Author Notes: Thank you to emerald_dragon8 for the beta! I've tweaked the smut a little bit because this site doesn't allow explicit smut, but the main gist is the same.

Warnings: Infidelity, dubious consent involving potions.
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended. All characters engaging in sexual activity are 18 years or older.

Down the Rabbit Hole: Part II

Hermione pressed her palms together to calm her nerves. She was going to keep this meeting professional. She had to keep this meeting professional. What happened last time was a mistake, and it was definitely not going to happen again. She loved Ron; she was not going to do this to him. Taking a deep breath, she reached forward and entered the room. Almost automatically, she waved her wand to set up privacy shields.

The look Lucius gave her was distinctly unprofessional as was the smirk that was playing about his lips. "You ran out of here so quickly last time," he drawled.

"Last time," she said frostily, "was an utterly inappropriate moment that will never happen again." She sat down at the table and began to pull files out. "I have discovered discrepancies in your trial that we should focus on."

"Certainly," Lucius said as he stood up and rounded the table. She felt like she couldn't breathe properly with him standing over her. He had so much presence.

Hermione leaned back in her chair. "This is inappropriate," she snapped. "Entirely inappropriate."

"You keep on saying that," Lucius said, sounding amused as he leaned against the edge of the table. "Yet, I don't see you moving."

She had to concede that point. She wasn't moving. Hermione suspected that if she did move, then it would be straight into his arms. Hence, she kept her hands clenched in her lap. "I would appreciate it if you would go back to your seat," she said stiffly.

Lucius leaned down so that his mouth was only a few centimetres away from her ear. She only had to half turn her head, and she would have been staring right into his eyes. "Certainly, Hermione," he said, his breath caressing her ear, causing her to shiver. She hadn't felt like this for years. It wasn't as bad as the last time she had been here, but it still felt as though she was a teenager again and hormones were raging through her body.

Hermione was almost disappointed when he went back around the table and sat down. She reached down to open up her folder. "I have more documents for you to sign," she said, and slid them across the table.

"Anything," he said, a gleam in his eyes.

She handed him a pen. "Just your signature will be fine," she said. "At the end of all of these documents and you also need to initial every page."

With distaste, Lucius stared at the pen. "Don't you have a quill?"

"Actually, no," Hermione lied. "I find that pens are much neater than quills. Much less ink spillage." That was true, she reflected, but she tended to carry around quills anyway. She found that a lot of higher-ups in her department were offended when she handed them pens. Personally, she hated quills. They were rather unwieldy, and far too feathery for her liking. She hid a smile, as she watched Lucius wrinkle his nose as he tried to use the pen. She was glad she had the upper hand at last.

"These pens aren't bad," Lucius commented, a few minutes later as he handed back the papers.

Hermione found herself grinning at him. "See? I told you." She'd been trying to get Ron to use pens for years, but always refused.

The evening had started perfectly normally. Ron had seemed slightly irked when she got back from work late for the third night in a row, but he had calmed down. They had decided to go out and pick up some takeout. It was then that the argument had started. Before this, Hermione had never realised that it was possible to have a fight over whether to get Chinese takeout or Indian takeout.

"It's always what you want!" Ron shouted, as he ran a hand through his shock of red hair. It made the hair stick up at weird angles, making him look more furious.

"All I said was that we should figure out whether we've had Chinese or Indian more often this month and pick the one we haven't frequented as much," Hermione protested. "You said you didn't mind which one we had!"

"I don't mind," Ron snapped. "That isn't the point. As always, Hermione, you're completely missing the point. Like when you missed the reason why my mother asked you to wear her old wedding gown?"

Hermione stood up from the sofa, and narrowed her eyes. Ron always brought up the wedding gown. Every single fight since they'd been married, without fail, Ron had always mentioned the sodding wedding gown. "I didn't want to wear it!" she said angrily. "It was my wedding. Don't you think I was bloody well entitled to wear what I wanted? Besides, it was old, musty and falling apart. Or did you want more of a reason for people to mock us for being poor?" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Hermione regretted it. They had come to this point previously in their arguments, but she had never stepped over the line before. It was as though there was a line that said DO NOT CROSS in capital letters and she had just gone and strode across it.

She could see Ron's face turning red. "You didn't just say that..." he expostulated.

"Ron," Hermione said quickly. "I didn't mean it."

"I thought," Ron said, sounding hurt, "that you didn't mind that I was poor."

Guilt swirled all around her. "I don't mind," Hermione insisted. "Truly, I don't. I shouldn't have said it. I didn't mean to say it. I'm fine with our lifestyle." He looked at her with what she had always termed puppy dog eyes. Before, it had always made her heart melt with love, but now it just made her feel even more guilty. Plus, she decided, it was a rather pathetic expression for a grown man to be wearing.

"Is that why you've been working so much?" Ron asked. "To earn more money?"

"No!" Hermione protested, but even as she said it, she wondered if he was right. She had always been ambitious, while Ron hadn't. She wanted to succeed at work and find promotions, while Ron seemed happy waiting for promotions to come floating his way.

