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Part Eight

"You'll never guess what happened today," Harry said, flinging himself onto the chair that stood in the corner of Narcissa's office.

Narcissa glanced up at him with one eyebrow raised. "I suppose I will not, if you do not tell me about it."

Harry grinned and touched a knife under his arm for a moment. "Hannah Abbott challenged me to a wizard's duel. She made poor Susan her second before Susan could get out of it. I had to tell her twice that I wasn't going to fight her right outside the Great Hall before she believed it."

Narcissa shook her head. "And then did you slaughter her?"

"I made sure that we had a huge audience when I went up on a staircase that no one was using because most people were already headed towards the Great Hall for dinner by then. I held my hands away from my body and kept talking about how I didn't want to fight her, how she was forcing me to. Hannah was starting to look a little nervous. Anyway, she tried to use a Blasting Curse on me. I blocked it and shattered one of the bannisters, then Disarmed her and told her she could have her wand back when she stopped being stupid."

"And if she needs the wand for schoolwork?"

"I checked the Hogwarts rules. Headmistress McGonagall helped me. I think she felt a little sorry for me with everyone muttering about how I must have joined Voldemort in the raid on that village. And the rules say that someone who wins a wizard's duel and Disarms their opponent can keep the opponent's wand until the opponent fulfills the condition set for them."

Narcissa smiled at last. She should have more trust in Harry's ability to handle situations like this, she supposed. She had trained him hard for a reason. "And how is Miss Abbott going to stop being stupid?"

"An apology to me and a statement that she knows I didn't have anything to do with the attack would be fine." Harry lay back on the couch and tossed a wand Narcissa suspected was Abbott's into the air. "And I know that you put some kind of poison in Freyasdaughter's tea, but I wanted to set a contingency spell myself."

"Contingency spells are advanced magic."

"I know that, Mother. I know all about the things that can go wrong if you use the wrong words. That's why I'm going to think really carefully about how to word it before I cast the spell."

After a moment, Narcissa nodded. She had to have more trust in Harry over something like this as well. "And what will the contingency say?"

"It'll activate instant death for Freyasdaughter if she ever casts a spell on Draco that causes him pain."

Narcissa folded her hands and watched Harry patiently. Harry watched her back, and then sighed and said, "All right, what did I forget?"

"Besides my own revenge and the fact that Draco may well want to defend himself instead of having you standing up for him, as he has already proven? The fact that Freyasdaughter is the Defense professor and may cast curses at Draco during class that could hurt him."

"She doesn't need to."

"She would not be a very good Defense professor if she never cast such. And Draco's shields and practice with you may not always be enough to hold them back. We want her dead for a reason, dear. Not due to a poorly-worded contingency spell. There are other methods of gaining vengeance, as I have told you often."

Harry touched the knife that Narcissa knew hung under his arm again and pouted until Narcissa gave him another patient look. Then he wiped the unattractive expression off and muttered, "So I don't have a lot of choice but to wait until she hurts Draco?"

"There are many measures in place to guard Draco. Instead of thinking of this as depriving you of your revenge, you may wish to think on how you will encourage Draco's confidence in his own plans. Does he not deserve his own revenge?"

Harry thought about that, and finally nodded. He got up to kiss her before he left the office. "Sorry, Mother. Sometimes I feel this red rage come down on me at the thought of anyone hurting him, and then I don't know what to do with myself."

"You can use that rage," Narcissa told him softly. "What you must do is channel it and look out for future threats to Draco, ones that he may not be able to handle himself, not one that is already handled and right in front of you."

"You make me sound oblivious when you put it that way."

"Sometimes you are, darling."

After a second, Harry gave her a reluctant smile, and then turned and walked through the door without more of a farewell. Narcissa rolled her eyes indulgently. The pride of the young.

Well, so long as it never got him or Draco hurt, then Narcissa could afford to indulge it, sometimes. She was still smiling as she went back to marking essays.

"You have learned the spell, Professor Malfoy?"

"I have, Professor Freyasdaughter." Unsaid went the implication that Narcissa wouldn't have approached Idunna in the first place if she hadn't learned them.

Idunna turned back to the room they stood in. It had originally been a simple classroom near the one where Idunna taught Defense Against the Dark Arts, as far as Narcissa could make out, but now it was inscribed on the walls and ceiling with small circles and other geometric shapes that flared with blue and silver and gold as Idunna ran through them one by one.

