Laws of Motion

Interaction

Narcissa had been annoyed that Rabastan Lestrange had detained her from going to Hogsmeade, but considering what had happened, she is currently grateful that he couldn't meet the required five feet of parchment for his Charms essay. Although now he thinks he somehow saved her.

She leaves the common room to get away from him and to look for Andromeda. Narcissa figures that her sister would be in the hospital wing with the wounded, so she directs her feet there, all the while wondering how the other Houses were doing at the moment. Slytherin had surprisingly few injured students--the worst case seems to be Severus Snape, who had a long cut on his cheek. She hasn't seen her sister yet, though. She hopes that Andy hadn't been injured.

"Obliviate."

Narcissa thinks she may be imagining that somebody's memory is being modified in the corridor outside the infirmary. She is, however, certain that she isn't imagining Lucius Malfoy levitating a wounded Hogwarts student on the way to Madam Pomfrey.

There is nobody else nearby.

"Lucius!" she calls out. He stops and turns to her.

"Miss Black," he says, nodding his head.

"What happened to him?" Narcissa asks, gesturing to the boy hovering in front of Lucius.

Before Lucius can reply, Narcissa hears the clacking sound of someone running towards them.

"Oh, good, you brought him," Andromeda says breathlessly, her face flushed from exertion. "Thank you so much, Lucius. Dumbledore wouldn't like it if the Head Boy had gone missing and--oh hello, Narcissa. Rabastan's looking for you."

Narcissa sees Lucius suppress a chuckle, and frowns. The other two don't seem to notice.

"Is there anybody else left outside?" Andromeda asks Lucius.

"No students," he replies, "although I passed by McGonagall and Kettleburn on the way here. I assume they're investigating what happened as we speak."

"They'd better," Andromeda says, fuming. "The way some of the students were injured--Gideon Prewett's face was practically covered in burns--" She pauses and looks up at Tonks. "Lucius," she says inquisitively, "have you seen Be--"

"We can talk later," Lucius interrupts her. Narcissa likes how he sounds firm and polite at the same time, although she's itching to know what there is to talk about. Maybe Andy will tell her after. "This ... boy has waited for treatment for too long."

"I suppose," Andromeda murmurs. She looks up at Tonks again. His head is flopping to one side.

"Until we meet again, Andromeda," Lucius says, opening the door to the infirmary. "Narcissa."

"Goodbye," the two girls say in unison.

"You're so obvious," Andromeda tells Narcissa back in the dormitory. Narcissa throws a pillow at her. She sits up, expecting a pillow fight, until she sees how distracted her sister is.

"Andy? What's the matter?"

Andromeda sighs. "You're lucky you didn't go to Hogsmeade today, Cissy," is all she says.

Narcissa hates seeing any of her sisters upset. She hugs Andromeda and promises never to let her feel as bad as she does now.

But she still wants to know what she and Lucius will talk about.

***

"Look at this," Sirius says, angrily showing the front page of The Daily Prophet to his cousins. "Look at what these bastards have done now."

"Language, Sirius," Andromeda warns, to which he sticks out his tongue.

The headline reads: MISSING HIT WIZARDS FOUND DEAD. Narcissa quickly scans through the article. Apparently, those two Hit Wizards everyone had been talking about been found dead and unrecognizable in the phone booth leading to the Ministry of Magic offices. Only their fingerprints and the mole on the side of Tegerson's eye had identified them.

"'Followers of the Dark wizard Lord Voldemort have claimed responsibility for the deaths,'" Narcissa reads out loud. "'This group, known as the Death Eaters, have also been linked to twelve disappearances in the past two months alone...'"

"I don't see," Andromeda says from her place in the armchair, "how anyone could do such things in the name of blood alone. I mean, if it weren't for Muggles, the whole of wizardkind would have died out century's ago. This Voldemort is such a sick, twisted--"

"Andromeda," Bellatrix drawls lazily, almost as if in a dream, "don't speak so harshly of things you don't fully understand."

Narcissa stares at Bellatrix. Surely Bella didn't condone such actions, even if they were against Muggleborns.

Andromeda looks warily at Bellatrix, although the rising color in her cheeks tell Narcissa that she is more than a little angry. Narcissa couldn't blame Andromeda. She inches away from Bellatrix, a bit scared of what her eldest sister might say next.

For her part, Andromeda just leaves the room. "Andy, wait," Sirius says, getting up and running after her. The slam of the door makes Regulus look up from his pack of exploding cards.

"Who's going to play with me?" he asks, looking at Narcissa and Bellatrix.

"Maybe later," Bellatrix says, and a put-out Regulus goes back to playing. Upon closer inspection, Bellatrix looks more tired than usual. But there is a strange gleam in her eyes that Narcissa hadn't noticed before. She doesn't want to think it, but Narcissa thinks that Bellatrix is drifting further away from her and Andromeda.

"You seem tired," Narcissa says.

"A bit," Bellatrix replies, staring out the window at the falling snow.

"Rodolphus keeping you up all night?" Narcissa says, trying and failing to elicit something more than a small smile. She should leave the wisecracking to Sirius next time.

"Haha, you can say that," Bella finally answers. "No, actually, it's more of--well, I don't expect you to understand ... I guess you can say I'm trying to find my place in the world."

"But you're Bella," Narcissa says, moving closer to her. "You've always been so sure about yourself."

