Well first I would like to apologise for the wait. I find it a lot easier to write and update when at university; however now that I'm back home I always manage to distract myself.
I also got a job which is a big deal for me (I lead a very Malfoy like existence) so that has kept me from writing.
I have however recently managed to write some more and so I figured it was high time for an update.
Feel free to comment, when I comment on other peoples stuff I usually just put 'Yay'. Personally I would prefer longer comments but a yay wouldn't be unwelcome.
The Lion and Serpent
By
TheBigEmeraldPeacock
Chapter 5 – Unexpected Visits
Narcissa's POV
Shortly after leaving Draco to sulk by himself; Narcissa received a letter from her husband, summoning her to visit him at once. Though it would be breaking her oath not to have contact with him while in Azkaban, and the fact she hated being ordered to do anything; she decided he deserved a visit as he was Draco's farther, and would naturally be concerned. Of course if he was simply going to manipulate the situation to his advantage, she would leave immediately.
She apperated to the Azkaban gates which were located at Peterhead on the eastern coast of Scotland. Once through security, she then flooed to Azkaban Fortress which was located in the centre of the North Sea.
The minute she stepped out of the fireplace, she felt the slight chill of dementors. Of course the whole place was built of smooth black stone, so it didn't exactly retain heat anyway. She was escorted to Lucius's cell by two guards and was left outside the bars with a timer counting down from 10 minutes.
Lucius was sitting cross legged on the floor; when she appeared his expression had changed to that of an excited dog when it's master returns home; however he soon schooled it back into the usual Malfoy mask.
"Narcissa, I wasn't sure whether you would come when I wrote", Lucius said, coolly.
"Well I was simply dying to see how you had decorated", she looked around the bare cell in mock eagerness, "that's nice, does it come in a double?" she pointed at the hay bale bed.
Lucius glared, "Oh ha ha, I bet you're loving this, seeing me locked up here while you enjoy the high life".
It seemed even he realised how stupid what he had said was, because there followed a very tense silence, in which he stared at the floor.
"If that was the sort of person I was, I would have divorced you long ago Lucius, when it became apparent you loved yourself more than your family. Do you think I enjoy being the wife of Lucius Malfoy, imprisoned death eater? And what about Draco?
When people look at him they see you, is that a good thing? No it's not. Draco has far more potential to do great things, then you ever did; and yet his reputation is polluted by you.
To be honest Lucius if you were anything close to a man I would divorce you!"
Another awkward silence followed in which neither of them made eye contact.
"I'm sorry", Lucius said quietly.
Narcissa was stunned; in 18 years of marriage that was the first sorry she had ever heard him give; it was … well nice.
Her expression softened, "Why am I here Lucius? I wrote you what Severus told me. The dark lord is not involved, Draco is safe."
"Yes, and that's great" said Lucius; "However there is still the matter of me".
Narcissa scoffed, "What about you? Angling for a bigger cell are we?"
Lucius stood abruptly and stepped forward so he was pressed against the bars. Narcissa made to step back, however he grabbed the lapel of her coat and furiously whispered; "I'm not sure whether this has occurred to you or the dark lord, but I know far more about death eater activities than Draco does; and what's to stop me telling that oaf Dumbledore everything I know now that I'm not a death eater and my son is marrying a Weasley. Before all this I had no protection from the dark lord and so he was sure I would keep my mouth shut, however now we have this 'Order of the Phoenix' and when he realises this" he took a dramatic inhale, "he will silence me".
Narcissa fought the urge to roll her eyes; Lucius had always been a bit of drama queen; however he did have a point.
She walked out of the prison gates sometime later and began apperating towards the Weasley house.
Severus's POV
Severus sat slumped in one of the armchairs in his library at Spinners end, gazing angrily into the fire as he recalled the meeting he had had earlier that evening with Dumbledore.
He had been awoken from his nap by a knocking at the front door and, pulling on some clothes, had flung it open to discover the Headmaster, resplendent in flowing green robes standing in his grimy front garden.
