Epilogue
"Rennervate."
Narcissa's eyes snapped open. She was laying on her back facing a dark, fire-lit ceiling with no memory of how she'd gotten there. Her head pounded and her vision wavered a little.
She focused as a face came into view above her. Wild black hair framed livid eyes. Bella's lips quivered and angry tears streaked her cheeks. Narcissa's heart sunk with dread.
"Where were you going, Cissy?" Bella's voice hardly formed a whisper.
"Nowhere."
Narcissa attempted to sit up. Her back hit the floor again so hard her diaphragm nearly stilled. Narcissa couldn't breathe anyway for the boot digging into her chest. She tried to push Bella's foot off, but her heel only dug deeper into her ribs.
"Bella," she gasped. "What are you doing?"
"You traitor!" Bella shrieked so loudly Narcissa flinched. "You're a traitor! All this time—was the Dark Lord not good enough to you? Did he not protect you? And now you go and—"
Whatever she'd purportedly done, Narcissa didn't find out. Bella's rage boiled over beyond what yelling could alleviate. Hot-white heat burst into life upon every nerve of Narcissa's body. She recoiled, trying to escape it, but it was no use. All she could do was scream.
Narcissa fought for air when it finally stopped. A tingling remained, as if her nerves had been fried with electricity. She tried to crawl backward on the floor away from where Bella stood over her. She didn't have the strength.
"It was you." Bella's voice dropped again. "You called the Ministry to Ramstad Manor. Was that the plan?" She bent down over her knees, nearly cooing. "Lucius runs off to help them fight the Aurors and you slip off to dear little Andie's?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Every word was a fight for Narcissa. Her vocal cords were similarly stunned.
"Not a clue?" Bella's eyes widened with mock-childish wonder. "Not a clue, she says, my Lord."
A hooded figure appeared in Narcissa's peripheral vision. She met the gaze of the scarlet eyes underneath it, too weak to fend off a Legilimency spell even if she tried.
The Dark Lord's upper lip twitched. "She doesn't know."
Bella looked from him back to Narcissa, sneering. "She was still making for Andie's. She was going to leave."
"Yes." The Dark Lord retreated, his footsteps echoing against the wood floor. "I need to think."
Narcissa's head lolled so that she faced away from Bella. Tears leaked involuntarily from her eyes. This wasn't how tonight was supposed to go at all. It had been a fairly normal one, or at least what constituted normal lately between Narcissa and Lucius. When he was called away and Narcissa was left alone at home, she barely thought about what she was doing as she left her half-eaten dinner on the table and headed upstairs to grab the bag she had packed. She'd done her preparations, now it was time to follow through.
"It's just us." Bella sank down to her knees beside Narcissa. At least she had calmed down. "They're all going to Azkaban, you know. Except Erik. Erik's dead."
Narcissa looked back at her sister. Bella's stare went long out one of the dark windows. The Dark Lord sat beyond her on one of the outdated couches that had long turned grey with dust.
Bella's gaze darted back to Narcissa. "Maybe you didn't call in the Ministry, but you were going to betray us anyway, weren't you? I'm sure Andie could easily get in touch with Dumbledore for you if you asked her to."
All of Narcissa's muscles felt like they weighed ten times more than normal. She struggled to push herself up into a seated position. Her head throbbed again, focused behind her eyes. Narcissa pressed the heels of her palms into them. Stars erupted in her vision.
"What do we do with her, my Lord?" Bella asked.
"Hush," the Dark Lord replied.
Narcissa looked around. She didn't recognize where they were, so she had no idea how far she'd have to go or in what direction if she could even escape.
"You said they were all caught?" she hesitantly asked Bella.
Bella nodded. "Hildegard, Lucius, Rodolphus."
Narcissa's heart grew heavy again. "And Erik, he. . .?"
"He took the Killing Curse for the Dark Lord—"
"Don't be silly, Bella," the Dark Lord spoke. "You know as well as I do he didn't do it for me."
Narcissa furrowed her brow, but it was far from her place to ask that he elaborate. She never meant for anything like this to happen, whether it was her fault or not. Hildegard and Erik had always struck her as someone like her, stuck with no current means of getting out. Was that not the point of getting their kids out of the situation? So they would be easier to follow when the time came?
If Lucius was caught—if he was going to Azkaban—Narcissa feared how this might change Draco's level of safety. She'd meant to slip away and take the spotlight with her. If she could hide with Andie, or if Dumbledore put her somewhere else, then the Dark Lord would focus on that. He might put so much pressure on Lucius that Lucius would decide he'd finally hit his limit. What now?
The Dark Lord rose from his seat. He approached Narcissa and Bella. "Stand."
Bella leapt up, although it was still a difficult task for Narcissa. Her muscles felt like they seized. Her legs trembled under her weight as she stood in front of the Dark Lord. Narcissa recoiled as one of his spindly, white hands reached out for her. Bella grabbed her tightly by the wrist before she could get too far away.
The Dark Lord's hand came to rest on Narcissa, his palm covering her forehead. She braced herself to feel pain again, but nothing came except for a strange warmth that spread from his touch to the rest of her body. It reached her fingers and toes at the same time.
"Bella," the Dark Lord beckoned her closer. He pulled away his hand. It glowed ever so slightly with a pale blue light, which spread to Bella when she took his hand between both of hers. It ran up her arms and collected at the centre of her chest before fading away.
The Dark Lord looked at Narcissa again. "You may try and run if you wish. We are at least a thousand miles away from Britain, and even if you got that far before Bella or I caught up, nobody would even be able to see you unless Bella revealed you."
Narcissa had no choice but to nod.
"Take her upstairs, Bella," the Dark Lord said. "We'll be based here for the foreseeable future. She might as well get settled."
"As you wish, my Lord."
One of Bella's hands wrapped tightly around Narcissa's upper arm. Bella fished into her cloak with the other, retrieving her wand and lighting its tip as they left the keeping room. The hall they entered was otherwise nearly unnaturally dark. As Bella's wand light swept the walls, the shadows feigned movement.
Dust muffled the stairs as they climbed them. They came up against a wall at the top. The landing ran parallel to the stairs, separated from them by a handrail. There were three doors down the left wall and one at the end. Moonlight shone down through the skylights.
"Take your pick," Bella said. She pointed at the middle door on the left wall. "Any but that one."
Narcissa gestured weakly at the closest one, apathetic. The door creaked open with Bella's prompt. There wasn't much to it. It looked like perhaps once it had been a child's bedroom. The bed itself was small. Its frame looked so old that Narcissa wondered if it would even support her weight. A worn rag doll laid on the naked mattress.
Bella extinguished her wand after lighting torches around the room. A few more waves of it did a decent enough job of banishing some of the dust.
Narcissa held her arms against herself. Her teeth chattered. She hadn't had time yet to really register how cold the house was. It had been a pleasant enough evening when she'd left Malfoy Manor. She doubted the temperature here was above freezing. She could see her breath when she exhaled.
Thick looking blankets manifested on the bed. Bella rejoined her side. "There'll be breakfast in the morning."
"Can I have my wand?"
Bella barked a laugh and headed for the door. "Night night, Cissy."
This concludes another part in this series. :)
Thanks for reading along! I'm closing in on the end of the sequel, and will begin posting it on Sept. 24th.