Disclaimer: I just own the plot and not even all of that, any lines you recognise belong to JK and have been lifted from the book.
Review Responses:
Dark Comet - Narcissa does seems like a pretty cool mum, though she does spoil Draco way more than is healthy for the kid and also forces him to grow up with Lucius. Their good relationship will not always be this good though! Slytherin were cheated out of the house cup that first year! I too liked that the first time round but once I thought about it I realised how unfair it really was.
Ani - No mans land was also the term used to describe the area between the opposing trenches during the first and second world wars. A barren, lifeless area filled with dead and decaying bodies and craters from shells often flanked on either side by barbed wire. Obviously the grounds at Malfoy Manor do not literally look like that but I was using it to imply a sense of a barren, dead and also dangerous landscape. I also felt it was quite fitting as Narcissa and Lucius are engaged in an odd sort of war with each other. Narcissa feels the place is desolate and lifeless particularly without her son's presence.
Lune Project - Beautifully written? I'm flattered! Thank you for being so complimentary! The quidditch world cup scene was one of the first one's I wrote of this story along with the scene in Flourish and Blotts in this chapter. So you will find out what was going on there, just not for a while as I haven't actually got the rest of the story up to that point written, just that scene. I have written her reaction towards Riddle's diary and it's one of my favourite parts of this fic in fact! I've also written her finding out about Hermione slapping Draco, (I wrote that a couple of days ago in fact), and as for the deatheaters well there's quite a bit of that in the prequel to this Wedding Bells Just Turned to Rust, but you will see more of it in here particularly in the quidditch cup scene. Though I have to bear in mind that Lucius' not doing that much at the moment, just trying to kill the odd Weasley, and he's unlikely to tell her if he does. I'll update again soon. The story will be finished! I actually have a fair bit of the last scene written but I'm missing the middle bit of the story. There will also hopefully be another sequel to this but I haven't got a name for that yet. Thank you for reviewing Turning Point, you have a point there about the protection around Hogwarts and I have to admit to having no excuse other than I think Dumbledore probably knew he was there and that he wasn't a risk, as Dumbledore seems to know all, but you're right they probably would have had better security than that.
Serepidia - I think Narcissa has a fun side to her. I always intended having her on the quidditch team and I just thought it would be nice if she played with Draco every now and again. She's a bit immature really but I don't think she ever really had the chance to grow up as a normal person. She fell in with Lucius and the deatheaters right after leaving school so I think she just never got all that stuff out of her system, well that and she's a bit crazy! Thanks for reviewing again!
honest_iago - Hey Marwood, you are totally partly responsible for all this though I'm not sure I'm exactly taking over the world of fanfic. Ah, if only I could convert all people to the love of Sev! Cynical little demi-god indeed! Damn that is one good description! Thank you for the review!
Mugz83 - I like Narcissa playing quidditch with Draco too, she's reliving her adolescence! It does her good to forget her troubles for a while. Thanks for your get well wishes I'm feeling a lot better and will update again soon, I can't believe I just forgot about updating last time! Thanks for the review!
I Built My Life Around You
**Narcissa's Thoughts**
Chapter 5
About two weeks before the end of Draco's summer holiday the three of them headed for Diagon Alley to pick up his school equipment.
"Narcissa, I have business in Knockturn Alley, are you going to come with me?" Lucius asked.
"No. We'll go and replenish Draco's potions ingredients and pick up his robes," she replied pleased at the idea of ridding herself of Lucius so easily.
"Oh mum, can't I go to Knockturn Alley?" Draco protested.
"Well, I'd rather you didn't dear," Narcissa said sure that Lucius would agree with her on this point.
"Narcissa, don't be ridiculous he'll be fine with me," Lucius said, before turning to his son and adding, "Just don't get in my way."
"Alright, I'll meet you outside the Apothecary's in three quarters of an hour," Narcissa conceded.
"Right, see you then."
She watched as her husband and son headed into Knockturn Alley, she wasn't concerned for Draco, she knew he'd be fine, she just wasn't sure what Lucius' 'business' was. Ignoring that, she carried on down the street idly window shopping, stopping occasionally to take a closer look at something or to make small talk with one of Lucius' friends who seemed to dog her footsteps.
After picking up some new robes for her son, he'd been measured for some new ones just recently so she new what size to get him without him needing to be there, she headed into the apothecary's.
