I.16. – Meet the Parents

Ames parentum, si aequus est, aliter feras.*

PUBLILIUS SYRUS – Sententiae

June arrived and with it the OWL exams, the NEWTs for the Seventh Years. Narcissa felt fairly well-prepared. She would undoubtedly be the best student in her year, but she couldn’t say if she could reach her self-declared aim and get more points than this legendary boy. Her big idol – a student in the nineteen forties, who had achieved 1245 points in his OWLs, 45 points more than technically, even theoretically possible. For her own encouragement, she had once more read in the old annual. The name of the boy had been Tom Riddle, indicating that his father was either a Muggle or a Muggleborn – ‘Riddle’ was no name of any ever so unimportant wizard family. So she had at least one advantage, having grown up with magic from the very first breath she had taken. A riddle he was indeed, because after these supernova-esque performances in both his OWLs and NEWTs, he seemed to have simply disappeared. Maybe he had emigrated, maybe he was dead – but no Tom Riddle had excelled outside of Hogwarts, Narcissa had checked it half a dozen times.

The boy looked exceptionally handsome on the photo, dark wavy hair, piercing eyes, and his jacket flashed the Head Boy badge. She scanned the article – an orphan, Slytherin Prefect irrespective of his pedigree, Head Boy, 12 OWLs and NEWTs each, one medal for special services to the school, most brilliant student as far as the records went back. ‘Chapeau’, she thought to herself. Handsome, clever, single-minded – he reminded her of someone else…

Oh no. No. For once, she would not think of Lucius Malfoy! This was becoming ridiculous! How fortunate that the school was about to end so soon, he’d graduate and then he’d be out of her sight, and this nonsense would end at last!

Lucius Malfoy, the object of her inadvertent daydreaming, thought he was fairly well prepared for his exams, too – he would pass them, without brilliance, but well enough not to be ashamed. He had lead his team to win the Quidditch Cup the fifth time in a row, with him being Captain the last four times, which would have been a sufficient reason for sheer felicity, hadn’t it been for his greatest achievement. What was the sordid Cup, compared to the fact that he had gained her – the most gorgeous girl’s – consent to attend his graduation ball with him!

He couldn’t have answered for his life how he might have brought that feat about. For some startled hours, he had thought – and dreaded – she’d hold him to their wager and make him ask her bloody roommate Parkin, a perspective all the more gruesome because Narcissa had hinted that she might have considered going there with him herself if he hadn’t gone about so smugly about the whole business. His friends’ hysterical laughs when finding him, cursed and incapable of moving more than his eyelids, had been nothing compared to his regrets. And the following day, upon witnessing him preparing himself to stand by his word and ask Perpetua Pigface Parkin, she had casually walked over in the last moment and said under her breath, “I admire your readiness to pull this thing through, Malfoy, but let us not play with poor Perpetua’s delicate feelings for the sake of some lost bet.”

“That was your idea, not mine. Far be it from me to play with her feelings – or any other part of her, coming to think of it!” he had replied in genuine relief. “So who would you have me ask instead?”

She had pursed her admirable lips before saying nonchalantly, “Ask whom you will, I bet she’ll say yes.”

“Will she?”

“You’ll never know if you don’t try.”

He had scrutinised her indecipherable expression and wondered whether she really meant business or not, but – well, if there was but a chance in a thousand that she’d say yes, he had to try it out anyhow. This was after all, The Girl. ““If that be the case I’ll take my chances.” He took a deep breath. “Will you accompany me to the ball, Cissa?”

Her answer had been, at first, nothing but an amused scowl, and he’d believed the joke had been at his expense, but she hadn’t outright said ‘no’ either, and at last, she had shrugged lightly.

“If you give me your word that you won’t get any funny ideas – yes, why not?”

