Indescribable Taste

Chapter 4: Closet Case

In the morning, Hermione stuffed her face full of eggs, biscuits, and banana pancakes. Her appetite was very ferocious, though she did eat a little of Lucius's food, it didn't satisfy her demanding stomach. A tired feeling was shrouded over her as well as she headed for class. She had other classes aside from her detention and she was hardly getting any sleep. By the time she got back to her dorm it was nearly midnight and she would spend the remainder of the night--save for the two hours she gets to sleep--studying and doing homework.

Aside from heading towards another tiring day with Lucius, she was feeling just smashing. Every time she thought of the punches she let out on Draco, she smiled ear to ear. The grin kept even when she walked back into the Defense against the Dark Arts room for another detention. Hermione felt like she would have a much better time in the dirty class room. Lucius had actually--in his own little way--complimented her. It had made Hermione flop on her bed later on that night with a large sigh. She caught herself looking at her reflection in the mirror and admiring the glow in her smile. She actually wanted to do thing that pleased him, because the looks he gave her after mauling his own son was priceless.

She pushed open the door with ear splitting grin. Lucius was sitting at his desk with his feet nicely propped up on a mahogany foot stool. His head was hidden by a large dictionary sized book that read The Outs and Ins of Deadly Jinxes. His thick, white-blond hair was wrapped around his arms and some even lay across the desk. Lucius was turning a piece of the silvery hairs through his long, large fingers. He looked like some royal king.

"Good evening, Professor," Hermione said, setting her bag down near the door.

He looked over the book. "You seem extremely excited about cleaning today, Miss Granger."

"Not entirely," she said.

Lucius smirked and sat the book down. "Well, you shouldn't be. All the beakers and vials need cleaned next and I won't settle for any spots on them."

Hermione's smile melted away into a scowl. "You know, Professor, if I was to use my wand, this room could get much cleaner, much faster."

"Then, that would kill any lesson I'm trying to teach you. Hard work makes the weak person stronger, Miss Granger. Tomorrow will be even worse. The display cases are waiting for you," he said, putting the book back in front of him and pushed his blanket of hair away from his arms. It all fell on the floor Hermione had spent nearly all night cleaning.

"I have a question, sir."

"Out with it then," he said, not looking over his book. "Though I cannot guarantee I will answer it."

She had meant to ask a certain question; she was determined to ask it before she walked in the room, but at the last moment her audacity failed her. "...Would you like me to fix your hair?" It was the only thing she could think of in a split second of decision.

He set the book down completely and glared at her. "What are you saying? There's absolutely nothing wrong with my hair."

Hermione ran her fingers through her own bushy mess. Her heart was increasing its rate. "It's just so lengthy; I could fix it for you. It...it just always seems to be your face and frustrating you."

"Since when do I need to be concerned of what a Muggle thinks of my hair? You need to just fret about your own--obviously. I can handle myself just fine, you imprudent girl. Now please stop aggravating me and get to work."

Hermione felt the heat of her own embarrassment rise into her cheeks. She found herself, for the first time, being jumbled and not finding the right words. Lucius's holier-then-thou attitude was rather foreboding but she had handled Draco just fine and he seemed worse then her professor. It wasn't that she LIKED her professor! It was something else...

She turned to head towards two shelves that held what seemed like a mile long shelf that was above the cabinets; she had cleaned two days before--of vials and beakers covered inside and out in dust. She picked one up and blew fiercely at it, causing large dust specks to tickle her nose. She sneezed three consecutive times and dropped the glass vial which shattered into thousands of pieces.

Her eyes shut tightly together to avoid the dust that was clouded around her head. She took one foolish step forward and a large shard of glass impaled her left foot. The pain clouded her mind and she stumbled backwards, landing roughly onto the solid floor.

"Now, what in the...," Lucius started but as he seen his student collapsed on the ground holding her bleeding foot, he stood up briskly, knocking the large and heavy chair over. "What have you done you idiotic girl? Nearly everyday you've been here, you've injured yourself!"

Hermione was staring at her red foot with wide, watery eyes. A large slice of glass was jutting from the sole of her foot. She began whimpering, trying to swallow the feeling to scream. Salty tears streaked across her blushed cheeks. "G-g-get it out, Lucius," Hermione stuttered, covering her face with her hands. She didn't care about formalities. The throbbing pain in her foot was growing up her calf.

