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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
- 8
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- 10
�� I have to
go to the Aurors.� I have to help
him.�� Hermione�s tone was plaintive,
even desperate as she lay in a heap upon her sofa.� It was two in the morning; in another few
hours, the early edition of the Daily Prophet would be overwhelmed by the news
of Lucius�s return.

�� If he had
wanted your help, he would have told you what he was going to do,� Padma
replied softly.� �He�s tried his best to
keep you out of it, don�t you see?� If
you dive in and embroil yourself in the mess I doubt he�d appreciate it.�

�� Oh, you�re
channeling him now?� Hermione snapped.

�� No,� Padma
said, her tone abrupt.� �I�m channeling
the logic you�ve left behind.� ��

�� Life was a
blur of holding cells, glaring Aurors, court chambers, and reporters�
flashbulbs.� Lucius felt like he was
constantly repeating himself.� Why have
you returned, Mr. Malfoy, they would ask, and he would say that he missed his
family and wanted to finish serving his time so that he could see them
again.� That answer seemed too fanciful
for everyone; they would look at him for a moment, eyes glazed with confusion,
and move on.

�� Perhaps
they had expected him to come back with some plot, or with bombs strapped to
his chest.� Maybe expressing loneliness
was too human for them.� Or maybe the
public was just incredibly uncomfortable with the idea that he could change at
all�

�� He went
along with it, rarely fighting or speaking up aside from when the media circus
wanted him to.� He knew the silence, the
patience, and above all the composure he presented would throw them off.� In time they would come to accept that he was
telling the truth.

�� At first
she was angry.� Hermione felt a boundless
rage at Lucius for being so stupid,
so needy, and for leaving her.� They were
everything to one another.� Why did he
need anything more than her?

�� Padma had
been there every moment, soldiering Hermione through.� To her amazement, Padma had no desire to tell
anyone of her office mate�s indiscretions; she told her to shut it when she
brought it up, as if it was completely ludicrous that Hermione even worried
about it.� In fact, she seemed pretty
determined to do everything she could to facilitate Hermione�s relationship
with Lucius while simultaneously keeping it a secret.

�� With
Padma�s patient support, life was bearable.�
She knew that the other witch was doing her work, taking care of her
bills, and even cleaning her flat when she wasn�t looking.� Hermione hated that one man could have this
kind of impact on her.� She hated it, but
she couldn�t hate him.

�� In time she
realized that she was angry at herself.�
She also realized that she couldn�t fault Lucius for missing his family
or wanting to be with them.� Hermione
didn�t see her parents often, but they�d been a source of enough heartbreak
after the war; they felt betrayed because of the memory charms and decided they
didn�t want to see her anymore.� Given
time and distance, her Mum and Dad had found a way to forgive and they were on
good terms again.� However, celebrating
her nineteenth and twentieth birthdays alone had been incredibly painful.� She understood why being left behind by his
family had wounded Lucius so.

�� She just
wished he had talked to her about it.�
There must have been something they could do, a way to fix his heartache
without going to this extreme.� Or maybe
there wasn�t.� Hermione had thought about
it over and over and couldn�t seem to find that one brilliant idea.� Maybe it didn�t exist.

She sat at the table thinking in
circles.� The only sound was the clink of
plates and forks mingled with the splash of water as Padma washed her
dishes.� Hermione didn�t even think to
ask why she didn�t use magic to do it.�
As long as she was, she could take comfort in the familiar, everyday
sounds.

�� Padma told
their boss at the Ministry that Hermione had fallen ill and wouldn�t be in for
a few days.� She�d then convinced her
past classmate and present Mediwitch Cho Chang to write Hermione a doctor�s
note.� Had Hermione retained any sense of
humor at all, she would have told them to say she had a case of spattergroit.

�� If I
just�talked to Kingsley�� Hermione murmured listlessly.

�� There was a
clank as Padma let the plate she was holding fall to the bottom of the sink.� She turned and put soapy hands on her hips.