"I can see that you're lying," he told her, shaking his head. "Look, I can't ... I can't talk about this now. I need to get out of here."

In a daze, Hermione watched as he grabbed his bag and strode towards the front door. In all their previous arguments, Ron had never just left before. Generally, when he was furious, he sat there silently. She had stormed out a few times, but usually she just went into their bedroom and slammed the door. "You can't just leave," she snapped. "We're in the middle of something here."

"Oh," Ron said, in a slightly mocking tone, "so all those times you walk out of the door when we're having an argument... how come it's okay when you do it?"

She had no answer to that.

"Don't bother following me," Ron said, as he closed the door behind him.

Hermione thought she might have preferred it if he had just slammed it. She half-considered following him, but then decided against it. Walking over to the kitchen, she grabbed a wine bottle from a cabinet and a corkscrew. She was going to damn well enjoy the wine they had been saving for their anniversary that year.

It had started off as a normal professional meeting. She felt a small twinge of attraction to him, but she had managed to dismiss it easily. Even, Lucius seemed to be acting normally, or as normally as she could presume given she didn't know him well.

Then it all seemed to go downhill.

Hermione wasn't sure how she ended up with her robes pulled up around her waist, sitting on the table with Lucius slowly kissing a trail down her neck. It seemed like one minute, she had been absent-mindedly nibbling on the lunch that had been given to them and telling him about the appeals process and the next minute, his lips were on hers and the papers on the table were shoved to one side and forgotten. The rest of what had happened was a blur but from the ache deep inside her, she thought she could figure it out.

She shifted slightly, and pulled a pen out from under her and tossed it onto the floor. "This... we shouldn't be doing this," she managed to get out.

"Yes," Lucius agreed unexpectedly. There was a strange look in his eyes, lust mingled with something else. He opened his mouth, but she didn't want to find out what he was about to say.

Hermione dragged him forward and gave him a bruising kiss. This was wrong, a thousand shades of wrong, but Hermione wasn't sure what the right thing was anymore. She wanted this, she knew that much. She hadn't wanted anything else so much in her life.

From the moan that escaped Lucius, she surmised that he wanted the same thing. The heat in his eyes made her melt into his arms and wrap her legs around him until she felt the sweet agony of release slide through her veins. As she felt her own heartbeat slow down, she could hear Lucius gasping against her ear. She could feel him slump against her. "You know," she said thoughtfully, "you're much better than Ron."

Lucius stiffened. He pushed himself off the table and stood up. "I would hope so," he drawled.

"In fact," Hermione found herself saying, "Ron's being a bit of a twat lately." Dimly, at the back of her mind, Hermione wasn't sure why she was saying it, but the words just spilt out. "We just keep on fighting."

Lucius tweaked one of her nipples. "Then isn't it good that you have me," he told her.

Hermione dug her fingers into her palms as she leaned down to kiss Ron. He tilted his head up sniffed slightly. "Did you have a shower?"

"I had one right after work," Hermione said, trying her best to keep her breathing even. She could still vividly remember Lucius kissing his way down her neck, almost viciously. She had to charm away the visible bruising but it was still tender. She resisted the urge to lift up her hand to touch her neck.

Ron reached over and ran a fingertip over her shoulder. "You smell nice." His eyes gleamed. "Why don't you have another shower? I'll join you. It's been a long time since we've done that."

He reached out to wrap his arms around her but she twisted deftly away. "I've got work to do," she said. It wasn't a lie. She did have work to do but she also didn't want to face Ron. Not after what had happened. Not when she was still sore from the afternoon with Lucius.

Ron looked disappointed.

As Hermione walked away, she turned over the events of the afternoon in her mind. She had no idea what had happened. Yes, she had been attracted to Lucius. She had been attracted to other men while being married before. That wasn't a crime. She would have been surprised if Ron hadn't felt a twinge of attraction for other women during their years of being married.

But she'd never acted upon the attraction.

However, for the last few days, the attraction had just overpowered her. It had felt animalistic the way she turned and dragged Lucius forward by his Azkaban prison robes. Lucius had a look of such surprise in his eyes when she had pushed him down onto the table. Hermione ran her fingers over her neck. Lucius had quickly recovered though, she thought wryly.

She was suddenly hit with a debilitating feeling of guilt. Hermione leaned up against the bedroom wall, and pressed her forehead against the cool plasterboard. How could she have done something like that to Ron? With Lucius Malfoy of all people? She knew that she should walk back into the other room, and tell Ron what had happened, but she also knew that if she did, it would be the end of her marriage.

Do I want to save my marriage? Hermione thought suddenly. The thought was disorientating. It was something that hadn't occurred to her before, even through the worst times. She had always thought she'd stay married to Ron forever.

She loved Ron.

Didn't she?

Hermione wasn't sure any longer. She certainly hadn't felt anything as strong as what she felt that afternoon in years. She wasn't sure if she had ever felt so compelled by Ron. It was as if she was following every action Lucius made with her eyes.

"I'm worried about you," Harry said quietly. He hesitated. "You seem so tense nowadays."

