Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter. If I did, well, I would be a very happy girl.
In that weird land between dreaming and being semi-conscious, I came up with this idea.
Do me a favor... just stick with it till the end, even if you believe this is preposterous.
Peter was not a boy who questioned much.
If he got a piece of cake, he ate it.
If he got in trouble, he didn't argue back.
If Narcissa Black came up to him and said that she wanted to talk, he went with her.
He didn't question that they'd never spoken before, or that she was a fifth-year Slytherin, he just went.
She led him up staircase after staircase until they were in a part of the castle that Peter had never been to before. Or, maybe he had, and he just didn't recognize it. Peter was still trying to figure out where the Charms classroom was.
And then she sat down.
"I want to talk to you, Peter."
Peter didn't even bother pointing out that she'd already told him this. He just nodded and waited for her to continue.
Narcissa stared at one of the pictures behind him. "I like you, Peter."
Peter still said nothing. Sirius often told him that it was better if he just didn't talk. Once he told him that every time Peter opened his mouth, an awkward platypus crawled out.
Peter wasn't really sure what that meant, but after Sirius said that, Peter stopped talking that much. He figured it was better to just listen to what James and Sirius and Remus were talking about.
So Peter just said nothing.
"Do you like me, Peter?"
Peter didn't know what to say. What if an awkward platypus crawled out of his mouth? So he just nodded.
Narcissa still wasn't looking at him.
"Nobody can know about this, Peter. If my family found out…"
He nodded again.
"Will you be secret boyfriend?" she asked.
He nodded.
Because Peter wasn't a boy to question things.
He just accepted what came at him.
The first time they kissed, Peter was in his third year. Cissy was taking her NEWTs.
She had coughed four times and then excused herself from the Slytherin table – their signal – and then she'd sat and stared out the window for a long moment.
Then she kissed him.
Then she left.
But Peter didn't leave their spot for a long time. No, Peter just stood there. Because he had just been kissed for the first time, something not even Remus had done yet.
So Peter tried to forget that she was engaged and that Sirius hated her guts and all of that other crap. He just focused on them – Cissy and Peter. She'd promised that she'd find a way to make it all work.
Peter didn't see her very much after she graduated from Hogwarts. She went and got herself married. He'd heard rumors of the newlywed Malfoys being unsuccessful at having a baby.
Peter was slightly glad about this, though he knew it must be making Cissy distraught. If she didn't have a baby, there would be less for her to walk away from when he graduated.
She sent him owls from time to time, checking on him, asking how his friends were and how he was liking his fourth, and fifth, and sixth, and seventh years at Hogwarts. Asking what his plans were for after graduation.
And one time, they even met. It was in a small Muggle town, where they had no risk of anyone finding them. Cissy had told Lucius she was going to go buy a new hat.
Cissy promised that they would be together soon. He was, after all, seventeen already. It wouldn't be long before they would be together.
He graduated.
But other things came up.
Voldemort was at his high. Cissy was unusually busy helping out, even though she wasn't really a Death Eater.
She told him that he should join the Death Eaters.
Peter frowned and thought of his friends. What would James say if he joined the Death Eaters? What would Sirius say?
The only reason that he would even consider doing something so horrible was for Cissy. He would do anything for Cissy.
Peter may or may not have noticed how Cissy suddenly took a strong interest in James, Lily, and Harry. Maybe he didn't because Cissy also took even more of an interest in him. She practically sat in his lap on their picnics and she laughed about all of the great things that they would do in the future, in between asking how old Harry was now and if James had a job and how often they left the house.
She asked about the Order sometimes, too.
Peter usually tried to skirt around those questions. "You live with a Death Eater," he would say softly, but she would place a hand on his knee or grab his hand or sometimes even kiss him lightly, and he'd usually cough up the answer to whatever she was asking about.
And sometimes he answered the questions about James and Lily.
Even though James was his best friend.
There were times when Peter had considered telling James about his relationship with Cissy. He thought maybe James would understand because he loved Lily more than anything in the world.
But then he would hear James and Sirius badmouthing her and he knew that they would never understand the love that the pair shared.
It made him mad sometimes. That James could be with Lily, and Sirius could be with whoever the hell he wanted to be with, but he couldn't be with Cissy. Sometimes he wanted to scream at James and Sirius that she wasn't bad, that she was actually the most wonderful person that he had ever met.
But even if Peter hadn't been worried about their reaction, Peter never would have done it. Because Peter wasn't that kind of man.
When James made Peter his Secret-Keeper, Peter hadn't been planning on telling Cissy. But he accidentally let it slip during their next picnic that he was the only person that knew the location of James and Lily's home.
Still, he refused to tell her. "He's my best friend," he insisted.
"I thought I was your best friend," Narcissa said, but Peter still said no.
So she brought him to Voldemort.
Voldemort had no patience for friendship and begging. Voldemort had no patience for anyone or anything. Voldemort demanded to know the location of Harry Potter and threatened to kill Peter on the spot if he wasn't told right away.
Voldemort scared Peter almost as much as the prospect of losing Cissy did. So, with his eyes on her (even though she looked determinedly away), he told Voldemort where James and Lily lived.
And during their last picnic of 1980, after expressing his worries about Sirius, Peter was instructed by Cissy exactly what to do if he ran into Sirius.
Because Peter wasn't the type of man to think of a solid plan on his own.
He remembered Cissy when he was a rat. She was fainter in that world, but she was always there.
When he changed back into a human for the first time, she hit him with a full blast. Cissy was out there somewhere, he knew, and he was going to go find her, even if it was the last thing he did.
So Peter followed the trails that Voldemort had left for those who looked well enough and Peter became his right-hand man – quite literally.
And he was rewarded. He was made a Death Eater, he got to attend the Death Eater meetings, and he got to see Cissy, even if the only response he got was an astonished stare.
They had only one moment alone during the Second Wizarding War.
Peter, who was staying in Malfoy Manor, had happened upon her in the pantry one day. He was often in the pantry because he had to cook himself meals, so he figured that was why Cissy was there. He couldn't think of any other reason, seeing as Cissy had an army full of house-elves at her disposal.
She told him that she still liked him and she explained that he needed to hang on, that he needed to keep fighting, for once Voldemort had taken full power, they would escape together.
Cissy promised.
When Peter was killed in her basement, Cissy stumbled upon his body. She looked down at him for a long moment.
Then she kicked his face.
"What an idiot," she said, and then she laughed softly, before returning upstairs to the only man that she had ever truly loved.
Well, it's definitely the most out-there story I've ever written. Just think about it for a few minutes before you send me complete flames. I went through denial too. (Just kidding ;), I'm not sure that I think this actually would have happened.)
BTW, I realize that I was harsh on both of them and it may be a little bit OOC, but it's just an idea.
Thanks for reading.
~writergal24