A/N: As always, thanks for the kind words, support, and reviews. I would love to hear from all of you! A different type of chapter, but I hope you enjoy!
~ o0o~
"Sirius, we have to go home," Ginny sighed as she pulled the blankets off of her thin, freckled body and swung her legs over the bed, stretched them, and then got up.
They had been hiding for the whole long weekend but Ginny knew that it was high time they faced her family, their friends, and the world again, even if Sirius wasn't at the point of admitting he agreed. He was exceedingly happy lounging in bed with her in a swanky wizarding hotel in the heart of London, as if it was a pre-honeymoon for them.
It had almost been an actual honeymoon, as a few hours after Sirius and Ginny had stormed out of the Burrow, they had fleetingly contemplated getting married at the Ministry, just the two of them. Sirius had been tying his bowtie and putting on the jacket of his fanciest tux when Ginny walked up to him, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and shook her head as she held back tears. She couldn't bear not having her parents witness her marriage, and she understood that deep down, Sirius wouldn't have been truly happy without Harry as his best man.
The promise of a few days away from the chaos to let it blow over still got the best of them, but there was no escaping reality for any longer. "When we get back home, can we get back into bed?" Sirius asked his girlfriend and she merely rolled her eyes in response as she began throwing clothes into her bag.
"We have people we need to talk to," she sighed, giving Sirius a meaningful look, which he chose to ignore, "And I honestly feel terribly that I left Lacey to deal with my Mum and Malfoy. I am a terrible best friend!"
"Speaking of him, when do you think Cissy is gonna be ready to get rid of the 'ole ball and chain?" Sirius wondered, finally getting out of bed and dressing slowly enough for Ginny to be teased by it, even if she hid it well.
"Maybe she's ready now. I'm sure Lace will be happy to stop that charade," she giggled a bit, closing up her bag.
"Ah, my gorgeous girl is finally wrong about something, I never thought I would see the day!" Sirius perked up quite a bit at her statement, toeing on his loafers and moving behind the red-head to wrap his arms around her, "I think you should spend less time concentrating on yours truly and more time paying attention to your best friend…"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Ginny whipped her head around and Sirius took the opportunity to nuzzle his head into the crook of her neck, planting kiss after scorching kiss along the graceful pale column of skin.
"It means," he groaned a little and nipped at the flesh above her collarbone, "That I don't think Lacey is acting at all-and also that I am so devilishly handsome that I can't blame you for not seeing the change in her, love."
"Wait, what?!" Ginny pushed him off of her, spinning around and seeing a pout form on his face at the lack of contact with her.
"Oh, come on…you haven't noticed? She's never around Grimmauld anymore, she shoots daggers out of her eyes whenever Narcissa is in the room, and she finds any excuse to be with him…'for the cause'," Sirius brought his fingers up to air quote the last few words and Ginny's pretty eyes went wide, still trying to hold onto her ignorance of the situation.
"She just likes shagging him, Sirius, that's all. I mean, he is fit…"
"Hey!"
"Oh, stop, you know what I mean…he looks good for his age. He's no you of course…" Ginny backtracked, blushing a bit.
"I am still deeply affronted," Sirius faked another display of pouting, "You were saying…"
"I was saying…that he's a good-looking man and let's face it, Lace has legs for days and an arse any Chaser in the league would kill for. They have chemistry, so what?" Ginny shrugged, not thrilled at all of the thought of her best friend and Lucius being an item—for real.
"I think it's more than chemistry, to be completely honest," Sirius said softly. He remembered the night Lacey had burst into Grimmauld after she had had sex with Lucius for the first time. He saw something in her eyes then, and it had been far more pronounced when he had seen her hug his cousin before the meltdown at the Burrow.
"Well, say you are right…which you aren't," Ginny made sure to make it seem like she was very convinced of herself, "Then we better get back and talk her out of it. She's my sister in all but blood and I will be damned if she falls for a snake under my watch."
Sirius shifted his weight to his right foot and crossed his arms, clearly thinking hard for a moment, "But what would be so bad about it if she did?"
Ginny's mouth hung agape for a second, "No one hates Lucius Malfoy more than you do—where is this coming from?"
"No one hated Narcissa more than I did either. I guess things change when your best mate falls in love with one of them…do you think Remus is an idiot?"
"'Course not…"
"And I don't think Lacey is one either. She's a damned good actress sometimes, and a helluva flirt, but I'll bet you something is going on here and there is more to the story," Sirius walked back over to Ginny, gave her a lingering kiss, and grabbed her bag for her. A few moments later they were down in the lobby checking out of the hotel and back to Grimmauld.
