Disclaimer: I don't own the people, except Morgana and the shopkeeper guy, I don't own the Harry Potter universe but I do own the plot. Wow, I wrote a disclaimer without being sarcastic or making silly comments!
Review Responses:
Lune Project - Oh Narcissa's planning a prominent act I promise you, but you'll have to wait till next chapter to see what she's up to. As for the Quidditch World Cup, wait and see! Sorry to be annoying but I can't give my plot away! I didn't know Narcissa meant sleep or numbness I thought it might come from Narcissism, meaning having an abnormal love and admiration for oneself. I don't understand, why did the meaning of her name make you feel low? I didn't know Draco was a constellation until you told me, what did you mean by, "I hope he could really be the bright star that shines...not that I hope Jo would kill him though." Who's Jo? Thanks for reviewing.
Professor Charlotte Snape - Glad you liked the last chapter and thank you for feeding my non-existent cat, he gats very hungry! I definitely have a thing about Lucy being evil and twisted I know I shouldn't but I really do kind if like him! Thanks for reviewing.
Chi - I think T.W.I.T.'s a perfect anacronym! I love it, Trophy Wives In Trouble, brilliant! Someone'll have to tell Narcissa when they meet! LOL! Thanks for reviewing, glad you're enjoying this.
Dark Comet - Yay, the cute little kitty is very pleased with all his nice food. He is not so pleased at the fact Oliver isn't in the next film, in fact he has threatened to scratch the film maker's eyes out. Oh, hang on, that was me actually! Yes, from what I keeping hearing there will be no Oliver in the third film! This means no cute 'he's drowning himself in the showers' bit and no crying when holding up the quidditch cup! I also have the utterly horrifying image in my mind of them having Harry holding up the quidditch cup! How utterly wrong would that be?! I don't see how you can have quidditch without Oliver, I don't see how you can have a film without Oliver! I wish I could flame the evil film-makers but they don't seem to publish their e-mail address's, possibly because they anticipated the public outcry that must come from leaving out the best character on the quidditch team! I do adore Fred and George though! And if they cut out Oliver who else will be cut out? Percy? Neville? Draco? Ok, maybe not Draco but the other two are possible! Ok, I'm hyperventilating here. This is just wrong on so many levels! Damn you, you people weren't going to get another update this soon but now I feel like I need to help a fellow sufferer from AOOD (Anticipation Of Oliver Deprivation), so here's the next chapter. It's kind of got another cliff-hanger which I may not be able to post the resolution to for a few days yet so the other readers will have to blame you and your manipulative ways! LOL! You'd make a good Slytherin the way you got this update from me so quickly! Thanks for reviewing!
Sunrise-chick - The part with Hermione showing Harry a quidditch award with his father's name on it isn't in the first book but it is in the film. Thank you for the chaser information, I haven't seen that interview! I just had to throw Lenin's corpse in, we did the Russian revolution in History last year and I just found the corpse thing fascinating! Lucy was very freaky! Poor Lucy though, his plans have gone awry, his wife is being insubordinate and he doesn't even have a house elf to beat. I think it's clear who the victim is in all this! You are not at all off track, Narcissa has a plan! You will see the beginnings of it in this chapter and it culminates in the next one! Something is certainly going to happen. Oh I think you might like chapter 17! I like it anyway! It's a rather long chapter as well! Thanks for the review and for wishing me luck in the exams I think I'm going to need it, the next week is going to be hell!
This chapter is up early specially to comfort Dark Comet in her hour of woe (She just found out no Oliver in film number three). You see people, I do pay attention when you ask me for updates! Therefore it is always worth reviewing! Hint hint! I am doing exams and need cheering up or I will sleep instead of making time to write or update! :o)
I Built My Life Around You
A/N: This is one of my favourite chapters of this story, I loved writing it, I loved the ideas in it and I'm pretty pleased with it, hope you all enjoy it!
