Disclaimer: I just own the plot and Narcissa's owl.
I Built My Life Around You
**Narcissa's Thoughts**
SHOUTING
_emphasis_
Chapter 21
When they reached home Lucius and Draco disappeared into Lucius' study and Narcissa went up to her own to see if Severus had replied to her note. A piece of parchment had been dropped onto her desk and her owl, Osiris, was perched on the top of a bookcase.
She grabbed an owl treat from a draw and scratched the Tengmalm's owl on the head, "It's ok, I don't think I'll need you again today, go and sleep."
The owl soared out of the window and she picked up the note.
That's fine, I'll see you then.
Severus.
**A man of few words as usual!** She smiled and pushed the note into a draw, her smile faded however as she heard yelling from the floor below. It wasn't just Lucius either, she could hear her son yelling just as loudly.
She sighed and made her way quickly down the stairs and headed for Lucius' study. She didn't hesitate but swung open the door to find her husband and son on their feet yelling unintelligibly at each other.
"ENOUGH!" she screamed over the row they were creating. Much to her surprise, they both fell silent and looked at her.
"What seems to be the problem gentlemen?" she asked, taking advantage of having caught their attention to take control of the situation.
"He's yelling at me about my grades again and there's nothing wrong with them! And it isn't my fault we lost the quidditch cup either!" Draco started yelling again before Lucius could say anything.
"You cannot blame your performance on your broom and I will say when your exam results are adequate, you were beaten by that mudblood again!"
"SHUT UP! Both of you," Narcissa took a deep breath and started again. "Lucius his exam results were fine and I'm sure he tried very hard, also please do not swear at him. On another topic I thought you had to go to France tonight and if so you better keep an eye on the time. Draco your father is right you cannot blame your quidditch performance on your broomstick, that's ridiculous your broom is a perfectly good model and it takes all seven players working together to win or lose a match it is not entirely on your head."
They both opened their mouths to speak again and she silenced them by holding up her hand, "No Draco, I will listen to nothing more until you've calmed down and Lucius I really do think you're going to be late, I'll have Dippy pack your things."
"Thank you," Lucius nodded tersely at her, in too much of a hurry to make an issue about her taking over a little.
Draco glared at her, said, "Have a nice trip!" to his father in a tone which suggested he hoped quite the opposite would happen and stormed out of the study slamming the door behind him.
"He needs to learn some manners," Lucius snapped as he sorted through some papers on his desk.
"Perhaps you shouldn't shout at him so much, your expectations of him are very high and are therefore very difficult for him to live up to," she ventured.
He snorted, "I think I can deal with my own son, now are you going to get that house elf to pack by bags or not?!"
**I should have made someone pack your bags years ago!** "Of course," Narcissa left the room closing the door quietly behind her.
*******
Two hours later Lucius left the manor and peace reigned once again, until Draco turned on the wizarding wireless in his room at a volume that could have woken the dead. Narcissa sighed, **you can deal with this, he just needs to talk to someone and get things sorted out. Without Lucius being around to muck things up!**
She went to the door of his room and knocked loudly so as to be heard over the racket. **Who on earth is that? Does it mean I'm old if I'm wondering whether music was that noisy in my day?! I swear it wasn't!**
"GO AWAY!" Draco yelled irritably through the door.
**You want to act like a child? Well two of us can do that!** "NO!" she yelled back, "LET ME IN RIGHT NOW!"
She didn't quite catch the next comment but did register that the last word was off.
"That better have been shall I turn the wireless off!" she muttered.
She tried the handle of the room but found it locked. "LET ME IN! I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU DO!"
The door was suddenly pulled open so harshly that she was surprised it didn't come off its hinges. Her son was red in the face through angry shouting and his hair was ruffled. He glared at her, "What?" he snapped.
She couldn't stay angry; he looked so small and vulnerable. Of course he _was_ small, his premature birth meant he had always been small for his age, but in the grandeur of his large bedroom he looked smaller than usual.
"Are you alright?" she asked quietly, or as quietly as she could with loud music still blasting out
"NO! I'm sick of you two and I hate my life!"
She crossed the room and turned off the music tuning it into another channel which played older music from the days of her youth. A quiet song she remembered dancing to with Greg at a Christmas dance many years ago came on and she smiled in spite of herself.
"You're all messed up today aren't you?" she said turning to face Draco.
He nodded miserably.
