Disclaimer: I just own the plot.
Review Responses:
Dark Comet - Ah yes, the looks on the trio's faces would be priceless if they found out about Snape having lunch dates with a pretty blond but I couldn't embarrass him by letting them find out! I will join you in your dance on Harry's head, it's big enough after all it should be able to accommodate two of us! LOL! You might not miss much between now the eleventh as I'm away from the 1st to the 8th of August anyway. Thanks for the review! Also thank you for reviewing The Blind Fight The Blind! So few have and I'm really glad you liked it! Poor Sev, I wanted to make his following of Voldy believable. Was your primary school that bad?
BellatrixBlack - Glad you enjoyed the last chapter and thank you for reviewing!
Serepidia - Yes, more Sevi, how can I resist putting him in? Hope you've sorted out your internet problems and thanks for reviewing! Here's the update but you'll have to wait for the 8th for the next one as I'm going on holiday for a week! Sorry!
Also thank you to Jedi Princess who I appear to have forgotten to respond to last chapter! Sorry, but reviewer alert didn't e-mail me your review and I've only just spotted it! Thanks!
I Built My Life Around You
**Narcissa's Thoughts**
Chapter 33
Narcissa apparated home from Hogsmeade and found Lucius sat in her study, she jumped, "What are you doing in here?"
He ignored her question, "Where have you been?"
**I've just been out for a spot of muggle torture Lucy, lighten up!** Narcissa decided that the best lies were those that were half true, "I've been to Hogsmeade, I was bored just sitting around the house."
"Really," he looked at her suspiciously.
"Yes, really."
"Alright then, who were you with?"
"No one. I saw some of the Hogwarts Professors in The Three Broomsticks but no one else I knew."
"Those idiots!"
"Yes."
Lucius stood up and walked over to the fireplace, "I never considered that you might be bored here alone in the manor. Perhaps we should find something to keep you entertained."
Narcissa decided she definitely didn't like that tone of voice, "Like what?"
"Well, you need some other women to keep you company, I tell you what I'll ask Patricia Goyle and Stephanie Crabbe to come round for afternoon tea with you one day this week."
**You live to torture me don't you?** "That really won't be necessary, I'm quite capable of entertaining myself."
"I'm sure you are but you must miss the dinner parties we used to host."
"Not really."
"Oh Narcissa we were the toast of wizarding society and you were the gracious hostess, no wonder you're bored now."
**Yeah, cause my life's ambitions were never anything more than being a perfect hostess!**
"Don't worry Narcissa, I get the feeling things are going to change."
"You mean the mark, you mean HIM. Lucius what's going on?! What have you found out? Stop keeping me in the dark!"
"It is indeed about HIM, but I am afraid I know little more than you do. My sources tell me that a ministry worker, a Bertha Jorkins, went missing."
"So?"
"My dear Narcissa, she went missing in Albania."
**Oh no.** Narcissa didn't know what to say. "Oh."
"Yes quite. The mark is continuing to get darker as well."
"I see, so you think he will return?"
"I don't know."
**I wonder if you want him to. Are you worried? You never did try to find him, how will he take to that?** "Do you know anything else?"
"No," he sighed, "Anyway I'll get on to Patricia and Stephanie, I'm sure that three of you will have fun together!" he smirked and finally left her study, causing her to let out a breath she had been holding. He had been stood directly in front of a drawer which was filled with correspondence, some of it from Severus, and below that in a locked draw was a little notebook filled with ancient runes detailing everything she had found out about Lucius and the Death Eaters.
**Stephanie and Patricia! Oh this should be fun! Thank you very much Lucius! Still I suppose I got off easy and at least I have some more information now.**
Narcissa quickly sorted through the correspondence and put anything from Severus into the locked draw with the notebook. **This is getting ridiculous! God I want him out of my life!**
*******
A week later Narcissa had the dubious pleasure of being graced with the company of Patricia Goyle and Stephanie Crabbe. Patricia was the more intelligent of the two, petty and spiteful and deeply annoying in Narcissa's opinion, Stephanie was quieter, very much Patricia's shadow agreeing enthusiastically with everything she said and driving Narcissa up the wall.