She took a deep breath as she entered, she loved the smell of this place, everyone else seemed to find it repulsive but to her it reminded her of the peace of the Hogwart's dungeons. She replenished the supplies and stepped back out into the sunshine to find Lucius waiting for her with Draco. They both looked pretty sour and had clearly been fighting again; **I wonder what it was about this time?**
"Right," she said, "How about we pick up his school books now?"
Draco shrugged and Lucius nodded and walked off, sighing, Narcissa followed.
As they approached Flourish and Blotts Narcissa saw that it was more crowded than she had ever known it, "What are they giving away free money?" she joked, exasperated by the crowds.
"Perhaps, after all the Weasley's surely couldn't afford to be in a shop otherwise," Lucius drawled and she saw a large group of redheads who could only be the Weasley family.
Draco laughed at his parents' remarks and Narcissa frowned in disapproval, she hated Lucius saying things like that about the Weasleys and Draco was just as bad.
"Oh Lord! It's that idiot brain Lockhart!" she sighed, sneering at a group of middle-aged witches who were practically fainting with delight at seeing the pompous fool.
Lucius snorted, no longer amused. "Brilliant! Let's get the books and get out!"
Narcissa nodded and they threaded their way through the crowd.
They collected the books, Narcissa insistent that they not be signed. Suddenly she heard an excited shout:
"It can't be Harry Potter?"
Draco scowled, Lucius snorted and Narcissa rolled her eyes, why did her family have to develop a Potter complex, or should that be an anti-potter complex, not that she was exactly fond of the child herself after he had turned down her son's offer of friendship.
Gilderoy Lockhart was now posing for the cameras with a reluctant looking Harry Potter who seemed desperate to escape, **Poor kid, you wouldn't wish Lockhart on anyone!**
She left to pay for the books, hearing in the background some announcement that Lockhart was going to be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts that year, **Hell they must be desperate, as if that daft wannabe deatheater wasn't bad enough last year, this guy's a complete fraud I bet he couldn't say boo to a goose!**
She noticed that not only was Lucius nowhere in sight but Draco wasn't either, **Brilliant! Now I have to go and find them**, she thought paying for the books and telling the assistant to keep the change in a show of sympathy for anyone who had to spend a day trapped in a small shop with Gilderoy Lockhart and his middle aged groupies.
She looked around her and pressed through the crowd sure she had heard her husband's distinctive voice.
She approached the direction the voice had come from to see Lucius arguing with Molly's husband about what disgraced the name of wizard, **arguing in public perhaps?**
She saw her husband shoot an unpleasant look to a couple stood a little way off, from the nervous looks on their faces and Lucius' unpleasant comment she took them to be muggles. "The company you keep, Weasley...and I thought your family could sink no lower-"
Narcissa could tell before her husband finished speaking that Arthur Weasley was about to explode so it came as little surprise to her when he launched himself at her husband and she had to bite back a laugh as the two of them flew backwards knocking over a set of book shelves, the books raining down on their heads.
Molly was crying out to her husband to stop, one of their son's seemed to be egging his father on, a shop assistant was desperately trying to separate them and Draco was stood to one side looking distinctly bored but also a little scandalised. Narcissa couldn't help but laugh at her son's expression, which seemed to say, "that is so undignified, I hope people don't know I'm with him."
Narcissa herself was stood just out of their line of sight, half hidden by a huge pile of books, silently encouraging Arthur Weasley to give her husband what he so richly deserved, i.e. a severe concussion.
She watched as a giant of a man, she recognised from her own school days as the Hogwarts ground's keeper, pulled them apart. She shook her head, **My, my Lucy, brawling in public...and I thought you could sink no lower!**
Arthur's lip was bleeding and Molly instantly began fussing over it and scolding him. Lucius had been hit in the eye by some book and a large bruise was quickly forming which Narcissa found deeply humorous. Suddenly, quicker than most eyes could have caught, she saw him slip a thin book inside a larger one and hand it to Ginny with a look in his eyes she didn't like one little bit. **What the hell's he up to?!**
He pulled away from Hagrid and gestured to Draco before sweeping out of the shop.
