Well My Friends,
It seems the story is flowing. So you can have another chapter. Now I have no idea where the story is going but I do know it should be ending in the next two chapters…Maybe. We are here on the evening of the Gringotts Heist after our resident Ice Queen is displaying cracks in her icy mask. Remember her best friend was Hermione before she went back, and the girl isn't much older than she is now, only by a few years. I am still unsure if I want a sexual relationship for these two as my first Narcissa/Hermione story, but if it happens it happens.
Please enjoy the story. I am sorry if they women in this chapter are acting strange but remember Hermione, however paranoid, likes to give people chances. If Hermione never took a chance in the first place we wouldn't have a story now would be?
Thanks for reading,
~snow
It will only be a matter of time thought the woman as she sat in a very comfortable arm chair on the shore of a very dark lake on a very chilly and cloudy day in northern England sipping a spectacular blend from Ceylon. She loved the smoothness of the blend as this particular brew had notes of vanilla and mocha. She, Draco, and Hermione would drink this brew as they waited for Astoria in the little bistro on Thursdays. Narcissa had to smile at the interactions between her son and her young friend. They bickered like children one moment and then shared a solemn silence as memories flooded. It was Draco who relived the moments in that little café from his point of view of a room of requirement in flames. He looked up and planted Hermione with a gaze as he thanked her for being the intelligent one in the group to find a way to get him from the blazing inferno. Narcissa sipped her tea just as she did now and watched the young woman before her. Then reached out her hand and grasped the girls in thanks. She had her son because of her and Potter.
Narcissa pulled her thoughts from the warmth of Hermione's hand and back to the overcast sky. She was happy she cast warming charms on her clothes as she sat in the damp chill waiting. She looked around and made sure everything would be fine for the arrival of the trio. She had a tent erected, a fire already going in a heater, and food warming in a small oven. She knew according to Hermione's diary that it would take approximately one day to reach the lake on the back of the dragon. She hoped that the children stuck to their original plans of escape. Reading Hermione's detailed account of the incidents she was sure there was no other way to leave Gringotts.
Now it was all up to the blasted beast to fly in the right direction thought the woman as she sipped her tea. She began to get anxious when she stood to collect her used tea and stoke the fire and warm the tent. When she walked back outside she heard it, a screeching caw mush like a hawk but larger. She lifted Draco's quidditch eye pieces up and looked through the scanning the sky. Down coming from the south was a speck, and as Narcissa zoomed in she saw a dragon and three figures. Narcissa made her preparations, and charmed her coat hood to conceal her features just as the night her infiltrated Malfoy Manor. She watched and the saw three specs fall and then splash into the lake. She put her eye pieces down, gathered her bag, put all of Hermione's things in the satchel and popped over to the shore line where they should be swimming to.
She saw the three warriors swim and trudge to the shore line and then saw Harry Potter convulse and knew it was the vision Hermione spoke of when Harry let the Dark Lord into his mind. Hermione had a hand on her friends back and shoulder and then looked around as if looking for a strategic vantage point for cover. That was when Narcissa sucked in a breath as Hermione's eyes landed on her shape. She raised her arm and pointed toward her camp. Hermione's eyes followed the direction and then nodded to her. She tugged Harry and Rom into the direction of her camp and when the boys questioned her hospitality Hermione rebuked their paranoia.
She went inside without a word and stood behind a partition and stripped her wet clothes and hung them to dry. By the time Hermione was finished changing her clothes she pulled out a tattered but warm coat and slipped it on while she lifted her hands to warm them by the stove. Narcissa could see into the tent from the distance she was at with the eye pieces as she sat on a rocky jet of land that plunged in to the lake. Narcissa then pulled out a note she had written earlier and folded it into an airplane and sent it to the girl similar in the way the people in the ministry sent memos. Narcissa popped to the other side of the lake and waited.
Narcissa didn't have to wait long as she heard the distinct sound of a person disapparating near her. She had a small camp fire with a concealment charm on it so the boys on the other end of the lake would notice, two chairs, and a smaller tent made for one and none of the accessories of the tent on the far side of the lake. Narcissa watched the young woman walk closer looking around and then jump as she turned around and could suddenly see the small camp. The woman indicated toward a seat for Hermione as she looked tense. Hermione moved slightly and then she noticed her wand grasped in her hand.
"You wont need that little one. I wont harm you," Narcissa softly spoke as if she was soothing a wild animal and coaxing it to her. Hermione stood but walked closer to the fire.
"You are the one who helped us escape Malfoy Manor, aren't you?" Hermione inquired trying to put the pieces together. Narcissa nodded. The shadows of the hood still hid her face.