Narcissa had never known afternoon tea could take so long. The conversation was pointless and inane. Narcissa was determined not to be outdone by Patricia who was the kind of woman Narcissa could easily imagine looking in the mirror on the wall and asking it who the fairest of them all was. **And if it said someone other than her she probably would have them killed!** Patricia was admittedly very pretty, she was a few years older than Narcissa but she didn't look it, **I think I look older than she does.** Narcissa had put on a beautiful set of silky lilac robes intended to show Patricia that she was every bit her equal. **Truth is I'm not.** Patricia looked radiant, there was no other word for it, her husband was not concerned about Voldemort's return he was too stupid to realise that he might not be in the Dark Lord's good books at present. Patricia was sly and scheming but with little to no wisdom, to her this was just another social circle she could charm her way back into. No, Patricia had no worries to keep her from her beauty sleep or to prevent her spending her days doing anything other than make sure she looked perfect.
Looking in the mirror after they had gone Narcissa frowned at her reflection. Once she had indeed been Patricia's equal in looks if not her superior, **but not anymore.** Her skin was too pale and had worry lines no skin care products could hide, her eyes had dark circles beneath them that concealer no longer concealed and she looked her age, **no I look older than I really am!** She sighed and remembered wistfully the days when she could turn heads, then laughed at her own shallowness. **Oh this is ridiculous, besides whose head am I going to turn anyway? Severus'? I don't think so, besides anything else he's always been capable of seeing beyond appearances. I can still charm anyone I want, I've still got all my wits about me and I'm not ugly by any means so what have I got to complain about?**
"For goodness sake Narcissa, you've got bigger issues than your looks these days!" she told her reflection before laughing again, **Severus always did think I was vain, I guess he was right! Who cares if she's prettier than me, she's a narrow-minded, spiteful, petty woman incapable of acting with compassion towards anyone and besides she's a coward who hides behind her husband! I somehow can't see her rifling her husband's study for evidence to turn him over to the ministry! So who cares what she looks like, or what I look like! Lucius looks fantastic and his heart's as black as the ace of spades! God, hell and all it's demons wouldn't compare to the things he gets up to!**
**Still, it was nice to be young and beautiful no matter how shallow it seems.** She sighed again, **I'm just being silly, we all get older, I just wish I'd done something with my life!**
She opened the wardrobe, deciding to change into something comfortable instead of something pretty. She pulled out a plain grey set of robes cut with the same flair that all of her clothes were but far simpler and more easy to relax in. She had never been able to relax when dressed up, she found it put her in the wrong mindset. As she pulled the robes out she caught sight of the handle of her broomstick, **Oh why not?**
She changed and pulled her hair back, Lucius was not due back for several hours from wherever he was that he hadn't seen fit to tell her about. She went outside with her broom and left the ground, luxuriating in the cool wind that whipped her long hair around her face. Flying had always relaxed her; it was a good way of working out stress and tension, to forget everything. Morgana had once said that it felt like your troubles stayed on the ground when you left it. Narcissa had to admit her friend had had a very good point. She flew right across Malfoy Manor's extensive grounds and the surrounding countryside. As it got late though she realised that she would have to land and go back inside before Lucius came home and came up with something else for her to do so that she wouldn't be bored enough to feel the need to go flying as it was, in his opinion, most undignified.
**The only trouble about leaving your troubles on the ground is that sooner or later you always have to go back down and pick them up again.**
*******
The next couple of months passed peacefully for Narcissa but Draco seemed far too busy with exams and anti-Potter campaigns even to write to her. In late May she met up with Severus again and informed him of what Lucius had said about Bertha Jorkins, apparently he was not the only one to have made this connection and the ministry were searching for the woman.
"Do you know Barty Crouch?" Severus asked as they sat in the Leaky Cauldron, thinking they were less likely to be interrupted there than in Hogsmeade.
"A bit from ministry parties, that's all. Why?"
"He's gone missing. Turned up at Hogwarts apparently, rambling about having done something stupid and needing to see Dumbledore and Bertha Jorkins was mentioned as well. However, the only people who saw him were Potter and the Durmstrang champion, by the time we got there he had vanished and Krum, who Potter had left with him, had been knocked unconscious."
"God Sev, what on earth is going on?"
"I don't know, neither does Dumbledore and that's troubling."
"Lucius hasn't said anything else, I think he's as much in the dark as anyone else. Have they tried talking to those Crouch was working with before he disappeared?"
"He wasn't working with anyone, he was supposedly ill and owling his assistant with orders."
