Hello. So it's a Sunday afternoon, I'm done with work for this week, although I'm back tomorrow :( My 3 story challenge is coming along slowly. I have just over half of my secret NCIS story written up and corrected, so hopefully I can start posting that soon, but my crossover story is also in the process of getting a makeover, and hopefully I can get that up sometime too. For now though, enjoy my latest instalment of the Jenny/Rachel saga.

Chapter 12

"Lola heel!" Jenny called running after her mad dog. Since arriving at the castle Lola had been kept mainly confined to Jenny's quarters, but since it was the weekend Jenny had decided to give the dog a tour of the castle. So with her map and lead the duo had set off for a day of exploring. Unfortunately Lola had decided she wanted to explore at her own pace, so she slipped the lead and took of charging down the corridor. Jenny had of course taken after her, apologising to the students in the corridor as she passed them rushing after her pet.

"Lola!" Jenny called again trying to get the offending animal to stop. Up ahead she spotted one of the teachers she had yet to become fully acquainted with yet. She was walking with a young child and Jenny remembered Albus telling her that that was the Malfoy family. The husband was one of the teachers, Jenny couldn't remember which subject, but she remembered seeing the woman in the library occasionally and the child? He had unusual name, Dragon or something like that. She watched as Lola headed straight in their direction.

"LOLA STOP!" She yelled out causing most of the students who weren't already staring at her to stare, and she caught the mother and son's attention who turned also. Lola skidded to a halt, and turned to look at her mistress. She cocked her head and gave her a funny look, almost as if she was laughing. Jenny finally caught up and slipped the lead back onto Lola's neck, making it slightly tighter this time so she couldn't escape again.

"Sorry." Jenny said to the small family. The woman didn't move, she kept her eyes on Jenny. Jenny was used to this from the staff. Since most of them had known or taught Rachel at some point in their careers, they were still trying to come to terms with Jenny being around and not being able to refer to her as Rachel. The little boy however started peeking out from behind his mother's legs and looked at Lola, who for once was sitting and doing as she was told. Jenny smiled.

"Its ok, she won't bite." She said to the young boy crouching on her knees to reach his level. The woman looked unsure. The boy however looked at his mother with a pleading glance.

"Can I mother?" He asked. Jenny couldn't help but smile. The lad was incredibly sweet, and very polite towards his mother. Whether that was the way wizarding families referred to their parents or not, she didn't know.

"Very well Draco." The mother replied to her child. 'Draco.' Jenny thought, 'that was his name.'. Draco slowly came out from behind his mother and advanced towards the dog. Lola stayed still and let the boy approach. He reached out a hand and placed it on the dog's fur. Very slowly a smile started to creep onto his face, and soon he was hugging the dog as if she were his own. Jenny smiled at the sight, wishing she had a camera with her. The mother kept one eye on her son, the other focused on Jenny.

"She's a sweet dog." She finally spoke. Jenny smiled.

"She's great with kids. My nieces and nephew love her." Jenny admitted to the blonde woman.

"I'm Jenny by the way." She introduced herself. "And this is Lola, in case you didn't hear me shouting." She laughed.

"I know who you are." The woman replied cryptically. "And I wonder, if maybe we could talk, in private?" Jenny was confused.

"Erm…" She stuttered.

"Please," The woman seemed to beg, "I don't mean you any harm, I just… well… I've heard from the students that you are… I feel there is something I should tell you, before you hear it from someone else." She confessed. "I have been meaning to seek you out since you arrived, but I was fearful of how you would react, in case you remembered something." Suddenly it clicked in Jenny's mind. This woman had something to do with Rachel. Something that she had been hiding for a long time, and something she needed to share with someone. Jenny looked down at Draco and Lola, the pair looked like they were becoming fast friends. She smiled back at the woman.

"Why don't we go to your quarters? It'll be more private."

"Thank you, I'm Narcissa by the way. Narcissa Malfoy."

Jenny took in her surrounding once the trio plus their canine companion reached the Malfoy family quarters. They were situated with the main bulk of staff quarters only a little way from Jenny's own. Narcissa gave the password and they all trouped into the living room. It was decorated with a dark green almost forest coloured walls, and old fashioned looking furniture.

"I'm guessing you and your husband were in Slytherin?" Jenny joked. Narcissa smiled.

"Somethings are hard to let go of." She replied. "Draco, why don't you go and get your toys from your room and play with Lola?" The little boy looked at his mother with astounded eyes.

"Can I?" He asked.

"If that's ok with Miss Matthews?" Narcissa looked at her.

"First please call me Jenny that applies you to you to Draco." She smiled at the boy. He beamed back. "And second, of course you can, I think Lola likes you." Draco immediately grabbed hold of Jenny's legs and wrapped his arms around them hugging her. Jenny stumbled slightly but held her balance. Draco soon let go and rushed off with the dog following close behind him.

"Tea?" Narcissa asked.

