Disclaimer: I do not own any part of the Harry Potter series.
Dedication: A little silliness for my lovely readers/reviewers... I never thought I'd reach 100+ reviews. You guys are the best!
Trusting
"You want me to babysit your child?" Bellatrix demanded incredulously.
When Bellatrix said it, it sounded a lot less rationale than it had in her head. However, she was desperate so she tried to conceal her sudden apprehension. Besides, she should be able to trust her sister. Maybe. "Yes, Bella. I am asking if you would please watch over Draco." Narcissa was beginning to think this wasn't the best idea she'd ever had.
Bellatrix stared back with her mouth hanging open and asked, "Have you finally lost it, Narcissa? You sent an owl asking me to come over so I could spend my free night watching over a tiny, pink, squirmy-"
"Continuation of an ancient pureblood name," Narcissa finished smugly, using logic that even Bellatrix couldn't argue with.
But because she was Bellatrix, she did, "It's not the Black name that's being carried on through your little Draco."
"One evening, Bella. Please. Lucius and I haven't been out for months," Narcissa whined.
"Haven't you anyone else to ask?" Bellatrix sighed in aggravation.
"Of course I do. But they're all busy," she replied bluntly.
"I'm insulted, Cissy. Your own sister," Bella scolded mockingly.
Narcissa folded her arms over her chest. "Yes. My own sister. Surely you can sacrifice one night to watch over your nephew. What were you going to do anyway?" she demanded, then added quickly, "Never mind, don't tell me."
Bellatrix shrugged. "Even if I didn't have plans what makes you think I'd enjoy an expedition in childcare." She shuddered even as she spoke.
Narcissa resisted the urge to do the same and pressed on, "Because, your little sister is asking a favor."
"That is the most pathetic thing I have ever heard," Bellatrix retaliated, though she finally sat down with an exasperated growl on the sofa next to the playpen where Draco was staring up at the two bickering women.
But that was the most surrender she'd ever get from Bellatrix, so Narcissa formulated her attack. "I've already fed him and changed him, so you won't have to do anything," she explained carefully.
"Yes, Narcissa," her sister replied as though very bored.
"In fact, don't do anything," Narcissa added after considering the very real possibility of returning to a heap of ashes rather than a manor.
"I won't, Narcissa," Bella sighed.
"Just stay here and guard him, please," Narcissa responded for nothing better to say. She thought the idea of actually having a purpose other than maternal childcare might appeal to Bella.
"From what, Narcissa?" Bellatrix leered, twirling her wand in her fingers eagerly.
"Wipe that laugh from you face, Bella, I'm serious."
"Of course you are, Narcissa."
Narcissa ignored the worn out joke and continued, "If anything goes wrong, you are to immediately apparate- no, then you'll leave Draco by himself; send a house elf."
"If you insist, Narcissa."
"And stop that, Bella. I have no idea if you're even listening to me. For all you know about child caring, Draco will be dead by the time we get home."
"I am listening, Cissy."
At that moment, Lucius entered, staring warily at his sister-in-law. Shaking his head, he decided to ignore her and turned to his wife.
"Ready, Narcissa?"
She hurried over to Draco and kissed his head and muttered a tiny prayer that he would be there when she returned home. Smoothing down her dress robes, Narcissa forced a smile for her sister.
"Well, have fun." She instantly regretted her word choice; fun for Bellatrix usually involved loss of limb, after all.
She swirled out of the house with Lucius as she heard Bella deadpan, "You're welcome, Cissy. You owe me."
Narcissa had never put so much unfounded faith in one person.
"I just don't know if it was such a great idea to leave our baby with Bella," Narcissa sighed as the door closed behind her. She fastened her coat slowly, following Lucius down the pathway as she cast frequent glances back at the manor.
Finally, Lucius stopped abruptly so that as Narcissa looked backwards anxiously she walked into him. As Narcissa gave a reluctant giggle, Lucius brushed her hands away and finished fastening her coat as he said, "Look, Narcissa. Having your sister babysit was your idea."
Narcissa ignored this. She wasn't about let Lucius know that Bella was her verylast resort. Well, unless the house elves were counted, and they weren't. Narcissa wouldn't dream of letting the line of both Black and Malfoy, her son, in the hands of such creatures.
"Well…" she mumbled, distracted as Lucius kissed her forehead.
He smirked, "Is that a lack of faith in dear Bella?"
Narcissa shot him a look.
"Really, Narcissa," Lucius sighed, "Bellatrix is perfectly capable."
