A/N The first section includes physical, but not sexual, scuffling between a man and woman. If that bothers you, skip to the first break.

Before Lucius Malfoy took a suspended Severus Snape back to Cokeworth in disgrace, Professor Slughorn told him the current password to the Slytherin common room and sent him in alone to meet his fiancée. It was late, but Narcissa Black was sitting in an armchair reading a novel translated out of Italian, dressed in one of her Muggle film star style dressing gowns, ruffles of black satin trimmed with something floaty and feathery. Lucius's Valentine's gift, the pearl hairclip, was fastened over her right ear, her platinum hair brushed to a warm lustre which usually would have made him wish he'd fussed over his own hair to bring it up to her level. But not tonight.

"You were expecting me," he said as he stepped into the firelit room.

She closed her book, not bothering to mark the page. "Yes, someone mentioned to me they'd seen you come in." She stood and took two swaying steps toward him. "I was hoping to see you, but you took so long."

He tilted his head, as if to see her better, differently. "Yes. I need to escort Severus out of the school tonight. He's waiting in Professor Slughorn's office. Two day's suspension for that scuffle with the Potter boy. Effective immediately. He'll be spending them at that filthy Muggle tenement in Cokeville."

"Cokeworth," she corrected, regretting it when his lip curled. She moved to placate him, linking her arm through his, as if they were about to stroll around the room. "It's good of you to take care of him like this. Poor Severus. I'm sure he's grateful."

"He is not," Lucius said. He covered her hand with his and stared across the room, at the large window looking into the lake. "So very dark down here. I'd forgotten how the moon doesn't penetrate below the water."

"But it does, my gloomy darling," she said, with a tinkling laugh. "The clouds must have rolled in. Trust me, the moon reaches us here."

He hummed. "Cissa, you were in the classroom where the attack happened, weren't you?"

"I was," she said, exaggerating a shudder against his arm. "It was ghastly. But word among the students is that Potter is recovering and won't suffer any lasting effects, so - "

"Word among the students," Lucius interrupted, turning to face her, holding her arms, "is also that Severus's attack was not completely unprovoked. Word is that there was a romantically active Veela in the classroom at the time the curse was cast. Explain this to me."

She forced a laugh that was little more than a breath. "I would be delighted if that were true. But as you've told me more than enough times, Lucius, I am no Veela. But if I was, what a compliment this would be to you, that my excitement about becoming your wife had been enough to disorder Severus's mind like that."

He lowered his eyelids, smiling crookedly. "Your headmaster wishes us to reschedule our wedding day for as soon as possible."

He watched as dread flickered over her features. "While I'm still at school?" she said.

"Because you are still at school," Lucius answered. "An unbound Veela is, clearly, a risk to the other students. Your influence fills them with mad impulses. So the headmaster has asked that you and I - bond. Sooner rather than later."

She didn't know what to say, standing limply in his hold. Lucius's hands were clamped around each of her arms, below her elbows, and almost too tightly. She would not move the wedding. But it was too soon to speak of breaking up. She hadn't spoken with her parents, or with Andromeda to find out how she escaped with her dowry. She needed more time.

"We need to know if there's anything to these speculations, Narcissa. Try to show me again," he said. "Squeeze your eyes closed and wrinkle your nose the way you used to when you wanted to convince me you were a Veela."

She breathed the same weak laugh again, looking down at their feet, smiling coyly. "You're trifling with me. When it comes to this, you always are."

"I have been in the past," he said. "I do apologize for that. Today is different. I truly want to see this Veela nature your feelings for me have recently brought to such real and dangerous life. I must, in order to inform our decisions about what happens next."

She nodded, stiffening her arms and shoulders, holding her breath for a moment as if straining, her eyes closed, but her magic far away. She let her breath out. "Did you see it?"

He shook his head. "No."