�� Hermione,
if you were an unattached woman, floating free in the world with no
obligations, I would tell you to do whatever the hell you want.� But you�re not.� You have Rose to think about, and that�s the
end of the story.�

�� Rose.� God, she hadn�t even thought of her in nearly five days.�
Her head was filled with Lucius, Lucius, Lucius.� What kind of mother was she?

�� Padma was
right.� If she revealed her relationship
with Lucius, there was the possibility that she could be arrested and thrown in
jail right alongside him.� What would
happen to Rose then?� She�d be shipped
off to her father�s, which wasn�t terrible in itself, but Hermione knew her
daughter and recognized that Rose would not cope well.� Add that to the ridicule and outright hatred
she�d have to endure for her mother�s actions�

�� It couldn�t
happen.� She would not put her daughter
through that.� She loved Lucius, but Rose
was her baby, her blood, and she would always come first.

�� I
just�feel so helpless,� Hermione whispered.�
�I�m so used to being able to do
something.� I can�t in this
case.� With all the brains I�ve got, I
can�t do a damn thing.�

�� Padma came
to sit across from her and took her hands.�
She smelled of lemon dish soap.�
�That�s not true.�

�� What?�

�� I imagine
that you can do what he wanted you to do, which was just continue with your
life until he�s released.� It�s just an
interruption.� It won�t last forever.�

�� Hermione
sniffled.� �He was my life, three days a week.�
What am I supposed to do for all that time?� I don�t have anything.� Rose is away at Hogwarts, and I have no friends
except you and Harry.� No hobbies.� Nothing.�

�� Padma�s hands
tightened around hers.� �You told me that
he didn�t understand why you were content to just work in the Ministry at a job
that�s far too easy for you.� And
frankly, I agree with him.�� A brief
smile touched her lips.� �I always used
to thank Merlin that you weren�t in Ravenclaw.�

�� What are
you saying, Padma?�

�� I�m saying
that I find it very hard to believe that working in our department at the
Ministry was your dream.� All you need to
do is find those aspirations again, and then bugger the Ministry � it�s time
for you to do the work you were meant to.�

�� Hermione
pulled one of her hands away.� She rubbed
at her forehead as if she was developing a migraine.� �Oh, Padma, I�m not an idealistic teenager
anymore.� I doubt I�m the brightest witch
of my age now.�

�� You�ve got
more smarts in your little finger than most witches and wizards on the
street.� And I�ve certainly got enough to
know a line of bullshit when I hear it.��
Padma leaned closer, her eyes fierce.�
�What are you afraid of?�

�� What do
you think?� Hermione shot back.

�� It may
seem trite, but you know how they say it�s better to have loved and lost than
never loved at all?�

�� Grimly,
Hermione nodded.� It didn�t feel better
just at the moment�

�� It�s also
better to have tried and failed than to never try at all, because you�ll always
be left wondering�what could I have
done if I put my mind to it?�� A cunning
look stole over her face.� �Think about
it.� Imagine you�re Lucius, stuck in
prison.� But you hear this news every now
and then that Hermione Granger, Muggleborn extraordinaire, is doing amazing
things every day since she left the Ministry.�
Curing diseases, inventing charms and potions, discovering new things,
campaigning for magical creature rights�wouldn�t it make you proud?� Wouldn�t it give you the energy to go on,
knowing that the person you loved was excelling, even in your absence?�

�� Hermione
blinked, her vision blurring with stubborn tears.� Lucius would
be proud of her.� He had expressed
several times that he thought she was wasting her time at the Ministry.� How had he put it?� She should �leave those imbeciles and do
something more befitting of her intelligence�.

�� You�re
sneaky,� she said, pointing at Padma.�
The strategy her friend was using was not lost on her.

�� Padma
shrugged.� �The Sorting Hat did consider
Slytherin.�

�� Ugh.�� Hermione slumped on the table.� �Slytherins��

�� The other
witch rubbed her back amiably.� �You need
to focus on you.� I�m sure Lucius will be
okay.� After all, Draco�s a hotshot
lawyer now, isn�t he?� He�ll swoop in to
rescue his father.�

�� And, with
Padma�s reassurances bouncing around in her head and the firm assertion that
Rose came first, Hermione was able to begin piecing her life back into some
semblance of order.

