And here is the new chapter, hopefully it doesn't disappoint! Title is from the song by Linkin Park.

Narcissa's feet hit the ground hard, each of her hands clenched around a parent's arm.

She caught her breath, slowly looking around as she released Druella and Cygnus. The station was, of course, vastly populated with Muggles. Squinting slightly, she spotted, through the crowd, a group of familiar faces: Orion, looking purposeful, Walburga visibly irritated, and a Sirius possibly more overexcited than she had ever seen him, which was no small achievement.

The two halves of the Black family reunited in front of Platform 9 ¾, and Orion gestured for Narcissa to go first. With only a quick glance at her restless cousin, the girl easily slipped through the barrier, and found herself amongst the crowd of her fellow students and their families. Just as she was stepping aside to regain a minimum of personal space, a familiar silhouette surged in front of her. Cissy gasped.

"Bella!"

Her sister gave her a tight smile. "Hi, Cissy. Thought I'd come and see you off, for once. You, and our lovely pest of a cousin, too."

Narcissa blinked twice, then she unthinkingly stepped forward and hugged her sister around the waist. Bellatrix stiffened in surprise, before embracing her back.

"What in Merlin's name…? Bellatrix!"

The sisters moved apart and turned upon hearing their mother's voice. Druella appeared quite stunned, as did Cygnus: he gazed fixedly at his daughters, with an intensity that felt awkward to Narcissa. The family was forgetting to keep their personal matters away from the public eye.

The moment was broken when Sirius lunged through the barrier, running straight into his uncle. Cygnus had to catch and steady him, cursing under his breath. Walburga strode after her son, narrowing her eyes at the sight of Bellatrix; Orion raised his eyebrows. Cissy bit her lips and looked away.

"Thank you," she swiftly muttered, leaning slightly towards her sister.

Bella smiled. "Quite welcome."

"Is it time?" Regulus' small voice peeped; Narcissa hadn't even noticed his presence, for he had been half-concealed behind his parents.

Walburga glanced at her watch. "Quite soon. Very well, Sirius, now you will listen to me. You are going to behave yourself at school. Do not get in trouble or associate with individuals of dubious parentage, and honour the noble name of your ancestors. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Mother," Sirius muttered. He was already peering at the crowd, eager to escape.

"Do not disappoint us, boy," Orion warned. "You are a Black, and even more than a Black: you are the heir. Never forget this, and act accordingly."

Sirius frowned at his shoes, but controlled his scowl and said anyway: "Yes, Father."

Walburga turned towards Cissy. "Narcissa, we shall trust you to keep an eye on Sirius if required," she stated in a tone that suffered no contradiction. "Have a good term."

"Oh… yes. And thank you," she responded automatically, taken off guard.

"Say goodbye to your brother, Regulus."

Regulus looked up at his sibling with shining eyes. "Have a good year, Sirius!"

"Yeah, goodbye," Sirius mumbled.

Walburga gave a curt nod. "Off we go, then." She laid a small peck on her eldest's forehead before striding away, her husband and Regulus in tow.

Cygnus cleared his throat. "Have a good term, Sirius. Good luck at school." He turned towards his daughters. "You, too, Narcissa."

"Goodbye, my dear," Druella said, kissing Cissy's brow before she and her husband departed as well.

Sirius was already inching away. Bellatrix seized his arm. "No goodbye for me?"

"Goodbye, Bella." He squirmed free from her grasp.

"Behave yourself," she called as he moved away.

"You, too," he shot over his shoulder.

Bellatrix blinked, then turned towards her sister. "You take care of yourself."

"You, too," Cissy replied fiercely.

Bella nodded. "I'm fine. I'm always fine. Everything's going to be all right." She suddenly raised her eyebrows. "Oh, but we have an audience."

Narcissa turned, and met Lucius' gaze unexpectedly. He was just leaving his parents, further down the platform. She blushed and turned back to Bellatrix, who was staring incredulously at her.

"You can't be serious with… oh, well, it's your tastes." She shuddered. "I have to go. Have a good term."

"You have to go?" Cissy immediately picked up, alarmed.

