Chapter 4 – The Unexpected Visitors

It was more than 2 weeks into summer holidays and Narcissa hadn't breathed a word of her meeting with Lucius to anyone – not even Andromeda. She knew that if Bella even had a hint of an idea that she had spent time alone with Lucius in a deserted classroom that she would have to fight for her life. His comment about seeing her before the start of school made her especially nervous. If he showed up at the house asking to see her, and not Bella, her entire family would wonder what she had done to catch the eye of the 4th – now 5th year boy. She would have a lot of explaining to do, and she had no idea where she would begin.

Fortunately, day after day had passed and there was no sign of Lucius. She had almost begun to relax and enjoy her summer when one night before dinner there was a knock at the door and she heard her father open the door and exclaim, "Tigelo! What a pleasant surprise!"

Narcissa wasn't sure who Tigelo was, but when she heard the sound of two boys' voices ring through the front hall with hellos and pleasantries, she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach and willed that she be able to make it up to her room unnoticed.

"Girls! Dinner!" Her father roared at once and Narcissa blinked hard and steeled herself for what she feared would be an extremely uncomfortable evening. She made her way to the dining room, barely looking up from the floor as she came to her seat and sat down, unfolded her napkin, and waited patiently for the food. She suddenly caught a glimpse of one of the boys out of the corner of her eye and jerked her head up. The two boys were dark-haired and dark-eyed, and they looked familiar, although she could not place where she had seen them before. She inwardly breathed a sigh of relief that they were not Lucius and Damarcus.

"So this must be Rodolphus," her father was saying, pointing to the older of the two boys, holding out his hand. They shook, and her father turned his attention to the younger, "and this must be Palonius." He shook the younger son's hand, and went back to his conversation with Tigelo. "Fine young boys you have there. I didn't realize you would be able to come by so soon! I figured your business would take up your time until nearly the start of school!"

"It is a slow week," Tigelo smiled, and took a sip of wine.

"Of course," her father answered with a smile.

Throughout dinner the fathers talked and no one else got a word in edgewise; not that Narcissa minded, she was still giddy with relief that the two boys weren't Lucius and Damarcus with their father. Finally, dinner ended, and the two fathers went behind closed doors in the study.

"Discussing business," Andromeda sighed as she put her napkin on her plate. "You were awfully quiet, Cissy," she noticed.

"Just thinking about things," Narcissa said quickly.

"Girls," their mother commanded their attention, "take Rodolphus and Palonius on a tour of the house. Try not to disturb your father."

Narcissa and Andromeda nodded their heads and beckoned the boys to join them, but Bella hung back, apparently not wanting to be a part of the tour.

"Bella, you will join them." Their mother ordered, then turned around and went into the kitchen to oversee the house elves.

Bella rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything as the girls began leading the boys around the house. Halfway through the tour, everyone seemed to lose all interest, and they decided to go back into the sitting room and wait for their fathers to finish whatever business they had.

"How was your first year at Hogwarts?" Rodolphus asked out of the blue after a long silence.

Narcissa realized he was talking to her, which surprised her, but she answered him, "It was fine. I had a lot of fun – I learned a lot."

There was more silence, and then Narcissa tried to carry on the conversation, "Do you attend Hogwarts as well?"

"Sure," he said, seemingly relieved to be engaged in conversation. "I'm going into my sixth year, and Palonius here is going into his fourth."

"That's where I've seen you, then," Narcissa said, "probably around the halls on the way to classes."

"Oh yes, I've seen you as well," Palonius chimed in, "and your sisters."

"Are you looking forward to next year?" Rodolphus asked her.

"A bit – not the work, but I miss my friends quite a lot. I didn't expect to." She smiled, thinking of Alice and the other girls she had gotten to know throughout the year.

"I feel the same," Rodolphus chuckled.

They were interrupted by their fathers coming into the room, tying up their conversation. "We'll see how it goes, then," Tigelo was saying, shaking hands with Narcissa's father.

"Excellent, excellent," he responded, "We'll keep in touch. Best of luck with the business."

The boys and their fathers gathered their things and made their way to the door.

"It was nice to meet all of you," Rodolphus said as he was leaving.

"Very nice," his brother added.

"See you in September!" Narcissa said, waving them out.

