DISCLAIMER – I own nothing, I'm merely borrowing for the duration of this story.
SUMMARY – 'Now that he had been gone for almost a year, supposedly vanquished by an infant whose parents had sacrificed their lives in a desperate attempt to save his, she and her husband had come to an agreement. It was time for them to begin anew, without the pressures and expectations put on them not only by their family but by the Wizarding Community at large. They had their son, their little dragon, to think of now.'
WARNINGS – Alternate Universe, Alternate Timeline (tiny little tweaks only), Slash, Canon-Typical Violence, Coming Out, First Time, Underage (nothing graphic), Homophobia
A/N – Please be aware that in some places I will be utilising some of the original material, although it has all been adapted and altered to fit with my changes to the overall storyline. None of it is literally copy/pasted as I consider that to be cheating (and borderline plagiarism which is not acceptable in my book.) As the story progresses this will happen less and less but in this first chapter, particularly in the very first section where the "scene is being set", I struggled not to include some aspects. Just wanted to warn you.
'My Champion, My Dragon'
Prologue. 1982.
Her sister's trial was all the newspapers seemed to care about these days and quite rightly so, the things that she and her three accomplices had done were utterly despicable. It horrified her to think that someone with whom she shared so much more than merely blood could be capable of such a thing, of torturing a young couple who had welcomed a child into the world only the year before to the point where their minds had broken. Frank and Alice Longbottom would spend the rest of their lives in a secure ward inside St Mungo's leaving their infant son as much of an orphan as Harry Potter, the 'Boy-Who-Lived.'
Making her way along the muggle street she stopped in front of the house she had grown up in and been thankful to leave following her marriage, waiting for it to fully appear once the concealment charm had recognised her as a member of the Black family. Reaching down to lift up the front of the long black skirt she wore underneath her stylish emerald green coat the elegant young woman ascended the steps at the front of the building and, after tapping the tip of her wand on the door to unlock it, slipped inside the long entrance hall.
A house elf appeared at the foot of the staircase directly in front of her.
"Miss Narcissa," the creature murmured whilst performing a deep bow. The dirty pillow case it wore slipped to reveal the creatures grotesquely scarred back. It had always amused her sisters, Bellatrix and Apolline, to torment the poor creatures whenever they could or to order them to punish themselves for no real reason. "May Narbey be of assistance?"
"Yes," she responded, speaking firmly but kindly as she had treated all of the house elves she had become mistress of in her own house following her marriage. "Please see to it that all of my belongings which remain in this house are sent to Malfoy Manor at once."
"Yes, Miss Narcissa."
The house elf disappeared with a tell-tale pop, allowing her to make her way up the first flight of narrow stairs towards the sitting room on the first floor of the tall and thin house. Portraits of her ancestors stared at her as she passed them by, some calling out and demanding her attention but she remained focused on making her way up the staircase.
She would not be deterred from the difficult task she had undertaken.
During the rise of the Dark Lord both she and her then fiancé had been pressured into joining his cause by their families, Lucius taking the Dark Mark alongside his father whilst she had escaped being branded due to the fact that both of her parents as well as two of her older sisters had leapt at the chance to become fully fledged members of the evil cause. Thus she had been allowed to slip into the shadows, spouting his rhetoric when it was required of her but never once taking any sort of vow to remain faithful to the Dark Lord.
Now that he had been gone for almost a year, supposedly vanquished by an infant whose parents had sacrificed their lives in a desperate attempt to save his, she and her husband had come to an agreement. It was time for them to begin anew, without the pressures and expectations put on them not only by their family but by the Wizarding Community at large.
They had their son, their little dragon, to think of now.
She could already imagine how her parents were going to take this decision of theirs which was why her husband and son had already begun closing up Malfoy Manor, five-year-old Draco "helping" as best he could, and would meet her at the international apparation point in a couple of hours time after she had concluded her business with her family. It wasn't going to be a pleasant meeting. She could remember how her parents, especially her mother, had reacted when Andromeda had admitted she was pregnant out of wedlock and that the father of her child had been a muggle she'd met on a night out in muggle London.
