Narcissa looked out of the window. She was waiting for Lucius to come home from a Death Eater meeting.
It was there anniversary…and she was alone.
She was lonely without Draco at home any more. He preferred staying at school for the Christmas holidays now he was older. Narcissa did not blame him she even still missed the castle at Christmas.
Lucius would be home soon, she thought to herself. Her husband all to herself again…just like it used to be…before he returned. Lucius was now expected to devote all his time to the dark lord. Just as Narcissa and Lucius began to dwell happily in each other's company Lucius would feel the familiar burning sensation upon his arm and be called away from her.
She never knew when he would come back…
…or if he would come back alive…
---
Lucius apparated around the back of the Manor. He always went around the front way. But that's where Narcissa would see him. Lucius knew she would be waiting by her bedroom window, sitting on the window seat looking out for him to apparate a few feet from the gates.
Today he wanted to surprise her…
Lucius saw his breath in the cold air, he wrapped his black cloak closer around him as he walked towards the manor back entrance.
---
Narcissa felt tears prick at the back of her eyes, like tiny splinters on unpolished wood. She took a deep breath. Lucius was not coming home until morning. No way, it was too late now. He was probably on some frustratingly difficult mission. A mission which tore Narcissa and Lucius apart.
She turned away from the window and got up off the window seat. As she faced the other direction she nearly squealed with delight. Lucius was standing in front of her, his hair spattered with snow flakes and making it appear slightly wet. His skin was white with the cold, if he had been any paler he would have been nearing blue. His cloak too was powdered with snow.
He seemed to make a movement but all that came out was a shiver of cold and a moan of indescribable pain.
Narcissa walked towards him so quickly she was almost walking on air. Her warm hands reached forwards to touch his ice cold face. Her warm lips instantly fastened onto his cold one.
Narcissa wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear.
"I was so frightened…but you're safe"
"Narcissa, there is nothing that could take me away from you for long"
---
Narcissa's eyes seemed strangely watery as she looked at Lucius face. She had not lost the beauty she had possessed when they were married. She was still elegant and fine. Her posture perfect and her body as willowy as it had always been. Yet perhaps now she was even more beautiful.
Her face had lost its girlish and angelic naivety and now held superior features, that of a full grown woman. Who's ice blue eyes although the same colour were now more full of wisdom than that of the seventeen year old girl she once was.
"Lucius you must be freezing, take off the cloak…and come and sit by the fire with me" she whispered. Lucius nodded as his wife slid away from him and headed towards the large fire place and pointed her wand at it. Great golden flames whipped up from the coals and wood. Lucius was already feeling the heat radiate from it as he removed his cloak.
To be continued