She shrugged. "That's a pity. We can tell Dumbledore I was mistaken about having any Veela nature and - "

All at once he tugged hard on her arms, bending them between their bodies so her wrists were held to his chest, their faces close. He saw fear shadow her features this time.

"What is it, Lucius?" she asked. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know - yet," he said. "Are you not a Veela? Or is it simply that you are a Veela who is not in love with me? How could an entire classroom of wizards and witches who have barely come of age sense it to the point of madness, when standing here with you in my arms, I feel no trace of it?"

He looked over all of her he could see from so close: her tensed arms, the curves of her chest, the flushed skin visible above her low neckline, her throat, hair, her quivering lips and glistening grey eyes. "Narcissa Black, who looks like she ought to love me - my perfect match in every way. But..."

He leaned toward her throat, as if he would kiss it, something he'd never done before. She clenched her jaw as if to take a punch. His breath burned against her skin. She pressed her lips together, holding back a scream.

And he withdrew. Without kissing her, Lucius was leaning away. "But no," he said. "It is as it always is with you. Never loving, but cool and dutiful. Or even…" He leaned into her face now, as if to kiss the tight line of her mouth, but then veering to one side, pressing his cheek against hers instead, sensing its temperature, whispering in her ear. "Ah, this is new. Not cool. Warm, but with revulsion."

She shook her head, clucking her tongue. "Lucius, it's late at the end of a difficult day. I watched a classmate nearly bleed to death at the wand of a friend who has been like a brother to me. Forgive me if I am less than receptive tonight."

He walked further into the room, still holding her close, driving her backward in front of him as he went. "A good excuse, but not a sincere one," he said. He had backed her against a sofa and pushed her to sitting.

"I don't know what other answer you want," she said, her voice rising as she bruised her skin, twisting her wrists as he held them tight.

"You don't have to answer at all," he said, crowding his face into hers again, his eyes wide. "Be still, and I'll find out myself."

She slouched sideways to avoid his eye contact and what was coming with it. He was about to use Legilimency at close range not only without her consent, but against her will. "Lucius, don't," she said. "You're a gentleman, a son of the pure and ancient house of Malfoy. You were raised better than this. Don't."

"What else can I do, when you're lying to me?" he said, his face tracking hers as she sank deeper into the sofa, forcing her to lie on her back, trapping her beneath him.

A gasp escaped her, almost a cry as his weight crushed her from above. She forced out words with it. "What lie have I told? Please - "

"Are you truly a Veela?" he said, teeth clenched to keep himself from shouting in the sleeping dormitory. "And who has made you active? It is not me. I don't care much about what they do to you, but who are they? Why are you protecting them? What's wrong with them?"

She strained against him, wriggling to slip out beneath him, the way Lupin had let her keep her power to move even when lying on her. Lupin…if anyone in Lucius's family or hers knew how close she'd got to a werewolf, they'd kill him.

Lucius was not embracing her. He was not bearing any of his own weight on his arms or legs but bringing it all to bear on her torso, locking her in place. He pressed her ribcage with his, forcing puffs of air out of her which she couldn't expand to replace. Panic was threatening to set in, but she fought it. She had to compose herself, to perform as an Occlumens. Only she was not practicing in a drawing room with people she could trust, but under attack by someone in the act of betraying her trust.

"Open your eyes," he growled from above as she panted shallow breaths into his face. "Open your eyes!"

She did. She had to.

"Legilimens."

He was in her mind. At the shock of it, she let out a cry and he clamped a hand over her mouth, compromising her breathing even more. Her body sucked air through her nose while her mind, her magic tossed with Lucius Malfoy on the wild inner sea. He was looking into her as if she was a mirror, smooth glass to see through. But with her Occlumency she stirred the water, made it froth and swirl. She let some things rise to the surface for him to catch sight of - James Potter bleeding into his wife's hands, Severus standing stunned with his wand still raised, Sirius Black extracting venom from a Lobalug, Lucius himself kissing her hand in the Entrance Hall while -

No. Sink him. Every time anything like Lupin began to rise - the moon, crystal, knights on a chess board, coarse brown hair falling over a high, scarred forehead, or growing sleek in a dense pelt - all of it had to be forced back under water, sunk into the depths, even as she drowned herself to do it.

