First of all I just want to thank everyone thats been reading and reviewing this story. I am really sorry I stopped updating but life seems to have got in the way of writing. Anyway I will try and update this story at somewhat regular intervals in the future.


Conversations.

"I have to tell them," James said, feeling Narcissa stiffen in his arms, even as the words came out, "it's been over a month, they know something's going on."

A month, a month of stolen kisses and hidden meetings, of lying to his friends and running off with Narcissa. James couldn't continue and he knew Narcissa wouldn't be pleased at his decision.

She sat up, turning towards him, meeting his eyes, "then you're going to leave me too." She sounded hollow, as if she was already resigned to him leaving her.

"No, not at all, I will always be here for you," he hated the idea of leaving her, hated thinking that his friends might demand just that. He wanted to spend his life making her smile. "You know, we could always just run away together. I am very rich," he said smiling. He leaned in to kiss her and felt the rest of the world disappear as she kissed him back.

I could spend the rest of my life kissing this girl, James thought as they broke apart and Narcissa rested her head on his shoulder. "And I promise, that nothing my friends say will stop me wanting to kiss you."

"Well I thought that much," Narcissa responded, flushing and somehow looking even more beautiful.

"If you tell Sirius then I think I should tell Regulus what's happening." It was such an unexpected comment that James didn't know how to respond. "He's my cousin...and he should find out from me."

Can't really argue with that James mused, "How will he react? Will he tell your parents?"

"Not if I ask him not to, and he'll probably react about as well as Sirius." She replied dryly.

"He won't react that badly," James responded. But a heavy feeling was setting over him and he felt himself question the words the moment he said them. He looked back to Narcissa who was watching him, her eyes drilling into his skull, almost as if she could read his mind.

"Yes he will, and we both know it." She suddenly straightened, pulling her hair out of her face and turning away "but I know my cousin, and I know he'll forgive you, you are his family after all."

"So are you and Sirius will realise that once he sees what a good person you are."

"Maybe," Narcissa shrugged, "But in the end I think Sirius is more similar to Bella than he will ever realise. They might be on different sides, but both are so single minded in their beliefs."

James shifted uncomfortably, "I think he will prove you wrong."

And with that she smiled, a smile of longing rather than happiness, hoping for a moment she never expected to come.


At the end of the night, James trudged back to the Gryffindor common room, feeling somewhat elated but also anxious at the task that lay before him. "Albiflorus,"" he muttered to the fat lady, climbing in to what he had expected to be an empty common room. Instead his three friends sat around a piece of parchment. Walking closer James felt his heart sink as he recognised the Marauder's Map.

"Narcissa?" Sirius snarled, "You've been ditching us for Narcissa?"

"Yeah," Remus continued dryly, "Sirius had his money on an affair with Professor McGonagall."

All of James' carefully rehearsed explanations died under his friends' glares.

"Guys...I'm sorry, but Narcissa, she...well it was both of us really, we thought it would be best not to tell anyone about us, at least not until we knew what was really going on," feeling like a stuttering idiot even as he said it.

Remus had carefully positioned himself between an irate looking Sirius and James. "Well what is going on Prongs? You and Narcissa is it...?" Lupin trailed off, as if trying to find an innocent way of explaining his friends exploits. Meanwhile Peter's eyes kept dancing between his friends frantically, as if wondering who would draw their wand first.

"It's serious, Narcissa, she's like no one I've ever known. I really care about her." Prongs was not about to admit to his friends, who were looking at him with such confusion that he was starting to fall in love with the slytherin princess.

"You care about her? She's a slytherin! She's evil! How could you choose her over us?" Sirius exploded. Not seeming to care about anything else.

"Just because she is a slytherin doesn't make her evil, she is a good person, she doesn't care about that pureblood crap any more than we do," James justified. "Things, they're not easy for her since Andromeda left and she has not got anyone to talk to about it."

"So what? Who cares if she is miserable? She made Andromeda's life a misery, just like the rest of them. If she's alone now, it's her own fault."

James couldn't help but hesitate; Narcissa had mentioned her dislike for Ted Tonks but had never really mentioned how it impacted her relationship with Andromeda.

"Oh right so one bad decision, one mistake and someone is evil? Irredeemable? You've made mistakes padfoot, we all have, it doesn't make us evil, just normal."

"Her entire life has been one mistake after another. You say she doesn't believe in blood purity? Yet she never says so. Never argues with her parents. She just sits there smiling, while I stand up for my beliefs and never once does she agree or stand up for me."

"Has she ever stood against you?" It was a quiet question, one James would rather not ask but he had to get Sirius to understand. "She considers you family; maybe if you just talked to her you would stop hating her so much."

"I doubt that," was Sirius' only reply as he pushed himself out his seat and stalked out the common room, portraits crashing behind him.


Narcissa was sleeping, or at least trying to sleep when someone rushed into her dorm.

"Narcissa Black?" A voice called out.

She rose from bed, squinting against the light, "Yes? What it is?" She croaked, she never had been a morning person, even when it was technically still night.

"Your cousin is outside; apparently he needs to speak to you urgently. Something to do with a family emergency. If you want to talk to him though you will need to go outside, he can't come into the Slytherin common rooms."

Emerging from her common room, Narcissa couldn't help but feel more than a little annoyance at her cousin. "Well?" She demanded.

But her annoyance was overshadowed by the anger on Sirius' face. "Really? James? Are you doing this deliberately?"

"Oh, yes Sirius, because everything is about you. Did it ever occur to you that I may actually like James? That he is the one person that's actually been there for me recently? No of course not. Ever since Andromeda left, I've been a pariah I-"

"Well now you know how it feels."

"Oh shut up. You make yourself a pariah and you enjoy it."

"I enjoy my family hating me? Are you insane? I don't do anything except tell them what I think of their beliefs and suddenly I'm as good as a blood traitor."

"Stop saying that! Stop trying to justify your hatred of your family by saying that we hated you first. We all love you…even your parents, you just make it so difficult." There were tears running down her face and Narcissa was starting to feel like she couldn't breathe. And there was Sirius looking at her as if he was seeing her for the first time. She turned away from him, wiping the tears from her eyes and hoping that the lighting in the dungeons was bad enough that he hadn't noticed. When she finally turned round Sirius was sitting rather deflated on the cold floor, his head between his hands.

"James…he mentioned you've been feeling alone since Andromeda left?" Narcissa nodded as she sat down beside him, trying to ignore the faint chill that was spreading through her body. "That's how I feel every day that I'm in that house. Alone and like everyone is against me."

"Well then I'm sorry that I don't stand with you. But our family is ripping itself apart, what with Bella wanting to run off and join Voldemort's cause and Andromeda leaving. I love my parents Sirius, I don't want to make things any more difficult for them." They both sat there in silence, neither one really knowing what to say.

"I guess things aren't easy for anyone anymore. You and James, if you make each other happy you should be together."

Suddenly Narcissa let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. "Thank you" she whispered, hugging her cousin for the first time since they were both children.