A/N: This is the last "just death eaters" chapter. Next chapter Remus will be back! Next chapter is also the final chapter...Thank you for reading!

The day before my wedding, I wandered away from my bachelorette party and sat by myself in the backyard of our mansion. It was the same lake that Lucius and I had spent so many summers playing Quidditch over. It was the same lake Regulus and I used to look for merpeople in when we were first discovering the wonders of gillyweed.

Tomorrow I would marry Lucius, and all my childhood dreams would come true.

Then why do I feel so sad? So empty? Why do I feel like I'm going through the motions? Why aren't I euphoric?

My month with Lucius had been blissful, and I loved him now more than ever. We planned our wedding together, and spent days with just the two of us.

I haven't even seen Regulus since that day with the Dark Lord. He never came back to Malfoy Manor. He never owled. He just left.

My family was ecstatic. Lucius was obvious in his affections toward me now, and my father was appeased that the wedding would actually happen. Bellatrix had been more interested in my interactions with the Dark Lord than my interactions with Lucius.

And I was constantly surrounded by deatheaters.

Severus spent a lot of time with Lucius and me in that month. He said we gave him hope.

Lucius and Narcissa. Narcissa and Lucius. We're the perfect story, the perfect happy ending...only it's not perfect. Where is Regulus?

And like an answer to a prayer, he appeared beside me.

"Cissa," he said softly, interrupting my thoughts.

"Regulus!" I explained, and threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around him in a sloppy hug, "I've missed you so much, Reg. I'm so sorry!"

He hugged me back immediately, though he almost lost balance at my enthusiasm.

"Reggie, please don't be mad at me anymore," I pleaded into the front of his robes, "I just didn't know what to do. I was scared, Regulus!"

His arms tightened around me, and he spoke softly into my hair, "I know. I'm not mad, Cissa. How could I be mad at you? I love you."

I looked up at his face, "I love you too, best friend."

He smiled at me, eyes full of unadulterated affection, "Let's walk?"

I couldn't stop smiling, so full of relief to have him back, "I don't know, Reg...if I let you go, will you disappear again? Maybe I better hang on to you."

He chuckled, and pressed me close to him again, "I love you, Cissa."

We stood together, with our arms tightly around one another for a few minutes.

After a while, Regulus asked me, like it was an afterthought, "Why aren't you inside at your party?"

"Because those insipid women aren't you," I said simply. Honestly.

He laughed, "Good answer."

I stepped back, still smiling up at him, "Walk?"

He took my hand in his and we began to walk the familiar path around the lake.

My soul was purring like a kitten to have him back with me. It was like the world was normal again. My sanity had returned.

Regulus was silent for a few minutes and when he spoke, his tone was somber, "There's something I need to talk to you about, Cissa. I need you to understand it before I do it."

My eyes found his, questioning.

Is this bad news? Will I hate it? Did I do something? Are you actually mad and you only said you weren't because you're a sadist?
Regulus laughed at my thoughts, "I love you, Cissa. And it's something that's serious. But it's nothing that you did wrong. It's something I want to do, but I need your ... understanding."

"Regulus, you know my love for you is unconditional. You can do what you like. I'll love you all the same," I said.

"You know I'm not ...the Dark Lord's biggest fan..." Regulus started, searching for the correct words, "After you marry Lucius...the Dark Lord won't be able to use you to hurt me as frivolously as He does now...when you're Lucius's wife, you'll be so much safer. You won't be used as my leash anymore, or at least not to the same extent..."

I'm not sure if I like where this is going.

"The only person who will be responsible for my actions will be me," he continued, carefully, "I can't keep torturing people, Narcissa. I can't keep murdering families. I can't keep threatening people. Narcissa, it's taking all my willpower to keep Him out of my head. I can't allow myself to be an instrument in His hands. Not to be conceited, but I'd be damn useful."

I laughed hollowly, "It's not conceited if it's true. You're brilliant. We know."

"I can't allow Him to use my knowledge or my aptitude to do His will. I refuse. And I hope you understand," his eyes grew soft at the end and I saw deep grief written into his features.

"What are you going to do?" I asked, softly.

"I can't tell you," Regulus said, "If you knew, He'd torture it from you."

