Chapter Twenty

A/N: Thank you to .Crims.3118 for reviewing the last chapter.

The time was approaching fast. The time when the Order of the Phoenix would finally come to blows with the Death Eaters. The victory would decide the future of the Wizarding World, and Narcissa could not help but wonder if their side was the right one to follow.

She had never followed Voldemort herself, that much was true, although on one occasion, she had come close to doing so, at a time before she had realised the true extent of danger that it would bring to her life, and had done. Both Lucius and Bellatrix had taken their oaths, serving among the highest in the Dark Lord's ranks, and every time they left on a mission, the woman thought that the fear would break her. If anything should happen to either of them, she was sure that it would be the death of her.

Once the moon had ceased its rising in the sky, her having watched its every move for lack of anything else to do, the blonde turned her head to face the clock on the mantle. Though it had only reached half past ten, far earlier than most raids would end, this meant that her husband had been gone for four and a quarter hours. Normally, she would have taken no notice of this fact, but after what he had told her, she could not ignore it. He had said an hour and a half at the most. Something had gone wrong.

But this time was different. This time, she was not going to sit around, waiting for a piece of news that could determine the remainder of her life, when she could have the power to stop it from happening. If her Lucius was in danger, then for once, she was going to be the one to save him.

And so she had done what she had never done before. She ran from the doors of the Manor, all the way to the very end of the gardens, where there was a hidden point of Apparition that could be accessed only when a member of the family was in dire need of its services. As she had never had cause to use it before, Narcissa was not certain that she would be able to use the area, as she was not a member of the family by blood and only a bond as strong as that could possibly allow the magic to work, but all she could do was hope and pray that for once in her life, fate was on her side.

Only a few moments later, having turned on the spot and thought of Lucius, the woman collapsed to the tiled floor of the Ministry of Magic, hardly believing that her desperate attempts at reaching her husband had worked. 'Perhaps the Manor has finally accepted me as its mistress, or perhaps it has something to do with Lucius, I really don't know. I just know that I'm thrilled it has done so. At least my home thinks that I am right to try and help my husband, and that is something I suppose.'

However, having heard the shouts and screams of battle coming from behind a closed door around three corridors down, the blonde suddenly realised the reason that she had come to the place, and pulled herself shakily to her feet, her head still spinning a little from her abrupt arrival by Apparition, forcing herself to put one foot in front of the other, moving in the very direction that her mind was screaming at her to run away from. 'But I can't run.' she thought. 'Lucius could need me, and I'm not about to let him down now.'

The moment she threw open the door to the room where the fight was taking place, which she recognised as being the Hall of Prophecies, from what her husband had told her at least, the noises of the battle became deafeningly loud, and the young woman had to fight to prevent herself from clasping her hands over her ears to block out the sound, knowing that she did not have the time to stop, and so she persevered, moving blindly through the crowds, dodging curses left right and centre as she searched wildly for a flash of platinum blonde hair.

It took a good few minutes of running and ducking before she finally saw her Lucius' hair fly sideways, the hood of his robe having fallen during the strenuous fights he was partaking in, leaving his face only hidden by his silver mask, though even that was beginning to slip down a little, another cause for worry for his wife. After all, what good was coming out of the fight unscathed if he was thrown into Azkaban, or even worse, given the Kiss?

Blinded by fear for the man's safety, Narcissa took off in a sprint, hardly even bothering to evade the flashes of light, either red or green, as her mind was only fixed on reaching him before he got hurt. All other figures seemed to fade to a blur of dark robes, masks and flying curses, while the image of the Malfoy patriarch remained clear as the morning daylight, such was her focus.

He had not noticed her, not yet, and had continued to fight his opponent, most likely a member of the rising Order of the Phoenix, gritting his teeth against a cry of pain as a burning curse glazed over his upper arm, scraping the skin there away and leaving only a reddened patch beneath charred fabric. Immediately, in the heat of his anger, a flash of green light erupted from the end of his wand, hitting the man full in the chest and sending him tumbling to the ground, his face frozen in the malicious laugh that had filled his final moments.

It was only then that Lucius turned, and only then that his gaze finally fixed on his wife, who had frozen when her husband's eyes had met her own. His mouth dropped open with shock, and Narcissa could see him vaguely shaking with what she could only assume was fear, though whether it was for her own personal safety or for the safety of the both of them, she truly did not know. Deciding she could wait no longer, and wishing to put him out of his misery, the woman began to run once again, faster than she had done before.

But something was wrong. The blonde man had moved to run towards her, wanting the gap between them to be lessened more quickly, but had stopped almost immediately, his eyes fixed on a blinding green light, which the younger of them did not notice for another precious moment, when she felt a burning pain in her abdomen.

The woman was vaguely aware of the battle cries, the thudding rubble and her husband's cry of her name, before her knees gave way beneath her and the Hall of Prophecies faded to black.

A/N: Oh dear! Please review!