It took Lucius almost a full year to charm pretty little Narcissa Black into loving him as much as he loved her or, at least, took him that long to coax her into admitting it. In truth, Narcissa had probably all along been as half-infatuated with Lucius as the rest of the witches at Hogwarts. Even the girls who hated everything about him could often barely help but simper when he smirked their way—and they hated him for that, and he loved it.
But Narcissa was proud and reticent and not the sort of witch to tolerate being toyed with. Lucius had to prove that she meant more to him than mere flirtation before she would deign to admit to noticing him. She very nearly made him grovel, and he would have if she'd asked. Lucius was used to paying steep prices, and there was nothing that would have been too high a cost for the hand of his beautiful Narcissa Black.
In his entire over-privileged life, nothing had ever made him so happy as the moment when she at last said yes.
But Lucius's perverse delight in torment was an inherited trait, and so was his skill in that delicate arena. Abraxas Malfoy did not take his son's insubordinations lying down, and just because he usually turned first to a straightforward beating didn't mean he wasn't perfectly capable of and willing to torture his son in the same subtle, manipulative fashion that Lucius used so well against him.
So Abraxas spoke to the Blacks, and arranged a betrothal for his son with their daughter—but not with Narcissa.
For the Blacks had three lovely young daughters to marry off, and pretty, pale little Narcissa was the youngest. She had unfortunately been properly demure, and had not mentioned her growing attraction to Lucius to her parents; she was waiting for him to make an official offer, which they could hardly do while still so young, and still in school. Only then would her parents need to know where her heart lay, so that they would be certain to say yes when the Malfoys came calling.
They might not have cared how she felt, in any case; they might have said yes on her behalf before even speaking to Narcissa about the matter. Certainly when Abraxas came on his own, the Blacks were only too happy at the idea of handing their middle child over to the Malfoys. Andromeda, after all, had become troublesome of late. She wasn't behaving properly, not at all. She had gone so far as to be seen flirting with a Mudblood, and hadn't been abashed at all about getting caught.
Something had to be done with the girl before it was too late.
That something came in the form of Abraxas Malfoy, offering Andromeda the chance to marry into his terribly respected, terribly rich, terribly Pureblooded family. The Blacks jumped at it, and Andromeda and Lucius found themselves officially betrothed before either knew what was happening. She was in her seventh year of schooling, he in his sixth; perfectly appropriate ages at which to form a marriage contract.
Lucius learned of the happy news one morning at breakfast in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. His father sent him a blisteringly smug letter that Lucius, face transfixed with fury, spent the next fifteen minutes ripping into miniscule scraps of parchment.
Then he stormed out, grabbed Narcissa, pulled her into the nearest empty classroom, snogged her half-senseless, and demanded to know if she'd had anything to do with this. When he explained what "this" was—for Narcissa had not yet learned of their parents' activities—she did not break down in tears as might have been expected of a delicate young witch in such a situation. Instead she went cold and pale and furious and without a word to Lucius she left to go and find her sister.
Andromeda, when she learned what their parents had done, went every bit as pale as her pretty little sister, and did not speak at all save to quietly inform the angry witch in front of her that such a thing certainly hadn't been her idea, and furthermore was nothing she was in the least bit interested in going through with.
Then she excused herself, walked out of Slytherin's common room, and was not seen again for several hours. After that she appeared much happier, and utterly unconcerned with Lucius Malfoy, and refused to speak to anyone about the rumors flying through the school that had her engaged to Slytherin's Quidditch Captain.
Lucius, by contrast, played his role to perfection, while secretly fuming. He was quietly very glad that Andromeda had chosen to ignore him, thus allowing him to treat her in kind without it being considered a rudeness, and he continued to discreetly see her little sister, assuring Narcissa that as soon as he was home and could speak to—or curse—his father in person, he would clear all this up.
After all, Lucius Malfoy was very, very good at talking himself out of trouble. He was certain that the Blacks would have no problem exchanging one daughter for another, and he convinced Narcissa likewise. As for his father…well, Abraxas could be dealt with, one way or another. The only real problem was Andromeda but, Narcissa assured him, unbelievable though it seemed to her, her older sister had no interest in marrying Lucius Malfoy, and would be entirely gracious about the alteration to the deal.
Andromeda was seventeen, and would be graduating in a few short weeks. Lucius still had a year more of schooling, though, so it would be expected that while the official engagement announcement would be made following Andromeda's graduation, the official contract would not be finalized until at least a year later. That gave them time to rearrange things properly.
Andromeda, though, had other plans.
When the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station she got off the train with the other students, but never walked out to meet her parents. The Blacks waited with Narcissa until the platform had emptied then, thinking that the rebellious girl had Apparated home ahead of them to express her displeasure and sulk properly, they had left, scowling.
But Andromeda was not at home.
There was only a note, a very brief one, that Narcissa did not get to read. Her father tore it up, much the way Lucius had torn up Abraxas's letter a few weeks ago, and then he burned the pieces.
... ... ...
It wasn't until four days later, reading the Daily Prophet, that Narcissa learned what had become of her sister.
It was a very small article, just a perfunctory announcement of a small, quiet wedding. Andromeda Black, it said, had married Ted Tonks, a wizard who, Narcissa knew, had been a Hufflepuff student in her sister's year.
He was also the son of two Muggles.
The scandal was nearly unbelievable. Andromeda Black, of the ancient and respected Noble House of Black, whose motto, Toujours Pur, was often enforced with deadly authority, had snubbed Lucius Malfoy in order to elope with a filthy Mudblood boy.
The remaining Black sisters hid themselves away, Bellatrix raging and swearing vengeance and making not-so-veiled hints about her own recent alliances and the sorts of punishments she could rain down through them; Narcissa sobbing, heartbroken, certain now that Lucius would never want anything to do with her, not with the sister of a girl who had so publicly humiliated him.
Of course, they couldn't hide forever, the Black family. They had to drag themselves out and stiffen their spines and plaster smiling masks to their faces and pretend they couldn't hear the cutting whispers that drifted all around them. They had to brave the scandal and go to the balls and the parties and the luncheons and smile through their shame. It was the only way to prove they were still on the right side of the burgeoning war; the only way to prove that Andromeda's humiliation would not be a fatal blow to the once-esteemed family.
When Narcissa saw Lucius at one of those balls, her heart nearly broke and it was only through a supreme effort of will and years of training in decorum that she maintained her proper society mask and continued to smile, pale and brittle and ready to fall to pieces. When he swept her onto the dance floor she braced herself for humiliation, but none came. When he coaxed her out to the garden, she was certain it was for a private, heartbreaking scene, but it wasn't.
Lucius didn't give a damn what Andromeda Black had done, he was in love with her little sister. He wanted Narcissa and what Lucius Malfoy wanted, he got. He was a Slytherin, after all. Nothing stood in his way for very long.