It went on, Lucius's presence in her mind growing frustrated, angry. He couldn't keep it up forever, and when she thought she couldn't maintain her resistance another moment, he was spent. His mind was gone from hers, then his body was gone, lifted off of her. She sucked in a huge breath, her wrists aching, tears trailing into her hairline.

Lucius was on his feet, straightening his clothing, pacing away from her to get his walking stick from where he'd dropped it on the rug. They didn't speak, not a sound in the room but her faintly sobbing breaths. The common room's exit revealed itself as he spoke the password, and with that, she was alone.

Narcissa sat up on the sofa, looking around the room, blinking, hardly able to believe nothing in it had changed. She went to her room, throwing off her dressing gown and her hair clip. She reached for the flannel pajamas her mother had given her at Christmas. They were well-made and warm but she had thought them childish when she first saw them, ruffled at the neck and decorated with little green kneazles wearing witches' hats. She pulled them over her shaking body and stood beside her neatly made bed, listening to the slow, steady breathing of her roommates. Not yet.

Lucius would have rushed to collect Severus and left this place already. So she risked leaving her dormitory, trying to outrun the foul atmosphere that had come into the part of the school where she had always felt most safe. In the dungeon corridor outside, she didn't know where to go but up. She climbed the stairs to the empty Entrance Hall, then the marble staircase to the third floor. That was where the moving staircase rose up to Gryffindor Tower. Her heart ached at the sight of it, the stairs dark and empty, moved away from the base of the tower, pointed in the wrong direction. They wouldn't move for her.

She climbed them anyway, halfway up to where she could see the portrait of the sleeping fat lady who guarded the way inside. No one was awake. No one was coming. Closing her eyes, she listened. Where was the heartbeat she'd heard in her ears on these stairs on other nights? Was it out of range? Did he know? How could he not know? How could he sleep through the pounding of her heart? How could she be here, alone?

She sat on the stairs and wept.

Things in the Gryffindor Tower attic Head Girl quarters couldn't have been more clean and respectable when the lads arrived with Marlene to bring lunch to the still-recuperating James. Everyone was relieved to see him looking rosy and well, and to see Lily no longer looking terrified.

James had missed Magical Creatures class that morning. Sirius had partnered with Narcissa while Remus worked in a trio with Peter and Alice. He'd managed to get her to tell him that Snape was not in detention, not on cleaning detail, but suspended from school as punishment for injuring James. Slughorn had handed him over to Lucius Malfoy to bring to his parents the night before.

"Back in Cokeworth?" Lily said. "I do hope he doesn't bother my parents again."

"Shall we go back and make sure he doesn't?" James asked.

She scoffed. "Only if you want to wind up back in the hospital."

"Oh, so that's what Malfoy was doing here last night," Peter said. "We saw him come in on the map, didn't we Remus."

Remus nodded, as if unaffected, though he was greatly relieved to hear Malfoy hadn't come for Narcissa. He couldn't bear to watch the map while they were together and had stormed off to bed. Everyone but Peter has the sense to know he was unhappy to be hearing about it now, but no one knew what to say about it.

Lily may have been opening her mouth to chastise him about feeling anything for Narcissa Black when Sirius spoke up. "So the school's chastity charm isn't in force way up here?" he mused. "I mean, I don't assume a marriage couple has to leave school grounds every time you want to…"

"Yeah, that can't be it," Peter added. "Didn't McGonagall's husband live here for awhile?"

"The chastity charm isn't regulated by territory. That's not how it works," Lily said. "It's not that the space is uncharmed so we can - be together here. It's the fact that we're properly soul-bonded that makes the difference. Our relationship is all blessed and chaste now, isn't it darling?"