Capable, certainly. Of mayhem, torture, and bad hair days, Narcissa thought, really bad hair days. Of childcare not so much. She knew it was a telling mark on just how long it had been since their last night out that Lucius was defending his sister-in-law. Obviously he was desperate to prance around and show her off to the lesser purebloods. The thought was a very tempting distraction to the fact that Narcissa had just left her only son with an infamous murderess. But then she remembered the disconcerting last words she had exchanged with the murderess in question. Narcissa had not missed that Bellatrix neglected to deny the idea of accidentally killing her nephew. She shivered slightly and then assured herself that Draco could be in worse hands. At the moment she couldn't think of many, however, and she was about to turn back and stay home the rest of the evening when Lucius grabbed her arm and said, "We're leaving now, Narcissa."
But half an hour later, Narcissa returned to the manor. They had barely ordered when Narcissa wondered, with great horror, what would happen if Bella's mark burned. Lucius' joke that she would probably bring Draco along with her to the Dark Lord and have him branded did not soothe Narcissa's fears but rather sent her into a frenzied panic. So now, she was standing in the entrance hall of her house, hurrying to find her sister and, more importantly, her son. When she did find them, right where she'd left them, Narcissa couldn't have been more surprised.
Bella was reclined lazily on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. Her hand was draped over the play pen, dangling just so that as Draco stretched upwards he could bat at his aunt's long fingers. Bella's hand twitched occasionally as Draco would manage to latch onto a finger. Bellatrix's free hand was holding her wand loosely, rotating in lazy circles as she spent various colored sparks shooting in the air to fall around Draco who squealed in surprised delight.
Narcissa might have smiled at such an unexpected scene of tenderness but instead she was frozen in the doorway, gaping.
Her son was not injured, maimed, or dead; all of which she had considered very real possibilities. Rather, Bellatrix was behaving… almost normally. Aside from the fact that she was sending potentially dangerous sparks falling around an infant, of course.
Narcissa cleared her throat to finally announce her presence. Bellatrix pushed herself up to see who it was and said, "You're home early, Narcissa. Lucius that boring?"
"No, Bella. I just wanted to check in on you… and Draco," Narcissa added quickly. "But it seems you two are… fine and the house is… strangely intact."
Bellatrix smirked. "Surprised?"
That was an understatement, Narcissa thought. "Um… yes."
Bellatrix laughed loudly and then shook her head at her little sister. "I'm not completely helpless, Cissy."
Narcissa still wasn't convinced that she wouldn't find the rest of the house demolished with the parlor the only thing left untouched. "Well, I'll accredit your alarming success to the wonderful temperament of my son," she sniffed, picking up Draco gently as she said so, kissing both cheeks.
"Ha! Wonderful temperament," Bellatrix snorted, "There's more Black in him than I first thought. Not five minutes after you left your 'little angel', he woke up and started wailing. You'll be happy to know that he has your lungs; when it comes to crying, I mean."
Narcissa rolled her eyes and examined her sister curiously. She then checked her son for any visible bruises or signs of unnecessary roughness. It wasn't that she didn't trust her own flesh and blood, but Bella had a tendency to stop whining with physical restraint. Narcissa knew this from experience.
When she found that her son was in the same health that she had left him in, Narcissa asked carefully, "Bella, if you didn't resort to violence… how on earth did you manage to get Draco to stop crying?"
Bellatrix raised an amused eyebrow. "Oh? Is that how you get him to shut up?"
"That's not what I meant."
Bella sighed, as though it was blatantly obvious, "Silencing charms, Cissy. How else do you get anything to shut up?"
Narcissa was suddenly angry at herself for believing, if only for a moment, that Bella knew anything about childcare. "You silenced my crying child with a charm?" she said in a deadly cool voice.
"That's what I just said," Bella replied as though Narcissa was the dumb one. "Don't give me that look; I don't care if he's half-Black. Your little brat's annoying."
"You magically silenced my crying child because he was annoying you?" Narcissa hissed angrily, "It inconvenienced you to follow conventional mother methods and soothe the poor dear so much that you just pointed your wand at him?!"
At this point Bellatrix stopped shooting jets of light into the air and instead pointed her finger at her sister. "Now really, be fair; there are far worse things I could have done by pointing my wand at your screaming brat, Narcissa."
Narcissa clutched Draco tighter to her chest. "Don't call him a brat; he's your nephew, Bella," Narcissa snapped, glaring at her sister. "How long was he crying? Or didn't you take notice?"
"Of course I noticed. It went on and off for about, oh… awhile," Bellatrix muttered.
"Bellatrix," Narcissa said harshly, "Just because you can't hear him screaming doesn't mean he's not in pain!"
"Pain?" Bella roared with laughter, "How you coddle him, Narcissa. He was just upset that his mommy and daddy weren't around; from the way you keep me away from him, Draco probably didn't even know who I was. Besides, don't question my methods. Mother did the same thing for us when we were growing up and we turned out just fine."
