De Die In Diem: From Day To Day

Tit For Tat

Lucius' mind was filled with that girl's face over the next few days, after the Masque. He remembered the vanilla that surrounded her. He felt her lips pressed against his and his tongue entwined with hers. He felt his pulse race as he thought of her, while the blood seemed to drain from his head to somewhat more important body parts, leaving him blissfully light-headed.

He didn't even know her name, but Lucius couldn't remember the last time he'd felt so attracted to somebody. If he ever had. Narcissa had never aroused in him feelings such as this. Try as he may, he found no information about that girl. Nobody at the Masque but Dumbledore had ever seen her before. He had no name to research. None of the pictures he searched were a match. Lucius figured she was no more than 30 years old or so, so he looked up the school records of students from every wizard school in Europe for the past 15-20 years, but found no visual matches. It was driving him mad! He didn't know how many more cold baths he could stand.

Lucius welcomed the distraction of a dinner party, given by Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, in two weeks time. He spent the remainder of that time desperately searching for any clues of the girl.

The weeks passed slowly and unsuccessfully, but finally the dinner party arrived. Lucius, in formal-looking black dress robes, with Narcissa, dressed in her finest black silk floor-length dress, on his arm, stood outside the door of the Fudge household waiting to be let in. A house elf opened the door and admitted them to the party. A small crowd of about ten people had already gathered and were conversing over drinks and hors' de oeuvres. The two quickly parted and joined different conversations.

Lucius was in the midst of a conversation about the pending Muggle Protection Act with Fudge and Walden MacNair, who also worked for the Ministry of Magic, when another couple entered the room. Albus Dumbledore, in his usual clothing, with her on his arm. She wore a crimson red floor-length velvet dress, low-cut, with matching feathers around the shoulders. Crimson gloves covered her hands and extended to just below the elbows. She was free of any ornamentation save for a small ruby on a chain around her throat. She made eye contact with Lucius momentarily before making her way, gracefully, into the room that seemed to have grown silent over her arrival.

The couple made their way around the room, greeting everybody. When they stopped in front of Lucius and the men he was talking to, she took her time greeting Fudge and MacNair, carefully avoiding looking at Lucius. After what felt like an eternity, she finally faced Lucius. Her eyes seared into his mind and he stared at her, mesmerized, while she opened her mouth to speak to him. "Let me see now. Blonde hair, snake-headed walking stick, superiority complex larger than his IQ, you must be Luscious Malfoy, right?" She purred innocently, tilting her head and smiling at him, and holding out her hand for him to shake. Taking her delicate hand in his large grip, he raised it to his lips and kissed it.

Smiling back at her, he held onto her hand as he said in a low voice, "It's Lucius actually. It is good to see you again." He looked at her as he spoke, memorizing every curve and angle of her body. Her dress was very low-cut and revealed much to Lucius. "I don't think I ever caught your name, after all the fun had at the Masque, I'd hate to never find out who you were."

She looked at him, silently, as though thinking over whether to tell him or not. Mentioning the Masque had wiped her beautiful smile off her face, leaving her looking coldly at him. Suddenly the smile reappeared, and she spoke a word that was like music to Lucius' ears: "Adriana".

In the middle of her conversation with some of the other women present, Narcissa looked across the room to see her husband talking to a girl. The same one from the Masque. That girl again! She looked at the dress the girl was wearing and was filled with loathing for her. That dress showed far too much skin to be considered appropriate for a dinner party of this caliber. She would never wear such an outfit: red wasn't Narcissa's colour anyway. She knew that now Lucius had the object of his desire in his sights, and he wouldn't stop until he got what he wanted from her. This was nothing new, Lucius had had many amorous conquests since their marriage. She hardly cared, for they kept him out of her bed, if nothing else. What she did hate was the amount of money he would spend to gain this girl's affections, as he did with all the others. With a frustrated sigh, Narcissa scowled at Lucius and turned away to shut out the sight of the smiling couple.

"Adriana," Lucius whispered, relishing the sound of the name. "Adriana, would you like to accompany me out to the balcony? It's such a lovely evening, with the snow falling and catching the moonlight," He asked, holding his arm out for her to take. Adriana looked at Dumbledore, grinned, and accepted Lucius's arm, while Dumbledore looked disapprovingly at the two. Together they strolled out onto the covered balcony. Since it was an extremely cold night, they were alone. As soon as they walked to the edge and looked down on the snow-covered land before them, Lucius felt the cold air nip at his skin. Not wanting to appear cold in Adriana's presence, he chose to ignore it. It appeared that Adriana was doing the same, showing no outward signs of feeling the chill. He had hoped Adriana would be shivering so he could put his arms around her and keep her warm.

