Ch 2
Sometimes her mother would read it to her, sometimes her father, and sometimes she would read it with her friends. She loved the storyline... of a girl, just an ordinary girl, finding the prince of her dreams.
"I wish I could live happily ever after, just like Cinderella…" Narcissa sighed as she stared through the wall, imagining herself away- away someplace where she could be joyous simply because of life.
A music box was making little chimes whistle through the wind, and Narcissa was almost happy here... she thought that this was the second best place in the world. Yes second... with the flowers in full bloom? Yes... second. With a loving family and lots of friends? Yes... second. With dresses, dolls, candy, and elegances surrounding her every step she took? Yes... Second.
To the rest of her family, their home was all they could ever dream of. Her mother and father designed it together... with all of the things that their family would need, all of the luxuries their family could want, and everything was personalized neat and trim; so it was just the place for them, down to the last carefully sculpted inch.
If this is beautiful fairytale home was her SECOND favorite place... it should be quite hard to fathom that her absolute favorite place that she had ever been, and could ever dream of in her most perfect dream, was a gloomy stone castle... far, far away from her friends, her family, her gardens, her world away from the rest of the world... but it was, and that castle went by the name of Hogwarts.
It was a cold, musty, mossy old strict-as-ever boarding school, and the stones towered overhead like cruel taskmasters, whips in hand... she loved every inch of it. What then, was it she loved? The teachers? Cold and calculating, most of them... save maybe a few like Albus Dumbledore, but she didn't really care for him either.
The Meals? She had had better ones... The lessons? Dull, and she passed each one with ease and honors. So what then, could possibly be here in this place that she was missing at her sparklingly beautiful home... and everywhere else?
She hadn't known at first that she would grow to love this place... in fact, when the tran had stopped and she had stepped out and seen the castle for the very first time, she firmly believed that this was about the Last place she would want to be... but that all changed eventually... after that she knew there was a reason for coming here.
After that, she no longer looked at Hogwarts as a musty, dusty school for the dull repetitive life of learning, but as her Cinderella fairytale castle… what could have changed all that; Only… a prince.
Late at night, when the teachers were asleep, and the air was black as the starless sky, she would slip quietly out of bed. She tiptoed through the common room, trying not to wake any of her sleeping comrades. She crept through halls, snuck quietly through corridors, and Slowly and stealthily she made her way down the winding stone staircase that led to the dungeons.
"Late as usual..." Said a familiar voice. THIS was what Narcissa Black loved about Hogwarts...
"It's not that... you're just always early!" Narcissa giggled as she made her way down the creaky potions classroom floor laden with planks of rotten wood. She halted before a stout black cauldron filled with a curious looking poison.
Narcissa slowly pulled an old brown book out of her leather pack, and set it down carefully on a table full of ingredients, books, and strange measuring devices.
Severus Snape slowly poked his greasy head out of what seemed like an inch wide crack in the wall, and the rest of him followed suit. "Did you get the book?" He asked, as his black eyes sparkled through the darkness. "Yes, the directions are all here..." she said as she opened a crumbling brown cover over the seemingly decaying book with an inscription on the front in old Celtic letters that read "The eight hardest wonder potions."
"Are you sure we'll be able to brew these?" She asked skeptically as he stared at the fading green text. "If it can be done... we can do it." Severus said confidently as he started chopping up a spider's leg into eighths. "Then I have greatest possible confidence in us." Narcissa smiled as she grabbed a bottle of turquoise liquid and started measuring with a curious scale that looked like a funnel with a stick and string attached.
"Is it enough?" Severus asked hopefully. "It's enough!" Narcissa smiled as she poured the entire mess of it into a miniature copper cauldron, which Severus had previously deposited the spider leg bits into.
Severus and Narcissa were potions experts. They were the best in Hogwarts... possibly the best potion brewing duet ever for their age. Every night they would meet in the Potions laboratory and brew something fearfully advanced... anything Narcissa's parents tried and failed, anything Professor Vonderoden said he couldn't complete, plus all of their 'original recipes.'
Which were recipes like: Neopigement; for coloring your skin, Gumigume; for stretching your limbs to amazing lengths, and Noxor; sending someone asleep in and instant, and upon awakening, find that their lips are green.
