Chapter Fifteenth: Fortune is eager

It was the tenth of January, and Felix Greengrass was nervous, today he would do it, he would ask Abby Blythe to marry him, and if she agreed, within a month, she would be his wife, and he would be able to finally tell her of the wizarding world and introduce her fully to his life.

Would she agree tough? Felix was unsure. It was true that she seemed to love being with him, and she had told him to have fallen in love with him the former week, but who knew if that would have been enough for her to accept his proposal? After all, they had been seeing each other only from a few months, and among muggles, a proposal like his was considered as one done too soon, but Felix didn't want to wait. He was sure to succeed.

It was 7:15 pm, he had to go to the special dinner date he had set up for himself and Abby. Looking with a sad but warm, hopeful gaze at the photo of his former wife, Floriana, thoughts mixed with regret but also hope came to him. Part of his heart would always belong to Floriana, but maybe, this time, a new chapter of contentment was starting in his life, one who hopefully would not be broken by some criminal zealot's hate. If Abby accepted his proposal, such chapter would begin, and he would spend the rest of his life in devoting himself, his heart, to live it in happiness with his dear, overly cheerful beloved, otherwise, he would move on. With this thoughts in his mind, Felix , after giving a last watch at the photo, left, disapparating from his manor, and going to his fateful date.

"Felix! You are late! The show is beginning right now!" Abby was annoyed but, like always, happy to see her new elegantly warm boyfriend walking towards her. She kissed him, took his hand and said "let's go, I already bought the tickets, Come on I KNOW you'll love it. Your first anime movie"

Abby was right, Felix liked "Howl's moving castle" a lot, it was truly magical seeing man-made pictures so beautifully made move and talk and play in such a way. The plot was very nice, so warm and light but yet deep, Sophie, the female protagonist in love with the wizard Howl, was so right Felix thought, the heart has its weight.

As they finished the movie, they went to eat in a restaurant "It's a surprise Abby love, I promise you that like Howl I am not going to eat your heart, you will love this place, trust me".

It was a luxury restaurant near the Big Bang, where only them were the clients.

Surprised but intrigued, Abby said: "Why there isn't none else here? What are you up to, Felix Howl Greengrass?".

"I solemnly swear my dear that my intentions are the most selfish and, yet, good"

They sat and began eating, chatting and talking amiably like usually did.. When the dessert came, a large cake with sour cream and strawberries, it had written on it, with chocolate, a big "I LOVE YOU. F"

Abby blushed "You are such a showoff, but a good one indeed", as she ate the first piece said "good one indeed".

When they finished eating, one of the butlers brought an owl who had a letter in his mouth. "It is for you my sunshine, you told me you always would have wanted one." At Abby's shocked face, Felix continued "come now Abby, do not let the poor owl keep the letter in his mouth for too long".

Abby took delicately the letter, it was in parchment, and elegantly written in green ink. With her heart rate increasing, she read:

My dear sunshine

In these few months since we first met each other, my days, like I hope yours as well, have been increasingly happier, more cheerful and warm.

For me, since the demise of Floriana years ago, warm was a rare feeling for my broken heart, something at times I felt it would never return.

That feeling has changed completely since when you, with your addicting joy and lovely personality, entered my life.

You reminded my heart that joy can always return, is always near, if we just remember, like an acquaintance of mine would say, to turn on the light.

Ah you are such a wonderful expert in that my dear, your every word, your every cheerful smile, turn on the light of the day to all the people you talk to. For even just a few moments, you capture them in your warm, like a golden, cozy refuge from everything that was worrying them in the day.

This is why, selfish as I am, I cannot but desire to be able to have such a refuge beside me all my life, all my days and all my nights.

If you agree, I will spend the rest of my days doing everything i can to help protect the light and joy you have in your heart, and to make them if possible even more shining.

If you do not agree, I will still love you and be glad to remain your boyfriend, or even just your friend, or whatever else you will wish.