James hooked an arm around her neck and leaned across her shoulders. "Yeah, the school charms have no effect on a properly bonded pair. I mean, technically, we should be able to do it anywhere in the school."

Lily made a great deal of noise clearing her throat.

"Not that we would," James finished.

"Soul-bonded - just say married. It's less superior sounding," Marlene said, biting into an apple.

"It's not the space itself that's uncharmed?" Sirius said, sulking. "And here I was about to ask to borrow this place for dates. Did you hear the bad news Marlene?"

She threw her apple, hard, at his head. It was an easy catch for a quidditch keeper. Sirius tossed the apple once more, caught it behind his back, and bit into it himself.

"Knock, knock," came a painfully prim voice from the open doorway.

Everyone leapt to their feet as Professor McGonagall stepped into the room.

"Sorry to interrupt your lunch," she began. "But I need a word in private with Mr. Potter."

It was Remus who took the lunch basket back to the kitchen, taking the time to walk alone to the bottom of the castle to try to put together Narcissa's state of mind that morning. He hadn't been able to speak to her all day. It was probably just as well, since finding her and talking to her in the middle of a busy school day might cause another fiasco.

She hadn't come to breakfast, and then he'd had double charms class with Ravenclaw. When he finally saw her in Care of Magical Creatures, Sirius and Peter had done their utmost to keep them apart. Sirius said she was quiet and not particularly happy while they did their partner work, but being quietly hostile was what not being on speaking terms with an estranged cousin was all about. It told him nothing. It was good to know Malfoy had come for Snape, not for her the night before, but he was still uneasy, and would be until he knew if anything had passed between them.

He was coming up the stairs from the kitchens when he heard his name called from above as if it was a curse.

"Lupin."

It was Regulus, standing like an angry sentinel at the top of the stairs, glaring down at him as if he wasn't the kid brother of Remus's best friend, the boy who once followed after them, admiring everything they did. Remus sighed. "What is it, Reg?"

"Don't you 'Reg' me," he said. "Do you know where I found her?"

Remus frowned. "Her? Who did you find?"

"Narcissa," he said. "My cousin, the one my brother won't stand up to protect, but I will."

"Reg, just tell me what's happened?" Remus said, earnestly worried, dropping his hands on Regulus's shoulders. "Is Narcissa alright?"

Regulus jerked away. "No, she isn't. She's so not alright she won't even talk to me about it. All I know is I was patrolling and I found her sitting on the Gryffindor stairs after curfew last night, crying her eyes out. And in her weepy babbling, all I could make out was Malfoy's name and yours. Yes, crying over something to do with YOU, outside YOUR dorm."

Remus grabbed his own stomach, bending at the waist, as if hit. "Last night? On the stairs?"

"I'm warning you, Lupin," Regulus was saying. "I'm giving you one warning. Cissa told me to forget all about it, but she's far too kind. If I knew what you actually did, believe me, I'd be in the headmaster's office reporting it this instant. You stay away from her. She's as good as married, and if you don't want both me and Malfoy on you - "

Remus couldn't listen to any more. He swore and bolted down the corridor. What class did Narcissa have next? It wasn't with Gryffindor. Did she still take Herbology? What kind of monster could snog someone so much and still not know her school schedule?

"It's no use chasing her," Regulus called after him. "She was set to leave for home at lunchtime."

Remus swore louder and ran faster, making for the Floos in the Entrance Hall. Narcissa was easy to spot at a distance, bright and shining like a diamond, at least in his eyes. She was still in the hall, dressed in a dark traveling cloak, waiting for Filch to come unlock the Floo so she could leave. But he was in no hurry, smirking with his back to her, rather enjoying forcing someone to wait for him.

Remus slowed when he saw her, surveying the hall to check how many people they might drive mad if he got close to her. But then here was Filch, plodding in a circle, turning to face her. Regardless of the people, Remus was speeding again, running at her.

