Severus clearly didn't know that she could monitor the room, and she sincerely hoped that the Dark Lord didn't, either. It had been idle curiosity, really, that led her to cast the spell by which any Malfoy could monitor any room in the Manor. She usually avoided the dungeons, but information was power, and every scrap of power was needed at the moment. She was the rock upon which her family rested, and the events of this evening would not break her. She could not afford that luxury.

So it was in a futile attempt to think of something else that she idly cast the monitoring spell upon the room in which Severus was healing the werewolf. Lupin. His name was Lupin.

He... Lupin... was still naked, sitting with his back against the wall of the room. Severus was crouched before him, dabbing at his face with a cloth. Every now and then he conjured a clean cloth, dipping it in an open pot of salve and tossing the discarded one in a corner. The werewolf's face was ... no, she wouldn't think about that. Severus' face was closed, almost tranquil in its absolute lack of expression. When he had finished his task he turned and banished the cloths, and stood a moment, replacing the lid of the salve pot. Lupin leaned forward, resting his head on his knees.

"She didn't deserve that," he said, so quietly that Narcissa was surprised that Severus heard it.

"No."

"Will Lucius take care of her?"

He was speaking of her! The werewolf was concerned for her! The irony drew a sharp laugh - almost a sob - from her, and her hand went up sharply to cover her mouth. They couldn't hear her, of course, but if she were to start, she wasn't sure that she could stop. She took two harsh, deep breaths, almost missing Severus' indifferent reply.

"I doubt it."

Severus knew them very well, of course.

"You heard about the wedding, then?" asked Lupin.

Severus had his back to the other man, but his eyes flashed fire, even as his voice answered mildly, "Oh yes. We heard. Bella has vowed to take down her niece herself, for the insult. You are lucky she wasn't there tonight."

"Tomorrow, perhaps," said Lupin jauntily, but his voice shook. "Do you want to hear my excuses?"

"Why not," Severus answered lightly. "I have nothing better to do this evening." He turned to face Lupin again, a rigid figure of black defined against the soft colours of the limed walls, and the beige and bronze hues of the naked man on the ground.

"Tonks had a one-night stand. The Order thought we were a couple and she was desperate..."

Some of the rigidity unexpectedly left the standing man. He craned forward curiously. "It's not yours?"

Lupin shook his head, laughing a little into his knees. Narcissa knew that laugh. It was the laugh of someone who is so far past hope that pleasure returns unexpectedly. "When I don't return from this mission, at least the poor kid'll have a provenance. Even a werewolf's orphan is better than none."

Now Severus seemed truly intrigued. He sat down beside his captive with unexpected familiarity. "Did you sleep with her at all?"

Lupin's head turned and looked up at Severus. Narcissa wasn't sure what was in his eyes, but... "I was staying faithful," he said, his mouth twisting in a parody of a smile before he looked down again. For a minute, Severus sat stone still, and then he drew the man's head up again so that he could peer into his face. "So - only Narcissa then?"

Lupin nodded.

"You're an idiot werewolf and I am very angry with you." Severus said evenly. "You are very lucky that the Dark Lord has crucioed and humiliated you to the point where even I cannot contemplate hurting you again this evening. Why on earth did you take responsibility for another man's bastard?"

Lupin mumbled something. Narcissa could not believe her ears. She winced as Severus leaped to his feet and rampaged around the room, but she was pretty sure that Lupin had said... had actually said... "It's Harry's."

Harry Potter was having a bastard with her niece? Merlin help her, this was more power than she could possibly have expected. She caught a breath and kept watching. The dynamic between the two men was far more interesting than she had realised. Why on earth would Lupin tell Severus such a thing?

Was it true?

Lupin had risen to his feet, and limped over to the screaming Death Eater His voice was quiet, and through Severus' tirade, she could only catch a few words "...embarrassed... obliviated him... found out later... he doesn't know..."

That seemed to stem the tide. "She is a Black," he sneered, "Take what you want and don't pay for it - that's practically the Black motto, wouldn't you say?"

Narcissa Malfoy, nee Black, narrowed her eyes.

"Harry has enough on his mind, and she knows that she shouldn't have slept with a schoolboy."

