Note: Yay! It's the next chapter. The response for the last one was better,
so thanks guys. Oh, yeah and Merry Christmas to everyone and have a happy
new year. It will be a while before I update again, don't worry not to long
but maybe a week, hopefully no more. Anyways I'm expecting lots of reviews
this time, actually I got plenty last time, but I would still love to know
what you all think of it and I love getting reviews to here from you guys.
So thanks to all who reviewed and please keep reading.
GaBrIeLa2: Thanks for reviewing again, and I'm glad you're happy now that both Lucius and Snape have been mentioned. There is more of them to come I promise; well it's obvious as both of them play important parts in Narcissa's life as you could probably guess. Anywayz thanks for reviewing.
Asian Angel1: Don't worry Bellatrix is only acting nice because its her sisters new year and she hasn't yet met Voldamort, but that will gradually change, and you can watch as it slowly happens. Sirius and Narcissa share and average cousin type relationship, at the moment. I was fairly close with my cousins at that age, even if I didn't like them heaps, we were close. Now however as I'm older we are getting a bit more distant, and I'm sure a few can relate to that. Narcissa and Sirius will become more distant later as things change. Oh there are plenty Sirius and Narcissa moments to come, especially in this chapter. Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you like the short breaks in updating. Thanks loads.
Mag Carter: I'm glad you got a laugh out of it. I usually do funny things, but I want to pull away from that in my writing, however I still can't help the odd thing now and then. Besides I wanted to sort of show Narcissa and Snape's relationship, I always imagined them to be close friends, but both are too stubborn to kind of admit it. I know there a little out of character, but that will very gradually change as certain things happen. But I imagine that they may still be like that. Anyways loved the review thanks tones.
Metallicverb: Yeah I don't like those kinds of stories, I doubt whether it was really like that, I'm glad you like the change, some people wouldn't. Thank you a lot for the review, made me fell happy about the way I've written it.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, places, objects or spells mentioned that you recognize from J.K Rowling's books. I own the general plot though and a few new characters like Celeste and Honey, but that's all I can claim.
............Okay small break for a while so read this one slowly....... Hope you like it.....please read and review even to tell me off.........enjoy.....
It all began at Hogwarts!!
Chapter 5!
The first few weeks of school absolutely flew past and it wasn't long before the Quidditch season was about to begin. Narcissa didn't particularly like the sport, playing it that is, but she absolutely loved watching it, in fact there was hardly anything she enjoyed more. Her mother had tried to force her interest on other things, but Narcissa wouldn't have it, her father was the same, he too loved Quidditch with a passion. For her eighth birthday he had taken her to the Quidditch world cup, just her and her father, it was one of her fondest memories.
Lessons had gotten a little more interesting since her first week at school and her bond with her friends had grown a fair bit. In Defense Against the Dark arts they had finally began practical lessons, as fun as this was it didn't help Narcissa's relationship with her teacher. The first couple of weeks she had worked hard not to upset him again, and it had worked he barely even noticed her. That all changed when Narcissa and Sirius were forced to pair up when they were practicing the simple blocking spell, Expelliarmus.
Sirius had gone first and when he accidentally used the wrong spell, emitting a large flame from the tip of his wand instead and causing Narcissa's robes to catch on fire, he simply laughed at her and signaled to James and his new friend by the name of Remus Lupin, to take a look. When Narcissa had finally put the fire out she attacked him with a small spell she had learnt from her father which made him burp up bubbles every now and then. James and Remus had now stopped laughing at her and started laughing at Sirius, who was trying to look angry, but no one could take him seriously when bubbles kept popping out of his mouth. In retaliation he fired another spell in her direction and then she fired another until both of them were dragged by their ears by Moody, straight up to the hospital wing, where they both stayed the night getting pimples, moles, extra facial hair and extra eyes removed from their bodies. One good thing resulted in their attack; at least Moody liked Sirius just as much as he liked her.
Transfiguration lessons had also gotten much better. They too were able to have practical lessons, at last, and they were much less hostile than those of Moody lessons. McGonagall had seemed to take a liking to Narcissa as she was the first in the class to turn her candle into a matchstick. Honey and Celeste had not yet managed spending far too much time giggling between one another to actually listen.
Professor Binns classes were perhaps still the worst that there was. Every lesson he still insisted on reading page after page from the one book and Narcissa found it harder and harder to amuse herself during class. She now sat between Severus and Rabastan in these classes, as the three of them had become much closer after there narrow escape from the nasty care taker, Mr. Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris. On that particular occasion they had forgotten the password for their common room and forgetting about the curfew for students they had searched for someone to help them. Mrs. Norris had spotted them first and they just had enough time to run away before Filch came to her side. Of course he didn't give up that easily and he followed the sounds of their footsteps, they ran in circles for ages becoming fleetingly more worried, but finally they found Rabastan's older brother Rodolphus, who for some strange reason was still lurking about, and he let them in.
Charms lessons, with a tiny little teacher called Professor Flitwick, proved to be fairly enjoyable, especially after Narcissa learnt the tickling charm in one of her text books and visualized herself using it on Sirius the next time he crossed her.
Potion lessons weren't too bad either, Narcissa still sat next to Severus who she could easily copy notes from as he seemed to take down every word that Professor Callous said. She was getting fairly good marks as they always paired up together and he knew exactly what he was doing. Professor Callous had appreciated them both for their skills and had forgotten all about that little scenario on their first lesson.