Sweat beads began to pop up on Lucius's forehead as he kneeled down and surveyed her injury. The glass shard was nearly halfway gouged in her flesh. Hermione's excruciating whimpers made it even less easy to handle. He pulled gently on the glass at first but the girl's yelps of agony caused him to jerk away quickly and get cold chills.

"Ju...just please pull it out quickly," Hermione whimpered, her legs shaking worse then leaves on a windy day.

Lucius hesitated. He really didn't want to hurt her but...'Oh, come on, Lucius, she's just some soiled Mudblood, just pull it out and get her back to work.' Lucius nodded to himself and got a decent grip on the blood slicked glass and pulled it smoothly out. Hermione let out a howl of anguish.

"Now, get back to work," he demanded, not looking at her hurtful face. "And, as I said before, you will NOT call me by my first name. You are a student and I'm your professor. We aren't on a first name basis, nor shall we ever be."

But when his cold gray eyes saw her laying on the floor like some poor petrified ghost; as much as he wanted to let her bleed there on the floor with no one to help her, something inside of him--it was that same stirring that he found came from the very pit of his stomach--made him pity her. Her Gryffindor colored skirt was riding up high on her thigh; Lucius quickly looked away, propping her up again the wall. He grimaced as he stared at his blood stained hands. It was the dirty blood smearing his hands palms. He stared at it for several minutes. Lucius didn't know if he was supposed to be ashamed of this kind of impure blood touching his skin--and it was strange because he felt no disgust for it being there. He felt only guilt.

"I suppose, once again, that you cannot walk," Lucius said, looking disapproving at the quivering girl.

Much to his surprise, Hermione stood up--wincing a bit, but still standing--and spoke: "Where is the broom, Professor," she asked tonelessly. "I will clean up my mistake." She wasn't going to let him get to her although blood was flowing from the bottom of her foot and she felt, at any moment, that she would collapse.

The tall, stern face looked at Hermione and his features seemed to change from annoyed to amuse in minutes while he thought. He sat down on one of the desk chairs and ripped a large piece of his robe off. It was made of silk and must have been very expensive but he acted as if it were nothing as he bandaged her foot. Her tears dried up quickly as she watched him wrap her foot so gently, as if he didn't want her to be having anymore pain. He looked very gentle and...unlike the Malfoy Senior she had always known.

He then picked her up and lofted her over his shoulder and sat her on a chair next to his desk. Lucius sat to the left of her and sliced pieces of roast beef with a sharp steak knife. He flicked his wand and a plate appeared. He handed Hermione the plate that held a slice of his roast beef and a homemade piece of bread. "I expect you have got to be hungry. I admit I have been famishing you lately and I don't see why, in the position you're in, that you don't have a little something to eat...but remember, Miss Granger, after you consume what I give you, you will work as I instructed or you will get more then detention, I assure you. And tonight you can stay until 1 a.m. instead of 11 p.m. You're just not showing the kind of head student behavior we would expect."

There Hermione was, bleeding and exhausted, and he wasn't cutting her any slack. He was making her do even more work! Her rage overcame the pain in her lower leg. "Professor this IS NOT FAIR! You have no right! You are so completely RUDE!"

Lucius smiled, his beautiful eyes glinted under his silver hair. "I'm not going to lie," he said with a seductive tone, "I'll not be a gentleman. I was raised to be a conqueror over anything, wizard, or other wise. Because you stood up to my son that day had nothing to do with the fact that you are a...," his heart tugged violently to say it--for the first time this guilt ripped him apart, "...a worthless Mudblood."

"What is that supposed to mean, anyway?" she challenged, slamming the plate down. "Mudblood is such a common word with you, isn't it, but as you can plainly see my blood flows the same as yours, the very same color as yours!"

Lucius shot up from his desk and slammed his massive fist on the table, making Hermione jump and papers scatter. A vain in his temple was throbbing. He stared at her but couldn't find any words to explain. Her truthful eyes stared back at him, triumphant. "Why are you still sitting here? Get up to the infirmary. I don't want you in my sight," he sneered, pointing towards the door. "And, I swear to you, girl, if this room isn't satisfactory by the time this week is over, there will be severe punishment."