Indeed, without quite knowing how it had come about, Narcissa had agreed. She calmed herself by thinking that she had only done so in order to tease Andromeda, who despised him, though she couldn’t dispel her remaining doubts. Being her parents’ daughter meant that she had been to more balls than she could put up with anyway – she had never enjoyed them, being forced to socialise with people she disliked. But she would have been forced to go to this one either way because of her sister, so why shouldn’t she accompany a good-looking, charming boy?

Charming? ‘Where did that come from?’ she asked herself sternly and not without a good deal of vexation with herself. Since when did she find that notorious philanderer charming? She’d be the laughter of the entire graduation class, merely for showing up on that dratted function with him! Oh well, it’d be the last she’d ever see of him, so why not spend an evening with someone whom she’d come to regard as a friend in the course of time? Oh yes, they’d go there as friends, because that’s what they were, at least for the time being, and soon he’d be off and out of her sight, and everything would go back to being normal!

That amount of rationalising didn’t mean she flaunted what her roommates would surely consider a marvellous conquest. As a matter of fact, she hadn’t told anybody, not even Andy, and had asked him for the same discretion, secretly enjoying how a dozen girls made fools of themselves to incite him to ask them. As it seemed, he would go on his own – his mates couldn’t believe it, until he told them that this was because of his wager in the lost duel.

During the two weeks of the actual examinations, he saw far too little of his adored for his liking, but he consoled himself with the prospect of that very last night he’d ever spend in Hogwarts, determined to try and get a kiss from this sweetest of all witches. He knew that he was a good kisser – if he could make her kiss him, she would enjoy it, and if she enjoyed kissing him, she might not be so reluctant to see him again during the holidays, and if she –

And then came the big day. All exams were done, the solemn parchments were bestowed on the graduates, and their parents had arrived and brought along their daughters’ festive evening robes. Ignorant of her sister’s plans, Andromeda had helped Narcissa to do her hair and don her robes, cracking jokes how flattered she was that her little Cissy should make such an effort only to celebrate her graduation. Narcissa smirked in silence and appraised her own reflection in the mirror, slightly amazed. No, not just slightly – thoroughly astonished, more like. It was strange. She had been aware of the fact that she was pretty, and being her mother’s daughter, she had worn stylish robes on every possible and impossible occasion, but she had never really cared; when she had spotted her own reflection on such evenings, she had merely thought, ‘Oh dear, what a waste of time to spruce yourself up like a wedding cake’.

This time however, she tried to look through someone else’s eyes, through his eyes. Looking now, she was genuinely surprised. She did look good, didn’t she? She was looking really good! Her mother had brought her light blue robes and pearls, and for the first time really, she realised that she had a great figure in this. It underlined her small waist, her décolleté, it matched her eyes; and Lucius Malfoy must be blind and gay if he didn’t like it!

“My little Cissy,” Andromeda said, beaming proudly. “I know you’re doing me a favour to come tonight. And I reckon I’ll need you as my backup.”

Narcissa wondered whether this was the opportune moment to inform her sister that they wouldn’t be sitting at the same table, but before she had opened her mouth, Andromeda went on, “I’m going to tell them, you know?”

“Tell them what exactly?”

“Tell them that I’m engaged, of course!”

Narcissa stared at her in incredulity. “Are you out of your mind? Tell our parents on the very eve of your graduation ball that you want to marry a Muggleborn from Hufflepuff?!”

Andromeda turned pale underneath her make-up charms, plucking her purple robes and smoothing some creases underneath her chest. Curiously, the robes were the slightest bit too tight, but it was too late to do something about it. “I’ve got to tell them, sooner or later anyway, and they’ll be much more complaisant in front of some four hundred witnesses!”

“Andy,” Narcissa said in a moment of sincere concern, “Papa might not scream as loudly as he would otherwise if he’s in the company of strangers, but he will resent you the stronger for bringing him into such a predicament!”

“My engagement is no predicament!”

“No, but if you confront Papa with it in the Great Hall during a public occasion, he will find it a humiliation, and that lowers your chances exceedingly!”