Every Wednesday at Midnight they had Astronomy lessons with an older, mystical lady by the name of Professor Glaze. Narcissa was never in the right mood for these sorts of lessons and she spent most of her time cracking immature jokes to Severus, who merely rolled his eyes, disinterested.
An extremely young, chubby little woman called Professor Sprout taught them Herbology on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays in one of the schools many greenhouses, where Narcissa was yet again forced to endure her cousins pathetic little schemes. She had thought that being around a whole heap of plants would be safe enough, little did she know that there were ones that could burn your skin, turn you blue and make your hands shrink temporarily – luckily she found all this out in a book instead of first hand from Sirius, but he seemed too busy trying to sever plants with his immature friends than learn which ones he could use to poison her.
It was also compulsory for the first years to participate in flying lessons. It had only taken Narcissa a few lessons to successfully fly around the castle and touch back down in perfect form, a job that took Sirius far less time Narcissa had noticed sadly. Severus on the other hand had been given a particularly difficult broomstick that kept bucking every time he tried to mount it. One Gryffindor girl made the mistake of laughing at the scrawny, greasy haired boy and had the end of the broom shoved in her eye.
Narcissa was beginning to enjoy her time at the school, there was always something happening and she was constantly around her friends. She made a regular habit of talking to her eldest sister Andromeda at breakfast each morning because when she didn't she would usually became worried.
'I hope Bellatrix isn't turning you against me just because I'm in Hufflepuff, because that's not the way things should be,' she would say if Narcissa had forgotten to talk to her for at least one day, so she made sure that she always did.
Bellatrix was constantly taking care of Narcissa, even when she didn't ask for it, which she never did, and to Narcissa's great disappointment, Lucius Malfoy hadn't spoken to her for quite a while, in fact the last time was when he had bid her good bye at breakfast on her very first day.
Perhaps the biggest concern of Narcissa's was how everyone had begun behaving around people from other houses. When they had first arrived no one really minded what house you were in, but as time went on people began to stereotype you for what house you were in. Narcissa didn't like it, particularly because Slytherin had the worst reputation.
'It's simple,' Bellatrix informed her late one night. 'Slytherin's hate the Gryffindor's because they are always favoured and always have to get their way. Slytherin's hate the Hufflepuff's because there a bunch of nobody's who always have to follow people around and are afraid of their own shadows, likewise we don't like the Ravenclaw's because they think there so smart. However Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's sometimes don't appreciate the Gryffindor's because again, they always seem to get their own way, however when it comes to us everyone gangs up and despises us together.'
'Why is that?' Narcissa had asked curiously.
'Because they think we are dangerous and that we concentrate too much on dark arts, and not just the defense stuff that they teach you in school, the real stuff. In other words their scared of us.'
Narcissa didn't like being stereotyped as a bad person but unfortunately as the days went on, she realized, first hand, that what people would say about them was absolutely correct.
Quidditch had been called off until after the Christmas holidays, because the weather had been so bad that not even professionals could play in it. This dampened a lot of people's spirits, especially the older kids, as Quidditch seemed to be their only escape from the pressure of exams and school work. Narcissa was a little disappointed, but it wasn't like it had been called off all together.
By the time of the Christmas holidays Narcissa considered herself fully settled in and was completely comfortable at her school, which was a good thing considering she would be spending the next six years there. Not many people went home for the Christmas holidays, they said it was because they didn't want to, but it was mainly due to the fact that the weather was so bad that parents didn't want their children at home whining about there being nothing to do. So naturally they encouraged them to stay at the school.
Narcissa woke up the first day of the Christmas holidays and yawned happily. It was a good feeling not having to wake up and go to classes; however her smile soon faded when she remembered the detention that she had with Professor Moody.
Moody had set the detention early in the morning, just before breakfast as Narcissa could recall, so after a quick look at her watch, she groaned loudly and got up to get changed. She made her way slowly to Moody's office and as she did so she remembered why she had to attend this stupid detention in the first place. Of course it had been because of Sirius and of course he would be joining her, along with his friend Remus.
Narcissa had listened into Sirius and Remus conversation during a particularly boring Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. She only heard bits and pieces of what they were saying and couldn't resist letting Sirius know that she had listened to his conversation, it always annoyed him. She heard his friend say something about a werewolf, and she leant real close and asked, 'Who's a werewolf.'
Sirius completely flipped out, 'None of your dam business,' he had shouted at her so loudly that the whole room turned to look at him.
'I was just –' Narcissa tried to say in her defense, but Sirius had made a dive for her and it was a good thing his friend had stopped him before he got to her, other wise she would have had a lot more than a detention when they were through with each other. Of course Moody had been furious at the three of them, 'Constant vigilance,' he had called at the three of them, before declaring they each had a detention and that ten house points each would be taken from them.
Narcissa reached the room and found that Sirius was already sitting in there, along with his sick little friend, Remus. Remus Lupin was a boy of about average height and weight who always seemed to look a little weary and unwell; his light brown hair was shabby and unkempt whilst his bright blue eyes were the only thing that really made him stand out.
Professor Moody was not in the room; Professor McGonagall was in his place. 'Please take a seat,' she said frowning slightly and sounding very stern.
Narcissa did as she was asked, she would have liked to sit as far away from her cousin and his sickly friend as she could, but the room only had three desks in it, and the only one left was right in between them both. She sighed loudly and made her way over.
'I'm sorry Miss. Black, are the seating arrangements not to your liking?' McGonagall said harshly, sounding by far superior.
