Harry and Draco grew up far too fast for Narcissa's liking, and soon it was fast approaching their departure to the school they would call home for the next seven years. Both boys grew up surrounded by all types of knowledge and magic, so to say that they were more advanced than their peers would be an understatement. Narcissa taught them all she could with the magic restrictions in place, from potions to herbology to physics. (She stayed up through the night for weeks learning physics). The boys, although raised in the same environment and sharing distant blood relations, were very different.
Draco was the social one of the two, he was always staying the night at some friend's house, and while she was reluctant at first, she gave in eventually. Draco knew better than to bring friends home unannounced, though. He learned that the hard way after bringing home a friend to Narcissa cooking dinner with magic. The poor boy had to be obliviated and Draco got the scolding of a lifetime. But, he did have a certain prowess for potions and herbology. He was constantly asking Narcissa to get him more ingredients or teach him a new recipe. That's what got him interested in herbology, he could get more ingredients without asking her first. She kept him supervised though, and so far him and Harry had only blown up the lab twice.
Harry was…. far more introverted than his brother. He had few friends, and prefered to spend time with his nose in a new book. The friends that he had were friends from the judo classes he had been taking for a few years. He wasn't very happy about it at first, but that boy had a temper like no other and Narcissa knew that he needed an outlet that wasn't yelling at someone. So, she enrolled him in judo classes, and he actually started liking it more than he thought he would. He even made some friends through that class, which Narcissa was so glad to hear. She was afraid that the boy would never make any muggle friends, he just liked reading too much. She supposed that that really was the opposite of a problem, a child being interested in books. At least he wasn't committing crimes.
Draco, on the other hand, was a bit more rowdy. Most of his friends were from his rugby league, and muggle boys could be vicious to outsiders. Draco had come home for the first few weeks with black eyes and bloody noses caused by the other boys. But they came around after the first few weeks, and Draco befriended them. He got in quite a lot of trouble with those boys, they were the most delinquent kids that Narcissa had seen in her life, and she had gone to school with the marauders. Thankfully, Draco hadn't ended up in a cop car yet, both Narcissa and Lucius would have his head. Lucius was still a heavy part in his life, seeing him every weekend, and if Draco did anything bad enough to wind up riding with the police, well let's just say that Draco wouldn't want to know what he would do. They were both strict on their boys, but a different type of strict. Lucius as a father and a lover was very authoritarian and unrelenting in his pursuits. Narcissa was strict and scary when she was mad, but she would relent when she needed to and tried to be as affectionate as possible with those boys.
She remembered how it was, growing up with her sisters. She was the youngest out of them all, which led to her taking the fall for her older sister's actions. Her mother always did like her best, and since she was younger her punishment wouldn't be as severe as Andromeda's or Bellatrix's would be. So, she got the beatings, the lashings, the nights without dinner, the weeks locked in her room, all of it. But even as a child she knew that that was what was best for the three sisters. Bellatrix and Andromeda would get crucio'd for the slightest faults, such as looking bad to company or getting a lower grade than E. She was happy to take the punishments if it meant that her sisters could get away with little punishment. Poor Bellatrix, she wanted to live up to her parents so badly that she would do anything, including being crucio'd for hours during their childhood. Narcissa feared that their younger years were when she had truly started to go insane. Not after she left Hogwarts, not after she married into a death eater family (like Narcissa did), but as a result of Bellatrix's punishments at the hand of their mother, the crazy bitch.
Anyways, she tried to be the opposite of what her mother was with her with her kids. Her punishments were always simple and never really hurt, they were just inconvenient, like adding another chore onto their list or not being able to go to their sports for a week. She didn't want them resenting her. And they didn't. Both boys were openly affectionate with her, even if Draco wasn't much for touching other people. She went with it though, waiting for him to initiate hugs and such. Harry on the other hand was practically attached to her hip. If she went somewhere, Harry wanted to go with her. If she wanted to cook, Harry wanted to help clean. While she was blessed to have him, sometimes she just wanted some time to herself, for Merlin's sake.
Speak of the devil and he shall appear, Harry raced around the corner at the same time she was rounding it, both boys streaking past her yelling at each other. Narcissa closed her eyes. She should probably go mediate this, no matter how much she wanted to just do the laundry in peace. She turned on her heel and started off in the direction they had run in, taking her time. It sounded like they were now in the foyer, and they were being quiet. Narcissa squinted, moving faster now. What were those two up to? Her heels clicked on the stairs into the entrance, stopping short at the bottom when she saw who the boys were talking to.
"Lucius," Narcissa smiled tersely. "I wasn't expecting you, did you send an owl?"
"Oh no, I'm sorry 'Cissa, I was just in the neighborhood and wanted to stop by to see the family, that's all. No need for worry." Lucius was standing with both hands in the pockets of his expensively tailored muggle suit, one boy on either side of him. That's when she noticed what Harry held in his hand.
"Boys, what are the rules in this house? No coke after 6, you know that. It's 8:30, far too late for you to be drinking that, you'll be up all night." Narcissa bustled forward, grabbing the can out of his hands and dropping it in the trash can. They both muttered a quick 'sorry mum', shifting on their feet. "Why don't you boys head up to bed, it's bedtime anyways." She bent down to give them both a kiss on the forehead. "And remember, you have to be up early tomorrow to catch the train, so don't stay up too late." Both boys ran up to bed, Draco challenging Harry to a race up the stairs.
