Narcissa has a BABY (born in June) (thefairest) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-05-12 22:07:00 |
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Entry tags: | ! [1979-05] may, narcissa malfoy (née black), regulus black |
Who: Narcissa and Regulus
Where: Malfoy Manor, Wiltshire, England
When: Monday afternoon, May 12
What: A Very Important Conversation Concerning a Certain Blood-Traitor
Status: Completed Log
Rating: PG
It was a mark of how much pureblood society had integrated into Narcissa's life that she told a house-elf to set up tea in one of the parlours. Never mind that she had invited Regulus over for a fairly serious conversation. Come hell or high water, there would always be good quality tea, lovely bone china to serve it in, and some sort of cake. Once that was all settled, she opened the letter again, frowning at Sirius' all too familiar scrawl. She was deeply regretting that she hadn't just burned it in the first place. Honestly, he was nothing but trouble and Narcissa knew that completely. So why did she bother? It was all very confusing and complicated, but one thing was certain. It would be best not to tell Bellatrix about any of this, and she was fairly certain Lucius wouldn't understand either. She sighed. Hopefully Regulus would arrive soon, and be able to explain things, as well as the implications that had actually been communicating with his wayward brother. The moment Regulus had read Narcissa's warded entry, a mild headache started to press in. Sirius contacting her was not a good thing, and Regulus had absolutely no idea if there was any hint that they had been corresponding -- sort of. He wasn't doing anything wrong, really, because it was only to take opportunities to tell Sirius how much he was not missed...but his cousin had only said Sirius spoke of worrying. That was still awfully vague. Preparing himself for what was likely to be a very carefully approached subject, he stuck his wand in his pocket and walked down the stairs from his room to the landing. After informing his mother that he was going to visit the Malfoys, he walked back down the hallway tot he front door. He had felt no reason to leave the house for days -- frankly, there was little he ever needed to do outside of his home -- but as he was turning to walk to the nearest tucked away spot for Apparition, something shockingly scarlet caught his eye. He paused. He looked back and tensed. Written largely across his front door in dark red paint was the word "MURDERERS," and strewn along the front of the house was toilet paper, stuck to the building in what seemed an impossible way. Something of a jolting panic flipped in his stomach, and when he looked around and saw an older Muggle woman walking along the street, even more frustration settled in. He could not perform magic with a Muggle right there, and he couldn't kill her because a Muggle dying in such a close proximity to the Black home (with the word "MURDERERS" painted on the front, for that matter) was probably a bit more suspicion than he could afford at the moment. Unfortunate. Walking back over to the house, he stood on the tips of his toes and reached to grab one of the lower strips of toilet paper -- only to have it curl and wrap his extended arm. Jerking backward, rather startled, he ripped the strip the rest of the way off and watched the rest of it stick to him. He did not have time for this. He could not be late -- but the house -- In a bit a huff, he stormed away to find a spot to Apparate, ripping off what bits of the Devil's-Snare-esque-paper with moderate success. By the time he arrived at the Malfoy Manor, his mood was even crosser than it had been when he first left his room. Knocking briskly on the door, he stood and peeled another bit of the toilet paper from his arm. Narcissa had never opened a door herself in her life, but she was waiting right in the foyer as the Dobby opened the door. Bella could sneer all she wanted at the Malfoy house-elves, but Narcissa personally preferred them to human servants. They were smaller, more reliable and more willing to put up with abuse. These thoughts were not on her mind at the moment- she just smiled to see her favourite (and only) cousin. "It's lovely to see you, Regulus! Do come in." As frequent as Narcissa's visits to London were, she had not seen him in a while for a variety of complicated excuses and reasons- there never was enough time to do everything one intended to do. Giving him a hug and a kiss on each cheek once he stepped over the threshold, she noticed something strange. "You know, there's a little bit of something white on your sleeve. The same thing you're holding, I suppose. What happened?" Not that it mattered very much, but Regulus did keep his clothes immaculate and spotless, so this was slightly out of the ordinary. She led him down the corridor into the parlour she had chosen, where tea was set up on one of the low tables surrounded by chaises and comfortable chairs. The letter was