Hermione tried to smile but she suspected that it came out rather crooked. "It's just the case," she said. "I've been really busy on it. Sorry, we couldn't make it to dinner with you and Severus last weekend. I really wanted to go but something came up." Hermione crossed her fingers beneath the table, hoping that Harry wouldn't ask for specifics. She had ended up in another fight with Ron that weekend, and afterwards, neither of them wanted to be cheerful and have dinner with Harry and Severus.

"Ron told me about the fight," Harry said bluntly.

"Oh." Hermione felt a surge of irrational rage as she clenched her fists. How dare Ron talk to Harry about their private fights?

"Don't be mad," Harry pleaded. "I can see that you're mad."

Hermione smiled tightly. "I'm not mad," she lied.

"You are," Harry told her, with a sigh. "You're annoyed at Ron for telling me about the fight. I know you are. He's worried about you. So am I. You seem so distant."

"I'm fine," Hermione said, almost automatically. Why was everybody on her case all of a sudden? "It's just the Lucius Malfoy case."

"Another thing," Harry added. "Invariably, every time we talk, you bring the conversation back around to the case."

"It's an important part of my life right now," Hermione said. She suddenly had a vivid memory of Lucius pushing her into the wall, her own fingers clawing at his robes, hiking them up so that he could enter her roughly. She shook her head slightly. "It's my job, Harry," she said reproachfully. "Surely you understand that."

Harry frowned. "Of course I do," he said. "But I'm your friend and Ron's your husband. We're part of your life as well."

"I know that," she said in exasperation. "I love you guys. I really do. But sometimes, work needs to take priority for a while." She swallowed the sudden surge of guilt she felt bubbling up in her stomach.

Harry looked doubtful. "If you say so," he said. "I just want you to know that I'm here for you. Heck, even Severus is worried."

Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Well," Harry amended, "he's slightly worried. But you know that getting Severus to admit something is like pulling teeth."

Despite everything, Hermione grinned. She knew exactly how Severus was. Even now, after so many years of being together with Harry, he was still awkward whenever they had dinner together. Severus always behaved perfectly; however, she suspected that he wasn't particularly relaxed around her and Ron. It was only after they had a buffet dinner together, and she had come back to the table to see Severus and Harry alone together, that she had realised what a wonderful relationship they really had and how natural they seemed together.

"You will tell me if anything's ever wrong, won't you?" Harry insisted.

She sighed. "Of course, I will. The same goes for you, okay?"

Harry grinned impishly. "I'm not saying that we don't have any problems, but when we do, making up is usually the best part."

Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You keep on working late, and then you come home and just read," Ron complained. "You never talk to me. Weren't you the one going on about communication being a vital part of marriage?"

"Sorry," Hermione said automatically without even looking up from the book she was reading.

"Would you look at me when you're talking?" Ron said in exasperation.

Hermione looked up. She could feel a knot in her stomach when she saw the suspicious look in his eyes. A little voice at the back of her head asked her why she was doing this, but she ignored it. "I'm looking at you now," she pointed out.

"I feel like we haven't connected for so long," Ron said quietly.

"I'm sorry that I've been so tired."

"Not that," Ron snapped. "We haven't connected emotionally! Or physically either, I suppose, but I wasn't talking about that."

Hermione bit her lip. She knew the reason for that, but she didn't want to tell Ron. It would ruin her marriage. Not that there was much of a marriage to ruin at this point. Right now, it just seemed like a simulacra of a marriage.

"You just seem so focused on that case," Ron told her. "I know it's important but aren't we important too?"

Hermione could feel her heart pounding. Ron was right. Their marriage was important. She knew that. Reaching over, she squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "It's only for a little bit longer. And then this will be over." She vowed to herself that it was the truth. She wouldn't see Lucius again after the case. She would have no reason to. It was just a fling. Like a summer fling. It was a momentary lapse of judgement. Nothing more.

Ron only looked slightly mollified.

Hermione gasped as Lucius swirled his tongue. "I have a meeting set up with the Appeals Tribunal tomorrow," she managed to get out. Merlin, it shouldn't have felt so good, especially since she knew that the guards were right outside the door and her locking spell on the door wouldn't hold them for long if they chose to come in.

"Good," Lucius said, his voice slightly husky as he lifted his head up. Hermione could feel him teasing her.

"We should be working," she said, for what seemed to be the fifth time but Lucius ignored her. Even to her own ears, she didn't sound particularly convincing. "Oh," she gasped as Lucius slid down to kneel on the floor. Her vow to herself just this morning seemed like a dim memory as Hermione threw her head back. She was especially glad of the privacy spell she had cast in the room because she suspected that without the spell, the rest of Azkaban would have been treated to the sound of her moaning.

"We'll work later," Lucius whispered into her ear as he stood up and pulled her forward on the table. "Much later."

Ron's breathing was ragged. "Are you having an affair?" he asked, his voice harsh.

Hermione swallowed hard. This was what she had been waiting for. The moment of truth. "I won't even dignify that with an answer," she said icily. The guilt twisted her stomach, but she continued, "Ronald Arthur Weasley, how could you think that of me?"