'No there fine,' she said sulking into her chair.
'Good,' she said, scanning the room. 'The headmaster will be joining us shortly, as Professor Moody thinks it necessary for him to understand why you are here,' she added, watching them all closely.
Narcissa lifted her head at this news and sighed again. Sirius looked up in shock and than glanced threateningly at Narcissa. Remus simply rested his head on his arms and stared out the window.
It was a miserably day outside, the sky was of the deepest grey and the rain poured down so hard that it was almost impossible to see a thing. Lightning lit up the dark grounds outside every so often, and the thunder would rock the windows whenever it sounded.
'Welcome Albus,' Narcissa heard McGonagall say, and she shifted her gaze back to the room. Sirius looked slightly nervous, though he refused to show it and Remus had finally lifted his head of his arms.
'Well, well, well,' Dumbledore said in his slow, soothing and calm voice. There was not a trace of anger in it. 'The first detention for the new first years and it happens to be the three of you. Perhaps one of you would like to explain to me what happened.'
The room was extremely silent. Narcissa looked at Sirius, who looked as if he certainly did not want to speak, than at Remus who looked to ill to hold a conversation. Narcissa looked at McGonagall rather confused, as she looked thoroughly amused by the situation. Dumbledore had a friendly look upon his face and Narcissa hardly thought he could be as powerful as people said he was.
'Black?' McGonagall said, catching Narcissa's eye. 'Perhaps you would like to tell the headmaster your story.
Narcissa opened her mouth to say something but Sirius intervened.
'M-Me Professor,' he said nervously.
'No not you Sirius, I meant Narcissa,' McGonagall said shaking her head, Dumbledore, smiled kindly, looking thoroughly amused. Narcissa didn't find it amusing, and obviously neither did Sirius.
'How about you Mr. Lupin,' Dumbledore said, raising his eyebrows at him. Narcissa and Sirius both turned to look at him, silently pleading not to pick on one of them in particular.
'Alright,' Remus said in a strong voice, which made Narcissa raise her eyebrows in surprise, how could someone who looked that unwell all the time have such a powerful voice?
'Well, I guess it was stupid really, we ... I mean, Sirius and I were having a conversation about – well about things, and Narcissa was listening in, Sirius got angry and, well, I held him back so that he wouldn't do anything they'd both regret,' Remus spoke the truth, clearly.
'I don't like people eaves-dropping,' Sirius quickly added in his defense. 'Especially not her,' he added pointing at Narcissa.
'I wasn't eaves-dropping ... I just overheard that's all,' she said quickly not wanting him to make her out to be the baddy.
'Yeah right,' Sirius said loudly, glaring at her.
'Well you didn't have to overreact,' Narcissa said loudly, forgetting where she was.
'Well it was a personal conversation,' Sirius added with a side glance at Remus, 'of great importance and you could have told everyone.'
'I wasn't paying attention Sirius, I couldn't care a less about what you two were on abou-'
'Silence!' Dumbledore said loudly, placing one hand in the air.
Sirius quickly bit his tongue and faced the headmaster, Narcissa and Remus did the same.
'Now, firstly ... thank you Remus for that insight, does everyone agree with the general content of it?' he asked gently, maintaining his calm.
Sirius and Narcissa looked at each other carefully than they both returned their stare to Dumbledore and nodded.
'Good, that's a start ... perhaps, Sirius you could inform me of what was so important that you thought you had to attack a family member over,' he continued, glancing at Sirius over the top of his half mooned spectacles.
'I-I can't ...'Sirius said, looking nervously at Remus.
'Perhaps later than?' Dumbledore questioned. Remus nodded his head sadly at Sirius and Dumbledore and Sirius too nodded.
'Good, now than – there is to be no more fighting between the three of you, and I can see by the looks on your faces that you have learnt your lesson,' he added thoroughly amused, 'you may go Narcissa. Remus and Sirius, I would like you two to remain.'
They both nodded in silence and Narcissa left quickly, glad to be out of the uncomfortable atmosphere of that room. She made her way back to the Slytherin common room as she knew that she had already missed breakfast, her stomach let out a low growl but she ignored it. She rounded the corner to head for the dungeons, when suddenly she heard a small plea for help.
She quickly made her way towards the crying sound and found two familiar faces, standing over a small, ugly, crumbling figure. It was unmistakably a house elf, Narcissa had seen several before, coming from a rich family they had two to do the house work. They were ugly little creatures with large pointy ears and nose, with wrinkly skin that showed their bones and eyes that were far too large for them. This one was obviously a school elf, and it was wearing an old pillow case of some sort – a trait that nearly all house elves shared, for to give it clothing meant to set it free. But what was this one doing in such company? And what was wrong with it?
Algernon Rookwood, the greasy, spotty, bored looking prefect was glaring down at the elf in utter dislike, whilst Rodolphus Lestrange looked on, brushing his slightly curly hair out of his handsome face, with a cruel smirk painted across his face.
'That was nothing,' Rodolphus said quickly, pulling out his wand. 'So what if you can make it do whatever you want, that's not real pain – I'll show you real pain.'
Narcissa shivered at the way he spoke and had a bad feeling that she did not want to watch what happened next, but she couldn't draw away from the scene, she was too curious.
'You watching? I was taught this one long before you were taught the other ... Crucio,' he shouted in his cold voice and a jet of light shot out of the end of his wand and struck the elf who was pleading on the floor.