Narcissa studied them. She wasn't familiar enough with Light magic to say what they were for certain, but she recognized their general protective and creative intent. And containment, as well. If something happened to both of them, Idunna was ensuring that the Horcrux's influence would not spread beyond this room.

Narcissa could approve of the general theory, although in practice she would only want to defend three people in the world. Perhaps four if one added Sirius, she supposed.

"Now," Idunna said, and faced the center of the room, where a pot of earth, the carafe of water that Narcissa was in charge of purifying, and a blazing brazier stood in a triangle. In the center of the triangle lay Ravenclaw's diadem.

Narcissa cast the spells that Idunna had taught her to purify the water, keeping her eyes on the fire. The earth itself had a faint hoofprint pressed into it, and had probably been purified by the touch of a unicorn, just as Idunna had told her. The fire, born of Light magic, swayed and lunged towards Narcissa at times. She did not entirely trust it to stay within the confines of the brazier.

But it had not broken free by the time Narcissa finished the purification spells, and Idunna took a step back and spread her hands. She began to chant in slow, sonorous Latin that Narcissa wanted to roll her eyes at. The endings of the words had been rounded off so that they made little grammatical sense.

Perhaps they are more conducive to Light magic, the less sense they make.

At first, nothing seemed to be happening. Then a blue glow lifted from the water, forming the image of a triangle floating above the carafe. It was answered by a blue flash from what seemed to be a third of the runes covering the walls and ceiling.

The earth responded next. Its color was the silver of a unicorn, and it formed a sphere instead of a triangle, as another third of the runes flashed silver. Narcissa gripped her wand. She wasn't familiar enough with the ritual to be sure that something was going wrong, but it seemed at least possible.

Idunna's fire came last, and it had turned as gold as a phoenix's tail. It didn't produce a shape of its own, but merely echoed the golden glow of the runes, and the golden charms in Idunna's hair. She was the one who moved up to stand between the earth and the fire, her hands clenched in on each other.

"Now, Professor Malfoy."

Worried though she was by the lack of a third balancing participant in the ritual, Narcissa took her place between the water and the earth. She had enough magic on herself to save her life if something went wrong.

"We ask for the purified water to help us," Idunna said, voice low and gradually soaring as she began to speak faster and faster. Narcissa winced a little as shrill sounds filled the air around them, the charms in Idunna's hair chiming. "We ask for the purified earth to help us. We ask for the pure fire to help us, and save us from this evil."

Idunna stared straight at the Horcrux. Magic rushed past Narcissa and shoved the diadem into the final gap between the fire and the water.

For a moment, the Horcrux began to emit black vapor, and Narcissa was sure that it would manage to stop what they were doing to it. But then the water rose from the carafe and splashed over it, and the earth followed.

The black vapor was smothered, and Narcissa heard a distant shriek, not dissimilar to the ones that Voldemort uttered when she battled him in her mind. She smiled.

"Now, the fire," Idunna said, and moved her hands in a complex gesture that didn't include her wand but did seem to include traces of a circle.

The fire shot out from its brazier, a level sheet of it that reminded Narcissa of how some dragons breathed. It surrounded the soaking bundle of dirt that was the Horcrux, and for a long moment, Narcissa thought it would hover there like an aura.

Then it moved in.

The Horcrux began to burn. The wail returned, stronger this time, and the diadem vibrated, shaking off most of the earth and water. The fire closed in further and further, and Narcissa thought she saw the sapphire in the diadem opening like an angry eye.

Then a brilliant burst of silver, gold, and blue light filled the room as all the runes were drained of their power at once. Narcissa found herself taking a step back, a protective hand rising before her eyes. Luckily, she didn't manage to move completely out of the triangle, and it didn't break.

Instead, the Horcrux screamed one more time, and then the sound abruptly cut off.

Narcissa lowered her hand and found herself staring at a large scorch patch on the floor. Idunna stood over and spoke in some more of that modified Latin, waving her wand. A black mist cleared off, shrinking some of the burn marks, and was gone.

"You backed away as if you doubted my power to keep you safe," Idunna said, lifting her head. There was a gold light lingering in the backs of her eyes, which told Narcissa how powerfully Light the magic was. "Why did you do that?"

"Because I could not help it," Narcissa said, poised as she lied. She was used to that, after all. "The pain of the Horcrux's influence being yanked out of me would not let me stand still."

Idunna smiled, and Narcissa reflected that she might have made an intelligent woman with a little less focus on the Light. "Then I am glad that you helped me in this ritual. I had my doubts about you, but being returned to your normal self…"

"It feels wonderful," Narcissa said, and smiled at her, while imagining what the Cadmus's Gift poison would begin to do to her soon.

