A/N: Hi Friends! It's finally here and done and I am so sorry it took as long as it did. I promise you I am trying to write more and get these chaps out quicker. That said, please review it means a lot to hear from you all and what you think of the chaps. Please be kind though, this is really my only venture into the writing world.
Bellatrix Lestrange sat with her back against the wall of her holding cell. She could vaguely hear the sounds of other Death Eater trials happening above her. Her head was down and she was alone yet her face was kept free of emotions but inside she was roiling with rage and grief. Rage at that rat Karkaroff for telling Barty Crouch it hadn't been Lucius who had tortured the blood traitors, grief because of the hole in her entire being since her master had left her alone. Bellatrix felt more annoyed than anything that Lucius had gotten himself killed. She'd decided their little party had needed one more wand before they'd left the manor that night. It truly hadn't taken much into goading him to come, Lucius was nothing if not prideful. It was that same pride that had made him go through the door first at the Longbottoms' house. An action that set him directly against two aurors alone and left him woefully unprepared for the absolute onslaught of spells that assaulted him within seconds of blasting the door off its hinges. Lucius was down before both feet were through the threshold. Thinking back, Bellatrix could still feel the pleasure each Crucio had brought her as the Longbottoms had writhed and screamed. When Roldophus had told her they needed to go, she thought they'd gotten away with it. Lucius had been blamed and she could continue searching for her master. That was until Karkaroff had come along. Bellatrix lifted her head as she felt the air grow colder around her, a pair of dementors was slowly drifting their way across her cell to her. As they grasped each of her arms Bellatrix flared her nostrils as the same memory began to play on repeat across her mind as she was dragged toward Courtroom 10.
How does this place manage to look like Gringotts and the Slytherin common room all rolled into one, thought Narcissa as she looked around the sitting room of Malfoy Manor. All cold with sharp angles. Her eyes eventually landed on Draco playing with his toys in the middle of the room. They'd barely gotten through the door after Lucius's funeral when he'd begged to be let down and go play. Watching her son, she let her thoughts wander through anything and everything. She'd never loved Lucius, hell she'd barely tolerated him for the majority of their marriage, as it was in many pure-blood families theirs had been an arranged marriage. In fact, Narcissa wasn't the Black daughter originally betrothed to Lucius, she was supposed to marry Henry Nott and Andie was supposed to become a Malfoy. Narcissa smiled to herself, Andie had gotten out, she'd found love and never looked back. Narcissa was fairly certain her sister never knew exactly who their parents intended to marry her to, but it didn't matter once she'd fallen for the Tonks boy. There had been a letter left on Narcissa's nightstand one morning and that was the last she'd heard from Andie since.
Bella on the other hand, well if Narcissa had thought of her eldest sister as mad before that was nothing compared to how she'd been since the Dark Lord's fall. Both she and Roldophus had come round for dinner on Halloween and as the four of them were moving to the sitting room for a night cap everyone besides Narcissa had all suddenly gripped their left forearms in pain, the arm Narcissa knew to hold the Dark Mark. When Bella had seen that her precious mark had faded into nothing more than a faint scar she'd screamed, grabbed Roldophus by the arm and apparated from the spot. The moment they had gone Narcissa had turned toward Lucius, "What just happened? What does that mean?"
"It means the Dark Lord has fallen, it means we chose wrong." He'd looked almost speechless as he'd said it.
Lucius had turned without another word and gone into the study. Narcissa could hear Draco screaming, he'd woken from Bella screams and she'd gone upstairs to get him back to sleep. By the time she had come back downstairs Lucius had filled the desk with parchment. He was furiously writing letters.
"What are you doing?"
He'd practically sneered at her, "What does it look like, I am attempting to make sure I am not in Azkaban within the week. It's time to put the Malfoy fortune to use."
While Lucius had been more discreet than Bella in his support of the Dark Lord it was by no means a secret and both of them were aware of the onslaught that would occur to his followers by the Ministry in the coming weeks. Lucius had already sent many owls to ensure he did not come under direct scrutiny, for once she agreed that it was better the Malfoy name remain out of the news.
This had worked for a few weeks until Bellatrix had shown up with both Lestrange brothers and Barty Crouch Jr. She'd been stalking back and forth in front of the fire, "We have tried for weeks and can't find a single sign of Potter or his little brat, eventually they will show themselves and we will be there when they do." She'd paused in her rants, panting slightly and locked eyes with Lucius. "The Dark Lord had planned to kill another family, the Longbottoms."
In the firelight of the study Narcissa had been sitting quietly, seemingly forgotten. Lucius had sat in his armchair near the fire and had leaned forward at Bella's last statement, "Why does it matter anymore who the Dark Lord had planned to kill?"
Narcissa had seen her sister's eyes glint and realized she'd been waiting for that very question. "Because if my master had marked them for death, then they must have information about him that was of the highest importance." She'd responded in almost reverent, hushed tones.