**Narcissa's Thoughts**
Chapter 14
She slept late the next morning having not had a very peaceful night. After picking herself up off the study floor she had retreated to her bed, claiming a headache, locking herself away from Lucius and her son. Sleeping fitfully through the evening she had woken only to crawl down to the kitchen for a pot of tea and some toast which she returned to her room with. Draco had knocked on her door late that evening inquiring after her health and trying to draw her into conversation. She had sent him away as quickly as possible and returned to bed to doze lightly on and off until the early hours, when she had fallen into a deep and much needed sleep.
She awoke with a real headache, feeling sick she rushed into the bathroom and vomited last night's toast into the toilet, finding tears rolling down her cheeks. She knelt on the bathroom floor for a while until she felt better then she grasped the nearby towel rail and dragged herself to her feet. **This has to end!** She wrenched open the door of a small cabinet above the sink and extracted a small bottle containing a bluish liquid. She poured a measure into a glass and, steeling herself, swallowed it in one go. She shook her head and pulled a face feeling her headache fade as the vile tasting painkiller took fast effect.
She stared in the mirror at her hair which was sticking out from her head at various strange angles. **Right, should probably fix that.** She threw some water on her face then stepped back into her bedroom and brushed her hair, then she dressed and felt much more ready to face the world. **Face the world? I think it's about time I shaped it. Shaped some of its events anyway. Look out Lucius I'm taking back control.**
She went downstairs to find the house empty, "Dobby!" she called without thinking and was at first puzzled as to why there was no response, then she remembered. **Damn it! I need to get a new house elf. Lucius outsmarted by a thirteen year old boy wonder; I'd like to have seen that.** She chuckled beginning to feel more like herself again and, searching the house for any sign of her family, she eventually found a note in her son's room attached to a corner of the full-length mirror.
Hello Mum,
Dad and I have gone round to the Crabbes', you were still asleep so I thought I'd leave a note. We'll be back later, probably after dinner,
Love Draco.
**Well at least one of them thinks to leave a note!** With the two of them out of the way Narcissa flooed out of the house and into the Leaky Cauldron and walked briskly down Diagon Alley, she knew exactly what she was going to do.
Turning down Knockturn Alley she headed for a small shop she had frequented with Morgana when they needed to get hold of the more unusual potions ingredients. She felt perfectly at home in this place, an interest in the Dark Arts had brought her and Morgana down there in the summer of their fifth year and they discovered that not all aspects of the Dark Arts were as unsavoury as they were generally thought. Any spell the ministry didn't like or which could be misused was instantly classified Dark Arts. Narcissa had never purchased anything quite like this before though. She took a deep breath and entered the dingy store.
"Narcissa Malfoy," said a voice from the shadows, "I haven't seen you in here in a long time."
"No, I wasn't Narcissa Malfoy last time we met."
A man stepped out into the light and smiled at her sardonically, "I am surprised to see you now, with all that money you couldn't have sent one of the servants?"
She had never been told the man's name but he had often served her and Morgana thinking of them as arrogant rich kids who'd come to no good, **Well he was right.** "There are some things you don't send the servants for," she replied with a self-mocking snobbery in her tone.
He smiled at her in amusement, "What do you require?"
"Another wand, a powerful one."
"Definitely not something you send the servants for," he said becoming instantly serious.
"Precisely."
"I suppose you don't want to volunteer the information of why you need another wand?"
"No. I don't."
"Well, how powerful do you need it?"
"Very powerful and I need something to destroy it with as well."
"Oh now that could be difficult."
**Ah, and this is the point where I slip him several hundred galleons, pity I don't feel like playing by someone else's rules today.** "I'm sorry, allow me to rephrase," she brought up her wand, "I will require an extremely powerful wand and something with which to destroy it and you are going to get it for me for a reasonable price."
"Ah, but of course Mrs Malfoy."
"Stick to Narcissa, and keep your mouth shut about this."