Andy’s expression was pensive, then she shrugged. “Always one step ahead, Cissy… But leave it all to me, and stick up for me in the opportune moment.”

Narcissa thought that they had decidedly different ideas about the opportune moment, and since she wouldn’t be there for a start, and also because she wanted to avoid a scene in the Common Room, she said, “I won’t be sitting at your table, Andy.”

“Of course you will! You’re family!”

“But I have been asked out by someone else. Someone with a table of their own –”

Andy was briefly perplexed and groaned then, “No – no – god, Cissy, tell me you haven’t – not with that total jerk!”

“Lucius Malfoy has asked me out and I have accepted, Andy, and that’s the end of the discussion.”

“Cissy! You can’t! You mustn’t! He –”

“Oh, come off it, Andy.”

Her sister shook her head. “Listen to me, Cissy! Listen! I long stopped counting how many girls I had to console because he used them and let them down then! He’s good at pretending to be all suave and charming, but in fact, he’s nothing but a cad! He –”

“He isn’t the big bad wolf, and I’m not Little Red Riding Hood. There’s no call for worrying about me tonight, Andy. I’ll do what I can for you because you’ll be the one in dire need of rescue.”

“Be sensible, Cissy! Where’s your cleverness when you truly need it! That idiot has taken advantage of more girls than I would care to count, and you’re too good for that! You’re much too good for him, Cissy!” Andromeda’s cheeks had flushed with anxiety.

“I know all that, Andy. Oh, now stop making such a face; what do you take me for? I’m not one of those silly bimbos!”

“You’re – listen, you know I love you – I may have faltered in showing it to you, but you are very, very important to me. You’re a wonderful person, Cissy, but he doesn’t care for such subtleties like character, or cleverness! He only wants you because you’re pretty and because you’re the one thing that no one can have! He wants you as a trophy, that’s all; he wants to show off with you, make his stupid pals envious; he only uses you!”

“I know all that, Andy. But the trophy thing works both ways. I’ll be the one wildly envied tonight by all your fatuous classmates,” Narcissa answered with apparent calm, even though her sister’s words had actually hurt her. She was right, wasn’t she? Lucius Malfoy did not care for her, as a person. He only wanted a stunning blonde to parade around his friends. She had half a mind to change her dress robes for her school uniform, but feeling Andromeda’s concerned gaze fixed on her, she put on a smile and went on, “Now come on, Ted must be waiting for you, and so are our parents. You don’t want Papa to get his first fit while Dumbledore is opening the banquet.”

When she realised that her warnings and protests were useless, Andromeda left, but not without a whole lot of admonitions. Narcissa endured those as stoically as she had endured every insult ever hurled at her, and checking the time, realised it was too late to get changed again anyway. What the heck, so she would look pretty and cold-shoulder Lucius anyway; like this, her victory would count twice, right? She waited five more minutes to make sure her sister had truly gone and walked over to the Common Room, too. Lucius had sat in an armchair and waited, jumping to his feet when he saw her, with a look bordering on awe. He opened and shut his mouth a few times, finally gasping, “Can I say just one thing?”

“Sure,” she replied, wondering where her voice had gone.

“Wow!” He watched her up and down. “Wow! You – you – you’d be gorgeous in a rice sack, Narcissa, but this is – oh Merlin!”

She remembered Andy’s warning and murmured, “Your friends will hopefully approve of your choice of a partner likewise.”

“They will definitely, but who cares?! Sod them! In fact, I’m not entirely comfortable with having to share your sight with them!”

Reassured, she smiled and asked, a trifle coyly, “I suppose that means you are all right with the robes then?”

“All right? No! I’m delighted!”