Hermione just sat on the other side of the desk, her chin propped up her in palm, smiling cordially at him.

"I SAID GO!" he roared, his pointer finger shaking with rage. His student continued to stare at him with a smile, ignoring the blood that was now leaking from her bandages. Hermione began to rip strips of beef and slurp it into her mouth, chewing loudly as she stared into Lucius's eyes.

The pale man sat back down in his seat and clutched the arms of the chair, looking at his desk and taking deep breaths. "I, in any of my days, have never met such an uncivilized student! I could take another fifty points from Gryffindor--if I chose to--making you dead last!"

Although her pain made her insides recoil, she stood up and hobbled over to the furious Malfoy. His eyes glanced at her for a second but he looked back at the desk in noncompliance. Hermione stood beside him, pity running through her. She put a hand on his smooth face and, though he wanted to, he did not move away; he only sighed and shook his head.

"Get out of here," he said in a guttural voice.

Hermione nodded and forced herself, with gritting teeth, to the health wing, leaving only the door closing reverberated off the walls to prove she had been there.

Lucius continued to sit in his chair, his heart beating violently against his chest. The touch of her velvet hands had caused the stirrings he had had before to spread from his stomach into his entire body. He smothered his face on the desk and fell asleep there, a mountain of papers to grade forgotten.

**

Madam Pomfrey was surprised to see Hermione Granger limping such a terrible cut, and without an escort. Hermione declined to tell the nurse where she had been when she stepped on the glass and proposed it was someone's cruel idea of a joke to leave glass just lying around. Hermione wasn't much of a liar and Madam Pomfrey was sure the student was lying but gave no more questions and mending her, sending her on her way with a disapproving look.

The trekking up the stairs was a slow one. Her heart was feeling heavy, just when she thought she had a firm control on her emotions. She stopped and squinted her eyes. 'I DO have control over my feelings,' she thought to herself and turned on her heel back to Defense against the Dark Arts room.

She really had expected Lucius to have barred the door after she left but it opened easily. All the candles and torches were still lit and Hermione's puddle of blood that trailed out the door was now dried as if he hadn't bothered to get up.

"Professor?" she asked looking around. Behind a large stack of parchment, Lucius Malfoy's small snores were the only thing making noises in the room. Not knowing whether to smile or wake him up in rage, she did neither.

She fixed herself together a broken broom handle and wrapped a rag around it to clean the insides of the vials. Some of the smaller ones she had problems with. After the shelves were clean and Hermione had all the beakers in the right containers she was near falling asleep. It was 11:30 now. She wanted to prolong her detention to keep away from Harry. He was beginning to suspect something in Hermione she didn't even realize--yet she could feel his piercing gaze when she came in late every night from detention. Hermione HAD to stay a little later so Harry would be asleep.

Lucius had left all of his papers still not graded. She picked up the stack of parchment and his answer key. Harry and Ron's papers were good but that was only because she had helped them and pointed out all their mistakes. She shook her head as she gave them a decent passing grade. Draco Malfoy's paper was extremely well thought out and it surprised Hermione very much. She was looking forward to giving him a T. Lavender and Parvati had done an o.k. job but it was obvious they had cheated off one another. On one question about the rise of Vade Keda, who was the creator of the killing curse, Lavender had put the answer "I don't know," and Parvati had put "I don't either," which made Hermione snort.

Lucius had left way too many homework assignments not graded that before she could make a mark on Lee Jordan's paper, the quill dropped from in between her fingers and her heavy eyelids slammed shut. Lucius's less then accommodated bed felt completely secure as she was wafted off into dream land.

Hermione awoke to find Lucius pacing the room. The window that viewed the outside area still suggested it was night time.

"Professor?" she asked in a groggy voice and crumbling some of the parchments as she set up.

Lucius threw his arms in the air with dramatic action. "Why are you back here? Do you realize it is 4 a.m. and if you are found here, it would be terrible for both of us?"

Hermione stretched her long, lean body across the bed and groaned. "I suppose, but we didn't do anything, now did we?"