�� He had
forgotten the monotony of prison.� It was
long days in a cell watched by two Aurors.�
Privacy was a novelty he wouldn�t soon be experiencing now that he�d
given himself up.� They still didn�t know
how he had escaped prison the first time and were not about to take their eyes
off him so he could do it again.� Lucius
understood and didn�t protest.�

He watched the Aurors as carefully
as they watched him because he knew that his good behavior didn�t sit well with
everyone.� He saw in their eyes that
sometimes they wanted to come in and pick a fight just so they would have
something to report.� They tried to goad
him into confrontations.� They would say
things about his family, about his past, about what he had been doing out in
the world.� He just bit his tongue and
ignored them.

�� All along,
a certainty burned in him that Draco would come.� Draco would need to know if his statements
were true or not.� He�d come to see him,
and Lucius was confident that he could convince his son that everything he said
was sincere. �But as weeks turned into a
long month, he began to feel like he had during the time when Hermione ignored
him, after Amsterdam.� Draco wasn�t coming, and his hopes were being
dashed like a ship thrown into rocks in a gale.

�� Lucius
missed Hermione fiercely, and that made it even worse.� He loved her, she loved him, and he had left
her.� For all he knew, she thought that
he had chosen his family over her, which couldn�t be more inaccurate.� When society was finally content that they�d
wrung everything out of him and deigned to let him go, he had no idea whether
she would be there for him or not.� He
hoped, he prayed, but there was no guarantee.

�� The gamble had
not paid off, and by the time his re-sentencing hearing loomed a few days away,
he felt like a ghost.� He knew that they
could lock him up for the rest of his natural life, even though there had only
been 5 years left on his sentence.� He
knew there was still a distant possibility of the Dementor�s Kiss.� None of it alarmed him.� Lucius was beyond caring, because his family
had abandoned him.

�� A month
into the madness, Hermione felt nothing but a longing ache when she thought of
Lucius, and a cool resignation when she thought of her own role in this
debacle.� That didn�t mean that her anger
disappeared.� Oh, no.

�� Now it was
firmly aimed at the spiteful person who made all of this even worse.� It was for Draco Malfoy, arrogant git that he
was, who, even though he was a lawyer, left his father to a court-appointed
attorney who could have cared less, who, regardless of the repeated protestations
on the wireless and in the newspaper that his father had given himself up for him, couldn�t be bothered to see
him.� It was always �No comment� when the
papers asked him about it.�

�� She seethed
at him, growing more resentful by the day.�
Hermione thought that she could easily murder him.� That was how angry he made her.� Draco Malfoy had always made her angry, that
was true, but this was the worst.� He was
turning his back on his family.

�� She wasn�t
the only one who thought so.� Editorials
speculated whether or not he was exacting some kind of revenge on his
father.� Gossip revolved around it for a
time.� Many people thought Draco�s
behavior served his father right, but just as many thought he was acting
immature and malicious.

�� Hermione
never weighed in on it.� However, it was
only a matter of time before she wrote Draco a Howler or howled at him in
person.� She only needed the opportunity,
Merlin help her�

�� That
opportunity came a week later.� She was
still at the Ministry until she could figure out what she wanted to do and be
sure that she was focused enough to do it.�
By some miracle, she found herself in the same lift as Draco.� She�d seen him around the Ministry before;
his cases often brought him down to the Wizengamot, and until now, their
sightings of one another had been civil enough.�
Not anymore.

�� Hermione
thanked every deity there was that they were the only two on the lift.� When the doors slid shut, she waited for the
lift to begin its ascent before stepping forward and pressing the stop
button.� She turned to Draco, who wore a
perplexed, if casually aloof look on his face.