So, as you will have already guessed, this is my proposal to you sunshine.

Will you marry me?

I know it is soon, but I also know the feelings I have grown, and for them there is no such thing as soon in regards to you my dear.

Abby was speechless, hear heart beating fast, she had somehow expected it deep down when she had seen the place, but she had not dared to believe it.

She lifted her gaze and looked at Felix, watching her from the opposite side of the table, it had been, as he had written, little time, just months, since when they began to get to know each other, but still she felt it in herself that there was not any need to wait more.

Yes she thought, this warm, refined and odd man was making her feel like she, before meeting him, was starting to fear would never feel. She was in love with him, she had fallen for his awkward yet refined charm in the few months of their relationship, she did not know exactly when that had happened, but she knew it had.

So, taking his hands, she looked into him, and said "Yes, I will, I will!"

She then rose from her chair, went to sit in his lap and after kissing him softly, she whispered to him "I love you you, I don't know exactly when i fell in love with you, but I did. Now just thinking about all what we'll do together with years and years of time makes me more excited than a kid at Christmas. Think of the countless cosplay parties, the countless movies, the countless cosplay sex we will have! Think think think!"

Saying this, she kissed him again, thinking that they never actually had sex, something who really needed fixing. Holding him tightly, she thought "I am tired now and overwhelmed, and I have to wake up soon tomorrow to change the decorations of the shop, but SOON we'll make love for Jack Sparrow's sake!"

Lucius Malfoy felt satisfied.

Very much so. Finally he had got reaccustomed with his magic, his fiancè had accepted him, his friend Felix was going to propose soon to Abby.

Yes, life for Lucius was at last going in the right direction, however, something did not add up.

"Hermione dear, could you at last enlighten me as to the presence of a muggle courier, twice in a day, at our front door? You never said you were ordering something. Are you planning anything your rightly irritated fiancè may want to know?"

His fiancè glared at him, then summoned a piece of paper and a pen, wrote something on it, gave the paper to him and in a lecturing tone replied "Lucius, can you spell the word I wrote to me. Spell it very clearly"

Perplexed, Lucius looked at the paper and read, irritated, saying clearly every letter, "P-R-I-V-A-C-Y"

"Exactly Lucy dear, privacy, you do not need to know everything i do, if I buy something and order it, you do not need to know what it is if i do not want to tell you yet"

"Ah but you know I persuade you to tell me, in a very pleasant method" Saying this, he kissed her deeply, and they melted in each other for a few moments.

However, Hermione was not going to surrender this time, men like her Lucius needed to be reminded once in a while that they could not get everything they wanted just because, so, she reluctantly pulled out of his kiss and said "N-not this time, I will tell you, at lunch, if you behave".

Smirking, Lucius replied, "I am a Malfoy my sweet, I always behave."

"Perfect, then will you be a good boy and go out meeting Draco to talk about his potion project on anti-aging? When will you return I will show you everything, and you know I don't mean just the box right?"

Afterwards, when Lucius had gone, Hermione opened the box, she had ordered a computer notebook, and got to work to set it up and connect it to internet. This was a muggle house, so there were no problems.

Once she was on the internet, she searched for flights to Paris, Moscow and New York and for hotels there. "I want to show him the world, my world, which he was despite himself fascinated with in these months he has been pursuing me. It would be so beautiful to see his reactions at traveling throughout the muggle world, in muggle ways. I will take a plane with him! I hope so much Lucius will accept. Before he shows me fully his world, a world I already am a part of, I want him to see mine, which he never got to know in his life".

In the afternoon, Lucius returned to the house, quite satisfied, as the anti-aging potion project of his son was finally in its last step.. "In a few months it'll enter into the market, though naturally I will try it much sooner. Draco worried me a bit at first with his work of potion inventor first. Malfoys are manipulators and owners, not inventors. He unquestionably proved me wrong in the end, that is sure".