"Come here," she said holding out her arms and embracing him. "It's alright."
He hugged her and sniffed quietly. They remained like that for a long moment before she released him and brushed his silvery hair back behind his ear. "I tell you what, you're father's gone and I don't have any plans for this evening so why don't we go out?"
"Alright," he seemed on the verge of tears and his quiet voice hurt her, **where's my ever confident son? I haven't seen him this upset in so long!**
"Well come on then, let's find you something to wear," she opened his large mahogany wardrobe and started looking at his dress robes.
"Where are we going?" he asked curiously.
"We're going out to dinner, champagne, five courses, the works! In fact we're going to Wilson's."
Draco gasped, Wilson's was a very expensive restaurant in Diagon Alley, it was small and exclusive and served only the best food. Narcissa had been there with Greg and Morgana once and on another occasion with Lucius in the early days of their relationship. Lucius had only gone because she wanted to; he hated the place, as it was a family restaurant that had been founded by a Muggle-born almost a century ago. They cooked their own food using no magic, which was very unusual in wizarding restaurants, as most wizards did not appreciate the wait while their food was cooked. "Are you serious!?"
"Absolutely!" Narcissa grinned at her son's surprised face.
"And can we really order champagne?!"
"If you want, then yes. You can order whatever you like!"
"Wow! Thanks mum!"
"That's alright, I think you could use cheering up and we can sort out all your problems over dinner. Now get your dress robes on and we'll leave in half an hour."
"Half an hour!" **Please don't let him start about it taking longer than that to do his hair!** "Surely you'll need longer than that!" he grinned at her and she threw a cushion at him narrowly missing his head.
"Get dressed, you little brat!" she laughed and left to get changed.
*******
In just over half an hour they were in Diagon Alley, Narcissa had booked a table and found that the Malfoy name really could get you almost anything, including a table at the wizarding world's most exclusive restaurant.
They had a table by the window overlooking one end of Diagon Alley. There were little lights all over the sides of the buildings and everyone was in eveningwear. Draco was in a silvery grey robe with a black cloak lined in white silk. Narcissa was wearing a simple Lilac robe with a deep blue cloak. They had ordered champagne but Narcissa was wary that neither of them should drink too much of it, **no point in having a repeat performance of the last time I drank champagne!**
"We're both having one glass and no more! I'm only letting you have it as a treat! And I should probably stay away from it anyway."
"Why should you stay away from it?"
"Er, let's just say I had a bit too much last time I went near it and it had some er, interesting results."
"You were legless!" he laughed at the idea of his mother being out of control.
"Not exactly!" she protested before joining in with his laughter but blushing at the memory of her encounter with Severus at the Ministry function.
She waited until they had finished their starter and were waiting for a fish course before asking him to tell her what was wrong.
"I guess I was just in a bad mood, it's just been one thing after another this year. That incident with Potter's head in Hogsmeade, the dressing up as a Dementor thing, which I am willing to admit was not my finest hour and then being slapped by that girl! And now father and my results and the quidditch cup!"
**If that little collection of incidents is all you have to worry about in life then you're luckier than most,** she thought sadly. "Sweetheart, ignore Potter and his friends, they aren't worth fighting with. The Dementor thing was hilarious! But very silly and a bit pointless! The quidditch cup can wait until next year and your father is wrong, your results are brilliant and I won't hear otherwise from him or anyone else."
He smiled at her, "You really know how to put things in perspective don't you?"
She laughed and nodded, "Always keep things in perspective Drake, making mountains out molehills will drive you to distraction, there are enough problems in life without creating more."
They ate in silence for a while until Draco looked up and said suddenly, "Are you happy?"
"Of course I am, this is fun having dinner together!"
"No, I mean in general."
"Yes, why would you ask that?"
He pushed his food around awkwardly on his plate and said, without meeting her eyes, "You and father don't seem very happy together sometimes."
"Oh sweetie, your father and I are just very different people," Narcissa attempted to reassure him.
Draco noticed that his mother didn't exactly answer the question but he decided to change the topic, "So, Professor Snape has a photograph of you on his desk."
Narcissa nearly spit out her champagne, **What the hell!** She opened her mouth to speak but found there were not words to convey how thoroughly bemused she was.
Draco took pity on her. "Don't get all worked up about it, it's just a photo of the old Slytherin quidditch team, you and he are both in it with a bunch of other people I didn't recognise. Very subtle really," he raised an eyebrow at his puzzled mother.