Narcissa wished that these happy times would last forever... their meetings were not lengthy, but all the joy that was contained in those simple lessons made them feel like they only lasted a moment, yet they wished to be together forever.
They were not however, really in a fairytale, though they felt it would last forever, and wished it to last forever, there was always the rest of life… aside from all this, Narcissa was quite the Popular girl. She had beauty, elegance, riches, and torrents of friends, one of the most pressing of which was Lucius Malfoy.
Lucius wanted nothing more than to be Narcissa's Main suitor and someday make her wed. Lucius was a Slytherin unlike any other… his family was staunch and proud, but he seemed un-fazed by it all. Sure, he was accustomed, as many young men of his status were, to getting almost whatever he wanted, but UNLIKE the Malfoys before him, he had never a dark thought, nor the desire to do anyone evil.
I will admit they were the picture perfect couple. Both of their beautiful blonde heads of hair flowing through a whispering breeze was enough to make anyone think so... except Narcissa. She acted nicely around him in public... but she truly thought of him as a 'persnickety pest' and in her heart she knew him to be wrong for her. In her inmost thought ther was only room for one.
Severus was quite the opposite. Every day he was teased, he was the object of a whole array of pranks, and on occasion even got a black eye and a broken nose thanks to certain gang of Gryffindors. He never talked to anyone, so he never had any occasion to care for anyone except Narcissa.
Day and Night he pined for her cheery smiles, her radiantly sparkling eyes; a trait which the Blacks are known to display, And her sweet laugh that blew away his rotted past.
Severus decided never to avenge himself for all of the occasions when he was made fun of, because it would never do anyone any good. Still he hoped they would stop somehow… he had endured so much here at this school, but it was still better than his miserable life at home…
"Severus! …Severus… where the heck is that boy, the under grown varmint!"
Yelled his father as he harshly yanked his pistol out of it's tattered brown leather case.
"Right here papa." Severus sighed, "Right in front of you…"
You see, Severus Snape's supposed 'father' was insane. His name was Ambros Hickens, and he thought with the entire mind he had left that he was a western outlaw. Severus didn't know how his 'father' got into such terrible shape; all he knew was that he was the only one in that lonesome farmland to look after him.
Severus wasn't only burdened by his Insanity, he was also in a quite dangerous situation. Ambros always thought that HE was a western outlaw, but what he thought of severus changed faster than the days of the week. One night he could see Severus as a fellow cattle rustler helping him pull off a job, and the next morning, Severus was a deputy of the law that was hunting him down for murder.
One time, Severus did get shot… right near the joint of the shoulder. After that, he called the real police to come out and take care of his 'father'… so Severus was put into an orphanage full of juvenile delinquents, just because there was no more room in the regular home.
He was getting teased and beaten by them worse than any childhood beating imaginable. Most of them were from street gangs, and upon seeing that severus wasn't, he was instantly labled 'Easy Target.' Thus it went on for several months… and just when he had packed his meager belongings and was about to run away, his Hogwarts letter came fluttering in.
But now it was the Gryffindors he had to worry about….
More than six years of being beaten, bruised, and bullied with no one to defend him, almost six years of stolen shoes, homework, reading glasses, potions ingredients, and a whole spread of his belongings.
These being replaced by smoke bombs, paper that would make anything written on it disappear, dirty underwear, and all sorts of disgusting living creatures... Severus was on the brink of combustion. Yet he did not… for if Severus was going to burst out into flames, he would have done it by now then. The burden of his past was heavy, and his future looked grim. He was however, terribly and utterly confused about himself, and who he was…
When he met Narcissa is a day he will remember for the rest of his life,
"I'm going to die now! I was nothing, I am nothing, and i'll always be NOTHING!" Screamed Severus as he held a silver dagger to his chest. "NO SEVERUS! You may not have started out with much, but you're a wonderful person! I can see it now: 'Professor Severus!'" Narcissa pleaded with him, fearing for his life.
"Go on..." he said, his black eyes gleaming with something special. "Professor Severus, Feared by Griffindors. Greatest potions master Hogwarts has ever, and will ever see, and to top it all off, Head of the Slytherin house!" She said reassuringly. Even she was slightly impressed with the confidence she had in what seemed like only a weak little eleven-year-old child. "I will be…." was all he could say, as he dropped the weapon into a crack in the stone floor.
