Chapter 6

It wasn't right, Narcissa concluded. Narcissa had not even asked Aiden out on a first date, yet Lucius had already moved on to another girl. Narcissa was actually surprised with his choice to parade around Hogwarts – a demure little Gryffindor with straw coloured hair and glasses too big for her face. That was before Narcissa realised that she never saw her speak to him, or speak at all period. Come to think of it, she also noticed how the little Gryffindor girl never bothered him in public as Ganymedra or Eleanor Belluvan had. She just moved like a silent shadow next to him with dark, purple bruises on her neck that even her hideous Gryffindor scarf could not cover.

"Let's go to this place in Hogsmeade…" Aiden began said whilst drawing circles on her hand after one heated session they had spent locked in each other's embrace and after they had landed on the sofa with a nice soft thump.

"Oh yeah?" Narcissa said after a pause.

"My family owns this nice, rustic place…you can't really get into it without knowing someone and an early appointment. Luckily though, for you – I can satisfy both conditions." Aiden breathed into her ear, making it tickle. Narcissa gave a dry chuckle, "That sounds good…"

"How about next weekend?" Aiden asked, his face suddenly hopeful. Narcissa immediately jumped, sensing an opportunity to finally make some progress so that there could be something to show for Lucius, "How about this week?"

"Great," Aiden replied instantly, his eyes kindling shy warmth. He leant in for another kiss but was rudely interrupted when Lucius gave a delicate cough, "I hope I'm not interrupting," he said pointedly and with a highly disdainful, sarcastic tone. "but Professor Slughorn requested to see you."

"Oh?" said Narcissa loftily, making sure that she still had a hand on Aiden's shoulder. "What was it about?"

Lucius pursed his lips and composed his face in a noncommittal expression. "He requested you." He did not elaborate and walked past.

Narcissa's initial surprise at hearing Lucius had evaporated when he had said he had only come to relay a message.

She leaned away from Aiden, "Hey Aiden, I think I need to go." She need not have really explained for Aiden was staring back at her with eyes widened in a very understanding expression. She gave him a quick peck on the check, "I'll definitely see you soon," She slid her legs off the sofa and quickly sprang away from him, eager to detach herself so that she could address the upsetting thoughts in her mind that had sprung up when Lucius had been so cold as ever even though he had seen her often enough with Aiden. Why could she not evoke the same emotion she felt when she saw him with another girl every few weeks or even every few days? All she could do when she saw him with other girls was how she could utterly destroy them – a very strong emotion she was sure and yet, "he requested you," was all he was willing to say as he walked past, when he saw her with another.

She stalked out of common room and quickly pulled out the emerald she had tucked inside her shirt to quickly glance at its brilliant surface. It was still a wonderful green, Narcissa mused as she ran a finger of its hard surface, which indicated that Lucius must care as he loved her…but he was a great actor. Narcissa's lips twisted into a smirk, it was not as if she had not been aware of this before, she reminded herself. Quickly regaining her confidence, Narcissa tucked the pendant away and strode towards the Head of Slytherin House's office.

It took only a few minutes where Narcissa continued without impediment and saw Professor Slughorn, quickly leaving his office but contrary to her expectations, he started to head off into the opposite direction as she neared him. His arms were heavily laden with parchment.

"Excuse me, professor!" Narcissa felt the need to call out as he hurried away from her. In a rush, he turned around and a few pieces stacked on top fluttered to the ground. "Yes Miss Black?" he asked pleasantly enough although the strain on his arms was making him break out into a sweat. The man had surely never had that much exercise in his life, Narcissa deduced although quietly.

"Did you not want to see me?" Narcissa asked just as sweetly but with a hint of impatience at his obliviousness.

The professor however looked completely lost, "Sorry? No, I do not think so." He said, puffing, "You see, I have a very important meeting with Dumbledore right now so – I mean Professor Dumbledore…haha," he trailed off lamely.

Whilst he was talking, the suspicion that had taken root since the professor had expressed his surprise, started to grow and just to confirm this Narcissa asked with a slightly raised brow, "But surely that would mean that you did not ask a certain Lucius Malfoy that you required to see me."