"I have thought about you a lot since we first met," Lucius began. "I must admit I haven't been able to find out much about you. Nobody seems to know who you are." Lucius moved his hand from Adriana's arm to her waist. "You are quite a girl of mystery." He drew her closer to him. He could smell the vanilla scent that he remembered from the Masque, it was making him feel light-headed again, although it could also have been the view he had looking down her low-cut dress top.

Adriana smiled and looked up into his eyes. Her lips were mere inches away from his, he leaned down to kiss her, when she spoke up, "I know exactly the feeling. After the Masque I had to find out who you were. I've been researching you. You wouldn't believe how many people have something fascinating to say about you. And when I heard about the dinner party from Albus, I insisted on accompanying him, hoping to find you here. I was quite lucky, I must say." She looked out at the falling snow, took a deep breath, and began to speak again. "I've found out a lot about you. Hmm, where to begin, how about the basics, you live at Malfoy Manor, your bedroom is on the third floor, fourth door on the left. You sleep in a king-sized bed with black satin sheets and you tend to sleep in the nude." Adriana turned to Lucius and looked at him from head to foot as though imagining what he looked like while sleeping. He was shocked, how had she found this out? Adriana continued, "What else? You eat porridge with precisely two spoonfuls of sugar for breakfast every morning at 8 o'clock." Adriana paused and glanced at Lucius to see the look on his face. He looked flustered.

"How did you? What?" Were the only words Lucius was able to form.

Adriana smiled at him. "Like I said, I did my research. Let's see, you keep your money in vault 844 at Gringott's Bank. Oh, and here's a little detail about you I never would have thought: you had a teddy bear named 'Brutus' as a child given to you by your mother Rowena. And I bet you still have him somewhere. Probably up in your attic." Lucius' normally pale face grew even whiter as his anger grew. "Your father Janos gave you all of his school medals, which you melted down and had made into the snake head of your walking stick." At that, she reached down and ran her fingers on the cool metal top of the walking stick, running her nails over Lucius' fingers as he gripped the walking stick tightly.

"Oh, but here's my very favourite. You keep a little black book in your back pocket that you carry at all times. You write down the names of the women you've been with, rating them and noting what they're most fond of in bed. The most recent addition would be Mr. Crabbe's wife. It seems she's rather fond of being tied up. But you broke it off with her after she became too clingy." With that Adriana stopped talking and looked over her shoulder at the group of talking women that no doubt contained one red-headed Mrs. Crabbe.

Lucius cleared his throat and tried to speak, but sounded hoarse. "I can assure you, I have no black book. I don't even know what you're talking about. In fact none of this--" Lucius stopped in midsentence as Adriana boldly drew her arm around Lucius' waist. She placed her other hand against his chest and ran her fingertip over one of his shirt buttons. Lucius raised his gloved hand and ran his fingers over the ruby necklace around her throat. He continued to move his hand lower and traced a finger over her breasts. Adriana gasped in surprise, but didn't try to stop him. She looked up at Lucius seductively, both were breathing rapidly and as he leaned down for another attempt to kiss her. At this moment she slipped her hand into his back pocket and drew out a small book.

Looking at it, and frowning slightly, she said, "All right, so you don't have a black book, it's blue, but it's still got all those lovely details in there. Am I in it?" Adriana opened the book and looked for a description of herself. Before she had a chance to find out if she was indeed in it, Lucius ripped the small book out of her hands and placed it inside his robe pocket.

Lucius was dumbfounded at the information she'd found out about him. How had she known about all of that? How many people had she talked to? Anger welled in him as he realized she knew things about him he didn't want anybody to ever find out about him. And how dare she smile at him while revealing such intimate details about him. Lucius had just opened his mouth to tell Adriana what he thought of her when a bell rang, announcing dinner. Adriana walked away from Lucius, leaving him standing alone, shivering, in the freezing night air.

When Lucius finally entered the dining room, after leaving his walking stick in the hallway, he found his seat next to Narcissa. By sheer coincidence, perhaps, he also found himself across from Adriana, who was seated next to Dumbledore. All of his anger simmered below the surface as he stared at Adriana. "How dare she?" Lucius kept thinking to himself. He saw her beautiful smile and her shining eyes as she conversed with Dumbledore, he wanted to slap that look of happiness right off of her. He thought about it for a minute. The table was quite narrow, he wouldn't have to reach that far, but he couldn't do such a thing in public.

Almost without thinking, he slipped his shoe off and stretched his leg out until it reached Adriana's feet. He brushed his foot against hers, looking at her to see what her reaction would be. She ignored him. He'd show her to ignore Lucius Malfoy. He let his foot travel up her calf to her knee and rest there. Still no response. He moved his foot along the inside of her knee, brushed against her thighs, and then,--- He smiled viscously as he watched Adriana's soup spoon fall out of her fingers. He had obviously hit just the right spot. Adriana collected the fallen spoon and looked at Lucius with wide eyes. They narrowed after a few seconds and Lucius wondered what that meant.