"Please sit, we have much to discuss," Narcissa urged the young woman yet again. Narcissa bit her lip as she watched Hermione lick her lips as Narcissa offered her tea and sandwiches.
"How can I trust a person who hides their face? How do I know you are not a death eater out to snatch me and take me back so Bellatrix can finish what she started?" Hermione interrogated and it was then the Narcissa stood and walked slowly to the waters edge. She threw her wand to Hermione and the girl caught it and looked at her speculating then finally sat down in the offered chair.
"I will reveal who I am when I know you wont kill me," Laughed Narcissa as she watched the girl, "Do I have your word you will trust me and listen?" Hermione nodded and then nodded to Hermione and the girl seemed to know exactly what to do and pointed her wand to Narcissa. Finite Incantatem rang between them as Narcissa pushed back the hood from her face. Hermione gasped and brought her wand up and tightened her grip. Narcissa smirked. She knew her Hermione well and she was always on her guard, even to the day she died. She always sensed a bit of unshed paranoia from the girl. Narcissa opened her coat slowly watching the young woman before her. Then she gazed into brown eyes and bore into her soul as she opened yet another layer of clothing. Her noticed Hermione's breathing hitch and she looked away, blushing. Narcissa smiled as she reached in to her black shirt and pulled out the item that Hermione was intimately familiar with. Narcissa cleared her throat and Hermione looked at her as she began to sit down. Then Hermione noticed the chain and the device attached to it. Realization hit.
"How long, wait you cant tell me that. YOU CANT TELL ME THAT! What the hell are you thinking revealing yourself to me? What of the time line?' Hermione raged as she lectured Narcissa on the ramifications her actions would have on the future. Narcissa let the girl rant as she sipped her tea and watched the flames and wore Hermione's voice like a warm blanket. Narcissa smiled as far away thoughts surfaced and she remembered the girl lecturing her about something or another in the future. Honestly she forgot what it was about but they were so comfortable with each other that they could argue, and rant, and rave, but then as if a switch where hit they would look into the others eyes and instantly find everything fine. It was with that last thought Narcissa looked to Hermione. She pierced her brown eyes with her own and it was then that she felt the stirring of her love for this young woman, just as she had 3 years from now.
"Are you finished?" Narcissa asked as she lightly placed her tea cup on the small table she conjured earlier. She looked to Hermione and then away with a smile, "and as for the rules of time travel… I'm a dark witch dear, I don't much care for rules." Narcissa smiled and so did Hermione and then the girl began to relax. Hermione gave Narcissa back her want but she still held hers in her hand, not yet willing to let things fully settle.
"How long?" asked Hermione nervously as she studied the woman. Narcissa knew she was unsettled and anxious. She stood and cast a notice me not spell and a silencing spell on their surroundings. Hermione watched as the older woman rose and then held out her hand to the young girl. Hermione raised her right eyebrow just as she had that first day Narcissa asked if she could sit with her in the small restaurant. Hermione grasped it and then they walked. Narcissa collected her thoughts.
"It is three years from now when I come back to you," Narcissa whispered as she looked out over the dark lake.
"Why, what happens?" Hermione asked, "I'm not important enough. Sure Harry, Ron and I are on a mission but we don't even know if we will survive it. Harry if the important one. He is the boy who lived."
"And he is the only one to take down the Dark Lord, he has a horcrux in his mind, and only He or the Dark Lord can defeat each other. Yes, I know, Hermione. Believe me I know." Narcissa found this more difficult than she thought it would be. Her chest clenched, and her breathing became ragged. Hermione reached out to the other woman as she noticed the abrupt change in the usually composed and icy woman.
"You die, Hermione," whisper Narcissa and as she looked out over that dark placid lake she felt her body gain control, but felt the cold chill of her chiseled cheeks as tears flowed from her blue eyes. She felt a hand on her arm tentatively trying to comfort her. "Your death triggers something catastrophic, the rise of a new dark lord worse than the one we are at war with now." Narcissa then looks to Hermione as the brightest witch of her age puts it all together.
"Harry," she gasped as she threw a hand to her lips stifling yet another gasp. She swallows as the future dawns on her. They succeed, they live, but she will die, and her best friend, her brother becomes what he hates the most, all because of her. She can't let his future fall into that abyss.
"I will figure something out. I know Harry better than anyone else. I wont let him fall," Hermione vowed as she looked out over the water. Narcissa felt her job was nearly complete then the girl spoke.
"We seem like very different people. How do our lives intertwine? Please tell me I don't marry Draco," Joked Hermione which brought a real smile to Narcissa's lips and Hermione's smile faltered as she saw the beauty of the woman before her. She never noticed it before but Narcissa Malfoy was gorgeous.