At first he was alarmed that some death eater might be watching the house and would, quite rightly, be suspicious as to why the leader of the 'opposition' was making a house call; however Dumbledore quickly assured him that a heavy disillusionment charm surrounded him and he was invisible to everyone save him.
Severus promptly invited him inside and seated him in the small library, in one of the few book free spaces where he had managed to fit a pair of armchairs.
Taking a seat opposite he waited for the old man to begin explaining why he had come. For a long while Dumbledore simply stared into the fire, its light causing his eyes to sparkle even more than they did normally. Eventually he sighed and slowly turned to fix Severus with an apologetic look.
"I'm presently on my way to the Burrow where Molly is planning to tell the family of the situation; however I felt I should stop here first as there is certain information which I have not disclosed to you which you rightly deserve to know".
Severus inwardly groaned at this; it had only been a few months ago that Dumbledore had revealed the existence of the dark lord's horcruxes and his quest to find and destroy them all; and barely two weeks previous that he had turned up with his hand cursed by a ring which was apparently one of these fragments of soul. Fortunately the curse had not spread far by the time Severus was presented with it, however he had had no choice but to amputate from the mid forearm as it was so powerful.
Dumbledore was out of danger; he had made a prosthetic hand and glamoured it to look lifelike; and another horcrux was destroyed.
"I thought we said no more secrets" Severus said coldly, "After finding out you have been leading Potter to what might be his death, my ability to follow you blindly is gone. Do not expect me to do your bidding if it involves placing more innocent parties in danger, simply for your greater good".
Dumbledore recoiled slightly at this last statement and replied, rather weakly, "No one is in any more danger than they were before I came up with this plan".
"So it's another plan then?" Severus said bitterly amused.
"Yes it's a plan", Dumbledore replied sounding rather excited, "You see I took your suggestion to approach Lucius for assistance rather seriously. However as you said at the time we needed something to offer him, as he wasn't going to willingly come to our side without some persuasion. I toyed with the idea of offering him money, however he already has plenty, and the order needs it far more than he does. I also considered offering him his freedom; however that is not really mine to give and I don't think he really deserves it. I even thought about reinstating him on the board of governors after his release, but it became obvious that bribery was not a viable option to get Lucius. I therefore came to the conclusion that I would have to engineer a situation which left him no choice but to come to our side. And where would I get such leverage? Well Voldemort had already handed it to me on a silver platter, 'The Wizarding Preservation Act 1501'"
"So it was you!" Snape shouted, leaping up from his chair, "I should have known, who else regularly interferes in the lives of young boys, you withered old paedophile! My godson! And the Weasleys! They trust you! And how do you repay them? By marrying their son to a family they hate!"
"Severus please sit down and listen", Dumbledore asked pleadingly.
Severus sat, looking mutinous.
"As I was saying, all I did was secretly visit the Department of Wizarding Culture remove Draco's file and return it at the opportune moment. Neither he nor Ronald would have been able to avoid the act anyway, they simply would have been married to other people, all I did was alter the inevitable a little". Dumbledore finished smugly.
"But they both hate each other and they're straight", Severus said, exasperatedly.
"It's a thin line between love and hate", Dumbledore said wisely, "Both require passion and obsession; and have you ever seen any real evidence to indicate that either Draco or Ronald are straight? I myself pride myself on having an excellent Gaydar."
"Gaydar?" Severus asked, confused.
"Yes it's rather large devise of my own invention; it resembles a muggle musical instrument they call a 'French Horn'. All you have to do is point it at the person whose orientation you wish to know and blow through the mouth piece; the trumpet will then shout either 'Gay', 'Straight', or 'Bisexual'. It's really very amusing" Dumbledore finished, chuckling.
'God what sick bastard' Severus thought to himself.
"Anyway if you have any qualms about my plan you may borrow my Gaydar anytime you like and find out what Mr Malfoy and Weasley's preferences are", Dumbledore said, as if this solved the situation.
