Let
us go forward a few more months ... sorry. I know I keep skipping XD
This chapter was kind of hard to write -- Ah well, enjoy. :)
"Yes,
but the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters," -
Sirius Black
Halloween
approached quickly - the air had become alot colder for starters,
with chilling winds at no extra cost. The green leaves had long
turned orange and brown, flowers and grass dying as post winter frost
skittered across the stems and blades. With the nights going darker
earlier than usual, Narcissa felt it was necessary to take extra
precaution - this being not going out at all in the dark hours. But
of course, Draco wanted to participiate within the muggle event of
trick 'n' treating. "I want to go!" he had whined, pursing
his lips in what he hoped to be a winning plead.
"Fine,"
Narcissa relented unhappily, "Your father can take you."
Only,
after this had all been arranged, Lucius backed out at the last
minute, with any form of explanation. She presumed it was work and
this angered her - could he not go running to Voldemort for just one
night? Just one?
Probably
not.
So they sat at home playing games to pass the time, and Draco
was content with alot of candy, so he now had to no reason to whine
or plague Narcissa with his hammy fists to take her out. She was
reclining in her arm chair, reading the daily prophet without real
interest, when Lucius returned around ten o'clock. She looked around
for Draco in sudden panic, as if suspecting he had been kidnapped,
but no, he was snoozing on a mountain of candy. He had chocolate all
around his mouth. He looked quite cute, but Lucius didn't seem to
think so, his scowl pointed this out quite clearly. "Narcissa
..." his face was un-naturally pale in the light from the
fire-powered lamps; his eyes seemed quite frightened too. What had
happened?
"What's happened, Lucius?" she leant forward
and took his hand in sympathay, but he snatched it away, and strode
over to stand by the fireplace, narrowly missing tripping over their
sleeping child. "The Dark Lord has fallen."
Narcissa was
shocked to the marrow - if he was so incredibly powerful, how on
earth had he died? Lucius seemed to read her mind, and answered her
unasked question with a bitter tone. "His killing spell
backfired."
"Who ... who was he trying to kill?"
she asked weakly, dread plummeting into her stomach.
"James
and Lily Potter."
"And - did he succeed?"
He
paused, and looked at her directly. "Yes."
"No ...
no." She sunk further into her armchair and lost control; Lucius
had never seen Narcissa like this before. "But if he killed them
... how did it backfire?"
Lucius' jaw muscles tightened, as
if finding it hard to reply. "He could not kill the boy. I don't
know what happened; but the boy survived the killing curse."
Narcissa
had tears pouring down her pale complexion now, her blonde hair
matting to her face. "My god ... my god
..."
"But that's beside the point," said Lucius
coldly, "I may be sentenced to eternal imprisonment in Azkaban;
along with your dear sister ..." The news suddenly brought her
back to her senses - at least, for a moment. If the Death Eaters were
going to be convincted, then that meant that Rodolphus was going to
go to Azkaban too, along with the rest of the Death Eaters. Questions
swarmed around her head like angry wasps - how did Voldemort know
were Lily and James were? Why did he want them dead? Why why "WHY?"
she
shrieked hysterically, not caring were her so called 'allegiances'
stood anymore. She let herself go and began to punch Lucius in the
chest as if it were all his fault.
"Narcissa, calm
yourself-"
"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, TWO OF MY BEST
FRIENDS HAVE JUST BEEN MURDERED AND ALL YOU CARE ABOUT IS
YOURSELF!"
Lucius paled, "Please, Cissy-"
"SHUT
UP!" she roared, "JUST SHUT UP! AND IF YOU GO TO AZKABAN -
LIE OR SOMETHING! DON'T YOU DARE GET YOURSELF PUT AWAY, WHAT WILL IT
DO TO DRACO AND HIS FUTURE? WHAT ABOUT ME? YOU STUPID, STUPID
MAN!"
The door flew open and Sirius Black emerged, his face
mingled with tears and sweat. His dark hair was messier than ever.
His eyes kept darting behind him, and he ran towards her. "Narcissa,
I swear, it wasn't me-" he grabbed her warm hands and placed his
icy cold ones against hers. And in the haste of it all, he ran to her
and kissed: it was unreal. More aurors entered and grabbed Sirius,
pulling him away. "It wasn't me - get your hands off me! How
dare you!"
"Let him go!" yelled Narcissa,
forgetting she'd just been kissed by her cousin in the middle of a
raging argument; "He's innocent!"
One of the aurors
raised a sarcastic eyebrow at her and smirked. "You do know it's
thanks to your cousin Lily and James are dead? Secret Keeper aswell
... tut tut."
Narcissa was as white as a ghost now; the other
aurors paused in dragging Sirius away. "Is that true?" she
whimpered.
"I made Wormtail secret keeper," he whispered
hoarsley, his eyes brimming with tears, "Remember? And Lucius
was telling you Wormy had become somewhat unfai- AHHH!"
One
of the aurors had hit him with a stunning spell; "Shut up you
traitor - Azkaban awaits, Mr. Black - I'm sure the dementors will be
very happy to see you."
"But I'm innocent - I, I
am!"
They did not listen to his pleads, but instead held onto
him tightly to prevent any possible escape - and then dissapeared
into thin air. With the shock of everything piling into one, Narcissa
fainted.
"Mother? Wake up!" she stirred as small
podgy hands pulled at her cheeks and hair. She opened her eyes and
blinked several times as her surroundings came into focus. Draco's
enquiring face was gazing at her. He cared about her! How sweet.
