"Well? Where is he?" Narcissa raced over to Lucius as soon as she saw his blond hair among the crowd of evacuating students and adults.

Lucius shook his head. "He must still be at the castle. That's the last of the lot from Hogwarts, and they sealed the passageway."

Narcissa clutched her hands together and fought for calm. "They can't have sealed it! What about the rest of the students who are trying to get out—"

"Horace was the last out. He said everyone else was staying to—to fight." Lucius' words were choked at the thought of his son siding with Harry Potter over the Dark Lord. The punishment would be dire if Lord Voldemort found out.

"Not good enough!" Narcissa cried shrilly. "I'll go find him myself!" She started towards the Hog's Head, but Lucius' gasp had her wheeling around again.

He was staring at his left arm. "He must know," Lucius whispered, almost to himself. Looking up to meet Narcissa's gaze, he clenched his fist against the pain. "We must go, now. I've been summoned and I've no idea how long the Dark Lord will wait before he realizes I'm not going—"

Immediately, Narcissa was directly in front of him again. "You are going," she hissed. "You will go the Dark Lord, and you will beg him to stop the attacks on the castle. And then you will beg him to let you—let us—look for Draco."

"Cissa, no! Don't you realize that he wants to kill me? If I answer this summons, I'll only be begging for my life. We have to get out of here, now! D-Draco will k-know where to find us if he..." Lucius took a great gulp of air and fought to retain his composure.

"If he doesn't get killed first?" Narcissa asked coldly. "No, Lucius. You will go to the Dark Lord. You will lie, if necessary. You will do whatever it takes to make sure that Draco is kept safe, do you understand me? Whatever it takes!"

"But the Dark Lord—"

"I don't care about the Dark Lord!" Narcissa shrieked. "All I care about is Draco!"

"Ssh! You can't be heard shouting such things—" Lucius glanced around them, but most of the students and their families had disappeared by now, or were running in the direction of the castle.

Suddenly, Narcissa slapped him hard across the face. "Listen to me, Lucius. You will go, and you will go now. You will beg, plead, lie, cheat, and steal as much as you need to in order to find our son!"

Lucius ground his teeth together and glared at his wife. "Very well. I will say my goodbyes, then, Narcissa, because you and I both know that Draco's safety will come at the cost of my life." He leaned forward and kissed her unfeelingly on the cheek. Then he stepped back and stared in the direction of the Shrieking Shack, idly fingering the sleeve of his left arm.

"Why should the Dark Lord kill you, Lucius? You don't even have a wand," Narcissa spat at him. "Go!"

He snapped his terrified, angry gaze back to her as he Disapparated. It wasn't until the echoing crack! had faded that she allowed the tears to fall, whispering, "Goodbye, Lucius." Then she turned and ran for the Forbidden Forest, hoping to find a way into the castle to search for her son.


A/N: Written for WeasleySeeker's Goodbye competition on HPFC! I drew Lucius/Narcissa and apparently...I'm not that fond of Lucius, haha. I didn't much realize it until I was writing this, but yeah, I think he's pretty emasculated by the end of Deathly Hallows. Anyway, disclaimers: I'm not JK Rowling, this was far outside my comfort zone, no betas were harmed in the writing of this drabble.