Narcissa held Draco's mouth open as Lucius gave him the cure.

"Is that it?" Narcissa asked. "Is Draco going to be all right now?"

"He just needs one more dose," Lucius answered in a soft voice, "but I'm going to need to put more blood in that dosage than I've put in all the others."

Narcissa was not surprised to hear this. Even though her greatest skills did not lie in potions like her husband's did, she did know enough about both potions and Dark Magic to know that blood was often required at some point.

"How much blood?" Narcissa pressed, her voice reflecting her concern. "If necessary, I can give the blood for this final dose. There's no reason for all the blood to come from you. You've already given enough. You're getting too pale as it is. I don't want you to get sick."

"My father is going to be the one to give the blood," Lucius said in dark voice.

"Your father thinks that Draco is weak," Narcissa returned. "He's fully prepared to let our son die. There's no way he is going to help Draco."

"It is not required for the blood to be given willingly," Lucius responded.

Narcissa looked at her husband for a long moment.

"There's more to this than you're letting on, Lucius," she finally spoke.

Lucius looked Narcissa straight in her eyes. "I wish I didn't have to tell you this," he said, "but you deserve to know the truth, especially after all you have suffered because of it."

Lucius looked over at the closed door. "There's no telling when the Healers are going to come in here, and they will get suspicious if we lock the door. We need to go somewhere private. The Healers will be able to understand us having to step outside the room for a moment."

Narcissa just nodded her head as she took Lucius's offered hand.


Lucius led Narcissa out of Draco's hospital room, closing the door behind them. He then led her through several hallways until they finally came across an empty room. It was clear that Lucius had looked for a good spot to talk before he had come to Draco's room.

Lucius closed the door behind them and used his wand to lock it. He then turned to face Narcissa.

"We should sit down," he said.

Lucius waved his wand and two chairs appeared next to each other.

Lucius and Narcissa both sat down. For a moment, there was silence. Then, Lucius turned his head to look at his wife. He took several deep breaths.

"My father poisoned you," Lucius finally said bluntly.

"What?" Narcissa looked at her husband in disbelief. "But I feel fine."

"The poison was not meant to hurt you," Lucius explained. "It was not even meant to hurt Draco. Draco just suffered the side effects of it."

Lucius paused for a moment. It was hard for him to get the next words out. "It, it all started with Ara."

Comprehension slowly began to appear on Narcissa's face.

"Your father gave me something to kill her," Narcissa breathed. "Your father murdered her. Your father murdered all our babies."

Narcissa stood up abruptly, trembling in both anger and grief.

Lucius stood up as well and placed himself behind Narcissa in case she fell, so that he could catch her.

Narcissa took several deep breaths before turning around to face her husband.

"There's probably still remnants of the poison in my blood," she said. "That's how Draco got sick. He got some of the poison in his blood while he was in my womb."

Lucius nodded his head.

"I made Draco sick," Narcissa breathed in horror.

"My father made Draco sick," Lucius corrected. "None of this is your fault, Narcissa. I won't have you blaming yourself for what my father did."

Narcissa wiped at her eyes.

"I wonder if that's why I fainted while I was pregnant with Draco," she spoke as she tried to keep herself from crying. A look of horror passed over her face. "I could have lost Draco as well. Just like I lost Ara. Just like I lost the others."

Narcissa swayed on her feet. Lucius wrapped his arms around her, holding her steady.

"I'm so sorry, Narcissa," Lucius said. "I should have seen it earlier."

"I should have seen it as well," Narcissa returned. "Your father has never made it a secret that he hates me and that he didn't want our first child being a girl. But I had always assumed that preserving the Pureblood population would be more important to him than those things. I never would have thought that he would be so willing to kill Purebloods, to kill his own grandchildren."

"I believed those things as well," Lucius responded.

"Draco," Narcissa said. "Draco actually loves that bastard. How are we going to explain all this to him?"

"We'll explain everything to Draco when he's ready," Lucius replied.

Narcissa took a few moment to compose herself. Then, she asked, "Can we prove any of this to the Ministry?"

"My father still holds a lot of influence in the Ministry," Lucius said. "They will be of no help to us."

"No, Lucius," Narcissa cried. "I know what you want to do, and I don't blame you. I want to kill that old bastard as well. But I won't have you going to Azkaban because of him. If there's anyone who deserves to rot in Azkaban, it's him."

"We both know that's never going to happen," Lucius spoke. "My father will be able to find a way out of it."

Lucius looked at Narcissa with a cold, hard expression on his face.

"They won't know its murder," he then said in a dark voice.

Narcissa looked Lucius straight in his eyes.

"I want him to suffer," she breathed.

Lucius nodded his head.

"He will."