"As far as raising children goes," Narcissa reasoned, "Mother had a thirty percent success rate, all thanks to me."
Bellatrix, one hand on her hip the other hand pointed at the playpen, ordered, "Narcissa, put your child back; he managed this long without you, I think he can survive another two hours or so. Besides, since he isn't talking, for all you know he could be just dying to spend time with his aunt."
Narcissa mumbled, "Yeah… just dying." However, she lowered Draco into the playpen just the same. After all, Bellatrix was doing a lot better than she had expected, and well, Draco had at least seemed happy when she had entered. Bella might have been making up the whole Silencio story just to cover up her inner tenderness. And in her defense, Bella had watched over her two little sisters with a fierce protectiveness; surely Draco couldn't be too different. In any case, Narcissa was itching to return to her husband.
"Same rules as before, Bella," Narcissa said firmly, "You hurt my child in any way, shape, or form, or-"
"Or you'll come up with a coherent threat for me, I know, I know," Bella condescended with a smile.
Ignoring the teasing, Narcissa disapperated back to her husband. Her faith in her sister more together than she would have thought possible, Narcissa managed to rather enjoy her time with Lucius. However, even she realized that leaving Bella unattended for more than four hours at a time was a bit foolish and she was torn between disappointment and relief when their night out reached its end.
Narcissa entered the manor quietly, allowing Lucius to remove her coat as she called out, "Bella, we're home. Bella?"
They walked into the parlor where Bellatrix had been sitting with Draco before but the room was empty. Narcissa felt a pang of worry at the absence of her son and looked, wide-eyed at her husband.
Lucius laughed at her expression, "Narcissa, it's late. Hopefully your monster of a sister at least had the sense to put him to bed. Don't be irrational."
Narcissa scoffed back, "In matters where my monster of a sister and small children are concerned, a little bit of apprehension is not irrational."
Apparently Lucius agreed, because he didn't reply but headed swiftly in the direction of the nursery. Narcissa walked behind him, practically wringing her hands as she wondered what on earth had possessed her to trust Bellatrix Lestrange with an infant.
But when Lucius' hand finally seized the doorknob, Narcissa was once again left gaping at the sight that met her eyes. Bellatrix's arms were resting on the rail of the crib. As she looked down upon the sleeping Draco, her chin was cupped in her left hand. The scene was made only more bizarre by the fact that Bellatrix's left forearm was entirely exposed and thus the branded Dark Mark gleamed over Draco's crib even as Bella spoke in a low mantra.
"Then Pollux and Irma Black had Walburga and your grandfather, Cygnus. Well, technically they had Alphie as well, but," Bellatrix yawned, "We aren't counting blood traitors, are we, Draco?"
"Is that your version of a lullaby, Bella?" Lucius drawled, the first to recover from the shock.
Bellatrix looked up slowly to meet Lucius with a smirk, "No, Lucius. If I wanted something as short as a lullaby, I would have hardly recited the Black Family Tree. I might have considered the Malfoys first, for an abbreviated bedtime story, I mean."
Narcissa ignored both of them and walked over to pick up her son and cradle him in her arms. "I suppose it's never too early for him to learn it," she said gently, kissing his nose. Then she was struck with a thought. "Bella… how exactly did you get him from the parlor to the nursery?"
Lucius looked at her as if it was the stupidest question in the world, but Narcissa was well aware of her sister's unwillingness to even touch babies, let alone carry one (hopefully gently) up a long flight of stairs to the opposite end of the house.
"Levitation charms, obviously," Bellatrix said simply, "Really, Cissy, are you as daft as you look?"
Narcissa was about to protest her sister's methods of child transportation, but then reasoned that Bellatrix was much better with a wand than maternal gestures.
"Right. Well, thank Draco for babysitting you. I mean," she said quickly, catching her mistake, "Thank you for babysitting Draco."
Bellatrix glared at Narcissa for a moment as though trying to decide if she should be insulted or not. Finally, she sneered, "You're just lucky my mark didn't burn, Cissy."
Author's Note: Firstly,I apologize for the delayed update. Secondly, I apologize for the absurdity of this chapter. It was a raging plot bunny that threatened to be crack fic quite easily; hopefully I have avoided that extreme. Anyway, Bella had been cranky the past 2-16 chapters so I thought she could use a little redemption. (However, this was only Narcissa's version of what happened. Hopefully I'll have a one-shot up in the near future from Bellatrix's POV about what really happened when Narcissa was stupid enough to leave Draco with his auntie.) Again, your reviews mean so much to me and I can't begin to thank you all enough!