"Mummy, you're lying on all my candy!" And with that, he
began to cry loudly. She'd squashed his bloody chocolate frogs. She
pulled herself to her feet, and Draco retrieved his food, and stroked
their packaging before pulling it off viciously and shoving it all in
his mouth. She smiled faintly; Remus would of been like that had she
accidently squashed his
chocolate
frogs. Narcissa somehow doubted he'd burst into tears though. She
looked at the doorway and saw two more aurors standing there,
questioning Lucius with a grave expression.
"Are you aware,
Mr. Malfoy, that He Who Must Not Be Named has died?"
"He
has?" Lucius portrayed a look of innocence, but the man snorted
disbelivingly, and prodded Lucius in the chest with his ebony made
wand with so much force that tiny red sparks flew out. "But
weren't you working under his command?"
"I'm afraid my
mind has many blank spaces ... goodness, goodness ..."
Narcissa
supressed a dark laugh. Lucius was a dreadful actor - but the aurors
now seemed to be swallowing all this Cod Swallop! The female auror
looked sympathetically at Lucius and stroked his arm. "I think
he's been under the imperius curse," she muttered to her
partner, who seemed to half believe her. "Hm ... I don't know
Alex. In the meanwhile Mr. Malfoy, you shall await trial in azkaban -
I hope you haven't forgotten were that is?"
Lucius
was shunned into silence, and smirking, the aurors marched him off
and out, not paying an ounce of attention to Narcissa or Draco.
Silence filled the empty spaces, until someone burped.
"Sorry,"
said Draco, grinning cheekily. Narcissa cracked her knuckles and
spoke to her child. "Draco - stay here. You can eat as much food
as you want. I'll be in my study ... move or I shall hex you."
He
shivered. "You sound like S-Sirius," he stuttered, looking
terrified.
Indeed she did. She shook her head and ran off out of
the room and to her study, were she grabbed some parchment with such
force that it almost ripped in half. She scribbled a note to Remus -
restrictions to their friendship were long finished now.
Remus,
she
scribbled frantically, ink splodging all over the place,
James
and Lily have been murdered. I don't know if you know this. Voldemort
has fallen. Sirius is going to Azkaban, and so are the rest of the
Death Eaters - and Lucius. Harry survived the killing curse.
Don't
come here. It's too dangerous. Just owl back. Please.
Narcissa.
Now,
where was that bloody owl? Ah - there it was. "Fluffy!" she
coaxed in a false voice "come get the letter!" The Owl
hooted indignantly and flared it's eyes at her crossly - he did not
mind delivering letters, but this late? He'd just been sleeping! He
swooped down to her and pecked her hard on her arm, before retrieving
the letter and flying out of the window.
And now ... and now to
wait.
But
fortunatley, she didn't have to wait long. Remus apparated in her
study in the pit of silence, that she started violently and fell off
her chair. "Remus!" she scolded, sitting on the floor in a
ton of papers and books, "you - you shouldn't of come here-"
A
flicker of a smile crossed his face as he watched her on the floor.
"Want a, er, hand up?" he couldn't remove his amusement as
he offered a hand to her ink-covered one. She took it begrudingly and
he pulled her to her feet. "So ..." she begun, but he
interrupted her as he burst into tears. Christ, she hated it when
people cried, she was awful in situations like these. "James
can't be d-dead!" he stuttered, flinging his arms around her and
burying his face into her shoulder, "He's too strong! He is not
dead! I won't believe it - I won't!" She hugged him soothingly
but he pulled away, and for the first time in her life she saw the
shadow of the wolf flit across his face. "So - Voldemort is
dead?" he said harshly, his voice now free of sobs. She cocked
her head to one side for a moment but then nodded mutely. He grinned
evilily. "Good. And the Death Eaters are-"
"Being
rounded up to Azkaban," she finished quietly.
His smile grew.
The news of everyone going to eternal improsement seemed to give him
happiness. "Good! And that includes ..."
"Lucius,
yeah." She narrowed her eyes at his renewed joy, and as she had
presumed, it faltered. Typical Remus - he was sentimental in his own
ways. Although, Lucius was working against the good witching and
wizard establishment, which she personally disliked (as would any
non-death-eater-person, she had grown close to Lucius now; not in the
romantic perspective, but the friend one. And when she was anyones
friend, she would remain loyal, always.
"Will he get out of
it?"
"I think so," she said loftily, "I think
he's confused as to were his loyalties lie."
"Well I
would of assumed that would of been obvious, Narcissa, a man's
loyalties lie with his wife and family, not his job. Maybe he'll come
to realise that now. It'll be okay. Er - do you want a cup of tea?"
She nodded, and he walked with her to the kitchen, and made the
tea in silence. He handed her a scarlet mug and she sipped it
delicatley. It was perfect, he always made their cups of tea just
right. That was one of the things she had liked about him - his tea
making abilities! She snorted into her tea and he looked bemused, so
she composed herself. "I can't believe it, Remus, I ... wait a
moment," she wrapped both hands around the mug, sending instant
warmness through her body, "Where will the boy go?"
"To
his only living relatives - his sister's aunt."
"Not
Petunia!" said Narcissa with clear disgust, "she's
awful!"
"They're the only family he's got," said
Remus shortly, placing his now empty mug on the worktop. "I
better get going ... I'll come see you later tomorrow. Please don't
do anything wreckless. Goodnight."
He dissapeared, and left
Narcissa quite alone in the now empty kitchen, Lucius' absence
roaring at her. Silence was so freaking loud.