"That would be lovely, thank you." She waved her wand and a tray appeared floating with two cups of steaming hot tea, milk and sugar. The pair took their respective cups and settled down onto the sofa in the living room.

"You're home is lovely." Jenny remarked.

"Thank you. Lucius, my husband, he isn't one for decorating, so he let me have free reign of our home." She waved a hand around the room. "We're both purebloods you see, this is the sort of home we both grew up in, well we didn't grow up in a school." She laughed. "We wanted Draco to grow up as we had, but without the rules and stipulations of our families."

"I don't follow." Jenny said confused. Albus and Minerva had explained briefly to her about the systems of pure bloods vs muggle borns, but she was still confused by it all. Narcissa sighed.

"Lucius and I grew up believing the thoughts of our fathers, that pure bloods were the best, the most supreme, the only ones worthy of magic. I am ashamed to say that was the view we carried for most of our education here. We both despised Muggle borns, and all the evil thoughts and values pure bloods showed, we had." The woman looked like she had been though an awful lot in her life. Jenny placed a hand on top if hers and squeezed it tightly.

"It's ok, I'm not going to judge you. Everyone has done things they are not proud of. It's what you do after that makes you who you are." Jenny surmised. Narcissa wiped away her tears.

"You know, you are just like her. Rachel I mean. I'm sorry if that's hard to hear, but you are." Jenny smiled again.
"You knew her then."

"Yes, both Lucius and I were at school with her, and that's really why I wanted to talk to you. Both of us, we were quiet horrid to her in her school years. We could blame it on our upbringing, but in a sense, I know for me, I was more jealous of her than anything else."
"Jealous?"
"How much do you know about Rachel?" Narcissa asked. Jenny shrugged.

"Not much to be honest, I've heard bits about her, she was kind, friendly, a little hot headed in my opinion, but she had a good heart, and she always put her friends and family first."

"That she did. But she was also extremely powerful." Narcissa told her.

"Really?"

"Oh yes, she had more power in one hand than quite a few pure bloods. I'm not entirely sure about her back ground, but I know she was a muggle born, and that sort of power doesn't normally appear in someone of her blood status." Narcissa informed Jenny.

"So Lily has the same sort of power. I mean they are sisters, right."

"Yes and no, Lily and Rachel were sister, but only Rachel had the extreme powers. Lily's just your average witch." Jenny closed her eyes for a moment.

"Are you ok?" Narcissa asked.

"Yeah, it's just a lot to take in. I mean, being told you could be a witch is one thing, being told you could be an extremely powerful witch is quiet another, especially when you can't remember anything at all." Narcissa took this as her turn to squeeze Jenny's hand.

"So you really can't remember anything past your life in Cornwall? Nothing at all?"
"Nope, nothing. If I am Rachel, then I don't remember anything." Jenny looked away.

"You don't think you are her, do you?" She questioned. Jenny sighed deeply.

"I just thought… I hoped that coming here, reliving the life Rachel could have had with her family and friends, it would jog something in my head, maybe… Oh hell I don't know. I want to know who I am, I really do, but sometimes I just think that all this, it's just not me." Jenny opened up.

She hadn't opened up to anyone like this since she had arrived at the castle, sure Minerva knew she had her reservations about the idea she was Rachel, but she didn't know just how deep those reservations ran.

"I think you need to believe in yourself." Narcissa piped in. Jenny sighed again. Then something clicked in her head.

"You said were." She blurted out.

"Pardon?" Narcissa replied.

"Were. You said Rachel and Lily were sisters. You think she's dead don't you?" Jenny questioned. Now Narcissa's turn to sigh.

"There are thinks about that night that I haven't told anyone." She confessed. "I… I… I think maybe I know what happened that night." She spoke almost in a whisper.

"You were there!" Jenny exclaimed.

"No!" Narcissa exclaimed. "No I wasn't there, but I heard something. My sister Bellatrix, she hated Rachel, way more than I did. She wasn't jealous of her, she despised her. She knew just how powerful Rachel was, and she was furious that that kind of power, went to Rachel and not her. My sister, she's crazy, I mean really she's crazy. You know about he-who-must-not-be-named right?" Jenny nodded.

"Bellatrix, she always wanted to follow him, to the point of it became an obsession. I hate to think of what became of her, but I can imagine."

"What do you mean, don't you see her anymore?" Narcissa laughed.

"I haven't seen anyone from my family since the day they disowned me. When Lucius and I saw what was expected of us, to follow our families into serving him, we were scared, terrified even. We begged Dumbledore to help us, to get us away from him, he offered us safety here. We couldn't go through that. The night Rachel disappeared, I was awoken very early in the morning, by Bellatrix coming into our bedroom. She older by 9 months, so we were in the same year, but she seemed weirdly happy when I woke up. She had this evil grin on her face, and so I asked her what she was so happy about. She told me to forget I'd seen her, that it would all become clear in the morning. When Lucius and I heard Rachel was missing, I knew instantly Bellatrix had been involved. I asked her outright what she'd done, but she just laughed, told me that she'd been taken care of, that she wouldn't be bothering anyone anymore."
"You think she killed her?" Narcissa shook her head.