Ron narrowed his eyes and lifted his arm. For one frightening moment, Hermione thought that he was about to punch the wall or worse. He then let it fall slowly to his side. "You're acting so differently lately," he told her, his voice shaking. "I don't know what to think any more. We haven't had sex in a week!"

It was actually more like several weeks, but Hermione didn't think this was the best time to bring that up. She decided to take refuge in denial and sarcasm. "Just who do you think I'm having this hypothetical affair with?" Her stomach churned as she added, "Lucius Malfoy? Draco Malfoy? The Minister of Magic."

Ron gave a slight smile. "Well, no," he said. "I didn't think that. Merlin, you'd be one stupid git to sleep with a snake like either of the Malfoys."

Hermione let out a mental sigh of relief.

Ron suddenly gave her a suspicious look. "You aren't sleeping with Kingsley, are you?"

She stared.

"No, of course you aren't," Ron said. He bit his lip. "Look, Hermione, I'm sorry for what I said."

Hermione felt a stab of guilt as she examined the floor underneath her feet. He shouldn't be apologising. In fact, she ought to be the one apologising. After all, she was the one sleeping with Lucius Malfoy. And Ron was right, it was a stupid move. She had run it over hundreds of times in her mind, and she still couldn't figure out why she was doing it and why she seemed willing to risk her marriage for something as sordid as an affair with a Malfoy. She looked up. Ron still hadn't moved from where he was standing beside the wall. His hands were still clenched into fists; it was apparent that despite what he said, he didn't believe that she was telling the truth. "I know we've been having some problems," she said slowly.

Ron nodded. "We seem to fight about everything." He looked helpless as he spread his arms. "I don't want to fight, but ... it just happens."

"I don't want to fight either," Hermione admitted.

Ron took a few steps forward and took her hand. "We need to work on this."

Hermione slowly and systematically shredded pieces of paper. She looked down at the mess she had made on the bed and sighed. Fortunately, Ron wouldn't be back for several hours. He had a big case and needed to work late. She could only imagine the big fight they would have if he got home to find her randomly shredding pieces of paper on the bed. She squinted down at the mess, and realised that she had been shredding the old love letters she had kept from Ron back from when they were at Hogwarts.

She had been looking through her old keepsake box earlier and had been reading the letters. She kept small tokens from back when they were at Hogwarts, such as the ribbon she wore in her hair on their first date. She didn't think that Ron kept anything from that long ago, but once in a while, Hermione found that she enjoyed looking back at the past.

Hermione twisted the wedding ring around her finger. She still loved Ron. At least she thought she did. But it wasn't the heady love she had felt back when they were young. She had always thought that love slowly settled down into a shape that could last an eternity. She had always thought that the comfortable feeling she had with Ron was supposed to be how it was. Except, the last few weeks had taught her that they had too many fights for her comfort. She had just gotten used to it.

She bit her lip and stared at the shredded letters. Waving her wand, she sent them into the wastepaper basket and vowed to empty it before Ron got home. They had been so much in love back then.

So young and so in love.

"I know about you and Lucius Malfoy. You're having an affair with him."

Hermione spun around. She could feel her hands shaking. In an attempt to steady them, she shoved them in the pockets of her robes. "What?" she said. "That's ludicrous."

Ron stared at her. He seemed almost calm, but it was the eerie calm of a lake right before a thunderstorm. She could sense the flood of emotions behind his steady eyes, but he was obviously keeping them well at bay. "I'm not an idiot, Hermione," he told her. "I mightn't be as smart as you, but I'm no idiot."

"Ron," Hermione said, trying to inject humour into the situation. Inwardly, she was panicking. From the look in his eyes, he obviously knew. She knew the look. It was more than suspicion. It was more than simply being jealous or some sort of sixth sense. He knew. "Why would I do that with Lucius Malfoy? I might be representing him but I know he hates Muggle-borns. He's made that emphatically clear every time I've seen him. You know about the deal with Judith..."

"Of course, I know about that," Ron interrupted. "I also remember telling you that it was a stupid idea."

"You said it was a bad idea," Hermione corrected.

Ron narrowed his eyes and for a second, Hermione felt like she couldn't even recognise the man she had been married to for so many years. He looked so hard and so brittle. It seemed as though if she reached over and pushed him over, he would fall and smash into a million pieces. "I told you Lucius Malfoy was a sneaky bastard," he said.

"I'm not having an affair with him, Ron," she protested.

Ron raised a hand. "Spare me," he said. "I know you are."

Hermione swallowed. "What makes you think I am?" she asked, a tiny quaver in her voice.

"Despite knowing this," Ron continued as if she hadn't spoken at all, "I still think I should warn you about him."

He wanted to warn her? Hermione was confused. This conversation was going nothing like how she had imagined it. She had thought that Ron would scream, yell and perhaps threaten divorce. She was prepared for anger, coldness, tears but she wasn't prepared for seemingly friendly advice. "What?" she asked, incredulous.

"He's manipulating you," Ron told her.

"Don't be ridiculous," Hermione said. "I'm not having an affair and I'm not being manipulated by Lucius Malfoy."