Once they had gone, she sighed a huge sigh of relief that the evening hadn't turned out nearly as awful as she had thought when she heard the knock a few hours ago. Unfortunately, she took one look at Bella's face and realized she must have done something horribly, horribly wrong, because her black eyes were glaring and it looked as though there might be steam coming out of her ears. She turned around and stormed off upstairs to her room.

"What's eating her?" Andromeda said, following her with her eyes.

"I dunno," Narcissa wondered.

The girls went to bed and Narcissa was amazed at how easily she was able to get to sleep that night.

The sun peeked through the curtains in Narcissa's room the next morning, and she yawned and turned over in her bed, but she was suddenly in immense pain.

"Ow!" She screamed, grasping at her head, "Let go!" She turned to see Bella, face full of fury, with a handful of her hair, yanking.

"Get out of bed!" She screeched, pulling Narcissa's hair and dragging her onto the floor, out the door, and down the stairs. Narcissa was screaming the whole time, tears welling up in her eyes as Bella shoved her onto the couch in the sitting room.

"Bella!" Andromeda had run into the room after hearing the commotion, "What are you doing?"

Bella had her wand drawn and was pointing it at Narcissa. "Mum and dad have gone out for a few hours, and I am going to get some answers from her!" She shrieked hysterically.

"What is wrong with you?" Andromeda was incredulous.

"Stay out of this!" Bella warned, pointing the wand at Andromeda, and then back to Narcissa.

"Leave her alone or I'll go OWL mum." Andromeda threatened.

"Stay where you are or I'll hex you to Hogsmeade!" Bella howled. Andromeda stopped and crossed her arms.

"She's finally going to tell me what's going on – how she's doing it! She's a tiny little slut! That's what she is!" Bella wagged the wand at Narcissa, face getting redder with each passing second.

"What?" Andromeda and Narcissa both asked in shock together.

"That's right, I know all about your little meeting with Lucius the last day of term, you tramp – together in a deserted classroom? Rodolphus told me all about it! How long have you been messing around with Lucius behind my back? I thought I told you to stay away from him! And then you start acting all smart when Rodolphus and his brother come around, don't worry, I'll bet they start fancying you, too, when school starts back up! You whore, is that how you got Severus to tutor you? You have to be doing something! There is no way you worthless first year could get that many boys to want to spend that much time with you! I have known them for four years and I have to prance around of them like a buffoon to get them to give me the time of day and you show up and stand there and they fall to their knees for you! How do you do it? It's not fair! It's NOT fair!" Bella's eyes were brimming with tears, and she spun around and ran out of the house.

Both girls were silent for a moment before Andromeda spoke to Narcissa softly, "Are you all right?"

Narcissa nodded.

"You went into a deserted classroom with Lucius Malfoy?" Andromeda asked.

"No – well, yes, but not on purpose. He just wanted to ask me about exams and what I was doing this summer. We were only in there for a few minutes."

"Oh," Andromeda said somewhat disappointedly. "It would have made for some interesting conversation if what Bella was saying were true." She smiled and winked at Narcissa. "Let's go have some breakfast."

Narcissa smiled back and stood up, hoping Bella wouldn't be back for a while.

Bella didn't come back until nearly an hour after their parents had returned home. None of the girls mentioned the incident, and Bella seemed to have cooled off. She didn't even look at Narcissa during dinner. Narcissa thought she may have escaped some unspeakable torture, but unfortunately, as Narcissa was climbing into bed, Bella opened the door and closed it behind her, turning to face Narcissa. Narcissa opened her mouth to shout for her mother, but Bella waved her wand and a silencing charm prevented any sound from coming out.

Narcissa was sure Bella was going to kill her, but she just bent down next to Narcissa's ear and whispered in a deadly voice, "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but Lucius Malfoy is mine. Next to our family, the Malfoys are the most powerful wizards in Britain, and I will not let you mess up what I have worked on for four years. I will get father to arrange our marriage, and I will be Bellatrix Malfoy. And if you do anything to stop me, I will hurt you. Stay – away – from him."

And with that, she pulled back and left the room. Narcissa suddenly realized that the silencing charm was still in effect, but not knowing the counter curse, she was resigned to go to sleep and wait for Andromeda to fix her in the morning.