They'd cast her out of the house that night with only the clothes on her back.
Thankfully the muggle in question had taken her in and they'd been married in a small muggle ceremony a couple of months before they'd been blessed with a daughter.
Narcissa hadn't been able to attend the wedding but she had managed to visit a couple of months after the baby's birth without the rest of her family finding out. Nymphadora had been the most adorable thing she had ever seen, wriggling in her multi-coloured blankets, gurgling almost constantly and snuggling against her chest as she held the young infant.
She'd returned home feeling broodier than she ever had in her life.
Stepping into the sitting room she was unsurprised to find her parents sat on opposite sides of the room, her father sitting at the writing desk going through official looking papers while her mother reclined on the sofa in front of a roaring fire. Druella Black, nee Rosier, did not look her forty-nine years thanks to the potions and charms she used daily in order to maintain her appearance which had led to her being confused with her eldest daughters, Bellatrix and the twins, Andromeda and Apolline. Unlike her sisters Narcissa took after their father, at least in looks, and had had a lifetime of unkind comments about her blonde hair.
"Narcissa, darling, what a pleasant surprise," her mother murmured, placing her cocktail glass down on the coffee table before rising to her feet as swiftly as he restrictive corset would allow. She, like all the fashionable women of her generation, was still content to dress as though it was still the 1800's. "What brings you home so unexpectedly?"
Leaning down to kiss her mother's cheek as was expected of her Narcissa offered her father a small smile before squaring her shoulders and taking a step back, removing herself from immediate striking distance whilst her hand curled around the jewelled handle of her wand.
"I came to say goodbye," she murmured, reaching up with her other hand to tuck her long blonde hair behind her ear. "Lucius and I are leaving the country. We no longer wish to be associated with the darkness of the last few years and have decided to begin anew."
"…I beg your pardon?"
"We have our son to think about, now, and neither of us wish for him to grow up under the shadow of this families darker affiliations," she pressed on, taking another step backwards towards the door as her mother advanced towards her. "I apologise if this upsets you, mother, but I wish for my son to grow up with every opportunity available to him which will never happen as long as his parents are associated with the cancer that was the Dark Lord."
Her mother's face had turned almost purple with barely controlled rage, her top lip curled into a vicious snarl while if anything her father's complexion had turned completely ashen.
"…you ungrateful little bitch!"
Unfortunately she didn't flinch back quickly enough to avoid the backhanded blow her mother lashed out with, the countless bejewelled rings adorning her hand leaving a series of bloody gauges in their wake as they sliced through the soft skin of Narcissa's cheek.
She had little time to cry out in shock, pressing a hand to the shockingly painful injury, before her mother grabbed her by her hair and dragged her out into the hallway. With her body bent double, her mother pulling her head downwards as she walked, it was almost impossible for her to navigate the stairs down to the ground floor without tripping and crashed into the wooden bannister more than once. Her father followed a little way behind.
"Your own family is no longer good enough for you, is that it?" he mother demanded, dragging her into the extravagant dining room which took up most of the ground floor of the house. One wall was completely filled by the 'Black Family Tapestry' upon which ever member of the family was magically recorded at birth or marriage, depending on how they entered into the family ranks. "Fine. You always were a weak little bitch, ungrateful of the advantages life's given you. You've never belonged in this family and so now I cast you out!"
Narcissa had known that her visit would most likely end up this way.
She hadn't imagined it would hurt so much to see her mother draw her deformed looking wand, a reflection of her own deformed personality perhaps, and blast her image from the tapestry. Her sister's face had been removed similarly shortly after she'd been thrown out.
Her husband's image and that of her precious son received the same brutal treatment.
