Chapter Ten
Hermione signed off her diary entry detailing her conversation with Bellatrix at the New Years party the previous night. She tucked the little book safely into her pillow-slip and sat back heavily against her cushions. She didn't expect it would be much longer until McGonagall sent for her to return. The very thought made her grow nervous, nauseous even She only hoped she had done enough, and that Narcissa would try to continue her work, even in the face of her future hsubands allegiances.
Narcissa burst into the room, the door slamming open against the wall. Hermione looked up and frowned.
"What is it?" she asked. "What's the matter?"
"Apparently I am to marry Lucius Malfoy!" Hermione's heart sank. Narcissa started to pace back and forth in front of the bed, her words tumbling out of her mouth in a whirlwind of rage. "Apparently we are to be married this summer, after graduation. This summer! That's not even a year from now! Oh and of course I have no choice in the matter. Apparently it doesn't matter that I don't love him. I'll learn to in time, mother says. We looked so nice together last night at the diner party that it seems our mothers decided it is "simply meant to be"!" She turned sharply to glare at Hermione, who was still sitting calmly on the bed, her hands folded neatly in her lap. "Why won't you say anything!" she demanded. "Why are you not angry about this?"
"I am from the future remember," she muttered darkly. "This isn't exactly a surprise for me." Narcissa's icy eyes widened in shock and she ran at Hermione and onto the bed so that their faces were mere inches apart.
"You knew!" she yelled. "And you didn't think to warn me?"
"How was I supposed to know you were to be engaged so young? I haven't even been born yet remember! I'd always thought that you married him because you loved him not because your parents made you." Hermione flopped back against the cushions again and let out a deep sigh. She rubbed her eyes wearily with the palms of her hands, and then looked up at her young lover. "Even if I had told you, what difference would it have made? And anyway you know I am not allowed to tell you any more than is absolutely necessary, especially not about you own timeline."
"Do you even care?" Narcissa asked blankly. "I have just told you that my parents are forcing me to marry a person I hardly even know, a man that I don't love, and you scarcely even blink." Hermione looked up and scowled at her lover.
"How can you say that?" she whispered. "Watching you kiss him last night made my blood boil, made my heart scream. I was so furious, and yet I was not even allowed to show it." Narcissa smiled a little.
"If it makes you feel any better, he wasn't half as good as you."
"I should bloody well hope not!" Hermione laughed. The two girls kissed, and Hermione wrapped Narcissa in her arms and they lay in silence for a while.
"I don't want to marry him," Narcissa whispered. "I want to marry you."
"You know that's not possible. I don't even know how much longer I'll be here, before they pull me back."
"We've never talked about that before," Narcissa mused.
"I suppose we have both been avoiding the subject rather carefully."
"I'll wait for you," Narcissa said, pushing herself up onto her elbow to look her lover in the eyes.
"Are you sure? You'll be waiting for quite a while." Narcissa smiled.
"I'd do anything for you."
"Then make me a promise," Hermione said.
"What?"
"Marry him," she said. "When I go back, you must marry him. You must have his son, and raise him to be good. Promise me."
"Why? Why is it so important that I marry him?" Hermione rolled her eyes.
"You know I can't tell you that."
"And even if I do, you'll come back to me?"
"Of course. As soon as I come back, I'll find you."
"Then I promise."
Bellatrix heard a soft knocking at her door.
"Come," she barked, not looking up from her book.
"Bella?" The dark haired witch looked up to see her little sister standing in the doorway. Bellatrix frowned at her.
"Cissy what is the matter?"
"I'm to marry Lucius Malfoy," she said, her voice breaking. Her eyes shone with unshed tears. Bellatrix set aside her book and opened her arms to her baby sister. Narcissa ran to her, a great sob escaping her chest as she buried herself in her sister's embrace.
Bella held her, encased in her long arms, running her fingers through her hair, and cradling her in silence whilst she cried, as she had done when they were children. As she had done for both of her sisters up until very recently. She felt that familiar need to be the protector, to protect her little sister from all the darkness and all the shadows that were creeping into the world at the moment. And she couldn't help but feel that the picture she inhabited, was suddenly one third incomplete, with out Andromida.