She Fell
Author: EbonyQuill
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters they all belong to Joann Kathleen Rowling.
Summary: A woman trapped by marriage, released by herself. One shot ficlet.
A/N: Kind of dark..
~*~
She gracefully, yet clumsily walked on the cold path that lay before her. Making turns and tumbles, pondering whether to go back. Her usually blonde silky hair, had leaves and other produces of nature scattered all over it. Her porcelain face was smudged with dirt and her lips were cracked and bleeding. Dehydrated, she gave up, falling down to the soft moist ground of soil beneath her.
I understand now.. I understand my wrong. But why are you punishing me like this?! Why?! Crying at her own dismay, she layed on the ground, not giving a care about her appearance or her unclean status.
Please someone!! Help me, save me!! The woman of 35 or so pleaded silently in her mind, her mouth too dry to utter a single word.
Don't leave me hear to die!! Help me!! Oh how she regretted her vicous ways, wanting a way out of this unholy debt she had to pay. She was falling from grace, falling from humanity, falling from life.
No more words erupted in her mind. All was silent. Her breath was ragged and parted every now and then, she was almost breathless. She had no more will to live.
She had disobeyed Lucius and this was her punishment. Banishment to the forest. She remembered Lucius saying it to her. He talked to her as if she were some wild beast that needed taming. She needn't be punished, just her heart. Her heart had betrayed Lucius, she knew he knew that it would from the very start. Ever since their parents' had betrothed them. Lucius knew she didn't love him. He knew she despised him. He knew her heart belonged to another. Yet he never allowed it to be. He wanted to spite her and make her known as the "living damnation."
Watching the trees suddenly ashen, becoming harder and harder to see. and listening to the wind howl she could make up the sound of crunching Autumn leaves, signifying someone or thing was walking. Her eyes betrayed her, going black before she could illuminate the figure in front of her.
~*~
"Sir.. I insist, you must leave in order for us to treat the Miss accordingly." The fragile woman suddenly heard a voice, plead. And another voice.
"B-but I must stay with her just in case she is to awaken!" An almost alien voice rang out.
"Please, let the doctors do their job! I promise, she will be fine!"
Promises.. The woman's mind drifted off to a memory.
~*~
Holding her hand in his larger one, he traced her face with one finger, illuminating the girl's features. He smiled, admiring his maiden's beauty. No words were needed; just the look of adorance in both of the teenager's eyes.
Holding each other in one's arms, they were a perfect fit. Mind you, fully clothed. They were two teenagers in love.
Love.
Love was a strong word, and who would have thought teenagers of 16 would promise their love to one another. But that's what they did. They promised theirselves to eachother.. And it was a promise destined to be broken.
~*~
Opening her eyes to get a better look at her surroundings she found she couldn't move her eyes. She shrieked in horror.
Was she handicapped? Was she blind? Or was this all a cruel, cruel trick?
The woman felt two pairs of eyes burning into her, she knew she had drawn attention to herself, she could just imagine the looks of shock on both faces.
"Please!! I cannot see!? What has possessed my eyes to such a manner?!" She found her voice, greatful for that much.
"Calm down, Miss, please! You just have a temporary blind spell on yourself, it must have taken a great deal of stregnth to do as much as wake up. We thought that if you were blind you wouldn't feel so much - " The what she assumed to be a nurse never had the chance to finish for a calming voice called out her name.
A gulp was heard. "Narcissa?" She remembered that soft, soothing voice. She would listen to that voice nonstop in the elder hours of the night. They would talk of studies, gossip, or just frolic and go on about how they would be together forever.
Narcissa did what she thought was the only way to escape her pain and suffering and the hauntings of denied loves. She apparated.
~*~
Remus Lupin sat there mystified, watching the slender figure he had held oh so long ago dissapear. And he couldn't track her, to tell her that he was sorry for not running after her. Sorry for letting her go through the marriage, making her await the door to open to reveal him. Just sorry. And now, he was sure his old love had fled to a place where she could die in peace.
He remembered one conversation they had, had..
~*~
"Narcissa?"
"Yes, my love?"
"When I die, will you still love me?" Narcissa looked at Remus with a serious look on her face.
"Remus Jaquard Lupin, from this day forward I vow that I will die before you. I could not live with the pain and the memories."
She had said it with such meaning and truth and demand that Remus could not do anything but nod his head at her command.
"Yes, darling."
"But do me one favor, Remus." Narcissa had spoken much softer this time.
"Yes?"
"Bring me white peonies."
"Whatever you say, my love." And Narcissa smiled and softly kissed Remus.
~*~
Narcissa knew exactly where she landed and realized she had no wand to end her misery. Her abuseful husband, her tortured son, her denied heart. It was all too much. Thinking softly to herself of all the love she had voided from herself or never received.. until she met Remus. Being temporarily blind she had no vision to guide her. But she did hear the low rumbles of the waterfall she stood above. She could feel the soft breeze travelling her hospital gown. She loved the feeling of being free.
And almost by accident, she took one step too close to the edge of the watery doom.
And she fell.
~*~
Now, when you see her gravestone, enstoned by Malfoy money, you see never dying white peonies.. and inscripted on one especially large, beautiful peony ...
RL and NB forever. For I will fall with her.
~*~
Remus' body was found at the end of the same waterfall Narcissa had fallen. And now.. they are both free to love one another. And fulfill promises they never knew they could keep.
Finished.
