Rushing out, Narcissa's emotions fluctuated between immensely happy and immensely terrified. As her heels clacked against the bricks, the hunger, thirst, and sleep her body had been hindering due to the powerful magic finally seeped into her mind. Her stomach turned itself into knots as the dryness brushed against her esophagus like sandpaper. Her eyes struggled to remain alert as every movement around her was blurred and faintly glowed. Placing a hand against the nearest wall, she guided herself to the atrium and then to a fireplace. She gripped a handful of floo powder before throwing it into the fireplace, announcing, "Malfoy Manor". On any normal occasion, she would have landed gracefully in the manor's fireplace, stepping out of the flames without even a speck of soot, but on this occasion, she toppled out, stumbling to the ground as her wand flew out of her hands. The absolute numbness that had started to disperse made it incredibly hard to want to get up, so she pressed her face into the floorboards, basking in the rest she was now permitted to have. Right as her thoughts contorted into the relaxing surrealism of her dreamscape, she heard a squeaky voice ask, "Is Mistress injured?"
Annoyed that he had discovered her in such a vulnerable state, she snapped, "No! I'm fine. What time is it?"
"It is half past 5, Mistress," Dobby said, bowing as Narcissa struggled to push herself to a sitting position.
"Is Lucius home?"
"Yes, Mistress. Dobby last saw him in his study. Would you like Dobby–"
"Dobby!" a voice boomed, causing the small creature to flinch, "why did you not inform me that Narcissa had returned?"
"Lucius, don't," Narcissa grumbled, pushing her palm into her forehead as she felt a pounding begin, "I was keeping him from going to you, and I only had just arrived."
"Are you alright?" Lucius said, rushing to her side and sitting on the ground next to her. Glancing up at Dobby, he angrily motioned for him to leave to which the elf practically dashed from the room.
"I'm just tired," she gave a small smile as he pulled her into a tight embrace.
"Have you been at the ministry for the last three days?"
"Yes. Even worse, I've been awake the entire time."
"What did they have you doing?"
"I can't tell you."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean," Narcissa said, releasing him and tucking some hair behind her ear, "I made an Unbreakable Vow with the department as an oath to not reveal their secrets."
"That's…I'm happy you got the job then, but now you're a target for anyone that wants to break in. How often do you have to work?"
"I don't know all of the details yet. I start training on Tuesday morning," she covered her mouth with her hand as she released a yawn.
"We can talk later. Here," Lucius stood up and offered his hand for support. She gripped it as though it were a lifeline, almost her full body weight against him. Guiding her up the steps, he shouted for Dobby to bring tea to their bedroom. Upon reaching the spacious room, he released her onto the bed where she curled her legs within her, feet still adorned with her heels, and put a hand under a throw pillow. The clattering of the tea tray announced Dobby's presence before the elf himself made an appearance. Narcissa turned in her sleep as Lucius continued to glare at the elf.
"Could you possibly be any louder?" he whispered with fury, "I don't think Narcissa could hear you properly!"
"Dobby apologizes, Master Lucius. Dobby will use a levitation charm next time."
"You will. Now leave." Lucius brought a hand up to his face to rub it as he settled down next to Narcissa on green sheets. He threw a black rose, embroidered blanket onto her calm form as she, in her exhaustion, had fallen asleep on top of the comforter. Retrieving a book from his nightstand, he placed a pair of clear rimmed glasses on his nose and shifted through the pages until Narcissa awoke four hours later. Blinking a few times to focus her surroundings, she sat up and spotted the tea. She took the kettle and poured the brown, lukewarm liquid into her cup, retrieving her wand and heating the tea up.
"Have you heard from Draco?"
"Certainly. You know that boy wouldn't forgo an opportunity to write," Lucius smirked, standing up to fetch a stack of papers from his desk near the window.
"He wrote that much? Are we sure we sent him with enough ink and parchment for both school and letters?" Narcissa raised her eyebrows and laughed. Matching her laughter, Lucius handed her the letters before climbing back onto the bed.
"They are interesting reads, I must admit."
"I can't wait," Narcissa rolled her eyes before starting the lengthy pages.
