nearby, his back to her. He seemed angry.
When they first arrived and she landed on him, he let out a loud grunt of pain but not once had he complained. This spared her some suffering as she initially expected him to rail against her. She felt more forgiving towards him. Furthermore, she knew all to well how skilled Lucius was in pushing buttons and manipulating others. She decided that Martel was probably a good person.
‘Charlie,’ she gently called.
Charlie turned to glare at her, ‘Call me Charlie again and I’ll make brine out of your tongue.’
He stirred something maternal in her. Patiently, she approached him and asked, ‘Then what shall I call you?’
After thinking for a while he finally replied, ‘Whatever you British call your strongest men.’
Hermione studied him; he seemed so small and frail, he was very slender and effeminate, ‘General Charlie?’ She finally said.
General Charlie nodded in satisfaction.
‘We’re in the middle of nowhere,’ Hermione said, giving their surroundings a sweep, ‘and you’re injured. General Charlie, why don’t we have a chat and rest?’
Liking his new name, his fury seemed to vanish and he replied in a surprisingly gentle voice, ‘What is it? Spit it out.’
Hermione moved closer and urgently replied, ‘Truthfully, I think you are an honest man. So why did you go to such lengths to trick Lucius so many years ago? At first I thought you and him were similar, but you don’t seem the underhanded sort.’
General Charlie remained silent. Slowly his face turned red and he finally asked, ‘So what of it?’
Hermione tried her best to maintain her air of surprise and patience.
His shame turned to anger, ‘Ice Face isn’t a good person. You shouldn’t be staying with him.’
She somehow concluded that Charlie was not the brightest, and she did not want to waste time arguing something he concluded, so she simply asked him to continue his story.
According to General Charlie, his tricking Lucius was the result of an accident. Like today, he had a fight with him but everything was in the open and honest. He was in love with Maddy Fournier and was extremely upset to hear she would be marrying Lucius. The Twelve Originals placed a high value on power and strength, so he thought that if he defeated Lucius openly in a duel, it would all be fixed and he could marry Maddy. He was confident in his ability to win. After all, Lucius, as he understood it, was an aristocrat and they were all gentle and weak individuals.
Using his skills he extended an invitation to duel Lucius. But Lucius’s reply was not what he expected—he said that he could not duel him because his family was in the middle of harvesting apples and it was very important. Hence, Lucius told him in these exact words: ‘I have domestic responsibilities to attend to.’ Being understanding, he decided to help Lucius out. So he snuck onto his property and did all the harvesting for him. It was extremely exhausting, but when finished he notified Lucius but all Lucius did was cooly thank him and then have him arrested for trespassing. This resulted in a huge fine.
After he paid the fine, General Charlie returned to confront Lucius as he entered the Ministry and demanded that he keep his promise to fight the duel, but Lucius said in confusion, ‘When did I promise to duel you? I never intended to such a thing.’
For Charlie, this was a huge shock. He realized that Lucius had been playing with him all along, and this made him furious. He wanted revenge but did not know how, so while drinking in a bar he overheard some whispers about death eaters and he got an idea. Charlie, while drunk, filed a false complaint and this led to a raid on the Malfoy family home. In a twist, it turned out that Lucius actually was a death eater and so he was arrested. He was shocked by his good luck.
Hermione could not suppress her laughter at that moment. But seeing General Charlie’s gloomy and forlorn face she became serious again and said, ‘He treated you very poorly.’
Charlie drily laughed, ‘I don’t hate him really. The best revenge is to pity your enemy, and even now I pity him.’
Hermione leaned closer, ‘Everyone thinks Lucius is a heartless person, but I know of at least one person he cares about.’
Immediately Charlie answered, ‘Madeline.’
This was not what she expected him to say. Was she wrong about who Lucius had feelings for? She decided to compare notes with Charlie and see how their stories matched up.
Charlie shared something that she indeed did not know. Maddy was the one who went to great lengths to find evidence to have Lucius released from prison; something that not even his own wife had done. Furthermore, immediately after he was released, he spent two nights with Maddy. On reflection, Hermione, who had not accomplished very much while serving by Maddy’s side, did recall a period of time where she had been given free time to relax. It was during that time that Hermione was beginning to conclude that she really didn’t know how to go about chasing down love with success and perhaps she should just focus on what she was good at: school.
Still, Hermione wasn’t entirely convinced. Perhaps he had just wanted to clear some things up and that was why he spent time with her. ‘How can you be certain that he likes her?’
Charlie clenched his fist and snarled, ‘He wouldn’t dare!’ and continued on angrily, ‘She’s pure and chaste and elegant—birds forget to fly and fish forget to swim at the mere sight of her!’
Charlies Martel was an uncouth man; Hermione was surprised that he had the creative imagination to describe his beloved in such a way.
Noticing Hermione’s doubtful expression, Charlie sighed, ‘I know what you’re thinking. Girls like to think they’re the only one worthy of the ones they admire, the rest are meaningless.’ He was sincere, ‘You don’t think Ice Face likes Maddy but I used to think Maddy didn’t like Ice Face.’ He sighed morosely, ‘But they were alone for two nights. Just think! Oy, even I don’t want to think about it. Yet the truth remains that there have been so many couples who started out hating each other and still ended up falling for one another once they’re trapped in close proximity.’ The despondent fellow sighed again, ‘Let’s step back and think, if Ice Face didn’t love Maddy, why did he ever agree to marry her? If he didn’t want to then could God force him?’