She ignored the other students in the room and their stares. That was just what she had expected – she hadn’t made a secret of her partner for nothing. Lucius stepped up, made a deep bow, took her hand and blew a kiss on the back of her hand which sent shivers down her spine. He produced a little nosegay of cream-coloured Angel’s Tears and pinned it on her dress – she caught her breath when he accidentally grazed her bosom to fasten the clip. She felt a little dizzy and got unreasonably nervous, but he took her arm, tucked it under his own and they floated out and upstairs before she could think much further. She didn’t register all the open mouths they met, all she could focus on was willing her heart to beat not quite so hard, but Lucius did notice them, bent towards her and whispered in her ear, “I’ll curse any of them for looking at you in this fashion, if you want me to.”

‘If you want me to…’ She had no clue what he was talking about, feeling his breath tickle her skin and making her flesh crawl. She closed her eyes for a moment. “I give you permission to do whatever you like,” she breathed despite herself, shocked with herself but all the same hoping that this was the right answer to whatever he had said.

“You cannot imagine how much I have craved to hear you say those words, though I had hoped they’d come in some other context.”

She gave a little start and blushed. “Why, what have you asked me then?”

“You didn’t listen?”

He sounded disappointed and she hurried to say, “I was a bit distracted, but – you must not take that amiss, please! I’m just awfully nervous! All these people – I hate these public functions…”

“You look enchanting, you are enchanting, and I’ll take care of all the rest.”

‘He’s good at pretending to be all suave and charming,’ Andy had said – Narcissa supposed her sister was right, but she nevertheless didn’t entirely manage to resist his charms either. “You are good with compliments, aren’t you?”

“I swear to God, I’ve never meant anything half as sincerely as anything I’ve ever said to you.”

“I bet you’ve always been successful with this line.”

“My success tonight is that you are here with me. And perhaps you’ll appreciate my honest compliments some more after you’ve met my father’s utterly rude bluntness. He hasn’t uttered a single nice thing in the past eighteen years since I’ve known him. I daresay he wasn’t much friendlier before that either.”

This change of topic allowed her to reassemble some of her wits and she laughed heartily. “I guess the proper thing to say now would be to claim that he cannot be that bad, but after all I’ve heard about him, I will spare my breath, eh?” She shot him a conspiratorial grin. “But if it calms you – I’m accustomed to ignore the harshest insults and smile still. I don’t think your father could say anything to offend me.”

Uncharacteristically sombre, he replied, “I’m afraid you’ll sing a different tune soon!”

They had reached their destination and entered the Great Hall, which was ridiculously decorated by this year’s decoration committee, but Narcissa noticed this only marginally. Lucius looked around, spotting their table and his father, and whispered in a tone bordering on resignation, “There we go. I want you to know that I’m already sorry for whatever it is he will say –”

They stopped at their table; Lucius made a small, stiff bow to his father and said coolly, “Father? May I present Miss Black to you? Miss Black – this is my father, Mr Abraxas Malfoy.”

The old wizard greatly resembled his son, the same sharp features, the same aquiline nose. He looked her up and down, sneered and said carelessly, “I doubt any of us will have to memorise names. We won’t meet again, will we?”

Lucius sharply drew his breath, but Narcissa smiled all the more sweetly. “Surely you must be right, sir. I’m pleased to meet you nonetheless.”

“Black, Black – are you one of young Cygnus’ daughters?”

“I am indeed, sir. But it really is of no importance, since we won’t meet again, eh?”

He looked amused, and made no further remark until they had taken their seats. Just now, Narcissa noticed the incredulous looks of the other people at their table – that Yaxley idiot, his parents, his latest girlfriend and his pretty sisters Gladys and Venus, both of whom had graduated already – and both of whom had been going out with Lucius for a while, then. She coldly beckoned to them, acutely aware of what they must be thinking of her. Like Lucius’ father, they must know how volatile this temporary companionship truly was.

Abraxas Malfoy still appraised her with his brows knitted critically, but far more unsettling for Narcissa was that she had spotted her family at a table nearby, or rather say, only Amandine Black was sitting there, their father was standing in front of Andromeda and her boyfriend – uhm – fiancé. They seemed to be arguing; Cygnus Black’s face was deep red, Andromeda gesticulated wildly, and her mother’s expression was somewhere between pain and shock.