Ron gave a slight smile. "You are and you don't even know it." He reached down, pulled a file out of his briefcase, and placed it on the table. He then pushed his chair back and stood up.

After a brief hesitation, Hermione picked up the file. Opening it, she could see that it was about an illegal potion. "This is preposterous," she said. "What makes you think that Lucius gave me this?" She waved the file around.

Ron's eyes glittered. "I have my own sources."

"What on earth does that mean?" she demanded but Ron didn't reply. He simply walked away out the front door, closing it firmly behind him.

Hermione inhaled deeply as the door opened. "Well?" she asked sharply as the mediwitch walked into the room. Belatedly, she realised that her question could have been interpreted as being rude. She softened her voice slightly as she asked, "Is there anything wrong?"

The mediwitch looked up from where she was scanning over the results. "It seems that you've been under the influence of something. Our lab techs haven't been able to figure out how it was introduced but they are fairly confident that it wasn't a spell. They believe that it might have been an orally ingested potion or perhaps a gaseous substance that you breathed in."

Hermione's mouth dropped open. She hadn't expected Ron to be right.

"Have you been feeling dizzy or light-headed for the last few weeks?" the mediwitch asked, waving her wand across Hermione's body. "Your temperature and blood pressure are slightly elevated."

"I've been feeling a bit tired," Hermione admitted, but she had just thought that was because she had been fighting so much with Ron. She had barely had a good night of sleep in the last three weeks, ever since she had taken on the Lucius Malfoy case. "What was I under the influence of?"

"Our toxicology tests tell us that the potion is a variant of Veritaserum, but more subtle. It works on lowering the conscious mind and allowing other parts of the mind to take over. It would be similar to you ingesting a bottle of Firewhiskey but with none of the side-effects of alcohol," the mediwitch said, with a frown. "It is a highly controlled substance, but not illegal. I'm going to have to report this exposure so that the Ministry can track whether it was an accident or something deliberate." She reached over and patted Hermione on the arm. "It's good that you came now. From the levels in your blood, you've been exposed for quite a while. I'm going to have to ask you to use a Pensieve for your memories of the past few weeks."

Hermione froze.

"Don't worry, dear," the mediwitch said reassuringly. "We're not here to judge you." She bustled over to a cupboard and pulled out a bottle. She handed it to Hermione. "Now drink that. It'll clear your system."

Hermione put the small bottle down on her lap. She glanced down at the label. It was a cleansing potion; however, this was specifically designed to bind to all magical potions in her system.

"You'll be able to take any normal potions or whatnot that you're on in twelve hours after you've taken this," the mediwitch told her. "It might cause stomach cramps. You can take Muggle medicine in the meantime for any pain." She handed Hermione a small jar of Muggle painkillers. "I'll be back with the Pensieve."

Hermione stared down at the floor. While she could understand why the mediwitch needed to know, she had no desire to draw out the memories of her affair with Lucius. She still felt as though they were perfectly consensual even though she knew she was under the influence of something. In any case, having an affair with a client would cause her to be fired. She certainly didn't want that! A small voice at the back of her head wondered if she was being irrational, but she ignored it.

When the mediwitch re-entered the room, Hermione drew out her wand. "Obliviate!"

"You did this to me," Hermione accused, her hands shaking. She could hear her voice becoming shrill. "You ruined my marriage. Fuck, you made me sleep with you." Her heart pounded in her ears, loudly, almost drowning out the pain of what she had done. "How dare you? How could you do something like that?" She pulled out her wand with trembling fingers and levelled it at Lucius's head. "Tell me why I shouldn't say those two words. Tell me why I shouldn't just kill you, right now."

To her surprise, a slow smile spread over Lucius's face. "I didn't make you do anything," he drawled.

"You did something," Hermione spat. "I know you did." She took a step closer, narrowing her eyes.

"You didn't let me finish," Lucius told her, amusement tinging his tone. "I didn't make you do anything. It was merely a spell that lowered your inhibitions."

Hermione could feel her blood boil. Even though that was exactly what the mediwitch had told her, it still made her furious. She clenched her fists tightly, digging her fingernails into her palms in a controlled effort not to scream as loud as she could. "And that makes it okay?" she got out through gritted teeth.

Lucius smirked. "It was your choice, Hermione."

She shivered as he lightly ran a finger down her arm. Memories came tumbling into her mind of how he had pushed her down on a table not unlike this. She shook her head to clear the thoughts. She definitely wasn't under the spell now. She had checked before coming in today. Her blood workup from St Mungo's yesterday had come back clean of all spells and potions. So, damn it, why could he still seem to do this to her?

Abruptly, Hermione spun around and walked out of the room. Once outside, she leaned up against the cool stone walls and closed her eyes. What was wrong with her? It was as though as soon as she saw Lucius, her previously dearly held notions of right and wrong were flung out of the window. She could feel an almost physical ache for him.