An ear piercing scream reached Narcissa's ears and she covered them up quickly. Her mouth fell open as she watched in horror as the little figure on the floor twisted and clenched itself, obviously in excruciating pain.
'Stop it Rodolphus, someone's bound to here it,' Rookwood shouted over the screaming.
He stopped immediately and laughed as the creature gave one last cry in pain. 'That's how it's done,' he said putting his wand away and crossing his arms looking extremely proud of himself.
'Always have to show me up don't you,' Rookwood spat miserably, but smirked nonetheless and gave the elf one small kick before walking away, 'That's for getting in my way elf,' he barked.
Narcissa stood for a while starring at the small, still figure on the floor. Suddenly she heard footsteps, and finally finding her feet, she ran as fast as she could back to the common room.
For most of the day she lay on the lounge in the common room, not wanting to speak to anyone. It wasn't unusual to see her lying there doing nothing as that was what most people were doing anyway. Narcissa let her head fall down over the side of the lounge and she could feel the blood rushing to her head. Where could a fifteen and sixteen year old learn magic like that?
Narcissa watched as her sister sat in the corner of the room with her small group of friends. The two snobby girls that she usually hung out with were there, as was Algernon, Rodolphus and Lucius. Narcissa sighed sadly; did her sister know what her friends were like? Were they all like that? Was that how she would one day be?
Her head was pounding, so she sat it up right, but she still didn't take her eyes off her sisters group. She watched Lucius look sideways at her and than quickly looked away, but she didn't care, she was still upset.
Severus and Rabastan came and played a game of wizard's chess near her, after she said she didn't want to go with them for a walk. They sat there and played until they announced they were going to bed. Bed? How long had she been lying there, she turned over on her side, putting her feet on the lounge and closed her eyes, she didn't care, and she didn't want to go to sleep.
'Do you mind?' a voice said from somewhere near her feet, and the next thing she knew her feet were pushed off the lounge and onto the floor. She sat only to see Lucius watching her closely.
'What do you want?' She said, trying to sound rude, but she was still so flustered to see him talking to her again that it came out like nothing of the sort.
'To talk,' he said simple, 'you seemed troubled before.'
'It's nothing,' she said miserably, 'go away.'
'You'll get used to it you know,' he said evenly.
'Get used to what?' she said curiously as she finally sat up. He obviously knew what she had seen earlier.
'The cursing, the attacking, the anger,' he said simply raising an eyebrow at her and raising his head slightly.
'Does my sister do it?' Narcissa asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
'I'm not going to pretend with you Narcissa; it's kinder that you know the truth. If she's in the right mood for it she will, but nothing like they did, not yet anyway,' he said looking slightly distant.
'What do you mean?' Narcissa asked, 'Where did they learn to do that kind of magic, they don't teach it here.'
'New company,' Lucius said, still looking slightly distant, 'they've found a powerful friend, who'll teach them anything.'
'Have you ever cursed anyone?' she asked quietly, again not really wanting to know the answer.
'Yes,' he said slowly and carefully, 'but again nothing like that.'
'Why? Why do you do it for? Why do they do it for?' she asked, feeling slightly tearful.
'Some of them don't know any better,' he said frowning slightly. 'Others, however just get it beaten into them,' he said generally as he stood up.
'What do you mean?' Narcissa asked questioningly, aware that all she was truly doing was asking questions.
'It's these stupid houses that's what,' Lucius said savagely pointing around the room. 'You come to school all normal and fairly nice, and that dumb old hat places you in a house like this. Sure your happy enough, you hate mud-bloods, and this house is perfect, but it goes beyond that. People say that Slytherin produces more bad wizards than any other house, and that's true, only because they make it true. We become what they make us,' he said, becoming extremely angry, and suddenly Narcissa understood. 'That stupid hat and the whole sorting ritual make Slytherin's, and peoples attitudes contribute to that, from there the Sytherin's make people like Rookwood and Lestrange, if your around what you saw today, every day for seven years, than your dam well going to become exactly like that because you wont know any better.'
Narcissa looked sadly into Lucius glowing eyes and nodded in understanding. Perhaps sorting students into houses wasn't as great an idea as she had originally thought. Lucius sat back down.
'Is that you then?' Narcissa asked curiously.
Lucius looked at her for a moment and than thought carefully about what she had said. 'Sort of,' he said in a cold, distant voice.
'Things are going to get a lot worse Narcissa I can guarantee you that, your stuck in the middle of it all now and very soon there will be no escape, you've seen Rookwood and Lestrange, they've changed a lot, in only a few weeks, I guess I probably will soon too.' He said all this with an expression that Narcissa could not read no mater how hard she tried.
'But why?' she asked again.
'Why?' he repeated, searching hard for an answer. 'I guess because I can't refuse his power.'
'Who's power? Why can't you?' she asked desperately, this was what she wanted to know, who was it that was teaching children such dangerous spells?
'You'll find out soon enough, because I guarantee that when your time comes you too will not be able to refuse what he has to offer,' Lucius frowned at her again and got up to leave.
'I don't understand you?' she said sounding so confused.
'I know you don't, because you're only a child.' His words stung her so harshly; he thought she was a child. 'You wait till you've spent at least a year or two with these people, and then you'll begin to understand.'
Narcissa held her head high and watched him go sadly. That conversation had gone very badly, she was now feeling even worse than she had before. Who was this person that was so irresistible to Lucius and the others? Would she one day turn out like them? She shuddered at the thought and than swallowed hard. No! She promised herself, no matter who around her became like that, she would never, ever follow them, she would never fall for this person's charm, whoever they were. She was not like her sister, she would not be a follower, she would not be tempted, she would find power her own way.
