Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Harry Potter.
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A Flower Unearthed
Chapter One
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Narcissa Malfoy had never been in a position to make decisions about her own life. She had married Lucius not two weeks after her graduation, under tremendous pressure from her parents.
Their feelings for each other were never particularly intense, and now that he was in Azkaban and the Dark Lord was dead, Narcissa felt little sorrow. In fact, she was exhilarated by her newfound freedom.
Lucius's trial, including the entire appeal process, lasted until mid-October. Draco had been sent back to Hogwarts, along with many of the other students who were unable to complete their final year because of the war.
As soon as he left, she had a sudden, burning desire to escape her isolation in Malfoy Manor, and rented a small room at an inn in Hogsmeade. She spent her days wandering the streets and browsing in the shops, feeling nostalgic for her own school days.
She hadn't been so happy in years. She found herself smiling at people for no reason, and received several double takes from people that knew her only as the cold, aristocratic wife of Lucius Malfoy. The fact that her good mood made them nervous only made her smile wider in amusement. It was a vicious cycle.
It was on one of these lazy, nostaligic days that she found herself sitting in the Three Broomsticks, having decided to make the experience complete with her first butterbeer since she became an adult. The door opened with a gust of cold wind, and Narcissa glanced up to see Harry Potter and his two friends, Weasley and the mudblood girl, walk in.
They were laughing about something, and their faces were pink from the autumn chill. The girl, still smiling, claimed a table near Narcissa's, not noticing her. Narcissa remembered that her name was Hermione Granger, having heard enough rants about "the mudblood know-it-all" from Draco over the years, but she had never really seen her up close before; at least, not in a situation where she could really pay her any attention. She was pretty.
And naturally, Granger chose that moment to glance up and see Narcissa studying her. They locked gazes, and Narcissa could not seem to look away.
Granger looked away first, as Potter and Weasley showed up with three mugs of butterbeer, and Narcissa got up to leave rather than risk any sort of confrontation, though she didn't expect one. When she reached the door, however, she couldn't stop herself from turning around to glance at them one more time out of a vague curiosity. When she did, she met Granger's eyes again. It was unnerving, and she quickly turned and left.
She walked as fast as she could short of running until she reached her room. She didn't know why, but something in the girl's stare had made her feel lonely. It was nothing new, she had been lonely for a long time, as distant as Lucius was, but she had never really felt it before.
Narcissa had no close friends of her own, particularly now that Severus was dead. Not that he had been the sort of friend she had fun with in Hogsmeade even when he'd been alive...
She was jealous of that Gryffindor trio and how close they were. She wanted to be sitting at that table with the mudblood girl. The thought of this left her frightened and vaguely disgusted with herself.
Neither Malfoys nor Blacks got jealous, and she had been thoroughly indoctrinated into the worldviews and behaviors of both families. But she felt those filial ties breaking down already with nobody to enforce them, and she allowed herself a moment of weakness.
She didn't remember that night's dreams the next morning, but they had involved dark eyes that glowed like amber, and her own pale, slender fingers tangled in soft, slightly bushy hair.
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A/N: Review please!