Colour rose in her face. He saw it before she turned her back to him. He needed to get her away from here, somewhere safe and private, together. In the pocket of his robes, with his wand and the map, was one other thing: James's cloak. Like a Muggle magician, in a single fluid motion, Remus unfurled the cloak while pulling it from his robes, winding himself and Narcissa inside it.

She gasped, clinging to him without thinking, blinking out at the hall now that it was shadowed and rippled by the fabric that covered them. Outside, Filch rubbed his eyes and looked all around for her.

"Lupin?" she said.

"This is Potter's invisibility cloak," he rushed to say, whispering. "No one can see us, but we'd better go outside before anyone senses us."

She said nothing, looking up at him, her eyes wide, her lips parted.

Her silence was chilling. His mouth went dry and he withdrew the slightest bit, letting her know she was free to go. "Un-unless - "

His words died away as she held the lapels of his robe and buried her face in his jumper, her shoulders shaking as she broke into quiet sobs. He did his best to hold her, one hand above their heads, keeping the cloak in place, the other on her back. "It's alright," he said into the crown of her head. "No one knows where we are."

Steering her toward the main doors, Remus took her outside, and led her into one of the statuary niches, behind a stone knight bearing a large shield. He let the cloak down, draping it over his arm.

"Oh look, your nose is red," he said, smiling pityingly at her. "My poor creature." He stooped to kiss the end of her nose, holding her face in his hands, wiping tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. Her eyes had been half-closed and she opened them fully now, looking up to meet his. He drew in a sharp breath. Her usually grey eyes were flashing gold, eyes he'd only ever seen as Moony, the Veela's eyes.

"No, no, no," he said, still holding her face. "Listen to me, Narcissa. You've got to take deep breaths, use your voice, say something, bring your human self back before you fully transform and bring this school to its knees."

She tried, opening her mouth to speak, but the sound was high and sharp, not language. She gripped his arms, fighting her way back. He had no idea what had put her in this state, but she was upset enough that her Veela was asserting itself, as if it had been silent too long, and now, emboldened by his presence, the Veela was taking over, rising up to fight.

"Breathe, Narcissa," he said. "You can't do this here with all these children around. Look at me, and breathe."

She was trying her voice again, more of a cough than a word, but she managed to say his name. "Lupin."

"Yes." He let go of her face and pulled her close, long arms clasped around her. "There you are. You're alright. You've mastered it."

She flung her arms around his torso, burrowing into his robes, human but still wild and open. "It's my Veela."

"Yes," he said, stroking her hair. "She's lovely, fierce, but she shouldn't be here right now."

"He wanted to see her, last night," she said, her face against Remus's shoulder, her voice high and trembling.

Remus's spine stiffened. "He? You mean, Malfoy?"

She nodded against him, her arms around his neck now, her fingers curled into his hair, almost claw-like. "I didn't show him. I pretended to try, and he - I didn't show him. I'm not sure I could have even if I wanted to. She doesn't love him, you see. She's particular, singular, and - " Narcissa drew in a deep breath," - she may be in love with someone else."

His arms tightened and he rocked her from side to side. He lifted her onto her toes, his lips against her temple, sighing. "How can she love someone else when she is you, and you are his?"

"I am not his," she said, her voice low and firm now. "Dumbledore says we have to move up our wedding day to keep from disrupting the school with unbound Veela energy, but I denied being a Veela. I won't go to him. Never."

"You denied him - everything?"

"Yes."

The hard edge on her voice alarmed him and Lupin bent to bring his lips to her ear. "But your being a Veela can't be denied anymore. So what did Malfoy do? Can you please tell me what happened? Last night, between you refusing to show Malfoy your Veela and you ending up crying on the Gryffindor staircase?"

She voiced her embarrassment. "Regulus told you?"

