A/N: Thank you for your reviews/follows! Now that they've each figured it out, the only problem is actually doing something about it. Well, and Thorfinn.
Chapter Nine
Narcissa made her way toward the Great Hall without speaking to anyone, too lost in her own thoughts to make the effort. In fact, she'd ducked out of the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom as quickly as she could reach the door from her seat near the front in an effort to avoid anyone questioning her about her patronus. She'd been practicing the spell on her own for over a year, now. As soon as Andromeda had begun filling her head with stories about what it was like to find one's other half, Narcissa had become determined to be prepared, and she'd made certain to become proficient enough at the charm to give her patronus a corporeal form. She'd wanted to recognize it, when it appeared on her soulmate, and now it had. Showing an entire room full of students her patronus so shortly after a group of her friends had discovered which one Lucius now bore hadn't been part of the plan.
Neither had him witnessing it. She believed she'd caught sight of him standing outside the classroom door, but if so, he'd gone too quickly for her to be sure.
Maybe I'm just getting paranoid, she thought, which is ridiculous. There's no reason for me to be anxious around Lucius. She knew rationally that this was true. He was still the same person he'd been before the term started and she'd become completely confused about where they stood with one another, but this confusion had made her uncertain of how to act around him. Her tendency to overthink things had become problematic.
She sat down at the Slytherin table and shrugged her schoolbag off of her shoulder to set it next to her and pull the book she'd been reading from among textbooks, quills, and rolls of parchment. She opened the novel on the table and tried to focus on reading between bites of food with little success. With a sigh, she returned the book to her bag and removed the letter she'd received at breakfast.
Cissy-
Are you all right? It's not like you not to write back, and I'm worried. Please don't be angry with me for not reaching you sooner. I really wish we were able to see one another, and I'd like to find a way to arrange that, if you'll help me. Please owl me as quickly as you can.
Love,
Andi
Narcissa knew she shouldn't be angry with her sister for waiting to inform her of her marriage until after it had taken place. She wasn't angry, exactly—it was more that she didn't know what to say. Andromeda had dealt gracefully with losing contact with the rest of their family, and Narcissa felt that she herself was handling things very poorly in comparison. She wished the two of them were back at home, down the hallway from one another, where Narcissa could sneak into Andromeda's room after their parents had gone to sleep and ask her for advice without worrying like sounding like a petulant child who needed to learn how to deal with her own problems.
She rolled her shoulders back and pulled a quill from her bag, beginning to write her reply on a blank piece of parchment.
Andi-
I'm sorry I didn't write sooner. I promise I'm not angry with you—I wish you and Ted the best, and I'm sorry for how everyone else has reacted. I've just been trying to sort things out at home and at school. Our parents have decided that I'm to marry Thorfinn Rowle. He's still as awful as he was when you were in school, so no, I'm not thrilled about it. Neither is Lucius. As it turns out—and I'm still trying to process this, so please rein in your enthusiasm—my soulmate has been right in front of my nose the whole time. I'm not completely sure whether Lucius has figured it out, yet, and I don't know how to ask, so I'm starting to feel like I'm going mad. I'm afraid Mum and Dad won't care and will still want me to marry Thorfinn. Isn't that ludicrous? But you know better than anyone how unreasonable they are.
I'd love to see you, too. If you have any ideas on how to make it happen, let me know.
Love,
Cissy
"What're you working on?"
Narcissa looked up quickly enough to give herself vertigo, dropping her quill and laying her arm over the parchment as casually as she could manage, though she felt she'd severely missed that mark. Lucius had taken the seat opposite her, and as his gaze drifted from her face to the parchment and back again, she pulled the letter slowly back toward her. She wondered how long he'd been sitting there.
"I'm writing to Andromeda," she said, her cheeks burning. "Didn't have time at breakfast."
Lucius nodded, taking a bite of his sandwich before speaking again. "How is she?" he asked.
Narcissa shrugged. "Fine, I suppose. Worried because I didn't owl her sooner."
"I'm sure you've, ah, had a lot on your mind." He took a drink from the goblet that had been resting beside his plate, glancing at the wall behind her, and she laughed.
"That's putting it lightly." She slipped the letter into her bag and sat fidgeting with her hands for a moment before returning her focus to him. "You though—how're you feeling?" Her voice became stronger as she changed the subject, finding herself better able to keep her nerves in check when she was focused on his well-being instead of whether he'd seen the letter. "We hated to leave you in the Hospital Wing alone. I went by this morning to see how you were, but you'd already left."