**They didn't even notice me, what am I the invisible woman? Did Lucius forget I came shopping with them today? Oh and why is that creep still posing for the paper?**
She watched the Weasleys as she made her way towards the door, having to go slowly because of the amount of books she was carrying. She didn't think seven separate books for DADA was strictly necessary but she'd bought them anyway, it wasn't like they couldn't afford them. She blushed as she remembered her husband's last comment, "it's the best your father can give you." I bet Arthur makes a better father than you ever will Lucius, what have you ever given Draco that was so great?
She picked her way through the fallen books and heard Hagrid telling Arthur he should have ignored Lucius when he said something that made her stomach turn.
"Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that. No Malfoy's worth listenin' ter. Bad blood, that's what it is. Come on now-let's get outta here."
Narcissa was shocked, she'd heard people's opinions of her family before but they were normally aimed at Lucius as most people forgot her and Draco was just a child, **How can you describe a child as being rotten to the core?! Oh God, what do people think of us? I mean, I understand why they wouldn't like Lucy, I'm married to him and I don't even like him, but what did Draco and I ever do to them?** She felt like she was about to cry, but then something Hagrid had said hit her, "Bad blood." **How is that any different to what Lucius says about muggle borns? When will the people in this world realise that there's more to who you are than what's lurking in your bloodline? I bet that great oaf would be the first to protest to say your heritage isn't what matters but clearly Dumbledore's trusted followers are as much paying lip service to that idea as my husband is at the moment.** She snorted in anger and disgust, **there are days when I think they're all as bad as each other.**
She stormed after her husband, glaring at the great oaf as she passed him, not that he noticed, not that anyone ever noticed her anymore.
*******
A/N: I would like to point out that I am very fond of Hagrid I just don't like what he says in this scene and I think it would hurt Narcissa to hear it. Seriously though, I know I criticise loads of characters or so it seems but I do adore Hagrid! I read a fanfic a few weeks ago where various people found and looked into the mirror of Erised and one of them was Hagrid with Fang and he just saw himself exactly as he was with Fang stood next to him. Isn't that the sweetest thing! It's so Hagrid to be content with his life as it is! I don't know who wrote it or what it was called but it was marvellous and made me love Hagrid more than ever! He still shouldn't have made the bad blood comment though!
Please Review!!!!! I'm begging you now!!!!
Review Responses:
Dark Comet - Narcissa does seems like a pretty cool mum, though she does spoil Draco way more than is healthy for the kid and also forces him to grow up with Lucius. Their good relationship will not always be this good though! Slytherin were cheated out of the house cup that first year! I too liked that the first time round but once I thought about it I realised how unfair it really was.
Ani - No mans land was also the term used to describe the area between the opposing trenches during the first and second world wars. A barren, lifeless area filled with dead and decaying bodies and craters from shells often flanked on either side by barbed wire. Obviously the grounds at Malfoy Manor do not literally look like that but I was using it to imply a sense of a barren, dead and also dangerous landscape. I also felt it was quite fitting as Narcissa and Lucius are engaged in an odd sort of war with each other. Narcissa feels the place is desolate and lifeless particularly without her son's presence.
Lune Project - Beautifully written? I'm flattered! Thank you for being so complimentary! The quidditch world cup scene was one of the first one's I wrote of this story along with the scene in Flourish and Blotts in this chapter. So you will find out what was going on there, just not for a while as I haven't actually got the rest of the story up to that point written, just that scene. I have written her reaction towards Riddle's diary and it's one of my favourite parts of this fic in fact! I've also written her finding out about Hermione slapping Draco, (I wrote that a couple of days ago in fact), and as for the deatheaters well there's quite a bit of that in the prequel to this Wedding Bells Just Turned to Rust, but you will see more of it in here particularly in the quidditch cup scene. Though I have to bear in mind that Lucius' not doing that much at the moment, just trying to kill the odd Weasley, and he's unlikely to tell her if he does. I'll update again soon. The story will be finished! I actually have a fair bit of the last scene written but I'm missing the middle bit of the story. There will also hopefully be another sequel to this but I haven't got a name for that yet. Thank you for reviewing Turning Point, you have a point there about the protection around Hogwarts and I have to admit to having no excuse other than I think Dumbledore probably knew he was there and that he wasn't a risk, as Dumbledore seems to know all, but you're right they probably would have had better security than that.