Moments later she was thrown out of the front door with enough force to send her tumbling painfully down the steps, landing with a pained cry on the pavement below them. Only the magical charms on the front of the house stopped the muggles going about their daily business from noticing the young woman clutching at her bleeding cheek and bruised ribs, staring up at her parents who didn't say another word to her before shutting the door.
Gritting her teeth the young woman pushed herself up onto her knees, whimpering softly as her bruises body protested, before finally continuing to rise unsteadily to her feet. It wasn't the first time her mother had physically struck Narcissa, none of the four siblings had been spared the punishment of her stinging blows growing up, but it had never been this bad before. She feared that her ribs, where the pain was only increasing, were in fact broken.
Checking on her wand she was relieved to find it undamaged.
She had intended to walk off her meeting with her parents but that wasn't possible now and so, raising her wand with her trembling hand, she apparated herself home to Malfoy Manor.
"Cissa!" "Mummy!"
As much as she would have liked to reassure the two most important people in her life that she was alright she couldn't, instead she found herself falling unexpectedly into the arms of her husband who quickly scooped her up into a bridal hold and carried her through to one of the pieces of furniture which had yet to be shrunken for transport to their new house.
"What happened?" Lucius demanded, holding onto her chin as she reclined back into his favourite armchair and examining the cuts to her cheek. "Cissa, what happened to you?"
"My mother wasn't best pleased with our decision," she mumbled in response, reaching down to scoop her now weeping son up onto her lap. She couldn't hide the wince of pain. "I wasn't expecting quite this sort of a reaction but I knew it wasn't going to be pleasant…"
"I'll send for Severus," her husband announced, releasing his hold of her chin in favourite of running his fingers gently through her hair. "Or perhaps Penelope would be better."
"Whichever can come at such short notice," Narcissa murmured in response to his uncharacteristic indecision. "We cannot miss our pre-arranged departure time at the apparation point. You know how strict the Ministry is about international apparation."
Lucius grunted in agreement, thinking of all the hoops they'd had to jump through in order to gain permission to leave the country at all. He hurried across the fire to contact first his old school friend and then the sympathetic young woman who had taken over the position of Matron at 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry' the year he had graduated.
Both agreed to come at once.
"M-Mummy, what happened to you?"
Meeting her son's tearful gaze Narcissa managed to muster a reassuring smile, wiping away his tears with her thumbs before pressing a gentle kiss to his silky smooth forehead. He truly was her pride and joy, the best of both herself and Lucius in both looks and temperament.
"I fell down some stairs, my little dragon," she reassured him softly, twisting the truth into a lie which wouldn't upset him. "Mummy wasn't looking where she was going and fell out of one of her shoes. That'll teach me to wear impractical shoes whilst out walking, won't it?"
Draco giggled softly as he watched her wiggling her feet, safely ensconced in a pair of sturdy but stylish high heeled boots which were most definitely suitable for walking in, a pair that would have been perfectly impossible for her to 'fall out of' no matter what had happened. Thankfully, however, her son was far too young to catch her on her blatantly obvious lie.
Penelope, or Madame Pomfrey as she should be known, arrived first and quickly set about healing the deep scratches to Narcissa's face. It was a painful procedure, the spells she had to use causing her entire face to sting, but she grit her teeth and smiled through it for the sake of her son who watched everything closely. Severus arrived a moment later and began brewing a couple of potions, one to help with the pain and one to heal her broken ribs.
"Narcissa, I feel I must ask how you came about these injuries…?" Penelope murmured once she had finished dealing with the wounds to her face and had begun cleaning up the scrapes to her hands and forearms. She glanced discretely towards Lucius. "You know can tell me…"
"No," Narcissa countered. She glanced down at her son before answering softly. "I visited my parents today, to let them know about our leaving the country. And then I fell over."
It was amusing to see both Penelope and Severus adopt the same scowl as they correctly interpreted her carefully structured explanation. She had met Severus through his friendship with Lucius but they themselves had bonded over the fact that their parents were less than ideal, prone to violence although she had been spared the horrific extremes Severus had been put through by his brute of a father. Penelope was simply a good healer, often intuitive to a fault and more than a little bit suspicious, perceptive of the little details.