He nodded nervously, "Please, step through." He gestured to the back room and she pointed him in front of her with her wand, following after him cautiously. It might be a while since she'd been there but that didn't mean she had forgotten how dangerous it was to be threatening these people.
He gave her a look of respect, "Your husband never tried to intimidate me, he simply paid the asking price."
"Well, I'm not my husband."
"I always suspected your potential outweighed his."
"Thank you, flattery will get you no where though. The wands."
He opened up a draw to reveal wands of all kinds each with a label tied around it. "Take a look for yourself, but I recommend nothing with Veela Hair it makes for very temperamental wands."
"Thank you, but having half a brain I know that."
"Just trying to be helpful, what's your wand core at the moment?"
"Phoenix feather."
"Right, then why don't you try unicorn heartstring?"
"A favourite amongst Voldemort's followers I seem to remember, difficult to get and expensive, not to mention illegal."
"True but it does make for a very powerful wand and as for the part about the Dark Lord, I wouldn't know."
"Of course not."
"However, they are difficult to handle."
"Let me try."
He nodded and handed her a short, thin, dark coloured wand. "Blackthorn and unicorn heart string."
"Interesting, I suppose Amber Denby has no further use for it," she said reading the name on the label.
"Well, she certainly isn't coming back to claim it."
"I see."
Narcissa pointed the wand at a vase in the corner, "Wingardum Leviosa." The vase shattered into a thousand pieces.
"Sorry, I'll replace the vase."
"Quite alright, you need to focus more. The wand is clearly working for you but you are not focusing enough of your own power into the spell."
She tried again, this time with a book; it worked perfectly. "Brilliant, and it will perform more complex spells?"
"Yes, it will, but do not forget to focus or the magic will simply leak away and wreak havoc."
"Hmm, well I knew there had to a reason why no one uses these things, I mean besides the fact that they're illegal and that to slay a unicorn is a terrible crime. I'll take it."
"The desperate cannot afford to be squeamish you know."
"Who said I was desperate?"
"You did by coming here. Be careful Narcissa, desperate people make amateur mistakes."
"Thank you Confucius," she said, her sarcasm evident, "I can take care of myself."
"Like your friend could?"
"That better not mean what I think it did."
"You are on dangerous ground Narcissa, I was genuinely unhappy to hear about what happened to Morgana Myriades and I would not wish to hear the same of you."
"You won't. Now, how do I destroy this?"
"Well, as I said, this is the difficult part. I can give you a recipe and the necessary potions ingredients but I'm not skilled enough to make the potion. I can have it made for you but that could take a week or so." As he said this he was taking ingredients down from shelves and from within cupboards.
"That's alright, I can make it myself."
"This is a highly complex potion if there is any doubt in your mind that you can do this then I strongly suggest that you do not attempt it."
"I was pretty good at potions in school, I can do it."
"Pretty good?"
"Very good."
"Very well, have it your way."
"I always intended to."
He smiled at her and passed her the bag he had been placing the ingredients in along with a blank piece of parchment, "Tap that three times with a wand and say 'Aparecium'."
She raised an eyebrow, "Invisible ink? How quaint."
"Not many people think of it and that potion is also illegal. Put the wand in it after you've finished with it and be very careful not to touch the potion or you will find out why it is illegal."
"I understand. What do I owe you?"
He glanced nervously at the wand she still had pointed in his direction. She smiled suddenly and put it inside her robes, "I was intending to pay you, you know."
He relaxed and said, "Make me an offer."
"Generous of you."
"I didn't say I'd accept it."
"300 Galleons."
His jaw looked like it was about to hit the floor and she laughed, "Money is no object to my family or to the one I married into, you know that. I expect your silence and, on the off chance my husband ever comes in here again, do not serve him."
The man raised an eyebrow, "As you wish, they say money cannot buy you everything but I have never held with such outdated ways of thinking."
