A / N : Okay, so this is the third project I've taken on in a few weeks, but I couldn't resist! You don't need to have read my other fics – Protege Moi or its sequel Long Road To Ruin – to understand this, or at least I hope not. You probably should know I use some not-strictly-canon ages though. Narcissa is seventeen and Lucius is twenty-one here. If anyone's confused, just ask me about it, I'm happy to explain. Updates will probably be quite infrequent, as I'm focusing more on my other projects at the moment. But let me know what you think, as always, I'd love your opinions, especially considering romance is not my usual style . . .
I take my chapter titles from songs in my music library, by the way – this one is from a song by The Feeling.
And, of course, I own nothing. That's all!
Love It When You Call
The flowers were his first indication that he was not alone.
Lucius froze as his eye fell on the vase full of daffodils. There were many vases in the Malfoy Manor, but most of them hadn't been filled in years. In fact, he could only think of one person who would fill them. He was starting to regret entering the room in a such a hurry. So he turned around, very slowly, hiding his bloody hands behind his back.
"Narcissa?"
A burst of familiar laughter broke the silence. A pretty, fair-haired girl was sitting on his sofa, smiling at him. Narcissa Black. She leapt to her feet, her smile stretching a little wider, and laughed again.
"How did you know it was me?" she pouted. "You came in in such a hurry, I didn't think you even noticed me!"
Lucius smiled back at her, although his was a little more forced. He jerked his head towards the vase.
"The flowers," he explained. "I can't think of anyone else who'd bother."
"Oh. Sorry." She hesitated, biting her lower lip in a way that was strangely endearing.
Lucius pushed this thought out of his mind, wiping his bloody hands on the back of his cloak and pulling it off. He balled it up quickly, hiding the bloodstains from view, and threw it onto the other sofa.
"Anyway," Narcissa continued, "you don't mind, do you? I just thought it would be nice."
"No. I don't mind. How did you get in?"
Narcissa frowned. "The – the house-elf let me in. The little one - Dobby. Why?"
"Nothing. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be rude. I just wasn't expecting you, that's all."
That was part of the truth. Lucius liked Narcissa. In fact, she was probably the only person he could honestly say he was fond of. What she was to him, he couldn't really say. Over the years, she had gone from Bella's little sister, to a troubled teenage girl in desperate need of a helping hand, to a sort of . . . friend, he supposed. She was seventeen now, and he thought (he hoped) her problems had faded somewhat. He saw her quite regularly – when she wasn't in school – and she certainly seemed happier. Lucius told himself that this was why he lied to Narcissa. For her sake. Because "I was out torturing people with your sister, actually," would only distress her, and he didn't want that. He was so preoccupied by the memory of Narcissa's reaction to things that upset her, it took him a moment to realize she was talking again. Waving a piece of silver card at him, in fact.
"Are you coming?"
"Wha – what?" He cleared his throat. "Sorry, what did you say?"
Narcissa frowned at him again. "To this." She waved the invite once more. "The Ministry fund-raiser. I asked Bella already, but she and Rodolphus were adamant they aren't going. Don't ask me why. Which just leaves Avery, and I don't want to be stuck with him all night."
It was Lucius' turn to frown now. "I thought you and Avery were . . ."
"Oh we are. That's the problem. I'm sort of trying to find an excuse to dump him, which means that I don't want my mother seeing me with him. She'll only jump down his throat about proposing to me, which is the last thing I want."
"Of course not." Oddly enough, Lucius wholeheartedly agreed with this. The idea of Narcissa marrying Avery made him want to go out and resume the afternoon's activities. Which was a little disconcerting.
"So you want me to keep you company?"
"If you don't mind." She flashed him another angelic smile. "And no Lolita subtext, I swear!"
She held up her hands in a gesture of surrender, and Lucius winced. He really, really wished she would forget that. It had been years ago, that he'd said that. Now, watching her smile prettily at him and go out of her way to reassure him that she had no romantic inclinations towards him whatsoever, he found himself regretting it more than ever.