"I hate to rush you but we have a rather strict timetable to keep to," Narcissa murmured, nodding towards where Lucius was admittedly reluctantly continuing to shrink their possessions so that they could be carried in a single suitcase. Narbey had arrived with her things shortly before her own arrival. "Draco, have you finished packing up your things?"
"Yes," Draco responded automatically before gasping loudly. "No!"
Hopping down from her lap the little boy tore out of the room, his smart little shoes thudding on the stone floor of the hallways until he reached the stairs at which point they heard him thudding up the wooden stairs as quickly as his little legs could carry him.
"I want you to call me if you experience any lingering pain or problems," Penelope ordered as she finished up, rising from the crouched position she had been working in and smoothing out the fabric of her skirt. She'd obviously come straight from work as she still wore the distinct uniform of a hospital matron. "Especially in regards to those ribs of yours."
Narcissa agreed readily, thanking the healer before Lucius escorted her out.
"You're doing the right thing," Severus murmured from where he was packing up his potion-making supplies. "You're giving Draco the chances in life he deserves, not to mention you and Lucius. This world is not kind to those of us who were forced to follow the Dark Lord."
"You could come with us," she pointed out softly, rubbing a hand across the ribs she had hurt which were now tingling strangely as they healed. "You did what was asked of you, Severus. You became a spy for the ight at your own expense. If anyone deserves the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and get a fresh start it's you. Lucius, don't you agree?"
"Don't bring me into it, Cissa," Lucius chuckled sadly as he placed another shrunken piece of furniture into the suitcase. "I've been trying to convince him to come with us for weeks."
Severus sighed sadly.
He looked tired; his skin even paler than usual, his eyes circled by a ring of darkness whilst his thick, inky black hair hung limply around his face. It was so desperately in need of a wash that she considered pinning him down and scrubbing his hair clean like she sometimes had to do with Draco who had never been a fan of bath time, not even when he'd been a baby.
"I wish I could," he admitted softly, a look of genuine regret on his less than handsome yet still pleasantly striking features. "Not only have I entered into a teaching contract at Hogwarts I cannot abandon her child any sooner than you could abandon yours."
There was no need for her to enquire as to who "her child" referred to.
Severus had attempted to keep his love of Lily Evans a secret at first but Narcissa had seen straight through it with the help of Lucius who, despite protesting the contrary, was a terrible gossip who loved to report everything and anything he'd seen or heard during the day. The day Lily Evans had married James Potter Severus had been forced to spend the night in their spare room after indulging in a significant (and worrying) amount of alcohol.
"I thought he had been sent to live with his relatives," Lucius pointed out as he helped his wife to her feet, pressing a kiss to the corner of her mouth. He then carefully shrunk his armchair, the last piece of furniture in the large room. "Muggles, or so I had heard."
"You heard correctly," Severus confirmed, shrinking his supplies and slipped them into one of his pockets. "But one day he will be old enough to attend Hogwarts where I will be able to look out for him. I need to cement my position as a member of the faculty until then."
Just at that moment Draco came thudding back down the stairs, sprinting into the room with his favourite stuffed animal clutched in his arms. Due to his name most of Draco's toys were dragons but none of these had ranked as his all-time favourite. No, the toy that was dragged around by him almost constantly was a fluffy light brown rabbit with long ears.
"Draco! Don't forget you almost forgot Peter Rabbit?" Narcissa cried out dramatically, reaching down to straighten the blue jacket the much loved stuffed toy wore. It had been a gift from Andromeda, a representation of the main character of one of Draco's favourite story books by the muggle author, Beatrix Potter. "Whatever would have happened to Flopsy, Mopsey and Cotton-Tail if their brother hadn't made the move with them?"
"I wasn't going to forget him!" Draco protested. "I just didn't want to pack him away in the dark suitcase. Peter Rabbit doesn't like the dark. It's full of monsters and people in masks."
