A/N: This is for the QLFC Finals and we are in round one. As a team we had to choose one person for the entire team to write about and we chose Lucius Malfoy. I paired Lucius with Bellatrix Lestrange. My prompts are listed below. Enjoy!

Prompts:
#2: (setting) Paris
#7: (colour) cotton candy pink
#10: (word) embrace

Before

There is a question that gets passed around quite a bit, and it's never been fully answered. Does evil reside in someone's heart from birth, or do they have evil thrust upon them? Lucius believed that it was something thrust upon someone... At least, he imagined that it had been forced upon her.

Before Bellatrix took up with the dark arts, she had been pleasantly normal. Well, she had been as normal as she could possibly be. Pre-Azkaban she had been beautiful. Her brown hair was consistently brushed and tame, her eyes sparkled with the light of magic rather than the darkness of it, and she wore colors. She had a love of life that you wouldn't think she could. He imagined that darkness pierced her heart later in life due to Rodolphus Lestrange, but Lucius didn't know this for sure.

He still remembered the last time he saw her in a happy state. It was the day of the Malfoy wedding. Lucius had asked Narcissa to marry him after some years of courtship. He didn't know if he wanted to marry her, but he would rather have a wife than be alone. The person he really wanted to marry was standing across from him in her hideous, cotton candy pink bridesmaid dress, and her brown hair was in pleasant ringlets around her face.

She was adjusting the Eiffel Tower topper on top of the cake so that it resembled the actual world wonder located behind the wedding itself. He had known when Narcissa picked Paris to be the venue that it was going to be quite an expensive wedding, but it wasn't like he couldn't afford it. Lucius just took a glimpse at the dreaded wedding band on Bellatrix's finger, and his stomach was tied in knots.

It wasn't his wedding band, she didn't have his last name, and she wasn't wearing his favorite color. He was bothered being this close to her. He almost changed his mind.

They were in Paris, after all. It was the city of love, and they could run away together. Forget Narcissa, forget Rodolphus, and forget the shame that they would bring to their families if they were to run away. Unfortunately, he couldn't do that. He knew that she couldn't either.

"So, it's the big day!" she said enthusiastically.

She had finally noticed that he was standing in front of her as she continued to try and adjust the cake topper.

"That it is," Lucius agreed.

"Narcissa insisted on having ten layers," Bellatrix remarked, her tongue half sticking out of her mouth while she concentrated on the topper.

"You know, you can just fix it with your wand," Lucius reminded her, fully amused by her struggle.

"I tried, and it just didn't have the same placement technique that I have by hand." Bellatrix winked.

Lucius just chuckled and reached up to steady her hand while she fixed the topper. She didn't tense up like he had expected. Instead, she just smiled at the helpful gesture. He could see hints of a crimson tint on her cheeks, but he couldn't tell if it was her rouge or an embarrassed blush.

"There. Now, it's perfect," Lucius whispered.

Their eyes met for a few seconds before Bellatrix forced herself to look away. She walked to the front where the ceremony would take place and giggled.

"Perhaps you could help me with the flower arrangements on this alter, since you're such an expert with wedding cake toppers?" Bellatrix teased.

Her laugh was the best thing about her. It was different now that darkness encased her heart, but back then, it was a privilege to hear her laugh.

"I'm sure I could give you a hand," he answered, taking his wand out while she had her back towards him.

He waved it once and muttered an incantation that made a small flower, in the same shade as her hideous dress, appear in her hair to light up her already beautiful eyes. She reached up to see what it was and just smiled again. She knew what he was doing, but she also knew how wrong it was. The future Bellatrix would find this kind of behavior foolish and childish, but the present her was happy that it was happening.

"You know we can't do things like this once you're married," Bellatrix reminded him.

"Why not? We do it while you're married," Lucius reminded her.

He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She knew that they risked being seen, but a small part of her didn't care. She loved her sister dearly, and this was something she couldn't do to her.

"Lucius, we can't do this anymore," she whispered.

Her words burned him deeper than any kind of spell. What hurt the most was that he knew she was right. She was married, he was getting married, and they could never be. They had missed their chance.

"I know," he whispered, moving away but not before letting his fingertips linger on her waist.

"I wish we had known sooner," she commented.

"As do I,"

They both relished the last embrace that they shared. After that night, things were never the same. They were both taken by the dark arts and twisted until their own hearts were covered in hatred. The love between them was forgotten.

However, Lucius often visited this memory whenever he had a spare moment. He may not be able to feel what he felt back then, but he could at least remember it. She used to be beautiful, and he used to love her. Now they were just children of dark magic that had been taught nothing good of the world around them.