Narcissa smiled back and handed him a purse filled to the brim with gold, "Everyone has their price, it may not always be money but it is a price nonetheless."
"Nice doing business with you again Narcissa."
"Yes. It was."
She turned and swept from the small dark shop out into Knockturn Alley people scattering in her path, no one would mess with Lucius Malfoy's wife. **I guess he has some uses after all.**
******
A/N: The following comes from a natural history text book and is the reason why I chose Blackthorn for the wand.
Blackthorn- Up to four meters. This is a very thorny, much-branched, deciduous shrub, or occasionally a small tree, has black twigs and often forms dense thickets. It's pure white flowers bloom in early spring before the leaves have emerged. The rounded fruits, known as sloes, are bluish-black with a whitish bloom. Extremely astringent, they are used to make jam, and wine, and to flavour gin. It is common in hedges and woods and banks on most soils, but it avoids heavy shade.
Definition of Astringent - severe or harsh; causing contraction of body tissue; checking the flow of blood from a cut.
The above definition of Astringent was not put in because I doubt my reader's intelligence but because I myself had to look it up when I first came across it so don't be insulted I just realised that I would have needed a definition if I were reading this fic so I put one in. And it's essential to understanding why I picked the wood. Oh and if anyone is interested, yes I did leaf through a natural history text to find a suitable wood! LOL! I have too much time on my hands, actually I don't but I still seem to use a hell of a lot of it doing unnecessary things!
Confucius was an ancient Chinese philosopher and Narcissa is being sarcastic, that is not the man's name, she does not know the man's name. She called him that because of his whole, 'Desperate people make amateur mistakes' thing which sounds pretty philosophical, however she's not in the mood for philosophy.
Tapping the parchment three times and saying Aparecium comes from book two when Hermione tests Tom Riddle's diary to see if there is something written in there in invisible ink.
This chapter was written because I think Narcissa would be as at home in Knockturn Alley as Lucius and did no one else think it looked fascinating in the film? I'd definitely want to go down there like the twins do!
Can anyone guess what she's planning?
Please review, the non-existent cat is still hungry!!!
Review Responses:
Lune Project - Oh Narcissa's planning a prominent act I promise you, but you'll have to wait till next chapter to see what she's up to. As for the Quidditch World Cup, wait and see! Sorry to be annoying but I can't give my plot away! I didn't know Narcissa meant sleep or numbness I thought it might come from Narcissism, meaning having an abnormal love and admiration for oneself. I don't understand, why did the meaning of her name make you feel low? I didn't know Draco was a constellation until you told me, what did you mean by, "I hope he could really be the bright star that shines...not that I hope Jo would kill him though." Who's Jo? Thanks for reviewing.
Professor Charlotte Snape - Glad you liked the last chapter and thank you for feeding my non-existent cat, he gats very hungry! I definitely have a thing about Lucy being evil and twisted I know I shouldn't but I really do kind if like him! Thanks for reviewing.
Chi - I think T.W.I.T.'s a perfect anacronym! I love it, Trophy Wives In Trouble, brilliant! Someone'll have to tell Narcissa when they meet! LOL! Thanks for reviewing, glad you're enjoying this.
Dark Comet - Yay, the cute little kitty is very pleased with all his nice food. He is not so pleased at the fact Oliver isn't in the next film, in fact he has threatened to scratch the film maker's eyes out. Oh, hang on, that was me actually! Yes, from what I keeping hearing there will be no Oliver in the third film! This means no cute 'he's drowning himself in the showers' bit and no crying when holding up the quidditch cup! I also have the utterly horrifying image in my mind of them having Harry holding up the quidditch cup! How utterly wrong would that be?! I don't see how you can have quidditch without Oliver, I don't see how you can have a film without Oliver! I wish I could flame the evil film-makers but they don't seem to publish their e-mail address's, possibly because they anticipated the public outcry that must come from leaving out the best character on the quidditch team! I do adore Fred and George though! And if they cut out Oliver who else will be cut out? Percy? Neville? Draco? Ok, maybe not Draco but the other two are possible! Ok, I'm hyperventilating here. This is just wrong on so many levels! Damn you, you people weren't going to get another update this soon but now I feel like I need to help a fellow sufferer from AOOD (Anticipation Of Oliver Deprivation), so here's the next chapter. It's kind of got another cliff-hanger which I may not be able to post the resolution to for a few days yet so the other readers will have to blame you and your manipulative ways! LOL! You'd make a good Slytherin the way you got this update from me so quickly! Thanks for reviewing!
