A/N: First off, I did not see your review to chapter 19 until I posted 20, Pixie, and I'm sorry for not answering. Ok, so I headcannon that Hannah's parents are divorced and that her dad remarried when she was young so it was like she had two mums, which I forgot to mention since I was writing from Neville's point of view. Sorry about that. As for Draco and Astoria, I love them both so much, but I don't have any plans to write a story about them in the near future. Things could change though. I might end up writing something.
21. Lucius and Narcissa, investigation
Summary: The war still haunts Lucius and Narcissa.
Narcissa Malfoy paced across the floors of the elegant manor that she and her husband shared. Aurors had just arrived for what was supposed to be a 'routine' investigation. Since Lucius was associated with the Death Eaters, they were to gave Aurors come and inspect their home for three consecutive years then every five years for fifteen years then every ten years after that as long as they were living. In Narcissa's opinion, these inspections were just to harass them after they were cleared of Lucius was cleared of his charge as a Death Eaters. It was absolutely absurd.
However, that didn't stop her from being scared. Right now, she was scared out of her mind because Lucius hadn't come out of his office and those Aurors were in there with him. What if they were going to take him to Azkaban? What if she was about to see her husband dragged from their house by gruff Aurors? She didn't think she could survive that. Whatever Draco had done to make Harry Potter testify on their behalf had worked, and she would go to him again if it kept her husband out of prison. She wasn't above begging.
Finally, the Aurors emerged from Lucius' office, and Narcissa breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that they weren't dragging her husband with them. She rushed into Lucius' office and slammed the door behind her. The man in question looked up startled.
"What did they say?" she asked.
"That everything was fine," he replied. "Why are you rushing about like the world's ending?"
Narcissa glared as he lit a cigar. He knew she hated that. "Well, I thought they may have found something since they were lingering in your office."
"Everything's fine," he told her. "We were just chatting. Besides there was nothing to find, Narcissa."
"Well, how I was I supposed to know that," she snapped.
Lucius snuffed out his cigar. "Cissy, come here."
Narcissa did as her husband asked and walked over to where he sat. Lucius grabbed her hand then proceeded to pull her into his lap. Narcissa only allowed this because she was upset. She would never be seen sitting in her husband's lap otherwise. Gently, Lucius kissed her pulse point.
"Nothing is going to happen to us," he muttered. "I won't let it. I promise. We are safe and you have nothing to worry about. Alright?"
She nodded, leaning into his touch. "I know, but. . . .you were almost put in jail, Lucius. I don't want you to be taken away again. I couldn't live with that. Draco would be devastated. You have no idea what it was like without you the first time. There were whispers and people weren't kind to us. I had to make sure we weren't flogged in the streets. Sometimes, I think the fear that Bella was out there was the only reason that there was no damage done to us. I don't want to go through that again."
"I know, love," Lucius mumbled. "I know and I'm sorry I got caught. But those Aurors aren't going to find anything dark in this house. Not ever again. I promise you that. I won't let them take me. We'll flee the country if we have to."
Narcissa sighed. She didn't want to leave. This was her home. But she would—for her husband, she would. She would gladly pack up everything she owned, put it all in a neat package which was fit for travel, and they would leave. Draco was the only thing that might stop her. Which reminded her.
"I don't like her," Narcissa stated, crossing her arms.
Lucius groaned. "Cissy, can't you pretend to like her? At least for Christmas?"
"No," she answered. "I can't. That would be lying and I try to avoid that when I can."
"It's like I like her either," he sighed. "But Draco does and I think we should let him make his own mistakes."
"I don't," Narcissa snapped. "He's my baby and that tramp is corrupting him. Do you know what I found them doing the other day? Well, I can't even say. It was so indecent. She was in his bed, Lucius. His bed. A proper young lady wouldn't even dream of sleeping with a man before they were married."
Lucius raised his eyebrows. "Right. And I'm assuming, correct me if I'm wrong, that this doesn't apply to us?"
She slapped his chest. "That was different. We were engaged. That's practically married, anyways, and we weren't going to change our minds about that."
"Of course, dear, whatever you say," he mumbled with a roll of his eyes.
"Maybe there's a way to break them," Narcissa suggested brightly. "I'm sure we can come up with one. It can't be that hard."
"Narcissa," Lucius muttered darkly.
She pouted. "What? It's for his own good. She's not good enough for him. By the time he realizes that, it'll be too late. They'll be married and if he tries to divorce her, she'll take him for everything he has. So if we break up them up now, then he'll thank us later when he still has all of his money and a more appropriate wife. It's the perfect plan, Lucius. Nothing could go wrong if we do it right, which we will since we're Slytherins."
"Narcissa, we are not messing with our son's relationship," Lucius told her. "I don't care if she is a piece of trash. It's his life and he wouldn't appreciate it. And if he finds out that we did it, he'll kill us. Besides, we can always keep a good portion of money to ourselves so that when he does figure out exactly what Astoria is, she won't get much of the money."
"That's a very good plan," she muttered. "And a much less incriminating one."
"Indeed," he said, leaning up to kiss her.
Then the door opened.
"Oh, that's disgusting!" Draco shouted as he slammed the door shut.
Narcissa sighed. "He's going to be mad at us for the rest of the night."
"Unfortunately, yes."