"I know, but it's different when you're out of school, even more so when you're a married pureblood woman." Bellatrix faces Narcissa and starts playing with her hands. "When you're in school you get taught all these things that you know you will never use. But that doesn't stop you from ... forming your own opinion about them. When you have a husband, especially one as rich as Rodolphus--and you and Andy will know what that's like--you're not expected to do anything." Bellatrix sits up a little straighter. The strange gleam becomes more obvious and her voice rises. "So all that's left of who you are is what you think ... and I think of doing so much Narcissa, because I know what has to be done now ... There is a way to make things better for our kind... It may take a lot out of me, but I need to do something..."

Narcissa takes a sideways glance at the newspaper on the coffee table. MISSING HIT WIZARDS FOUND DEAD.

"Maybe you're a bit ... stretched too thin," Narcissa tells Bellatrix. She is glad that the worry doesn't show too much in her voice. "I can see why doing nothing would be unappealing to you--"

"I'm happy you understand," Bellatrix cuts in, her voice back to its normal pitch. She looks at Narcissa keenly. Narcissa has a feeling that she is being studied. She is surprised when the next thing Bellatrix does is to embrace her, but she doesn't complain. Maybe this way, Bella can pass on some of her madness. Narcissa knows that her sister can't handle it alone.

***

INFERI ATTACK MUGGLE UNDERGROUND; AT LEAST 15 DEAD.

"What a sight that must have been," Narcissa says to no one in particular.

"What must have been a sight?"

Narcissa freezes. She hadn't realized that she and Lucius were the only two people left in the game room of the Black Manor. Sirius and Regulus were already in bed--as are Rodolphus and Bella, probably, she thinks wryly--and Andromeda was most likely still being showered with gifts for her graduation from Hogwarts.

"The Inferi in the Muggle Underground," Narcissa explains.

Lucius picks up the newspaper. "Ah, I see," he says after a while. "No doubt you are horrified by such a tragic event."

"Aren't you?" Narcissa asks him.

"I am more worried about the discovery of our world by the Muggles," he replies, browsing through the rest of the newspaper. "Muggles have always wanted easier lives than the ones they have now. All those contraptions they come up with are proofs of that. Just think of what they'll do once they find out that they are people living among them who could make the dead move again."

"They still don't deserve to die for that," Narcissa counters. "Wizards also want to have the best possible lives."

"True," he says thoughtfully, "but unlike Muggles, the privilege to do magic is readily given to us. Doesn't that make you think that from the beginning, our kind already deserved it?" Lucius stops in the sports section of the newspaper. "And that, possessing a richer tradition of this power, the purebloods should be the ones who will run the rest of the wizarding world?"

Narcissa is too stunned by Lucius' intensity--and the ever-shrinking distance between their faces--to answer. He seems to realize this and takes a step back. "Pardon me, Miss Black," he says, all formality restored. "I seemed to have gotten carried away."

And yet...

"I appreciate being talked to as your equal," she says evenly. "I don't always get such direct answers."

"Really?" It is Lucius' turn to be stunned. "And I thought at least Bellatrix would--Never mind."

"Bellatrix would what?" What are you hiding from me? Narcissa wants to ask. Have you been hiding this from Andy too? But then it dawns on Narcissa.

"Never mind," Lucius says through gritted teeth, looking at the grandfather clock in the corner. Looking back at Narcissa, he says, "Excuse me, but I will look for Andromeda now."

He is turning the doorknob when Narcissa says, "What you're doing is dangerous."

Lucius stops. Narcissa knows that he is too smart to contradict her when the whole truth is so obvious to both of them. She notes with some satisfaction that his attention is once more trained on her and not on any of her sisters. She decides to take advantage of this.

"Inferi?" she practically yells. "Kidnapping and killing Hit Wizards? And then bragging about it afterwards? Are you people mad?" When she gets no answer, she continues, "I've grown up my whole life being taught that purebloods were superior. For Merlin's sake, my family motto is Toujours pur. But I refuse to believe that we'd have to resort to murdering Muggles. If you're so worried about being discovered by them, why don't you just leave them alone? Why want to kill those who have stopped believing in witches on broomsticks a long time ago?"

Narcissa is breathing deeply now as she waits for a reply. If there was a time for Lucius to use his gift of direct speech on her, it would have to be now.

"Do you really want to know?" Lucius asks, advancing towards her. Narcissa stands her ground, but not without shivering from the cold of his steel-grey eyes.

"Yes," she answers with conviction. Narcissa wants to know what is this ... thing that is making Bella willing to go mad and Andy seek comfort in the arms of Ted Tonks the way she did before the end of term, in the first and last time Narcissa had seen them together.

"I will have to ask permission to bring you," Lucius says. "But you are young. Not even sixteen, am I right? Still..." He looks at her as if seeing her for the first time. Narcissa is half-flattered at how his eyes slowly travel from her face to the hem of her dress robes. But she is also half-terrified.

"I will owl you," he says after an awkward silence. "I will owl Bella as well about the meeting. But I can't promise you anything, Narcissa. And I will have to ask you to make an Unbreakable Vow. You musn't tell anybody about--"

Suddenly, Sirius bursts into the room. His lips quiver as he tries to hold back tears. Narcissa envelops him in an embrace, while Lucius lingers beside them.

Sirius says "Andy ran away" into Narcissa's shoulder, and that makes her even more determined.