I'm putting on my black traveling cloak. It is late evening and I need to get out of the house before—

"Cissy! Where are you going looking like that?"

Drat. Bella. My oldest sister, Bellatrix is coming downstairs. I turn to face her.

"I'll be gone for maybe two hours. Make sure Draco stays indoors," I say simply.

Bellatrix laughs. It's her annoyingly haughty oldest-sister laugh. That laugh used to intimidate me when I was a little girl. It doesn't now. Now, it just annoys me.

"I said, 'Where are you going?'" she restates. "Tell me."

I sigh and turn away from her. She won't understand. She couldn't possibly… But I tell her anyways. Maybe she still intimidates me.

"You know what Draco has been put up to. I intend on getting him proper protection," I say, my eyes downcast.

Bellatrix snorts. "You think asking him will help? That slimy son of a bloodtraitor? Narcissa…."

I look at her.

"I understand you don't trust Severus. I, however, do. I'd appreciate it if you didn't keep me longer."

I turn to leave once more.

"Cissy, don't be foolish. Draco is being honored! Cissy…"

I cut her off, outraged. To be given the "privilege" to kill someone is no honor!

"Honored? He'll be a criminal by the end of this! A criminal or dead!"

"You do not understand," Bellatrix says heatedly.

How can she accuse me of not understanding my own motives? How can she claim to understand motherhood?

"Bella, I don't believe iyou/i understand. You and Rodolphus never had children," I say with forced calm.

"Much less wanted them," she interrupts.

"But Lucius and I wanted a family," I press on. Merlin how we'd wanted a family. I decide to save Bella the sob story of the years we went without Draco. I don't share the private agony of seeing other couples with babies before Draco. I don't share my fear of feeling that agony again.

Instead I say, "We have a family. Draco is our son. Our only son. I'm never having another. He's my baby boy. And I will do what I must to protect him."

"If you want to protect him, why not go to the Dark Lord? Why not kill Dumbledore yourself? Are you a coward?"

I feel myself tremble. I am a coward. I cannot protect my son. But I know who can. I apparate to find Severus.