A bitter smile twisted her lips. That was definitely the right word. Physical. She definitely was attracted to him, no doubt about it. Even now, even without the spell, she felt like she was being drawn across the room. It had to be leftover magic from the spell. There was no way she could be actually attracted to Lucius. He was nothing like the men she had been attracted to in the past. Most of them had been sweet, and slightly awkward, like Ron and Viktor. Lucius Malfoy was anything but awkward. His voice was smooth and silky, and as she listened to him, it felt like she was being slowly smothered by liquid honey.

Squaring her chin, Hermione walked back into the room. "You are a disgusting cretin," she announced. "From this moment, you are no longer my client." She took out her wand, and was about to perform the unbinding spell when Lucius lifted his hand.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" he asked mildly.

She narrowed her eyes. "I should have never taken this case," she snapped.

"But you did," Lucius pointed out. "And you made a deal with your boss."

Hermione's fingers trembled. How on earth did he know that? Obviously her boss had known and she had told Ron when she had first taken on the case, but she definitely never mentioned it to Lucius.

"I can see from your expression that you're wondering how I came about by that small slice of information," Lucius said with a smirk.

"As a matter of fact, I am wondering exactly that," Hermione said acidly. "But it doesn't matter. I refuse to represent you any longer."

"You would forgo the definite promotion if you won my appeal?" Lucius asked mildly. "And what about your famous morals? Don't I deserve representation? You know nobody else will do it."

She hesitated too long. From the look of triumph on Lucius's face, she realised that he knew that she didn't. She had worked too long and hard for this job. To be able to get Lucius Malfoy out of Azkaban would be the icing on her legal career. As much as she found Lucius despicable – now more than ever – she had to admit that deep down, she still believed that he deserved legal representation. "I should let you rot in Azkaban for the rest of your life," she spat.

Hermione clenched her hands into fists underneath her napkin. She should have never agreed to have coffee with Harry. She wasn't sure what she had been thinking. Of course, Ron would have talked to him, and of course, Ron would have mentioned their recent marital problems. But she hadn't thought of that when Harry had waved to her as she was going out to lunch.

"How could you..." Harry said, trailing off.

She couldn't bear the look of disappointment in his eyes. "It's nothing to do with you," she said stiffly, hoping that Harry could just leave it at that. It wasn't as though she had betrayed him.

He sighed. "I don't know if you're even hearing what you're saying."

Hermione held up her hand before he could continue. "I know what you're about to say," she said quietly, "and I've heard it all before. I don't want to discuss this in such a public area."

Harry looked around at the people sitting at the other tables, happily chatting away, before turning back to her. He nodded. "Fine," he said tersely. "Not here, then."

Hermione sighed. "I didn't mean I wanted to discuss it at all," she added. She reached over and poured herself another cup of tea. She inhaled the sharp smell of peppermint. It helped clear her head and Merlin knew her head needed clearing nowadays. It was as though her world had been turned upside down in the short period of just over a month.

"I'm your friend," Harry told her. "I want you to be happy, of course. But I'm not sure that this will make you happy. Do you want to throw away your marriage for a fling like this? Not only your marriage... do you want to throw away the friendship?"

She opened her mouth to say, 'of course not' but the words wouldn't come out. There was no chance that she was going to continue a relationship with Lucius, but she didn't want to stay married to Ron either. "I don't think our marriage was working out anyway," she managed to finally say. "I just didn't see it until now."

Harry shook his head. "Do you even love him?"

"Who?"

"Malfoy," Harry said, with a frown.

"Of course not," she said automatically.

The look on Harry's face would have been priceless if the situation was less serious. "Then why on earth are you continuing as his lawyer?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Because, if I don't, then nobody else will," she said practically. "As I told you before, he deserves representation, regardless of how reprehensible he is."

Harry stared. "You're talking like you hate him."

Hermione considered it. She did hate him or at least it was a very strong dislike but she obviously couldn't tell Harry that. She couldn't tell him the real reason why she was continuing with the case. In fact, she wasn't that sure of her own reasoning. It felt like if she questioned it too much, it would all unravel in her mind and she would be left with nothing. She had already lost her marriage; she wasn't going to risk possibly lose her job as well. "Of course, I don't hate him," she said patiently. "Otherwise, why would I have slept with him?"

Ron threw the papers on the table.

Without even looking down, Hermione knew what they were. There was a knot of apprehension in her stomach but it wasn't as big as she would have thought. Divorce wasn't as scary as it was even a few months back. "Are you sure," she asked quietly.

Ron nodded curtly. "I've been thinking it over. Even without this recent... thing..." He sat down on the couch with a sigh and ran his fingers through his hair. It was such a familiar gesture that it made her heart ache. Almost without thinking, she sat down and wrapped her arms around him. She then froze. It was something she had always done whenever Ron was upset, but it was obviously completely, horribly inappropriate at this point in time.

Awkwardly, Hermione shifted over on the couch. "Sorry," she said softly. "You have to know that I didn't mean for it to end out this way." She laughed bitterly. Her words sounded hollow even to her own ears.

He sighed and bit his lip, looking like the eighteen year old boy she had fallen head over heels in love with. Then his face shifted and his expression steadied. She studied him closely. Ron was looking older nowadays and different. She could still see flashes of the man she had loved for so many years, but all in all, Ron wasn't the same person any more. "I keep on thinking what I could have done wrong," Ron burst out.

