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Daedalus, Lord of all Cats

Narcissa took the steaming cup of tea from the elf's little hands. "Thank you, Dolly, it smells heavenly. That will be all for now," she murmured, smiling a little before pressing the edge of the glass to her lips. It was funny, really, the teacup seemed warmer than the liquid inside it. She wondered briefly why that was, before her thoughts returned to where they had been.

Lucius. Draco. The Dark Lord. The future.

She loved Lucius, but he was going down a dark road. She'd never quite agreed with some of the things he did. She believed, of course, that there was a natural order. Wizards were better than muggles, purebloods were better than mudbloods, mudbloods were better than muggles, and so on. She also believed that someone needed to enforce the natural order of things. She just wished there were a nicer way of doing it, or at least that it could be done without her noticing. She'd been secretly pleased when the Dark Lord fell that October evening, many years ago, because it meant that she wouldn't have to think so much about all the people being killed. She also didn't have to worry about her husband being killed before her child really knew him.

She loved Draco the most. Her biggest fears all involved him. Him dying, him killing other people, him turning cold and distant as he got older, as his father had. All of them seemed to be becoming more and more likely as the days dragged on. He was so far away all the time, off at school. She'd wanted to home school him, so he'd be closer, but his father wouldn't have it, and even she knew it was a silly idea. His father had wanted him to attend Durmstrang, so at least she'd won on that front, and he was a little closer to home.

His dying was likely, as it had to happen someday, and he was so independent know that it scared her.

His killing other people was strikingly likely. If he followed in his father's footsteps, he'd probably kill many, many people.

His turning distant and cold, well, it'd already begun. He was only polite to the house-elves when she was in the room. He never wanted to talk about what school was like, in fact he was writing home only once a month now, instead of once a week. Lucius had assured her that all teenagers were like this, except Narcissa knew for a fact that Theodore Nott wrote to his mother twice a week, and Gregory Goyle wrote home just about once a day, (though she'd seen a couple of the letters, and he really didn't have much to say).

She needed to find some way to pull some compassion out of him. Remind him what it was like to love something else, truly love it. She knew he loved her, he really did, but he never spent any time with her anymore. She doubted he loved his friends. Valued them, maybe, he seemed at least a little fond of them, but they were below him, far below him, and he knew that. He didn't even love the girl he'd been dating on and off, Pansy Parkinson, that she knew for sure. A while back, after she'd expressed her displeasure that they'd gotten back together, Draco had explained to her why they were dating. Apparently Pansy was of the female persuasion and was afraid that her parents would find out [Narcissa had been made to swear not to mention this to Mrs. Parkinson] and Draco knew it would deeply please Lucius to see him holding hands with a little Pureblooded girl. He cared about Pansy, enough to do that for her, but Narcissa could see that it was mostly because he owed it to her, after she'd been such a good friend to him for all those years.

But what could she do? The boy practically worshiped Lucius, and Lucius hated practically everyone. Taking another long sip of her tea, she tried to think of something Lucius had loved unconditionally. She didn't even love her, not any more. She was now more of a friend to him, more of an advisor. And that was fine with her, really, as she felt the same way.

Hadn't Lucius had a dog when he was little? Yes, yes, he'd loved that dog, until his friend Nott had killed it to show off. He'd loved the dog so much, he'd never forgiven Nott, which is how she'd found out, anyhow, after Lucius had had to explain to her why inviting Mr. Nott and his wife over for dinner was not a good idea.

But she couldn't get Draco a dog. They didn't allow those at his school, so he'd have to leave it at home. She'd need to get him a pet for school. An owl would be ideal, but owls weren't the sort of pet you could spend a lot of time with, though Draco did like flying. (And what a great little flier he was! He'd gotten that trait from his mother.) Bats were boring things, not very interesting, though great for carrying letters. Toads were much worse, boring and useless unless you wanted to test out potions. Rats and mice were pretty clever, but too small for Draco to really love, she doubted he'd value any shy sort of animal. Snakes were wonderful, but definitely not allowed, seeing as the deadliest were the most interesting. Draco needed a dignified animal, an animal worthy of a Black.

Draco was getting a cat.

Narcissa smiled to herself, and set her tea down on the marble side-table. "Dolly, dear? Could I ask a favor?"

~x~

Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! I would really appreciate it if you reviewed. This first bit is sort of a prologue... Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Have a nice day! ^^