Dumbledore rose from his chair and patted Severus on the shoulder. "I'm afraid I must be going now, I dare say Molly will be needing my help to explain the situation. I will see you in a few weeks". Dumbledore strode to the door and left.
And so here Severus sat, not 10 minutes later brooding over Dumbledore's latest manipulations.
'Old coot' he thought as he drifted back to sleep.
Molly's POV
"THEY CAN'T MAKE ME! I WON'T DO IT! I WON'T!"
"Who in their right minds would come up with a law like that?"
"Who would let Umbridge run a department after last year?"
"RON CAN'T MARRY MALFOY, THEY HATE EACH OTHER".
"No one seems that bothered about the fact they're both men".
"Oh yeah, FREDS RIGHT, I CAN'T MARRY A MAN!"
"Well on the bright side, -he who must not be named- is not involved".
"Way to find a silver lining Bill; the lesser of two evils, marry Malfoy or die"
"There's not much between the two options is there".
Dumbledore had arrived not 20 minutes previously and as he had explained the situation the number of indignant outbursts had rapidly increased until the whole table had been shouting across each other. Ron had also slowly gotten redder in the face until he was basically shouting nonstop, barely pausing for breath (which didn't help the colour of his face). The twins, as understanding as ever, had burst into fits of laughter and were only now picking themselves of the floor wiping their eyes.
"Grow up all of you! And be quiet!" Molly screeched to the room at large, which went silent almost immediately.
"Ron I know how upset you must be, but please let Professor Dumbledore finish before you say anything else."
"Thank you Molly", Dumbledore said, smiling at her. "As I was saying, many of the students in your year, Ronald, have been affected like yourself; however as your mother and Mrs Malfoy discovered, there is nothing that can be done about it. At any rate it sounds a lot worse than it actually is. All that is required is that the couple reside together and of course marry; there is nothing in the law which requires you to have any relationship with your partner whether it be physical or otherwise".
"Its not much better, I still have to live with the death eater git" Ron mumbled stubbornly.
"Ronald! Language!" Molly chided.
"As you know Ronald, the Malfoys now have no connection to the death eaters, they are no longer welcome on that side and so it is only right that we give them an opportunity to join ours" Dumbledore explained.
"I think Lucius would sooner give all his money to muggles" Arthur snorted.
"I wouldn't be so sure, a little time in Azkaban may have shown him his choice in friends was not that wise" Dumbledore said, rubbing the bridge of his nose, "I would be very surprised if he flatly refused my invitation to join us as a consultant of sorts".
Molly sighed and took a sip from her wine glass. She was glad to see Ron seemed to be calming down; his face was no longer red and contorted in rage; however he now just looked miserable which wasn't much better. In fact everyone, save the twins, looked like they were at a funeral.
"For goodness sake, it's not like someone died. Ron as soon as –he who must not be named- is defeated we can simply have the whole thing reversed; so all you have to do is put up with it until then" Molly exclaimed.
Ron looked up, hope glimmering in his eyes, "Really?" he asked.
"Yes" said Dumbledore, smiling, "So all you have to do is get along with Draco and focus on your studies, it's not that hard really".
Molly was relieved to see Ron looked a great deal happier, she knew from experience how difficult an uncooperative child could be.
There was a knocking at the kitchen door, everyone at the table turned to look.
"I was rather hoping she would come here, though it is rather sooner than I expected", Dumbledore mused.
Everyone turned to look at him confused, however he simply smiled benignly, and so Molly got up and opened the door.
She found a slightly nervous looking Narcissa Malfoy stood on the door step, looking around at the moonlit yard. She straightened as the door opened and adopted a neutral expression.
"Good evening" she said stiffly, "We need to talk".
"Oh" Molly replied, this was the last person she expected would ever visit her house willingly, "come in", she said stepping back and smiling encouragingly.
Narcissa crossed the threshold and faltered at the sight of all the people at the table, all of whom, save Dumbledore, were gormlessly staring at her.
"Ah Narcissa, its lovely to see you again, won't you sit down?" Dumbledore greeted, conjuring a chair.