"Is his assistant trustworthy?"
"His assistant is Percy Weasley, not only is he the most bearable of the Weasley children he's also the one I'd be most inclined to trust."
"Let me know if you hear anything else?"
"If I can. Listen if Lucius says anything..."
"You'll be the first to know!"
"Thank you Narcissa."
"No problem, now can we talk about something cheerful for a change? I'm sick of dissecting horrible things we can do nothing about!"
And Narcissa was sick of it, the papers had publicised Mr Crouch's disappearance but they hadn't spotted a possible Voldemort connection. **Though if they did I doubt they'd publish it for fear of causing a mass panic!**
Draco had still not written and Narcissa began to worry until finally a letter came in early June.
Dear Mum,
I know it's been a little while since I wrote but I've been busy! Just finished exams actually! Did you see the article in Witch Weekly a few months ago, I know you read it no matter how much you claim that it's trash! Anyway you should have seen the mail Granger got! Pansy hadn't planned for it in her wildest dreams! As she put it, "Who knew that Potter was that well loved?" I suppose we should have seen it coming but still it's the sheer amount of it! The howlers were hilarious!
Anyway, that's the good news now for the bad! You should see what they've done to our quidditch pitch! They're growing a maze on it for the final task of the tournament! It looks terrible! They're assuring us it'll be back to normal soon but I still can't believe they were allowed to do that, it's bad enough that quidditch was cancelled this year because of the dumb tournament but this takes the bloody biscuit!
Apparently Potter had some sort of fit in divination and stormed out, don't know what that's about! Anyway the third task's next week. I hope Potter doesn't win but I'll be surprised if he doesn't, they give him extra points because he's the boy-who-lived!
Bye for now,
Draco.
**So they've destroyed the quidditch pitch and Potter's had a fit, fantastic! Just once I'd like to get a letter from someone at Hogwarts that isn't full of bad news!**
*******
I don't care what the fifth book says about Percy he's still my favourite Weasley and I think he is perfectly trustworthy and that from Severus' POV he probably is the most bearable.
Right this is going to be the last update for a week because I'm going on holiday but I'll put up chapter 34 on the 8th of August, 9th at the latest!
Please review!
Review Responses:
Dark Comet - Ah yes, the looks on the trio's faces would be priceless if they found out about Snape having lunch dates with a pretty blond but I couldn't embarrass him by letting them find out! I will join you in your dance on Harry's head, it's big enough after all it should be able to accommodate two of us! LOL! You might not miss much between now the eleventh as I'm away from the 1st to the 8th of August anyway. Thanks for the review! Also thank you for reviewing The Blind Fight The Blind! So few have and I'm really glad you liked it! Poor Sev, I wanted to make his following of Voldy believable. Was your primary school that bad?
BellatrixBlack - Glad you enjoyed the last chapter and thank you for reviewing!
Serepidia - Yes, more Sevi, how can I resist putting him in? Hope you've sorted out your internet problems and thanks for reviewing! Here's the update but you'll have to wait for the 8th for the next one as I'm going on holiday for a week! Sorry!
Also thank you to Jedi Princess who I appear to have forgotten to respond to last chapter! Sorry, but reviewer alert didn't e-mail me your review and I've only just spotted it! Thanks!
I Built My Life Around You
**Narcissa's Thoughts**
Chapter 33
Narcissa apparated home from Hogsmeade and found Lucius sat in her study, she jumped, "What are you doing in here?"
He ignored her question, "Where have you been?"
**I've just been out for a spot of muggle torture Lucy, lighten up!** Narcissa decided that the best lies were those that were half true, "I've been to Hogsmeade, I was bored just sitting around the house."
"Really," he looked at her suspiciously.
"Yes, really."
"Alright then, who were you with?"
"No one. I saw some of the Hogwarts Professors in The Three Broomsticks but no one else I knew."
"Those idiots!"
"Yes."
Lucius stood up and walked over to the fireplace, "I never considered that you might be bored here alone in the manor. Perhaps we should find something to keep you entertained."
Narcissa decided she definitely didn't like that tone of voice, "Like what?"
"Well, you need some other women to keep you company, I tell you what I'll ask Patricia Goyle and Stephanie Crabbe to come round for afternoon tea with you one day this week."