Thanks to her, Life was different now.
He and Narcissa, though in totally separate public lives, never really stopped meeting for potions practice together. They really did like each other, but they were from totally different backgrounds, and their personal lives had almost nothing in common.
It defied all the complex and frivolous reasoning of class, wealth, and status which had been carefully sculpted into its terrible knots and twists throughout all of history leading up to their time, but somehow it just fit. Narcissa and Severus knew that their meeting hadn't been an accident, and despite the risk of ridicule if seen together, they would always find a time to talk.
This bittersweet happiness went on for quite awhile... Each of them had been trying to live in two worlds at once: one each of themselves, and one of them both. To them the only fantasy worth wishing for was within the deepest chasms of their heart, a reality that scarcely came, and shortly. One night however... all of their dreams, all of their wishes and anticipations... would soon come to an end.
On this night... Narcissa got out of bed like she always did, put on the same lilac night-robe she always did, and walked down the same sets of spiral stone laden stairs she always had. The difference was this time... she was being followed.
Slipping quietly through the sweeping towers, around the grandeur of the main halls, and down into the darkness of dungeon depths, trailed softly behind her, the shadow of Lucius Malfoy... spying as he was, on what in the world 'his fair Narcissa' could be about at this hour.
When she turned, her bed gown swept gracefully around the corner into the dimly lit potions lab, Lucius' razor-like eyes were watching, sharpened like a hawk's, from behind a solid oak chest that held beakers and tubes full of the most mysterious liquids of all sorts. All the while, Narcissa was unaware of the shadow that crept leisurely behind her. So engulfed in anticipation as she was, forgetting to beware of her surroundings.
Slowly, Severus Snape appeared in his usual way, and in that very instant, Lucius'
heart... was turned to stone. The last tear ever shed by him to this day, fell glittering towards the dusty limestone floor, and Lucius fled in despair and fell to his bed as he wrapped himself in the cold green softness of the Slytherin patterned sheets.
He was crushed, and not an earthly crushed; only a sort of agony that could befall one because of terrible forces at work in his mind. To him, Narcissa's love was like a gambling table out in the casino of hell. Lucius' heart was everything he had, and everything he bet. He gave his all to her, but someone else took home the chips.
That was what struck home… to Malfoys, money isn't important; it's just a tool to get what you want. Like power. If you can't get what you want with money, than money is as useless as the dirt under your shoes… and so it was.
The next day, Lucius Malfoy was not himself. He was usually bright and cheery, woke up when the sun first peaked over the tops of the little hills in the distance, and the little bit of teasing he got (Mainly from a jealous Slytherin girl named Dymphna Heartrey) he just laughed off and went on with the day like normal.
Today however, he had already missed charms and runes, two of his favorite classes, by the time he managed to slip out of his bed. By the time he actually left the common room, He had missed transfiguration to! Everyone sensed a gloomy aura about him, and no one wanted to sit next to him at lunch... not even his usual 'fan club.'
He didn't eat; even his favorite scrambled eggs. He just twirled his silver butter knife between his fingers, hoping that he was dreaming, and would wake up.
"Malfoy, you're a sorry sight today!" said Sam Higgins, with a teasing grin as he passed him by in the hall on the way to his next class. With a flick of Lucius's powerful black wand, poor unsuspecting Sam was sent flying to the roof and landed with such force, he was briefly knocked unconscious. Lucius merely walked on, His anger increasing almost as much as he was loosing his former cheerfulness and happiness.
When he got back to his common room, Lucius felt sicker and more terrible than he ever had before. He didn't even feel like opening his mail... even though he did. Lucius felt dead. More of a dead of conscience and dead of spirit, but it affected his entire being, his soul, his mind, and his body… all the way down to the bone.
He reluctantly sorted through his mail…
"Mom and dad, those nutty scavenger twins, aunt Stephanie, Tom riddle..." Lucius said as he browsed hastily through his letters "Tom riddle? Why would he…?" Lucius wondered aloud. He hadn't heard from Tom Riddle since the day that Tom had left Hogwarts! – More than five years ago."
