The Flesh and Blood of the House of Malfoy Part 2

The flesh and blood of the house of Malfoy - 2

The air was dead, with the feel of a place where the centuries had never seen a man or anything that breathed; the walls were empty even of moss, and showed paintings drawn not centuries, but centuries of centuries before - when this cave had last witnessed life, last borne the imprint of walking feet and paws, last felt an air that was breathed in and out by living lungs. In the many thousand years that had followed, the air had become impregnated with the mineral effluvia of the millions of tons of stone that surrounded it, above, below. Phantom lights, the remain of the slow decay of matter within these mountains of solid matter, allowed them to just about see each other, and perceive where they were; but neither Lucius nor Narcissa knew where it was, or how they had come there.

They spent some time waking up, understanding where they were, feeling and touching each other; it was some time before their eyes had adapted to the gloom, and Lucius could see Narcissa, Narcissa Lucius, as a lighter blot in the murk. The last thing they remembered was being in bed at Malfoy Manor; but both shared a feeling that time had passed since then, as if they had fallen asleep there - a sleep without dreams - and woken up in this place. They were naked, as they had gone to sleep; and of course no wand with them. Narcissa began to worry about the cold, but Lucius noticed that the temperature was actually quite tolerable; not, perhaps, a very good sign, since it meant that they were many miles below the surface.

Lucius and Narcissa, lover and beloved, brother and sister, husband and wife, held each other for warmth and reassurance; but even their burning passion was dampened by darkness and solitude and fear. They did not reach out, did not seek each other; they sat in the dark with their hands joined together, like small children locked in a closet.

Finally there was motion. First it was a pebble, falling from somewhere about their middle and dragging a few more down with it. Long after it had fallen, the air seemed disturbed by its passage. Then a scrabbling, scrambling noise... then another.

A rat, thought Lucius. And then: perhaps a snake.

A... snake.

Suddenly a white light of horror exploded in Lucius' mind. "Narcissa, my love," he said as he shivered violently, "I think I know why we are here... I think I know who took us."

"There is no need to tell her, Lucius, she has worked it out by herself. She is not a fool, is your sister-wife." And the darkness seemed to lift from the cave, as Lord Voldemort strode elegantly in.

...............................................................................................................

Lucius' and Narcissa's breath came in rasping, jagged gasps; this last surprise - that he knew of their incestuous union, which they had committed an enormous crime to keep secret - reduced them both to the extremity of abject terror. They had met and spoken with the gods, so that no other human being on earth should remember what they were; but it seemed that here was a human power that even the gods could not re-shape. If Riddle... or Voldemort, as he had been calling himself recently... knew that they were brother and sister, then he had resisted the spell of the almighty god of ancient Mexico, a god that took human life to himself and gave in exchange irresistible power; and they were helpless in his hand, with infinite million tons of rock between them and the lands of sanity.

"Now, the first thing we will do is establish some ground rules. Rule number one is that I am not Tom Riddle. It is not a well-omened thing to call me by that name: the last three people to do so died in agony. Whoever you may have known in Hogwarts, Lucius, this is a different world and a different lord."

"Y-yes, my lord... you know I was already with you..."

"Were you, Lucius? And Narcissa? Because the second ground rule is that, among wizards, the wisest should rule; and the third is that there is no wiser wizard than Lord Voldemort. I think you will understand that, before this day is much longer."

"Ignoriantia legum neminem excusat, my dears," said Voldemort calmly. "From the moment I completed my translation into what I am now, I, and nothing else on Earth, was the law for all living things, and especially for sorcerers who knew me. I revealed myself to you before almost anyone else; and yet you did not come to me in your need." The reason for their abduction was now becoming clear, thought Narcissa, so sick with fear that she had to hold her mouth tight in order not to vomit.

"Let me tell you what is due to me. It is due to me that you turn to me alone in all your needs. It is due to me that I should be the one to whom you indebt yourselves. It is due to me that I should be your support in your need, especially if your need is immoral."

