Narcissa Malfoy was an unhappy woman. She was amrried a Death Eater called Lucius Malfoy who didn't love her. She didn't love her husband either- her heart belonged to Severus Snape who worked as a Potions teacher at the Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Narcissa hadn't seen Severus for ages. She had been forced to marry Lucius Malfoy when she had been 20 years old. She had been kidnapped by her sister Bellatrix, her husband Rodolphus Lestrange, and some other Death Eaters. Narcissa didn't know how they had eliminated Severus but it was sure that he had tried to find Narcissa in vain and had given up when he had realized that it was impossible to find her.

Narcissa sighed. She didn't want to be a Malfoy. She wanted to be a Snape. If her cousin, Sirius Black, had been the Prisoner of Azkaban, she was the prisoner of the Malfoy Manor. She wanted just fly far away from the Manor because it was a cold and dark place to live. She was like a fairy tale princess in a dragon's cave who waited for a prince coming to rescue her riding a big white stallion and wearing a silver armour.

Narcissa spent a lot of time in the summerhouse of the Malfoy family in Paris. She didn't want to live in a place where she was just a decoration. She had a friend in Paris. This friend had been in Ravenclaw with her when they had been teenagers. Yes, Narcissa had been a Ravenclaw. She had been one of the best students at Hogwarts, and now she had found someone she could trust. This friend was the only one who understood her and her feelings. She listened how Narcissa told her worries and felt sorry for Narcissa.

Lucius had started to approach his wife. He had seen how sad she was and didn't want Draco to see his mother crying. He visited his wife more often in Paris and Narcissa started to realize that Lucius wasn't so unemotional as she had expected.

Lucius was a perfectionist. He wanted everything to look perfect in the family. But nothing was perfect- the marriage didn't work, Narcissa was unhappy, Lucius was distant and cold, and Draco didn't know what was wrong with his parents. His relationship with his mother was better than with his father. Lucius wanted him to be perfect but Narcissa cared for her son when he had worries. Narcissa wondered if Lucius was capable to love anyone anymore. She knew that Lucius had had a girlfriend called Jessica but she didn't know what had happened to her.

One thought came into Narcissa's mind- maybe Lucius was still angry at his grandfather? Lucius's grandfather and Narcissa's parents had forced Narcissa and Lucius to marry each other, and Lucius's grandfather had been the one who had plotted everything- the union between the Black family and the Malfoy family, eliminating Severus and Jessica, the marriage... and Lucius had got what he had always wanted- to become a Death Eater. Lucius had been very angry at his grandfather when he had eliminated Jessica, and had protected Narcissa. But now everything had changed. Lucius had become colder when Draco had been born. He knew that Draco wasn't his son- Draco's real father was Severus. Draco didn't know this although he wondered why his Potions teacher liked him so much.

Draco never asked anything aloud. He accepted, or tried to accept, the situation how it was although Narcissa noticed that it was difficult to him. He tried to be brave- but deep inside of him, there was a little boy who was much more sensitive and vulnerable than his classmates thought.

No one knew that the Malfoy family had so many problems. Everything seemed to be as usual as in the other families. Lucius kept everything quiet so well that no one would have ever imagined that the situation of the Malfoy family was critical. The imagery was perfect but that was just an illusion- nothing was well in the family. Lucius was the one who controlled the situation. He didn't let anyone visit the Manor and took his wife and son with him in the most important and well-known events of the magical world. They tried to pretend they were just a normal family- but the whole family knew that nothing was normal in their family.

Narcissa sighed. The life as Mrs Malfoy wasn't a piece of cake. She wanted to turn back time and go back to Severus at Hogwarts where her happiest years of her life were. And she was sad because she wasn't sure if she would meet Severus ever again...