Narcissa watched as the girl in the mirror brushed her long straight blonde hair. It was already more than an hour past midnight. Even though he'd promised, she hadn't really expected he would come. All she'd really done was hoped. Narcissa blew out her lamp, then the candle she'd kept burning in the window.

She lingered by the window, looking down at the empty, snow covered lawns. The moonlight lit the snow to silver and she saw no figure hurrying towards her window with apologies forming on his lips. Oh, well. She told herself she didn't care as she hurried to her bed. She lay on her back and pulled the blankets up over her shoulders. It was cold in the winter, but the castle was much colder than her house. Her bed here was much warmer than hers at the castle, but this time she regretted coming home for Christmas. Tonight had changed everything. She lay still, trying to clear her mind and sleep.

She heard the tapping in her dreams before she opened her eyes and saw him out on the window ledge. Jumping up, she hurried across the room to unlock the window, remembering just a moment too late that jumping onto a hardwood floor caused quite a lot of noise in the levels below. Pulling the shivering figure through the window, she led him to the end of her bed. He sat, teeth chattering, on the bed as she fumbled for a match to light the candle with. In the end, she risked a trip to the kitchens for matches and a pot of hot chocolate.

The winter wind whistled sharply through the house. It could be fixed in a moment she knew, but the house was asleep when it happened and her father could never know she had been up this late. He could never know why. She returned to her attic room unheard, thankful that she hadn't needed to use a lie. She hated having to lie.

After a quiet cup of cocoa, he seemed to be recovered enough to talk. "I'm sorry, Narcissa, I-"

"Save it, Severus," she said with as much coldness as she could muster. "I'm tired of your excuses, and I'm tired of waiting," she glared at him.

"I know Cissa, I know. But it won't be much longer, really. I'm getting a promotion at Borgin and Burkes next week, and I finish my extra classes in a couple of months. I'll teach at Hogwarts before you graduate! Wait for me. Just a little longer Cissa!"

Severus had to lean forward so that he could hear her whispered response. "I can't." she had turned her back now and was sitting farther away from him on the bed than she had been.

"What do you mean you 'can't?'" Narcissa imagined she could hear the coldness in his voice and because her back was turned, she failed to see his hand reach out as if to stroke her hair. He stopped an inch short of her golden strands when she spoke again. Though he couldn't see them, he knew tears acccompanied these words.

"Severus, I"ve been promised. Daddy told me tonight. The wedding is set for the day after graduation!" Her silent tears fell for a few minutes before she turned to look back at him. She had expected anger, not the shock that showed in his pale face. "Oh! Please don't be like this! Severus, you know I would wait forever for you, but Daddy won't. He doesnt want you for me at all! Much less wait for you! Please say something!"

She was crying harder now and when she reached out to take his hand, he pulled her close to him. He had always been a scrawny boy, but she was tiny compared to him. She curled up easily in his lap as a child might and cried, great hiccupping sobs that racked her frail body. Severus held her and rocked her slowly, stroking her hair and breathing in her smell knowing, without quite comprehending, that this would be one of their last times together.

She had never lost it like this before. She was a quiet girl, though sometimes quick to anger. This was the first time Severus had ever seen her cry, and he didn't like it. They'd always told each other everything, but some selfish part of him wished that she'd kept this secret.

Ater she had finished crying, Severus picked Narcissa up carefully and carried her back to the top end of the bed, tucking her in as a parent does a child. She was almost asleep now, but when he bent to kiss her, she grabbed him by his collar. "Don't leave," she whispered. "Don't ever leave." And so he took off his shoes and slipped quietly under the covers beside her.

Happy there beside her, his breathing slowed to match her's. His arm wrapped around her, but he couldn't bring himself to ask what man would protect her like this from now on. There was nothing to do, but to slip into dreams where she was his forever.

A/N: I may have to edit some of these chapters as the story goes on... I'm writing it pretty fast. Type it as it comes into my head, then go back and edit it quickly, but there will probably be some days when i just don't have it in me to write and i go back and pick up on minor errors, like changing a day mid-action, forgetting to capitalize i's, and other various mistakes!