"That's not the point," he huffed, sitting on the edge of his bed with his face in his hands. "Why did I let him talk me into doing this?" Lucius cried.

Hermione sat Indian style and leaned forward, wiping the crust from her eyes. "Who?"

"Who, what?" he snapped. Then Lucius froze and stared at her. "It's nothing."

She leaned in closer, those brown eyes drinking him in. She raised her hand again to touch him gingerly on his lips and he pulled away. "Why can't I touch you?" she whispered, her eyelashes heavy and her heart thundering.

His face was stern but his eyes were watery. "You're my student. You are a dirty blood. You are a goody two-shoes little child. I could have a twelve foot parchment on the reasons I can't have you touching me."

Hermione was so close to his face now, he could see the lines in her lips. "I want to be bad, like you. I feel like everyone here are foolish, worthless cowards. I want to be in that same wave length as you are, to understand what you feel. I feel like we have a connection." She was now stroking his cheek but he didn't notice. Their eyes were locked as is they were having a reading each others minds. Lucius raised one quivering hand to touch her milky white skin as if he was accepted her request.

"Listen to me, girl, you could never be as skilled as I am nor could I teach you. I do not trust you but give me a reason to and I might think about it. Tomorrow when you come for detention we will have a proper dinner and talk it over. Dress nicely, unlike the wardrobe you HAVE been wearing, and just leave the old robes here because you will eat then you will work." He was saying all of this with a serious face but inside it was a different story.

Hermione looked amazed and a lop-sided smiled adorned her face. "Are you asking me for a date?" she asked, with an infamous Malfoy smirk, batting her long black eyelashes.

Lucius looked stunned. "Not in the least, you hormone driven teenager! I will be actually teaching you and you will dress accordingly, as if you were in my class room. Besides, you have been much help in this room and I think not depriving you of food for one day will, let's hope, make you get on the ball and finish this mess," he said with a small smile glazed across his handsome face. "Well, get to bed and if you get stopped by Filch just tell him you had a 'womanly' emergency. He cowers over those situations."

"Tomorrow, then?" she asked, slowly slipping her hand away from Lucius's face.

"I suppose I'm supposed to be punishing you and not teaching you but I suppose just tomorrow won't hurt," Lucius said sternly.

**

When Hermione woke up in her private dorm, Harry was still asleep and snoring loudly. She slipped out of the covers, looking happier then she had in weeks. She didn't know what it was about Lucius but she was suspecting tonight he would sit and listen to her distress--or was that really what it was that excited her?

She pulled on a wooly black sweater that was deeply V-necked and a gray and black checkered knee skirt. Standing in front of the mirror with a look of disgust on her face she began to tug her brush through her bushy hair. She pulled half of it out and clasped it back with a butterfly pendant that flapped its wings. Finally she pulled on her Gryffindor robes over it all and was ready for the day, her old Slytherin work robes folded nicely at the bottom of her knapsack that she had forgotten to leave in Lucius's classroom.

Hermione had Herbology again and a double session of History of Magic. Transfiguration was easy to get through since she had excelled quite well over the years. Arithmacy, Hermione's favorite class, was last and she was in quite a good mood by the end of the day. She was extremely nervous now though, as well. What could she possibility talk to Lucius about over dinner?

She checked her hair one more time before leaving the common room; after all her classes she headed towards to cold dungeons of Hogwarts. The torches outside of the Defense against the Dark Arts room were out and Hermione knocked instead of usually walking in.

"Yes?" Lucius's voice bellowed through the thick door. Hermione entered and in the front of the class room Lucius had sat a table up with a velvet table cloth covered in sweet potatoes, a large roasted ham, spotted dick, and a few large bowls filled with corn and black eyed peas.

The thing Hermione was looking at wasn't the food but Lucius himself. He was dressed in light green robes with black straps twirling around the arms and a large blue cape was wrapped around his shoulders and belted in the middle of his chest. There was also a long scarf like material that draped over his large shoulders bearing the M on both ends of it. His hair was pulled back completely, not one hair out of place unlike the usual when it covered his eyes.

"Well don't just stand there and stare. I'm only repaying you for the hard work and the number you did on my son," he chortled. "Come and sit," he said, putting out a chair for her.