Hello Mother and Father,
I am writing to you as a fellow Slytherin, but really, were you expecting anything else? A lot happened on the train. I sat with Blaise, Crabbe, and Goyle. Apparently, Goyle's parents aren't getting on. Goyle says they fight every night, but he says he doesn't mind. If they divorce, he said he would get double the presents on Christmas and his birthday. Would that happen if you two got divorced? Anyways, this fat kid, Longbottom or something, lost his toad and had everyone looking everywhere. I could have sworn I saw it leap out of the window, and I don't blame it. If I had that idiot looking after me, I'd try to escape as well. Me and the gang stocked up on candies and sweets, and then we saw two of the Weasleys sulk past us. You could just tell they were jealous. Probably couldn't even afford the wrappers on the candy. Blaise brought his chessboard, so of course, we had a tournament. I know Mother always beats me, but I think I'm getting better or all three of them are just terrible. I really want to believe it's the first option, but I think it might be the second. We get off the train, right, and all of a sudden there's a giant! And he's telling us to follow him. I almost didn't because it seemed like a trap. No joke, he could have crushed me with one toe. I ignored him most of the time. He was really hard to understand. Strange accent and very mumbly. I got on a boat with the gang and Pansy. Don't know where she was at on the train. I got up a few times and didn't see her. She might have been with the Greengrasses because I didn't see them either. So we get into the castle, and you know who I see. Harry Potter! Talking to another Weasley no less. I do the noble thing and try to save him from whatever dreadfully boring thing I'm sure the red headed troll is talking to him about, and he basically tells me to shove it. Apparently he needs better glasses if he sees the Weasleys as people who would make good friends. This is proof, Father, that I did try to befriend him, he would just much rather have friends that would embarrass him. He's brave for that which is probably why he got sorted into Gryffindor. But your charming and perfect son got sorted into Slytherin. Unfortunately, we have potions with the Gryffindors, but luckily for us, Snape's the professor. Potter was asked five questions, easy if you had read the textbook or had a working brain, and he couldn't answer any. Funny really, but this annoying mudblood kept raising her hand like the questions were directed at her. Anyone could have answered those questions, but Miss Know-it-all had to act like she was so smart and so clever. I try to avoid Crabbe in potions and stick with Blaise. Crabbe managed to make this green slime that even Professor Snape was surprised at. We thought it would be funny to dispose of it into this Gryffindor's cauldron, Seamus I think, and it exploded. Professor Snape yelled at him so much and took 10 points from Gryffindor. I think they're in negative points now. We got 10 points because I correctly answered about the properties of a toadstool. Thanks for that info, mum. I think I'll be coming home for the holiday. I know you gave me the option to stay, but none of my friends are. Besides, I don't want to appear like I'm an orphan like Potter.
Your golden son,
Draco
As she finished the two pages the letter was written on, she laughed.
"How is there more? It seems like he covered everything pretty well."
"You will be surprised," Lucius said, raising his eyebrows and looking to the side, "I didn't even read through all of what he said because at some point, it became incessant rambling, and I have to save my energy for listening to you talk." She slapped his arm.
"This is how you talked to me when we were in school or did you forget the amount of stories that started out with 'Cissa, this girl in my charms class never lets anyone else answer', 'Cissa, Rosier knocked me off my broomstick again. Let me tell you his deepest, darkest secrets for the next five hours'."
"I didn't sound like that," Lucius scowled indignantly.
"And how would you know? You never shut up long enough to listen," Narcissa scoffed.
"Read through Draco's next letter and tell me I'm worse than that," Lucius said exasperated. Narcissa pursed her lips before returning to the pages in her hand.
Dear Mother and Father,
We had our first flying lesson today. Miss Know-it-all couldn't even get her broom off the ground. It must suck when you can't always rely on a textbook for a solution. My broom immediately levitated into my hand as I expected. I mean, I've been flying since I could walk. Probably before then, right Father? I know there's a picture of me on a toy broomstick somewhere, and I was flying better than anyone on the Hufflepuff team I reckon. We had these dingy brooms we had to use, so I couldn't use the Nimbus you bought me. No worries though as I'm sure I will make it on the house team. They would be stupid to not have me. Or maybe as a backup because I am pretty sure Slytherin won the Quidditch cup last year. That twat I was telling you about that lost his toad on the train, remember? He lost control of his broomstick and broke his arm. It was hilarious. His robes got caught on the of the knight statues near the top of the castle, then on one of the torch holders, and then he hit the ground like a brick. Madam Hooch had to take him to the hospital wing, but he dropped his Remembrall. Isn't that funny? His family got that for him to remember stuff, but it doesn't help him if he doesn't have it. Potter challenged me to a flying match. I whipped that ball as hard as I could, and he got it too. Professor McGonagall came out and took Potter away. Fingers crossed he'd been expelled, but knowing how he gets treated around here, he probably just got promoted to headmaster. Honestly, every professor here worships the ground he walks on. It's disgusting.
Narcissa scanned further ahead to see if the letter held any other interesting information, but after seeing that the next page and a half contained a monologue on why Harry Potter was the worst wizard imaginable, she folded up the pages and placed them on the nightstand.
"I told you," Lucius said without taking his eyes off the page he was reading.
"You are equally as bad. The only difference is you talked my ear off, so I couldn't exactly discard what was being said."
"Who did I ever talk about to that extent?!" Lucius asked, playfully angry.
"Who did you…? Who did you…? Lucius, who didn't you?! It was a new person everyday and the only reason you never talked about me to that extent was because you knew I'd hex you though you probably talked someone else into insanity about me, and I bet it was Severus."
