Librarian | Hermione x Lucius

Chap. 1

Heart pounding, cold sweat, Hermione's clammy hand reached up to the door and knocked. Every second she waited felt like an eternity as she anticipated Lucius Malfoy finally answering the door to his study. She hadn't faced this challenge when at the front door as the house elves of the manor were quite attentive and kind, unluckily for her, Lucius Malfoy was neither of those things and if it weren't for the drop in the economy after Voldemort died she wouldn't even need this job.

"Come in." Lucius offered as he flung open the door, startling Hermione.

She couldn't lie to herself, Lucius was an attractive man, even with what happened in his parlour with Bellatrix during the war had somewhat tainted her vision of him, but for someone like him, he was surprisingly good at apologising.

Hermione cautiously entered the room, the black tile flooring the room and the crackling of the fireplace as it lit up the dark room made it feel like an interrogation room. Hermione sat down in the chair situated uncomfortably far away from the desk and tried her hardest not to avert her gaze from Lucius.

Emotionless eyes, fast breathing, heart pounding so loud she worried he could hear it, Lucius knew she was uncomfortable, even after his countless apologies she still didn't trust him. Women were sometimes confusing, it was just a fact of life to Lucius, but this was a bit too much.

"You graduated top of your year, you out-witted several government officials, you even helped defeat Voldemort, yet you're here. Why?" he ridiculed over his shoulder as he walked to his desk.

what did he just ask me? he-he's joking... right?

Unfortunately for Hermione, she was wrong, Lucius abruptly whipped around and cocked his head, waiting for an answer.

"Well um-" she stuttered as her eyes searched the floor for answers.

"Still afraid of me?" Lucius smirked as he took one stride to stand directly in front of Hermione, invading her personal space.

"Um, yes?" Hermione stammered. She turned her head to look at the ground next to the chair, her eyes rapidly moving from tile to tile searching for the answers she needed so desperately. She had never felt so helpless in her life.

The mere presence of him was too much for Hermione, while she usually was on edge because the bad memories, it had been awhile since it had happened, logically this feeling should've gone by now.

"The correct answer is yes, well, let's see what we can do about that." Lucius breathed as he leant closer to Hermione and used one finger under her chin to make her look at him.

"But-" Hermione began only to rudely interrupted by Lucius putting a finger to her mouth.

Smiling wickedly, Lucius uttered "I will see about hiring you, but don't expect anything"

~~Time Skip~~

"I can't believe he would dare to do that! Getting so near to my face just to tell me to bugger off!" Hermione stormed while pulling various pots and pans out (using magic of course), oddly though she hadn't invited Ginny over to talk to about this, but instead chose to stick with talking with Crookshanks, whom thankfully never disagreed with her.

"and he just got released from Az-" Hermione's sentence halted by the screeching of a large bird at her window sill, the bird kept squawking until Hermione carefully navigated the many books on the floor that formed a maze between her and her window. When Hermione pried the window open the bird hopped onto the floor of her house damaging the nice wood flooring, before lifting the leg with a letter attached. As soon as Hermione untied the complicated knot securing the letter, the bird hopped back up to the window sill before spreading its large wings and with two beats of its wings it took off. Hermione unwrapped the small golden ribbon that kept the petite roll of parchment rolled and unfurled the letter.

Starting from tomorrow your work hours are 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, you will recieve with chambers, please remember you are a librarian, you don't need to bring all 100,000 books. ~ Lucius

"Smug bastard..." Hermione muttered as she strode back over to her kitchen, knocking several books over in the process. Crookshanks meowed, pointing out the problem of what to do with him for the duration of Hermione's new job. She would stick Crookshanks on Harry but Ron visited Ginny too often to ensure Crookshanks well-being. In the end, Hermione picked up the phone to dial Neville, who luckily owned a Muggle phone.

When Hermione's perilous conversation with Neville was over she set down the phone with a sigh.

"This will be... interesting."

~~~

Hope you liked it!

Please, note that I'm new to writing, so, please leave (hopefully constructive) feedback in the comments.

Thanks!