From there it had taken less than five minutes for Bella to back Lucius' pride into a corner before he agreed to go as well. If their marriage had taught her anything, it was when Lucius could be persuaded to see reason and when it wasn't worth the effort to try. Narcissa had stayed sitting down. When the group of Death Eaters were finalizing their plans Narcissa had gone upstairs to check on Draco and when she'd come back down they were gone.
Narcissa was brought back to the present by the sounds of Draco beginning to fuss. One glance at the clock told her just how far past his nap time it was and after scooping him up she felt them both relax as he snuggled into her shoulder. Going up the stairs toward the nursery Narcissa began to realize it was wasn't just the sitting room but the whole manor that felt cold and hard. As she sat, rocking Draco to sleep she realized two things, she didn't want to raise Draco in a place such as this if she had a choice, and for the first time since her parents had announced her betrothal she did have a choice. When Draco was finally down for a long overdue nap Narcissa changed from her funeral robes into simple jeans and a jumper, something Lucius would have scorned before she cleared the stairs. Entering the kitchen, she noticed an unfamiliar owl waiting outside the window, when she'd opened it and had taken the letter off its leg the owl just stood there as though waiting for her to give him a reply. Narcissa looked at the envelope and though it had been years she recognized Andie's writing immediately. She went and sat at the desk in the study, and after reading it twice through she began writing her response. When she'd sealed the letter, Narcissa went back to the kitchen and found her sister's owl still waiting patiently, she attached the letter explaining her plans and asking simply for her older sister's advice. As she watched the owl fly out the window she thought, maybe just maybe she and Draco stood a chance.
"Bloody fucking hell," those had been the words muttered by Sirius and probably thought by Prongs and Moony when they'd first entered Grimmauld Place about two weeks ago. The place hadn't changed a bit, apart from the immense amounts of mold and mildew, and Sirius wanted nothing more than to tear the whole place to the ground and just start over completely. His mother had started screaming behind those bloody curtains as soon as Moony had knocked over that damn umbrella rack, which in turn then started his godson screaming as well. This process continued no less than seven times a day until the Marauders decided enough was enough and, because his mother had put a permanent sticking charm on the portrait, simply took the wall around the portrait with it and burned the wall and portrait in what Sirius remembered to have been a garden at one point. A massive hole in the wall was better than his mother any day. The first room they tackled had been the kitchen and the bloody thing had taken nearly a week to make every surface and utensil of a usable standard. It was also the room with the least shitty memories for Sirius which was why he'd suggested they start there.
After it had been made habitable, the kitchen had become home base for Harry purely because it was the only section of the house that could withstand human life for an extended period of time. Sirius had been the one to discover that Harry was more than happy to stay in his travel cot, as long as Kreacher was near. Since the day they'd arrived and started cleaning the house elf had scoffed and muttered nothing nice at the Marauders, particularly Moony. The day after they'd finished the kitchen the Marauders had begun tackling the stairwell, Sirius wasn't sure how even the simple staircase had become as awful as it had, when Harry had begun fussing and before any of them could get to the kitchen to calm him down, Sirius' mother had begun to wail as well, this was the day before they'd burned her. Anyway, they all had prioritized and decided to calm the portrait first, by the time they'd gotten the curtains closed Harry had mysteriously quieted down. Sirius went down to investigate and stopped short in the doorway, Harry was giggling as Kreacher performed little bits of magic involving different colors of smoke.
"Kreacher, how did you know that would work?" Sirius was downright incredulous.
"When masters Regulus and Sirius were small, Kreacher would do this when his mistress's attention was elsewhere," Kreacher had answered without looking up from the toddler.
He was a bit shocked, but Sirius had merely nodded and gone back to his friends, and from then on Kreacher was on Harry duty when they were at Grimmauld place cleaning. When Kreacher had realized they planned to almost entirely gut the place he'd gone into hysterics about what his mistress would say. He'd been in a constant state of hysterics for the remainder of the day when they'd burned his mother. Sirius really couldn't have cared much about Kreacher's thoughts on the matters, but Moony and Prongs seemed to. So, they'd struck a deal with the house elf, he could choose any three artifacts to save from each room, with the stipulation that nothing saved could have dark magic. While Kreacher wasn't ecstatic about this arrangement it certainly seemed to make it easier for him to stay in the kitchen with Harry.
Sirius was well aware they weren't just making the house livable again, they had to make it safe for a toddler who would literally stick anything in his mouth. He had learned that first hand when his genius of a godson had decided Sirius' shoelaces tasted great and managed to chew on every single one. Harry had even managed to chew off some of those little plastic things on the end, Sirius could never remember what they were called. Harry managed to poop them all out the next day like a champ, and after that Sirius had enlisted Moony to make damn sure his flat was baby proofed. Meaning Sirius was now making damn sure this house was safe the first time around. As he was walking up the stairs, Sirius managed to trip on a loose bit of carpet near the landing Prongs and Moony were currently working on. Harry might just live in the kitchen until Hogwarts.
