With Bellatrix Black in my pocket, I imagined everything henceforth would be smooth sailing. I left our luncheon promising her an audience with the Dark Lord before the week's end, and in return, she was going to change her tune about me in conversation with her sister. I wasn't the least bit surprised when she openly admitted to me that she was actually quite jealous of my interest in Narcissa. Together, she had said, we could have ruled the world, but my short-lived appetite for reckless abandon had waned in my youth, and I had come to the crossroads of maturity with intentions of immovable stability. Looking back, I realize that even then I must have realized the instability in the Dark Lord's ambition for world domination because I had been covering my tracks and my bases all along.

However, where Narcissa was concerned, I was in for a shocking revelation regarding my own self-control. Her response to my flowers and invitation arrived later that evening, shortly after I had finished having dinner with my family. A letter in her perfect, flowing script explained that the flowers had delighted her, and she would love to see me again. There would be only one opportunity for us to meet again before she returned to school to finish the second term of her final year. Saturday morning, she expected me to arrive with my car, alone, to pick her up for our second date. What happened after that would be a surprise, she wrote, possibly even to her. A surprise? The very idea unnerved me, as I am less than fond of surprises. I am a planner, you see, and very little of my life has been happenstance. Everything I have ever wanted, up to that point at least, had been the result of careful plotting and meticulous mapping. As though she had anticipated my instinctual response, Narcissa finished out her letter with the words:

"Before you deny or refuse this idea of spontaneity, let us live a little, Lucius, for we are young, and it is the way of youth to flow where the water may go," and then she signed the letter with love.

Her words were poetry, I thought, and she hadn't even needed to borrow them from some clever poet. They had been her own, but most puzzling to me was the natural way in which she signed the missive. With love? Those words, how strange they were to me, more perplexing than you could possibly fathom. Love was such a unique concept, something I was more than certain I had never experienced romantically in my life. My mother loved me in her own way, I was sure of it, and of course, all of the women I had made contact with over the years had adored me deeply, some of them even claiming to have loved me, but the feeling was all too often unreciprocated on my behalf. The very thought of romantic love seemed a preposterous impossibility because the only person I had ever loved as long as I could recall had been myself; could I love another?

I certainly hadn't gone into my relations with Narcissa with love in mind. I undoubtedly admit that I had contemplated a future with her after our brief chat on Christmas Eve, and even more so after she'd kissed me. Up until that point she had been the only woman I had envisioned in the position of the future Mrs. Lucius Malfoy, and we barely knew each other intimately beyond the boundaries of a simple kiss. Narcissa Black was beautiful and witty; she had style and grace and a certain flare for getting what she wanted. . .

Dear Gods! It had suddenly occurred to me during this train of thought that I was some pawn in a game she was playing. For the first time I actually questioned whether or not Narcissa had planned it all. Had she bewitched me? She had twisted my inborn desire for control right out of my hands on every occasion we had been together, making it so that I wanted to give her everything she wanted. I would never have stood for a woman arriving more than five minutes late for a date with me, let alone excusing her the hour she had left me waiting in that restaurant. Good Gods! I say again, because I had never been so obviously duped in all my life and yet, there was a part of me that fancied the idea of her having that subtle power over me. Bewitched indeed, I felt myself grinning when I realized it, and I wrote back to Narcissa that night confirming our date for Saturday, and assuring her that the fate of our togetherness was in her hands. I signed the letter, "Devotedly yours, Lucius."

Now, I only had to make good on my promise to Bella, which I knew wouldn't be a problem. The Dark Lord was always looking for new recruits and most especially young women because he firmly believed that one of the easiest ways to get under a man's skin was with a beautiful woman. I presented her to him the Thursday before my next meeting with Narcissa, and as I left her in the chamber with the Dark Lord, I came face to face with an infuriated Rodolphus in the antchamber.

"You son of a bitch!" He came at me like some kind of wild barbarian, nearly tackling me and throwing me into the wall. Unprepared, I stumbled a little before I fell into the hard, stone. My glaring look must have been enough of a warning, for Rodolphus stepped away, unclenching the handful of my robes he had taken in the skirmish. "You have some explaining to do, Malfoy!"

I brushed away the place where his hand had been only moments before, smoothing away the wrinkle, "I beg your pardon, Lestrange?"

"How dare you bring her here?" he may have backed off, but there was still venom in both his voice and his eyes. "How dare you expose her to my world? Do you have any idea how difficult it will be to get rid of her now that she's seen it? She'll be like the bloody plague, hanging about sucking the life out of me. . ."

A smooth chuckle escaped me, "Dear Rodolphus," I shook my head. "I've done you a huge favor, and this is how you repay me?"

"A favor?" he choked. "You brought her here! Here, Malfoy! And the worst part is you understand exactly what that means. She will loll after me like a whelp now." He slipped into a whiney imitation of her, "Can I help you torture that one, Rodolphus? Might I try that Cruciatus this time?" His lip twitched reproachfully, "As if it wasn't bad enough having Rabastan at my back all the time asking if he's torturing them long enough before he kills them. . ." I could hardly contain my laughter, which only served to infuriate him further. "I swear by Merlin's beard, I'll get you for this, Lucius."

"Come now, Rodolphus, who's to say this won't prove interesting in the end. I think she's perfect for this sort of work. She's positively wicked." I pointed out. "Wait a minute," I began, 'that's why you're upset, isn't it?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You're angry because you didn't think of it first."

"You're out of your mind, Malfoy." But he looked away when he said this, confirming my suspicions. Our lord and master would be most pleased with a specimen like Bellatrix Black under his power, and my having brought her to him would serve to uplift me in his favor. "Perhaps I should introduce Narcissa to him," he tried.

"Narcissa wouldn't lower herself to be seen in public with you, and you know it," I pointed out.

He was grinning subtly, "Don't be so sure of that, Lucius. The Imperius has been known to lead stronger minds than hers into his service."

This time, however, the grin was mine, "She doesn't need the Imperius curse to lead her into his service, you fool." The smirk he wore began to fade. "I have no pains about leading her there myself. I've already made the arrangements with her. It's simply a matter of time."

A moment of silence followed my admission, and then he shook his head, "You have changed, Malfoy. She's put you under some wicked spell."

"Perhaps," I shouldered past him and didn't look back when I said, "Don't try to fight it, Rodolphus. It won't be long before you're under that same spell yourself."

"Whatever are you prattling on about?"

"'Tis a happy curse," I said. "I suffer it gladly, and so should you."

Moments before I disapparated from his presence, I heard him mutter his final disagreement with my position, "You're absolutely mad if you've given in to their games, Lucius, and even more so if you think they'll win me the way they have you."

I was laughing again when I reapparated in the foyer of Malfoy Manor, so uproariously that it inspired two of the house-elves to peer out at me in curiosity.