Bellatrix rolled her eyes. "Yes, unless you'd like to sneak me on the train and have me re-sit sixth year with you? See, I thought so."

"I'd like that," Narcissa teased.

"I'd better run, then." She kissed her forehead swiftly, and dashed through the crowd. Chewing her lip, Cissy turned away, and two seconds later Lucius Malfoy was right in front of her.

"Lucius!" she exclaimed, taken off guard by his sudden proximity. He merely smiled, and leaned in to kiss her. Cissy stood on her tiptoes, slightly arching against him as his arm slid around her waist, but they parted quite quickly, very aware that they were still in public. Narcissa smiled to herself while Lucius helped her get her truck on the train. Hogwarts with Lucius – her prospects for the year did seem rather appealing.

They were slowly making their way through the corridor when Cassandra suddenly surged from the crowd, stopping right in front of them. Her eyes swept rapidly from Lucius to Narcissa, and her lips parted in a small O. She blinked, then smiled. "Hi, Cissy."

"Hello, Cassie," Narcissa replied, quite pleased to see her friend. Noticing the latter's glance, she added: "You know Lucius Malfoy, don't you? Lucius, this is Cassandra Burke, a good friend of mine."

"Pleased to meet you," he said politely.

"Likewise," Cassie retorted. She turned back to Narcissa. "I was thinking we could catch up, but I will see you later if you're busy?"

The tone was sharp, if not unkind, and Narcissa hesitated, sensing that the suggestion was less innocent than it sounded – after all of the two girls' history, Cassandra could hardly take kindly to being relegated to the background so that Cissy may spend time with her boyfriend. She automatically turned towards Lucius, who said smoothly:

"I must go and meet up with the other prefects, so I will leave you to your friend, Narcissa. I'll talk to you later."

"Later," Narcissa murmured, and he kissed her briefly before striding away. "Let us find a compartment, then!" she added, turning to Cassie.

"Let's," the latter agreed, nodding.

They were quiet as they picked a place, hoisted their trunks into the luggage rack, and took their seats. Cissy leaned against the window, facing her companion. "So, did you have a good summer?"

"Quite," Cassandra replied slowly. "I take it that it was less… eventful… than yours."

Narcissa chewed on her lip. "Yes… eventful covers it."

"I saw your sister on the platform," Cassie carried on. "How… are things with her?"

"Well… There's a bit of tension in my family, but we are handling it. It is quite all right."

Cassie raised her eyebrows. "I see. Back to control, then."

"What do you mean?"

"You probably didn't reread that letter you sent me in July, but I certainly did," Cassie retorted. "It was a mess. You were a mess." She paused. "I answered you the best I could, and your next letter was three times shorter, reassuring me that after all, you might have overreacted, that your sister wasn't in danger, your family wasn't falling apart, and you were so very sorry for having been too busy to write me back any sooner. And now, your family has had perfectly dignified goodbyes, you have Lucius, your front is flawless, and you're pretending nothing of importance happened at all."

Cassie went quiet eventually, taking a deep breath. Cissy stared at her lap, at a loss for words. "I'm sorry," she said carefully, in a low voice. "But I suppose I did overreact. It wasn't fair of me to drag you into this… when it really wasn't needed in the end…"

"You don't fool me, Narcissa," Cassie cut her off. "You never really said what your sister was up to, but I'm not stupid. You could have seen it earlier, even. And to some extent, so could I. Don't you forget that I am Cara's sister, and she was Andromeda's best friend. You've known that all too well for a long time – the implications run deeper than you think. Andromeda may have made her choices, which are irrelevant for our current subject, but she suspected things long before she left."

Narcissa had a tiny gasp. Cassie squeezed her eyes shut. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said all of that," she muttered. "But dear Merlin, stop pretending. I know it's not all right. If you think that you should be ashamed for needing a friend, you're wrong, and if you think looking the other way will get rid of a problem, you're mad. It never did you any good."

Cissy hid her face under a curtain of her hair, finding it hard to breathe, and Cassandra reached out impatiently to brush away the strands, laying her fingers against her friend's cheek. "I'm here, Cissy. I've always been here. Salazar, just let me in."