**You live to torture me don't you?** "That really won't be necessary, I'm quite capable of entertaining myself."
"I'm sure you are but you must miss the dinner parties we used to host."
"Not really."
"Oh Narcissa we were the toast of wizarding society and you were the gracious hostess, no wonder you're bored now."
**Yeah, cause my life's ambitions were never anything more than being a perfect hostess!**
"Don't worry Narcissa, I get the feeling things are going to change."
"You mean the mark, you mean HIM. Lucius what's going on?! What have you found out? Stop keeping me in the dark!"
"It is indeed about HIM, but I am afraid I know little more than you do. My sources tell me that a ministry worker, a Bertha Jorkins, went missing."
"So?"
"My dear Narcissa, she went missing in Albania."
**Oh no.** Narcissa didn't know what to say. "Oh."
"Yes quite. The mark is continuing to get darker as well."
"I see, so you think he will return?"
"I don't know."
**I wonder if you want him to. Are you worried? You never did try to find him, how will he take to that?** "Do you know anything else?"
"No," he sighed, "Anyway I'll get on to Patricia and Stephanie, I'm sure that three of you will have fun together!" he smirked and finally left her study, causing her to let out a breath she had been holding. He had been stood directly in front of a drawer which was filled with correspondence, some of it from Severus, and below that in a locked draw was a little notebook filled with ancient runes detailing everything she had found out about Lucius and the Death Eaters.
**Stephanie and Patricia! Oh this should be fun! Thank you very much Lucius! Still I suppose I got off easy and at least I have some more information now.**
Narcissa quickly sorted through the correspondence and put anything from Severus into the locked draw with the notebook. **This is getting ridiculous! God I want him out of my life!**
*******
A week later Narcissa had the dubious pleasure of being graced with the company of Patricia Goyle and Stephanie Crabbe. Patricia was the more intelligent of the two, petty and spiteful and deeply annoying in Narcissa's opinion, Stephanie was quieter, very much Patricia's shadow agreeing enthusiastically with everything she said and driving Narcissa up the wall.
Narcissa had never known afternoon tea could take so long. The conversation was pointless and inane. Narcissa was determined not to be outdone by Patricia who was the kind of woman Narcissa could easily imagine looking in the mirror on the wall and asking it who the fairest of them all was. **And if it said someone other than her she probably would have them killed!** Patricia was admittedly very pretty, she was a few years older than Narcissa but she didn't look it, **I think I look older than she does.** Narcissa had put on a beautiful set of silky lilac robes intended to show Patricia that she was every bit her equal. **Truth is I'm not.** Patricia looked radiant, there was no other word for it, her husband was not concerned about Voldemort's return he was too stupid to realise that he might not be in the Dark Lord's good books at present. Patricia was sly and scheming but with little to no wisdom, to her this was just another social circle she could charm her way back into. No, Patricia had no worries to keep her from her beauty sleep or to prevent her spending her days doing anything other than make sure she looked perfect.
Looking in the mirror after they had gone Narcissa frowned at her reflection. Once she had indeed been Patricia's equal in looks if not her superior, **but not anymore.** Her skin was too pale and had worry lines no skin care products could hide, her eyes had dark circles beneath them that concealer no longer concealed and she looked her age, **no I look older than I really am!** She sighed and remembered wistfully the days when she could turn heads, then laughed at her own shallowness. **Oh this is ridiculous, besides whose head am I going to turn anyway? Severus'? I don't think so, besides anything else he's always been capable of seeing beyond appearances. I can still charm anyone I want, I've still got all my wits about me and I'm not ugly by any means so what have I got to complain about?**
"For goodness sake Narcissa, you've got bigger issues than your looks these days!" she told her reflection before laughing again, **Severus always did think I was vain, I guess he was right! Who cares if she's prettier than me, she's a narrow-minded, spiteful, petty woman incapable of acting with compassion towards anyone and besides she's a coward who hides behind her husband! I somehow can't see her rifling her husband's study for evidence to turn him over to the ministry! So who cares what she looks like, or what I look like! Lucius looks fantastic and his heart's as black as the ace of spades! God, hell and all it's demons wouldn't compare to the things he gets up to!**
**Still, it was nice to be young and beautiful no matter how shallow it seems.** She sighed again, **I'm just being silly, we all get older, I just wish I'd done something with my life!**
She opened the wardrobe, deciding to change into something comfortable instead of something pretty. She pulled out a plain grey set of robes cut with the same flair that all of her clothes were but far simpler and more easy to relax in. She had never been able to relax when dressed up, she found it put her in the wrong mindset. As she pulled the robes out she caught sight of the handle of her broomstick, **Oh why not?**
She changed and pulled her hair back, Lucius was not due back for several hours from wherever he was that he hadn't seen fit to tell her about. She went outside with her broom and left the ground, luxuriating in the cool wind that whipped her long hair around her face. Flying had always relaxed her; it was a good way of working out stress and tension, to forget everything. Morgana had once said that it felt like your troubles stayed on the ground when you left it. Narcissa had to admit her friend had had a very good point. She flew right across Malfoy Manor's extensive grounds and the surrounding countryside. As it got late though she realised that she would have to land and go back inside before Lucius came home and came up with something else for her to do so that she wouldn't be bored enough to feel the need to go flying as it was, in his opinion, most undignified.