"I don't know, whether Bellatrix killed her, or she was part of some big plan to get rid of Rachel, but I do know in my heart, that she had something to do with it. I tried to tell Dumbledore, really I did, but I couldn't. She was still my sister, I couldn't tell on her. I blame myself for Rachel never being found. But that was really what convinced me I needed to get away from my family. They would expect me to become like her. I couldn't do it. Lucius and I we joined the search for her, we apologised to her group over and over, and thanks to Dumbledore we got away. But I still fear what Bellatrix did." By now Narcissa was crying.

Jenny couldn't believe her ears. A child had openly admitted that she had been part of a plot to kill another child.

"But, if you believed Bellatrix had killed Rachel, why didn't you say something when I appeared?" Narcissa looked Jenny square in the eyes, her own tear stained ones meeting Jenny's blue orbs.

"When I first saw you, I wondered if I was wrong. I thought that maybe Rachel had survived. After that night, no one has heard of the dark lord since. There was a rumour that Rachel had destroyed him, and herself in the process. Bellatrix would never talk about it, I assumed it wrong, and that somehow both of them had died. When I first saw you, when Albus introduced you, something in my mind, told me I was wrong. That Rachel had survived. That she had defeated the dark lord, and that something had happened to her and she had become you."

"You snuck out." Jenny suddenly remembered. "When I was first introduced to the staff, you and Lucius left before Albus told everyone what had happened to me." Narcissa nodded.

"When you didn't come and find us, and we heard the staff talking about Jenny and not Rachel, it just clicked. You hadn't responded to Rachel, because that wasn't you. You were Jenny. It just all made sense. Rachel never came back after that night, because she didn't remember. Lucius said we were in the clear, no one would ever find out what we knew, but it just kept eating away at me. Seeing you every day in the great hall, and knowing what I knew, I had to tell you even if you turn out not to be Rachel, I couldn't keep it a secret any longer. I'm sorry."

The pair heard a bang from Draco's room and Narcissa rushed off to see what the noise was, leaving Jenny alone with her thoughts. She could see in Narcissa a woman torn between doing the right thing, and the loved she still held for her family. This dark lord, he was far more powerful that Jenny had believed, even after he was believed dead, he still held power and fear over the Malfoy couple. Jenny had no doubt in her mind, that Narcissa truly had believed her sister had played a part in Rachel's death, and until she came along, she believed Narcissa had truly thought Rachel Evans was dead; and that when Jenny had appeared she had been torn between what her mind told her and what her eyes could see. The young woman had been through a lot in her short life, and Jenny knew in her heart she hadn't meant for any harm to befall Rachel, no matter how much she was jealous of her powers, she hadn't wished any harm on her fellow student. Suddenly the woman in her mind came out of the bedroom, her robes swishing behind her, and for the first time Jenny could see Narcissa clearly. The young woman looked old, older than she was, the years of keeping a secret that big had taken their toll on her.

"Sorry Draco dropped something, made a louder noise than he thought it would. Would you like some more tea?" She asked noticing Jenny's cup was empty.

"No thank you, Narcissa," Jenny paused. Narcissa sighed. "Narcissa I understand. I know this was a hard thing for you to tell me, and I respect your decision to trust me, and I promise you, I don't hold you responsible for anything that happened to me. Now, if that's all you need to tell me, then I think it's time we put all this aside and concentrate on the here and now, and I believe that I would like to spend some time getting to you, the real you, the woman I can see becoming my good friend." She smiled.

"You mean that?" Narcissa said astonished.

"Yes." Jenny smiled. "I really do."

So there we go. I have always liked the idea of Narcissa and Jenny being friends. I never thought that Narcissa could have been friends with the other women because of what they remembered of her in their school days, but with Jenny it's like a blank canvas, they have no history, they can begin their friendship from here and see where it goes. I want to know what you think.

I have read stories on here where Narcissa and Lucius have tried to make amends for their actions, and I see them as both having been brainwashed in a sense by their families, but especially in Narcissa's case, she had one sister who became the dark lord's follower and died for his cause, and another who ran away from everything her family stood for to follow her heart. And what she did for Harry in the end, it really made her character for me. I wanted to try and get that in my variation of her, so let me know what you think.

As always please read and review, I am trying desperately to make the gaps between my posting as short as I can, but things get in the way that I just can't help, and time goes quicker than I think. But thank you to everyone who has stuck with me, I know I say this a lot but you guys really do mean a lot to me, and its because of you that I keep writing, I don't want to disappoint anyone and I love that you guys have stuck with me and my ramblings and random sporadic posts. :) So thank you once again.

Beth xx