Entering the house, Lucius thought about how many years more he would have with Hermione thanks to Draco's project. More decades of not just life, but of life for much longer devoid of the limitations getting old usually caused. "How many successes will we celebrate doing more than just drinking the last most refined beverage, but pleasuring each other like at the beginning of our bond".

Smirking slightly at the thought, he entered the dining room and saw his fiancè smiling nervously at him. Beside her, on the table, a strange device was shining from what he supposed to be a monitor.

"G-good evening Lucius, how was your meeting with Draco?" Hermione was nervous, fearing her fiancè would not like her idea and tell her something like "Do I look like Arthur plebeian Weasley to you dear?"

"My meeting went very well, it really seems I along with many others will be able to age far slower than normal thanks to Draco's project. However, this is not what I am thinking about at the moment."

Moving his gaze from Hermione to the odd muggle device on the table, Lucius continued "Would you be so kind, my dear, to enlighten me about this curious, supposedly muggle, device you have there? Is that perhaps the one thing you ordered this morning?"

Clearing her voice, Hermione began "It is, it's called "computer", it is a portable version. Hmm, it's basically a device that you can use to play videos like a dvd player, but also for work, to manage stuff, and you can connect it to a global network who connects computers all over the world, to look for things you want to know or see, even to make purchases and speak…"

Seeing that Lucius was still confused, she changed tactic "I bought it to purchase flights by muggle transport to a few cities around the world. I… I am going back with you into the wizarding world soon, you are going to show me all you know about the wizarding world, I know that. You told me you would like to help me in my career, and in learning even more about the world I am part of. However, before that…"

She rose from her chair and stood in front of him, taking his hands, then looking him straight in the eyes, before continuing "Before all that happens, I would like to show you my world, a world you got to know a bit in these last months, which despite the way you were raised, you learned to appreciate. I am sure you would love to explore it as much as I would love to be with you while you do it.

It would be for a month, then, we would go back to the wizarding world, start planning our marriage date and I would begin trying to resume my job at the ministry".

"I am eager to be with you, to do and see things with you in every way we can think of, and I thought this was a...nice way to start. What do you say?"

Lucius Malfoy felt himself smile, he saw his fiancè was nervous, as if there was a single chance he would be other than absolutely agreeable, moved even, by her plan.

He kissed her deeply, making her nervousness go away a bit that way, before answering "You have no reason to be nervous, I am very agreeable to your proposal, I liked what little I have seen and experienced in these months of the muggle world, it will be marvelous, no doubt, to experience it more fully with you".

Seeing her relieved, he finished "Now that we have settled this, show me this "computer" of yours and how we can purchase our flights and our stays. However, I have one condition"

Surprised a bit, but curious, Hermione replied "Sure, what is it?"

"We must take only the best, and NOT care about the price. You will have to indulge me on this"

Rolling her eyes at him, she sighed good naturedly and hugged him "Condition accepted, honestly I thought that was implied, I am aware your surname is Malfoy after all."

Afterwards, Hermione showed Lucius how the computer worked. He was positively amazed, as it was usual lately to him, by the marvels of muggle technology. What amazed him the most however, were the possibilities of this incredible network the muggles called Internet.

"It is truly marvelous, are you really saying that through the access to this network millions of people can talk to each other even from the other side of the globe, instantly? Our communication means can look indeed primitive compared to this"

The pair purchased a flight to New York for the following week, they would start there, going in America, where Lucius had never been, and then to San Francisco, Tokyo, and so on, until they would be back in England.

"Around the world in 80 days, it is a famous sci fi novel by Jules Verne, a muggle writer of the eighteenth century, we could do something like that, though we would stay more in places since traveling by plane the actual travel will take little time. So, what do you say Lucius? Aren't you at least a bit eager for this adventure?"

Kissing her with longing, with a passion full of promise, he replied "Oh I am certainly eager, far more than a bit my lioness"