Hello! This is the final chapter. I put the whole poem to the end because I think it's annoying if I can't see the whole poem at once.

If you've read this far, don't stop now. And you can't be too busy not to review...

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4. The cage

When Draco's eleventh birthday drew nearer she had her first fight with Lucius. Lucius wanted to send Draco to Durmstang Academy but she didn't want him to go that far from home.

"Be reasonable, woman. You know that the teachers at Hogwarts are lousy! Well, with that old goat Dumbledore leading everything I say it's no surprise no one ever learns anything important there. But still, all that crap about defending against the Dark Arts? I want our son to learn the Dark Arts from the masters. And they are all in the Durmstrangs."  Lucius finished.

Narcissa looked at him, trying to find a soft spot in his angry face. "But, Lucius dear, Durmstrangs, it's just so far away, it can't be good to our little…"

Lucius gave a forced laugh. "Oh, don't you try that "our-little-son-is-so-fragile-he-needs-to-be-close-to-his-mom" –thing, he's not two years old, you know. And your own sister, she used to be an exchange student for the Durmstrang Academy, didn't she? If I don't remember quite wrong, which I'm very sure I don't, you were the one to tell me that she really loved being there and she didn't even want to come back."

It was like a slap on her face. Bringing her sister to the conversation about their son's future wasn't fair; it wasn't fair at all… Narcissa lost all her self-confidence and everything she had had in her mind. All she could do was to stare at her husband, to try to make him understand her point of view by shaking her head furiously. 

This time Lucius really laughed, mean and mirthless laughter. "So, it's decided, then, isn't it? The boy will go to Durmstrang."

Narcissa opened her mouth and when she spoke, her voice was calm and cold. "He will not." Lucius stared at her, amazed.

"I will make sure Draco will not go to Durmstrang Academy, even if it's the last thing I'll ever do. Maybe you like running around the country and hanging with your remaining Death Eater pals but I don't like sitting alone in this huge house. I don't like being completely abandoned to loneliness like an old dog. I don't ask for your love or understanding but Draco is everything I have. Of course Draco will not be here with me all the time. He will have to be away even if he goes to Hogwarts but the knowledge of him being not so far away from me makes my life bearable. And know this, Lucius Malfoy, that if you try to send him to Durmstrang I swear I'll take him with me and run away from here."

Lucius's eyes narrowed and she watched his wife with new eyes. "Are you… are you threatening me?" he asked, surprised by this possibility.

Narcissa nodded slowly, still awestruck by her courage. A little voice inside her head kept saying "How dare you, he's a Malfoy, he's a Malfoy, he's a Malfoy…" but she refused to listen to it. This was about her only son. The only person she had left.

Suddenly Lucius started to smile. "That's more I like it. You have always been much too soft to my taste. Threatening me, that's really something." He bent to kiss her on the cheek. "Let it be your will his time. But only this time" he said and his eyes narrowed dangerously. "I like woman with something to say but if you try to do that ever again, I won't be so gentle. Now, go to sleep, I have some things to ponder" he said and pushed her softly but demandingly away from the room.

Narcissa left the room, still unable to understand what had just happened. She had actually… won? Draco would go to Hogwarts.

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When Draco left to school, Narcissa's heart broke. Her only son, her baby, was away from her, in the middle of strangers and enemies. "He can manage" she said to herself. "He's much stronger than you ever were. He's just like Bellatrix." She then shook her head, horrified by the thought. Bellatrix in Azkaban. Bellatrix who had got caught. Defeated Bellatrix.

No, Draco was better than Bellatrix. Draco would never get caught. Never.

Now, when both Draco and Lucius had left the house, it seemed bigger and lonelier than ever. Eleven years she had had Draco with her and now he was gone. She didn't belong here. She had never been a true Black but she could never become a Malfoy either. She was different. She knew that.

Everyday, she felt lonelier in the Malfoy Manor. It was like a huge cage, and there was nothing to do to get out of there. She had no friends and no one to speak to. When she rarely left the house with her husband, her role was perfect: Lucius Malfoy's little wife, thinking, talking and looking just like him. From the inside, she felt jealousy for everyone else. Everyone free.

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horse's Heads

Were toward Eternity –

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Because I could not stop for Death –

He kindly stopped for me –

The Carriage held just Ourselves –

And Immortality.

We slowly drove – He knew no haste

And I had put away

My labor and my leisure too,

For His Civility –

We passed the School, where Children strove

At Recess – in the Ring –

We passed the Fields of Gazing Grain –

We passed the Setting Sun –    

We paused before a House that seemed

A Swelling of the Ground –

The Roof was scarcely visible –

The Cornice – in the Ground

Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horse's Heads

Were toward Eternity –

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THANK YOU for reading my story. I hope you liked it, but if you didn't, I would like to know that as well. So everybody, let's review! J