Author's note: Thank you so much for the reviews! 8 for chapter 1! I hope you will continue to enjoy this story!

Chapter 2:

Vincent and Gregory now had milk all around their bowls and yet kept splashing their cereals around with much amusement. Draco, however, was not amused in the least. Every time his mother sent him a letter, he could see his life take a turn for the worst. But today's made him snap, which was quite unexpected. Nothing could normally sway his stony exterior.

"For crying out loud, how old do you think you are? Quit playing with your spoons like three year-olds and start acting like Slytherins, not bloody Hufflepuffs!" Draco hissed finally pulling his eyes away from his mother's letter.

The merry clatter of spoons and milk stopped and Draco returned to his reading. Each word made him more convinced that his mother had finally cracked. Now she was talking of staying in a small town she randomly stopped in. He had received a letter when she had arrived there and she had shown no inclination to stay there. Now, four days later, she was ranting about how wonderful the place was. She was thoroughly describing the people in town and the blonde Slytherin shuddered at the epic adventures of two seemingly St-Mungo's ward escapees called Babette and Patty.

He didn't know what had possessed his mother but it was starting to worry him. He sighed and grabbed his fifth coffee bowl (yes, bowl) before heading to the staff table. He stopped in front of Snape who was chatting with Dumbledore and McGonagall and shoved the letter under the potions master's nose.

"Do something. She's gone bloody bonkers! Make her come back here and take her place back where she belongs. This is ludicrous!" Draco complained to his head of house.

"Do what?" asked Snape raising an eyebrow at his godson, deciding to overlook the fact that the boy had rudely interrupted the headmaster.

"Anything! Talk to her, write to her, tell her I'm dying and she has to come back. Go there and put her in a box to ship her back, I don't care but DO something!" the teenager growled.

Professor McGonagall grabbed the letter that was happily soaking in Snape's beans and began to read. "I don't see the problem mister Malfoy. Your mother sure seems to be enjoying herself. These town characters appear quite entertaining in my eye." She returned to her toast, missing the death glare Draco sent in her direction.

Severus sighed; he knew Draco's world was upside down now and that everything he'd been taught was being invalidated lately. "She does sound happy. Don't you want her to be happy?" He watched the teenager squirm uncomfortably. "I know this is weird for you and I know you're probably worried but at least the people in that town seem nice enough, don't they? Give it a chance; you never know what good could come out of this." He glared at Minerva who was smiling at his soft tone. It was embarrassing enough he couldn't help being fatherly towards Draco without having HER of all people point it out.

Draco knew his godfather was right and that was making his anger rise even more. He didn't want to lose his last ounce of temper in front of the whole school though, so he snatched the letter, shoved it into his pocket and marched back to the Slytherin table, where Crabbe and Goyle had taken to start again their splashing as soon as Draco had stood up.

The two boys stopped as they saw him come back, especially since he had this well-known, dangerous glint in his eyes but surprisingly, he stared blankly at the mess they had done, grabbed his schoolbag and left the Great Hall without another word.

He walked swiftly towards the library. Breakfast wasn't over and classes wouldn't be starting for another half hour. He pushed the heavy door open and was greeted with an empty library. Even the old and cranky librarian was nowhere in sight. Draco smirked. More than anything did he like the library in the morning when it was empty. He didn't care for the sighs and quills droppings of the evening; they made him cringe and snap his own quills, a habit he had developed over the years to calm his frustration. Of course, Narcissa hadn't quite liked it when he had snapped in half a whole box of extremely expensive quills in two hours, but she thought it was better than when he was making the ballroom's thirty French windows shatter so she let him be.

The Slytherin boy gracefully let his body fall in a comfortable armchair and pulled a potions book out of his bag. He immersed himself in it so completely that he hardly noticed the person who had been tapping incessantly on his shoulder for the past five minutes. It was only the bell announcing the first class of the day that distracted him from his reading and he looked up to meet Pansy Parkinson's amused stare.

"You're such a hopeless case Draco, I swear."

"I am not" he huffed indignantly while shoving his book back in his bag.

"One of your books is going to kill you one day. You'll be so caught up into it that you won't notice the world is ending. A dragon could be standing in front of you and you wouldn't even acknowledge it," she laughed at him.

"I was ignoring you, I knew you were there!"

She chuckled and shook her head at him. She didn't need to tell him off, he knew she was right. She started walking swiftly towards the door and heard him jog to catch up with her. People thought they were an item. Nothing made them laugh more than that. They were friends. Brother and sister. Compadres. But at least, girls didn't dare put their paws on the "Slytherin Prince" with Pansy around and she was saved from Theodore Nott, who had taken to stalk her since they were nine. It was a pretty good deal.

They took a turn and came across the Dream Team. Pansy shot them the customary glare, but she noticed her friend was lost too deep in his thoughts to pay attention to them. That worried her, considering that Ronald Weasley's not so discreet voice was extremely hard to ignore and that Draco would always jump at any occasion to take out his anger on the red-headed Gryffindor.