Serepidia - I think Narcissa has a fun side to her. I always intended having her on the quidditch team and I just thought it would be nice if she played with Draco every now and again. She's a bit immature really but I don't think she ever really had the chance to grow up as a normal person. She fell in with Lucius and the deatheaters right after leaving school so I think she just never got all that stuff out of her system, well that and she's a bit crazy! Thanks for reviewing again!
honest_iago - Hey Marwood, you are totally partly responsible for all this though I'm not sure I'm exactly taking over the world of fanfic. Ah, if only I could convert all people to the love of Sev! Cynical little demi-god indeed! Damn that is one good description! Thank you for the review!
Mugz83 - I like Narcissa playing quidditch with Draco too, she's reliving her adolescence! It does her good to forget her troubles for a while. Thanks for your get well wishes I'm feeling a lot better and will update again soon, I can't believe I just forgot about updating last time! Thanks for the review!
I Built My Life Around You
**Narcissa's Thoughts**
Chapter 5
About two weeks before the end of Draco's summer holiday the three of them headed for Diagon Alley to pick up his school equipment.
"Narcissa, I have business in Knockturn Alley, are you going to come with me?" Lucius asked.
"No. We'll go and replenish Draco's potions ingredients and pick up his robes," she replied pleased at the idea of ridding herself of Lucius so easily.
"Oh mum, can't I go to Knockturn Alley?" Draco protested.
"Well, I'd rather you didn't dear," Narcissa said sure that Lucius would agree with her on this point.
"Narcissa, don't be ridiculous he'll be fine with me," Lucius said, before turning to his son and adding, "Just don't get in my way."
"Alright, I'll meet you outside the Apothecary's in three quarters of an hour," Narcissa conceded.
"Right, see you then."
She watched as her husband and son headed into Knockturn Alley, she wasn't concerned for Draco, she knew he'd be fine, she just wasn't sure what Lucius' 'business' was. Ignoring that, she carried on down the street idly window shopping, stopping occasionally to take a closer look at something or to make small talk with one of Lucius' friends who seemed to dog her footsteps.
After picking up some new robes for her son, he'd been measured for some new ones just recently so she new what size to get him without him needing to be there, she headed into the apothecary's.
She took a deep breath as she entered, she loved the smell of this place, everyone else seemed to find it repulsive but to her it reminded her of the peace of the Hogwart's dungeons. She replenished the supplies and stepped back out into the sunshine to find Lucius waiting for her with Draco. They both looked pretty sour and had clearly been fighting again; **I wonder what it was about this time?**
"Right," she said, "How about we pick up his school books now?"
Draco shrugged and Lucius nodded and walked off, sighing, Narcissa followed.
As they approached Flourish and Blotts Narcissa saw that it was more crowded than she had ever known it, "What are they giving away free money?" she joked, exasperated by the crowds.
"Perhaps, after all the Weasley's surely couldn't afford to be in a shop otherwise," Lucius drawled and she saw a large group of redheads who could only be the Weasley family.
Draco laughed at his parents' remarks and Narcissa frowned in disapproval, she hated Lucius saying things like that about the Weasleys and Draco was just as bad.
"Oh Lord! It's that idiot brain Lockhart!" she sighed, sneering at a group of middle-aged witches who were practically fainting with delight at seeing the pompous fool.
Lucius snorted, no longer amused. "Brilliant! Let's get the books and get out!"
Narcissa nodded and they threaded their way through the crowd.
They collected the books, Narcissa insistent that they not be signed. Suddenly she heard an excited shout:
"It can't be Harry Potter?"
Draco scowled, Lucius snorted and Narcissa rolled her eyes, why did her family have to develop a Potter complex, or should that be an anti-potter complex, not that she was exactly fond of the child herself after he had turned down her son's offer of friendship.
Gilderoy Lockhart was now posing for the cameras with a reluctant looking Harry Potter who seemed desperate to escape, **Poor kid, you wouldn't wish Lockhart on anyone!**
She left to pay for the books, hearing in the background some announcement that Lockhart was going to be teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts that year, **Hell they must be desperate, as if that daft wannabe deatheater wasn't bad enough last year, this guy's a complete fraud I bet he couldn't say boo to a goose!**
She noticed that not only was Lucius nowhere in sight but Draco wasn't either, **Brilliant! Now I have to go and find them**, she thought paying for the books and telling the assistant to keep the change in a show of sympathy for anyone who had to spend a day trapped in a small shop with Gilderoy Lockhart and his middle aged groupies.