Lucius carefully opened the letter... it was from Tom Riddle, 8776 Northway Blvd, Seven Stones Creek Mountain. There was an odd looking symbol that sort of resembled a crimson scull on the almost still wet wax seal. It reeked of a foul stench, like some sort of decaying flesh… and Lucius would have noticed if not for his present state.
It read:
"Dearest Lucius Malfoy, I know it hath been ages since I've last seen you... I'm sorry for not writing you in a timelier manner, and I hope that you will not forget how we were such good friends. I know this letter has come to you in a time of tragedy... if it hasn't, then the spell on it is defective and you need not read any farther. I've recently finished my studies and am heading off to make myself known... Yes the day has come.
Seeing as you are in your seventh year now, I see no reason why you should not be invited to join me in my escapade. Nothing to large scale at the moment... But I noticed you needed some help... I know just what to do about your little problem. Come see me in the fork in the road nearest the Hogwarts trail.
An old ally,
Voldemort.
Meanwhile, Narcissa had noticed that something was wrong. She was an intelligent girl, with a strong spirit, and she could tell that evil plans were afoot. As most people know, the feeling of danger without knowing from where to expect it is often frightening, and so was the fright of Narcissa... fearful as ice is to the summer sun.
Severus also sensed danger, yet he was not able to dwell on it for lack of time between vigorously studying for some of his exams, and dreaming of being somewhere else.
Severus wished he was in a beautiful estate all his own- like the ones some of the other Slytherins so hastily boasted over... with a harps and pianos playing melodies of Beethoven, symbolizing his terrible past behind him... forever forgotten. Gone to the abyss without a trace. While inhaling the glorious smell of his very own white roses... his favorite flower.
That evening, Lucius Malfoy was heading out to the fork in the road. There was a wretchedness and misery inside him that he had never known before... the sadness of seeing everything he had looked forward to in his days at Hogwarts being torn from him like a piece of his heart; bleeding and flowing with the waters of his tears and the agony of ages rushing upon him like the flames of his intense love turned suddenly against him.
"So you did come..." A snakelike hiss laughed out from the foliage. "Well I do have the power to give you what you want..." And Lucius listened attentively at the masterminded and devious plot that Voldemort had so viciously constructed to win Lucius... and maybe someone else as well, to his side.
Down in the dungeons that night, it was nearly illuminated. Narcissa and Severus had been laughing and talking and had almost forgotten the time. "Narcissa... Have I ever told you how much you mean to me?" Severus asked suddenly. "No... I don't think you have." She said as she put down a spoon containing powdered bones.
"You shine like the moon my darling, and your beauty gleams through the darkest night. A glimpse of hope, a glimmer to all lucky men like me- Now I have a destiny! If someone on this earth as beautiful as you can exist this night... there is at least a trifle of happiness in this vast abode for me."
Narcissa looked at him thoughtfully and then poured her feelings out as well. Like a flowing river her words came streaming out of her mouth with a certain elegance that is trademark only of Narcissa.
"Look not to me for light my prince! It is you who have given me my glow! If I am the moon, giving brilliance to all who I shine down upon, it is you who is my shining star! The sun so brilliant as to give me the brilliance of reflecting your magnificent rays."
"Narcissa..." Severus smiled "I have a little spell I'm working on. Will you help me open this little case... one of the essential ingredients is inside."
"Of course." she giggled as she slowly opened a blue velvet case to reveal a sparkling diamond ring. "Now let's see if I can remember the incantation... oh yes... Narcissa, will you be my bride?" "I'd be a lunatic to say no!" she exclaimed joyfully.
Suddenly the door and all the windows burst open...
"Professor Vanderoden! Um... HI!" Narcissa smiled as she quickly slipped the ring and it's little case into her pocket. "Vy hello childrik, I am glad to see you so early for class!" "Well as I like to say professor..." Severus Snape started off "Any precaution against being tardy is perfectly good and healthy."
The day passed by hastily and upbeatedly. Severus and Narcissa were caught up in the flurry of wonder and bliss of what could be described as a fantasy that they had been wishing for all of their lives finally coming true. Lucius was so caught up in the brilliant and devious scheme to get Narcissa... that he felt like an ignoramus for not formulating it himself.