~o0o~
"I'm so glad we could finally sit down and talk," Narcissa Malfoy poured a bit of cream into her earl grey and spooned in one lump of sugar before returning her eyes to those of Lacey Delaney's across the table. The two women were sitting in the smallest room of a gaudily decorated teahouse in the town of Swindon, not far from Lacey's new house, looking at each other over a stack of crumpets and tea sandwiches.
"This place is absolutely disgusting," Lacey grimaced, looking around the private room that Narcissa had requested for them. It was covered in doilies and lace and pictures of hopping rabbits and raspberry-blowing cherubs. Lacey thought she was in the inner circle of hell.
"Its private, discreet, and my husband doesn't even know it exists," Narcissa finished the discussion about the location, making sure to put emphasis on husband, "So, it seems we have much to discuss."
"Ask me what you want to ask me, Narcissa," Lacey said, studying the way the older woman tried to hide her frown at her bluntness. Narcissa tapped her teaspoon in the inner rim of the teacup and set it on the saucer.
"Are you sleeping with Remus?"
The words hung in the air like a cloying perfume and Lacey didn't know how to react-if she should be annoyed, or angry, or flattered that the prim and perfect woman before her was so insecure over her.
"He told you about the idiot mistake he made, huh?" Lacey decided to laugh a bit, realizing the situation was more silly than anything else, "No need to worry, I'm as mad about it as you are. I will surely take no joy in pretending to be his girlfriend."
"Is that so?" Narcissa raised her teacup to her red lips and took a demure sip, but her gaze remained cold and fixed.
"I don't understand why you are jealous, Mrs. Malfoy. Remus loves you so much its enough to make any single person sick. He was so worried about people finding out about you and him and it ruining everything that he willingly saddled himself to me-and its pretty clear he would rather kiss Sirius than myself," Lacey tried her best to ease Narcissa's mind and the pretty blonde lowered her tea cup with slightly shaking hands, looking more than relieved. She put two fingers to her left temple and closed her eyes for a moment.
"I'm sorry, Lacey, once again I make a fool of myself," she sighed.
"Most people consider me a serial shagger anyway, so no worries," Lacey's voice was tinted with sarcasm, but her genuine smile brought out one in Narcissa and the two women fell into a moment of laughter, "But seriously, I'm not after your man, promise."
"Then we an talk about much more pleasant things," Narcissa moved on, still slightly wary of the woman in front of her, but no longer acutely jealous, "It seems pretty obvious that my husband is head over heels for you. How did you manage it?"
Lacey nearly choked on her tea. She hadn't planned on the topic of Lucius coming up so quickly, nor did she expect Narcissa to know that much information, "Erm…I don't know really, luck?"
"Oh, I doubt that," Narcissa gave Lacey what could only be seen as a knowing smirk, "Nearly everything is set with the divorce, though. I have a contract drawn up with my lawyer for what I deem a suitable split of assets, some thoughts about Draco's inheritance, and a few other things. Now its just picking the right moment. And I'm sure you are anxious for the second half of the money I promised. And eager to move out of your apartment."
Narcissa has worded it as casual smalltalk, but the remnder of the deal and the money that went with it made Lacey's stomach lurch. In truth, she hadn't touched the initial sum of money. She was playing Quidditch again…and Lucius had bought her the house so her apartment was out of the picture…
The house.
"Actually, you may not be finished with your side of the settlement," Lacey visibly winced, tensing herself for Narcissa's reaction. In all of the excitement over Ginny and Sirius and her own whirlwind of emotions, it had slipped her mind to let most people know that Lucius had bought her a house.
"And why is that?"
"There's a piece of property you don't know about," Lacey continued, trying to keep her voice even. Narcissa raised one thin and perfectly plucked eyebrow in response.
"Lucius bought me a house to live in…here, in Swindon. Things got crazy and I forgot to say anything…"
"You forgot to say anything," Narcissa repeated the words slowly, filling them up with venom, "Does every mistress get a house?"
"No. I was the only one."
"And its here, in Swindon? Oh, how quaint is that? Putting you practically right next door…" Narcissa kept on, more to herself than to Lacey.
