The war was over at last. Harry Potter had triumphed over You–Know–Who, and Death Eaters everywhere were being rounded up. It wasn't long before aurors came knocking at the Malfoy's Manor.
Narcissa Malfoy opened the door with trembling hands, and pounding heart. She had known this day was coming, but now that it was here, she didn't want to believe it.
Standing at the door was Harry Potter himself, along with Ginny and Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger. They apparently thought her husband and son too important to leave to the aurors.
"Lucius, Draco," Narcissa called over her shoulder, wincing as her voice echoed around the big empty house. Soon her husband and son appeared at her side.
"We're here with some dementors to take you to Azkaban, Lucius, and you Draco," Ginny Weasley said. They grabbed Lucius and Draco and started to lead them away as Narcissa started to sob into her hands. She stumbled outside and kneeled on the grass. She watched her family get dragged away.
"No," came from somewhere behind the four young people. Everyone looked to see where the sound had come from. Albus Dumbledore was walking up the path. The four children and Narcissa's family faced Dumbledore. "Only Lucius," Dumbledore proclaimed.
"But-" Harry protested. Dumbledore silenced him with a look.
"Draco, go to your mother," Dumbledore said.
"I don't need my mother!" Drace spat with a sneer.
"Perhaps not," Dumbledore replied, as calm as ever. "But she needs you."
Draco walked back to Narcissa and put his arms around her. She cried into his shoulder. Then looked up at Dumbledore, gratitude showing in her face. She looked at Lucius, then at Harry, and remember all of the awful things Lucius had done to her, and to her friends. Well, to one friend in particular, really.
Suddenly, she was rembering the day she had made that friend, the first day of her third year, when she had found herself Potions partners with Lily Evans.
"Your Muggle-born, aren't you?" Narcissa said with a sneer.
"Yes," Lily had replied. Her straightforwardness startled Narcissa enough for her to let down her guard for a moment.
"I hate Potions," she said with a grimace.
"It helps if you think about it as a game," Lily said brightly.
"A game?" Narcissa said, her guard back up.
"Yep! We each do one step, and if you do something wrong, you have to-" she looked around for some form of punishment. "You have to eat one of these!" And she made a pile of some sort of writhing worm thing, to which Narcissa made a face, her guard down again.
"I'll go first!" she proclaimed, excited about potions for the first time. She carefully measured out the first ingredient for a shrinking potion and sprinkled it into the cauldron in a clockwise motion. The water that had already been in the cauldron thickened like it was supposed to.
"Perfect!" Lily cried. She carefully measured out the second ingredient and dumped it in the center of the cauldron.
Narcissa stirred the potion three time counter-clockwise, then Lily stirred it four times clockwise. The potion turned purple, just as it was supposed to.
They continued like that through the entire lesson, giggling and chatting the entire time. Neither of them actually had any intention of eating one of the worm things if they did something wrong, but the thought of it made them extra careful. At the end of the lesson, Professor Slughorn went around to all of the cauldrons. When he got to Narcissa and Lily's, he beamed.
"It is perfect! I've never seen a third-year team do one so well! 20 points to each of your houses!"
Lily and Narcissa smiled at each other.
"I've never been any good at potions before," Narcissa told Lily as they walked out of class. "That game thing was brilliant!"
"I'm glad you liked it," Lily said sincerely.
"Does it work for all classes? Making it into a game, I mean."
"Well, Potions is the only class I've come up with a game for. I've been trying for the past three years to come up with a game for Tranfiguration, but I'm afraid McGonagall's class doesn't leave much room for games."
The two girls laughed, but Narcissa fell silent when she saw Lucius at the top of the stairs. "I have to go," she said, leaving Lily standing there.
"What are you doing with her?" Lucius sneered.
"Just talking," Narcissa mumbled.
"Just talking? It looks more like you've become friends with that mudblood."
Narcissabowed her head, but looked sideways at Lily. Her face showed anger toward Lucius for what he had called her, but it also showed pain because Narcissa had not defended her. Narcissa's heart clenched at the look on Lily's face. Before Narcissa could say anything, Lily burst into tears, dropped her books, and ran toward the Library. Narcissa made to go after her, but Lucius grabbed her arm. In response, Narcissa slapped him, something she'd never thought she'd ever do.