"But I can't do anything," she whispered. She paused, exhaled slowly, started again. "Or yes, actually, I can. I can carry on. Be with Lucius. Be a lady. Do well at Hogwarts. Bella promised she'd be okay. She promised – I have to trust her."

Cassandra was quiet, her fingertips still resting against Narcissa's face. Then she dropped her hand. "She has to be stopped," she said in a low voice. "They'll be stopped anyway. Better her relatives than the Aurors."

"She won't stop. She's married now, the family cannot force her into anything." Narcissa tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "I would really rather not talk about this, for all the good it does me."

There was a pause. "All right," Cassie eventually sighed.

After a while, she leaned back, forcing her features into a cheerful expression. "So. Lucius Malfoy?"

Narcissa smiled back, a tiny, tentative smile. "Yes," she murmured.

"How does it feel?"

If Cissy was surprised by the question, she did not let it show. "Very… pleasant. I enjoy his company immensely."

"Mmm-mmm." Cassie appeared thoughtful. "It isn't like Travers at all."

"Oh, no," Cissy said immediately, without needing to think twice about it. Then she added, curious: "Why do you say that?"

"The way you look at him," Cassie said pensively. "I can't really define it. Like it's natural as breathing for you to have him by your side, and yet you're scared he'll fade away. You're a different girl when he's around, I think."

Narcissa laughed it off, feeling her cheeks burning. "Come on, Cassie! You've seen us together for less than two minutes."

"I've seen quite enough." Cassandra flashed another grin. "You're quite easy to read, if hard to make sense of."

Narcissa kept laughing, a tad too high. "Stop it!"

"I'll stop," Cassie murmured.

Narcissa gave a small shudder as she stepped off the train. "It's so cold."

"Walking will make you feel better. Hurry up!" Cassandra called, seizing her arm and pulling her along.

But Cissy stopped; she had just noticed the huge silhouette of this gamekeeper person who was to take the first-years across the lake, and in a flash, she remembered Sirius. Bella, then Lucius, then Cassie having commanded all of her attention, she had thoroughly forgotten her cousin, and guilt disturbed her as she peered at the children gathering around this Hagrid fellow, looking for a familiar silhouette among many. He might be a pest, but he was family, and she should have at least checked on him once. Eventually, she caught sight of him. Sirius was standing close to a messy-haired boy with glasses and a loud voice, and when she waved at him, he sent her a vague grimace and huddled closer to his friend.

"Your cousin?" Cassie asked from where she stood waiting, a few steps away. "Well, you'll have plenty of time to talk to him during the feast. As well as your significant other, I bet." She winked.

Cissy shook her head at her, blushing a little as they started walking towards the carriages. She had missed Lucius, the feeling small but constant at the corner of her awareness, all through the ride; oddly enough, knowing that they were on the same train, going towards the same school, that she could have spent every second with him and would probably see him every day for the next few months, made her desire for his presence all the keener. However, they would both require their personal space, and spending time with Cassie made her genuinely happy. The girls chatted on and off as they neared the castle, a few words at a time breaking comfortable silence. Narcissa's worries about leaving her family in its current state, which had plagued her this very morning, now appeared soothed. She glanced out the window at the shining stars, and found herself hopeful.

She caught sight of Lucius in the hall, and they shared a look and a smile. Then Narcissa and Cassandra took place at the Slytherin table, watching the other students file into the room. There was chatter and laughter echoing all around them, a relaxed, merry atmosphere of coming together. Cissy briefly met the eye of her ex-boyfriend, Adrian Travers, and glanced away, leaning towards Cassie to begin a discussion about their options for the year. Soon the tables were nearly filled, and a hush fell upon the Great Hall while the procession of the first-years entered under the lead of McGonagall.

Cissy paid no attention to the Sorting Hat's usual display, too busy searching the line for Sirius. She eventually spotted him near the same messy-haired boy; though they were muttering and occasionally elbowing each other, drawing McGonagall's glare, she had a feeling that her cousin was edgy. She hoped his new friend was worth associating with. He certainly had the airs of somebody quite aware of their own importance.