"I am sorry I didn't mention it. I sold the apartment, so I really don't need the money anymore Mrs. Malfoy…"
"Nonsense, you've done so much. It's the least I can do to furnish you with enough gold to buy you a new apartment. It will no doubt be a downgrade from what you are now living in, but I could never forgive myself if I didn't help," Narcissa had gone from polite and pleasant back to passive-aggressive and Lacey couldn't help but cower a bit as her volatile personality came back to play.
"It's only a house, Mrs. Malfoy, its not a ring…"
It was out of Lacey's mouth before she even realized what she was saying and the Malfoy matriarch paused with her cup nearly to her lips again. She lowered it without taking a sip as Lacey inwardly realized just how much she did want a ring from him.
"If it's a house now, a ring isn't far away. He's clearly far too caught up in you to even realize how foolish he is being. Thank you for telling me about the house, Lacey. I'll talk to my lawyer and we should set a date to tell Lucius this week-before he makes any rash decisions and engages himself to you. I'm sure that's the last thing you would want," Narcissa tried to fish for some real emotion from Lacey, as the girl seemed to have a better poker face at times than even she had. It was clear that her husband was in love with the wild brunette, but was she in love with him as well?
"Right…ha…trust me, I'm ready whenever you are," Lacey replied, trying to keep her tears in check and she focused intently on her crumb-filled plate to try and distract her. The last thing in the world she wanted was for the current wife of the man she was in love with to get the satisfaction of taking him away from her.
"Perfect, then we'll be in touch about the meeting," Narcissa nodded to Lacey before folding her napkin and making to stand up. Lacey's hand darted out and clutched around Narcissa's wrist, keeping her there for a moment more, "You love Remus, don't you?"
"Of course I do, more than anything in the world."
"If that's true, then you know love…and I know you loved Lucius once, and maybe deep down, you still do. Why do you want to do this to him?" Lacey asked, locking her clear blue eyes with Narcissa's slightly deeper blue ones.
"There's more to this than you know Lacey, more than you could ever comprehend…" Narcissa brushed off the question, slipping her hand away from Lacey's.
"Please tell me, I need to know why you want to break his heart like this. I know it's a game, but doesn't part of you think it is cruel?" Lacey pressed on and Narcissa thought she saw a flicker of helplessness pass over Lacey's eyes.
"Yes, I did love him. And yes, I do still wish he loved me…but you can't possibly understand what it is like to be repetitively cheated on with all manners of vapid whores, having them defile my marriage bed, and having them traipse around my home like they deserve everything in it. You don't know what its like to comfort your son when his very own father sleeps with the love of his life. And you'll never know the feeling of having Lord Voldemort occupy your house and slaughter people within it. The things I have scene would make you sick, Lacey. All because of my husband. Not to mention he was tantamount in Ginny being raped-and I love that girl like my own daughter, Merlin help me I never thought I'd ever love a Weasley like that…but all of that blood supremacy bullshite was engrained in my head by him," Narcissa ranted, finally coming to a finish with her shoulders shaking and her face pale.
"Voldemort raped Ginny, not Lucius…and how did you….?"
"She cries out in her sleep…for my husband to get away from her with that damned journal, that's how I know," Narcissa's eyes went darker than Lacey had ever seen them, "He may be sorry, and she may forgive him in her heart of hearts, but she is scarred, and he deserves to be left like this. Have a good afternoon, Lacey," Narcissa said and was out of the room in a second, leaving Lacey to stare blankly at the tea laid out on the table.
~o0o~
"Oh troll bogies, this place is absolutely horrific," Astoria Greengrass scrunched up her button nose as Pansy Parkinson unlocked the door to the vacant apartment above the Apothecary in Diagon Alley and the two girls stumbled in. It was devoid of furniture, and only a bit dusty, but the hardwood floor was broken in places and the paint was chipping on the walls. It was all around dingy and very, very small. Pansy made her way to the bedroom, where there was just a bare mattress and a bedframe and started to unshrink some of her belongings.
"It was the only place available at such short notice. The landlord said it was just put on the market—and its right in the middle of the Alley. It's close to the Prophet and the Ministry, and it's absolutely perfect for spying on people on the street!" Pansy finished with an obnoxious shriek as she opened the small window in the bedroom and looked down at the shoppers strolling along the cobblestoned pathway below.
"Well, as long as it is only for a little while, and as long as it's worth it…" Astoria sighed, opening up the bare cabinets in the small kitchen.
"Oh trust me, I'm not leaving here until we have dragged Lucius and Draco through thestral dung and that bitch gets what she deserves.
A/N: A shorter chapter, I know, but some things had to get into place. Hope you liked the drama building!