GaBrIeLa2: Thanks for reviewing again, and I'm glad you're happy now that both Lucius and Snape have been mentioned. There is more of them to come I promise; well it's obvious as both of them play important parts in Narcissa's life as you could probably guess. Anywayz thanks for reviewing.
Asian Angel1: Don't worry Bellatrix is only acting nice because its her sisters new year and she hasn't yet met Voldamort, but that will gradually change, and you can watch as it slowly happens. Sirius and Narcissa share and average cousin type relationship, at the moment. I was fairly close with my cousins at that age, even if I didn't like them heaps, we were close. Now however as I'm older we are getting a bit more distant, and I'm sure a few can relate to that. Narcissa and Sirius will become more distant later as things change. Oh there are plenty Sirius and Narcissa moments to come, especially in this chapter. Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you like the short breaks in updating. Thanks loads.
Mag Carter: I'm glad you got a laugh out of it. I usually do funny things, but I want to pull away from that in my writing, however I still can't help the odd thing now and then. Besides I wanted to sort of show Narcissa and Snape's relationship, I always imagined them to be close friends, but both are too stubborn to kind of admit it. I know there a little out of character, but that will very gradually change as certain things happen. But I imagine that they may still be like that. Anyways loved the review thanks tones.
Metallicverb: Yeah I don't like those kinds of stories, I doubt whether it was really like that, I'm glad you like the change, some people wouldn't. Thank you a lot for the review, made me fell happy about the way I've written it.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters, places, objects or spells mentioned that you recognize from J.K Rowling's books. I own the general plot though and a few new characters like Celeste and Honey, but that's all I can claim.
............Okay small break for a while so read this one slowly....... Hope you like it.....please read and review even to tell me off.........enjoy.....
It all began at Hogwarts!!
Chapter 5!
The first few weeks of school absolutely flew past and it wasn't long before the Quidditch season was about to begin. Narcissa didn't particularly like the sport, playing it that is, but she absolutely loved watching it, in fact there was hardly anything she enjoyed more. Her mother had tried to force her interest on other things, but Narcissa wouldn't have it, her father was the same, he too loved Quidditch with a passion. For her eighth birthday he had taken her to the Quidditch world cup, just her and her father, it was one of her fondest memories.
Lessons had gotten a little more interesting since her first week at school and her bond with her friends had grown a fair bit. In Defense Against the Dark arts they had finally began practical lessons, as fun as this was it didn't help Narcissa's relationship with her teacher. The first couple of weeks she had worked hard not to upset him again, and it had worked he barely even noticed her. That all changed when Narcissa and Sirius were forced to pair up when they were practicing the simple blocking spell, Expelliarmus.
Sirius had gone first and when he accidentally used the wrong spell, emitting a large flame from the tip of his wand instead and causing Narcissa's robes to catch on fire, he simply laughed at her and signaled to James and his new friend by the name of Remus Lupin, to take a look. When Narcissa had finally put the fire out she attacked him with a small spell she had learnt from her father which made him burp up bubbles every now and then. James and Remus had now stopped laughing at her and started laughing at Sirius, who was trying to look angry, but no one could take him seriously when bubbles kept popping out of his mouth. In retaliation he fired another spell in her direction and then she fired another until both of them were dragged by their ears by Moody, straight up to the hospital wing, where they both stayed the night getting pimples, moles, extra facial hair and extra eyes removed from their bodies. One good thing resulted in their attack; at least Moody liked Sirius just as much as he liked her.
Transfiguration lessons had also gotten much better. They too were able to have practical lessons, at last, and they were much less hostile than those of Moody lessons. McGonagall had seemed to take a liking to Narcissa as she was the first in the class to turn her candle into a matchstick. Honey and Celeste had not yet managed spending far too much time giggling between one another to actually listen.
Professor Binns classes were perhaps still the worst that there was. Every lesson he still insisted on reading page after page from the one book and Narcissa found it harder and harder to amuse herself during class. She now sat between Severus and Rabastan in these classes, as the three of them had become much closer after there narrow escape from the nasty care taker, Mr. Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris. On that particular occasion they had forgotten the password for their common room and forgetting about the curfew for students they had searched for someone to help them. Mrs. Norris had spotted them first and they just had enough time to run away before Filch came to her side. Of course he didn't give up that easily and he followed the sounds of their footsteps, they ran in circles for ages becoming fleetingly more worried, but finally they found Rabastan's older brother Rodolphus, who for some strange reason was still lurking about, and he let them in.
Charms lessons, with a tiny little teacher called Professor Flitwick, proved to be fairly enjoyable, especially after Narcissa learnt the tickling charm in one of her text books and visualized herself using it on Sirius the next time he crossed her.
Potion lessons weren't too bad either, Narcissa still sat next to Severus who she could easily copy notes from as he seemed to take down every word that Professor Callous said. She was getting fairly good marks as they always paired up together and he knew exactly what he was doing. Professor Callous had appreciated them both for their skills and had forgotten all about that little scenario on their first lesson.
Every Wednesday at Midnight they had Astronomy lessons with an older, mystical lady by the name of Professor Glaze. Narcissa was never in the right mood for these sorts of lessons and she spent most of her time cracking immature jokes to Severus, who merely rolled his eyes, disinterested.
