Alarm Bells

"Narcissa, did you love me when we got married?"

Narcissa shifted on the fainting couch and turned to look at her husband. "I suppose I did," she told him, "but I'm not sure I was aware of it at the time."

"Not aware of it?" Lucius retorted, feigning distress. He was standing before the mirrors in his oversized closet, buttoning up a black shirt in preparation for going out for the evening.

"Were you in love with me?" she asked him. He turned and arched his eyebrow at her.

"Very much," he asserted. She smiled up at him.

"What made you bring it up now?" she asked. He tucked his shirt into his black leather trousers and took a few steps toward where she was sitting. He leaned over the back of the settee and flashed her a mischievous grin.

"I don't know," he teased, "I've been feeling a bit... nostalgic." Narcissa blushed a little and grinned up at him. She knew he was telling the truth about that. Ever since the Dark Lord had risen again, Lucius had acted like he was twenty years younger. He had come home the night after the Dark Mark had first called him back with a passion in himself that Narcissa hadn't witnessed since before their son was born. They had been like newlyweds again. Narcissa had considered penning a thank you letter to Lord Voldemort for her husband's renewed enthusiasm of the past year.

Lucius cupped her face in his hands and kissed her before returning to his closet to finish dressing. As he fastened his trousers he asked, "What do you mean you weren't aware?" Narcissa shrugged and stretched her legs out, leaning against the swooping back of the velvet fainting couch.

"Well," she replied, fiddling with the lace on the bodice of her robes, "when you've loved someone for more than half of your life, it's hard to pinpoint the moment that you became aware of it."

"But you agreed to marry me."

"Of course I did," she affirmed, "I will admit that I'd always been somewhat enamored with you. Really, I was quite fond of you, I enjoyed the time we'd spent together, and you were roguishly handsome. And you do know that you were the only one who asked me before asking my father."

"Well, his permission didn't matter if I hadn't yours." Lucius grinned at her as he fastened his hair back with a leather band. "And I adored you," he added, "but I wasn't sure that your father approved of me as a match. Old money isn't always as friendly to new money as one might hope. I knew, though, that he had never denied his daughters anything they had asked of him and so it would be to my benefit if I had you on my side going in. Maybe we should have waited longer to marry, until you were madly in love with me."

"We waited long enough, I think," she told him. "Our wedding was perfectly in the middle. The Goyles were married what, six months after we were; and the Crabbes just weeks afterward."

"Only the Parkinsons got married before we did," Lucius reminded her. He then considered himself, "But you see how well that turned out." Narcissa chuckled as she took a cherry from out of a nearby bowl and ate it.

"Ivy Parkinson is a horrible woman and it did not surprise me in the least when Christopher left her. I hope he and his new wife are happy and well wherever they went." Narcissa shuddered a little. "I hate the idea that I may someday be related to that woman." She shook her head. "Why couldn't any of our other friends have had the decency to give birth to girls?" Lucius laughed out loud at her.

"Well, Draco has made friends with that teaching assistant," Lucius offered. "Maybe she'll introduce him to a nice Irish girl."

"You'd have our son married to an Irish girl?" Narcissa asked, shock in her voice.

"Anything to keep you from having to be related to Ivy Parkinson," he replied, a sarcastic smile on his face. "And half of the marriageable pure blooded girls in France were at his school last year; maybe he met someone from Beauxbatons that he's not telling us about." Narcissa shook her head.

"A French girl," she considered, "that could be a welcome change. Perhaps we should send him on a tour of the Continent this summer; maybe he'll meet someone interesting."

"I think he'd like that," Lucius agreed. "I think he'd really enjoy a trip with his friends; a little relief after his O.W.L. exams. I'll try and arrange it with the Crabbes and the Goyles."

"Oh, no," Narcissa countered, "not with those boys. The three of them would do nothing but sit in pubs and cause trouble and get drunk. No, better we send Draco alone if we really want him to make new friends. Isn't that what your father did to you after your N.E.W.T.s were through?" Lucius examined himself in the full length mirror and looked her in the eye through his reflection.

