Narcissa awoke in the garden dazed and confused. What had happened? How did she end up in the garden? She heard footsteps rushing around the parlour up on the second floor, the hurried steps only meant one person, Lucius. She tried to call out but she couldn't, she tried to move but she couldn't. She saw long blonde hair appear at the window then the hair disappeared. Minutes later, Lucius rushed out and cradled her in his arms muttering small words of apologies.
"What happened?" Narcissa croaked, frightened of the answer she knew would come.
"The Potter boy, the Weasley and the mudblood escaped, the Dark Lord took his anger out on us" Lucius replied shuddering at the memories flooding through his head.
Memories of Narcissa crying out in agony as the Dark Lord performed the Cruciatus curse on her, then the Dark Lord flinging Narcissa's body out the parlour window and into the garden below. Then, the Dark Lord turned to Lucius performing cruel and unspeakable acts of violence against Lucius and Draco. Lucius passed out from the pain and the Dark Lord left the parlour and went to the gardens. Passing over Narcissa's unconscious body and through onto the magical assortment of flowers which the Dark Lord knew Narcissa had slaved over for almost two decades, he was curious to see what plants she had. Walking past the tulips, roses, carnations, lilies, irises, snapdragons, violets, petunias, belladonnas he stopped at the bottlebrushes, and kangaroo's paw. The Dark Lord knew where the bottlebrushes and the kangaroo paw was from, and what it meant for the Malfoy's especially the matriarch. The Dark Lord now knew, where the matriarch of the Malfoy family had hid their second child. The Dark Lord chuckled as he never liked Herbology. The Dark Lord conjured up a storm to hit whenever the first Malfoy was awake. Then the Dark Lord apparated to Australia, bent on finding the child that was never meant to be born.
Minutes later, as Lucius was carrying Narcissa to bed the storm hit, Narcissa cradled and cried herself into Lucius as she was afraid of storms from her days at Hogwarts. As Lucius entered the house, she quietened and as Lucius put her to bed till Narcissa could sleep soundly he waited and then went to find his son. As the storm raged outside and started to damage some artefacts inside the parlour and Lucius repaired the window and the storm was quietened as the last shard of glass went into place.
"Draco? Draco!" Lucius called but heard nothing in reply. Then out crawled Draco, all bloody and bruised.
"Draco, are you okay?" Lucius asked
"Yeah, I think I am" Draco replied wearily as he winced as his father gave him a closer inspection.
"Where's Mother? I hope she's not out in the storm, you know how much she hates them" Draco observed the rain pattering onto the glass and hearing the howling winds.
"She's in the guest room asleep, where's Bellatrix?" Lucius inquired not seeing his sister-in-law in his parlour.
"I dunno, Father, I think she escaped somehow"
"Typical" was the response Lucius snorted out.
Lucius returned to the guest room he and Narcissa had been sharing the past few months to find her tossing and turning obviously in the grip of a nightmare. Draco was anxious to see if she was alright, rushed to her side and was accidentally hit by her flailing arms. Lucius suppressed a snort and grabbed Narcissa.
"Cissa, Cissa, wake up, wake up you're only dreaming"
Narcissa awoke sweating and panting and her face as pale as it was only weeks ago when Charity Burbage had died.
"Oh, Lucius, your fine, your okay and Draco, oh my Draco I thought I had lost you both" Narcissa cried out hugging the two most important men in her life. At this moment, she thought of not only her two beautiful men but of her little girl growing up overseas, never knowing the fact she had Malfoy blood running through her veins and completely cut off from the wizarding world.
The one thing the Black family prided itself on besides the fact it was pure family, it was also the art of Occulumency. She as well as Bellatrix had learnt the art and passed it onto Draco. She slipped into the Dark Lord's mind something she had being doing for the past few months stying one step ahead of him. Of course the Dark Lord would kill her if he ever found out what she was doing. She saw that he was in Australia, the country where she left their daughter Alexandra. She had sworn to the medi-witch to change the child's name and prayed that the nurse had taken heed. Then, she saw her, her little angel, her little girl, playing in the playground laughing and enjoying herself. The Dark Lord raised his wand and caused her little girl to trip over. The Dark Lord laughed knowing well enough that Narcissa was watching this.
"Cissa, what's wrong?" Lucius asked, looking at his wife worryingly as she shook herself and cried.
"He, he hurt her, Alexandra, he know she exists, he saw her and caused her to trip" Narcissa cried out. Looking at Draco and his quizzical look, she explained everything.
"Remember, in your second year how I was pregnant, well Lucius had the fore sight to know what might have happened so we sent her away to live like a Muggle so she wouldn't have to see what we're seeing or be subjected to the whims of the Dark Lord. We're sorry we lied."
"Why, though Mother? Didn't you trust me enough? All this time I've been mourning she's alive in another country!" Draco screamed
"No, no ,no darling of course we trust you, just in case the Dark Lord or anyone used that against you, we only wanted to protect you."
A girlish giggle disturbed Narcissa's talk with Draco. Bellatrix had returned. Her sister, gone mad with devotion to the Dark Lord giggled at the discussion she overheard.
"Lemme guess, Draco didn't know you that Alexandra was alive? Anyone who knew a shred of Herbology would know that bottlebrushes and kangaroo paw's are from Australia. Even that pathetic excuse Wormtail knew that. Rest his stupid soul" Bellatrix lamented. Lucius wanted to kill his sister-in-law for her insensitive comments to her younger sister and remembered that Bellatrix didn't own a shred of decency.
"Piss off Bella." Lucius muttered
"Oh Luci, did I offend you, oh sorry Luci." Bellatrix smirked.
Draco stormed out of the room, followed shortly by his father.
"Draco? Draco! Stop! Let us explain." Lucius pleaded with his son.
"Why, so you can feed me more lies? Why, Father, why? I wanted another sibling so badly, you and mother didn't understand how lonely I was and still am." Draco cried out
"We're so sorry Draco"- Lucius was cut short by Draco slamming the door into his room.
Lucius returned to the guest room where he and Narcissa were sharing and was horrified at what he saw. Bellatrix threatening her sister, Narcissa quite pale, complied with her sister's wish. Bellatrix sauntered out of the room and Lucius went over and cradled Narcissa in his arms. Narcissa burst into tears. Lucius tried to console his desolate wife, but was unable to. Lucius held his wife till her heart-wracking sobs turned into little hiccups.
"What did Bella want?" Lucius inquired
"For me to butt out of his head, it's his and he can enter mine but I can't enter his! This is so unfair! I should never have planted those bottlebrushes or kangaroo paw's. Bella was right. Anyone who did basic Herbology would know they're from Australia." Narcissa cried
"But Cissa, it's the only way you remember Alexandra, you always had a green thumb and if the plants wither and die you know what's going on with Alexandra" Lucius reasoned with his wife.
"Cissa darling, sleep you need to sleep to heal, I'll watch over you and protect you"
"Night, Lucius, I love you" Narcissa mumbled
"I love you too, my darling"