An extremely young, chubby little woman called Professor Sprout taught them Herbology on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays in one of the schools many greenhouses, where Narcissa was yet again forced to endure her cousins pathetic little schemes. She had thought that being around a whole heap of plants would be safe enough, little did she know that there were ones that could burn your skin, turn you blue and make your hands shrink temporarily – luckily she found all this out in a book instead of first hand from Sirius, but he seemed too busy trying to sever plants with his immature friends than learn which ones he could use to poison her.
It was also compulsory for the first years to participate in flying lessons. It had only taken Narcissa a few lessons to successfully fly around the castle and touch back down in perfect form, a job that took Sirius far less time Narcissa had noticed sadly. Severus on the other hand had been given a particularly difficult broomstick that kept bucking every time he tried to mount it. One Gryffindor girl made the mistake of laughing at the scrawny, greasy haired boy and had the end of the broom shoved in her eye.
Narcissa was beginning to enjoy her time at the school, there was always something happening and she was constantly around her friends. She made a regular habit of talking to her eldest sister Andromeda at breakfast each morning because when she didn't she would usually became worried.
'I hope Bellatrix isn't turning you against me just because I'm in Hufflepuff, because that's not the way things should be,' she would say if Narcissa had forgotten to talk to her for at least one day, so she made sure that she always did.
Bellatrix was constantly taking care of Narcissa, even when she didn't ask for it, which she never did, and to Narcissa's great disappointment, Lucius Malfoy hadn't spoken to her for quite a while, in fact the last time was when he had bid her good bye at breakfast on her very first day.
Perhaps the biggest concern of Narcissa's was how everyone had begun behaving around people from other houses. When they had first arrived no one really minded what house you were in, but as time went on people began to stereotype you for what house you were in. Narcissa didn't like it, particularly because Slytherin had the worst reputation.
'It's simple,' Bellatrix informed her late one night. 'Slytherin's hate the Gryffindor's because they are always favoured and always have to get their way. Slytherin's hate the Hufflepuff's because there a bunch of nobody's who always have to follow people around and are afraid of their own shadows, likewise we don't like the Ravenclaw's because they think there so smart. However Hufflepuff's and Ravenclaw's sometimes don't appreciate the Gryffindor's because again, they always seem to get their own way, however when it comes to us everyone gangs up and despises us together.'
'Why is that?' Narcissa had asked curiously.
'Because they think we are dangerous and that we concentrate too much on dark arts, and not just the defense stuff that they teach you in school, the real stuff. In other words their scared of us.'
Narcissa didn't like being stereotyped as a bad person but unfortunately as the days went on, she realized, first hand, that what people would say about them was absolutely correct.
Quidditch had been called off until after the Christmas holidays, because the weather had been so bad that not even professionals could play in it. This dampened a lot of people's spirits, especially the older kids, as Quidditch seemed to be their only escape from the pressure of exams and school work. Narcissa was a little disappointed, but it wasn't like it had been called off all together.
By the time of the Christmas holidays Narcissa considered herself fully settled in and was completely comfortable at her school, which was a good thing considering she would be spending the next six years there. Not many people went home for the Christmas holidays, they said it was because they didn't want to, but it was mainly due to the fact that the weather was so bad that parents didn't want their children at home whining about there being nothing to do. So naturally they encouraged them to stay at the school.
Narcissa woke up the first day of the Christmas holidays and yawned happily. It was a good feeling not having to wake up and go to classes; however her smile soon faded when she remembered the detention that she had with Professor Moody.
Moody had set the detention early in the morning, just before breakfast as Narcissa could recall, so after a quick look at her watch, she groaned loudly and got up to get changed. She made her way slowly to Moody's office and as she did so she remembered why she had to attend this stupid detention in the first place. Of course it had been because of Sirius and of course he would be joining her, along with his friend Remus.
Narcissa had listened into Sirius and Remus conversation during a particularly boring Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson. She only heard bits and pieces of what they were saying and couldn't resist letting Sirius know that she had listened to his conversation, it always annoyed him. She heard his friend say something about a werewolf, and she leant real close and asked, 'Who's a werewolf.'
Sirius completely flipped out, 'None of your dam business,' he had shouted at her so loudly that the whole room turned to look at him.
'I was just –' Narcissa tried to say in her defense, but Sirius had made a dive for her and it was a good thing his friend had stopped him before he got to her, other wise she would have had a lot more than a detention when they were through with each other. Of course Moody had been furious at the three of them, 'Constant vigilance,' he had called at the three of them, before declaring they each had a detention and that ten house points each would be taken from them.
Narcissa reached the room and found that Sirius was already sitting in there, along with his sick little friend, Remus. Remus Lupin was a boy of about average height and weight who always seemed to look a little weary and unwell; his light brown hair was shabby and unkempt whilst his bright blue eyes were the only thing that really made him stand out.
Professor Moody was not in the room; Professor McGonagall was in his place. 'Please take a seat,' she said frowning slightly and sounding very stern.
Narcissa did as she was asked, she would have liked to sit as far away from her cousin and his sickly friend as she could, but the room only had three desks in it, and the only one left was right in between them both. She sighed loudly and made her way over.
'I'm sorry Miss. Black, are the seating arrangements not to your liking?' McGonagall said harshly, sounding by far superior.
'No there fine,' she said sulking into her chair.
'Good,' she said, scanning the room. 'The headmaster will be joining us shortly, as Professor Moody thinks it necessary for him to understand why you are here,' she added, watching them all closely.