"Oh Ron," she said. "You didn't..."

"I know I didn't do anything wrong," Ron interrupted, his voice even. "There was nothing I did that drove you to cheat on me." He paused. "Look, I didn't want to turn this into a fight. I just keep on thinking about when all of this turned upside down and I can't pinpoint it. We've been bickering for so long that I think it became natural. And that isn't what marriage should be about."

"I agree," she said quietly. "For what it's worth, Ron, I am sorry."

"I don't need your apologies," Ron told her. "I need you to sign those papers so I can begin the divorce proceedings."

Hermione picked up the giant wad of papers. Ron's signature was already on them. All she had to do was sign them. "I'm going to have to look over this," she said.

To her surprise, Ron cracked a brief smile. "I should have known you were going to say that. Don't worry, they're just standard divorce proceedings."

"I'm still going to have to..." she said, trailing off.

"I know," Ron said.

She looked over at him. "I'll get these back to you tomorrow. Or do you want me to file them at the Ministry?"

"It's probably best if we're both there," Ron said. "I'll owl you in the morning." With that, he picked up his bag and walked towards the door.

Hermione watched him. "Ron?" she said, as he opened the door. Ron turned around. "You're looking good," she said. It was true. He was looking different but good. She wasn't sure but she thought that his robes were new. She really hadn't been paying much attention to his clothes over the past few years.

Ron nodded. "Pansy chose these robes. I think they're nice." He closed the door behind him.

Hermione was stunned. Pansy? She stared at the door. Pansy chose those robes for him? She thought there had been something different about Ron, but she hadn't wanted to ask. Besides, she didn't think that Ron wanted to talk to her. Apparently, he had been talking to somebody else though, who had been picking robes out for him.

She felt an irrational twist of jealousy and quashed it.

It was intensely awkward the next time Hermione came to visit Lucius at Azkaban. To spite him, she had chosen her most professional looking Muggle suit. It was a charcoal grey, and she had paired it with a severe looking frilly white blouse. She had almost been disappointed when he didn't comment on it. "The appeal's next week," she said crisply. She had never had any problems being professional before this incident, and she could always rely on that to get her through the next week. "I trust that you've practiced what you're planning to say to the Wizengamot."

"Of course," Lucius said smoothly, giving her a polite smile. "I must commend you on your knowledge of the law. Very few lawyers would have found this loophole."

Hermione wasn't sure that was something she ought to be proud of. After all, she was getting a former Death Eater out of Azkaban. She was quite positive that he wasn't at all repentant for his actions during either of the wars. It had been sheer dumb luck that she had managed to stumble across the error in the trial judge's sentencing that had led her to re-examine Lucius's original trial more carefully. She glared at him. And why was he looking so calm? He looked like a cat that had just pounced on a mouse and was licking its chops in anticipation. "You're welcome," she said stiffly.

"I understand that you're getting a divorce," Lucius said blandly. "My commiserations. I've been through a divorce and they're never easy."

Hermione stared. "You don't need to put on this pretence," she snapped. "You're the sole reason for my divorce and you know it."

Lucius's upper lip curled. He pushed his chair back and stood up.

She gritted her teeth. He wasn't going to get away with that trick. Roughly, Hermione scraped her own chair back and also stood up, crossing her arms over her chest. She knew how to play this game. He wasn't going to intimidate her.

"A reason, yes," he said, his voice like liquid honey, smooth and sticky. "However, certainly not the sole reason. My dear, you were a willing participant."

Hermione shivered as he took a step forward. She could feel herself breaking out in goosebumps. Lucius reached out, and brushed a finger across the side of her face lightly. She recoiled at the touch, and stepped backwards, into the wall.

"There's nowhere to go," Lucius said softly, his voice menacing. "You're in a corner, Hermione. You have a brilliant mind, an incandescent mind, but even you can't get out of this situation." He sounded almost admiring.

Hermione shuddered. His voice seemed to caress her name, even as he threatened her. "Get away from me," she snapped, glad that she was able to keep her voice steady. "I could call the guards."

"Privacy spell, remember?" Lucius gloated. "They won't be able to hear us."

"I have my wand," she snapped, reaching down. It was at that point, Hermione realised that she didn't actually have her wand. It wouldn't fit in her Muggle suit. Right now, her wand was sitting in her briefcase, which was sitting next to the table. She couldn't reach it.

Lucius smirked.

He wasn't even touching her, Hermione realised. And even without the potion to take away her inhibitions, she was still attracted to him. There was still something about him, something about the almost feral gleam in his eyes and the way he moved and the soft, sibilant syllables he uttered that made her want to step forward. She wanted to grab him by the collar and yank him down to the ground and kiss him as viciously as he had torn apart her life.

It was obvious that he was enjoying this. And it was with consternation that Hermione realised that she was enjoying it too. She could hear her own breath coming in shallow gasps and the hammering of her heartbeat in her ears. It would be so easy for her to reach up...

Hermione bit the inside of her cheek. She needed to concentrate. "We need to focus on your appeal," she said calmly. She took a step forward and was gratified when Lucius turned away back to the table.

