I know I said Draco would be born soon but he probably won't at this pace... Sorry.
"Lucius, I can't go on a honeymoon. I'm waiting on a letter. From Bella." Narcissa told her husband across the dining table. "She said it was very important. She floo'd down here last night after you had retired." She added, trying to sound casual as she cut up her breakfast.
"No no, that won't do, I've already booked the hotel and payed. I'll floo down there later and tell her it will just have to wait." he replied just as casually.
"Like I said, it's urgent. And besides, I'll go down there. That way I can say goodbye whilst I'm there." She had decided at this point that whether Lucius liked it or not, she was going to visit her sister. Her persistence paid off and he eventually agreed after his argument of her needing to pack was made invalid by the fact that she hadn't actually gotten around to unpacking.
"Narcissa, are you happy?" He obviously saw the confused expression on her face because he continued, "You've hardly spoken to me since you got here, you haven't even unpacked yet and you've been sat all morning staring out of the window. You tried getting out of our honeymoon and you spend all your time in your room. Narcissa would you prefer if we hadn't married?"
"Of course not, I just... I don't really feel like I know you.I don't how likely it is that you'll return home when you leave. I don't know how much danger I'm in just being here with you. I don't know anything about you. I don't even know your favourite colour or favourite food." She looked away, trying to hide her face. Like she'd just said, she hardly knew this man. It wasn't very much fun for her to spill her emotions and thoughts out to him like this, over breakfast.
"We may not have been dating before we married and we might not know each other down to the last freckle but all that can come with time. I would never put you in danger Narcissa. You should at least know me that well. I'm not a monster, just because I'm a death eater I'm not some evil, twisted little man. I have feelings and emotions like the rest of the human population, I just don't voice them for fear of what might happen if I did. What would happen to me, and to you, and to both our families. I'm not a monster Narcissa, I'm a coward." Narcissa just stared. As her blue eyes clashed with his grey ones, the dining table seemed to shrink into nothing until it felt like she was stood right before him, looking straight into his soul. She just sat and stared at his sad face for a moment. All thoughts of breakfast had been abandoned long ago. Finally after what seemed a lifetime of sitting just staring at one another, Lucius stood and turned towards the door. He paused and looked back at his wife who was sitting at the end of the long table, looking smaller and more vunerable than he'd ever seen her. "It's blue by the way. My favourite colour I mean. It might surprise you but I actually quite dislike green. Especially green furnishings. I had my time of that at Hogwarts." He opened his mouth to speak again, but apparently changed his mind and quickly fled the room. Narcissa smiled to herself and looked up at the sparkling emerald draperies that hung against each wall. Seeing as neither of them liked green she saw no reason for them to stay that way. She took out her wand, realising that she hadn't used magic since she arrived here. She uttered a few simple words and soon the room was full of ocean blue rather than the emerald green that had once consumed the walls.
Getting ready to floo down to see Bella took longer than Narcissa had expected, mostly because she couldn't find Lucius to tell him she was leaving. She searched everywhere and when she eventually found him, he was sat, drunk in the room that Narcissa had promised to stay out of. She edged in and knelt beside him.
"Lucius, I'm going to get you up to bed now." This seemed an easier task in her head than in reality. Once she had him standing steadily, he kept trying to sit back down. "Lucius this wasn't a very sensible place to drink, now was it? I don't even know where your bedroom is!" She realised the last part as she said it.
"We were testing out the cupboard Cissy! Snapey sent me a drink and I sent him one back. Why'd you have to wreck the party?" He slurred angrily as she contemplated what he'd meant when he said Severus "sent" him a drink. But right not there wasn't really time to think, so she grabbed him underneath the arms and pulled him along, trying to get him to walk properly. Narcissa turned right and kept going. The place she was heading was the only place she could think of that she'd remember how to get to in the morning. She pushed him onto the satin sheets and began to take off his tie. "If I didn't know any better Mrs Malfoy, I'd say you were trying to seduce me!"
"Just shut up and let me get your shoes off so I can go see my sister!" Narcissa was losing her patience as he struggled against her. She finally managed to get his shoes and tie off, before covering him in a blanket and closing the door behind her. She wandered around until she found the main staircase leading downstairs. She wondered if she would ever know her way around the house as she stepped into the fireplace. She dropped the floo powder and said very clearly "Lestrange Place".
"Well, well, well, what have we here?"
"Hello, Bella!" Narcissa reached out and hugged her sister with such force that they were both sent flying to the floor. Bellatrix laughed and sat up on the floor. Rubbing where her head had hit after she fell, she asked "What took you so long?"
"Oh, I had to get Lucius to bed," She realised how that sounded and they both started giggling. "Anyway, what did you need to tell me so urgently? I couldn't wait until you sent the owl because we're going away until September." Bellatrix just raised her eyebrow momentarily and then spoke,
"A little birdie told me you've been owling our dearest sister. True or false?"
"Lucius told you-"
"Lucius didn't tell me anything. Severus did. All I'm saying is you better stop before somebody ships you in as a blood traitor. It wouldn't be fun for me to crucio you Cissy. Don't give me reason to."
"Severus? How did Severus find out?"
"You seen him since you sent it?" Narcissa nodded. "Severus can perform occlumency. Remember?" Again, Narcissa nodded. The two women chatted for hours about how their lives have changed since marriage. Then Narcissa remembered something.
"Bella, you're older and cleverer than me. Say somebody had an enchanted cabinet, could the-" She was once again cut off by her older sister covering her mouth.
"I cannot tell you that, Cissy, you're not a death eater!"
"I don't really want to be a death eater, Bella,"
"Of course you don't! You're soft! You aren't strong like me!"
"And nor do I want to be if it means running around hurting and lying to people regardless of who they are to you! God Bella, whatever happened to you? When did you become such a bitch?" Narcissa got up from the floor only a second faster than her sister did.
"It'd do you good to become a death eater Narcissa, the Dark Lord, he can protect you! Whose side are you on anyway?"
"The side where I don't go round throwing unforgiveable curses around like floo powder!"
"The people we hurt deserve it Cissy! they're traitors and muggles!"
"So if I left Lucius for a muggle would you kill me, your sister?"
"You wouldn't do that Cissy, you know that."
"So that's not a no then? God, you're obsessed with bloody Voldemort. Well guess what big sis, he doesn't love you! He's using you. He's manipulating you because he know you're stupid enough to-" This time Narcissa was interrupted with not a hand covering her mouth, but a hand across her face. She felt a million needles piercing her skin. She turned back to the fire place and grabbed some floo powder messily, not looking back to her sister. She slammed her body into the fireplace and threw the powder in all directions.
"Malfoy Manor!"