Three Horcruxes gone, Narcissa thought that evening, as she watched her sons practicing defense spells both higher-level and Darker than any they would see in Idunna's class. A good start, but we must think about retrieving some others soon.

Harry waited until he had Draco panting and on the defensive, then dropped him with a Stunner that Draco's Shield Charm didn't come down far enough to defend against. Harry shook his head as Draco dropped onto the Cushioning Charm already in place. "That will teach him not to protect his legs. Mother, what does this sign mean?"

Narcissa looked up from the third-year essay that appeared to have been copied from the Astronomy textbook, and raised her eyebrows at the sign floating in fire in the air in front of Harry. "That is the sign of the Deathly Hallows. Where did you run across it? Reading children's books again?"

Harry only grinned at her, knowing her teasing was gentle. It wasn't as though Harry had had a chance to read wizarding children's books until he became part of the Malfoy family. "No, I saw it in photographs from Grindelwald's day. I've been reading History on my own, you know. I thought I'd look up why people thought Dumbledore was so great."

"That is the sign Grindelwald fought under as well, that is true. But it originally comes from the Tale of the Three Brothers."

Harry nodded, looking pleased with himself. "If great Dark wizards can believe in children's tales, then I don't feel bad for reading them." He went to revive Draco, unaware of the trail of fire he had sparked in Narcissa's mind.

The Elder Wand was supposedly a tool of ultimate power. If we can make Voldemort believe that we have that in our possession, or knowledge of where it is to be found, that might lure him close enough for me to read his mind for knowledge of the Horcruxes. Narcissa had already tried probing through the blood connection they shared, but perhaps because it was a blood and not a Horcrux link, she had encountered little success in reading Voldemort's specific thoughts. They seemed to meet better on the battlefield of the mind, and Legilimency was still an art better practiced face-to-face.

He might believe the Elder Wand could cure him, or defeat his enemies. And there is the fact that he and Harry have brother wands. He would want something else with which to face him. Or me.

Narcissa nodded, decision made, and called a house-elf to fetch yet more books from the Manor. It was somewhat troubling that the Manor was better-stocked than the Hogwarts library, but considering how esoteric some of these subjects were, perhaps it should not bother her.

She could always offer to donate copies of the books she had used to Hogwarts, but somehow, she thought the Headmistress might object.

"Your plan is sound. But you should let me be the one to lure the Dark Lord with tales of the Elder Wand."

Narcissa looked calmly at Lucius through the flames, and said, "How can you? Would Voldemort not curse you as a traitor the moment you approached him?"

"He enslaved me for years and destroyed the clarity of my mind, the integrity of my soul. Let me have this moment of revenge, Narcissa."

"I would not deny it to you. I only want to know how you could survive carrying the tales to him when his suspicions are so great now. Even if you believed that you are unwillingly attaining your freedom, he would want revenge on me for cursing him."

Lucius smiled grimly. "There are locations where the Death Eaters met during the first war that are not currently under the Dark Lord's control. Give me enough time to trap them with the proper defensive spells and protections, and I could arrange to meet him there and show him these supposed memories of the Elder Wand."

"In a Pensieve, Lucius. I don't want him inside your mind."

"You think that I am an idiot, Narcissa?"

Narcissa smiled. Yes, he is much more fun this way. "First we need to create a replica of the Elder Wand that would pass muster. Should we hire Olllivander, or do you think we can create something that would seem to be real in a memory?"

"The fewer people outside our family we involve, the better. And the Dark Lord will probably soon move to shutter the shops in Diagon Alley in any case. I can Transfigure a wand from wood, Narcissa. It will take me some time, but those skills are returning to me along with my clarity of thought."

"And then I will arrange to be at the meeting location. Harry will let me borrow his Invisibility Cloak. I think it safer than trying any more conventional means of concealing myself from Voldemort's notice."

Lucius nodded, his eyes full of clear fire. "There are several we could use, and I will have to consider them carefully to decide which one is best and which one will take the fewest defenses to utilize…"

Narcissa listened to her husband plot with her, silently rejoicing over many traits that would probably have offended him if she had mentioned them. He had put his family first, rather than trusting blindly in someone outside it. He had added his own nuance to the plans, instead of simply going along with what she mentioned.

His skin shone with a subtle return of health and magic, which had been banished for years while the Dark Mark grew stronger.

For the first time in those years, Narcissa was as confident that she had made the best possible choices when young as she was now.