"Yes, and I'm sorry, Narcissa." He bowed his head again, his forehead coming to rest on hers. "So sorry I missed you there. Sick about it. If I'd known - Stars, I'll sleep on the stairs every night for the rest of the year just in case you come looking for me again."

"Don't do that," she said. "Just let me have this now." She was tipping her chin forward to kiss him. It was slow and full of pain at first, as she purged her hurt into him. His voice sounded in relieved surprise, as if he didn't feel worthy of her kiss after she'd suffered while he did nothing the night before. He accepted it, holding back, letting her lead, open to the touch of her mouth. She was more human than Veela now, taking what she needed with a gentle, aching sweetness he could barely stand.

This was what she wanted from him when she came looking for him in the night. Her body, mind, her magic responding to his touch, the feel of him, as if he was a healing draught himself. His kiss filled her senses and she reached for more, her fingers tracing the thin band of skin between the top of his collar and his hairline at the nape of his neck. It wasn't enough. She slid a hand down his neck and chest, his breath hitching as she dragged her fingers all the way to his waist, then up, beneath the lower edge of his jumper. He was too tall for all his shirts and the one he was wearing was already untucked, letting her fingers slip easily beneath it, finding his warm, smooth flank.

He jerked against her, breaking the kiss to sigh her name.

"I'm not forcing you, am I?" she said, her eyebrows lifted. "If you don't want me to - "

"Don't want you to?" he said, an incredulous laugh in his voice as he covered her hand with his through the outside of his jumper, pressing her tented finger closer to his skin, flattening her palm against himself, watching her face as her eyes drifted shut, seeing her getting lost in the sensation of being so close. "Please, touch me," he said. "Take your strength from me while you tell me what happened last night. I want to help. Whatever he did, it can never happen again."

She nodded, as if to answer him. But instead of saying anything, she slipped her other hand into his shirt, holding him from both sides. He pulled her closer and her arms met across his back. He waited, his closed mouth pressed to the top of her head, keeping quiet even as his flesh tingled at her touch.

"You can't say you love me," she said. "I know. It's my fault. I haven't made it possible. In fact, if the adults get their way, we'll have even less time together than we thought we would. But can you tell me if I'm loveable?"

He clucked his tongue, and with no hesitation said, "Of course you're loveable, you mad thing. Infinitely so."

"Is it mad though?" she asked. "My father signed me over to a man who's already betrayed me. Neither of them can actually love me." She paused, swallowing hard enough for her head to bob against his chest. She was ready to tell him. "Lucius attacked me with Legilimency last night. He pinned me down and penetrated my mind, tearing through my memories, my feelings, everything."

Remus growled, swearing as he held her tighter. "I hate him. And I'm sorry. You don't deserve violation like that. You deserve reverence, worship."

She trembled in his arms. "Thank you."

He scoffed. "Don't thank me. It's self-evident." He paused swaying with her, soothing her. "It was us, wasn't it? Was he looking for us?"

"Yes," she said. "He knows I'm romantically active, and he knows it's no thanks to him. But I kept you hidden. My Occlumency was stronger than his attack - barely stronger, but it was enough."

He hated it still. "He didn't hurt you, did he?"

She pulled her arms out of his shirt and pushed back her sleeves, bringing her flesh into the daylight, her arms bruised purple where she'd strained against Malfoy's hold.

Remus gasped, holding arms in his fingertips, turning them in the light. He kissed the bruises, stopping short of treating them as Moony would, with his tongue. He swore again. "Let Malfoy find us. There's a full moon in two days. By all means, send him looking for me then."

"No," she said, holding Remus's face. "Don't be rash. Think, Lupin. I can make something of this. Something better. I think Malfoy's attack constitutes a breach of the engagement pledges. I'm not rushing into marriage. I'm getting out. You found me at the Floos not running away, but going about what I need to do to get out of the marriage contract."

He stood back, releasing her body but taking her hands. "Are you sure?"

She shook her head. "No. But I will be. Before I see my parents, I'm going to Andromeda."