Deny Thy Father

Prologue: When I'm Alone

A tear slowly trickled down the woman's pale face, falling gracefully from her cool, blue eyes. Golden hair shining in the soft light of the full moon the woman knelt in the damp grass of the shrouded meadow and sang softly.

"Kylh gõ kwah skõ do skõ dee shwl na'a tahm pya skee sklõ..."

The song reverberated through the night and tears continued to flow, more freely now, from the woman's face. Holding her hands up to the moon the woman's song took on a tone of desperation.

"...Dee kõ dee nee kah gõ faey, gah fin dyon ly kõ gee, nah sa le õ le ah, ah õ-õ le ah, ah õ le ah, ah õ le ah."

As the final note faded into the darkness the woman broke down. She fell onto the grass and wept, occasionally calling out a line of the song in desperation as the sun began to rise in the east.

The sun through light onto the woman and it was clear that she belonged in the sun. Her hair sparkled and shone like a heavenly halo around her head and her eyes sparkled like the cloudless sky above her. Crying out as the sun hit her the woman began to sob even harder, body shaking.

A man walked into the meadow, a scowl fixed firmly on his face as he pulled the woman off her knees and forced her to walk with him to the waiting mass of black-cloaked figures.

"No! Let me go your bastard!" she cried, beating the man's back as hard as she could, struggling with all her might.

The man turned, sneered and slapped her hard across the face, gray eyes flashing dangerously. "Narcissa," he spat, "you'll behave or you'll be in for a world of hurt."

The woman turned to him, eyes strangely dead, "You think you can hurt me anymore then you already have, Lucius? I'd rather die then live as your wife for another second!"

"Bitch, you think I'd kill you? Oh no, you're far too precious a trophy for that. I had something else in mind. No matter how much you hate me, Narcissa, you still love our son."

Narcissa bit her tongue. She'd almost done it. She'd almost escaped the clutches of Lucius again, but the song... the calling hadn't worked - again. When Rowan had taught her the song he'd said that if she sang it then he'd come, no matter where he was. Always.

It could only mean one thing.

Rowan was dead. The love of her life was dead.

"I don't know what you think you were doing, Narcissa," Lucius said in a falsely calm tone as the approached the waiting Death Eaters, "you cannot keep this up. The one you are calling is dead, has been dead for many years. Give up."

If the song hadn't just failed she wouldn't have believed him, would have kept hoping for Rowan to sweep in and rescue her and Draco, but now it was too late and her focus in life shifted. Draco was now what her world revolved around, and she wasn't going to lose him to Lucius and his foul schemes.