"What's up Drake?" she whispered, knowing he wouldn't want to be interrogated with everybody around. "You seem in a distant mood today. Is it still that trial bothering you?"

That made Draco realize that he hadn't told Pansy the results of the trial or that his mother had gotten a divorce. With much bribery and blackmailing from Narcissa, the Daily Prophet and other gossip hunters had agreed to withhold the news for a couple of weeks, enough time for the remaining Malfoys to pull their lives together. 'One more week of peace' Draco thought sadly. He didn't want the school to be talking about him.

"It's finished Pansy, he's in Azkaban, my mum got her divorce, she's selling everything reminding her of Lucius, changed her name back to Black and has taken off for the United-States to start over or so she says," he answered in a bored voice.

Pansy discreetly sighed of relief. "Isn't it good then? You should be happy and instead, you're sulking in your own little world."

"Malfoys don't sulk."

"Whatever, just tell me already," she poked him in the ribs, one of her twisted ways of showing affection for the boy.

They had now reached the Charms classroom but Flitwick was nowhere in sight and people were chattering happily in the hall. Draco leaned against a pillar and looked at Pansy.

"I don't know…Everything's too weird now. My head is a mess; I don't know what to think anymore. My father probably taught me plenty of wrong things which he's paying dearly for, and I know I'm not him but it's hard to redefine everything I've lived by so far. My mum seems happy though. She doesn't have any problem moving on…" He lost track of his speech and just fell back into silence.

Pansy took his thin hand into hers and squeezed it tightly. "She didn't grow up like you. She probably doesn't have to reconstruct everything around her and can dig into her past to find things that made sense. Give it time Dragon." She winked at him.

"Alright Flower," he conceded while rolling his eyes and pushing himself off the pillar as Flitwick trotted down the hall and ushered his students in the classroom.

Narcissa rolled on her side and watched the leaves move with the slight breeze. The sun was shining today again and she felt amazing. It was Tuesday morning and she was still in Stars Hollow. The festival had been a lot of fun. She had met most people in town by now and she liked them in all their eccentricity. Sometimes she felt a bit crowded as she used to spend her days alone in the manor when she didn't have a social function to attend. And even during those, she felt lonely. She hated most of these people with a passion and hid in a corner hoping to disappear into the wall until Lucius would come and drag her away by her wrist muttering about her incapacity to uphold the name of Malfoy.

Malfoy.

She was Narcissa Black now. She liked it. It spoke freedom to her, for the first time since she was born. Anything would speak freedom next to the name of Malfoy mind you. It was still Draco's name though. She hadn't managed to make Lucius sign the papers that would let him use her name. She felt her anger rise and decided to put her thoughts away and to get up. She had lots of stuff to do today. Starting with finding a house and looking for a job.

The blonde woman changed into jeans and a white cardigan before bouncing downstairs. Michel greeted her with a grunt of annoyance and a glare. She laughed at him.

"Morning Chirpy."

"Get away from me," he gritted through his teeth.

Lorelai smacked him with an envelope. "Michel, be nice to the guests."

He slammed the reservation book shut and stalked towards the kitchen, mumbling something about women and coffee. Lorelai and Narcissa leant on the desk and raised their eyebrows at his retreating form. They laughed and exchanged an evil look.

"So Narcissa, when are you leaving us?" asked Lorelai in a friendly tone. She enjoyed Narcissa's company, especially if Luke or Michel were around.

"Well, I'll leave the Inn when I can find a house," the blonde woman answered with a wink.

"You're staying?" exclaimed the Inn manager. "That's wonderful! This is a great town, you will love it."

Narcissa nodded and looked around the lobby. "Yes, it's exactly what I was looking for. It's a new start in my life. It's completely different from everything I've known so far and I can finally put all that behind me. I'm going to look for a house now. I'll probably see you at Luke's later today."

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Narcissa walked around Stars Hollow most of the morning. She saw plenty of houses but none seemed to fit the ideas in her head. She wanted something as far as possible from Malfoy Manor but still elegant. And spacious. Because she knew they would have to store their magical items away. And between Draco and her, they had too many potion ingredients and books for a little closet. Yes, they would need an extra room, if not two.

In the afternoon, she was about to give up on her search for the day when she came across a house for sale that matched everything she wanted: It had a Victorian style with a porch that ran around the whole house and two floors, plus the attic. The rooms were not too big but not small either and the attic would be perfect to store their magical stuff.

She ran her delicate fingers on one of the apparent beams in the living room and smiled to herself. Of course, the whole house needed a good painting, but it wasn't a problem. She could ask Kirk to do it since he would basically do anything you wanted. Then she would need furniture, but that wouldn't be a problem either, she already had had a look at Mrs Kim's antique store and had her eye on a few pieces. For the rest, she could ask someone in town where to go. The selection of stores in Hartford was insane anyway.