lying there with the tea set, but one couldn't just bring something like that up right away. "Would you like a cup of tea?" "Yes, please. Tea would be nice," he said, furrowing his eyebrows and letting out a bit of a huff as he sat in one of the chairs. "As for this," -- he held up his arm and peeled off another strip -- "someone vandalised our house, and I only discovered it as I was leaving. When I tried to pull it off, it wrapped around me, and the word 'murderers' is painted across the door. I was going to remove it before I came, but I could not with Muggles around, and it seemed a fairly lengthy process." He pressed his lips, slanting his mouth down in displeasure. It was a quick way to bring down the mood before they ever even began the conversation, but he had needed to tell someone, and she was the first person he had come across. Especially who would understand. "That’s horrible!" Who would dare to vandalise Grimmauld Place? It was a fairly low and immature thing to do. But there were a certain few out there who had no idea of what propriety meant. "I am certain it will clean up fairly quickly, but do these people never stop?" Taunting via journals was one thing, but actual destruction of property was horrible. It didn’t occur to Narcissa that this was exactly what her cousin and husband had done in Diagon Alley, simply because the motive was so different. Fighting for a cause was far more acceptable than childish acts of revenge. With the graceful ease of long practice, she poured him a cup of tea, adding a splash of milk, as usual, and passing the cup to him. “Lemon cake?” It was fresh, too. Regulus was so thin, Narcissa thought mournfully to herself. He was probably studying too hard and not getting enough sleep as usual. It was so hard to remember he was of age, and likely didn't want people (namely herself) fussing over him all the time. “Would you like to see the letter?” She asked, gesturing to the parchment lying on the table. Might as well get it over with. "It's utterly ridiculous. I do not wish ill upon any of my friends or comrades, but I am rather irritated that they only ever seem to target me," he huffed, allowing the complaint to air itself -- it was a somewhat childish brand of aggravation, but he trusted his darling Cissa to understand his dilemma. She always did, really, and no amount of complaining truly eased his frustration, but it did help for the moment. Because it was true, and he hoped people could see that it wasn't his fault. They just hated him. Personally. Unfortunately, the closing of that source of irritation only gave way to a separate but still unpleasant conversation. Accepting the tea and the offer of cake, he allowed his eyes to fall to the letter he had come to see in the first place. From Sirius. To Narcissa. Supposedly about him. "I suppose I ought to," he replied in a quiet but measured voice. As if worried it might burn him, gingerly he reached over and picked it up off of the table, opening it and allowing his eyes to graze over the words. Lovely. Narcissa raised her own cup of tea to her lips and took a careful sip, troubled eyes still on her cousin. "I'm sure you can understand why it worried me. Have you been seeing him?" She added slowly, "You know I will always take your word over his, Regulus. I just want to know." She was surprised at her own lack of anger. Bella would be likely be screaming and smashing vases right now. Likely it was because she hadn't quite gotten over losing her own sister. Bellatrix had recovered remarkably quickly and seemed to have entirely forgotten Andromeda. Narcissa wasn't quite at that stage- she still occasionally wondered what Andromeda's child was like, and accidentally left ink splotches on her sister's journal while pondering whether or not to say something. But at the end, silence was better. If only she had heeded that advice with Sirius' letter. A whirlwind of thoughts bombarded Regulus as his eyes remained trained on the letter. What exactly was meant by 'seeing him'? Truthfully, he hadn't be 'seeing' him...not technically... "He misrepresents the situation, as always," Regulus answered quietly after a moment of thought, setting the letter down on the table once again so as to more efficiently tear his eyes from the messy scrawl and the expressed concerns. "I have seen him only once in nearly two years, and that was by no choice of my own. Potter was physically harassing me in the bookstore some weeks ago, and Marius was there to help retaliate, as I was attempting to ignore Potter -- ignoring him apparently is not as affective as people lead me to believe. Sirius arrived in time to shuffle Potter off, but we did not so much as make eye contact, much less speak or acknowledge each other's presence." The truth. Granted, the truthful answer to whether or not they had seen each other over the journals or whether or not they had written to each other -- that was another issue entirely, and an issue he was hesitant to raise as he shifted in his