The truth was, he hadn't been thinking at all like he usually had, and the loss of someone who he never had to begin with had driven his sanity away. And, at that, Voldemort, who was calm and collected, was only formulating an even more elaborate plot to gain two very trustworthy and devoted henchmen for his wicked and heartless cause.
Anyhow, Severus was so overjoyed he was practically running up and down the halls with a beaming smile on his face. He couldn't stop congratulating himself, herself, and anyone or anything that happened to be crossing his path.
He was overjoyed and nervous and feeling every feeling that he had never been able to feel before. He had felt fear and loneliness, but he had never before felt this extent of love, courage, companionship, and joy….
Suddenly he collided with Lucius.
"Lucius my fine acquaintance! Good day!" Severus said as he extended his arm to shake Lucius's hand. "You Insolent THEIF!" Lucius said as grabbed his hand and pulled him harshly toward his fist, striking a hard blow to the forehead. Severus was knocked unconscious, and Lucius was quickly dragging him off.
The night grew dark... like an evil cape of stormy fabric. Narcissa was sitting in her little purple velvet chair brushing her hair when she spied a letter sticking out from under her pillow. The wax on the seal was still wet. she slipped it from her bed, held it up to the light and opened it slowly and carefully.
"Dearest Beloved,
I have a gift for you of great value.
It will not be necessary for you to go to the usual meeting place.
Tonight we meet instead, at the bottom of sunset cliff.
Truly yours forever,
More than a friend."
Narcissa wondered what it could be. Naturally, she presumed Severus to be the sender of the letter, when in reality it was a trap. All the evening, Narcissa was curious and expectant. "I wonder what it could possibly be?" she said to herself "He's already given me my ring, which, if i hadn't already gotten it, would expect to receive it now."
She did however; expect something wonderful because Severus would never deter their potions engagement for something small. Just before she went to leave, she put up her hair in a Tiara bun with a yellow stream of hair flowing down each side of her face.
Narcissa put on her purple over cloak and hastened to the door, almost as soon as she was ready to step out, it started to pour. Narcissa was not even slightly deterred by the rain, for her curiosity had gotten the better of her fine Ravenclaw instincts. She was determined to find out what in the world this precious gift would be.
Her purple heels splattered mud all over her lace gown, and rain trickled down her face, smearing her makeup into her hair. Soon, she reached the bottom of the towering cliff as Thunder struck a nearby puddle.
"Severus?" she called out into the dark, misty air. "Severus? where are you?" -still with no reply, except the billowing gusts of wind, the rustle of the trees, and the sharp patter of rain on the cold stone below the cliff that resembled the rhythm of doom.
"Narcisssssssssaaaaaa-" sounded a strange voice, seeming to come from the four winds.
"Narcissssssssaaaaaaaaaa-" it voiced again. it sounded like the voice of the haunted, and in a sense it was.
"Who-- who's there?" Narcissa stammered, taking a step back, and slipping over a mossy stone. She fell on her back, and by now she was soaking with mud and rain.
"Severus? Help me! ... Where are you?" she said, slightly out of breath, and she started to sob softly.
"It is I..." said the voice, as a familiar figure appeared on the top of the cliff. "And just as I said I have something for you..."
As Narcissa saw the pale face of Lucius Malfoy in the dim light of the gibbous moon, her emotion suddenly turned from fear to a raging anger.
"LUCIUS!" She yelled with a fiery blast as lightning struck at a nearby tree.
"WHY DID YOU CALL ME OUT HERE SO LATE AND IN SUCH TERRIBLE WEATHER?
I HAVE HALF A MIND TO COME UP THERE AND STRANGLE THE HEAD OFF YOU WITH MY BARE HANDS!" She screamed powerfully as she stood there, fists clenched, and the thunder roared.
"You don't see do you Narcissa..." He said in an insane laugh, "I'm not the same now... It's you that's changed me Narcissa! Look at me! You've made me this... this MONSTER!"
The light from the moon shone brightly on his ghostly white face stained with blood coming from the stone cold gray of his eyes that was once a dazzling blue.
His pale, fragmented hair was being harshly thrashed about by the wind, and he held his prey over the cliff by the collar
Narcissa was confused... hadn't they been good friends just weeks before?
What drove him to become like this? Could it really have been her? And who was it that he was holding... "sev-se-severus?" Narcissa gasped in horrific shock."
