A/N: All characters belong to JK Rowling, and not me.
MY PRINCE PUREBLOOD - 1970
Summer holidays meant one thing; parties. Days of frolicking in the sun with Lucius. Holding elaborate tea parties for all the purebloods to socialise at. And more importantly, the formation of partnerships.
It was during the holidays that most couples announced themselves, and so each summer, the girls would wait with little contained excitement that this year they might find their Prince Pureblood.
This year was particularly exciting and heartbreaking at the same time. Andromeda Black had recently gotten married, and her elder sister Bellatrix was about to. Unfortunately, in Andy's case, this caused her to be disowned, as she'd married a muggleborn. She should have known better, but she'd been blinded by love. At least that was Cissa's reasoning. Andie had never shown any desire to stray from the pure road before.
Today wasn't about Andie however. The Black family, and indeed most of the pureblood community, was focussed intently on Narcissa, the youngest daughter. As she entered her fifth year at Hogwarts, she was expected to start seriously considering her future, and that meant picking her potential husband. Narcissa didn't understand why exactly she was supposed to be doing this, but she was expected to, so she was doing to try to live up to expectations.
The Black family was doing their best to keep Andromeda's fall from grace as low key as possible. Almost immediately after being struck off the family tree, Bellatrix announced that her wedding would be held in the coming weeks. So now, Narcissa was being pressured to choose a boyfriend, to further draw attention away from the black sheep of the family.
This is what brought them to Malfoy Manor this year. It was no secret that Abraxas Malfoy wanted to find his son a future wife as soon as possible. His health had been deteriorating for years now, and the realisation that his son may soon inherit the Malfoy fortune had been haunting him for months. He just wanted to be sure that his son was going to make the right decision, and not just pick the lucky lady on her looks.
For Lucius however, there was only one girl for him. Narcissa Black. He'd made up his mind a while ago, and now he was just waiting for her to warm to the idea. He knew she'd come around, as soon as she realised that he could be so much more than a friend.
Narcissa had already decided that Lucius was no longer meant for the bachelor world though. She was merely waiting for the opportune time to let him know this.
So it seemed that everyone was waiting. Ridiculous really, since someone had to make a move sooner or later and hopefully it would be sooner rather than later.
Anyway, back to Malfoy Manor. Countless desperate girls were gathered in groups, batting their eyes at Lucius, and throwing evil stares at any girl he appeared interested in. Strangely enough, the girl they should have been most worried about warranted no attention at all. For some reason, most girls didn't think that Narcissa Black posed a threat to them, though there were countless reasons for them to consider her their enemy.
In the eyes of most of the wizarding community, they were best friends, and nothing more. No one paid any attention to the scores of couples that emerged from the status of best friends. They were all positive that this relationship was progressing no further.
They would be astounded by the end of this very day.
"Ciss, can I talk to you for a second?" Lucius whispered into Narcissa's ear, looking cautiously around the room.
Narcissa turned her head, raising an eyebrow at Lucius, though her eyes never left their focus, "can it wait?" she replied, sounding like she desperately wanted to stay right where she was, and with good reason. Two boys had gotten into a fight over one of the young Bulstrode girls, and were currently wrestling shirtless. No one had thought to stop them, as the boys were using the time to work the crowd, and the girls were quite enjoying the sight.
"No, it can't," he replied, stepping back, and prompting crashing into one of the hired waiters, causing the full tray of drinks to tip all over him.
He closed his eyes, apparently muttering some stress tip under his breath. The poor waiters had been abused so much in that evening that the poor man looked absolutely petrified.
Narcissa shooed him away, before fixing Lucius with a smile. "Why don't we go have that talk while you change, hmm?"
She'd always been rather good at placating him, and it worked this time as well. She grabbed his arm, steering him off towards his rooms. No one paid any attention to Lucius and Narcissa wandering off in the direction of his bedroom.
Only minutes later, when Narcissa was sprawled out on Lucius's enormous bed propped up on her elbows, did she remembered that Lucius had wanted to talk.
"So Lucy, what did you want to talk about?" she called out, in the direction of his closet.