Adriana looked at Lucius with dark, angry eyes. For one moment Lucius thought he saw a tiny smile cross her face as she turned her face and continued her conversation with Albus. Except for that initial moment of surprise, there was no sign on Adriana's face that would tell the other guests what was going on under the table. Lucius was thrilled when he felt her shoeless foot begin to rub against his other foot. She seemed to travel the same route he did, stopping at his knee for a few seconds before continuing on. Her toes seemed quite nimble as she rubbed him the right way. Lucius tried to remain composed before the members of the dinner party, but was finding it harder than he would have expected.

"That's the way you want it then, is it?" Adriana's voice spoke in his head. He was amazed as he saw her speaking to Dumbledore yet he could hear her talking in his head at the same time. Lucius wanted nothing more than to sit back and enjoy his experience, but had to keep reminding himself that he was in public. He tried to remain nonplussed but wasn't as successful as Adriana. His hands were balled up in tight fists as he stared at his bowl of soup, concentrating on counting the vegetables swimming in the broth. He tried to breathe normally and appear in command of his faculties when he really felt like melting out of his chair.

"Lucius, you haven't touched your soup, what is the matter with you?" A voice both patronizing and cross broke him out of his trance momentarily. He was incapable of speech at this point in time, not without making an embarrassing scene, so he remained silent and looked back at Adriana.

"Are you all right? Is something wrong?" Adriana asked inside Lucius' head, her voice completely composed. Lucius hadn't even realized that he had let his foot fall back to the floor, leaving Adriana the only one left partaking of the under-the-table action.

Narcissa saw the looks passing between the two and muttered to herself about Lucius acting inappropriately in public. "Here darling, let me help you." Without warning, she picked up his spoon, filled it with broth and raised it to his tightly shut mouth. She proceeded to pour the spoonful of liquid down his chin and onto his robes. "Oh my, isn't that a shame," Narcissa exclaimed delightedly, as she picked up his napkin and smeared the liquid all over the front of his robes in her effort to "help" Lucius.

Lucius didn't know how much longer he could hold out. He felt like he might pass out soon. What would he do? Here he was, sitting in the middle of a dinner party with the Minister of Magic and everybody that looked to him as an upstanding citizen and acting like some sort of freak. He just hoped nobody else was noticing his behaviour. He tried to regain control over the situation. He tried to think of people who turned him off. He thought of his old Charms professor at Hogwarts, an old hag of a woman with a mole on her nose that had hair growing out of it. That didn't work. He looked at Narcissa, surely that would work, but it didn't help. If he could have moved, he might have grabbed Adriana's foot and pushed it off of him, but he was paralyzed. He knew he only had a few seconds left to avert a total disaster. Thinking quickly, he willed his hands to open up and grasp his bowl of soup. He pulled it closer towards him and ripped the spoon out of Narcissa's hand. Taking a deep breath, he deliberately jerked his hand, upsetting the bowl, sending the scalding hot contents in a cascade, into his lap.

Adriana had seen what he was doing in time to move her foot out of the way, and Lucius grimaced in pain as the hot soup met with already over-sensitive skin. Grabbing his napkin and placing it strategically over his front, Lucius stood up quickly, walked out of the room as fast as he possibly could, retrieved his walking stick, and made his way to the bathroom.

Lucius locked the door once he entered the bathroom. He couldn't believe how this evening had turned out. How had he allowed Adriana to go so far? She had made him look like a fool in front of people. The physical pain of scalding hot soup on such a sensitive area was almost unbearable. He'd had no other choice, but hadn't thought about how much pain it was going to cause him. The mess was easily cleaned up with a simple cleansing spell. Seconds later, he looked as clean as ever, yet was still in excruciating pain. He had never had much skill with any healing spells, and didn't want to try anything that might result in even worse consequences. Lucius thought about what to put on burns that he had heard about before. Ice might work, but the thought of putting ice there made him cringe worse than the burning. He just wanted to return to Malfoy Manor quickly so he could rest in a cold bath and drown his sorrows in a nice chocolate souffle and a bottle of champagne.

Mustering up what dignity he could, Lucius grabbed his walking stick and made his way back to the dining room. "Come Narcissa, we're leaving." He said shortly, standing in the doorway. Lucius hoped she wouldn't make a scene, it was the last thing he needed. Looking into Narcissa's eyes, he saw anger glaring back at him. The anger quickly turned to frustration. Lucius knew she enjoyed social outings, she was usually kept in Malfoy Manor unless he needed her for such an event. Finally a look of resignation filled her face. Standing up from her seat, slowly, Narcissa held her head high and resolute as she walked over to Lucius, avoiding looking at him. Wordlessly, she took his arm and together they left the room. The silence continued as they gathered their cloaks and prepared to depart from the Fudge household. Her silence continued for many days afterwards. Lucius was grateful for this while he slowly healed from his terrible dining experience with Adriana.