Sunrise-chick - The part with Hermione showing Harry a quidditch award with his father's name on it isn't in the first book but it is in the film. Thank you for the chaser information, I haven't seen that interview! I just had to throw Lenin's corpse in, we did the Russian revolution in History last year and I just found the corpse thing fascinating! Lucy was very freaky! Poor Lucy though, his plans have gone awry, his wife is being insubordinate and he doesn't even have a house elf to beat. I think it's clear who the victim is in all this! You are not at all off track, Narcissa has a plan! You will see the beginnings of it in this chapter and it culminates in the next one! Something is certainly going to happen. Oh I think you might like chapter 17! I like it anyway! It's a rather long chapter as well! Thanks for the review and for wishing me luck in the exams I think I'm going to need it, the next week is going to be hell!
This chapter is up early specially to comfort Dark Comet in her hour of woe (She just found out no Oliver in film number three). You see people, I do pay attention when you ask me for updates! Therefore it is always worth reviewing! Hint hint! I am doing exams and need cheering up or I will sleep instead of making time to write or update! :o)
I Built My Life Around You
A/N: This is one of my favourite chapters of this story, I loved writing it, I loved the ideas in it and I'm pretty pleased with it, hope you all enjoy it!
**Narcissa's Thoughts**
Chapter 14
She slept late the next morning having not had a very peaceful night. After picking herself up off the study floor she had retreated to her bed, claiming a headache, locking herself away from Lucius and her son. Sleeping fitfully through the evening she had woken only to crawl down to the kitchen for a pot of tea and some toast which she returned to her room with. Draco had knocked on her door late that evening inquiring after her health and trying to draw her into conversation. She had sent him away as quickly as possible and returned to bed to doze lightly on and off until the early hours, when she had fallen into a deep and much needed sleep.
She awoke with a real headache, feeling sick she rushed into the bathroom and vomited last night's toast into the toilet, finding tears rolling down her cheeks. She knelt on the bathroom floor for a while until she felt better then she grasped the nearby towel rail and dragged herself to her feet. **This has to end!** She wrenched open the door of a small cabinet above the sink and extracted a small bottle containing a bluish liquid. She poured a measure into a glass and, steeling herself, swallowed it in one go. She shook her head and pulled a face feeling her headache fade as the vile tasting painkiller took fast effect.
She stared in the mirror at her hair which was sticking out from her head at various strange angles. **Right, should probably fix that.** She threw some water on her face then stepped back into her bedroom and brushed her hair, then she dressed and felt much more ready to face the world. **Face the world? I think it's about time I shaped it. Shaped some of its events anyway. Look out Lucius I'm taking back control.**
She went downstairs to find the house empty, "Dobby!" she called without thinking and was at first puzzled as to why there was no response, then she remembered. **Damn it! I need to get a new house elf. Lucius outsmarted by a thirteen year old boy wonder; I'd like to have seen that.** She chuckled beginning to feel more like herself again and, searching the house for any sign of her family, she eventually found a note in her son's room attached to a corner of the full-length mirror.
Hello Mum,
Dad and I have gone round to the Crabbes', you were still asleep so I thought I'd leave a note. We'll be back later, probably after dinner,
Love Draco.
**Well at least one of them thinks to leave a note!** With the two of them out of the way Narcissa flooed out of the house and into the Leaky Cauldron and walked briskly down Diagon Alley, she knew exactly what she was going to do.