"Narcissa, you look as lovely as always." Lucius smiled at her, taking hold of one of her hands and lifting it to his lips to kiss.
"Save your flattery, Lucius. You don't just "come around" this neighborhood. It isn't exactly the type of place that you go for an evening stroll in a suit." Narcissa gave him a deadpan look, raising an eyebrow. "What do you want, Lucius?"
"Can we talk about this someplace more private?" Lucius let go of her hand and shifted his eyes around the room. "I would hate for any prying ears to hear."
"If you're up for climbing two flights of stairs we can talk in the study" Narcissa offered, already moving up the stairs, the wood creaking under the weight of Lucius. She looked back and almost laughed at the sight of Lucius ascending the steps as though each step would break and send him plummeting to the center of the earth. "You're gonna have to get over your fear, Luce. We still have another set to go up.
Lucius made a noise of displeasure, which was pureblood for 'I hate this situation and want to be anywhere else but here'. You'd never find the man groaning out of displeasure like you would most people in the muggle or wizarding world. He was raised to be quiet, they all were.
"The study is right down the hall, then we can talk." She got to the door of the study before he did and looked back to see him panting behind her. When he saw her looking he straightened like a board and tried to hide his heavy breathing. Narcissa laughed, "It took me a couple of years to get used to it too, you're not too bad for it being your first time." She winked at him as she opened the door with her key, and realised that she had been spending far too much time with Brenda at the nail salon. Oh well, can't be helped now. She entered the room and leaned against the front of the desk, beckoning him to the chairs in front of her desk. They stared at each other for a moment. "If you don't have anything to discuss you shouldn't be here, Lucius."
Lucius cleared his throat. "Well, it's about the dark lord. There have been some…. Recent developments that I think you'd like to know about."
Narcissa sat down in the chair next to him gingerly. "Alright, what do I need to know?"
"The dark lord is alive. I don't know how, but he survived that night and now he's going to be at Hogwarts through a host." Lucius shifted in his chair, wishing he had just sent a letter.
"Who? Who's the host?"
"Quirinus Quirrell, the teacher of Defense against the dark arts this year. The dark lord is on the back of Quirrell's head, hidden by his turban."
"Great, so there's no way for Harry and Draco to avoid him while they're at school. Lovely." Narcissa swept a stray hair off her cheek. "Is there anything you can do?"
"Other than enroll them at Durmstrang or Beauxbatons, no there isn't much I can do. I'm sorry Cissa, I wish I could bring better news, but I'm afraid that the most I can do is tell you anything I know." He leaned forward in his chair to grab her hand again.
"They're already enrolled at Hogwarts, it's too late to enroll them anywhere else. Maybe next year we can send them to Durmstrang, I don't know why we didn't consider it in the first place." Narcissa tried to focus on Lucius' thumb moving across the back of her hand instead of the overwhelming urge to cry and failed, as a few tears slipped down her face. "I'm scared, Luce. I don't want to lose them, I don't want to lose you." She looked up, her teary eyes locking with his grey ones. "I can't lose you again Luce."
"And you won't." He squeezed her hand, moving his other hand to hold her hand in both of his. "I promise. You can't lose me, love. You won't. I wish our situation was better, my love, but right now we just have to deal with what life decides to hit us with. We can get through this together, we have before."
"Merlin, Lucius," Narcissa shook her head, some of the hair in her ponytail falling out and framing her face. "Stop making promises you can't keep. You know you can't promise your safety. Not with a literal dark lord on your doorstep."
Lucius got up, pulling her with him, and wrapped his arms around her. "We'll be okay, I promise. We can do this, love." She cried into his suit and for once, he didn't even care that it cost him a fortune. Because he was here.
On the other side of the fourth floor were two boys, laying in the dark in their separate beds. The light haired one kept tossing and turning over in his bed, making a lot of noise, until he settled on his back staring up at the glow in the dark stars on his ceiling. "Harry?"
Harry made a 'hmm' noise and turned on his side to face his brother on the other side of the room.
"What if we get placed in different houses?" Draco asked him, turning on his side so the brothers were facing each other.
"Then we'll deal with it, it's not like we'll be living in different countries Drake." Harry squinted his eyes, trying to see his brother in the dark.
"I know, but what if we don't fit in and people hate us?"
"Then we'll deal with that together too. We'll just have to learn some counter-curses, that's all. No biggie."
"What if-" Draco started.
"Jesus, Draco, get over here. And bring the Dragon, god knows you can't sleep without it." Harry pulled his blanket down to waist level and moved until his back hit the wall as Draco scrambled over to him and laid down. It wasn't the first time they had done this, Draco had a lot of nightmares. He slung an arm over draco with the dragon between them. "We'll get through this together, okay? It doesn't matter if we're in different houses, we're brothers and that's all that matters."
Both boys fell asleep a little later and when Narcissa went to check up on them, she smiled seeing them both sprawled on the twin-sized bed was adorable. If she had a camera around, she would capture the moment. But, she didn't so she went down a level and fell asleep, still thinking of what had happened in the secrecy of the study.