"You and Draco never become more than bickering friends, thank Merlin," Narcissa smiled then noticed Hermione stopped smiling. "No, don't get me wrong little witch, I harbor no judgments what Lucius did regarding blood status. It has nothing to do with prejudices."
"Then tell me why you came back for me and not my friends,' Hermione inquired. Narcissa never thanked herself more for her pureblood upbringing than she did at that moment. Her in the dark, gazing at a serene lake she wished her life with Hermione was different. She let some of her pure blood stuffiness slip and she turned to the girl and flitted her hand and shoved her sleeves back over her forearms exposing them to the air. She caressed soft, unblemished skin and let one tear slip past her eye lashes. When she went to retreat, and compose herself, she felt a thumb brush away her tears.
"I must mean a great deal to you to come back to this time, and brave a war you didn't believe in," Hermione whispered. Narcissa looked down into Hermione's brown eyes and squeezed her hand then patted it. She slipped her icy mask back on over he high cheekbones as they walked back to the fire. Back to business.
"You have the cup?" Narcissa asked as they reached the fire. Hermione nodded. "Good, you will need to head to Hogwarts, there you will destroy the cup, and you need to find Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem." Narcissa reached for the book and Hermione immediately recognized it as her diary. She reached for it but the older witch obtained it first.
"Ah, Ah, Ah you can't be seeing into your own future," Teased Narcissa with a glint to her eyes and a smirk to her lips.
"But those are my thoughts, my private thoughts, my feelings, my life. What gives you the right to go through my things? What are we lovers?" asked Hermione as she kept reaching for the diary then noticed how close she came into the slightly taller witches space and how close to her lips she had become. Narcissa inhaled and it was the scent of Hermione's skin and made the ice woman, gaze into her eyes and capture those brown ones. Again, the time line be damned.
"Unfortunate circumstance had risen before you could use your Gryffindor courage, or I my Slythern cunning to advance the possibilities of altering the parameters of our relationship," Hermione backed away.
"I really did trust you didn't I?"
"Next to my son you had become the most important person in my life," Narcissa confessed softly realizing she had altered time too much, altered the possibilities. Narcissa backed away and held the book before her.
"The Dark Lord is already mobilizing his army because he now knows of your escape from Gringotts," she read further, "You get into the castle by visiting Dumbledore's brother in Hogsmeade. You will find the diadem in the room of requirement, and to destroy the cup and the tiara you need a basilisk fang. Those are the only events that take place I can guide you through. Harry must face his enemy alone, there will come a time when you need to let him go. You must. Other than what I explained to you that is all I can offer. That is all you wrote about," Narcissa stopped and then began cleaning her campsite, "Leave the camp as you got it. It will take me no time at all to pack."
Narcissa walked around the campground and spouted facts and instructions in a blur. Hermione had never thought of loving another woman before. That made a lot of sense now in regards to her always wanting to bolt when she was touched too familiarly by Ron, or that leech last year, Cormac McLaggan. She watched the cool grace of Narcissa Malfoy as she stood and looked out over the water toward the other camp.
"Mrs. Malfoy," Hermione began but was halted by a silencing hand.
"I detest that name. It has brought so much pain. I am Narcissa Black. Before things went badly Harry recognized Draco and I as Blacks after Lucius died. But you I would very much like if you called me Narcissa," Narcissa supplied.
"Narcissa," Hermione rolled the name around in her mouth and on her tongue. She liked the way it rolled and slipped upon her lips, "Do I love you in the future?" Hermione asked shyly.
Narcissa turned her gaze toward the girl, placed a warm palm on Hermione's chilled cheek.
"My dear, that is something I cannot answer for you," Narcissa was about to be interrupted, "Time line is already damned Hermione. I meant you know your heart and only you can answer that question. That this moment in my time line. No, you despised me, hated me until later."
Before Hermione could inquire more she took her warm hand away from Hermione's cheek and slipped her cold icy mask on her features yet again for the 4th time that evening. She bid the girl farewell, and watched as activity blurred on the other side of the lake. She saw shapes move and knew it was the boys.
She pulled her eyes away from the light across her and she went in search other the token Severus gave her. She packed up her things and then went into the tent and slept. When she woke the next morning she popped over to the abandoned camp and began to pack. There on the luxurious chair was a note written in neat handwriting.
Thanks
Signed
Ron, Harry, and Hermione
Narcissa smiled as she stowed away her campsite and pulled out an empty potions vial and uncorked the top. She spun and swirled and then dropped into Severus's bed chambers. She sighed and sat in the chair in the corned looking out the window to a dark, and dreary Hogwarts. Tonight. Tonight it will be all over.