And didn't that cause all of their hearts to clench, that Draco was old enough for one of his fears to be of people wearing masks. This no doubt stemmed from the times he'd accidently witness his father returning from performing tasks for the Dark Lord wearing his distractive and purposefully frightening Death Eater mask. It had scared Narcissa the first time she'd seen it so no doubt it had scared their son, the metallic skull lingering in his young mind.
"You'll have to hold on tight to Peter Rabbit when we travel or you might lose him," Lucius, the first of the three adults to recover, informed him. Draco nodded so vigorously his platinum blond hair fell into his eyes. "How about you say goodbye to Uncle Severus whilst mummy and I get the house all shut up? It's almost time for us to go to our new house."
Draco was very excited about the prospect of moving house.
"I should never have let you go by yourself today," Lucius murmured, his voice noticeably choked as he followed his wife out of the room. Simultaneously they raised their wands, both made of smooth black wood, and began casting spells to lock all of the windows and close up the shutters, to cover the chandeliers and any furniture they weren't taking with them in dust sheets. "I knew how they were react and still I let you face them alone."
Narcissa placed a hand gently on his arm.
"I couldn't have faced them knowing that Draco was unprotected," she admitted softly, thinking of how her older sister had always been a fraction too interested in Draco before she'd finally gone too far and been arrested. Apolline had been almost as bad before she married and had a child of her own, a daughter she'd named Fleur after her husband's grandmother. "I had no idea she would react as violently as she did but I'll be all right. I'll be better once we've settled into our new home and can begin our new lives together."
It was all she'd been able to think about for weeks.
Lucius finished closing up the house by locking the front door and strengthening the wards around the vast property. Linking her arm through his the couple shared a loving kiss before re-joining their son who was busy regaling his godfather with the latest adventure he'd had with Peter Rabbit and how they were both excited about seeing their new bedroom.
"Draco, time to go," Narcissa called out, opening her arms to pick up her son but Lucius beat her to it. He responded to her frown by gesturing towards her still healing ribs. "I'm fine."
"There's no need to aggravate your ribs any more than they already will be simply by travelling via international apparation," her husband responded calmly as he settled his son on his hip, locking his arm around Draco's squirming body. "Would you mind carrying the suitcase? It has a feather-light charm on it to counteract the internal expansion charm."
Glaring softly at her husband Narcissa made a show of picking up the suitcase.
"We'll be expecting you around for Sunday lunch next week, Severus," she informed him firmly, stepping forwards in order to press a kiss to his cheek. "12 o'clock. Don't be late."
Wisely the young man in question chose not to argue with her.
Offering their friend's one final wave the family apparated to the international apparation point, Severus apparating back to Hogsmeade village at the same moment. It was understandably busy at the international apparation point with people arriving and departing for both business and pleasure, sometimes families like the Malfoys, sometimes individual men and women dressed in their smartest robes. They checked in at the registration desk, Lucius handing over the parchment granting them their departure slot, and then made their way to the queue for the Central European Apparation Point.
They'd agonised about where to go for their new start and had eventually decided to purchase a comfortable house in the magical village of 'Bâtons Croisés' which was located to the north of the muggle city Lausanne in Switzerland. 'Bâtons Croisés' was well-known for being something of a progressive community, forward thinking and very welcoming. Of the people they'd been in contact to regarding the house sale and getting the place ready for them they had had no trouble at all, not even when their wartime affiliations had come up.
Draco had fallen unusually silent by the time they took their place inside the roped off area.
"Time to begin our new adventure, my little dragon."
A/N – Don't ask me where this idea came from. I was literally driving home from work one day and thought to myself, "I wonder what would happen if you swapped Draco and Fleur around" and…well…apparently that was enough for my brain to latch on to and not let go until I started planning and then subsequently writing. I've got a rough idea of where this is going to go but I am definitely open to suggestions. Comments also welcome. X