"You know why he did that?" Lucius asked her. Narcissa shook her head as she popped another cherry in to her mouth. Lucius grinned. "Because after the fifteenth week of his trying to force me in to marrying Ellison Bulstrode, who I could not stand, I asked him what was so wrong with wanting to marry for love."

"I hadn't known that." She arched her eyebrows at him.

"It's the truth," he confirmed. "He sent me to Europe to forget about whomever it might be that I had fallen for. He said that love was a luxury that only the poor could afford and that I needed to forget about whoever she was and that he hoped I had some sense when I came home."

"So what happened when you came home?" she asked him, intrigued, but giggling nonetheless.

"I married her," he smiled back. Narcissa's mouth came open.

"I had no idea," she said.

"I know you didn't," he told her. He came back into the room and leaned over the settee, plucking a cherry off of the bowl and bit into it. "You thought I was just a friend of your sister's." He walked around the settee and took her hands in his. "But I'd had my eye on you for quite some time." He kissed her hands one at a time. "When I came home from Europe, my father asked if I had come to my senses. I told him no and that I fully intended to woo the young woman who had captured my heart before I left home. He said something about how a Malfoy shouldn't marry a woman just because he loved her and I asked him if that remained true even if that woman was Cygnus Black's youngest daughter and he suddenly ceased being angry and gave me a cigar and his blessing." Narcissa giggled a little more and fed him another cherry from the bowl.

"And here I thought for all these years that you never even noticed me until you came home from that trip." Lucius chuckled as he stood. She kept hold of his hands and rose from her seat, following him toward the door to the hallway. He bent his arm at the elbow and placed her hand into the crook. He led them down the stairs toward the second floor. She knew where they were headed; there was only one place attached to the manor to and from whence it was possible to Apparate. She knew better than to think that he had gotten all gussied up in leather pants for her benefit solely.

"I shouldn't be too long tonight," he told her as they reached the landing of the curved staircase. "I have to go, but..."

"But it could be anything, sounds routine, isn't likely too urgent, shouldn't take too long...." She grinned up at him. "You haven't any idea, darling," she told him.

"You oughtn't wait up," he offered.

"But I so look forward to your homecomings," she flirted. She leaned her head on his shoulder as they rounded the corner into the hallway where the library was located.

"I promise to wake you," he growled, leaning into her and burying his face in her hair.

"Liar," she accused, rolling her eyes up to look at him.

"You wound me, madam," he joked.

"You've never willingly woken me in your entire life," she mused.

"Ah, but you are mistaken, Mrs. Malfoy," he clarified as he took her hand from his arm and swung her through the door into the library, "I have never let you know when I've woken you for such things that I have done so intentionally." She pulled him closer to her and leered at him.

"You are devious," she whispered, "but if that's your oh so subtle way of telling me that you prefer to find me in our bed when you return, then I suppose I could be inclined to oblige you."

"If you'd prefer to remain awake," he conceded, "you'll have no argument from me; as long as you're here when I get back."

"You know I will be," she assured him, taking both of his hands as he stepped backwards onto the balcony, "as long as it takes," she added. She leaned out of the door and kissed him lightly on his lips, pulling his hands to her back so his arms were around her. He embraced her for a moment and then stepped farther from her out onto the terrace, holding out a hand into which appeared his Death Eater's robe and mask. Narcissa shuddered as the cool wind of the early summer's evening caught her through the open door. She leaned on the door frame. "But do hurry back," she implored him.

"I'll do my best," he answered her. "And Cissa," he looked very serious all of the sudden. She knew what was coming.

"Stay safe, keep the windows and doors shut, remain vigilant and listen for the alarm bells," she finished for him. Lucius grinned.

"I'll be home as soon as I can," he told her. She nodded and smiled back at him as, with a pop, he was gone.