Terrible Deeds Suite

A Kiss for a Kindness

Lucius Apparated to Hogsmeade to make his contact at the Hog's Head. It had only been about a year since they actively recruited the boys Justin had recommended to Tony, and these week-end visits were already wearing thin on Lucius. He realised that young recruits were useful - enthusiastic, impressionable, easily manipulated, and expendable - but he had been nothing short of relieved to exit the hallowed halls of Hogwarts for the last time as a student, and Hogsmeade had never held much appeal for him.

The three he was supposed to meet this afternoon - Rosier, Justin of course, and Snape - were late. He summoned the waiter to order another single malt while he waited, growing more annoyed with the boys' lack of reliability. Justin Lestrange, while he looked up to Lucius almost as much as he did his own cousin, Tony, was still only fourteen and very prone to distraction.

The door opened and light streamed into the bar. Young voices preceded the entry of the newcomers, and Lucius looked for his contacts.

'I'm telling you, it's much better than the Three Broomsticks. My brother told me. C'mon, James, it's okay. They'll take our money as easily as Madam Rosmerta.'

'I don't know...'

'In or out, boys!' the barkeep bellowed at them. 'Don't let the cold air ruin the ale!' Several patrons laughed.

'Come on, James,' another young man said, and tugged the arm of the third boy. They were in school Gryffindor cloaks, but one wore a pair of faded jeans and a sweatshirt under his. The other two were in plain day robes with jumpers underneath, from the look of the way they bulged.

They looked round, adjusting to the afternoon shadows through the lattice-worked windows. The heaviest one of the three reached into his robe pocket, boldly walked up to the bar, and slapped down a Galleon. 'Three bitters, please,' he said with a confident nod.

The barkeep grinned. 'And what will your friends have?' he asked with a playful glint in his eye. All the patrons laughed outright, this time, at the way the boy's eyes widened in fright.

'Not to worry, young sir. Three bitters, it is,' the bartender guffawed heartily, pulling out three flagons and drawing on the tap to fill them all. The young blond boy relaxed visibly, picked up three of the five Sickles the barman gave him for change, and beckoned his friends to take their drinks to an empty table.

Lucius pulled his hood up to conceal himself, seeing that the only free table was next to his own. The boys sat down, and close up, Lucius recognised James Potter. There was no mistaking the family resemblance to Cyrus Potter, the somewhat tyrannical Head of the Department for Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. The blond was nothing to remark upon... but the other boy.... Black hair, blue eyes, and a self-confidence and ease that screamed for attention. He was either Muggle-born or half-blood, though, Lucius told himself, to wear blue jeans in the only all-wizarding village in Britain.

'I wish Remus could be here,' James Potter remarked as he took an experimental sip.

'Yeah, too bad,' the blond said. 'You'd think Dumbledore wouldn't schedule Hogsmeade week-ends so soon after--Ow!' he stopped abruptly. Lucius got the impression that the third boy had kicked him.

'Shut up, Peter,' the mudblood scolded, glancing side to side furtively.

Lucius found he couldn't look away from the young man the entire time they sat there. James evidently liked his beer, because he polished it off rather quickly. Peter, if that was his name, handed his half-empty pint to James, who drank greedily. The third boy took his time, sipping contentedly while they talked mostly about their studies.

The door opened again, and Justin poked his head in, saw the Gryffindor students, and ducked back out. Damn. Lucius decided he had better catch the three of them before they went back to school. He still had messages to deliver, however much he enjoyed watching the handsome young man. Reluctantly, he dropped some Sickles on the table and rose to leave.

He had no sooner left the bar, though, when he heard the door creak open and shut again. 'Hey, mister!' a voice called. The mudblood. Lucius hurried away. The boy followed. 'Mister! You dropped this!'

Lucius spun on his heel. The noble little student held out a glove. Impulsively, Lucius closed the distance between them and held out his hand silently. The youngster put the glove in his hand, and he seized him by the wrist and dragged him into the alley.

'Dumbledore teaches you that kindness is rewarded,' Lucius said disdainfully, enjoying the look of confusion on the boy's face. 'Perhaps, however, it's not always the kind of reward you bargained for.' Sucking his teeth at the sudden hardness under his robes, reminding himself this was neither the time, nor the place, but nevertheless compelled, Lucius pressed the young man against the brick wall of the Hog's Head, and thrust his pelvis against the boy several times, repulsed yet attracted all at once. Overcome with lust, he kissed him, bruise-hard, then tore himself away before he did something he would regret. The taste of those beer-stained lips lingered with him long after he caught up with Lestrange and the others.

~*~Fin~*~