�� What are
you doing, Granger?� he asked, glancing at his watch.� �I have a meeting.��

�� That�s
right, you do,� she fairly growled.�
�With me.�

�� If he had not
been leaning against the back of the elevator already, he would have taken a
step back.� �Ah, Granger, I thought we
agreed to let sleeping dogs lie, yes?�

�� She ignored
him and advanced until they were practically chest to chest.� She was shorter than him by about eight
inches, but it didn�t stop her from looking very intimidating.� Worry flickered in Draco�s eyes.

�� What
you�re doing is terrible,� Hermione bit off lethally.� �Heaven knows I�m no fan of your father�s,
but ignoring him like this is cruel. �Are you enjoying it?� Does it make you feel important?� Like you�re better than him?�

�� He blinked,
his grey eyes incredulous.� �This is
about him?�

�� Answer my
questions!� she demanded, placing her palms on his chest and pushing.� His back hit the wall and the car jolted a
little around them.

�� Why do you
care?� he snapped in return.� �It isn�t
any of your business!�

�� You�ve
made it the whole world�s business!�

�� No, he did that,� Draco replied
bitterly.� �I don�t want him around my
family, and especially not my children.�
Can you blame me?�

�� Yes, I
can, because who in their right mind goes
back to Azkaban unless they mean what they say?�

�� You don�t
know him, Granger!� He will manipulate
everything and everyone to get what he wants.�
This is all just another plot to recover his position.� I am not
going to give in to it.� I am the head of
this family now and that isn�t going to change,� he hissed.

�� Hermione
could have punched him.� Frustration was
exploding inside her; would this person in front of her never cease to wear a
pair of blinkers?�

�� Put
yourself in his shoes for just one second, Draco.� Can you manage that?� Can you manage to think about someone other
than yourself?�

�� His eyes
narrowed.� �You are pushing me, Granger,�
he said through his teeth.

�� Imagine
you�ve been in prison for thirteen years.�
Your wife divorced you without so much as a goodbye, your sons won�t
come to see you, and the world just moves on.�
And when your sons have sons, do they even know you exist?� Do they even know that you love them?�

�� Hermione
could see a muscle in his jaw going.� She
plowed on.� �And after you escape, you
realize you can never see them, you can never show them how you�ve changed or
express how much you care about them.�
Your choice is to live freely in a world that isn�t yours, a world that
lacks everything and everyone you care about, or to go back to captivity for
even the slightest chance that they might recognize your sacrifice and accept
you back as family.� Would you be able to
choose?��

She gave Draco another shove,
feeling the pulse of anger squeezing at her insides.� �You�re so ready to condemn him.� But I guess that�s how you purebloods
operate.� The second anyone does
something you don�t like, they�re out.�
Family doesn�t mean shite.� All
that babble about family being the most important thing, the highest loyalty,
it�s all just tripe, isn�t it?��

�It is not tripe!� he fired back,
forcibly removing her hands from his chest and pushing her away from him.� He was angry now.� He moved to corner her, but Hermione didn�t
even flinch.� She faced him, chin up, and
returned his cold glance without fear.�
�How dare you presume to know anything about my family?�

�How dare you presume to know
anything about a man you haven�t seen in seventeen years?�

�Why the hell do you care?� he nearly shouted.

�I care because someone has to,
since his own family doesn�t!� she thundered back at him.� Hermione reached back and slammed the button
to reactivate the lift, her eyes never leaving his.� The car lurched into motion again.� They were nose to nose, glaring with every
ounce of resentment they had, chests heaving.

When the door slid open, nobody on
the other side dared to step in.� It was
obvious that a confrontation was taking place.�
Hermione didn�t even notice them; she was too focused on the egotistical
fool in front of her.� She moved to the
side, so that she could speak into his ear.

�They�re talking about stasis,
Draco,� she whispered sharply, �freezing his body but not his mind for up to
nine years.� It�s torture, I can tell you
that firsthand from when I was Petrified.�
He doesn�t deserve that and you know it, but nobody is going to do a
damn thing about it if you can�t bring yourself to care.�

With that, she stepped away and
exited the elevator, leaving a very pale, very angry Draco Malfoy in her wake.
- 8
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