"What do you mean 'very subtle'?"
"Oh, nothing," he smirked and went back to his meal.
*******
Mother and son left the restaurant later that night, giggling because of the champagne but managing to conduct themselves with a fair amount of decorum. They reached the manor at just gone midnight, both in high spirits and very tired. Narcissa sent Draco up too bed and had Dippy make her some coffee, **So, Sev put the photograph up.** She smiled and sipped her coffee, **I wonder what Draco was on about with the subtlety thing?**
*******
Tengmalm's Owl - 25cm A strictly nocturnal forest owl with a deep, pale facial disk with bold black margins, black beneath the yellow eyes and permanently raised white 'eyebrows'. This gives it a surprised expression. Its call consists of three to six rapid, soft, but far-carrying poo poo poo notes, and it also has a chaweek alarm call. It is a very rare vagrant to Britain.
I just had to give Narcissa this owl, I was instantly endeared to it from it's surprised expression, doesn't that make it sound cute? And I have a picture of it in my natural history book and it is a very pretty grey and white owl with a very cute face!
Osiris - Egyptian God of death and re-birth, the Underworld and the Earth. The story is that he was a king loved by all except his brother Set who killed him and scattered the pieces of his body along the banks of the Nile. His wife Isis collected the parts and placed them back together before wrapping him in linen bandages to from Egypt's first mummy. She then called on the god Anubis who breathed life back into Osiris however he could not come back as a man so instead he went to the afterlife as the God of the dead. Anubis became the god of preserving the bodies for the afterlife and Isis became the Goddess who protected the dead, she took special care of women and children. Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris killed Set in a battle and he was doomed to spend the rest of time in the underworld for the evil dead, Horus himself went on to be protector of the living. I really just liked the name Osiris also I like the story! The name of both the owl and the restaurant were suggestions from honest_iago.
So does anyone know what Draco's on about with his subtlety comment?
Sev makes another appearance in the next chapter!
So what do people think of the fifth book? I queued for just over an hour outside a bookshop at midnight to get my copy, did anyone else do anything that mad?
Review please! Reviews mean the update comes on Saturday, no reviews = I assume no one's read this yet and I don't update till the following week after I've been away for a couple of days!
I Built My Life Around You
**Narcissa's Thoughts**
SHOUTING
_emphasis_
Chapter 21
When they reached home Lucius and Draco disappeared into Lucius' study and Narcissa went up to her own to see if Severus had replied to her note. A piece of parchment had been dropped onto her desk and her owl, Osiris, was perched on the top of a bookcase.
She grabbed an owl treat from a draw and scratched the Tengmalm's owl on the head, "It's ok, I don't think I'll need you again today, go and sleep."
The owl soared out of the window and she picked up the note.
That's fine, I'll see you then.
Severus.
**A man of few words as usual!** She smiled and pushed the note into a draw, her smile faded however as she heard yelling from the floor below. It wasn't just Lucius either, she could hear her son yelling just as loudly.
She sighed and made her way quickly down the stairs and headed for Lucius' study. She didn't hesitate but swung open the door to find her husband and son on their feet yelling unintelligibly at each other.
"ENOUGH!" she screamed over the row they were creating. Much to her surprise, they both fell silent and looked at her.
"What seems to be the problem gentlemen?" she asked, taking advantage of having caught their attention to take control of the situation.
"He's yelling at me about my grades again and there's nothing wrong with them! And it isn't my fault we lost the quidditch cup either!" Draco started yelling again before Lucius could say anything.
"You cannot blame your performance on your broom and I will say when your exam results are adequate, you were beaten by that mudblood again!"
"SHUT UP! Both of you," Narcissa took a deep breath and started again. "Lucius his exam results were fine and I'm sure he tried very hard, also please do not swear at him. On another topic I thought you had to go to France tonight and if so you better keep an eye on the time. Draco your father is right you cannot blame your quidditch performance on your broomstick, that's ridiculous your broom is a perfectly good model and it takes all seven players working together to win or lose a match it is not entirely on your head."
They both opened their mouths to speak again and she silenced them by holding up her hand, "No Draco, I will listen to nothing more until you've calmed down and Lucius I really do think you're going to be late, I'll have Dippy pack your things."
"Thank you," Lucius nodded tersely at her, in too much of a hurry to make an issue about her taking over a little.