"I'm fine, Cissy." Lucius smiled at her, though she thought the expression looked the slightest bit uneasy. "Sorry, I—I would've stayed, if I'd known you were coming by. I'm sure it was out of your way."
She shrugged again, taking a drink of pumpkin juice to give her a moment longer to think her words over before answering. Momentarily, she debated telling him that no, she'd been on her Prefect rounds anyway and had been in the area, but she then realized that as Head Boy he likely knew the schedule better than she did and would see through that lie rather quickly.
"I'm just glad you're okay," she said. "That was dreadful, what they did."
"'They,'" he repeated, shaking his head with a humorless laugh. "Your mother knows how to pick them, doesn't she?"
Narcissa opened her mouth to speak and shut it again, feeling her blush deepening as the conversation progressed. On her second attempt, she found her voice.
"He'll get what's coming to him," she said. "I'll make sure of it."
Lucius frowned. "No, you don't need to get involved. He attacked me, and I'll deal with it. You know I don't blame you for anything, right? You didn't pick the idiot. He's just getting back at me for giving him detention."
"Yes, because of what he did to me." Narcissa sighed. "You tried to get him to leave me alone, and he broke a few of your bones. I'm not having it."
For a moment, they only looked at one another, Narcissa fighting down the urge to rush around to the other side of the table and hug Lucius in thanks and in apology and wondering what he was thinking. He then reached for her hand, and she let him take it.
"I've been wanting to talk to you about something," he said. He paused for a deep breath, and she struggled to ignore how loudly her heart was beating. She was almost certain he could hear it.
"What is it?" she asked, giving his hand a squeeze.
"Well, I know you—ah—saw the patronus, yesterday on the Quidditch pitch."
Oh my. This is it. What do I do? What do I say?
"Yes, I saw." Excellent. Way to go, Narcissa. She was distracted from chastising herself for the lack of a better response by the feeling of his thumb tracing her hand, and then he spoke again.
"I'd been meaning to talk to you about it before I told the rest of them."
"Why's that?" she pressed.
"Well, I value your opinion, first of all, and I thought if anyone would know what to do, then…" Lucius sighed shortly. "Earlier, I realized that I knew who—"
His sentence was interrupted as a jet of blue light hit the platter of sandwiches a few seats down, sending food flying across the table. Narcissa jumped, and Lucius's hand tensed in hers, his expression turning fierce and agitated as he searched out the source of the disruption. A pair of first-years—a Slytherin and a Ravenclaw, by the look of their robes—had begun shouting and shoving one another between the tables, and the Slytherin had cast the first hex. The Ravenclaw raised her wand to return the gesture, and Lucius released Narcissa's hand, shooting her a quick, apologetic look.
"I've got to take care of—"
"Go ahead, I need to get to class. We'll talk later."
He nodded and strode toward the pair of younger students, his eyes narrowed and the briskness of his steps indicative of his frustration. Narcissa lifted her bag onto her shoulder and stood, making her way toward the doors. As she neared the end of the Slytherin table, her eyes fell on Thorfinn, who was snickering with Yaxley and watching Lucius, who had grabbed both of the younger students by their collars and begun to reprimand them.
"Looks a little stiff today, doesn't he?" Thorfinn called to Narcissa as she approached. "Wonder what that's all about."
She gritted her teeth, slipping her hand into her bag and producing a note she'd written that morning before she'd even left her dormitory. She paused beside where Thorfinn sat, slamming the note onto the table in front of him with enough vigor to cause a bit of his pumpkin juice to slosh over the edge of its glass.
"Assaulting a housemate—that's another week's detention on top of what you managed to get yourself before you'd even set foot in the castle, this term. Are you going for a record?"
Glaring, Thorfinn laid his hand on top of Narcissa's where it rested on the note, and she immediately regretted not removing hers sooner.
"You can't prove I did anything," he snarled. "The professors won't hold me to this."
"Won't they?" Narcissa raised a brow. "Professor Slughorn was very upset about what happened to Lucius. I'm sure he'd love to hear who was responsible. He quite likes me, you know. I'm sure he'd believe me fairly easily." She pulled her hand free and gripped the strap of her bag, stepping out of Thorfinn's reach. "I'd quit while you're behind."
Without waiting for his reply, she strode for the doors and out of the Great Hall, feeling proud of herself for standing her ground. She started toward the Owlery, hoping she had enough time to send her letter to Andromeda before her next lesson began and cursing those first-years for not waiting just a few moments longer to make a scene.
