Narcissa returned home, grimly determined and resolute. Lucius had been pleased – as far as she could tell – at her announcement of their child’s impending arrival, and had gladly used the excuse to return to his solitary bed in the north wing of the house. He was gone much more frequently now, according to the boundary wards and Libby, her house elf. Libby had been with Narcissa since she was a child, and had bonded solely to her. They were closer than Narcissa was to her female relatives – sisters, aunts, or mother – and understood each other very well. Libby was the main reason why Narcissa had been able to meet Lily so many times without setting of Lucius’s suspicions; house elf magic didn’t trigger the property wards or tracking charms he had placed on some of her clothes.
Her first plan was simple: become her husband’s confidant, and learn his secrets. She had worked hard to build up her reputation of meekness and empty beauty, both at Hogwarts and after.
Lily, of course, had seen right through her facade from day 1 at medical university, but she had never betrayed Narcissa in front of other students or professors.
Narcissa’s throat ached with sudden tears. Merlin, she already missed her friend’s company! SO many evenings has been spent at the Potter cottage, with James and Sirius in the front of the telly watching a Muggle football match as the witches talked over a glass of wine.
She moved silently in the moon lit room over to the crib to gaze down at her beautiful miracle. Draco Ryan Alexander Lucian Black-Malfoy.
Ryan was the name she had insisted on, for it was as close as she could come to Orion, Sirius’s middle name. Alexander, for his biological father’s middle name. Lucien, at Lucius’s insistence, of which she had no real reason to argue against. Black- Malfoy, because he was the third in line to inherit for the Black family, after Sirius and his brother Regulus. Walburga, Sirius’s mother and Narcissa’s maternal aunt, had gleefully disowned her eldest son in favor of the ‘proper’ younger one, but Reg was rumored to have taken the Mark as well, so his line would end with him. It was also whispered that Old Man Black had overruled his daughter and reinstated Sirius, making him the heir immediately instead of having to wait for his mother to die.
Lucius burst through her door, and she whirled around. “Shh!” she snapped. “You’ll wake our son -!” Her eyes widened slightly as she truly saw him. He was disheveled, his shirt torn and untucked. Strands of hair hung around his face, pulled loose from his tail, and the faint older of burning and death lingered in the air. “What has happened?” She demanded.
“Your cousin and his precious Aurors.” He replied icily. “A mere altercation, I assure you. He thinks he won, when really the one who will be his downfall is on they will never suspect until it is too late.”
“What do you mean?” Narcissa frowned, her heart beating faster with sudden dark premonition.
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer, but trust neither, because everything has a price. Even Gryffindors.”
“Lucius, you speak in riddles.”
He threw his head back and laughed darkly. “You have no idea. Very well – who are you going to tell, after all?”
She gritted her teeth to forestall the harsh retort on the tip of her tongue.
“Severus Snape is a double agent. That fool Dumbledore trusts him, but he is one of us. He told the Dark Lord of a prophecy, in which a boy, born as the seventh month dies, will be my lord’s equal – and his bane.”
She gasped. “That is very specific.” She breathed, clutching one hand to her chest. “Do you know who the child is? I worked at the hospital; I could have checked the records for you.”
“No need. My Lord figured it out. The Potter brat.” he spat. “The spawn of a blood traitor and a Mudblood.”
“But no one knows where the Potters are! Rumor has it that they’re dead, or fled the country.” She protested quickly.
“Potter is too noble for that. He won’t run away from a fight. Stupid Gryffindor can’t even fathom the idea that his friend is a traitor.”
“Severus and Potter were never friends though.” Narcissa said flatly, still not understanding why he was so smugly triumphant.
Lucius’s cruel smirk only grew wider. “Ah, but Peter Pettigrew and Potter were close, all through out Hogwarts…”