This was written for the "Romeo and Juliet" challenge at the HPFC forum. Again, I suggest you join and try one—they're so much fun. I got the quote "I do but keep the peace" from the first scene. The title, though, comes from the song "White Dove" by the Scorpions.
under your wings
"i do but keep the peace."
I
When you're thirteen, you play the peacemaker between your two sisters after an argument over a tube of lipstick—screaming and sobbing and pulling each others' hair, and you step in between.
And somehow, in the thick of things, you find that you're being screamed at, and you're sobbing, and your hair is being pulled, and even though all you want to do is get along—
You squeeze your eyes shut and hope it will all just go away ("Cissy, you're an expert at denial; you get it from your father"), but it never does.
(you fail)
II
Your eyelids are heavy as you listen to Professor Binns drone on and on; you meet Bella's gaze and she rolls her eyes. You glance down at your paper.
You have been taking notes without really seeing them, and now you read what you have written: "and peace was finally settled between them and has remained as such for the rest of eternity."
Peace. Such a pretty word. Such a pretty lie. Peace doesn't last forever, because there's always something—a war or a disagreement or a Goblin Revolt or a mean dark-haired sister sneaking into your room at night to take your things—that upsets it.
When it comes time for the test, you stare down blankly at the question and can't bring yourself to answer.
(you fail)
III
When you were twenty, you sit between your dark-haired sister and your brown-haired one, like you always do, and you sip Butterbeer while Bella drinks Firewhiskey and Andromeda won't look at either of them—
(Let's all try and be friends—I have tickets to Celestina Warbeck, do you want to come?)
And Bella scoffs and says that she hates Celestina, and Andromeda says nothing still. As hard as you try, you can't seem to scavenge a halfway decent response out of either of them, and when Andromeda finally walks away, you know that no pretty words or Celestina Warbeck tickets will help now.
This is the last time you see your two sisters together, and you have nothing to say.
(you fail)
IV
You've married Lucius Malfoy.
And now that you're no longer a Black, you don't owe your sisters anything—one of which is a Lestrange and the other which is—no, you don't even allow yourself to say the name of the filthy Muggle-born.
(you're free)
You watch your husband cradle his newborn son in his arm, and as you see the face of your tiny innocent baby slip into a serene face of sleep, you make up your mind never to put him in the middle. Draco will never be a peacemaker.
If you have to, you will choose a side for him. But you promise that he will never be forced to choose. You will never—nevernevernever for the rest of eternity—put him in danger.
(you fail)
xxx
I actually really like this. I didn't expect that I'd be able to make something out of this, but I did, and I think it came out pretty well. Narcissa is an under-developed character in my eyes, and characterizing her was fun.