"A certain Luc – oh yes, Lucius Malfoy. Of course not, I have not seen him all day." He said slightly indignantly but gave a hearty laugh when he realized he was frowning too deeply.

"Oh, I see." Narcissa said really quietly and when he heard this, Slughorn looked immensely relieved, "Well then, I have to get going Miss Black. I shall see you during potions."

Narcissa gave a little nod and picked up the fallen bits of paper for the professor who gave a grateful smile before hurrying away. Her sweet smile faded into general disgust however as soon as he was out of sight since the man generally radiated incompetence and Narcissa often could not tolerate such nonsense. Narcissa did not dwell on this thought for long however as she took her time walking back to the common room.

Perhaps Mister Lucius Malfoy could not help but care, Narcissa thought with a twisted smile. The real question was now whether she would use this as ammunition or whether she would just ignore his successful attempt to separate her from Aiden.

Not a chance, Narcissa thought privately – she was not going to miss an opportunity to let Lucius know that it was a gallant attempt even though he must have known she would find out. Plus, recently she had not had the chance to actually talk to him, only occasionally seeing him in the great hall, the common room - he rarely went to the library, which was her usual haunt…Narcissa ran a contemplating finger along her bottom lip. She had missed him, she admitted as she gave an impish smile.

Her roving thoughts had still managed to lead her back to the Slytherin common room. As she had predicted, Lucius wasn't in the common room but somehow, like she had always had, she could sort of sense where he might be. Narcissa liked to think it indicated a potential for her 'inner eye' rather than the fact that she spent most of her time thinking about him, making her hyper-sensitive to his presence.

Wandering in front of a line of classrooms, Narcissa finally did 'run' into him. She had remembered Aiden mentioning a Defense Against the Dark Arts class that he had to go to and since Lucius was in most of his classes, Narcissa had deduced that he would be around the vicinity she was prowling. She had seen the common room milling with sixth years, which meant that the class had already finished, however Lucius had not been there and as her instincts had indicated as she peered into the deserted classroom – Narcissa allowed herself a victory smile, Lucius was still there. He had his back turned to her but his lengthy; white gold locks were not lost upon her. There was a broken ink bottle on the ground and curiously no professor to be seen. Another curiosity was that Lucius, who should have been more concerned with the broken ink bottle, was nonchalantly examining particular dark artifacts lined on a shelf rather than to the mess on the floor.

Narcissa quietly stepped in then shut the door behind her. Lucius turned his head over his shoulder lazily at the sound, his hand still on a strange, spinning device. "I was on my way out," he lied blatantly, his eyes so distant as he turned his attention back to the device he was examining. Narcissa let him admire the device for a while, "Lucius, it's me – you can drop the pretence," she said sweetly, "I know you deliberately broke the bottle so you could stay behind to clean it up or more accurately so, use that as an excuse to take a look at the devices only for display. The professors trust you enough to let you stay behind without supervision - you must have been preying on this opportune moment, I'll say, for the entire day." Narcissa finished the last statement with slight pride in her conviction. She was not to be dashed, Lucius dropped his hand, turned around and said pleasantly, "Well yes, that is true – after all, you know what work I do now." There was a flash in those gray eyes.

Narcissa's expression darkened, "I didn't come here to discuss that," she quipped as Lucius smirked, "Oh but I love teasing," he said and in quick moments had covered the distance between them with long, swift strides. Narcissa started to feel slightly self conscious as she saw Lucius's eyes intensely bright on her lips and he even lifted a hand to gently place two fingers on her lower lip as if brush a strand of her hair away and kiss her but he only gently tapped the plumpness, his eyes flickering back to her own, cool blue, "-But I did forget," he said delicately, "it disgusts you – the work I do."

He lowered his hand and ceased to lean in towards her. Narcissa let out the breath she had subconsciously held and furiously tried to regain her fierce demeanor, only Lucius could make her abandon her guard so easily. "Professor Slughorn, did not need to see me -" Narcissa said, getting to the point. "He said he did not see you at all today."

Lucius examined her coolly and Narcissa felt exactly like a dark artifact herself as his expression was so calculating but eventually he said, "My mistake," rather casually and easily. "Is that all?" he raised a brow and whipped out his wand. He gave a wave and the inkwell repaired itself, another wave and the dark puddle of ink was gone. He had not even said a word, Narcissa admired a little distractedly; he must have mastered non-incantations already.