"I didn't have much to complain about you.
"I very much doubt that, especially when I was mad at you over the holidays."
"Fine, but it was to Regulus not Severus. Severus was just as lethal as you when annoyed."
"That's what I thought," she stood up and unbuttoned her jacket, flicking her wand to hang it up. She removed the various pins holding her bun hairstyle in place. As she undid it, black and blonde curls cascaded down her back.
"What did you do while I was gone?" She removed her top to reveal a black lace bra underneath. Her eyes caught Lucius' staring in the mirror.
"Contemplated dying. Sulked. Wrote my will. Sulked."
"Seriously," Narcissa turned around smirking, "three days without me. What did you do?"
"I watered your plants," he muttered as she cocked an eyebrow, "but never fear, I didn't go into your study. I levitated them out one by one and watered them."
"You are so sweet," she said, walking over to him and kicking off her heels before giving him a quick peck on the lips.
"I also met with Fudge today in Diagon Alley," Narcissa pulled back, scanning his face, "I'm sorry, Cissa, but there's nothing else I can do to get your sister free. I tried to get you visitation rights as a last resort, but that was also denied."
"It's not your fault," she quickly smiled while wringing her hands, "I'm not sure she's the same person I knew anymore anyways. You did save her from the dementor's kiss, so you didn't completely fail."
"I just wish I could have done more for you," he said, taking her hands in his.
"Don't start, Lucius," Narcissa warned.
"There was something else I wanted to discuss with you."
"One moment," she said, flicking her wand to accio a baby blue nightgown with a matching robe. She shimmied out of her skirt and slipped the dress over her head, slipping her arms through the holes of the robe.
"Alright, what is it?" Lucius searched her eyes for a moment and then looked down, contemplating what to say. Narcissa brushed her fingers over his knuckles to comfort him and expunge what he needed to say.
"I don't know why, Cissa, but…" he pushed up the sleeve of his deep red blazer to expose the dark mark. It wasn't prominent or completely visible, but Narcissa recognized it was darker than it had been in the previous eleven years.
"When did it get darker?"
"I don't know," he shook his head, continuing to avoid her eye contact, "I only noticed it a couple of months ago."
"Why didn't you tell me then?"
"I couldn't. I didn't want to worry you."
"So worrying me now is better," Narcissa tilted her head.
"No, I didn't want to tell you at all, but then you were gone for so long, and I thought of every worst case scenario. I even began second guessing my abilities at charming the rings."
"Lucius, if he really is back, why hasn't he contacted any of the Death Eaters?"
"That's why I'm worried, Cissa. What if he's angry with us because we lied about being under the Imperius curse. We weren't the only ones. What if he decided to create a new group and hunt the rest of us down one by one?" He was gripping onto Narcissa's hands at this point as she leaned away from him.
"Pull yourself together, Lucius," she said softly, understanding he had a habit of extrapolating situations with little to no concrete evidence to support it, "why would he do that? He wants power. He wouldn't get that by killing people who have supported him in the past, so I doubt he would kill you."
"I wasn't completely worried about myself. I just don't want you and Draco to be hunted down and killed because of me."
Narcissa bit the tip of her tongue as she so desperately wanted to retort that it was a little late to worry about hers and Draco's safety.
"We will be fine. We survived the first time. I'm sure, if he really is back, we will survive this time," she finished, more to convince herself than anything.
"I love you. So much," he wrapped his arms around her. She returned the embrace and brought her hands to either side of his face.
"I love you too," she said, closing the gap between their lips. He deepened the kiss, slipping his tongue into her mouth as she sighed. Removing his hands from her shoulders, he slid the blue, silk robe away from her upper body. Never breaking the kiss, Narcissa removed her arms from the silky constraints and tossed the garment to the floor. Her hands expertly unbuttoned Lucius' blazer as he tore it from himself and assisted her with unbuttoning his under shirt. Once free from that, he removed himself from her reddened lips and started nipping at her neck. She leaned her head to the left side to grant him better access as her hands tangled in his pin straight, white locks. She planted small kisses along his clavicle and shoulders as he continued his slow pace on her neck. Undoing his belt, she tossed the leather piece to the ground where it coiled itself up like a dormant snake. Carefully, she lifted herself onto his lap as he held her upper arm to help guide her. As she adjusted, Lucius slid both of the thin straps of her nightgown down her arm, softly stroking her biceps as he went. She took the ends of the dress and pulled it over her head. His hands immediately went under her bra to grasp her breasts, however, she took both of his hands and held them over his head. Leaning down, her glistening hair tickled his exposed stomach.
"Not until I say," she said with an airy laugh, "honestly, you should see yourself right now, Lucius. It is a little pathetic." He groaned as he attempted to capture her lips.
"You're just too easy," she drawled with an evil grin, recapturing the passion between their lips and grinding against his hip.