"You're right," he said.

She frowned. Was that a note of regret in his voice? No, that was ridiculous. This was all a ploy to get her to work harder on his case. She didn't doubt that he probably got some amusement out of it, but she very much doubted if he was actually attracted to her in anything but a purely physical way.

"Let's get back to work then," Lucius said as he sat back down at the table.

Hermione sat down as well. She looked at the papers spread out in front of her. "I need you to go over your statement of events one more time," she said as she found the right pieces of parchment. "And then sign and date it at the bottom."

Lucius took the parchment from her without a note of argument, which surprised her. Hermione found herself watching him as he read over the pieces of parchment. She noticed that his brow furrowed slightly whenever he was concentrating.

Appalled, Hermione kicked herself mentally. She shouldn't be staring after him like a lovesick puppy. It was bad enough that he seemed to haunt her thoughts and that she was dreaming about him. She couldn't help her thoughts and dreams. It certainly didn't mean she actually had to look at him though.

Hermione woke up panting. Her sheets were drenched with sweat and as she reached down, she realised that her underwear was wet. She'd had one of those dreams about Lucius again. One of those vivid dreams that made her twist up with guilt and wonder what she could have done differently.

Was she so easy to manipulate? After all, Lucius seemed to have no problems. She had ruined her marriage because of him and she was still dreaming about the man. Logically, Hermione knew that dreams didn't mean anything. Heck, she'd had dreams about having sex with people who she was completely not attracted to in reality. But it still didn't stop her from biting down on her lower lip and feeling guilty.

"Congratulations," the prosecutor said, giving her a thin-lipped smile.

Hermione gave him a polite smile. "Your case was well argued," she said as she walked away, out of the Wizengamot atrium.

Lucius was waiting for her outside. "Thanks to you, I'm a free man," he said.

"I'll be glad to never see you again," Hermione snapped.

"I suppose you're glad to get your promotion though," Lucius said with a lazy smile as the guards handed him his wand back. He held his wand up to the light and examined it. He then flicked it so that several pieces of parchment slid off the guard desk. The guard glared at him.

"I am," Hermione said. Judith had grabbed her arm right after the verdict had been announced and had given her a stiff smile. "You're our newest partner. I keep my promises. You get to do fifty per cent pro bono work. Congratulations on the promotion," she had said. Hermione could tell that it took her a lot to say that.

Lucius gave her a nod and turned to walk away. He had only walked a couple of steps before he turned around. "I suppose," he said slowly, "that this is the right time to mention that I was under the influence of the same potion."

Hermione's eyes widened. She stumbled forward, and grabbed Lucius by the arm, dragging him towards a deserted alcove. She wove a secrecy spell around them, and then turned to him, her teeth gritted. "Explain!"

"Our food was laced with the potion," Lucius told her calmly. He wrinkled his nose slightly. "Surely you didn't imagine that my plan to get out of Azkaban was to sleep with a Mudblood? What if you had reported me?"

Hermione felt like the world was sliding out from under her feet again. In the last month, so much had happened in her life. She went from what she thought was a happy marriage with Ron to having Ron move out. She went from hating the very thought of Lucius Malfoy but wanting to represent him for the sake of justice to ... well, she wasn't even sure what she thought of Lucius anymore. If what he was telling her was the truth... "Who did it?" she asked sharply.

He looked at her in mild surprise. "What makes you think that I'll tell you? After all, they did me an enormous favour."

"I could still report you," Hermione threatened. "I could report all of this."

"You won't," Lucius said a-matter-of-factly. "You'll be charged for what you did to the mediwitch in St Mungo's."

She stared at him. "How did you know that?"

Lucius smirked. "I have my sources. Surely you know that, Hermione."

Hermione shivered at the way he said her name.

Lucius took a step closer to her. "I know I still affect you," he said softly. "I also know that you would have researched the potion by now and you would have known that it only acts upon impulses that are already there. It couldn't have made you do anything you didn't already want to do to begin with." He reached up and pushed a lock of her hair away from her face.

"You're despicable," she told him acidly.

"I know," Lucius said.

Before she could react, he had pulled her forward and was kissing her. It wasn't a gentle kiss. In fact, as his teeth nipped her lower lip, Hermione wondered if she was going to have a bruise there tomorrow. Then, almost as fast as it started, the kiss ended. Hermione watched, half-dazed as Lucius strode away and disappeared into the crowd.

Slowly, Hermione took her wand from her pocket and dismantled the silencing spells. As she started to walk away, she suddenly realised something. Lucius had said that the potion would only act upon impulses that were already there. He was right. Everything she had researched said that the potion couldn't create impulses; it couldn't make people do what they truly didn't want to do.

A slow smile spread across her face, and she wondered whether Lucius knew what he had been saying.

He was under the influence of the potion as well.

That meant that he was just as deep in this whole mess as she was. And she could definitely use this against him.

-The End

Author Notes: Thank you so much to everybody who reviewed the previous part! This was originally written for a fic exchange, which is why it isn't as long as I would have liked.