She wrenched her arm out of his grasp as he reeled back from her slap. She ran to where Lily had dropped her books, picked them up, and rushed into the Library. She went straight to the back corner where Lily was seated on a window seat, crying.
"Lily?" Narcissa said, placing her books in front of Lily. "You dropped your books. I'm sorry about what happened back there. He holds this strange power over me. I slapped him though."
Lily laughed a little through her tears. Narcissa conjured a tissue and handed it to Lily. "I'd better get to class," she said, standing up.
"I'll be seeing you at lunch, then?" Lily called after her.
Narcissa turned around. "Definately," she grinned. She walked out of the Library, and grin still on her face. She didn't care who saw her and thought she was an idiot. She felt better than she had ever felt before.
At lunch that day, Narcissa sat with the Slytherins like usual. She didn't want to get up to eat with Lily until she was certain where Lily was. She looked over her shoulder, her eyes sweeping up and down the Gryffindor table.
"What are you looking at?" Lucius said.
"Nothing," Narcissa replied vaguely. Then something caught her eye. Bright red hair. She smiled with relief. Narcissa stood up, and purposefully walked over to the Gryffindor table, while the Slytherins stared after her, gaping. She sat down next to Lily, who immediately smiled.
"I thought you wouldn't come and sit with me," she said.
"I thought so too, for a while. I thought I would never be able to work up the curage to come over here," Narcissa said.
"I'm glad you did, Cissy," Lily said, laughing. "Is it alright, by the way, if I call you Cissy?"
"Sure," Narcissa said. "Nobody calls me Cissy but my sisters, but I like it."
"Cissy?" a cold voice said behind them. Narcissa visibly stiffened before turning around.
"Hello, Bella," she said to her sister. The two were as different as day and night. Literally. While everything about Narcissa was pale, Bellatrix was dark.
"What are you doing here?" Bellatrix asked, putting extra emphisis on 'here'.
"Eating lunch," Narcissa told Bellatrx, her voice haughty.
"Why would you eat with these people," Bella said, glancing and Lily.
"She happens to be my friend," Narcissa informed her sister. "And, may I remind you, I am one year older than you, therefore, you will not tell me what to do, Bellatrix." Narcissa surprised herself. She and her sisters never called each other by their full name.
"Suit yourself, Narcissa," Bella said with a sneer, "but I'm warning you, when the Dark Lord takes over, you'll come to the same end as our worthless sister." Then she cackled. Next to Narcissa, Lily had been sitting ramrod straight, staring ahead at nothing, but she flinched when Bella laughed. Bella walked back to the Slyterin table.
"I declare," Lily said, relaxing. "Her laugh could wake the dead."
"Cissy?" another voice called Narcissa, though this one was much warmer. Narcissa looked up to see her other sister standing in front of her. Andromeda resembled Bellatrix in every way except her expression. Where Bella sneer, Andi smiled.
"Andi!" Narcissa cried, as Andromeda sat down. Andi had been sorted into Gryffindor, much like their cousin Sirius. Both had been blown off the family tree.
"What are you doing here?" Andi asked.
"Eating lunch with a friend," Narcissa answered, looking at Lily.
"Well, I never thought I'd live to see the day when we would be two to one against the dark side. Congratulations!"
Narcissa had taught her son to love, as Lily had taught her to love. She realized now that she never really loved Lucius, and he had never really loved her. She had loved Lily, though. She had loved her more than anyone else, more than her own sisters. Lily had been her best and only friend. And Lucius had done horrible things to everyone Lily had loved, including Narcissa.
And as the tears ran down Narcissa's face, she was almost glad to see him go.
That was just a little thing I thought up, because I just can't believe that Narcissa is all bad, like Bellatrix. To me, she seems to be in between her two sisters.
I know Dumbledore is dead when this takes place, but I brought him back to life because I can't imagine anyone else speaking those words.
The title is the title of a book I had to read last year for school. This fanfiction has absolutely nothing to do with that book, but the title seemed to fit, so I used it.
I hoped you liked it, and please review!
KT Lee