In response to a prompt by TheSlytherinCabal in the DBQ2021Round3 collection.
Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me but are the property of J.K.R. and Warner Bros. No copyright infringement is intended. The theme for this round of the competition was Augurey and my chosen pairing was Narcissa Malfoy/Arthur Weasley. Thank you to my beta, Frumpologist for their time and help. I'm so happy I was able to write this pairing that you love!
See the end for more notes because of spoilers!
Narcissa Black was a young woman who was accustomed to keeping her feelings to herself; it was simply how pureblood women were taught. But as the mournful cry of the augurey sounded from outside her window for what seemed like the hundredth time since the sun had gone down, she thought she might scream.
For the first time in her life, it was abundantly clear why her ancestors thought its cry was a death omen, a folly she dismissed. She could smell the rain coming and the air was heavy. It was unusual at this time of year to go a full week without rain, it was only natural that the poor bird was hungry and waiting desperately to hunt. Nonetheless, it had kept her up all night and her patience was thinning. She checked the time again and found it was a few minutes past five, still too early for her liking, but finally an acceptable time to be out of bed.
Wrapping herself in her dressing gown, she sat at her correspondence desk and looked out her window at the gloomy rising light that passed for a sunrise in this weather. The letter she had received the previous evening caught her eye and she reached out to pick it up. Lucius Malfoy had been writing to her for several months, ever since her current relationship had come to light, and he always had more or less the same thing to say. This time, he not-so-subtly implied he was prepared to step in should her current suitor fail to sway her family.
The augurey cried out again. She set the parchment alight with an Incendio and shuddered. While Lucius Malfoy was exactly the kind of suitor her parents wanted for her, he was the exact opposite of what she wanted for herself, though she recognised selecting a husband like him would be choosing a predictable and mostly comfortable life. He was calculating, didn't care for frivolous emotions like love and he expected obedience from his spouse. It may have been the life she was raised for, but it wasn't one she could ever be happy in, not now.
What she wanted was more complex, and lately, much more confusing than that. Arthur Weasley had changed everything. He had been two years ahead of her in school, just like Lucius, but their similarities ended there. Where her fellow Slytherin had always been cold and selfish, Arthur had exuded warmth, kindness and even a little bit of mischief. He made her laugh.
She had been in her fifth year when they'd met, and how they had tumbled from a strange and unexpected friendship to an intense and forbidden love affair, neither of them would ever know. Their romance had been the happiest part of Narcissa's life and their best-kept secret for several years now, until the most recent Christmas holidays. She supposed they must have become careless over time, or perhaps her family had been paying closer attention to her, concerned by her lack of interest in suitors.
Whoever was to blame, they had been found out; thankfully not in a terribly improper situation. Since then, Arthur had made it his mission to court her properly, working tirelessly to make himself acceptable to her family. She admired his efforts, she truly did, but they had lost so much of what made them happy together in the process that she was beginning to have doubts about their relationship.
After so much time spent learning to love him freely, she found she was unwilling to sacrifice her happiness for the sake of proper pureblood expectations, even if she was following them with him. She longed for the sound of his laughter and desperately missed the way he once gazed at her as though she were the most beautiful flower he had ever seen. Something about the magic that was Arthur Weasley had gone missing, replaced by a stiff posture, a blank stare and polite deference.
She stared down at the nearly blank parchment she had addressed to him the night before, willing her emotions to come untangled and her words to flow, but without a clear idea of what she needed to tell him, nothing came forth and she sighed heavily.
A small ripple in her personal wards put her instantly on high alert, giving her just enough notice to keep from startling at the popping sound that followed. In one fluid movement, her wand fell into her hand. She stood and turned, coming face to face with the last person she expected to find within the walls of her bedroom.
Arthur stood in silence in the middle of the carpet with a look of determination on his face. She was honestly shocked to see him, as they had not been truly alone together since his newfound obsession with propriety. It seemed an unnecessary risk for him to take, given the circumstances, when he could have simply owled her to meet him just about anywhere else.
"I would have thought you would know better than to be found here, Art," she said, watching his expression soften when she spoke his name. Something clicked in Narcissa's mind and she raised her wand to point it directly at him, adopting a defensive posture. "Who are you, and what are you doing in my room?"
A sad smile quirked at the man's lips and he raised both hands before him in surrender. "I should have known you would notice right away, my flower. I promise I mean nothing nefarious. Only, I've come from the future. We don't have much time, the longer I stay the more likely it is I can never get back."
She stilled at his use of the private endearment he had only ever called her when nobody could overhear them. Keeping eye contact, he slowly reached into the top of his jumper, withdrawing a small glittering object and held his palm out to her for inspection. Though she had never seen one in person before, she instantly recognized that it was a time-turner. Examining him more closely, she noted the small wrinkles near his eyes and the thinning hair above his temples. He was still as tall and lean as his younger self, but it was obvious from the weight on his brow that life had given him more than his fair share of struggles.
"Why have you come?" She watched him as he glanced to her desk and slowly turned pleading eyes back on her.
"I have a favour to ask you." He slipped the time-turner back under his clothing and ran both hands through his hair. "I know that my past self is coming to request a betrothal from your family tonight. I need you to stop him from coming, let him down gently if you can..."