‘Oh, Andy,’ she thought, absent-mindedly shaking her head and sighing to herself. What had her sister thought, eh? That their parents would embrace Ted with open arms? Had she truly believed that tonight would be the perfect occasion to introduce her Muggleborn Hufflepuff fiancé and say, ‘Maman, Papa, I know your attitude, but I also know that you’ll be nothing but happy for my sake because I’m engaged to marry’?! Knowing Andy, this had probably been her exact words, unfortunately.

Lucius followed her gaze and spoke so quietly that only she could hear him, “Looks like trouble.”

“It does.”

“Are you worried?”

Was she? This wasn’t her business, but Andy’s. If she wanted it the tough way – there you go. “Not really. They’re ruining their own evening, not mine,” she replied far more lightly than she actually felt. Someone less clear-sighted than Narcissa Black would have smelled trouble in the air tonight, and her insides were churning with dark premonitions. On the other hand... How bad could it be, after all? They’d sit there sulking at each other the whole night through. In a room so full of people, neither of them would dare making big scenes, would they?

More and more students arrived; in ten minutes, the ball would officially begin. Lucius poured her some wine and they had a toast, but despite her professions of indifference, Narcissa couldn’t drag her gaze away from her family. By now, Amandine had clapped her hands to her eyes, Cygnus was pulling on his middle daughter’s arm as she struggled with him, and the awkward fiancé appeared to be trying to mediate, but only worsened his future father-in-law’s wrath.

Mr Malfoy senior demanded her attention again, swiftly dispelling Narcissa’s concerns by remarking, “I suppose the young lady over there is one of your sisters?”

Narcissa smirked. “Oh well – she was and she is, but regarding the situation and our family records, she might not be tomorrow.”

The entire Yaxley family giggled spitefully, but Abraxas Malfoy merely smiled. “Quick at repartee, Miss Black. So tell me – you seem to be rather smart; so how come you are here with this loose fish that claims to be my son?”

“Thank you, Father,” Lucius snapped pointedly.

Narcissa would privately admit that she had underestimated old Mr Malfoy’s temper, and also she began to think that she shouldn’t have come in the first place. Her presence was needed elsewhere so much more direly, and also… No matter what she would do or say, it would give a reason to someone for gleeful misinterpretation. She had no mind to ignore the old wizard’s gibes and let herself be reduced to one of Lucius’ silly cows, but if she protested, she would give a false impression, too. In front of the Yaxleys, she wanted to appear neither interested in the ‘loose fish’, nor helpless, and that her own family was getting worked up merely thirty feet away wasn’t prone to make her less uneasy either.

She pulled herself together and addressed Abraxas, “Sir, I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I hope you will understand that I desire to discuss neither my intelligence nor my decision to be here tonight. I’m sure, everyone who knows me would inform you that I am taciturn and ill-humoured, so it might be best if I said nothing further at all.”

He roared with laughter and crudely patted his son’s arm in something that might be supposed to indicate approval. Lucius smiled stiffly and ground his teeth; it was obvious that he wished himself miles away, too, if for entirely different reasons. This was the first time she had ever come to see him like this, in a state of vulnerability, lacking all his self-confident poise and desperately clinging to some last scraps of dignity and self-possession. To her own astonishment, she found it most appealing – she, who usually set so much store by attitude and self-control, was endeared by her friend’s loss of aplomb facing his autocratic father.

She gave him her best, sincerest, and possibly most encouraging a smile, trying to communicate her sympathy without words and thinking she succeeded. Yes, there they were, both compromised by their families’ undignified behaviours – they understood each other indeed.

Catching Narcissa’s warm gaze, Lucius relaxed a little and smiled back at her likewise. He was positively enthralled by the expression of her deep blue eyes, which could scowl so scornfully, but which betrayed her true warmth, the profound capacity of understanding that was so far beyond her actual age and her sharp, dissecting intelligence that could see the humour even in an absurd situation such as this. He was overwhelmed by the intensity of his feelings for her, so much so that the only thing keeping him from gliding from his chair to fall on his knees before her and declare himself, was his knowledge of her mortification if he brought her into such a predicament.

