This is dedicated to MysteriousFlower in honour of her wedding and because I'm proud to call her my friend. It's a response to the Hogwarts Online 26th October prompt.
OoOoO
"Is there a soul beyond the shards...?"
Everywhere Narcissa looked, she saw broken people. That's exactly what they were; not villains, but victims who had never quite found the strength to recover; a collection of the weak and the needy, craving power that didn't really exist. Of course they were intimidating to the outside world – they murdered and tortured and destroyed everything in their way; they were Death Eaters – but really, they were little more than slaves living in terror of their master. Weak and despicable. She hated it. But more than that, Narcissa hated them for making her pity them.
Lucius.
He had promised to fulfil every last one of her dreams, but now their life was a nightmare – a gross parody of what it had once been. They had lived an idyllic life founded upon power and influence, both of which, it had turned out, were pillars of salt. Narcissa had once loved him for giving her Draco, but when she had seen that he placed his ambitions above their son she had started to despise him, because there was no telling what would happen to her son. He was too frightened to be a father and he knew it.
Bellatrix.
She was the Dark Lord's greatest servant, but she was still exactly that; a servant. Her viciousness was unparalleled in combat, but behind the cruelty blazing in her dark eyes, Narcissa knew that there was pain. Andromeda had left her behind, and ever since, Bellatrix had been on an endless quest to make others submit to her. All of her anger and malice were fuelled by that one hurt; a splinter in her heart that had become infected and festered until it had destroyed Narcissa's remaining sister.
Fenrir.
He defined himself by the werewolf, and he had allowed it to consume the man. But he still felt shame. Half-breed, they had called him, monster. And those callous insults had hurt. Greyback pretended that he didn't care what others thought, but really, in a perverse way, his animalistic traits showed that he did. The words had wormed their way into his thoughts and shaped his identity. When Narcissa looked at him, she couldn't quite keep the revulsion from her eyes as she observed her 'equal' – he would snarl a greeting and never meet her gaze.
Severus.
He had given up the one truly good thing in his life because of envy. All he had ever wanted was to triumph over Potter and win back Lily Evans. Ironically, it was because of him that she had died and Snape had never managed to get over it. He used cruelty and sarcasm as his shield and sword, both amongst his fellow Death Eaters and at Hogwarts, according to Draco. For all intents and purposes, he was waiting to die. It made Narcissa sick; he was a fool to place so much stock on love.
And so was she.
OoOoO
Thanks for reading. Please review.