The food was good as Hermione slowly cut up her ham and chewed slowly as well. She was wanting to say something to him but he seemed as if he didn't want to converse. He was staring at his plate scooping up peas and then rolling them down his fork and back on his plate.

"Did you prepare this yourself?" she asked offhandedly.

"No, house elves of course," Lucius said gruffly. He stared at her and tried to control to urge to feel her soft skin under his fingertips again.

"So, how does you wife feel about you being gone for so long?"

He glared at her for a moment. "She left me a few months ago. Last I heard, Narcissa was in France, married to some rich Wizard named Freize Bulunty."

He wasn't married anymore! Hermione shoveled another piece of ham in her mouth, not knowing what to say. Swallowing it quickly, she stood up. "I think I should get started. What is in need of cleaning?"

"The back closet," Lucius said without looking up. He threw his napkin in the half eaten plate of food and stood up, walking back into his private office without saying a word to her.

Hermione wanted to reach out to him but she could tell he was a man who could sort out his own problems. She went into the back room and changed from her Gryffindor robes to the Slytherin ones. The closet was so terrible there was mold caked to nearly every shelf in the place. Most of the boxes that were stacked one on top of the other were oozing with some kind of purple gunk. Then there was a large red chair in the other corner that was caked with seven inches of dust. A few assorted boxes were on the shelves as well. Hermione kicked at the dirty floor and pouted.

She began getting the little boxes off the shelves and going through them. Most of it was old papers from former students in the Defense class. A piece of paper slipped out of the pile ironically with Lucius's name written boldly at the top. It read:

Dear Mr. Malfoy,

Your son, Lucius A. Malfoy, has not shown the kind of successful magical power we expect from an Auror and we are sorry to inform you that he will not be chosen as one of the students in Hogwarts graduating as an Auror.

Sincerely,

Briskas Thimbleton Headmaster of Hogwarts

"An Auror?" Hermione whispered, unable to believe it. Lucius was a death eater; surely he didn't want to become an AUROR!

"You are such a nosey little twit, you realize?" Lucius snatched the parchment quickly from her hands. He towered over her with a menacing look on his face. "If I couldn't be an Auror then I could be the next best thing to one," he snapped, exposing the Dark Mark on his left forearm. Hermione looked at with amazement. "You want to be like this, chained under a master that will never free you except for in death? You are just a foolish little girl with big dreams."

"No," she whispered, running her fingers across the scar of a snake protruding through a skull. "I want to know if you feel the same way I feel--as if the world scorned us to be the way we are. You wanted to be an Auror but settled for second best and I want to be a pureblooded witch, but I all I can do is read books that doesn't get me any closer to being a pureblood--the way you are. I don't want to serve Voldemort; I just want to be a strong witch, with an attitude as yours is, without the fact that I have no magic blood in me what so ever."

Hermione stood up to him and a small tear slid down the crevice between her cheek and nose. Lucius's feelings of control were shattered as he leaned down closer to her. Her eyes were closed and she was trying not to cry but when she felt Lucius's full, soft lips press delicately against hers, the emotion of pure bliss made more fat tears roll down her face as he kissed her deeply with his tongue. He put one hand around her hair, massaging the thick curls and with his other hand he was running his hand across her hip.

Hermione pulled back and their breath clashed together as they stared at each other, their heart both blazing with the heat of passion. Lucius wasn't forceful, and didn't scare her as Draco as been in the girls' bathroom and she felt like Jell-O in his fathers arms.

Lucius groaned with satisfaction when he pulled her off the ground and began sucking seductively on her neck. Hermione wrapped her long, slender legs around his hips and pressed her private parts against his growing erection, groaning helplessly, and gasping his name. Hermione hadn't expected this to happen. She had been so sure she could handle him but he was so desirable.

Lucius fumbled quickly with the clasps on Hermione's robes as she did his, like they were wayward, inexperienced teenagers. He was gasping with anticipation when he heard a noise, and jerked backwards.

Hermione was struggling to get her breath back, "Wh-wh-what is it, Lucius?" It didn't have to be answered. Draco and Seamus were both staring at the teacher and student through the closet window with bewildered looks on their face.