seat. A slightly uncomfortable sip of his tea filled up the empty space following his words. "Ah." Narcissa took another sip of her own tea as she mulled this over and then attempted to break the stillness. "I wasn't expecting the truth from him, naturally. He was always prone to dramatics and exaggeration. But I really cannot imagine why he would write to me." She smiled wryly, "Somehow I do feel he would have chosen... someone else, had he wished to make trouble for you." Namely Bellatrix. While Narcissa's belief in duty to one's family was strong, she wasn't about to run and tell anyone about this. Not even her own husband, actually. It was just a trifling matter in the scheme of things, Narcissa reasoned, and as she wasn't about to go join sit-ins at Florean Fortescue's, Lucius did not need this on his mind. "You are of age, and I suppose with that comes making your own descisions..." As nice as that sounded, Narcissa wondered if there was any truth in it at all. "I would just advise caution. Not just with this sort of thing-" she flicked her wand at the letter, causing it to crumple up into a ball and vanish- "But with everything." "As far as his contacting you...perhaps...I do not know," Regulus faltered, lacking much of a justifying explanation. There were plenty of other family members who would have been besides themselves with fury at even the slightest suggestion that he had carried out any correspondence whatsoever with Sirius...like their -- his own mother. In the context of Regulus's recent experiences, it did make logical sense; although Regulus still failed to full believe an abandoning traitor really cared all that much about his welfare, he had stated it on occasion when they were having arguments. It did not fit together so well without that context (and seemed rather out of the blue), but those weren't puzzle pieces he wished to share. They were things kept tightly locked and close. "But...but yes, I am of age and capable of decision-making..." He watched as the parchment shriveled into nothingness, as if it had never existed in the first place. But he was an adult now...there wasn't anything wrong with taking...advice...There were just those people who he trusted. Who he could count on to lead him right. "I assure you I harbour no desire to ruin my life over the blood traitor," he finished, the words perhaps a little too harsh as he felt an internal twinge, that tugging sort of feeling that always pulled him to respond when his brother spoke to him. That idea that he had yet to completely lose Sirius to that filthy, wretched Potter. But that was a twinge to be ultimately ignored. For so many months he had successfully ignored Sirius, had wallowed and simmered in his own personal pain and feeling of betrayal, and now was not the time to counter-act all of that. Now, as a Death Eater, was not the time to compromise for someone who would go searching for a new brother the first chance he got. Someone who consistently disrespected the family, whose friends make Regulus miserable on an extremely regular basis. Such duality plagued him, and he shook it off with a shake of the head. "I will be cautious..." "Good," Narcissa said quietly. Things had changed so much in the space of a handful of years. Even though they had often played at being grown-ups, the real thing was... different. Harder. But then, she had never expected to lose both a sister and a cousin, or any of the problems that would come with it. But once it had happened, she had figured eventually that the whole world would forget and be able to move on- but then, that thought had been from a society standpoint, not a personal one. Pureblood society had moved on; had found new things to mock and gossip about, but the Blacks had not. And Narcissa didn't think they ever would. "And remember... we are Blacks. We support each other." I should remember that myself, Narcissa thought. Abandoning blood-traitors do not count as support. With her ending words, a small but genuine smile pulled at the corner of Regulus's mouth -- a smile that reached his eyes in a way that not every smile did. When everything else failed, he did have his family. Those who cared enough to embrace the family had support, at least, had that very same support, and Regulus had done nothing but immerse himself in it since birth. They were his world, and they would never leave him, so long as he didn't make any unforgivably stupid mistakes like Sirius had, and like Andromeda had. So long as he upheld his end of the deal, he could count on them for protection and love and support -- at least to the extent that the Black family was capable of such things, and despite what the world might think, in their unique way, they were capable. It was conditional, but but it was provided, and he grasped tightly onto each display. "We are a family," he added with a small nod, "and we are strong enough to not let a couple of traitors affect us. We do not need those who would turn their backs on us so easily." |