Of course, she could use magic to settle in the house, but she had a feeling that people here were very curious of their neighbours and that someone would notice if she used it too much. But she was up for the challenge: she would live like the Muggles, and she would enjoy it. She would get a job, do her own stuff as she had no use for house elves here and Draco would agree or she would ship him to summer school.

'No, cross that out, he would love it. I'll ship him to… to… HAH, I'll ship him to Bill. That would straighten him out quickly. Except I would have to explain to him that I've secretly been friends with Bill since we were in Hogwarts. Too much hassle. He'll just have to shut up and obey and that'll be it.'

She was lost in her track of thought when a move behind the tree caught her eye. She went out onto the porch and called the thin figure climbing the stairs of the neighbouring house.

"Rory?"

Lorelai's daughter turned around and smiled at Narcissa while sauntering back down the wooden stairs and approaching the yellow house in front of which the woman was standing.

"Hi, how are you? What are you doing here?" chirped Rory, her blue eyes sparkling. They were even brighter than Lorelai's.

"Well, I'm moving in. I didn't know we would be neighbours though."

"Is that a bad thing? I mean… We are mean to pets and we throw stones at children and steal their chocolate and we stalk neighbours when they look like Brad Pitt… But really, we are the perfect neighbours," Rory babbled.

Narcissa looked at her blankly. "Who's Brat Pitt?" she eventually asked shamefully.

"WHAT?" Rory was shocked. "How can you not know? Even British people know Brat Pitt! He's an actor. He starred plenty of great movies!"

Actor? Movies? Narcissa frowned and concentrated very hard on her memories of muggle studies. Except that her teacher was kind of a joke so she had spent the greater part of those lessons trying to get a rise out of the Gryffindor prefect seated right in front of her. Nice memories.

She hadn't noticed that Rory had started talking again. "We're having a movie night tomorrow, Mom and I. You should come! We'll eat tons of junk food and we'll stay up late and fall asleep on the floor and we'll feel sick the next morning."

"Alright, I will." Narcissa didn't even hesitate if it was proper or not. She didn't have to ask anyone if she was 'allowed' to go and there was nobody to check that she had confirmed that she would show up.

Rory smoothed her plaid skirt. "Hey are you going to Luke's?" Narcissa nodded. "Wait for me? I'm just going to change out of my school uniform and we can go there together." The girl ran off to drop her schoolbag and change before Narcissa could even answer, and back quicker than anything possible.

"Come on Cissa, the coffee doesn't wait!" Rory exclaimed, pushing the blonde woman away from her house.

Narcissa sat on the floor, holding her stomach. Rory had been right, the amount of food swallowed that night had been phenomenal. Lorelai plopped on the couch with a pack of popcorn in her hand.

"Mom, don't tell me you're going to eat that!" asked Rory with wide eyes.

"Why not? Lorelai whined. "I can't watch the Borrowers without popcorn!"

"Aren't you feeling nauseous enough after the three pizzas, five pop tarts and five kilos of candy, cookies and other chips we swallowed?" The mere mention of so much food made Narcissa turn a lovely shade of green.

"Yes, but I won't watch the Borrowers without popcorn!" insisted Lorelai.

"Fine." Rory popped the dvd out of the player and put it back in the box.

"What are you doing evil child?" yelled Lorelai.

"I'm preventing you from eating the pop corn. I have school tomorrow so I'm not watching over your sick self and you have work." Rory deadpanned. Lorelai started to pout.

"You're mean. Now what are we going to do, it's only 9!"

"We could watch The Mexican." Rory waved the dvd box.

"I need ice cream to watch that." Lorelai groaned.

"Mom."

"Oooh, I know! We could get information on our guest! Make a FBI file and all!"

'A FBI file? Better not to ask' thought Narcissa. Still, she was getting worried at everything she didn't know. Tonight she had learnt plenty of muggle junk food names, what was a dvd, a dvd player, a vcr and a stereo, a microwave and a fuse but there was so much. She didn't think her brain would manage to keep up very long. She would slip up and she was worried about that. she had no one to help her, nobody knew what she was. She wished again that Draco was there. At least she would have someone to share her problems with.

She decided to go to Hartford the next day, to find the wizard community that Dumbledore had told her about. Maybe there would be someone nice enough there to help her. And she needed a break from the muggle world. It was still too tiring for her.

A lamp suddenly blinded her and she blinked to get the black spots out of her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, Lorelai was holding the lamp and Rory was looking very serious with a pen and notepad in her hands.

"So, let's start our interrogation." Rory grinned.

"Twenty questions?" Lorelai squealed happily.

"Mom, what do you expect to learn in twenty questions? We're filing for the FBI, not Cosmo," the teenage girl scolded her mother.

"Right, so let's start. Miss Black, how old are you?" asked Lorelai in a professional tone.

'Oh Merlin, where is this going?'

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