She looked around her and pressed through the crowd sure she had heard her husband's distinctive voice.
She approached the direction the voice had come from to see Lucius arguing with Molly's husband about what disgraced the name of wizard, **arguing in public perhaps?**
She saw her husband shoot an unpleasant look to a couple stood a little way off, from the nervous looks on their faces and Lucius' unpleasant comment she took them to be muggles. "The company you keep, Weasley...and I thought your family could sink no lower-"
Narcissa could tell before her husband finished speaking that Arthur Weasley was about to explode so it came as little surprise to her when he launched himself at her husband and she had to bite back a laugh as the two of them flew backwards knocking over a set of book shelves, the books raining down on their heads.
Molly was crying out to her husband to stop, one of their son's seemed to be egging his father on, a shop assistant was desperately trying to separate them and Draco was stood to one side looking distinctly bored but also a little scandalised. Narcissa couldn't help but laugh at her son's expression, which seemed to say, "that is so undignified, I hope people don't know I'm with him."
Narcissa herself was stood just out of their line of sight, half hidden by a huge pile of books, silently encouraging Arthur Weasley to give her husband what he so richly deserved, i.e. a severe concussion.
She watched as a giant of a man, she recognised from her own school days as the Hogwarts ground's keeper, pulled them apart. She shook her head, **My, my Lucy, brawling in public...and I thought you could sink no lower!**
Arthur's lip was bleeding and Molly instantly began fussing over it and scolding him. Lucius had been hit in the eye by some book and a large bruise was quickly forming which Narcissa found deeply humorous. Suddenly, quicker than most eyes could have caught, she saw him slip a thin book inside a larger one and hand it to Ginny with a look in his eyes she didn't like one little bit. **What the hell's he up to?!**
He pulled away from Hagrid and gestured to Draco before sweeping out of the shop.
**They didn't even notice me, what am I the invisible woman? Did Lucius forget I came shopping with them today? Oh and why is that creep still posing for the paper?**
She watched the Weasleys as she made her way towards the door, having to go slowly because of the amount of books she was carrying. She didn't think seven separate books for DADA was strictly necessary but she'd bought them anyway, it wasn't like they couldn't afford them. She blushed as she remembered her husband's last comment, "it's the best your father can give you." I bet Arthur makes a better father than you ever will Lucius, what have you ever given Draco that was so great?
She picked her way through the fallen books and heard Hagrid telling Arthur he should have ignored Lucius when he said something that made her stomach turn.
"Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that. No Malfoy's worth listenin' ter. Bad blood, that's what it is. Come on now-let's get outta here."
Narcissa was shocked, she'd heard people's opinions of her family before but they were normally aimed at Lucius as most people forgot her and Draco was just a child, **How can you describe a child as being rotten to the core?! Oh God, what do people think of us? I mean, I understand why they wouldn't like Lucy, I'm married to him and I don't even like him, but what did Draco and I ever do to them?** She felt like she was about to cry, but then something Hagrid had said hit her, "Bad blood." **How is that any different to what Lucius says about muggle borns? When will the people in this world realise that there's more to who you are than what's lurking in your bloodline? I bet that great oaf would be the first to protest to say your heritage isn't what matters but clearly Dumbledore's trusted followers are as much paying lip service to that idea as my husband is at the moment.** She snorted in anger and disgust, **there are days when I think they're all as bad as each other.**
She stormed after her husband, glaring at the great oaf as she passed him, not that he noticed, not that anyone ever noticed her anymore.
*******
A/N: I would like to point out that I am very fond of Hagrid I just don't like what he says in this scene and I think it would hurt Narcissa to hear it. Seriously though, I know I criticise loads of characters or so it seems but I do adore Hagrid! I read a fanfic a few weeks ago where various people found and looked into the mirror of Erised and one of them was Hagrid with Fang and he just saw himself exactly as he was with Fang stood next to him. Isn't that the sweetest thing! It's so Hagrid to be content with his life as it is! I don't know who wrote it or what it was called but it was marvellous and made me love Hagrid more than ever! He still shouldn't have made the bad blood comment though!
Please Review!!!!! I'm begging you now!!!!