Only a lifetime of learning to school her features into submission kept the surprise from her face. The augurey wailed from beyond the window, making Arthur jump and stare nervously out into the gloomy morning. He stood transfixed with his eyes open wide in fear and, for a moment, she felt as though she could read his thoughts. Their past conversations flashed through her mind, lingering on one about his mother's belief in omens and how he had tried to laugh it off at the time, but couldn't quite do it.
"It's going to rain, Art. Don't be superstitious," she said gently, trying to divert his attention from the window. He blinked twice, the trance broken, and his face flushed with embarrassment. He was as beautiful as the man from her present and the sudden ache that bloomed in her chest at the thought of losing him was nearly overwhelming. She tried to shake it off. Keeping her expression carefully neutral, she continued: "I'm afraid you'll have to explain yourself better than that if you expect my compliance."
"I suppose you deserve more information." A pained look crossed his face before he stared down at his shoes and sighed. "Tonight is when everything went wrong. I was trying so hard to be the proper pureblood they expected that I gave off the wrong impression. Your parents decided I was only courting you to further my upward mobility. They forbade any further courtship between us."
Her heart beat faster in her chest. "So you've come to try and save us?"
Arthur shook his head sadly and fixed her with a piercing stare so full of emotion she felt she would never be able to look away. "Quite the opposite, I'm afraid. You defied them and we eloped, you see. You were disowned. You've lived quite a difficult life since then...I came to save you , I could no longer live with being the source of your misery."
Narcissa's breath caught in her throat as a tear rolled down his cheek and he hastily swept it away with his sleeve. Whatever her doubts had been only minutes before, it was clear to her that this man loved her enough to move mountains, only to let her go. He wanted her happiness at all costs, despite the depth of his own feelings.
"But do I love you, Art?" she asked, almost without thinking.
The sudden ease of his posture and the look of softness on his face told her everything she wanted to know. "I believe you do," he said, clearly hesitant to admit it to her. "But you deserve so much more than what I've given you."
She studied his expression, seeing his determination, and knew it would be no good to argue with him. For all of his gentle kindness, the man had still been a Gryffindor and had a stubborn streak a mile wide. But she was a Slytherin and there were other ways to get what she wanted; he didn't have to know.
"If you're certain it's for the best, I'll help you," she said, carefully crafting her words. "But you have no way of knowing what kind of future you will return to."
Arthur's sad eyes watered as he reached for her hands, taking them in both of his. They were warm and they shook as he placed gentle kisses on her fingertips. She could tell he longed to pull her close, though he was too much of a gentleman to ask.
"I guess that's the price I have to pay. Your happiness is more important to me than anything and I came here knowing what I had to give up," he said stoically. She stepped into his space and brought her hands up to caress his face, and he leaned into her touch before regaining his self-control and stepping back in alarm. "We can't, my flower. It isn't proper!"
She clicked her tongue impatiently and raised an eyebrow at him. "You mean to tell me that propriety is your first concern, now of all times? If I am to give you up, can I not insist, at least, on a proper goodbye?"
She watched his resolve melt away as her fingers trailed their way up his temples and into his hair, pulling him gently closer. His hands came to her hips and he groaned softly as her parted lips met his and they tasted each other. All too soon, he came back to his senses again and pulled back, shaking his head and releasing her.
"I have to go. I've stayed too long already…" He reached for the time turner, fumbling with the chain as he pulled the magical device out past his collar.
"I only meant to leave you with a token of my affection," she said with a frown, struck by his haste. "I apologize if I've disappointed you."
Arthur froze and brought his gaze up from his palms to meet hers. "Don't. Please! You have never been anything other than my light in the darkness, the most precious and beautiful flower I have ever seen. I beg you not to settle for less than the happiness you deserve."
As his fingers returned to the dials and he started to spin them, counting under his breath with tears streaming down his face, Narcissa knew with complete certainty that his was a love worth fighting for.
"I'll never forget you, Art," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper.
"Goodbye, my flower," he replied, fading to nothing before her eyes.
For several minutes, she stood staring at the carpet where he had been, unable to convince her body to move, until another loud cry from the augurey startled her back to the present and she smiled, rushing to her desk to get to work. As she settled into her chair and picked up her favourite quill, a loud crack of thunder, closely followed by an impressive bolt of lightning that lit the room, finally announced the start of the long-awaited storm.
Though it was tempting to spend a moment watching the torrents of water falling from the sky, she knew her time was short. There were so many things to be done if she was going to get what she wanted. The first order of business was to convince her stubborn lover to drop the pureblood suitor act and be his own, passionate self. And if that failed to impress her parents, this time she would have a backup plan.
No matter what her time travelling lover thought he knew, Narcissa wasn't going to be frightened away by a little rain.
Author's Note:
We've all had at least one experience with a loud bird repeatedly disturbing our peace and quiet, and that is what inspired and carried forward this story. I really loved diving into Narcissa's mind and making her a rebellious, cunning version of herself decades earlier than we meet her in canon. I just couldn't imagine her coming face to face with sweet, brave, selfless Arthur and being willing to let him go just to save herself a little hardship. My aim was to focus on getting their personalities right and to let those shine through.