Some Kind of Trouble
DaggersBloodPain
Explanation for absence is posted in my profile for those interested in knowing what happened to make me disappear off the face of the earth.
Those waiting for the physical scenes between Narcissa and Lily won't have to wait much longer, I simply wanted to bring that out on a more realistic time scale. Neither of the two woman are the jump right into bed types, so we will be waiting until the right time.
Chapter Eight
Russian Roulette
(Rihanna)
Lily and Narcissa clung to each other through the next few weeks, both needing the strength the other provided. As they did, the others around them slowly started pairing off. The danger outside Hogwarts forcing them together in a way that might never have happened otherwise. Bellatrix and Severus had to be the most discreet, Lucius didn't mind if Narcissa found comfort elsewhere, but Rodolphus Lestrange was a different story.
Rodolphus had already graduated, but the contract between him and Bellatrix was firmly established and the younger Lestrange brother Rabastan had been tasked with keeping his fiance out of trouble. Rabastan wasn't a bad man, in fact he was a very honorable one, which was exactly why Severus had to avoid him like the plague. The man would not waste any time loyally informing his brother that Severus had been tempting Bellatrix to stray outside the contract. Rodolphus was much colder than his brother, and Bellatrix hated the thought of being under that man's thumb, she was just glad there was two and a half more years before she graduated and had to face him.
Lily had been confused enough to ask Narcissa why the younger sister was paired with the older Rodolphus and Narcissa with Lucius instead of the other way around. It came down to politics. The Malfoys were richer and better connected, they had first rights to marriage contracts and they had chosen the older daughter. It would have been Andromeda but she had broken Black family law and now Narcissa was required to fill the contract. If Andromeda had stayed than Narcissa would have been betrothed to Rodolphus and Bellatrix to Rabastan. Bellatrix felt bitter towards her eldest sister, she felt she would have a much better chance at a happy future with the younger, and more reasonable, brother.
They needed a plan to hide the budding relationships. Things were still early and barely physical, but as time passed it would get harder to hide, it was better to plan now than wait until it was too late.
To that end the same group of friends Lily had found herself surrounded with in the library earlier that year had an emergency meeting in an empty dungeon classroom, feeling if they were caught by a teacher they would prefer it to be Slughorn. If a student were unlucky enough to stumble on them there was an Obliviate charm ready on Lily's lips, she hoped she wouldn't have to use it, but she would protect herself and her friends if it came to that.
"What are we going to do?" Bellatrix broke the silence by asking, curling into Severus as she spoke, holding onto him for dear life. She rarely got to show him affection of any kind so she lavished it on him when they got the chance.
Lucius shifted in the seat he had conjured, fidgeting a bit with nerves, "We need to find away to protect each other from our families. Things right now are simply too tense for us to be open about this, maybe in another time it would have been possible, but for now we need to keep this under close guard." He danced around the specific issue, still coming to terms with the fact the women he was betrothed to was well on her way to falling in love with another woman.
It came as both a shock, and relief, for Lucius because he had assumed such a traditionally minded family as the Blacks would have ingrained in them the importance of upholding these contracts, just as his father had done to him. It seems the younger generation in both families was fighting those traditions, because no daughter of the Blacks was resigning herself to fate and as for Lucius himself well. His tastes lay in a different direction to put it lightly. He had made a promise to himself with his preferences became apparent that he would honor any contracts made between him and a woman just as much as the woman did. Narcissa sparking a relationship outside of that left him free to do the same.
"The answer is simple for Lucius and I," Narcissa began, "Neither one of us is inclined to follow our contract to the letter, but we don't have to let the school know that. In public he and I can act as a couple, but in private do what we wish. Bellatrix and Severus are going to be harder to cover, Rabastan would never let the relationship slide, he would tell his brother, and Severus has no contract to use as a cover story. A bachelor and a betrothed woman spending too much time with each other would be noticed. Any ideas on a way to help them?"
Lily seemed to hesitate before replying, "I may have an idea but you are not going to like it."
"What is it? If it can help at all tell me!" Bellatrix nearly begged, the strain of hiding this and the fear of being found out had taken a toll on her control, and she always had been the most emotional of the sisters.