Turning down Knockturn Alley she headed for a small shop she had frequented with Morgana when they needed to get hold of the more unusual potions ingredients. She felt perfectly at home in this place, an interest in the Dark Arts had brought her and Morgana down there in the summer of their fifth year and they discovered that not all aspects of the Dark Arts were as unsavoury as they were generally thought. Any spell the ministry didn't like or which could be misused was instantly classified Dark Arts. Narcissa had never purchased anything quite like this before though. She took a deep breath and entered the dingy store.
"Narcissa Malfoy," said a voice from the shadows, "I haven't seen you in here in a long time."
"No, I wasn't Narcissa Malfoy last time we met."
A man stepped out into the light and smiled at her sardonically, "I am surprised to see you now, with all that money you couldn't have sent one of the servants?"
She had never been told the man's name but he had often served her and Morgana thinking of them as arrogant rich kids who'd come to no good, **Well he was right.** "There are some things you don't send the servants for," she replied with a self-mocking snobbery in her tone.
He smiled at her in amusement, "What do you require?"
"Another wand, a powerful one."
"Definitely not something you send the servants for," he said becoming instantly serious.
"Precisely."
"I suppose you don't want to volunteer the information of why you need another wand?"
"No. I don't."
"Well, how powerful do you need it?"
"Very powerful and I need something to destroy it with as well."
"Oh now that could be difficult."
**Ah, and this is the point where I slip him several hundred galleons, pity I don't feel like playing by someone else's rules today.** "I'm sorry, allow me to rephrase," she brought up her wand, "I will require an extremely powerful wand and something with which to destroy it and you are going to get it for me for a reasonable price."
"Ah, but of course Mrs Malfoy."
"Stick to Narcissa, and keep your mouth shut about this."
He nodded nervously, "Please, step through." He gestured to the back room and she pointed him in front of her with her wand, following after him cautiously. It might be a while since she'd been there but that didn't mean she had forgotten how dangerous it was to be threatening these people.
He gave her a look of respect, "Your husband never tried to intimidate me, he simply paid the asking price."
"Well, I'm not my husband."
"I always suspected your potential outweighed his."
"Thank you, flattery will get you no where though. The wands."
He opened up a draw to reveal wands of all kinds each with a label tied around it. "Take a look for yourself, but I recommend nothing with Veela Hair it makes for very temperamental wands."
"Thank you, but having half a brain I know that."
"Just trying to be helpful, what's your wand core at the moment?"
"Phoenix feather."
"Right, then why don't you try unicorn heartstring?"
"A favourite amongst Voldemort's followers I seem to remember, difficult to get and expensive, not to mention illegal."
"True but it does make for a very powerful wand and as for the part about the Dark Lord, I wouldn't know."
"Of course not."
"However, they are difficult to handle."
"Let me try."
He nodded and handed her a short, thin, dark coloured wand. "Blackthorn and unicorn heart string."
"Interesting, I suppose Amber Denby has no further use for it," she said reading the name on the label.
"Well, she certainly isn't coming back to claim it."
"I see."
Narcissa pointed the wand at a vase in the corner, "Wingardum Leviosa." The vase shattered into a thousand pieces.
"Sorry, I'll replace the vase."
"Quite alright, you need to focus more. The wand is clearly working for you but you are not focusing enough of your own power into the spell."
She tried again, this time with a book; it worked perfectly. "Brilliant, and it will perform more complex spells?"
"Yes, it will, but do not forget to focus or the magic will simply leak away and wreak havoc."
"Hmm, well I knew there had to a reason why no one uses these things, I mean besides the fact that they're illegal and that to slay a unicorn is a terrible crime. I'll take it."
"The desperate cannot afford to be squeamish you know."
"Who said I was desperate?"
"You did by coming here. Be careful Narcissa, desperate people make amateur mistakes."