"I'm not interrupting something am I?" Narcissa asked, not really sounding apologetic, simply wary.
"No no, we had just finished telling everyone the situation", Molly said leading her to an empty chair, "Would you like a drink?"
"Err red wine", Narcissa replied spotting a bottle on the table.
'She's going to need it' Molly thought, biting her lip.
Narcissa's POV
To say Narcissa felt uncomfortable was a bit of an understatement. Having a room full of people, you usually wouldn't dream of associating with, staring at you with mixtures of shock and mistrust was not exactly relaxing.
The Weasley woman came bustling over and placed a glass of red wine in front of her and then took a seat near the end of the table.
Once seated Dumbledore finally broke the rather pregnant silence, "Well it's probably high time for some introductions", he beamed stupidly around the table, and finally people started to stop staring and looked towards the Headmaster.
"This is of course Draco's mother and Lucius's wife, Narcissa Malfoy, formerly Black".
Most of the table's occupants seemed untroubled by this, however Narcissa spotted both the warewolf Lupin and a youngish woman with pink hair next to him shift uncomfortably.
She supposed as one of her cousins closest friends Lupin would be uncomfortable at any reference to Sirius Black so soon after his death; however she had no idea who the bizarre looking woman was.
Dumbledore had begun talking again and so Narcissa pulled herself out of musings and listened.
"Where should I begin? You know Molly of course", she inclined her head in assent and Molly smiled, "Her husband Arthur", she vaguely recognised the balding red haired man who also smiled at her, "Their eldest son Bill", Dumbledore motioned to a rather wild looking red head who had far to many piercings, "Second eldest Charlie, here on a visit from Romania", a very tanned, stocky Weasley across from her nodded, "The twins Fred and George", two identical boys waved at her enthusiastically, which was … confusing, "Remus Lupin who you may remember from your school days", Narcissa nodded and gave Lupin a tight smile, "Mad Eye Moody and Nymthadora Tonks of the Auror Department."
Narcissa nearly gagged on the wine she had just drunk. Tonks! That girl with the ridiculous hair was Andie's daughter?
Admittedly she hadn't seen Andromeda (AKA 'Andie') since she was 10 when her elder sister had been disinherited for getting pregnant at 16 with a mud-blood's child.
She remembered being sad at the time, Andie was so much more fun than her twin Bella, however her parents had told her that she could never see her again and she had obeyed.
It seemed Dumbledore could tell what she had been thinking about because he suddenly said, "I suppose you're a little stunned to be meeting your only niece for the first time under these circumstances?" he gestured at Tonks who looked equally uncomfortable, while the rest of the table looked scandalised at the news.
"Wait so Draco is Tonks's cousin?" a red headed girl, who she supposed must be Ginny Weasley, asked.
"Yes", Narcissa replied fixing the girl with a defiant stare.
"And this is the first time you're both meeting?" the girl asked, an incredulous look on her face.
"I was only 10 years old when my sister ran off with that mud.. Tonks nobody; what was I supposed to do? Pack up my dolls house and chase after her?" she snorted sarcastically, "She was a branded as an outcast by my parents and there word was final. Anyway it's not like Andromeda ever tried to contact me!"
Narcissa realised that her voice had become unusually high. It seemed Andromeda leaving her in that dingy castle with nobody but Bella and her god awful parents, had hurt a lot more than she had admitted, even to herself.
"Perhaps we should leave the family reunion to another time and finish the introductions", Dumbledore said, breaking yet another awkward silence.
Narcissa took another deep gulp of wine which Dumbledore took as an assent.
"The girl you were just talking to was Ginny, the youngest and only daughter of the Weasleys", the annoying ginger girl smirked unpleasantly.
"And finally the groom to be, Ronald", Dumbledore finished, chuckling to himself.
Narcissa looked towards the end of the table and her eyes met with the boy who sat their.
She had glimpsed Ronald Weasley several times over the years when she had been seeing Draco off at Platform 9 ¾ , however he was only identifiable against all his other ridiculously ginger siblings as he was Potter's sidekick.