"I happen to know a Pureblooded male that has no contract. He also claims to adore me and will probably do whatever I ask him to. If I were to be in a relationship with this person, Severus as the friend people have seen me with for the past few years, would have no choice but to tag along with us regularly to make sure he was treating me right after all that happened. Also as his best friend is also your cousin Bellatrix you and Regulus would also come along to reach out to the lost family member. Rabastan could be persuaded to leave you alone because with Regulus, myself, and the other pureblood supposedly present he would have no reason to suspect Severus. Once we shake off your tail all of us can go our separate ways, the Marauders know all the hiding spots and secret passages in Hogwarts." Lily explained as the plan came to her, seeing the sad look on Narcissa's face at mentioning having a relationship with someone else.
"You're talking about Potter aren't you?" Lucius asked, but didn't really need an answer as he contemplated the possibilities.
"You want me to deal with my brother again?" Regulus seemed to protest, his face pale with apprehension.
Narcissa's slightly hurt voice added to the questions, "Just how deep a relationship are you suggesting?"
Lily knew this would happen, but she didn't miss the look of hope that passed between Severus and Bellatrix so she soldiered on for the sake of her friend. "Yes I'm talking about James, he is a hothead, but he has a good heart. For me he would do this. Yes Regulus I want you and Sirius to talk again, really talk, I know how much the separation hurts you and I think it does Sirius too. It was James that got mad at you for reading the journal, I wouldn't be surprised if Sirius dropped it on purpose for you. Narcissa stop thinking like that, I want nothing more from him than you do Lucius. I want the same type of arrangement and it will be an added protection for us too. Lucius is graduating this year, we will still be in school for another year having James around will stop suspicion after your betrothed leaves."
Severus was the one deep in thought now, he asked the one question he assumed the others had forgotten, "Just how are you going to get Potter and his cronies to agree to this? He hates us, it would be easy for him to tell his father and have it get passed into the Pureblood gossip chain. This could get a lot of us in very deep trouble."
Lily smiled sweetly, the innocent look totally ruined by the sly look in her eyes. "He may not like you, but I happen to know he hates your families more. He would not sabotage you because it would bring him more pleasure to see you defy your families right under their noses, with his help no less. Plus like I said he adores me and has no contract yet, before I caught his eye he wasn't interested in a long term relationship. If I go to him with this plan, and we go through the betrothal process, he gets to kill two birds with one stone. I know I would be required to carry his heir, but beyond that he would have the freedom to enjoy however many women he wants to. I want children anyway, and Narcissa you have the same duty to the Malfoy family, so we would both be on even ground there."
Severus sighed, not quite the response Lily had been expecting, but his words soon made her understand. "Lily I think you are forgetting something. Potter is a very Light oriented wizard, we are not. If you go through with the contract, and you're right it would probably work, there will come a time when we may be forced to fight each other. We would have no choice but to fight, because by then we would be out of school and the punishment for adultery after the contract had been fulfilled grows exponentially. Think total imprisonment as nothing more than brood mares or breeding studs. Could we all really handle having to fight each other?"
Lily locked eyes with Narcissa, a lifetime passed in them contained in a single moment, "Yes. If it came to that I could. It's worth it. Look at Bellatrix and tell me it isn't." Lily challenged him, looking at the other two males in the room with a hard glare daring them to speak if they thought they could survive it.
Severus did as she asked, and melted on the spot, "Alright, if you can get Potter to agree to this, than I will go along with it. I hate him, but if he does this I can forgive the life debt he owes me for third year."
With the plan set, they all breathed a sigh of relief. No nothing was set in stone, but at least now they knew where they were heading.
It would come down to just how persuasive Lily could be towards one hot headed Gryffindor, and as she tightly gripped Narcissa's hand she vowed to herself that she wouldn't fail.
'Harry was starting to get used to the shocks contained in the journal. He knew now how his parents had gotten together, but he never thought a marriage contract was to blame. Or that neither one of his parents were entirely faithful. Reading back over the last few pages he realized that had been a very narrow view point. His mother was doing all that she could to keep her friends safe and happy. Seeing as James had to have agreed at some point lead Harry to believe he knew the whole story too.
They had made a choice. The best one they had under the circumstance. Harry understood now. He was just glad the journal mentioned his mother had wanted children anyway or he would have had more trouble with it. He didn't like thinking he was nothing more than a side-effect of an evasion plan.
Now he was curious just how she got James to agree, and how the whole situation with Sirius and Regulus turned out. Life in his parents' era had been much tougher than he ever expected, and from the amount left in the journal it only got more involved from there on out.'