"So you'll pay instead. How nice."

"It's not as if it matters. I'll be dead."

Severus recoiled. "You have as much chance as the next man of surviving."

"Oh for Merlin's sake, Severus. You said yourself I was lucky that Bella wasn't there tonight."

"You can't think you're going to be there tomorrow?"

"Of cours... I won't?"

"I may be angry but you can't think I'd let you die for being an idiot Gryffindor? I knew what you were from the start."

The conversation had taken a sharp turn into unreality. Narcissa had every reason to believe that the w... that Lupin would be dead tomorrow. If Bella didn't do it, Lucius would. He may have called her a whore afterwards, but he would still kill Lupin for what had happened tonight.

"But how..."

"I'll find a way! Let me think."

"You mustn't endanger your position for me! I knew the risks..."

"Oh do shut up, Lupin."

"Severus." The shining dark head rose from contemplation to look the supplicant in the face. "Severus, I'm so sorry."

"So you should be. Bloody Potter..."

"Not for that."

"Getting yourself captured..."

"Nor that."

Severus paused. "Narcissa?"

Lupin nodded. Severus took the necessary step forward to grasp the other man's arms. "You couldn't help that. You tried as hard as any other man I've ever seen, and harder than most, not to to do his bidding."

Lupin let his head fall onto the chest in front of him.

"I raped her, Severus. In front of her child."

Narcissa's breath stopped. Yes. In front of Draco.

In front of everyone, but he knew... Lupin knew... it was the knowledge that Draco was watching that had pierced her to the heart.

And he... Lupin... had tried so hard not to. She had watched him refuse the Dark Lord. Politely, at first. So polite; so resolute! Had watched him crucioed until he was stripped to to his essential naked self, lost in pain but still unmistakeably fighting the loss. She had seen him struggle against the 'imperio' until he moved like a marionette. Had watched his eyes as he lost the struggle and finally took her against the wall. It looked brutal, she knew. Only she could feel the trembling of hands and hips which still struggled against the deeds they performed.

It was the pain in his eyes that had convinced her that he was a man. It was because of his eyes that she called him Lupin, keeping him carefully separate from that ... animal... Fenrir Greyback in her mind.

Many eyes were watching that evening, and few of them had held as much humanity as those of the werewolf who had been raping her. When the meeting had ended, she had fled to the shower and washed herself until the bell had summoned her to supper, where she had presided with her usual calm grace.

And afterwards, when their 'guests' had retired, Lucius had slapped her and called her 'whore', and left her alone with her thoughts.

Lupin had fallen deeper into Severus' embrace. Narcissa watched blankly, barely seeing as the clothed man's arms went gently around the naked one's body. "It wasn't your fault, Lupin. It was the Dark Lord's will that animated your body, and the Dark Lord should bear the guilt and shame, not you."

"It was my body." Lupin looked down at his scarred torso. "This body did it. I have always feared what the wolf would do, but I never ... I never feared being a man. I welcomed it! It was proof that I am more than the beast. But now, I wish I could rip this body apart. Oh God, Severus..."

Severus sank to the floor, holding Lupin as he wept. He looked around, clearly unaware of the monitoring spell which was embedded into the very fabric of the Manor. Narcissa saw him layer spells to keep anyone from coming in, or even remembering that the cell existed, then she watched as he transfigured his coat into a mattress and lay with Lupin upon it. When Lupin was quiet, Severus stood up and undressed before returning to lie skin to skin with the other man under an eiderdown transfigured from his shirt. He rocked and soothed Lupin, murmuring words that were surely words of love, although they sounded remarkably like 'idiot' and 'dunderhead'.

For hours she watched them, as they slept a little, made gentle love, and plotted escape. And in the morning she woke Lucius with a slap and told him that she was done with the Dark Lord. She wasn't foolish enough to tell him that she had seen the future in the love between the Dark Lord's most trusted lieutenant and a werewolf, but she told him that since he had gotten them into this mess she would get them out, and the immediate future consisted of him shutting his mouth, lying low and doing as he was told. She resembled Bella far too much at that point for him to even consider disagreeing.

The werewolf escaped.

Narcissa smiled.