Title: See No Evil
Rating: K+
Summary: Narcissa doesn't see the Death Eaters as evil.
A/N: Two postings in one day! Woo hoo! This is just an attempt to write about someone other than the people I usually do. It's a bit short, but please read and review!
When Narcissa heard them talking, in a shadowed corner of Diagon Alley, she wasn't surprised.
"You-Know-Who…"
"… Evil, he is…"
"…Killing Muggleborns for no reason…"
"…Nothing more than cold-blooded murderers…"
"… And that Bellatrix Lestrange, as crazy as an insulted hippogriff…"
"… Don't get much darker than her…"
"… Inhumane…"
"… Cowards…"
"… Malicious…"
Narcissa turned away. She didn't need to hear any more. Instinctively she turned, wincing as she imagined Bella's fury at being called a coward. There were few things Bella wasn't fine with being called, and a coward was one of them. She remembered a time when Sirius had called her a coward, just before he'd abandoned the Noble House of Black.
"How dare you, Sirius! How dare you leave! You don't think the Dark Lord will come after you? You don't think we will come after you, purely because you're our kin?" Bellatrix had whispered furiously, dark eyes glinting dangerously.
Sirius had stood brave. "I don't care if he does," he'd replied, unblinking as Bella's eyes bored into him. "If he does, I'll be ready."
Bella had laughed harshly. "You are a stupid little boy, Sirius. Nothing more than a naïve child."
"Better than being a coward," Sirius had hissed back. "You're a coward."
Smack! Bella had slapped him hard across the face, breathing heavily. "Go, Sirius!" She'd yelled. "Leave anddon't come back!" And when Sirius had got up to leave, she'd had her wand trained on hisfigure the entire time. Narcissa remembered looking at her, just as she'd taken a deep breath to cast her curse.
But Bella had sighed, and then crumpled onto the couch.
There were few things Bella could not stand, and one of them was betrayal.
Narcissa was fortunate enough that she had been considered too fragile to join the Death Eaters. She was like a sparrow waiting in the wings. If someone were injured, she'd patch them up, or set out food for the few Death Eaters that remained after long meetings that lasted in the depths of Lucius' dungeons.
But Bellatrix had remained insistent, that she should fight. And not one person objected this. Bella had proved herself capable beyond many of the men.
Narcissa remembered one time, a few summers ago, when she'd asked Bella if the Death Eaters were evil, upon hearing complete strangers discussing that they were.
"Do you think they are, Cissy?" Bella had asked.
Narcissa shrugged. "I think… I think that if our family committed ourselves to the Dark Lord, then he must be good."
The answer was obviously the response Bella had been looking for, because she smiled mirthlessly. "Right, Cissy. We need to keep to world clean, for us. For Purebloods."
"Purebloods," Narcissa repeated. Ever since she'd been born, she had been trained into the role as a Pureblood mother and host. She'd never known anything else.
"We need to protect our kind," Bellatrix continued passionately, as she always got when discussing that particular subject. "We need to make the world safe for our children."
"Our children." And with that, seventeen-year-old Narcissa glanced down at her growing baby bump. "Yes."
Bella followed her gaze. "One day," she said, "One day your child will grow up to be big and strong and handsome. And he, too, will follow in the Dark Lord's footsteps."
"Follow in the Dark Lord's footsteps."
And so Narcissa remembered, and she did not feel ashamed. She felt proud, proud to be part of such a group. Proud that they were helping to better wizard-kind.
And not once did Narcissa ever question whether their morals were right; why they needed to restrict the world to purebloods. She accepted it, and in her eyes, the Death Eaters were not evil.
They were only doing so to protect their children.