"But why..."
"This is what i wanted to give you Narcissa... IF you'll marry me!" He howled like a lunatic as he shook poor, unconscious Severus over the side of the cliff so that he looked like a tattered rag doll. "I picked it up after you in the potions lab at midnight!"
Narcissa finally understood.
"You ruined my life Narcissa! And now I have to ruin yours... your only way out is to marry me!" he almost sang as he took his pointer finger off of Severus's collar to point it at Narcissa. "He's not dead yet you know... you could SaAvE HiM! Just marry me!"
"I wouldn't marry the likes of you for ten billion galleons!" (Narcissa figured he probably afford about that much)
Lucius let his smallest finger off of Severus's collar. "He's sliPiNg! Once I let go, I won't grab on again!" he sneered for the very first time.
"I won't. I'll just go home and settle down with my family once I graduate, and I'll never remember a Lucius Malfoy EVER EXISTED!"
She had fire, she was a smart girl, and she knew that even when love is lost, you could move on with your life.
There wasn't enough file room in the old one... so i just had to make a new text document
Lucius smirked. "We figured this out..." he started. then his voice was joined by a voice that sounded like a gurgling demon of darkness "We figured out that this would happen, so we took immediate ACTION!" They
Narcissa looked on in horror as she saw an image of her beautiful house appear before her... slowly being burned to the ground by the evil flame that was lit inside Lucius.
Her blossoming flowers were crisping into blazing piles of ash, Her parents were inside, screaming in blistering heat and pain as they were slowly being scattered into the wind. Her trees were sending flaming balls of magma down onto the charring lawn.
Being in the country so far, no one heard the screams. No one saw the fire, smelled or spotted the smoke, and no one came to the rescue... Narcissa was crushed!
"I... I..." She sobbed as she put her face in her hands, trying to find out the answers to thousands of questions streaming through her mind. "Why me? Why them? How? Why him? What did that mysterious evil voice have to do with all this? What kind of terrible doom has befallen us all?"
Lucius only looked down... then something struck him... A bolt of lightning pierced through the veins of Lucius Malfoy and somehow shocked him into his own sound mind!
Suddenly, Lucius realized everything. "What have I done? Could I have possibly..." he whispered "NO!" Said a voice in his head "You must get your way! You must get REVENGE!"
"My way... " Lucius thought to himself "What is MY way... the way that would make me, and everyone I love miserable?" "SHUT UP YOU FOOL!" Yelled the dark voice inside him. "I guess I'll have to give you what's best for YOU, foolish boy... myself!"
For a moment, Lucius's eyes turned blood red as he let his last finger slip from the Collar of Severus Snape. Down, down he fell, seemingly faster than a normal fall, as if he was being propelled by some kind of powerful force.
Narcissa had only a moment to react, so she ran to the spot where he was to land, and they both slammed sharply into a murky puddle of mud and rain. The shock and the blow nearly knocked Narcissa out.
it was a terrible struggle to breathe, four of her ribs had been smashed to pieces, and her leg snapped in two, so she couldn't get up.
"Lucius... Lucius..." She groaned softly as little puddles of blood started forming in her mouth. "Lucius I'll marry you! Please I'll marry you! Just stop all this! Make it stop! The pain, the loss, the agony is more than mortal, wizard nor bird of the air or beast of the sea can sustain without being broken... broken until they dread and fear the death that awaits them almost as much as the terror of this wicked life which you hath wrought upon my shoulders.
This Immortal agony, these blood tears and hate tears that only you and I can shed; Screaming in Searing pain with every trembling drop that splashes down onto the ground, wet with the toil of our wasted hopes and dreams of happiness.
I ... Will... Marry you. Only you can share my pain, for you are my pain, and evil is my pain, and all darkness that crawled out of the abyss is my never ending pain!" Narcissa breathed heavily, all the time choking up blood as she dizzily hoisted herself onto her remaining knee.
She heard a sound, Like the Laugh of a triumphing death, echoing through her heart like the echo in a cold steel cavern. The ground shook, and Narcissa Joan Elizabeth Black Malfoy fell unconscious next to Severus Snape, the only man she ever loved... without a single regret.
The Beginning.
(of another story…)