'Well he's tall, not too lanky either, but there is still that hair' she thought.
In fact, that was the main problem Narcissa now had with the whole situation. To her knowledge there had never been a ginger Malfoy, and it just felt like the two clashed.
"We could just dye the hair, not sure what to do about the horrible posture, and where in Merlins name to begin with his manners, you'd think it was eat or be eaten", she snorted into her glass and looked around. The room was silent and everyone was staring at her.
'Oh, I said that out loud', she thought, swaying slightly in her seat, 'Oh dear'.
"What do you mean 'dye my hair', and what's wrong with my manners?" Ron demanded.
"Ron dear, you could maybe use some etiquette lessons", Mrs Weasley said, diplomatically. "Narcissa, I think you should drink coffee from now on", she smiled kindly, pulling the newly refilled glass from Narcissa's reluctant grip.
"Well why should I dye my hair? I don't want to fit in with your snot nosed family!" Ron huffed.
Had Narcissa not been two sheets to the wind, she probably would have found the 'ginger-in-law's' words offensive. However she was feeling uncharacteristically empathetic and so she replied; "Fine. I suppose as you are the wife in all this, you can keep the hair, offensive on the eyes as it is, and we will just work on the manners for now", she swayed again as the room began to spin.
"What do you mean wife?" the twins asked in unison.
"You know, the surname, running the house … Oh and children of course!" she remembered as an after thought.
The twins howled with laughter at the expression on Ron's face, and even Ginny was twitching with repressed mirth.
"I … What? … Why?" Ron stuttered.
Narcissa sighed, the boy was a pureblood, 'he should have been taught this' she thought glaring at Arthur Weasley.
"Well, as for the surname, in the case of pureblood same-sex marriages the older family takes priority, and that is effective from the beginning of the engagement contract. So you are now Ronald Malfoy.
The children? Well you of course have to provide an heir for the Malfoy name; in fact that's the closest thing you'll ever have to a job, as a good pureblood wife doesn't work. As for running the house, we have house elves so it's not exactly taxing."
She looked at Ron, who still didn't seem to understand how obvious this all should be. "Am I forgetting anything? Well of course to have children you will need to have sex. You do know what sex is, don't you?" She gazed pityingly at Ron while the twins rolled around, smacking the floor, and crying with laughter.
"Here drink this, I put some sobering potion in it", the Weasley woman said, in a very high voice, placing a steaming mug in front of her.
She downed the coffee, choking as it scolded her tongue, however the dizziness vanished immediately and her heads felt much clearer. She also realised the stupidity of some of the things she had said, and had to fight the urge to bury her face in her hands and groan, it was never a good idea to drink in the presence of 'lower' individuals.
The twins had finally stopped laughing and were getting back into their seats, when Dumbledore stood and cleared his throat, "I imagine there was a purpose to your visit Narcissa? Other than to fill Ronald in on his 'duties', so to speak."
"Yes, there is" she replied contemptuously, "however it is not for public ears, if you catch my drift".
"Children, Bed!" The Weasley woman suddenly ordered, seemingly glad of a reason to banish them from the room. The twins, Ronald, and Ginny girl stood instantly and climbed the stairs.
'Well, a family the size of an army needs the order of one' Narcissa thought, her opinion of the Weasley matriarch was rising surprisingly quickly.
Well there we go, chapter 5.
I was running through some future plot lines in my head and wanted some opinions, if anyone wants to give them.
1. As in the book, Ron starts dating Lavender Brown, however he is still married to Draco. Draco of course gets jealous and uses underhanded methods to break them up.
2. Blaize starts tries to continue his relationship with Draco to Ron's annoyance.
3. Although I have written a setup for Ron to be the bottom/uke/catcher I think I might make him the top, however Draco won't go down without a fight … literally.
4. I am definitely going to work another slash in but I'm not sure who. Off the top of my head Percy-Marcus however I'm open to suggestions.