Dark Descent

Expectations

The ball celebrating Lucius's entry into the family business soon arrived. Janos told him the night before, that he intended to have Lucius engaged by the end of the ball if it killed him. Lucius hoped it would. He met with many of his old classmates over the course of the evening, and had as much fun as was possible for him to have. There were many eligible girls there that night, and Lucius tried to share a dance with each one of them. While dancing, he imagined marrying each one of them.

Bellatrix Black, who'd been in the same year and house at Hogwarts as Lucius, shared one of the evening's first dances with him. Bella was the first girl he'd ever had. He remembered that day in their second year, they had gone into the Forbidden Forest, because it was forbidden, and one thing had led to another...But he'd soon grown tired of her because she was a demanding girl. She also seemed to be somewhat lacking in the sanity department and Lucius didn't want to deal with that for the rest of his life and so scratched her off his mental list of possibilities.

The next dance was with Helga Goyle, twin sister of his former roommate. They weren't twins for nothing. They looked exactly alike, right down to the monobrow and soup tureen haircut. The girl was huge too! She looked strong enough to bench press Lucius and three of his best mates at the same time. The thought of waking up next to that for the rest of his life made him consider joining a monastery, and so he declined to ask her to marry him.

Betsy Parkinson was next. She was a good looking girl with chin-length brown hair. She was very attractive, with dark olive-toned skin, and a beautiful body. She danced well with him and he thought of the two of them dancing in his bed later on. But, he found out she was 19, older than him! That was unacceptable, and therefore, he sadly had to take her out of the running.

Genevra Zabini was a pretty girl of 16. She'd been the youngest he'd considered thus far, and he soon found out why. Never in his life had Lucius met with such a silly, giggly girl. Whatever brain cells were in her head weren't being used to think with, Lucius saw this as he attempted a conversation with her, and was met with nervous laughter. As soon as he could peel her off of him, he retreated to the far end of the ball, in order to lose her in the crowd. She was a definite "No".

Quite by accident, he bumped into Narcissa Black. He hadn't seen her since he'd left Hogwarts and was overcome by a feeling of familiarity with her. They shared three dances together, talking and laughing easily with one another.

Stepping out onto the balcony, they cooled off from their dancing and talked about trivial things. Lucius looked at her carefully. She was attractive, with long curly blonde hair and blue eyes that matched his. She was tall and slender and looked good in the black evening gown she wore. He figured she'd do as well as any other girl. They made a good match, both coming from high class wizard families. He knew Narcissa didn't love him, but only wanted the prestige that came with his name and position. He knew she was weak, malleable, and he would easily dominate her spirit. She was the perfect woman to be his wife.

He had brought his father's engagement ring with him that night in case he met the right girl there. After a long and awkward silence, he made a no-frills proposal to her, which was just as good as she deserved, in his mind, and she readily accepted.

After their year long engagement, the wedding day finally arrived. Their wedding had been rather tense. It began with an argument over which wedding rings to use. Lucius had no intentions of adopting the Black family into his own and therefore refused the heirloom ring offered by Narcissa, which had insulted her. Not that he cared about her feelings, for he had more important things on his mind, like his own. This wedding was not for him, but for his father, and it would not do to use any other than the Malfoy ring that had been passed down through the generations. The thought of his father's displeasure of using anything else filled him with a terror that he knew only too well. Lucius knew the ultimate price of displeasing his father. Thoughts of his mother, Rowena, filled his mind, bringing with them a sharp pain and sense of shame.

The ceremony was standard and nothing out of the ordinary worth mentioning occurred. The long day passed into night with an agonizing slowness. His wedding night had been anything but memorable. He had been like a cat, torturing a mouse slowly before devouring it, while Narcissa lay there, motionless, with her eyes closed, waiting for him to be finished with her. He could have gotten just as much pleasure by himself, but that wouldn't have helped him in producing an heir.

He could see the disgust in Narcissa's eyes after that night and thought it prudent to separate her from himself. He gave her a separate bedroom and kept the master bedroom for himself. He couldn't understand how she could have gone from acting as though she loved him to hating him in such a short time. He had made things quite clear when she had agreed to marry him how things would be run in his household. None of this should have been a surprise. He had also tried to show kindness in giving her great freedom in their relationship, for he hadn't entered into this willingly. As long as she produced an heir, he really couldn't care less what she did with her time, as long as she was discreet and brought no shame to his family name.

He grew quite frustrated with his life over the years when Narcissa would not conceive. He acted out his anger in the only way he knew how, the way he'd been taught from a young child. There was no issue over how he conducted himself. Violence was just as viable an option for problem-solving as any other, and usually, much more effective. Even if it wasn't, it was quite gratifying, if nothing else.

He remembered the first time he had hit Narcissa. The look of fear in her eyes sent a thrilling, tingling sensation through his body, from the top of his head down to his toes. He flexed his fingers, folded them into a fist, and then raised it to hit her once again. The rush of adrenaline that coursed through his veins every time he beat her became like a mind-numbing drug to him. For a few precious moments he could forget about the disgrace he brought to his family by not producing an heir when his father wished him to. He could forget about being so very unhappy with himself. He could forget about being weak and unwilling to stand up to his family and do what he wanted. He always caved-in to them and he hated himself for that.

He probably would have stopped beating her if she had ever stood up to him, but she never did. For some strange reason, that made him angrier and hit all the more harder.

But for all of that, Lucius had the capacity to love greatly and wanted nothing more than to act on that feeling. It wasn't that Lucius was a particularly cruel man; he just needed somebody worthy of his power. A woman who offered him a challenge to conquer and overcome. A true equal, but such women were very hard to come by, so he tried his best with Narcissa to find some semblance of happiness with her in the only way he knew how. He had settled for Narcissa, but had never stopped looking for that perfect woman. He knew that when he found a woman who looked down her nose upon the world with as much contempt as he did, a woman whose superiority complex rivaled his, he would have found his true soul mate.

Some of the pressure was finally released from him when Narcissa had borne Draco. He was present for the birth and quickly took over as Draco's main parental figure. He would raise this child to be a proud Malfoy, as he had every right to be. He loved this child because he meant freedom. Freedom from his weaknesses, freedom from his family, freedom from Janos. Lucius was now able to assume full power over the family business and take it in the direction he felt was needed for success. He threw himself into his work and began spending less and less time at the home he now had full ownership of.

Things went rather smoothly for some time until Draco's letter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry arrived. Lucius wanted to send Draco to Durmstrang, but Narcissa, for the first time in their long, unhappy marriage, stood up to Lucius. She put her foot down, insisting that her son would attend this school. This so shocked Lucius that he gave Narcissa her way and allowed Draco to go to Hogwarts.

With his son away from home, there was even less incentive to stay there himself, so Lucius once again threw himself into his work, and loved every minute of it. And he always kept his eyes open to look for the one person he knew was out there for him. It was just a matter of time until they found each other...