He contemplated whether he could dare to at least take her hand, which was so close to his own on the table that they nearly touched. He shoved it over to hers, inch by inch, straining to be as unobtrusive as possible, and when he was finally there, this light touch sent shivers down his spine. She turned her head to give him another smile, but in this moment, her other hand was roughly grabbed, and she found her mother standing behind her, looking awfully upset.

“Fiona, Maxwell –” Mrs Black waved at the Yaxleys, forcing herself to smile, and addressed the two Malfoys next. “Good evening, Mr Malfoy – Mr Malfoy –”

“Enchantée, Madame!” Lucius jumped up to make a bow.

“Yes, yes… Ma chère,” she flatly murmured to her daughter, “I am so sorry to disturb you, but your father ‘as decided zat we will leave now!”

“Now?”

“Yes, now. Please!”

Narcissa looked over, seeing how her father coerced Andromeda to follow him out of the Great Hall. “Maman,” she muttered imploringly, “je comprends l’anicroche, mais* –”

“On doit se dépêcher, Narcisse! Ton Papa – il demande ce que tu viens avec moi, tout de suite!*”

Lucius cleared his throat. “Madame Black, please allow me to take your daughter home after the ball –”

“Most certainly not, young man,” Amandine retorted, taken aback.

Old Mr Malfoy tried to stifle a giggling fit – and failed.

Lucius ignored him. “I assure you I’ll take care of her safety and she’ll be back by whatever time you fix!”

“C’est pas possible, Monsieur Malfoy, excusez-moi. Narcisse, vite!*”

Unlike her sisters, Narcissa had never been in the habit of disobliging her parents, regardless of the inconveniences to herself, and surely, she’d never have started an argument in public. So, despite her unwillingness to leave, she of course obeyed, beckoning at the rest of the party. “Well, the greatest pleasures are short. Good evening to you. Look, Mr Malfoy, you were right to presume that there is no need to recall this short acquaintance. Good evening to you, too.” She gave Lucius a last apologetic glance as well as her hand. “Good night, Lucius. Thank you very much for everything. It was brief, but delightful.”

Their gazes locked for a split second, but neither felt capable to express the amount of feelings rushing through their heads – and veins – just now. Pulling himself together not to keep clinging to her hand was all that Lucius could manage, while Narcissa in fact had to overcome the urge to step up and brush a little kiss on his cheek. She gave herself the proverbial shake, smiled one last time, then rushed to follow her mother, who waited in the corridor and grabbed Narcissa’s arm. “You knew zis, Narcisse?!”

“About the engagement? She told me only recently!”

“You knew she was seeing zat boy! I would not ‘ave believed it possible!”

They hurried out of the school, along the sweep way towards the gates; Narcissa protested that all her luggage was still in her dorm, but Mrs Black merely said that they’d send for it in the morning. Once they had left the boundaries, she stopped and squeezed her daughter’s arm even tighter.

“I can Disapparate myself, Maman!”

“You will stay right by my side where I can see you, ma petite!”

She resolutely yanked on Narcissa’s arm and in the next second, they stood before the family mansion, but Mrs Black made no halt and pulled her on. Mr Black and Andromeda were standing in the hallway and shouting at each other. Narcissa had never seen her father so angry; usually, he was a serene elderly gentleman, and even when Bella had provoked him to become angry, he hadn’t lost it as completely as now. His face was purple, the veins on his temples fit to burst, he spit while screaming.

---

* Love your father if he is just, otherwise endure him.

* I understand the predicament, but –

* We must hurry, Narcissa! Your father demands that you come with me at once!

* That’s not possible, Mr. Malfoy, excuse me. Narcissa, quick!

*****

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