**The only trouble about leaving your troubles on the ground is that sooner or later you always have to go back down and pick them up again.**
*******
The next couple of months passed peacefully for Narcissa but Draco seemed far too busy with exams and anti-Potter campaigns even to write to her. In late May she met up with Severus again and informed him of what Lucius had said about Bertha Jorkins, apparently he was not the only one to have made this connection and the ministry were searching for the woman.
"Do you know Barty Crouch?" Severus asked as they sat in the Leaky Cauldron, thinking they were less likely to be interrupted there than in Hogsmeade.
"A bit from ministry parties, that's all. Why?"
"He's gone missing. Turned up at Hogwarts apparently, rambling about having done something stupid and needing to see Dumbledore and Bertha Jorkins was mentioned as well. However, the only people who saw him were Potter and the Durmstrang champion, by the time we got there he had vanished and Krum, who Potter had left with him, had been knocked unconscious."
"God Sev, what on earth is going on?"
"I don't know, neither does Dumbledore and that's troubling."
"Lucius hasn't said anything else, I think he's as much in the dark as anyone else. Have they tried talking to those Crouch was working with before he disappeared?"
"He wasn't working with anyone, he was supposedly ill and owling his assistant with orders."
"Is his assistant trustworthy?"
"His assistant is Percy Weasley, not only is he the most bearable of the Weasley children he's also the one I'd be most inclined to trust."
"Let me know if you hear anything else?"
"If I can. Listen if Lucius says anything..."
"You'll be the first to know!"
"Thank you Narcissa."
"No problem, now can we talk about something cheerful for a change? I'm sick of dissecting horrible things we can do nothing about!"
And Narcissa was sick of it, the papers had publicised Mr Crouch's disappearance but they hadn't spotted a possible Voldemort connection. **Though if they did I doubt they'd publish it for fear of causing a mass panic!**
Draco had still not written and Narcissa began to worry until finally a letter came in early June.
Dear Mum,
I know it's been a little while since I wrote but I've been busy! Just finished exams actually! Did you see the article in Witch Weekly a few months ago, I know you read it no matter how much you claim that it's trash! Anyway you should have seen the mail Granger got! Pansy hadn't planned for it in her wildest dreams! As she put it, "Who knew that Potter was that well loved?" I suppose we should have seen it coming but still it's the sheer amount of it! The howlers were hilarious!
Anyway, that's the good news now for the bad! You should see what they've done to our quidditch pitch! They're growing a maze on it for the final task of the tournament! It looks terrible! They're assuring us it'll be back to normal soon but I still can't believe they were allowed to do that, it's bad enough that quidditch was cancelled this year because of the dumb tournament but this takes the bloody biscuit!
Apparently Potter had some sort of fit in divination and stormed out, don't know what that's about! Anyway the third task's next week. I hope Potter doesn't win but I'll be surprised if he doesn't, they give him extra points because he's the boy-who-lived!
Bye for now,
Draco.
**So they've destroyed the quidditch pitch and Potter's had a fit, fantastic! Just once I'd like to get a letter from someone at Hogwarts that isn't full of bad news!**
*******
I don't care what the fifth book says about Percy he's still my favourite Weasley and I think he is perfectly trustworthy and that from Severus' POV he probably is the most bearable.
Right this is going to be the last update for a week because I'm going on holiday but I'll put up chapter 34 on the 8th of August, 9th at the latest!
Please review!
