Right I know I've been oober shit at uploading so I'm trying a new technique, at the moment I've got several chapters written and I'm going to try and write more so that when I do upload there should be several in quick succession instead of having to wait months for the next part of the story. I haven't given up on this story though and can only thank those that are still bothering to read this for being patient.
Draco's hands shook as the memory ended. No matter how many times he went through it he never got used to it.
"You okay?" Hermione asked, clambering to her feet and hurrying to him, her warm palms pressing delicately against his cheeks. He smiled, taking her one hand and gripping gently, eyes closing as he took a deep breath, leaning down and capturing her lips in a sweet, lingering kiss.
"I'm okay now," he murmured.
"What did you see?" Draco's eyes opened, giving Hermione an incredulous stare.
"Can't we have just one moment without all the questions, just one, it's all I ask." His arms slid around her waist catching hold of her before she could fully step away.
"Isn't that a question?" Draco rolled his eyes at her smug smirk, "and besides it's only fair, the Sensieve kicked me out again, all I got was a blurry house-elf and a dodgy tummy." He grinned down at her, tracing her pout playfully with his thumb.
"I thought you liked house-elves. What?" He chuckled at her scowl, "Fine, fine but stop looking at me like that."
Slowly he told her about the memory, rubbing warm circles into her lower back, trying not to think too much about Christmas when his hands had followed the same path as she straddled his lap, bulky woolly jumper abandoned by the side of him. Her pale skin had been soft and so pale in contrast to the black simple bra she wore. His hand had been hovering over her breast, just a millimetre away and then she'd brought her arms across herself, blushing and stuttering about slowing down. He hadn't minded much, he'd been shocked to have gotten that far, the pace they'd set practically light speed in caparison to what he had imagined their tentative relationship would have been like. Now, most of his thoughts strayed towards carrying on.
"I can't believe they did that to Taigen." Draco quickly blinked out of his daydream; glad she hadn't noticed his mind wandering.
The memory had been tough to experience sending him back to his father's office, rug fibres pressed into his cheek, the last waves of the Crucio curse needling through him. He gripped her tighter, tugging her flush against him, resting his head against her shoulder.
"Malfoy? You okay?"
"Hmm, can we just stay like this for a while?" He sighed happily when Hermione held him tightly, pressing a small kiss against his temple. What else did he need as long as he had her? Everything else could cease to exist, everyone else could leave him, as long as she was by his side, nothing else mattered.
It was as if the sky knew, grumbling deeply with the turmoil, great flashes of white light eerie and cold in the darkness. Evil was at work, unleashed, let free, and lashing its frustration against the windows violently. Narcissa found herself readjusting her skirt with the same skittish rhythm that beat against the glass, unable to settle in the stagnant moments of waiting.
Lucius stood off to the side of her, hands clasped behind her back, his face pale as he stared out into the storm. He seemed calm but Narcissa knew that the show was for the Dark Lord and the Dark Lord alone. He had to be seen to be resolute in his duties even if those duties included harbouring criminals, criminals he'd denied so fervently when their lives had been on the line. Narcissa did not know how she felt, there was the obvious trepidation that came with any visit from her sister as well as the fear that they were treading on the same familiar path that had led them to ruin years before. She had always loved her sister with a reluctant uncertainty that came with the years of torture she'd suffered at the hands of Bellatrix - her eldest sibling had been born with a void in her heart, a void that she had desperately tried to eradicate in any way that she could; searching and seeking validation from their distant father, from her distant peers and then from a distant Dark Lord who cared little for her sister's affections but only for power.
She gulped heavily, glancing briefly at Abraxas Malfoy who glared down at them somewhat judgementally, spectacles balanced on the end of his nose. The frames were empty of course, every one of the Malfoys had paid through the nose to have the best healers eradicate any 'weaknesses' and Abraxas was no different. The old wizard had held the notion that staring at others over the rims made them feel uncomfortable, elevating him to the calmest wizard in the room. He had been right; the squinting look it gave him when he sized another person up felt like an icy chill down the spine. She wondered what the old man would have to say about the whole thing, wondered if Lucius would be scared enough of his father to be put in his place.
"They'll be here soon, is everything ready?" The question was just to fill the silence, he knew that everything was ready, just as they had been ordered. He turned to her expectantly.
"Yes, everything's ready. Must she stay here?"
"She's your sister." Narcissa shook her head, lifting herself out her chair and stepping towards the fire wringing her hands nervously, hoping the roaring fire would chase away how cold she suddenly felt.
"You know how I feel about my sister." Narcissa laughed humourlessly, staring at the intricate carvings that ran the length mantle; two wooden dragons whose claws gripped at mountains of gold, snarling mouths open as they breathed oaken flames at each other, frozen forever in their fight. It reminded her of her childhood, Bellatrix and herself either side of the battlefield, glaring at each other with a malice that she had only ever really known sisters to have, their hatred had always been deeper. Their parents hadn't known what to do with them, hadn't known where the ill-feeling between them had begun and, if she was honest, Narcissa didn't know either. All she remembered from her childhood was being small and her sister hurting her, constantly and then when she'd been old enough to fight back, she had, snapping at the older girl with the ferocity of a caged horntail. The years passed with little changing and when they'd finally met on the common ground of the Dark Lord, Bellatrix had taken it upon herself to show that she was better more devoted follower and always would be, she'd gone to Azkaban for the belief and when they'd hauled her away there'd been that winning smile Narcissa knew so well. In her mind, Bellatrix always won.
