Chapter Three
A/N: Thank you to the youngest Gorgons and Misstyfoot for reviewing the last chapter.
When the sun rose in the sky, Narcissa sighed at the sight of it. Through the window bars of the cell, she could see its light, and even it seemed to be frozen, as if the Dementors had sensed the happiness that the light could bring. After the end of the War, they had harnessed control of the beasts once more, and had returned them to their old posts at Azkaban. Many people had disputed the continued use of them as guards, saying that if they were controlled once again, then the same havoc as the War could be wreaked all over again, but the Ministry disputed this. After all, if a witch or wizard had been sent to the prison, there was as good as no hope for them anyway. 'Perhaps there is no hope for me either.' she thought.
Despite the opinions of the world, the blonde was not a fool. She was well aware of the fact that her fate had near enough already been decided, and that there was little she could possibly do to change that. Even if a witness came forward in her favour, which she doubted, she had still killed her sister. That was the truth, and even if she was not charged with murder, the odds still did not seem to be in her favour.
She had been provided a mirror, enchanted against breaking, so that she could prepare herself and look presentable for the courts. It was no use, of course. When she had brushed away the remnants of frost from the Dementor's passage, she saw her reflection for the first time since before the Battle of Hogwarts, when she had cast a less than brief glance at the mirror on her way out of the room. Thus, she had not seen the dark circles around her eyes, red from crying, her pale, lifeless skin and her dirtied blonde hair hanging limply down her back. She had been provided with a shapeless black dress to wear for the trial, and Narcissa was glad for the way it swamped her petite figure. She did not, after all, wish for Lucius or Draco to see how thin she had become.
The woman's heart ached sharply in her chest, as if it had been punctured with a blade. 'Lucius and Draco will be there, at the trial.' she realised, and cursed her absent mind for not having thought of this before. 'I don't want for them to see me like this, I don't want them to see the mess that I have become in this hell. I don't want for my darling boy to suffer watching his mother sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban, the same fate he saw of his father only two years ago, and I don't want for my Lucius to feel the same pain that I did when I watched him taken away, knowing as I did that I would never see him again, that I would grow old without him. Only this time, there will be no one to bring me out of the depths. If I am sentenced to languish in the prison, I will remain there for the rest of my days, cold, empty and alone.'
At the thought of the trial, her mind turned to the proceedings, and how they would play out. 'Will I even have a defence?' she wondered. 'Or will they simply charge me and go? I know that I am entitled to a witness to defend me, but who would stand on my behalf? Close blood relatives are not permitted to stand, and neither are spouses, so Draco and Lucius cannot do this. I don't think I would really want them to, in all honesty. But there is no one else in Wizarding Britain who would not want to see me locked up and the key thrown from the Hogwarts Bridge. There is no hope for me, then.'
The creaking of the iron bars that lined the front of her cell brought Narcissa from her morbid musings and back to the real world. A guard stood beside the now open door, flanked by a Dementor. The guard, an Auror, she supposed, was chewing on something as he looked at her, inclining his head towards the corridor beside him, with contained a fireplace that would only transport someone from Azkaban to the courtroom in which heinous crimes were tried. 'Given the company he is keeping, that is probably chocolate.' she thought, as she went with no objection in the path of the fireplace. 'I am going to end up in the courtroom whether I like it or not. I would like to think that it would be better for me to go to my fate with dignity. At least then, I will not disgrace my family as well.'
"Just step into the fireplace, and don't try anything." the man barked, and the blonde attempted not to flinch at his harsh tone. He reminded her a little of how Voldemort had been when angered, and that was not a memory that she wanted to relive. However, she pulled herself together, held her head high and stepped into the emerald flames, vaguely aware of the his doing the same as the image of the prison disappeared before her eyes, to be replaced by a black tiled corridor of the Ministry of Magic. There was only one door at the end of the narrow space, and Narcissa was well aware of the place that it would lead to. On the other side of that door, her fate would be decided.
'Lucius and Draco will be on the other side of that door by now, if the trial is about to begin.' she thought, as she took the first couple of steps down the hallway. 'Of course, they know that I don't want them to see me taken away, but I don't imagine that they will listen. After all, I certainly did not listen to Lucius when he said the same.'
In a couple of moments, there was only step left to take, as the guard had opened the door to the courtroom. The last step would take her into the courtroom, and to her fate, but Narcissa did not slow down in the least.
It was now or never.
A/N: Please review!