Narcissa lifted her head at this news and sighed again. Sirius looked up in shock and than glanced threateningly at Narcissa. Remus simply rested his head on his arms and stared out the window.
It was a miserably day outside, the sky was of the deepest grey and the rain poured down so hard that it was almost impossible to see a thing. Lightning lit up the dark grounds outside every so often, and the thunder would rock the windows whenever it sounded.
'Welcome Albus,' Narcissa heard McGonagall say, and she shifted her gaze back to the room. Sirius looked slightly nervous, though he refused to show it and Remus had finally lifted his head of his arms.
'Well, well, well,' Dumbledore said in his slow, soothing and calm voice. There was not a trace of anger in it. 'The first detention for the new first years and it happens to be the three of you. Perhaps one of you would like to explain to me what happened.'
The room was extremely silent. Narcissa looked at Sirius, who looked as if he certainly did not want to speak, than at Remus who looked to ill to hold a conversation. Narcissa looked at McGonagall rather confused, as she looked thoroughly amused by the situation. Dumbledore had a friendly look upon his face and Narcissa hardly thought he could be as powerful as people said he was.
'Black?' McGonagall said, catching Narcissa's eye. 'Perhaps you would like to tell the headmaster your story.
Narcissa opened her mouth to say something but Sirius intervened.
'M-Me Professor,' he said nervously.
'No not you Sirius, I meant Narcissa,' McGonagall said shaking her head, Dumbledore, smiled kindly, looking thoroughly amused. Narcissa didn't find it amusing, and obviously neither did Sirius.
'How about you Mr. Lupin,' Dumbledore said, raising his eyebrows at him. Narcissa and Sirius both turned to look at him, silently pleading not to pick on one of them in particular.
'Alright,' Remus said in a strong voice, which made Narcissa raise her eyebrows in surprise, how could someone who looked that unwell all the time have such a powerful voice?
'Well, I guess it was stupid really, we ... I mean, Sirius and I were having a conversation about – well about things, and Narcissa was listening in, Sirius got angry and, well, I held him back so that he wouldn't do anything they'd both regret,' Remus spoke the truth, clearly.
'I don't like people eaves-dropping,' Sirius quickly added in his defense. 'Especially not her,' he added pointing at Narcissa.
'I wasn't eaves-dropping ... I just overheard that's all,' she said quickly not wanting him to make her out to be the baddy.
'Yeah right,' Sirius said loudly, glaring at her.
'Well you didn't have to overreact,' Narcissa said loudly, forgetting where she was.
'Well it was a personal conversation,' Sirius added with a side glance at Remus, 'of great importance and you could have told everyone.'
'I wasn't paying attention Sirius, I couldn't care a less about what you two were on abou-'
'Silence!' Dumbledore said loudly, placing one hand in the air.
Sirius quickly bit his tongue and faced the headmaster, Narcissa and Remus did the same.
'Now, firstly ... thank you Remus for that insight, does everyone agree with the general content of it?' he asked gently, maintaining his calm.
Sirius and Narcissa looked at each other carefully than they both returned their stare to Dumbledore and nodded.
'Good, that's a start ... perhaps, Sirius you could inform me of what was so important that you thought you had to attack a family member over,' he continued, glancing at Sirius over the top of his half mooned spectacles.
'I-I can't ...'Sirius said, looking nervously at Remus.
'Perhaps later than?' Dumbledore questioned. Remus nodded his head sadly at Sirius and Dumbledore and Sirius too nodded.
'Good, now than – there is to be no more fighting between the three of you, and I can see by the looks on your faces that you have learnt your lesson,' he added thoroughly amused, 'you may go Narcissa. Remus and Sirius, I would like you two to remain.'
They both nodded in silence and Narcissa left quickly, glad to be out of the uncomfortable atmosphere of that room. She made her way back to the Slytherin common room as she knew that she had already missed breakfast, her stomach let out a low growl but she ignored it. She rounded the corner to head for the dungeons, when suddenly she heard a small plea for help.
She quickly made her way towards the crying sound and found two familiar faces, standing over a small, ugly, crumbling figure. It was unmistakably a house elf, Narcissa had seen several before, coming from a rich family they had two to do the house work. They were ugly little creatures with large pointy ears and nose, with wrinkly skin that showed their bones and eyes that were far too large for them. This one was obviously a school elf, and it was wearing an old pillow case of some sort – a trait that nearly all house elves shared, for to give it clothing meant to set it free. But what was this one doing in such company? And what was wrong with it?
Algernon Rookwood, the greasy, spotty, bored looking prefect was glaring down at the elf in utter dislike, whilst Rodolphus Lestrange looked on, brushing his slightly curly hair out of his handsome face, with a cruel smirk painted across his face.
'That was nothing,' Rodolphus said quickly, pulling out his wand. 'So what if you can make it do whatever you want, that's not real pain – I'll show you real pain.'
Narcissa shivered at the way he spoke and had a bad feeling that she did not want to watch what happened next, but she couldn't draw away from the scene, she was too curious.
'You watching? I was taught this one long before you were taught the other ... Crucio,' he shouted in his cold voice and a jet of light shot out of the end of his wand and struck the elf who was pleading on the floor.
An ear piercing scream reached Narcissa's ears and she covered them up quickly. Her mouth fell open as she watched in horror as the little figure on the floor twisted and clenched itself, obviously in excruciating pain.