Minerva McGonagall cleared her throat imperiously, and Narcissa straightened up slightly, her hands curled tightly around the edge of the table, her eyes trained on Sirius. Cassie smiled at her; she saw it from the corner of her eye. "Aldolly, Margaret!" they heard first, and some insignificant girl with freckles was sent off to Hufflepuff.

"Black, Sirius!"

Her cousin strode forward arrogantly, his chin high, and Narcissa felt a flutter of pride, before the Hat concealed his face. There were two beats of silence, and she crossed her fingers beneath the table. Let it be quick.

"GRYFFINDOR!"

At first, she thought she must have misheard.

There was a split second of silence before the faraway table of the Gryffindors burst into applause. Of course, only purebloods, or older students who had known the Black sisters, would realize the enormity of what had just transpired. Numbly looking around, Narcissa was met with rows of shocked faces. It simply could not be true. She turned her head again. Sirius had stood, he was walking toward the farthest table, which was calling for him, welcoming him. He looked pale, but resolute. Cissy felt the implications sink in. The house of blood traitors. It couldn't be.

The Sorting was carrying on, somewhere in the distance. Narcissa thought she felt Cassie's hand, tight around her wrist. Lucius had leaned across the table and was saying her name. She couldn't reply. By then, she wanted to rise, run to the Gryffindor table and pull Sirius back where he belonged. He was a Black – only Slytherins for generations, since Phineas Nigellus and way before. He couldn't just turn around and become a lion. Who would he associate with? Who would accept him? He would be ruined. Her little brat of a cousin.

"Narcissa, look at me." Lucius' voice was becoming urgent.

Cissy did. She stared into his earnest grey eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"I have to go get him," she said.

"You can't, Cissy," Cassie breathed.

"This can't – can't be. My family will… sort it out." They would, had to. Cissy tried to breathe evenly as she pictured Walburga's reaction. But would she know? The custom was a short word from the new student to announce his arrival into Slytherin House to the family – a mere formality, but would Sirius do it? She doubted that.

"I'll have to write my father," she murmured. She crossed her arms over her chest, to block out the cold. It hardly worked.

"Narcissa, it'll be all right," Lucius said.

"Yes, of course. I know it will," she lied to herself. Glancing up, she briefly met his gaze and had a feeling that they didn't quite mean the same thing. His eyes held pity and warmth. She remained restlessly, irrationally convinced that there had to be a way out.

Narcissa jumped when she heard Dumbledore's voice calling out to the students, and realized that the Sorting had ended. While the headmaster was speaking, she forced her eyes to the Gryffindor table again. Sirius had been joined by the messy-haired boy, who was looking quite smug. He met her gaze briefly, and held it, squaring his jaw, before he glanced away. With a sinking feeling in her chest, she wondered whether he would want this whole mess sorted out. Rebellious Sirius, who always loved to stand out… But he couldn't go so far just to spite his mother, could he? He was a Black… He was a child…

Narcissa kept staring at Sirius, but he did not look her way again, gazing intently at the headmaster instead, and then turning towards his neighbour as he filled his plate and dug in ravenously. Her heart was beating almost painfully, and her stomach lurched while she watched her cousin bonding with a Gryffindor. Maybe this boy, so casual-looking, had put ideas into his head, made him yearn for even more attention? He couldn't belong with their ancestral enemies already, or indeed at all – this was simply ludicrous…

"Who the hell is this?" she hissed under her breath.

"I heard his name, that's James Potter," Cassie swiftly replied. "Cissy, you need to eat."

