Hello,
This is the Holiday Challenge and I had these:
Holiday - 32: April 23rd – Take a Chance Day: Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Prompts -8: Kill, Four, Baby
Characters 7 & 10: Remus Lupin & Narcissa Black/Malfoy
This has been Beta'd by Michy Drarry Shipper
I hope that you enjoy it :D
Narcissa Malfoy walked slowly as she crossed the barrier that had kept her locked up for so long. The irony was not lost on her that the date today was the 23rd of April (Take a Chance Day). She just hoped that it worked in her favour. She took a deep breath as she crossed the final line. She was free, free from what her husband had been and what her life had been. Now she just needed to save her baby from it.
She rushed forward after checking the time. She hoped that whoever was meant to meet her would wait. The moon above lit her way around the pits and puddles. Her breath came out in pants as she covered the final few metres. She pulled the hood back a bit to have a look about. Nobody was here. She couldn't believe it. All she had risked was for nought. They weren't here and when the Dark Lord found her… Well that wasn't worth thinking about. She panicked as she tried to think of what she would have to do now.
Suddenly, she heard a soft pop. She pulled up the hood so quickly that much of her hair ended up in her face. How pathetic, she thought to herself, A pure-blood lady is meant to be proper at all times. After she had thought it, she scolded herself even more. Now was not the time to focus on being a proper lady.
She could clearly see that the person was male. She frowned, as she had no idea who was to meet her. She silently cursed herself for not asking. How would she know if they were working for the Order or secretly for the Dark Lord? He walked into the moonlight and she gasped as she saw his face. It was Remus Lupin. This comforted her greatly, as she had no doubt in her mind about what side he served. She stepped forward so that Lupin could see her. He shifted to face her.
"Mrs Malfoy?" He whispered softly in the dark.
"Yes," She replied, equally quiet.
He moved toward her. "Don't be alarmed. I am going to grab your arm and apparate, is that okay?" He whispered into her ear as he grabbed her arm. She felt like laughing. This went against everything that she had ever been told. To make it worse, now she had to trust a werewolf, a creature she had been led to believe was a monster. She felt the swirl of the apparition before the jolt of the landing. A piece of paper was shoved into her face. She read it quickly and a house appear before her eyes. This was not shocking to her. They quickly walked into the house.
They walked past a troll umbrella holder. She pulled back her lips in disgust. Who would pick something so hideous to have in their house? She followed the man down the hall and into the kitchen.
"Nobody else is here right now. I hope that you don't mind being here with just me. I know that you might feel uncomfortable because of what I am…"Remus trailed off.
"Nobody else? But we need to get to my baby! We can't do that ourselves!" She had lost control over herself but she didn't care her baby was in danger and because of her.
"Do what? You are here under protection – that is it," He replied tiredly. She took note of that; even in her panicked state she was still a Slytherin and knew that in every situation she had to be aware of what was happening around her.
"My son is endangered because of me! If we don't save him, they will kill him!" She was trying to appeal to his softer side to make him realise what was at stake.
"There is nothing that we can do now. There is only us and as you said, we can't do it ourselves," he murmured softly to her.
"No, you don't understand! They have my baby guarded. They will know that I am gone by the morning and then they will kill him. I know they will! They told me that if I did anything wrong, they would. He has four guards. How is that fair? How can a boy of that age fight and defend his life against those odds?" By the end, Narcissa was nearly screaming. Lupin didn't show any shock at this outburst, in fact, he showed no reaction at all. Furthermore, he wasn't even looking at her. Her fists clenched at her side. How dare he not take this seriously! This was a person's life that they were talking about. Was he too hateful to get past experiences? As she opened her mouth to talk to the man he cut her off.
"There is nothing we can do as your son is safe."
"What are you talking about? Did you not here no word of what I just said?" She screeched.
"Yes…" Remus started only to get more screaming. "Please calm done! Your son is safe! He is not with the Death Eaters anymore! Harry got him out!" Remus had been gently grabbing her arms as she finally realised what he was saying.
"Why would Harry Potter save my son? They hate each other!" Although she was still half-screaming Remus was glad that she was now listening. He can't blame her for her behaviour he can't imagine the pain one must feel when their child is endanger. If anything were to happen to Harry he would not know what to do…
"No, they don't," He whispered softly, "They haven't for a while. It is a long story so do you want to sit down and have some tea to settle your nerves while I tell it to you?"
Finally, getting herself back together she nodded. She took a seat near the end of the table as Remus started on the tea. "I don't really know when it started as neither Harry nor Draco are really forthcoming about how and when. All I know is that in about fifth year they started to meet up in secret amazingly for homework," Remus chuckled, "Can you imagine if James did that with any of the Slytherin when we were at school?"
"Social suicide," Narcissa stated in a matter-of-fact way.
"Exactly, so we understand why they kept in quiet," Remus mused as he handed the cup of tea to Ms Malfoy.
"I have one question before you continue which is why were they doing homework together in the first place?"
"Well, as you have no doubt heard from your son, Harry is bad at potions but he needs his NEWTs to get into the program. Draco apparently wanted help with DADA. Not for class! Rather for surviving what was going to happen to him. So they joined forces, so to speak. I don't know how that happen…" Remus drifted off with a smile on his face. Narcissa was a bit confused about how she should feel about this information. It did make sense so far and did sound like something that her Draco might do so for the time being she willing to believe that it was the truth. She nodded at the werewolf to continue.
"Yes, well that is how they become friends and as you can imagine Harry was not impressed when he heard that his new friend was in grave danger. Dumbledore didn't wish for anything to be done as it was too dangerous but this is Harry we are talking about so he found a way to get Draco to safety. I don't know the full details but I know that Dumbledore was not pleased! And the riot it caused when everyone found what Harry had done, who for, that Draco would be staying and that he was becoming a member of the order."
"Wait, Draco is a member?" Narcissa asked worried.
"Yes, it was his choice to join. No body forced him," Remus said sternly to ensure that Narcissa knew that this was true. He knew what she was feeling on some level as he had the same problem when Harry had joined. He sighed softly to himself as Narcissa distracted herself with her tea. She could not believe that her son had done all of this behind her back. What made her feel worse was that she had no idea, no clue that Draco was keeping a secret. She remembered when he was younger and use to tell her everything including things that would have got him in trouble with his father. Maybe he thought she was really was a Death Eater? She had never lead him to believe that she wasn't. Could that be the reason why he didn't tell her?
There was the sound of people rushed in and close the door behind them. Narcissa looked the door of the kitchen to find that her son was walking through it. This made her forget some of the lessons that were hammered into as a child. She jumped from her seat and wrapped her arms around him.
"I am so glad you are safe," She whispered into her sons ear as he smiled and hugged her back.