Chapter Thirty Six

A/N: No reviewers.

Narcissa pressed a final kiss to her son's white gold curls before she rose from his side and crept out of the room. It had taken an age for the boy to settle, too caught up in the excitement of his father readying himself for a party. He always relished such opportunities, when his parents were just a little too occupied to make sure he had gone to bed; even at his tender age, Draco was already a promising Slytherin.

No sooner had one of her children gone to sleep than the other seemed to wake, the faint flutter of the baby tumbling deep in Narcissa's belly. The young woman rested a hand against her stomach, a simple gesture that she so often relished, for it was the only thing that could calm and comfort her unborn child. A smile crept across her face as the fluttering instantly stilled; a mother's touch, indeed.

The walk to the master bedroom was much longer now, Draco having moved to his own room in preparation for the new baby taking over the nursery. Narcissa had worried, when she had first broken the news to her son, that he might feel he was being pushed aside to make room for his younger sibling, but he had been more than willing to move. I'm a big boy now, Mummy, he had said, his little chest puffing with pride. I'm big enough for my own room, so the baby can have the nursery, because only a little baby needs a nursery.

Narcissa smiled at the memory. Draco was more than ready to welcome this baby into the world. She only wished she could say the same.

It was not that Narcissa did not want this child; nothing could be further from the truth. Even after Draco's birth, she had still clung to the smallest hope that he would not be alone in the nursery, dreams of a house full of children still swirling through her heart. But she had never imagined, feeling the magical fluttering beneath her skin, that she would be experiencing all of it alone.

Lucius' commitments at the Ministry were not an issue, for they were necessary to restore their family name and position after the debacle, and so Narcissa had resigned herself to his absence since before they had discovered they were expecting. But with their evenings together being few and far between, she could not help but feel frustrated at the prospect of Lucius shirking her for the sake of a get-together with a group of men who, not long ago, had donned black cloaks and masks.

Her arguments had fallen on deaf ears and Lucius had ended up storming off without saying goodbye, slamming the door so hard behind him that the walls seemed to shake. Once he was gone, Narcissa had sunk down onto the steps, clasping her hands together for a minute to calm her tremors. They had not fought that way in years, so long that she had forgotten the frightening man the rest of the world saw could exist for her as well.

Narcissa ran the night's events over and over in her mind, examining every detail of her memory, until a sound from downstairs caught her attention. The woman paused, clenching her fist around the fabric of her nightgown as she listened. Before long, she heard it again.

'It could be Lucius.' she told herself, hoping for the simplest explanation. But her husband was not due to be back for hours, and even if he were trying to avoid her, he would head for one of the upstairs rooms to rest. Suddenly, the simplest explanation did not seem as promising.

Her motherly instincts kicking into gear, Narcissa emerged from her bedroom, heading for the grand staircase. Her son slept in a room only a corridor away, and any danger in the house was a danger to him. However frightened she might be of this unknown threat, she could not allow Draco to be hurt.

Even the faint padding of her feet against the wooden floor seemed to echo around her, as Narcissa finally reached the carpet at the top of the stairs. She had seen no sign of an intruder- no broken glass, no splintered doors- but a decade as the wife of a Death Eater had taught her that she could never be too careful.

The blonde paused, taking a deep breath and holding it, so that not even her own breathing could inhibit her hearing. She waited for five seconds, then five more, then five more again. All she could hear was silence.

Narcissa sighed with relief, smiling gently to herself. 'You were just being silly. It was a trick of the night, nothing more than that. You're just worried about Lucius not being here, it's making you more aware. That's all that's happened.'

When the woman heard the creaking floorboards the next time, she took no notice of them, dismissing it as another trick of her mind. She never expected any different until she felt a sudden pressure against the small of her back, throwing off her balance and sending her tumbling down the stairs below.

Her ears were ringing, her vision beginning to blur, but all Narcissa could think of was the heavy wooden door in front of her, her wand lying a few feet in front of it, knocked from her belt by the fall. 'Please, Lucius.' she begged inside her mind, hoping he would somehow hear her. Her whole body was pain, aching and stinging and desperately sore.

A thousand images ran through her mind. First, she thought of Draco, and the prospect of her young son being alone with a violent intruder was enough to push her through the pain, as she tried urgently to climb the stairs once more. She somehow managed to claw her way up a third of the steps before the unbearable agony forced her to stop.

"Draco." she whispered. It was a comfort, a plea, a futile protection. But the name of one child only made her think of the other, a constant fluttering presence in her belly that had now fallen silent. "Please, please, no."

The swirl of emotions soon became too much, the blackness overcoming her vision, and finally Narcissa fell to sleep. That night, she would dream of a beautiful girl, with white gold hair and her mother's smile.

Come morning, the dream would be gone.

A/N: Sorry for the drama, but hope you enjoyed. Please review!