"Lucius," Narcissa said, a little too genuinely as she saw Lucius's attention rivet back to her in an instant, "you wasted my time – again." She was purposely working on his assumption that she had meant what she had said – that taking care of his wound had been a mere chore and she did not want him disturbing her again and she saw Lucius's expression harden and felt strangely satisfied in finally being able to make him angry, "Come all this way to chide me?" he said dangerously soft. When Narcissa did not answer and just gave him a patronising stare, he sighed dramatically, "Well, either way, it did not seem like I was interrupting anything important."

Narcissa did not feel angry at all, only oddly euphoric that despite everything he had put forward, he disliked seeing her with Aiden but played the role of the girl who was in love and had someone interrupt her while she was pursuing that love, so she fired up, "It was very important – Aiden was just asking me to go with him to this restaurant that his family owns."

"And did you accept?" There it was again, a flash.

"Yes," Narcissa said forcefully, then rather taken aback by herself said with a little less emphasis, "of course."

"Yes you know…I was actually going to ask you about Aiden."

His voice was so charming, so mellow that it made her instantly let down her defences, but Narcissa steeled herself.

"Do you even like him?"

"What kind of a question is that?" Narcissa retorted so scathingly that Lucius just raised his brow, "It's not very difficult – it's a yes or a no,"

"Of course I do," Narcissa said quickly, too quickly. Lucius just smirked, and that made Narcissa decide to lay it on thick for the smug bastard, "He's cute, smart, kind, thoughtful, someone I can talk to, is direct, relatable and overall considerate." The last few words, she accentuated, staring directly at him. Narcissa seemed to have succeeded in making Lucius feel a little uncomfortable, as he said, "uhuh," with a strange look on his face.

Then it hit her. Narcissa had an enchanted gem that showed Lucius's heart in all its honesty but Lucius had no such gem. His directness, the fact that he had confronted her about her relationship with Aiden – it all clicked way too fast for Narcissa, but before she could even smile, reveling in this new-found knowledge that Lucius had no guarantee of knowing her true heart, Lucius just helped to confirm this by saying, "Aiden Carter…he's in my quidditch team isn't he?" he let the end trail, implying something sinister.

"Yes?" Narcissa said, her interest piqued, unaware that this in itself was bait that Lucius had thrown at her.

"If he has that much time for his personal life, it clearly indicates to me as his captain that he's not investing enough time for the sake of his house. Things could get quite difficult for him."

Narcissa did not comment on the sheer baselessness of his claim, because as a girl, she was finally able to detect jealousy in his threat and that did not disturb her but in all honesty had to force herself from breaking into a smile. "Whatever you do to him, it's not going to change the way I feel about him," she said, really playing her part.

But her response gave Lucius what he had wanted, the fact that she did not really care about what happened to Aiden rather than reprimand or plead with him not to make it difficult for him slightly confirmed his suspicion that Aiden Carter was yet another accessory for Narcissa, artfully used to stir certain reactions. However, Lucius was determined to completely win this round, he had yet to pull out his trump card – and this temporary reassurance was only his own conclusion, which meant it was not something that was necessarily definite or true.

"Oh, and before you go," he said when Narcissa had spun on her heels to leave after she had made her bravado statement, "I have a letter for you, I had thought about giving this to you in the opportune time but this seems as good as any."

Narcissa had looked curiously back and approached him again, albeit a little cautiously, "A letter?"

"Someone asked me to pass it to you."

"Who?" Narcissa took the letter from Lucius and tentatively opened it, the parchment smelt a little of the sea but she saw the loopy writing and immediately knew who it was – and before she could help herself, she felt the tears well up and verge on spilling across her face. She looked up and through hastily blinking tears, she saw Lucius's face and although she didn't want to believe it, all she could feel was that he had orchestrated the whole thing, down to the fact that she was standing in front of him, blinking away the tears.

She suddenly felt the whole situation suffocating, which she needed to extract herself from. She walked out, without looking back and when she was outside, made sure the door was closed tightly behind her, before she let the tears flow freely.