"Have you done any such thing? No. When the need arose, you called on a pagan god rather than on me - an act of disloyalty. Crucio!" Throughout this, even as he spoke the fatal word, Lord Voldemort's voice had remained calm, passionless, even. His supremacy over all magical life was made to sound something natural, obvious, that did not need arguing or defending.

But there was something else at work here. Voldemort was the master of the Cruciatus curse. In the hands of the average Dark Wizard (and nobody but a dark wizard would ever have used it), the Cruciatus was a blunt instrument, a mere club of pain that invaded and devastated the body, making it impossible for the mind to even control itself, let alone perceive anything beyond the pain. But even before he had left Hogwarts, Tom Riddle had made much curious and secret study of pain spells and the capacities of the human nervous system; and since then, he had not only developed his magic to an astonishing degree, but also so worked on his own body that no man alive could even imagine his inward understanding of physical pain. Lord Voldemort could reach inside the body of anyone, friend or foe, and cause it pain beyond even the ordinary Cruciatus; and at the same time keep his victims' minds clear enough to know everything that was going on - and to understand everything he said.

The first blast of Cruciatus was what the couple had expected and dreaded: a white-hot blast of pain in every nerve ending, equal to complete unconsciousness for their utter loss of control and contact with themselves, totally different for its continued awareness of agony and agony and agony. But suddenly - it was something else: a probing, selective wave of horror, which consciously reached in part after part of them - and they were aware of it. Lord Voldemort was familiarizing himself with every part, every end of their bodies, penetrating and mastering them as no husband, no wife, no lover could; and they knew what was happening.

"Have no fear, Narcissa, I will protect the burden of your womb. The heir being born to your brother" - he kept turning the knife in the wound, speaking of brother, of sister - "is not suffering pain and will not be harmed." That was how Narcissa, twitching and twisting and howling in agony centred on her womb, learned that she was pregnant.

"Now I have got your attention," said the erect white figure as the two naked bodies beneath him writhed and groaned and grunted and drooled, struggling in vain to regain control, their eyes fixed on him under the impact of their pain, "let me tell you how I would have handled your little problem if you had come to me instead than to Huitzilipochtli." And as he was torturing them, he calmly set out on a lecture about the use of spells and charms to alter reality. It was - the couple could tell through their pain - brilliant beyond words, a splendid display of intellectual mastery and basic common sense in the use of magic, lacking only one thing: morality. At the same time as they marvelled at the supremely imaginative, yet sometimes astonishingly simple connections made between different spells and enchantments, the use of different qualities and traditions of magic, often of amazing delicacy - the vibration of dissonance between two almost identical spells could have, when directed by him, the most extraordinary results - they were also terrified at the depths of the Dark Magic he treated as ordinary, natural to use as the simplest Switching Spell. When the lecture and the Cruciatus came to an end - at one and the same time - there was no doubt in either of their minds that Voldemort could have altered reality, and protected their incestuous coupling, every bit as effectively as the pagan god ever had. The depths of hell had opened before them, and seduced them with the genius of Voldemort. They bent and kneeled.

"That is the proper position, Lucius, Narcissa. From henceforth you are in my favour; and as you have been among the first to kneel before me, you will be great in my court. Your child will be protected: I now place a spell of protection and good fortune on him. He will grow up straight and unthreatened, no illness or misfortune wounding him until he has given your fathers an heir. The notorious Malfoy low birthrate will not destroy your house in your generation."

"That is what happens when your protection is Lord Voldemort; and Lord Voldemort blesses your marriage. This," said Lord Voldemort, "is your union. You had not been married; you had intended to live together and pretend. Now you do not have to. You have been joined together by the fact that Lord Voldemort has taken you together, punished you together, tortured you two together." His long fingers pointed at their two bodies, and they rose, unresisting, on the wave of a power beyond denial; till they stood before him, held in an invisible grip, hovering a little above the ground. He placed his hands on their two heads, and said solemnly: "Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, brother and sister, heirs of Malfoy, I, Lord Voldemort, Sapiens Sapientium and lord of all that is, declare you man and wife; seventh and eighth among the subjects of my kingdom."