Lucius reappeared, sans shirt, frowning. "Talk about?" he asked, looking confused if only for a second. He'd completely forgotten that he'd wanted to talk to her in the commotion. "Oh, right, talk."
He paused, talking a minute to collect his thoughts. Narcissa had barely heard a word he'd said. It had been a while since she'd seen him with his shirt off, and if she remembered correctly, he definitely hadn't looked like that last time.
Lucius noticed the look on her face, "what?" He was rather concerned. She had the strangest look on her face. "Are you ill? Do you want me to call someone?"
Narcissa shook her head, "no, I'm fine. So what were you going to say?" She hoped he put on his shirt soon, otherwise she may just drool on the bed, and that would be terribly undignified.
Lucius was actually going through the same dilemma. Though he appeared collected on the exterior, the interior was a little different. Apparently Narcissa looked quite the little vixen, sprawled out on his bed like that, and it was taking all the willpower he could muster not to ravage her right there.
"Yes, hmmm," he began, not really knowing where he was going to go with this. "You know my father has been hinting that I should have a girlfriend, so he can rule on whether or not she'd make a good Malfoy wife…" he paused, feeling rather odd just standing in the doorway, but not knowing where else to stand.
Narcissa nodded, not sure where he was going with this. She wondered if he wanted her opinion on a girl, because it would break her heart if he did.
"I've been thinking a lot about it in the past months, and I've realised that the girl I will need in order to impress my father is going to have to be well, perfect, to put it quite frankly. I've observed girls from all over the world, not just Britain, searching for that one that will fit into the family just right. I'd almost given up, you know, when I realised that I'd already found her. I could have kicked myself for not realising it sooner, and saving me all that trouble, but I don't think I could have appreciated her as much if I hadn't spent so long searching for her."
Lucius was sounding quite profound, and Narcissa hated to cut him off, but there was a party to attend to.
"Luch, who is it?" she asked, sounding a little more impatient than she wanted, as she scooted off the bed.
"It's you," he replied, a smirk creeping onto his face.
Narcissa stopped dead in her tracks. She'd only just gotten to her feet. "You want me?" she asked, stunned. She wanted him, but it had never occurred to her that he might want her too.
She needed to sit back down. She went to, but was a little too far away from the bed, and slipped onto the floor.
Lucius snorted, as Narcissa sat there stunned on the floor. He was beginning to wonder if she'd even registered the slip up.
"Cissy?" he asked, covering the distance between them quickly, and crouching down beside her. "You in there, love?"
Narcissa nodded her head, feeling numb as Lucius helped her up. She actually couldn't believe it.
"You're joking right?" she asked, looking up at him sceptically.
"Malfoy's never joke," he replied, sounding very grave.
She rolled her eyes. "So prove it then," she told him, hands on hips.
Lucius raised an eyebrow at her, shrugged, grabbed her and kissed her. And not one of those disgusting Hollywood tongue-down-your-throat kisses. The original kiss. Lips and eyes firmly closed.
Narcissa was even more shocked for a second, before she relaxed in his arms, just letting him kiss her.
This wasn't their first kiss, but it was the first time he'd admitted that he liked her. This was a big thing, and she knew that this was it. She was a taken woman.
Lucius pulled away slowly, enjoying the effect it had on her. "So what do you say Ciss? Be my wife one day?" he asked softly, not letting go of her.
Narcissa opened her eyes, gazing at him thoughtfully. "Okay," she responded, lips forming a smile.
"Lovely," Lucius retorted, leaning forward to kiss her forehead, before releasing her. "Then, I suppose I should get dressed so we can return to the party," he told her, as he retreated to his wardrobe.
Those that noticed their return to the party would later report that they knew there was something different about those two. It was like a sixth sense. Almost everyone in the room could tell that something significant had happened in the moments while they were away. Though they weren't acting dissimilar to how they had before, there definitely was something amiss.
So when Abraxas Malfoy proudly announced that Lucius had begun courting Narcissa Black, while there were tears in the room, there was no surprise. At least not that a girl had been chosen. Some were still stunned that he'd chosen Narcissa as the girl, but they were just the ones in denial. And if you honestly thought that you had a chance with Lucius Malfoy, wouldn't you be in denial about his best friend too?