My eyes started to glass with tears, "Will you be alright?"

He bit his lip, and when he met my eyes, his eyes were not dead. His eyes were broken.

"No," his voice was quiet, and carefully steady, "I won't be alright."

And that's when the tears fell, and I threw myself into his arms again. His arms were tight around me immediately and he supported my whole weight as I collapsed into him.

"Don't go don't go don't go don't go don't go," I begged through my tears, hands clutching his robes, face pressed to his chest.

"I'm sorry," his voice was just as frantic and pleading as my own, "I didn't want to tell you, but I had to, Cissa. I had to say goodbye. I had to see you one last time. I love you so much. I couldn't leave without holding you one more time. I couldn't leave without imprinting your smile in my memory. I couldn't leave without seeing you."

"Don't go don't go don't go don't go don't go don't go," the tears wouldn't stop. I couldn't lose my best friend. Regulus and I were supposed to be together forever.

He stroked my hair as I sobbed and begged, holding me close to him, and frantically apologizing. I'm not sure how long I sobbed, but by the time I stopped, we had sunk to the grass and the sun had set.

"Stay," I told him, eyes unable to cry anymore, but cheeks still drenched in tears.

"I can't," there were tears on his cheeks as well.

I had not seen Regulus cry since he was six years old.

"But I love you," I said, unable to understand why he would leave me.

"I can't," he said brokenly.

I kissed his lips, desperately, before saying, "Don't you get it? I love you."

I emphasized each word with a kiss, which he accepted, unable to control himself.

"Narcissa," he said between kisses, "Please, don't."

"But I love you," I protested, desperate, and resumed kissing him.

He tried to break away again, to tell me to stop again, but I covered his mouth with mine and tasted his lips with my tongue. Regulus froze for a brief second, shocked at this new level of intimacy. Then, his tongue found mine and all thoughts of breaking away seemed to have left him.

I pressed harder into the kiss, reveling in my small victory. My hands tangled in his hair, pulling his face even closer to my own. My legs found their way around his waist and I pressed myself closer to him, not allowing a centimeter of space between our bodies.

He responded almost helplessly, seeming to be at the complete mercy of his hormones. His hands explored places they'd never been allowed before, and his body was having trouble hiding his enthusiasm.

I broke the kiss, noticing how aroused he was, and said, without thinking of consequences and only of how much I wanted Regulus, "Let's go inside."

"Why inside?" he asked, eyes glazed and lustful, not understanding what I meant.

"There's less grass in my bed, " I explained, ending my sentence with a long kiss.

"I...I..." Sense was threatening to ruin my victory. I could see all the reasons why we shouldn't appearing in his eyes.

"It's warmer there, too," I traced his lips with my tongue, "It's softer, there," I kissed his jawline, "And there's so much more privacy," I kiss his neck and let my hand venture downwards to a place best friends don't normally go.

"Cissa," he said weakly.

We dashed back up the path, to the house. I stopped him a few times, to kiss him, lest sense threatened to return.

In my bedroom, we had a moment of realization.

"Cissa," his voice was firmer than it had been outside, "You're getting married tomorrow."

Tears threatened to spill again, and I kissed him before saying, miserably, "What are you doing tomorrow, Regulus?"

And that time, he kissed me. The desperation I had shown outside was now apparent in him too. I responded to his touch at once, kissing him frantically. I began to unfasten his robes, and he followed my lead, unzipping my dress.

I slept with my best friend the night before I got married to Lucius. And I never saw Regulus again. The Dark Lord had Severus douse me in truth potions. I didn't know anything. All I knew was that he didn't want to be a deatheater anymore.

Lucius and I never discussed it, but I knew he knew. He knew on our wedding night, he knew when he told me that Regulus was missing, and he knew when they came to interrogate me.

I still have not come to regret it.

I miss Regulus every day. I wish he could meet my son. I still half expect him to walk into the manor and throw a dungbomb at Bellatrix. I still sometimes think he's just off buried in textbooks with Severus. I still think my thoughts loudly, hoping for the freaky twin sense to reoccur.

It never does. He's never there. And someday, somehow, I'll accept the fact that he's dead.