Narcissa jumped as she heard the rush of wind and felt the change in pressure in the room as their guests apparated behind them. She daren't turn, even as she heard Lucius' fearful greeting, grovelling at their feet like the lowly traitor he was to them, she couldn't do it. Her chest felt far too tight and she wondered if it were the dress, it was new, a luxury she'd felt she deserved in light of all the danger that surrounded her, the feel of the delicate material she felt would pull her through it all. Now she was certain it was too tight and it's colour too dark, it was like the desolate cloud that hung over their heads, much too dark, much too stormy, much too suffocating.
"Cissy, aren't you going to greet your older sister? Tut tut, where have your manners gone?" Narcissa bit her tongue, her fingernails biting into the palms of her hands as she clenched her fists and turned to her sister with a sickly sweet smile that she'd learnt as a child and perfected among the magical aristocracy as an adult, her shamefaced husband with his practised magic in place.
"Bellatrix." Narcissa tried to smile, but she knew it wasn't convincing, the last person she wanted in her home was her sister. Bellatrix examined her down the length of her nose, a smirk curling her lips.
"Are you not happy to see me, Cissy? I thought you would have been happy to see your older sister after to so long." Her words were a hiss full of insinuation that mirrored when they'd last seen each other. She'd thinned since then, her cheeks sunken, robes hanging off her skeletal frame, but the malice in her eyes had become more poisonous.
"Where are the others? They not with you?" Narcissa sniffed, glancing behind her sister not willing to entertain her teasing, not in her own home.
"They are staying elsewhere. I can understand their decision," Bellatrix shrugged, "I mean the last time any of us saw either of you, you were on the comfortable side of the courtroom, the Dark Lord all but forgotten." She let the accusation hang for a beat before continuing, "But look at you now. Grovelling never did become you, Lucius perhaps, but never you…" Bellatrix sniffed, tipping her head with a grin, a crazed glint in her dark eyes. Narcissa stared at her wondering what her sister had seen in the depths of Azkaban that had altered her so, twisting the darkness that already lay within her.
"Our situation before was unfortunate, but we are here now and there are more important matters to deal with than what came before." Lucius' statement did not sit well on her sister's shoulders, her whole body tensing as she whirled around, a hiss on her lips as she pulled her wand from her ragged robes and pointed it accusingly at Lucius.
"You are a traitor, your whole family are traitors, you can't hide it from me. I know what you are."
"Bellatrix." The snake-like hiss made Narcissa step back, distancing herself from the nightmare that had slithered into their front room. He wasn't the wizard any of them had known, not anymore. He now embodied the creature she had been so sure had lurked behind those handsome features, a creature that it seemed no one but she could see. Now there was no denying it, now they could all see it. Most looked suitably horrified, suitably uncomfortable, except for her sister. Her eyes glinted with unrestrained adoration. "There are greater things to worry about now. Lucius will prove himself, he knows the price."
"Yes, yes my lord. I am eager to show you…" Lucius' spluttered words petered into nothingness as the robed creature raised a pale hand, fingernails tapered to an unnatural point, looking more like claws in the low light.
"Just as quick to grovel as before. He doesn't mean it, my lord, it's just words, words that he will take back the moment things go wrong."
"You cannot assume that things will go wrong, Bellatrix?" Narcissa watched with interest as her sister's eyes filled with tears, her whole body shaking.
"No, no, my Lord. This time we cannot fail. I suffered for you, held your name in my heart knowing that we could only win. It was just a matter of time."
The Dark Lord seemed bored by Bellatrix's ramblings shrugging off her adoration as if it were little more than a flitterby, flapping around his head, drawn by all the powers she thought he possessed. Lightning flashed outside and briefly flooded the room with cold silver light, the rain becoming more insistent against windows.
"You are most welcome in our home my Lord. Will you be staying?" Lucius asked and Narcissa wondered if the Dark Lord could tell he didn't mean it if he did the wizard did nothing but smile.
"Unfortunately I am forced to utilise less splendid accommodation," it took Narcissa a moment to realise that the accompanying wheeze was in fact a laugh, "soon though it won't matter. There is much to plan, much to do. We are standing on the precipice of great things."
"Yes." Bellatrix eyes were glued to the Dark Lord as he slowly made his way across the room, gazing out at the storm, looking almost wistful.
"There will be no place in our world for impurity, no place for weakness."
Bellatrix turned to her sister a smugness to her gaze, a gleeful snarl to her lips. Narcissa felt herself falling into despair, the ground beneath her feet falling away suddenly to a great abyss of nothingness, as she gazed into her sister's dark eyes. It was like staring into the void left behind by all her sister used to be and definitely wasn't anymore.