Thinking through Charlie’s logic, Hermione realized that it actually made a great deal of sense. She sadly adjusted her clothes and after a while tilted her face up to Charles Martel to ask, ‘But I know,’ and she coughed, ‘I heard that when they parted ways Maddy asked him for a parting gift’ Hermione had actually been there, and she that it was one of the odd items he owned, ‘It was a pair of eyeglasses—whenever you use it the wearer can see amazing things in space—stars far away look as if they are right in front you. In novels and plays this is often done so that while the couples are apart they feel a little less lonely every time they look at the token, and it is also something to ensure the other person comes back to them so they can retrieve it. If Lucius loved her, wouldn’t he have just done it? Wouldn’t it be sort of petty not to?’
General Charlie scoffed, ‘What do you know, it was a trick!’
He then explained to her, ‘If you like Ice Face, you’d want to see him again. Then let me ask you, what’s the best way to do that?’ Not waiting for her to answer, he said with conviction, ‘Borrowing books! You borrow, you meet once. You return, you meet again. Borrow, return, borrow, return. Eventually it becomes natural. Then everything else is cake. If Maddy liked the eyeglasses, wouldn’t she have to visit him just to use them, giving him countless chances?’ He furrowed his brow and let out a long sigh, ‘Ice Face is extremely cunning.’
Hermione thought about it and, in dismay, once more found that Charlie was correct. If applying to his theory to her, this is the sort of tactic Lucius might use to ensure that their paths kept crossing.
[Two Years Ago]
Two years ago, Hermione elected to make one final attempt to get near Lucius, but she didn’t know how. It seemed that he could not remember who she was. This was very believable since she knew him to not retain strong memories of people who did not leave a strong impression on him. She did not want to risk him falling for another woman, so she went for herself to see if she could learn more about Madeline and possible foil any kind of budding romance. She raked her brain and the best idea that she could come up with was to become a servant in the home of Madeline, someone who did not know her at all. This did not last for very long; she never got close to Lucius and never once spoke or interacted with him. Her efforts to altar her appearance did not require any efforts at all; Madeline required all of her female servants to wear veils as was the tradition within her family for centuries. It helped to create a firm barrier between servants and masters. In short, it was like not having an identity.
Madeline and Lucius for a period regularly visited one another, but she always assumed that since nothing came of it, then Lucius must not have liked her. Their relationship seemed to resemble that of student and teacher; she often sought his advice on understanding and practicing certain spells that might be impacted by language. It all seemed perfectly appropriate and no boundaries seemed to be crossed. She took a small comfort in this.
Hermione remembered directly observing the interactions of Lucius and Madeline on more than one occasion. She could confirm that she did see Lucius and Madeline sitting together, and as a former student, she knew that Lucius seemed naturally inclined to help others if asked. But looking at the whole situation with the belief that he liked her, then it certainly seemed as if he was indulging her and being very careful to take care of her.
Compared to her own experiences with Lucius as a student, he did not exercise nearly as much patience and often made it clear when he was irritated or annoyed with Hermione. On more than one occasion he made it clear that she was inconveniencing him and seemed to grudgingly provide assistance.
These scenes made Hermione very sad.
[Present]
But she couldn’t tell all of this Charlie. Hermione concluded that Lucius at least had someone whom he considered an equal of sorts; not even when Hermione was his ‘student’ did he show her care or concern. He even personally saw to Maddy’s every need—she was just a no name servant. Hermione was tired of chasing him.

The Whispering Whitewood. In the heat, Charles Martel became more charged as he went on, ‘Although no one knows why the two never got married. I know that there engagement was supposed to be officially announced, but then suddenly it never happened. This must have hurt Ice Face deeply and cause him to lose some face. Every man has pride, and no one wants to lose.’
Hermione sighed, ‘Even someone as heroic as you loves Madeline. Although she and Lucius aren’t married, it seems like they are in everyway but name, based on your account. She still hasn’t picked you. What’s there to be happy about? Doesn’t she think he is better?’
Unable to listen to more proof of the affection the two had for one another, Hermione decided to focus herself by figuring out where to go. She rose, ‘Let’s see if we can find some way out of here. You to must be tired from talking all this time.’
Charlie frowned, ‘You’re not listening anymore? But it’s interesting!’ He called after her, ‘Ice Face became very interested in some sort of big cover up he was investigating. He asked anyone and everyone he could think of; it was a really, really big deal to him because he suddenly appeared and even asked me if I knew anything about things that decades ago. I heard he’s still looking into this matter but I couldn’t answer something that happened when I was in diapers.’
Hermione was focused on trying to see if maybe the rock blocking their way would move. She ignored his words and began to perspire as she tried in vain to move it. He suddenly yelled, ‘Be careful!’ His shout made her lose her footing, and as he reached for her, they fell forward.
____
I think that is the bulk of the back story. Please review, and please let me know what you think of this style of flashbacks. I find it interesting that the original author uses this style because I thought it isn't non-linear, and if we are doing a time travel story, then nothing really occurs in a straight line....
- 6
- 7
- 8
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

What If.....?