Narcissa didn't wonder at her friend's immediate understanding, nor did she give any sort of reaction when the latter filled her plate for her, looking determined. "A Potter," she uttered. After the first rush of relief upon learning that the boy was a pureblood, Cissy was confronted with the sickening notion that the current situation might, indeed, be nearly as bad. The Potters were well-known for their liberal ways, despite being way more respectable than, for instance, the Weasleys. A spoiled little boy who'd encourage her cousin to run with the wrong crowd… But surely Sirius would not be so stupid as to associate with Mudbloods…

"Cissy." Though Cassandra was careful to keep her voice low, she was now tugging on her friend's sleeve insistently. Narcissa turned. She suddenly realized that most of the Slytherins were stealing glimpses at her, some frowning, some smirking, some merely assessing. Lucius was also looking her way, a concerned crease between his eyebrows. She lowered her eyes to the chicken and vegetables in her plate and unwillingly picked up her fork, playing with a piece of carrot. If she attempted to force anything down her throat, she would be sick, she was sure of it.

Cissy managed a few bites, keeping her head down as she became more and more aware of the glances and whispers surrounding her. At dessert, Lucius leaned over and started a conversation, more or less managing to distract her for a little while, but she could barely register the subject, mostly focusing on the rhythm of his soft voice – and as soon as the headmaster had bid them all goodnight, she was out of her seat and halfway across the Great Hall before any of her friends had a chance to react.

Sirius saw her coming, and strode with Potter towards his new house's prefect, but Narcissa gritted her teeth and slipped between the Gryffindor students, who turned to glare at her, some uttering unpleasant comments when she passed them. She paid them no mind and went straight for her cousin, her fingers closing tightly around his arm. "We need to talk."

"What about?" he shot back insolently, pulling free. He turned to face her with a challenging stare. "I should get to my dormitory, right? And so should you."

"It's not your dormitory," she automatically hissed. "You are a Black. You don't belong there."

"Oh, you think?" he snapped, and James Potter materialized by his shoulder, declaring loudly: "Well, you're wrong. He belongs with us – with us Gryffindors, that's right. Now get away."

"And who do you think you are?" Cissy exclaimed, incensed. "This is none of your business!"

"This is none of yours!" Sirius shouted. "I got Sorted. I'm a Gryffindor. End of the story."

"But you can't!" She lunged forward without even realizing, grabbing his shoulders as he turned away, pulling him to face her. "Sirius, don't do this," she begged. "What are you playing at? We can fix this, I'm sure, but we need you with us, on our side…"

"No!" He pushed her away, while James Potter called simultaneously: "Let go of him!"

"What is going on here?" another student interjected, stepping between Sirius and Cissy. The latter recognized McKinnon, a Gryffindor prefect of her year.

"She won't let us get to our common room like everyone else," James Potter accused, pointing at Narcissa. "She went and jumped at Sirius because she doesn't like the house he was Sorted in."

McKinnon turned up her nose. "Miss Black, I'll have to ask you to leave Gryffindor students alone, and get to your own common room now."

"You can't stop me from talking to my cousin!" Narcissa retorted, furious. She was getting more and more aware of the crowd of Gryffindors that had remained behind to watch the scene, and were now muttering in anger, all around her.

"I can stop you from mistreating first-years. That's ten points from Slytherin, for shaking your beloved cousin quite hard, and openly disobeying a prefect."

"Now, now," a smooth voice cut in, and Cissy started; Lucius had pushed his way through the grouping of students, and was now standing by her side. "If you please, Miss McKinnon, I am a prefect too and I saw quite differently. I saw Miss Black disagree, not disobey, firstly; and may I also point out that she did not, and would not, hurt her cousin in any way or form – and that you are certainly in no place to judge her family relations?"

The girl pursed her lips. "Well, Malfoy," she sneered, "I hope that we may both arrive to the same conclusion as for the solution of this: everyone to bed." Swiftly turning her back on him, she pushed Sirius and Potter ahead, and the Gryffindors moved after her.

"Sirius!" Narcissa couldn't help but shout; Lucius' fingers closed tightly around her wrist.

Her cousin did not turn back. Cissy numbly leaned against Lucius' shoulder, her cheek pressed against the fabric of his robes.

"Let us get to the common room," he murmured in her ear, wrapping one arm around her. "Come on."

She allowed him to gently pull her along, and they disappeared into the dungeons, while the last of the Gryffindor first-years hurried, giggling and shoving each other, up into the tower.