Draco glared at her, said, "Have a nice trip!" to his father in a tone which suggested he hoped quite the opposite would happen and stormed out of the study slamming the door behind him.
"He needs to learn some manners," Lucius snapped as he sorted through some papers on his desk.
"Perhaps you shouldn't shout at him so much, your expectations of him are very high and are therefore very difficult for him to live up to," she ventured.
He snorted, "I think I can deal with my own son, now are you going to get that house elf to pack by bags or not?!"
**I should have made someone pack your bags years ago!** "Of course," Narcissa left the room closing the door quietly behind her.
*******
Two hours later Lucius left the manor and peace reigned once again, until Draco turned on the wizarding wireless in his room at a volume that could have woken the dead. Narcissa sighed, **you can deal with this, he just needs to talk to someone and get things sorted out. Without Lucius being around to muck things up!**
She went to the door of his room and knocked loudly so as to be heard over the racket. **Who on earth is that? Does it mean I'm old if I'm wondering whether music was that noisy in my day?! I swear it wasn't!**
"GO AWAY!" Draco yelled irritably through the door.
**You want to act like a child? Well two of us can do that!** "NO!" she yelled back, "LET ME IN RIGHT NOW!"
She didn't quite catch the next comment but did register that the last word was off.
"That better have been shall I turn the wireless off!" she muttered.
She tried the handle of the room but found it locked. "LET ME IN! I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU DO!"
The door was suddenly pulled open so harshly that she was surprised it didn't come off its hinges. Her son was red in the face through angry shouting and his hair was ruffled. He glared at her, "What?" he snapped.
She couldn't stay angry; he looked so small and vulnerable. Of course he _was_ small, his premature birth meant he had always been small for his age, but in the grandeur of his large bedroom he looked smaller than usual.
"Are you alright?" she asked quietly, or as quietly as she could with loud music still blasting out
"NO! I'm sick of you two and I hate my life!"
She crossed the room and turned off the music tuning it into another channel which played older music from the days of her youth. A quiet song she remembered dancing to with Greg at a Christmas dance many years ago came on and she smiled in spite of herself.
"You're all messed up today aren't you?" she said turning to face Draco.
He nodded miserably.
"Come here," she said holding out her arms and embracing him. "It's alright."
He hugged her and sniffed quietly. They remained like that for a long moment before she released him and brushed his silvery hair back behind his ear. "I tell you what, you're father's gone and I don't have any plans for this evening so why don't we go out?"
"Alright," he seemed on the verge of tears and his quiet voice hurt her, **where's my ever confident son? I haven't seen him this upset in so long!**
"Well come on then, let's find you something to wear," she opened his large mahogany wardrobe and started looking at his dress robes.
"Where are we going?" he asked curiously.
"We're going out to dinner, champagne, five courses, the works! In fact we're going to Wilson's."
Draco gasped, Wilson's was a very expensive restaurant in Diagon Alley, it was small and exclusive and served only the best food. Narcissa had been there with Greg and Morgana once and on another occasion with Lucius in the early days of their relationship. Lucius had only gone because she wanted to; he hated the place, as it was a family restaurant that had been founded by a Muggle-born almost a century ago. They cooked their own food using no magic, which was very unusual in wizarding restaurants, as most wizards did not appreciate the wait while their food was cooked. "Are you serious!?"
"Absolutely!" Narcissa grinned at her son's surprised face.
"And can we really order champagne?!"
"If you want, then yes. You can order whatever you like!"
"Wow! Thanks mum!"
"That's alright, I think you could use cheering up and we can sort out all your problems over dinner. Now get your dress robes on and we'll leave in half an hour."
"Half an hour!" **Please don't let him start about it taking longer than that to do his hair!** "Surely you'll need longer than that!" he grinned at her and she threw a cushion at him narrowly missing his head.
"Get dressed, you little brat!" she laughed and left to get changed.
*******
In just over half an hour they were in Diagon Alley, Narcissa had booked a table and found that the Malfoy name really could get you almost anything, including a table at the wizarding world's most exclusive restaurant.
They had a table by the window overlooking one end of Diagon Alley. There were little lights all over the sides of the buildings and everyone was in eveningwear. Draco was in a silvery grey robe with a black cloak lined in white silk. Narcissa was wearing a simple Lilac robe with a deep blue cloak. They had ordered champagne but Narcissa was wary that neither of them should drink too much of it, **no point in having a repeat performance of the last time I drank champagne!**
"We're both having one glass and no more! I'm only letting you have it as a treat! And I should probably stay away from it anyway."