'Stop it Rodolphus, someone's bound to here it,' Rookwood shouted over the screaming.
He stopped immediately and laughed as the creature gave one last cry in pain. 'That's how it's done,' he said putting his wand away and crossing his arms looking extremely proud of himself.
'Always have to show me up don't you,' Rookwood spat miserably, but smirked nonetheless and gave the elf one small kick before walking away, 'That's for getting in my way elf,' he barked.
Narcissa stood for a while starring at the small, still figure on the floor. Suddenly she heard footsteps, and finally finding her feet, she ran as fast as she could back to the common room.
For most of the day she lay on the lounge in the common room, not wanting to speak to anyone. It wasn't unusual to see her lying there doing nothing as that was what most people were doing anyway. Narcissa let her head fall down over the side of the lounge and she could feel the blood rushing to her head. Where could a fifteen and sixteen year old learn magic like that?
Narcissa watched as her sister sat in the corner of the room with her small group of friends. The two snobby girls that she usually hung out with were there, as was Algernon, Rodolphus and Lucius. Narcissa sighed sadly; did her sister know what her friends were like? Were they all like that? Was that how she would one day be?
Her head was pounding, so she sat it up right, but she still didn't take her eyes off her sisters group. She watched Lucius look sideways at her and than quickly looked away, but she didn't care, she was still upset.
Severus and Rabastan came and played a game of wizard's chess near her, after she said she didn't want to go with them for a walk. They sat there and played until they announced they were going to bed. Bed? How long had she been lying there, she turned over on her side, putting her feet on the lounge and closed her eyes, she didn't care, and she didn't want to go to sleep.
'Do you mind?' a voice said from somewhere near her feet, and the next thing she knew her feet were pushed off the lounge and onto the floor. She sat only to see Lucius watching her closely.
'What do you want?' She said, trying to sound rude, but she was still so flustered to see him talking to her again that it came out like nothing of the sort.
'To talk,' he said simple, 'you seemed troubled before.'
'It's nothing,' she said miserably, 'go away.'
'You'll get used to it you know,' he said evenly.
'Get used to what?' she said curiously as she finally sat up. He obviously knew what she had seen earlier.
'The cursing, the attacking, the anger,' he said simply raising an eyebrow at her and raising his head slightly.
'Does my sister do it?' Narcissa asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
'I'm not going to pretend with you Narcissa; it's kinder that you know the truth. If she's in the right mood for it she will, but nothing like they did, not yet anyway,' he said looking slightly distant.
'What do you mean?' Narcissa asked, 'Where did they learn to do that kind of magic, they don't teach it here.'
'New company,' Lucius said, still looking slightly distant, 'they've found a powerful friend, who'll teach them anything.'
'Have you ever cursed anyone?' she asked quietly, again not really wanting to know the answer.
'Yes,' he said slowly and carefully, 'but again nothing like that.'
'Why? Why do you do it for? Why do they do it for?' she asked, feeling slightly tearful.
'Some of them don't know any better,' he said frowning slightly. 'Others, however just get it beaten into them,' he said generally as he stood up.
'What do you mean?' Narcissa asked questioningly, aware that all she was truly doing was asking questions.
'It's these stupid houses that's what,' Lucius said savagely pointing around the room. 'You come to school all normal and fairly nice, and that dumb old hat places you in a house like this. Sure your happy enough, you hate mud-bloods, and this house is perfect, but it goes beyond that. People say that Slytherin produces more bad wizards than any other house, and that's true, only because they make it true. We become what they make us,' he said, becoming extremely angry, and suddenly Narcissa understood. 'That stupid hat and the whole sorting ritual make Slytherin's, and peoples attitudes contribute to that, from there the Sytherin's make people like Rookwood and Lestrange, if your around what you saw today, every day for seven years, than your dam well going to become exactly like that because you wont know any better.'
Narcissa looked sadly into Lucius glowing eyes and nodded in understanding. Perhaps sorting students into houses wasn't as great an idea as she had originally thought. Lucius sat back down.
'Is that you then?' Narcissa asked curiously.
Lucius looked at her for a moment and than thought carefully about what she had said. 'Sort of,' he said in a cold, distant voice.
'Things are going to get a lot worse Narcissa I can guarantee you that, your stuck in the middle of it all now and very soon there will be no escape, you've seen Rookwood and Lestrange, they've changed a lot, in only a few weeks, I guess I probably will soon too.' He said all this with an expression that Narcissa could not read no mater how hard she tried.
'But why?' she asked again.
'Why?' he repeated, searching hard for an answer. 'I guess because I can't refuse his power.'
'Who's power? Why can't you?' she asked desperately, this was what she wanted to know, who was it that was teaching children such dangerous spells?
'You'll find out soon enough, because I guarantee that when your time comes you too will not be able to refuse what he has to offer,' Lucius frowned at her again and got up to leave.
'I don't understand you?' she said sounding so confused.
'I know you don't, because you're only a child.' His words stung her so harshly; he thought she was a child. 'You wait till you've spent at least a year or two with these people, and then you'll begin to understand.'
Narcissa held her head high and watched him go sadly. That conversation had gone very badly, she was now feeling even worse than she had before. Who was this person that was so irresistible to Lucius and the others? Would she one day turn out like them? She shuddered at the thought and than swallowed hard. No! She promised herself, no matter who around her became like that, she would never, ever follow them, she would never fall for this person's charm, whoever they were. She was not like her sister, she would not be a follower, she would not be tempted, she would find power her own way.