"Thank you Confucius," she said, her sarcasm evident, "I can take care of myself."
"Like your friend could?"
"That better not mean what I think it did."
"You are on dangerous ground Narcissa, I was genuinely unhappy to hear about what happened to Morgana Myriades and I would not wish to hear the same of you."
"You won't. Now, how do I destroy this?"
"Well, as I said, this is the difficult part. I can give you a recipe and the necessary potions ingredients but I'm not skilled enough to make the potion. I can have it made for you but that could take a week or so." As he said this he was taking ingredients down from shelves and from within cupboards.
"That's alright, I can make it myself."
"This is a highly complex potion if there is any doubt in your mind that you can do this then I strongly suggest that you do not attempt it."
"I was pretty good at potions in school, I can do it."
"Pretty good?"
"Very good."
"Very well, have it your way."
"I always intended to."
He smiled at her and passed her the bag he had been placing the ingredients in along with a blank piece of parchment, "Tap that three times with a wand and say 'Aparecium'."
She raised an eyebrow, "Invisible ink? How quaint."
"Not many people think of it and that potion is also illegal. Put the wand in it after you've finished with it and be very careful not to touch the potion or you will find out why it is illegal."
"I understand. What do I owe you?"
He glanced nervously at the wand she still had pointed in his direction. She smiled suddenly and put it inside her robes, "I was intending to pay you, you know."
He relaxed and said, "Make me an offer."
"Generous of you."
"I didn't say I'd accept it."
"300 Galleons."
His jaw looked like it was about to hit the floor and she laughed, "Money is no object to my family or to the one I married into, you know that. I expect your silence and, on the off chance my husband ever comes in here again, do not serve him."
The man raised an eyebrow, "As you wish, they say money cannot buy you everything but I have never held with such outdated ways of thinking."
Narcissa smiled back and handed him a purse filled to the brim with gold, "Everyone has their price, it may not always be money but it is a price nonetheless."
"Nice doing business with you again Narcissa."
"Yes. It was."
She turned and swept from the small dark shop out into Knockturn Alley people scattering in her path, no one would mess with Lucius Malfoy's wife. **I guess he has some uses after all.**
******
A/N: The following comes from a natural history text book and is the reason why I chose Blackthorn for the wand.
Blackthorn- Up to four meters. This is a very thorny, much-branched, deciduous shrub, or occasionally a small tree, has black twigs and often forms dense thickets. It's pure white flowers bloom in early spring before the leaves have emerged. The rounded fruits, known as sloes, are bluish-black with a whitish bloom. Extremely astringent, they are used to make jam, and wine, and to flavour gin. It is common in hedges and woods and banks on most soils, but it avoids heavy shade.
Definition of Astringent - severe or harsh; causing contraction of body tissue; checking the flow of blood from a cut.
The above definition of Astringent was not put in because I doubt my reader's intelligence but because I myself had to look it up when I first came across it so don't be insulted I just realised that I would have needed a definition if I were reading this fic so I put one in. And it's essential to understanding why I picked the wood. Oh and if anyone is interested, yes I did leaf through a natural history text to find a suitable wood! LOL! I have too much time on my hands, actually I don't but I still seem to use a hell of a lot of it doing unnecessary things!
Confucius was an ancient Chinese philosopher and Narcissa is being sarcastic, that is not the man's name, she does not know the man's name. She called him that because of his whole, 'Desperate people make amateur mistakes' thing which sounds pretty philosophical, however she's not in the mood for philosophy.
Tapping the parchment three times and saying Aparecium comes from book two when Hermione tests Tom Riddle's diary to see if there is something written in there in invisible ink.
This chapter was written because I think Narcissa would be as at home in Knockturn Alley as Lucius and did no one else think it looked fascinating in the film? I'd definitely want to go down there like the twins do!
Can anyone guess what she's planning?
Please review, the non-existent cat is still hungry!!!