"Why should you stay away from it?"
"Er, let's just say I had a bit too much last time I went near it and it had some er, interesting results."
"You were legless!" he laughed at the idea of his mother being out of control.
"Not exactly!" she protested before joining in with his laughter but blushing at the memory of her encounter with Severus at the Ministry function.
She waited until they had finished their starter and were waiting for a fish course before asking him to tell her what was wrong.
"I guess I was just in a bad mood, it's just been one thing after another this year. That incident with Potter's head in Hogsmeade, the dressing up as a Dementor thing, which I am willing to admit was not my finest hour and then being slapped by that girl! And now father and my results and the quidditch cup!"
**If that little collection of incidents is all you have to worry about in life then you're luckier than most,** she thought sadly. "Sweetheart, ignore Potter and his friends, they aren't worth fighting with. The Dementor thing was hilarious! But very silly and a bit pointless! The quidditch cup can wait until next year and your father is wrong, your results are brilliant and I won't hear otherwise from him or anyone else."
He smiled at her, "You really know how to put things in perspective don't you?"
She laughed and nodded, "Always keep things in perspective Drake, making mountains out molehills will drive you to distraction, there are enough problems in life without creating more."
They ate in silence for a while until Draco looked up and said suddenly, "Are you happy?"
"Of course I am, this is fun having dinner together!"
"No, I mean in general."
"Yes, why would you ask that?"
He pushed his food around awkwardly on his plate and said, without meeting her eyes, "You and father don't seem very happy together sometimes."
"Oh sweetie, your father and I are just very different people," Narcissa attempted to reassure him.
Draco noticed that his mother didn't exactly answer the question but he decided to change the topic, "So, Professor Snape has a photograph of you on his desk."
Narcissa nearly spit out her champagne, **What the hell!** She opened her mouth to speak but found there were not words to convey how thoroughly bemused she was.
Draco took pity on her. "Don't get all worked up about it, it's just a photo of the old Slytherin quidditch team, you and he are both in it with a bunch of other people I didn't recognise. Very subtle really," he raised an eyebrow at his puzzled mother.
"What do you mean 'very subtle'?"
"Oh, nothing," he smirked and went back to his meal.
*******
Mother and son left the restaurant later that night, giggling because of the champagne but managing to conduct themselves with a fair amount of decorum. They reached the manor at just gone midnight, both in high spirits and very tired. Narcissa sent Draco up too bed and had Dippy make her some coffee, **So, Sev put the photograph up.** She smiled and sipped her coffee, **I wonder what Draco was on about with the subtlety thing?**
*******
Tengmalm's Owl - 25cm A strictly nocturnal forest owl with a deep, pale facial disk with bold black margins, black beneath the yellow eyes and permanently raised white 'eyebrows'. This gives it a surprised expression. Its call consists of three to six rapid, soft, but far-carrying poo poo poo notes, and it also has a chaweek alarm call. It is a very rare vagrant to Britain.
I just had to give Narcissa this owl, I was instantly endeared to it from it's surprised expression, doesn't that make it sound cute? And I have a picture of it in my natural history book and it is a very pretty grey and white owl with a very cute face!
Osiris - Egyptian God of death and re-birth, the Underworld and the Earth. The story is that he was a king loved by all except his brother Set who killed him and scattered the pieces of his body along the banks of the Nile. His wife Isis collected the parts and placed them back together before wrapping him in linen bandages to from Egypt's first mummy. She then called on the god Anubis who breathed life back into Osiris however he could not come back as a man so instead he went to the afterlife as the God of the dead. Anubis became the god of preserving the bodies for the afterlife and Isis became the Goddess who protected the dead, she took special care of women and children. Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris killed Set in a battle and he was doomed to spend the rest of time in the underworld for the evil dead, Horus himself went on to be protector of the living. I really just liked the name Osiris also I like the story! The name of both the owl and the restaurant were suggestions from honest_iago.
So does anyone know what Draco's on about with his subtlety comment?
Sev makes another appearance in the next chapter!
So what do people think of the fifth book? I queued for just over an hour outside a bookshop at midnight to get my copy, did anyone else do anything that mad?
Review please! Reviews mean the update comes on Saturday, no reviews = I assume no one's read this yet and I don't update till the following week after I've been away for a couple of days!