Remus held back a laugh as Padfoot tripped up the stairs to join them on the landing.
"We're getting rid of the carpet on the stairs," Padfoot growled, "It's a bloody deathtrap."
"Of course Pads, wouldn't dream of keeping it."
"Stop smirking Moony I can hear it in your voice."
Remus glance toward Prongs to see he'd barely looked up from his self appointed job of tearing the peeling wallpaper off and scourgifying every inch of the wall in front of him during the exchange. There had been a brief moment or two where he and Padfoot had gotten their friend to smile since the funeral. Otherwise, well otherwise Prongs was simply surviving.
Not that Remus had expected any different. Prongs had just lost the love of his life and if he'd been cracking jokes Remus would have been worried. They were all dealing with Lily differently, Padfoot was focused on the getting the house together and not getting sucked into the memories that the place held and Prongs was drawing into himself…focusing when either Remus or Padfoot gave him a task or when Harry needed him. The trick, thought Remus, is to make sure he doesn't become simply a shell. Remus turned toward Padfoot, who was still glowering at the carpet.
"Pads as much I hate the carpet, we should probably get the house safe before ripping it all out."
"Fine, but I get the personal pleasure of ripping it out when it's time."
"Will do, but for now what are the rooms on this floor."
Padfoot thought for a second, "Should just be guest rooms my cousins would stay in when they'd visit in the summers. Hopefully won't take long, did Kreacher get his things out of them yet?"
At that exact moment Kreacher apparated up to the landing. "Yes Master Sirius, Kreacher has collected the most precious items from both rooms."
"Good thank you Kreacher, go back down and watch Harry now." Remus shot his friend a look, Padfoot rolled his eyes, "Please."
With that Kreacher apparated back to the kitchen and all three Marauders looked inside the room to the left of the landing. It contained two twin beds completely covered in dust and moth holes, the curtains on the windows were buzzing slightly with what Remus predicted to be doxies, the dustbin in the corner seemed to be coughing incessantly, the wallpaper was peeling in long thin strips along the length of the entire walls, and there was a portrait next to the wardrobe that, though empty, seemed to be humming an odd tune. Despite this being better than what they'd encountered in the entryway and the kitchen all the Marauders sighed at the task ahead of them. Only three floors to go.
Andromeda was nearly through with her Saturday cleaning, she'd sent Dora outside to play earlier, well aware that having her daughter help would nearly double the time it took to get the cleaning done. Saturday cleaning was one of the times Andie didn't use magic to get things done quicker. There was something incredibly relaxing about putting everything where it belonged, even if she knew her husband and daughter would move it all within a day. Having just finished the kitchen, Andie went to the window just to make sure Dora was still in the yard, for once she was. Andie squinted in the afternoon sun and could make out her owl, Iris, coming toward the house. There was definitely something attached to her leg. She hadn't expected Cissa to reply this quickly, or at all she thought frowning. Andie had no idea how much her little sister may have changed after having lived with and been married to Lucius Malfoy. Leaving her little sister behind when she'd left to marry Ted was by far the hardest part of leaving home. While she didn't regret the decision, Andie had always felt guilty and wished she'd done something more than leave a letter. As soon as Iris landed Andromeda took the letter from her leg and put some owl pellets in her cage. Her eyes never left the letter as she walked to the table and sat down. Ripping the envelope open Andie's eyes begin to widen while reading
Dear Andie,
I'm not sure you're aware of the pleasure it gives me to write those words. Lucius would have thrown a letter to you into the fire had he ever seen me writing one. I have a plan Andie, a plan to be more myself than I've been in years. I'm hoping it will also save Draco form growing up as we did. From feeling the need to run away to be happy as you did. I've already seen Lucius' will and thanks to our marriage contract I get everything of his, I guess I can thank our parents for that. I can't live here though, I feel trapped in this house even with Lucius gone. So, I've decided to sell the manor. I don't know where exactly we will move to, but as long as it's got more color than Gringotts I will be happy. That one I'm decided on, but I need your opinion on something else. I want to change both my name and Draco's to Black. As far as I am concerned Malfoy can die with Lucius, and I never truly felt like a Malfoy, I still pause when signing my name to refrain from signing Black. Besides, I don't want Draco to grow up with the sting of the name now that Lucius was caught and killed. I've missed you more than words can describe sister, please let me know your opinion soon.
Your sister,
Narcissa
Andie read the letter twice, she'd been worried about Cissa spending too much time with Bella and Lucius. But not only did she seem to be the same, her sister seemed a bit more like they're cousin Sirius than anyone would have guessed. She moved back to the window and watched Dora play for a minute before Ted came around the house and joined her. He didn't know she'd written Cissa, she figured she'd tell him if she got a response….Well, this was definitely a response and Andie had a strong feeling Ted would have an opinion on what to do about her sister.
A/N: Thanks for reading, again I promise I'm trying to write more and please please please review.