The woman stumbled up the cobblestone road, doing her best to ignore the trail of red dots she left behind her. An early summer storm was raging around her, obscuring her vision, but she knew the way. She had been there often enough, far more often than was truly proper. Still, the dark road seemed to stretch on in front of her and she wondered if she would make it in time.
She wondered if she would finally be safe.
Her heart pounded inside her chest as she thought of the ones she had left behind. But, there were larger, more dangerous secrets at play than the man she liked to visit at night when her cruel husband was away. Secrets that would damage her children and their standing in the world more than her husband could. Besides, both of them were worth something to him. He would be cruel, he would hurt them, but there were lines she knew he could not cross. He needed an heir.
He needed his heir.
Finally, the woman reached the dark door. She hoped he still kept those wards on his house, that informed him even at Hogwarts that he had a visitor. If not she knew she would not last the night with the curses her husband had placed on her. She banged on the door.
"Please! Open up! Please help me!" she all but sobbed, leaning heavily against the dark wood. Her vision was swimming in and out. Finally, finally, the door opened.
"Narcissa," the man whispered in quiet horror as she quite literally fell into his arms. He quickly pulled her inside out of the rain and began casting warming charms and diagnostic spells.
"I left," she said. "But he doesn't know about this. Don't tell anyone-keep the children safe, please."
"What did he do to you?" he demanded, voice shaking with repressed rage.
"Transmogri-transmogrifi-"
The world was fading away from Narcissa. She felt him shaking her as she sank into the black.
"Narcissa! NARCISSA!"